Guild Wars 2

This is mine and my husband’s biggest complaint thus far. Though the list is small, this is a big issue to me. With all the bragging about making underwater combat enjoyable and fun in GW2, ANet, imo, dropped the ball, I still dread under water combat every bit as much as in other games. Not for the same reasons, but possibly even more than the dreaded breath meter. And we’ve finally worked out why.

Mobs underwater hit harder than they do on land, and our own weapons do significantly less. Add to that confusion created by the Z axis and poor underwater depth perception, and without a group, underwater combat typically goes badly.

Please don’t bother replying to this with “L2P”. That’s a useless reaction, there is no reason for mobs to hit as much harder and take as much less damage simply because they’re underwater when adds are incredibly easy to pull in that environment. There are enough hazards with UWC that there’s no reason to mess with damage that way. Honestly hoping it’s just broken right now. At least from an ele and a warrior’s perspective, currently things just don’t seem to be very enjoyable under water.

In short, this is one of the (extremely few) areas in which ANet has not yet lived up to their claims. I sincerely hope that this will be adjusted in the future so that I can embrace underwater combat without the dread I have had for it up till now.

Well, that disagrees with my experience, I find I hit harder underwater. To the point where sometimes I actually take a fight into the water from on land.

What classes have you tried, and to what level? And have you upgraded your Aquabreather?

I don’t know about the Warrior but the Elementalist is practically useless underwater. If you’re always in a group then underwater you’re going to be about half strength. Guardians are great though, this is a class balance issue more than anything.

I found that my biggest problem with underwater combat (Charr Engineer here), is simply that i tend to not always upgrade my Breather or Speargun.
Combat underwater also gets significantly easier, if you use a ranged weapon instead of trying to melee. Seriously, i hate the spear on my thief, although its fun and i can handle it.

UWC is most frustrating thing to me, i play a level 80 warrior with max gear, having no breathing underwater makes it easier, but the problems that i have are the following:

1: speargun is useless, might as well take it out, at 80 i do about 100 UW >.>

2: i go melee with everything, and i dont have anything, i can take any mobs on, up to three mobs, (4 if i am pushing it) what i dont like is if i am doing 1/3 of my usuall damage, why is the mob’s health the normal health? it should be reduced to complement UWC.

@ Rack, if your an elem, when you go underwater, fight with water attribute, it does the most damage, all the rest are not up to par

Good to hear it sounds like it’s just a specific weapon issue. And btw, I do use water, though not exclusively, and it doesn’t seem any more effective than any of my other attunements, at least not particularly so. And my aqua breather and trident are both level 80 items. My hubby plays Warrior and he has similar problems. I admit I haven’t tried other classes under water yet. For ele and warrior though underwater combat is broken and I would like for ANet to fix the issue so that underwater combat isn’t typically fatal when solo.

I don’t find that underwater mobs hit harder. In fact, it’s usually the opposite. On my Ranger, if I’m in Orr just farming mobs, I’d prefer to be doing it underwater because it’s safer.

But I agree this is highly profession-dependent because I’ve also found my Elementalist to be particularly weak, especially while solo.

One thing I do hate is the “return to surface” downed mechanic. Even if you can make it, you’re absolutely helpless on the surface and can’t even swim away to break agro. If you surface and you haven’t already shed your agro, you’re pretty much kitten-ed. And I might just be projecting my frustration, but they also seem to have much longer tethers on average than their land-based counterparts. Once I’m in a retreat situation, I’m usually done for.

My main problem with underwater combat is the very, very wonky hit detection and bugging mobs (that shark in Sparkfly Fen jumps and teleports just too muhc). More often than not, I found myself shooting right through mobs when I use air/earth skills as an Elementalist.

I have a few issues with underwater combat, perhaps Monster Hunter spoiled me.
-I have to agree that you feel significantly less powerful underwater. I play a guardian traited for survivability. On land I can take on two vets, sometimes a champion, and plenty of mobs(separately of course) and often 2 players in WvW at a time. When I go underwater though I can barely take on one and honestly I think it’s the weapon options. (Also Risen Farmers are super OP at times). For my guardian I am forced into a role underwater and this is why i would prefer more weapon options or simply allow us land weapons under water with new skills akin to what they do on land. (Who cares if its not exactly possible to use a greatsword underwater, there are plenty of things that simply work ‘because’ in the game, I doubt that would be so jarring. Make it attack slower but still give the satisfying capability it has on land.)
-When underwater I am forced into a support role, which is fine, if I were specked for it, instead due to my choices that allow me to play very well on land and still support my allies in the way of my choosing, the role I am made to play underwater messes that up and makes me less useful let alone powerful.
-Now underwater in this game IS better then other MMOs, but it is not perfect and I do still avoid it as much as possible. I think they could honestly do with a look at Monster Hunter, the underwater combat is much more fun and the style of combat is not that far from adaptable to the way things already work in this game. If they are going to have a deep sea elder dragon in this game at some point they really really need to consider fixing up the water combat, and honestly either letting land weapons go underwater or adding more choices for underwater combat would easily begin to help.