Changes to WvW Patch Update

Hola, pleased to see that the devs are paying attention to WvW via the introduction of some changes designed to introduce new abilities, you can read all about it here on guild wars 2.com

The new world xp (wxp) required to obtain these new abilities is earnt by killing players, but there's a catch, players that have recently been killed yield NIL wxp experience while those players that have not been killed for 'some' time do, presumably players that have recently arrived & thus not been killed will fall into the second category.

The point my cracked brain thought of immediately is the section which states that recently killed players give NIL wxp, I am left wondering if the next time players find themselves going up against a zerg if they will be more selective on which toons they target?

I mean currently I am targeting anyone who keyboard turns, is is using weapons I feel are inappropriate for their toon etc and I assume most other players have their own system or list of priorities but what if the majority of players shift to targeting Guardians or thieves because they typically are harder to kill off - assuming they are played competently.

Will this patch change bring about the active targeting of certain professions? Will this prompt players whom play those targeted professions to change their setup to become tankier & harder to kill or just log to another toon to play WvW in which case we will see more support builds running around?

Add to that the fact you can earn new titles to complement the new abilities so that enemies will see your title and know that you are a specialist in seige or killing guards or npcs etc and that may cause a big red bulls eye to appear on your head much like a commanders icon makes you instantly visible on the battlefield.


Here's how the new interface will look:

And what a pleasure it is to stomp ET & FC AGAIN yes I know we're at the bottom of the world ranking but seriously facing off against the same servers week after week ... the rankings need reviewing even if we get stomped in a higher bracket at least for a week or 2 manually change servers around already!

In other news, not that I've played since the Patch but Culling should be over which means that sneaky mesmer porting their zerg should be far less effective now you can see the enemy immediately instead of that 2 second lag ...

If your PC isn't the newest latest & greatest remember to check your graphics settings to tweak things to retain those important fps.

Exploits in GW2

Awmahgawd!

Yea been on holidays - is good - anyways time for a rant seeing as how I'm kind of back.

Here's a link for a video on Youtube which details how to jump 'out of world' so you can travel around & not be attacked but yes you guessed it you can attack enemy players, npc's, dynamic events, walls you name it.

So why you angry bro?

Because this was common knowledge before I went on holidays 3 or 4 weeks ago and it's still there, I'm of the opinion that exploits are MAJOR issues that must be treated as business critical events by game developers, but apparently this isn't the case for Anet.

All the existing issues we have with bots, don't think for a second they're all gone, will be exacerbated by them exploiting, let alone those servers that we know harbour hackers whom instead of getting off stealing orbs of power will now run around griefing to make themselves feel good.

I can see the day where if this is not fixed a WvW server will report as being full yet when you finally log on can only locate a few players - because they're all 'out of world' capturing keeps & completing events.

Don't make out of world the new battleground, yes it's hard to fix the mechanic, but seriously come up with a stop gap ffs.

Rant off.

Tips for playing WvW & Emotes FTW!

So I've had the thought rattling around the back of my head that I really should write down somewhere all the things I forget & wish I didn't in game like how to:

Hide your UI by pressing Control + Shift + H
Take a screen shot hiding your UI = Shift + Print Screen

Then I came across a post on Reddit.com called What are some things you wish more people knew about WvW which gave me the inspiration to make my own lists of stuff & paraphrase some of the reddit post. I am making the assumption you have played WvW and have some basic understanding of how it works and know how to acquire siege blueprints etc.

• Build siege weapons when they're thrown down by your team, if no one has supply then go get it from the nearest supply depot, the siege item will knock down the wall / gate much faster than you ever will

• Now that you have siege in place make damn sure you heal the players operating the siege weapons, if you're not aware in order to use a siege weapon you cannot access your skill bar so cannot heal / shield yourself so these guys need your help

• When building arrow carts DON'T put them in the middle of a wall (like in the pic below) or on the outside edge, yes you will have a better field of vision & be able to target enemies better but you will be taken out by enemy AOE in 5 seconds. Run around & find a spot that is right on the inside edge that you can just target the gate but can also target some of the field & you're golden

• You CAN create trebuchets in Garrison that hit DB and you SHOULD create at least 3 & you SHOULD ask another player to act as a spotter to let you know where & what you are hitting

• You DO NOT need to stay within the circle to control a point after killing a scout / taking a tower to get a successful event notification, too many times I see 10 people standing there doing nothing when they could be porting back to base to move on to the next location

• Only skirmishes or battles involving more than 5 players will show up on the world or mini map so a 2 v 2 fight will go un-noticed by a zerg just like a 5 man party running around a map capping scouts etc will be invisible unless visually sighted

• If you keep or tower is being attacked don't use the supply to repair it unless you are positive you are going to lose it, use your own & other player supply to build arrow carts etc to kill the enemy. If you repair the wall they will only damage it again so put it another way siege defeats an attack while repair slows the defeat

• Quaggans are not useless! Their camps in the borderlands only require 15 pearls (which you can find in the lake keep & stockpile to use whenever you like) or Krait kills to gain allegiance which is only a few minutes effort then the camps can cause weather events in their vicinity which can heal allies or damage enemies. Another good thing about this is not many players like fighting underwater so you tend to be left alone, and, because the Krait are not killed very often you tend to receive the max bonus xp from each kill

• You can join your Commander's squad by opening your map & clicking on the Commander's blue arrow & Join squad message should pop up. Communication is huge in PvP so every little bit helps

• You can 'link' locations in chat like you can weapons or mats the benefit there is if someone is new to PvP and do not know where events or locations are clicking your link in chat automatically opens their map & shows them where they need to go / where you are

• On the point of being new, don't be hesitant to call out in chat if you see enemy moving to or from somewhere but do add which server they're from & the number you see


• If you are not going to defend a Supply Camp you should drain it's supply & an easy way of doing this is to drop a ram or 2 & build it using the camps supply. Why do this? Because if the camp has no supply the nearby keep or tower that your team is attacking will shortly be in shitzen!.

Now for the most important content - Emotes!

/beckon          /bow                  /cheer              /cower            /cry               /dance          /kneel

/laugh             /no                    /point               /ponder          /salute          /shrug           /sit

/sleep             /surprised          /threaten         /wave             /yes

Leveling in GW2 = WvW ?

I've found there are large numbers of blogs & posts offering their opinions on how best to level a character in Guild Wars 2, the one's you may find value in depends on what you like about the game.

For myself I've never been a crafter, in WOW I crafted items as a result of researching how I could deal more damage or saw others with items which I could apply to my inventory or gear, such as engineering & making bombs or mines or rocket boots etc so while it is viable to boost a character in GW2 20 levels by levelling 2 disciplines in GW2 I cannot be bothered.

Grinding or farming is always a viable option in almost every game where you go out & kill off beasty after beasty then checking out all the different items that you've looted, working out which items can be salvaged into what base material and in the process gaining XP and a bit of currency from what you vendor / trade / auction off. 

Problem with this scenario in GW2 is if you repeatedly kill the same mobs in the same area you will quickly receive ZERO bonus XP so you can't go to your favourite hidey hole off the beaten track to safely & mindlessly turn the countryside into a graveyard, instead you must constantly move from location to location hoping that someone else isn't doing the same thing just over the horizon in front of you.

I could list a few other ways but I'll jump straight to what I do which is World Vs World PvP or WvW which depending on the group of players you are mixing with can net you big XP, Karma & Coin.

The key is completing events by taking key locations within the battleground, assaulting an enemy scout will result in one of those event notification messages popping up (like the one above) likewise taking a tower / supply depot and also defending a tower / supply depot etc will net you more notifications & goodies.

I played this morning for an hour which went by in the blink of an eye picking up 2 levels, dying twice so cost me 2s in repairs or so but picked up some nice karma & a fistful of badges from those nasty enemies. WvW is THE easiest way to gain your monthly achievement in my book.

I'm not saying this is the best approach or that it will even appeal to you, perhaps you'll try it & react like I did to crafting & run away but you should at least try it out & if worse comes to worst you can still forage like in PvE which might be an attraction to you.