4561

When do the matchups reset? Is it between friday and saturday? My guild (and other allied guilds) are on Blackgate, so WvW is dead at the moment. We’ve killed everyone.

4562

Matches reset Friday around 4-5pm PST. Blackgate will probably steamroll Tier 2 also, so next week will likely be like this week.

Try to get gear that’s as close to your level as possible so that your stats are good when WvW boosts you to level 80. Don’t spend a fortune, but level 25 gear is pretty cheap.

Guardian-specific:
Guardians have the worst range of any class. Unlike level 25 rangers, you can’t sit in back and shoot enemies. If you want to do ranged damage, get arrow carts and learn how to place and use them.

Otherwise, you probably want to focus on support. Guardians are probably one of the best support classes for WvW. You don’t always see a lot of them because damage is what gets you kill credit and lootbags.

I’d use Staff as one of your weapons:

[ul]
[li]#2 - Healing orb (if you’re geared for healing)[/li][li]#3 - Swiftness when moving as a group[/li][li]#4 - Buff allies with might[/li][li]#5 - Line of Warding in chokepoints/doorways to keep enemies out for a few seconds.[/li][/ul]
Other useful skills:

[ul]
[li]Retaliation or Reflect Projectiles - These are ridiculously useful when an enemy zerg is hitting your zerg. Get them to kill themselves.[/li][li]Protection - e.g. summon Sanctuary over your casters on keep walls, protect people while resurrecting, or protect a group while rushing enemy siege.[/li][li]Condition removal - Bow of Truth is the easiest (summon and let it work). Others require recognizing when people need cripple/immobilize/etc. removed and reacting quickly. Guardians have some of the best condition removal in the game.[/li][li]Buffs - Shouts like “Save Yourselves!” to buff allies during fights.[/li][li]Healing (if you’re geared for it).[/li][/ul]
Just be careful with Retaliation and Protection because some aoe will ignore it (like Meteor Shower).

You can also just gear for Vitality/Toughness and run into melee (preferably using hammer #1 and #2 to proc Retaliation), but bring immobilize/stun removal. You’ll probably die a lot doing this.

Caveat: I haven’t played a high level guardian. I’ve thinking about getting my low level guardian into WvW, and these are some of the things that have come up. Hope it helps.

Alternatively, you can make a low level Ranger for WvW. Unlock all the longbow skills before you go in, and you should have a decent start.

4563

Neither Sanctuary nor Wall of Reflection protect from ANY AoE. Regular projectiles only. It’s also important to remember that Retaliation (which is a byproduct of many abilities, combos and traits, there is no specific Retaliation skill) does not really protect you from anything, it simply damages enemies for certain amount (depending on your Power) every time they damage you. You still get the full damage though.

Protection (which is different from Retaliation and Reflection, so Sanctuary has nothing to do with Protection, it’s about reflection), on the other hand, will protect you against direct hits and AoE by reducing the damage by 33%. It doesn’t protect against conditions though.

You can also just gear for Vitality/Toughness and run into melee (preferably using hammer #1 and #2 to proc Retaliation), but bring immobilize/stun removal. You’ll probably die a lot doing this.

You will CERTAINLY die a lot doing this. :)

To start, I would recommend going with Scepter/Focus and Staff.

Staff is to get you speed buff when running back to or away from the fight, plus mid range very wide AoE on autoattack, plus the might buff on “4” plus the “2” can hit a lot of enemies if you line it up properly. And it’s always fun to use the “5” on enemies that are trying to get somewhere (like into the keep you are sieging).

Scepter is to use most of the time. Its “1” is slow but can hit pretty hard especially at close/mid range or when shooting into a bunch of enemies. Its “2” is invaluable because it’s a ground targeted long range AoE, usefull from the wall, against the wall, everywhere. Its “3” is immobilizer and that’s always useful. Focus provides “4” which is a bit of a heal and a blind and “5” which is a 3-hit block, it will save your life numerous times. Focus is a very defensive offhand.

From the utilities skills, I would recommend getting Wall of Reflection, Save Yourselves and Hold the Line. Be ready to switch out Hold the Line for Retreat, you can do it any time you are out of combat, just click the arrow at the top of the skill slot. You might also want to consider Purging Flames for this slot if you get a lot of conditions (and you will :)). It’s a nice simple set of skills that are useful both to the group or to your selfish self when needed. :)

The above is probably the best set to start WvWing - it’s ranged, it’s simple, it provides a lot of survivability, mobility and support. Once you get comfortable with WvW, you can start trying more complicated stuff like Hammer, which is a very effective CC weapon.

[edit] Oh, and if using Scepter, for its “2”, consider the 10 point Vitality major trait that increases the size of symbols. And the 20 trait that makes symbols heal people. Well, these two traits are useful with most weapons. Plus rememebr that you can switch major traits without respecing any time you are out of combat.

4564

Wow, thanks for all the advice guys! I will play around with it tonight or tomorrow, sticking to EBay’s borderlands to begin with. Sounds like I need to grab a staff and a sceptre in PvE and build up those skills (currently using Greatsword and Mace/Shield in PvE). My current armor set is a mix of Masterwork lvl 20 gear and lvl 25 gear since some of the Masterwork 20 stuff is actually better than the green 25 stuff in terms of bonuses provided while only being a couple points lower in total armor.

I’ve already discovered that Guardian is not really a tank class. I’ve been playing mine (when grouped) as a support role, mostly condition removal (and conversion into boons) along with protection. Sounds like I’m on the right path to WvW success as a Guardian, though the “must kill stuff to get credit & loot” thing worries me.

4565

GS and mace/shield are great WvW weapons! My friend and coop partner plays a Guardian and is frequently using a GS (staff is the other weapon, mostly for the Swiftness). Shields can be great too.

4566

Blue lvl 25 stuff is much better than the green lvl 20 stuff. Take a look at the pants, at lvl 25 one of them gives 11 Power and 8 Vitality while the green lvl 20 pants give you just 10 Power. Look it up on gw2db.com, Armorsmith section.

In game, you can open the Trading Post screen, go to the Market tab, and click the Show Filter button. In the filter fields, select “Armor”, “Legs”, the level range (25-25), and select whatever rarity you want to look at - blue or green. Click the “Search” button in the bottom-right corner of the filter part of the screen, IIRC.

Out of the game, you can use gw2db.com or gw2spidy.com to look up items and their TP prices.

All that stuff should be pretty cheap, the aforementioned blue lvl 25 pants go for like 85c. Although, “cheap” is very relative, of course, and depends on your financial situation. :)

You can also craft your gear if you have the materials.

I’ve already discovered that Guardian is not really a tank class. I’ve been playing mine (when grouped) as a support role, mostly condition removal (and conversion into boons) along with protection. Sounds like I’m on the right path to WvW success as a Guardian, though the “must kill stuff to get credit & loot” thing worries me.

You don’t really have to kill stuff to get the loot, you just need to hit it a couple of times (this applies to both WvW and PvE). And this is where Staff (for mid-close distance) and Scepter (for mid-long distance) shine. Staff’s autoattack has a very wide cone, so you hit everyone relatively in front of you as long as they are not too far. Scepter’s “2” attack is a ground targeted AoE (that can be made larger with the trait I mentioned earlier) on fast recharge and great distance. You will be hitting many more enemies with these 2 weapons than with anything else.

These 2 weapons are not the best for 1v1 but they shine when there are allies around.

Also remember that all your support abilities are usually on pretty long cooldowns and often are very situational. You will not (or rather should not) be concentrating on support 100% of your time. Run around, hit stuff and throw your support when you see the need.

Only remember that, in WvW, loot bags appear at YOUR location, not at the fallen enemy’s location. I wonder how much loot never gets picked up in WvW because of this. :)

4567

Pretty much every Guardian’s weapon is great in certain situations. GS is great in a small scale PvP out in the open. Using it in zerg vs zerg or during the siege is less effective though.

And in general, of course, it’s always easier to start with a ranged weapon.

And again, like everything else, you can (and often should) equip/unequip weapons any time you are not in combat.

4568

Oh, I forgot to address this.

Guardian can be made pretty tanky, it’s how you choose your traits and your gear. Get Toughness/Vitality gear (not that easy at earlier levels, gets easier later on but still Power/Toughness/Vitality stat set is one of the rarest IMO), invest into Toughness and Vitality trait trees, take the trait to blind enemies with your F1, invest at least 5 points into the Virtues line, equip, for example sword/focus and, for example great sword.

Now attack some tough enemy. Use “2” on sword to leap and blind him, his first hit is missed. Your passive F3 aegis is up, so the second hit is blocked. Use F1, which blinds the enemy, so the third hit is missed. Use “4” on focus to blind him, the fourth hit is missed. Use “5” on focus, next up to three hits within 4 seconds are blocked, so at least one (that’s the fifth). Use F3 to give yourself and your allies Protection boon and aegis, which makes sixth attack be blocked. By this time, your “2” on sword is probably up again (10 sec CD), use it and make his seventh attack miss. Switch to GW, use its “3” and make him miss his eighth attack.

Eight hits are avoided without even moving. No other class can do that. You don’t even have to execute the above as precisely, you can afford to get hit now and then because you have lots of Toughness and Vitality and your passive regen buff from F2 (you can activate it too) plus other stuff will heal you. Passively.

That’s A LOT of tanking, I don’t think any other class can do anything like that.

Of course, in real life, nothing is that perfect. There are adds, there are knockdowns, conditions, AoE damage and sometimes you can’t just stand there and tank for extended time.

But then again, often you can. Properly geared and built Guardian can tank like no other class in the game.

The above applies mostly to PvE or sPvP. In WvW you often don’t even see the enemies that kill you. :) And no tanking will save you if 5 people start AoEing you to hell. :)

4569

That’s exactly what I’ve been doing, and when I turned 25 I ran the search for ALL colors of armor 22-25 and found that the Masterwork stuff I had (level 20 with multiple bonuses) added up to more bonuses than the blue lvl 25 stuff available on the TP. Maybe it was a bad night on the TP or something, but there was no green stuff lvl 25 and the blue stuff would say 11 Power 8 Vitality while my augmented Masterwork lvl 20 stuff was like 15 total power plus 10 vitality for example. The green stuff I have has THREE extra bonuses associated with it, whereas the blue lvl 25 stuff on the TP had only a single bonus.

EDIT : Turns out it’s RUNES making the difference. The lvl 20 gear I have is all tricked out with runes that add another pair of bonuses. I didn’t see any 25 gear that was configured the same way (i.e. Mighty Chain Coat of the Flame Legion).

4570

Right, I forgot about sigils and runes. Crafted stuff comes without them most of the time and they can add up significantly. And buying them separately is not really feasible at low levels as they will often cost as much or more than the armor itself. And what’s the point if the piece is going to be replaced within 2-3 levels anyway?

You are right. Still people often sell the dropped gear with runes at prices close to vendor price, might be worth checking but don’t sweat it too much - if most of your gear is like that, you are already adequately geared.

4571

Green items should always be better than any blue item that is 4-5 levels higher than it at a minimum. Except for at certain levels where items begin receiving dual and triple attributes. For example when items hit level 21+ requirement, they start getting dual attributes (eg Power/Vitality instead of just Power). Its probably why when looking at level 25 blues, you can find better stats on it than a green level 20 item.

The reason why your masterwork still adds up to better stats, is probably because it had some sort of upgrade component/slot already included that makes up for the dual attribute that the blue item had. Also, it looked like you also got bonuses from having armorpieces with matching runes which gave some of your armor extra bonuses for having matching sets. Most times blue items don’t have the upgrade slot filled, so you’d have to buy the rune or upgrade component.

Of course once you start getting level 21+ greens, than it goes back to green items being better again as they’ll start having dual attributes too.

This happens again at level 60 when triple attribute items shows up.

I’ve always just tried to buy green masterwork items, as people seem to just price it barely above what the vendor would buy it back for. So I don’t lose much of my gold from using them. I try to upgrade my armor every 5 levels or so.

4572

http://mos.millenium.org/matchups#NA

Our (Blackgate) bracket this week is both hilarious and depressing.

4573

So the Halloween stuff is supposed to start today. Do we know what exactly is going to be happening?

4574

PC Gamer UK have a preview video up here.

4575

Sanctum of Rall was awesome for WvW this weekend. I got into the new match right as it switched (I actually queued up about 3 seconds after it changed over and got right in, and people who were 30 seconds later were in a queue for an hour). Friday evening was awesome, with fights all over the place. Saturday was more of the same. I had to go out Saturday evening, so I didn’t re-enter WvW after that the rest of the weekend, I was so burned out. But it was awesome fun.

Candy corn… learn to love it! A little birdie told me there is some fun stuff coming down the line for this.

4576

I guess the event is to start “around the 22nd” or “22nd-ish” perhaps.

4577

I think it’s starting now. Got booted from the game and new content is downloading.

4578

I think it’s starting now. Got booted from the game and new content is downloading.

4579

You may want to hold off on downloading the patch. It appears to be redownloading the entire client…

4580

Nine minutes after starting (in the US) mine’s at 73%. Besides, it’s not like there’s much of a choice.