Kovu.7560

I wish the daily wvw rewards potion was sellable. We'd make a killing off of folks like these.

OP, just run with your server's zerg and bring a class that has decent AoE access. This actually requires _fewer_ brain cells than most pve metas. Or do what the above posters suggest, tag NPCs at camps near your spawn and spend 90% of time your time watching Netflix whilst waiting for the progress bar on your gift of battle reward track to complete.

This game mode is substantially more welcoming to newcomers than fractals, spvp and (especially) raids.

~ Kovu

edit- basic gliding only costs 3 wxp levels, easily attained. Mounts aren't even hard required because of the speed buff that's granted to players close to other players who are mounted.

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > @"Kovu.7560" said:

> > I encourage all of the people who are saying longbow/greatsword ranger to give axe/axe a try. Pulling someone, rooting them and then spinning on them for a large chunk of damage is so satisfying. You can still keep either the greatsword for block, mobility and maul, or longbow for the stealth and range depending on your playstyle. Axe 3 is also a good chunk of damage. Ranger has some of the strongest 1v1 potential in the game.

> Ah yes, I call it the inflateable-flailing-arms-man build. As soon as they do that, I apply all the non-projectile condi I have and watch them burn while they flail around. Sometimes for fun I stand there blocking most of the channel duration.

Retal also works. Only 23% of rangers know how to cancel a channeled ability. Fact check that. But the good ones don't open with that combo. It's supposed to be the grand finale! The coup de grace! The knockout blow! If executed correctly, after you've forced their stun breaks it'll make maul and rapid fire look like a tickle. Axe 4 -is- kind of hard to connect with, though. Best results require the ranger to eat their hyena first.

... Though now that you've brought it up I think instead of calling out "pulling" or "spinning" in comms, I'll be yelling "wacky waving inflatable flailing arms man, three down on me!" I think the channel, even quickened is long enough for that mouthful.

~ Kovu

I encourage all of the people who are saying longbow/greatsword ranger to give axe/axe a try. Pulling someone, rooting them and then spinning on them for a large chunk of damage is so satisfying. You can still keep either the greatsword for block, mobility and maul, or longbow for the stealth and range depending on your playstyle. Axe 3 is also a good chunk of damage. Ranger has some of the strongest 1v1 potential in the game.

That said, mesmer and thief are right there with ranger and will still be better options for running away/resetting if staying alive is your priority. Very little in this game can speak to numerous stealths and teleports. Warrior is still a pretty solid choice, though you better land your stuns. They can chunk for a lot of damage and keep up with anyone without a teleport. Condi rev is also viable, as are scrapper/holo builds. Heck, I see some burn elementalists out there putting in work, and core necros can build to be nigh unkillable for a time. I'd say overall your best picks are thief, mesmer, ranger, engi and warrior.

Really, it all comes down to preference. Maybe hop into pvp and see which professions you enjoy playing the most? I base my play on that more than what's the most powerful during any given meta.

~ Kovu

I'm not sure I've ever died to a condition soulbeast.

Condi druid, sure. Condi core, maybe. Power soulbeast... certainly.

Anywho, core ranger doesn't bring enough group support for any augments granted by soulbeast to be better than the core support guardian provides in (potential) conjunction with firebrand. But that's okay, they do a lot of other things. Squads are already rolling guardians and scrappers, there isn't a whole lot more room for more support.

Roll with immobs, power and dual axe (with hyena poll). You'll do fine. Or meme it up with Druid and lock chunks of the enemy group down for literally ever. Mmm, thrive on those salty whispers.

~ Kovu

> @"Yasai.3549" said:

> I still want my Chariot idea to be a thing.

>

> Mount + Chariot Siege which ferries up to 4 players which can use their weapon skills.

Guild Wars: Double Dash

Yep. That's literally our update for the quarter. A sideways nerf to banner utility. They didn't even touch the banners themselves.

Back to the grind, fellows. See you next update when ambient creatures near capturable objectives have their health reduced by 33%. ;p

~ Kovu

> @"Chaba.5410" said:

> Sounds like someone is copying UNIV's theme meme build. The real question though: are they also using the golem finisher?

It is not a meme in UNIV, it is life.

~ Kovu

> @"Spartacus.3192" said:

> > @"Samug.6512" said:

> > Hurrdurr. Well I never enjoyed doing map completion and it's necessary too, and takes way more effort than capping a camp once every 10 minutes.

>

> exactly. Us poor WVWers are forced to do map completion to get our legendaries and that takes waaaaay longer than what OP is forced to do.

To speak nothing of the HoT/PoF legendaries... those are a chore. Anet wants you to play their _whole_ game to earn your shiny stick, the wvw portion is probably the easiest.

~ Kovu

Who wants a golem massage?

I know I do.

Anywho, if folks were concerned about pets soaking up damage, clone spamming mesmers, necro petting zoos and rangers would be the meta. I'm fairly convinced they're not. While I haven't tested it in a while, I'm fairly certain AoE damage prioritizes players over their pets?

~ Kovu

> @"Moradorin.6217" said:

> > @"Kovu.7560" said:

> > For a lot of players new to the game, free to play accounts are akin to putting their feet in the water before committing to a swim.

> > The last thing we want to do is discourage folks from playing the gamemode, even if there are bad apples among them.

> > Adjust the setting on tactivators so that when set to private a confirmation prompt appears to those in a guild when someone not in the guild pulls it. The guild can then confirm or deny.

> >

> > ~ Kovu

>

> This sentiment sounds nice, however, from my experience people that are **actually new**, as you describe, I would say 90% don't want to try WvW and then 90% of those that would want to try WvW with a new ftp lowbie toon are, likely, going to have a poor experience or hopefully not try WvW with said unequipped toon and just buy the game. No I think this is a poor argument in reality. What I mean is, I understand your point and respect the premise, however,I find it unrealistic. I find it much more realistic to consider that most Serious FTP players are just trying out the game. They wana see basics and get a feel which is all ftp should provide.

>

> Granted, on the one hand its very nice that ftp get access to wvw, pvp, etc. In practice, many that play those modes with ftp cause problems like the OP mentions. Meaning, they are often trolls in wvw, throw alts in ranked, people just trolling the game in general, trolling map chat, etc, etc. All the kitten that drives people away from the game. Much of which is best done w FTP, at present. That seems like an obvious issue. Also more legit ftp that would be interested in buying the game at some point (the ones who actually matter IMO) would likely be content to try pve, non-ranked, etc. If the game was changed to cut off ftp from these few things. I **do think it would** be very beneficial. It would cut out a large source of shenanigans.

>

> What Im saying is I see very little reason for FTP to need to try WvW directly or ranked pvp for that matter to know if they like the game enough to buy it. I mean u can get it half price which is like $15 for pof +hot. Seriously, I think the game would be healthier overall if FTP had a few restrictions beyond no free daily 2g and full TP.

You have a very pessimistic view of the newer players of the community (which I completely disagree with), fail to recognize that many of those players choose to remain on their free accounts rather than upgrading to full accounts and still enjoy the game as much as any of us, and by pointing out the low cost of the game you strengthen any argument people make that trolling isn't caused exclusively by folks in free accounts. Rather, dedicated trolls will spend the money on the game (and as pointed out above are often alt accounts paid or otherwise of existing players on different servers) to accomplish their mission. Those kinds of players are clearly try hard and won't be stopped by a tiny investment.

Considering how much this game offers with only an initial cost and no subscription I will always be in favour of granting more to the folks who throw a bit of money at purchasing the game in full, but "mah tactics" is a sorry argument for cutting away a potentially great influx of newer players into the gamemode.

~ Kovu

You don't get to run a glassy/zerg build, get picked off by the two classes that are least represented in the wvw meta and are designed almost exclusively around high burst single target damage, then whine about it on the wvw subforum.

At least you don't get to do that and have anyone take you seriously.

This thread would be _somewhat_ relevant in the pvp subforum. Of course folks over there are too busy whining about rangers being bad players and thieves busy decapping/not being part of team fights being the reason teams lose matches.

With all of the guardians and scrappers running around cleansing/converting conditions, if you die to immobs its because you were away from your support or your support isn't doing their job. Work on your own positioning, stay with the tag, you won't get picked.

Also Epidemic is garbage these days.

~ Kovu

For a lot of players new to the game, free to play accounts are akin to putting their feet in the water before committing to a swim.

The last thing we want to do is discourage folks from playing the gamemode, even if there are bad apples among them.

Adjust the setting on tactivators so that when set to private a confirmation prompt appears to those in a guild when someone not in the guild pulls it. The guild can then confirm or deny.

~ Kovu

A few years back they accidentally caused the opposite effect, everyone on all three servers were friendly towards one another. I missed that little hiccup, but was told it was quite the amusement.

I would enjoy this sort of event for like... a weekend. Obviously not long term.

~ Kovu

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> Every soulbeast I've met that is an actual fighting threat beyond "well he surprised me this time" is one that *doesnt* have alot of damage. The glassier the soulbeast is, the easier they are to fight because they become **sooooo** predictable with their longbow pewpew sequences you can pretty much reach them without taking damage.

These days when roaming I always bring a longbow. Not because it's especially great at plucking people for damage (too much projectile hate in this game on top of normal defenses), but by opening with longbow skills the opponent might suspect a free kill playing on a cheese build and/or pop defenses before I actually start using my toolbar.

Then I prove them only half right be switching to axe/axe, pulling them in, rooting them and then 100->0'ing them with whirling defense.

In group scenarios I might actually use a greatsword, but the benefit I enjoy from people thinking I'm a bearbow/free bag is too much to pass up.

It's still cheese on a power build with very few cleanses though. Once in a while I'll run into someone who's actually good at the game, fail to land the combo and then go ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ guess I'll die since axe has no mobility and the rest of the skills are projectiles.

I think a lot of ranger players feel they _have_ to play at range, since it's kind of in the name. The profession doesn't even have access to ranged guns. As for the thread... Piccolo said it best.

~ Kovu

Personal reflection isn't the problem (except personally on elementalist), it's the mass amount of _area_ reflection that's causing groups to have near 100% uptime. It's no different than the boon meta, except the only people who give a surprised pikachu face are the folks who rely more heavily on projectiles.

If you want to invest in personal reflection, that's fine -- having groups rotate AoE reflection for near permanent uptime is what causes some issues.

~ Kovu

A shame ranger only cracks "decent" in this list, glad that I'm able to crack plat 1 with it despite knowing I'm only a gold-tier player who gets murdered by casual thieves in wvw.

I think the stronger builds are always going to be the builds with a multitude of tools for mitigating damage (not through stats but through class features) while still outputting it. That, at least is the case in gold 3/plat 1. Feb patch or not, this game still feels like rocket tag.

~ Kovu

I mean if they changed the red team to be another colour (such as yellow, purple or even black) I wouldn't care. I'm not personally inconvenienced by this, but if others are it shouldn't be that hard to adjust the code. 'spose it's more about presentation at that point. As for parties and squads, its sufficiently different you'd have to be blind to both colours and shades to not tell the difference.

Why folks on opposing servers are able to party up is beyond me. That'd be like people on opposing teams in pvp joining the same party. Just seems weird.

~ Kovu

This guy jumps into a 1v4 with a longbow on warrior and wins.

What a hero.

~ Kovu

Change marked to not reveal stealthed folks in-game, only mark them on the minimap. Sort of a pseudo-detection. A blip on the radar.

On the flipside I'm against stacking stealth past a certain threshold. Perhaps increase stealth duration on leaps by 1s but have newer applications overlap rather than stack? It should be used strategically, not spammed for days on end after each attack.

As for boons... there needs to be less AoE boonshare. That sort of thing should be at a premium and not provided in their entirely by 2-3 professions. (Mostly guardians, of course.) It's right up there with projectile hate on the list of things that should predominately be single target/personal use. Finally, less pulsing boons. I hate that pocket firebrand is even a thing, but I'm not going to complain in-game if one of them opens their shiny book and starts reading at me.

~ Kovu

> @"Excursion.9752" said:

> Invulnerability is not needed if you pull ewp before the inner walls are down. If your to late your to late.

... which is literally the only reason I'm not big on changing it to add an invuln. Porting in and not having a chance to respond before being instantly murdered _is_ faulty design by nature, but this can easily be worked around by players having the smallest iota of common sense about when to pull it.

That being said, I _would_ be in favor of moving the ewp itself a bit further away from lords room wherever possible. Sometimes militia don't arrive to pull the ewp until after inner has been breached (especially on non-upgraded structures). At that point any organized groups on lord are watching the ewp like a hawk and the second it is pulled they're on it before folks can get through their load screens. I disagree with not having a win scenario for defenders once the opposing group is on the lord. I find this is mostly an issue with Bay, Garrison, Rampart and perhaps SMC? (Place usually has airships which aren't all that hot and tend to get trolled for the theatrics.)

On the flipside, I hate upgraded structures as a rule as they encourage turtling rather than fighting so if the defenders get farmed and the place papers... ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

~ Kovu

I HATE being instantly mowed down upon taking an ewp. Sometimes spamming that dodge or invuln key while in the load screen just doesn't cut it -- you're dead on arrival. That said, it's on your team to know when to pull the ewp. Activate it before the second keep wall drops, or after the enemy has committed to lords room.

That said, once you've taken the waypoint you should be guaranteed that port. If you have a longer load screen due to the servers being hot garbage you shouldn't be redirected to spawn. That's an issue that _isn't_ the fault of the players.

~ Kovu

"[thing] doesn't matter a tiny bit."

"they should nerf [thing]."


Thread: "The worst mobility spec on Thief has less mobility than rangers who somewhat invest in it."

Me: "Well, yes."

This seems like a troll thread. Nobody is actually that... erm... uninformed/out of touch.

Also, ranger traps are useless in wvw and only somewhat decent in low-ranked pvp. They haven't been worth the utility slots in half a decade. There's a reason people bitch about longbow/greatsword and not shortbow or... whatever else on ranger is supposed to use for condition damage.

~ Kovu

Certain condi specs are overtuned in small scale. That bunker condi thief build with 80% evasion uptime springs to mind. Ran into a few of those. There are also condi/burn elementalist builds that are nigh invincible in small scale and can outlast most cleansing. There are others, but the issue might lie more with the defensive mechanics of those professions rather than the condition output itself, however.

In large scale I don't see conditions as an issue due to all of the area cleansing and conversion.

~ Kovu

edit- In retrospect, I probably should've voted "other".

Memes aside, if you're going to call it Rune of _Boomer_, the 6th skill better be a bomb dropped at your feet that knockbacks the enemy when you use your elite. >.>

~ Kovu