Curse

TaCktiX · Dec 09, 2007, 02:04 PM // 14:04

Getting into HA groups is not as hard as you make it out to be. Problem is, your favorite spot is the spot resolved for tactics caller, a job that definitely requires experience in HA. Go with your second-favorite profession (I'm assuming that it's one rolled in HA groups relatively often), and get some experience under your belt. Be ready to join whatever vent, roll whatever build, and alter equipment as asked. There are a LOT of people out there who will take a rankless skilled player vs. a Rank 8 person who only knows how to Spiritway.

My cap's 28k with R4 Hero/R2 Glad. I'm a little picky on what HA groups I join (hey, if I'm able to consistently join R8's, why should I settle for less?), so the fame comes slower than the glads.

shoogi · Dec 09, 2007, 09:05 PM // 21:05

Dude, that "no-one in HA takes low ranked players so they can't progress" is crap. There are many people like you, they're all out there. Find them, befriend them, make a guild with them, play with them, progress with them. It's interesting how those rank discrimination complaints are so abundant atm.
When I was low ranked, I never recall that I complained about high ranked people not taking me to their teams, and I don't remember other people complaining about it. I had a guild with people low ranked like me, we tombed a lot (bunch of hours every day) and we all got our ranks eventually. It's all a matter of will power.

And btw, don't worry, I highly doubt that Zaishen Key costs will be increased, and even if they will it's not going to be anywhere near 20k.

erk · Dec 10, 2007, 12:23 AM // 00:23

Although I dislike HA personally, I have played it enough times with PUG to know that getting into a low rank HA group is not hard if you have any form of PvP title displayed to prove you are not just a PvE'er. Just don't expect to get into a high experience group and leave it at that. You will still be able to farm fame which is what you are after.

BTW. Zaishen Keys are expensive, it takes quite a while to earn 5k of Balth regargless of the type of PvP, about 2 hours play I think I worked out, including waiting around to get in. Compare that to playing PvE for a while, picking 1.5k of merchantable crap, and buying a lockpick. The point being that PvE is an easier way to farm chests than PvP.

romO · Dec 10, 2007, 12:56 AM // 00:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by erk

BTW. Zaishen Keys are expensive, it takes quite a while to earn 5k of Balth regargless of the type of PvP, about 2 hours play I think I worked out, including waiting around to get in.

Guild versus Guild.

Automated tournaments usually wield about 75 reward points and 25k balth faction. 20 keys for 3 or so hours of time (actual time spent playing is much lower due to the long gaps in between matches).

erk · Dec 10, 2007, 06:20 AM // 06:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by romO

Guild versus Guild.

Automated tournaments usually wield about 75 reward points and 25k balth faction. 20 keys for 3 or so hours of time (actual time spent playing is much lower due to the long gaps in between matches).

But AT's are not for everyone, you need a willing team in an appropriate time zone, that gets good wins, most just forfeit and the elite few get the points. An then you have to wait almost a day for the next 3 hour run.

Thom Bangalter · Dec 10, 2007, 08:19 AM // 08:19

even if you don't AT, GvG is still the fastest way to earn faction. As a matter of fact, some of my fondest memories were when NF came out and I was yelling at people to kill archers because I wanted to UAX as fast as possible.

Div · Dec 10, 2007, 09:28 AM // 09:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thom Bangalter

even if you don't AT, GvG is still the fastest way to earn faction. As a matter of fact, some of my fondest memories were when NF came out and I was yelling at people to kill archers because I wanted to UAX as fast as possible.

And now it's people yelling to kill archers so we can farm the most amount of faction for keys.

Iotan · Dec 10, 2007, 01:05 PM // 13:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by holymasamune

And now it's people yelling to kill archers so we can farm the most amount of faction for keys.

I think it's great that farming faction is actually useful now. This, along with ATs determining participation in the monthly tournament instead of the ladder, means there's virtually no reason not to be GvGing all the time. Losing rank is meaningless and rating only matters if you care about farming champ points (and staying about 1200 is not difficult). Hopefully this will encourage lower-ranked guilds to play more often but it will probably spawn more crappy Blood spike guilds.

So to the OP: Anet will most likely never make anything that costs over 10k faction because it will upset the vast majority of PvE players who can't get more than that. So if you're looking to get faction and actually enjoy it then find a GvG guild that plays a lot. It will be a whole lot more enjoyable than RA or HA.

erk · Dec 10, 2007, 01:25 PM // 13:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thom Bangalter

even if you don't AT, GvG is still the fastest way to earn faction. As a matter of fact, some of my fondest memories were when NF came out and I was yelling at people to kill archers because I wanted to UAX as fast as possible.

No it's not, the time zone I am in it's lucky to get a match an hour on weeknights. GvG has died big time in the southern hemisphere since around the time the AT's and GW:EN came out. There was a slight resurgence when the double GvG rewards weekend was on but that's it.

jaeharys targaryen · Dec 10, 2007, 01:38 PM // 13:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaon

This is true, but the difference between a good warrior and a bad warrior is very small compared to a good/bad ranger, or anything else basically.

i'm not sure if i agree with that. I think, the meta skills run by a warrior allow for less skilled frontliners to appear to be better*, and meta ranger skills require more skill. However, i think they can be played to the same level of excellence. A bad warrior>bad ranger. But a good warrior=good ranger(unless the ranger is like a consistent 3/4 interrupter, or something better).

*Aka, me. A doofus could bull's strike correctly, and some people still cant.

Byron · Dec 10, 2007, 03:36 PM // 15:36

I'm of the school that bad people are bad, regardless of position. It's okay to be learning, not okay to be a fraud.

Orange Milk · Dec 10, 2007, 06:11 PM // 18:11

Yup, find out what the most basic element of the current meta is, the easist position to play, learn that. Much easier to get in a group then in HA. If your wanting to be serious about PvP, wich you will need to be if you wanna raise your cap quickly, you'll need more than just a PvP Only Warrior.

Also if there is a DBL fame weekend, live in HA that weekend, yes its cheap fame, yes it reduces Rank value, but there are more people and more PUG's, more FotM builds, and that, as an unranked person, is your best bet for build fame.

Get Ventrilo and/or Team Speak and a Mic, downloads are free, cheap mics are like 10 bucks.

If you don't have all skills/items unlocked yet, forget keys and the chest, that goes along with having Vent, you need the right tools to be succesful.
If someone says "we need a Cripslash warrior" and you say "Don't have it, can I run mending instead?" your not gonna go far. Run what the people with more experience want you to run, don't go off saying, "well this build works when I fight Grawls" again, you wont get far. THey know what they are looking for and thats what they want.

Tamuril elansar · Dec 11, 2007, 02:22 PM // 14:22

GvG is by far the easiest method to get balth faction, RA and HA the easiest method to increase you're balth cap.

Shmanka · Dec 11, 2007, 10:46 PM // 22:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by RaZoO

No not really, I've seen and played with some pretty awful warriors who play in top 100 guilds. You can tell who's a good warrior if you play with him, they'll make stuff happen.

Just to add to this, from my perspective the warrior difference is more noticable to me, then it is about rangers. I think mesmers and warriors take a great amount of skill slightly above rangers. This is just my opinion.

dies like fish · Dec 11, 2007, 11:04 PM // 23:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shmanka

Just to add to this, from my perspective the warrior difference is more noticable to me, then it is about rangers. I think mesmers and warriors take a great amount of skill slightly above rangers. This is just my opinion.

You have probably never played with a great ranger. There are very few great rangers left in the game. Rangers that can perma-crip a flag runner and force boosts win games.

Iotan · Dec 11, 2007, 11:56 PM // 23:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shmanka

Just to add to this, from my perspective the warrior difference is more noticable to me, then it is about rangers. I think mesmers and warriors take a great amount of skill slightly above rangers. This is just my opinion.

If you watch a ranger on a split it's easy to tell who's good and who sucks. It might be hard for some people to tell good vs. bad while at the stand but if you watch enough matches it becomes very noticeable too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dies like fish

You have probably never played with a great ranger. There are very few great rangers left in the game. Rangers that can perma-crip a flag runner and force boosts win games.

I agree with the few great rangers but your example is pretty bad. Any moron can spam Crip Shot on a flagger but you get boosts by disabling things like RC or Weapon of Warding and getting your team into a good bodyblock position. This has less to do with your actual elite skill (which cannot be blocked and with a recurve should never miss) and more to do with battlefield awareness and quick communication. And these are needed for every profession.

dies like fish · Dec 12, 2007, 12:51 AM // 00:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iotan

I agree with the few great rangers but your example is pretty bad. Any moron can spam Crip Shot on a flagger but you get boosts by disabling things like RC or Weapon of Warding and getting your team into a good bodyblock position. This has less to do with your actual elite skill (which cannot be blocked and with a recurve should never miss) and more to do with battlefield awareness and quick communication. And these are needed for every profession.

In most cases, in order to keep a runner perma-cripped, you have to be able to shut those down. I just thought that knowledge was implied.

Legendary Shiz · Dec 12, 2007, 04:35 AM // 04:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by dies like fish

You have probably never played with a great ranger. There are very few great rangers left in the game. Rangers that can perma-crip a flag runner and force boosts win games.

I really think that there are some good players left that aren't in the GvG player pool.

I have a TA friend that hasn't GvGed seriously in probably a year and he's better than 98% of the rangers in the game.

You can probably find hella good rangers left in some of those TA guilds, since a ranger is in 99% of all TA builds these days.

No idea why I felt like mentioning that.

yesitsrob · Dec 12, 2007, 12:18 PM // 12:18

Well, a lot of what rangers do in GVG which makes them excellent is nothing that is done in TA, unless they've recently added flag stands there.

Rangering in TA is significantly easier than it is in GVG, far less to do, far less to be aware of

Thom Bangalter · Dec 12, 2007, 01:30 PM // 13:30

I didn't realize that there were NPCs to kill in TA, nor did I realize that there were 2 aegises and the possibility of shields up and defensive anthem in the same build.

oh and also blurred. or blind.

I suppose it's somewhat useful if you just want a stand ranger, but I don't know why you'd want a ranger that can't handle himself on a split.