[Possible Queue "fix"... (brought to you by the letter 3 and the number Z)]

I play on a full server so queues are rare. Also people play on Friday because it's reset, not because it's Friday.

[World Linking 5/27/2022]

I guess Gandara has to sit in T5 being heavily outnumbered again

[What profession should i play in WvW?]

5 hours ago, Custodio.6134 said:

no, although projectile is a part of it. I specifically mentioned projectiles in the context of skills, that 
 

since it is ONE factor. It´s not the only factor, i never said that. 

The biggest issue with thief and ranger is the lack of synergy in WvW. This doesn´t mean that they don´t have anything to provide, but rather that they don´t provide the important effects with value in WvW. Group setups in WvW work completely different compared to any type of PvE, the easiest factor to see that is, that we don´t need permanent might, alacrity and quickness (which would be a basic setup in pve). 

The synergy is what makes comps (and certain classes) strong (such as Firebrand for important boons like stability and resistance, necros due to damage spike and corrupt, or revenant because of permanent swiftness, fury and accessibility of stability). 

Ranger and thief don´t provide these either not good enough to outclass anything, or don´t provide it at all. Projectiles are just another main issue here

I know nothing about a PvE setup, all I know is WvW setups.

Firebrand and scrapper are essential also some people try to replace scrapper with tempest which I'm against. Scourge is present for corruption spikes, medium AoE damage spikes, and good single target spikes with the ability to also provide some barrier. Rev provides the ranged spike with perma fury and some might while also having stab roads, great dwarf, f2 party wide damage reduction and reasonable melee damage. There is 1 more slot in a party which could have a chronomancer for strips, pulls and cc, spellbreaker for strips and cc, or an exotic DPS.

The class in the exotic DPS slot does not need to provide boons ect to the party but can instead make use of the boons to provide the highest damage and the most downs. Usually this is taken by a DH with some range damage but mostly it's traps, symbol of punishment and sword of justice which allows it to drop damage in an area while moving or using invuln and still putting out damage. Other classes can fit in this slot too such as a berserker for its heavy melee spike with GS and offhand axe or if you want to pump damage numbers in arc then a long bow, both capable of beating a DH but harder to play. A daredevil can also be taken in this slot as a pure melee and beats out all other classes in its ability to create downs(AoE not single target). A soulbeast can also be used here with good damage from GS and axe 5 but most importantly it's ability to leap ahead and catch enemies with an immobilise.

Those last 3 exotic DPS are less commonly played, harder to play, and the majority of people will play different builds in different ways and make them look bad so it's a risk for a commander to accept one.

[What profession should i play in WvW?]

1 hour ago, Custodio.6134 said:

unless you want to play in medium-/large scale (in other words, any group of roughly 20 or more players). There´s a reason why ranger and thief get a lot of hate, and this hate does usually come from groups of said size. 

And often this isn´t just "hate" for the sake of hating these classes, it´s just because they are objectively bad in these specific types of play, and can, if used wrong, be very harmful for your own team. 

Every class has its strengths in different types of play, and some have weaknesses in other parts of the game. Ranger does fall into the category of having strengths in roaming, but for group play that exceeds 20 players or more, they heavily fall off into uselessness, or even being harmful for your allies ( because of mostly projectile-based attacks, that can easily get reflected against you and your allies). And there´s TONS of reflect or projectile-block in the game, mostly coming from Firebrands and scrappers, which are a core-part of every squad)

It's not true that ranger and thief are "objectively bad in these specific types of play". You say for ranger that it's because of mostly projectile-based attacks but this is more along the lines of why they are not accepted. 99% of the people on these classes are not adjusting their builds to be more suitable to a larger scale and these are generally more difficult to understand and play. Most thief's I see are using a shortbow or shadowstep which means they will never match other classes but I know that daredevil can be a crazy strong DPS. If a ranger has a bow then they are also not designed for that scale, a GS/axe+axe soulbeast with immobs and damage is and can have a significant impact on taking out a chunk of the enemies.

[Just some thoughts on WvW]

Basing the matchups on player numbers is worse than on playtime. Just because there are more players it doesn't mean that those players will always be playing so you are more likely to have even numbers although without taking into account which hours people play you can never guarantee even numbers or even remotely close numbers.

 

The hours which people play is extremely important and I don't expect alliances to work well until it's taken into consideration, which they said it would be later on.

 

Take Gandara as an example. The server is full so it clearly has a lot of hours played on it, but it's stuck down in the bottom tiers. This is because of coverage / a questionable scoring systems. Gandara has a significant prime time presence but lacks the off hours presence to compete with the current scoring system.

[remove squads from wvw]

3 hours ago, kamikharzeeh.8016 said:

idk if videos of this exist, but i saw (or read? been some time) blobfights in the very early state of gw2 wvw xD before bigger squad even existed

 

it was like, everyone was in a huge voicecall or sth alike + in a second one with their party members. so it just was harder to coordinate but the sole groups probably been even way more effective bc u always mainly focus on each other

 

like newbie support players get lost all the time during pushes and let their dps die, or rookie dps getting panic - would maybe be less disruption if they saw their supports more clearly (and rookies probs dont run optimal settings like field of view, simple condi float numbers, simple nameplates, standard models, thick party health bars)

For open tags the commander would use their commander tag, people would join comms like teamspeak, then form parties usually with people they know or people would message in say chat something like "guardian lfg" to then be invited into a party.

A benefit of this was that you would have some strong parties where all of the party members have played together before an know what they're doing instead of veterans supports supporting DPS who are not doing much and veteran DPS being supported by new supports due to the parties being created by the commander or Lt based on class.

Also back then you didn't usually die unless you made a mistake so with this and the above, the core of the group was much more important and when fighting something like a guild raid it would usually end up as a battle between the core of the zerg and the guild.

 

Guild raids didn't use the commander tag but just used the target market.

 

 

Tldr - commanders existed, people joined teamspeak, parties were created usually of players who normally played with eachother, if you needed a party you would type it in say chat.

[I hope WvW is not a selling point for this game.]

23 hours ago, Remount.7832 said:

Why would any player play WvW if they are at a clear disadvantage? I agree it may be fun but I doubt it's fun losing or not being able to do anything other than follow the zerg. I'm having trouble finding any appeal to this game type for anyone other than geared players.

There is a difference between exotic and ascended but the difference in skill is way way more impact. If you look at the logs as a DPS and actually know how to get info from them (not just damage done), then you can see different groupings of people at different skill levels. The difference between exotic and ascended is not gonna come close to getting you to the next level but once you really know what you're doing it is useful to get a little higher within your group.

 

Tldr - it really doesn't matter if you have exotic or ascended until you are good and know what you are doing, the gear won't compensate for skill.

[Anyone notice , extremely heavy conditions Zerg's running in WVW, how do you defend, as we keep getting melted..]

21 hours ago, Custodio.6134 said:

The first one: you get movement-impaired (stunned, crippled, immobilized), but the latter two shouldnt really be an issue, especially if you are the Firebrand (since you have access to resistance and stunbreaks). 

 

There is only 1 FB skill which provides resistance and that is in a tome. Their only other access is from durability runes so that is unlikely to cover against a good immobeast when the scrapper can't keep up with cleansing.

[Dan's Pug Squad Tier list.]

40 minutes ago, Dagger.2035 said:

I’m not saying Daredevil can’t have good dps.  Reaper and Berserker can have high damage too.  My problem with those builds is that they are very situational and require melee fights.  Which is why I rarely use them any more.  You either need numbers where anything works, or a coordinated pug group which is doing frequent melee pushes.  It is much safer to run the builds I listed and switch to melee if the situation allows it.

I guess so if you are in a group that just pirate ships but I've not been in one of those for a while and if there are more than 4 ranged spikes per melee push I just leave since I won't have fun regardless of class.

[Dan's Pug Squad Tier list.]

2 hours ago, Dagger.2035 said:

It’s about using the right tool for the right job.  In large scale fights scourges are way more effective than thieves.  If you try playing a Herald, Dragonhunter, Scourge, or Weaver you’ll notice a huge increase in damage and kills.  I doubt you will want to play Daredevil any more once fights have 30+ people.

Scourge and Daredevil don't fit in the same role.

As Sub said, Scourge is a Secondary Damage/Stripper but a Daredevil (if you don't bring the GvG one) would fill the role of Primary Damage and I don't really have Scourge above me in damage or downs contribution when I'm playing Daredevil.

Daredevil is capable of creating more downs and even doing more damage than all of those listed classes in 30+ fights. It takes a top tier Herald or Dragonhunter to match it, Scourge shouldn't really compete, and Weaver can beat all of them enemy stays in their AoEs but if you have a lot of movement then their effectiveness declines significantly.

[Support Vindicator Change Suggestions]

I enjoy playing support Vindicator but it is far from optimal and when facing a good group it becomes less than adequate. I have a few thoughts of changes to help the viability although I don't expect them to bring it to the level of a scrapper.

Tree Song

Target priority changed to match the target priority of "Shake It Off!" - 

Tree Song tends to target party members with no conditions on them over squad members with conditions on them. This is impactful in a situation where the firebrand goes tome 2 and cleanses or a party member gets cleansed through overcleansing. The result of this is less energy generation which is required to maintain the healing to the party and for your own survivability. It then has the additional benefit of allowing more overcleansing and overhealing to come to your party while in saints shield dodge (important as the dodge can be enough time for party members to go from 100% to down).

 

Awakening

Reduce the energy cost from 35 to 15, increase cooldown from 10s to 15s -

(This may be too much of a buff to cele but I'm not knowledgeable on that)

currently the only time this should be used is when you are guaranteed to die if you don't break the stun, in which case you have no energy left and your party will most likely die, or if you have too much energy and the FB doesn't stunbreak, which should not be the case. This would allow the skill to be used while maintaining the energy to keep healing although it would still have a significant enough cost to then have to choose between energy meld and tree song.

 

Saint's Shield

Additional effect - 15% of outgoing healing applies to outgoing barrier -

This helps restore some of the potency of Saint's Shield which was lost in the nerf without buffing celestial. A support Vindicator will have around 100% outgoing healing which would still leave the barrier at slightly less than pre nerf.

 

Dodge duration reduced to 75% of its current duration -

The time spent in the dodge animation can be enough time for party members to go from 100% health to down. This reduction will reduce the gap between healing at the cost of needing to survive for longer with no dodge (as the energy regenerates while dodging).

 

Urn of Saint Viktor

Remove and replace -

The removal of healing makes using this skill suicide and the benefits are very weak.

It would be good for this skill to have a low enough energy cost that you have enough left to keep the party alive and it would be good to provide superspeed or a high value boon like resistance as part of it.

 

[Vindicator Feedback Thread]

From the perspective of playing support in WvW.

I think the target priority of Tree Song needs to be changed to use the same target priority as shake it off.

In theory Tree Song cleanses the same amount of conditions as shake it off but it practice it isn't close as the skill tends to select party members who have no conditions on them and just applies regen to them.

This change would increase the overall cleansing and healing within the squad which would allow overhealing and overcleansing from scrapper or FB to take the edge off the vindicator's party while they are in the dodge animation. It would also more consistently cleanse conditions which results in more consistent energy regen from the skill making the rotation more comfortable and no longer having the entire thing ruined by target selection.

[Anet Fix that Condi kitten]

Direct damage requires power, precision, ferocity to do any damage. Condi damage requires Condi damage and maybe expertise to do damage. This leaves a free stat while still at maximum damage. This means the Condi character will survive long enough for the conditions to be of value. It also means that the Condi character can counter direct damage with no loss from toughness while the power character had to make sacrifices to counter Condi. Neither of these things I said as counters nullify the opponent and I see them as equivalent.

 

TLDR - stats give Condi the advantage, don't have stats with Condi damage + expertise + toughness

 

[Took a break and came back to play some WvW.... holy kitten what happened.]

49 minutes ago, gitssac.7302 said:

When you've played the same game mode, in the same maps, with the same basic structure, with minimal changes to the meta (Mostly through expac classes coming in, not actual balance changes), for 8+ years, you get really bored of it.

 

Most of the WvW population left to go play other games with an active dev team. Many of the earlier guilds in WvW (2 to 3 years in) left to go play other games because the meta got stale and boring. Many of the guilds I used to run with moved to games like BDO or more mainstream offerings in the MMO scene.

 

Basically, the remaining population are either newer players to WvW, or just can't find a better game. It's a shame really because I think GW2 has one of the best competitive game play systems in gaming today, just not a dev team that cares about supporting it.

In that first point, that 8+ years is an exaggeration. The meta 8 years ago was very different to how it is today and imo better than it is today. Shortly after HoT release it was also very different since that's where I quit and on returning to the game I had to forget what I knew to learn the new meta and ended up switching class.

 

I have a similar experience with the other 2 points though except for quitting due to bad changes and returning because even in its current state, I can't find anything that can compete with it.

[Perma Stealth Thiefs - What to do?]

8 minutes ago, Sahne.6950 said:

this is WvW, but if thief had the capabilities to reliably win 1vs1 it would see alot more play in pvp.

Everygood team needs a thief because it can disengage and decap REALLY good. Not because it wins alot of fights on its own. Thief is a +1Decapbot at best.

You demand a hard nerf to Thief, meanwhile there is celestialbunkers roaming aroundin WvW that are literally untouchable for any thief..... GOOD JOB!

we are done here.

 

And you demand a nerf to cele builds so thief's can become the literally untouchable gods of roaming again?

I think that's the way you do things with escalating a statement and with the assertion at the end.

I demand a hard nerf do I?

[Perma Stealth Thiefs - What to do?]

3 minutes ago, Sahne.6950 said:

Fact is that: If a Thief faces a enemy player of the same skilllevel he will loose that 1v1 in 90% of the cases. Thats just how it is. If you win more: Good job! you are a better player than your opponent.

If Thief would be able to consistantly win 1v1s we would see 5 Thiefs vs 5 Thiefs all over PvP.

Do you really think a nerf to thief is justified?

That's not fact.

WvW isn't PvP.

Every good PvP team requires a thief.

Yes I think a nerf to the stealth of a thief is justified.

[Perma Stealth Thiefs - What to do?]

10 minutes ago, Sahne.6950 said:

So you demand we nerf Thief because there is some annoying dude dancing around you and he is not able to kill you? GOT IT!     But.... you are complainining about annoying player behaviour rather than Thief...   I can do just about the same as a ministrel guard. I can just run around you all the time and dont die. Thats just about as effective as a thief that is circling around you nonstop is. He is being annoying at best. But do whe have to nerf the class because of this? NO.

Please go play Thief and tell me if its as overpowered as you make it look like. Tell me if its fun to loose almost any fair fight and the only thing you are really great at is....  NOT DYING!? IDK man.

Do you not see that if we nerf thief any more it will be a complete meme?

The thief has solid potential to kill. Idk where the idea that it's impossible to kill while playing it comes from.

It's easier to kill a minstril guard, than an average skill thief, but you don't need to pay any attention to that guard cos all it's gonna do is cc you and put you in combat. It has no superspeed, leaps, teleports or damage so its not much of a problem.

 

Also I have played a roaming thief and >90% of my playtime in the past year has been on thief.

[Perma Stealth Thiefs - What to do?]

1 minute ago, Sahne.6950 said:

but why is that opverpowered? The thief cant kill you and you can not kill the thief. If the thief still tries to kill you... he dies...  Why exactly do we need to nerf thief?

The thief locks you in combat and get multiple attempts against you by stealthing and resetting.

You have to be paying attention and trying to predict where they will move and when they will attack while they just move out of the red circles if you predict correctly which is a big imbalance of focus and skill requirements.

 

There are cele builds which are stronger and just as easy to play but at least they don't waste your time and when you're gonna kill them they die. It also helps to be able to see what you're fighting to learn what they are doing and to know if they are trying to escape or staying to fight.

[Perma Stealth Thiefs - What to do?]

1 hour ago, Sahne.6950 said:

easiest class for what? because it is surely not the easiest class to get kills. NOTHING(besides maybe mesmer) should die to a Thief in 1v1. If you Died to one... you got outskilled. Period.

I myself have died numerous times to thiefs, but that because i paniced/made mistakes/or got straight up outsmarted, and not because Thief is blatantly overpowered.

You guys have to stop pretending that Thief is easymode... because in reality IT IS NOT. I tell you the same thing i tell everyone that is biased about a class.   GO PLAY IT! You will notice after 15 minutes that its no where near as strong as you say it is. You may be hard to catch, and Stealth allows you to sneak into places that most classes could not be in, for example in the middle of 4 enemys,  BUT WHEN IT COMES TO KILLING THINGS.... KILLING THINGS SOLO AS A THIEF IS NOT EASY / BORDERLINE IMPOSSIBLE IF THE OTHER PERSON IS EQUALLY SKILLED!

Just go in to Wvw or if you dont have the gear for it pvp and play a few rounds as thief. Then you can come back and tell me that you have not died once, went on a 30 killingspree, and that it was easy.    

PLEASE DO IT!  Record your glorious Journey if you dont mind!  i always like a good laugh. ❤️

 

Idk if people are claiming that thief is the best class at killing but it it is definitely the best class at not being killed and is easier than anything else I've played at it, including warrior. It isn't guaranteed to kill enemies but you only die from your own mistakes.

Imo thief is just broken af. I run a staff/staff zerg build (no SA or shadowstep) and still kill stuff when I get ganked while trying to regroup because of the stupid amounts of mobility, evasion, and damage (if you take a damage weapon it does a lot of damage).

[Every Problem with Tempest in Wvw.]

6 minutes ago, Jski.6180 said:

Its better to work in an positive way where you build up classes not bring them down.

 

Update seemed ok for tempest over all though i think its better for catalyst aura support its simply easier to get the right auras on catalyst due to combos giving auras base off of your atument where overloads simply take so much longer to pull off. It helps for tempest for sure and i am looking forwarded to using it to the full effect.

It's not better to buff things to become meta. Constant power creep in all directions just results in less control and too much passively happening e.g. how many of the output boons and conditions are deliberately applied at deliberate times? There are very few, and the spam and power creep of strips and cleanses means you're not choosing to strip or cleanse as a reaction to specific boons or conditions but just using them when there are conditions (and just stacking them together with strips on the spike) meaning the power creep results in less control and increases spam and luck.

[Perma Stealth Thiefs - What to do?]

11 hours ago, SweetPotato.7456 said:

Nothing, I've been given the perma invisible thief build, frankly, if someone wants to perma invisible, go ahead, it's a freaking boring build and if someone wants to spent their time hiding and annoying other players, instead of going out to get more gold/loots, I'd say let them.

I disagree that 1 player should have the kit to be able to annoy multiple players for an extended period of time as that is just toxic and when it comes to a t3 keep, people either have to keep hunting the thief and be annoyed, or lose the keep and also be annoyed.

[Perma Stealth Thiefs - What to do?]

13 hours ago, kash.9213 said:

#2 I know this isn't an open world pvp game mode, but it's still red=dead unless I missed some patch notes. Every player would rather abandon a fight than die, that's why a lot of players pick a class that has a sure squad seat. What are you even on about?

"Every player would rather abandon a fight than die"

That's statement isn't true.

[Wvw Balance. What needs buffs?]

8 hours ago, Shroud.2307 said:

People love to ask for nerfs so much you'd think all everyone wants is for every class to only have insulting Shouts for attacks.

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"
20sec recharge
240 radius
5 targets

No damage of course, but maybe it hurts your feelings.

Nerfs to sustain too so damage can stick instead of it being spike them to 0% or they're at 100%.

[World Linking 3/25/2022]

1 hour ago, InAGiiZ.5241 said:

Is this a repost?

No, it's a joke

[Some community input on Specter in raids and WvW]

22 minutes ago, Grand Marshal.4098 said:

It offers nothing to the group outside of DPS.

 

Guardian options, even the berserker you compare it too, all have some form of support capability, be it stability for guards and cleansing or the battle standard on berserker. Thief is more important in 10 to 15 man groups as Basi share is more potent vs such numbers. In zergs it's largely ineffective to momentarily halt (best case scenario) a singe party out of the 6 or 7. 

 

The build I'm trying on specter for zergs has immense barrier share potential, talking in the range of half to a million barrier depending on the fight duration, high alac uptime, smoke fields and projectile hate, with very potent solo rez potential. Far more party support options than an offensive thief. Supports in wvw will always be above most DPS variants, even if said DPS variants can be very strong. 

 

 

In the 5th slot, all support should already be fully covered by the rest of the party and if you need to bring support while in that slot then it should be squad wide support like spellbreaker or chrono strips+cc, otherwise that would be where the heavy damage dealers would go. Stability on the guard should be unnecessary as it should be covered by the FB+scrapper+herald and it would also require a DPS loss. 5th slot being a support then only really helps with keeping the mediocre damage from scourge and damage from herald going