Curse

Master Ketsu · Oct 08, 2009, 09:50 PM // 21:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonas The Keen

I've been playing cripslash in RA and it's making me remember how ridiculously good this skill is.

Frenzy
Crippling Slash
Gash
Standing Slash
Savage Slash
Rush
Bulls Strike
Res sig

Enjoy losing to the first team that has an FF/PS Bitch role cookie cutter nec.

ShivaTwoDelta · Oct 09, 2009, 12:47 AM // 00:47

Because I aim for 5 winstreaks at least,
and one good monk can mean alot for a team
and because most monks I get when I'm damage dealer utterly SUCK!
I tend to BE the monk. Over the years I tested them all, rc boon, zb prot. Currently I like WoH best with shield bash and balanced stance.
If the 3 others have what it takes to get people down, I'll mostly keep my team up.

Been playing GW since december 2005, I'm having about 1500 gladiator points, all from RA.

IninefingersI · Oct 09, 2009, 07:10 PM // 19:10

Ah, a fellow RA grinder. I have 4300 from RA, myself. I'm hoping that we'll see the RA regulars start moving up Glad rank a little quicker as soon as they remove the 10 round cap from RA. 100+ consecs will probably fairly commonplace.

That Mo/W WoH build is pretty strong. I have noticed while running my Ranger in RA that most people that run it are too predictable with WoH, and d-shotting it makes things fall apart pretty quickly.

I am ready for the ele nerf that has to be coming soon. Ever since the Ebon Hawk buff, every other round in RA has someone riding the Ebon Hawk/Stoning train.

I was suprised they didn't nerf it at the same time they nerfed Armor of Sanctity, since they were both over-buffed in the same update.

Ganks · Oct 09, 2009, 07:40 PM // 19:40

1 good monk doesn't mean didly squat if everyone ignores the calls and goes which way they want regardless of instructions. And that apparently speaks for a vast majority of those who play this game. I blew it off years ago but 3 years later you would think people would read guides, learn from other people or SOMETHING. Doesn't seem like that is ever going to happen.

I took a long break from GW and came back hanging out in RA listening to the kiddies talk, saying to myself how much RA hasn't changed in all the time that has passed. One guy replied to me seriously, "No, People just get stupider."

I laughed to myself and went about my business, RA, TA, some AB ... just hanging out. A few days have passed since then and you know what? That guy was absolutely right. Not only does everyone do the same exact stupid things they did previously, but they do it more often because there are more of them.

How can 1 game possibly have so many noobs? I'm all for learning the game but this is ridiculous.

Had to vent. Flame my p.o.v. if you like. Won't make a difference.

Sankt Hallvard · Oct 09, 2009, 09:42 PM // 21:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ganks

I laughed to myself and went about my business, RA, TA, some AB ... just hanging out. A few days have passed since then and you know what? That guy was absolutely right. Not only does everyone do the same exact stupid things they did previously, but they do it more often because there are more of them.

How can 1 game possibly have so many noobs? I'm all for learning the game but this is ridiculous.

Had to vent. Flame my p.o.v. if you like. Won't make a difference.

K, I'm gonna flame you since you don't mind.

You are totally wrong in your assessment. People in RA have actually improved a lot in skill over the years. It's not at all uncommon now to face people who can qrupt, people who can time shield bash correctly, hold their cast after KD and avoid your qrupt, dodge bulls, fake casts and kite melee. Chiizu-dancing warriors are rather common as well. People didn't do this 3 years ago.

Also I don't understand why people like you complain about "being surrounded by frikkin noobs". The more noobs you face in RA the bigger your relative advantage to win the match will be. (Assuming of course you are as good as you think you are.) Assuming also you play for glad pts and not the "challenge", I mean 99% of you would sell an arm or a grandma for another level in the gladiator title.

X Cytherea X · Oct 09, 2009, 10:50 PM // 22:50

Quote:

You are totally wrong in your assessment. People in RA have actually improved a lot in skill over the years. It's not at all uncommon now to face people who can qrupt, people who can time shield bash correctly, hold their cast after KD and avoid your qrupt, dodge bulls, fake casts and kite melee. Chiizu-dancing warriors are rather common as well. People didn't do this 3 years ago.

this is true. it seemed more true before RA districts were all lumped in with america, but yes average to good players are more common than most think.

Quote:

Also I don't understand why people like you complain about "being surrounded by frikkin noobs". The more noobs you face in RA the bigger your relative advantage to win the match will be. (Assuming of course you are as good as you think you are.) Assuming also you play for glad pts and not the "challenge", I mean 99% of you would sell an arm or a grandma for another level in the gladiator title.

yep. players who suck complain about noobs. skilled players dont care and just kill everyone. i farmed from mid-2006 until glad8, but the past year ive been playing casually (job etc) for fun.

Sankt Hallvard · Oct 10, 2009, 12:16 PM // 12:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by X Cytherea X

i farmed from mid-2006 until glad8, but the past year ive been playing casually (job etc) for fun.

I am glad you have realised that fun > glad8

X Cytherea X · Oct 10, 2009, 12:45 PM // 12:45

well hey i had lots of fun on the way there, too... doing it on a class i love. i cant imagine monking to glad10 oh god how sad.

urania · Oct 10, 2009, 08:16 PM // 20:16

hahaha, sorry, but i just cant resist seeing that statement as the pinnacle of irony.
i played other professions more u can ever imagine. especially cuz all u did was play a sin - which is not only sad, its pathetic. and that, ONLY in RA. that's beyond pathetic.

ever considered to be a comedian, shindy?
please, entertain us more.

IninefingersI · Oct 11, 2009, 02:13 AM // 02:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sankt Hallvard

K, I'm gonna flame you since you don't mind.

You are totally wrong in your assessment. People in RA have actually improved a lot in skill over the years. It's not at all uncommon now to face people who can qrupt, people who can time shield bash correctly, hold their cast after KD and avoid your qrupt, dodge bulls, fake casts and kite melee. Chiizu-dancing warriors are rather common as well. People didn't do this 3 years ago.

HAHa, I don't necessarily disagree whit your post, you just picked a bad time to post it..... right before bonus weekend in RA. All the PvE nubs come out of the woodwork and you can't get a decent team as a healer because you can never get a team without someone running a crap PvE Monk in PvP.

X Cytherea X · Oct 12, 2009, 03:44 PM // 15:44

Quote:

hahaha, sorry, but i just cant resist seeing that statement as the pinnacle of irony.
i played other professions more u can ever imagine. especially cuz all u did was play a sin - which is not only sad, its pathetic. and that, ONLY in RA. that's beyond pathetic.

ever considered to be a comedian, shindy?
please, entertain us more.

what is pathetic is playing lame shit to get points. if at its core the mentality of the build is gay (monking, hexing, blinding, ta gimmicks/lolbalance), it does not deserve its rank.

lol made 50something pts saturday afternoon too bad i couldnt play sunday.

urania · Oct 12, 2009, 04:38 PM // 16:38

please, entertain us more.

Bobby2 · Oct 12, 2009, 05:26 PM // 17:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by X Cytherea X

what is pathetic is playing lame shit to get points. if at its core the mentality of the build is gay (monking, hexing, blinding, ta gimmicks/lolbalance), it does not deserve its rank.

Yes, do elaborate on this...

Sankt Hallvard · Oct 12, 2009, 07:05 PM // 19:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby2

Yes, do elaborate on this...

Do you mind if I offer my opinion on this? Or should I hold back awaiting some epic Cytherea reply?

I'll offer my view on this since he brings up certain points that fit nicely into my agenda(get rid of sins, tone down all hexes, revitalize 4v4 play, dynamic meta, active-play bars, ladder type matching system, make GW fun again!):

In Cytherea's post I find 3 elements to comment on:

1. "deserve rank"
2. "gay mentality"
3. "pathetic"

1 - "deserve rank". IMO there is no such thing as to "deserve rank". If you find a way to gain ranks quickly - fine. It doesn't matter how you do it, whether it's by "honorable play" or "farming by gimmick". Glad rank like any other rank in GW does not command respect. (IMO) From what I understand Cytherea is g8 and Karla is g10, adding some clause that one has deserved it more than the other is meaningless from an objective point of view.

2 - "gay mentality". Totally up to the beholder how one considers this. Personally I agree with some of the builds mentioned being "gay":
2a Hexing - Yes, the hex mechanic is totally gay. The more the merrier, and hex removals are totally not up to par with hexes. Easy to apply, cheap, lasts forever, hard to remove. While they are ok individually they add up to a really gay monster, reference "TA hexway"
2b TA gimmicks/lolbalance - Yah, I find gimmicks generally abusing some mechanic which is pretty gay. I do NOT find the TA balanced setup gay in itself, it's balanced(diverse) able to counter most other builds. The only gay thing about it is that it has remained virtually unchanged for 4 years. No TA balance ever is to blame for that, a dynamic meta would have been so much better.
2c Blinding - I like the blinding mechanic. It's a condition where the counters are cheap and many. It usually lasts only for a short while meaning it's better in the hands of a skilled and active player. Problems arise when it's too easily applied and recharging too fast(EDA and partly BSurge).
2d Monking - What? Monking isn't gay at all. Requiring good amounts of skill, having to deal with all sorts of counters. Keeping people alive, positioning, field awareness, veilwork, removing the right hexes/conds at the right times, avoiding rupts, constant weaponswaps and the list goes on. You have to be mentally challenged to call monking gay.

3 - "pathetic". Personally I agree with Cytherea that playing lame shit to get points is pathetic. If you play something just for the sake of farming points you don't have your priorities straight(IMOIMOIMO!!). That is not to say that the g8 farmers have all played boring builds just for the points, I assume most of them have had lots of fun while doing it. After all, winning in itself is fun! Though, and again IMO, the guys playing shovespike day and night are pretty pathetic.

I blame this whole post on boredom and the fact that GW has become so lame I rather spend my time on this forum now. Cheers.

X Cytherea X · Oct 12, 2009, 08:11 PM // 20:11

1- sure there is.
2a- yes.
2b- aside from stagnation, it's mostly the nec that makes ta balance gay.
2c- it's lame in any form.
2d- it is skillful (although the team can lessen its difficulty). but gay.
3- yes.

look at the gladiators in ancient Rome. they didnt have lame shit in the Colosseum like the examples i mentioned, they were RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOIN BRUTAL. it's players with a mentality similar to theirs who should be called gladiators. TO KILL FAGS.

Bobby2 · Oct 12, 2009, 09:40 PM // 21:40

@ Sankt: +10 Bear points for eloquence.

Quote:

Originally Posted by X Cytherea X

look at the gladiators in ancient Rome. they didnt have lame shit in the Colosseum like the examples i mentioned, they were RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOIN BRUTAL. it's players with a mentality similar to theirs who should be called gladiators. TO KILL FAGS.

Keep it up! When I want to shock my shrink I need more more material.

urania · Oct 12, 2009, 10:13 PM // 22:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sankt Hallvard

Do you mind if I offer my opinion on this? Or should I hold back awaiting some epic Cytherea reply?

I'll offer my view on this since he brings up certain points that fit nicely into my agenda(get rid of sins, tone down all hexes, revitalize 4v4 play, dynamic meta, active-play bars, ladder type matching system, make GW fun again!):

In Cytherea's post I find 3 elements to comment on:

1. "deserve rank"
2. "gay mentality"
3. "pathetic"

1 - "deserve rank". IMO there is no such thing as to "deserve rank". If you find a way to gain ranks quickly - fine. It doesn't matter how you do it, whether it's by "honorable play" or "farming by gimmick". Glad rank like any other rank in GW does not command respect. (IMO) From what I understand Cytherea is g8 and Karla is g10, adding some clause that one has deserved it more than the other is meaningless from an objective point of view.

2 - "gay mentality". Totally up to the beholder how one considers this. Personally I agree with some of the builds mentioned being "gay":
2a Hexing - Yes, the hex mechanic is totally gay. The more the merrier, and hex removals are totally not up to par with hexes. Easy to apply, cheap, lasts forever, hard to remove. While they are ok individually they add up to a really gay monster, reference "TA hexway"
2b TA gimmicks/lolbalance - Yah, I find gimmicks generally abusing some mechanic which is pretty gay. I do NOT find the TA balanced setup gay in itself, it's balanced(diverse) able to counter most other builds. The only gay thing about it is that it has remained virtually unchanged for 4 years. No TA balance ever is to blame for that, a dynamic meta would have been so much better.
2c Blinding - I like the blinding mechanic. It's a condition where the counters are cheap and many. It usually lasts only for a short while meaning it's better in the hands of a skilled and active player. Problems arise when it's too easily applied and recharging too fast(EDA and partly BSurge).
2d Monking - What? Monking isn't gay at all. Requiring good amounts of skill, having to deal with all sorts of counters. Keeping people alive, positioning, field awareness, veilwork, removing the right hexes/conds at the right times, avoiding rupts, constant weaponswaps and the list goes on. You have to be mentally challenged to call monking gay.

3 - "pathetic". Personally I agree with Cytherea that playing lame shit to get points is pathetic. If you play something just for the sake of farming points you don't have your priorities straight(IMOIMOIMO!!). That is not to say that the g8 farmers have all played boring builds just for the points, I assume most of them have had lots of fun while doing it. After all, winning in itself is fun! Though, and again IMO, the guys playing shovespike day and night are pretty pathetic.

I blame this whole post on boredom and the fact that GW has become so lame I rather spend my time on this forum now. Cheers.

Good idea you replied before shindy.

1 - well, lets put it this way - its often considered that ranks gained by abuse of various broken game mechanisms, be it RA synch or gimmick abuse (signet of might (the insta kill bug), the cop dervs, ss dervs, old fear me, dual SoM mesmers, me/n life steal abuse, shove) are less deserved, or rather, dont quite "show player's actual skill" (even though judging players' skill level according to their rank is by far outdated, if it ever was on place to start with, simply because there's numerous other factors influencing it) - however, the notion of what is deserved or not can be discussed at great length and in great detail, and i just dont feel like starting that now.
I have 3+ years of playing in balanced team behind me, what does shindy have? a few years of pure RA-only play. Sure, one learns how to survive, be self sufficient and at the same time be able to kill and thus drag one's teams on, but one learns the same in more organized formats, and a lot faster too. moreover, one learns things in TA/gvg that one cant even dream of in RA. consider it inferior to TA and gvg, however, i do allow for the possibility that some good players come from RA. Unfortunately, judging from shindy's trolls here, he doesnt fit into that category.
At the end of the day, RA is several times as much luck based as TA. Mainly because the chances to land in the ideal team that allows for a streak of 10 and more is incredibly rare, even more now with all districts infested with the american one. Add the chances of ur opposing team receiving those things, or maybe just nailing more/less of the things necessary for a streak and viola.

2 - well, it rly is a very subjective matter when it comes to deciding whats gay and whatnot. is it the team setup, the skils, both? balanced atm is, more often then not, gay - blackout and 3 rupts on ranger, prage with 2 rupts, stance removals, kds, necros with wail and ff, monks with countless stances and other defensive skills - thats by far how the old balanced was like and also very fit to be called gay, but its just how the balanced" meta" evolved in order to assure a high chance of success vs all the other such balanced builds and the gimmicks. Why gimp urself and play with less optimal (depending on the context) builds, if u dont have to? Ofc, it doesnt mean one cannot win with less "gay" builds (normal r/mo with 2 rupts, for example), but it just takes more effort and skill - vs similarly-skilled team one is likely to lose, if they do it right (chain bo and wail on monk, disrupt the hexremoval, spike out low targets, disrupt woh etc) and dont get disrupted on any of their shutdown (rupt bo, faint/insidi and foremost, apply poison and thats most of their pressure gone; ofc, the same applies to the less gay version of balanced).

2a - prenerf pnh was way too strong of a hex removal (in ta even the current pnh is very strong...untill one meets shove or eles, at least), its just sad they couldnt balance it out with the alternatives. but having unhexable turrets and prenerf prages vs u is not something i consider great or skillful. the biggest prob with hexes is stacking and (cheap and fast rechargeable) hex covers, but its too late to expect nerf on either.

2b - the notion of balanced has remained the same (the even distribution between tasks, for example: 1 healer, 1 monk/damage support, 1 disrupter/pressure character, 1 melee), but the means to achieve that has varied a lot...e.g. from dual attu blindbot eles bk in boon days, to bsurges and lastly necros and paragons now (insert dual monk builds in there that have been used occasionally/frequently throughout these 4 years, varying in builds and purpose)...too many things come to my mind for the other roles, so ill omit enumerating all of them.

2c - blinding was/is broken when dual mesmer builds could spam the 5 energy b surge on recharge and at the same time shutting down monks effectively, same goes for Signet of Midnight mesmers - broken especially if there was 2 of them, but the buff to plague sending didnt help there either; beside that i can only come up with dual blind eles (bsurge and bflash) and especially EDA paras and later on dervs, currently the strongest physicals shutdown in TA, typicaly part of the lets-train-the-dazed-necro gimmick with a bha ranger.
apart from that there's a lot of shutdown and removals available and commonly used to counter blinds (ff and ps are still a problem, but kinda more of a necessary evil now).

2d - monking now has changed a lot in comparison to the old school monking (btw, cond removal is fully the nec's job now, at least in TA) - its another topic that can be discussed into great length, but i have been there and done that already, so ill pass.
all ill say is that it has adopted to survive in the current environment.
once again, its a shame they couldnt balance out the viability of diff (especially heal, prot and df) elites, but whatever...

3 - i partially agree there.
but once again - if one just wants the rank (or any kind of reward) as fast as possible, one doesnt give a shit what kind of means one'll use - its only logical to use whatever enables one to achieve their goal asap - thats not rly pathetic, thats smart. the pathetic part comes only if one considers it an achievement then and misjudges the actual state of affairs at the end of the day - e.g. beating the typical balanced build (r/mo or mesmer, hammer or axe w, bbot or nec, monk) with EDA with balanced not really having any real means to counter eda (rend on n, separate cond removal on r or mo for daze, plague signet on necro, the list goes on..) is more a subject to buildwars than to skillwars. its pathetic if the eda team thinks theyve achieved much in terms of skillful play - they just won the rps game and it could be a whole different story if they were given equal means as their opponents. but yeah, who cares.
at the end of the day one could even call all this discussion pathetic :P
but i was quite bored.

X Cytherea X · Oct 12, 2009, 10:39 PM // 22:39

monking where you're sure to have a guy who can rupt enemy offense, a guy who can lineback, and a support guy (FF+PS+gayhex/drawcond blindbot before/whatever others) is quite unimpressive.

assassinating RA where you dont know wtf you're gonna get and being successful at it (the reason [alongside fun] i did it so long and found no need for anything else) is awesome.

other characters that embody the spirit of the Ancient Roman Gladiators and are thus worthy to have the title in my eyes are... offensive warriors (yea they're brave but dumb), dervishes, rangers, spear paras..(and guess what im not totally biased against casters).. spike necs, spike mesmers, spike eles.

example: the 4 ele RTL spike is RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOin BRUTAL, even if i lose to it after getting to TA from RA i respect it and say gg (i do say "lol fail" if i win tho).

Bobby2 · Oct 12, 2009, 10:52 PM // 22:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by X Cytherea X

assassinating RA where you dont know wtf you're gonna get and being successful at it (the reason [alongside fun] i did it so long and found no need for anything else) is awesome.

You're known to quit any party that's not remotely balanced. Fair enough in itself (saves time don't it?) but true Gladiators didn't get to pick their battles.

Nor were they ninjas (learn to play Warrior).

snaek · Oct 12, 2009, 11:03 PM // 23:03

^this is coming from someone who uses empathetic removal on his sin? hardly "brave"

also, rank is a poor indication of skill. first of all, your grinding against players with low-skill level (aka farming nubs), and second of all, the more time you have to play the higher your rank. ladders is a far better system, but is near-impossible to implement in ra.