Guild Wars 2

Sup.

I was mentored by Ian Boyd, Guild Wars 1’s master strategist and now I’m applying his teachings to the epic battles of WvWvW. We all know that WvWvW is the pinnacle of Guild Wars 2 PvP for the preparations and the execution of battles here are in its optimum. It’s not controlled environment. It’s not 5vs5. It’s not e-sports. It’s e-war.

So war tactics here are applicable.

Here you will be introduced to a couple of Zerg versus Zerg battle tactics that are beyond “Stacking on a Commander” and doing mobile damage base on where the commander is. Be warned that these tactics may not yet battle tested but I’m pretty sure, being trained by Ian Boyd, these will ensure you victory.

I- Group Tactics

Tactic #1: Tank+AoE+Finish

This is the Basic Attack that I noticed for WvWvW

http://i.imgur.com/2ncjX59.png

Tanks serve as placeholder for the AoE to unload and the Finishers to finish. Simple and done. This is the classic offense and this works well versus a common zerg.

But when the zerg is composed of battle tested groups, we need new tactics

Tactic#2: Tailing the Dragon

http://i.imgur.com/GjkRq1V.png

Successfully doing this means that your group has a mobile defense and can mitigate damage by moving. Going ouroboros is just a bonus, if you can kill the zerg by munching its tail first, then the head will lose power.

Tactic #3: Breaking the Bread

http://i.imgur.com/GnG3zCK.png

Cutting the middle will ensure that they will ball up, then you can immobilize the zerg then unload with AoE+finishers

Tactic #4: Chaos then Finish (aka IWAY Stylè)

http://i.imgur.com/QvUiIQx.png

I learned this from GW1. Just cause chaos and finish them with your dps.

Tactic #5: Basic Battle Formation

http://i.imgur.com/XvJhIu1.png

This is in theory the most defensive battle position so far.

TIP: Get the same classes on a single party to know their position in the battlefield.

EDIT: Bunker Engis should be within the core with Mesmers/Eles and Thieves

Tactic #6: AmoebaDeflection

http://i.imgur.com/GlU6Ht2.png

Allow buffer for the enemy zerg to come then engulf.

So that’s all for the group tactics. By zerg, it can also mean your group of 10 or 15.

II- Map Tactics

Tactic #1: 3-2-1 Spike supply camps on Enemy Borderlands

Group of 3 position themselves undetected in 6 supply camps. Then on TS/Vent 3-2-1 spike the taking of all supply camps at once. This will ensure maximum havoc and by then you can individually and tactically take towers.

III- Ending

That’s all for now. More to come

Regards,

Ian Boyd The Second

dejay.2598:

alcopaul.2156:

you played 1201 matches dude. rank 10 only played 13 matches.

should it be the rank based on the lowest number of matches played? it’s called efficiency.

E SPORTS

seriously don’t know why anyone cares about ladder, it prevents you from pugging – has no rewards – is obviously flawed in however they determine rank – no indication of resetting, ever – account bound instead of character or team – most of your games are vs low ranked pugs – low population community – current game mode has very low representation of actual individual skill levels

yeah, esports

rank 18 is 21-0 and rank 10 is 13-0. so that means that rank 10 defeated supposedly the more “skilled” teams based on some variable than the rank 18. 8 matches more but lesser rank?

gaining higher rank on low number of matches mean that you won vs the skilled teams and not noobstomping over 9000 pugs.

and this is not esports. this is law of large numbers. the ladder should be a resetting ladder say on a biannual tourney after a fixed number of matches so the win+loss are also fixed among all players.

you played 1201 matches dude. rank 10 only played 13 matches.

should it be the rank based on the lowest number of matches played? it’s called efficiency.

KyoHanakaze.8145:

Lame! I feel less motivated to get my Champion titles in PvP now.

a solo champion legionnaire will always lose to a mega zerg.

zone.1073:

Education is key to building a competitive PvP community.

Besides, true skill is displayed through excellent performance in gameplay, not through the ignorance of the opponent. There is no reason to keep secrets.

LilAdrian.5936:

The only problem i see with this is being able to see traits because some people have worked hard to get there build to where it is and don’t want to publish it to the whole community.

The person with the most skill will play that build well.

Some people are good with theory crafting. Some people are good at actually playing.

“Open-sourcing” is the only way so it won’t be build wars.

It will be good for new players who have little experience with building. They can learn from the pros, get the right builds and improve and be at par with the top players in no time. that’s how you grow the community.

nvm, found sentinel’s lol

the only way to solve this is to allow exotics to become ascended versions. say you mixed and matched ruby ring with an emerald jewel, you could throw that to the Mystic Forge to be ascended as such.

ascended then legendaries. so 2 tiers from exotic.

Being a SBI pug in WvWvW on a few occasions, you just have to witness a few actions to know that War Machine[WM] are basically the guild to look up to. My high regard of WM started from GW1 when they started to run 4 melee warriors 2 rangers and 2 monks (yeah almost IWAY). Some of us in Your Math Teacher[MATH] back then were having fun watching them play their build and hoping that they would own The Last Pride [EvIL] with their build. That’s why when they decided to go to Kaineng, I transferred too. I am not looking forward to be in their guild but I just want to be in the server with the best (WvWvW) guild.

Anyway them leaving is why the server is at low morale at the moment. And as usual, some are jumping ship for whatever excuses they wanna tell. But let’s face the truth, when the vanguard bails on a heterogeneous army, it is up to the common folks to take arms and carry on. And for the transferees to other servers, it is kinda unfair for the homegrown and thorough bred guilds who matured and improved by themselves on their server, especially when they’re doing good. It’s fine to downgrade (Try to carry Ferguson’s Crossing) or to remain. But to piggyback on other guilds effort, i don’t know the words to use. For War Machine, they basically proven their worth. SBI T1 and carrying Kaineng. And now they are deploying their forces in Blackgate, which is basically the underdogs in T1.

Being a tranferee from SBI and not that caring with the game for some months, I’m not that assimilated with Kaineng’s WvWvW community. I just started to WvWvW again to get Badges or most of the time to test Gears trinkets and builds. I commend the efforts of our commanders trying to rally people and cap tower or camps in Yak’s Bend and Maguuma borderlands during the respective servers primetime which sometimes is very hard coz others are busy in EB.

I’m pretty sure that whatever tier Kaineng will go, there will come a time that it will be strong by itself. Give it time to mature. Or the guilds doing well from low servers can transfer. But this is quite impractical coz ~50 gold is required to transfer. What’s funny is that even transferring to Ferguson’s Crossing requires ~50 gold. So most probably to get the money’s worth, they would transfer to tier 1.

Anyway Kaineng will do well. It just needs time to mature without the vanguard guild. Remember the Chumbawamba song? “i got knocked down but i get up again”. That should be the motto.

that’s my motto when i get owned by an iLL or D_ERP assassin.

“I get pwned but I spawn again.”

Regards,

be blunt and say “we need a bikini armor”

you could buy a private arena and issue challenges to anyone.

Karma Grind and WvWvW grind take so loong.

1.) Very good for guilds who want to skirmish and fight among themselves.
2.) Challenge other guilds for a prize or community reputation
3.) Betting league where spectators/players could make their bets (in game gold) via a website.

what more?

It’s good.

The game is in its Gamma version, guise.

let me cook that for you.

alcopaul.2156:

new cap = new expensive armors.

RP, D_ERP and iLL made an impression on me. On their full teams, they always wipe Kaineng’s motley zerg. Happened on the first hours @ Yak’s Bend borderlands.

Certainly good at spiking.

Your Math Teacher [MATH]

war machine should go back to storm bluff isle.

if it wishes to be the most and bestest elite wvwvw guild, it won’t care if what tier it is on. the rest will follow and it will carry the server.

Kaineng server. Will WvWvW with you.

IGN: Alcopaul

spend $1000 worth of gems and convert to gold to buy precursors.

or $1000 or more if you want to buy the legendary already.

that is if you have $1000+++ to burn.

and the real question is if a 2gold pearl weapon has the same functionality as the $1000+++ weapon, why would you want the more expensive weapon?

LF leveling partners level 46 atm, preferably within 39-50 lvl range. NA server.

I like Guild Wars 2 GvG

1.) It’s close to gang or frat wars
2.) It’s usually death match and last guild to stand on the set battlefield area wins and the team that teamwipe loses.
3.) it could be expanded to capture a claimed guild tower or outpost.
4.) Quantity > Quality or Quality > Quantity is still not definite.
5.) Clan wars/ Guild Wars/ Guild Dramas/ Guild GvG influence/ Guild disputes via GvG in WvWvW.
6.) No need for team pro and benchwarmers. all are team pro!

Guild Wars 1 GvG is like

1.) Sports
2.) Boring and old

Chuo.4238:

Check that you are using the MF popup inventory, not your regular inventory to move the ring into the forge from. I made this mistake once.

doesn’t work still. my inventory only has the ring and the mf inventory isn’t showing the ring.

i got druid’s circle, the ascended ring and i equipped it to test. now that i want to infuse it in mystic forge, it seems to be impossible. the forge is not accepting the ring. bug? anybody got experience bout this? what’s the solution?

i bet those alts are all level 1s.

will culling be fixed when the client abandons Windows XP support and run natively on modern Direct X versions?

with posts like this, i don’t know what sarcasm is anymore.

“I do high level content with white gear because skill > gear.”

What are the leveling chain events and what level should i be going to level on a specified map?

Before it was Kessex -> Harathis -> Sparkfly -> Fireheart Rise -> Straits -> Orr. How about now? i see that harathis is changed and no one is leveling there anymore.

And what’s the unofficial Leveling server?

Culling will be solved soon. when people will have 100/88 mbps connection.

you do realize that you can position yourself in the frontline while weilding a staff no?

I used to be active in game and in the forums. A month ago I think. Or 1 and a half ago. Or prolly 3 weeks ago.

And I was reading the forum posts and concepts discussed seem alien to me now. Laurels? Guild missions? More ascended items? Influence costing 78 gold for guild missions to be unlocked? Nerfed spirit weapons? 50 ectos additional for ascended items?

I have 4 laurels total and that i got from a casual player PoV. and an ascended item costs 40 laurels?

This is just about a month of inactivity. Yeah. And lots of things changed. What if i was inactive for 6 months? or 1 year?

A.NET, Y U CHANGE YOUR GAME ALL THE TIME? Remember introducing new Gear tier last November? kitten that was disheartening.

and it felt like my hands had their own version of migraine…

discuss.

I see many people hating on RNG.

BUT..

Life is based on RNG. Your conception was RNG. Out of 375 million sperm cells, one only get to fuse with one eggcell and formed you.

1/375000000. that’s still worse than the mystic forge.

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

toughness versus vitality?

say player A has 2000 health and has 25 percent damage reduction and player B has 2500 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 500 health and leave person B with 500 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1500 health and person B with 1500 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person A will have 375 health and person B will be dead.

so toughness > vitality

Nice made up numbers that don’t reflect actual health and damage reduction values. Here’s my turn:

say player A has 2000 health and has 5 percent damage reduction and player B has 25000 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 100 health and leave person B with 23000 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1100 health and person B with 24000 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person B will have 22500 health and person A will be dead.

Doesn’t reflect the actual values? Just multiply the HP by a factor and you get the rough estimate.

my example is controlled and unbiased and is pinpointed to compare toughness and vitality in almost precise terms.

your values are biased towards vitality and an overexagerration. 2000 vs 25000? 5% damage reduction? so you mean i traded 23000 health points for 5% damage reduction? i loled.

I guess YOUR example doesn’t reflect the actual values.

You exaggerated and skewed the values. I just upped the ante to show how assigning warped values not based on actual game data can make any sort of result you want.

my scenario proposes that vitality and toughness are balanced. the total hp was low, the investment to vitality is substantial and damage reduction was realistic.

None of this is true. 25% damage reduction = 25% health increase? Um…no. Even if there were no healing this wouldn’t be balanced:

Player A has 2000 hp and 25% damage reduction. Player B has 2500 hp and 0% reduction. They both get hit for 2500. Player A takes 1875 damage and lives with 125 hp. Player B takes 2500 damage and dies.

Do you see now how ridiculous your “example” was?

No.

All I got from my example is that in that “ideal” scenario, toughness > vitality.

of course, I would think otherwise if the scenario is 5% damage reduction will additionally give me 1150% of my total health pool.

You mean in the ideal scenario where toughness provides 3x the damage mitigation that it does in the actual game?

that’s why we need the actual numbers from cleric’s and magi’s and someone doing all the math because just favoring one because you feel like it is bad. at least im pouring out hypothetical numbers. 3x damage mitigation is quite generous and close to ideal rather than trading 5% damage reduction for 1150% of additional health which makes vitality inherently superior than toughness and is quite ridiculous. we just need the actual numbers. i would do it but i don’t have the gold to acquire magi’s (i have full cleric gear)

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

toughness versus vitality?

say player A has 2000 health and has 25 percent damage reduction and player B has 2500 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 500 health and leave person B with 500 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1500 health and person B with 1500 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person A will have 375 health and person B will be dead.

so toughness > vitality

Nice made up numbers that don’t reflect actual health and damage reduction values. Here’s my turn:

say player A has 2000 health and has 5 percent damage reduction and player B has 25000 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 100 health and leave person B with 23000 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1100 health and person B with 24000 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person B will have 22500 health and person A will be dead.

Doesn’t reflect the actual values? Just multiply the HP by a factor and you get the rough estimate.

my example is controlled and unbiased and is pinpointed to compare toughness and vitality in almost precise terms.

your values are biased towards vitality and an overexagerration. 2000 vs 25000? 5% damage reduction? so you mean i traded 23000 health points for 5% damage reduction? i loled.

I guess YOUR example doesn’t reflect the actual values.

You exaggerated and skewed the values. I just upped the ante to show how assigning warped values not based on actual game data can make any sort of result you want.

my scenario proposes that vitality and toughness are balanced. the total hp was low, the investment to vitality is substantial and damage reduction was realistic.

None of this is true. 25% damage reduction = 25% health increase? Um…no. Even if there were no healing this wouldn’t be balanced:

Player A has 2000 hp and 25% damage reduction. Player B has 2500 hp and 0% reduction. They both get hit for 2500. Player A takes 1875 damage and lives with 125 hp. Player B takes 2500 damage and dies.

Do you see now how ridiculous your “example” was?

No.

All I got from my example is that in that “ideal” scenario, toughness > vitality.

of course, I would think otherwise if the scenario is 5% damage reduction will additionally give me 1150% of my total health pool.

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

toughness versus vitality?

say player A has 2000 health and has 25 percent damage reduction and player B has 2500 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 500 health and leave person B with 500 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1500 health and person B with 1500 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person A will have 375 health and person B will be dead.

so toughness > vitality

Nice made up numbers that don’t reflect actual health and damage reduction values. Here’s my turn:

say player A has 2000 health and has 5 percent damage reduction and player B has 25000 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 100 health and leave person B with 23000 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1100 health and person B with 24000 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person B will have 22500 health and person A will be dead.

Doesn’t reflect the actual values? Just multiply the HP by a factor and you get the rough estimate.

my example is controlled and unbiased and is pinpointed to compare toughness and vitality in almost precise terms.

your values are biased towards vitality and an overexagerration. 2000 vs 25000? 5% damage reduction? so you mean i traded 23000 health points for 5% damage reduction? i loled.

I guess YOUR example doesn’t reflect the actual values.

You exaggerated and skewed the values. I just upped the ante to show how assigning warped values not based on actual game data can make any sort of result you want.

my scenario proposes that vitality and toughness are balanced. the total hp was low, the investment to vitality is substantial and damage reduction was realistic.

whilst what you said to demolish my example was to mock it with values like 5% damage reduction for 23000 heal points.

i wish someone could do the actual analysis and not base their opinions on what they feel.

korelg.7862:

for all the thoughness fans out there, Condition damage will eat you out in a flash if you dont have some vitality, Poison + Bleed and you are dead, even having just poison will make you suffer a lot more that a guardian with some vitality on

If you got low health, you pack condition removal, especially when you will go and finish some condi heavy maps.

Condi removal is player discretion, not a limitation of a mechanic.

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

toughness versus vitality?

say player A has 2000 health and has 25 percent damage reduction and player B has 2500 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 500 health and leave person B with 500 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1500 health and person B with 1500 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person A will have 375 health and person B will be dead.

so toughness > vitality

Nice made up numbers that don’t reflect actual health and damage reduction values. Here’s my turn:

say player A has 2000 health and has 5 percent damage reduction and player B has 25000 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 100 health and leave person B with 23000 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1100 health and person B with 24000 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person B will have 22500 health and person A will be dead.

Doesn’t reflect the actual values? Just multiply the HP by a factor and you get the rough estimate.

my example is controlled and unbiased and is pinpointed to compare toughness and vitality in almost precise terms.

your values are biased towards vitality and an overexagerration. 2000 vs 25000? 5% damage reduction? so you mean i traded 23000 health points for 5% damage reduction? i loled.

I guess YOUR example doesn’t reflect the actual values.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

SneakyErvin.3056:

Just remember, to make it worth it you need to stack it enough to make up for the time it takes to kill mobs.

Say you kill a mob in 3 sec without MF, and it takes you 9 sec with MF gear. You would in reality need enough MF to tripple your chance. Otherwise you would be better off just killing 3 mobs in 9 sec with the regular drop chance.

except that MF gear is all Power/Prec/MF, so it is the second highest DPS gear next to beserker’s. You won’t be slowed down by that much with MF gear. I actually kill things faster in my MF set then my dungeon set since I use some defensive stats in my dungeon set.

As others have said it is never better to use MF in dungeons. You only kill a minimal amount of mobs, and chests aren’t affected by MF. However in the open world it is up to you.

With current prices it might not be worth it. The price of building the set will take months of grinding to earn back in what you get from extra drops as compared to not having the set, but if you plan on playing for years then it is probably worth the investment.

the second highest would be rampagers, power, precision condition damage. stop spreading lies.

toughness versus vitality?

say player A has 2000 health and has 25 percent damage reduction and player B has 2500 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 500 health and leave person B with 500 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1500 health and person B with 1500 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person A will have 375 health and person B will be dead.

so toughness > vitality

Yaki.9563:

alcopaul.2156:

toughness is damage reduction. vitality is damage buffer. you take the exact amount of damage if you have 0 toughness so that means over time, toughness will do you more good.

Only true if a) you never get spike damage b) you take little condition damage c) you never get back to full health in a fight (wearing Vit gear) and d) the fight lasts long enough for the toughness reduction to become greater than the extra health from vitality. Considering how my health spikes from full, to low, to full, to low, while most long-term consistent damage seems to come from conditions, it isn’t readily apparent that those criteria are met. Spouting wisdom from other MMO’s where healer mana conservation is paramount does not make it the right choice in GW2.

say player A has 2000 health and has 25 percent damage reduction and player B has 2500 health and no damage reduction. a spike damage of 2000 will leave person A with 500 health and leave person B with 500 health. Assuming that they heal for 1000. so after healing, person A will have 1500 health and person B with 1500 health. say another spike damage hits both of them with 1500. Person A will have 375 health and person B will be dead.

So I refuted your spike damage argument.

Condition damage. Not all of tyria is condition damage. Condition damage is per tick and condition removal is player discretion. Of course if you have low health and go to an area with zillion ticks of condition damage, you pack condi removal.

c.) A person with low health pool can get back to full health easily than A person with high health pool, with the same healpoints. and the one that i said first still applies.

d.) Define long enough. Coz time length is proportional to how big is the area that you’re clearing. if you face many mobs in a map, that constitutes the steady flow of damage.

toughness is damage reduction. vitality is damage buffer. you take the exact amount of damage if you have 0 toughness so that means over time, toughness will do you more good.

make a warrior, and make it a glass cannon.

gold, silver, bronze quaggan backpacks

The fact is that guardians aren’t the best dps class and you still think of choosing this to dps just means that you are not using your judgment right.

Ascended gear. that’s what happened.