Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Savvy.3258

Savvy.3258

Toxic Trail, Social Awkwardness, Final Laugh, etc., etc., etc. are horrid mechanics, in my opinion. It’s not that they’re difficult, they’re just annoying and add little to the experience. Sure, they might catch a tier noob unawares and do some damage, maybe once or twice, but what do they really add to the experience? More hecticness? More dodging?

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t feel they add any significant value in making higher level fractals more difficult, just more annoying. It’s especially fun when, say, you dodge a golem’s pull in aetherblade and dodge the other golem’s knockback only to take damage from an anomaly’s flux bomb because endurance. I think high level fractals, taking into account the extra damage, mobs, mechanics, etc., have enough going on without adding seemlingly random agony effects just because. To me, all they accomplish is being a minor inconvenience and making vigor and mobility potions more important, but they don’t make it more fun by any stretch of the imagination.

To me, the ideal form of agony would be something akin to an enrage timer whislt at the same time punishing consecutive mistakes severely. Is it really necessary to have one attack with a minor telegraph obscured by all the kittens GW2’s UI has to offer (with everyone’s names, guild tag and titles, coupled with damage number and enemy names right where the action is… brilliant) hit for 21k because higher difficulty? No, it really isn’t, and it doesn’t actually make it fun nor relevant because if your team is good enough you’ll get ressed anyway.

So, my suggestion/feedback: get rid of random agony effects and make it instead something that ticks for X amount per second for as long as you’re in combat, perhaps increasing by tier, whislt at the same time reducing healing by X%, again varying according to tier. Agony, then, becomes something that punishes manifold mistakes (rather than needing to have absurd damage given the health pools to make higher tiers more difficult) and punishes underperforming builds/subpar players, because with reduced healing and a consistent DoT you’ll need to be on point with dodges and finish that fight fast. That, in my opinion, would add enough excitment and make higher tiers more rewarding without having to add a gazillion new things, including increased health pools and damage numbers.

Of course many won’t like it but, hey, there are four tiers… it should be a thing that some people are t2 players whereas others are t4 players. And while we’re at it, let’s make fractal avengers actually finish people off so that if you suck you die. As it is, a group ability to complete a fractal is reliant upon having 2-3 players that are good enough to ress those that aren’t and even if they can’t it doesn’t matter because those 3 players could probably finish it on their own.

I understand the dev team is trying to make them harder, but the way it’s being done is somewhat ridiculous, with too many notches being turned up rather than a few well defined and thought out tweaks. Take Nightmare, for instance, it’s become quite epileptic in its pace. It was good as it was, one of the best. Throwing an attack every 1.5s your way because more hecticness = good is just not the way to go.

I’m all for making them harder, mind you, it’s just a question of how.

Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

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Posted by: TexZero.7910

TexZero.7910

There’s a lot in this post that i just cannot get behind.

As is, i already loathe that agony significantly reduces healing (70%) which makes most forms of healing/support not viable. To have that on all the time is probably one of the worst things they could do.

Ironically the ticking per second thing used to be done and partially still is with the reworked social awkwardness which you already complain about and likely would only complain more about in the system you wish to implement.

Additionally, i’m not entirely sure why you’d want agony to be the thing that punishes players instead of mechanical complexity. Ex Legendary Brazen Gladiator 3rd strike being a PbAoE 3second daze. Sure this could be more punishing, it could also inflict x stacks of agony. But the point is to get people to learn the fight, and avoid the obvious telegraph anyway thus they’d (ideally) never take any agony anyway.

Also as far as fractals being a DPS race eh….I don’t think so. Sure Adrenaline Rush + some mobs may make it feel like a kill them before they kill you scenario but that doesn’t mean you cannot just out tank/sustain that with skills.

I’m not sure at this point if you have a real coherent argument to be made because from what im reading, it mostly seems like a dislike of the general progression of mechanical complexity vs the older stack and whack play style that was prominent due to the simplicity of design.

I’ll always take mechanical depth over stack and whack, but that might just be me. I like my fights to be engaging and have some elements that allow me as a player to showcase that i have an innate understanding of my class/profession and its interactions within each specific encounter.

Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

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Posted by: zealex.9410

zealex.9410

They are mechanics that… stay with me now… will help you not fall asleep on your keyboard while doing your fractals.

Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

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Posted by: narcx.3570

narcx.3570

Things like Social Awkwardness, Toxic Trail, Flux Bomb, and to a point, Last laugh, are meant to punish/discourage the stack in a corner, pull the mobs, and power creep/power rez your way to free-lootz mentality of the Dungeon meta.

Granted, a magi druid can still heal through all of this, but at least you still have to bring one.

Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

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Posted by: zealex.9410

zealex.9410

Things like Social Awkwardness, Toxic Trail, Flux Bomb, and to a point, Last laugh, are meant to punish/discourage the stack in a corner, pull the mobs, and power creep/power rez your way to free-lootz mentality of the Dungeon meta.

Granted, a magi druid can still heal through all of this, but at least you still have to bring one.

Id argue last laugh can be countered somewhat by stacking to a corner are parts of the circle thats about to blow up are inside the corner where the players cant really get hit.

Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

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Posted by: Zenith.7301

Zenith.7301

Things like Social Awkwardness, Toxic Trail, Flux Bomb, and to a point, Last laugh, are meant to punish/discourage the stack in a corner, pull the mobs, and power creep/power rez your way to free-lootz mentality of the Dungeon meta.

Granted, a magi druid can still heal through all of this, but at least you still have to bring one.

Except they fail miserably at that. People just take a step away from each other and the instability is negated.

Stacking will continue to be a thing so long as boon sharing is restricted by range and most ranged weapons are kitten (of all ranged weapons, only necro scepter and ele staff really dominate in their class).

Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

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Posted by: Soggy Biscuit.9372

Soggy Biscuit.9372

Are things like the bomb, the rabbit, and Mossman completely random? I run on a vanilla DPS guard who often happens to be the tankiest in the group, and I’ve felt like I get targeted by those things the most, which only adds to the disgust as I’m often already face-tanking whatever with low endurance.

Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

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Posted by: Sephylon.4938

Sephylon.4938

agro is determined by toughness to a degree. If you have the highest toughness in the group, you will more than likely be the main focus of mobs.

Fractal Feedback: Agony & Scaling Difficulty

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Posted by: zealex.9410

zealex.9410

Are things like the bomb, the rabbit, and Mossman completely random? I run on a vanilla DPS guard who often happens to be the tankiest in the group, and I’ve felt like I get targeted by those things the most, which only adds to the disgust as I’m often already face-tanking whatever with low endurance.

u cab use that to your advantage and take tabk these away from the group or tank them into a corner and cleave ( in case of actual mobs in the fractal)