Guild Wars 2

So, in the POI today it was revealed that Stability will now be stackable (akin to Blinds as it was put) instead of duration.

I don’t PVP or WVW (anymore) so in my PVE world I see no reason for the change. Why not make this a PVP only thing? Seems like I would want Stability to act as it currently does rather than stacking like Blinds.

Why make this asinine change?

I think they’re trying to avoid the hassle of balancing PvE and PvP separately, a la GW1, as much as possible anyway. I’d applaud them on that effort, if it wasn’t so futile.

It’s a pretty good change for sPvP, since it introduces more strategy to the boon, but it’s probably going to be pretty rough in PvE, where I’m sure we will quickly find the points in the game that were never designed to work with stability like that.

I mised the stream can someone explain the change?

Stackable meaning….? it gets removed like stacks of defiance off bosses when they are hit with a stun?

Mireles Lore.5942:

I mised the stream can someone explain the change?

Stackable meaning….? it gets removed like stacks of defiance off bosses when they are hit with a stun?

It’s very, very similar to this: http://wildstaronline.wikia.com/wiki/Interrupt_Armor

So like defiance stacks?

I hope that they’re going to introduce nice ways of stacking it. Because in Spvp 5v5 it’s not uncommon to see every team capable of outputting at least 5 to 8 stuns.

some classes will be OP if they change stability….

Lazaar.9123:

Mireles Lore.5942:

I mised the stream can someone explain the change?

Stackable meaning….? it gets removed like stacks of defiance off bosses when they are hit with a stun?

It’s very, very similar to this: http://wildstaronline.wikia.com/wiki/Interrupt_Armor

Thanks…. I assume thier logic for this was “more counter play?”

I am still waiting for them to give “revealed” to the rest of the classes for more stealth counter play…

ow if stability will only have a few stacks then instead of full duration… WvW zerg fights will be annoying

Considering the amount of CCs and lack of immunity timers like some other MMOs this change makes no sense…

Logically it’ll have similar up-time to blind then. Like instead of just getting it for like, 1/5th uptime like we have now, it’ll be something on a low cooldown, possibly even with 100% uptime (But removed on each hit) like you can do with blind.

I’m guessing they probably aren’t going to do that though.

The change is for the best.
less stacking I hoppe

It depends. If it works like defiance stacks and have no duration time (so it means if you have one stack you have it until you get CC’d or log off), then I’m fine with the change, since you could still stack up 25 stacks stability in preparation to the fight if needed. If it also has duration-time, then it sucks though

Sasuke.2573:

It depends. If it works like defiance stacks and have no duration time (so it means if you have one stack you have it until you get CC’d or log off), then I’m fine with the change, since you could still stack up 25 stacks stability in preparation to the fight if needed. If it also has duration-time, then it sucks though

It does have a duration.

Oh, great, so that means when I pop stability to avoid getting bounced around like a basketball by three modrem teragriffs charging at the same time, it’s going to be useless because it works only once?

Pandaman.4758:

Oh, great, so that means when I pop stability to avoid getting bounced around like a basketball by three modrem teragriffs charging at the same time, it’s going to be useless because it works only once?

Or just interrupt their charges with movement conditions.

Sorry, I’m a little bit sensitive when it comes to tips on terragriffs.
(cooldown)
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(cooldown)
What about the professions that have no bread nor cake?

I would assume a specific skill like Balanced Stance might be changed to something like ’you’re immune to CC for X seconds’ and maybe have the duration slightly reduced. That is the point of this specific skill after all.

With that said, I still think this will be an interesting change to stability and will add some nice opportunities for some epic saves in PvP from ‘stab stomps’. Downed player uses their rupt to peel the stack of stability so necro ally can fear or Mesmer hits with Diversion etc. I think we all know the players are gonna come up with interesting uses of new mechanics that the Devs won’t anticipate and game balance will be out the window for the first couple weeks or so. Necro+Mallyx Revenant duo condi bombs anyone? :/

Hmmm, this plus the coming Taunt hints to me that we are going to see a rework of CCs, or at least of all the stability giving skills. Running 15 Hammer Warrs at the front of a WvW Zerg is too effective already, I can’t see ANet just tossing in Taunt for an additional CC, then nerfing stability on top so this tactic becomes even better (I still question the wisdom of giving any class an AOE stun on a 10s CD, but that’s another thing).

While control and debilitating effects are a great element for gameplay, outright stunlocking isn’t fun for anyone. Unfortunately, ANet seems to have some sort of great attraction to stunlock mechanics (Aetherblades, Teragriff charge spam).

Let’s hope we see some more details soon, I want to have faith in ANet that there is an overall plan here, but I also can’t help but worry some.

Lazaar.9123:

Pandaman.4758:

Oh, great, so that means when I pop stability to avoid getting bounced around like a basketball by three modrem teragriffs charging at the same time, it’s going to be useless because it works only once?

Or just interrupt their charges with movement conditions.

I haven’t found that to be terribly reliable, don’t know if it’s lag or what, but often I find they can continue charging through cripple AoEs for a second (long enough to bounce me out) before registering and that anti-projectile cloud they throw up also renders a lot of weapon cripple skills (rifle, shortbow, longbow) useless.

Stability is pretty much the only way I can survive if one catches me off guard, ignores my attempts to cripple it, or pegs me with their oversized hit-boxes while in mid-dodge.

This most likely means that most stability skills will give several stacks.

Everything else would turn the game into a pure cc and burst mess.

It’s going to be one use only, just so on the new jp , oops I mean wvw map with multiple ledges chain fearing necros will rule with the only class not affected being revenants….

It was mentioned that it will happen in an update that is sooner than “we” think. I would assume that means the change will happen sometime this upcoming week as the Chinese New Year event winds down or sometime next month.

I don’t like the implications of this change. I can imagine the number of stacks being tied to the current duration of each skill i.e. “Stand your ground” granting 3-5 stacks, while Rampage as one grants 15-20.

My guardian is going to be sorely disappointed by this change, though “Stand your ground” might still be one of the best stun breakers in the game.

Im 100% ok with the change. it will make it better for wvw and pvp.

If you can gain multiple stacks and each CC removes a stack then it is not actually like blind …

Yeah Blind is a terrible comparison and I don’t see the connection at all tbh.

Time to set your skill bar to all stunbreakers.

Depending on how they balance the stack per skill/recharge they may have to start adjusting the recharges of the hard control skills. Sounds like it going to be similar to whole Dhummfire style of balancing. All so Revevants can gain stability on dodge.

Mireles Lore.5942:

I mised the stream can someone explain the change?

Just FYI.

All of GW2’s twitch streams are immediately available on demand after streaming on Twitch TV. Go to the GW2 chanel’s profile page and select past broadcasts from the video list at the bottom. This stream is (at least currently) is found here.
http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/627401366
If you can’t view Anet’s streams live, you can still get it on demand from their twitch channel (even before it is uploaded to youtube).

blakdoxa.7520:

Time to set your skill bar to all stunbreakers.

I thought that was the standard setup for PvP/WvW already?

There is always in every game some portion of the population that only plays PvE, has no regard for balance, and is vehement that nothing gets nerfed every under any circumstances.

In the Guild Wars world, where they’ve split skills in the past, this usually comes as a cry for the skill to be split, so that the part of the game they care about will never see nerfs.

This thread is another one of those.

An idea for this new stability change, the earth field and earth aura:

- blasting earth field gives 1 stack of stability aoe
- leaping through earth field gives earth aura
- projectile finisher breaks stuns of allies it passes through
- whirl finisher shoots projectile bolts

Earth aura: when struck gain protection for 1 second (cooldown of 1 second per attacker)

Orangensaft.7139:

ow if stability will only have a few stacks then instead of full duration… WvW zerg fights will be annoying

First thing that came to mind was Anet is trying to put less of an emphasis on blob’n. This sounds like a good thing for WvW.

Mix this with resistance, slow, taunt peels, and these new spread out multiple combo hit weapon abilities and we could start to see a very different experience in WvW tactics.

or not, but I hope so.

Yet again, an answer to a question nobody asked.

This is designed solely to break Hammer Trains.

actually, it’s really good for PvE too, there are plenty of monsters that can’t be KD/KB and are immune to any interrupt.
this change makes sure that when such an enemy can KB/KD a player they can do something about it, just try to attack centaurs when you just got KD, i was ones KD 3X in a row and there was nothing i could do about it.

Trajan.4953:

Yet again, an answer to a question nobody asked.

This is designed solely to break Hammer Trains.

No it’s not. Arenanet doesn’t even consider balance changes in WvW. Balance changes are made solely for pvp.

I’d like to know how they are going to handle this with certain elite’s that are suppose to give a CC immunity.

sorudo.9054:

actually, it’s really good for PvE too, there are plenty of monsters that can’t be KD/KB and are immune to any interrupt.
this change makes sure that when such an enemy can KB/KD a player they can do something about it, just try to attack centaurs when you just got KD, i was ones KD 3X in a row and there was nothing i could do about it.

You can do something about it, you can pop stability and wouldn’t have to worry about knockspam for a few seconds. Doesn’t matter if it was one or a hundred, you’d stay upright, but with this change you’d only stay upright for however many stacks of stability you have.

And at the risk of sounding cynical, ANet probably isn’t going to apply this to all the mobs. It’s likely going to be a mechanic only for bosses and mobs in the HoT maps, because if ANet was going to be consistent about mob and status mechanics they wouldn’t have made mobs who were immune to knock despite not having Defiance in the first place.

I dont like this change at all. Feels like it’s just going to make the whole CC/stability thing more spammy.

Suddenly, one answer to stability is not to play around it, but to just spam more CC and eventually youll get through.

Also, i seriously hope they tone down those kittening mordrem teragriffs then. So the hitbox isnt that ridiculous and the charge has far less hits.

And at the risk of sounding cynical, ANet probably isn’t going to apply this to all the mobs. It’s likely going to be a mechanic only for bosses and mobs in the HoT maps, because if ANet was going to be consistent about mob and status mechanics they wouldn’t have made mobs who were immune to knock despite not having Defiance in the first place.

Also, they wouldnt have given mobs CC attacks that dont give a kitten about stability. Consistency is definitely not something Anet is capable of.

Ensign.2189:

There is always in every game some portion of the population that only plays PvE, has no regard for balance, and is vehement that nothing gets nerfed every under any circumstances.

I’m very much surprised you are still around.

And this isn’t a matter of “OMG, let’s never nerf PvE!”. It’s a very big change on the way the game works, and everything we have today has not been built to work with stability being different from what it currently is. If ArenaNet went back and reworked the current encounters in the game that rely mostly on enemies using CC on players, then it would be ok – it could actually be a good thing.

But let’s be realistic, ArenaNet will NEVER go back to each PvE encounter that they have based around monsters using CC and rework them. They will see it as being too much work, and leave behind broken scenarions in which we have a round key to fit into a now square hole.

This is made worse by how ArenaNet often uses CC effects from monsters as a crutch for when they want to spice up a fight, but have no idea of how to do it. Just see how Orr is basically a sea of CC effects, or how many of the season 2 encounters relied on CC from monsters, and so on.

After years of building a game in which CC on players is their default answer when trying to spice an encounter, changing how CC on players works without changing those encounters is not going to work.

I’m a Thief and don’t know what stability is so I like this change.

This may be good step against mindless CC spam working if stability lasts enough and skills provide enough stacks on their own (otherwise it’ll just make CC spam work even better), but I still think any changes regarding control effects would work better along autobalance mechanics that kick in when things are spammed too much, too mindlesly within very little time.

The game overall needs to be less friendly towards button-mashers and make positioning and timing more relevant.

Anyone running in circles like a headless chicken spamming stuff randomly should go down as fast as one.

I wonder if engineers will see a comeback of the original Juggernaut trait (it gave stability, 200 toughness and halved movement speed while using flamethrower back then).

At least using the flamethrower would have some meaning…

Test.8734:

Ensign.2189:

There is always in every game some portion of the population that only plays PvE, has no regard for balance, and is vehement that nothing gets nerfed every under any circumstances.

I’m very much surprised you are still around.

And this isn’t a matter of “OMG, let’s never nerf PvE!”. It’s a very big change on the way the game works, and everything we have today has not been built to work with stability being different from what it currently is. If ArenaNet went back and reworked the current encounters in the game that rely mostly on enemies using CC on players, then it would be ok – it could actually be a good thing.

But let’s be realistic, ArenaNet will NEVER go back to each PvE encounter that they have based around monsters using CC and rework them. They will see it as being too much work, and leave behind broken scenarions in which we have a round key to fit into a now square hole.

This is made worse by how ArenaNet often uses CC effects from monsters as a crutch for when they want to spice up a fight, but have no idea of how to do it. Just see how Orr is basically a sea of CC effects, or how many of the season 2 encounters relied on CC from monsters, and so on.

After years of building a game in which CC on players is their default answer when trying to spice an encounter, changing how CC on players works without changing those encounters is not going to work.

While I don’t disagree with your point that devs shouldn’t rely too heavily on enemy cc to spice things up, I feel like they aren’t just looking at PVE design with this change. It certainly affects PVP a lot in terms of safe stomping specifically. If you listened to the recent POI, it sounded like they felt this change to stability and the new resistance boon, etc. gives them more tools to make encounters in PVE more interesting. So, with new encounters especially, I think we will see just where exactly they feel stab should play a role. I also don’t think that we should expect a huge revamp to pve enemies (i.e. risen), but I also think the Orr example is a bit exaggerated. Stability has only ever been one tool in avoiding multiple CC attempts. There are blocks, dodges, blinds and simple repositioning. The effectiveness of each requires some level of situational awareness. I think this change simply moves the numbers around a bit in terms of how effective stability is. I personally don’t think it’s a bad thing even in older pve scenarios. You also have to take into account that we are getting new tools to address older scenarios as well such as resistance.

In WvW we need a counter against hammer spam warriors in front line of zergs. This change will make WvW players spam even more ccs.
A diminishing returns/immunity to cc system should be added for WvW zerg fights first before a stability nerf.
I actually hate “stunlock for easy win” mechanic in mmorpgs, and I hope they nerf ccs instead of stability.

Well running past all the mobs in dungeons just got harder.

I approve of this change and look forward to it.

Marthkus.4615:

Well running past all the mobs in dungeons just got harder.

I approve of this change and look forward to it.

Um… good teams just stealth or dodge.

Ensign.2189:

There is always in every game some portion of the population that only plays PvE, has no regard for balance, and is vehement that nothing gets nerfed every under any circumstances.

In the Guild Wars world, where they’ve split skills in the past, this usually comes as a cry for the skill to be split, so that the part of the game they care about will never see nerfs.

This thread is another one of those.

I do believe that can be said about the population that play PvP even more so. The only difference being is that they always cry out for nerfs to other classes only to advance themselves and their cause.

Comparing PvE complaints to the constant drone of PvP whiners is like comparing a dictionary to a sticky note.

But you are entitled to your opinion.

Oh . . . I think I’m all for this change. Expect many tears from players who win by knocking you off a cliff.

Page fix again. . . .