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[Cthulhu]

This does seem a lot different from the Mesmer I remember.  I barely even remember what I did as a Mesmer in GW1 but I seem to remember dropping a ridiculous amount of debuffs that did... something?  Damage when the enemy attacks?  Damage when I hit them?  Something like that.

I decided to switch to a Charr Warrior named Not A Kzin.

[adwarf]

Necromancer is definitely my favorite class out of the two I've actually played, I've got mine more focused on summoning new minions and so far I can get around seven or eight of them out if I'm fast or lucky enough. I also got to say they aren't as squishy as I thought they'd be, when I lose my Bone and Shadow Fiends (The two that do all the tanking for me) I can do fairly well health wise even against a couple of mobs or slightly stronger ones. Thats pretty much the only enjoyable way I've found to play Necros (Of course I've only put around sixteen hours in so far, I'm around level 18 I wanna say)

[Jelle]

The denial aspect of mesmer has been watered down considerably.

Your damage on enemy action like Empathy and other hexes now comes in the form of confusion. Confusion is relatively easy to apply and doesn't do all that much damage so it's more like another condition doing damage then a tool to deny an opponent action.
Interupting is still possible but with the way that everything is a little more spammy it's not that useful or practical barring a few abilities with long cast time worth interrupting such as heals or stomps.

At the moment the most popular playstyle (in spvp at least) is the shattercat build, wich is a burst build relying on generating a whole lot of clones in a short time frame and dropping thoe shatters asap for silly damage.
The phantasm dps build isn't that popular anymore I think, but it still works decent in tanky builds that can use the regeneration you get from them. Can't kill phantasms because they have retal and more keep popping up, can't kill the mesmer because he's tanky.

Anyway yeah not much left of GW1 mesmer playstyle, mesmer is mostly another glass cannon mage with a nifty minion aspect to it.

[PanH]

At the moment the most popular playstyle (in spvp at least) is the shattercat build, wich is a burst build relying on generating a whole lot of clones in a short time frame and dropping thoe shatters asap for silly damage.

So, the meta hasn't really moved from the launch. I got to say my attention dropped. Is pvp any better ?

[Cthulhu]

I'm up to level 11, it's fun so far.  I can see how a group would make it more fun but I'm doing okay on my own.  Joined one of those useless guilds that aggressively recruit new characters with like 200 members and 15 active members.  In Secret World I managed to help a schism happen in one of those guilds, we stole all the good players and started doing nightmares.

[Jelle]

Spvp still isn't to well off with its pitiful population, there's some improvement but extremely little for half a year. There's matchmaking now at least.

To bad it took long enough for the majority of serious pvpers to up and leave, leaving a small playerbase that makes for difficult matchmaking. There's also some kinks left to iron out, currently games launch 4v5 or worse far to often.
Ladder is being worked on, there is currently a hidden rating that will be revealed once they're through testing it. Might give people some incentive to play again.

Can't say much about balance I'm no pro. Hotjoins still dominated by glass cannon mesmers and thieves, and bunker elementalist still reigning supreme in high end play. They're thinking about adding a runeset or stat not sure wich that will increase damage inflicted the more boons a target has, to give players a harder counter against heavy bunkers like the problametic ele build right now.
Regarding strategy the bunker/burst meta is still dominany. 2 bunkers one for each point to keep 'em capped and survive a potential 1v3 long enough, and a party of 3 roamers mostly glass cannon afaik. Pretty stale still, the middle ground of a more balanced build still nowhere near useful enough. To much benefit in stat scaling for focusing soly on offense or defense.

[Cthulhu]

So what's wvw like?

[Jelle]

Never played it before, what I know it's pretty zergy with fights all about maximizing area effect damage. It has/had problems with culling causing opponents to remain invisible for to long, sometimes by the time you're dead but I hear it has been/will be fixed.
Good fun if you're looking for a world pvp with massive zergs kind of experience I guess. Personally I find the game not propperly balanced for those kind of fights and having gear advantage in pvp is kind of a buzzkill.

[Zangi]

So what's wvw like?

I've played it extensively and I can say there are a few ways you can play it...

Solo/Small Group: Take camps, avoidrun away from zergs/bigger groups, stealth-ninja a tower, fight other Solo/Small Groups, be a gank group, react/defend camps/towers from other not too much bigger groups...  chance of success goes up exponentially by level, then by quality of gear...  Skill and knowledge is the equalizer in the end if variation in level/gear is not too much.
You don't really need a teamspeak for groups like this... it can even be led by a Commander... actually, it is most effective having one of the players lead if you are in a small group.  Know where to go next and predict movement of enemy zerg to avoid them. 
This is much much harder to do against organized servers, where they have people actively defending camps/patrolling the place/watching the maps to hunt your little group...

Organized Teamspeak Group/Guild, Medium to Large: Take camps/towers/keeps, set up and protect siege encampments, fight other 'zergs', stealth-ninja towers/keeps.
Basically, the core group of 'get err done' is the organizing guild in question, plus some non members who are in the teamspeak.

Non-Teamspeak Group/Commander, Medium to Large: Generally less effective version of the Organized Teamspeak...  Results vary wildly, depending on quality of commander and/or if there is a core of (usually random) players who can/will rally on the commander to 'get err done' when he asks/types for it, despite the firefight/skirmishing going on all around em.  Well, if there is anything to get done other then the skirmish at hand anyways.


Mind you, some servers are way more organized then others in WvW. 
Ehmry Bay for example is in the damn smack middle.  Organized and dedicated base, but just not enough players and organization to get any further... but enough that they can still beat the other/lower servers.
Maguumi(sp?) is also in the same boat, but they beat Ehmry Bay constantly, while losing in the next tier up...  I hail from Ehmry Bay.

There are thankless, unrewarding and boring jobs... like repairing damage on towers/keeps... running supply, watching for attacks on towers/keeps and defending camps.

[Cthulhu]

I'm on Henge of Denravi.  What's that one like?

[Greiger]

Henge of Denravi used to be the tip of the top tier servers in WvW back around launch.  The best of the best.  Unfortunately many of the most organized guilds got bored of winning all the time and left for more challenging servers. 

I'm a member of Jade Quarry, not Henge, but last time I fought them in top tier they had a lot of small groups of very good pugs that learned a lot from when they were top of the world, but they didn't have the leadership anymore to get anything done and they dropped ranks like a rock.  Which was a shame.  My information is out of date though, if anyone can give anything more up to date it would be welcome.

Maybe you can singlehandedly bring them back Cthulhu, most of my WvW guild miss fighting Henge, and are worried Jade Quarry's going to fall in the same way if we keep stomping tier1.

[Leyic]

Here's a web site that keeps track of server rankings over time, though they use their own formula and rely on user input so it's not perfect, but Anet doesn't usually report their numbers to the public.

If you play in WvW for a while, you'll start to notice what the big WvW guilds are for your server (or ask in chat and hope for accurate info). Once you find who they are, see if you can find their playing schedule online, and if you can play during their WvW events, try following them. Some guilds support this, others don't, but it'd give you a way to see what an organized group can do without joining those large guilds.

Edit: I should point out there's another team PvP game called Kegbrawl tucked in the far west end of Hoelbrak. You get stuck in random groups so the quality of the game varies from match to match, but it can be nice when you want something quick and silly. Most people miss this on account of its only access point being out of the way.

[penguinofhonor]

I'm on Anvil Rock. Originally we were one of the worst servers on account of not having anything of interest, but the rise of quite a few big guilds has put us more towards the middle now. And we're one of the top PvE servers!

It's a good time to be on Anvil Rock, basically. /serverpride

[Cthulhu]

I switched to a Norn Necromancer.  Are necromancers overpopular?  I feel like I see them more than anything else but maybe it's just the pets making them more visible.

Not that I mind.  I always end up playing overpopular classes in MMOs and being the surprise "oh, that one's actually good" wild card.

[Zangi]

I wouldn't really know what the flavoured class of the month is right now... it could well be most of them are altoholics since I'm going to assume that you are only seeing other low level Necromancers where you are.

I personally do not have memory of 'significant numbers' of Necromancers in WvW or when I do random things in Cursed Shore(level 80 area)...  but that was a few weeks since I've logged in, plus different servers of course.