Guild Wars 2

no.

i dont want the stat bonus. i like the other part of it.

just keep submitting bug reports. i think they rarely read class forums.

it works on only 3 targets instead of 5. that includes the initial immobilize, and the pulsing cripple

Xsorus.2507:

Describe the current GvG meta and how it has evolved

i doubt i can convey all the details, but it basically started with warrior hammer trains exerting tremendous aoe CC. then Red Guard discovered how to beat the game by stacking mostly PVT guards for perma stability and better sustain, a couple of hammer warriors, and a few very talented casters. this change in meta in turn encouraged everyone to bring out more power wellmancers and glassy backliners to melt the guardian powerline. and finally, we have now seen a very FUN meta evolution of backline pressure and periphery play, which involves other specs with sole purpose of eliminating the backliners.

where it’s gonna go next is very interesting, but as i said, it keeps evolving. now you humour me, and describe how the spvp and WvW duel metas havent DEvolved.

Xsorus.2507:

Because none of the videos are distinguishable from pugs zerging one another.

watch some of ogre’s GvG reports. top GvG’ers are probably some of the best pvpers in the game, and they have to know their profs inside and out. some of the best ones spend most of their time dueling and small ganging in WvW. the jousts place more emphasis on cohesion and altruism, instead of just lookin’ out for #1 (yourself). there are many maneuvers to master and when kitten hits the fan as it often does, if youre not a good pvper, you will get melted. lots of guilds try to emulate this organization and sometimes even fall apart attempting. you should know how hard this can be just from your roams with AoN (which i believe u did a while back?). in all honesty, i think a lot of new guilds fall apart when they try to emulate this when people arent ready, because the atmosphere can seem so rigid and elitist unless everyone is on the exact same page.

but only few are very good at this. perhaps youve only watched the lower tier guilds in action? i didnt enjoy watching GvG’s until i took part in some myself, and then i started seeing techniques and maneuvers i didnt see before.

GvG is just another way of playing the game. it’s the next level of GvZ, just like tournaments were the next level of hotjoin a while back.

Sensotix.4106:

true that and it has also worked for tpvp before the condition meta

Khalifa used something similar but with way different traits. It needed to be well played and babysat. Other than that exception, power builds didnt work well in tpvp.

This build is fun in wvw with 100% crit damage. It’s been around since the deathshroud buff and was designed for gvgs and zerg stomping

How do you deal with stability nemesis? It’s very prevalent in higher tier meta. In fact some guilds run like 10 guards and have perma stability. With fear immunity all u have left is bleeds. Fearmancing is great for dueling and vs. disorganized groups for sure.

I ran with cb/epi/spectral wall for a while right after spectral wall was buffed. I loved it for its potential but when everyone is stable your dps is kitten.

Then the formula is wrong. People just need to test this stuff out better. It’s really easy to setup. I ran a cleric ranger for a looong time so I know leap with 1300hp heals for 2k. Blast on water is 1750 with 1600hp. Blasts healing for 2k would be extremely op due to aoe nature.

Brutaly.6257:

@Mistsim
Empower 1990
Merciful intervention 2338
VoR 2058 excluding regen
Blast finisher 1900 (dont understand where you get 1700 from i trigger it for 1900 when in my team)

That alone is over 8k with 350 hp.

1750 blast heal with 1600 hp. It about 1300 with none. U can look up the formula on wiki whenever ure not sure. Blast scales pretty badly. Ure probably thinking of the leap finisher.

Also if ure running your typical pvt build ure not gonna be using MI nor will you be using empower on every cd because, well, youre supposed to be frontlining or dpsing. Regen is another one that scales really well. If it’s not ticking for at least 300 it’s not really worth it.

So yeah 2k + 2k and another 2k if you blow RF. Dodge roll also scales really well with hp. I spam it for almost 2k aoe with vigorous precision and energy sigils. Otherwise it’s not really worth it as a support type trait. My healing output will be twice as high and boons much longer. Cleric guards DEDICATED to support make a tremendous difference in all areas of wvw. You’re not just spamming heals but also better blast finishers, better boons, and walls are bonus.

Anyway enough about healing type stuff. Im looking forward to trying that pvt/valk/zerk setup. Mad damage!

3 camps here:

- spvp’ers/skirmishers who THINK GvG doesnt require skill. it’s for scrubs who like to blend into a “zerg” to increase their chances of winning. GvG is boring to watch.

- GvG puritans / GW1 vets who are living in the past. how dare you call this GvG? only legit GvG is in GW1. they strictly refer to the gametype, not to its variations.

- WvW purists; GvG’ers arent playing the WvW game. they lower server PPT.

all 3 sides couldnt be more wrong. in high tier GvG, every player counts and knows his/her prof inside and out. if one falls, the entire guild can lose the match. and current GvG is a legit DM mode with an organically evolving metagame. GvG has a bigger following than spvp, is more interesting to watch, and has greater build diversity. i also find it much more fun to play. i was likely one of the first rank 35’s back in october, and i completely ditched spvp for WvW in January when i saw it was going nowhere. lastly, GvG guilds decrease PPT for their respective servers during the match, so it’s balanced. further, GvG guilds also bring the most PPT by annihilating pug zergs and taking whatever objectives they please; most GvG guilds spend most of their time in WvW GvZ’ing against pubs. the only difference is they bring the GvG meta to the table and brutally crush all pugs that get in the way.

gonna have to put in my vote here. take away the stat buff, keep the world point buff. pretty simple. people will still fight over the points.

ICD should have been hotpatched into the client WEEKS ago. this is ridiculous. this company has like no QA.

uh u guys know about valk/zerker wells builds right? 2700 power, 100% crit damage, tons of vit and survivability, and an extremely deadly Deathshroud. imo, no reason to run wells any other way. starts at 13:50

fearmancing with Doom/staff 5/spectral wall and rabid armor is very fun and effective against disorganized groups in lower tier WvW. in higher tier play, organized groups are basically perma stable and you wont be getting any terror damage or fear off. rabid corruption builds (CB/BiP/epi) are very viable against smaller groups. but as zergs get bigger and better, it’s all about damage, damage, damage. wells, wells, wells.

in spvp, i can see it being very fun and viable.

besaah.2516:

mistsim.2748:

DM in gw2 is a LOT of fun and the game is by nature much better balanced with DM in mind. if you take away conquest, build diversity explodes. this is why WvW and GvG are so popular, and spvp is not.

conquest involves way more strategie and teamplay, the difficultie ist naturaly higher. with having the option to just simulate a deathmatch people will obviously go for the deathmatch. after all it’s more fun to kill people rather than out strategize them.

conquest involves more mobility and map awareness, but it kills build diversity. and one thing that cant be denied is that conquest is not fun to play or watch. most pvp’ers dont participate in spvp (theyre in wvw), and the mode is literally impossible to watch and commentate.

Ophidian.9043:

This wont just destroy GvG but the entire WvW as well. People thinking that they added stuff for small groups are being naive.

You have to keep these points for 2 solid minutes, more then enough time for any zerg to move to your location, chances are the zerg will be roaming somewhere in the middle anyways because you can secure and protect the points, and also move to one of the 3 keeps with relative ease.

one thing that cant be denied is that this new map will actually break zergs apart. this is the intent. one zerg cant steamroll 3 points. and did u actually see the terrain? if they try, it will rain bags for my power wellmancer. my point is, zergs would get annihilated in this terrain, and they dont have the mobility u think they do.

DM in gw2 is a LOT of fun and the game is by nature much better balanced with DM in mind. if you take away conquest, build diversity explodes. this is why WvW and GvG are so popular, and spvp is not.

bradderzh.2378:

How many of these threads are there going to be. Worry about the upcoming league system that is going to ruin wvw for 7 weeks not some silly runes that do absolutely nothing in normal wvw play (nobody cares about your small gank squads picking on lowbie upscaleds).

Not once have I been in a stituation where these runes were an issue. The only time I had been caught out was against a perplexity headshot thief on my s/d ele (aka EVERYTHING interruptible) and what did he do? Apply lots of confusion which did nothing to stop me regrouping with my guild mates.

Sure I wouldn’t be able to kill him, but who cares? Killing some useless thief does nothing for my server. Same as killing some useless warrior or engi with these runes. Learn how confusion works and you will rarely get taken out by it.

Stop posting issues about runes classes and skills in the wvw forums. There are much more scary issues with wvw than this stuff. The wvw devs can’t even do anything g to change your issues anyway so put them somewhere where a dev can look at them.

these forums really need a downvote option so we can bury nonsense like this.

mrstealth.6701:

GvG doesn’t bring anything to WvW other than entertainment for the guilds involved.

this is not true. dozens of people spectate GvG matches, and actually, theyre a lot easier to follow than spvp tourneys.

regarding numbers, i can say with near certainty GvG has a bigger following than spvp currently. so the devs can ignore this for only so long.

GvG is the WvW endgame. it gives people involved in WvW something to strive for. unlike spvp, GvG’s meta evolves naturally with many more viable specs in comparison.

if you look at some high tier GvG’s, those players have a lot of skill and likely know their profs inside and out. sorry to burst your bubbles, but most pvp’ers are actually in WvW.

DevonCarver.5370:

When/if we focus our attention on GvG we will do our utmost to make it a game type that fits the needs of as many people as possible. That time is not now.

Devon, you dont need to get involved in GvG and make it this big thing, this new game mode. all you have to do is support this thriving community. support, that’s all. the least you can do as a dev is stay neutral and not take it away from us. you guys are not staying neutral toward GvG.

yeah, MT isnt cleave. this is a bug.

i can see storm spirit Call Lightning and RL being cleaves though, which is fine. this needs to be stated in tooltip.

2 traveler runes should replace 2 water majors on the boon guard for 95%. 90% is and was easily achievable. boon/cleric guards are and have been for a long time one of the best builds in the game, across all profs. glad to see there are more of u out there!

Goody.9035:

Thank you Christos for posting this Build.

In zergfight? it’s awesome…
solo? it’s awesome…
smallscale? it’s awesome…

You only have to change few traits and it fits every situation!

And how often this build saved my whole group!

Greetings from Germany!

it really doesnt do enough damage for small scale and zerg fights. but then u can just play more of a support role for your friends with hammer/staff.

i’ll definitely be aiming for 20k HP, so i’ll likely go full PVT armor

im thinking with the 30 secs of stability, SoS invulnerability, sword evade and disengage, and hunter’s shot, we shouldnt be too bad off. +20% damage when flanking. im in JQ myself. in tier 1, it’s all about damage damage damage. and stability.

when or if they fix muddy terrain, i’ll likely be back on my sentinel build, but right now MT is just inadequate.

hey ayden. swiftness and regen are such weak boons, especially without full cleric gear. i just dont see them making a difference. WH + HS is amazing now though. if ure gonna go the condi cleansing route, id just put some points into spirits and go SoR/MT/Stone Spirit/SoN, in addition to brown bear for the condi cleanse. spirit CD’s got reduced and you can get a new one up every 25s. SoN every 2 mins if the first one lives!

i tried playing ranger as support before, even made a top-rated reddit guide about it. but unlike staff ele and cleric guard, i didnt find my support abilities mattered at all. no stability/protection/might, no big on-demand heals, and no hard cc =(

off-topic: check out my valkyrie build im working on. if youre gonna hang out with zergs, might as well do a load of damage and kinda live most of the time.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAT8XjEVJ2FWSWs2Bi1DCFoB1KwJ2D+zoFB-jUyAYLBZySgSfFRjtsWENW9CmqUQWZmUvhgsPRZVKgIGGB-w

gs damage needs to be upped so that it’s not only viable with zerker gear. maul needs to do 10 stacks of vuln to be of any use. if ranger could spam vuln in a cone, frontline rangers could become a semi-viable prof in high tier wvw.

Dasboba.1652:

These runes are over the top atm, but I find it hilarious that people are complaining about the least played class in the game. Before the patch the engineer had 2 damage weapons to choose from. What this rune did was turn the shield into an offensive rather than purely defensive weapon. They should limit the stacks rather than put an icd. If they keep adding icd’s to offensive procs, then I want icd on retaliation so I don’t get hit with 10 stacks every time I throw a grenade.

right now it’s the most played class in duels. because of the runes, but still, broken.

this isnt a l2p issue, dont make me laugh.

my muddy terrain is still only affecting 3 targets instead of 5! could we at least get a hint whether or not this is intended or bug?

hey chopps/guys,

what do you think about the dire set ^^ i think it would would be very appropriate for this build.

also +1 on malicious training. u can run it with 2 wolves or dog/wolf for some serious aoe goodness.

/runsofftotheorycraft

fun stuff! +like

i still cant believe this hasnt been hot patched yet. WvW duels and small gang skirms have been totally hijacked by cheese confusion engies.

Brutaly.6257:

And with 300 healing you can burst for 10k and do three times the damage.

Once again, im not against clerics, im against clerics spamming the staff, it is nothing but tagging and adds very little. I think The healway thread show how a cleric should/could be played effectively.

burst what for 10k? with 300 HP youre doing about 4.5k aoe heals max if u spam Empower, blast finisher and VoR. thats nothing. 15k (roughly) is gives another life to 4 people. there is a huge difference going PVT/cleric like the guy above me, vs. full on cleric with healing stacks (1600 HP). ive healed and buffed 4 others and myself through insane zerg dives. the most important thing u can give in those situations is protection, stability and 9 aoe condis cleanses (VoR x2 and 3 shouts with PoV).

but i get some of your points. im glad youre not against clerics, as it brings tremendous utility for the group. but youve been attempting to argue that 300 HP + damage is > 1600 HP + maxed boon duration. all im saying is that both have their place. ive carried groups with my healing output and boons, and continue to do so. and ive been in many situations where buffing a bunch of other people while throwing up a few walls contributed way more to our effort than a bunch of dps would have. with 300 HP and low boon duration, you cant really “support” your team. youre just doing a bunch more dps, which IS needed as well. i want to play this, which is why i asked for advice in the other thread.

the “healway” is a 0/0/10/30/30 tpvp build that’s been around for almost a year. many guards including myself have been using this way before that thread, and while the vid demonstrates some decent 1vX capability against pubs, it’s small beans compared to how much you can support, CC and buff in a GvG/GvZ situation with staff/hammer/shouts. while that thread is very helpful to new guards, it doesnt actually demonstrate the true power of the cleric guard, which is supporting others around you. playing cleric without friends beside you is a complete and utter waste. cleric damage is pretty sad, and youre almost always better off spamming dodge roll heals on your buddies while throwing up walls, boons, and using Empower on every CD (12 long-lasting might stacks + 3.3 aoe heals).

these guys are totally ruining small gang pvp right now. when are these runes getting an ICD? no one should be able to stack 25 confusion in seconds on multiple targets. over and over again.

the numbers are pretty clear to prove my point, which is very simple: u can burst heal for about 15k aoe, and u cant do this with 300 healing power.

mighty blows arent hitting for 5k every 5s. maybe on lights without prot, assuming no blind/aegis. hammer play is directly countered, if not neutered by a few plagues, whereas somebody with cleric gear and 90% boon duration could be thriving in that environment.

anyway, im not saying heals can ever keep up with that kind of dps, but theyre there to top people up and for emergencies. the heals work along long boons, condi cleanses, and cc. u bring a cleric guard for the whole package, and two good ones can keep 10 people up for a little while. it all depends on how u look at it i suppose.

Brutaly.6257:

The thing is that you can do almost the same thing with 300 healing power. The only thing that scales really well is the dodge and honestly in wvw its only really good when breaking that castledoor, waterfields are still more powerful and you dont have to stop doing damage when you heal.

i dont think youre aware of the numbers (u can watch one of my vids if u want). all things except for the blast finisher scale really well, in WvW anyway:

- empower 3.3k
- VoR 3.3k (x2 when RF is used)
- dodge roll 1.8k – this is really the spine of the build; it’s spammable with vigorous precision and energy sigils. a heal “skillshot”, u actually have to land it well and often.
- Shield of Absorption: 1.8k
- Merciful Intervention: 3.3k
- Regen: 333
- Blast finisher: 1750

so no, u cant do “almost” the same thing with 300 HP. all this is on a fairly low CD. not a lot of people know that u can actually be a healbot. but of course, just healing is very limiting as you mentioned. it also comes down to timing the shouts, virtues and walls. refilling the bars of 4 skilled mates from 30% to 100% in a few seconds is pretty kitten huge, but again people just dont know they can do this kind of stuff. like, i look at the “healway” build and i have to kinda laugh. all that energy expended on keeping oneself up in 1vX fights, when one could in fact keep 4 others up alongside, and engage in 5v15, which is basically what 0/0/10/30/30 is for =) there’s a reason why i played this build for almost a year and lived in my own little bubble with it. i didnt even want to know about others, but now im getting a little bored =)

great thanks man. good call on 0/5/30/30/5, that’s a nice touch. PVT + zerker gives much better stats than pvt + knights with ruby jewels

let me simplify it. i want as much sustain as possible compared to what my cleric guard can do, but more damage. PVT/knights gives very good numbers (3k attack, 2k toughness, 18-20k life, 35+ percent crit), but im afraid it wont have enough sustain. id like some input from people running this. im also afraid of pure knights build not having enough sustain. im talking zerg fights or large skirmishing (10+ players on each side)

im not sure what you mean by hammer/focus, and “tank not a burster”. all guard builds have to be frontline builds, so tank is assumed. im just trying to maximize my damage without giving up too much defensively.

it only pulls three. i believe it also doesnt damage 5 going one way (4 at most). i tested this on golems in mists.

point blank shot will kb 5 targets.

in comparison to all other professions, the ranger is not very streamlined. utilities, traits and weapon abilities dont work well together. too many soft cc’s, too little dps, not enough utility (no stab/prot/might, no aoe hard cc, no heals). in comparison to other properly played and specced profs, there is no reason to roll a ranger in organized WvW (GvG, GvZ, even small gang fights). the amount of utility and damage warriors, necros, eles and guardians bring to the table makes the ranger laughable. even the thief has a niche role for bursting single targets down, or doing massive aoe. engie has many blast finishers and water fields, in addition to much better aoe condis.

Tribio.8531:

TL;DR: Every profession has an added value to a team.

you play on a very low tier server where zergs are mostly upleveled people who run around without any stability. of course the ranger will seem like a good contributor. chances are, if we as a community havent figured out a place for the ranger in organized WvW by now, neither have you, sorry.

ive been full cleric for over a year, maxing out boon duration and healing to help my buddies in WvW. this is highly effective and i’ll never give it up, but now i also want to bring some serious pain. more specifically, staff/hammer for burst and utility. thing is i also want to retain my ability to zerg dive safely.

so…PVT/Knights crit-tank build, pure Knights crit-tank, or Cleric/Knights hybrid with heals and crit tank? the cleric/knights is really hard to build and i think celestial is necessary to maintain decent crit chance, and healing power (which must be over 1000).

if spirit actives were actually good and made a difference, this would have been a buff. cuz blowing up spirits would have been a viable solution (kind of like traps). but spirits and their actives have always been crap, except for in spvp. so this nerf makes no difference to me.

bumping this /15char

we’ve been hearing about skill splits for 6 months now, but we’ve yet to see any significant ones in WvW vs. spvp.

most of your pvpers are in WvW actually, and there the ranger is bottom of the barrel. weak utility, weak damage, pets that melt instantly. the spirit ranger caused this stir in the spvp community, but was entirely useless in WvW, as before. so when the nerf hit today, it made no diff for WvW rangers. this is just one example.

all i hear is talk about balancing profs in spvp. is anyone even looking at balance in WvW? again, this is where most pvpers go to have fun. id say 80% of people who like to pvp in GW2 are in WvW, not spvp.

Quickhit.3620:

Sorry but Im not touched.

When speaking about business,there is only effectiveness and efficiency and not Im trying hard and bla bla bla.After one whole year,the result does not please me at all and thats due to lack of experience or resources.
I loved the game,I feel that it has the best combat out there,I still recommend it but not for its PvP.
Steady and slow didn’t work.

exactly…it cant work when the people making decisions keep making the wrong ones over and over again. everyone in charge of pvp over at ANet either needs to experience a profound ideological shift, or we need new who can start actualizing the potential of this game.

Chopps.5047:

Manijin.3428:

lol. Rangers are fine. This was a much needed normalization (I won’t even call it a nerf, because it really isn’t) of spirit functionality. They still have decent HP, bodyblock, and provide all of their utility. They just don’t have 100% uptime, which means you actually have take time to prep them before a fight instead of just throwing them up on cooldown.

Meh, 2500 hours on ranger and I’ve been treated like a second class citizen for a full year. Rangers are not fine at all.

wow, i never thought id finally see you admit this. good for you chopps.

Chap youre a great guy, and youre hella dedicated to the game like the rest of the team. no one is denying this. people are crying because most of the players are disagreeing with the direction of the game. most if not all. i will tell you straight up, like everyone else has been: conquest sucks. everything in gw2 is balanced much much better around DM. and you guys just cant seem to deliver or convince us to play conquest.

when are you going to give up on conquest? how long can you keep beating this dead horse?

secondly, when are you guys actually gonna start with the spvp/WvW skill splits? you’ve been talking about it for 6 months but we’ve yet to see something. look at the ranger. the ranger is the worst profession of all times in WvW, bottom of the barrel. we’re tired of being ignored because of the unpopular spvp mode. when are you guys gonna give a lil sumthin sumthin to the WvW ranger community? we need more utility, we need bug fixes (a lot of our aoe’s only affect 3 targets instead of 5), and half of our utilities need to get buffed.

and what about the pet? the pet in this game is just such an annoying mechanic. pets bring no utility, and theyre just a liability. decrease their damage, make their f2’s instant at all times, clean up their animations, buff their aoe resistance in WvW, and make them a powerful utility, something that makes a difference in battle.

Yeah J that would be freaking awesome. They really dropped the ball on pet utility in this game. Out of all the profs ranger has the least utility hands down.

We should be able to either spec our pets to do tons of dps and have no utility, or have tons of utility and minimal dps. This should have been common sense for devs. Instead, pets are an annoying clumsy liability.

epandrsn.5126:

mistsim.2748:

full zerker. axe/focus for stacking 25 vuln. switch to DS and with proper build you can spam piercing lifeblast for 8k in pve. life transfer will full zerker builds melts for about 6k aoe.

Life transfer should be closer to 8.5k+ in my experience if you have some might stacked. Jumping into a clump of twenty people in WvW and dropping half of their life bars seems a bit much.. but god it’s fun. Got my 50 kill monthly in record time last night diving into a poorly led zerg and dumping a bunch of aoe skills.

Also, if you want to really burst, stacking your wells, maybe a few bleeds for good measure and then dumping LB will get you some really high damage numbers. Even better if you have a pet or two out. Somewhere in the area of 10-12k per second, petering down to ~7-8k/s after about five seconds.

Cant do this kind of stuff with full zerker, not in tier 1 anyway. Some thief will 2 shot u or ull get singled out and melted.

I use combo of valkyrie and zerker. Does pretty much the same dps with 100% crit dmg, except u have 25-27k hp.

Full zerker is very fun for small skirms but even then I wear combo of knights and zerker.

nope, not esports yet. think we’re somehow further from it.

WH + DS sounds like a great combo. gonna have to try this out.