Guild Wars 2

nightmare chambers have a very high key rate from the end chest
1st floor chambers are blue keys, 2nd are green 3rd are pink. I usually get a key every 3rd or so chamber.

Bosses also have a very high key drop rate from the steel chests they leave behind. The warlock on the first floor gives me a key practically every time I do it. The spider and wurm are similar for green keys. Unfortunately there’s no champion for the third floor, but the third floor does have 3 chambers, 2 of which are absolute cake to reach.

I’ve opened the tri-chest at least 15 times now, and I dont spend a lot of time in the tower since finishing the meta-event.

I cant really speak for the NA/Euro mindset, because I dont play during that period.

But if I were to hazard a guess, they’re finally starting to realize that SoR isnt all that and a bag of chips. We have been constantly weak during a large time period. The dedication of the guilds and players who play during that time period have in the past enabled us to hang on.

During the first match of gold league, we in that period saw how completely vulnerable we were. Outmanned on every map, with JQ and BG battering down our doors. We held what we could, flipped back what we couldnt, and prayed for deliverance.

As far as I can tell, on the NA/Euro side, they come back and see that we’ve ticked low during that time period, but that neither BG nor JQ really made leaps and bounds in score, and so they falsely believed that things were ok.

However, during the past matchup and this one, BG has been using this time period where we are vulnerable to get ahead. And not always by taking our objectives mind you. Consider the 2 graphs between the BG/JQ/SoR matchup and the BG/TC/SoR matchup. SoR’s overall PPT doesnt really fluctuate much, during our weakest time period, 160-250 is the swing, and 200 is about average. Considering that “even” score is 220 (695 – 35 = 660/3 servers = 220) its not like we were doing horrific.
On the other hand, TC ticks 100, because they’re t2, and they cant even begin to match coverage. Hell, our weakest timezone, and we still had more players than they did.

What does this mean? it means BG wins in PPT because they can afford to go take undefended T2 objectives during a period where we cant always afford to engage them. It’s a great strategy, and it shows that they’re fully aware of how to make use of their numbers. They saw the time period where SOR was weakest and said “well lets push harder at that point” it’s literal textbook warfare.

I think in the past, SoR has had a sort of overinflated ego, or if no ego, an overinflated sense of strength. I feel as though the NA/Euro teams really didnt understand the situation that the late na/early oceanic deal with. And of course when you fight JQ/BG this weakness isnt expressed as much, or was neatly hidden under the rug of “oh we’re losing ppt there because of 2v1”

so the first matchup was really a wakeup call. Or should have been. It should have been the point where SoR goes “look, we know BG will tick highly during these times. We know it’s gonna be an uphill battle to maintain a lead, but we’re going to fight them anyway.” Unfortunately, it seems that A lot of SoR players dont really know why BG ticked highly during those periods. Even my own guildies ask things like “Have guilds given up?” And they become incredibly discouraged. Because to them, that’s the only thing that makes sense.

So yes, SoR has been become discouraged. But in my mind they’re becoming discouraged for all the wrong reasons. Find someone from BG who plays during that late NA/Early oceanic, ask them about how weak SoR has been, and if they talk honestly, they’ll tell you about the times that they’ve had to call as many people as they could to go defend garrison, how they would have to port supply in from other maps to build 9 arrow carts inbetween attacks. And they’ll also tell you, that despite being pushed into their garri, and defending it with all their strength, that they were still ticking 400 because they owned BGBLBay, and SoSGarri, and SoRBL Hills.

The NA/Euro teams need to understand that our PPT performance literally doesnt matter at all. At all. SoR needs to stop being discouraged by issues that dont matter, and the NA/Euro groups need to get back in there and fight. I was told we had 4queue’s for 8+ hours most days, and now we dont. So at least somebody has given up, and I dont really understand why. We’re the smallest T1 server. SO what. We dont have the coverage to win the matchup? Ok. Win fights anyway. Have fun. Get some loot bags. If SoR is to be the #3 of the T1 servers, that’s not a mark of shame.

Oh and, regarding ZD, and not to discredit anything they have done, but, honestly? BG was already gaining back on SoR long before the russians stormed our BL. They have had some impact sure, but they’re not the main reason we were losing PPT wise.

disconnecting after having been sitting in queue for half an hour, ah reset.

Good luck to all 3 servers.

Nickthemoonwolf.1485:

“BG can hold stuff on TCBL because TC has no one there” Go to TCBL durring NA prime and TRY telling me that we arent trying to defend. Theres a 4 hour period where we actually have the strongest force on the map every day.
If you’re going to point fingers, point them at yourself first. Yesterday we flipped a hills that had mortars finished (we broke the gates, and let SOR cap it) and then flipped bay later that night with the same upgrade status, AND defended garrison from the Choo blob.

if you are talking about my post, please read it a little more closely at the start. Im talking about the late NA/Early oceanic time period.
I do wvwvw for 8 hours a day, multiple days a week, and I get to see every map because there’s 0 queue’s for any of them. TC does not have people during that time period. That’s not a flaw, no one expects T2 servers to be running zergs on every map during that time period, hell, SoR doesnt run a zerg on every map during that time period, it’s part of the reason we were losing PPT.

I meant no offense to TC at all, or your NA crews,

Butter.3024:

Wait so SoR lost because of OCX or EU?

Dont listen to anyone who tells you any time zone that isnt late NA/Early oceanic.

BG caught up in PPT during the 8 hours than SoR sits outmanned on 3 maps. Whether through coverage or dedication (I know at least 1 BG guild was pulling some overtime, shoutout to NOC in particular on that one, I definitely saw you guys out and about before your usual time)

Additionally TC, being a non T1 server, meant they couldnt show up at all, even on their own BL, there were simply no numbers.

So for an 8 hour period, you have maybe 50 organized SoR for 3 maps, and then whatever PuG’s have filtered into EB. To fight against the 40+ man zergs BG has on every map. And they do, and the fights are great. But at the same time, BG can flip and then hold onto TC’s stuff because TC has no one there. So even if SoR maintained a respectable 200ppt, BG was sitting there with their 350-400ppt. Hilariously, even during the same time period of the first match, although SoR’s PPT was on average lower, neither side saw such leaps and bounds in PPT, because they couldnt really take and hold each others stuff.

the biggest impact I saw ZD have was the flip of SoR garri post update. SoR was queue’d before the patch. Where those people went I have no idea. Meanwhile BG hung around to defend their garri from the group we organized to go take it. After that it was pretty much a downhill spiral. We peaked later that day, but since then it’s just been pretty abysmal.

But the main times that BG used to catch up were late NA/Early oceanic. ZD definitely did work on SoRBL, perhaps you could call it the straw that broke the camels back, but it was the 2days before they transferred in, that saw BG gain back on SoR.

if SoR wants to win the next few matches, they will either need
1. A new guild for that time period
or
2. Groups of people to run during that time period instead of their current
or
3. A massive push during not only the weekend, but the entire week, knowing full well that they will lose ppt overnight, and must ensure a stronger lead so it doesnt slip

Asudementio.8526:

Krashner.6275:

Keiel.7489:

Feydra.6318:

To be honest BG and SoR, you both have great organiced guilds, but both of you tuck tail and run, seriously, time and time again i see militia from TC run in bad odds, getting slougthered, they reform and try again, the moment we get numbers, both of you run, so yea, shut up and start dying !… This said your both better then us, so thanks for the great fights !

We don’t usually run from fights, if we do it’s to disengage and defend an objective. I know defending is still a new concept for some of the lower tiers so I won’t hold it against you for not knowing.

It amazes me how few people understand this. No, our 100 man zerg is not running from your 5 man party, you’re just not worth killing currently.

Cool so SoR players should stop telling others not to run; i think we’re done here.

The difference is that typically speaking. If you’re running from the SoR blob, it’s not to go defend something, because the SoR blob is what would be taking thing.

I mean, isnt that the argument you guys use: “SoR only runs 1 big map blob zerg”
Well, if that’s all we have, you’re obviously not pulling back to defend, because there’s no SoR split groups ninja’ing anything. :p

Gilgamesh.7364:

Xenesis.6389:

Thursday 7:30 am est.

SoR :\

That’s pretty sad considering SoR had PPT lead during this same time a few weeks back…

Given that 7:30am est means we have a single bounce group and maaaaybe one commander on our own BL, we usually dont tick the highest.

Unfortunately given the… imma use the word “lackluster” here, performance from the NA/EU people, I think the late night crew pretty much stopped. Every night we fought multiple zergs on multiple BL’s in order to keep our ppt as high as we could so that the day crews wouldnt be starting from such a kittenty position.

But when you wake up and find yourself at 90ppt, despite coming off of what should have been one of the strongest times, the thought of having to deal with retaking things on 4 maps, things that are most likely sieged to hell and back, with a group that’s primarily used for defense? It’s more than a tad discouraging.

SleepingDragon.1596:

Krakah.3582:

Butter.3024:

Anyone knows when is NA prime time? SEA prime time? EU prime time?

Prime time is considered 7pm in the desired time zone.

Reference:
NA East – 4pm server time
NA Central – 5pm server time
NA Mountain – 6pm server time
NA Pacific – 7pm server time
OCE – 11pm server time (using NZ as start)
SEA – 4am server time
EU – 10am server time

Based on this info, I can say JQ’s weak spots are OCE and EU.
OCE: BG outblobs JQ that outblobs SOR
EU: BG outblobs SOR that oublobs JQ or BG outblobs SOR&JQ combined
SEA: JQ outblobs BG that outblobs SOR
NA: Typically it’s SOR that outblobs BG that outblobs JQ. Recently it’s “Achievement Chasers” outblobs all 3 servers combined.

1 small change to the “NA” timezone.
primetime for EST NA, SoR does fine.
primetime for PST NA, SoR is outmanned on 2bl’s.

the late NA early Oceanic is easily SoR’s worst time.

the SoR ppt is a combination of a couple of factors, and im really not sure it’s going to get better.

The patch hit us while we were in mid fight for BG garri. Post patch BG managed to get their force back in before we could take it, and our commander who had been there covering 3 outmanned maps for 8 hours finally decided he needed rest for tonight.

Meanwhile on our home BL which had up until this point been queue’d by Rai, and whatever PuG’s were there, got no defenders at all, and so BG took it (no idea where the defense was on this one.)

Now the crews that have woken up took one look at the maps and went “eh whatever, living story time.”

Id be surprised if our late NA/Early oceanic group actually manages to get anything accomplished tonight. It’s moderately discouraging to end the night on a failure to cap, it’s incredibly discouraging to wake up to an awful PPT that is actually a degradation from what should be SoR’s weakest time.

DKNS.2135:

3 days ago, we were not fighting enough. Now we are over-stacked and over-timing. God kitten it, make up your mind, SOR.

P.S. To the people surprised about BG covering up the gap, i have noticed that BG always takes the weekend off or lightly. It’s a good strategy though, taking a couple of days off every week.

Well yeah.

CONSIDER:
during the weekend, reset nights, ETC all that good kitten.
The time when every server has 4queue’d around the clock.
SoR pulls ahead.
So when every server is exactly equal in terms of players on the field. SoR is winning. Thus BG was “not fighting hard enough”.

Now, during the weekday, when SoR runs outmanned in 2+ BL’s for 8 hours, BG holds high PPT ticks. During the times SoR does 4queue the maps, there is still a large BG force on the map, who now has a large base to work with to defend. In essence, we can now clearly see that BG has more players, and/or more players willing to put in the overtime.

Here’s a quick snapshot of how the maps are for SoR right now

6:46am EST
EB: No queue, no commander (though there is one on teamspeak who is there, just not pinned up)
6:47am EST
SoR: Queue, Commander on map: Rai (This is actually non-normal. Rai was taking a break last night at this time IIRC. And there was no queue last night. Im glad to see more people putting in work during this time period) group he’s running with: 35 people if teamspeak is an indication.
6:48am EST
TCbl: No queue (outmanned) Commander on map: none
6:49am EST
BGbl No queue (outmanned) Commander on map: none

Bounce group: 50 people (more than we had last night)
The bounce group, “bounces” between where they are needed. Which is to say that they are currently moving between EB, BG, and TC.
Given that we become outmanned on any location they arent, we can assume that at least 1 server has a reasonable sized zerg 30+ on every map.

This sort of population numbers in WvW has most likely been there for the past 4-6 hours (admittedly I wasnt there)
And usually persists until about 8am my time, in which SAHP gets going. And then about 10am we’re back to queuing multiple maps with commanders on all of them.

Simply put, BG has more people during these times. Either through a larger population, or higher dedication, cant really be said. But as the commanders in the bounce group are fond of saying: “Look, if BG wins because they beat us at this time, then it’s because they wanted this win more, if they’re willing to put in the overtime when we’re not, then that’s our fault. We’re gonna do our best, try our hardest, and if we lose, then we obviously SoR didnt want it as hard as BG did.”

Quite frankly, as someone who plays primarily during this time. If SoR wants to pull the win, we either need more late NA/early oceanic players. Or those which we already have need to be pulling the required overtime. That or, absolutely poop on kids during the first weekend, and pray that we can keep their ppt low enough during the nights that they dont close the gap over the 7 day week. Whatever they decide I guess.
As for me, ill be enjoying t1 at its finest, no queue’s, and not 1, not 2, but 3 maps to find fights on. We bounce from fight to fight to fight, knowing that any fight we lose means a keep gets lost, it’s intense, it’s not that laggy, and above all else, it’s fun.

Nikola.3841:

Shifty.4985:

Nikola.3841:

Starscream.7803:

Loving the BG tactics at the moment. Hitting a keep, but as soon as our force starts to move towards you, you all jump out and run away even though we are half a map away. You spy is doing your proud, but I cant wait for you guys to complain about PvD when its all you have the balls to do.

Its called “sending thief to scout”, you should try it sometimes. I know that you guys are afraid to move a step away from your blob, but I’m sure you could ask some thief from other guilds on your server

LOL give your thief some maths lessons then because why run when we are 1/2 the size?

and dude, you never seen my fat norn scouting you? :o
its like a troll to you guys when anything but a thief scouts

Since you do nothing but map blob, by definition we can have equal numbers as you at best

Considering your post is at 8:03AM, when SoR is outmanned on 2 BL’s, and has for the past 6 hours been bouncing a single group of 20-30 between 3 different maps desperately trying to hold, while BG has been calmly sitting with multiple 40+ man zergs on every map… I can safely say that you have more numbers.

People have this weird notion that SoR is map queues on every map 24/7
SoR runs outmanned on 2-3 maps for about 8+ hours a day during the weekdays.

As Zaxares said, there is a very brief period of time when pillars activate (light flashes in the room) and the floor goes off.

During this time you can easily make it from the doorway to the first pillar. Have somebody do the first pillar, as and they’re reaching it, you make a break for it.

NargofWoV.4267:

Vendella.5297:

I’m not sure why there is so much hate for JQ. We bust our kitten everyday. Some commanders stay pinned up for 14 to 18 hours. That’s called dedication, not an easy schedule.

I would argue, the benefit of coming into the season as the #1 server gave us the better schedule, which is generally the benefit of being a #1 seed in any Tournament. Usually #2 v #3 is in the cards before one of them meets the #1 seed in any kind of finally, upsets aside.

Edit: Thing is, we don’t know how the season will pan out, and Butter is just being boastful in his feelings that SoR or BG will come out on top.

And how did JQ get to #1? Oh, right, anets matchmaking system put SoR into a matchup that they were essentially forced to lose rank from right before gold league.

If the #1 seed is meant to have the easier schedule, then the #1 seed position should be gained through effort. Not because the previous #1 server hemorrhages 10 rank points even though they dominated their matchup.

If the gold league matchups were determined by server ranking, then the final matchup before gold league should have definitely been based on current server rankings (with #1 facing #2 and #3, not #8 and #5)

You can argue that the #1 server should have an easier week because that’s how other tournies work. But it’s still an unfair system, because that placement, wasn’t determined by overall server strength.

gebrechen.5643:

The only thing you may fear about SoR is when the whole map blob is hiding behind ac in the open field and coming to the forum and tell everyone is afraid of them.

And something to think about. The winner of this week will be called most stacked server NA. Deal with it!

But the other servers are more stacked.
People who dont think SoR has the least players are those who dont play during late na/oceanic. There’s a good 8 hour period where we’re outmanned in 3+ maps. There’s a single 50 man group that literally just bounces between all 4 maps wiping zergs as they try to take our keeps.

Im sure the experiences of the NA and EU primetime people are different, what with the queue’s and everything. But late NA/Early oceanic is an absolute dead-zone for SoR. Meanwhile JQ and BG have 30-40 man zergs on every map. (Or at the very least 2-3 maps, usually EB, their borderlands, and our borderlands.)

Vayne.8563:

Zenyatoo.4059:

Greedy? Christ. Where did this movement of accepting everything a company does come from. I swear it wasnt like this 15 years ago.

You want the truth? Games been out for an entire year. lets compare the god kitten score for a second.

Guild wars:
1 year

Free content:
Sorrows furnace – Entire new rarity of items, large amount of bosses from every profession, bunch of new quests, and one hell of a crazy bossfight (forgeman)

Expansion content:
2 new professions
1 new weapon type
something like 200 new skills, 90 of which were elites
13 new story missions, 5 new other missions (elite/challenge)
3 new types of pvp
2 new faction types (which meant a way for guilds to own towns, also a new thing)
something like 70 new zones filled with completely new monsters we’d never seen before using new skills we’d never seen before
More weapon skins than you could shake a stick at.

guild wars 2
Permanent content:
1 new dungeon path that removed an older path
1 boss has been revamped
new weapon skins that require gems
1 new zone
Fractals
1 new rarity
4 “activities”

Removed content:
a bunch of quest chains
a dungeon (molten factory)
a couple mission type instances

Factions added far more content than we’ve gotten so far, in the same timespan, and it STUCK AROUND. it wasnt removed a month later.

We havent become greedy at all. Our standards are the exact same. It’s Anet itself who has changed the amount of content that they produce.

Yep, let’s compare. The content total of Guild Wars: Prophecies and Factions together, is not as much content as Guild Wars 2 AT LAUNCH.

Maybe you don’t realize it, but I sure do. Prophecies had under 300 quests and 25 missions, a couple of elite areas. It’s lovely they added stuff to that game, because it needed.

People finished Factions in a week. A WEEK!. It only had 13 missions.

Maybe your concept of content is different from mine, but this game has far FAR more content than Guild Wars 1 had even after the release of Nightfall.

Guild wars 2 was worked on for something like 5 years. If it didnt have 5 times as much content compared to Nightfall It would have been embarrassing.

As for “finishing” factions in a week. most people finish the living story updates in a day.

Galen Grey.4709:

Zenyatoo.4059:

Greedy? Christ. Where did this movement of accepting everything a company does come from. I swear it wasnt like this 15 years ago.

You want the truth? Games been out for an entire year. lets compare the god kitten score for a second.

snip…

your count for gw2 is off by an AU

theres the full list here:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Release/Features

No it really isnt.
Well over half the stuff on that page isnt in game anymore. Also you can discount the holiday stuff because gw1 did something similar, those contents are specifically allowed to vanish after a month because that’s how holidays work, it’s why I didnt list them for either game.

Compare to
http://guildwiki.gamepedia.com/Factions

All of which is still ingame, never went away,

gebrechen.5643:

I saw SoR Sea ticking +270 most of the time today.

What time period do we consider Sea?
Im always a little confused on exactly what time period people mean when they use things like Sea and Oceanic.

Greedy? Christ. Where did this movement of accepting everything a company does come from. I swear it wasnt like this 15 years ago.

You want the truth? Games been out for an entire year. lets compare the god kitten score for a second.

Guild wars:
1 year

Free content:
Sorrows furnace – Entire new rarity of items, large amount of bosses from every profession, bunch of new quests, and one hell of a crazy bossfight (forgeman)

Expansion content:
2 new professions
1 new weapon type
something like 200 new skills, 90 of which were elites
13 new story missions, 5 new other missions (elite/challenge)
3 new types of pvp
2 new faction types (which meant a way for guilds to own towns, also a new thing)
something like 70 new zones filled with completely new monsters we’d never seen before using new skills we’d never seen before
More weapon skins than you could shake a stick at.

guild wars 2
Permanent content:
1 new dungeon path that removed an older path
1 boss has been revamped
new weapon skins that require gems
1 new zone
Fractals
1 new rarity
4 “activities”

Removed content:
a bunch of quest chains
a dungeon (molten factory)
a couple mission type instances

Factions added far more content than we’ve gotten so far, in the same timespan, and it STUCK AROUND. it wasnt removed a month later.

We havent become greedy at all. Our standards are the exact same. It’s Anet itself who has changed the amount of content that they produce.

thefreezingvoid.8516:

It only makes sense to 2v1 BG as JQ, its almost impossible to work with BG, the instance you go after SoR’s stuff they go after yours. At least SoR can take a hint, and will go after BG’s stuff when JQ attacks BG’s stuff.

BG seem to be stuck in perma, “LETS GO AFTER JQ” mode.

So even though it may be better for JQ to let BG have to the win, that isn’t possible while BG is intent on ruining any cooperation.

So go-go SoR
…..

That said, I dont think JQ is totally down an out for this match, sure we’re behind, but its not a blow out yet. Their still is time for us to turn it around, but ya, time is running shorter and shorter.

BG have gone for SoR before.

As someone who usually hangs out on JQBL this week, ive seen plenty of 2v1’s. And they’re all been essentially “random” in who was who.

Our commanders on SoR pick a target, and then they go for that target and hope the 2v1 falls in our favor. For example, an SoR commander wants to flip North west tower because it’s t3 and he wants to make it paper. We’ll move up that way, wait for orange swords to be somewhere that isnt near us, and then rush up and hit it.

On the flipside, that same commander a few hours later will decide that “kitten bg, theyve had that keep too long, we’re hitting hills, lets go” and we hope that JQ hits something of BG’s at the same time.

We’re always prepared to back off and defend our own stuff if we can, and often times we have had to. Hell, even during certain fights, we’ve had to pull off and wrap around because a BG blob came at us from the backside.

A lot of the 2v1 situations are based not on overall score, but the defenses of the towers, and their ability to be captured. T3 towers still flip semi-easily, and flipping them destroys a large advantage of the enemy. T1 keeps are flipped as often as we can do it, because keeping the opponents stronghold un-waypointed is powerful. These strategies are used against both enemy servers constantly, regardless of borderlands.

You also have to consider the optimal strategies for all servers involved. Say SoR takes NW tower and starts to treb JQ garri. BG has a couple of options, they could head to bluebriar and try to take that. Or head north to NE tower and try to take that. Both are t3, both are spawn towers. The only difference is what the servers stand to lose if they go defend it. SoR would lose NW tower, a paper tower far out of their territory if they retreat to defend. JQ on the other hand would lose a keep, possibly a T3 keep, the one in the middle of their territory. It is thus less likely for JQ to come stop BG at that point in time. So BG goes to flip that NE tower, because it’s the smartest play for them.

It’s hilariously easy to engineer a 2v1 situation on an enemy borderlands, simply attack their garrison, and 9 times out of 10 the other server on the map will go flip something of theirs. It’s how the map is designed.

Ghoulina.2976:

Zenyatoo.4059:

Ghoulina.2976:

LostBalloon.6423:

I never believe to ever say that after the weeks of rivalry with BG starting all the way from the lower tiers, but, props and respect for calling out against your own hackers.

Unlike JQ currently trying to accuse its competition of hacking (on a known issue caused by server lag) when they take the portals laid by hacking mesmers.

Well, I could post things like this thief from October the 8th at 10:59pm EST who was also with a mesmer friend portaling people into the walls of SM, from SoR. Not pointing fingers or anything.

We all have dumb dumbs that do dumb things. Report them and move on. Not like anet does anything about anything. They never have (unless it was a mistake on their own end then they ban over 1000 accounts).

As someone who was there with that thief on teamspeak. He got stuck in the wall, and he couldnt port out because you guys kept putting him into combat. There was no mesmer involved in that situation, and any ports were done by mesmers who had gotten inside during any of the numerous flips SMC went through that they.

There was a a mesmer, it as an uplevel human female with the level 40ish karma gear skin (the skull and horns helm), different guild though, and there was lots of time while we were trying to figure out how to get to him (a group of us were there for a good hour) for him to get out of combat. So sure, he got “stuck” there.

You see how that sounds?

I’ve been glitched through gates due to lag (only twice since pre-launch) and had a friend get stuck underground once. Only time I’ve seen people stuck in walls is from repairs/troll mes portals. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but the reality of someone getting “stuck” in an interior wall in SMC and staying there for ages is unlikely, not utterly impossible, just unlikely.

“So sure, he got “stuck” there. "
Thieves have a shadowstep, smc was flipping constantly, and there were 3 way lagfests going on inside. The idea that someone would get stuck in there isnt far-fetched at all.

Also you can see the damage he has on him because YOU guys kept hitting him. He got stuck, and despite his best efforts it was YOU who kept him there. Not him.

You say its unlikely, but which seems more likely.
A hacker, chooses thief instead of mesmer. Goes inside a wall rather than under the map, and sits there for a half hour while tons of people can look at him, rather than do anything with his hacks. OR, during an incredibly laggy smc flip, a thief got stuck in a wall, and couldnt port out because the enemy server kept putting him into combat?

Ghoulina.2976:

LostBalloon.6423:

I never believe to ever say that after the weeks of rivalry with BG starting all the way from the lower tiers, but, props and respect for calling out against your own hackers.

Unlike JQ currently trying to accuse its competition of hacking (on a known issue caused by server lag) when they take the portals laid by hacking mesmers.

Well, I could post things like this thief from October the 8th at 10:59pm EST who was also with a mesmer friend portaling people into the walls of SM, from SoR. Not pointing fingers or anything.

We all have dumb dumbs that do dumb things. Report them and move on. Not like anet does anything about anything. They never have (unless it was a mistake on their own end then they ban over 1000 accounts).

As someone who was there with that thief on teamspeak. He got stuck in the wall, and he couldnt port out because you guys kept putting him into combat. There was no mesmer involved in that situation, and any ports were done by mesmers who had gotten inside during any of the numerous flips SMC went through that day.

sostronk.8167:

Nice guide. The demolition one looks like it might be difficult to take, even for some dedicated WvWers as it depends on what roll you play in your guild. 250 yaks might take a while also. Although for a dedicated havoc player, 1k yaks in a week is achievable (Ill probably be finished this one in the next 24hours because my commander asked me to roam and farm yaks). I also completed the 450 kills on reset which I did by going to EB as the map cap is higher in there so you generally get more kills.

Of all of these I think its a little funny, but I actually look at the jumping puzzles as the hardest ones to complete I mean, everything else I will complete by just playing the game, but the JPs I don’t do at all.

Yes, demo probably has the largest variance in terms of doability. If you dont have ram mastery, or dont ever get to hold the treb it might as well be impossible. Meanwhile players like myself who always grab them rams will have it done before weeks end. I think Anet might want to consider changing it so that 1. it counts just hitting gates with melee weapons and then 2. upping the number required. Just so it isnt so exclusionary.

Andrew.4506:

Demolition expert requires you to be on siege and for that siege to have damaged the gate/wall when it breaks.

Aha, I suspected as much when I saw I only had 8 rather than the 25+ I was expecting.
In which case I suppose it is one of the harder achievements to get unless you hog siege with that tier 5 mastery like I do.

Thanks for the confirmation.

FINAL NOTES:
If you find any errors in the guide, please do not hesitate to let me know. If you would like to make suggestions about the achievements and their acquisition of, or even just share your own experiences, please feel free. This guide is based on my experiences in T1 gold league, mostly on the borderlands maps. I know other servers, other tiers, and other maps can all be vastly different, and it is nice to have an idea of how hard/easy things are elsewhere

Finally, for the PvE players, and all the other newer WvW players. If you are ever in any concern on what to do, ask your map chat! There are plenty of WvW players out there ready and willing to help new people. If your server has a teamspeak, vent, raidcall, or some other program that they use, find out what it is and hop on it! the WvW environment may seem daunting at first, but it’s probably one of most fun in the game.

So get out there, help your server, get your achievements, and most importantly, have fun doing it!

15. No tower too high
Speed: slow
Difficulty: hard
Credit to team: Moderate
Suggested location: Eternal Battle Grounds, with a commander

This achievement requires you to take 30 enemy towers. I list this achievement last on the list of 15 because to me, this is one of the slowest achievements. Towers on borderlands are often very heavily defended. They are close to enemy spawns, close to enemy supply camps, and very hard to take in a lot of cases. You also must take 30 of them, which is not a small number. I personally have seen more keeps flip than towers so far in my league. However, this is for the borderland maps. I have yet to try EBG (those queue times get me down) but EBG has 1. more towers and 2. towers further from enemy spawns, which would lend them to being flipped more often. You will still probably get this achievement over the course of a season, but dont be surprised if it takes you longer than you might expect.

The final achievements are in my opinion the longest and thus worst achievements to be going for. This does not mean you cannot strive for them, or should avoid doing these tasks, however, you are probably better off aiming for the other achievements first.

16. Camp crusher
Speed: Very slow
Difficulty: low
Credit to team: Moderate
Suggested location: Your home borderlands

You must capture 100 camps. Camps are defended by NPC’s, which can easily be solo’d. Enemy players will be your biggest threat. This achievement is not difficult, but it is long. You may find it easier to join up with a roam or havoc group, rather than follow the main zerg if you wish to complete this. While you will also probably get this over the course of a season, you probably should never specifically try for this in a way that would hurt your team (for example, if a commander has asked everyone to come to a garrison to help defend, dont go flip a camp on the farside of the map, your commander needs you!)

17. Sentry capper extraordinaire
Speed: very slow
Difficulty: easy
Credit to team: very little
Suggested location: your home borderlands

Capture 225 sentries. This achievement is going to be a long one. Sentries are few and far between. They’re not difficult to take as long as no enemy players come to bother you, but their location makes this achievement hard to specifically strive for, and the sheer amount required is daunting. If you must get this, go to your home borderlands, there are 4 sentries near your main garrison (1 on either side near the towers, and 1 on either side on the paths to the camps) they’re nearby, and constantly changing hands when enemy zergs go along these paths.

18. Supplies severed
Speed: very slow
Difficulty: medium/hard
Credit to team: moderate/high
Suggested location: A borderlands

This achievement requires you killing 225 dolyaks. Dolyaks leave supply camps and travel to towers and keeps to bring them supply. Because this supply is needed for upgrades, the yaks are considered incredibly vital for the success of a server. This means yaks can be either completely undefended, or under heavy escort. Try to find yaks in camps that are not moving (and thus wont really be defended) or yaks going to towers/keeps that are already fully ugpraded (and thus probably wont be defended)
The 225 requirement is rather steep, expect this to take a a long time. However, killing high priority yaks (those bringing supply to keeps that are upgrading or under siege) is immensely helpful to your team.

19. Mist merc camp vanquisher
Speed: very slow
Difficulty: low
Credit to team: low

The mist merc camp vanquisher requires you to take 50 mercenary camps on EBG. Given that there are 3 of these camps, and you must lose one to be able to retake it this can be quite a slow process. Additionally, enemy players or zergs may frequently try to stop you. Your best bet is to stick with a commander on EBG, and hope that the commander passes through these area’s such that you may tag them. Or create a roaming group dedicated to keeping the ones near your side under your control.
I would not suggest ever specifically seeking out this achievement. There are 18 other achievements that are all much easier and in my opinion either faster, or more helpful to your team than this one.

Just a note:
before we cover the last 9 achievements, understand that these achievements are in my mind the slowest of the bunch. Generally speaking, I would not advise going for any of these first. However, your experiences on your maps may be very different to mine, keep in mind how you obtain them, and whether or not it fits what you can and cannot do easily.

11. Seasonal mists defense restorer
Speed: medium/slow
Difficulty: trivial
Credit to team: Moderate/heavy
Suggested location: While scouting

Defense restorer requires you to use 500 supply on repairs. Repairs are done to gates and walls that have taken damage or are destroyed. The difficulty of these achievement comes from the idea that if a gate or wall is destroyed, the tower or keep may become the enemies before you have a chance to repair it. Depending on how your matchup is progressing, this may be one of the hardest achievements.

My best advice for this is to take a scout position when a commander calls for it. Keep supply on you at all times. If you are lucky, you may find an enemy zerg comes to the place you are scouting, giving you a repair chance. Additionally, if an enemy “taps” a gate, by having a small group (or single player) hit it once, you can repair that for credit as well. Consider putting points into repair mastery. The achievement counts how much supply you use, not how much damage you repair. For example, if a gate is hit once by an enemy thief, someone with no repair mastery will only be able to receive 2 towards the achievement, but someone with maxed repair mastery will be able to receive 10 towards the achievement, despite them repairing the same amount of gate hp.

12. Demolition expert
Speed: medium
Difficulty: medium
Credit to team: high
Suggested location: With a commander in a zerg Or scouting in EBG

Im afraid this is the one achievement I dont know a lot about. You must break 30 gates or walls to obtain it. However I do not know whether or not you must be using siege, or whether you may simply hit a gate a few times with a melee weapon to receive credit. If you must use siege, this achievement becomes much much harder. If you may simply smack a gate to get credit towards its destruction, this achievement becomes trivial, completed by the time you have captured 10 keeps and 5 SMC’s.

Again, consider taking a scout position, and ask a commander to give you a treb facing an enemy tower or keep that is within range. You can scout for your team, destroy walls or gates, and help secure objectives for your team all in one. My suggested spots for this would be WC, QL and Red Garri on EBG, all of these places require scouts, and can hit walls/gates of SMC with trebs.

13. Master of Ruins
Speed: Medium
Difficulty: varies
Credit to team: Moderate
Suggested location: An enemy borderlands

The master of ruins achievement requires you to capture 50 ruins (found in the center of the borderlands maps) This in of itself is quite easy. The difficulty will be from the enemies who are looking to do the same. Generally speaking, this will be done quite quickly and easily. But I would not suggest you specifically seek it out, which is why it is #13 on our list. Simply follow a commander, and go cap the ruins if the commanders asks the zerg to do so. Youll have the achievement easily enough without making a conscious effort. Simply roaming the ruins to constantly flip them without a consistent effort to take them (or without a reason to take them) has a negative impact on your team.

14. World Ranker
Speed: Slow
Difficulty: medium
Credit to team: Not Applicable

World ranker requires you to gain 50 WvW ranks. Ranks are gained from wxp, which is gained from doing a large variety of tasks inside WvW. The difficulty of this achievement comes from the length of time required, rather than the innate difficulty of getting wxp. This task will be mostly done by the time you complete the others. However some specific advice would be:
1. Use birthday or other wvw boosters when you know that they will be effective (as you storm a keep or SMC for example)
2. WvW ranks do not start at 5000wxp required. If you have multiple characters, you can quickly gain more ranks than normal by getting them all up to this 5k required amount (note: please do not use non level 80 characters if you can avoid it. Upscaled characters are quite weak, and you simply help the enemy when you use them)
3. Keep in mind you may buy 1 WvW rank for 2 laurels at laurel vendors. If you have lots of laurels but no ranks, this is an option

(sorry that the 15th one has to be at the start of the next post rather than on this one. 5000 word limits!)

ACHIEVEMENT OBTAINING:
The achievements are listed in the order that I suggest you attempt to acquire them. Some of them you will obtain while doing the others, and I will try to note this whenever I can.

1. Emerald leaper in the mists
2. Garnet leaper in the mists
3. Sapphire leaper in the mists

Speed: Fastest
Difficulty: Easy
Credit to Team: 0 or even negative

These 3 achievements require you to finish the jump puzzles located on each borderlands. See: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mistwrought_Vault for more information on this.
The achievements can all be done very quickly, and relatively easily depending on how many enemy players you meet. However, there is no reason for you to be in that jump puzzle, and taking up a slot on a borderlands to be so far away from your team is the opposite of helpful. They are however still pretty quick, get in, get out, do the achievement, and make up for it by helping out

4. Obsidian leaper in the mists
Speed: Fast
Difficulty: Varies
Credit to team: 0 or negative

Obsidian leaper requires you to finish the jump puzzle in Eternal Battle Grounds. See: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Obsidian_Sanctum for more information.
This jump puzzle is longer, more likely to be filled with enemies, and slightly more difficult to finish. It’s still quite fast for a skilled player, but a first time through may be frustrating. Again, there is no objectives here for you, so you will not be helping your team.

5. Big spender
Speed: Varies (usually fast)
Difficulty: none (Potentially hard)
Credit to team: Not applicable

Big spender requires you to spend 250 badges of honor. This is literally the fastest achievement, completable in a single click. However, you need 250 badges to do it. If you don’t have 250 badges, well, it might take you a bit longer. If you do have 250 badges, from wvw, achievement chests, or some other source, simply buy anything you want from the badge vendors, until the achievement finishes.

6. Mist invasion defender
7. Advanced mist invasion defender
Speed: Varies
Difficulty: Easy
Credit to team: A lot
Suggested place to be: On top of a commander in a zerg

These achievements require you to kill 10, and 450 enemies in wvw. Depending on your server, and how good at WvW your server is, this can be trivial, completed in a single day, or painstaking, completed over the course of months. However, because of the nature of this achievement, you can and will be helping your team out whenever you try to obtain it. Stick with a commander, follow his instructions during fights, and youll have this before you know it.

8. The keep is the thing
Speed: fast
Difficulty: medium
Credit to team: Tons
Suggested location: Your home borderlands

Im sure this one being so far up the list surprises a few people. However, keeps flip a lot more than people might expect. Especially on the borderlands. Borderland maps are designed to cause a 2v1 situation against the home team. With both enemy teams pushing north to that garrison. On a heated night, the defending teams garrison might change hands 10+ times. As the achievement only requires 10 captures, this can be done very quickly, and on a home borderlands, with relative ease. Keep in mind, this only applies if your team is unable to fully hold your own garrison. If your team is exceptionally good, you may find it easier to be on a different map, capturing enemy garrisons.

9. Castles in the Air
Speed: Fast
Difficulty: medium
Credit to team: Tons
Suggested location: No prizes for guessing EBG

Again, like keep flipping, SMC changes hands quite a bit depending on matchup. Additionally, you only need 5 captures, making this one of the fastest achievements (well, assuming your EBG queues aren’t horrendous)

10. Guard slayer
Speed: Medium
Difficulty: trivial
Credit to Team: Slight
Suggested location: everywhere, but mostly with a commander in a zerg

Guard slayer requires you to kill 500 guards. This is quite a lot! However, given that guards are found practically everywhere, you will easily rack up a large portion of these, simply by fulfilling your other objectives. Its slower than the achievements before it, but the difficulty is practically non-existent, and you will most likely have it long before the season is over.

PREFACE:
I think this is the best place for this topic. If mods believe it would be better suited for another subsection, such as players helping players, feel free to move it there. I also apologize, that this will take up several posts. As there are massive walls of text.

INTRODUCTION:
Hello everyone. As im sure a lot of you know, season 1 started! And with it came a lot of achievements, and a lot of new faces from the PvE’rs looking to obtain them. Because of this, I decided i’d just type up this quick guide, to help you guys get your season keys asap, and maybe get you a little more up to speed on what you can do to help your server out.

The season key requires you to finish 15 achievements. However there are 19 possible achievements that count. This means that you dont actually have to do all of them. Thus I will be listing them in the order of easiest acquisition/completion. Please note, a majority of my experiences are with T1 matchups, having spent my year playing GW2 in a T1 server. Some achievements may seem easier or harder to you based on what league you are in, this is normal and to be expected! I’ll give explanations about why I think each achievement is easier/harder, so if you feel that it doesnt apply to you, that’s ok.

This guide also assumes that you have no idea how anything in WvW works, so first we’re just going to cover a few terms that will be used over the course of the guide. Feel free to skip this section

GLOSSARY:

Commander: Commanders are denoted by the blue pins that you can see on the map. Im sure you’ve seen them before. These players are there to lead your server to victory, and serve as an indicator of where your team usually is. Listen to their advice and follow their instructions!

Zerg: A large clustering of players. Generally speaking, anything over 15 players can be considered a zerg.

Scout: Scouting involves keeping a lookout for something. In most cases, a scout will be assigned a tower or keep. Their job is to stay there and warn the commanders if an enemy zerg shows up. Sometimes scouts are specifically assigned to find and keep tabs on the enemy zerg before they reach objectives. Scouts play a vital role in any WvW matchup

Blob: A blob is basically a zerg. Typically however it refers to a much larger than usual zerg. A map blob for instance, implies that the entire enemy team is in 1 place. Sometimes commanders will use blob to denote a group of players within a zerg. Such as “Hit that blob to our right.”

X up: X’ing up refers to putting an x in map chat, team chat, say chat, etc, when you intend to do the task that has been called for. For example, if a commander says, “I need a scout for south hills, can I get someone to x up in map chat” the person who puts an x in map chat, is then going to go scout hills. It’s a way for commanders to keep track of who is doing what job, and to not cause the zerg to seperate.

Bloodlust: Bloodlust refers to the buff “bloodlust” this buff gives your entire team additional stats, and points for finishing people with a finisher. Bloodlust is obtained by taking and then holding for 2 minutes at least 3 points in the center of a borderlands. After that, you must prevent any other team from holding 3 points for 2 minutes, but do not need to hold onto 3 points yourself.

Towers/Keeps/Camps: Your commanders and allies may refer to towers, keeps and camps by their initials, or by a shortened version of the name. Try to stay familiar with what things are called. Some examples are “Anz” “RQ” “WC” “MG” “QL” all of these are towers on Eternal Battle Grounds, and knowing exactly which tower is being referred too will be crucial to keeping track of the flow of battle.

That’s it for the glossary. Now onto the actual part you all care about.

Zeke Azul Falcon.5176:

what is that tom eof knowledge? what does it give? is it the same as skill? do you get traits?

gives 1 level.

you can also just jump over the gate. I know there’s an invisible wall, but if you jump to the side of the gate, there’s a small lip that you catch yourself on.

fishball.7204:

That SoSBL karma train <3

we go round and round and round and round

until some sor commander went for garri before the NE tower. You know who you are. You ruined it forever. foreeeeveeeer.

lawfan.7095:

The zerg on Borlis Pass can kill all 3 of the bosses with no problem. The Lich does take quite a while though. The Viscount died a good bit quicker than the Lich even though players in the zerg said he was harder to beat.

if the viscount died easier than the lich, you probably dont have a lot of zerkers in your zerg.

As it turns out, zerker gear is far an above the best for these boss fights. The viscount has a bajillion hp, and his damage is enough to 2 shot you regardless of your gear, so you might as well zerk it. The horror again will 2 shot you, so zerk zerk zerk. And zerker gear is a direct counter to the lich lifesteal, both in damage you deal, and in hp you have drained (the less hp you have, the less he can drain from your zerg)

The difference is that the viscount doesnt heal, thus even a full cleric/apothecary zerg would get him down eventually. Whereas the lich will constantly heal, so a lack of DPS spells doom.

Contiguous.1345:

Zenyatoo.4059:

as someone who got over 40 ranks today
something like 5 rares and 1 exotics. More rares than ive ever seen in my previous 100 ranks, and I had never seen an exotikittenil today.
Also I several times got badges, at one point at least 10 badges from the chest.
usually 20 silver or more whereas before id hover around 14-16s

Drops from them seem notably improved to me.

That makes no sense at all.

40 ranks at 5000 wxp per = 200,000 wxp = the equivalent of 200 Stonemist captures,
or 2,000 Veteran Supervisors killed or 100,000 Guards.

You claim to have done that in one day, yet your previous standing was only rank 100. Care to explain?

SoR
Karma
Train

With a birthday booster which I had been saving specifically for matchups like this.

I took a lengthy break from guild wars. Ive only been back for a month. We’ve had 4 matchups since then. This one, and the 3 before it. The previous one was a proper T1 matchup, and stuff does not flip as much. I also played a weird timezone, so im usually on an outmanned BL playing scout and escorting dolyaks, neither of which give wxp.

The one before that was us, Bg and TC. It wasnt a blowout, but I definitely got more ranks than the t1 matchup

But the first match that I came back to was on a thursday blowout, and the karma train was in full swing. I was only able to be there for 2 days, but I still pulled 40 ranks in it. I also realized that

1. this was an ordinary thing now because of the random matchups
and
2. the birthday boosters would be best used in a matchup like this
so I decided to stash them away in my bank and bide my time.

Then last night, the SoR karma train officially kicked into high gear. I threw on a birthday booster, strolled on down to EB, and sat at my computer for a good 10+ hours flipping things both on EB and the borderlands.
I also had a couple, not a lot, but a couple of the 1hr and 15 minute boosters, which I made sure to be using when we flipped keeps.

40 per guard, 4 guards per keep (2 per tower)
100 per yak
200 per sentry, 400 per camp
100 per gate
800 per tower
1600 per keep
400 for a couple of defense events

And that’s with just the birthday booster.
You usually flip 2 camps 4 towers 1 keep when you do the full side. Which is
800 + 400 + 3200 + 100 + 1600 not counting any guards, sentries or yaks. 6100exp.

Which means 33 full sides. It can take 10-20 minutes to flip a full side (about a minute per gate, and camp) thats 11 hours, which is about how long I played yesterday.

And that’s not counting guards, yaks, sentries, my other boosters, or the players we killed along the way.

Werat.7063:

Zenyatoo.4059:

T1 trolling tactics: A brief guide
step 1. Give a server that doesnt want to be given gold league get gold league
step 2. Push a server out of gold who does want to be in gold
step 3. Constantly chase down and eradicate one server until they give up
step 4. ?
step 5. Profit!

I doubt that.
first: you cant controll your pugs; they will flatten everything regardless of what you might want nevermind the queue for taking that last red spot on the map (a bit needy there, arent`t you).
secondly: see how long it takes until your big boys get bored and you gotta deal with the backlash of that
thirdly: i dont see profit but if you are one of those people that can`t loose i can see where the rabbit runs

“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.”

We have a saying “you cant stop the train”
But, having been there first hand. You can certainly rein it in.

As for the queue, despite the rumors, SoR is not 4-queue 24/7. Last night for essentially the whole night we had 0 queue’s anywhere. About 20-30 of us in the TS were quite simply going to a map, flipping what we wanted to flip, and leaving. Also bouncing back to places to defend against those golem rushes. 1 group, 3 BL’s, and the PuG’s did fine on EB without us. I’ve never had a problem with the SoR queue’s ever. Though I do play at very weird times (12am-6am EST)

Our “big boys”? Do you mean the guilds? The commanders? I havent seen any backlash from them. Literal worst case scenario we just kick the karma train back into high gear. You realize that most of this trolling is happening because we had nothing to flip right? Lots of the guilds would rather be fighting groups than pvdooring the same towers/keeps over and over, if that means chasing after the only real zerg we know is out there, then by god we’ll do it. Last night SBI had something like 10 people. SoS had at least 1 group of “30-40” (to go by our scouts information and what I saw in bay last night). Guess which group we decided to be chasing after?

The profit is fun. Also it was a reference to a… you know what nevermind, if you’ve been on the internet this long and havent seen it used before, then im not gonna be the one to corrupt you.

T1 trolling tactics: A brief guide
step 1. Give a server that doesnt want to be given gold league get gold league
step 2. Push a server out of gold who does want to be in gold
step 3. Constantly chase down and eradicate one server until they give up
step 4. ?
step 5. Profit!

as someone who got over 40 ranks today
something like 5 rares and 1 exotics. More rares than ive ever seen in my previous 100 ranks, and I had never seen an exotikittenil today.
Also I several times got badges, at one point at least 10 badges from the chest.
usually 20 silver or more whereas before id hover around 14-16s

Drops from them seem notably improved to me.

Hexin.5603:

We did the math earlier on TC or here … I think it was something like … you nede to be the only guy to hit every yak that spawns on each camp (and not aloud to own it, every 15 minutes) for about 1 year and 2 months I believe.

6 camps * 4 maps = 24
24 yaks every 15 minutes = 96 per hour or 2304 per day

1,000,000 yak’s required / 2304 yak’s possible per day =

434 days to complete… or 1 year and 69 days.

So… this would mean you have to spawn camp every yak on every map (no queues allowed), every 15 minutes for 24 hours a day (no sleep allowed, and good luck on the bathroom breaks)

And you can simply have this done in 14 months, easy right?

Oh and your never allowed to own a camp.

the absurdity of the titles is most prevalent with the stonemist one.
you must defend stonemist 500,000 times.
Each defense event takes 3 minutes, regardless of how well you do it.
This means 1,500,000 minutes in world vs world. that’s 25,000 hours or 1041.6666 days. Which is 2.853years.

3 years 24/7 no breaks, constant stonemist defense. You must own stonemist for THREE YEARS, with a defense event going, that you get credit for, 24/7.

lordkrall.7241:

The main issue with the current situation is that it is more or less impossible to defend against anything unless you outnumber the attackers. Stuff simply goes down way too fast and it is not uncommon for attackers to be at lord just a few seconds after the contested marker turns up.

At this time you more or less need to have a zerg standing ready in every keep in order to hold them, since you don’t have enough time to run there even if you have scouts telling you it is under attack.

Depends on the siege inside. A couple of superior arrow carts in good places will absolutely shut down any push done with less than 3+ superior rams. Also small zergs can wipe larger ones inside keeps with that arrow cart fire.

Anyone in T1 can tell you that theyve been thrown off towers and keeps by a smaller force simply because the arrow cart pressure was too much to take the tower before the enemies main force arrived.

If anything, gates and walls could maybe scale based on players there compared to defenders. For example, with 5 people and no defenders, the gate has 100k hp. With 50 people and no defenders, the gate has 200k hp. With 50 people and 50 defenders, the gate has 100k hp. With 50 people and 30 defenders, the gate has 140k hp. This would enable for ninja’ing stuff to still be viable, and give the towers a modicum more defense against the zerg, while still allowing the zerg to take it at a reasonable speed/faster than the ninja group, so long as they’re prepared to use additional rams/cata’s.

did this on a guardian over the weekend with no problems. Hammer auto attack, stand your ground, save yourselves, and retreat were all enough to keep the npcs alive too. I dont even remember the small spiders being an issue. They died in a single auto attack chain.

in the aetherpath I usually run a tanky trait build, but I swap into zerker gear for the boss fights.

For sparki/slick its usually much more easy to deal with sparki first. Slicks damage comes from his oil. If your team is good at cleaning it all up, then you can easily zerk him down.

As for the foreman, again, his most damaging attack is usually best mitigated in some other way (mist form, stability/dodge rolling, etc) rather than face-tanking, and zerking works quite well.

And the clockheart hits like a wet noodle. if you arent running zerk gear on clockheart, you’re wasting your own time.

The trash monsters are a different story. They carry enough cc and multiple heavy hits to require either a tankier setup, or a ranged weapon.

But the bosses can easily be zerked down in my experience, even with (and honestly, especially with) a D/D set.

dynafire.5196:

Zenyatoo.4059:

I think the SBI/SoS strategy should be to split up as much as possible. Apparently you guys get stronger the less of you there are around!

In other news, some fun fights on the SoR BL today. SBI caught us with our pants down and our commanders on other maps, and it was a bit of a slugfest to push them back off our towers and keeps. Lots of SoR getting real lazy about that scouting, thanks for keeping us on our toes about it.

I’m thinking that this was probably said sarcastically, but the strange thing I’ve noticed is that it’s actually true – we (SBI) seem to do better against SoR when we run in smaller groups. At least in my limited experience. I’m not sure why this is, but I theorize that we have a hard time against your battle hardened zerg when it is ZvZ.. And you easily destroy our zerg when it is omniblob vs omniblob..

But once we split into smaller groups, we can “accomplish” more on the map, so that even if individual groups still get crushed, other groups can accomplish “something.” And then improving morale for that moment/etc.

I don’t know if any other SBI’ers noticed this, but I think we should actually practice this as a strategy, to the degree possible.

As others keep mentioning in the thread. SoR doesnt really run roaming groups.

Take for example the character I use, I play a very tanky hammer warrior. It has no damage, but I can contest circles, banner lords, survive for days, and stunlock people. I can push through chokes and get entire enemy zergs to blow all their moves on me and keep on swinging. But, put me in a 1v1 fight, and anyone with an ounce of self healing will never ever die to me. I play a character with traits and gear dedicated to the zerg. Im sure plenty of other SoR players do likewise.

Which means when you run into the SoR zerg, you’re fighting 30+ relatively organized people running builds that are dedicated to work well in large scale fights.

On the other hand, when you run into 5 SoR people, they feel much weaker, because their builds, traits and armor setups are designed to maximize their effect on larger groups, rather than deal spectacularly with smaller groups.

The more SBI and SoS split up, the better they’ll do. SoR can and will absolutely crush you in an open field. They’ll also batter down your gates by facerubbing them violently. The trick is to be 5-10man capping 3 other things while it’s happening.

Wick.1280:

kuora.5402:

Naztharius.7639:

kuora.5402:

Wick.1280:

After fighting a few SoR…. I’m not impressed

I’ll have to say the same for every single SBI and SoS so far.

lol I wouldn’t be talking. 2v7 against SoR and we take out 2! haha gj. Thanks to all the SoR roamers in SoS bl that fed me and my buddy bags I’ll come back tomorrow to claim more!

Strange, because SoS doesn’t stop running until they have at least a 1:5 advantage.

SoR is worse…they need at least 5 for 1 man and then when they lose they run backwards too get some more

I guess SoS/SBI are running on inverse ninja law then. Because I dont think ive been in a lost fight that involved more than 10 people on either side.

My experience so far regarding the number game is that SoS/SBI have the squishest zergs ive ever met. We’ve been running into zergs larger than our own (yes, gasp if you must. But we dont always full queue and run alongside 1 commander) and winning hands down.

I think the SBI/SoS strategy should be to split up as much as possible. Apparently you guys get stronger the less of you there are around!

In other news, some fun fights on the SoR BL today. SBI caught us with our pants down and our commanders on other maps, and it was a bit of a slugfest to push them back off our towers and keeps. Lots of SoR getting real lazy about that scouting, thanks for keeping us on our toes about it.

I propose that we spite anets matchmaking system by karma training the whole week.

As someone who has actually played on all 3 servers.

Pve wise:
1. BG
2. JQ
3. SoR

WvW wise
1. SoR
2. JQ
3. BG

The BG pve groups have always been stellar in comparison to JQ and SoR in my eyes. BG is where I got my dungeon master title all those months ago, and even today, when you want to do teq, you get told to head to BG.
SoR on the other hand has been very lackluster to me in terms of PvE. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I often find myself unable to find other players in maps, or even during world bosses sometimes.
JQ was very middle line. Nothing special, but nothing awful.

For WvW
SoR has been my favorite WvW server out of the 3. The commanders are (generally) fun people. They’re also quite dedicated. Even back at the game release, SoR was the server I recognized as being very much “in it to win it” as it were.

JQ is again the middle line here. I honestly didnt care for the JQ playstyle at the time. I’d come into EB and see someone commanding. And if he was doing serious commanding rather than a karma train, it usually was “take our stuff, take smc if possible. Siege up, repair, and then turtle.” Very rarely did I feel like we were making any solid pushes. It may have been my timezone, it may have been that I was unlucky, but that sort of playstyle just didnt appeal to me.

I rank BG last here, but not because they’re bad at WvW. I was on BG when they were clawing their way up to T1. I just didnt like a lot of the attitudes involved. To me a lot of the BG players came off as very very arrogant. I had issues with the other T1 servers at the time. But there was a lot of the whole “2v1, 2v1!” stuff going on. Not a bad server, but the drama that was surrounding me constantly when I was there put me off it in a pretty big way.

The dragons exist within the world ecosystem. They sleep and bleed magic out into the world. They awake and feast on magical items to regain it. Then go back to sleep.

It’s possible that the races of tyria simply do not even register on the dragons scale of caring. They are a means to an end, food in this case. And only in the cases of dragons who require them as minions.

Because of this, a dragon essentially has no reason to expend magical power converting a person, or killing/reanimating them, unless that person is either
A. a threat to the dragon
B. a threat to the food supply
C. a threat to its minions

The centaurs exist in an area of tyria that is mostly untouched by the dragons. They are buffered on all sides by humans. The closest dragon to them was Zhaitan, who send the undead into Kryta. However it is quite possible that he decided it pointless to wage war against the centaurs. Why unite 2 common enemies when you can let them kill each other and reanimate them later? We know he can reanimate long dead bodies. If he just weakens the humans, the centaurs will do his work for him.

As for the jotun. Well there’s a mixed bag of possible theories.
One theory would be that the dragons are in some way afraid of the jotun. The jotun were part of, if not completely integral to the dragons defeat last time. The dragons might not want to be so hasty in attacking them.
Another theory is that the jotun had some spell that made them immune to conversion. The dwarves were able to turn to stone to fight the destroyers. Perhaps the jotun had a similar enchantment that lets them be immune to dragon corrupted. Perhaps that enchantment is the reason they began to devolve into the simpletons they are today. And again, the jotun exist in the area’s where Jormags minions are out and about. And in most cases it seems as if jormag prefers to corrupt willing subjects. The sons of svanir, or the champions/offerings that are given to him by the grawl.

8th time doing this path. Still havent gotten it. Ive tried multiple combinations of killing the 2 on the platform, then the watcher, then some of the big group, then the boss. or some of the big group, wiping, then the boss. Or all of the big group, wiping then boss, or all of the big group then boss. Hell ive even tried boss fight with no adds killed. Still nothing.

Is there any official response to this? Even a “we’re aware that it’s bugged as kitten and we’re looking into it”? Because it’s obviously not working correctly.

People are really bad.
Really
really
bad

Today I on my 8th run of this dungeon (thanks buggy foreman achievement for STILL not unlocking) my group had a warrior who constantly had aggro, and refused to just stand on the strikers.

There are 2 places to stand in this fight.
1. On the boss
2. On the striker (when the boss is shielded)
You literally could not make it any simpler without removing the mechanic in the first place. But I will be kitten ed if people can figure it out.

EDIT:
also the boss does no kittening damage in melee. At all. Anyone who cant tank this thing at melee range should not be able to use a computer because they’re apparently a chimpanzee. He does 400 hits to my elementalist. I can tank him in full zerker gear on ele. The only attack that does any large amount of damage is telegraphed to hell and back. And he cant throw a gear at you if you’re ontop of him.

Seigfried.5938:

GG, sanctum of sea and sea quarry. without that double team you couldn’t take our eb keep.

I was actually a little sad when it finally capped. I managed to charge a bloodlust up to 25 at least 4 times, grinding that kill achievement one day at a time. Gotta say, BG was running some seriously dedicated warriors back there.

RNG for some items makes sense. but not for others.

Consider a system wherein the most precious items are obtained through feats of skill rather than luck. Or at the very least, involve workable goals that dont include heavy amounts of RNG. Ascended weapons and the dungeon armor sets are a good example of this, and while im not a massive fan of the time-gated ascended crafting, it’s still fully manageable, and very few if any of the items involved in the crafting require me to be lucky.

Now compare that to a legendary, in which you absolutely have to be lucky, or you have to spend a lot of gold to buy something from someone who was lucky. This doesnt make a whole lot of sense!

Items like precursors, or even some of the cooler exotic weapons, should be created in a similar way to the ascended items, or through other challenging tasks. Additionally, if you have hard content, it’s alright to make them guaranteed to give epic loot. Consider if tequatl always gave at least 1 exotic or even ascended, given that it’s quite difficult, that would in my mind be a better system.

RNG drops from normal monsters, and even just world champions is fine. I like the bag system that pretty much assures you at least some profit, and the idea behind being able to get lucky off a random monster has it’s appeal. The issue is when you move this RNG system to drops that deserve to be based around a players skill, or some other quantitative measure that isnt just luck. So RNG isnt always a bad thing. but you shouldnt be forced to rely on it if you ever want to obtain the “best” items. That’s a very very silly system.

From what I can tell

1. I received 3 bonus chests
2. Some friends on my server got none

conclusion: you must fight in the WvW of that week to get them. But they are available to the whole server

1. The chests were obtainable for me
2. It wouldnt make sense for them to be of the current week

conclusion: its retroactive right now (as in, from the previous week) it also seems as though 3 is probably the max, given how crazy SoR stomped the previous week. Possibly you get 3 for 1st place, 2 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd.

As for here on out, you may find yourself getting them next week the same way I got mine this week, which is to say, after reset you get the bonus chest note on your “rank and abilities tab” and then when you rank up next it gives you one of them alongside that rank chest.

From my experience the chests give similar loot/money as the rank chest you get it from. In fact they even carry the same name (for example I opened 2 rank 46, 47 and 48 chests today. receiving about the same cash, and a green item from all 6)
I was told that there is a chance at ascended gear, but there was no verification.

Im not sure if they’re account bound/only obtainable once per character on that week or what.