On May 14, ArenaNet had a second stress test for Guild Wars 2. After being in the loading screen, stuck at 95%, for about 10 – 15 minutes, I got into the game and didn’t have any problems at all anymore. Weird. ;) But maybe Monday evening wasn’t the perfect time for a stress test because lots of people have to work and can’t devote time to that. Saturday could have been a better choice or even Friday. At least, if they wanted to test the login servers. Either that or they have managed to improve their systems greatly (I certainly wouldn’t mind that ^^). Nevertheless, I was really tired and didn’t stay long in the game.
The first thing I did was take a few screenshots that I was missing for a post that I still haven’t written. Oh well. It’s yet another draft that may never get published. I semi-regularly look at all my drafts and delete a few, so there are never too many around. ;) Then I went to Lion’s Arch to have a look at the fountain there. The first time I saw it, I immediately noticed the little figures in the water… ships and sea dragons. But the rhythm of the “water spits” being passed from fish to fish is also fascinating… and it does make almost relaxing sounds. I watched it for a few minutes. This time, I just took a video of the sequence. So, in case you haven’t gotten the chance to see it yet, here it is:
And then I got bored. What do I do now? I’ve seen all there is to see (well, not really, of course. But I’ve seen dynamic events, I’ve seen structured PvP, I’ve been sight-seeing in town,…). The only thing still missing was WvW. And even though I was very tired, I jumped into the action. And that’s what you get to see in the video: A casual player who’s tired from work trying to find some fast and fun action. And that, I did find! ^^ I’m definitely not playing well because – did I already say I was tired? ;) But I didn’t upload it to show the world how great of a PvP player I am. I uploaded it so people can get a feeling for what WvW may be like when you log on and jump into the action without first getting a team together, strategizing etc. In other words: Watch me shoot down a gate! ^^
I didn’t know my way around on the map, so I went to where bookahnerk said he had seen players from one of the two enemy realms. I’m fighting only with my gun because ranged seemed like the best option. As you can see, it takes quite a while to get a gate down. A ram can help a lot with that! Make sure to always carry a few supplies (I think 10 is max per player) with you in case somebody wants to build a siege weapon.
As you can see, I spent most of my time attacking the gate, looking around and just trying to scare the enemies away from the pinnacles, so they would stop attacking those of us who stood on the ground attacking the gate. ;) I also tried to figure out when an enemy was “obstructed” and where they had to stand on the walls, so I could successfully attack them in ranged combat. I know that I’ll definitely enjoy playing my warrior with a rifle!
What I took away from that short trip to WvW is that you can get some “fast action” in WvW as well. Of course, once the servers are up and we’ve been playing for a longer time on our “real home servers”, it may be different and we might need guilds and fellow group players to be successful out there. But for this short time (all in all, I was only in WvW for half an hour), it was lots of fun. It’s just too bad I didn’t get much direct combat with other players. But for that to happen, I guess we shouldn’t have a gate between us. ;)
Nerdy Bookahs 
I love the use of the new screenshots in the header photos on the site… except they are making me homesick :-(
It’s awesome how well ANet have designed the different professions to allow for personal preferrences of players. (unintentional alliteration there…) You enjoyed the rifle while playing warrior, but I definitely preferred the longbow as a range weapon option for the profession, and actually, contrary to notions I had prior to playing the beta, I absolutely LOVE the “melee” weapons of the warrior, and especially the hammer. I could easily see myself using hammer+axe/warhorn as my standard weapon combo, and switching the axe/warhorn to a longbow occassionally. (I really can’t over-emphasize the incredible fun I had with the warrior’s hammer skills… that much control+damage is very addictive!)
I honestly think we are only seeing the surface getting scratched as far as player behaviors and strategies in the WvW setting right now in the beta. Those will evolve significantly once the game launches. So many folks are just trying to get their feet under them and get comfortable with the basic combat mechanics initially… true mastery and experimentation only really occurs after that comfort is attained. It’s also very important to note that NONE of the characters in WvW during the betas were “true” level 80s, and having the full compliment of traits and skills accessible will doubtless have quite an impact on how players approach that aspect of the game.
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Thank you. :) We decided it’s time to get rid of the “…and their travel guide” part of our blog because nobody ever talks about us as “Nerdy Bookahs and their travel guide”. And with that, we had more freedom with our layout because the previous one looked like a book and that was perfect. Anyway, rambling… ;)
I assume that we’ll see premades in WvW. But if it’s anything like it was in Warhammer Online, we will still always have a good chance to have fun even if we’re not a premade and just jump into the action. At least, I hope so. ;)
I haven’t tried out hammers yet. I sticked to my usual approach of one-handed weapon + shield, then I switched to rifle. I really get the feeling I love a class and haven’t even seen anything about it. ^^
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Hm. That is interesting. Seems like your side had more lucky than mine on breaking down gates. :)
When I tried it I end up stumbling on the castle in the center of the map which was being held by an opposite server. Our server started to gather there and try to break the door down but as soon as we tried that, people from the opposing server came behind us and a big fight ensued. Since I am pretty lousy at PvP I died in a few seconds and decided to go back to PvE as there was still much to see. By looking at the WvWvW scores though it seems our server didn’t have much luck in breaking down that gate as the scores didn’t change much during the weekend.
I loved the rifle for the “pew pew” feeling (yes, I am silly) but I think the bow can be useful when you need to do some AoE shooting. To me that is the cool thing about the warrior. Not only each weapon have a different feel but they all have different situations where they are more useful.
Oh, it is also nice to know I wasn’t imagining the ram! I was starting to wonder if I really did see it or I was imagining things. You know, what with being bashed in the head during PvP and then desperately running around PvE trying to catch as much as possible… ;)
I am just curious on how it is built though. Do you just need the resources? Do you need the guild skill for that? I guess I will pay more attention to guild stuff next time. @_@
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You need to buy the blueprints for your siege weapon of choice (from an NPC… somewhere). One blueprint per built siege weapon. So if you have built one ram, you’ll need a new blueprint to build another one. Additionally, there’s an amount of supplies that need to be added (I have no idea how many) for it to be built and ready to use. As you can only carry 10 of those, you’ll either have to run back and forth or you need players to help you. ;)
As you can see, I haven’t paid too much attention to it either. ;)
Hmm… rifle/gun warrior for single target and AoE ranged damage. I wonder if that’s a viable build.
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Ah! I see. Thanks for the info!
I do remember there were some stuff related to PvP on the guild window too that you could by with guild Influence. I just don’t remember exactly what it was now…. I need to pay more attention to it next time.
I don’t remember if the warrior had any AoE skill with the rifle. But my memory about all that is fuzzy now. In any case it should be viable as a main weapon. I never felt more gimped using the rifle than using any other weapon. I just spent more time with the melee weapons since I am a meleer at heart and all the different melee choices with a warrior were like being a little kid in a candy store. :)
Oh, forgot to mention before, but I also like the new look. It is more clean and feels more unique. :)
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Nope, not the rifle. But the longbow has AoE. And that’s what I meant! Argh. ;) I wanted to write rifle/longbow warrior for single target and AoE ranged damage. This just tells you how much I love having a rifle/gun in a game (not a fan of weapons in RL but games are different ^^). BOOM! Just doesn’t work with a longbow. ;)
But I am wondering if a purely ranged warrior works. I like meleeing but GW2 is still too new for me, so I feel more comfortable with a ranged weapon. I’m sure that will change sooner or later.
Hmm… I’m a bit annoyed with the comment box right now. I am typing but can’t see the text. Other than that, we love the new layout. :) Ah, just took a minute for it to show up. O.o
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There’s really no reason I can see why rifle+longbow wouldn’t be a viable option for warriors if a player was so inclined. You would want to reinforce the condition damage focus of the two weapons, and understand that you’re doing a “pressure” style build (with the bleeding and burning damage of the two weapons) but on a warrior, that is incredibly easy to do since the two trait lines (Strength and Arms) that have Expertise and Malice are also the trait lines which have Power and Precision.
Essentially, when you’re going “offense” with a warrior you’re pretty much going to cover ALL of the offense options. Simply reinforcing this with the right equipment mods is the only other thing you need to look at, and then you’ve got a very effective pressure build, that can operate at safer distances. The “range” weapons do slightly less dps on first blush, but also have some decent CC options, and with the proper traits and equipment I’m certain they would be quite effective.
Perhaps consider taking the Deep Cuts major trait (for even more extended bleed duration) and going with Signets for the healing and at least a couple of the utility skills (the Signet of Stamina was incredibly effective at increasing the frequency of Dodges available to you) and then taking the Deep Strike major trait. This would require at least 20 pts in Arms which would get you 200 increased Precision +40 more Precision for each Signet skill you take (up to 5 for an additional +200 Precision potentially) The passive skills of the warrior signets were quite good imo.
You could spend most of your time in rifle (since that’s your preference, and there is certainly nothing wrong with stacking bleeds on enemies – I’ve done it to tremendous effect on a scepter+focus necro) and just swap out to the longbow occasionally for the Pindown and AoE skills as needed.
Anything unable to easily and repeatedly remove condition damage (player or critter) would be in serious trouble vs this style of warrior.
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