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Vuhdoo’s a cool guy and a team player. Played with him many a time back in the day!
#1 nade burst NA, great player and a nice guy all around. Get this kid a group already!
Right, I wasn’t saying you should add Zeal; my argument was in the nomenclature. I’m saying you should focus more on the Altruistic Healing aspect of the build, since the Symbols are alright but not strong enough here to be the central focus of the build IMO. Personally, I find Greatsword attacks not so terribly difficult to land at a reasonable rate in a team fight situation on a node even without a teleport; you typically can stick at least 1 person out of 2-3 with the leash even against good players. In duels it can be nice to have a teleport, but you really should be coordinating better with your team to avoid dueling situations when you’re running an Alt Healing build since you really shine in 2v2 and up. A build like this can work fine as a support roamer, you could even take Retreat over SYS or run staff over mace focus if your team needs them swifties.
Even with a bunker, Soldier runes are still fine. Condi heavy team? You’re a life saver. Condi light team? Still ends up being decent a good amount of the time, with the random Mesmer shatters, Ranger pets, Engi and Warrior immobs… there are just so many random conditions in this game and being able to deal with 2 per cd used is just way too dang good not to run once you’re at 2+ shouts in my experience. The toughness and vit ain’t bad either… Mercy is alright but if your gonna spend part of your build on ressing you may as well drop bigger symbols and take the shield of absorb on res trait instead and keep the soldier runes, the shield will help more for resses than the runes will, and so will the ability to take condis like poison off the downed body using your Soldier runes.
BTW the reduced cd on shouts trait is insane if only for the mere fact that SYG goes from 30 to 24s… best util in the game by far. If you’re taking 2 or more shouts it becomes a must have trait easily, doesn’t matter what build.
As a side note, it’s kinda interesting to think about what the next best ones are after SYG. Probably the new Shadow Trap. Then Illusion of Life, then Portal… then maybe Epidemic? Not sure after that, maybe Grenade Kit.
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Agree on the fact that they need to do more splitting; I know the devs themselves have admitted the same and will be doing more of it going forward.
To respond to some questions and responses in this thread:
Zeal (just doesn’t work)
Zeal is useless because you either lose Honour and Virtues 5/5 on Burst and Virtues II on DPS. There is literally no reason to spec into Zeal due to this as you will lose tons of survivability, you can only do it with the Binding Jeopardy bunker build.Viability (a lot of the builds above aren’t close to optimized)
The Greatsword is actually one of the Guardians weaker weapons. All the skills are easy to dodge which means they’re usually used to force the enemy dodge rolls out so that you can hit them with skills on your other weapons. Of course you can have somebody else set up control so that you can land 100% of WW and then chain it will your pull. Outside of res/stomp control the GS isn’t strong unless paired with another player with a snare and is extremely reliant on Judges. A common misconception is that the GS is the highest damaging weapon and it is literally the lowest consistent damaging weapon.The Sword runs into extremely similar problems, if the enemy knows what they’re doing, ZD is going to never land. It’s EXTREMELY easy to dodge (even when paired with JI) which makes it extremely inconsistent, which is a trait not shared by Mace Burst Guards.
http://tinyurl.com/p9jab6g
You can land all the damage on a Mace burst build at the exact same time (14k minimum if everything is not in your favour and 20k+ if everything is) which effectively puts your burst at under 1 second. Although you lose Flashing blade, you gain a fully AoE burst which completely counters Mesmer builds and any form of summons while the Sword doesn’t.All Guardian weapons can be used in a DPS/Burst build, of course their are situational ones, but Guardian DPS is definitely viable you just have to think of how you are countered. Running things like II Zeal opens you up to massive vulnerabilities in your play and your damage has to be more compact in burst builds, don’t assume your skills are going to land. Against a good player if you think it’s dodgable it will be dodged.
I have made a build thread before with optimized builds:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/first
Not sure I would go poking into the viability of others’ builds when you’ve got a big list of… interesting builds yourself in that thread. For example: http://tinyurl.com/bg5wm36 I see you take the CD reduction for Meditations when all you have is JI, but no CD reduction for shouts and you have 2, and instead taking the pretty meh trait for symbols healing allies. For an Altruistic Healing build (which this is; a better symbol DPS build would incorporate Zeal since that’s where 2 of the 3 good symbol traits lie), I like Save Yourselves instead of the teleport from JI; it combos better with AH, still stunbreaks, and gives you some great boons such as Fury and Vigor as well as good team utility for conditions. With a build like this, you’re really not going to be bursting someone down too fast, it’s much more of a support DPS build (AH works best in teamfights) and as such you really should tote around the maximum amount of condition removal (Soldier x6) instead of the awkward Mercy runes you have. So, here’s my corrected version of that build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR5dlUgyC33xKEf4ERWhVi9AjasjXPc4DZIA-TwAg0CnIySllLLTWyssZNsYZxGiJBA
That’s just one example.
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The buff to blind has made running hammer a nightmare against anything but Necro. Not to mention this last patch buffed several already good specs and pushed them over the edge, in fact last patch had very few nerfs overall. It’s also a major kick in the teeth that they were fine with just making Necros OP in one patch yet seem so scared to buff warriors because it might make them more OP in PvE! That’s just ridiculous because who really cares about PvE balance? Just make PvP only changes and you can balance them in both areas. Some classes like mesmsers may be forced into certain builds for PvP but at least they HAVE a viable spec, even longbow warrior and their AoE isn’t really that great and while I like my Mace Shield lockdown build it’s still difficult to make a convincing argument to have that over say a second Necro.
The last patch did buff Necros quite a bit, I’ll admit that, and certainly more than was necessary. But they were in need of some help, it’s just that they got a bit too much (and some of it in the wrong way). I’m just saying that the overall trend hasn’t been to always buff thus inducing power creep, it’s more often to nerf things that are broken and support the things that are weak. They tried to do the same for Warriors, but they didn’t do it in the right way. They are trying, though. Class balance is not an easy thing, and they’re struggling with it, as you can see. Hopefully they’ll begin to get it right.
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It doesn’t matter either way, everyone who looks at the game objectively know that warriors are only “bad” because there’s so many OP builds in the current meta due to power creep. Normally I’m not for massive nerfs and would rather have weaker things buffed up instead but that has obviously not worked out. Also, that last paragraph sounded just a bit…odd.
That last comment sounded a bit… vague. What was odd about it? Seems like normal English to me.
I wouldn’t say there’s that much “power creep” in the game, as you’re saying. Most classes have actually had traits and skills nerfed since the launch of the game, not buffed. I could name a TON of changes where that’s true, actually (mesmer shatter trait gives 1 stack might instead of 3, repeated nerfs of signet of undeath, guardian sanctuary trait nerf, engi elixir r nerf, quickness nerf (this is the point where Warrior became bottom tier, but it also affected Ranger and Mesmer pretty hard), thief c&d dancing dagger and mug nerfs… I could go on, but actually the trend has typically been nerfing the powerful things in other classes, not buffing them as the term “power creep” suggests. If your suggestion is for them to bring down the power of other classes to the level of Warriors rather than bring the Warrior up, well, they’re kinda already doing that (while trying to bring the Warrior up at the same time).
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Get Feared Build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;0_-34;0kHkC0C4gJkJ0;9;4TT9;059A3891;6V;07a;1hoHAhoHA1FZ
1. Put forehead on #3 key
2. Roll face around on keyboard
3. Stomp
4. Find next target and repeat
Joking aside, you’ll generally want to Staff 2 3 5 (switch weapons if close to target) DS 2 3 (when first fear ends) 5 4 exit DS (switch weapons now if you weren’t close before) Spectral Wall on top of them Dagger 5 Scepter 2 Epidemic 3 then 1 till they drop. Kinda like that.
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Are you ready to spend points in Zeal? Are you ready for MASSIVE DAMAGE? Are you ready for…………. wait, Spirit Weapons? …really?
Introducing the Mighty Weapons build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-7Z-g;1RFF80V3RG-90;9;4T;0JJ59A;428-48-S-F6;2H7l1AoF28BB
Step 1. Summon both Spirit Weapons
Step 2. Empower them (that’s right, spirit weapons can be buffed), yourself, and any nearby allies (and hit F1). Use Stand Your Ground if you might get interrupted.
Step 3. DESTROY EVERYTHING.
Notes:
1. While you could duel certain classes/builds with this, keep in mind that the more targets you hit with your long duration might, the more damage output. So, this build works even better in 2v2 and 3v3.
2. Long duration might AoE simply tears up hotjoins, so be sure to go and have some lulz there with this.
3. Spirit Weapons like other CC synergy in the team to slow down and stun their targets. They also don’t like to go against high amounts of AoE cleave/CC, so if you expect a lot of that, use a different build.
4. Your effectiveness is a bit lower when your weapons are down, so you may have to play a bit more defensive depending on the situation during those times.
5. Haven’t tested this too much in top level games, so try it out and let me know how it goes! Did some 2v2s and 3v3s on private servers a while back and it wrecked havoc (this was before the 6/25 patch so it should be even better now).
6. A good combo is GS 5 4 5 + activate both weapons, then GS 2. Chain CC with the Hammer along with the stab from the Sword as your symbol and spin attack both hit them is a good spike.
7. Empower whenever you can afford to, it’s up every 16s for nearly 100% uptime on 12 might AoE.
8. Tome of Wrath might be interesting to try for teamfight situations… and yes, I’m pretty sure weapons can get quickness. That’d be pretty funny to watch, actually.
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OP, spoken like someone who hasn’t actually played warrior for any significant period of time. Post the builds that make us as good as other classes in TPvP and I’ll believe you, otherwise I’ll just view you as someone who just looks at the warrior from a distance and decided everyone has just been doing it wrong for a year.
LOL awkward… that’s Black Bry Banger, one of the top NA warriors and one of the first I saw using LB/GS to good effect in tournies. I just think he’s trying to say Warriors don’t need the massive amounts of help that the number of threads on this forum would suggest, and there are certain things they do very well such as body cleave, both points that I would agree with.
One should have smoke field, so you have to remember to NOT blast/leap finisher while you’re in it or else stealth and lose cap! Haha, that would be super troll.
5v4 means that you don’t have a bunker at home…meaning that they can easily backcap you. In that situation, you might have mid, but you have lost side points.
Portal/Shadow Trap/eyes + Swiftness
Holy crap, Caed LFG? Pick this kid up fast.
1. Add Caed to group
2. WINNING ALL DAY EASY
Good point you brought there. But a lot of times there is a bunker at their home, and that is when neutralizing doesnt always work.
If you’re lucky enough to be playing against a team that perma-leaves a bunker on their home point, then enjoy controlling the other 2 points for the rest of the game 5v4. Otherwise, wait till their home point bunker is spotted elsewhere on the map, then go for the quick backcap.
Well, the point isn’t to 1v1 at their home node with Shadow Trap, though. The goal is to use it to quickly neut/cap their point and then leave after winning a team fight. You never stay there and fight — leave them to recap their point and return to mid quickly for the 5v4.
Another option for this build now is to take Shadow Trap instead of Assassin’s Signet. It’s true that your burst will be decreased, but now you will just avoid trying to burst full-health targets by yourself (something that the Mug nerf made harder to do anyway). Instead, you will only target mid- to low-health targets in teamfights, but now you provide your team the added benefit of being able to easily decap the far node at any time using Shadow Trap. The increase in mobility you will gain will put a lot of pressure on the enemy team’s ability to keep their home node without leaving someone there permanently.
I haven’t kept track of ratios and win/loss records (a good suggestion for sure), but there will still more often be a Guardian than not. However, I am beginning to believe that this may be a mistake in not adjusting quickly enough to the meta. It’s still not too long since the patch, so time will tell if I’m right or not, but it’s my belief that bunker Guardians are either close to being too pressured to exist, or already are, in high level play. Perhaps all that’s needed is some adjustment in the meta, such as additional condition removal on the team to support the Guardian’s, and some CC support to interrupt the cleave AoE. I more made the thread as something to comment on and think about, rather than being a statement of conclusive fact, and as I continue to play after the patch I’ll see if my opinion changes any. I hope other Guardians will as well.
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I would try it out in the current meta, and I see it more often lately than before the patch. Make sure you’re running a comp with either strong area power cleave (scepter eles, power grenade engis, shatter mesmer, etc), or strong area condi cleave (condi necro with epidemic and/or wells, condi nade engi, trap ranger, etc). One or the other type is fine, no need for both. One or two res utilities and one or two stomp utilities should be enough.
Basically, all burst works. Just have a few of your burst players running some way to stomp out a kill if you need to, and run a few res utilities like Illusion of Life, otherwise just outburst them and then cleave the bodies.
The theory here, in general, is that if there is little use in trying to stomp or res, then you are actually gimping yourself if you run 4 burst and 1 bunker as compared to 5 burst, because the 5 burst team should be able to outdamage the 4 burst team and get the first down, and then cleave the downed body to death and win the fight. This won’t always happen in practice, but in theory, the 5 burst team has the advantage if the bunker had little to no chance of stomping/ressing downed bodies before forced off or being downed himself.
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No, not really. There were teams that I played against that ran 5 DPS and no Guardian before the patch and were quite successful with it.
Alright, well, this is the thread where I will be doing a little campaigning for my own class, and I hope you will forgive the self-plug here. I’ve played bunker Guardian for quite a long time, through many patches and different metagames. And I can say for sure that this particular patch and the resulting meta has put more pressure on bunker Guardians than they have ever had before, to the point where I am really beginning to question the viability of the role in high level tournament play – you are likely going to be better off running a 5th DPS, or perhaps a more aggressively built Guardian than you would by running a bunker Guardian. Here are the main reasons I believe this to be the case:
Increased Condition Pressure: Many top level teams are running 2 Condition Necros, or 1 Condition Necro + 1 Condition Engi. After the 6/25 patch, the level of pressure that this amount of condition application puts on your cleanses, even when running 3 shouts, is very high, to the point where you will often be run out of cooldowns in about 15 seconds. If you cannot sustain under a standard amount of condition pressure (and this amount of pressure has become quite standard), then you will be quickly forced out of the middle of the fight, which is the position a bunker must be able to maintain in order to remain effective.
Increased Burst and Body Cleave: Due to the recent buffs to certain Elementalist and Engineer builds (scepter/dagger burst and new 100nades), teammates or enemies may be downed very quickly, which is normally the point in the fight where a bunker Guardian truly excels — performing that key stomp or res which can swing a fight. However, the increased AoE cleave due to the larger number of scepter/dagger Eles and condition Necros makes performing that stomp or res before being cleaved down or off the body very difficult or impossible in high level play. It is typically better off if you were another ranged DPS so that you could add to the cleave pressure yourself instead of trying to get near the body.
In conclusion, I believe that, in the past, bunker Guardians had been strong in comparison to other classes and builds; perhaps a bit on the too strong side. However, with the large number of simultaneous changes in the last patch and its resulting metagame, the viability of the role has been brought into question, and I believe it is something that should be looked at seriously by the developers and the PvP community. Thanks for reading my rant! :P
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Absolutely, Penguin, I neglected to mention that part as well. If they had added just the casting time to it, it might have still been alright, but removing the stun break as well really hurt the utility to the point of being almost unusable in sPvP IMO.
Hi, just wanted to add my 2c into the discussion about the 6/25 patch. While I do agree that Elixir R was a really amazing utility in a lot of situations (especially with the trait refreshing the CD at 25% health), I think removing the stun break from it (and therefore removing its viability in sPvP for a number of Engi builds) was a bit on the extreme side. I’d like to see the stunbreak on the utility skill restored, but perhaps the resurrection rate decreased (say to 15%/tick instead of 20%) so that it would be possible for the Engi to be stomped in a 1v1 if the stomp is started immediately. I’m not certain why it was decided that the utility skill part of Elixir R needed to be changed, when it was clearly the toolbelt part of it that was somewhat overpowered. Also note that I almost exclusively play Guardian in tournament, so I’m not just trying to campaign for my own class here or anything like that.
Please do not ask for more condition removal. It will break the classes/specs who apply only a few important condis like chills/cripples etc.
The condition spamming on necro has to be toned down and so should the god help us all FEAR SPAM.
Engi I do not know because no one complained about their conditions pre-patch so it just maybe a side effect of the necro condis + fear + engi condis combo.
Necro + engi team comps were definitely a thing in top level pvp before the patch (although slightly underrepresented due to a small number of high lvl necros in NA), because the variety of condis an engi can apply with nades + pistols worked perfectly with a well timed epidemic from a necro; it would typically end a team fight. Post patch it is even more powerful, since the only real weakness that comp had was the necros difficulty of dealing with being focus fired. Now with the addition of death shroud 5, it is much less of a problem and since necros have 3 new conditions to cleanse (burning, torment, immob), their pressure in team fights is much more pronounced.
Ah ok, because it’s a blowout and not a knockdown? Boo, although the combo may do enough damage even with fresh air since with that trait you could hit F3 at the end to get one last zap in and also have the blind ready for stomping. I’ll test it when I get some time, if you or someone else gets to it first lemme know how it goes And yeah, it’s a bit all-in, but 1 shotting someone out of a fight is also pretty strong as I’m sure you know
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IMO it wasn’t that pull into burst was unavoidable. It’s more that a single very fast move from a single enemy demanded a stun breaker from EVERY affected person of the team. If even 1 person doesn’t have it, sayonara, and if you do all have it, well that’s great until the 2nd mesmer pulls you. And it’s true that stability counters it, but that requires that you have a guardian in the first place, and that stability is up and is preemptively used, in which case you can just wait till its down again (or shatter it off) and then have mes number 2 pull. I really do think something needed to be done, and also I’m not sure what’s too tough about putting a line in the center of a circle.
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It’s definitely a very noticeable amount more condi pressure than before, to the point where “just” a bunker guard running 3 shouts isn’t usually enough removal to win teamfights against a double necro or necro engi team. Definitely going to need to add more removal to team setups in the current meta.
Zooseybaby, Ken here. I don’t get a chance to play much ele these days, but with the 20% while knocked down trait, couldn’t you go double arcane + lightning flash to updraft into fire grab people that don’t or can’t stun break?
The build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k34;2B2-U0c4-N-Z0;9;5T-9T;156A;15;004BIN;4G3G3G3G35Bc
The combo (starting from Air): 4 5 2 F1 5 lightning flash double arcane
The idea of course being to hit with both arcanes before grab finishes casting and put burn on them from that. Should be able to 100-0 most GCs, no? As for condi removal, scream at your Guardian
You could also go 5 2 4 F1 5 double arcane if you are already next to them and want to save lightning flash.
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The best way to deal with this is to just not worry so much about your rank until your team has gotten to a competitive level. It’s much better to just enjoy the game than it is to obsess over a number — it only matters as much as you let it do. If you’re a good player, then other people will figure that out; you don’t need a silly number to prove it. Having been at the top myself, I can say that building a good team takes a substantial time investment, so prepare for a shaky rating until you’ve strengthened your teamwork.
Totally agree with oeggs, the transparent builds are a great learning tool for newer players, and don’t show much that a high level player couldn’t figure out from watching you play or by playing against you for about 5 minutes. Lastly, if you think you’re a genius and have figured out a build that nobody else will possibly decipher in a million years, then just play on a no-spectator server — problem solved!
Thanks for the quick fix, the dodge queuing was responsible for my early death twice tonight!
I agree, all of these above issues are hurting my enjoyment of the game, especially the skill queue and right-click targeting. Please fix!
Currently, there are some at the top of the PvP Leaderboards who have gotten their main account to a high rating, and then have begun playing alternate accounts so that their highly-rated main account remains as it is. Since there is no punishment for this behavior built into the system, it’s to be expected that some would do this, but the inability of others to play against these high ELO accounts makes it not only hard for those accounts to fall off from their high rating, but it also makes it hard for those rated below them to move up since the opponents that would move them up the most are never in queue on those accounts. Another consequence of this lack of punishment is that a player could theoretically stop playing Guild Wars 2 entirely for an extended period of time and still be rated extremely highly, even though their actual level of skill may have gone down in comparison to their more active competitors. Therefore, I recommend implementing some sort of rating decay system to punish “inactive” players (whatever Anet determines inactive to be). For example (and this is only an example; there are many ways to implement this), let’s say it’s determined that playing less than 5 matches per week is considered to be an inactive player as it pertains to their PvP rating. Then, those players who have played less than 5 matches in a given week would have their ELO reduced by a certain percentage towards the starting rating(ex: 1%). You could even remind players of this weekly update by giving them a weekly quest with rewards, and those who do not complete this weekly are the ones who have their ratings adjusted downwards. This decay system would encourage those players who currently have a high ELO to keep playing and thus “proving” their ELO rating is appropriate and keep their points circulating through the system rather than stagnating at the top. If Anet’s concern is that this system would cause overall ELO deflation if done over an extended period of time, a solution for that would be taking the ELO points “salvaged” from inactive accounts and redistributing them evenly across active ones.
Anyway, that’s my suggestion. I think having a system like this would make the PvP leaderboards much more fluid and reflective of one’s normal rating, rather than being reflective of peak ratings as it currently is.
Here is the second screenshot.
Hi, I’m reporting a SERIOUS confirmed bug with the ranking/leaderboards. Between the next to last and last update (7PM-8PM PDT on 4/13/13), my team played only a single match, which we won. My team consisted of Yr Mnhtn, Powerr, Kensuda (me), Hemodey, and Gibbly. The win registered for Gibbly and Powerr, but not for the other 3 players. Also, Gibbly’s and Powerr’s ratings went up along with their rank, however the other 3 players’ ratings and ranks went down. For example, my rank before the update was 17, and it is now 30, but I won, and not enough other players on the leaderboard had wins for that to logically occur. So, it looks like the game counted as a loss for us 3 (but did not register as either a “win” or “loss” under the respective columns). None of the 3 of us left the game early or anything like that. Please look into this issue, and fix our ratings accordingly. I’ve attached two screenshots, with the players whose ratings were adjusted appropriately highlighted in green, and those whose were affected by the bug highlighted in red. Note: this may or may not have been related to the server crash that occurred right after the match was over.
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Second this. Any word, devs? I’d still like to queue “for fun” and not have it affect my leaderboard standings sometimes, and as it stands, I won’t be doing that anymore. =\
Hey, Grouch! I’m really looking forward to this month’s webcast, I think it’s a really healthy way for the PvP community to voice its concerns and opinions regarding the health and future of the game. Since we don’t have devs this month, it would be awesome for you to have on as many representatives of the various classes on as possible and have a good talk about each class and how they’ve been affected by the updates. Here’s some questions:
1. Class balance: Health of metagame after March 26th, hopes for future balance patches?
2. Build diversity: For each class, in what areas do we think they need the most help for pvp? This can apply to currently underpowered utilities, weapon sets, and/or trait lines.
3. Ratings: Leaderboards and how they may affect how top players will choose to queue for tournies going forward. Should they add an “unrated queue” option for the rating-conscious that wish to solo queue or try out new builds/team comps/map strategies while not having to worry about tanking their rating?
4. Future features: What new features are the dedicated pvpers really looking forward to from the ArenaNet devs? (game features as opposed to class balance updates, which should be covered in question 1)
WvW reset happens tonight – join Cynical, save the world! No matter how you like to play in WvW, CYN has an important role for you to fulfill in our highly-organized teams!
~Kensuda, sPvP Officer
Tonight was sPvP night, and we had a really good turnout, including 1 member that had never tried it before and loved it. Looking for more members for all aspects of the game, apply to Cynical today!
~Kensuda, sPvP Officer
Last chance to join us before paid transfers begin! Looking for a great PvE or PvP guild on Tarnished Coast? Cynical is the perfect place
~Kensuda, sPvP Officer
Whether you’re a brand new player or you’ve been playing since launch, if you love PvE, sPvP, or WvW, Cynical’s the perfect guild for you! We have scheduled events, a well-maintained website, and officers that are responsive and helpful. Come to Crystal Desert and join us!
~Kensuda, sPvP Officer
Just joined Cynical a few days ago, and I have to say, I’m already impressed. The guild offers a wide variety of scheduled activities, and is full of helpful officers and members ready to share new aspects of the game with you that you may have never thought you would like! If you’re looking for a new home, definitely give [CYN] a shot.
~Kensuda