You already pointed out the biggest factor: you know all the classes, maps etc. However, if you at some point explained what being able to compete actually means in WvW, I'm afraid I missed that part (I'm serious, I didn't listen closely enough to find out; sorry about that.) Winning some individual fights here or there might not make any difference in how the skirmish (let alone the match) turns out.
i'd like to see a comparison in ranked - where gear and masteries make zero difference. granted, you have team comp and duo queue smurfing, but i think it's worse for new players in ranked because of how the game mode is structured and how mm works.
@@Boxedwaffle i touched on this a little, but i think pvp is actually less punishing because if you're playing not an elite spec you won't get as high rated and therefore play against more fair opponents, whereas WvW has much less strict matchmaker to allow some godmode veteran to go against a noob
@@Vallun i disagree. playing support guard has had me queuing into tons of high rated opponents (e.g. mark, stevie, abbys) despite being on a brand new account. most of the games, i'm the only core spec (sometimes will see another core guard or core ranger) with most of my opponents and teammates being reapers, harbs, willbenders, bladesworns, revs, specters, DEs, DDs, mechs, tempests, and catas. i agree that wvw has less strict mm, but ranked isn't much higher and can be exploited with duos and swaps.
Hardest part of competive GW2 is the knowledge check. Even low tier builds can lock down a new player if they don't know how to counter it. It's the equalvent spamming fire ball or low kick in a fighting game against your little brother.
I'm a new player in WvW, this is my first week playing GW2 and went striaght to WvW. Came from ESO online cyrodiil player for 4 years. I am having a blast in WvW, steep learning curve but from good content creators like you and Jen I have learned a lot and am starting to hold my own.
@@kh602black thanks for the response! One more thing, ESO as you know was an insane process to get the “meta” pvp gear. Essentially knowing someone who could craft it all, which made switching between metas a pain in the ass. Would you say that’s easier in GW2?
I suck too.. but the funnest thing ever is when I find someone else who sucks while roaming. Those are the best fights ever. The whole time I have the Benny Hill theme in my head. Good times.
Yeah, that nonsense is ridiculous. People throwing "pay to win" on everything and not even knowing what it means anymore. I knew as soon as I saw the title that it was BS because there is no pay to win in GW2.
yeah, back in a day GW2 was one of the first buy to play games. Now you can try core world and mechanics with free acc, but the full game is just better. It was better than free to play Perfect World and Aion in 2012 and fairer in price that subscribtion-based WoW, it's still better than f2p and pay2win titles, and still lightyears ahead of WoW
Ty for sharing all your experience as a veteran player in contents like this. Is very Helpful to keep newbies like me focused in learning anything that could be done to improve the gameplay. Keep up the great work!
One of the great things about GW2 is how well balanced core builds are in PvP & WvW modes compared to PvE where they are pretty lackluster. The bigget hurdle for a new player is game knowledge and skill, rather than a gear check or content check (expansion Elite classes).
New trial players are definitely at a big disadvantage due to lacking skill, map and profession knowledge,armor quality, especs, wvw mastery. You'll be fine if you join an open not to organized squad, but will have a troublesome experience when roaming/when running in a well cöordinated squad. My general advice to any new player would be to buy the HoT and PoF expansion pack. This offers the best bang for your buck, opens up a ton of content and in my opinion provide a much better addition to the game compared to EoD/living world seasons.
Vallun: 'hi guys. look at me, I'm just like a newbie core player. stripped of all elite specialisations, no amulet and forfeited all my WvW masteries. I'm basically defenseless. a lame duck. pls put me out of my misery [and ignore my _Mithril Assaulter_ rank].' 🤔 wonder what the guys on the other side were thinking. 'that is Vallun, let's have him for breakfast? will 40 of us do or do we need 50?'
You're such a great player. I always love your decision makings. Anyhoo, I think the most important factor that separates a newbie like me to a vet and skilled player like you in WvW is the knowledge of every class. Like when you're facing a certain class, you already know how that class works, you know what their skills can do, you know what skills to look for, you know if they are on cd or not, and most importantly, what build they are running! So these allow you make counter plays but the newbies will not be able to do this resulting to a significant loss of performance. SO for me, it's not about P2W specs. It's about your own skills but more about the game experience. This is why as a newbie, I've created all of the classes available already and got every elite specs so I can play them and hopefully gain knowledge how every specs work. Thanks for this vid Vallun. I always check your guides because I love your mindset.
For years I have been telling one of my guild mates that he should try playing the other classes, to get familiar with how they play so that he can learn to deal with them instead of complaining about them...
@@lingwisyer88 lol right!! That's what I did. Tho I still have a lot to learn but it's still definitely one of the fastest ways you can learn about other specs.
great effort though to play like this and show that getting experienced is still what matters most. Also to any new player; getting the x-pacs is a small price to pay for many hours if not years of fun gameplay. Also to new players, playing with full exo gear (which is ez to obtain) and food and util is still better than what was demonstrated here.
You are my favorite. I love the scenarios you create for yourself; like in your thief video where you removed and mix-matched gear to recreate a new player experience. I think that is gangster.
the issue is that every time a new expansion drops, the elite specs are intentionally made busted as hell to coerce people into buying them, and imo, it's the biggest issue in ranked because it queues you into people who use these specs. i would LOVE a core-only pvp mode. i got fed up with it, so i bought the expansions and proceeded to get top 100 in ranked (got it on reaper with wells and chrono runes for those who remember that). edit: and to clarify, a skilled player can easily beat an unskilled player regardless of spec (i downloaded the steam version and was mopping people up as burn guard because they didn't have any cleansing). the issue is that in ranked, you're usually matched at people around your skill level (ignoring duo queue smurfing and offhours queueing), and at the same skill level, elite specs tend to be far superior to their core bases, which effectively makes it pay to win if you don't have access to those specs and are fighting someone around your skill level.
you're right, but can you blame them for trying to make money. It's a bit clickbaity to market the game as free to play, but i consider it a free tutorial with a buy to play game
@@Vallun yeah, i'm not knocking them for that. my issue is that you shouldn't be penalized/at a disadvantage because you didn't pay for a new busted fotm elite spec (in the context of pvp). nevertheless, despite the issues surrounding pvp, it's still the best pvp i've played by far outside of one indie game that closed down a while back (idk if you ever played forge). and at the end of the day, you do get what you pay for when it comes to gw2, and there's a ton of value in the content available that far outshines games with similar and higher price points.
@@Boxedwaffle it is very good pvp and high esport potential game, with how easy it is to watch and understand main goal and track progress of a match. That being said, the way anet is handling pvp is ridculus to say the least, I just cant take pvp seriusly when players are rewarded for being afk in ranked games with ascended and even legendary gear. Every other game there is player afk from start.
@@majkatrojedjece6585 it was easy to watch pre-POF, maybe even only pre-HOT. after that, it became way too much of a power creeped shitshow due to the elite specs. EOD is arguably the worst for viewers given the excessive mobility. ranked is kind of a joke because of how matchmaking works due to lower pop and profession fixing, but it's especially bad because they allowed duo queuing.
@@Vallun Not at all, because the game is free to play in every use of the term. What's clickbaity is putting "P2W" on your thumbnail whilst not knowing what the term means and misusing it. Having to buy expacs is, and never was, P2W.
There is no fair competition in WvW if we're all being honest. The game mode is all about gaining the upper hand against your opponents by every means necessary, that's the point. WvW opponents are never above luring you back to their territories so that they get the full effect of Presence of the Keep while you lose yours, or sniping you from the npc ranks so you are forced to aggro their NPC guards if you fight them.
That's pretty true for any WvW type pvp mode in MMOs take ESOs cryodil for example lots of people use gank builds and bomb rush builds to gain the upper hand there's no such thing as dirty tactics in war
For most people, I'd call GW2 free to try. If you want to do it without paying anything, you can do a whole lot without paying a dollar. But seriously if you're playing enough to get that far, you can spare $20 for the HoT/PoF bundle.
Not even that tho, cause you have so many Vet players who are excited about the new players who want to help get them started. So like even tho the community has been really friendly to new players all along it’s even more so right now.
To be fair, I don't really see gw2 as free to play. It remains buy to play, but they offer a very nice and comprehensive demo version without time limits.
I am late to the party, but I think it is not right to only consider berserker and Valkyrie stats as a replacement to marauders. Technically these give the same type of stats (power/precision/vitality/ferocity), but other combinations can result in similar dps and survivability, especially now that we have more freedom with runes. For example a berserker/soldier mix can have the same defense (as a combination of toughness+ vitality) and only sacrifice ~10% crit chance while power and ferocity remain almost equal compared to a full marauder's setup. Alternatively mixing some assassin stats with Valkyrie can make up for the lost precision. Or mixing berserker with knight's or Valkyrie with knight's can result in high survivability builds while still having good dmg. It takes a bit more effort to min/max but there is potential
Hello, thank you for your amazing video ! Which build shown in this video would you recommend for someone who likes to play a tanky playstyle with some support/CC ? Are Warrior, guardian and mesmer a good choice ? Does the necro have some kind of support or CC or is it a straigh dps build ?
You actually could have created a new free account like I did to REALLY see the limitations. I found out you start out with only max 2 characters, only 2 bag slots beyond your starter, as well as you cannot go into your racial city until level 10 and you cannot go into Lion's Arch until level 35... and that is just the start. But you are seeing about WvW so I get that is why you didn't create a brand new account (it would have taken forever to level as a free account). With a free account you cannot even look at which server you are in for WvW until level 60.
"this isn't a fair comparison" wvw this days is just engineers mechs diamond players running against the noobs ones, and spaming emotions after the kills .
I see a healthy balance of roamers in EU. Mech, DH, WB, thieves, all types of necros, all types of rangers, renegades, etcetc. And I can't say that mechs are prevalent of hard to fight - I meet more willbenders / harbs than mechs.
WvW is high end pvp where you need gear and skill. Before go wvw play pve for gear and pvp for skill. GW2 is about skills because ascended have only 6% better stats that exotic. Right now is very easy for new player farm ascended gear.
That is true but I want to add my own experience here: You don't need any ascended gear to git gud in WvW. I played Core Guardian build in WvW with exotic gears and have tons of fun in WvW and securing kills left and right in small group for years (didnt bought the expac at that time yet). The point is, gear and skill do matter in WvW, but not absolute that you need to know the most intricate details to have fun. In my own opinion, the very best thing a new player to do when starting in WvW is to find a group, whether just following a zerg pug or organised guild and learn how to survive on each encounter or battles.
@@flatbooty6662 Fractals/raids/lauren merchant/ many Living world zones have ascended amulets/rings/back/trinkets for currecy what farm in map with this you can start fractals or you can farm golds with meta events on maps and craft ascended armor/weapons
I've played a bit of old school nike warrior and d/d ele recently. They both still worked half decently, as long as I don't get 1 tapped on the ele by a LB ranger...
Buying expansions that provide literally dozens of hours of content, new game systems, etc. IS NOT pay to win. GW2 has a horizontal progress system, which means that instead of gaining levels and more powerful gear you gain new gameplay options. Nobody would complain if the structure of the game was "Free to level 40 with paid expansions granting 10 more levels". Nobody would expect the level 40 character to beat a level 70 character that played through 3 expansions! The fact that you even stand a chance at baseline is something. Pay to win suggests that you can pay for cash shop items that make you more powerful or let you progress (usually by increasing the power of your gear). You can't do that in GW2. Again: game content isn't a P2W system; spending money for direct power regardless of content completed is.
Hey, Vallun. Hope u'r doing great. Completely unrelated to the video (maybe not that much), but how do i find stat selectable gear with the new Dragon stats? Are they avaiable in a living world? Should I do the EoD story (sadge)?
the WvW skirmish vendor gives trinkets, and you can get armor by using exotic insignias and inscriptions which you can learn at the xunlai agent in new kaineng on already existing ascended
"Furthest MMO from being pay to win" ... what?! It might not be the worst offended, but it is FAR from being the least conservative in that aspect. There are plenty of other MMOs where you can't buy gold/gear and max level toons from day one. Obviously there's still skill involved, but your opening line of this video is just way wrong.
your video is more about doing something solo, but isnt that what a thief does mostly? i think a class like ele should grp up and just do massive dmg with his staff raining down fire. it was like 8 years ago but i played fire staff ele then and the fire aoe could 3shot ppl or 2shot if squishy. i prefer classes that can sit back and do massive aoe from afar. core ele and necro are great for that
im ok with them Making Compermises but Core STuff are Still Kinda great but not as great as Elite Specs Im sure somebody could still get nuked By a core build
I've played more than one full year in core necro being a f2p and I can say with confidence that (almost) ALL the times I was killed (and it was a LOT of times) it was because I misplayed something - usually being out of position when enemy zerg rolled over lol I ran full magi with melandru runes (you know, those you get in Orr) and I did (and still do) the dmg of a wheat noodle but I usually survive all but full-on zerg bursts. I learned a lot from this experience and I'm always pushing my in-game friends to wvw lol
I might have to disagree on the p2w aspect, its definitely not as bad as most games... but theres some things you can buy that clearly give you progression advantage in this game. The main arguement i see is you can buy everything with gold to gems, but the conversion is HORRIBLE. Like really really horrible if you calculate the time value per dollar. Rn 10$ =800 gems = 300 gold give or take, at 30g/hr thats 10 hours. The way the bank, build storage spaces, etc are all locked behind this conversion system doesnt allow you to "play the game you want to play" and forces you to repetitive grinds OR pay cash. Ik they need to make money but if you buy the base game, expansions, etc, you shouldnt have to grind 100 hours to get basic quality of life for 1 toon lol. Also having 10-20 alts parked all over is a rediculous way to farm 😂 kinda pay 2 win (gain advantage) to me.
OK i do think there is a huge different in pvp. Core necromancer is weak AF without elite trait. I played this. Now i bought the expansions and its alot better
How this is p2w??? I'm new player. I'm not expecting to have same gear, skill as player who playing 10 years. But I know what to do to get this gear without spending money( just bought expansions but this is no p2w. I just bought game like I did for my 20 years of gaming). For evey new player crying: go and play game! You don't know what p2w mean.
I've had this discussion with more hardcore gw2 players (I only casually play sPvP) before and none of them are willing to admit that the game has pay to win aspects, most notably in WvW. The fact that you are able to get kills on people playing elite specializations is not evidence for or against the existence of p2w. The fact that you can pay money to get any advantage over other players in game meets my definition of pay to win. Is it a big deal? Not really in my opinion, but it definitely exists.
While I agree that certain factors like elite specializations do exist I do not believe that they are P2W. While yes Elite Specs in general are considered stronger than core classes I do believe that some core builds can and will be strong even when compared to Elite Specs. For example Core Necro/Guardian in WvW are very viable options that I sometimes even chose over Elite Specs. In the end it comes down to your gear and understanding of the game. This is just my opinion so i am free to your understanding/ideas if you look at things in another way than I do. I am in no way a great or even good Gw2 player but I can still find my fun even with core specs.
@@daboiing245 whether or not core specs are strong or not, surely you can admit that having access to a larger pool of skills and traits to choose from is itself an advantage
FFS stop misusing the term "pay to win". The term has a very set-in-stone definition that has never changed and "having to buy expacs" is not part of it. You have to pay for expacs in every major MMO and sometimes those new classes are stronger than others (WoW wasn't P2W when Death Knights were wrecking face in WotLK) Stop stretching the term to fit your own argument. GW2 is objectively, in no way, pay to win.
Engineer gameplay was terrible executed XD I use celestial gear flamethrower moloch combo for a bit of might and stability and the rest is melting the enemy with flamethrower and if they want to run switch to rifle net them and knock them down. Grenades are strong but slow same for bombs while the passive moloch flamethrower build is underrated and people do not realize they are trapped once you are near them with the rifle allways work as a strong burst. Also i run exotic gear for the most part without bufffood. The main issue is that all PvP content is best with more defensive stats fokus as dps builds highly rely on the starting burst when no skills are on cooldown and you can simply outsmart this. conditions and boof corruption are much stronger here as well and all crowd control skills and the ability to get away if needed does the rest. Zerging has nothing to do with gear or build in my opinion it is mostly overruning the enemy by numbers with the exception of coordinated squads that can actually use gamemechanics to defend themself from greater groups. WvWvW is generally a question of roaming or zerging and roaming is more of a spvp like experience where you also try to steal the enemys territory and be highlighted while doing it with often one bigger group fighting over one specific point and 1 on 1 or 1 on 2 situations for the other capture points. Gear in all sorts of PVP is the lowest entry to success with youre own knowledge of mechanics and youre and the enemys skills and the way you use youre skills to be the more important ones. The main advantage are elite specializations that can bring skills to the table that really benefit a profession but often a core profession allready has everything to counter those too and it is just up to you to find out how. In general the more unique youre build in pvp is the more likely you will be to have success as the enemy has to read you to win the fight.
ideally you would use full marauder, pack runes, air fire on sword energy cleansing on bow, but if you were f2p youd need zerker and valk instead of marauder
You can't buy legendaries off the shop. From the trading post after you have converted an absurd amount of gold? Yeah. But the having legendary weapons literally does not mean much. The have the exact same stats as ascended and like 5% more than exotic (both of which are super easy to get.)
@@joshuafeeney1992 The less reason to whine. That was his point of "weak mentality". Rather than learning from trials and errors, they allegedly resort to making excuses and complaints.
i just have some few questions. i am using f2p pack now so how can i get the mount in WvW? and i keep leveling up after 80 but where does the experience go? do i have to start all over from 80 after getting the expansion pack? answers would really be helpful :)
mounts are obtainable in the path of fire expansion, after level 80 your experience becomes spirit shards instead of levels which you can convert at the mystic forge for some recipes. Masteries are another thing your experience can go toward and every new expansion adds new masteries, these are just utility perks
@@rishab5502 sadly you need to buy an expansion to unlock the core masteries when you walk out of combat near a mounted player in wvw and he has skilled a mastery for it you get the mount speed buff too in case you want to buy a expansion keep in mind although End of Dragons unlocks gliding and raptor mount without its masteries in pve you dont get access to gliding and mount in wvw from it so for wvw you would want to get at least Path of Fire (bundled with Heart of Thorns)
Buying Expansions for a game is not anything new, and it will unlock more of the game. like other games with expansions, and you dont pay a subsciption every month. if u play a decent amount u can earn gold to exchange into gems and litteraly buy the expansions thrugh playtime.
That gutz warrior is indeed thirsty. He started whispering salt to me begging my core mesmer for 1v1s rofl. The disadvantage doesn't end at stat selection like marauders. There are many sigils and runes locked as well. And its not just buy a single campaign. To fully unlock the game as far as gear goes, you need to spend quite a bit as I think some stuff is campaign & living world episode specific.
ah who cares, just buy the expansions considering the fact that there's no monthly sub a one time investment of 60 dollarydoos is worth it, or even 30 'cuz fuck EoD
Gw2 is NOT pay to win ....legendary items give you to change stats..so you don't need different armor or gear sets only legendary...so.you.can switch from heal build or.dps.easy
so the game costs 50 eur,150 if you want to get everything fast,and if you pay nothing you can still farm everything but it will take the time for you to actualy become the veteran to beat other veterans lol,but you can still get countered by a casual with an easy to use build from the expansions who payed cash to buy gear and level faster...its not pay to win its pay to skip playing and just have everything right away it seems like a prive wow server with a cash shop where you can buy everything...its all obtainable in game but good luck loging in and being releveant in WvW before 6 months or grinding,and what you do here in the video is refered to as SEAL CLUBBING,removing gear to fight lower rank players from yourself making their game worse and you get to show off how you can win a duel with any build over begginers...its cool for a video showcase but i assume you can do this whenever you want also,i hope that i missunderstood it,but it looks like a veteran can still slap around begginer while NAKED so maybe if you put the gear back on its not so fair lol
the game is 100% free tho. and you need to be i think lvl 60 to get into wvw. shouldve already some gear by then and its just all about skill. the expansions ( for all 3 like 60€) just adds the new elite specs and with them its a little easier. Its just all about skill. if youre bad as a player the elite specs dont help you.
gw2 is not p2w, you just need to BUY the game pretty much. base game is almost like a free trial. p2w is when you have to buy stuff constantly to be relevant, and the more money you spend, the stronger you get. I don't play gw2 anymore, but it's a very good game.
go ahead and put all the "this isn't a fair comparison" comments in reply to this
tHiS iSnT a fAiR cOmPaRiSoN 🤡
You already pointed out the biggest factor: you know all the classes, maps etc.
However, if you at some point explained what being able to compete actually means in WvW, I'm afraid I missed that part (I'm serious, I didn't listen closely enough to find out; sorry about that.)
Winning some individual fights here or there might not make any difference in how the skirmish (let alone the match) turns out.
i'd like to see a comparison in ranked - where gear and masteries make zero difference. granted, you have team comp and duo queue smurfing, but i think it's worse for new players in ranked because of how the game mode is structured and how mm works.
@@Boxedwaffle i touched on this a little, but i think pvp is actually less punishing because if you're playing not an elite spec you won't get as high rated and therefore play against more fair opponents, whereas WvW has much less strict matchmaker to allow some godmode veteran to go against a noob
@@Vallun i disagree. playing support guard has had me queuing into tons of high rated opponents (e.g. mark, stevie, abbys) despite being on a brand new account. most of the games, i'm the only core spec (sometimes will see another core guard or core ranger) with most of my opponents and teammates being reapers, harbs, willbenders, bladesworns, revs, specters, DEs, DDs, mechs, tempests, and catas. i agree that wvw has less strict mm, but ranked isn't much higher and can be exploited with duos and swaps.
Hardest part of competive GW2 is the knowledge check. Even low tier builds can lock down a new player if they don't know how to counter it. It's the equalvent spamming fire ball or low kick in a fighting game against your little brother.
Ness main combo: pk fire (×3)
I'm a new player in WvW, this is my first week playing GW2 and went striaght to WvW. Came from ESO online cyrodiil player for 4 years. I am having a blast in WvW, steep learning curve but from good content creators like you and Jen I have learned a lot and am starting to hold my own.
Enjoy this beautiful game ! ❤
Love this comment. Welcome to Gw2 WvW!
Did you pay for the expansions? Wondering how long the leveling process is compared to ESO
@@DropDTuning I paid for a lvl 80 ticket, which gives you a good set of gear and caught up to everyone else
@@kh602black thanks for the response! One more thing, ESO as you know was an insane process to get the “meta” pvp gear. Essentially knowing someone who could craft it all, which made switching between metas a pain in the ass. Would you say that’s easier in GW2?
1:50 core elementalist air build
3:40 core engineer
4:25 core Mesmer carrion condi
5:05 core power warrior
5:58 core necro signet power
6:28 core ranger
7:30 core power meditation guardian
8:28 core sword dagger thief
Skill is by FAR more important than gear. i pretty much suck at PvP/WvW and got wrecked by a core warrior with my fully geared power herald lol
Core warrior is strong
I suck too.. but the funnest thing ever is when I find someone else who sucks while roaming. Those are the best fights ever. The whole time I have the Benny Hill theme in my head. Good times.
Buying the full game and expansions isn't Pay To Win. Full stop.
If someone tells you otherwise. They are stupid and not worth your time.
Yeah, that nonsense is ridiculous. People throwing "pay to win" on everything and not even knowing what it means anymore. I knew as soon as I saw the title that it was BS because there is no pay to win in GW2.
@@sarkaztik3228
MF's were saying this same nonsense about borderlands 3.
You have to buy the full game to experience the full game? The horror! 🙄
yeah, back in a day GW2 was one of the first buy to play games. Now you can try core world and mechanics with free acc, but the full game is just better. It was better than free to play Perfect World and Aion in 2012 and fairer in price that subscribtion-based WoW, it's still better than f2p and pay2win titles, and still lightyears ahead of WoW
Ty for sharing all your experience as a veteran player in contents like this. Is very Helpful to keep newbies like me focused in learning anything that could be done to improve the gameplay. Keep up the great work!
One of the great things about GW2 is how well balanced core builds are in PvP & WvW modes compared to PvE where they are pretty lackluster. The bigget hurdle for a new player is game knowledge and skill, rather than a gear check or content check (expansion Elite classes).
New trial players are definitely at a big disadvantage due to lacking skill, map and profession knowledge,armor quality, especs, wvw mastery. You'll be fine if you join an open not to organized squad, but will have a troublesome experience when roaming/when running in a well cöordinated squad.
My general advice to any new player would be to buy the HoT and PoF expansion pack. This offers the best bang for your buck, opens up a ton of content and in my opinion provide a much better addition to the game compared to EoD/living world seasons.
Thank you for taking out IE and Fian. They run the biggest trolling builds.
Core Warrior roamer in WvW and still crushing it 💪🏻
Based
Vallun: 'hi guys. look at me, I'm just like a newbie core player. stripped of all elite specialisations, no amulet and forfeited all my WvW masteries. I'm basically defenseless. a lame duck. pls put me out of my misery [and ignore my _Mithril Assaulter_ rank].' 🤔
wonder what the guys on the other side were thinking. 'that is Vallun, let's have him for breakfast? will 40 of us do or do we need 50?'
You're such a great player. I always love your decision makings.
Anyhoo, I think the most important factor that separates a newbie like me to a vet and skilled player like you in WvW is the knowledge of every class. Like when you're facing a certain class, you already know how that class works, you know what their skills can do, you know what skills to look for, you know if they are on cd or not, and most importantly, what build they are running! So these allow you make counter plays but the newbies will not be able to do this resulting to a significant loss of performance.
SO for me, it's not about P2W specs. It's about your own skills but more about the game experience. This is why as a newbie, I've created all of the classes available already and got every elite specs so I can play them and hopefully gain knowledge how every specs work.
Thanks for this vid Vallun. I always check your guides because I love your mindset.
For years I have been telling one of my guild mates that he should try playing the other classes, to get familiar with how they play so that he can learn to deal with them instead of complaining about them...
@@lingwisyer88 lol right!! That's what I did. Tho I still have a lot to learn but it's still definitely one of the fastest ways you can learn about other specs.
great effort though to play like this and show that getting experienced is still what matters most. Also to any new player; getting the x-pacs is a small price to pay for many hours if not years of fun gameplay. Also to new players, playing with full exo gear (which is ez to obtain) and food and util is still better than what was demonstrated here.
5:24 best part of the video, the story telling. Followed by the highway men lol
You are my favorite. I love the scenarios you create for yourself; like in your thief video where you removed and mix-matched gear to recreate a new player experience. I think that is gangster.
the issue is that every time a new expansion drops, the elite specs are intentionally made busted as hell to coerce people into buying them, and imo, it's the biggest issue in ranked because it queues you into people who use these specs. i would LOVE a core-only pvp mode. i got fed up with it, so i bought the expansions and proceeded to get top 100 in ranked (got it on reaper with wells and chrono runes for those who remember that).
edit: and to clarify, a skilled player can easily beat an unskilled player regardless of spec (i downloaded the steam version and was mopping people up as burn guard because they didn't have any cleansing). the issue is that in ranked, you're usually matched at people around your skill level (ignoring duo queue smurfing and offhours queueing), and at the same skill level, elite specs tend to be far superior to their core bases, which effectively makes it pay to win if you don't have access to those specs and are fighting someone around your skill level.
you're right, but can you blame them for trying to make money. It's a bit clickbaity to market the game as free to play, but i consider it a free tutorial with a buy to play game
@@Vallun yeah, i'm not knocking them for that. my issue is that you shouldn't be penalized/at a disadvantage because you didn't pay for a new busted fotm elite spec (in the context of pvp). nevertheless, despite the issues surrounding pvp, it's still the best pvp i've played by far outside of one indie game that closed down a while back (idk if you ever played forge). and at the end of the day, you do get what you pay for when it comes to gw2, and there's a ton of value in the content available that far outshines games with similar and higher price points.
@@Boxedwaffle it is very good pvp and high esport potential game, with how easy it is to watch and understand main goal and track progress of a match.
That being said, the way anet is handling pvp is ridculus to say the least, I just cant take pvp seriusly when players are rewarded for being afk in ranked games with ascended and even legendary gear. Every other game there is player afk from start.
@@majkatrojedjece6585 it was easy to watch pre-POF, maybe even only pre-HOT. after that, it became way too much of a power creeped shitshow due to the elite specs. EOD is arguably the worst for viewers given the excessive mobility.
ranked is kind of a joke because of how matchmaking works due to lower pop and profession fixing, but it's especially bad because they allowed duo queuing.
@@Vallun Not at all, because the game is free to play in every use of the term. What's clickbaity is putting "P2W" on your thumbnail whilst not knowing what the term means and misusing it.
Having to buy expacs is, and never was, P2W.
There is no fair competition in WvW if we're all being honest. The game mode is all about gaining the upper hand against your opponents by every means necessary, that's the point. WvW opponents are never above luring you back to their territories so that they get the full effect of Presence of the Keep while you lose yours, or sniping you from the npc ranks so you are forced to aggro their NPC guards if you fight them.
That's pretty true for any WvW type pvp mode in MMOs take ESOs cryodil for example lots of people use gank builds and bomb rush builds to gain the upper hand there's no such thing as dirty tactics in war
For most people, I'd call GW2 free to try. If you want to do it without paying anything, you can do a whole lot without paying a dollar. But seriously if you're playing enough to get that far, you can spare $20 for the HoT/PoF bundle.
Gotta pay the energy costs playing the game till you get good at it
Not even that tho, cause you have so many Vet players who are excited about the new players who want to help get them started. So like even tho the community has been really friendly to new players all along it’s even more so right now.
this is the real based take
Always good stuff bro!
To be fair, I don't really see gw2 as free to play. It remains buy to play, but they offer a very nice and comprehensive demo version without time limits.
I am late to the party, but I think it is not right to only consider berserker and Valkyrie stats as a replacement to marauders.
Technically these give the same type of stats (power/precision/vitality/ferocity), but other combinations can result in similar dps and survivability, especially now that we have more freedom with runes.
For example a berserker/soldier mix can have the same defense (as a combination of toughness+ vitality) and only sacrifice ~10% crit chance while power and ferocity remain almost equal compared to a full marauder's setup.
Alternatively mixing some assassin stats with Valkyrie can make up for the lost precision. Or mixing berserker with knight's or Valkyrie with knight's can result in high survivability builds while still having good dmg.
It takes a bit more effort to min/max but there is potential
Hello, thank you for your amazing video ! Which build shown in this video would you recommend for someone who likes to play a tanky playstyle with some support/CC ? Are Warrior, guardian and mesmer a good choice ? Does the necro have some kind of support or CC or is it a straigh dps build ?
try the warrior, its cc and can heal a little and cleanse allies
Very informational kinda forgot about the fact new players will have a difficult time in wvw still I think i would love the challenge
You actually could have created a new free account like I did to REALLY see the limitations. I found out you start out with only max 2 characters, only 2 bag slots beyond your starter, as well as you cannot go into your racial city until level 10 and you cannot go into Lion's Arch until level 35... and that is just the start. But you are seeing about WvW so I get that is why you didn't create a brand new account (it would have taken forever to level as a free account). With a free account you cannot even look at which server you are in for WvW until level 60.
Ah, thank you for making this vid
Interesting, hopefully some of the newer players in wvw find an abundance of good advice packed into this video. GG
Jen just posted a video demolishing people with core warrior.
Obrigado pelas dicas! ❤️
Wasnt 'The Warrior and the Weaver' was supposed to be a dialogue? Nice video
yea it was, but i humoring it's lack of cohesion lol
completely unrelated but just got my first legendary, The Warbringer. Im so happy
"this isn't a fair comparison"
wvw this days is just engineers mechs diamond players running against the noobs ones, and spaming emotions after the kills .
I see a healthy balance of roamers in EU. Mech, DH, WB, thieves, all types of necros, all types of rangers, renegades, etcetc.
And I can't say that mechs are prevalent of hard to fight - I meet more willbenders / harbs than mechs.
WvW is high end pvp where you need gear and skill. Before go wvw play pve for gear and pvp for skill. GW2 is about skills because ascended have only 6% better stats that exotic. Right now is very easy for new player farm ascended gear.
That is true but I want to add my own experience here: You don't need any ascended gear to git gud in WvW. I played Core Guardian build in WvW with exotic gears and have tons of fun in WvW and securing kills left and right in small group for years (didnt bought the expac at that time yet). The point is, gear and skill do matter in WvW, but not absolute that you need to know the most intricate details to have fun. In my own opinion, the very best thing a new player to do when starting in WvW is to find a group, whether just following a zerg pug or organised guild and learn how to survive on each encounter or battles.
how do you farm for easy ascended gear? new player here, trying to look into getting ascended gear.
@@flatbooty6662 Fractals/raids/lauren merchant/ many Living world zones have ascended amulets/rings/back/trinkets for currecy what farm in map with this you can start fractals or you can farm golds with meta events on maps and craft ascended armor/weapons
I've played a bit of old school nike warrior and d/d ele recently. They both still worked half decently, as long as I don't get 1 tapped on the ele by a LB ranger...
That was great, thank you :)
How do you make a perma-stealth thief build? All of the builds I come across for it rely on Deadeye.
bound daredevil dodge + black powder
Good vid, Ty.
Buying expansions that provide literally dozens of hours of content, new game systems, etc. IS NOT pay to win.
GW2 has a horizontal progress system, which means that instead of gaining levels and more powerful gear you gain new gameplay options. Nobody would complain if the structure of the game was "Free to level 40 with paid expansions granting 10 more levels". Nobody would expect the level 40 character to beat a level 70 character that played through 3 expansions! The fact that you even stand a chance at baseline is something.
Pay to win suggests that you can pay for cash shop items that make you more powerful or let you progress (usually by increasing the power of your gear). You can't do that in GW2.
Again: game content isn't a P2W system; spending money for direct power regardless of content completed is.
I mean being fair, it does give you an upper hand which means it is pay to win.
That's not what pay to win means in the slightest, you dunce. Stop misusing the term.
Plus, it really doesn't. Skill is the number one factor in WvW.
@@sarkaztik3228 it is literally that. Paying to get an advantage you can't get without paying. That is the definition
I got full marauder set as f2p with pvp reward track and ranked pips, also I think you can get all ascened trinkets with pvp also as f2p.
good to know
Hey, Vallun. Hope u'r doing great.
Completely unrelated to the video (maybe not that much), but how do i find stat selectable gear with the new Dragon stats? Are they avaiable in a living world? Should I do the EoD story (sadge)?
the WvW skirmish vendor gives trinkets, and you can get armor by using exotic insignias and inscriptions which you can learn at the xunlai agent in new kaineng on already existing ascended
@@Vallun thank u v much!
@@Vallun Where's this xunlai agent located? 👉👈
@@justtobecleartherewasnever8243 check the guildjen.com ascended gear guide
@@Vallun king
"Furthest MMO from being pay to win" ... what?! It might not be the worst offended, but it is FAR from being the least conservative in that aspect. There are plenty of other MMOs where you can't buy gold/gear and max level toons from day one. Obviously there's still skill involved, but your opening line of this video is just way wrong.
This is a good video.
How do you find so many 1v1s in WvW? I only find groups or 50v50 when I'm in there. Would like to go around like you do.
you got my guildie xD DBR 9:34
If any new player or F2P player sees me...with all the expansions and multiple toons...don't worry. I'm usually a free bag.
The real question is… do you have a build up on a site for all of these? 😅 I’m new and can only use core builds
the build is on screen and i mention power or condition so you can get stats for that
Yes, I was competitive rank 6 in GW2 f2p
i dont know what's wrong with me but i have always hate ranger longbow and can't seem to find a way to use it
Was the ,,high on shroud,, joke intentional ?
nope lol
your video is more about doing something solo, but isnt that what a thief does mostly? i think a class like ele should grp up and just do massive dmg with his staff raining down fire. it was like 8 years ago but i played fire staff ele then and the fire aoe could 3shot ppl or 2shot if squishy. i prefer classes that can sit back and do massive aoe from afar. core ele and necro are great for that
im ok with them Making Compermises but Core STuff are Still Kinda great but not as great as Elite Specs Im sure somebody could still get nuked By a core build
I've played more than one full year in core necro being a f2p and I can say with confidence that (almost) ALL the times I was killed (and it was a LOT of times) it was because I misplayed something - usually being out of position when enemy zerg rolled over lol
I ran full magi with melandru runes (you know, those you get in Orr) and I did (and still do) the dmg of a wheat noodle but I usually survive all but full-on zerg bursts. I learned a lot from this experience and I'm always pushing my in-game friends to wvw lol
How can anyone talk about P2W in a game that has no power benefit from cash? The very question is confusing as hell.
I might have to disagree on the p2w aspect, its definitely not as bad as most games... but theres some things you can buy that clearly give you progression advantage in this game.
The main arguement i see is you can buy everything with gold to gems, but the conversion is HORRIBLE. Like really really horrible if you calculate the time value per dollar. Rn 10$ =800 gems = 300 gold give or take, at 30g/hr thats 10 hours. The way the bank, build storage spaces, etc are all locked behind this conversion system doesnt allow you to "play the game you want to play" and forces you to repetitive grinds OR pay cash. Ik they need to make money but if you buy the base game, expansions, etc, you shouldnt have to grind 100 hours to get basic quality of life for 1 toon lol.
Also having 10-20 alts parked all over is a rediculous way to farm 😂 kinda pay 2 win (gain advantage) to me.
OK i do think there is a huge different in pvp. Core necromancer is weak AF without elite trait. I played this. Now i bought the expansions and its alot better
Is there the same video about regular pvp?
yup its called what clas should you play in pvp, free to play builds for all classes
How this is p2w??? I'm new player. I'm not expecting to have same gear, skill as player who playing 10 years. But I know what to do to get this gear without spending money( just bought expansions but this is no p2w. I just bought game like I did for my 20 years of gaming). For evey new player crying: go and play game! You don't know what p2w mean.
If it is fashion wars then yes.
I've had this discussion with more hardcore gw2 players (I only casually play sPvP) before and none of them are willing to admit that the game has pay to win aspects, most notably in WvW. The fact that you are able to get kills on people playing elite specializations is not evidence for or against the existence of p2w. The fact that you can pay money to get any advantage over other players in game meets my definition of pay to win. Is it a big deal? Not really in my opinion, but it definitely exists.
While I agree that certain factors like elite specializations do exist I do not believe that they are P2W. While yes Elite Specs in general are considered stronger than core classes I do believe that some core builds can and will be strong even when compared to Elite Specs. For example Core Necro/Guardian in WvW are very viable options that I sometimes even chose over Elite Specs. In the end it comes down to your gear and understanding of the game. This is just my opinion so i am free to your understanding/ideas if you look at things in another way than I do. I am in no way a great or even good Gw2 player but I can still find my fun even with core specs.
@@daboiing245 main sPvP player here and i stil prefer core thief over elite specs, while having all expansions. to plat no problem and still playable.
@@daboiing245 whether or not core specs are strong or not, surely you can admit that having access to a larger pool of skills and traits to choose from is itself an advantage
FFS stop misusing the term "pay to win". The term has a very set-in-stone definition that has never changed and "having to buy expacs" is not part of it. You have to pay for expacs in every major MMO and sometimes those new classes are stronger than others (WoW wasn't P2W when Death Knights were wrecking face in WotLK)
Stop stretching the term to fit your own argument. GW2 is objectively, in no way, pay to win.
@@Kreeshawn but an advantage isn't going to help you if you don't have the skill to use it.
for WWW is it better to be in a very high pop world?
it can be if you play whenever, but if you always play at prime time (around reset) then it can be lots of queues
if you have the server lag beast on your side... your good, new or experienced.
Engineer gameplay was terrible executed XD
I use celestial gear flamethrower moloch combo for a bit of might and stability and the rest is melting the enemy with flamethrower and if they want to run switch to rifle net them and knock them down.
Grenades are strong but slow same for bombs while the passive moloch flamethrower build is underrated and people do not realize they are trapped once you are near them with the rifle allways work as a strong burst. Also i run exotic gear for the most part without bufffood.
The main issue is that all PvP content is best with more defensive stats fokus as dps builds highly rely on the starting burst when no skills are on cooldown and you can simply outsmart this. conditions and boof corruption are much stronger here as well and all crowd control skills and the ability to get away if needed does the rest.
Zerging has nothing to do with gear or build in my opinion it is mostly overruning the enemy by numbers with the exception of coordinated squads that can actually use gamemechanics to defend themself from greater groups.
WvWvW is generally a question of roaming or zerging and roaming is more of a spvp like experience where you also try to steal the enemys territory and be highlighted while doing it with often one bigger group fighting over one specific point and 1 on 1 or 1 on 2 situations for the other capture points.
Gear in all sorts of PVP is the lowest entry to success with youre own knowledge of mechanics and youre and the enemys skills and the way you use youre skills to be the more important ones.
The main advantage are elite specializations that can bring skills to the table that really benefit a profession but often a core profession allready has everything to counter those too and it is just up to you to find out how. In general the more unique youre build in pvp is the more likely you will be to have success as the enemy has to read you to win the fight.
which runes/sigils do you use in that thief build?
ideally you would use full marauder, pack runes, air fire on sword energy cleansing on bow, but if you were f2p youd need zerker and valk instead of marauder
@@Vallun full-marauder and pack runes. BOI you are speakin my language
Is there a condi dragonhunter build out there still?
if there is its on guildjen.com
me dude what u mean far from p2w u can buy all the gold u need and buy legendarys of the shop
You can't buy legendaries off the shop. From the trading post after you have converted an absurd amount of gold? Yeah. But the having legendary weapons literally does not mean much. The have the exact same stats as ascended and like 5% more than exotic (both of which are super easy to get.)
Like having a legendary is going to save you lmfao. I sometimes wonder if people think before they post. Legendaries are more or less cosmetics.
@@sarkaztik3228 and QoL endless stats and runes switches for investment of someone's time and resources.
"budget version", "can't use most powerful pets"
Yeah, right 😀
Hey. What is the name of the staff skin ?
.
It's called Nevermore. It's the 2nd Generation legendary Staff
the staff in the thumbnail? thats scryer's circle
@@Vallun yea that one, sure it is not nevermore
These new players are so weak mentality, they whine P2W when they get crushed by another spec while they can't even dodge properly and burst properly
Maybe there just new?? Still learning....
@@joshuafeeney1992 The less reason to whine. That was his point of "weak mentality". Rather than learning from trials and errors, they allegedly resort to making excuses and complaints.
@@Kaninjäveln Thanks for getting my point
new players can't compete because of skill, not gear
can we get a "what to actually do in wvw" haha i feel lost all the time
thats in the guides in the description
@@Vallun nvm thx!
i just have some few questions. i am using f2p pack now so how can i get the mount in WvW? and i keep leveling up after 80 but where does the experience go? do i have to start all over from 80 after getting the expansion pack? answers would really be helpful :)
mounts are obtainable in the path of fire expansion, after level 80 your experience becomes spirit shards instead of levels which you can convert at the mystic forge for some recipes. Masteries are another thing your experience can go toward and every new expansion adds new masteries, these are just utility perks
@@Vallun got it ! But as a f2p user is there any progress made on the character in perspective of xp after 80 ?
@@rishab5502 there are some core masteries yes, you gotta go to the mastery tab in the hero panel
@@Vallun thanks man ! ❤
@@rishab5502 sadly you need to buy an expansion to unlock the core masteries
when you walk out of combat near a mounted player in wvw and he has skilled a mastery for it you get the mount speed buff too
in case you want to buy a expansion keep in mind
although End of Dragons unlocks gliding and raptor mount without its masteries in pve
you dont get access to gliding and mount in wvw from it
so for wvw you would want to get at least Path of Fire (bundled with Heart of Thorns)
make sense, but the learning curve....
Buying Expansions for a game is not anything new, and it will unlock more of the game. like other games with expansions, and you dont pay a subsciption every month. if u play a decent amount u can earn gold to exchange into gems and litteraly buy the expansions thrugh playtime.
do one, but in pvp ranked :D
omg, thank u for the f2p stuff!
Win to pay?
That gutz warrior is indeed thirsty. He started whispering salt to me begging my core mesmer for 1v1s rofl.
The disadvantage doesn't end at stat selection like marauders. There are many sigils and runes locked as well. And its not just buy a single campaign. To fully unlock the game as far as gear goes, you need to spend quite a bit as I think some stuff is campaign & living world episode specific.
Short answer: “No”. Long answer: “FUUUUUCK No”
Even beginners can pay
Let them buy to win thats fine afterall 10 years already
ah who cares, just buy the expansions
considering the fact that there's no monthly sub a one time investment of 60 dollarydoos is worth it, or even 30 'cuz fuck EoD
*Laughs in core warrior*
Guild wars 2 is pay to bling bling
Edit: you don't even need to pay with real money for that
Ah, this is where all the nabs learn how to pull comms xD
Is Gw2 p2w?....cries in revenant*
Luckily end game is about fashion! It does matter how many bosses you kill..... It' about how good you look doing it!
Well yes but actually no
Wvw is all about the know lol
Gw2 is NOT pay to win ....legendary items give you to change stats..so you don't need different armor or gear sets only legendary...so.you.can switch from heal build or.dps.easy
so the game costs 50 eur,150 if you want to get everything fast,and if you pay nothing you can still farm everything but it will take the time for you to actualy become the veteran to beat other veterans lol,but you can still get countered by a casual with an easy to use build from the expansions who payed cash to buy gear and level faster...its not pay to win its pay to skip playing and just have everything right away it seems like a prive wow server with a cash shop where you can buy everything...its all obtainable in game but good luck loging in and being releveant in WvW before 6 months or grinding,and what you do here in the video is refered to as SEAL CLUBBING,removing gear to fight lower rank players from yourself making their game worse and you get to show off how you can win a duel with any build over begginers...its cool for a video showcase but i assume you can do this whenever you want also,i hope that i missunderstood it,but it looks like a veteran can still slap around begginer while NAKED so maybe if you put the gear back on its not so fair lol
the game is 100% free tho. and you need to be i think lvl 60 to get into wvw. shouldve already some gear by then and its just all about skill. the expansions ( for all 3 like 60€) just adds the new elite specs and with them its a little easier. Its just all about skill. if youre bad as a player the elite specs dont help you.
"show off how you can win a duel with any build over begginers"
What? all the enemies on the video and the stream aren't beginners lmfao
You're on some hard drugs if that's your takeaway.
Wow the things people do to get views comments likes and dislikes it's just crazy.
gw2 is not p2w, you just need to BUY the game pretty much. base game is almost like a free trial. p2w is when you have to buy stuff constantly to be relevant, and the more money you spend, the stronger you get. I don't play gw2 anymore, but it's a very good game.
gandara shit server
Like i said, I'm on CD, i know you're high rank. I'm completely serious. It's harrassment, and you folks spawn camping us know it is.
Removed my live chat comments, eh? Touch home a bit too close?
I know you know what i said, I'm 💯% serious.
How is spawn camping possible when you've invulnerable in the spawn zone?
@@HurricaneRainbowOG it wasn't me, maybe was auto mod man, i just woke up
harrassment? lolwut?
who is spawn camping you lmfao imagine if you get against maguuma then, you should go to twitter
This videos just proves in p2win, I mean yeah you can play the game do ok, but paying is still gonna give you a massive edge
maguuma win