Guild Wars 2

A big thanks to all those that showed up today. In a little of an hour and a half we were able to knock out over a dozen rounds. Shout out to The Avant Garde [TAG] for hosting the event in their guild hall.

Quick heads up that we’ll be rallying for some pick up games today at 5PM EST. This is a low pressure and positive environment for newer players that might interested in organized WvW tactics to get their feet wet. Please PM me in-game if you are interested! Starting up in around 30m from this post.

Hello. It’s been another two weeks and we’re set to have another round of pick-up games tomorrow. I’d like to get a rough estimate of how many people will be able to make it.

http://www.strawpoll.me/12656695

Over an hour of dueling footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcb6wmwM2lw

Probably my most difficult match up if I accept the engagement. I’ve also been experimenting with GS/SS but don’t have enough hours on it to arrive at a conclusion.

I wouldn’t be so certain about that. In a comparison between Celestial and Trailblazers, I find that while TB hits hard it has the disadvantage of being hard counterable and greater difficulty to reset. That healing power can really add up!

Here is the build that I use for roaming: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8elknhy0YhawSNwsGLPH1ZBEAJG6ilPNQ9geoLKA-T1xHABjrbI/nAwSK/mTJI57Pko6PAcRAIEwixA-w

I usually swap out Moa with Gravity Well and Compounding Power for duels. Works pretty well!

Celestial is really nice for duels. Here are a couple tips for build theory crafting.

To benefit from healing power you need to pick up Inspiration
To benefit from condition damage you need to pick up Illusions
To survive in WvW without PU (or allies) you need Chronomancer

Straegen.2938:

It is sad when DB map chat became excited because Mag was taking garri so we didn’t have to see that ANet tattoo on garri. This game breaks my heart sometimes and this week after the last one is certainly trying.

Last of my guild to play and tonight I find myself wondering why I keep going.

That’s really disheartening to hear. Correct me if I’m wrong about this, but the point here isn’t so much about whether or not developers can play or should play in WvW. I think you’d be hard pressed to find any active WvW player who DOESN’T want more developers to be active in the game mode. The trouble here is more on the PR-side. Doing something like this has terrible optics. Is that really how you want your organization, company in this instance, to be perceived? The answer is obvious.

Just a friendly reminder that there will community pick-up games held TODAY at 5PM EST. [KEK] has graciously offered to host the event in their Lost Precipice guild hall. We’ll be meeting in the GW2 WvW Discord voice channels. Please show up ~15m early so we can get everyone in the same instance!

https://discord.gg/5QARjvX

Hope to see all your faces there!

The healing power coefficient for Restorative Mantras is bugged and experimentally determined to be 0.8, not 0.2. I would highly recommend running Illusionary Inspiration even if you don’t proc the signet perfectly as the passive benefit is essentially perma-regen from your phantasms.

I spent some time this evening browsing Revenge of the Capricorn. I feel there’s real potential for 10v10s there. Much of the terrain is flat or sloped. It doesn’t solve the amulet problem however.

I don’t quite understand your last sentence there. Could you explain?

Friendly bump

Hello!

The next meeting date for pick-up games will be on SUNDAY, March 19th at 5PM EST. Our first meeting was incredibly successful with over 40 people showing up! We’ll be meeting in the same Discord voice channels as before. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking metabattle and familiarizing yourself with the builds. Shooting for this to be fun, constructive, and positive for all.

If you are interested in driving or hosting (Lost Precipice guild hall), please let me know. I will be creating a temporary guild in the coming days to help with instancing issues.

I’m not sure if it’s due to EU culture being different but the builds, tactics, and role you guys have assigned to Mesmer are completely contrary to their top-end NA counterparts. Shatter doesn’t put enough AoE damage to be viable for large scale. The extra damage of great sword doesn’t outweigh the utility of staff. Chaos/Insp/Chrono IS the cookie-cutter build for a reason, and the allocation of stats for gearing must reflect that.

There are other insights but to get back on topic once you have the correct build, tactics, and understand your role it’s actually NOT that difficult to pick things up. There’s a few L2P issues with maximizing your rotation and positioning but it’s not rocket science. This would suggest that large scale Mesmer has a relatively shorter skill cap than some of the other professions, i.e., investing additional time/effort in Mesmer to “get gud” once you’re already decent doesn’t pay off as well.

So large scale Mesmer has a smaller skill cap or ceiling, but what about its impact on a zerg’s success, “when played to it’s skill cap”? I think its contribution is significant, definitely in the top third. The extra utility is simply jaw dropping, whether it’s superior mobility, healing the train, or detargetting. Capable Mesmers are sharing every boon in the game, including quickness, resistance, and stability. These are things that can change the outcome of a fight more than the incremental benefits you would get from other classes.

With the 3/7 change to Epidemic in WvW, the need for mega server instancing of Obsidian Sanctum is greater than ever before. Please spread the word.

The change seems focused on addressing the “punished by my teammate” sort of flow that was occurring with warriors and revenants. Resistance being a counter to epidemic is an interesting parallel to Aegis countering most direct damage attacks or stability countering crowd-control skills. I’m not satisfied however. This change makes resistance even stronger than it was previously and doesn’t address the counter play issues (visual tells, instant active effect, and epidemic on lords to name a few).

Epidemic fails (no visual tell) to work on the cast target and will go on cool down. Players with resistance and structures can still be given conditions by standing next to a successful epidemic target, however.

I’m sending out reminders for everyone that signed up for the pick-up games tomorrow. Here’s a copy of it in case you chose not to be notified personally.

Hello!

I am writing to you because you have filled out my survey regarding
community pick-up games. The first pug scrims will be held TOMORROW,
March 5th at 5PM EST. For the sake of convenience, we’ll be meeting on
the GW2 WvW Discord server (https://discordapp.com/invite/FQ2uS) in
the voice channels. Please try to show up fifteen minutes early so we
can get everyone on voice and in the guild hall smoothly.

In preparation of tomorrow—and especially if you are new to the guild
vs guild scene, I recommend paying a visit to the WvW builds section
of Metabattle (http://metabattle.com/wiki/WvW) and familiarizing
yourself with the builds, gear, and tactics for your class. I’m
striving to make this event event fun, constructive, and positive for
everyone.

That’s all I’ve got! See you tomorrow and don’t hesitate to reach out
to me if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Expandas
expandas.7051
expandas#1097

Figured I’d provide a quick update on the polls. 48 people responded to the survey. The tentative date for our first meeting will be on Sunday at 5PM EST on Discord. We’ll cover ground rules, talk a little bit about epidemic, and get some fights going. Team captains for the first week will be Roy and Spartan. I’ll work on getting mails out to everyone that responded.

Link to Discord server: https://discordapp.com/invite/FQ2uS

Thanks again.

Hello!

I’m interested in seeing if there is any interest in participating in community pick-up games on the North American servers. These would be set in a guild hall, open to any player interested in learning and practicing guild vs guild combat in a positive environment, and take place over the weekend during a time agreed upon by the community. The teams would be mixed with players from guilds large and small, with voice communications hosted on a common Teamspeak or Discord server. Before GW2, I was previously a Battlefield player and there were many weekly events of a similar nature (Global Conflict, 21CW, LevelBF) but at the 32v32 player level. Here’s hoping to bring some of that creative spirit and teamwork to Guild Wars 2.

https://goo.gl/forms/4V5EG0iOZOSgLN443

I’m happy to answer any comments or questions.

edit: Here’s a strawpoll for whether or not Epidemic should be banned for these community events: http://www.strawpoll.me/12445430/

Shadowsong.2569:

We are looking to fill Darkhaven with guild that have been looking to move servers for a more competitive WvW habitat.

Wouldn’t the WvW landscape be more competitive if guilds spread out over multiple servers instead of just simply stacking Darkhaven?

SniffyCube.6107:

the main reason people don’t TRY wvw is because they can get a watered down version in EoTM.

That’s a pretty strong and unsubstantiated assertion to make, one that I’m not entirely convinced is true. The idea that closing EotM will somehow increase WvW populations doesn’t solve the core issue in your third sentence, which is that “blob to win” is the way to go. This is no different than introducing paired servers- a change that increased population in the short term, but did nothing to address long-term issues.

Works fine in WvW

Disenchanter is a fine third-slot utility for power shatter. Defender only make sense if you’re not running Chaos IMO. If you use both, I wouldn’t recommend going below 2400 armor.

edit: There is already an Illusions type skill that breaks stun. Its name is Decoy.

It’s one Winds of Chaos per target, targets can be anywhere around you, target limit of three. You can see this occurring in this video at 3:12.

Changing how many stacks of X condition gets applied doesn’t change the fact that players are punished for their allies making mistakes, instead of themselves forgetting to dodge/invuln a skill (note epidemic is unblockable). We should discuss the mechanics of the skill first. Changing parameters like targeting range, effect radius, cast time, recharge, etc., can be adjusted later.

One possible change to the mechanics that I’d like to throw in there is adding an X second delay between the cast going off and the conditions being spread to other players. During this delay, the five enemy players for condition spreading are identified and given a large floating icon over their head similar to Signet of Vampirism. Alternatively you could have a Tainted-Shackles-type animation with a visible “line” (with smoke effects!) connecting players. This adds some counter-play to the skill and would visually make more sense with the skill animation at the end of the cast (smoke clouds that swirl around the target). This way, instead of seeing the skill go off and already having all the conditions on you, you are now able to see the skill go off, realize that you’re being targeted, and have a short period of time to negate the attack.

Other thoughts:

• Should Epidemic be able to be blocked? Should the condition spreading be able to be blocked? Aegis as a counter to condition plays is an interesting and relatively unexplored avenue that would add depth to the game.
• If you do have a mechanic similar to Tainted Shackles, should you be able to remove yourself as a “spread target” if you move out of the skill radius (not the targeting range)?
• Is the smoke cloud animation on the targeted player visible enough in the heat of combat? Can it be made larger? Less transparent? Perhaps there should be a debuff added?

OriOri nailed it on the head. Having a separate thread is useful so we can focus, more so if guilds are open to sharing information.

In a slightly related note, Karl McLain responded to a comment I made in the official feedback thread about epidemic.

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read these messages and respond to the community.

My question is what is Arenanet’s perspective on the skill Epidemic in its current state? I am a passionate WvW player, and Epidemic has been a hotbed issue in our communities for the greater half of the past year. Unlike nearly every other skill in the game, a player is punished if an ally fails to evade or invuln- not the player him/herself! There is no reasonably visible tell for a player to dodge this skill before it hits, and the frustration is compounded by the fact that Epidemic can also be cast on non-player objects and NPCs such as keep lords and siege equipment. Entire metas and gameplay styles have evolved around this single skill and I am concerned that the absence of any changes or reworks of this skill will further push the dwindling WvW player base to its breaking point.

Thank you for reading.

Let’s use this thread to gather feedback on the February 22nd balance patch change to light fields and blast finishers. We’ll probably see the most impact on large scale combat. Is it effective? Is it ineffective? Does it need tweaking? Let the community know how your guild, team, or server feels about the change in practice.

• Light Field: Blasting a light field will now cleanse a condition from allies in a radius of 360. This previously granted retaliation. [source]

For reference here is a list of appropriate and relevant light fields:

• Line of Warding
• Ring of Warding
• Shield of Absorption
• All Guardian Symbols
• Temporal Curtain
• Well of Eternity
• Well of Blood (including Ritual of Life)
• Sanctuary
• Wall of Reflection
• Protective Solace
• Flash Shell
• Super Elixir
• Seed of Life (including via Verdant Etching)

Here is a list of appropriate and relevant blast finishers:

• Mighty Blow
• Phase Smash
• Drop the Hammer
• Echoing Eruption
• Renewing Wave
• Call to Arms
• Call of the Wild (including Clarion Bond)
• Ancestral Grace
• Cluster Bomb
• Churning Earth
• Comet
• Frozen Burst
• Earthquake
• Eruption
• Magnetic Wave
• Sand Squall (including via Imbued Melodies)
• Putrid Mark
• All Warrior Banners
• Energy Expulsion
• Earthshaker/Rupturing Smash
• Acid Bomb
• Orbital Strike
• Lunar Impact
• Overload Earth
• Evasive Arcana

Using Time Warp while Temporal Enchanter is equipped will grant resistance and superspeed to ten allies, despite the trait description listing five targets.

The bugged Continuum Split recharge while having the Illusions trait line equipped and waiting the full duration seems to have been fixed.

Quick FYI that the AoE effect on Chaos Armor only applies to the skill use, and not obtaining the aura from combo finishers.

I noticed that there were several times where you chained a stealth/stunbreak/block with a dodge roll. Maybe if you’re a little more patient with your cool downs you might have a better chance in some of those outnumbered fights.

As you’re running double scepter mainhand, how much of an impact does Malicious Sorcery have for you? How do matchups against Berserkers and Dragonhunters usually fare?

Ineptitude used to be very strong when paired with Blinding Dissipation. Confusion would be applied each time a foe is blinded. You likely didn’t see this very often in sPvP as most Mesmers at the time were using Inspiration/Illusions/Chrono instead of Dueling/Illusions/Chrono. It was a similar story in WvW, with many condition Mesmers preferring to run Chaos or Inspiration.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

Sounds like someone got wrecked by Gravity Well + Mistrust.

Since no one else has given you feedback yet I’ll throw my two cents in.

I really dislike your Wanderer’s based build. You deal next to no damage, you provide negligible healing. You’ve probably got the most armor and health out of your entire party yet because of skill spam you nearly die at 1:15. Aside from boon application (which is extremely aggressive) it honestly feels like you are being carried by the rest of your party members.

I don’t understand your choice for Feedback or Signet of the Ether. None of your traits complement these two skills. Nearly every time I see Feedback its impact is inconsequential. You pop your heal for no explicable reason at 0:40 and then run around like a meat shield in the middle of the enemy while you’re waiting for skills to recharge.

That said, I do like that you’re using Continuum Split in more situations than just doubling up on your Elite. I also respect that you’ve opted not to equip Blink- though that had better be the case with your armor stats! In the future I would recommend chaining CS with Signet of Illusions during after-cast into Signet of Inspiration. You can also leverage other elite skills like Time Warp since you’ve got nearly 100% effective boon duration through Chaotic Persistence.

Interesting discussion. I believe a contributing reason to why the NA servers are in such a worse state compared to their EU counterparts is because the play times with high activity are spread out.

The EU servers are so curated in that the vast majority of action takes place during or near EU prime. There’s no guessing game of when you need to log on to get a slice of the action. Players and guilds that run during what’s considered “offhours” on an EU server find themselves alone and many have eventually found their way over to the NA servers. Players on NA servers on the other hand come from a much more diverse pool of time zones. Even looking at just the United States, you have four different time zones in the contiguous 48 states (six if including all 50). This is simply too much ground to cover, and when factors like these build off of a negative sentiment towards HoT, perceived lack of support for WvW, and minimal communication, it’s no wonder such a stark contrast exists.

In my view pairing servers together was and still is but a temporary Band-Aid to the declining WvW population. I think the forced lockout of transfers to “stacked” servers is doing a good job of firmly pressuring NA players to distribute themselves more evenly, and I also think skill balance is in a better spot that many people would like to give ArenaNet credit for (this coming from one of the biggest advocates of Mesmer boon sharing!).

Alas, what the NA WvW scene needs more than anything right now is the room to focus. Identify certain hours where guilds from east and west coast and all in between can come together and play. Create or designate existing servers as Asia/Oceanic regions (even if they’re physically located in the same server cluster as NA) so those players can do the same. Healthy and consistent competition is the way forward here, and if the NA player base are unable to foster it themselves, I look to ArenaNet to build that lattice for us so we can grow.

I used (2,344 + (1548 * 0.75)) * 1.45 to arrive at 5082.25 healing per target.

Thanks for the reply Anarri!

I have to admit when I first saw those numbers my eyes almost fell out of their sockets. The best Elementalist and Mesmer healing builds I could come up with only reached 450-550k healing over a minute. As a primarily WvW player, I completely forgot about quickness/alacrity/inspiring presence!

Do you think you could advise me on a staff or CA rotation if you didn’t have permanent quickness or Alacrity uptime? Then I can crunch the numbers for a WvW context!

Hi there!

Since you’re still working on unlocking Chronomancer, try this build out!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8dlknhy0YRawRNwtGL4GkZGy1IRz9u7dZASwvA-TFCBAB5pb4Mlg1s/AAPAAsU+Vp6PNcEA24iAQKAAXAA-w

It’s a base Mesmer might-stacking build that relies on shatters to take out trash mobs with ease. Both the food and oils are fairly cheap to acquire right now as well (search for Peppermint Oil in the trading post)!

I made a similar post on the Ranger subforum and received an excellent reply by AnariiUK.7409. Is anyone on the Elementalist subforum able to quantify some of these numbers?

Here’s the best I could come up with. Note that I only had time to run estimates with Minstrel’s Dagger/Focus. I’m confident that Cleric’s Dagger/Warhorn healing would be greater.

healing power: 1548
modifiers: rice balls, monk, transference, aquatic benevolence (45%)

cone of cold: 2512.56, 2.25s cast, 10s cd, 8s traited
overload water: 1017.32 for three pulses, 6352.45 for 4th pulse, 4s cast, 20s cd
wash the pain away: first 5082.25, second 3021.8, third 1518.15

soothing mist: 2618.92
healing ripple: 4132.5
elemental bastion: 1991.43 per aura
heal: 1.5s cast, 20s cd
aftershock: 0.25s cast, kitten cd
flash-freeze: 0.25s cast, 30s cd
feel the burn: 0s cast, 25s cd
rebound: 0.25s cast, 75s cd
soothing ice: frost when crit, every 20s
elemental bastion: frost when at 75%, every 30s
unstable conduit: no cd

acceptable rotation and assumptions over one minute if you camp water?
assume 3x soothing ice, 2x elemental bastion, 2x unstable conduit from overload water

69700.05 hpm from traits alone if hit optimally
78567.69 hpm from soothing mist uptime (camping water)
94044.1 hpm from overload water (twice)
aftershock: 19914.3 hpm
flash freeze: 19914.3 hpm
feel the burn: 29871.45 hpm
rebound: 0 hpm since cd > 60s
wash the pain away: 96222 hpm
cone of cold: 50251.2 hpm assuming FOUR casts
total: 478399.39 hpm excluding regeneration

The first pulse of Wash The Pain Away is 50k heals alone.
W/o aftershock the healing is still 438570.79 hpm
Switching off of water attunement to cast auras in fire/air reduces soothing mist uptime.
If cleansing water is used instead of powerful aura, healing goes down the drain.
Lose 69700.05 hpm from traits since they don’t proc elemental bastion for allies.
Standard WvW build w/o aftershock nor powerful aura is around 368870.74 hpm.
If you don’t get hit below 75% twice, then that number is around 348956.44 hpm.

build link: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAodn0XCNYiVYC+XCcYilNAjYFkCqAu71/6hd4BEAKgA-TlxHQBwT9HAq8DAnAgfs/wDVCCuHAoHgUA+t3C-w

edit: It looks like I forgot to include regeneration as well! I’m really slacking!

Hello Elementalists and Tempests!

I am wondering how much sustained healing the meta WvW tempest builds can pump out over the course of a minute (or however long a good rotation you deem should be)! For the sake of consistency, I’d only ask that we don’t include WvW server bonuses- everything else is fair game!

Cheers.

Hello Rangers and Druids!

I am wondering how much sustained healing the meta PvE and WvW druid builds can pump out over the course of a minute (or however long a good rotation you deem should be)! For the sake of consistency, I’d only ask that we don’t include WvW server bonuses- everything else is fair game!

Cheers.

Although boonshare builds are still fun to play with I have to agree with other posters in saying the added utility you get in a 2-man party just isn’t worth it, at least in a roaming context. Two things Warrior lacks and Mesmer is able to provide are boonstrips and access to stealth. I think learning how to play a decent Shattered Concentration build with access to stealth might be the most effective option for your situation.

Love the music. Nice gameplay!

Lmao the self hate is real.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I enjoyed the guide and took away a much better understanding of vault vs bound. Not an avid PvPer, but I’ll start looking for some of those non-teleport spots in WvW too. Thanks!

I forgot about Mimic. I had been doubling up on Veil in order to increase the passive pressure of the iDuelists, but I think that’s a great idea and I’ll definitely try that out.

Hello! I’d like to propose a change to the way supply caravans work.

Currently, a camp will only send out supply caravans to objectives that belong to the same team. Camps will not feed yaks to objectives of a different color unless that path continues towards a keep or castle.

My proposal is to allow yaks to continue spawning from camps towards opposing objectives. These yaks (whose mechanics and attributes could be identical to the existing ones) would instead DRAIN supply and/or REDUCE the upgrade progress of an objective.

I think this change would increase the strategic depth of playing in WvW. It would incentivize players to return to the borderlands, and shift some of the impact that large guild groups and zergs currently possess back towards roamers and small teams. Players would have to venture beyond their walls to engage the enemy and reinforces the idea that in this game you can play and contribute however you want. I also think this change would be relatively easier to implement than some of the other proposals, with gains being immediately realized.

I realize some details may have slipped through the cracks and thus I’m happy to respond to any comments or questions.