Guild Wars 2

@Oozo – i always forget to mention, but i love the music you have playing in your vids. keep them coming!

also, i second brogarn’s comment regarding all the unlooted bags! i only vividly remembering you once back track and pick up bags. XDD

havne’t seen the video yet. plan to during lunch. but just wanted to say – that’s some pretty nifty sherlock holmesing, Bash! XDD

looking forward to more videos (hopeuflly sooner than later)!D
easily one of my favourite Guardian vids to date.

thanks to all those that keep this train running. ; ))

am ever only on the forums at works – cause when home, i’m with the wifey, in Tyria or asleep lol. and sadly, can’t access the website at work now. well i can, but it’s super obvious that i’m not doing any work. will try to check it out over the weekend or sth ; )))

(so i actually kind of appreciate ANet’s minimalistic designs with this forum lol)

that’s awesome Danny. why don’t you go rally troops in LA’s, Frostgorge Sound and/or other maps with higher population? or try to find a guild that is active on your server’s WvW. : ))

good luck! and pray that you 100% sooner than later.

i use both gw2lfg and map chat.
like mentioned, i always change up what i say when calling out for group.
“LFG AC any paths!”
after a while, a couple join
“LF2M AC! come join us now!”
still nothing?
“AC still LF2M, ready when you are”

et cet cetc…

and also, just start your own group on gw2lfg, and just be specific. it helps a lot.
people will be joining you real quick.

@Jayne / Phaneo – i did read all about it. and wished i coulda been there in person too lol. but yes, i see where you both are coming from. i, too, wouldn’t mind watching and cheering in person. just to see witness some skilled players going at it, without interruptions. alas, we can’t control how everyone and anyone’s going to act at events like these if they were to be organized.

@all – BG pushing it again this week! wish i could get on now and play some. :// lol so bored at work.

as always, utmost respect for SoR’s oceanic crew. you guys push hard and love fighting with you all.

as of now, we don’t know what other stat combinations ANet has planned for ascended gear yet, right? one can only hope. that would really push this build even further than you’ve got it running.

have you switched your food choices now that you’ve a larger health pool?

@Jayne – : (( true, it’d be hard to get everyone, let alone most, on any given server to be on the same page. but it could still be attempted if enough people had an interest?

@Brutaly – ah, thanks fopr the breakdown! i actually have multiple sets as well. 3 and counting. various hammers, greatswords, and other weapons too so it’s been fun switching on the fly. the only thing is some builds require me to re-trait as well. i have PVT gear as well but i actually didn’t like it as much as my knight’s or healing gear. most likely due to the low precision, but not enough boon duration to make up for that. the 5x ranger + another prec rune is a good alternative. i’ll have to look into that. we have pretty mcuh the same rune setups on the other two sets. slowly working my way up to get more hammers for every occasion.

may seem a silly question, but have you been sticking with AH this entire though as the staple for all your builds?

@brogarn – the only thing i would be concerned about is the loss of toughness from your armour. i personally feel toughness is one of the most key stats for the Guardian (am sure the berserker advocates would beg to differ though). but that’s just me. and you still have the 300 from traits, jewelry and runes. perhaps you can try a mix of knight’s and magi’s (pre/vit/HP) to start with? keeping the chest and pants as knight’s and the rest you can try out for magi’s?

@Chris – the 15k seems to be a lot “cushiony” pool.

p.s. when will you have a new video out? oops just saw it! Great fight. Really displays the strength of this build andwhat a well-played Guard is capable of (even though I was rooting for Alpaca ;DDDDDD)

@all – just wanted to highlight the effectivenes of boon duration and retaliation, as well as burn on blocks, on this build. was not my most gloriest moment though lol : pp was running solo the other day on WvW and was met by a thief and engi (iirc). since i didn’t have my usual weapon sets and was in a hurry to get somewhere, i chose flight instead of fight. popped retal and/or protection before they laid any hits on me. all the while the thief was chasing me, he ended up downing himself and the engi was put at around half HP and he stopped to revive the thief. while i was able to survive the initial attacks, i just left them there though and took off.

now to get better at when to use my retaliation and keeping a better eye on it. so this build does take practice but really loving it more and more.

heh, i often entertain (and improve) myself with these during lunch breaks.
i’ve recently switched my second set from staff to mace/shield as well, albeit a different build from yours, i’m having a ton of fun with the extra control and survivability i get. defensive, yet all that more offensive with these weapon sets.

Spiderwick.1879:

ComeAndSee.1356:

I love Bowl of Lemongrass. Saves your butt in WvW when trying to run away.

I admit, I’m new to the concept of using a consumable to reduce condition duration on yourself, but, I like it. Sounds interesting.

when i first started, i often overlooked food and consumables. now i won’t march in WvW without ‘em. that being said, do people here eat food on the fly according to the situation, even if you’r ejust 5mins into a certain type?

i tend to just stick to whatever i just popped.

IRL permitting, i’ll be there Dooms. would LOVE to watch some organized 1v1’s between these 3 servers. i play along aside i few who i know are phenomenal. and i’ve been at the pointy end of the swords of those on the other two servers here.

would BG and TC be interested in this?

p.s. any Guardians on SoR wanna team up? we can either hammer or staff it up.

welcome, everyone!D

definitely check out the website this group has got going – sth i need to do more and going to do right now as well.

hope to see you all soon!

lol, thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread. : )) Bubble, glad you’re enjoying this game so much! i main a Guard as well and absolutely adore him. i’ve tried multiple builds and currently practicing one that actually utilizes healing power + boon duration. i may not hit as hard, but when i am able to outheal most of the dmg i’m taking, and just avoid the big hits in general. i went with hammer + mace / shield. both have great defensive capabilities and i don’t feel at all i kill any slower. and by consatntly keeping my allies under protection, regen, and healing them through symbols or the mace, they’re able to stay in the fight longer, kite less, and do more dmg. so it works out in both solo and group settings.

it’s quite fun and a quick change of pace as i used to be more focused on crits. i neve rplayed a traditional MMO where they had defined roles, so this works for me. : ))) don’t worry about people who tell you to change the way you play or you’re not doing it right. as long as you’re most comfortable with it, just play the way you want to. i did a dungeon once and was told to change my weapon (hammer) because i kept putting light combo fields down, and some guy said i was taking all the might stacks away from the group (fire field + blast finisher = AoE might). so i just changed my weapon to avoid having to do a complete dungeon run with someone super bitter.

there will always be people like that. i want to say they just aren’t adaptable and need to put the blame on someone else when they are not performing up to par. that’s of course cynical generalization of mine. @Jayne put it quite well – all of the classes in gw2 ARE in fact very fun. i just love the Guardian the most. and figure out what you can do best, and enjoy doing most and stick with it! and keep improving yaself. ; )))

have fun and see you in Tyria XDD

thanks for this, Dulfy! i definitely need to run some more fractals.
looking forward to putting these to good use.

still attempting this! : )) on SoR

goign to attempt this on SoR server now!
add me and join me in game!D

any tips on taking the Priest down? we tried to 5 man it. got him down to 50% then we all wiped. and acolytes piled up :///

SoR looking to do the event now. need help! come rally and help us!!

If anyone sees this, i’m on Sanctum of Rall and wanting to do the temple of balthazar events now! come help!!

IGN: akaimon

Bakitten291:

I think i am going to save up and get a new gearset and work on a “hot ice” build. Aka A build that focuses on burn damage and chilling. Thinking of going with rabid gear set for the most part (cond/toughness/perc) with scepter/torch and hammer for maximum lockdown potential. I still havent worked out a full build yet though.

That sounds way fun. I’dd personally might mix rabid and knight but full rabid could work as well. Hammer and scepter defs offer so much control. I’d like to add with scepter/ shield you get an extra knockback which I thought was really fun in WvW. Though seeingng how you’re going for icy burns heh. How I wish torch #5 burned as well.

HeyHey Bash sorry had to leave earlier. I agree though. Was thinking of using this with an AH build so as to not give up too much using the runes and food, etc.

Haha unfortunately I picked up a giver’s inscription last night to try it out and heard today it was bugged. I’ll still give it a shot later on. Agreed about the food only thing is condition dmg doesn’t add that much for us.

Would like to hear your findings regardless! And see if it’s worth losing the healing power.

And chills on symbols would be insanely fun. I do feel glacial heart itself can be polished in so many ways.

Yea i quite like the endurance food. Works quite well with this build and I feel gives me more room to play with for my sigils.

the staff is an extremely strong weapon if traited. even non traited it has its uses. ha, #5 i like using to stop defenders trying to enter their keeps / towers. i almost feel bad when i stop ’em sometimes. :///

scepter is not bad at all though. i was stuck using scepter while attacking a tower (siege) when invaders pulled up from behind and i actually missed using the scepter in combat. paired with a shield, and then hammer as my other set, pretty much no one could get away with 2 immobilizes (one being instant!) and two area denials / knockbacks. sure smite only works on stationary targets, so keep ‘em in place. and the scepter auto attack is decent when facing a zerg actually when you strafe hit. least i felt it was effective, dynamic and pretty fun. i wasn’t even specced for using the scepter either.

quick question, just for reference, which server are you on now? i ask only because each WvW server has a different population. try to find out when your server and bracket (incl. other 2 servers) are most active and venture into the WvW then

as mentioned by lavra, that’s more or less the gist of it. : )) a few notes, you can get siege blueprints by either purchasing them or from the chests in the WvW jumping puzzles. you get the blueprint and can place it and you need supply to build them. so always carry supply from you! in general, you only want to take supply from supply camps and not within towers / keeps, but check mapchat / teamspeak and see what your team is planning.

for the sole purpose of getting the monthly, learn how to tag enemies for credit (i.e. you don’t need to land the killing blow). so in this sense, AoE capabilities are great.

again, for the lootbags, know that they’ll appear wherever u are after you get a kill, so make sure to hit “F” ; ))

other small advice in terms of staying alive / combat:

• learn to dodge effectively
• don’t get tunnel vision and be aware of your surroundings – look out for that red text, i.e. enemy tags!
• stay calm – at least, this worked for me as i wasnt a huge fan of PvP and dying to actual players seem more daunting than to AI.. for whatever reason, i donno lol but if you know your build and enjoy it, play to your strengths! don’t let anyone intimidate you
• bring condition removal, dmg mitigation and “escape” mechanisms handy if the situation calls for it
• when fighting a big group, target enemies with lowest health if possible!
• use food and consumables (maintence oils / sharpening stones) or even boosters to help you
• never get discouraged!

hope this helps and dive into WvW every so often! i fell in love with it though i was more PvE-centric and slowly improving. definitely doable solo, but can be a lot easier in a group.

what server are you on? if you don’t have the crystal, i have the crystal been waiting to use but just haven’t gotten to it yet lol.

in terms of farming, you wanna be able to take our enemies ASAP to be effective, as well as obviously not die. no one likes dying. : )) i used to use a 0/15/30/20/5 build in full MF gear and was able to do Cursed Shore alone for the most part. you should be able to take on 5 – 6 risen on your own at any given time without any big problems if you play up the strength of the build.

MF gear i had full explorer’s as well, and for runes i went the pirate x5 and traveller x1 cause i found might more beneficial as it helps increase your dmg but you can stick with traveler as well. if you want extra 10% MF, you can switch one pirate in and lose the 5% swiftness (though how effective that trade of is, hard to say).

the build mainly focused around altruistic healing, where everytime you place a boon on yourself or allies, you get healed a bit. i ran mainly with GS and staff. (staff #4 gives a good heal too but you’ll be rooted, so make sure you won’t get interrupted or it’s safe to use). and 15 in radiance gives you more or less the ability to spam F1, which gives you might, blinds as well as puts invuln on your foes, which makes for a bit more healing and easier time killing. with 30 in valor, you could move your traits around though, but 15 in radiance is decent for PvE. a slightly more “tanky” version is to go 0/5/30/30/5 or 0/0/30/30/10.

though for regular dungeons, i usually opt out of MF sets.

@Bash – good call on 2x sanctuary runes. did you test the build with less than 90% frozen duration and how that worked? though given high crit, you would technically have more frozen up time on your foes. either way, good to hear it’s effective!

further theory crafting here, going 25 in radiance could be quite beneficial? iirc, 10% dmg against foes with conditions on them. so with burns, chills, and blinds, invuln, would be a good way to increase dmg

[added: more food for thought (ha) -

• veggie pizza for 40% duration, argubly there could be better foods to use though
• as well as giver’s weapons for condition duration, vitality and precision]

the “tankiness” of this build comes in two forms from my own understanding:

• 1) The toughness from your gear – in general i go for the minor/major traits down any given line, and the stats increased i see as bonus (it was hard for me to give up valor as well, but i’m really enjoying this build and you do have to stay on your toes more)
• 2) With the enhanced healing, your constant regen, passive healing, boon duration helps you out a lot more than it may show on paper (think, one dodge roll can heal a chunky amount, not to mention it’s an AoE heal as well)

others and OP, feel free to correct me. that’s my take on it after experimenting for more than a few rounds in high level PvE and WvW : ))

regarding shouts, in general it’s quite effective on yourself already, and again, having allies by your side is a bonus (at least, this build doesn’t rely on at least 4 allies around you as heavily as AH does to be effective)

i think the boots look heritage as well.

@Brutaly – ahh very cool. i misunderstood then. so it’s only the jewlry where you use pre/vit/heal gear? that makes a lot more sense. : )) i’m sure you covered this somewhere, but where do you get pre/vit/heal jewelry? they only come in rare quality right? so i assume off drops / TP. the dodgeroll heal is AWESOME with added healing i must say.

recently put together a close to full healing build and it’s actually doing quite well. able to stay alive and push the front line more in a sense, while still being able to do decent dmg, and keeping allies alive. though i keep swiching back and forth between these styles and adapting and learning both. hoping to keep adding more styles ; )))

looking forward to the updates! and Happy new year buddy!! have a great one ahead of ya.

@brogarn – ooh interesting setup with ice on the scepter. that should help with keeping foes to stay in your smite! how’s it been working out so far? i think for the backpiece, you can keep the soldier’s since i feel your crit chance is pretty good aclready. regarding the runes, they’re interesting! and i feel could work. the fury is nice, so technically with a full set, on each heal you get might + fury. which is some additional healing as well. at the same time, i don’t use my “heal skill #6” enough for me to justify using this set (as i try to make the most useful AH before i need to put my #6 on cd). with this build, i personally prefer other runes. but i won’t say you should have gone for something else entirely. as long as you feel it works for you. : )))

what do you mean by off? if it says bad link, it’s the forums issues. you have to ocpy and paste the link into a new window / tab. if you mean by none of the traits are filled out, it’s because Brutaly (the OP of the guide) had meant for it to just be a guideline and for the users to adapt to their own personal playstyle, which i think is great.

imo, the mainstay of the build is x/x/30/20/x. i used to run 0/15/30/20/5, then i went 0/5/30/30/5, and then 0/0/30/30/10. i’ve also heard people do 0/10/30/30/0. so it’s all up to you. all effective in their own senses. personally love 30/30/10.

in terms of gear, a good starting place for this build is Knight’s gear (pow/precision/toughness)
i went with full knight’s gear and jewelry and then later, switched the jewlry upgrades to ruby upgrades for a bit more dmg as i was able to learn to “die less”.
if you feel you need more vitality, some people like to mix in beryl jewelry or you can get a Pow/vit/toughness (soldier’s) chest and pants with the rest all Knight’s to start with.

this class has a low healthpool, but have a lot of dmg mitigation and heals and support and condition removal that makes them so hard to take down if played right.

@Chris – sounds like a good swap with the sigil of life and ascended items. in theory it sounds decent to me. curious to see how it works out! i wouldn’t mind trying for some ascended items but for the life of me, my set up sure loves to DC whenever i step into the fracs

@Roy – ha, we’ll keep it on the downlow. the staff definitely has it’s uses. once i stood behind a gate defending (just two of us), spamming #123 and the occasiional#4 when it ran o ut, and 7 – 8 bags just popped up beside me after a while (why people don’t move, i don’t know why). though with this build, i feel the staff isn’t nearly as effective. and weird that 2hm trait doesn’t count for the staff? i’ll have a check too.

had time to jump into WvW again last night and i think i enjoy my hammer + mace/shield set up. the control/knockbacks/area denial work great. occasionalyl i switched it up with scepter/shield as well for even more control and dmg increase. more often than not, i felt i was able to push enemy lines further than when i was in knight’s gear/AH build. but then the lack of mobility might be an issue, so i have to be more mindful of where i’m standing.

definitely love the flexibility of being able to switch up the trait lines – there are great things in the virtues line! so having a ton of fun being able to experiment with them. agree with wall defending.D

@Crapgame – i would love to run with a few other staff Guardian. lol think what a group could do? hmm maybe something is in order for me to organize on our server. but most of my buddies who play WvW are anything BUT a Guard. O___o

i know what you mean, getting stuck outside when you happen to run into another roamer or small zerg and you don’t have your combat weapons of choice equipped. heh. same here, and i feel we can only get better with this build the more we practice!

@Ozoug – AH might work, but i think AH benefits more from higher crit chance as you can utilize those small heals even more. but that’s just me. like Chris mentioned, it’s a give and take but i’ve heard of other guards using close to full healing gear and playing AH as well.

i have a few AC pieces mixed with other gear. and a few combinations that use the Monk runes i’ve come across are monk x2, water x2 and major sancuary x2 for max boon duration. or monk x3 and water x3 for max healing + boon duration.

as you can see they’re more “support” focused, but by all means not solely support. as with more healing, you can keep yourself and allies alive longer, perhaps just long enough to wipe your enemies out. and with boon duration, that effects all boons, including retal which in turn deals dmg to ur enemies.

i am quite liking it so far. i can’t give you effectiveness in terms of numbers but i like being able to have some boons have longer uptime. i feel i can get even better by taking even more notice of what i have on, when to pop them and use them best. definitely extremely survivable with the right build as well. go check out the “Healway” Guardian build which uses monk x3 and water x3

ooh the woes of being kited while playing such builds. heh. good times.
i want to say AH builds definitely work better in groups, so like you running in a 5 man group is actually not bad. just have to mindful of your positioning to your allies, so as to be able to place boons on them.

so like others have mentioned, AH is by no means weak or not viable anymore, especially if you use a hammer. i still lov eit. though been messing with many other builds now.. healing / boon duration / meditations healing and trying to come up with more for fun. heh

i’ve just tapped into the healway recently after plaing a full knight’s AH hammer build and it’s been a lot of fun. still experimenting with weapon sets that suit my own play style and still benefit from the build. so far i’m goign with hammer and mace + shield. and love the control i get actually, even with shield #5 being on a long cooldown. when it works, it works wonders. i don’t even mind so much regarding the lack of mobility. though with this build, i feel more “safe” pushing enemy lines further back, but in turn, i need to be even more mindful of where i am in relation to my allies and the enemy. sometimes trying to escape a mob can get pretty intense with less mobility lol

@Choo – thanks again! always a pleasure fighting by your sides. had to log early, but been having so much fun. slowly upping my skills so @BG, TC, you all best watch out! (not) XDD

gonna try my darned best to be on on reset night, before and after. IRL permitting ; ))

maybe there could be some sort of tag? or indication? sure, you can say just run off elsewhere obsolete for your duel. at the same time, many times when two lone roamers run into each other, a “duel” can happen. that being said, if your buddies or their buddies come along, and your “duel” is “ruined”, just be sure that fate will bring you two together again. /bow while they run away or if they got defeatd by a zerg from your team. if you got downed, they just pray that they remember what you look like and that they know you’ll be going after them again.

if i ever see 1v1 battles, and my ally is with the upper hand, i most likely won’t interfere, but if they’re need help, i jump in without hesitation. not goign to let ally die right in front of my eyes. it’s WvW mentality in a sense, where you’re going to want to help any non-red.

what Pinder said.

i play a Guardian myself and have just put together a boon duration / healing set.
do remember to check out the appropriate runes as well as food in addition to your traits / skill set up! : )) it can be quite fun.

@Brutaly – unsure if i missed this. so have you switched to magi’s (pre/vit/healing) gear? how has it been working out for you? also, how do you deal with toughness then? unless if you change your trait distrubution as well running that build

@Dan – hope that helps. sounds decent so far and i forget, with magi’s (AC), you’ll get high enough crit chance as well. you lose out on a bit of toughness but as long as you manage yourself well and don’t just “facetank”, you can benefit from the extra healing!

with my previous build, with high enough crit, the staff could hit hard too, but now it doesn’t do a whole lot lol. gonna have to get used to not having it around ; ))

1) there are many more than viable builds out there. in particular, i would urge you to check out the hammer + altruistic healing build that is stickied as well as the “healway” Guardian build as starters and see how you enjoy them and adapt to your own playstyle.

both are quite different though. the crithammer + AH build i want to say is more focused on crits and in turn, slightly more DPS while keeping yourself survivable with AH heals throughout, but the one tiny downside is it shines best in groups. so when you are solo roaming, AH still works wonders, but not as well as if you’d have allies around you.

the healway doesn’t have as MUCH burst, and virtually no crit, but still can hit very hard overtime and you are extremely survivable. so definitely more than fine if you’re roaming on your own and provide good support to your allies through larger and more effective heals. by no means will you not be able to take our your enemies when you can outlast their bursts but i feel takes more time getting used to and practice.

2) what have you enjoyed the most leveling up? i personally prefer the hammer. great for CC and area denial in WvW which is good and hits frigging hard. though at times i’ll switch to the GS as well depending on the situation. i also always carry a staff, scepter for “ranged”, and now i’ve started using the mace + shield + focus as well. i always tell every Guard to carry at least one of each weapon on them at any given time. i even carry a torch, though i haven’t touched it in forever

3) again depends on the build. for more crit focused builds, sigil of accuracy is always good. sigil of force is great too as you just get a flat 5% dmg increase. i want to experiment with ice as well. and also sigil of blood seems good, matched up with omnomberry pies or ghosts for even more lifesteal. i have some weapons with strength / battle as well for might stacks.

energy can be good for extra dodges when you weapon swap as well which can be crucial in WvW.

in terms of runes, i had full soldiers for my knight’s / crit set up. as i ran shout heavy and being able to easily get rid of conditions can be key in WvW.

you can go for boon duration (mix of water, monk, grove, dwayna, etc) or many prefer using set of lyssa runes as well.

soldier’s is definitely a good set for starters though with the extra “survivability” as well as condition removal on shouts. that is, if you like using shouts.

4) i added t his one lol – make sure you look into food that helps your corresponding build as well! if you don’t have enough HP or toughness or power, look into those foods. don’t forget maintenance oils for precision or sharpening stones for power as well.

and a TC pirate, eh? lol maybe i shouldn’t be telling you this stuff ; ))

i was gonna actually ask, since you mentioned switching up the cleric’s weapons cause i feel they make up a large chunk of HP for this build i feel.

at this point in time, legendaries are more for the skins. until and if they do implement keeping them best in slot in terms of stats when they introduce ascended gear as they’ve mentioned.

and just to mention @Roy, i’m using hammer and mace + shield or mace + focus now. the build still works lovely, and while i get even more healing with the mace, i find myself having to take longer to kill enemies (as opposed to using the sword) and it then becomes a battle of who can outlast who, and that gives you less room for error – i.e. one small mix up and you could lose more health than you’re able to heal fast enough to stay on top and win.

@Chris, also, someone mentioned this in WvW when you are going form place to place, do you switch to staff to move around faster? i’ve just gotten used to it it gets rough when you get caught by another roamer and you still have the staff equipped. though i guess with your GS, you can leap quite often.

now now, this is just one dude, like Selwynn mentioned. and he even left his name up there, so no need to call our an entire server (that’s never goign to get old saying, is it?) that being said, i won’t be able to speak on behalf of SoR (that would make me a hypocrite, yes?), but i am definitely staying on SoR. all my real life friends, who i found out played gw2 as well, had joined SoS. been on SoR since head start and even though they told me to join them, to be on the winning team for WvW, i stayed put. this server just felt right and the longer i’ve been on here, the more i know that’s true. sure we play to win, but we won’t forsake our name to win.

and pretty darn sure most of BG will feel the same way.

heh, this sounds fun. which race are you?
here be m’ take on this:

• Helm – heavy plate (PvP name), draconic and human t3 come to mind here
• Chest – like other have said, looks like it could be Nightmare (TA)
• Shoulders – hmm… if you do go with human, maybe human t2. draconic to a certain extent. temple male to a lesser extent. probs not this next one, but pit fighter (PvP name) / devona’s (iirc PvE name, i.e. exotic named), at least one side sort of looks like those spikes
• Gloves – heavy plate (PvP) or again, draconic, or vigil
• Pants – dark (karma armor) to a certain degree, but without the cloth bit; human t3 maybe if you wanna replicate the cloth; CM dungeon armour as well has the cloth but the texture of the “metal” bits don’t match as well
• Boots – maybe AC dungeon or HotW dungeon ones. i vote HotW ones.

lol, hope this helps?

@Riiko – lol i practice my quaggan when i can. XDDD

@Diaspro – thanks for dropping by! there are a few folk on AG. am sure they’ll look you up! agree that this game is an entirely different experience when played with others (though i love going solo as well)

@Aeleniel – hello! looking forward to the new year as well. might have to take a break today, but looking forward to seeing more peeps again soon.

WvW is essentially a lvl 80 zone. so things will hit harder, live longer so you just need to be more on your toes. it’ll take getting used to and it helps the more understanding you have of your class and have developed your own playstyle.

like epic mentioned, go check out the thief subforum and look for WvW builds. pick one, test it out and see if you enjoy it. play to the strengths of your class! evasive skills, stealths… just know it’ll take time. so don’t rush and it gets better. : )))

i’m not a big fan of PvP and even now, i still get adrenaline when i see an emeny invader if i’m not prepared. so the mindset makes a big difference as well. sure, playing versus actual players and not “mindless AI” is not the same thing, but learning your class well in PvE definitely helps in WvW as well – just remember who you’re playing against. and have faith in yourself. learn to dodge, remove conditions, mitigate dmg.

and one BIG thing i want to say is, be aware of your surroundings, the situation you’re in! if you’re with a group, learn when they pull out and follow them. learn when to engage enemies. don’t get tunnel vision. focus on the tasks at hand, but be flexible enough to go from fight to flight if needed.

would do 100 JP’s over 7 fractals. simply because i don’t get booted from fractals and can’t get back in. because i don’t have to spend periods of extended time finding a group to do them with.

when the next big patch that addresses these fundamental fractals issues then i wouldn’t mind so much.

and sure, everyone enjoys one thing more than the other. some fracs >>> jp’s. others jp’s >>> fracs. i enjoy both, and while the jp can be “exploited” and thus, taking away the “enjoyment” for many, you don’t have to do it the same way other people do. i’ve mentioned this elsewhere, you can take wagers and race your friends in guilds. make it interesting if they are that unbearable. people will think fractals are unbearable. if you choose to do the monthly, then you should just do ‘em. and try to enjoy yourself along the way. if they are in fact not enjoyable, and you still feel compelled to do them, well, i want to say you don’t get to “complain”.