Guild Wars 2

Black Box.9312:

Wethospu.6437:

Black Box.9312:

Alpha is NOT higher risk when stacked on, because 2 of his 3 potential attacks cannot hit a target that is on top of him.

And if you range and side step at all times you also completely avoid 2 of his 3 potential attacks.

When you stack you avoid those attacks without sidestepping. Less effort for the same result, therefore less risky.

The only attack you avoid by stacking is his earth attack. Both fire and ice (the two attacks which are negated by sidestepping at range) will hit you.

His earth attack is also very easy to dodge at range, although it does substantially more damage the further you are away from him.

i don’t have a problem with stacking on the spider boss, in theory.

But in practice, every group i’ve been in that has insisted on stacking ends up wiping until we disband. Which i’ve always thought was absurd, because it’s not like the spider boss is hard without stacking.

Of course this has just really been a grouping issue, and i’ve had bad luck with my groups. This issue could be mitigated by forming my own group or whatever.

But overall, i think i’ve had more wipes/disbands as a result of failed attempts at exploits/short cuts rather than failures in group play.

Black Box.9312:

Wethospu.6437:

Black Box.9312:

Player Character.9467:

Black Box.9312:

Saulius.8430:

ranged(sitting 900-1200 away) players don’t get aoe boons (most utilities and aoe combos have small effect radius), cannot effectively revive or be revived, does less damage in general (with few exceptions)

so why would one choose to play ranged in coordinated small group(dungeons)?

its hilarious when 4 players got banner buffs, fury, 25stacks of might, and there is that one ranger standing 1500 away w/o any buffs, and later complains why no one wants him

Honestly, all this proves is that distance-based damage mechanics are incredibly dumb, which we’ve (or at least I have) known from the beginning. While I typically don’t have a problem with stacking in most cases, it just seems so contradictory of Anet to rave about this risk/reward setup between melee and ranged only to ruin it with bosses like the spider queen and subject alpha.

Long story short: Just more proof that Anet needs to get their dungeon design kitten together.

Alpha is higher risk and higher reward at melee. You are guaranteed to be standing on the ice spike. At range spider does more damage, in melee you can’t run out of its range if you get too low.

Alpha is NOT higher risk when stacked on, because 2 of his 3 potential attacks cannot hit a target that is on top of him.

And if you range and side step at all times you also completely avoid 2 of his 3 potential attacks.

When you stack you avoid those attacks without sidestepping. Less effort for the same result, therefore less risky.

Effort is not same as risk.

Black Box.9312:

Alpha is NOT higher risk when stacked on, because 2 of his 3 potential attacks cannot hit a target that is on top of him.

Alpha is indeed higher risk when stacked because if you don’t dodge the ice attack it is more or less death. Unless you are a in PVT or whatever then you might have a chance to take a few hits before he kills you.

Alpha has 5 attacks the Ice spike alternates with a ground attack, there are the fire attacks if you are stacked it applies burn if you are further he drops a tooth on you, and then depending on the path you have the long range ground AoE attack. Why would you want to range and potentially deal with more attacks when you could just stack condi cleanse, and dodge the one attack. Sure you could just walk out of the other one’s but why waste more time than needed?

The fact you can wipe in a stack doesn’t prove stacking is more risky, it just proves an encounter is capable of being failed at all ranges. Which is what should be happening.

If it wasn’t, stacking would be a gamebreaking problem, instead of just being generally awful because it pushes gameplay in the worst possible direction.

Blame high level Fractals (50-80) where there is no reason to wear anything but Berzerker because even 1 (maybe 2) hits from a boss will down you no matter what you wear.

It comes down to DPS as hard as you can before your group runs out of cooldowns.

This has carried over to dungeons. Stacking like it or not is the most efficient way.

Xavi.6591:

Blame high level Fractals (50-80) where there is no reason to wear anything but Berzerker because even 1 (maybe 2) hits from a boss will down you no matter what you wear.

It comes down to DPS as hard as you can before your group runs out of cooldowns.

This has carried over to dungeons. Stacking like it or not is the most efficient way.

Efficient doesn’t mean fun, a lot of people keep equating the two but it really isn’t. It is only fun to people looking to doll up their character or stroke their egos.

I’d rather have the long, hard but entertaining fight. At least then I know it was skill and luck, not exploit and poor programming.

But to some people… efficient does mean fun ._.

Being a number cruncher and playing a game with good gameplay are not mutually exclusive things. The game improving itself should be something we can all agree on.