Guild wars

Rangers- The Team Toolbox

2009-04-16T16:49:00.001-07:00

Here is a guide. Click here

Pressure for Tykes - How to Play Warrior

2009-04-16T16:48:00.002-07:00

Here is a guide. Click here
and another.
http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Guide:Generic_Axe_Warrior

Elementalist Primer

2009-04-16T16:48:00.001-07:00

Here is a link to a guide. Click here

Linebacking

2009-04-16T16:46:00.001-07:00

Line backing or linebacking refers to the PvP defensive tactic of restraining movement through the use of knockdowns, snares, and creative use of body blocking. This strategy is generally considered a form of melee hate, as it usually is used to prevent the opposing frontline from reaching the party's mid- or backlines and wreaking havoc on the more lightly armored casters and support classes.

Classes Commonly Used

* Hammer Warriors with Earthshaker and, more commonly, Bull's Strike.
* Water Elementalists making use of Water Magic snares and ranged knockdowns such as Gale and Water Trident.
* Rangers using Crippling Shot.

How to make a build

2009-04-16T16:45:00.004-07:00

We now get to how your build should look like, ideall build does not go to extremes, is usually focused on its purporse and should have ability to withstand lack of monk attention for short period of time.

With outline like this:

1) "Business" skill
2) "Business" skill
3) "Business" skill
4) Business skill enhancer
5) Energy management
6) Self healing
7) Defensive skill
8) Resurection skill

For example, baseline warrior build should look like this before you start fine tuning it:

1) Sewer Artery
2) Gash
3) Dragon Slash
4) Flail
5) Enraging Charge
6) Healing Signet
7) "Watch Yourself!"
8) Resurection signet

Anyone experienced can tell you that while this build is kinda decent it requires a lot of improvement.

Sentinel or Disciples Rune set

2009-04-16T16:45:00.003-07:00

The choice you have to make is one between 40 health and 15 (conditional) armor. 40 Health doesnt actually do anything, it lengthens the time you have to live at most. 40 Health is next to nothing in a lot of situations, its only one spell. 15 armor is obviously A LOT better then 40 health when the condition is met, but when the condition is not met, the advantage for health is still very small.

I will now compare survivors and disciplined insignia against certain builds, because the enemies build will affect if your armor actually gets triggered or not.

Against bloodspam: survivors has a minor advantage
-The damage is armor ignoring, but since bloodspam isnt even an actual spike the health doesnt matter much

Against hexes: no real winner
-Most damage is degen/armor ignoring, but even most hexbuilds have some sort of armor affected damage which can be affected by disciples depending on the build.

Against any other pressure build (lol): disciples
-Disciples will continually reduce damage and thus save your monks energy.

Any sort of spike: Disciplined is MUCH better
Why? Because there will usually be a deep wound, but even more important, there will usually be a cracked armor.
You have a high chance to survive if you are in your shield set (with the right mod) and no cracked armor is applied, regardless of having +40 health or not having it. When cracked armor is used, a monk with disciples will still have this high chance to survive while the monk with survivors just lost it. The deepwound comes on top of this and pushes the advantage even more to the side of disciples.

base 60 AL
+15 when condi
+5 from sword
+16 from base shield (Mo/W)
+10 from shield inscrip (assuming correct)
so that adds up to 106AL.

Rune sets

2009-04-16T16:45:00.001-07:00

A common mistake is to brand runes in random pieces of armor. Most helmets are giving you an intrinsic +1 in a specific attribute. Always put a rune for the same attribute in the helm. You'll get a helm +2 (or more with major/superior runes), and if you ever decide to switch your main attribute (weapon type, magic line...), you'll brand a rune for your new attribute in the corresponding helm. The worst thing you could do is to put a superior vigor in a +1 sword helm. Two weeks later, you want to switch to axes, but you must buy a new superior vigor or lose 1 in axe mastery.

MAJOR/SUPERIOR = DANGEROUS

Standard major/superior runes can remove a good chunk of your HPs. This is generally dangerous. 4 superior runes = -300hp. This is roughly equivalent to a permanent -60%DP on your health. Obviously nobody wants to play with such a burden. This example is voluntarily extreme, but the same argument stands for only one major. If you decide to use majors or superiors, you'll be playing with a permanent Death Penalty. What you must wonder is if the attribute boost you'll gain by using a big rune in place of a minor one is worth it.

Sometimes the answer is obviously yes, such as when you're playing a character who is rarely targetted, and if you're boosting your main damage attribute. Sometimes you need as many HPs as possible so major/superior runes are kicked out of the equation. PvP monks and some PvE tanks could want to keep every inch of HP bar they can get.

First of all, use minors or superiors if you can get them.

Use only *one* superior rune unless you really know what you're doing. Only a handful of attributes are worth sacrificing health for. Most of the time, minor runes will be enough.

Look at skill descriptions or attribute passive bonus, and look how much you will gain with better runes. Don't use them unless you're absolutely sure to gain something decent. Losing 75hp for a tiny extra damage on one skill is not good. However, gaining 20% dmg on your main spells could be worth losing 15% hp.

Let's take the example of expertise breakpoints.

If you're mainly using skills that cost only 5e, you'll reach breakpoints (i.e -1 energy cost) at 3, 8 and 13. So with a natural 11 +1 (cap) +1 (minor rune), you'll reach your final breakpoint. There is no need to use a bigger rune.

Now, if you're spamming expensive attack skills (15 or 25e), it could be a good idea to reach 16 (natural 12, +1 cap, +3 superior rune). With a cheap expertise of 13, your 15e/25e skills will cost 7e/12e respectively. With an expertise of 16, they'll cost 5e/9e. That's roughly 25/28% cheaper. You'll be able to spam them much more easily and I'm not even counting the intrinsic skill improvement.

Let's take another couple of examples. Boosting your strength by +2 (minor to superior) will increase your passive armor penetration by 2% which is equivalent to 2% more damage. Not really exciting. However, increasing your weapon attribute from 13 to 16, will give you a passive boost (on all basic attacks) of 10%. Wow! Now that is much better! You lose 15%HP, and in return, you'll deal substantially more damage.

Lightning Orb does 88 dmg for 13 air, and 106 dmg for 16 air. That's 20% more, not counting armor penetration and lethal spike effect. That's something worth drooling on. On the contrary, Ward against Melee lasts for 19s with 13 earth and 21s with 16 earth. It recharges in 20s and it can be activated with a 1s casting time. Losing 75hp to have it on 100% of the time would be a bad idea if you're not using offensive earth spells.

In a few words, you'll lose a significant amount of HP with majors and superiors, so you must know why you want to use a higher rune. Do not sacrifice you life needlessly.

Contrary to the armors, absorption runes reduce damage from attacks only (not spells), and they are universal like the knight/ascalon armors. They reduce damage from all attacks, not just on the armor part containing the rune.

Positioning

2009-04-16T16:44:00.004-07:00

An important fact about shields that's often overlooked is that they only work from the front. There's a distinct arc where the shield's defensive bonus is added to your armor. No one's quite sure what it is but it's generally agreed to be in the front and not in the back (It's still in doubt just how much of the sides are covered, that's all).

This is the space around your character (X), blows come from all around them in a circle:

+++
+X+
+++

Let's say your character is facing towards the top of your window, the space covered by a shield (=) would be those in front of them:

===
+X+
+++

If they were to turn around it would look like this:

+++
+X+
===

Or this:

=++
=X+
=++

Now, another little known fact is that when a character is running any hit delivered to them will be a critical hit. When being beaten on by a Warrior or a Ranger often the worst move you can make is to turn and run to get away from them. You're just opening yourself up to a lot of pain. Sidestepping (using the Q and E default keys on the WASD movement set-up), however, doesn't incur any critical hits although you'll prevent yourself from attacking or using any skill with a casting time.

Pvp tips

2009-04-16T16:44:00.003-07:00

Kite, Kite, Kite
One of the best anti-warrior defenses in the game is kiting. If you see something dangerous coming at you, never hesitate to turn around and run circles around other party members. The average warrior will quit the chase after a few seconds, giving you time to cast your spells and stalling that warrior for those few seconds that he was chasing you. This tactic also works, to a certain degree, against casters and rangers. Just back up behind your team and drag that enemy towards the rest of your team members. If he gets in too deep, he exposes himself to the rest of your team, while you're avoiding some of his attacks/spells. Just remember not to go out of range of your monks. The last thing you want to do is force your monks to run back towards you in order to heal.

Never chase too far
If you're a warrior, never chase a target for too long unless you have a sprint ready to go and you feel confident you can finish the job. Most times you'll be out of range of your team while your target will be getting heals from other monks. Your best bet is to switch targets and start bashing someone else. Maybe the enemy monks will be too busy healing your previous target to notice your new one being beaten to death.

Running Backwards
Running backwards will not trigger a knockdown from bull's strike.

Targetting
Most of the time, you want to kill healers first. If you don't kill them, the opponent's defensive ability will be untouched and each subsequent target will be as tough to kill as the first. On the contrary, once the first healer dies, the next targets are easier to kill. However, if the opponent team counters our first killing attempts using enchantments with long recharge time, we either strip him for the killing blow, or we move on to an unprotected target that can be killed quickly. Mesmers are also very popular targets

Pick a battle leader
In PvP, you need a battle leader. Someone must able to keep track of the battlefield, to tell the group when it's time to launch a massive attack, a killing nuke or when it's wiser to retreat, to protect a priest or a ghost.

Don't be afraid to retreat into shrines(alliance battles) or guild hall (guild versus guild)to gain the extra firepower from the preset henchmen.

Always fight in a safe place. If you fight on enemy ground and let yourself be surprised by another group, don't blame the healer, blame the players who rushed instead of pulling.

Focus fire
Choose one and only one target caller and let him design the group's targets with his CTRL key. Use the key T to target the same enemy. Always kill monsters one by one. You can kill the enemy much faster and end the fight before your spellcasters' energy runs dry. If you don't focus, the fight drags on and your healers may lack energy, and then people start dying. You may have a warrior on another character providing pressure while the rest focus on your target.

Don't play solo in a PuG
Communicate with the rest of the group, and if you're unsure, do it again. Playing your game solo (picking your own target)

Never choose pick up players/groups randomly
Talk to them beforehand, ask for details about strategy or skills, and be sure that they know what they're doing. Be patient, and don't be afraid to waste 10 min to form a good group. Being stupidly killed by other team after a long battle is very frustrating.

When all else fail, retreat
Like all groups, we make mistakes and underestimate the enemy. Then people start dying.First of all we know when a defeat can't be prevented and when we must retreat.

vamp and zealous mods

2009-04-16T16:44:00.001-07:00

Weapon speeds
Melee
1.33 sec. = Axe, Sword
1.75 sec. = Hammer
Bows
2.0 sec. = Shortbow, Halfmoon, Flatbow
2.5 sec. = Longbow, Dead Bow, Composite Bow, Recurve Bow
2.7 sec. = Horn Bow, Ivory Bow
Other
1.75 sec. = Wands, staves

1 HP Regeneration = 2 HP gained every second
1 Energy Regeneration = 0.33e gained every second

Vampiric Sword/Axes
Life stealing: 1-3 life per hit,
Health regeneration: -1

Vampiric Hammer / Bows
Life stealing: 1-5 life per hit,
Health regeneration: -1

Zealous Component (all types)
Energy stealing: 1e per hit,
Energy regeneration: -1

The price for a zealous weapon is 1 energy pip = 0.33eps (energy per second).
The gain depends on your weapon speed, it is equal to 1/weapon_speed

0.75eps = 1/1.33 sec. = Axe, Sword
0.57eps = 1/1.75 sec. = Hammer
0.50eps = 1/2.0 sec. = Shortbow, Halfmoon, Flatbow
0.40eps = 1/2.5 sec. = Longbow, Dead Bow, Composite Bow, Recurve Bow
0.37eps = 1/2.7 sec. = Horn Bow, Ivory Bow

I'll assume that you're swinging your weapon at a target who's standing still (no running), and not using stances/spells to block or to avoid attacks. Basically I'll use the 'best case' to steal as much energy as possible.

So in this optimistic case, you gain more energy using a zealous weapon, than you'll lose due to the energy drain modifier. However it is obvious that a zealous sword or axe is much more exciting than a zealous ivory bow. A zealous sword will give you 0.75(gain)- 0.33(cost) = 0.42eps (more than 50% of the base energy regeneration of a warrior!), while a zealous ivory bow will give only 0.04eps.

An important thing to keep in mind is that energy stealing is also triggered by attack skills, including all skills that make multiple attacks: cyclone axe, hundred blades, barrage... Using a cyclone axe against a group of 5 opponents is energy free, the skill costs 5e and you steal 5e in return. The same stands for skills which enhance attack speed (frenzy, berserker...).

Using Increased Attack Speed (IAS)
Let's say you're using Frenzy/Flurry on a sword/axe warrior. It costs 5e and it has a recharge time equal or inferior to the stance duration. As long as you can afford the energy cost, the stance can be used permanently. With 33% increase attack speed (IAS), the energy gains become:

1.14eps = 1/1.33/0.66 sec. = Axe, Sword
0.86eps = 1/1.75/0.66 sec. = Hammer
0.75eps = 1/2.0/0.66 sec. = Shortbow, Halfmoon, Flatbow
0.60eps = 1/2.5/0.66 sec. = Longbow, Dead Bow, Composite Bow, Recurve Bow
0.56eps = 1/2.7/0.66 sec. = Horn Bow, Ivory Bow

Add the base energy reneration left on your character (0.33eps on a warrior and 0.66eps on a ranger) and you get more than 1eps. You regenerate more than one energy per second. Not only do you increase your damage output and your adrenaline recharge rate, but you are also able to pay for the upkeep cost of these stances. That's something you cannot do with the standard 2 pips of a warrior.

As soon as you're no longer able to hit normally, you are no longer able to gain energy either. Blindness, wards, or block/dodge skills (stances, protection spells...), there are many ways to prevent a warrior from hitting his target. If that happens when you're swinging a zealous weapon, you'll lose all its benefit but the energy drain will remain. The same stands if you're running after a skilled kiter (runner, strafer, dodger...). You won't be able to hit normally and you'll need as much energy as possible to stop him (sprint, hamstring...).

It means that whenever you're using a zealous weapon, you MUST have another non-zealous weapon in your second weapon switch. As soon as you're shut down and unable to hit normally, you must swap in your backup weapon.

2.25hps = 3/1.33 sec. = Axe, Sword [vampiric +3]
2.85hps = 5/1.75 sec. = Hammer [vampiric +5]
2.50hps = 5/2.0 sec. = Shortbow [vampiric +5]
1.85hps = 5/2.7 sec. = Horn Bow [vampiric +5]

And if you're using IAS (increase attack speed) skills such as tiger's fury or frenzy, numbers get more exciting:

3.4hps = 3/1.33/0.66 sec. = Axe, Sword [vampiric +3]
4.3hps = 5/1.75/0.66 sec. = Hammer [vampiric +5]
3.8hps = 5/2.0/0.66 sec. = Shortbow [vampiric +5]

In a few words, vampiric healing is "all or nothing". Build a character to exploit the best vampiric modifiers, or choose another modifer prefix.

Learn to swap
Vampiric is similar to zealous. You are burdened by a negative HP pip, but you steal life each time you land a succesful hit. It means that if you're unable to hit an opponent, you lose life. In short, you don't want to equip a vampiric weapon when you're not in combat or when you're unable to hit your target. So if you are using a vampiric weapon you MUST have a non-vampiric weapon in your second weapon slot.

Improving recharge times and casting speeds

2009-04-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

Having 2 items with 20% recharge or casting speed stack faster accordingly:
first #1 is applied:
80% normal
20% at 50% recharge time

then the second:
64% normal
32% at 50% recharge time
4% at a whopping 25% recharge time (it exists! I have seen Fire Attunement recharge at 15 seconds!)

Balanced Team 101

2009-04-15T09:15:00.001-07:00

A balanced team is a team that can survive and come out on top of whatever is thrown at them. generally speaking, you want a team who can disrupt defenses, Snare, deal damage, have a strong defensive structure, and remove enchantments. It just so happens that the most balanced combo of this is a Warrior, Ranger, and a Monk. Hammer warrior is also frequently seen.

monk
caster shutdown (class varies, can be interupt, edenial, knockdown, hex spam)
melee/ranger shutdown (class varies, can be blinding, hexes, other conditions, etc etc)
damage (can double as caster/melee/ranger shutdown, or just straight up damage)

ie.
W/E Shock Axe
R/Mo Crip Shot or E/Mo Icy Shackles or W/E Back Breaker or Devestating Hammer or Magehunter Smash.
N/E Corrupt Enchantment Anti-Melee or R/Mo Magebane/Burning Arrow or Rt/E Weapon Spell Rit
Mo/W Balanced Monk/Shadow Monk/GolE Monk

defensive monk rune set
Between armor insignias and defensive sets, a monk can become a fortress tank. 60 default armor + 16 from shield + 5 from your armor sword (I personally perferr a sword over a spear) + 10 from the right shield inscription + 15 from the right insignia = a massvie 106 armor. (Remember though, this is only if the condition on the insignias are met and only against the
type of damage that your shield is set for.) Not to mention stances

Pvp Warrior rune set
4 Sentinel's
1 Stonefist (increase knockdown)
1 Superior Vigor
1 Minor Weapon Rune
1 Rune of Clarity (reduce blind on you)
1 Vitae Rune
1 Crippl (reduce cripple on you)

Proffessions Role in PvP

2009-04-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

Frontline
first line on the battleground --> nearest to foe
foes have to pass the frontline, to get to the backmost lines
to attack in melee, the player have to chose the frontline Task
hinder foes, who try to pass the frontline
reduce the damage they gather
also to deal damage

Professions

Warrior His high armor and many skills to protect him are necessary to stay in the first line. His ability to knockdown, helps to hinder foes, who try to pass the frontline.
Dervish He has not the same amount of armor like the Warrior, but enaugh skills (mainly enchantments) catch up the protection of the Warrior. His scythe allows him to attack multiple foes in front of him. So he is able to release a ravagein the adversary lines.
Assassin Because the Assassin attacks in melee, he has to chose the first line. Because of his lack of self protection, he has to escape into the midline, if he gets to much pressure.

Ranger He has the same armor like the Dervish and the Assassin, but a great armor against elemental damage. So he is able to fight in the front. Because of his bow he nearly never fights in the frontline, but as example the bunny thumper does so.

Midline

second line on the battleground --> not next to the foe
be a cushion for the backline
deal damage / support damage
disturb foes

Professions

Ranger He uses a lot Bow Attacks, or Pet Attacks to deal damge to the foes and to disturb them with conditions and interrupts.
Mesmer His Counter abilities are great. He disturbes the foes by hexes, interrupts and removing enchantments.
Necromancer He deals damage, supports Damage Dealer, or disturbes foes by using hexes, conditions and minions.
Elementalist His huge repertory of damage spells is best positioned in the midline
Assasin The midline is kinda shelter for him.
Ritualist He deals damage, or supports Damage Dealer by using his Channeling Magic.
Paragon His offensive shouts and chants support the Damage Dealer, who use weapons to deal damage.

Backline

last line on the battleground --> far to foe
most save line on the battlefield
too far for attackin the foe

Professions

Monk He is the perfect profession for heal and protection.
Ritualist He heals, or supports Healer by using his Restoration Magic. He should be able to protect allies by using his Communing, but the protection spirits are to weak after the whole game updates.
Paragon His defensive shouts and chants support the Healer and the Proter.