Guild Wars 2

So I was on a lengthy train-ride today and couldn’t stop thinking about the game. I ended up compiling an extensive list of changes, both content and balance wise, that I’d like to see in the game.

This list has been mostly based off my personal playing experience as well as various forum discussions.

Since I only play a Thief I avoided making suggestions on how to balance the other classes. I’ll leave that to other players since they too obviously need adjustments.
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General Changes

-Improved the LFG feature: You can now select which Dungeons you wish to visit from a list and see other players listed for those Dungeons.
-The camera can now be zoomed into first person view for maximum viewing pleasure.
-The “field of view” can now be scaled up to 80 (from 65) in the options menu.
-Added an option to scale the intensity of “Bloom”.

World Changes

Mobs
-Mob threat mechanics have been reworked. Mobs should no longer single out individual players and pursue them for longer periods of time.
-The respawn times on various mobs have been increased significantly.
-Conditions on targets are no longer capped at 25. Vulnerability is now capped at 50, while Bleeds can be stacked indefinitely.
-Veteran mobs will now drop ever increasingly better loot, the longer they remain alive.

Loot
-Rare crafting materials (Orchialicum, Orrian Oak and rare cooking ingredients) can now spawn in any zone and are no longer restricted to high-level zones.
-Item drops are now solely based on character level. Material and ingredients drops are still based on the environment and monsters.
-The chance of finding Mastercraft quality item from regular mobs has been reduced to compensate for the increased drop-rate from dungeons and chests.

Travel
-Travel expenses for using waypoints have been significantly reduced. They now take into account the level of your destination zone not just the distance and character level.

Dynamic Events
-Karma received for events is now solely based on character level. All events throughout the world award the same amount of Karma at any given level.
-Exceptions: The final stages of various Dynamic Event chains now reward an additional 20% Karma.
-Mob scaling has been improved, especially for large numbers of players participating in events. Mob Hit Points, Damage and Numbers will now scale better with the number of participating players.
-Diminishing Returns on Karma now apply to any event repeated within the hour.

Dungeons
-Various boss encounters have had their Hit-points rebalanced.
-Various boss encounter have learned new abilities or mechanics to make them more engaging.
-Explorable Dungeons bosses have had their loot improved and award at least one rare item at the end of each path.
-Story Mode Dungeons bosses have had their loot improved and should award more Mastercraft items.

Profession changes

Downed State and Death
-Every class now has an ability to “go out in style”, prematurely ending the downed state.
-Healing a downed player will now be interrupted by direct damage.
-Downed players will now received a threat drop when downed and be considered a lower target priority by most mobs (exceptions apply).
-Defeated players can now only be resurrected when the player is out of combat.

General ability changes
-Quickness has been reduced to a 50% speed increase, down from a 100%.
-All “downed state” abilities have been rebalanced. No class has the ability to interrupt more than one one execute once every 12 seconds.
-All classes have been provided an ability that allows them to “go out in style”.

Guardian
-Downed State: Symbol of Judgment replaced with “Noble Sacrifice”.
“Noble Sacrifice” heals all surrounding allies for 30% of their HP, defeating the Guardian in the process. 3 second cast-time.

Warrior
-Vengeance now has a 3 second cast-time.

Engineer
-Booby trap now deals significantly more damage while defeating the player is the process. 3 second cast-time.

Ranger
-Lick Wounds is replaced with “Rabies”. “Rabies” allows you to take direct control of your frenzied pet for 10 seconds before being defeated. 3 second cast-time.

Thief
-Steal can no longer be used while other abilities are being cast.
-Assassin’s Reward now grants 3 stacks of Might for 10 seconds instead of 5 Stacks for 5 seconds.
-Body Shot replaced with “Leg Shot” that roots the target for 1 second.
-Shadow Assault has been replaced with “Sulfur Bomb”, a PbAoE gas cloud causing Poison Damage and cloaking the Thief for 2 seconds.
-Haste no longer prevents Stamina regeneration.
-Downed State: Smoke Bomb now grants all nearby allies 8 seconds of Stealth, while defeating the player. 3 second cast-time.

Elementalist
-Downed State: Grasping Earth replaced with “Elemental Revenge”: Go out in an elemental explosion affecting nearby foes with burning, chill, daze and immobalize. 3 second cast-time.

Mesmer
-Downed State: Phantasmal Rogue: Become a Phantasmal Rogue for 10 seconds before being defeated. 3 second cast-time.

Necromancer
-Downed State: Fetid Ground now fears enemies for 3 seconds while applying Poison, Weakness and Bleeds, defeating the Necromancer in the process. 3 second cast-time.

Player vs. Player
WvW changes
-The “Outmanned” buff now provides a 10% stat-boost.
-The Orbs now increase the amount of Gold and Karma gained in WvW as well as the chances of looting “Badges of Honor” by 15% per Orb.
-Catapults and various other knockback abilities now longer work through keep doors.
-Each faction is awarded one point for every enemy player killed.

PvP changes
-Games now stop as soon as a match has ended.
-Added a “Leave match” option at the end of each round.
-The “Finish” ability will now execute in 2 seconds instead of 3.

sPvP
-Raid of the Capricorn has had the number of sharks cut in half.

tPvP
-It is no longer possible to alter weapons-sets or traits once a match has started.
-Added an ELO-based ranking system.

Bug Fixes
-Fixed a Bug that caused the Borderlands Jumping Puzzle Vaults to be inaccessible.
-Fixed a Sound looping bug caused by massive events.
-Fixed spawning and invulnerability issues with various mobs.
-Fixed issues with player-culling causing visible enemies to remain invisible for longer than intended.

You missed one:

Guesting
-It existing.

Wouldn’t this cause high level players to just farm high level materials in low level zones because the cost of waypoints would be much cheaper. Soon the TP would be flooded with these materials, their price would drop vertically and I don’t know, I’m not an economist but when high level goods cost the same as low level ones something must be wrong.

-Mob threat mechanics have been reworked. Mobs should no longer single out individual players and pursue them for longer periods of time.

Not sure what you mean here.

In regards to high-level mats spawning in low-level areas…no. There would be no reason to go to the higher level areas, if that happened.

I agree with the CONCEPT for high level loot for lower level areas.

I think it needs to be adjusted based on risk/reward however.

Something like, Queensdale 10% of the loot you get is scaled to your level, 90% is based on the zone’s level, just as an example.

As for the Vulnerability stack change I think it should stay at 25, but instead adjust that Champion buff that cuts the duration in half to scale with how many people there are. 30 people = 80% reduced vulnerability duration for example. Allowing people to maintain 50 stacks as opposed to 25 would just be silly as it’s too easy to maintain.

Removing Bleed stacks I like, and the increased dmg can easily be adjusted by just increasing mob hp slightly. Although it still sort of creates an imbalance versus Poison/Burn, but it’s ok I think.

It already does that, doesn’t it?

“-Added an ELO-based ranking system.”

Please, NO. The ELO system is for Chess. In a game when other people is necessary for win is an error put the elo system. Other pople can troll you ( afk, for example ) and you lose games. I saw too many ppl spaming their heal skill and standing afk in the waypoint.

Fox Soul.4809:

“-Added an ELO-based ranking system.”

Please, NO. The ELO system is for Chess. In a game when other people is necessary for win is an error put the elo system. Other pople can troll you ( afk, for example ) and you lose games. I saw too many ppl spaming their heal skill and standing afk in the waypoint.

What’s to stop them from doing that now?

ELO is still good for matchmaking and just giving you a general idea of where you’re skill level is at after a period of time. If you are good enough you WILL climb.

Shootsfoot.9276:

It already does that, doesn’t it?

If you’re talking to me. I’m PRETTY sure it doesn’t.

I ove and agreewith absolutley all of this entire list.

Hey Dee Jay,

I would like to offer my own opinion regarding some of the points on your patch wish-list.

Mobs
-The singling out of a single player feels realistic: It makes sense to single-out an enemy and focus them until they are downed. It is basically the mobs version of Ctrl-T-ing the players.
-The bleed cap being infinite is not possible unless bleeds see a nerf.
-For better loot according to length of battle, this feature would be exploited. Guaranteed.

Waypoints
-Players should try to make money at higher levels in other ways than grinding. Refrain from using waypoints for every travel too. Personally I think it is fine.\

Dynamic Events
-Addressing people’s complaint of DEs restarting too quickly: It is not because players have killed off 100 centaur that the entire centaur population of the area have been wiped out.

Dungeons
-Bosses cannot offer a rare loot at the end everytime because loot is individual in this game (vs. shared).

Downed State
-An option to “go out in style” will see impatient players making selfish decisions instead of team decisions.
-It is more natural to make a mob finish off a down player than not. That is what an intelligent AI would do.

sPvP
-A 2 second finish allows for too many ressurects in hectic combat. 3 seconds forces players to judge what actions to prioritize.

tPvP
-This game is meant to be based around skill, not team composition. I would be much less likely to participate in tPvP if my team comp decided outcomes: I think being able to readjust your “spec” is fine.

My hope is that ArenaNet sticks to their philosophies and keep things the way they are while adjusting things rather than flat out changing them.

Signed,
Lalabu

Knote.2904:

Fox Soul.4809:

“-Added an ELO-based ranking system.”

Please, NO. The ELO system is for Chess. In a game when other people is necessary for win is an error put the elo system. Other pople can troll you ( afk, for example ) and you lose games. I saw too many ppl spaming their heal skill and standing afk in the waypoint.

What’s to stop them from doing that now?

ELO is still good for matchmaking and just giving you a general idea of where you’re skill level is at after a period of time. If you are good enough you WILL climb.

Shootsfoot.9276:

It already does that, doesn’t it?

If you’re talking to me. I’m PRETTY sure it doesn’t.

Yes, I was talking to you, but about the higher-level loot dropping in lower level areas. You had added more content to your post after I posted.

I swear I’ve had level 70 loot drop in low-level areas for me in the past.

Things I don’t agree with:

1. Loot: the craziness that this would cause in low level zones would be insane. Perhaps a CHANCE at higher level mats with a HardMode toggle on.

2. Travel: I agree that it should be reworked, but I don’t agree with your implementation. I think that free travel to LA and the 5 starter cities would alleviate alot of the costs.

3. Most of the profession changes you listed…Vengeance 3 sec cast? A 3 second interrupt-able cast during downed state may as well kill you. Alot of the others would have dire consequences as well. Mobs should DEFINITELY target downed players…if they didn’t, people would just keep getting up in many cases.

Things I RESOUNDINGLY agree with

1. LFG system: GW2 has an LFG system. More than half of the community has no kitten idea that it exists. The other half refuses to use it because it is useless. Needs to be fixed.

2. Dungeons: would like increased rewards at the end that are exclusive to particular dungeons. Also would like dungeon paths that are not run as frequently could get increase tokens at the end (20-50%)

3. DEs: Experience and gold should scale with level…karma shouldn’t. That’s just my opinion

I really like most of these, except for the orichalcum nodes in lower level areas. They should be kept rare.

I completely agree with better rewards for doing DEs in lower level areas, since this would provide some motivation for players to play in areas other than Orr.

Completely agree with guaranteed rare from dungeons. 100%.

Improved LFG feature is absolutely necessary.

The “going out in style” mechanic I think is a great idea.

Request Sticky!

love the list especially the camera ones. heres some id like to see fixed also.

Audio

- give random npcs more things to say
- add 3-5 different sayings to your characters so you wont hear them say the same stuff all the time. like in some skills (other then ones that specfically say yells out “???”), when dieing, finding new spots, doing combos and all that type of stuff.

Im with most of here, but what i really would love is more challenge in dungeons, not even a better reward, but i hate the actual dungeons and bosses (open world ones too) that are just “range autoattack and roll that one attack” to win. If they change this, not raising or lowing the HP/attack bar, but giving most of them more attacks, stages, inmunities, etc. Making the battle more complex, not hard, more fun, not impossible.

I don’t agree with:

• Mob threat rework – it should be based on some kind of threat, otherwise many group activities would make no sense
• Respawn time increase – just slight increase and in very few spots. Monsters can make normal exploration barely possible, just look at Orr
• Infinite bleed stacking – no, it would make possible to repeat many events much faster, like it wasn’t be fast enough now
• Rare mats in low level zones – this is pure bullkitten, they’re called rare for a reason, it has to be harder to obtain them
• Gear drops based completely on current level – as leatherworker I’m saying NO. It’s actually hard enough to obtain enough leather, loot bags are way too random to be a stable source of leather/fabric, salvageable junk (like leather scraps) is too rare
• Green items drop rebalance – it’s fine as it is. Those random green drops are making up for waypoint costs and making minor incomes
• Mob scaling during DEs – amount of mobs spawned depends of current amount of players in DE zone. Getting swarmed is actually more difficult to counter than having few stronger mobs
• Downed state – all those changes are huge NO. Downed state is our second chance, so we’re not getting pwned for every single mistake. 3 sec cast just for death is worse than ridiculous. Downed state needs a slight balancing done on numbers, not whole skill mechanics
• Quickness nerf – would make any sense only if they would remove debuff applied along with quickness
• Body shot rework – spammable snare for just 3 initiative? No ty, vulnerability is pretty fine and more useful on champions
• Shadow assault rework – as for melee weapon and evasive nature of thief, current skill is nearly perfect
• WvW orbs increasing rewards – being additionally rewarded for outnumbering enemies is plain sick and unfair
• Shorter cast time on finisher – it’s like that on a purpose, giving downed player any chance to affect the enviroment before dying
• ELO rankings – no, many games have proven that it’s way too complicated to be correctly applied to MMOs

I was with you right up till
“-Defeated players can now only be resurrected when the player is out of combat.”

To that I say NO! that is a mechanic put in games to force group wipes and group wipes force running back which is nothing more than a time sink.
If my group has someone down and we can afford to have someone else stop attacking to res the downed player it is just stupid to not be able to.

I love lists like this because it’s so easy to see how many QoL improvements could be easily made to the game.

Less than half of this stuff will ever happen, and I’d be surprised if even a quarter of it happens soon.

From top to bottom:

• I’m not sure what you are getting at with your suggested LFG feature, but if it works like GW Party Window, expanded to be accessed everywhere across Tyria, then I’m fine with it.
• Mob threat, in my opinion, is fine. You have a healing spell at your disposal, plus if you are good about strafing and dodging, you can keep a small amount of distance between you and your target.
• I’m completely against the changes towards condition stacking. Vulnerability is fine at the 25 stacks, though Bleeds should stack individually rather than collectively, still with the cap at 25.
• No towards T6 crafting materials in lower level zones. They’ll be farmed and the market would be flooded by them.
• I’m not for decreasing Masterwork+ items from regular mobs, simply because not every player should be forced into dungeons to get them.
• Yes towards the Waypoint travel changes.
• Karma changes are no for me, simply because it would encourage people to flood the 1-15 zones and farm the events for the Karma that they get at L80, rather than doing the L80 ones. It would just lead to isolation for those that are actually trying to finish those maps.
• I’m fine with the diminishing returns on DEs, as long as they do not include failed events.
• Not for the idea of “go out in style” skills. They sound really bad in general, and could anger someone who is trying to be nice and heal the downed player, which leads into…
• NO NO NO NO! If healing is interrupted by direct damage, many people who actually like healing downed people will be completely discouraged from doing so. This also ties into Defeated players can only be rezed outside of combat; the game is meant to be played by helping those in danger first, rather than waiting until the battle is over and then doing so.
• I dislike the interrupt every 12s change you suggested. I’d rather the skills having a shorter recharge time, but they have an ever increasing chance of failing when used against a player trying to finish you.
• Vengeance changes are bad and would further discourage players from using it. Trying to get it off when downed is hard enough, having to wait for the 8 second cooldown to finish plus casting it, and most of the time I’m finished in PvP a second before I can use it.

Most of the other stuff looks fine though. =]

Most of that sounds like dumbing the game down, no thank you…

I agree with the first post you made lol. I’m not a big fan of nearly any class changes. ESPECIALLY a self sacrificing guardian skill…..

In my opinion, your most of your general changes are good.
Your profession personal suggestions isn’t good though…

There has been alot of negative nerfing these days. It’s not good for the community mood. If the devs took up your suggestion, many people will complain and be displeased.

Downed State and Death
-Every class now has an ability to “go out in style”, prematurely ending the downed state.
-Healing a downed player will now be interrupted by direct damage.
-Downed players will now received a threat drop when downed and be considered a lower target priority by most mobs (exceptions apply).
-Defeated players can now only be resurrected when the player is out of combat.

The “go out of style” is good for impatient people who solo most of the time, but I don’t want it. >_< It takes away the teamwork. In PVE, it feels nice if someone just pop-out and heal you before you became downstate. There’re few times I thought there’s no one around to resurrect me. Suddenly, someone came out of nowhere and heal me. If this suggestion applies, people who goes down state will instantly premature suicide. People will develop that habit.

If healing a downed player will be interrupted by direct damage, no one wants to resurrect another player at the middle of battle. >_<

Guardian
-Downed State: Symbol of Judgment replaced with “Noble Sacrifice”.
“Noble Sacrifice” heals all surrounding allies for 30% of their HP, defeating the Guardian in the process. 3 second cast-time..

Guardian’s downed skill is fine as it is. Players who were resurrecting a guardian can get protected by the symbol’s heal. It encourages people to ressurect a guardian. It’s a team-work play. Players like me play guardian because it has better survival and not a suicidal class like warriors.

It’s the same for your suggestion towards other classes that “gets defeated” after 10 seconds. If everyone’s dies easily, it’s harder to ressurect them in a death state. There’s still a chance to ressurect in a down state at the middle of a battle. Warriors have this down skill is because he have a trait that can rally himself if he kills something. Warriors kill fast, which is why it’s feasible. It’s not for other classes though.

About WP costs, I remember a lot of people whining about it being too high, yet when I finally reach 80, I found out it wasn’t as bad as people would make it sound. It’s like 4s only for going from a corner of the map to the other side of the map..

Qelris.6901:

About WP costs, I remember a lot of people whining about it being too high, yet when I finally reach 80, I found out it wasn’t as bad as people would make it sound. It’s like 4s only for going from a corner of the map to the other side of the map..

Well it depends on how much you travel. But to put it into perspective, you’d have to do at least 3 events at your destination to cover the costs of just going there, let alone going back.

The reason I’m want them lowered, as are many of the suggestion I proposed, is to get people out into the world rather than everyone running around Orr like a Bot.

And who moved this into the suggestion Forums? Might as well have dumped it straight into the trashcan. Nobody ever reads the suggestion forums.

Naoko.7096:

The “go out of style” is good for impatient people who solo most of the time, but I don’t want it. >_< It takes away the teamwork. In PVE, it feels nice if someone just pop-out and heal you before you became downstate. There’re few times I thought there’s no one around to resurrect me. Suddenly, someone came out of nowhere and heal me. If this suggestion applies, people who goes down state will instantly premature suicide. People will develop that habit.

If healing a downed player will be interrupted by direct damage, no one wants to resurrect another player at the middle of battle. >_<

The changes to the downed state are not directed at PvE and nor should they impact it much. It’s all about fixing PvP issues .

I can’t think of many cases in PvE where I’d want to die rather than hope for a rezz. And that’s still a perfectly viable option.

And the 3 second cast-time would just be to stop people denying you kills.