Guild Wars 2

I’ve been using it in my build template for awhile, even with Jaguar f2 crit and other hard hitting pet attacks it doesn’t amount to much overall, though the slightly longer daze is nice. I use trap ground target in that last slot most of the time, spike trap or frost trap helps my pet do more damage over the course of a fight and I can damage people on walls with a trap where setting up a hit with Moment of Clarity with a pet in a siege attack would have to involve Guard and that whole routine.

I really like the idea of the trait and it works decently enough pet wise, just not how it fits with all of our current skills as Dante mentioned. There’s nothing really in our arsenal to capitalize on it.

Seattle and Maguuma Washington here.

I still enjoy w3 for the most part, I get an hour or two a day after work so I only w3, parking my second character at an orr temple for when I have the karma for another piece of gear. There are some minor problems which can be frustrating sometimes, but the only thing that really bothers me are people with no interest in our servers success loading in for the jumping puzzle and complaining for five minutes to an hour that pvp happened. There’s really no indication to anyone on a server, even to most who play w3, what the rewards are for the server, but then there’s also very little personal gain. Still I enjoy the design enough and the community on our server is pretty solid, nearly as addictive as my old server in Age of Conan.

With all of the “to the so and so who was at this place last night” and “what were you wearing, I might remember you”, this thread is turning out to be a bit awkward and uncomfortable.

I’m sure you and I have ran into each other escaping into some lake in one of our matchups Talmor. I appreciate the extra layer and I’ve seen some crazy large scale moves take place under and through water in w3. My only gripe with it at this point is that there are far too many trash fish. In w3 and pve I’d rather see fewer trash fish but more powerful so it can be an actual challenge rather then a time sink and I can go “oooh” and “ahhh” at the scenery once in awhile without all the seafood in the way.

fellyn.5083:

Cover Girl.2580:

its easy to review each case before pulling the trigger.. the while shoot first figure it out later attitude is fail. so fail.

Actually it’s probably easier to ban first and ask questions later. Only people who are legit will question it.

At least, I’m sure that’s anets theory. In reality we know a lot of kitten they put in this game since launch has been completely untested.

The problem there is, they automatically perma ban your account and they don’t respond to emails, so the only hope to settle the matter, as my friend who was in the wrong place at the wrong time in open pve has to hope for, is calling customer service. You can teleport with 3rd party programs like entire guilds are server hopping to do and you can buy and sell gold, but you can’t send your friends a little funds or hook up with random people in open world and start shooting at what they’re shooting.

And yet a friend of mine was simply shooting at a champion in an open pve area that everyone in the area was shooting at, and their automated system considered that champion as being in an exploitable position and he and others there get perma banned. Their current system sends a very backwards message really, as another friend buys gold from gold sellers and WvWvW has entire guilds pulling this stuff going from server to server without a care.

The trapper build is solid all around, even if you don’t use the trap traits all the time. I’m using 0/30/30/0/10 currently and using the Pet’s Prowess, Carnivorous Appetite, and Moment of Clarity this week in w3 trying out different trait, weapon, utility combos. The trap build it’s self is nice for the points as well as allowing for excellent trait switching without having to run to an npc for a respec.

They can help their server gain a rank or two then get their POI’s and vistas. It’s okay though, we can haul and operate their siege equipment to take towers and keeps and polish off their shiny Ascended gear if it get’s scuffed.

I’ve been 10/30/0/20/10 for a long time now. I’m sure many will claim that other point allocations would be better, and most certainly so for a funneled build, but with what I have right now and my badge/karma/loot whatever I can afford gear, it’s been the most adaptable for myself and the way I move and respond. It’s also been the most convenient, for myself again, to switch traits on the fly without having to respec to have the tools for whatever I run into.

What it comes down to is, I’m a bit lazy and cheap and my build supports my bad habits.

Wizardauz.3761:

Stuff

I’m not flaming or agreeing, or disagreeing with what you’re trying to explain. I’m saying you don’t really have to explain it, since most of us already understand the activity, it’s not a far out idea that only a select few understand, most people on the thread are simply stating, who cares?

Sometimes, I prefer to run those groups with pickups, since they’re not totally into themselves so they get going right away and don’t rage so harshly whenever they fail, they just jump right back into it or call it day. I don’t have all day to stand around waiting for an elaborate plan that takes longer to explain then to execute. There are some solid guild groups who just go out and make a mess and run at a pace I can appreciate, and who don’t over think it.

saiyr.3071:

Compare this post to the one by Wizardauz.3761 and I think you’ll realize this is a lame semantics argument about what a “gank squad” is.

We all get what he’s saying, the same redundant post for the last couple of pages. For the last couple of pages, I haven’t seen anyone argue that’s it’s a bad thing to do,, only that they’re nothing special. It’s something plenty of pugs have been doing since beta, why fill the match thread with the same basic post over and over?

I could run around in circles all day tab target shooting and claim I’m tactically confusing the enemy, doesn’t mean I’m doing any more then what most others are doing out there. Many of you on this thread give yourselves too much credit and trying to sound like a host on the military channel in your posts doesn’t impress anyone. All of us run around in super secret-clandestine-ninja-chaotic-fear-instilling-kill squads when there’s nothing else to do.

I keep Thieves Guild slotted, a sudden force multiplier using skills I don’t have to slot has been more useful for me. One Infiltrators Strike with some melee or someone else’s retaliation and they’re usually sent packing, or become a free badge or two since they’re so easy to see among the crowed. Still, it is frustrating if you’re in a zerg who doesn’t bother to counter it.

Going by the numbers on these threads, no one ever loses a 1v1. Anyone who wants to make absolute claims about the class can post videos of a few matches, unedited, start to finish (and leave out the stupid music).

Forzani.2584:

Iggy.9482:

Because otherwise it would make it imbalanced. If they didn’t die, then what would be the point of them existing in the first place? Why not just give all rangers an aura around them that gives a few players buffs?

Why not just give Rangers an aura around them that gives a few players buffs ? Agree, why not. You spec for it, and have the skills active, why not.

We can call it team spirit. There should be some trade off still, maybe a short radius or something along those lines. Spirits have a huge trade off currently, as in you trade a utility spot for something that will die and be inactive for the whole fight.

I quit SWtor for this game to escape required dailies. W3 is in bad shape in terms of community consistency already, watch it face plant once people are sunk into the daily depression.

KiNgPiN.2075:

Also PVE oriented people have to spend long time in WvW even if they dont care about WvW just to get 500 badges for their legendary. last time a mentioned this issue, some “wise” people told me (dont have your legendary – problem solved), and u know what i did? I grind those 500 badges. And the same go to PVP oriented playes. Sometimes life doesnt go your way but if u wanna have best in slot items u have to do things that you consider boring just to get gear u want.

Legendary gear is not best in slot, Ascended is best in slot. You didn’t ‘have to’ grind those badges for best in slot gear, you simply wanted a Legendary weapon to show off, which is cool, but not having it would not have set you back at all and so you really didn’t have to do any pvp. In fact, you don’t have to do much if any pvp in W3 for those badges anyway, half of /team and /map chat is full of people asking for portals to the top of jumping puzzles or that someone was a big meany and hit them while they were up there so they need the whole server to protect them.

Don’t try to make it sound like a balanced trade off, you can get everything and the best through dungeons and pve farming. You will not get everything and the best through W3 or pvp.

Mubarizun.6435:

So about the Grub who got inside EB keep LOL.

That fight was different at least, I don’t think we’ve ever been ninja’d by an npc before, he’s some kind of smart bug.

Thrumdi.9216:

It’s just trying to heal the guy standing right next to me.

A game is broken if you can’t heal the guy standing right beside you.

I heal my friends specifically quite often. Though, we almost never dig into the middle of a zerg, we set up our own little battery off to a side. We contribute more making ourselves a separate target away from the group and handling shooters on the wall or intercepting portal bombers or other anti siege. It was mentioned above, if an attack is being handled that poorly it’s best to stand back or find some place else anyway.

Granz.4068:

I see people complain they don’t want gear for progression in WvW. It makes it like WoW blah blah. But I know that if they don’t do anything that we can progress towards this game will be deader than dead in a few months. Hell it is already headed in that direction as we speak according to 90% of the people on theses forums. They have to give us progression that makes our toons better. No “Titles” will not cut it. Granz “The Super Awesome” above my head won’t work. I personally think Mythic nailed the PvP progression system in DAoC. Abilities and stat buffs was awesome. But never the less we need something. We need a reason to play this game. Right now there isn’t one.

According to 90% of the people who troll these forums maybe, then like 90% of the people who actually play the game and WvWvW blew up the thread in opposition to this. Most people are still having fun with actual character progression, I haven’t heard one person in game yet complain that they need stat progression. What exactly are you working towards? Every single other player will end up with exactly what you’re wearing but there will be a broad spectrum of players subpar or surpassing your skill and build or your guilds, or your server. There’s already a perfect setting for actual character progression and everyone I know were already happy with it.

Besetment.9187:

Nah, SM and CoS have been class. Credit where its due.

Have to agree there. Haven’t had much trouble with those thieves, but there’s a few other tags I’ve seen the last few nights who have timed their false retreats+flanks perfectly and gobbled up whole squads. I think group per group that’s probably the biggest threat I’m seeing currently, they simply have good terrain negotiation. Though, I’ve been seeing some crazy stuff from our smaller squads recently full of random regulars and I’m excited to see our plan on the fly rhythm get more solid.

Freyvin.5690:

It’s an odd feeling being on Maguuma, where our server had been known up until last Friday as being outnumbered but never outmanned where the skill of our players was what kept us in any match. Now, all of the sudden we have some vast surplus of players around the clock? Also, I see great personal skill from any server we’ve played against, I’ve seen some amazing moves from some EB players but it’s not the scenario of one servers mindless numbers vs another servers skilled elite smaller groups.

Seren.6850:

love the thieves that say the class isn’t broken, it’s just they are more skilled than other players to 1vs50. You just never hear “ranger just 1vs50 us at golanta, he kited us good”

I love how people say they love things they really don’t love. Anyway, I agree that there are ridiculous aspects of the thief class, at least in conjunction with some game world design. Being a thief who never uses back stab and almost never goes into stealth unless to daze or revive a downed teammate, it gets old seeing so many broad post titles like this. The only thing that needs to be fixed on my thief is flanking strike pathing and speed. Still, I counter those cookie cutter thieves on my guardian the same way I do on my thief, never seems like a big deal really, they’re no mesmers.

tagnut.8621:

Need to do something about the ridiculous spin round and round immune whilst killing half a dozen people ability then poof back into stealth.

The thief is without question silly overpowered and we’ve been waiting too long for proper fixes.

Stop auto shooting and cc lock that thief then start melee hitting them. If they’re not dead in a few seconds they’re not going to stick around. But then it’s probably that same terminator thief holding off fifty people from taking a supply camp.

I wasn’t bored with the game yet and no one in WvWvW or anywhere else were complaining in chat about being bored. If we needed something more or different, we could have used more or different areas in W3 with more and different skins obtained with badges of honor. They’ve already taken things out of W3 without a solid idea to replace those features yet and here comes a new, required as far as we know, dungeon. It’s like the dev monster is gobbling up pieces of WvWvW and leaving a steaming pile of pve on the ground.

RobinotX.1604:

A 8% stat increase in WvWvW, is laughable. I was playing WvWvW with my level 10 Mesmer and still won most fights :o. More with tactical thoughts over, pure stats tbh.

Everyone claims they win most of their fights, they don’t, and anyone claiming any stat increase won’t matter in W3 will be the same people rage quitting over another player having better gear.

I won’t say the set is bad or the best, I live in w3 and rarely touch the rest of the game. I live by my sword and dagger and nearly always have my 10-30-0-20-10 open template. I can switch traits within it and my utility bar is also free for whatever I want at the moment. I’ve basically geared up by loot, karma, and badges, so I didn’t have any grand plan of how I’d end up, this is simply where I am and it works.

Use everything at some point, there’s no reason not to see how everything works. Sometimes I’m protecting siege or moving a front line forward with Smoke Screen and Shadow Refuge, sometimes I’m holding a camp with a force multiplier trap+thieves guild roll out. The sword/dagger set just feels natural for an open build template where my build allows me to play my character rather then playing around a build.

Arcxander.9836:

Surbrus.6942:

Arcxander.9836:

The idea is, we need something that can motivate us to keep on going

Who is “we”? Pardon my ignorance, but I am from the crowd who plays pvp games for the game itself, and the idea of needing some sort of time sink reward is foreign to me. “We” must have vehemently hated video games from the 90’s and before.

“We” are those people who are different from “You”,

Yes the feeling of zest and fun in killing/pvp is there, but take note that not all players are the same as “You”.

We cannot deny it. It will happen. Yes it’ll just be the minority of the population but it will happen.

Different people have different views.

The point you’re trying to make in this post is the point he made in his post in response to your first post. Anyway, there doesn’t need to be any guild ranking or player names. People who ask for those things are usually the same people who avoid them because they know they’ll be ranked low and are afraid to lose a fight, features like that lead to more forum pvp then playing the game. Right now, if you’re good, you make your side better and you win fights and loot. If you’re bad, you make your side worse and you get looted. It’s good old fashioned open world pvp.

Yukishiro.8792:

Meest.2748:

Simple change for them while still keeping the same gameplay, on wall you get protection buff.

This is actually a very clever suggestion. Although it still doesn’t address the bizarre fact that it is actually easier to aoe people BEHIND a wall than it is to aoe people FROM behind a wall. Which makes zero sense. I can’t even throw my grenades over a 5 foot tall parapet to reach the enemy but the enemy can throw their grenades against my 20 foot tall wall and hit me.

That’s probably my one gripe at this point. On top of that, I can live with gaining less by defending and building, or scouting, but then to be basically a loot box for an attacking zerg just pours salt on the wounds. And you can safely man siege that won’t hit anywhere important, but try manning siege that can hit where you need it to and you’ll get blasted in a few seconds from the ground in front of the wall. Attacking siege only has to have range to the wall itself, defending siege has to match that range then add on a few feet to stay safe from ground aoe, putting it out of range to actually defend. I could still almost live with all of that if I didn’t have to stand on the very edge and balance on the wall to get anything other then cluster bomb off.

Stiv.1820:

kash.9213:

It is a good skill in it’s own right, but 50 seconds is too long a cool down for me, and the condition removal requires you to blow both stages of the skill since the second stage is on a timer.

The first stage’s timer ticks down behind the shadow return icon so you don’t loose anything by waiting for the best time to return in those 20 seconds. Then you just have 30 sec till it’s up again.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding your issue with it.

If the condition removal activated on the first press that would be great, but having to use it within the countdown before second press normally means in W3 that I won’t use the condition removal part of it, or if I do, there were no conditions to remove. I’m not saying it’s a bad skill, it’s quite good, just not good for me.

It is a good skill in it’s own right, but 50 seconds is too long a cool down for me, and the condition removal requires you to blow both stages of the skill since the second stage is on a timer.

That’s kind of the idea Grit, I hadn’t mentioned commanders specifically, I mean anyone who takes on any form of leadership, or who even attempts to work as a group. Also, you don’t have to write a book to explain why you’re doing something, but if your leaders or go getters don’t have the time to even break down simple stuff quickly like “we’re taking this tower as a buffer” then the zerglings are pretty much dormant until a commander icon logs on the rest of the time.

It’s not so much about disciplining pugs or educating them, it’s about not putting yourself above them and just keep working with them until they begin working with you more. It’s also best to include players groups at a time and crank out some precise objectives with a bit of communication about basic game mechanics, in the form of explaining why you’re doing something rather then “do this now”. There’s no teaching a full zerg.

Downed state is only the rest of their hit point bar, use this skill your talking about to figure it out.

I imagine anyone who’s spent 100g on that book has some interest in leading to some extent. I’ve only seen one or two troll commanders on Maguuma, and each had logged on for like a minute and left. Nearly all of our commanders are competent and encouraging. I’ve seen some commanders who are simply naturally good, and others who weren’t embarrassed to take suggestions and have become good. They pay in time on top of the book since the moment they pop that icon it’s go time. If I want something more precise, I’d get some people on a small voice comms, but as long as people are willing to put that icon use, I don’t mind using it as well.

It might be my limited play time has me logging in right at prime time, but I haven’t been in a group or squad yet this match that has had time to hang around and chat. This match up has a lot of fast moving groups and it’s always about keeping up with the action. I think the only time we got to slow down was tonight when we cheered on a valiant dolyak who lead the charge to liberate Quentin.

They could merge venoms into traps, and make needle trap work similarly to caltrops. Currently, caltrops are the best trap, and they’re not even a trap. I use ambush trap often, and I’ve used all of the traps in combination effectively, but it’s very difficult to warrant putting two traps at a time on utility bar currently. I’d love to be able to use a transmutation window to build my own skill with the venoms and traps, at least until something is done with those two categories.

Stiv.1820:

I was more talking about the skill involved in reviving. He said some groups are “better at reviving” which amounts to moving to point X (perhaps casting a field or stability) and hitting F.

I don’t think there’s much skill in it either apart from any skill a team might have in generally protecting their teammates to begin with. I would be more impressed with the skill of the team that has no one in the downed state, as I’ve seen so many rambos in a choke point up ahead by themselves raging that no one’s reviving them. I like the idea of the downed state in that it brings a group further then a gimmick sequence to pull of a win, but it really should only have a generic version of Thrill of the Crime or something similar to it, just a slight boon to your group.

Don’t use the F key, I almost never use it. The downed state is not so much another stage then just the last bit of your health bar which you don’t need a dedicated healing build for. Control and burn until everything is dead then loot. I agree with the disparity in downed state skill however, there really should be a stock arsenal of skills for everyone and more designed for helping your friends tick away at another group, otherwise, if you go down to two or more players on your own you should be dead, and if you die, you should be dead and the map should come up.

I agree with bomber on SoS. In small distances swiftness on dodge is fine and you can create blinds multiple ways, I tend to stick with my Smoke Screen even though it’s supposed to be my situational slot. In long distances, I sometimes switch to SoS, in W3 for instance, when I know it’s going to be a long lonely run or I’ll grab someones longer duration swiftness and maintain staggering my own.

Great write up Wulfe. In Age of Conan on our server, leaders grew out of the community rather then the other way around, we simply had raid groups and voice comms to work with, but it worked. It would be nice if commanders had some more features to work with, like forming groups within their squad, and possibly setting a squad size limit including hiding their icon from all but those in their squad. A lot of the interest my guild had in W3 has gone into a bit of a funk lately. It almost seems like the later stages of previous games is what we’re starting with here and going backwards.

I can’t say I agree or disagree, I’d say leave it as is, but add more features and provide more control for commanders. Allow them to develop more on their terms based off their guilds and their own interest and team style. If they want to run a zerg around and have their name out there then great, let them do that. If they want to roll with a certain momentum with their guild and friends first and branch out among the community with a bit more strength and control to stand on then that should be an option as well.

Start calling the thief your main instead of your alt.

You described most mmo’s, except most of those you get o pay 15$ a month and get all those problems anyway. It’s really not that bad, W3 is still fun minus the population disparities, the bugs and stuff get fixed, some break again, circle of life.

ViperWire.4261:

…The pressure of our server’s WvW success cannot be on only <6-8 people commanding….

If these people weren’t so emotional and took a break from rubbing each other off they could read my posts again and see that’s about what I’m saying. When there’s action going on and stuff is being taken, there’s like twenty different people flooding chat with conflicting calls and it’s all good as long as we’re taking stuff. Once it starts going bad, many of those same people blame bad commanders or that we have none on the map or rage at all of the pubs, but almost none of them attempt to encourage people or build them back up and get things going after a loss or map wipe.

Last night in EB was the high point of the week for me. In a largely neglected map with mostly new players and pubs, I saw a small group of random people and guilds thrown together knocking out objectives without the usual raging and for most of that stretch there were no commanders around. Afterwards, when the FA zergs took things back one by one, none of the usual drama reared it’s head, they all felt it was worth the run to pull another servers attention their way. That’s the Maguuma worth sticking with or transferring to.

Well if you want to assume I’m specifically talking about 100g icons Beset have at it, I was trying to be broad but you guys take offense even when people are basically saying the same thing as you are in a thread. This is the second time in a thread I’ve tried to put the responsibility on the rest of us on the server but the circle jerk wants to think everyone’s against them.

@TrunkMonkey. That’s why I wrote Mag, for Maguuma, and put part of the blame on the population for not using available tools. And yes, there are a lot of people in EB usually who try to run something for those who might be somewhat new to w3 or simply like the map, I don’t mind jumping on that mumble myself, but many there either don’t know, don’t care, or have been called kitten for not being on there right away and raged at or ignored when they have been on there. Again, that’s on Mag as a whole as it is a public mumble right.

Anyway, Maguuma’s a fun server and I like pretty much everyone here, but it suffers a bit of Sauron Syndrome. When a few eyes are turned all the orcs don’t have a clue. I think our population could easily overcome that with more commander icons or at least more active communities in another time zone or two just so all the momentum and excitement isn’t totally lost within a matter of minutes after a day’s big burst. I suppose what it comes down to is, if Mag people want something to happen, at least on EB map, then they need to leave the waypoint steps and not wait for those commander icons.

I feel like Mag dropped the ball a little this week in terms of leadership not simply with victories, but with losses. We’re usually better at both, especially encouraging people after a lost fight, but this week there just doesn’t seem to be any follow up with either a victory or loss. Part of that is definitely on the population, as there are people and guilds who have provided leadership and tools to coordinate but neither is heavily capitalized on. I do however see a slowly growing core of guilds and individuals and I’ve seen some people from being new players to w3 to becoming solid group members so that’s still promising.

I’d agree to having to have a buff active to claim a keep. You can even just pop a magic find buff to claim and sit on the rest until you know there will be a stretch coming up of heavy action. Part of the game is timing those buffs. I’d actually like to have the option to hand off or relinquish claim of a fort, for when my buffs are running out but I know another guild has some ready to roll. Maybe I’m seeing it this way since the guilds on Maguuma talk to each other some and that’s how it would probably be here. I can see how it could end up as an in-server competition between guilds if your server doesn’t have much of a community though.

I’m trying to imagine myself playing in a WvWvW like that, but all I see myself doing is logging off. I pretty much live on those maps right now, it’s all I do as soon as I log on as I don’t get much play time. I don’t want to wait around for even number group queues and leveling up in w3 is growing up for most players out there, it’s their progression and their stretch for learning their class. You get rewarded pretty well if your group or groups aren’t total idiots as it is and those doors, they’re only wood mostly. If a group is proficient enough to break in they’re getting in either way. If you are better and you are defending, you will hold them off either way.

About the only thing I can agree with there is the second half of number two, you can spend badges on siege, might extend your trek towards a big sparkly weapon but if that’s your main goal then chances are you’re not worth much to us out there anyway.