Winter.5071

Long story short, WSR was full enough according to Anet's data to become an unlinked server (along with BB and whatever other server happens to be most full at the time of relinking, Jade Sea this round). For various reason which I will not get into, most WSR guilds hopped ship to Dzagonur? not 100% sure on that one. So you're now left in T5 with an unlinked server that barely has anyone on it. Good news is that next relinking WSR will be a link server again, so all of the players that transferred off will probably come back (as they have in the past). Bad news is that this will likey cause WSR to go unliked again in the 2 months after that, so you will be stuck in this same situation. If your specific question was why Anet won't do anything about it right now? Simple, relinks happen every two months, no questions asked (unless of course there's some kind of special occasion like the December holidays) which means even if massive population imbalances happen in the meantime (spoiler, they always do) Anet will wait until the next scheduled relink before doing anything about it.

So in other words, all I have to do to completely wreck an enemy server is transfer and then hack? Sounds good.

Okay, so I am tired and I quoted myself instead of editing the post and now I can't delete. If a mod is reading, please delete this.

I think 9 CEST is like midnight Pacific. The only groups I know that consistently run around that time are Nic on NSP and Tork on Kaineng. Other than that it can be kind of a dead timezone (though depending on the server/matchup there can be a lot of roamers/havoc squads) as it's after NA is logging off, but before OCX is logging on. Off the top of my head, the servers that have semi-consistent activity (besides the ones mentioned above) are SoS, FA, BG, JQ, and TC. Unfortunately, you kinda play during a dead timezone for both NA and EU; but I'm pretty sure there's a good deal more activity on this side of the pond. EDIT: Just noticed you mentioned play until 2 pm, which goes right through OCX. So the OCX servers are all good (SoS, FA, BG, JQ, and TC). EDIT 2: Also just noticed this already had an accepted answer. Please help me, I need sleep but I just can't...

AR is actually probably one of the best NA est servers. I would stay, especially given that every host server (save NSP and BP) is full, one link is full (YB) and every link (save DR and SF) are either VH or H making getting onto a host server unlikely, and link hoping very expensive.

Well there are 4 hosts that are high or lower. So it ends up being 2 VH links (since there's also a full link). But yeah, NA has a similar conundrum with 4 would be VH links.

My friends on FA have told me that they map queue EBG during OCX, so you should be fine. Also, considering that pretty much all of the major servers are locked (including all of the big ocx servers, you wouldn't have much choice regardless). If you weren't seeing too much OCX activity this week, it's only b/c FA is currently tanking out of T1, so you should see more ppl at reset.

Who tf is letting you get consecutive 5k+ burn ticks on them? They're kitten at the game. yeah its so hard A single stack of burn ticks for 411 dmg on the most popular burn guard build (450 on the most unrealistically maxed out for burn dmg build, let's use that instead) or wait (you can tick for 590 using the unrealistic build and a full 25 stacks of might, lets settle on this one). So yeah, you'd need over 8 stacks of burn, not just once, but consecutively to get the "not so hard consecutive 5k+ burn ticks". Again I ask, who tf is letting you maintain 8+ burn stacks on them? They're kitten at the game. SoJ hits 5 targets and applies 4 stacks per cast. PW triggers every 3rd damage packet. SoJ hits 20 times (25 w/ fire sigil), applying 25/3= 8 aoe burn stacks. So SoJ alone applies 12 stacks of burning. It's very realistic to run full vipers/grieving burn dh and you self apply 2 stacks of might with scepter equipped on each PW activation. 8 activations=16 might per cast. Or we can look at scepter 2, which hits 7x per second and counts double towards PW activation so long as you're running zeal. 14/3= 4 aoe burn stacks per second = 8 might each second. Each SoJ takes ~2s to fully apply damage. Place both on the same spot and you generate 20 aoe burn burn stacks in 2s while gaining 32 stacks of might. The key to playing it well is whether you can keep a group in place for 2s, either because they're stacked tightly or in a choke or due to immob. While I'm not entirely convinced that any half-decent group will just stand in your aoes (and let each of them hit) for more than 2s, let's assume that's the case. First, my original argument was in response to "consecutive 5k+ burn ticks" the language of which implies single target (if Wall meant over the entire group, then I completely concede that getting 5k dps over a 50 person zerg is easy as pie, but it's also pretty meaningless). In other words, even applying 20 stacks of aoe burn in 2s (along with presumably other skills) it is highly unlikely that you will actually apply all of those stacks to the same 5-10 people; you are more likely to spread the burning out and have less dmging ticks across a greater number of targets. My second point is in response to "consecutively", as though any support will just let 8 stacks of burning tick again and again on their dps classes. (If I start to see burn stacks building up on my dps classes, then I'm breaking out the cleanses; most of which are pulsing. Even if the cleanse is single tick, I can literally reduce the dmg done by half) Obviously, burn guards are useful to a zerg and to dmg (as I've previously stated in this thread). But the idea that zergs are just running around letting 5k+ burn ticks kill each member is untrue for anything but disorganized groups with no cleanses. Perhaps I should reiterate what I've said previously on this thread. a) condi is probably good for roaming (I don't roam much so I really don't know the meta). b) burn guard is god tier against unorganized pugs, it becomes less relevant with comped groups (still good though, as I have stated several times on this thread). These aren't good groups (or were in bad positions to start with, there isn't a lot of context in some of these clips but I get that context isn't the purpose of a montage, just difficult to analyze the situation if you want to use it as an argument), I don't really want to bm them since I don't know who they are, but your group (I'll assume the player in the clip is you, forgive me if I'm mistaken) basically one pushed all of them. So unless I'm missing context, your clips just prove my point.

Who tf is letting you get consecutive 5k+ burn ticks on them? They're kitten at the game. yeah its so hard A single stack of burn ticks for 411 dmg on the most popular burn guard build (450 on the most unrealistically maxed out for burn dmg build, let's use that instead) or wait (you can tick for 590 using the unrealistic build and a full 25 stacks of might, lets settle on this one). So yeah, you'd need over 8 stacks of burn, not just once, but consecutively to get the "not so hard consecutive 5k+ burn ticks". Again I ask, who tf is letting you maintain 8+ burn stacks on them? They're kitten at the game. SoJ hits 5 targets and applies 4 stacks per cast. PW triggers every 3rd damage packet. SoJ hits 20 times (25 w/ fire sigil), applying 25/3= 8 aoe burn stacks. So SoJ alone applies 12 stacks of burning. It's very realistic to run full vipers/grieving burn dh and you self apply 2 stacks of might with scepter equipped on each PW activation. 8 activations=16 might per cast. Or we can look at scepter 2, which hits 7x per second and counts double towards PW activation so long as you're running zeal. 14/3= 4 aoe burn stacks per second = 8 might each second. Each SoJ takes ~2s to fully apply damage. Place both on the same spot and you generate 20 aoe burn burn stacks in 2s while gaining 32 stacks of might. The key to playing it well is whether you can keep a group in place for 2s, either because they're stacked tightly or in a choke or due to immob.While I'm not entirely convinced that any half-decent group will just stand in your aoes (and let each of them hit) for more than 2s, let's assume that's the case. First, my original argument was in response to "consecutive 5k+ burn ticks" the language of which implies single target (if Wall meant over the entire group, then I completely concede that getting 5k dps over a 50 person zerg is easy as pie, but it's also pretty meaningless). In other words, even applying 20 stacks of aoe burn in 2s (along with presumably other skills) it is highly unlikely that you will actually apply all of those stacks to the same 5-10 people; you are more likely to spread the burning out and have less dmging ticks across a greater number of targets. My second point is in response to "consecutively", as though any support will just let 8 stacks of burning tick again and again on their dps classes. (If I start to see burn stacks building up on my dps classes, then I'm breaking out the cleanses; most of which are pulsing. Even if the cleanse is single tick, I can literally reduce the dmg done by half) Obviously, burn guards are useful to a zerg and to dmg (as I've previously stated in this thread). But the idea that zergs are just running around letting 5k+ burn ticks kill each member is untrue for anything but disorganized groups with no cleanses.

Who tf is letting you get consecutive 5k+ burn ticks on them? They're kitten at the game. yeah its so hardA single stack of burn ticks for 411 dmg on the most popular burn guard build (450 on the most unrealistically maxed out for burn dmg build, let's use that instead) or wait (you can tick for 590 using the unrealistic build and a full 25 stacks of might, lets settle on this one). So yeah, you'd need over 8 stacks of burn, not just once, but consecutively to get the "not so hard consecutive 5k+ burn ticks". Again I ask, who tf is letting you maintain 8+ burn stacks on them? They're shit at the game.

Who tf is letting you get consecutive 5k+ burn ticks on them? They're shit at the game.

Everything on your list except Protection also counters most sources of condition damage. Because condition damage still comes from attacks hitting you. Yes, but once conditions are on you, blocks, invuls etc do jack sh it, one is left with either cleanse or resistance. Invulns block all damage, including conditions that are already on you as well https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Invulnerability What sort of invul though, I ask since if you pop endure pain, you still receive damage from conditions. All warriors can testify this. Maybe invul in terms of ri? Or staying in spawn?Endure pain is not an invuln, it is a Damage Prevention skill as the wiki states. The wiki also lists all of the skills that apply invuln.

Imo, while scrapper's primary function is not to provide heals, it should provide a lot of it. You simply don't have enough cleanse skills to not be spamming 1 on medkit for at least 20% of the fight. Thus the way I see it, 20% healing effectiveness out preforms 5 condi cleanses every 20 10 seconds. If you're talking about altruism runes on the other hand, which is effectively 5 condi cleanses every ~1.5 seconds, then I'd say the extra cleanses outweigh. But 20% healing power is too much to give up imo for effectively 1 cleanse every 2 seconds.

Congrats, you found two examples of "block" skills that don't negate condis while ignoring all of my previous analysis. Skills which, I might add, aren't even used in any meta zerg build. What I said earlier speaks for itself, you can either refute it or agree with it; or I guess ignore it is an option too since you just did. Oh no! There's a condi ticking on me and I can't dodge it! What should I ever do? Oh yeah, my supports have a million cleanses ready and loaded. This also ignores the fact that condis ticking aren't even that big of a deal. So what if I have a stack of bleeding ticking a 1k, my scrapper will just spam one and then I'm healed. On the other hand, you can't outheal a 40k well bomb over the course of 2 seconds. Build diversity? Builds are more diverse now than ever. Burn guard used to be a joke, a gimmick at best, now it's considered a meta class. What about ranger? Before its only use was off tag picking off plebs, now the immobeast is good in any gvg. If anything, we have gotten more build diversity in the last few patches than before. I'll address you protection comment from an earlier post since I just saw it. First, that can be stripped, quite easily. Second, let's assume it isn't stripped and do some math: Lets use 10 necros since that should be an easy number to get in a zerg and it makes the math easier. Well of suffering ticks for about 3500 while corruption ticks for 1600, each has 6 ticks. Multiplying by ten and then .66 to get the number after protection means 33,660 dmg from a single well bomb tick which is an instadown. (This ignores shade bombs and skills from other classes that will also be hitting the target and the fact that there are 5 other ticks, which if you add immob or some other cc into the mix means you're stuck in the well). Obviously, it is unrealistic to expect 10 necros to place their wells in the same place at the same time. But it is also unrealistic to expect perma protection, either through the lack of application or strip. It is also unrealistic to block every single attack or to be able to just dodge every enemy bomb. You seem to be under this delusion that there are like 3 skills in the entire game that do power dmg and as long as you can avoid those, you are immortal; yeah, that's not the case. Take the well bomb example, you can only block one of those pulses, even if you dodge out, the fact that necros can't place their wells in the same place works against you since you now have a good chance of just dodging into another well. We had blocks, protection, dodges, and whatever before the balance patch, but everyone agrees that it was a power meta. What changed? Did cmc give every class the fb heal skill? Sure condis are more viable than they used to be, but when push comes to shove we're still in a burst power meta. There are 50 ppl in my zerg, my aa can hit for like 200 and I'll still kill you. Imagine having something called vitality which is the other side of the coin to toughness, huh... Tougness hits like a wet noodle on max toughness? Yeah, b/c I don't kill minstrel FBs and scrappers on my power scourge and rev every single day.

That is the thing though, condo spam only works if you have no condi cleanse. In zerg fighting (which is the example I'll use here since that seems to be what op is referring to) you should always have condi cleanses. By your logic, if you have no healers, then you die, "power dmg op lmao". Few other things, coordinated bombs generate downs instantly, 5-6 revs using just phase smash will instantly down anyone who gets pulled. Also, immob/cc spam is a thing, boon corrupt stab into fear, and running out of dodges (yes, as it turns out that happens a lot and ppl still have stuff to hit you with) will all kill you and power does it a lot quicker than condi. Doesn't really matter to me if you can apply a 10k burn tick, condis literally take a second to tick after they're applied which is more than enough time for my zerg to down and then stomp you, and then they just hit one button and poof, the condi is gone. The only equivalent counter power has is ageis, but fb's can only pump out so much while literally at least 3 classes in each party has some sort of group condi cleanse. This is much different of course in roaming where I would say condi is better, but since op seems to be talking about zerging I'll keep the discussion there. The only equivalent counter power has is ageis...Are you sure about that? Blocks, invuls, basic dodge, reflects, blinds all hard counter power damage. Not even gonna go into protection.Where as for condi, you got what... cleanse, transfer (not all) and resistance? Once it's on you, it's there until you cleanse or transfer or it duration ends.First, those all prevent condi dmg too. You seem to forget the basic principle that condis need to be applied, and then tick, pwr just hits. In other words, I have two ways of preventing condi dmg 1) everything you just listed and 2) basic cleanse; whereas I only have one way of preventing power. Second, those are not nearly as spammable as condi cleanse. FB is the only class that can reliably block and you get 1 every 9.5 seconds (if you have the trait that nobody takes, otherwise it's 12). Core guard is the only class that uses invuln. You only get 3 dodges before they have to refill, after which you can only dodge twice every 10 seconds. Reflects? only FB and core guard have this if at all, even then, which skill are you reflecting? longbow ranger? You can't reflect necro wells, phase-smash or CoR, which is where most of the burst is coming from. Even then, I just have to run through the reflect and then it doesn't matter anymore, it's not like we're in a pirate-ship meta (NA at least, not sure about EU). I cleanse blind, or, if not, then I just aa first and then use my big skill. Yeah, but what's gonna kill you when you have chill, cripple or immo? Power. Like you said dmging condis are not the problem, but you can't take advantage of the cc condis unless you have power to follow up. Furthermore you seem to think that condi's (and I mean bad ones, not the flimsy bleeding you get from a necro scepter aa) are spammable with no end while condi cleanses are purely limited. As it turns out, your ability to apply condi's is just as limited as your ability to cleanse them. Scrappers can cleanse like no tomorrow, not to mention the dedicated cleanses you get from FB and SB and then the minor ones like on necro. Even if you argue that over a long fight, the ability to apply condis will edge out the cleanse; with power, the enemy zerg (or yours) will be dead before that even happens. Condi's are, of course, important, and some of them can be deadly if not dealt with; which is why we have condi cleanse in the first place. But if the question comes down to whether the meta revolves around power or condi, power is where your dmg comes from.