Guild Wars 2

So, I came up with another idea. But first the problem I wanted to solve:

Huge differences in active WvW population on matched servers
That creates two issues:

• the low pop server gets farmed —> no fun
• the high pop server quickly conquers everything and has hardly smth to do —> no fun

now my solution:
Cross matchup WvW maps
I actually didn’t work out the details, but the basic idea is the following:
If a server holds for a certain time a certain number of fortifications on all WvW maps they get access to a new cross matchup WvW map. This map looks similar to the eternal battlegrounds. And here are server matched up against each other, who are not matched up in the normal match up (mutch match up in that sentense^^), who also hold a certain number of fortifications. No idea how that could work in detail. Be creative, where I couldn’t be^^ Maybe it could be a SM upgrade, like a portal, that can bring your server to this new map. (man I have a creativity run today. Don’t discurrage me now^^)

What this tries to accomplish is to divert some of the WvW population from the high pop server to this map, so they actually now have something to do, while now the low pop servers have the chance to achieve something while the high pop server players are occupied elsewhere. No idea if that’s technically possible. And of course the details have to be worked on. The motivation for the high pop server to stay in the new map simply is the fact, that they get more points there than in the usualy WvW map.

So, what do you guys think about that idea?

LameFox.6349:

Meglobob.8620:

I like it as it is, feels more like a real enviorment…

The only one I would remove/change is the group grub event no ones interested in it because it takes far too long to do and is OP…

Heh. I’ve actually got good fights out of the grub on occasion, when we’re killing it and enemies show up thinking that would be the perfect time to take us by surprise.

I handle that differently. When I see the server, that usually outmannes us heavily attacking the grub. I kamikazi attack the grub too. I mostly die, but I get the event reward^^. And once they even let me help defeat the grub. I just run off moments before the event was completed. But it was a nice picture. 20 enemy invaders and me attacking the grub, what a lovely, peacefull family we are

Aeolus.3615:

Onshidesigns.1069:

WvW is not PvP only! It’s PvP/PvE together.

yeah but, its the Mist why do we have common mobs there? since mist worklike FoW or UW, it would be more eye candy if it have is own biome and mobs.

Love that Idea.

I would decrease over all mob population in WvW. And we could add some server flair to the environment. For my server FoW I would draw inspiration from:
http://www.blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2011/12/fow2-rb-124.jpg
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/541776341469281116/21D66D6EB0B4606ED66229A07084A23AD73B0653/1024x597.resizedimage

I would love, if the devs would just retexture the area to look more like the actual areas Imagine how beautifull Vabbi might look. All those nice looking buildings and the townsfolk in Vabbi clothes.

Also the grub and such should disapear. I mean, you can even “farm” WXP from them. Why the hell do they give WXP?! That makes no sense at all.

Xenn.3809:

Cooldowns. 5-10min since last used/entered or till death. No more jumping around the map putting out fires as one unique unit – make movements around map more strategic – if you are defending south of map, you should be north 3 sec after.

If Rome sends all his army to the moon, don’t expect Rome to be defended.

exactly my point

I actually do not like the waypoints on upgraded Keeps. I don’t like them for my server or for the other (although it’s been very long since I saw a keep in our hand with a waypoint). The reason I’m saying this is simple. Defeating a group of players or being defeated doesn’t mean anything any more. I mean the repair costs are minor. But defeating an enemy Zerg and they actually will need at least some minutes to come back, can make a huge difference. But most of the time they come back so quickly, that you can’t even take the supply camp to resupply your defending minions * cough * I mean fellow defenders

It makes strategies less valuable, if you can just return to a tower, that you have worked on 30 secs ago, where defenders couldn’t rebuild any siege in the meantime.

They would need a replacement though. But for I am in complaining mood, I will think later, with what waypoint could be exchanged. :P

I just quickly though of those and wanted to share the ideas. I am imagening another buff next to “outmanned” and that is “outplayed” (or smth like that). The outplayed buff would simply apply to a server, that holds only 3 fortifications on a map and would be equal to the outmanned buff.

What I would like to have both buffs applying to a player is the following:

• Range bonus for Siege Weapons (and maybe over all a range bonus?)
• Teleport shrines (or smth like that) from spawn to tower (with internal cooldown for each player, that used the teleport for 5 min or so)
• leave the no reapair cost buff
• remove the karma and magic find buff
• maybe a supply carry cap of 15

The point behind this is, to enable to outmanned or outplayed server to have a chance defending against the oncomming forces, without destroying the whole balance. Stuff like more dmg or more health would be too broke I think and also in no sense sadisfying for the outmanned server. And that comes from a player, who plays on such a server every day. But strucutal or logistic changes would be more suited imho, so that one player can take over the role of two or so in providing defense. And also would be able to enter the tower against a big enough group in order to be able to provide some defense.

I must say this matchup was until now an up and down. There were some awesome fights and I encountered some RoF players with builds I never saw before. But on other occasions we were just smashed. There is actually a big number difference between players on FoW and Vabbi favoring FoW, but that difference doesn’t really matter any more judging by the points.

Such a matchup is ridiculous and I expected that, after they announced the new matchup system. I think ANet won’t care much about that issue, because with our low population we represent only a fraction of customers and therefor won’t get prioritized. It’s sad, but it would be basic economics.

However, I am almost offended by the suggestion to leave my server. I have made it commander in my guild, that is one of the biggest guilds on FoW and I am planning on WvW events for my guild members, to perfect teamwork and create our own strategies and tactics.

And this is, what gives me some hope, that maybe through team work and dedication we will make some kind of stand eventually. RoF players, I encoutnered and talked to, all complimented FoW for our spirit of not giving up and standing our ground on the battlefield. So why would I leave that server?

I just started playing necromance in WvW. I went full rabid (well almost, I still need some trinkets and my rings are ascended rampager^^). But it’s a lot of fun. Especially Zerg fights. You swith through ur enemies and don’t even have to apply bleeds urself, for there are pretty much bleeds flying arround already from others. And then you found one with 10-15 stacks of bleed and blow every bleed, you can apply in some secs, on him and hit epidemic. You’ll see like trillions of numbers from the bleeds you trhew arround. It is just awesome. Seconds later, peoplle start get downed. A full condition Necro is a huge improvment on a Zerg.

Regarding raoming issues. Well, I still have to get used to it. Thieves are no issue at all (my galss canon mesmer had more work dealing with them). But I think with some practice a full Rabid Necro can be very good in small scale engagments and 1v1.

I like the necromancer. I played a mesmer before and fully ascended her. Now I wanted to try smth else and grew a necro. They are fun to play. There are issues. But go on in any other profession forum. You’ll see them complain over their profession the same. If u don’t like, don’t play it.

So I thank ANet for making this nice game and their continued efforts to improve on it. Although I remember them saying before release, that they would only release it, when it is ready… But I’ll leave that as a polite sitenote

thanks for the tips. I supsected the “error” in those egagements was on my part. It just happened very quickly all the time, so I was overwhealmed. Still have to get used to my necro.

F2 in deathshroud wasn’t an option in thos fights, because the ranger stood before right before my helpless necro. But it’s good to know, that a simple condition remove (and walking out of the roots of course) will get me free. And of those I have pleanty

I was thinking of flesh worm, but the cast time for the worm is soooooo slow and it itself is only usefully as szun breaker, if it survives. That blocks a slot for more usefull utilities. Spectral walk might be an option, but the timing must be very lucky for I’d have to cast it before the wines appear and the effect has to be still on, after they are cast.

However, I thank you guys for the help. It’s very appreciated.

Hi my dear rangers. Just to make things clear, I do not wanna QQ arround here about smth I find broke. I have just a question, and for you are rangers, you might be able to help me, deal with you in WvW.

I have leveled a necromancer to lvl 80 and use currently a high condition dmg rabid build. Now what happened is, that I have encountered several rangers, who use Entangle on me. With my mesmer I have no problems dealing with that, for either blurred frenzy can kill the binding roots quickly or I just blink out of them. However, my necromancer has no teleport, and due the fact that I go for cond dmg, I have no way of killing the roots in time to get myself free resulting in the ranger going GS and just hack away on me till I am dead.

So my question, how can I deal with that? Is a condition remove enough to break free, if timed right, or do the roots hold me in place themselfes and not only the immobelize?

Thanks for the help

Rumple Stilts Skin

Bern.9613:

TyPin.9860:

If I was Anet, I would implement another “counter” to stealth as a kind of area effect….

…Also I would make a tower upgrade that partly reveals stealth in an area arround the tower. Like Deniara Devious suggested. The stealthed character would appear as a s transparent shimmer within the area….

I will speak on behalf of the thief as my main is one. A thief will not survive an aoe barrage because it has the lowest hp, toughness, survivability of ALL of the warrior classes. They do this because to survive is to eliminate the target before it has a chance to eliminate you. High, fast dps. So unless you’re also suggesting that ANet ups the stats of the thief….

I do see your point. I actually don’t think it is that necessary to make a specific stealth counter. What I suggested would be the only stealth counter I can imageine to be viable, if such a counter would be in need. To completely reveal the cloaked character would be too game breaking imho.

To say that cloak has no counter is anyway not the real point, for cloak is smth that can be “circumvented” by a keen senses and good reaction. However, the skill needed to pull of a good stealth build is imho lower than the skill needed to counter that stealth build. This is the actual imbalance. But it’s an imbalance that exists with all glass canon builds out there. The execution seems easier, than the defense against it, especially with many many players running arround in WvW as glass cannons themselfes giving the one, who makes the 1st significant blow, the edge.

If I was Anet, I would implement another “counter” to stealth as a kind of area effect. I would make them leave behind steps in the snow or mud or smth. So that there are areas, where stealth focused characters should not go for a fight, cuz they are getting kinda revealed… Also I would make a tower upgrade that partly reveals stealth in an area arround the tower. Like Deniara Devious suggested. The stealthed character would appear as a s transparent shimmer within the area. They still could do their combos and get benefits like not being targeted (so NPCs won’t attack them at all), but players would see them and could AoE them. As soon as the stealthed character leaves the radius of the upgrade, stealth works as usual.

And no, I do not look for a counter to stealth because I am annoyed by it. I play a mesmer and utilize stealth myself very often.

Asura Mesmer named Si Lly

Supporter tag
Anet could implement an additional tag. If a supporter puts a boon, heal or whatever on an allied players, than that supporter could inderectly tag all targets the allied players taged. That would allow supporters to be able to gain the same loot, XP and WXP by only supporting.

CC tag
And for those, who focus on CC. Every time an enemy player hits a guardian’s wall thingy, or gets CCed through stun, daze or conditions, they should be taged by that CC supporter.

One must maybe apply respectivly a minimum ammount of healing, boon duration and accumulated CC duration for the apropriate tag to come in place, like for DPS a minimum ammount of dmg is required. But I could imagen those additional tags can be implemented and help diverse the ammount of builds used and focus some more an CC and support.

Lol, my main is a mesmer. I played her since the release and I never found eles OP. Wanted to try one still, cuz I wanted to know, if Eles can be a threat by making one of my own. I am still at lvl 20, so I can not say much. But until now it is kinda fun. Wanna go for a Cond Dmg build with max on burn duration and carrion armor… I’ll see what happens

But People will allways complain I guess. I remember all saying in GW1 how underpowered the Ritualist is, but I had never so much fun playing a profession in GW1. But I didn’t go with the main stream builds. And I see that same phenomenon here in GW2 in every porfession forum.

Hm… I see that this is not the most dmg you can imagine. However, I am okay with it. I already own most of the guys I meet in WvW. If the iZerker would do more dmg, and I’d use some food buff, then I would feel truely overpowered ^^ But maybe thats my awesome skill level, that makes me so strong. I honetsly have most problems against thieves, who can ripp my bleeding easily off through their healing. However, with a fixed iZerker, they would die in an instant… hm… I am getting slightly in favor of a fix

11k? That sounds insane. However, I don’t know if it’s bugged or not, but I have no problems with my iZerker. I am one a high crit chance build, with rampager armor to bleed my enemies to death through sharper images

There is some luck involved, granted. As you can see in the first screenshot, the Zerker gets somehow stuck on the wall and deals very little dmg. However, in the 2nd screenshot it does okay dmg, for I am not on Bersekrer armor…

If it would deal more dmg, it would be slightly overpowered imho.

My iZerker hits for 1500-3000 dmg, depending on the targets armor and luck. Just in singular cases he hits for only arround 500 dmg. I have 2121 power, a crit chance of 66% (2218 presision) and a crit bonus of 44%.

Do you guys say, that i Zerker should be stronger than that? That would be awesome, once its fixed.

@OP:
The scenario you described seems actually very likely. I believe Mesmer is one of the professions, that can easily combat 1v1 and 1v2, even 1v3. However, one must now look deeper into the matter. But I can give mainly a WvW point of perspective, where imho the balance can be quite different from sPvP.

Comparing Warrior and Mesmer
This comparison is in favor of the Mesmer. Allone the ability to cloak and teleport gives Mesmers the ability to avoid most of melee dmg. I have met only a few warriors, who are a danger to me in smal scale combat. However, especially in WvW, you have not only the task to win small duels. In matters of duels, the Mesmer as magical duelist, is better than the warrior from my point of view.

Player Skill
However, at a high level of skill players have realized to exploit the strenghts of their professions to compensate for the disatvantages. I myself like to think I have a desent level of skill. A guild mate of mine though, who playes a far superior mesmer to my own, although mesmer is my main, now is running guardian and has no complaints at all. He finds it quite fun and doesn’t see one of both superior. I for instance play a necro alt in WvW from time to time and found myself during leveling up (I was lvl 60 at that time) fighting 3 lvl 80 players in one of the borderlands, who weren’t able to defeat me. Eventually they run of, after I repeatedly downed them. Just I could not finish one. Should I know say that Necro is OP?

Statistics
Olthough players have thrown hate speeches at me, because I am a statistics fanatic, I still must say, that you have described only one scenario. That does not give much weight to your experience in matters of an objectiv perseption (a contradiction in itself, if you think about it). As stated by others, you can only judge the ability comming from the profession design when you face players with an equal level of skill. Otherwise your personal skill interferes with this experiment and you might have measured only your prersonal skill level against those two.

Play Style
What also comes to mind is personal play style. Maybe some players are more suited to play mesmer, others are more suited to play Warrior, and others own ppl as Thieves.

What do I want to say?
Imho Mesmer is a very strong profession. And defeating a warrior with a mesmer is not as challanging as defeating a mesmer with a warrior I might imagine (I do not have a warrior of my own, but I have fought plenty). Looking through this forum, you will find posts stating the difference to your perception and say that Mesmer is not good at all.

I do believe that you have done, what you say. I just doubt, that this singular experience qualifies to label Mesmer far as superior to anything else.

Nuka Cola.8520:

Here’s why. The 20 points in dueling tree are a no brainer, every single one of them is essential.

-Critical Infusion is amazing and for 5 points is a given.
-Phantasmal Fury is great especially for power/crit damage builds and shouldn’t be ignored.
-Sharper Images is,,,, sharper images, a great trait.
-Deceptive Evasion is the absolute best and worth spending 20 points just for it.

Now in Illusions. Sure not everyone ALWAYS spend 30 points for Illusionary Persona but lets be fair here, its the best grandmaster trait from any tree on mez… Additional damage, 1 more sec of distortion (life savior), more stacks of confusion and one free 1sec daze, 5 more stacks of Vulnerability (if speced with Dazzling ) not to mention faster CD on all your shatter is kinda guuud. At the end, you’re left with 20 points -.- and lots of builds can be made with 20 points… Anyone else thinks mez is way too limited to build variation? No wonder almost everyone run 20/20/0/0/30.

This wouldn’t be a problem if we had free allocation of traits.

Well I run 20/20/0/25/5. I agree about Deseptive Evasion and Sharper Images, especially with my rampager armor and a 60% crit chance. Also Illusions 30 is nice, I like it, when I go a full shatterer build, but atm I see only 20 in dueling as a must, the other 50 points I can spend as I want. There was even a time, where I didn’t go for 20 in deception, but this was mostly for PvE, in WvW i find deceptive evasion, especially as glass cannon, essential.

I actually really like the downed system. And except for the insane speed you can ress a downd player, it is okay. I suggest the healing of a downed player should be slowed down in general. Maybe you can give an outnumbered server an edge by including a ressurection speed boon in the outmanned thingy.

However, what I do not like is that you can in the heat of combat ressurect completely finished players. For the time you are engaged in combat, this function should be disabled. Then, when you’re out of the fight, it should work again.

Implementing both ideas would lead imho to more chances for the smaller team against a bigger, without giving them too much benefit (actually they don’t get any benefit, except the outmanned idea, for they suffer from the same restricitons).

I too find the AoE limit annoying. At least it should be increased imho that one can hit a larger number with AoE spells. It is just awfull to see a Zerg run arround on one spot and getting protected by numbers standing all into each other. What is the problem in dodging out of AoE circles?

The downed/rez system and the AoE limit gives a large Zerg an advantage that is greater than the advantage they have due to simple numbers already…

Speed with memser is a problem. Unless u run rune of centaur, or spec in boon duration and focus cooldown reduction you will have a problem getting some speed done.

I run but with rune of centaur, and I run with two other mesmers in WvW using the same rune. We are basically stacking up speed, and when we arrive at our target, we can fight with swiftness boon on us, that makes it super awesome. Sometimes I feel like a D/D bunker ele runing thorugh the enym zerg and shattering everything^^

But rune of centaur limits ur posibilities buildwise. So unless u are fine with that rune (which complemets my build quite nicely) you will have a problem getting some speed done by urself

the effect on the focus speed buf has its point. Otherwise ppl culd go again and again through the speed wall and stack up speed… I gues this is, why they prevented you from getting swiftness from the focus, if u already have swiftness.

Hey ppl out there. I have some suggestions about WvW balance (not another one^^). But do not be mistaken, I do not want a balance so that a smaller server can defeat a bigger server. All I want is some fun for the smaller servers to still be able to enjoy the WvW experience and have some nice battles too, instead of getting steamrolle all the time.

Outnumbered buff
This buff should work the other way arround. What I mean is, that it should not give magic find boon and such to the outnumbered server, it should give penealty to the bigger server in matters of magic find, experience and karma gain in order to prevent ppl from just zering arround and steamrolling everything and gaining the same benefits as if done allone. Also the effect should apply earlier as the outnumbered boon these days and ppl standing in spawn areas should not be counted when checking for applying this buff/penealty.

Bridges, Teleporters and such
I imagine this to be very hard to implement. But what I imagine is a map (like borderlands), where certain areas of the map (close to the spawn of the borderland’s server) can be reached by the attacking server only through bridge and teleporter. Now the teleporter but has a cooldown and transports only a small group at a time and works both directions. The bridges but can be destroyed by siege weapons and also be rebuild with supply. The point is, that this way the smaller server could destroy the bridges leading to the area close to their spawn and the attacker can, until the bridge is repaired, only attack in small numbers or needs much time to build up a large zerg. So that this part can be defended and the smaller server is able to get some battles in more even numbers, but only in this areas.

Temple
Here I imagine that a server could build a temple or such in the place where the orb was before. With this temple, that would cost rly much supply, the defending server in borderlands would get a bonus in carrying supply, but only in the area close to their spawn. Also caravans would in this area deliver more supply by default. This temple can be destroyed by siege weapons. Here you give the defending server an additional benefit for theri defenses and make it possible for smaller groups to build siege or repair faster.

Commander Events
My last suggestion concerns not only small servers. But this change would only make sense after the commander was somehow redisigned, so that not the rich player gets the title, but players with some WvW achievments or players, who were voted to be a commander or such. However, commander events are now events the commander can start and change after some time only. Here he could start a “defend caravans”-event, “upgrade tower/keep”-event, “defeat invaders”-event or a “take tower”-event and such to motivate players to follow a plan, making it possible for commanders to command their ppl to victory^^ But this events should have preconditions. This must be thought through of course to prevent easy event farming, but it could benefit the commander gameplay significantly.

I found a part of mhenlo’s armor set and I liked the description. So I bought the whole set and made a mantra build with the Restorative Mantras trait to have some group healing in addition to the regeneration I put on allies through dwaynas runes.

However, I never saw a heal effect trigger on allies… I was watching the party screen closely and neither when I prepared the mantras nor when I triggered them I healed allies. So did I miss smth.?

Hello fellow people of Tyria,

Our research group has come across this question and I would like to briefly share our preliminary results.

After intense efforts in creating an energy output measure device, we have created the powermeter A1 (1). It is the first prototype of that kind and allows us to detect energy emissions within a radius of some meters. While testing this device, we have noticed, that every time a so called “combo” is being created, a high energy output is emitted by the finisher of the combo. We have then taken our attention closer to some certain techniques, used by the mesmer.

The techniques called “phase retreat” and “illusionary leap” emit such an energy. While phase retreat’s energy manifests into an illusion, this energy emission also causes a finisher. Illsionary leap, after creating an initial illusion, only realeases some energy tension from a psychotic link between the mesmer and their illusion. Further tests are required, to confirm this results. But it seems, that without this energy release, a finisher can not occur.

Now the ability to purely blink has actually lowered the surrounding energy level arround the mesmer. So blink seems to be an energy drawing ability, negating any static energy holding the mesmer back in their reality grounding (2).

Si Lly
Head of the Eternal Alchemy Research Department
College of Synergetics of [AKP]

1. The detector uses a strong magnetic field to measure the change of micro magical particle spin.
2. Reality grounding is the term we use for the fact, that everybody is limited by their own mind and perception, binding them to physical appearances and nature laws. Experienced individuals, however, seem to be able to go around that issue to some degree.

Well I would strongly disagree to stat buffs (coming from FoW, an often outmanned server). How do you balance it? It would force the bigger server to go around in packs, for going in smaller groups or even alone would put you at a great disadvantage. I myself wouldn’t feel good also, as an outmannde player, to win any battle at all.

What could be done though is decrease repair costs, increase supply carrying capacity and decrease siege deployment costs for the outmanned ppl.

Probably another buff/nerf (maybe named “in great numbers”) for the server outmanning the others would be also a good idea. “In great numbers” would than decrease rewards from kills and events, due to a lower difficulty. That could probably make zerging against less populated servers a bit less appealing.

I thought we could create a WvW diary, where people can state their experiences fighting the other servers and want to share some stuff, without creating a new post every time. I am sharer, so I want to share

My matchup is FoW/Vabbi/WSR. I am on FoW.
Yesterday it was an awesome WvW day. In the morning I was commanding (without commander title^^) our troops in Eternal Battleground and we got 3 towers and a keep. First it was only PvDoor, I admit that, but later on there was heavy resistance form WSR (and I admit, I was distracted from this one guy with Twilight thinking: that looks so awesome, I wanna have it too^^) until they started to counterattack and we had a 2 huge battles in front of our keep and we barely could make a stand. Luckily we had a trebuchet on top of the keep, that could defend against any siege they put up. And due to the upgrades of the keep (my poor money) we could stand against WSR.

In the evening though I was part of the most epic battle I ever had in WvW. On our BL WSR attacked the Garrison from Dawns tower (if I remember right) with a treb and broke the outer wall. Here the battle just had begun. We were fighting for approximately 1h. Invaders streaming through the choke point and getting crushed, we streaming out through the choke point and getting crushed. The way for reinforcements was the same due to a WP they had in Ascalonian Hills. And we asked our guild to come to help and to ask in LA for help. And finally we outnumbered WSR so that we could defend and also attack Dawns Tower. It was simply epic. Even if we had lost this fight, I would have loved it the same.

I just wish I knew who prepared the keep and upgraded it. Without it, we surely would have lost quickly.

After that we could hold, what I call the inner ring (Woodhaven, Dawns tower, the Spirit camp and the garrison). And my guildies and me were just doing some roaming. defending/capping camps. There was a 3 thieves group, that was kinda annoying, but we made them give up capping our camps and another guild group of 4 players. (who we could not defeat with our 2 mesmer). But we had a nice talk afterwards, congratulating each other for the good fights and exchanging builds and strategies.

Over all, although we lost everything in EB in the end and were outmatched once again, I enjoyed yesterdays WvW and wish, it would be always that epic in a Zerg or that fun roaming around.

In contrary to many other posts I am not here to complain about balance issues, I am here to compliment it. But first, for all the trolls out there: This is a individual perception.

But I think, that each profession has its place in WvW and can be very strong with the current meta game and the most common builds used. Just left to say, that I play a Mesmer myself. So most of it is written from this point of view from the game.

Guardian
Here I see a lot of support guardians, especially useful in zerg situations. Also I have seen small groups of guardians steamroll other groups by supporting each other and dealing decent dmg. If done correctly such groups appear highly deadly. In 1v1 scenario it depends on the situation, but here they can be good too. So I see guardian as a fairly strong all around profession that is not too hard to play.

Warrior
The role of the warrior can be quite similar to the role of the guardian. I see Warriors used to great effect in big Zerg vs Zerg scenarios as well as in smaller fights. Warriors, as far as I have heard from those players, are fairly easy to control. Thus making them a good choice especially for newer players. However, personally I feel with my Mesmer I can quite well dominate many Warriors in 1v1 fights.

Engineer
After I have heard many complaints about this profession, I have seen many many really strong Engineers. Not only is their dmg output good, they have also a great survivability, making them a good choice in especially smaller fights. I did not feel threatened by Engineers in Zerg vs Zerg situations really much. However, I do not know of their support ability in such situations.

Ranger
I feel rangers especially threatening in zerg fights. Here they can pick up weakened targets from afar or AoE a whole Zerg quite effectively. Also their pet seems to be quite the addition to a fight. Although I have a feeling those pets could use some buffs, because I mostly ignore them. Thus, being surprised by a few Rangers using CC-abilities of their pets and giving me much trouble sometimes. In smaller engagements I have rarely seen a really threatening Ranger. But what Rangers are great for, is still firing at cloaked players due to their repeating shots from one of the longbow skills.

Thief
Much hated and much loved. I think the most threads here are dedicated to Thieves, claiming they are OP or claiming they are too weak. However, I think thieves are one of the best implemented professions at all (and no, in WvW I don’t play thief). They have a great ability to pick weakened targets in Zerg fights, but exposing themselves doing so. In smaller fights a Thief becomes even deadlier, although a skilled player can evade their assassination attempts quite well, until all stun breakers are in cool down.

Elementalist
Well here I see almost exclusively those D/D bunker elementalists. Those are effective in almost any matchup I feel. Running close, doing their rotation and dealing decent dmg and then running out again until the rotation starts anew. The strengths of this is also its weakness. Making them predictable. But they have their place in WvW and can easily be used to great effect. Still Ele can be used as a strong supporter or AoE dmg dealer what making this profession useful all around WvW.

Mesmer
The second most hated and loved profession. Mesmers, however, are very very strong in 1v1 fights (they are described as magical duelists after all). In bigger fights, especially in Zerg situation, Mesmer do not stand out very much. They can support with random boons, but also deal some decent dmg. The most important issue with Mesmer is, that it needs a lot of practice and awareness to be good, making it one of the hardest to learn professions in the game. Also, if one knows how to counter a Mesmer, then their advantage in 1v1 situations disappears. But all in all, the more chaotic the fight, the stronger the Mesmer will be.

Necromancer
Necromancer, similar to Elementalists, can be quite the AoE dmg dealers as well as group supporters. But their strongest domain are conditions. They also have the highest life bar (in combination with Death Shroud) and thus have a very good survivability. The longer the fight takes, the stronger the Necromancer becomes, but also their ability to burst, if traited for it, should not be underestimated. Over all, the Necromancer is also an all around profession that can be quite effective in any situation.

So that’s it folks. My perception of all the professions in WvW. I am sure they are all quite good, if played right. And it’s always a surprise if one doesn’t use a main stream build and therefor catches their foe easily on the wrong foot. Of course there are issues with every profession and bugs that needs fixing. But at the end of the day, there is a good balance.

Well, to answer your question is not easy. It really much depends on your play style. But judging from how I play, I would say go hybrid. I mean I am geared rampager exotics and carrion + berserker ascended (for there is no rampager ascended). This gives you a high crit. chance (and combined with the right sigils, that’s amazing). Also, with at least traited 15 points in dueling, you can use any weapon with a great effect. I am using Sword/Pistol, dealing nice condition and burst dmg. But the other set, I always have problems to decide, so I sometimes go for GS and sometimes go for Staff. It is up to you. If you want to spike burst ur opponents down, I would go for burst, thus gearing berserker armor. If you want to ignore opponents armor, go for condition dmg, but be ready for long fights. Here I’d suggest carrion gear. But if you wanna do it like me, meaning going for a sustained dmg for the main duration of the fight, and then suddenly leap forward and shatter your foe down, then rampager is the best I guess.

Of course, this is only how I see it. But I feel to be a fairly strong mesmer (not the best of course) with my hybrid dmg build. I am very glassy, so I need a lot of awareness on the battlefield. So after a long day at work and not much power to concentrate left, I die a lot even in 1v1 fights.

Personally I find Rampager Armor greatly overpowered. That’s why I’m using it :P

With that armor I can go very different builds with Mesmer, which also can be quite defensive. The condition dmg applied through Sharper Images by my illusions is amazing and pressures the opponent constantly, while the high precision also allows for critical dmg and effects on critical hit (freeze, fire blast, cond remove, boon remove, might, vulnerability etc. are just awesome).

There is but no rampager set on the ascended armors (I believe because of it being so strong). So I will go for a mix of berserker and carrion (soon, it will be done). Thus loosing around 7-8% critical chance (and being at only 40-50% critical chance, depending on the weapon I use) but gaining more power, condition dmg and some toughness.

I even thought for some time, not to go for ascended armor, so I don’t loose this critical chance. But I will try it out and see how it goes…

EDIT: My main build is a shatter build with 20/20/0/0/30, GS or Staff and Sword/Pistol.

I actually never experienced such unfriendliness. I put down portal, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Many times but, after people had tried to run the swamp without portal, I offer to portal then, but they seem not listen or to understand, that I can help them. It is very funny… well and I have a friend who is also mesmer. So we both combine our portals and run 2 of those thingies ourselfes, leaving the easy one for the other 3 to deal with…

Lol, it just happens that my main is a Mesmer and my first alt is a Necro. And I can say that both professions play very differently. But wouldn’t give an advantage to either of them. They have but one thing in common: they require skill to be good.

I run either well or corruption skills on my necromancer and I’m having a blast with it. First time with that Necro in WvW (I was lvl 65 or smth) I could already take on a full lvl 80 player and a upleveled one. They ended up retreating, because my conditions were just eating them slowly away while I just was impossible to kill.

I also engaged a mesmer when I hit lvl 80. For I knew exactly how mesmers work, I could easily deal with him. Illusions hacked away with wells and marks, while the mesmers tried to run being freezed and then cripled. I don’t wanna know what beast my necro will be, once I get my full exotic gear (still no exotic rings and stuff, also I have no runes atm)

Ruufio.1496:

The Mesmer is OP because:

- They create NPCs.
- Having to destroy clones is blind effect X 100.
- Invisibility.
- Invulnerability every 10 seconds.
- Chaos armor which is the best combo effect in the game.
- Time Warp.
- Portal.
- Confusion which is around 1K damage per attack.
- One of the highest burst damage in the game.
- Some of the best abilities in the game to disengage any fight.
- Multiple dazes/stuns.
- Easy access to retaliation.
- Reflection.
- Too many invincible skills; Block, invulnerability, distortion.
- Class with one of the highest amount of access to boons and a LOT of boons.
- Massive boon removal and condition removal.

Just look at the Mesmer traits. Mesmer has the most exciting to choose traits in the entire game. You can’t look at them without going, “Omg… WHAT SHALL I CHOOSE????!!!!”

You look at traits for classes like Necromancer? Lol. Not even comparable.

So please, tell me more of how this invincible class of invincibleness isn’t overpowered that can regain boons whenever it pleases (Which goes against Anets policy of having boons up constantly such as retaliation) can make opponents attacks deal damage to himself with confusion, retaliation AND reflection, creates NPCs that which are overpowered in every way but to top it off also shoot at you in your downed state which the Mesmer runs off, etc. etc.

The mesmer can do everything that every other class put together can do.

Here is a list of why necro is OP (purposely presented as biased as you presented yours):
- they can create NPCs
- they can corrupt all my boons
- they can spread all the conditions to my allies
- additional life bar every 10s (sometimes every 5s)
- shape shift into condition spreading cloud with kittening blind + freeze (if traited)
- applying millions stacks of bleed and endless poison
- the highest life bar in game + additional life bar (are u kidding? This is so OP)
- some of the best abilities in game to prevent disengaging a fight
- Multiple daze/stuns
- Easy access to might
- Easy access to retaliation
- Class with the best ability to remove any boon on target
- insane AoE spamming

And I have the same problem with Necro. I love the death shroud traits (especially the ones providing boons). I would like to trait them all to just change to death shroud for some secs to get all that boons and then I want all the well traits + corruption traits + spectral traits.

No. seriously: Playing both professions (mesmer and necro) the most of my time I can safely say: They are both really strong, ikittennow what you’re doing. They have different advantages and disadvantages, but their strengths makes up for that.

I remember some situations in GW1. A friend of mine complained, that necro was too weak in PvP (mainly random arena). I played then his necro with his exact build and ppl were just dying. Same with the necro of my girlfriend. Game was new and she had almost no skills unlocked. I just bought one elite skill and then rocked random arenas with her necro with arround 20 wins in a row in the first try. (of course that relies also on other factors). (my main at this time was ritualist)

But the same is true for GW2 and any profession (and that’s why I love this game). You can have a supposed “kitten” build, but u can still be strong, if you know, what u’re doing and when to do it.

I had to laugh at the “played 800h and can say it’s no good”-comment. Mesmers have their problems, agreed, but they have also their strong side. And honestly (I realised that yesterday) to get vigor in crit hit or by default attack on trident is insanely strong imho connected with Deceptive Evasion.

It also depends on play style. Even good players can suck at a certain profession, because it simply doesn’t match their play style. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have to l2p, but that maybe this profession should simply not be their first choice.

I think the developers missed out on many opportunities in the WvW scenario, that the world they created offers. The whole warfare machinery reminds me to human and charr technologies. But where is the Asuran shield? Preventing spells from penetrating it as long as the shield is provided with some sort of power source (there are many ways, how u could make such a power source, the best way imho would be to make it be fueled by some crystals for example, that have to be gathered to replace the ones being burned out). Where is the asuran mega laser, that is fueled by the same crystals?

Also, the tower and keep design reminds me of a world without magic (our world). The architects of the fortifications in WvW seem not to have thought about the possibility of massive AoE dmg. There are some keeps where the walls have some place in the back, that can’t be reached by AoE dmg from the attackers. Here somebody had thought about such situations…

But as long as players place a trebuchet next to a wall or in range of the defending morters, as long as arrow cards are getting burned away on walls, while the ones I place stay alive, as long as golems are constructed directly in front of the tower, that is to be attacked, we won’t have an ideal balance of siege situations. So I agree partly with one post here. People sometime use siege weapons in a dumb way atm.

You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTTzzg7UBqo (was originally posted by Terrahero.9358

at 22:55 u can see the thief using a hack, there is no doubt about that, because he is not in stealth at this moment…

SoPP.7034:

TyPin.9860:

I think the 2nd guy in the video may not have been cheeting.

If he was hacking, he would have done a very very bad job. (of course, if he needs hacks, he must be very bad^^). But the only time it seemed “obvios” may have been a huge lag. Other than that a thief can be that mobile…

I think its quite clear at the 22.55 min mark that the 2nd thief speed hacks. He covers a huge amount of distance in a short period of time. Remembering as well that at this stage the d/d bunker ele has an ally with him who doesn’t do a ‘slideshow’ at all. Up until that point I would have agreed with you.

Okay, I should have watched the whole vieo^^ But u’re right. In this moment the hack is obvious.

I think the 2nd guy in the video may not have been cheeting.

If he was hacking, he would have done a very very bad job. (of course, if he needs hacks, he must be very bad^^). But the only time it seemed “obvios” may have been a huge lag. Other than that a thief can be that mobile…

I know that is not a real solution: But in the case of stealthed players hacking it is up to the allies (players from the same server) of this player to report. It won’t really change as long as players go around with a mindset: “as long as it benefits me, it’s okay”.

The same with bots and stuff. If players wouldn’t buy gold from other “sources”, as long those bots will find a way.

Not everything is up to the developer imho. Not everything can be covered by the developer. I am not saying by that, that ANet doesn’t have the responsibility to fix such issues. What I’m saying is that some matters can be to a great part dealt by the community itself.

I am fairly new to being a necromancer with my lvl 62 necro. But personally I am not even remotely interested in minions. What I like more is the death shroud thingy… and if I wouldn’t want to go for WvW group support with that necro, I would create a duel death shroud build. Being as much as possible a little black asura cloud^^

I’d say no, we shouldn’t. I’ll try to explain. My main is a mesmer. But lately I was leveling my necro for some AoE WvW purposes (and ele was not that interesting to me). Now with the necro, I can see the already huge advantages with the stealth we have. I so often wish, I could use decoy or mass invisibility. Even Veil would be awesome.

Although the mesmer stealth is nothing compared to the thief, it is already really powerful. You start understanding this, when u play a profession, that does not have such stealth skills.

What imho needs a fix though is Prismatic Understanding. I tried several builds, that might be able to utilize this trait, but it all seemed not very effective. So from my point of view, this trait is not worth it. If they’d remove it and exchange it with another, more helpful trait, that would be fine to me. I don’t think mesmer needs more stealth improvement.

Just an opinion though

My first thought on this thread: boah, not again…

I fought yesterday a thief, and he was quite good, but he could not bother me for more than a minute… he ran… 3 ppl should easily be able to deal with a thief.

Stealth is a part of the game. The culling makes it more difficult, granted, but thieves aren’t that powerful. I think it is only a minority here in the forum, that with repeatedly posting threads like this one, only create a false image of the game balance.

A mesmer could yesterday hold a 3 man group of us longer in place that any thief did yesterday…

I was only playing for a couple of ours today. And although WSR dominates this matchup as far as I have seen, it is a lot of fun to be in a more even situation. Although Vabbi seems not to be as strong any more.

We will see how it develops. But when it stays like that, I am more than happy. I had already a couple of good fights in smaller and bigger numbers^^ And to my liking, the WSR players I have fought so far seem to die easier than the players form RoS (even before they had those “reinforcements”)

To some good fights.

Agreed… gives me time to do some fractals and farm some mats for Twilight^^

I have some friends on WSR server, will be fun to duel them once in a while :P

I also use Mirror in WvW. One reason is that I run 6 superior runes of the centaur, giving me a min. 12 sec speed boost every 16 sec or so. So I am very mobile in WvW. Other reason, as stated above this post already, it is of great use in WvW for many players use projectile attacks. Sometime I use it solely to reflect an attack, when I see for example a warrior going on his knees and aiming his rifle towards me. I’ll stick them their bullet back in their faces^^

The time I am online (mostly from 17:00 to 0:00 mgt +1) mostly RoS and Vabbi outnumbers us. Not always really much, that is true. And as long as numbers are almost even, we can make stuff work. I saw it, I was part of it.

But we have many players that are not lvl 80 yet. And we have a bad coordination, for we are many small guilds with no voice chat or smth similar between the guilds. And it is easier to fight outnumbered but organized than with superior numbers but completely chaotic…

However, it does not make sense to point always out, how great one is against superior numbers (I know, I did that too, but it is pointless). We will see how the tier stabalizes in time. And I wish the original RoS players much success and joy in WvW.

You are rly amusing little kids. I see myself as a medium skilled player. I do not know, when the big mouths of u are online, but when I am (yesterday from 20:30 till 23:30 GMT+1) I saw us being outnumbered or beating u guys. There were 5 or 6 RoS capping spirits and on our side 2 (one lvl 80 and one upleveled guy with no good equipment at all) and we were holding and delaying u capping it until u got more reinforcments (wehen we arrived all the npcs were dead already). Later 3 pll of u fighting 2 of us, trying to pull the fight to surmia friendly npcs near ascalonian hills. All 3 died easily.

The only time we were defeated yesterday (except the situation where we were zerged) was when we tried as 2 ppl to cap an almost fully upgraded camp (one upgrade still missing) and u only succeeded, because we were too greedy at one point (I shouldn’t have tried to finish this ele in the middle of all the npcs^^). There are good and bad players on every server… so I guess u have some good players too…

And while u left ur server, because it wasn’t going ur way, we stick with our server to the end.

BTW: U never left our borderlands alone. Maybe some of u did, but there were plenty of vabbi and RoS attacking FoW borderlands, while there was plenty of stuff to do for u in EB and ur own BL. So drop the arrogance. You don’t win by skill. You win by more experience zerging, and by being more ppl…

Much luck in the higher tiers… U will need it.

That would be very appreciated.

Columba.9730:

I am not complaining about any other class, so yes, I am more objective. Secondly, is your answer to just not fight thieves. Ok, I have my answer.

You have weird criteria for objectivity… so complaining only about one thing seems to be an objectivity trait… interesting.

You seem to be lot more biased than u admit to. When I say u can not expect to be effective against everything with a certain build, then this doesn’t mean, that u should avoid thief all around. Maybe ur built is rly not suited to fight’em. Or u lack the skill. And we’re talking ‘bout perma stealth thieves, aren’t we? So u may take on any other thief. And when u now say, u can not best the back-stab-burst-from-stealth-thieves, then I can not take u serious any more.

With my mesmer for example I can take on thieves and have a win lose ration of aprox. 50% (I guess). But camping a not upgraded camp alone is painfully hard with my build. And this one day I saw an engineer. I tried fighting him several times, but could not best him. I decided that I’ll avoid him. And I was a rly happy mesmer