Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

Scott Hartsman, who was the lead developer of Rift said, and I’m paraphrasing here, anyone making an MMO who ignores solo players does so at his own risk.

Yes, risk. That’s exactly what we need in the genre, this video explains it perfectly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvK8fua6O64

Vayne.8563:

The fact is, you don’t get to tell people how to play the game or whether they should or not. So many people solo in these games, that saying they should go back to a single player game means taking a huge chunk out of the play base. Is that what you think would be best for the game?

You misunderstand my point. I’m not arguing that soloing shouldn’t exist, I’m arguing that it should be properly prioritised. Unlike in GW2, where the monsters dwell apart and far from one another with no group aggro and where you solo no matter what. When 5 people go into a dungeon they go in kitten ‘soloers’ that each try and individually squeeze out as much DPS as they can.

A good example of co operation in GW2 would be the part of the Uncategorised Fractal where 2 players have to supply the batteries and 1 player activates the fan. Likewise in the Dredge Fractal. But the problem is that this co operation comes from a minigame of sort and does not stem from the combat system itself, which does not and cannot, due to its flaws, contain such interaction.

Pariah.8506:

Vayne.8563:

Scott Hartsman, who was the lead developer of Rift said, and I’m paraphrasing here, anyone making an MMO who ignores solo players does so at his own risk.

Yes, risk. That’s exactly what we need in the genre, this video explains it perfectly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvK8fua6O64

Vayne.8563:

The fact is, you don’t get to tell people how to play the game or whether they should or not. So many people solo in these games, that saying they should go back to a single player game means taking a huge chunk out of the play base. Is that what you think would be best for the game?

You misunderstand my point. I’m not arguing that soloing shouldn’t exist, I’m arguing that it should be properly prioritised. Unlike in GW2, where the monsters dwell apart and far from one another with no group aggro and where you solo no matter what. When 5 people go into a dungeon they go in kitten ‘soloers’ that each try and individually squeeze out as much DPS as they can.

A good example of co operation in GW2 would be the part of the Uncategorised Fractal where 2 players have to supply the batteries and 1 player activates the fan. Likewise in the Dredge Fractal. But the problem is that this co operation comes from a minigame of sort and does not stem from the combat system itself, which does not and cannot, due to its flaws, contain such interaction.

Oh, I agree, there should be more content that requires teamwork…but I don’t think it should be in the open world, that’s all.

the fact is in this game (i played for a while today after 3 weeks of not logging) the combat feels like a kitten everytime, you are constantly feared, knocked back or down, pulled, immobilized and crippled. removing condition against some mobs like krait is a waste of utility since you are always under some condition and potentially even a sparkfly can kill you. can you do the same to them with same efficacy? no you can’t!
i feel everytime i play this game that i’m punished for playing it.
and above all this every new update make it worse combat wise (see new tequatl, i don’t feel like it is a challenge but i feel like i’m hated from the devs). and when you don’t fight you have to press f from 30 (ie hunt the dragon) to 150 (ie dragon bash pinattas) times in order to complete some arbitrary achievement (like the fact that we search for clue about dragons after a year we fight them…).

so i played today but it was so frustrating and boring and raging (i guess this is why we play a game? to be enraged and kitten d?)

I have yet to see an elementalist mob uses Ride the Lightning+Updraft+Shocking Aura+Switch to Water+Frost Aura. This is a very simple and affective combo.

Stuff like this makes the mob AI relevant.

Easy loots. bad ai is the best ai for easy loots.

RoRo.8270:

Vayne.8563:

Draco.2806:

“Our data suggests that very few players play as mobs, therefore improving them is low on our priority list.”

I would say the offender here would be the fact that good AI costs server power, but isn’t AI server-side in GW1 as well?..

(I haven’t played much of GW1, but why does it sound so much better than the sequel in many ways?)

Guild Wars 1 was a superior game in some ways, this is true..but not quite as superior as many of those who are commenting would have you believe…and yes, I was a huge fan of Guild Wars 1, and still find it enjoyable on the rare occasions I log back in. But there are many deficiencies in the game as well, that some people seem to ignore.

Well gw1 was released around 8 yrs ago you would think they would improve upon stuff

Except now a days people want better graphics, which is a resource hog. If you have massive AI scripts, particle effects and huge battles going on all at the same time it doesn’t matter how high end your PC is on max setting it’ll begin to lag/freeze.

Ai scripts are prehaps the biggest cause of lag issues in this instance because the computer is processing so many of them.

Draco.2806:

“Our data suggests that very few players play as mobs, therefore improving them is low on our priority list.”

“Our data suggests that very few people are suseptable to/have the bubonic plague, therefore treating them is low on our priority list.”

Vayne.8563:

Nuka Cola.8520:

It is worst. I think they’re using some AI from a game released in the 70’s or something. But then you look at gw1 and that game was better at everything compared to gw2 so yeaah. At the same time, this kind of AI and lag (how many games currently released drop to 10fps?) are unseen for a game that was released so recently.

Everything? Like the marketplace that didn’t exist? The bridge bug where you couldn’t fire arrows at something on a bridge? The lack of crafting (if you like crafting Guild Wars 1 certainly wasn’t better).

Everything about Guild Wars 1 wasn’t better than everything in Guild Wars 2.

Lol crafting. Do you mean that ridiculous mini game that is forced on you so that you would hopefully buy money in order to craft ascended gear?
Before ascended gear crafting was completly useless except for leveling up your character (or very rarely making little money from tp). Now its a crappy, boring mini game that you have to play if you want competitive gear.

The bridge bug where you couldn’t fire arrows at something on a bridge?

This “obstructed” bug is quite persistent in gw2 as well.

Like the marketplace that didn’t exist?

At least it had no taxes. The classic trading system was in a way, more interesting for the casual trader as well.

Master of Timespace.2548:

Vayne.8563:

Nuka Cola.8520:

It is worst. I think they’re using some AI from a game released in the 70’s or something. But then you look at gw1 and that game was better at everything compared to gw2 so yeaah. At the same time, this kind of AI and lag (how many games currently released drop to 10fps?) are unseen for a game that was released so recently.

Everything? Like the marketplace that didn’t exist? The bridge bug where you couldn’t fire arrows at something on a bridge? The lack of crafting (if you like crafting Guild Wars 1 certainly wasn’t better).

Everything about Guild Wars 1 wasn’t better than everything in Guild Wars 2.

Lol crafting. Do you mean that ridiculous mini game that is forced on you so that you would hopefully buy money in order to craft ascended gear?
Before ascended gear crafting was completly useless except for leveling up your character (or very rarely making little money from tp). Now its a crappy, boring mini game that you have to play if you want competitive gear.

Kind of off topic…

But without a durability system that causes your gear to be eventually be unusable and unrepairable, crafting in most games is “pointless” at endgame.

GW2 crafting being usable as an extremely effective method of leveling up is probably one of the best utilization in a game that does NOT have a system that renders your gear unsustainable.

Also, cooking, bag crafting, and consumable crafting is a very good way of making money if you know which ones are most popular. Hell, I made 7 gold profit making potions of undead slaying (strong and potent) since the tequatl event started.

Also, from GW1, I loved trapping on a bridge and hitting people UNDER the bridge. That was fun.

However, being scammed in Spamadan was never fun.

Amadan.9451:

you are constantly feared, knocked back or down, pulled, immobilized and crippled. removing condition against some mobs like krait is a waste of utility since you are always under some condition and potentially even a sparkfly can kill you.

It is annoying and tbh it feels more like you are fighting harder to keep/regain control of your character than you are actually fighting the monsters.

I agree with the OP GW2 AI needs work. But are there factors for this reason that we as the players are unaware of ? Do we assume it was because the dervs didn’t put the time/effort into creating more intelligent AI or was it due to technical limits that may cause lag for example or was it do to the lack of trinity? I have no idea but it is true the AI is lacking for what you would expect from a “new 2012 released MMO”. I too was a longtime GW1 player (almost 6 yrs now) and I agree GW1 was better in allot of ways. Its really sad they didn’t bring more of Guildwars 1 into Guildwars 2; looking at you Guildhalls, GvG, Hall of Heros PvP, More Build options, Storyline, Lore Depth, guild alliances to name a few but it is not better in every aspect. You have to be objective when comparing GW1 with 7+ years of content / updates too GW2 with only 1 year plus. In my opinion it all comes down to player expectations of what was marketed as a new and vastly improved Guildwars 2 over Guildwars 1. Which has failed some of us ArenaNet fans in relation to what we expected and what was delivered. As an example, I was in a 900 member alliance in GW1 with many longtime players that waited 5 years for GW2. Most came to GW2 (200+ at least) and there are 3 of us left playing after 1 year. That’s my personal example, I am sure there is many other examples of this from disappointed GW1 players. I do enjoy parts of this game (WvsW but lately O.o hmm) but it sure does not hold my interest as Guildwars did, anyways I am off topic. AI sure could use some love when it comes to their skill sets / evades / mob team work. With that said I think there is allot more important areas to improve, end game for one.

Ok I Did It.2854:

Like Vayne said, GW1 was a superior game, I personally feel it was a better game than GW2, it did have its issues sure, but overall it was a far far more enjoyable game, hell it kept me and my friends playing it for 7 years, the same friends who have all abandoned GW2 for other games now because of lack of content, game breaking bugs, and basically being told how to play, and this week the rest of us will move over to FF14 to join our friends,

If GW1 and GW2 where both released at the same time, same GFX etc, GW1 would destroy GW2.

I don’t see how anyone could have any doubt about that. GW1 kept so many of us happy, they didn’t have to use the tricks that GW2 is using to keep people playing. Sure it had it’s issues, but compared to gw2 it was so much better in my opinion. The only reason I still log into GW2 is the hope that at some point they will bring the team from GW1 over and just give them control. Then maybe they can work their magic on this game.

I wish Anet would realize how much they did right with GW1. I spent money there and never once felt bad about it. I would run the same stuff over again in hard mode because for some reason it didn’t feel so bad. The only “grind” was self imposed for a particular look. It had nothing to do with stats because I could get a max stat item so easily.

I, probably like most, realize that looking back on GW1 I see i t better than it probably was. However I know that I stayed happy for a very long time playing it. With GW2 I made it to Christmas before I started looking at other games. I still have hope that this game will change though.

As for the OP I remember seeing this with the Tengu. They would heal each other, and tank, it was great fighting them. There were other examples of course, but I just remember those missions so well.

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

RoRo.8270:

Vayne.8563:

Draco.2806:

“Our data suggests that very few players play as mobs, therefore improving them is low on our priority list.”

I would say the offender here would be the fact that good AI costs server power, but isn’t AI server-side in GW1 as well?..

(I haven’t played much of GW1, but why does it sound so much better than the sequel in many ways?)

Guild Wars 1 was a superior game in some ways, this is true..but not quite as superior as many of those who are commenting would have you believe…and yes, I was a huge fan of Guild Wars 1, and still find it enjoyable on the rare occasions I log back in. But there are many deficiencies in the game as well, that some people seem to ignore.

Well gw1 was released around 8 yrs ago you would think they would improve upon stuff

Except now a days people want better graphics, which is a resource hog. If you have massive AI scripts, particle effects and huge battles going on all at the same time it doesn’t matter how high end your PC is on max setting it’ll begin to lag/freeze.

Ai scripts are prehaps the biggest cause of lag issues in this instance because the computer is processing so many of them.

What? I can’t tell if you are being serious or not.

I have to agree, gw1 enemies were a lot smarter and had much more utility than they do in this game. Strange that 250 years made them slightly less important than barrel of apples.

Something they lack entirely is healing, very few bosses have it. The ones that do, (cof p1 for example) are very weak and entirely neglected by high dps. Jungle wurm heals off husks, but barely. The shatterer heals very slowly and gets interrupted almost immediately because the crystals are incredibly weak. It’s just wrong, WRONG!

Give more enemies healing skills, or ways to turn a fight around by using player skills. It really makes things interesting for groups when it can completely flip the tables due to a wrong move. Timers are a start, but not fit for a permanent solution. Atleast on their own.

Also defiance needs reworking, some cc is just too easy to apply but giving the enemy 60+ stacks of it (for scaled events) is also the wrong move. There needs to just be a cooldown for when it gets cc or have it do a specific action when it gets cc’d (stun break then heal if in stance X, stun break then gain a type of boon, change stance, etc. By stun break I mean use the class stun breakers accordingly or something unique, don’t just get back up). After it gets cc’d it gains defiance for x seconds which cannot be removed until the timer expires. The duration of defiance would be fitting to the time between large moves. For example, the Legendary dredge when it smashes the ground applying a global agony on hit, the timer would be slightly less than the time it takes to redo that attack. Don’t just make it a block or dodge test, make it avoidable by good timing and team coordination.

Pariah.8506:

Vayne.8563:

No, it wouldn’t force people to play together. The people who want to play together would play together and everyone else would simply leave the game. In case you haven’t noticed, people don’t like to be forced to do stuff. That’s what a lot of the complaining on these forums comes down to. I don’t want to be forced to do dailies.

If people don’t want to play alongside others then maybe, just maybe they should play a single player game. The point of an MMO is player interaction, GW2 has none of it. You simply zerg down stuff in a horde in which every single person is doing his own thing, there is 0 atruism. There is no necromancer casting Order of Pain solely for the benefit of the melee classes, there is no elementalist that let’s his colleague know he just cast Searing Flames so that it can be combined with Ash Blast. All the other members of the horde may as well have been replaced by mute robots and you wouldn’t even notice it.

Vayne.8563:

Many MMO devs have said straight out that you can no longer ignore the number of people who solo in MMOs. There are more of them than you think. More to the point, there are also people who play at off hours or in different countries who don’t have a zillion people playing when they play.

And many MMO devs adhere to the f2p p2w business plan, does that mean it is the best course of action? It’s up to the devs to balance, to think out every situation and to do it well. And yes, I am aware of people playing at off hours, we call it WvW.

Vayne.8563:

And then you have the fact that the world is huge and people are off doing whatever they’re doing which takes them out of the open world.

The world is not huge, the world is many times smaller than it is because a player can get anywhere at any time because the world is littered with Asura Waypoints meaning the time spent getting somewhere becomes negligible. Meaning anything worth doing immediately gets overwhelmed by a surplus of players anyway.

Yes to so much that you said. Especially about the waypoints, I am bothered beyond belief by the gross amount of waypoints everywhere.

Although I agree it’s impossible to cater to 100% of the people 100% of the time, I think completely ignoring the solo base is wrong. I appreciate an MMO that can let the soloers play at their pace while still making them naturally interact with others players.

It’s what GW2 does pretty well, what it doesn’t do well is the challenge and the actual benefit or even need from communicating with each other, which there is none.

I’d rather have mobs heal like the Elemental/Robot in Dredge fractal.
So Poison and CC will have a point in PvE.

I loved that I had to interrupt heals and other bad stuff in GW1.

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Except now a days people want better graphics, which is a resource hog. …

AI scripts run on the server, client side graphics performance is irrelevant for it’s performance

Red Falcon.8257:

I’d rather have mobs heal like the Elemental/Robot in Dredge fractal.
So Poison and CC will have a point in PvE.

I loved that I had to interrupt heals and other bad stuff in GW1.

So much. Or shutting down a couple of hydro’s that could otherwise wreck a pug.

frans.8092:

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Except now a days people want better graphics, which is a resource hog. …

AI scripts run on the server, client side graphics performance is irrelevant for it’s performance

Please explain with better detail. I want to comprehend your point, I’m not disagreeing.

Except now a days people want better graphics

I’m people. Not at the expense of gameplay thank you very much.

The mobs are not convincing me that they are a part of the living world. In the Asura capital the worms are too tame, I stand by them and they do nothing! The way the worms there are seems unrealistic and act like static mob clusters, Arenanet promised this would not be the case. Are the worms asleep? I’m disappointed, I thought I was paying $50 for better than what I got! Do better!

I am bumping this thread back to the top because this needs to be resolved ASAP!

I do not know the EoTM npc are very smart they can use wvw weapons and fix walls / doors. Mobs use to have AI to move out of aoe that way above most games but it made the game too hard for players and there where ways to explode this AI. Every LS update it seems like the npc get a new trick i think in time we will see mobs on nearly the same level as human players but a bit slower to react (or faster for some ppl lol).

The sandbox type games I just cant get into,that why I could not get into games like guild wars 1 and the diablo games the only thing I liked better in gw1 was the skills and pvp. but pve was very bad and boring unless you like playing by yourself.and people say they don’t like grind in gw2 what the hell you call gw1 it was all about the grind but sure you can get by in gw1 without grinding but so can yea in gw2.

Zombies in Minecraft have better AI, isn’t that sad?

Arenanet, you promised a better AI system and you didn’t deliver it and so I think I deserve to have my money returned to me or you should improve the games’ mobs AIs!

sage.6947:

Arenanet, you promised a better AI system and you didn’t deliver it and so I think I deserve to have my money returned to me or you should improve the games’ mobs AIs!

They had it in the game it did not work right as in it made the game too hard for ppl or it made the player exploit the mobs AI to a great deal. They are adding in far better AI as time goes on and each LS update the mobs are getting smarter and have more tricks. In EoTM they can main wvw weapons and repair walls / doors. At this point your just ignoring every thing in the game and what ppl are saying and had said in the past.

sage.6947:

frans.8092:

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Except now a days people want better graphics, which is a resource hog. …

AI scripts run on the server, client side graphics performance is irrelevant for it’s performance

Please explain with better detail. I want to comprehend your point, I’m not disagreeing.

1) The programs that define the AI run on the server.
2) The programs that display the fancy 3D graphics run on your PC

The fanciness of the graphics on your client has no impact on the AI programs running on the server.

maddoctor.2738:

ThiBash.5634:

There are mobs that dodge and move from AoE. But not all of them.

They are mostly at the lower level zones. Perhaps testers and devs themselves didn’t like the idea of smart mobs and in the end made all others dumb?

I kind of remember some talks during the beta about dumbing mob ai down because it ended up annihilating players (the same with pets, they are dumb because otherwise a full ranger party would be too OP – and i am not joking here. Though as a sideeffect it highlighted the fail in ever making pets a core mechanic of ranger class).

There was a TON of griping in the early betas that mobs were too frustrating to fight against.

I’m angry because the mobs are so stupid that this game is not challenging! Stupid mobs are not what was advertised! There are free games that have as good or better AIs!

In GW1, you were more or less expected to play in a party with other players (or heros). In GW2, it seems the ability to play solo (open world) has been emphasized.

Thus, having balanced party of mobs like in GW1 probably makes the game too hard for solo open world PvE players.

The mobs already play GW2 like we do. They spam their autoattack damage and occasionally do a cooldown if its a significant nuke. They just don’t have the good sense to wear Berserker’s.

Dodgerolls don’t make it any more intelligent. If they just had big prompts that flashed a picture of the V key on your screen when it was time to dodge, like a console game like Batman or Ryse, people would be up in arms. But put it on a obscure, badly animated monster windup and people here treat it like its as cerebral as Star Trek’s 4 dimensional chess.

Lot of rose colored glasses for GW1 in this thread. I think it’s very important to note that GW1 AI had a LOT fewer factors to worry about in combat than GW2 AI.

GW1 having no z-axis meant pathfinding was easy and binary, either you can walk there or you can’t, no jumping, no ledges, just walking. They also didn’t have to deal with all the movement affecting abilities, no knockbacks, leaps, dodges or any of that jazz, just knockdown and snares. Despite there being mechanics that favored tactical positioning, such as bows gaining range/damage at higher elevations archers never ever sought out high ground, they also never kited or actively tried any kind of maneuvering unless they were scripted to do so in a very specific area.

Really all they ever had to do was spam their abilities in a somewhat logical order, and that they could do rather well, when given the chance anyways. The majority of PvE monsters didn’t even have full skill bars until Nightfall and they only ever had well thought out builds in Eye of the North & GW Beyond.

Sure GW1 AI was great for GW1 but it wasn’t exactly ever a masterstroke of AI design.

GW1 AI is the best AI in any game, ever, and probably for a long time to come.

They were constantly improving it:
- Spreading out from aoe
- Kiting
- Using their skills effectively
- Targeting specific classes with certain skills
- Interrupting skills
- The Charr frontliners in EOTN body blocking for their casters

And probably some more. They were ALWAYS tweaking these.

No game will ever have AI anywhere near as good as GW1 for a long time.

Yes all AI can be predictable and hard countered to an extent, but GW1 team did its best to make the AI not suck.

Riot Inducer.8964:

GW1 having no z-axis meant pathfinding was easy and binary, either you can walk there or you can’t, no jumping, no ledges, just walking.

Mobs don’t jump, there is no z-axis for them. If they can not path to you, they’ll regen.

They also didn’t have to deal with all the movement affecting abilities, no knockbacks, leaps, dodges or any of that jazz, just knockdown and snares.

They don’t dodge and simply suffer through any cc you throw at them.

Despite there being mechanics that favored tactical positioning, such as bows gaining range/damage at higher elevations archers never ever sought out high ground, they also never kited or actively tried any kind of maneuvering unless they were scripted to do so in a very specific area.

Ranged mobs most certainly would kite from melee, they also would move out of AoE. Just making mobs move out of AoE would make them look smarter.

I have never seen ranged AI ‘take’ corners intelligently, they always run straight at the corner like melee.

The majority of PvE monsters didn’t even have full skill bars until Nightfall and they only ever had well thought out builds in Eye of the North & GW Beyond.

True, but probably not because the average pug of new players wouldn’t have been able handle them, pugs would have been in trouble had they made the monsters like those in EotN or WiK right from the start.

Sure GW1 AI was great for GW1 but it wasn’t exactly ever a masterstroke of AI design.

GW1 AI is better then GW2 AI. At least make them them move out of AoE and pick their targets smarter. That would have more effect on build diversity then the Ferocity change/

yes, it is worse than gw1

it was fun to fight packs of monsters that were either balanced, burst spike, crazy healing, interrupting, degen and kiting me, picking targets smartly rather than 1st come first serve.

in gw2, they all act the same, not much fun in hitting anything that will just run up to you and go rawr and try and slap you down melee, even the ranged in this game stand on your toes and shoot you, the only monsters remotely interesting to fight are skelk.

so, i want to see a giant world boss skelk army invasion to make gw2 pve interesting.

The AI in Guildwars 1 was good at the time but it was just as bad in way’s as this game, tank and spank was pretty much the fail safe way to play and it pretty much worked in all area’s of the game.

There’s nothing skillfull about a couple of war’s who hold agro while the rest just nuke the hell out of it, ya the AI move out of AOE but only if they can actually move or they die before they can.

This was the same AI that when a encounter went bad and you needed to run away the mob would pretty much chase you forever unless you had movement speed buff’s. This was terrible and at times very annoying as everytime you went near to the party members to try and rez them you would get insta aggro’ed again and the mob(s) would do the whole chasing thing again. Anet did make adjustment’s to the AI behaviour regarding this but there was still times when it would do the above.

AI interupt’s where instant and hit pretty much any random skill being cast, AI healing was spammed (this at times got stupidly lame in hard mode) on the monster getting hit and all it took was to switch target and sometimes the AI would still heal the target you stopped hitting hours ago. AI spikes where again near instant and would be wasted at the start of the encounter on the tank.

The AI in Guildwars 1 may have been the best in the world but all is vain when you indroduce faceroll easy mode skill’s like Ursan form/ Shadow Form etc

The AI wsn’t that great in GW1, but it was decent for a 2005 game.
You’d expect 2012 game surpass it, but, nope.

thaooo.5320:

- Spreading out from aoe
- Kiting
- Using their skills effectively
- Targeting specific classes with certain skills
- Interrupting skills
- The Charr frontliners in EOTN body blocking for their casters

While I agree that GW1 AI was far superior than GW2 AI, some of the limitations in GW2 aren’t there because of the AI, but because of the game design itself. It’s not the AI that is lacking, but the mob design. Here in more detail:

Spreading out from aoe wouldn’t work very well in Guild Wars 2. Sure if you are a solo player but what about a hundred players attacking a champion mob? Should it run and avoid every little red circle? Same with Veteran mobs in events. Mobs in Guild Wars 2 have bilions of hit points, sacks of meat that just take time to kill. No AI can fix this, and in fact spreading from AoE would be detrimental not beneficial to the mobs.

Mobs in Guild Wars 1 didn’t kite very well either. If you want a game that can kite you to death, try Age of Kings, that AI could use 100 different units and each one could individualy kite your armies, driving players to frustration. That was some serious kiting. But, once again, mobs in Guild Wars 2 don’t need to kite, they have bilion of hit points already, kiting would be useless to them. Also, players can shoot and move, mobs can’t, so if they kite, they are actually losing, not winning.

In most cases yes, mobs in GW1 were using their skills in an intelligent way, although they could never “pre prot” but that’s an obvious AI limitation that no game engine can do. They should use this in GW2. I mean, fight one of those Earth Elementals that reflect projectiles, they will use their reflect even if you are in melee range hitting them with a hammer, that’s stupid. All mobs in GW2 have a problem with their skill usage, and I think it’s something Anet could certainly improve, right now they are just spamming their skills. This is something that it’s a 100% AI limitation and should be fixed.

It wasn’t much of using certain skills on certain classes, in GW1 mobs could switch targets. For example, a mob was attacking a player, it could switch to another one, interrupt him, then turn back to the one he was attacking before. In GW2 the agro priority system is very primitive, sure they don’t use a silly hate mechanic like in most MMORPGs, but it’s very basic.

Every mob in GW1 had a calculator, and was doing a Armor*Health calculation, and the one with the lowest result had agro priority (before adding damage and skills of course), it worked very well, although it could be exploited in certain ways.

Mobs in GW1 were very good at interrupting, however they couldn’t interrupt “certain” skills well, which is something no AI can do effectively anyway. But, once again, it can’t be done in Guild Wars 2 because mobs have super slow attack speeds, on most mobs you can cast Meteor Shower without getting hit more than once, that’s how pathetic slow their attack speed is. How can they interrupt you if they can’t hit you in time? No matter how good their AI could be.

Finally body blocking, an excellent tactic used by mobs and players alike in GW1, however, bodies don’t have collision in GW2… so that can’t work.

Other than better skill usage, the rest of the AI options in GW1 can’t work in GW2, not because they are bad, they could certainly make the AI look thousand times better, but because of how mobs are designed. Ask all you want for better AI, it won’t happen (and can’t happen) unless mob design changes first.

Just remember… Arena.net had to dumb down the AI in GW1 as well.

People threw a fit when enemies would GTFO of AoE effects as soon as possible (like smart, rational people would). As a result, the mobs were dumbed down to where they wouldn’t move out of such AoE until the third hit.

Didn’t care for GW1 at all, but the AI was definitely better.

Good points have been made on both sides. I really can’t say myself since I came into GW1 when it was already seven years old or so, while I came into GW2 from the beginning.

I will say that GW1 felt more meaningful and the impact you made on the world felt greater despite how static it actually was. Yes, even Prophecies in which you meandered about and only accomplished killing a Lich and no other task you got involved in (250 years and three post-searing Ascalon map Vaniquishes later and the charr STILL WON’T GET OFF MY LAWN! Also, the White Mantle IS STILL AROUND! How many times do I have to kill them?!) while GW2’s attempts to make our actions feel more valid in the world… Do not. Dynamic events and event chains are nice, but needing to do them every five minutes or else everything goes to hell starts to make it feel like we haven’t made a dent in things. It would be nice if completing some events more than a certain number of times a day locks the event for the remainder of that day. Or something. Not to mention the limited impact we seem to have on own own home instances besides adding resource nodes and some NPCs to them. NPCs who barely talk to us I might add.

On the note of AI, while GW1 was superior, I also will say I do not miss entire mobs of necromancers and mesmers who wipe out my party with multiple hex stacks. Also, Spark of the Titans. Seriously, @#$% those guys, they should have never existed.

Though I also concede that having more mobs that, indeed, do use a fair number of player skills, is also missed. Along with pure interrupts which can even penalize enemies with longer cooldowns or greater damage based on skill type.

Ok I Did It.2854:

But overall GW1 was a better game than GW2,
…
if I had known that GW2 would have turned out the way it did, I don’t think I would have bought it

This sums it up for me. Outside of some standout aspects like the art, WVW, and the addition of combo fields, this game has been a huge letdown.

@OP, I think the AI in this game is terrible as a result of a deliberate design decision to keep the AI CPU budget relatively small to save on hosting costs.