Guild Wars 2

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

Because by confirming their lack of kittens given to investing in new dungeons, they would be shooing their customers away all by themselves.

It’s much more profitable to just continuously feed them hope until they wander off by themselves. All the while dropping a few bucks on the Gemstore they love.

To add to this…

Pre-release is when they trickle news to all outlets with a bunched of timed NDAs. The last thing they need is for these news outlets to have bold headlines: “NEWS JUST IN! NO DUNGEONS IN GW2 EXPAC!”

It is better to just disappoint everyone either after people rushed to buy the game, or after they made the decision to buy the game after they’ve been sold on all the other “features” the expac will provide.

We all know they would have said something if there was. There’s no good reason not to say something about it when there is going to be stuff. There are a lot of good reasons to keep quiet if there isn’t.

The question is, will the open world content and revanent be enough to get you to purchase it?

Jerus.4350:

We all know they would have said something if there was. There’s no good reason not to say something about it when there is going to be stuff. There are a lot of good reasons to keep quiet if there isn’t.

The question is, will the open world content and revanent be enough to get you to purchase it?

Maybe once it goes on sale for $5. No sense in overpaying.

So any bets what fractal masteries will be like? Making easy content even more easier?

Wethospu.6437:

So any bets what fractal masteries will be like? Making easy content even more easier?

Fractal Attunement Mastery
1 Mastery Point: Follows Advice – Details are obscured by the Mists
2 Mastery Points: Agony Channeler – Details are obscured by the Mists
3 Mastery Points: Mistlock Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
5 Mastery Points: Recursive Resourcing – Details are obscured by the Mists
8 Mastery Points: Essential Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
10 Mastery Points: Hyperactive Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists

My interpretation, “haah kitten you people who like dungeons/fractals, you’re all a bunch of kittenes and WE’LL TELL YOU NOTHING!!!”

can someone give me an actual reason why ANet would make new dungeons when it’s a minority of people who play them and the majority of their money is made producing open world content for the masses to play, who enjoy playing them?

like I get that everyone here wants instanced content, but from a business perspective, why should ANet bother when they’ll only get a poor return on it?

Because, one dimensional gameplay is something that will quickly become boring. I don’t know many people who only play one way and don’t take breaks for months at a time. Most poeple I know will dabble in various areas of the game. For those that are typically open world farmers and hate PVP, well, what do they have? the same old stale dungeons we’re complaining about. So adding some challenge, some switch from the standard grind to something a bit more is good. Now, that doesn’t have to be instanced, not at all. However, it’s generally easier to create this more challenging content when you prevent zerging from ruining it.

So basically it’s good because it creates diversity within the PVE realm, and it’s easier than creating content that will simply be zerged and become the same thing as everything else in open world PVE.

Cooperative instanced challenging instances add replaybility to the game and thus longevity. This is something a MMO wants to work toward to for the sake of their active playerbase.

Colesy, think about the latest Living Story boss encounters that are actually cool but that no one is ever going to touch again. They could be easily recycled into a dungeon and add more stuff for their players to invest time on.

Adding dungeons that reflect that kind of mechanic recycling is just smart business. Doing a one-time encounter for Living Story is not, however.

The negativity on these forums is pretty strong. I wouldn’t tell any of you anything anyway. Imagine what could happen.

1. Anet says nothing about dungeons. A bunch of QQ self-pity posts here, as we are seeing today.

2. Anet says “there will be dungeons but we can’t talk about it.” Incoming threads with laundry lists of angry demands for what it must and must not have. As if anet has had no understanding of the flaws and strengths of previous content. They are well aware lupicus is a good boss, and that NPC scripting sucks.

3. Anet reveals everything about their upcoming dungeons and people dont like the ideas and we get a bunch of cry baby posts. Mixture of 1 and 2.

4. Worst option of all, anet offers to communicate with the community here (big mistake) and solicits feedback. We would get #2 but even more aggressive and mean spirited, along with entitlement and egoism and a healthy dose of i-told-you-so. Remember the last time they offered to communicate with everyone here? It was basically like negotiating with an irrational angry mob. Shocking they stopped responding.

The level of sour people full of cynicism (generally deserved, true) is so high here that they are quite right to ignore all of us.

Just saying “We are working on challenging instanced content” would help alot, even if it’s not ready when HoT is released. I mean, DoA also wasn’t ready when Nightfall got released.

Would seriously love some new dungeons…

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-interview

A disheartening read once they got down to questions about dungeons. "We don’t have any specifics on dungeon right now, but we know a lot of people play dungeons. " can be taken in a negative or positive light… don’t have specifics because we’ll get those later? Or because there is none?

“If you look at the Mastery line the demo, there is one for Fractals. We can’t really comment a lot, except to say we looking at all of those things.” offers a glimmer of hope… but that too can be seen as them potentially abandoning traditional dungeons and only ever adding new fractals. Which don’t offer unique skins you can acquire like dungeons do (not from tokens anyway… and fractals only have weapons… and each dungeon has it’s own unique set vs. fractals having just one set).

Really hoping it’s first expansion doesn’t disappoint after such a long wait.

hybrid.5027:

The level of sour people full of cynicism (generally deserved, true) is so high here that they are quite right to ignore all of us.

So, chicken or the egg?

hybrid.5027:

The negativity on these forums is pretty strong. I wouldn’t tell any of you anything anyway. Imagine what could happen.

1. Anet says nothing about dungeons. A bunch of QQ self-pity posts here, as we are seeing today.

2. Anet says “there will be dungeons but we can’t talk about it.” Incoming threads with laundry lists of angry demands for what it must and must not have. As if anet has had no understanding of the flaws and strengths of previous content. They are well aware lupicus is a good boss, and that NPC scripting sucks.

3. Anet reveals everything about their upcoming dungeons and people dont like the ideas and we get a bunch of cry baby posts. Mixture of 1 and 2.

4. Worst option of all, anet offers to communicate with the community here (big mistake) and solicits feedback. We would get #2 but even more aggressive and mean spirited, along with entitlement and egoism and a healthy dose of i-told-you-so. Remember the last time they offered to communicate with everyone here? It was basically like negotiating with an irrational angry mob. Shocking they stopped responding.

The level of sour people full of cynicism (generally deserved, true) is so high here that they are quite right to ignore all of us.

You have a point about the forums being full of sour, cynical people who have no faith in ArenaNet. I’m really sad that it’s gotten to that point :/

That said, I have a feeling that option #3 would go over better than you propose — sure, there would be people splitting hairs and nitpicking specifics, but I think most of us would be dancing in the Tyrian streets, TBH.

You also left out a plausible scenario:

5. There are no dungeons in HoT, and ArenaNet does or does not say anything. We’d see a flareup of rage and angst like what happened after gamescon, but we’d all settle back into the status quo after a couple of weeks (those of us who stay, anyway).

dlonie.6547:

You also left out a plausible scenario:

5. There are no dungeons in HoT, and ArenaNet does or does not say anything. We’d see a flareup of rage and angst like what happened after gamescon, but we’d all settle back into the status quo after a couple of weeks (those of us who stay, anyway).

I see you believe that the universe will end with a bang and not a whimper. =)

I don’t see any “QQ self pity posts” in here. What I do see is speculation; much like what you are doing. When no information is forthcoming, this is what people do, speculate.

Some people choose to hope for the best with a twinkle in their eyes. Some choose to expect the worst.

No Nike, if they said that there would be some sort of instanced cooperative challenging content, that’s all the info I would need until they decided to give extra details.

They however choose to ignore and dodge this matter because they know that they don’t have anything to show us.

Tom Yzf.5872:

I don’t see any “QQ self pity posts” in here. What I do see is speculation; much like what you are doing. When no information is forthcoming, this is what people do, speculate.

Some people choose to hope for the best with a twinkle in their eyes. Some choose to expect the worst.

The negative “speculation” sounds a lot like “woe is me anet isn’t going to develop content for me” as far as I can intuit.

The best thing you can do is not speculate at all. Stop parsing their PR statements. Stop interpreting their double speak. People are driving themselves into a fit over nonsense parsed sentences.

I might have faith and positive opinion if

• Dungeons / fractals weren’t ignored for so long
• Last update (Fractured) would have been better
• We had any substantial communication

I will be genuinely be amazed if they manage to add good fractal masteries without expanding fractals at all. At best it looks like a way to lure casuals into fractals.

If someone has forgotten what mess Fractured was I can give a short summary.

FWIW, I am not sticking up for anet or advising people to have hope. I just think that this is turning into a negative feedback loop. It would be best if people refused to be hyped but also refused to be negative over nothing.

“You’ve talked about a lot of features but don’t see anything here about dungeons?” “We’ve talked about all the major features in heart of thorns.” Clear as day really, that’s how you say their won’t be any dungeons while still using “positive” language. In a way I’m glad any ambiguity left on that front is gone.

What worries me more is their avoidance of the word “instanced”. For me that’s what separates actual raids from the pseudo-raid zerg stuff we’ve seen of late. If they want to move away from 5 man group content in to 10 or 20 man stuff, and leave fractals as the primary 5 man stuff, that’s ok. As long as the raids are instanced. If all we get is more teq/worm and a few fractal masteries… I can’t say I’ll be surprised but it would still be a pretty big disappointment.

deSade.9437:

So they’re full of kitten as usual. Good.
PR wise they’re the worst company I’ve ever had the disgrace of interacting with (aside from nexon for very brief moments), and I feel like a huge idiot for being a “fanboy” for so long. Remove the “feel”…
I’ll just let someone else sum up all the things that annoy me about that PR bullkitten, so I can quote. Atm I’m blown away by the amount of stuff in there I don’t like and I can’t translate my feelings to words.

Man you think anet has bad PR, should’ve played CoD:MW2, Infinity ward is easily the worst company when it comes to games development. However Anet is quickly becoming my most hated developer, It’s always the best games that get a terrible dev.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

We got a kittening winner :
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2xsd41/does_arenanet_punishes_people_who_scam_sellers/

Is that really surprising you? I mean his name is “HartUndTief” which means “HardAndDeep”.

Wow, Dub, you should be censored in the forum! So naughty.

Anyone who remembers what they promised for dungeons during the AC revamp would be sour and not trust anything from anet. They couldn’t keep even one tenth of their original promise, why should we expect anything if they can’t even throw a single bone or two now? all dungeons in this game by now would’ve seen a revamp had they stayed true to their word. And seeing the result of the AC revamp, it wouldn’t have been a bad thing, as all AC encounters were imho vastly improved over the originals, and there’s a lot of dungeons that would benefit from that treatment.

maha.7902:

are those just text boxes or is our character actually voiced?

Voiced, check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO1yFFeMU8s

Jerus.4350:

hybrid.5027:

The level of sour people full of cynicism (generally deserved, true) is so high here that they are quite right to ignore all of us.

So, chicken or the egg?

Yeah, as if he weren’t a part of it. Always superior.
Honestly, I’ve always been negative so for me this is normal and I don’t really count… I’m a pessimist and I hate positivity or anything related to it. Still, there are 2 things that annoy me more: 1 —-
I’m wasting time. I’m not the dev here, and if they decided not to make any content that I really enjoy, it must be good for their revenue and I have no way to question that. I’m kinda burned down anyway… at least we’re getting a new profession.
Fashion is endgame.

I think the first mastery to be maxed out for me will be the leaping mushrooms thingy. It’s in my blood and my inclination.
Mushrooms!!!!!

Update: liked the interview with AngryJoe. I wish he’d grilled Colin a bit more, though. So mean I am <.<

Sooooo…. I guess I’m back on the hope train once again.

Colin Johanson: “The Wyvern is an example of just a tough boss in the open-world, it’s not a mega-boss, it’s not some super crazy challenging content that we want you to do, it’s an example of what open-world bosses are gonna start to be like”

“We’ve really heard loud and clear from our fans than one of the things they’re looking for is more challenges in GW2 for PvE, reasons to use their entire skillbar. A lot of the creatures don’t force you to do that and it’s something we really put clear focus into this expansion, to deliver really challenging difficult content and group content”

Yeah I hate the overuse of the expression “challenging group content” without being given details of what is it really about, but this is a massive improvement from what I’ve heard before. Still avoiding the word “instanced” but that would just give away that there were gonna be raids. We’ll just have to see why they’re saving the blogpost about “challenging group content” for last.

deSade.9437:

Jerus.4350:

hybrid.5027:

The level of sour people full of cynicism (generally deserved, true) is so high here that they are quite right to ignore all of us.

So, chicken or the egg?

Yeah, as if he weren’t a part of it. Always superior.

I take it you think when I post ideas or point out things that should be changed it’s substantively equivalent to the “mommy, anet doesn’t like me” posts. You’ll find what I don’t do is trash talk devs, feel sorry for myself that anet doesn’t make content for me and I don’t make posts saying how much I dislike the game. I also don’t scour every single interview or article for quotes I can parse to either make myself feel better or worse depending on my mood. So no, I am not part of it.

Enaretos.8079:

Boiz, I found a new place for funzies : the LF subforum

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor/Dedicated-Dungeon-Group-Recruiting

Oh my.. This is gold.

hybrid.5027:

deSade.9437:

Jerus.4350:

hybrid.5027:

The level of sour people full of cynicism (generally deserved, true) is so high here that they are quite right to ignore all of us.

So, chicken or the egg?

Yeah, as if he weren’t a part of it. Always superior.

I take it you think when I post ideas or point out things that should be changed it’s substantively equivalent to the “mommy, anet doesn’t like me” posts. You’ll find what I don’t do is trash talk devs, feel sorry for myself that anet doesn’t make content for me and I don’t make posts saying how much I dislike the game. I also don’t scour every single interview or article for quotes I can parse to either make myself feel better or worse depending on my mood. So no, I am not part of it.

lol, deSade nailed it — always superior!

This is the dungeon forum:

This is where we express disappointment about dungeons and associated content being largely neglected since shortly after release.
This is where we speculate on the future of such content.
This is where we vent frustrations about seeing the hype train roll past the content we want to see added and expanded.

Condescendingly dismissing any such conversations as “mommy, anet doesn’t like me” is quite hyperbolic and exaggerated. I haven’t seen any posts that seriously claim ArenaNet “doesn’t like” any one of us, or that there is some agenda against us personally. I see a lot of snark and cynicism, a lot of pent up frustration, and a lot of resentment at the neglect and silence.

All I’ve seen is disappointment and frustration that they don’t consider the content we enjoy to be a worthwhile investment for the future of the game — IMO, a wholly valid topic for discussion here.

For the sake of context, I do respect you, Nike — you’ve done a lot of good for this community and been a reliable source of good information. But this ego/superiority thing….it often gets in the way of any messages you may be trying to communicate.

J Eberle.9312:

Enaretos.8079:

Boiz, I found a new place for funzies : the LF subforum

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor/Dedicated-Dungeon-Group-Recruiting

Oh my.. This is gold.

I know the OP. She is solid. For daily dungeon tour, their group is good at anything but Hotw and Arah. Not bad for an above average level.

dlonie.6547:

hybrid.5027:

deSade.9437:

Jerus.4350:

hybrid.5027:

The level of sour people full of cynicism (generally deserved, true) is so high here that they are quite right to ignore all of us.

So, chicken or the egg?

Yeah, as if he weren’t a part of it. Always superior.

I take it you think when I post ideas or point out things that should be changed it’s substantively equivalent to the “mommy, anet doesn’t like me” posts. You’ll find what I don’t do is trash talk devs, feel sorry for myself that anet doesn’t make content for me and I don’t make posts saying how much I dislike the game. I also don’t scour every single interview or article for quotes I can parse to either make myself feel better or worse depending on my mood. So no, I am not part of it.

lol, deSade nailed it — always superior!

This is the dungeon forum:

This is where we express disappointment about dungeons and associated content being largely neglected since shortly after release.
This is where we speculate on the future of such content.
This is where we vent frustrations about seeing the hype train roll past the content we want to see added and expanded.

Condescendingly dismissing any such conversations as “mommy, anet doesn’t like me” is quite hyperbolic and exaggerated. I haven’t seen any posts that seriously claim ArenaNet “doesn’t like” any one of us, or that there is some agenda against us personally. I see a lot of snark and cynicism, a lot of pent up frustration, and a lot of resentment at the neglect and silence.

All I’ve seen is disappointment and frustration that they don’t consider the content we enjoy to be a worthwhile investment for the future of the game — IMO, a wholly valid topic for discussion here.

For the sake of context, I do respect you, Nike — you’ve done a lot of good for this community and been a reliable source of good information. But this ego/superiority thing….it often gets in the way of any messages you may be trying to communicate.

I have no ego investment in this issue. I see the circle kitten of cynicism and snark, and outright rage as childish and immature. The fact that you admit these things exist but refuse to understand why it is actually a problem is pretty telling.

I have no problem with you guys making me out to be a condescending bad guy. all it’s doing is giving you an excuse to avoid dealing with your own negativity internally. Believe me, I’ve felt the same way as all of you, and in many ways I still feel very similarly. But I have the good sense to not contribute to making this place terrible by constantly whining about it. Maybe you don’t actually want developer interaction or new content? I have no idea, because the posts I read here sometimes make me think the people here are happier in their pity party than they would be with new content.

Not really trying to make you out to be a bad guy. As I said — I actually respect your contributions quite a bit. I’m merely pointing out that the condescension and hyperbole clouds your message.

hybrid.5027:

Believe me, I’ve felt the same way as all of you, and in many ways I still feel very similarly. But I have the good sense to not contribute to making this place terrible by constantly whining about it. Maybe you don’t actually want developer interaction or new content?

Being 100% serious here, do you honestly think it would make any difference? Have you noticed any positive posts sparking interaction more than negative ones? Or do you just see a blanket policy of “never interact with the players”, regardless of game mode?

Save a few notable exceptions (Josh/Justin/Erin on the PvP team, and the API devs), all I’ve seen is the latter.

I have no idea, because the posts I read here sometimes make me think the people here are happier in their pity party than they would be with new content.

Maybe you’re right. I’d love to see that theory put to the test.

Wethospu.6437:

I might have faith and positive opinion if

• Dungeons / fractals weren’t ignored for so long
• Last update (Fractured) would have been better
• We had any substantial communication

I will be genuinely be amazed if they manage to add good fractal masteries without expanding fractals at all. At best it looks like a way to lure casuals into fractals.

If someone has forgotten what mess Fractured was I can give a short summary.

maybe not relevant I don’t know, but wasn’t there some datamined gauntlet/type debuff thingies that could possibly be for dungeons or fractals? I can’t remember much about them or if it was important.

Its in my nature to complain and be grumpy about everything.

#BritishThings

But the ego posts and condescending tones are really unnecessary.

dlonie.6547:

Being 100% serious here, do you honestly think it would make any difference? Have you noticed any positive posts sparking interaction more than negative ones? Or do you just see a blanket policy of “never interact with the players”, regardless of game mode?

Save a few notable exceptions (Josh/Justin/Erin on the PvP team, and the API devs), all I’ve seen is the latter.

The devs so quite often have PR handcuffs when it comes to forum posts. But you shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming that since they can’t interact openly that they aren’t reading and listening.

Yes, I think it would make a great deal of difference to limit criticism to being constructive and to not make QQ posts about a lack of attention/content etc. It’s not so conveniently compartmentalized for them. Creating a cynical post might seem, to you, limited to that post or that thread but on concert with all the other posters, posts and thread it’s creating a cloud of negativity. And like I said, a lot of the criticism and negativity is probably well deserved, but voicing it with hostility just isn’t the answer.

I have seen first hand how being productive and constructive can lead to good developer relationships and can get things accomplished so I know it works better than the alternative.

spoj.9672:

condescending tones

You’re the guy interpreting tones on the internet from plain text, which usually is more about what the reader wants to hear than the message. And like I said, when people respond with “you might be right but you’re rude and arrogant” that’s just putting off their own self-improvement.

Hence why i said tones and didnt accuse you of directly being condescending. Although its very hard to believe you arent being condescending with some of your posts directed at other people. :P

We’ve gone from negativity about state of dungeons to negativity about each other. >_>

Im a grumpy person dont mind me.

hybrid.5027:

dlonie.6547:

Being 100% serious here, do you honestly think it would make any difference? Have you noticed any positive posts sparking interaction more than negative ones? Or do you just see a blanket policy of “never interact with the players”, regardless of game mode?

Save a few notable exceptions (Josh/Justin/Erin on the PvP team, and the API devs), all I’ve seen is the latter.

The devs so quite often have PR handcuffs when it comes to forum posts. But you shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming that since they can’t interact openly that they aren’t reading and listening.

Yes, I think it would make a great deal of difference to limit criticism to being constructive and to not make QQ posts about a lack of attention/content etc. It’s not so conveniently compartmentalized for them. Creating a cynical post might seem, to you, limited to that post or that thread but on concert with all the other posters, posts and thread it’s creating a cloud of negativity. And like I said, a lot of the criticism and negativity is probably well deserved, but voicing it with hostility just isn’t the answer.

I have seen first hand how being productive and constructive can lead to good developer relationships and can get things accomplished so I know it works better than the alternative.

Can’t argue with you there. The policy restrictions are the problem, and they’re appalling enough to me that it’s worth complaining about. Many good players have been run off by not just the lack of content, but the lack of information coming out — and we went a long time without either. HoT is starting to change that, but this community is still waiting for something solid they can look forward to. It’s foolish to ignore history, and the history of this company’s treatment of dungeons leads us to believe that we shouldn’t get excited over hype, as it often fails to live up to the presentation.

Personally, I do try not to just blame the “devs” generically, as it’s certainly not their fault. They don’t set company policies, nor do they decide what development areas to prioritize. From reading glassdoor, I see that many of them are just as fed up with the situation as we are. I sympathize with them quite a bit, tbh. My complaints are with the people higher up.

That’s really awesome that you’ve managed to build a postive relationship with some of the ArenaNet team. Was this in the open or behind closed doors? Curious, because more meaningful public player-dev interactions would do a lot to improve the players’ opinion of the team — it would for me anyway. Maybe the forum specialists program will provide this — but it’s too early to tell.

I’m starting to ramble, but I’ll just add that I’m not fond of the cloud of negativity either, though I’ll readily admit to contributing to it. I’d be thrilled to see a healthy relationship form between the company and the players. But neglect of customers, perceived or real, will always breed animosity. We don’t see a company presence in these forums, and when the cat’s away….

Can you all stop arguing over which one has the fanciest quaggan backpack and comment on that Colin Johanson interview I posted where he says “Wyvern is just an example of a simple tough boss, not some super crazy challenging content that we want you to do”?

Does this not give any of you a little hope after 2 years of nothing?

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

Can you all stop arguing over which one has the fanciest quaggan backpack and comment on that Colin Johanson interview I posted where he says “Wyvern is just an example of a simple tough boss, not some super crazy challenging content that we want you to do”?

Does this not give any of you a little hope after 2 years of nothing?

Hope that mechanics will continue to improve? Sure. Wyvern sounds pretty cool, this quote makes me interested in what else is coming.

Hope that the “challenging group content” will be something other than a zergfest? Well, it doesn’t do anything for me there. They’re still spamming dodge

He dodged the question in a slightly less discouraging way. Ill give him props for that.

Hope that we will actually have challenging group content, because he himself doesnt consider Wyvern a very challenging boss and apparently there will be bosses that meet that criteria.

Now we just need to know what form those encounters will take: open-world (doesnt seem like it since he said Wyvern is an example of how open-world bosses will be) or instanced

I really do have a lot of hope for the encounters (open world or otherwise) in future content. The LS episodes and SW bosses show that they are focusing on making content that exercises the game’s combat engine more. The original GW2 tested out some ideas, and HoT looks like they’re refining them and building upon the original gameplay design.

Even without good instanced content, I’ll get HoT just to see what they’ve done with combat. I’ll sorely miss the experience of going into a challenge with a small group of friends and fighting our way through, carrying our own weight, feeling the satisfaction of mastering an encounter where your effort matters, etc — but experiencing some of the fights (and just seeing the bosses visually) will be a good time. Not as replayable as instanced content, but a good time nonetheless.

Colin also said that the content will make people re-evaluate their builds and gear. I posted in matt visuals comment section, “i take this as a challenge. If they can create content so hard that experienced players have to take off their berserker gear: great. But it will be so hard that skill clickers and casuals have no chance. Changing my gear would be a small price to pay for genuinely skill gated content.”

FWIW, I don’t think gear will need to be changed. Especially after we can practice it for hours and learn the mechanics. Certainly harder content requires concessions in build. Most warriors, for example, use offhand sword for lupi. Most Guardians use mainhand mace for fractal bosses. A lot of eles trait for Renewing stamina at lupi. It’s not crazy to think that people will re-trait to more defensive traits, at least at first, for truly hard content. But swapping to defensive traits AND changing to Soldier’s gear? I doubt it. Defensive gear won’t matter unless they introduce a specific Armor / HP check, and they certainly won’t resort to tactics that cheap.

My hunch is that they aren’t going to abandon the active combat system. I could see an active heal check before they do a defensive gear gate check. I could envision a boss that has a phase that had like 6 bursts of unavoidable damage equal to some fixed % of your health bar, like 33%. Enough that if you didn’t have healing beyond your own heal skill you wouldn’t survive. It would require your team having access to a water field and blast finishers for that segment, or multiple people specced to shout heals or some variation.

It wouldn’t be a gear check because defensive gear (besides clerics lol) wouldn’t make it any better. It would be a minor coordination check (“phase two starting swap to water field blast”) and a minor team comp check (you’d have to bring someone capable of generating enough healing, even if its a berserker staff ele and a sberserker thief with a shortbow). It wouldn’t shatterer the berserker meta by any means, but it would add an element where team support was essential and builds with Healing Power are at least slightly helpful.

The discussion was a good read tho – I’m a bad person..