Guild Wars 2

Some Minor Annoyances That Combine to Make GW2 Less Fun for Me

1. The “In Combat” mechanic
-Player sometimes remains “in-combat” long after all combat has ceased
-Any passive hostile ticks (such as snares, debuffs or DoTs) keep player in-combat even though all nearby enemies are dead
-The proximity of mobs who have no access to me nonetheless keeps me in combat (fish after I have climbed back to dry land, mobs on the other side of walls, etc.
-In-combat status perversely slows down players when in fact it should speed up players- ‘fear lent him wings’ … ask any combat veteran: you run MUCH faster with people shooting at you. (Yes, I realize every video game since PONG has had the same “feature,” but that doesn’t make it any less illogical, unrealistic or annoying.)
-Weapon swaps, dodge-rolls, speed-buff skills (Mesmer Sword, Guardian Staff) or any boon-casts while just running past mobs are misinterpreted as attacks, cause instant in-combat status
-Weapon swaps have zero cooldown when out of combat, yet if you swap weapons in-combat then immediately get out of combat, the remaining weapon-swap cooldown continues to tick slowly down instead of cancelling itself as soon as you get out of combat as it logically should
-Waypoints are frequently “contested” for no reason- no combat of any kind occurring anywhere nearby (example: Proxemics Lab)
-Contested waypoints are not shown as contested on other-zone maps; the only way to discover contested status is to try, and fail, to go there

2. Broken targeting
-Tab-targeting erroneously includes out of range and/or obstructed targets
-There is no way to exclude neutrals (yellows), including inanimate objects (“Centaur Equipment,” “Ogre Hut”) from Tab-targeting
-Mouse-targeting of bosses in congested fights is impossible; it invariably ends up targeting allies or trash
-There is no way to explicitly target a named mob as there is in other games (“/target Jade Maw” in chat, for example)

3. Broken Hit-Boxes
-Targets in plain view and line-of-sight, in range, are frequently labeled “obstructed” and/or “out of range” when fired at.

4. Mobs unfairly favored by “reciprocity doctrine”
-Players ranging a mob from a tree limb, rooftop or other hard-to-access spot results in mob’s health bar continuously refilling OR “invulnerable” status; only if player jumps down to where the mob can damage player is she allowed to damage the mob. This reveals an artificial “reciprocity doctrine” design requiring that player be killable by the mob before player is allowed to damage the mob.
-Despite the above-described “reciprocity doctrine,” many mobs on impossible-to-reach perches, or well out of range of player, are able to damage players.
-Therefore, the game’s “reciprocity doctrine” is inherently unfair to players and favors mobs. Players should be allowed to use terrain as a tactical advantage, just as many mobs do. We should be allowed to be Snipers when we can (and choose to), killing mobs from tree limbs, rooftops, cliffs, etc. where they can’t get to us.

5. Broken Objective Pointer
-The only objective types that can be disabled are Personal Story and Events. This means that map points will “hijack” the pointer when you are in an uncompleted zone just trying to use the pointer to find events for the dailies.
-Even in 100% completed zones, undiscovered map points or unexplored territory in adjacent zones will hijack the pointer.
-When mapping a zone, Scouts, which do not need to be discovered and which make no contribution whatsoever to map completion in most cases, hijack the pointer from indicating Points Of Interest, Waypoints, Renown Hearts and Vistas.
*Objective Pointer needs a complete overhaul, with check-boxes (similar to those in the chat windows) for what the player wants it to point to:
-Current zone only, Nearest in any zone, or both
-Pathing restriction- hide unreachable items/events/objectives (example: Ley-Line Gliding required, only accessible during 15-minute window after successful Tarir event, etc.)
-Personal Story
-Events (with “Hide broken events” exclusion filter)
-Map completion items- Points of Interest, Waypoints, Vistas & Hearts ONLY (no Scouts)
-Scouts (separate category because they are NOT required for map completion)
-Unexplored territory
-Gathering Nodes (what a concept!)

6. My Revenant is no fun to play after the novelty wore off
(NOTE: this is based on MY PvE-only experience. Others may have found a better build that mitigates some or all of my problems with the profession, and, of course, others undoubtedly know how to play their Revenants better than I do. Also, I have not yet maxed out her Elite Specialization, so she may eventually improve, but it’s so un-fun to play her that I dread grinding to the Elite Spec… so I just don’t play her any more.)
-My Revenant seems to be a very poor Jack (actually, a Jill) of all trades but Master (Mistress) of none
-She cannot deal damage commensurate with her level (80) and equipment (all Exotics with Ascended trinkets) even in “lowbie” zones where my other 80s melt everything in sight while reading the Tyria Daily Bugle with one hand
-She is by far the squishiest Heavy Armor wearer I have ever played. Both my Guardian and Warrior take FAR less damage than my Revenant in comparable situations. She is usually down to 50% health or less after EVERY fight, even in level 30-60 zones. Against multiple mobs, her best bet is try to get one down before she dies, then WP rally and come back to kill the other one(s). By the time she’s got them all, the first ones have respawned. Just stunningly un-fun.
-Her ranged attacks (Hammer) are pitifully weak; her melée attacks (dual swords) aren’t much better except for Sword 3
-After she springs into her Sword 3 “flurry” attack (Demon Stance, “Phase Smash” or something like that) she just stands there getting killed and has to be kick-started to begin her auto-attack. 0.o
-Her healing skills seem far weaker than those of my Guardian. My Elementalist in Water does better.
-Unlike other professions (I have at least one level 80 of every profession) she has no passive run-speed boost (signet, skill, build perk) available other than equipping Traveler’s Runes, which seems inappropriate for a Revenant. This slo-mo shuffle makes map completion a real drag.

I’m trying hard to think of anything about playing my Revenant that is fun for me, and I still come up with- nothing.
EDIT to add: I thought of something I like about my Revenant! Her hairdo is really cute. That’s about it.

I have found my setup for revenant quite effective, however quite boring. Herald seems to push you into an ‘auto-attack’ only mode. I activate my facets that give me might, fury, and either swiftness or regen, putting me at a 0 energy gain, and run through using attack 1. I hit hard, very hard, but it gets pretty monotonous after a while.

I can’t speak on the revenant but agree on the other points, especially the combat slow-down and the strange ways in which you can be put in combat when there’s no discernable reason for being in combat. I raised a post on NSS before where this happens a lot.

1. Agree with some of these.

I disagree that we should move faster in combat.

I disagree that you seem to think condis should disappear once the applier is dead(?).

I disagree with the comments about boons turning on in-combat status, that only happens when say you drop a symbol on the ground to get swiftness and then a mob walks on the symbol. Other than that it has never been an issue and that’s more about you needing to learn where to place your symbols than anything else.

2 & 3. Agreed

4. Agree with the problem, disagree with the solution. Mobs should not be able to damage us when we can’t reach them.

5. No opinion.

6. Haven’t had enough time with my Rev to really comment, but the numerous revs that have wrecked me in sPvP and WvW would probably disagree with you. Also fairly sure Heralds can get perma swiftness.

Taigen Raine.8752:

I have found my setup for revenant quite effective, however quite boring. Herald seems to push you into an ‘auto-attack’ only mode. I activate my facets that give me might, fury, and either swiftness or regen, putting me at a 0 energy gain, and run through using attack 1. I hit hard, very hard, but it gets pretty monotonous after a while.

As I mentioned, I haven’t reached “Herald” with her yet. I don’t have any facet that gives me (continuous) swiftness, which is one of my main complaints with the profession.

Could you share your (pre-Herald) PvE grinding build and weapon sets that make your Rev “quite effective?”?

Nate.3927:

I disagree that you seem to think condis should disappear once the applier is dead(?).

How did you get that from what I wrote? That’s not it at all. My point is that the game erroneously conflates “I am being damaged” with “I am in combat.” My issue is with the in-combat status, not the post-mortem DoTs still ticking.

Nate.3927:

I disagree with the comments about boons turning on in-combat status, that only happens when say you drop a symbol on the ground to get swiftness and then a mob walks on the symbol. Other than that it has never been an issue and that’s more about you needing to learn where to place your symbols than anything else.

Ahh, you lectured me authoritatively, but then didn’t call me Grasshopper.
My experience using swiftness skills is not consistent with your statement. In addition to my Mesmer’s Focus 4 and my Guardian Staff swiftness symbol, both of which MUST be placed on the ground directly in front of me or they are useless, rendering it highly unlikely that I somehow hit a mob with one of them, I often get thrust into combat using my Guardian’s “Retreat” shout for swiftness. I have also been placed into combat using my Ranger’s Warhorn 5 Call of the Wild “shout.” Shouts are not “placed” anywhere. So your statement that I “need to learn where to place my symbols” is neither correct nor applicable.

Nate.3927:

the numerous revs that have wrecked me in sPvP and WvW would probably disagree with you.

Thank you for reminding me that I neglected to preface my comments with the fact that everything I said is related to PvE, not WvWvW or PvP.

Nate.3927:

fairly sure Heralds can get perma swiftness.

Obviously, I should’ve found a clearer way to say that I have not reached Herald yet with my Revenant, other than what I actually wrote, which is that I have not reached Herald yet with my Revenant. >.<

Lolyta.4582:

How did you get that from what I wrote? That’s not it at all. My point is that the game erroneously conflates “I am being damaged” with “I am in combat.” My issue is with the in-combat status, not the post-mortem DoTs still ticking.

snip the rest

Being damaged = in combat, damaging others = in combat. That is a simple rule that must remain in place. If that wasn’t the case then I can easily run through most anything at full speed, avoiding all mobs.

Couple things about your examples:

1. Retreat gives you aegis. The large majority of guardians I know have a trait or a rune that damages/hurts enemies in some way when their aegis is broken or when they block an attack. Check your trait setup. Most likely a mob hit you and got burned or damaged in some way.

2. Your symbols can cause you to get in combat after you’ve already walked past and the symbol is still there and a mob steps on it. Same with mesmer focus 4 since that one cripples.

3. Ranger is not a good example as pets do randomly attack stuff if you have a mob targeted or get attacked by stuff since they draw a lot of aggro running around like that. Warhorn 5 on ranger is also a blast finisher. It’s not at all unlikely that you accidentally blasted something which damaged/hurt a nearby mob.

Your complaint is that Rev can’t do much damage and is squishy. That’s not limited to PvE, especially considering WvW uses the same gear as PvE. And a lot of your specific examples are actually stuff that other people complain are too OP about the Rev. Have you seen the complaints about OP revenant hammer is? Or how OP the heal is?

You said you’re level 80 and that you play PvE which means you have at least some extra hero points that can only be spent on Herald and nothing else. Facet of Elements doesn’t require a full unlock of Herald.

Also Mesmers didn’t get a semi reliable movement speed boost until the trait revamp. And a reliable one only with Chronomancer. You would know this if you played Mesmer, this problem isn’t unique to Revenant. As I said in the rest of my original post I do agree with a lot of what you’re saying, only pointing out the problems with some of them.