Guild Wars 2

Lonami.2987:

I’ve been working on some ideas to revamp the trait system. I’ve made a lot of tables and it’s quite a long text. You can find the whole article here:

* > > > > Trait system revamp theorycrafting < < < < *

A short summary: (With links to the tables of the article)

• Trait tiers unlocked at levels 10, 35 and 60. 2 points at level 10, 1 point each 5 levels from 10 to 80, except levels 35 and 60. This let us introduce traits as a reward much more earlier. Visual explanation here.
• Trait unlocking focuses on dynamic events now. No WvW, no map completion, no Personal Story, no dungeons, and a minimum of jumping puzzles. The chosen dynamic events are part of long event chains, so that players can join easily at any moment and then help others complete the chain. It encourages participating in events, too, one of the game’s core aspects.
• Trait unlocks don’t focus on specific dynamic events. Instead, they focus on a pool of 5 events. Completing any of them lets you choose between 5 traits of the same number. The rewards are daily, too, so if you repeat the same event the next day you get to choose another trait. You can get all the traits without needing to go out of your way. Trait acquisition is distributed so that you can get all the traits by following the zones involved in your Personal Story. Trait distribution across zones here and specific chosen dynamic events here.
• Trait guide coin and skill point prices switched. Skill points are far too valuable for new players, more than gold I would say. The coin price could be too expensive now, but I don’t think it would be too much of a problem, since with this system traits are much more accessible, and any player leveling the normal way will get them as he progresses. A higher gold price encourages playing the content, too. Also added a new Badges of Honor alternative. New prices here.

I think these ideas improve the current system without adding radical changes to them. They keep the horizontal progression feeling of the system, removing the hassles and encouraging players to do dynamic events, which sometimes are left second to Renown Hearts.

They aren’t dependent on each other, so feel free to like on of the sections and dislike the others. Would love to see other players’ suggestions and criticism for this, too.

Really like the emphasis on dynamic events since it’s natural to stumble into those and they give a lot of reward already, teaching new players dynamic event = goooood and encouraging experienced players to go back into the world without clogging things up.

I’ve felt like the new menu system was awkward to look at let alone use but couldn’t put my finger on why. You’ve said it well Devi.
It’s starting to resemble a website navigation menu, which is fine for idle/relaxed play but is detrimental to active play and combat.

The only reason I have made new characters since the patch is because I’ve gotten over 200 tomes of knowledge from pvp, thousands of scrolls of knowledge, and have enough money to buy traits directly. But even then I’m not shelling out for every trait- just the ones i’m absolutely sure i’ll need. I can experiment with builds on my pre-patch 80s but when it comes to the new ones it’s not worth unlocking everything when I won’t use most.
I feel so, so sorry for any new player who doesnt know the game world well, is stuck with a semi-disabled character and is told to go kill the overgrown grub in wvw for a trait they may not even have use for.
It’s been said before but I can see this change as a gold sink but definitely not as a way to help new players or make their growth easier or more fun. And this is coming from someone who LOVES exploration in pve, dynamic events, vistas etc. and took to them like a fish to water in my newbie days.

Since the wardrobe/dyes menus were put together with the equipment window it has constantly gotten in my way and disrupted gameplay. I used to be able to hit H and immediately look at my stats or swap gear (sometimes under pressure and in limited time, such as between fights). Now I hit H and sometimes i’m in dye menu still or wardrobe (which is worse because for a moment I THINK i’m in equipment and get confused) so I have to navigate over, eating up seconds and generally being inconvenient.

With the introduction of the new list of menus to navigate to I really wish Equipment would still be the default, or some separate thing. Wardrobe, dyes, finishers, miniatures… these are all menus to be browsed at leisure. Equipment is something I need on hand fast and reliably, same with being able to check and compare my stats on the fly.

Commendations for your achievement.
I hope it’s not rude to say this here but I kind of wish there were separate ranks for eotm and wvw though… Someone said it earlier and I agree, eotm has devalued the meaning of ranks. I used to oggle at a gold rank but now platinum to me just says that person spends a lot of time in eotm.

This is an informative and important thread. WvW has always been gw2 endgame imo and if it isn’t fixed the ominous cries of “the game is dying” might come true… I’ve already lost many friends and a hardcore guild to wvw’s suffering. Not even counting my friend’s guilds who have started to quit lately from boredom and discouragement.

I rather like the idea of receiving dungeon tokens for maps, kind of along the lines of the PVP reward tracks, maybe. Bonus chests, tokens, equipment or skins based on the amount accomplished during that day.

Another thought, what if there is greater reward for playing somewhere less players are at? Kind of like dynamic scaling difficulty, or diminishing returns… There has already been mention of a volunteer boost for people willing to go to a new overflow. So what about a bonus for people exploring a zone with low weekly traffic? If most players are zerging around Cursed Shore, maybe those playing in Harathi Hinterlands could have the chance at a rare drop (skin, salvagable material, etc) exclusive to that map? When a map becomes too high traffic that special reward chance would drop severely. Might get people to spread out a little more.

It’s a good point that to get Mawdrey II a LOT of pve was required. For me it was no problem since I had already done most of the work, but for strict pvp/wvwers it would be far out of their way and a lot of time and effort for a relatively small reward. Making this kind of “disposal” item accessible to wvwers and pvpers would allow them to have fun as they are rewarded, rather than being punished for their preferred mode of play.
But I’m sure even a small change like allowing Mawdrey II to eat ore and stars as well as dust may or may not be noticed or considered. So I won’t push my luck asking for a new item );

-Unbind Scrolls and Tomes of Knowledge from accounts so that they can be traded. I have them running out my ears since I don’t make alts often, and many of my friends would practically give an arm and a leg to just get their alt to 80 without having to spend days in eotm. (I know leveling in pve is pretty quick, and I personally like it, but some people simply hate it)

- New PvP mode/map. Though the courtyard was an attempt at this it’s a cluttered and cramped map and the free for all suffers because of it. It turns into five minutes of spawncamping and line of sight-ing. A larger map with free for all mode, or a different mode of play might reinvigorate pvp mode.

- Guild places, and more consideration of GvGs. Obsidian Sanctum arena is full of trolling and interference that can’t be punished or stopped, and despite Anet’s attempts to publicize PVP tournaments, GvGs are neglected in a dark corner. It would help to have a place where guild members can hang out together or maybe host gvgs/skirmishes, and be able to boot/ban trolls. Like a custom arena, but with the same gear as wvw and a much larger player capacity. For a game called Guild Wars 2, this is a huge weak spot.

Concerned with this. I don’t have trouble gearing my characters currently, all unusable gear helps fund the specific things I want.
I see what they’re trying to do but playing a class (or avoiding one) for money seems against the spirit of the whole game.

I hate having to throw items away, especially ones that are ascended quality. But I already have way more dragonite ingots, empyreal stars etc than I plan to use, and I’ve thrown away hundreds of stacks of the raw materials. Even if we just get salvageable or merchable trash in return it would feel better than continuing to destroy these “valuable” items.
I’m happy with the Mawdrey II item eating bloodstone dust, but couldn’t it also eat empyreal fragments and dragonite ore?
Thanks for reading my suggestion.

ps- Maybe something could even eat some of those ascended ring drops from fractals and poop out some exotics instead?

Yasi.9065:

Sorry, but if you cant anticipate eviscerate, hammer stun etc… then you should just do a lot more practice. S/D ele for example like to cast their big dmg to the side and then flash into you, just make sure you are attuned to fire when you see them casting up their big dmg spells and then press 4. Or use mistform… blindness… interrupt them with knockback…
The only skill I really have trouble with, that’s guard meditation teleport, but even there burning retreat or mistform always works.

Im casting meteor – always – when dueling… and while casting meteor my groundtarget for flash is already set so I can blink away asap.

I dueled with zerker amu, valk, cele, soldier, cleric… always staff… always casting meteors. Not once did I die during meteor casts.

Dueling as a staff ele, its about setting up your own killzone… kite for about 30seconds while casting fireblast etc… setting up next killzone etc.

If you are in a tournament match and you have to fight on point… make sure to always make your opponent run as much as possible, and as often as possible through firefield/chill/eruption.

Thanks for the advice, the eviscerate isn’t hard to see coming but if i’m already out of dodges or cds it’s just brutal. The fact that it only goes on cd and the adrenaline doesn’t deplete means even if I avoid one or two eviscerates they can still get one off if they have multiple endure pain to keep themselves up, or if they are a tankier spec that can still hit hard. With the axe skills being so fast it’s only 1-2 hits after an eviscerate and my 14-6k health pool is gone

I’ve recently tried going celestial against teams with thieves/rangers and it’s been a big help in pvp. And in wvw/open field flashing aggressively into ranger’s faces and staying on their toes seems to panic them into giving me the advantage. It’s made 1v1s so much easier

ps- I’ve recently had some fights versus thieves, even two thieves at once and come away alright. Obviously if I were unable to retreat to a safe place i’m not sure I could beat two at the same time but i’ve gotten better at surviving them. Seeing them from a distance and preparing my earth armor and swapping to earth for protection in anticipation of their opening strike, and laying down earth 4 to interrupt their movement repeatedly, takes away their ambush advantage and makes the rest of the fight in my favor. Even if i’m caught off guard, misting and then going into earth, earth 4, earth 2, water 4 water 2, then fire or lightning (with air training for 10% dmg increase) is enough to at least scare them off of me.
Funny how thieves tend to universally leave a scary target alone in favor of soft or unaware uplevels (a great chance for me to hurt them more as their focus is turned from me).

I actually dont have trouble casting meteor in duels, it’s just key to really be patient and wait for the opening when they’re on the defensive/recovering. I’ve actually killed a few thieves by using myself as the bait in the meteor and they’re too hasty, rush in and get pummeled.

I do my best to los rangers but in wvw and pvp there are often big open spaces where there’s nothing to obstruct them T_T

I will practice these things, ty mate!

I’ve been practicing with staff ele in pvp/wvw for a while now and i’ve gotten pretty decent at dueling most classes. I’m very frustrated however that even a relatively kittenty pewpew ranger can still beat me with longbow/pet interference. My reflect is short and has a long cooldown and I can’t stay close enough and deal enough dmg fast enough to down non-glassy rangers before they can pewpew me again- they just have too much health/defense. With such little vitality (I run zerk) I’d really appreciate some guidance in dealing with rangers especially.

As for thieves, I can out-predict and kill bad ones using my interrupts and cc. But if any more experienced staff eles have advice for dealing with not kittenty thieves i’d love to hear it.
Thanks

Oh I wonder why you can’t use toys with the tonic on… that should be changed.

Vissarion.6509:

Just give us OUT OF COMBAT weapon swap and problem solved.

People that claim eles got 20 skills instead of 10 they are living on their world, most skills are not even worth it, if u play staff ele u just camp fire for DPS cause every other attunement doesn’t provide any, so thats 5 skills. The only weapons that can use more than 2 attunements effectivily are D/D and thats about it.

If you aren’t getting dps out of anything but fire attunement you really need to explore different combinations and practice more. Everything on staff is useful and powerful if you know when to use it.

And what if eles were just able to have 3 sigils on their weapon set instead of 2? That way you could have your normal two plus your stacking sigil.

Another non-rper concerned about how roleplayer’s gaming has been affected by the megaserver. I want you guys to have access to each other without being harassed by non-rpers or left out of your own circles.

Seems really bizarre one of the most expensive and hard to get tonics in the game has such a wimpy duration. Considering the cost it should last way longer.

Thanks, that’s what I did but wasn’t sure if they’d know to check the guilds as well as the character name.

Is there a way to report inappropriate guild names/tags?

Agree completely with above post (Dakarius). If anything being able to play with people you already know in a guaranteed 1v1 situation, with no armor damage to worry about, would be a great way to get players who have never pvped before into dueling.
Right now the only options for someone who isn’t already in a pvp guild/community are:
-Try to find an spvp arena that is empty to fight a friend (may be interrupted)
-Use random dueling room (lot of trolls, aggressive strangers etc, standing around being ignored)
-Hope a 1v1 in world vs world doesn’t turn into getting steamrolled by a zerg or ganked by incoming roamers with whom you cannot communicate to indicate a duel. And that’s after you’re able to find just one person to fight, and has a strong chance of armor breaking and long runs back to the fighting area.

Currently the only place pve gear/builds can be tested are in wvw, where many people cannot fight their friends because they aren’t on one of the two enemy servers that week. Even in Edge of the Mist, you can’t fight someone on your own server.

Sparring with friends is a more lighthearted and fun way to get into pvp than some of the nasty experiences a new player can have with strangers. I like to encourage my friends to try some friendly pvp with me to open up more of the game and its mechanics to them, but having to set up a pvp build and find a place to fight is often so inconvenient it’s even harder to encourage them. Being unable to fight friends easily was one of the biggest letdowns for me in this game.

kitten . Thanks!
~~~~~~~~~~

This happens to me frequently- i’ll summon the phantasmal warden and he’ll just stand there. Even if he lives to when the second spin should start, nothing. What causes this? It’s gotten me killed more than once.

I don’t pvf much but I will confirm our population, especially on our own (problematically glitchy- couldn’t even enter it without constant lag/dc last week) borderland, has stayed low since reset. Few hours after reset and it was probably 15 of us, not enough to scout, guard, and protect against the 15-20man sbi and mag zergs plowing around the map. We can call for our dedicated wvw guilds but they can only be so many places at one time.

Pinko.2076:

All I wanna say is how can you even bend a Yak that’s all pops wheelie

Yak Bending is a fine martial art honed through grueling training and “Yak Whispering”, and is an essential element of true balance.

Cheering you on, Yak Benders, we’ve got a tough week ahead and a lot against us. But we’ve already shown we’re tough enough to take it and keep moving. Many thanks to our commanders for putting in so much time and effort, and for those doing the thankless guard/scout/escort/upgrade/tag work

Next time I get a crash i’ll save the log and post it here. I’ve noticed a lot of them lately.

Today I logged on to play and can barely get in three minutes of play before i’m d/ced. I’ve never had this problem before and others have said it might be the patch.

ps- This is unplayable, i’ve given up.

Yes, it was a disappointment. It encouraged pve players to come in and achieve hunt, but that behavior was not necessarily helpful to the success of the server (which eventually meant very little because of the lackluster rewards, a real let down after we pushed ourselves harder than ever) and significantly increased lag and queue times, making wvw more frustrating than before. Not to mention that ranking higher = greater reward for whole server brought out a level of ugly competitiveness, cheating and saobotage that has turned me (a hardcore wvwer of many months) off to the game mode entirely…
Yes. I’m very disappointed.

I was in map at that time and read that conversation. It’s that sort of totally overt flaunting that makes me wonder why such obvious misery hunters can’t be easily brought to an appropriate penalty.

I have redacted my goal of collecting player information, I understand how this could be abused and by no means want to start a witch hunt. In the case of my server we have undeniable proof that a self-admitted spy/saboteur has been griefing us for weeks, and I made this thread with that in mind.
I am simply frustrated with the lack of results of contacting/reporting to anet, and frustrated that there is nothing else that can be done. If other players had some experience with this situation (i’ve heard it’s old hat on tier one servers) I’d be glad to hear about it if only because not discussing it is upsetting and crowding map chat in wvw is not the place.

If the exploit is just buying a new account and doing normal stuff like piloting a golem, does it fall under the same rules? I imagine that rule is in place to prevent knowledge of how to break/abuse the game from spreading, but this isn’t a flaw in the game’s internal mechanics so much as it is a lack of protection for wvw players. What I think is really missing is a way to report and prevent this kind of behavior. There are ways to get rid of gold sellers, spammers, scammers, etc. Why not sabotage?
Yes, we can contact anet and file reports through this site, but for one thing it’s time consuming and difficult, so many report only in game, and after weeks of one saboteur being reported by hundreds of players they are still openly and shamelessly continuing the same bad behavior.

In my experience, d/d ele and warrior can run further from a zerg and are more likely to escape, but ele will run out of skills and get killed before war. Guard is terrible for running imo, even with all its blocks and invuln, unless you put speed runes on it (and why would you) it just can’t move fast enough to outdistance eles, wars, thieves, etc.
Too bad you won’t give thief a chance, it’s basically what you’re asking for.

tl;dr you probably want a warrior

I submitted a formal violations report, but combing through the code of conduct I saw there are no rules protecting wvw specifically. #22 forbids the manipulation/fixing of spvp matches and while I recognize the game modes are very different, the fact that there’s no rule preventing the kind of sabotage and trolling that are ruining the fun of wvw seems like a serious issue to me. That a few determined jerks can seriously cripple our ability to properly play the game should require attention.
Anet has stated they’re not looking for fair matchups, but when the opposition is on our own server we have no way to fight back.

nevermind i’m a big gay baby and i’ve moved on
peace

Purifer.3946:

Nuzt.7894:

samsa.1253:

Servers that have had people transferring to preform things like building all kinds of siege, waisting supply, to give their server and advantage should be van from any kind of reward since they didn’t play by the rules.

This makes perfect sense, punish an entire server for the actions of a few. This is a very well thought out suggestion ……

This happens in almost all competitions. Even if fans do something wrong like invading the camp or stuffs.

If that were implemented all someone would have to do is stay on their own server, claim to be a spy for the enemy, break a bunch of kitten obviously, and watch their opponent server get penalized. It’s not a solution to the problem.
Before we were vying for placement in the season I never saw this many saboteurs (in fact after nine or ten months of wvw the concept of sabotage was new to me).

I think the seasons were a way to push people into wvw who never played, and give them reason to try many aspects- from roaming (sentries, yaks, ruins) to zerging etc.
But as someone who primarily plays wvw, spending hundreds of hours doing the most helpful things for my server didn’t cover all that was required to get the key saying “I did the wvw!”. Tedious things like walking yaks, tagging seige, and standing guard are still ignored in material reward. It’s alright, but the seasons brought in a new population of achievement hunters whose interest in wvw was not the spirit of competition and teamwork, but only another place to grind specific tasks on the to-do list. Rather than learning strategy, discepline, and other skills useful to a successful week, I think many of these people spent the weeks with blinders on.
The thing I enjoyed the most about gw2 in my first months of play was that i was rewarded for playing as I would have played even without reward. I didn’t have to work- i just did what I would have done to entertain myself and got appropriate rewards. With this season, I had to waste time grinding things I don’t enjoy (taking ruins for example) even though I far surpassed other numbers (camps/towers taken, etc). If someone like me can’t get the achieves naturally, I can only imagine what a pain it was for more casual players. And the increased strain on servers leading to some huge lag and long queues actually made for more frustrating wvw.

The introduction of this reward/ranking in my mind is a complex side-effect, but pushing around dedicated wvwers with tedious achievements in hopes it will get non wvwers to play it, at its core seems counter productive.

As for rewards- I just want more good matchups! One night of fights and then a week of karma trains is a disappointment. Last week we were finally matched with two determined servers that could keep pace without overwhelming us and it was a rush! Our ability as a server increased as we rose to the challenge. Sinking back into the old “well, there’s no fighting left to be had, steamroll it all” is like watching six pack abs bloat into a beergut in a matter of days.

It’s soulbound once you get it, so you would have been out of luck anyway. ty guys
(for your gentle sympathy lol)

PS- I’d avoid the very tip top tier because I’ve heard queue times just to get on the map on Blackgate can be 40 minutes long at all times… Not sure if that’s just hearsay.

I’m on Yaks Bend, which is in the middle rankings, relatively small but very active. I haven’t tried on other servers but I’ve heard Tarnished Coast is a much larger and active server and wvw there is a lot of fun.

I play wvw more than pve or pvp. There are a few ways to play: 1. As a roamer, either solo or with a small group, taking camps, killing yaks (to disrupt enemy supply), sentries (to get a single point for your map), contesting keeps (to keep enemies from using their waypoints, and setting off false alarms), and scouting to report enemy zerg movements. This is a great pvp experience, but if you’re mobile enough, like warrior and thief, you can also slip away from fights.
2. As part of the zerg. You become a footsoldier in a much larger army, following the commander and taking over the map. It’s great loot and exp and you don’t need to be terribly strong to flip poorly defended objectives. You can bring uplevels (lower than 80) and level up fast. This is the most lucrative way to play.
3. As part of a guild. Many wvw guilds have regular sessions of running together. You work as a team, using builds that cooperate and synergize, and strategizing to be powerful in battle. Although this way of playing can be a little more serious, it’s awesome to go in and bust enemy zergs. Watching the wave of red names flatten underfoot is a great feeling!

So, I think you should give wvw a try and understand that it is more fun when you have more people playing with you. Sorry I don’t know about other individual servers but any with a good population and active wvw community will give you a better experience.

Engis are a great soloing class and I think you should have fun with it as a beginner, too. Every class has its strengths and weaknesses, but while you’re still getting familiar with the game you should just try what seems interesting to you.
Leveling usually has less to do with killing endless monsters, and more to do with completing events, exploring the map, and trying different kinds of gameplay.

I was a kittening kitten and bought the wrong class of armor… heavy instead of medium. I’m kicking myself so hard for not paying more attention.
Is there any way I could get a switch?
or am I just gonna have to salvage it?
sobs quietly

The scary part is I already have an 80 guardian and my mes is 80 too. I leveled him fast in wvw though so I didn’t learn mes the same slow and thorough way I learned guard. There’s still a lot i need to learn so always glad to make new friends and play together.
Thankfully a lot of good resources here on builds and ideas for weapons/traits to match my playstyle. But all the worse to not know the basic illusion limit at this point lmao
ty for your kind response

Excellent to know! I thought it was as you said but clearly I have been tricked by my own illusions before. Useful when I see reinforcements around and fight harder, winning a battle instead of running, and then realize that the reinforcements were just me… But not so good if I make foolish newbie mistakes with illusions. lol

Sorry to hear other players are treating you with a bad attitude. I run solo a lot and glom onto zergs when I feel like it, or break off and do other things, and this gives me a lot of freedom to be supportive however I feel like. But, it could be a difference in server, guild, etc.
I agree that it’s unfair for others to decide how you should be playing. I doubt they would like to have the group backseat-building them.
I dropped this build in another thread recently but maybe another type of zerg support might be more rewarding for you: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/The-Zerg-Soldier-WvW-Build/first

Hmm i’ll have to pay closer attention, it’s likely my own mistake then, though it seems like I often have more than 3 up. Does anyone know if clones or phantasms replacement-shatter first? Like, if there are both phantasms and clones out, will the clones shatter before phantasms, or is it a oldest-illusion-shatters-first situation always?

I know these are really basic newbie questions but honestly I never thought to ask them before this.

While looking through builds I came across this one: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/The-Zerg-Soldier-WvW-Build/first
Although it has things in common with a glamour build, it relies more on reflection and toughness and I’ve had a good time with it so far. I’m not much for a condition build (although https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Illusionary-Bomberman-PvX-build/first is a blast to run in pvp, people expect the phants but not the bleed and down before they know they’re dead). And of course in a zerg your clones will die fast, but if you stay out of melee and use yourself as a source of nonstop reflection it’s a different way of supporting and staying alive.

I was certain I’d had more than three clones and phantasms active at a time, but I just noticed on http://en.gw2skills.net/professions/mesmer/ that it states we can only have three up before the next one shatters an old one. Is it that we get three clones and three phants? Even so, I seem to recall having four phants up at once before…

Thanks very much for the response, that reinforces what I was thinking about healing/toughness combo. To compensate for that damage, since very high healing is not really neccessary, could more be put into power/precision/crit? Or is that just spreading stats out too thin to get much benefit?

Might be a totally broken idea but i’m just curious if anyone has thoughts on a build heavy in these three, as I’m new to the profession and metagame.