Guild Wars 2

I decided to write this post to express my opinion about the biggest flaw that destroys GW2.
I will try to describe it in as few words as possible.
The biggest GW2 problem is stacking.
You designed a mechanics that requires dynamic combat, dodging, movement and evades. You build everything around it. You promoted the game as being something truly new (and it is).
Why did you then decided to destroy this mechanics by allowing players to stack “on one pixel”. Why did you destroy everything that you have achieved by letting players sit on one spot, just around the corner, dropping guardian wall and hitting keys at random? Have you not seen how majority of ppl do dungeons? Stack wherever you can and bring the might!
Due to this, playing GW2 became tedious. We mostly watch the closest wall and millions of lights blinding us when we all use our skills when we literally sit on one pixel.
There is no positioning (apart from gathering on one pixel), no movement, no dynamic. Thus playing PvE requires almost no skill at all.
What I would like to see to change this state?
A solution that punishes stacking. If players are stacked for longer periods of time, mobs should hit 2x stronger and bosses 10x stronger. By stacking I mean 3 players at least (to avoid problems with reviving, if my friend is down I can resurrect him safely, but when someone else tries to do it at the same time we would be punished). I would like to see real, dynamic combat.
All dungeons are instances. You can make normal and hard mode so that less skilled and less experienced players can play dungeons as they are now. And those who desire more would try hard mode were stacking is severely punished and where you actually have dynamic combat.
What do you people think about that? I would like to hear your opinion. Are you bored with current combat mechanics?

Agreed 100%.

This is the reason I don’t like dungeons or any group PvE content, large scale wvw group fights, or even pvp group fights, if you’ve got 3 players or more on point.

Especially dungeons – stacking justifies the stupidly high hit points of pve mobs (I really hate pve mob health bars) which in turn forces people to stack in order to beat the dungeon.

Kind of puts me off most content in the game that isn’t solo roaming/small scale fights.

Too much mindless group buffs, aoe and stacking – needs to be some kind of disadvantage.

I can understand that you can’t have player models obstructing each other, because that will lead to all kinds of abuse/exploits, so having unlimited number of players standing in the same physical space will have to remain the same.
But maybe have some debuffs when 3 or more players are within 120 units of each other (or even smaller radius) – for example boons tick faster, take 10% more damage, deal 10% less damage, etc.

Futrzasty.6034:

I decided to write this post to express my opinion about the biggest flaw that destroys GW2.
I will try to describe it in as few words as possible.
The biggest GW2 problem is stacking.
You designed a mechanics that requires dynamic combat, dodging, movement and evades. You build everything around it. You promoted the game as being something truly new (and it is).
Why did you then decided to destroy this mechanics by allowing players to stack “on one pixel”. Why did you destroy everything that you have achieved by letting players sit on one spot, just around the corner, dropping guardian wall and hitting keys at random? Have you not seen how majority of ppl do dungeons? Stack wherever you can and bring the might!
Due to this, playing GW2 became tedious. We mostly watch the closest wall and millions of lights blinding us when we all use our skills when we literally sit on one pixel.
There is no positioning (apart from gathering on one pixel), no movement, no dynamic. Thus playing PvE requires almost no skill at all.
What I would like to see to change this state?
A solution that punishes stacking. If players are stacked for longer periods of time, mobs should hit 2x stronger and bosses 10x stronger. By stacking I mean 3 players at least (to avoid problems with reviving, if my friend is down I can resurrect him safely, but when someone else tries to do it at the same time we would be punished). I would like to see real, dynamic combat.
All dungeons are instances. You can make normal and hard mode so that less skilled and less experienced players can play dungeons as they are now. And those who desire more would try hard mode were stacking is severely punished and where you actually have dynamic combat.
What do you people think about that? I would like to hear your opinion. Are you bored with current combat mechanics?

Playing PvE requires no skill at all and yet the difference in clear time between good players and randoms is … well let’s just say the Arah p4 record is 20 minutes and people when getting dungeon master back in the day used to have 2 to 4 hour (if not longer) runs for it.

How about we don’t punish stacking since the whole point of this game’s combat is that we group closely together to share buffs? Or … you go on the LFG, post a no stack group and do that? Everyone wins.

maha.7902:

How about we don’t punish stacking since the whole point of this game’s combat is that we group closely together to share buffs? Or … you go on the LFG, post a no stack group and do that? Everyone wins.

That’s an incredibly small scope to put the combat in. The WHOLE POINT of the combat is to group closely together to share buffs? The design elements of the combat imply a hybrid between archetypal MMORPGs like WoW and action games like Dark Souls. Surely the “whole point” is a create a combat system that goes halfway between managing the RPG elements of the game, and then on reflexes, skill and reading the environment and your opponents.

And the GW2 combat goes on reflexes, skill and reading the environment.

Then you get fools who mash keys, don’t pay any attention and get carried by people who know what they’re actually doing.

B-B-B-B-B-BINGO

The corner and wall stuff you see going on in dungeons is certainly not the best example of the game’s gameplay. Heck, I don’t even think it’s the best example of the game’s stacking gameplay. I’d give that crown to that splitting Marionette Champ long before any boss or mob I’ve seen in a dungeon.

While I think you’ve got the right of it identifying an area in need of improvement, I’m not so sure using a hard mode/regular mode split is the solution. I think if old content is lackluster, that should be addressed directly instead of trying to basically invent game-modes to patch it.

I think its better to say they are more efficient and taking advantage of the bad mechanics of the game. You can only be as skilled as your opposition. Currently the AI is very poor.

• enemies should cleave too
• ranged enemies should kite
• enemies shouldn’t just use one attack (ESPECIALLY BOSSES)

The new mordrem creatures look different. A dungeon with those would be interesting. Try to stack on that torment fields, haha gl.

Collision detection, it solves so many problems inherent in so many of the game modes in gw2.

Problem is the potential griefing possible by “blockading” stuff.

@OP

Let me summarize.
You never played any PC game in history and shocked about characters going trough eachother. Use hyperboles to try to prove yourself. Wonder how content became easy 2 years after release. Hyperboles again. Oh, are you a speed runner?
Why should ANet punish stacking? I mean, fighting in melee range is intended, remove it from the game would make no sense than range exploit everything.

By stacking I mean 3 players at least (to avoid problems with reviving, if my friend is down I can resurrect him safely, but when someone else tries to do it at the same time we would be punished).

Ehm, what? Stacking = 3 players? So we aren’t a party anymore, we are 166% of stacking in instanced content? Care to elaborate?

Some people are annoyed by this visual issue, but i can’t understand. Why? If each player stays right next to eachother, it would calm your souls? Or what is the exact problem now? Buffs are shortrange, you have an advantage when you need to ress someone and you can imitate the role of tanks by pulling mobs together to use cleave/aoe attacks on them, because they are more effective than single target attacks.

florence.1674:

Collision detection, it solves so many problems inherent in so many of the game modes in gw2.

Problem is the potential griefing possible by “blockading” stuff.

Melee attack assist. Use it.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Options

ps: Make your own groups with like minded people.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Looking_For_Group

It’s the fine line between action TPS/RPG, and more classic mmo group combat.

I prefer the former – I wouldn’t even bother playing GW2 if it wasn’t for the ability to dodge and execute skills on the run. Tab targeting is already enough of an archaic hindrance.

1v1, 2v2, 3v3 for me is far more entertaining and dynamic than anything larger, either in pve or wvw, and I prefer fighting “player sized” enemies in pve (with corresponding health pools) – it is a shame they are not smart enough like enemy AI in third person shooters/action games.

This is why I have a problem with stacking – because it doesn’t encourage new development in pve enemy behaviour, and doesn’t encourage dynamic combat in large scale pvp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx

implying that stacking does not exist in real combat, and that being right next to your brother in arms is not a valid tactic?

LoS corner abuse is something REAL people do all the time too.

You have 4 soldiers in a mondern combat scenerio, they use ranged weapons right? BETTER ALL SPLIT UP ACROSS THE FIELD AND NOT FIHT FROM COVER.

Ai breaking on corners is another thing entirely, but for the most part, stacking isnt a unrealistic type of combat.

30 people occupying 1 square metre in floor space does not equate to real life.

As someone said, the solution would be to turn on player model collision – but sadly I can see this leading to a lot of griefing.

The basic problem is not stacking directly, but that the way the game handles support encourages stacking. ANet wanted to remove the “heal-bot” so they removed any useful friendly targeting (oddly enough the targeting is still there, as can be see any time you want to click a mob in the middle of a group event melee).

Instead any kind of support (heals, boons) are done either as a ground targeted AOE, or as a AOE centered on the caster. Both are much easier to use when everyone is stand right smack on top of each other.

Also, about the phalanx, and the later roman formations, all of them employed a concept of front and back rows. GW2 do not have this, thanks to having no semblance of tanking (pretty much what the front row does in any formation, stand there and get pummeled by the enemy so the guys with pikes, javelins and bows behind them are safe to do their thing).

Curunen.8729:

1v1, 2v2, 3v3 for me is far more entertaining and dynamic than anything larger, either in pve or wvw, and I prefer fighting “player sized” enemies in pve (with corresponding health pools) – it is a shame they are not smart enough like enemy AI in third person shooters/action games.

I have to point out that in Shooters, the AI simply has to aim at you (which it can do) and then pull the trigger. To balance it, they add a (large) variation to it’s aiming and also prevent them from shooting too fast. If they want hard AI, they give them a very small variation and allow them to have access to stronger weapons and faster shots. This effectively gives the AI “more damage” and “more accuracy” except that the truth is they’re just playing more like AI controlled by the same game you’re playing.

In an Action game, the AI are usually programmed to know what attack you’re going to use before you use it. To make it so you can actually beat them, they, again, add certain flaws to the enemies to allow you to break past their omniscient glory.

In an MMO, especially one with such a huge casual playerbase, you have to realize that there are many, many more variables such as: Multiple enemies, Latency, and much more variation. In a shooter, each enemy has only a few weapons and can be scaled down accordingly. In an action game, they don’t even have to know how your character plays, they can just go off of “Low Hit”, “High Hit”, “Normal Hit”, “Guard”, “Jump”, “Special Hit” and do appropriate actions.

And again, in an MMO, you have many, many players which can ruin that.

GW2 actually shot themselves in the foot during the development of this game by trying to make it easier (not only for themselves, but for players). When you hit an enemy, if you hit them too fast, they get pushed back. This is to prevent too many players from just slapping an enemy for days, but it also ruins the enemy (and ally) AI. Because things are moving around in melee range for little reason, AI have to compensate and move. This causes a lot more movement than necessary (ever see Lupicus sliding around?) and can prevent AI from doing their job (certain enemies can be kited by just running around them in a circle attacking because they have to stand still to attack and also can’t turn while attacking).

Additionally, most enemies only have 2-5 skills, INCLUDING auto attacks (or their equivalent). There’s a reason why Power Block got nerfed so quickly (other than the fact that it bypassed Defiance, which wouldn’t even be an issue if this didn’t exist). Sorry, you should be able to tell I’m a Mesmer… that does Arah a lot by now. Because of this lack of skills, they can’t appropriately react to anything. In fact, they don’t appropriately react. Most of the time, they use their skills in a set order with one or two of the skills having a random occurrence whenever to “freshen” things up. In some cases, you’ll have PvE enemies have absolutely no variation at all (CoF P1 final boss has literally no variation unless you count RNG skydrop locations, but not when the skill is cast).

So, while GW2 does have worse AI than -insert game of different genre-, it’s not entirely their fault. They do have to take some blame for kittenty AI, though.

Grouping into AOE damage is just awful design. “Hey guys, a Firestorm, everyone pile in!!!!”.

This and the freaking horrible mess of blinking lights and innability to even see a champion is what keeps me from any real pve in this game.

Dont expect any fixes.

I actually have to agree about the mess of blinking lights. I can’t play the game on max settings (which probably would help) because of my computer specs, but at my current settings, which gives me a stable 30 fps, I can’t see animations on human-sized (or smaller) foes because of large ally body sizes (even though I’m a Mesmer, even if I have 4 of me clustering around a Quaggan, I can still see animations because I’m the shortest, smallest body size) and all sorts of special effects like Burning, Guardian Burning, fields, explosions, and giant greatswords that leave trails larger than my character, courtesy of norns.

WHY?

No trinity
No aggro management
No AI
PVP (capture point) balancing (melee > ranged)
Defiant