Curse

Trinity Fire Angel · Mar 10, 2010, 12:29 AM // 00:29

Ok... so what is the trick to farming glad points now that TA is gone? I find that i spend about 2-3hours most days randomly finding a team that can go 20+. Some days getting 5+ is hard enough.

One player cannot carry an entire team and sometimes there are just teams that are entirely anti-build against yours. Finding a proper balanced team setup in Random style is extremely annoying.

I guess, what i want to ask are a few things;

1. Should there be different point system now that TA is gone which makes it easier to accumulate glads (or was it easier in RA anyway?)

2. Other than sync-ing, what is the best way (most time productive) of getting a good team. Do you just leave after each game until you get the right team, or do you go on to hope you might get at least 5?

3. What do you think are the best (random) team setups in this current meta to get the most glads?

4. Sync-ing. yes or no? good or bad?

----

I currently play a few different builds in RA. Given from above what teams are the strongest, my chosen professions are Ele, War, Sin, Monk (and sometimes Rit). I would also like to play Mes, but my Interrupts are a little noob-ish so i will leave that. Given that...

5. What profession (builds) would i have the most luck to get glad points? I can hear most people perhaps saying Monk... which can be one of the frustrating professions in RA. Which profession / builds have most of you guys gotten most glads from in RA?

6. What guild tags are the best ones to look for in team mates?

Cheers.

X Ghoul · Mar 10, 2010, 01:07 AM // 01:07

You want to treat RA as srs bsns you sync. You just want to mess around and get "lucky" with some glad points you click the enter battle button at your own caution.
edit: playing a good monk I hear also gets the glad pts alot so long as people run decent builds

ac1inferno · Mar 10, 2010, 01:53 AM // 01:53

It does feel weird that Gladiator had become a strictly RA title but I don't have any ideas for another one.

If not syncing, then just hope for the best team. You could stay and get lucky and get to 5 wins (most teams do, but then lose right after), but if you're hoping to get a lot, then try for a better group.

Most often, the groups that seem the most "balanced" usually wins. Such as a monk, enough damage, interrupts and disruptions, and other utilities.

Whether syncing is good or bad, its entirely up to you.

Monking would be your best bet, but if not, then some sort of hybrid support midline. Something to help the monk along with damage or interrupts or other utility.

Air ele is a good option for blind and damage. Water snare for damage and utility. VoR for antimelee and anticaster. Blood spam can inflict weakness and help remove enchantments along with degen for pressure. Curse Necroes can remove enchantments, antimelee, and take off conditions.

You really don't know if you got good members on your team until you win a few rounds. See if they know what they are doing and then decide if you want to stay or not.

Eragon Selene · Mar 10, 2010, 02:40 AM // 02:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by X Ghoul

You want to treat RA as srs bsns you sync. You just want to mess around and get "lucky" with some glad points you click the enter battle button at your own caution.
edit: playing a good monk I hear also gets the glad pts alot so long as people run decent builds

I am G3 and most of that is from Monking. Even a good or great monk cant carry a bad team. Eventualy you run out of energy healing there noob arses cause they cant kill crap.

I too play alot of RA and find it very hard to get 20+ wins. You lucky to get 10. Every time you think you have the team to run the table you come up against a team with just the right skill set to knock you out.

Syncing is to hard, you always seem to miss 1-2 guys, only half the team gets together.

The best way for them to improve the Glad title is to bring back TA. This would be VERY easy for them to so and cost no resources.

Codex (worst idea Anet has had to date) replaced HB, why the need to remove TA and HB then onlny give us Codex to replace them??

Please bring back TA....

I Jonas I · Mar 10, 2010, 02:53 AM // 02:53

Play a midline position that has versatility. A Dom mes, ranger with some sort of cripple, or foul feast necro is a good bet. Even if you get a good monk he will likely not be able to keep your team alive long vs certain teams. Likewise if you get a good warrior he won't be able to kill things if he is getting hexed all of the time. Having interrupts slash caster hate in addition to melee shutdown means that your team will be versatile enough to get you some serious glad points.

Trinity Fire Angel · Mar 10, 2010, 03:21 AM // 03:21

I guess what you are saying is to play some of the roles from the old TA meta (pvx wiki) and hope to get one of these teams sooner or later (or sync it). Due to my low glad rank (almost r1) i should play mostly support midline.

I did a search on pvx for TA and found some archived TA builds from just before the removal of TA. I guess the builds that would be the most successful would be these ones and just hope that you get either a Hexway / Balanced team.

1. Dev Hammer
2. CE or WoD or Soulbind Necro
3. Magebane Ranger
4. WoH Monk.
5. R/P Packhunter
6. VoR Mesmer

It seems from looking at the builds, the teams that always put a stop to my streaks seem to be pretty much these teams

sonofthort · Mar 10, 2010, 03:29 AM // 03:29

being a good monk, and being good in general.

Terrible Surgeon · Mar 10, 2010, 03:30 AM // 03:30

Its called random arena for a reason. Trying to farm it is pointless unless you are trying to sync and even then Guilds that do sync successfully like [NuFs] and [zulu] fail to reach the max numbere of wins allowed more often than not. In my opinion, if you want to make glad points fast, play monk, and get good. A good monk can carry a mediocre team to 25 wins. I'm not saying that its fun having to carry anyone "bad" but if you want your points to hours spent in RA ratio to change then go monk.

House Silvermoon · Mar 10, 2010, 04:53 AM // 04:53

either play a good monk or a good midliner that can support a team + any good monks u might get. also be prepared to carry a lot of baggage.

chaos warrior zane · Mar 10, 2010, 05:12 AM // 05:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terrible Surgeon

Its called random arena for a reason. Trying to farm it is pointless unless you are trying to sync and even then Guilds that do sync successfully like [NuFs] and [zulu] fail to reach the max numbere of wins allowed more often than not. In my opinion, if you want to make glad points fast, play monk, and get good. A good monk can carry a mediocre team to 25 wins. I'm not saying that its fun having to carry anyone "bad" but if you want your points to hours spent in RA ratio to change then go monk.

I resent that

Founder of NuFS here, and honestly more often than not when we succeed in at least 3 or 4 way syncs, we get to 25 about 90% of the time. Many other times we will only sync 2 people and get to maybe 17 wins or so. But thanks for recognizing NuFS

. To be honest, i have barely been see'ing successfull zulu syncs lately.

Also, in my opinion i just dont find syncing wrong. My guild and i mourn the loss TA, so this is our only option. We honestly fight many good (even completely random) teams that give our syncs a challenge anyway. Theres actually skill involved in completing a sync

Icy The Mage · Mar 10, 2010, 05:22 AM // 05:22

Play whatever you're best at. If you are a good warrior then you should play a warrior; don't switch to a monk for the promise of easy glad points if you cannot pre-prot.

Once you get a semi-competent monk who knows what pre-veiling is and actually carries a shield set then you're pretty much set for at least 15 wins. Top that off with either 2 more competent players or 1 good midliner and you're pretty much guaranteed that 25-streak.

/sigh
Too bad I never get decent teammates :/

Edit: The post below me is quite true =P

snikerz · Mar 10, 2010, 05:30 AM // 05:30

here lies some issues when monking
there is a high chance you will be paired with another monk
if yr team is mediocre, and you face a team of 2 monks, the match will more than likely stalemate or the two monk team will get in at least 1 kill due to slow pressure and win when the time runs out

the best thing you can do is recognize your allies as soon as everyone loads into the game, i'll list the professions to help you recognize if you want succeed in RA, if your team is really bad, you are allowed to leave once or twice an hour without getting dishonor.

Warrior
the good
strength shield and spear(good warriors use spears as a ranged adrenaline gain)
axe or hammer
W/A or W/E
the bad
look for tactics shields, swords, W/Mo, power attack, endure pain, platemil
Every now and then you'll get a warrior run many defensive skills, a common one is Defy Pain, its rare to see them run Axe Frenzy with it, whom are capable of taking down a monks

Ranger
good
recurve bows
R/Mo
R/P with pet
bad
anything else
R/N = touch ranger

A good ranger will run a rupt build, so they commonly use recurve bows, when a enemy dies, they are able to shut rez sigs down.

Necro
good
curse and newly buffed blood necros, oppressive gaze is quite powerful, take note of the weapon sets they have.

bad
look for death magic set, death users will more than likely use minions, these days they are N/Me and echo aura of the lich.

Assassin
good
A/W
Shield/Spear weapon sets
bad
Way of the Assassin
Critical Defences
These sins are easily kited and generally concerned with not dying or aims for that 1v1 battle that never exists, they generally attack through empathy till they die, a good sin will generally run horns/trampling ox.

Elementalist
Watch for flare or anything abnormal like /R with pets.

Dervish

I find most dervishes can be easily kited, if you stand still, they can dish out the damage, wounding strike is popular for dervishes.

Monk
good
WoH
pre-viel
Mo/W
Mo/A
bad
not using WoH

Ritualist
Ritualist are an average profession, matches can be extended because they expect the enemy to come to them when they lay spirits, after the first wave of spirits, they become useless, healing capability is not as strong as WoH healers

Paragons
Paragons are generally bad in RA, you'll find you wont succeed when grouped with one.

Please note, this a observation of my 5 years playing RA, you may argue that you are good at the points i've listed as bad and try to justify yourself, but please, you're only kidding yourself, if you want to succeed, run meta builds, plain and simple.

If i've missed anything worthy of mentioning, be practical.

Darth The Xx · Mar 10, 2010, 05:45 AM // 05:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by X Ghoul

edit: playing a good monk I hear also gets the glad pts alot so long as people run decent builds

yeah ... dont do this if you want to preserve your sanity. Otherwise if you have no problem bashing your face into your desk each time you enter battle and see a W/E with flare or E/R with a pet feel free to try

Trinity Fire Angel · Mar 10, 2010, 06:19 AM // 06:19

@snikerz - great advice. something for me to look for at the beginning of each match. i guess i am better off leaving after winning or losing until i find that elusive 20+ team where everyone is experienced. rather than wasting my time getting to 4 wins then bombing out on the 5th or wasting time on 10min matches on the beach.

think i might drop playing Bsurge spam and start playing something stronger like some of the suggestions above.

@Darth the Xx - Yes, monking is like bashing my face on the keyboard. MR monk is strong, but i feel i can;t carry the team far enough sometimes.

awry · Mar 10, 2010, 06:37 AM // 06:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by snikerz

here lies some issues when monking

Assassin
good
A/W
Shield/Spear weapon sets
bad
Way of the Assassin
Critical Defences
These sins are easily kited and generally concerned with not dying or aims for that 1v1 battle that never exists, they generally attack through empathy till they die, a good sin will generally run horns/trampling ox.

I resent critical defense being on that list. Every time I play whenever I see a sin on the other team, I go for that guy first, why? No shield=full dmg, backlining sin drains enemy monk's hp and saves my monk grief. For a dagger sin, critical defenses may reduce dmg output, that's true, every part of the attack chain counts, but if you can compress your bar such as if you're using crit scythe or palm strike, crit defenses is amazing for anti linebacking and actually increases your dmg output because you don't have to worry about being trained. Asides from that I agree with most of your post.

[edit]: i've also seen some very pro pnh monks... I can't play pnh and get streaks easily, but still... gotta say they do exist, so you shouldn't ragequit on sight

And oh getting back on topic, i'm g5 and i've only synced twice... both times failed lol. I've found that I've been most successful with builds that have some capacity to shutdown such as with a ham war, bow ranger or necro. My ele and sin can spike very fast and end matches quick, but their streaks aren't as consistent as with builds that I use that can cause some versatile shutdown. My philosophy is, if you can make one member on the other side useless, while applying pressure, you've done your job.

RhanoctJocosa · Mar 10, 2010, 06:49 AM // 06:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by snikerz

here lies some issues when monking
there is a high chance you will be paired with another monk
if yr team is mediocre, and you face a team of 2 monks, the match will more than likely stalemate or the two monk team will get in at least 1 kill due to slow pressure and win when the time runs out

the best thing you can do is recognize your allies as soon as everyone loads into the game, i'll list the professions to help you recognize if you want succeed in RA, if your team is really bad, you are allowed to leave once or twice an hour without getting dishonor.

Warrior
the good
strength shield and spear(good warriors use spears as a ranged adrenaline gain)
axe or hammer
W/A or W/E
the bad
look for tactics shields, swords, W/Mo, power attack, endure pain, platemil
Every now and then you'll get a warrior run many defensive skills, a common one is Defy Pain, its rare to see them run Axe Frenzy with it, whom are capable of taking down a monks

Ranger
good
recurve bows
R/Mo
R/P with pet
bad
anything else
R/N = touch ranger

A good ranger will run a rupt build, so they commonly use recurve bows, when a enemy dies, they are able to shut rez sigs down.

Necro
good
curse and newly buffed blood necros, oppressive gaze is quite powerful, take note of the weapon sets they have.

bad
look for death magic set, death users will more than likely use minions, these days they are N/Me and echo aura of the lich.

Assassin
good
A/W
Shield/Spear weapon sets
bad
Way of the Assassin
Critical Defences
These sins are easily kited and generally concerned with not dying or aims for that 1v1 battle that never exists, they generally attack through empathy till they die, a good sin will generally run horns/trampling ox.

Elementalist
Watch for flare or anything abnormal like /R with pets.

Dervish

I find most dervishes can be easily kited, if you stand still, they can dish out the damage, wounding strike is popular for dervishes.

Monk
good
WoH
pre-viel
Mo/W
Mo/A
bad
not using WoH

Ritualist
Ritualist are an average profession, matches can be extended because they expect the enemy to come to them when they lay spirits, after the first wave of spirits, they become useless, healing capability is not as strong as WoH healers

Paragons
Paragons are generally bad in RA, you'll find you wont succeed when grouped with one.

Please note, this a observation of my 5 years playing RA, you may argue that you are good at the points i've listed as bad and try to justify yourself, but please, you're only kidding yourself, if you want to succeed, run meta builds, plain and simple.

If i've missed anything worthy of mentioning, be practical.

1) W/E and W/A are not the only possible 'good' combinations for war, W/R anti sig is quite good, and helps you win plenty of matches that would have otherwise been hopeless without it. Sword is just fine. Platemail doesn't mean shit... a player could be good at war and just like platemail armour.
2) recurve bow --> i always load with a long bow so i can push up against rit teams and keep down spirits. R/Me with blackout is also good in RA.
3) crit defence is perfectly fine, completely negates linebacking which will normally destroy a sin. these sins are more than capable of creating and maintaining pressure. not bad at all
3)mo/a is pretty bad, will be completely dominated by a semi-decent war.

Corporeal Ghost · Mar 10, 2010, 07:08 AM // 07:08

The best way to chain wins in RA is to play a bar that can single-handedly break most RA caliber monks. Playing some kind of fake offense with blinds or snares will increase your win percentage. It will also make your matches (at least the ones you win) take five or six minutes longer. The real problem with RA right now is everyone is stuck in the same mentality as most of this thread. The majority of matches I play monk for are at least four minutes long. No one does any damage. Sometimes it takes upwards of two minutes for a team I'm monking for to kill another one without a backline.

So I suppose some kind of support midline will give you a positive delta here, but it's not going to do much more than frustrate you in the long run. High-powered offensive bars are extremely frustrating in the short-term, but produce the most wins over time.

This doesn't necessarily imply that you're just running damage overload (although this is certainly a valid strategy). Heavy disruption works pretty well if you're so inclined. Moderate damage with light disruption (something like Mindblast with Gale) can actually get you there if your team has one other half-competent player.

Cantos · Mar 10, 2010, 08:12 AM // 08:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by snikerz

Warrior
the good
strength shield and spear(good warriors use spears as a ranged adrenaline gain)
axe or hammer
W/A or W/E
the bad
look for tactics shields, swords, W/Mo, power attack, endure pain, platemil
Every now and then you'll get a warrior run many defensive skills, a common one is Defy Pain, its rare to see them run Axe Frenzy with it, whom are capable of taking down a monks

As sound as this advice may be, it is entirely redundant, as the surest way to spot a terrible warrior is whether they wear a newb hat.

Literally every single warrior wearing a newb hat is awful.

dan1mal · Mar 10, 2010, 09:02 AM // 09:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cantos

As sound as this advice may be, it is entirely redundant, as the surest way to spot a terrible warrior is whether they wear a newb hat.

Literally every single warrior wearing a newb hat is awful.

actually, its called pvp armor and most decent players preferr playing on pvp characters over pve ones because they can make any quips on demand.. I agree you can hide it, but I'd rather have a "newbhat" warrior on my team than one with platemail headpiece

RhanoctJocosa · Mar 10, 2010, 09:09 AM // 09:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cantos

As sound as this advice may be, it is entirely redundant, as the surest way to spot a terrible warrior is whether they wear a newb hat.

Literally every single warrior wearing a newb hat is awful.

Even though it could be an entirely wrong assumption, it's kinda true lol