Guild Wars 2

Yeah, I got two Heroic Chests. Let me complete my set of GW1 armors. I had already bought the Profane set.

I was in the Stress Test, so there’s one more data point for you.

Shylock.4653:

AFAIK new Player actually start with a mediocre MMR.

I believe new players start with an average MMR, which would be 1500. This is ALMOST CERTAINLY too high, at least initially. This is balanced somewhat by the use of a variance metric, so for example, a new player might have a 1500 +/- 500 MMR. After a few brutal losses, that might move down to 1200 +/- 150, etc.

I feel like the first 5-10 PvP matches for players must be awful, but I haven’t gotten enough input to know that for sure.

Quick edit: this shouldn’t be as huge of a deal as Evan’s confirmed on another thread that the matchmaking uses the low end of the MMR, MMR – Deviation.

Blanche Neige.7241:

timmyf.1490:

ArenaNet (imho) should be rewarding players who have logged in regularly during the 3 years this game has been out

It’s a BETA TEST, not some mechanism to reward players.

You already got your rewards for playing the game with what you got from doing what you did.

This conveniently ignores the fact that most players feel rewarded by being given access to the beta. Furthermore, the beta test would do well to include seasoned players who have a firm grasp of the game’s mechanics.

Dreadnaught.1975:

Or… how about they just drop the stupid thing randomly in certain zones. It’s a beta key for Christ’s sake not the Arc of the Covenant.

I’m fine with this too, I was just suggesting a system that’s not 100% RNG.

Blanche Neige.7241:

timmyf.1490:

Beta Portal: Cost of 25 Tokens

You are assigned 1 token for:

• Every 1000 Achievement Points
• Completing the Points of No Return Living Story Chapter
• Every 10 PvP Ranks
• Every 50 WvW Ranks
• Every 5 Hall of Monuments Points
• Certain titles: Dungeon Master, Light in the Darkness, etc.

Let me guess : this token distribution scheme would have given YOU a beta access on the spot. Right?

Feel free to adjust the numbers so I don’t get one. I have 17,565 AP, 3233 hours over 982 days, rank 60 PvP, rank 307 WvW, 4 Legendaries, 10 toons (9 at 80, one I delete regularly), 20 HoM points (I played GW1 from BWE1 but quit shortly after Nightfall for personal reasons), I buy gems regularly to support ArenaNet, I run a guild and a YouTube channel, and I’m either a White Knight or a Crybaby QQer depending on whom you talk to and when.

Look, the specifics of a system are less important than the message it sends. ArenaNet (imho) should be rewarding players who have logged in regularly during the 3 years this game has been out, not just folks with the tolerance to spend 60 hours farming Silverwastes, a map many of us dislike intensely.

Arianhod.3485:

I think that’s waaaay too many keys handed out for a closed beta, even with a cost of 25 tokens.

So make it 30.

Still too many people get in? Make it 35. Still too many? Make it 40.

Focus more on the system and less on the number of tokens required for the portal.

I like the idea of needing a certain number of “tokens” for access. How about something like this?

Beta Portal: Cost of 25 Tokens

You are assigned 1 token for:

• Every 1000 Achievement Points
• Completing the Points of No Return Living Story Chapter
• Every 10 PvP Ranks
• Every 50 WvW Ranks
• Every 5 Hall of Monuments Points
• Certain titles: Dungeon Master, Light in the Darkness, etc.

Additionally, tokens drop from DT/SW at a higher (5x) rate than they do currently.

Ranatoa.4869:

The problem with this event has nothing to do with the event, but with the assumptions people make.

1. certain people are entitled a beta key because x The truth is no one is entitled a beta key, see below.

Agreed! But you go off the rails after that…

Ranatoa.4869:

2. Anet should prioritize x group of players The problem with this is obvious, there is more than one group of players in any game and they need that variety to test. No one group is better qualified to beta test.

Then why are they prioritizing players with the time/willpower to farm DT/SW? If you want the test group to be fair and cover all groups, add a small chance for portal drops to appear with daily log-in rewards.

Ranatoa.4869:

3. In game RNG is different from the mailing list RNG It is not. Everyone who didn’t get an invite then complained too.

Of course it’s different. Mailing List RNG doesn’t compel players to spend dozens of hours farming one particular zone in hopes of getting lucky.

You can say these players made the choice to farm and I’d wholeheartedly agree, but it’s nonsense to claim they are the same thing. One requires only luck, the other requires both luck and perhaps a substantial time commitment.

Ranatoa.4869:

4. Portals are the only method to gain beta access Anet has said they will be pulling from the mailing list again, so even if you don’t get a portal you could wind up with a beta invite.

The wording on this was confusing and I’m not as confident as everybody else that they meant what players think. I’d love to see confirmation on this. Either way, if they send the newsletter-only invites AFTER the farming period is over, it creates a problem: if you want an invite, you don’t know whether you need to farm (didn’t get ML invite) or not (did get ML invite) until it’s too late.

If they sent out the invites to newsletter folks FIRST and AFTER THAT opened the “farm for a portal” option, it’d be far better.

Secondary question: my guild has members across lots of servers. If it’s okay to communicate to avoid combat, would it also be okay to communicate with “the enemy” to encourage it?

Meaning, could I have a guildie on another side communicate the position of the zerg so that I might be able to do my best Choxie impression and get into position to repeatedly Spectral Wall them off the map?

Transferring is expensive and this seems like a fun way I could play “WvW” with guildies on other servers.

This will work great with GW2’s inability to copy text from the chatbox not.

Check Vylo for an alternate solution. Create a easy-to-type web address – I might use voice.supermegahappyfuntime.com for example – and have it redirect to a Vylo room. Vylo is zero-config voice chat. It’s simplistic (no push to talk) but requires no downloads, just a web browser.

Ensign.2189:

Basket of Boxes.1976:

I have complained about the favour to win algorithm myself but I don’t think it is as kittenome people are making it out to be.

Their rating algorithm is based on Glicko2, but their favored to win algorithm is inconsistent with Glicko2. You don’t need any rigorous statistical analysis to see the problem.

No, you just need to understand that Glicko2 is meant to rate 1v1 scenarios and some minor adjustments are required for team situations.

Out of curiosity, why use Your Team’s Score to assign points instead of margin of victory/loss? This system doesn’t reward your team for winning by a lot, just winning.

Royal.2693:

It would be much better if they just have full solo + full team queues. I don’t see any reason for having teams of 2, 3 or 4 players.

I queue all the time with groups of 2, 3, and 4. I play with my guild but we rarely have 5 people who want to play PvP at the same time. (Small guild, more PvE focused.) Usually I’m playing as a 2- or 3-man group.

If my only choice was solo or full-team, I’d play considerably less. I don’t have nearly as much fun playing solo and I don’t feel like taking the time to put together a full-team.

You’re claiming to have somewhere between a 0-10% win rate on this post. Instead of sending screenshots of your games, can you give us shots of your pie chart/stats?

I for one am very curious to see if (and how much) you’re exaggerating.

Anyway, I get the feeling you aren’t asking for help so much as complaining, but if you’d like help, I’d suggest less multiclassing to begin with. Pick a good starter build (I suggest Hambow) and play 75-100 games on it.

As far as MMR goes, it’s not a perfect rating as it can be influenced by the players with whom you play – for example, if I’m always playing with a guildie who is better than me, my MMR may be artificially high and his artificially low, but those are usually negligible differences unless you only play in those situations.

The sad truth of the current system is that there aren’t enough players to guarantee good matches at all times of the day. If you typically play when few people are queueing, your matchups may be poor. The system will happily put you in matches where you are predicted to lose by 150+ points.

If we want better matchups, we need more PvP players. Go recruit!

Talonblaze.3175:

There has been a few matches where taking the beast has made or broke the game. No different than the Lord in foefire imo. A good team won’t usually need it, but sometimes it can be the turning point of a match.

I bet the number of games won because of clutch beast kills is CONSIDERABLY smaller than the number of games lost because players ping the kitten out of the map, forget about capture points, and swarm beast every time it’s up.

Beat a few teams that made those noob mistakes last night when I was running PvP with some guidies (many of whom have less than 50 PvP games under their belt.) It was glorious.

What I think is really funny is the difference in usage of the word “steal” by players.

• Player Group 1 says “steal” to mean “we did substantial damage to the beast, but an enemy player came in at the last moment with a quick burst attack and took the points.”

• Player Group 2 says “steal” to mean “the enemy team killed the beast closest to our spawn.”

Both groups claim that “stealing” is bad, but they are talking about entirely different actions. I fall in Group 1, for what it’s worth.

Ithilwen.1529:

With respect to Forest. You are missing an important point. If the enemy steals your beast, it’s a serious chunk of points and more than you would get for holding a point for the same time period.

Killing beast is therefore, logical gameplay. Getting points is well and good, but preventing the other team from getting points is really the same thing with a slightly different perspective.

An incorrect perspective, yes.

Invoker.5462:

Sorry it’s hard to believe but, a warrior player just picked up the supposed “skill class” and owned it. Do i need to stream it for you?

I mostly play Warrior but have been trying to pick up D/P Thief as well. What’s your Twitch? I’ll sub, I’d love to watch. When do you typically stream?

The biggest problem isn’t necessarily the maps, it’s the players who:

1) Are offended when you try to offer suggestions, e.g. “Skip bosses, send 1 home 3 mid 1 far to steal boss if they go for it otherwise pressure far”

2) Simply ignore you and do whatever anyway

3) Argue with you and insist they’re right because “I was Top X on Leaderboard”

In the end, the mechanics aren’t bad, the player attitudes are… but you can’t fix broken people.

RashanDale.3609:

rapthorne.7345:

Could this be a breakaway from berserker only meta?

I sure hope so

we would only trade the zerker meta for a condi-meta or a zerker/condi-meta. still no kittening variety.

Let’s not forget how many bleeds Zerker-geared players can apply as well. Conditions-on-crit are very common and condition damage scaling is meh. This will help keep condition-geared players relevant (as in “they will deal damage”) but it’s unlikely on its own to change the optimal builds.

Axolotl.9028:

Perhaps, if you wish for people to believe you are actually happy for the server and your “old friends”, you will display happiness and celebrate with them rather than try to downplay their accomplishments, make groundless excuses for why it happened, and then claim you are happy for them once somebody corrects you. I know, crazy how your actions dictate the impression you leave on people.

I don’t know you and don’t care to celebrate with you. I’ve chatted with my friends from SoR and they know how I feel.

Anyway, good luck in the future, and as I said, I’m really looking forward to an SoR/NSP matchup. Maybe with Darkhaven. That’d be fun.

Axolotl.9028:

timmyf.1490:

snip

And how long ago were you on SoR? 3+ months ago? The community in WVW is completely different now and different, new guilds are the ones running. They’re also carrying the server (as I said in an earlier post, but it’s easier to ignore things that don’t support a desired agenda) and there is no way they could keep up the hours they were putting in at the start.

I left in December. I snipped your post because holy kitten, dude, that’s an essay. I don’t hold any grudges against my friends from SoR, perhaps you misunderstood what I was doing was some gentle side-poking. It was meant in good fun.

Anyway, I’m happy Omen and Bard are “carrying the server,” as you said, though that process has gone poorly many times before. Guild decides it will “save” SoR, runs hard, doesn’t get support, burns out, transfers. I saw it time and time again while I was on SoR and then did the same thing myself, more or less.

Also, I’m sad to hear the WvW community is “completely different” as the SoR community was so fantastic. Nice to hear my pals from ecto are still stepping up, though.

tl;dr relax, I was making a joke, I don’t hate SoR, please don’t write 5000 words back to me.

Malediktus.3740:

Too much effort for almost no rewards. GW2 is really the most unrewarding MMO ever.

Says the guy who bought 30 accounts to earn daily login rewards on them?

The rewards for the PvP ladder aren’t great, but can you imagine all the whining if they started handing out Legendaries or precursors based on ladder position?

I don’t think it’s an option, it’s just displayed at the bottom of the Options screen along with framerate.

You can get the IP of the server you’re connected to with the /ip command as well. When you check your latency as Caedmon suggests, make sure you’re looking at the server IP you got using the /ip command.

GW2.exe also keeps connections open to the gem store and those typically have much higher latencies, so don’t freak out.

It’s happening to my guild, yes.

I’m dying at the suggestion that SoR is winning because of skill. I LOVE all my SoR friends, but the number of times guys were like, “Oh, we’d win with equal numbers!” on a map that was queued?

It was a lot.

SoR has pretty good coverage across time zones, mostly thanks to commanders who work their butts off (Aeobhean, whose name I can’t spell, you are a hero). But it’s a lot of numbers on weekends and superior numbers overnight.

(Note the primetime +190 tick.)

As somebody who played Mesmer for a long time, I don’t have too much sympathy for thieves complaining about a hard counter. :-P

Ravenmoon.5318:

timmyf.1490:

Destroy all the turrets? I just take out the Rocket Turret then go for the engy. Seems to work.

I suppose you have no clue how squishy a thief is.

I don’t play much Thief, but I do understand. If I were on Thief, I would not attempt to attack a point with a turret engy without team support.

I try to upgrade my gear every 5-6 levels, for reference. If you’re more than 6 levels behind on gear, consider buying something on the TP.

Destroy all the turrets? I just take out the Rocket Turret then go for the engy. Seems to work.

How many did you guys have? I want to get my guild started with outnumbered fighting, this seems like a good first step. Probably easier targets than the ones in WvW.

Michael Henninger.7451:

As for the reporting abuse we’re not going to take action on an account for reporting someone we find to be innocent. The account in question did far more than that. Also, please do NOT encourage other players to join in and hit the report button based on “I saw them do it” because this will land a suspension in most cases.

Quick clarification: I can see where “Everybody, I saw GM Noobheals flyhacking, everybody report him!” could be troubling, but how about asking other people in the area to also report?

You guys have said previously that “report velocity” (lots of reports in a short time) helps prioritize who you’re investigating, so I’ve always suggested that my partymates and other people in the area also report people cheating/griefing.

I’d be pretty upset for getting a suspension because I told my guild to report a guy we’re watching cheat.

xivor.8754:

I keep having SoR peeps telling me that I need to come back to SoR. While I think that some on SoR may miss me, I think there will be a lynch mob waiting at my arrival, lol. I have an alt currently on SoR, but I am hesitant to level it. SoR is doing well, and I hope that they rise to T4ish. I want to fight my buds over on SoR if they get faced against NSP. :-) Smitty/Jordyee/Hella, I would love to command against you!

Let us know when you’re doing Ranger Night and I’ll bring my Mesmer. :-)

I guess there really is no honor among Thieves. ;-)

Flyphish.6398:

Nothing is quite as fun as ganking a map completer. Oh well, all good things come to an end.

This is trolling, right? No respectable roamer should find joy in killing a map completer.

Stark.1350:

tyrellian.3706:

It’s a shame.

When I started GW2, I thought ‘WvW isn’t for me, I’m not going to do that!’.

Then I did some WvW because I needed to for world completion, found I actually quite enjoyed it, and now do so regularly.

But if it hadn’t been required for WvW completion, I’d never have got into it in the first place.

This is complete bull. PvP isn’t required for world completion. You’re telling me you haven’t tried it either?

I got into WvW much in the same way. I was trying to do map completion and failing hard. I saw a suggestion somewhere (Reddit?) that suggested I get on my server’s Teamspeak and follow our map blob.

I did, and quickly found myself having fun in WvW, a game mode I had previously written off as “not for me.”

Errant.1509:

Michael Henninger.7451:

I investigated this last night and the claims are false. I found the person that was placing siege and terminated that account.

Also, remember that false reporting can lead to a suspension or termination of your account.

Terminating accounts for trolling siege seems really extreme unless it’s massively recidivistic offender O___O

Make an example of a few people and you’ll solve a lot of problems. Wish they’d do this with PvP AFKers in Ranked and Unranked too.

choon.6308:

There is no freedom in GW2.

We are all slaves to the meta! It is impossible to run other builds!

(^ sarcasm)

Boy, are you going to be disappointed.

I’d expect it to be August or September.

Michael Henninger.7451:

The claims that the particular guild was laying siege is false. Apologies. It was someone else.

Thanks for the clarification. :-) Nice to see you guys being a bit more active about policing this.

Michael Henninger.7451:

I investigated this last night and the claims are false. I found the person that was placing siege and terminated that account.

Maybe it’s because it’s Friday and I suck at reading, but aren’t you contradicting yourself here?

I had a guy on Reddit tell me yesterday that if I don’t accept the holy trinity, he “doubts [I’ll] ever find happiness in life.”

This game has no trinity. It should never have a trinity. If you want an MMO with a trinity, there are literally dozens of games you can play. Choice is good.

Make the right choice: say no to strict role specialization.

I’m not sure it’s safe to assume that nothing in mainland Tyria will change with the future Living World releases.

You just won’t be able to access the story instances which explain it all.

But I fully expect Lion’s Arch to be rebuilt, Mordremoth’s influence to grow, etc.

Orangensaft.7139:

i dont see any reason that speaks against releasing it as outfit + armorsets

That’s because you don’t understand how their armor mesh/models work. Neither do I, in fact. So I just have to believe them when they say it’s a lot more work to make armor than it is outfits.

I’m not on EU, but if you guys aren’t running eles in dungeons over there, you’re missing out.

Oh Mirta, I almost don’t know where to begin, but let’s do our best here.

Mirta.5029:

meta is easy to follow, that’s about it, not to mention it does change from time to time. For example, 8 months ago Phallanx wasn’t set in stone as a requirement and greatsword was the warrior’s weapon of choice.

Oh dear.

1) Phalanx Strength is not a requirement now, it only makes sense in parties that can’t maintain 25 might without it. Usually that means the party doesn’t have a S/F LH Ele.
2) Of course it wasn’t a requirement 8 months ago, the trait was introduced in April 2014, so it’s only 10 months old. It takes a bit for people to learn the new meta. Also, it’s not a requirement now, so you’re doubly wrong.
3) Before PS, Greatsword was one weapon of choice, with Axe/Mace being the other set for vuln stacking. There was also an Axe camping build which was roughly comparable, I think? In Phalanx Strength builds, you tend to camp GS even more thanks to Forceful Greatsword. You seem to imply the opposite.

You do not seem to understand Phalanx Strength builds or the current Warrior meta.

Mirta.5029:

While 100 blades is indeed the most damaging single ability in game

Not even remotely true. The number might be high, but only because it’s a long channel. Ice Storm still probably wins if we don’t worry about the “per second” part of “DPS” though.

Mirta.5029:

however you do better DPS by chaining many abilities rather than just spamming that one.

The only class in this game that can spam abilities is Thief. Everybody else has cooldowns. So yes, DPS suffers if you only use a single ability combined with autoattacks. That’s beyond silly to mention. It’s worth saying, though, that some abilities are a DPS loss compared to autoattacks, something the VAST majority of the playerbase misses.

Mirta.5029:

barely anyone takes time to look at it and build their own as they’re told to just run zerker. Rather barely anyone from the PVE crowd takes a look there. Spvp is pretty varied and WvW has its own standards.

If PvE players understood the game better, I’d be more supportive of them coming up with builds. Sadly, in your post, you’ve illustrated the exact reason why meta builds are important. Players, in general, have a very poor grasp of how the game mechanics work. There’s nothing wrong with looking at the best of the best and attempting to mimic their ideas.

Mirta.5029:

timmyf.1490:

Zerker is the stat meta. That’s only part of it.

If somebody can do better, we have a thing called YouTube. They can prove it.

There’s a DnT tournament coming up as well. If the meta isn’t the best, GO WIN SOME EASY PRIZES!

I don’t think that you’ll see that much dungeon runner typical zerkers in a tournament. Normally you see quite complex group compositions.

Honest question: where do you think the dungeon meta comes from?

Mirta.5029:

timmyf.1490:

Good player recognizes that the meta comes about through the collective experience of thousands of players and hundreds of thousands of hours and has enough humility to recognize his own experience pales in comparison.

the current meta is beserker. From what I’ve seen it’s not the most fun, not the most useful and at least 70% of useless raging pugs follow it, so in general it’s not great. It’s not what’s the best period, but rather what is the most widespread.

Zerker is the stat meta. That’s only part of it.

If somebody can do better, we have a thing called YouTube. They can prove it.

There’s a DnT tournament coming up as well. If the meta isn’t the best, GO WIN SOME EASY PRIZES!

Mirta.5029:

vpchelko.4261:

Good player considers that optimal build = usable build.

good player experiments instead of blindly going for the meta.

Good player recognizes that the meta comes about through the collective experience of thousands of players and hundreds of thousands of hours and has enough humility to recognize his own experience pales in comparison.