Ragnar.4257

I mean, not saying that everything is fine...... but you've got 7000 hours of entertainment out of, what, $60? And you think you've been ripped off?

Like a year ago. Now it is barely a C. Generally: S Tier: Fire Brand Support, Holo and Spell BreakerA Tier: Soul Beast, scourge, scrapper, heraldB Tier: core thief, reaper, weaver If your aim is to rank high in ranked (beyond 1650 rating) or play Arranged Teams, you definitely should stick to on of the above. If not, play what you like as long as it is not renegade or any condi build not mirage, scourge or Fire Brand. You haven’t played PvP in a while, have you? Condi Mirage is S tier for sure. Spell Breaker however, isn’t. At most A tier but hardly even that. Just watch some ATs and you will get a clear picture of what classes are strong at the moment. And what you managed to take away from watching tournaments........ is that Spellbreaker isn't a top-tier choice? When it's been a staple feature of the majority of teams since PoF released? wut?

No. Often you'll see high level teams leaving all nodes uncapped, or even accepting for a short time having 1 less node than the enemy, if it means winning a team-fight and later snowballing the entire map. Actually, that's an important difference between p2+ teams and lower teams, is that p2+ actually have the capacity to properly snowball. Once they have a numbers advantage, 3 good dps can roll around the map 1-shotting people, and keep the enemy totally scattered for an extensive period of time. In gold, dps simply aren't that good. So in this situation, it is less important to win a team-fight, because they aren't good enough to use the momentum from it. It also comes down to the meta; in a bunker meta, like in the past with all druids/tempests/chronos, it was more important to hug the node. But in the present meta there aren't any bunkers that can sustain through 3+ enemy going to town on them. If you interpret "fight on point" in a literal sense of staying physically on a node, then you're just wrong. If you interpret it in the more strategic sense of "fight for a point" then this is better advice.

Always like to see FB experimentation. FYI, build can be improved upon:

I am very mysterious. I, Sindrener, thought I would get away with it when I set up this account in 2012, played it for 9000 hours, 20k AP, and led several WvW guilds. I thought I had done enough for my dasterdly plan of tricking the forums by planning 7 years in advance. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Ragnar-4257/showposts But you, you saw right through me.

It's more like "I know it looks like monkey-poop underneath all of those monkeys, but its actually fake poop they put there to distract tourists, because the government takes all the monkey-poop to fuel their brain-scanning satellite". Monkeys are known for pooping all over the floor. Players are well known for rage-quitting, afk'ing, trolling. Occam's Razor, plz.

Had an important phone call, was in an unranked game, so I answered it. Stopped moving for 30 seconds and got accused of match manipulation. Manipulating with whom? The person who called me who has never heard of the game? This guy is correct, match manipulation only occurs at the very top of the leader board. Match manipulation is when someone pays someone on the opposing team to throw the game. There's a hundred reasons why someone might stop responding during a match. Maybe someone other than a Jehovah witness was knocking on the door, maybe the neighborhood stray cat got ran over by a dump truck, maybe it was the Publishers Clearing House in which case they're probably already on a boat in the Bahama's so good luck. Most of the time it's a reason other than match manipulation--especially if you're in plat 2 or below or unranked. Look, this guy posted on the exact same day as bluri. Coincidence? Smurf busted. And look at the date of this post. June 17th. And what season are we in? Coincidence? Smurfinati confirmed. Things don't just happen at random. Its all part of a master-plan to prevent the return of Vingador and to crown Kidinkk emperor of the universe in the end-time known as Allisvainarok.

To be clear, I'm not saying this stuff doesn't happen at all. I'm just saying some people seem to think it is impacting +50% of games, and it just really, really isn't. It is impacting, maybe 0.001% of games. Aside from mAT rewards, or top 5 titles, what would be the point? Who, in 2019, is actually gonna be impressed by a platinum badge or a merciless-legend title? You really think someone is gonna pay gold to win a game in G3? Nope, sorry, unless you're a contender for mAT final or top-5 ranked leaderboard, this isn't the reason for your 5-game losing streak. Yes, there are a handful of cases you can point to, but hey, guess what, those were all for top-end rewards. If someone "mysteriously" goes afk in a P1 game, the overwhelming likelihood is that he either rage-quit, takeaway just arrived at the door, phonecall, being harassed by partner, etc. Not the Smurfiarchy.

Yes, I am Sindrener-Alt, confirmed.

Riiiight, Moon landings were fake, 9/11 was inside job, Queen Elizabeth is a 10,000 year old lizard and 2008 crash was Illuminati. Look, I'm not saying this stuff never happens, but the way people talk here you'd think this is going on in nearly every game, across all tiers. I hate to break it to you, but nobody is win-trading in Gold tier or Unranked. If your team throws a game there, it's because, they suck and threw the game. Not because Illuminati. Outside of the top 10 this is 100% pointless and irrelevant.

Your poll has mis-identified the problem. The issue is not "how much burst is too much burst", or "how difficult should it be to burst". The issue is that burst should be inversely proportional to survivability. It's fine for a build to be able to do 100-0 in half a second, as long as, if you miss the burst, then the opponent should be able to easily punish you. For example, FA Sceptre Ele or Berserker Rifle/Greatsword, are absolutely fine as burst builds, because while they can 100-0 you in under a second, if they miss they are pretty much helpless. Whereas, builds like Sic'Em SB, GS mesmer, Deadeye rifle, Power shiro/herald, regardless of how effective/meta they actually are, people will always hate them, because on top of being able to 100-0 in under a second, even if you negate their burst, they have plenty of tools to disengage/resustain and come try again 20 seconds later.

Its more that they can't effectively damage you back. You have alot of CC to screw them around, and also alot of weakness/blind.

Success is dependent on both the Player and the Build. A bad player won't be saved by a meta build. A good player who doesn't know how to play a particular class, will still suck with a meta build. A good player with a non-meta build that they know inside-out because they've played 10000 hours on it will destroy regardless of the meta. Its interesting who it is that complains about non-meta. Myself having played all of last season on a non-meta build (Sage Hybrid FB), when I'm in matches with other P3's there are never any comments or complaints, because players there understand that skill > build. But if it's quiet and I'm getting matched with G3s/P1s, that's when all the whining starts to happen. Apparently the lower you go, the more people worship build > skill. Unless you're part of an organised team going in to mAT final, the "meta" is not relevant to you. Play what you're best on. If you're "stuck" in Gold, I can 100% guarantee that its not "the meta" or your build that is holding you back. It is also true that the meta changes over time, mostly in response to RNG balance patches. When PoF landed, NOBODY was playing soulbeast, nobody had figured out boon stacking. Then scourge and SpB took some nerfs, somebody figured out you could juggle infinite boons and that axe was a thing, and bam, 2018 boonbeasts everywhere. And now in 2019 they're kinda gone again. To suggest that the meta is "static" and that new builds don't come in to play, is just absurd. Mirage and Chrono have been in and out over the last 18 months, and even then the optimal build shifted several times. Spellbreaker has been in since PoF, but the optimal build has shifted from bunker to CC/Frenzy. Scrapper came out of nowhere. Heralds were pretty rare when there were mirages everywhere. Core-Guard straight up been wiped out. If we were playing a game where literally nothing had changed in the last 7 years, then yeah, you could probably say by now that all the optimal stuff had been found. But we're not. Stuff is changing around us, and that will bring new builds forward. All of that said....... condi thief is a joke.

Hi All, My interest in this game is crafting builds that break away from the meta. The most recent result is this, which I've not seen anyone else using (at least in EU). This is a random assortment of stuff from Ranked/Unranked/AT over the last 2 months. Its random because I usually forget to start recording >.< So its not necessarily all the best bits, its just stuff. This post is about letting people know "hey, this thing exists, it works, you can use it", not about bragging (because I'm a pretty mediocre player), but for those who need to see "credentials", I have used this build for 100% of the last season, stayed pretty consistently in Plat-3, and finished at rank 42 (this is shown in the video). Not that top-50 means what it maybe once did, but what I'm saying is that this build has been tried and tested against players in EU P2/P3/Leg, and has been proven to be viable (at least in Ranked PvP). It is not a joke build that only works against Silvers. The build is this:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAnd5ensAD1BjNCD+7AkCjF+Bb/i2RPpYBgZQRIrClj6QA-jJhAQBd4kAIxyAA4JAQo9HAA The aim is to fulfill multiple roles at once. It is part-support, part-team-nuker, part-duelist. The idea is that if you bring 60% of the support of a dedicated healer, and 60% of the damage of a dedicated DPS, then you're bringing 120% of either of those alone. I honestly find this easier to queue with, since you're not dependent on your team-mates in the same way as you are on full-support. You can make plays in team-fights, you can take 1v1s, and you can still keep your necro alive, but you're not chained to them. So the build has: Good team support. It doesn't have the same healing output as full Menders, but it still provides the same stability, aegis, protection, cleanses, and the healing isn't terrible.Good AoE damage. With Permeating Wrath and stacking symbols, you can easily get 20+ stacks of burning going in a team-fight, even without Radiance traits, Torch, Purging Flames, etc.Good duelist. Honestly, I was surprised at how good this thing is at dueling. I'll list my experience with matchups further down, but it beats alot of meta builds 1v1.Downsides: No ability to escape a fight. If you don't read the map properly, and get caught in a 1v3, you're dead.No invulns, evades, blinks etc. In a 4v4, if all 4 enemy focus you, it can be difficult to not insta-die if your team aren't on the ball with counter-pressureEndless, endless crying from team-mates about "Y NO HEEL"Play-style, the build centers around Permeating Wrath. The key to this is to maximize how many times you hit. It doesn't matter much how hard those hits are, just that there's alot. Symbols help with making lots of hits, as does axe #1. Part of what makes the build viable right now is that we're in a power meta and most people aren't running much cleanse. It was alot tougher to play when spellbreakers were running FC-resistance and holos were running protection-conversion. I'd be interested to see if there are more competent players than me who can make this work at legendary/mAT level. On a side-note, this build is 100% not viable in WvW. Permeating Wrath trait is nerfed 50%, and since there are no capture-points, its much harder to force fights inside your symbols. 1v1 Matchups (FB Win / Lose) Spellbreaker - 100 / 0 - Spellbreaker can literally do nothing. I have not lost a single 1v1 to spellbreaker all season.Berserker - 90 / 10 - Berserker can occasionally fluke a 1-shotCore Guard - 80 / 20 - If you do everything right they can't win. Just don't fall asleep.Herald (Power) - 60 / 40 - Herald is weak to Condi, but, FB is weak to Herald. Usually close.Herald (Hybrid) - 30 / 70 - The hybrid herald build, I'm not sure if its actually a counter, or if its just the only people I see playing this are really good players.Sic'Em Soulbeast - 80 / 20 - Easy win provided you don't get 1-shot out of stealth.Boonbeast - 40 / 60 - Boonbeast will probably win eventually, unless you can force them to screw up quite bad.Holosmith - 70 / 30 - I tend to win, but its not guaranteed. Not sure if this is just that there are alot of bad Holos out there.Scrapper - Stalemate - YawnThief - 80 / 20 - Nasty if they +1, but not an issue in a straight 1v1Deadeye - 40 / 60 - Difficult, can never get close enough to finish them, so they can retry until they get youMirage - 50 / 50 - Before mirage nerfs this was a guarunteed loss. Now its still difficult, but can be won. Reason its hard is all the clones eating up your Aegis.Chrono - 30 / 70 - The Chrono really has to screw up to lose.Sword Weaver - Stalemate - Be careful though, the burning they can put out can definitely kill if you don't manage cooldowns properly.FA Ele - 80 / 20 - Lol, no.Scourge - 30 / 70 - Nasty, they can continually cleanse burns, or throw them back in your face.Reaper - 70 / 30 - Fairly straight forward, as long as you don't get 1-shot by the spin-to-win

I'm not sure if you're misunderstanding or agreeing with OP. OP and I aren't asking for a winning steak. We're asking for matchmaking that gives closer to 50% win rates. I'm on a 5 match loss streak so far with a few smaller ones in between and it's pretty ridiculous when i was a solid 50%+ when I first started playing this season. That's TERRIBLE matchmaking. Even games that were only PVP based I've played in early access that have died after a month had better matching than this. Either players are misbehaving or the algorithm/placement system is just bork. My hunch is that too many people quit PVP and so they're lumping people together willy nilly. I've been grouped with and against the same set of people over and over again when i've queued multiple times in a row. If you keep flipping a coin, eventually you'll get 5 tails in a row. It doesn't mean the coin is broken.

This please. The interaction between FB and scourge is strong, to be sure, but the reason it's problematic is FB is so kitten good at surviving while performing its healing function. Except, it isn't. It's a weak bunker. Go watch any tournament finals, as soon as the FB has the target put on their head, or gets caught in an outnumbered scenario, they die in seconds. The fact that silvers are unable to focus a target is not a reason to go make a class unplayable. Just think this through. Do you want to see teams with 2 supports hugging each other? Way to go making the game even less fun. Now you don't just have a FB on mid, you've got an FB AND a druid/tempest/scrapper/ventari (or, just, double FB). Wauw, that sure sounds fun /s

But there is also a reason why it is chosen by all as support in team fights, and the reason is simple, it is better than other professions that play the same role, and this is already a valid reason to request a nerf to a profession that in terms of team support has too many skills, unlike the others.All dueling professions have an alternative, FB has no rivals. I don't disagree. What I was calling out is that you need to find ways to bring FB down in its team-fight support capability, WITHOUT completely gimping it in other areas. Don't just indiscriminately throw around nerfs to stuff that hurt non-meta builds more than they hurt the meta support. Areas to focus on would maybe be healing-output-to-others (Force of Will, Invigorating Bulwark), and reducing the radius/range on some of the support skills so that the FB can't simultaneously support everyone on Foefire-Mid, and will have to prioritise. For example, the resistance field on Courage, has a radius of 360. Trim it down to 300. If that's not enough, trim it down to 240 (same as a necromancer Well). There are smart ways to go about this, and then there are stupid ways (see suggestions above that FB shouldn't be able to self-heal :/ )

But then everyone would target the firebrand more and then make the player rage quit, no thanks. @Aeolus.3615 said: But then everyone would target the firebrand more and then make the player rage quit, no thanks. That change would be to much overwhelming due how classes and powercreep momentum actually work.Probably for that to work, FB should have some sustain by it self, while having less self heal and better healing output, could be tricky on how to balance it, we dont need another scrapper :} in game. A healer should not be a tank. A healer is a semi squishy class that with the sole purpose of keeping their teammates alive. The healer should NOT be a tank by itself AND heal their whole team. If a healer gets targeted it should die rather fast if its team is not trying to protect him/her. Firebrand is such a big self sustaining tank that they literally do not have to kite or LOS-block whatsoever because they have enough skills keeping them alive while standing still. This is just bad class design in a team class based game.You clearly haven't played much FB. If you try and stand still and face-tank when getting focused in a 4v4 on mid, you WILL explode just as fast as any other class. FASTER infact, because FB doesn't carry any scaling defenses (invuln, evade). Aegis is powerful in a 1v1, but basically useless if there are 3+ people hitting you. If there are 3 damage classes focusing you, you MUST start kiting, LOS'ing, or getting peels from team-mates. Just the same as any other class. There is a reason that FB isn't picked by players who want to troll-bunker on far. That's because it's a shit bunker that dies very easily if it finds itself outnumbered. Scrapper, Chrono, Soulbeast, Weaver, all infinitely better. Its true that if you're holding a point 1v1, you can just stand still and face-tank. But it just isn't true in a team-fight against even slightly competent opponents.

Its all very well saying "nerf", but what specifically would you change? Which specific skills/traits? FB and Scourge are already very mediocre outside of team-fight. They are already far surpassed by other classes in bunkering, roaming, bursting, and further nerfs would just push them even further into the "must be in a team-fight duo to play" category. How would you nerf them without making them even more worthless outside of teamfight?

I would add: "I died 1vX, therefore I am doing my job, and my team sucks for not taking rest of map" What this demonstrates is a complete failure to understand the concept of a "snowball". The reason you are outnumbered is probably because your team just got beaten somewhere else on the map, and then the enemy team had free players to send over and plus you. Your team didn't lose with a numbers advantage, they probably lost with even numbers, or even a numbers dis-advantage, and then that is being carried over on to you. You weren't fighting 1vX for the entire time, just the 10 seconds before you died. Your team aren't afk on mid while you fight valiantly 1v3, they're all dead respawning. Its on you to recognise that your team just got beaten elsewhere, and that therefore you will probably become outnumbered, and therefore need to back off and regroup. 99% of the time, if you die, there's something you could have done to not die, you just didn't recognise it quickly enough. Obviously if you've been fighting 1v2 for 5+ minutes, your team really should be able to take advantage of that. But 99% of the time I see this being said, the person saying it was only fighting outnumbered for maybe 20-30 seconds, which is nowhere near time for your team to take advantage of, especially if they're coming off respawns.