Guild Wars 2

Hi Kevin!

Of course you don’t have to join us on skype. Forcing people to do that sounds like to much of a rule and hassle for us. You’ll be at a disadvantage of course, not joining in on the hilarity that is us, so I would suggest getting a new headset soon just so you can join in!

But no, we’re quite happy to just type in guild and party with you. Although saying that I must warn you, don’t expect back up in PvP as quickly as you would if you were screaming on skype that a thief jumped you. :P

I’ll be online in around about an hour and will whisper you in game

Hi there! Just wanted to say welcome to GW2! Our guild is on Europe so probs not what you’re after, but good luck finding a home! ^^

Hi there Karpatz!

My names Nathan, and I’m on Desolation. I’m afraid we certainly aren’t a large guild. Far far from it, we’re a very small close knit guild. The great thing about GW2 is that the majority of the game is centred around 5 man groups, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a large guild or not, you still get to try everything!

If you’re looking for a small friendly guild who enjoy running dungeons together whilst laughing on skype at the guild member death then look no further! We do all the Dungeons and often help guildies out. We also spend a lot of time in PvP and Fractals and occasionally hop into WvW together! We have the majority of guild buffs unlocked and running atm so that’s not a worry either!

If you decide you’d like that small guild instead of large then let me know

Hi there!

My names Nathan!

I’m 23 and am from the UK. I’m from a very small guild on the Desolation (Europe) server. We’re not the type of guild with fancy website or communication systems, if you’re looking for that you won’t find it with us.

The great thing we found about GW2 is the majority of “content” is designed to work for 5 man groups. We kept this in mind with the guild and kept it small, you’ll only see 6/7 of us online at a time. But we haven’t missed out on anything! The guild has most things unlocked these days and guildies have all the titles, PvP titles, Dungeon master titles the works. We occasionally venture into WvW and will often join other guilds for world events!

The main thing you’ll get from our guild? Those close friendships and comedy moments. If you enjoy couples arguing on which utilities to bring to a dungeon over skype, if you can laugh at the Asura rezzing and NPC because it’s “vitally important” that everyone makes it through the boss fight, if you don’t mind spending 5 minutes being chased round a battle ground by your guildies trying to kill you when they secretly switched teams in hot join… well, then you’ll enjoy our guild!

We’re all about fun and laughing at ourselves!

Hi there!

My names Nathan, I represent a very small guild of people who just like to play GW2. We don’t have a website so I can’t point you in that direction, we don’t have a voice chat server either. If you’re looking for one of those large sophisticated guilds that is organised then run for the hills because that’s just not us.

If however, you’re looking for a small guild of 8 or so people who have all gotten to know each other through gaming, who are the type of people who have added each other on Facebook and do Dungeons via skype then we’re your guys! (and girl)…

If you like getting to know people personally, laughing at your guildies on skype as the couple falls out over who’s turn it is to get the coke whilst the Asura is busy rezzing an NPC instead of a fallen guildy then you’ll defo fit in. We do Dungeons, we do PvE Events, we do WvW and we do PvP!! We do everything together as a group – And just because we’re small doesn’t mean we don’t have everything every other guild has. That’s the great thing about GW2 most content is centred around a group of 5 so we don’t miss out on anything a large guild does! We have been playing from the start of GW2 and have practically all the guild buffs unlocked, so have no fear there either!

Seriously – if you’re looking for fun, give us a chance! You never know, you might just like it ^^

We’re on Desolation

I have just done two additional tests:

My home Server is Desolation. I decided to guest on another server – Same problems.

I also entered Malchor’s leap for the first time – Thought I’d given a comparison of an area near the Straits, Malchor’s Leap has resolved to perfect game play.

I’ve just started going through my personal story and have entered the Straits of Devastation. I’m getting near constant lag spikes, both in the open world and during instanced areas when I’m based in this map.

And it’s ONLY this map…. Well out of the ones I’ve explored so far.

I’m currently playing, tabbed out as I type this. I’m running around Lions Arch during Dragons Bash with everything on High/Ultra Graphics, I have an average FPS of 30/35 and instant skill responses.

As soon as I port to the Straits of Devastation I start rubber banding all over the place, having to wait 2/3 seconds for skill activation. I lowered my Graphics to the worst of the worst (my god the game looks terrible in low graphics) and am currently watching my FPS dart from 86 -> 88 -> 86 -> 89.

Still, skill activation is taking about 3 seconds?

I have just ported back to Lions Arch – Perfect game play as per usual?

Melkiah.2496:

Actually it also removes every movement-impairing condition (immobilize, cripple and chill)

Also, do you have an idea of how big a 750 radius aoe would be?

It’s actually amazing how many people don’t know this.

In response to the original post I don’t think the radius needs to be bigger. In PvP it covers a base which works well enough to get rid of those nasty conditions and in PvE most people have their own condition removal skills anyway. However, just as a point; I personally I don’t find our Boon range very large and often stand in with the Melee just for boon support, windborn speed usually hits people due to this… I’d would be more worried about my boons not hitting allies if windborn speed isn’t.

If you’re simply using it for the speed boost I would suggest first casting eruption (blast finisher) in static field for AoE swiftness, then cast windborn speed. The eruption/static field combo is well known to players in PvE and PvP, so windborn speed should hit allies easily when everyone starts to gather up. Failing that a little communication can’t hurt, and failing that?… well sometimes you just can’t help people, and they’ll have to live without your swiftness. I’m mean you’re not loosing out.

As a final point: Blasting staff trait in the arcane line increases staff AoE fields, I have no idea if this applies to windborn speed as I’ve always ran with it anyway, can anyone confirm?

Hello!

My names Towren, nice to meet you. I liked your clips, where can I find more extensive video’s of game play with the long bow? It looks very interesting and it’ll be nice to see something new and fresh from a warrior!

I would just like to say this though: As a resident of the EU (UK specifically) I do find the anti-EU comments in this thread unnecessary. To accuse an entire continent of people from various cultures/backgrounds to have a negative common personality trait based purely upon their birth place equates to racism.

I understand there seems to be some silly rivalry between the EU and NA servers, and I understand we’re on the internet, but that does not mean we have to perpetuate the false acceptability of bad manners and casual racism as the norm.

Thanks for your time!
Towren

We have examples of small mammals existing and being unable to give birth naturally:

Complications with Pregnancy and Delivery

Since these dogs are so tiny, it does not come as a surprise that the average litter is two pups. Chihuahuas can have as little as one pup and as many as four.

Bear in mind that even though the litters are not large stillborn births are common. Your female may require an emergency caesarian section. There is always the threat that the mother (brood kitten) will not make it through the surgery.

Chihuahua pups have large heads. Their heads may be too big to naturally pass through the female birthing canal. You may need to monitor the birth. If there are any signs of distress, or prolonged delivery, contact your veterinarian.

Another point to consider is that Chihuahuas often have breech births. You will need immediate access to the veterinarian or have one available to guide you through the process of delivering (whelping) the pups in worst case scenarios.

Chihuahuas suffer from other medical complications such as a ruptured uterus, or infection of the uterus (acute metritis). The bacteria in the uterus from the infection can cause the death of both the mother and her pups if not treated in time. If you notice pus mixed with a blood discharge before or after delivery it may very well be acute metritis and you will need to get your pet to a veterinarian immediately. Other warning signs of acute metritis include excessive urination, vomiting, or the mother’s refusal to nurse or eat.

Your Chihuahua mother may suffer from hypoglycemia… where her blood sugar drops so low that she can go into shock, seizures and possible death. Her pups may suffer from hypoglycemia as well.

Shortly after whelping (giving birth) the brood kitten may suffer from Eclampsia also known as hypocalcemia, or canine milk fever. The common signs of this disease include: in coordination, panting, twitching of the eye, and severe muscles spasms. When this happens it is imperative that your dog been seen by the veterinarian.

If you are not sure of the health and history of both the stud and female Chihuahua (brood kitten), it is highly recommended that you leave the breeding up to a professional breeder, or purchase your Chihuahua from reputable seller, local rescue group or animal shelter.

In much the same way the Chihuahua had an ancestor that could easily give birth naturally, I don’t see why Asuran ancestors probably weren’t the same. But when the selective breeding process came in for the Chihuahua, things got complicated.

I see no reason why the same logic can’t be applied to the Asura. They’re a race dedicated to improving themselves, who knows what mutations they have given themselves over the years to make themselves more genius? It could even have gotten to the point of natural birth being extremely difficult/impossible. But just as the Chihuahua has human intervention to help, the Asura’s have Asuran technology.

It’s probably an everyday thing for them at this stage of their evolution. No need to go overly complicating it, just compare it to the Chihuahua

Thank you! I will take on your advice. I certainly didn’t know you could have a tower and camp at the same time!!

Greetings!

My name is Towren and I am in charge (I say that very loosely) of a very very small guild of about 9 members from Desolation. We’re just a bunch of real life friends who like to play together for fun. We have little to no interest on becoming a huge WvW guild, we’re not even recruiting – but we are thinking about participating in WvW…

Over the past month or so we’ve been working on our influence, we’re done with the politics line and practically finished with the economics line. We started on the architecture but found guild bank space wasn’t really needed for such a close knit group and have since started on the Art of War line. But we have a couple of questions in regards to the size of our guild, our influence spending patterns, keep claiming… Although we’re not recruiting we are socially minded and if we’re doing WvW we want to help Desolation as best as possible (we’ve all been here since Beta).

So:

As of last night I just qued rank 4 Art of War, and we’ve got all the previous boosts from the Art of War al l lined up and waiting to be activated. How can we best help our server? I see there are only 5 ranks in the Art of War line, so I feel if we’re keep claiming and activating our buffs we could be a significant buff towards allies. I’m presuming the buffs do work on all allies in the area? Or is it just guildies?

What should we be claiming? I was reading the wiki and it was saying how small groups such as ours should be taking supply camps and such – Do we claim those? Whenever I’ve been in WvW it seems they just get zerged, and there doesn’t seem to be much point in claiming them if our buffs could be elsewhere?

Is there anypoint in our guild claiming something as large as Stone mist castle, is that it’s name? You know, the big massive one in the centre of the eternal battlegrounds. Obviously our little guild wouldn’t be able to defend it, but being a maxed out Art of War Guild (which we’ll be by next week) would our buffs be worth it even if we can’t defend it ourselves?

Is there any point in claiming the keeps near to our waypoint, or should we be claiming “front line” keeps t make sure the buffs have max benefit?

And if we do have a keep claimed, and it gets taken by the enemy, is that our buffs used up? Do the buffs attach themselves to the keep for one time use, or are they guild wide buffs that will apply to any keep/camp we claim within the 12 hour window mentioned on the wiki?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Edit: Oh yes, what’s the best time to use our buffs, peak time, night time? Which would help the most!

Comaetilico.3645:

sigil of hydromancy and the one that apply bleed on weapon swap (don’t remember the name now) both cause this bug and are the only one that cause it (tested for the previous patch that intorduced this bug)… unless they made the bug worse with this patch…. but I have yet to test it… ^^’

That sounds right, I know through my testing I was running a condition build and had bleed on weapon swap sigil attached at some point. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’s what caused me to experience the bug

Erebus.3897:

expanding party by 2 or 3 the people hardly classifies as LARGE scale dungeon raid…

But it does completely imbalance abilities such as condition cleansing, might stacking, AoE Weakness stacking, Blinds, reviving etc, I made this clear in an example in the first response I made.

Kurr.4179:

we were running the sparks in around 10-15 seconds max

From my understanding, this seems to be your problem. 15 seconds is far to long for the sparks.

Erebus.3897:

How come then we slay dragons in 50+ mobs? buff the bosses and mobs to account for more players… its easier to modify the boss stats than to rework the balance system

to make a point of more players over a single boss, not that the mechanics resemble at all… but expanding parties IS a possibility… that remains my point

Have you ever seen a large scale dynamic event fail? I haven’t. I would argue there are extreme balance issues with the open world dynamic events. If they’re going to add large scale dungeon groups that are going to be as easy and imbalanced as open world dragon events then I don’t see why they don’t just hand the gear out for free and skip the middle man.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the large scale dynamic events, but they’re for fun. If they want to add more, great. But keep it open world and imbalanced rather than in a dungeon.

Lightrayne.7829:

Open world design isn’t intended to teach you focused team play the way a dungeon does. In the open world, you’re mostly winning through overwhelming numbers and stuff like dodging or checking for cues are meaningless. In dungeons, you’re limited to five players, so you have to manage skill use, utilize team synergy, keep your allies up, etc.

Exactly.

Not that I want to shoot another one of your idea’s down, as I do think you have a genuine “want” to make the game better, but… :P

I don’t like the idea of 10 man groups, and let me tell you why. I do believe there would be a whole new layer of balance issues that’d need to be addressed. Traits, Cooldowns, even the abilities themselves would have to be looked at (in my opinion) in great detail if we’re to get synergy between 10 players. There is the counter argument to this, in the sense that large scale dynamic events already account for this. But I would argue there are already balance issues related to that. I haven’t really seen a Dynamic Event “fail” as it were so far, and it is my genuine belief that that’s down to bad balance (e.g One person goes down, 3 people revive them in next to no time). Not to mention there are things such as 25 stacks of bleed restrictions which are already a “beef” for many players already and all those issues would have to be looked at, as well as the related balance towards PvP mechanics and the like.

If they could work it out, I wouldn’t mind it being put in I suppose. But I’d hate for it to become to big. There is a big part of me which likes the fact the entire game can be completed with just 5 people, and I don’t know how much I’d be willing to give that up :P

Everything would need to be rebalanced.

If I use one example. I run a support elementalist. My job is condition cleansing, combo field might and fury stacking, whilst providing AoE Weakness and Blinds to enemies. I can only do this so much by myself, and if someone else wanted to role another support elementalist in my party, that’d be cool. But that would leave only 3 people to DPS…

If we start expanding party sizes, we could get our second support elementalist and not loose any DPS. Things like healing rain with condition cleansing traits could be up 100% of the time (in theory) with an expanded party, with no loss to the current DPS a standard 5 man (balanced) party would have. Although your idea is nice in theory, every single ability, trait, cooldown period would have to be reworked with the 8 man balance in mind.

Recount was and probably still is a great tool for those who know how to use it. Damage Meters etc were often integrated into full blown raid reports on websites and as a Guild Officer we were able to pinpoint area’s of weakness during certain boss fights etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it can be a good tool.

Unfortunately I believe the majority of the player base don’t utilise tools like these properly. They certainly didn’t, or at least PuG’s didn’t during my WoW days. At least in WoW people like the tanks and healers could have an excuse for not topping the DPS meters… I just feel, that in GW2 with individual builds and no clearly defined roles that it just wouldn’t work.

Adding a Boon meter might help for my particular build, but someone like my Necro friend who is all about tanking using Blinds, how would that incorporate? You’d have to have a section on conditions applied, and all sorts. It’d be very complicated and would become even less understood by your average PuG player who would look at themselves on the top of the DPS meters.

WoW was already bad when I was playing, certain raids like Wintergrasp required a certain DPS rating, and I do remember certain classes being kicked if they weren’t contributing… Which was silly, something like an Arcane mage could spike ahead in a 2 minute fight so trash clearing they looked ontop, but by the end of a 10 minute boss fight their DPS would average out (or even be below) some other peoples. Unfortunately some people wouldn’t be given the chance to fight the boss, because the trash was the test – They’d simply be kicked.

I’d hate GW2 to become like that. We already have complaints about Beserker Warriors being requested for speed runs and other classes being left out. I can see addons like recount making that situation much much worse.

Edit: I do fully support the HP numbers on enemies health bars however, I found this very useful in WoW and can see many applications in GW2! I might leave it out of PvP however, as it’d make targeting and burst horrible….

I like your first idea, I don’t like your second idea.

I come from a WoW background as well, and although I can see the appeal of the recount addon, I have to say it was misunderstood by the majority of the community. For example, I played a raiding Resto Druid for some period of time. It was my job to keep HoT’s up on everyone, the whole raid, all the time (Heals over time buffs)… Our Paladin healer was supposed to heal the two tanks, and the two tanks only (very occasionally helping if she could with the rest of the raid).

I consistently topped the healing charts on recount and other such addons as a Resto Druid purely because of my class and role. It didn’t mean anything. DPS meters were the same, My real life partner played an Enhancement Shaman. My partner was there purely for the Melee Totem buffs and added considerable DPS to our melee team (especially warriors who scaled well with the buffs), however my partners DPS was pulling out an average rating.

Now, in our Guild group this was ok. We all understood our roles and why the meters were useless. But it became a barrier in PuG groups, especially for new players. In GW2 I can see it being the same. My Dungeon team at the moment consists of myself as a support elementalist who’s DPS is about as good as a wet noodle. But due to my traits, runes etc I stack might for my entire group. Combined with other good communication my group consistently has 25 stacks of might up, I also add a considerable amount of fury as well as other Boons and Combo fields which equate to area blinds and weakness – And my Dungeon team knows what I’m doing.

If I were to go into a PuG and people were judging by recount meters (as so many PuG’s in WoW did) then I’d be penalised, especially since I’d be buffing other peoples damage so much that the gap between us would scale tremendously, I’d look like I was leeching.

SirAmikVarse.2793:

The simple truth is you should please both crowds at once like you did in guild wars 1 by having a hard mode for dungeons, normal mode for fun and hard mode for the ‘no armor with a stick of celery’ people

Story Mode: Normal mode for fun
Explorable mode: Hard mode for the ‘no armor with a stick of celery’ people

^ They have that system in place already, and it’s how it was originally intended to be.

I wouldnt do these if I didnt want the gear because its not fun…

I think it depends on how you approach it. I find the dungeons immensely fun with the new change. Before the change my dungeon team and I were going through and clearing everything properly, for the fun of it… Playing how it was “intended” to be played. With good team work and communication. We weren’t interested in speed runs, just playing together. Some people found speed runs more fun, or soloing fun, and I’m quite happy to let them do that… The dungeons offer lots of possibilities. It’s all individual perspective. But if you don’t find it fun, well, don’t do it then… some people don’t find WvW fun, and they don’t do that.

The gear is the reward for completing the dungeons. It was supposed to be a status symbol of what you’d achieved. Players who can’t get dungeon gear can get other good looking gear with equal stats from other sources, they’re not at a disadvantage in that regards. If you’re interested in finding a dungeon group to run with check out the Guilds forums page, they’ll be able to help you. Hey, I’ll even take a PM from you if you’re on the EU servers…

But what I, and many players before, and even the Anet Devs all agree on, dying, rezzing, dying, rezzing, until a boss was dead was never, NEVER an intended mechanic of the dungeons.

Leo G.4501:

When a sniper snips a member, I stand in front of them with my shield up while another member rezzed.

Oh my god, thank you, thank you for restoring my faith in the player base!! It’s so easy to just do basic things such as take a hit (or block) for your team and yet people just don’t seem to realise it. You can join our guild any time, you’re exactly the type of player we take in.

Ragion.2831:

Gone are the days 5 warriors is all it takes to clear a dungeon.

Good!

I really don’t understand the problem. Dungeons were supposed to be hard, before they were released it was stated in countless video’s by Anet that story modes are for everyone and the explorable modes are for experienced teams. The fact dungeons such as AC became a PuG joke actually disappointed me since it went completely against what ANET had stated before hand.

Dungeons like AC are still a joke btw, I really don’t get which part people are now wiping on? The downed mechanic is there for a reason, revive people when they’re downed. Take to much damage? Just have someone with anti-projectile support you, or area blinds, area weakness, immunity, stability – There are traits and Runes designed around getting people up – just assign someone that fundamental role in your party.

What if you don’t get someone like that in a PuG? Well tough – That’s the risk you run with a PuG. Again I point to Anets initial design statements, explorable s weren’t for PuG’s and were never intended for PuG’s from the get go… Go watch some of their AC preview video’s from before beta weekends – Designed specifically mention the words “Guilds” “Organised”….

You wouldn’t have expected to PuG endgame raid content in other games that are designed for guilds. Well that’s what GW2 explorables were SUPPOSED to be >.<

And statements like “Play the game how you want to play” have been taken completely out of context as well. Yes, they said a Dungeon should be able to be ran with 5 of the same profession. But they never said 5 Beserker geared warriors. They were continuously saying how there was a new trinity involving damage mitigation, control and support. You could choose your class and you could choose your role, 5 of the same role were probably going to fail. They said that from the get go too!

Explorables SHOULD need an organised group of different players forfilling different roles. It was in their initial release designs and we’re finally getting back to that challenge they promised in the first instance…

Same thing happened to me last night in Forest PvP Map at Keep. I was experimenting with random builds in hotjoin so couldn’t give any information as to what sigils/runes I was using…

But yes, conjure fiery greatsword stuck one on the floor and nothing in my hands.

I’m qued, it’s popped, I press “Go now” nothing happens.

Then I get a strange “Guild Wars 2 has been updated” message, so I’ve restarted but it doesn’t update, and then when I log back in the error continues? :s

Why are people complaining about the ticket entry price?

You paid 5 tickets for 3 rounds, correct. But you were never guaranteed to get to the final, you could be paying 5 tickets for one round, or 2 rounds. Now you’re paying 3 tickets for a guaranteed shot at the “final” – Which will reward you with more tickets/gems if you win, no?

Edit: Never mind, just saw the other posts complaining about the rewards for winning – I should never assume xD

Leo G.4501:

IMO, I think Efut probably has some learning disabilities just by going on the things she says. But she’s definitely got respect and prestige as a warmaster of the Vigil.

I wouldn’t say that reflects learning disabilities. I think it’s more her intellect is directed to a different subject, eg. tactical warfare… It’s like a physicist dismissing a biologist because they have no interest in the field.

The only thing I would like is for pet aggro to reset if you’re downed.

I have no problem being downed and a ranger deliberately putting their pet on me to stop me from getting back up, that’s smart play. What I cannot stand is some idiotic ranger who has no idea I’m downed attacking someone else whilst their pet stops me from bandaging.

Same with any pets actually, Mesmer clones, Necro Minions, Elly summons. I honestly don’t think they should continue to attack a downed player if the main player isn’t smart enough to know you’re downed or even where you’re downed.

Wow.

Thanks for the replies guys, I’d completely forgotten about the jail conversation, I remember laughing at it early game but come to think of it, yeah, it’s terrible! o.0

First, thanks for taking the time to respond.

Secondly, I don’t really know enough about Asuran culture to comment on what you’ve just said. Number 1 it could be that work such as a dock worker is considered to have some sort of worth and or relevance towards Asuran intelligence in much the same way it is said the council members don’t like serving on the council, they do it because they have to.

Or it could be that the Asuran culture is such that they might discriminate against such manual tasks and give them, or even force them upon the less intelligent. The society might be forcing people with learning difficulties to be dock workers as “that’s all they’re good for”. Unlike our society where such treatment would be abhorrent, or at least I’d hope so.

Are you able to expand on that point for me, give any clarification? It’s all pure curiosoty from my point. I’m sure the lore writers haven’t even considered it. I’m just interested in what people think the Asura would do?

How would the Asura handle learning disabilities?

If we look at the other races we can probably link them to different cultures that have existed in our own world, and thus possibly apply the sociological cultural norms of those cultures to the GW2 races. For example, I’d link the Norn’s spirituality to North Euopean/American Shamanistic cultures…

But as far as I can think, I don’t know of a human culture (from our world) that has put such an importance on education and intelligence as the Asura from GW2 other than far right wing fascists. So, how would they handle things such as learning disabilities?

I would like to say they would do the smart thing and be intelligent enough to help, be understanding and empathetic in anyway they could to the “weaker” members of their society. But their culture has intelligence on such a pedestal to the point where every insult they have seems to be about stupidity, it’s even indoctrinated into the children if you listen to their conversations about each others parents. It does make me wonder how they would handle it. I’m imagining indignant Asura parents hiding children away and all sorts? o.0

The math formulas can be found on the GW2 wiki pages:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Power
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Precision
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition_Damage

Hope it helps

- Rewards from PvP?

The rewards are all based on looks. There is a ranking system much the same as WoW’s used to be in vanilla. The more you play, the higher rank you’ll get, and this will give you access to different looking gear. With this, certain gear types are linked with higher ranked characters and people can see what rank you are from looking at your gear.

Play modes like tPvP give you access to unique looking gear as well. Free tournaments are known to give access to certain looking gear, and paid tournaments give access to other looking gear. If we’re to translate it to WoW. Imagine knowing a piece of gear was only accessible from rank 2400+ . You can tell a person is that rank by having that piece of gear. The only difference between WoW and GW2 is the stats are the same, it doesn’t make you more powerful, as they want everyone to stay on the same power level so we know if you win, you win because of skill, not power level.

- Casual player friendly?

sPvP allows you to join games whenever you want just like WoW’s battlemasters. It’s extremely player friendly in this regards. Free tournaments you can sign up to as a single person and you’ll be matched with randoms. Again, extremely casual friendly in that manner. The lack of ranking systems however goes against the casual friendly. There is much discussion on the forums atm how new players often get ganked and overwhelmed in PvP when they first enter. But it’s no different (in my opinion) than someone entering WSG for the first time and being jumped on by a Rogue. If you can cope with that type of play and are willing to learn you’ll soon become a good PvP.

The lack of monthly subscription fee also make this game extremely casual friendly, as unlike WoW you’re not wasting money by not playing.

Anything else

You really will have to play to find out, but I can say this. I no longer play WoW. Since playing WoW I have been looking for my new MMO and so far GW2 has not disappointed me. If you need anything else just contact me in game. My names Towren and I’m from [EU] Desolation server!

Seerex.4358:

- Can you play high-level PvP from the get-go? …

Right, this is very easy to answer… I played WoW for years but stopped at the beginning of Cataclysm, I’ll translate to WoW talk for you!

There are multiple versions of PvP that you can get into:

WvWvW
sPvP
tPvP

WvWvW stands for World vs World vs World and it equates to Wintersgrasp from Wrath of the lich King. But instead of facing the opposing faction on your server, in GW2 you face 2 opposing servers. There are no factions in GW2 so it’s your entire server vs two other servers in a 3 way battle for control over 4 massive maps. It’s very much about capturing keeps with siege weapons and large groups of players. Although there are small objectives such as supply camps etc for smaller groups.

sPvP stands for Structured PvP and basically equates to WoW’s smaller battlegrounds. It’s an 8v8 instead of WoW’s 10 v 10 and is often called hotjoin as there are mutiple servers open and you can join anyone (much like going up to a battle master in WoW). As I write this there are 5 maps and they are all capture the bases (equivalent to Arathi Basin) – All slightly different with a “unique” mechanic on each one (for example, one map has an enemy boss which if killed nets you 150 points for your team).

tPvP stands for tournament PvP and equates to WoW’s arena’s. It’s a 5v5 using the same maps as sPvP. There are free tournaments which are like practice arena’s in WoW – some pre-made groups some random groups. And paid tournaments which you pay tournament tickets (which you can earn in game by winning free’s doing dailies etc). Paid tourneys usually consist of pre-made teams that have farmed tickets for themselves just like normal WoW arenas.

One glaring difference however is the lack of a matchmaking system. This has been said to be in development and should be here soon, so here’s hoping! fingers crossed

Now that I’ve made those distinctions for you I can say it is very very easy for you to hop straight into PvP as you originally asked. There is a bit of a difference however. in WvWvW your level 1 character will be boosted to level 80. BUT there is a massive drawback. WvWvW uses your characters PvE stats. Someone who has invested their time to grind up to level 80, gotten to know their character will have a distinct advantage. A level 80 character in WvW will have all their traits unlocked (WoW Talents) and will normally be full exotic (WoW’s Epic) geared. If you’re a level 1 character none of your traits (talents) are unlocked, and you’ll stats will be boosted to that of a very basic level 80 (equivalent to being in WoW’s green level gear). So you can see the difference.

sPvP and tPvP are very different. You enter a PvP instanced zone that has a number of vendors around. These vendors have access to all weapons, all armors and your characters traits (talents) etc are all unlocked. It is from here you design your character how you want, you pick which weapons to give them, which runes and sigils (WoW’s weapon and armor enchants) etc – it’s all completely free. This is what they mean by everyone having the same stats and being on an even playing field. Once you have designed your character in this area you go up to the PvP NPC’s (battlemasters) to join either sPvP or tPvP.

what’s the point of leveling?

In WvWvW it is advised (as you can see above) to level your character up to unlock everything. It will also allow you to get to know your characters abilities better. But it isn’t required if you intend to do tPvP or sPvP. You will have to do the PvE tutorial, and then after that jump straight into the PvP instanced zone where you’ll be boosted to 80 and given all the options I listed before. Many sPvP and tPvP players still have level 1 characters. It’s completely up to you!

Why are they kicking you in the first place? I don’t understand. I’m so confused. What’s the point? Is this a common problem? I mainly run Dungeons with my guild group and have had no problems in the few PuG’s I’ve done o.0

daydream.2938:

But you can definately port places you cant quick path to in alot of cases.

Oh I realise this, I use lightning flash to get from the bottom of henge to the top of henge, from clocktower capture point to clocktower windows etc etc, I just can’t manage the keep floor to keep ledges o.0

But I shall endevour to find the “sweet spot” … * goes to look up jumper as suggested by someone else *

misda.2859:

Shortbow 5

I would like to know how they do it personally. It’s all well and good saying shortbow 5, but I can’t seem to get lightning flash to work in the same way, could just be me though

I got accused of hacking a few weeks back.

I’m not saying that hacking isn’t happening, I’m sure it is. But be careful what you accuse others of. The person who accused me seemed convinced I was doing something since I’d dodge, dodge, burning retreat dodge, attunement swap with sigil of energy, dodge again, all the while whilst having vigor up for more dodges combined with my lightning flash reduced cooldown. They could not get their head around it, apparently recorded me, was going to report me for teleporting all over the place yada yada yada…

I see hackers very very rarely.

The graveyard rushing thing is being fixed apparently…

My problem with Dungeons is the absurd, ABSURD difficulty swings that you can have on the same encounter. For example, TA explorable, Forward up path last boss. When we first entered we went up to the boss and started to attack… Then spiders came. Simple mechanic, seemed simple enough – Kill spiders. But my God it was an infuriating encounter that ended up with people being downed every few seconds.

My team consisted of two warriors and a Guardian, all Melee built, so it was natural to run in and try the boss…

Yet that very same boss, as we found out… you can basically all stand at the door (or near) clear the first few spiders (if you really have to) and just shoot him for 5 minutes. You don’t even need to dodge his AoE move if you can clear the vulnerability stacks. Just take it, press heal and continue shooting! When we tried this second tactic we were literally saying how boring it was over chat… needlessly so.

But I can assure you, we weren’t going to try to melee him again.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

But there are a lot of us who actually make a lot of use out of ground targeting.

A genuine curiosity now. In what way is ground targeting useful? I am honestly trying to think of a situation where it would be more beneficial but I can’t come up with any myself.

KratosAngel.7289:

Unfortunately, that guy happened to be the one who started the dungeon. For some reason (probably because the player was offline and not online) the whole party is not booted out of the dungeon.

Ooooooooh.

I can’t confirm whether or not the people involved in my experiences were the instance owners, but it sounds like a completely plausible (if not stupid) explanation as to what’s happening.

Thank you for offering at least some kind of explanation.

I don’t know what you’re all worried about, we were beating up rogue/malfunctioning golems at level 1!

Casty.9743:

People use the ground targeting

^ This

Although you are correct OP in your discussion (the green circles for ground targetting are smaller than the enlarged spell effects) did you realise you can skip that bit altogether? In the options menu you can disable the ground targeting so that the spells will automatically be cast wherever your mouse is… No more green circles, no more pointless clicking.

It is not only twice as fast, but will remove the green circles issue for you. It takes a little while to get 100% used to it, but if you stick with it you won’t go back

So, my team mates and I were running AC explorable (we were a PuG) when someone DC’ed before last boss. After waiting 10 minutes for them we decided to kick and got someone else (one of my guildies actually). When he tried to enter AC explorable he got ported to a new instance.

He tried several times but no luck and thinking it was some random weird occurrence we decided to 4 man, apologised to my guildy for wasting their time and thought nothing more of it.

Later in the week the same thing happened. This time I was the new member to a party who had been looking for 1 member after a DC, again in AC explorable on last boss. This time it was I who entered and got ported to a new instance. The “This happened to my Guildy earlier” convo struck up, I apologised and left…

Then again yesterday, I was on GW2LFG and saw a group LF2M for CM explorable to “help finish the instance”. At first I whispered them but they said they’d filled (typical, it had only been on the site for 30 seconds or so). Then about a minute later I got an invite… The people they’d found couldn’t help, so I tried, I couldn’t get in either. Another person in the group was saying “It keeps putting me in a new instance” and when I tried I ended up in the same new instance as the other new person… So again, we both had to leave (presumably like the invites before us).

Is this normal? o.0

P.s I am a European player and can assure you I was trying to play with other European players from the European part of GW2LFG.

Good evening fellow players!

I’m building a support character for dungeon runs and am looking for some answers to a few questions:

1. Boon Duration; I’m running an Elementalist and have the typical switch attunement = boons for everyone nearby, whilst also using Runes of Altruism. Do +Boon Duration things (whether Runes, food etc) increase the duration of the Boons to just myself, or for everyone I’ve buffed?

2. Weakness and Protection; Do these work better in conjunction with each other, or is it a waste? Weakness gives none critical attacks a 50% chance to glance (half damage), and protection reduces damage by 33%. – Does this mean that weakness would reduce an attack that does 100 damage to 50 damage, and protection reduces it further to 13 damage (calculating the 33% from the original 100 Damage)? Or is it more weakness would reduce it to 50 damage and then protection would kick in and reduce it further to 33% of the 50 damage to 16.5 damage?

3. Taking the above into consideration, would it be better to save my AoE Weakness blast finish (Eruption) with Poison (Radiation Field – Asura) until after the Protection Boon from switching to Earth has ran out, or would it be better to use it straight away for maximum damage mitigation?

4. Unshakable – I don’t quite understand this description: “Gains defiant when targeted by crowd control skills. Blind is 10% effective. Weakness and vulnerability last 50% less time.” Specifically I don’t understand the blind is 10% effective part? Considering that Blind makes a target miss for 100% does this mean that Blind only has a 10% chance to miss now, or that maybe Blind mitigates 10% damage from a bosses attack?

5. With the above question in mind, how worth it is Blind on an enemy Boss? Should I miss it out of my rotation altogether and remove/switch my blind utility (Glyph of Storms – Earth) during Boss fights for something more useful, or is it still good in your opinion?

Thank you for any help that you can offer!

It was an example of the type of attitude I believe people should perpetuate, that was all

To many people let things stress them out these days, both in game and in real life. I’m glad this isn’t an issue that is keeping you up all night, but then I have to ask, in a polite manner, what is it you want from this thread? We are all well aware of silly people making requests (such as LF1M Guardian) when there is no need, and recognition for your contribution to groups in game (and real life) are often unrewarded. As long as you know what you’re doing and contributing then it doesn’t matter.

I just think we should all smile more!

I really wouldn’t worry about it. You completed a Dungeon, you’ve got your rewards. Who cares what somebody else thinks about another player you’ll probably never see again? I run Dungeons with a regular group and we all know each and everyone of us brings something unique to the table, but we don’t have to vocalise it, we just know.

And that’s enough

Have you tried testing with “Steady Weapons” in the Mists?

Would that work for testing?

Hi there!

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question, your post is quite interesting reading. I have a thing against D/D Auramancer, not necessarily a staff one, I just hadn’t considered it before considering we only have the one aura on the actual weapon set :P

The reason I haven’t taken blasting staff is because my entire team is always in Melee and we communicate over skype whilst in Dungeons, I’ve found it’s not needed for the blast finishers and combo field mechanics that we use, and because we’re bunched up, mobs bunch up too (this also helps with the boons on attunement trait)… Of course saying that, you are correct, my damage is not amazing by a long shot, but I’m mainly there for the might stacking, cleansing and reviving

But again, thanks for your reply, it’ll make some interesting experimenting.

So I have a small little team of friends (5 of us) who are running Dungeons.

Myself – Elementalist
Necro
Guardian
Warrior x 2

We’re all a bit weird I’m afraid, the Guardian decided he wanted to play a burns based DPS build, and the Necro decided he wanted to play a tanky build… hardly fotm but they enjoy it and that’s what we’re about – fun! So far it’s worked out really well, surprisingly well in fact and we’ve had zero problems in explorable’s which we do without skipping anything! I went support, staff support specifically because I genuinely like staff gameplay. You will not convince me to go D/D Aura share, so please don’t try!

I’m running this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEQQBFiYSuVGTDOOAQe8iJsIKUR5xMyYDA (please copy and paste)

So it’s pretty average. And I found myself taking Runes of Altruism for the fury and might boon. I spend a lot of my time switching attunements doing euption -> lava font, lava font again whilst dodging into it in earth, healing everytime it’s on cooldown, along with arcane wave for lots of might stacking, switching to water to stack vulnerability and heal etc…

Yada yada yada. I’m sure I don’t need to explain the basics of the build, that’s not what this is about. What I can say is the two warriors and the guardian are our DPS, whilst the Necro fills more of the traditional tank build and I decided it’d be pretty straight forward to take the healing role, and so went clerics gear.

It wasn’t until recently I looked at the wiki and actually did the maths on the +healing co-efficients. I realised that with an investment of 1700 + healing (and that was a random number I picked from vague memory not being online) I gain a whopping 300 HP for every blast finisher AoE heal I do on people (according to the wiki calculations)… 300 HP extra for all that stat investment…

Now, it all adds up, I get that. My team is also always in melee range (when they can be) stacked up ontop of each other for combo field goodness. Geyser is easy to hit with etc etc… but that only heals for about 1k extra ¬.¬

My question is this: With my group set up, is the clerics gear worth it? Or should I change to something else, and if I were to change to a different item nomenclature, which one should it be? Would it be worth going full damage and loosing the +300 HP on blast healing, or the 1k HP on Geyser, or the 200 or whatever it is on water blast, in favour of getting mobs down faster with fireballs and AoEs? (Let’s consider some AoE will be nerfed in future too)

I won’t be changing my traits or playstyle, it works extremely well with my group set up, it’s just the item nomenclature I’m looking at.

Oooo Ooo edit: Does +Healing effect revive rates at all as well, is that something to consider?