Guild Wars 2

Dear Devs, dear Robert Hrouda,

Highjacked from Robert Hrouda in another thread:

That being said, of the light/medium armor sets I play (I won’t even bring guardian or warrior into the fight since we all know they don’t have too much trouble in melee) I actually have an easier time on my mesmer in Melee than my ranger… due purely to how well a melee mesmer can mitigate damage and control. I don’t do as much damage, but I can survive with warriors and guardians for the most part.

You do make it sound as if you play this game, besides developing it. That is great. I have a question then: have you ever played through the uncategorized fractal at higher levels? Have you ever puged it (as in: went with random people without revealing you are a Dev?) Did you enjoy those runs?

The reason I’m asking is from my experience, I would say this one single place probably generates more hatred to the developing team, your company and life in general than all the other aspects of this game combined. I honestly cannot remember a run in which people wouldn’t swear and say things that would be rather impolite to repeat publicly in this forum. The place makes people scream, and there are a couple of reasons for this. Let me name a few.

- harpies lightning balls randomly flying through walls of reflection and other projectile control effects as if they were thin air,

- harpies lightning balls hitting random places with no warning at all (the elusive invisible red circle),

- the cream of the cream, the mechanic that slows down people and makes them unable to jump properly when in combat.

The first two things just require some fixing, there is not much to add here. Let me just point out this is a rather horrible place for placing red circles, as on some of the smaller platforms you can hardly see them, especially if you play a larger size character. But let’s elaborate a bit on my third point. This is, by far, the most idiotic and annoying mechanic I have ever encountered in any mmo. And believe me I have played quite a few. I have no clue why you introduced it, I do not know if it does serve a hidden purpose or not, but whatever were your reasons the same goal could be achieved by something that actually makes sense and doesn’t regularly infuriate your player base. Slowing down in combat doesn’t make any sense at all. Oh the stress, someone is aiming at me! I don’t even know who and where, but I will stop jumping in mid air and fall to my death. Seriously, how stupid is that? If you want to make some jumps hard, add cripple effects to the mobs in that area. The code is already there, there is nothing simpler than that. At least we could see the cripple effect and try to counter it. The slow in combat mechanic is extremely annoying because its invisible, hits you when you least expect it, and lacks any logic. I honestly cannot think of any added value from having this mechanic in the game, the only thing it seems to do is make people go mad.

Have mercy, fix that place one way or another. You promised a serious review of the dungeons this year. It’s a good place to start.

I think a lot of other mmos actually make you run slower in combat. Think of it this way, they designed the combat to work in certain run speed, and then decided to give you a speed boost out of combat, so you can explore places faster.

I agree on the red circle part though. Maybe if it had more visible cues, like the whirling wind+lightning thing in the snow fractal that knocks you down at the end, it would be a lot easier to read. Red circles in tiny platforms or Lightning balls with bright sky as a background are not really easy to see. Also, I wish they took the same amount of travel time regardless of how close you are to the harpies, so you have enough time to respond even when you are using skills with shorter range.

Looks like you don’t like to play challenging games. I used to laugh there whenever i failed.
Anyway after some time everything becomes predictable, where to stand, when to pay attention to those knocking down projectiles and just be more careful while jumping in combat mode.

MarsNobu.3412:

Looks like you don’t like to play challenging games. I used to laugh there whenever i failed.

I’ve main tanked on WoW for 2 years throughout all the endgame content of two expansions, at the time this was still challenging. So yes, I like challenging games. What I don’t like is flawed mechanics and buggy content, which is the case here.

Yid.3024:

I think a lot of other mmos actually make you run slower in combat. Think of it this way, they designed the combat to work in certain run speed, and then decided to give you a speed boost out of combat, so you can explore places faster.

Some maybe, none of those I played did though. But more importantly, to my knowledge in no other mmo jumping played such an important role as in GW2. The slower running would be almost unnoticeable if it didn’t make you fail jumps that often.

Never have seen any bugged lightning balls.

Ive never seen them glitch past my wall of reflection. It must be the positioning of the wall, I guess you might not be aware that at certain angles, projectiles can actually pass over the wall, and hit the team (Example: SE P1 Triple Golem Part has shot over wall and hit my team)

In a way, it seems this purpospely was designed so you couldnt easily see the red circles to make it more challenging. You have to react VERY quickly, most of the time I cant even do it but it is possible if I were super focused.

Makes you re-utilty your build for this part. If your not asking your teammates for reflects, stability etc, you should

Without the knockbacks, this level would be wayyyyy to easy. As it is, it is still easy, just very costly on repairs, and takes longer due to frequent downs/deaths.

The decreased movement while in combat has been inherent since ….as long as I can remember. Its not a bug. Use swiftness or wait to kill the harpy till you jump if its a issue. Also you might not realize, the harpies CRIPPLE in mid air and there is nothing you can do if your in mid jump. If your crippled, you dont jump as far and you fall.

It falsely inflates the time to finish the fractal and it sucks. It’s not fun or challenging, it’s just frustrating and annoying. It’s like getting caught or traffic or getting stuck in mud on your way to work. It’s not more difficult getting to work, it’s just takes longer and is extremely frustrating.

Agreed Travosaga, but what is the alternative because if they changed this it would “Nerf” the entire fractal imo. I feel it could be changed, but only if they tweaked other areas to “make up” for the nerf. Until it has a reasonble buff idea in place, I dont think it can be made easier without turning this fractal into a joke, as like you said, its not challenging or hard, just frustrating.. long..etc..

For me, part of my annoyance of this fractal is the fact the harpies can and do often go invuln. To the point where I actually chased one down and stood next to it on it’s ledge and it still came up invuln, obviously does not happen all of the time but when t does it can be highly annoying.

JJBigs.8456:

Ive never seen them glitch past my wall of reflection. It must be the positioning of the wall, I guess you might not be aware that at certain angles, projectiles can actually pass over the wall, and hit the team (Example: SE P1 Triple Golem Part has shot over wall and hit my team)

Happened to me a couple times (playing a guard as well). I am aware the positioning is key here and sometimes a ball can hit you from above where no wall will help, but what seems to be happening is the projectile’s hit or miss result is being determined as soon as it fires, and not when it actually hits. If you place the wall once a ball is fired but before it hits the ground below you, the ball will go right through it. Happened to me twice on a recent run, ball was going straight through it, and I wasn’t the only one seeing this clearly – the whole team was, in fact.

travosaga.6089:

It falsely inflates the time to finish the fractal and it sucks. It’s not fun or challenging, it’s just frustrating and annoying. It’s like getting caught or traffic or getting stuck in mud on your way to work. It’s not more difficult getting to work, it’s just takes longer and is extremely frustrating.

That basically sums up my feelings on the matter as well. I don’t feel any added challenge in here, I don’t feel there is much room for improvement of my skills other than remembering by hearth the places where the harpies don’t see you and you can safely (albeit slowly) aoe them to death, that is until they go invulnerable of course. It’s just a long and painfully frustrating experience, and simply not fun.

Seeing all this commentary just makes me want to say one thing – learn to strafe. The lightning balls will stray wildly and their rapid fire will miss at 900~ish range.