Guild Wars 2

The underwater aspect of this game is so buggy and full of issues, this enemy invincibility every two seconds then getting me killed its so tiresome at best and anger inducing at worst…

I dread having to enter the water now, i absolutely hate the water parts of this game now because its so broken.

The underwater skills on 50% of the Characters are frustrating and horrible to use (looking at you Warrior)…

I’ve not met one person in my guild or outside that enjoys Underwater combat due to these issues and the guild is quite large…

Please Arenanet fix these underwater issues, it makes half the game unplayable..

I enjoy it (mostly) but the constant problem with mobs going invulnerable for no reason I can see makes it pretty frustrating at times. Many of the underwater dynamic events just aren’t worth the frustration of completing them.

Any word on a fix for this soon?

I don’t mind it but it’s probably the one place that Rangers can really outshine others. Plus I can fire a cloud of piranhas. That never gets old.

I do agree that they need the “enemy can’t reach you = Invulnrable” code because it’s pretty bad to encounter it with a spear gun but even worse when I’m hitting them with my spear/harpoon.

I enjoy underwater combat. It’s fun, crazy, and insane. That is..until they nerfed the Whirlpool skill. But, even after that got nerfed, water combat still got fun.

When it comes to underwater combat, I’m just not feelin’ it. I’d much prefer if we’d keep our same weapons as on land, maybe with a few tweaks so some of the abilities make sense underwater, but mostly the same. Being forced to use harpoon guns and spears, rather than have them as an option, doesn’t feel like I’m even playing the same profession. Yeah, I know, ground-target abilities would have to be completely reworked, and even then would probably still be clunky to use underwater; I can see why ANet chose to go with separate underwater-only weapons… I just don’t care for it personally.

I do like the full range of three-dimensional movement, kinda reminds me of playing Descent back in the day (albeit simplified, since here there’s always an “up”), but the way it’s implemented in this game means I only dive in if it’s needed for an underwater skill point, vista, heart event, or POI. Otherwise, I’ll keep my feet on dry land.

Just my 2c of course.

I love it and hate it, i love it because it looks beautiful and it feels fluid, i hate it because i’ll be mining some under water ore vain when a fish or something will come and attack me, as i start attacking back normally just as he’s below half heath he swims back and regens full health!

It has happened to me countless times and i’m now starting to find it increasingly frustrating when it happens.

I agree.

My dps is far too low underwater (and I’m using a 80 rare spear).
It is just there is no synergy as combo, no real cool moves and the auto attack is FAR to weak in comparisson to its ground pair.

So mobs take too long to die, and when they dont, they go invulnerable for no apparent reason.

The only issue I have with it is that you have mobs that constantly go invulnerable and this is often having to do with X,Y,Z axis issues and that can as some have already said be irritating down to down right maddening.

Another little quirk that is irritating, when I am firing at a mob my character never turns to face the mob so sometimes I wind up shooting down or up or to the sides at some mob and it makes it very difficult to know what i am fighting and where. This is usually in mass fights with tons of mobs.

I thoroughly enjoy it, personally. The 3D aspect of combat…enemies front, back, above and below is challenging.

Plus the added exploration and finding all the hidden areas.

Dante.1508:

Agree totally, and Anet moved it from bugs to discussion, that to me seems inappropriate as the bugs underwater are game breaking at the least..

It isn’t inappropriate. The title is that it isn’t fun. The bugs are part of the reason but not the only reason.

The bug forum is for reporting specific bugs, not for refering to bugs in general.

Back on topic:

There is a lot of underwater area but I also avoid it mostly. This has to do with the limited choice of weapons and the skill bars are not great for many classes. Guardians only get to pick one elite underwater. In fact there are too many skills that cannot be used underwater.

Since most of the active content is above water, I don’t care as much about underwater gear. Also because breath masks are not available in crafting or drops and I actually haven’t seen a yellow or gold one. This makes underwater gear a B-option as it is.

I also get sick from overaggro. Mobs can come from many directions and for some reason two barracuda’s always end up being 10 barracuda’s. It just seems that respawn and other issues are more annoying underwater than above water.

So I do like the underwater areas as such but the combat isn’t as nice for these reasons for me. In general I think there can be more spacing or smaller aggro ranges but that can be for above water as well.

Underwater combat and whole underwater world is awesome i realy dont understand your problems, i dont have them at all its one best underwater world’s of all games.

Underwater fighting STINKS (unless you are an engineer). It’s annoying to lose all your class abilities that you’ve worked so hard to learn and enjoy, and it just makes you feel so weak at times. I don’t dread going in the water, nothing in this game so far is truly “hard”, but I just get very annoyed when I have to do underwater stuff as I know it’s going to be slow and annoying.

That’s not even bringing up the bugs, Mobs that teleport out of the world and back in, mobs that leash, mobs that go invulnerable but continue to attack you, targeting issues, etc.

I love the idea of underwater fighting, but I think it needs some love on Anets part.

Engies and Necros are rather good UW… as long as the mobs don’t pile on.

Edit → the invincible mobs are a problem though, but I’ve had that on land too =/

I like the 3D part and the fluidness. I don’t like the limited weapons and skills (as a thief, I can only use a spear or a speargun) and the fact that my DPS is way lower in the water than on land.

And I hate – HATE – barracudas.

I usually avoid water combat as much as I can. I hope they’ll improve it in the future.

I think it’s probably because of anet having some coding issue’s with their Z-axis. I know on my ranger when i use longbow most of the time 25-50% of my shot’s are obstructed, when there is nothing between me and the mob. But I think the underwater world is amazing, but because of mobs being obstructed or invulnerable it plain sucks for fighting. Just my 2 cent’s.

Dante.1508:

The underwater aspect of this game is so buggy and full of issues, this enemy invincibility every two seconds then getting me killed its so tiresome at best and anger inducing at worst…

Hope you haven’t tried Ranger yet, you run into these problems on land also. Just the other day I’m flanking some enemies when I ran over a small slope of a hill when “Invulnerable” shows up over and over again. ALso happens if the enemy runs up a slope too. Im not evening going to touch upon the “Obstructed” bug, lol. That rant could take very long.

I love fighting underwater on my engineer, its just every other class I have tried it with has felt 100% kittened.

Try an engineer underwater, I often 2 shot things.

I haven’t yet met a class that can not kick all kinds of rear underwater when played properly. Just fix the invulnerability issues and underwater combat is fine. When I’m not running into that problem I have loads of fun in the water.

Recently started a thief alt… try underwater combat with a spear. What a blast! Very quick and elusive. Easily GW2 has put out the best underwater combat of any game I’ve seen. The beauty is that they actually treat underwater as its own environment, as it should be treated.

My experience with UW combat has been a mixed bag. I like it (mostly) on warrior, hate it on Ele, meh on Necro. My warrior can just go into melee most of the time and own things with harpoon. The elementalist weapon skills seem to have turned the ele into more of a CC character, whereas on land they’re more of a damage dealer. With Necro, I find myself using pets for utility since wells don’t work UW, and my weapon skills are kind of unexciting (for instance, why does the necro pull with harpoon disable my skills as well as interrupt the mob, whereas warrior’s pull does not?).

As to the leashing/invulnerability bug, yeah that is really annoying, since in most of the cases the mob is going to re-aggro, and sometimes the leashing occurs so close to its “home” spot.

Underwater combat would be o.k. if:

1. Underwater skills were more interesting and did more damage. They seem to do half of the damage your regular skills do.

2. I could actually maneuver in the water without attracting a bazillion adds. This is largely a byproduct of GW2’s insane mob density and respawn rate. Fixing that would do a lot to make underwater combat more bearable.

3. Mobs actually moved in predictable patterns and didn’t bug out constantly. Especially those big sharks and fishes zig-zag around the water due to their threat mechanic. It’s just wonky and very unnatural.

That said, I still don’t like Underwater Combat.

Underwater feels awful on my Necro for sure. Just absolutely awful lol.

And melee is a pain underwater, a problem with depth perception.

I don’t know what is up with the constant invulnerability and resetting either. I never had these problems during the Betas or the first two weeks of release, but all of a sudden, every third mob will go invincible and reset right in front of me.

I used to like most underwater combat (Orr being the only exception), but nowadays, I avoid it like the plague because it is nothing but a waste of my time.

Also, melee will not be remotely acceptable underwater until the camera is finally fixed. With the exception of a few battles where the enemies are very stationary, it is impossible to properly judge the distance on 3 axis when half my screen is covered up by my character and/or the environment.

I don’t go underwater unless I have to (storyline etc), the camera and FoV issues makes it.. well, unenjoyable to say the least. The constant resetting, obscured and invulnerable issues doesn’t help either, but then again, I’m getting that wherever I go on land too these days.

I also pretty much avoid water except for the following reasons:

• Personal story
• Map/poi unlocks

I don’t like the combat mechanics of being underwater and they overused the idea. I really like mastering my core skills and relying on those so when they are taken away for fish swarms etc. I’m a sad panda. Also, frustrating to pay for core skills with skill points and then not be usable underwater.

I love underwater combat on my Ranger and Guardian, but I absolutely hate it on my Elementalist and Mesmer. For all my other professions, it’s a general dislike.

Some professions are well-suited to underwater combat because they have effective skills for it, while others are completely kittened by their skills. As far as I’m concerned, most underwater skills need an overhaul to make them somewhat viable.

Underwater effects and art design = WIN

Underwater combat = fail.

Its just horrible and the bugs (most of which also exists on land) seem to have worst effect underwater.

Also things like fast respawn on mobs and such while somewhat annoying on land are really annoying underwater because you have to deal with them respawning in all directions. Majority of mobs underwater being ranged caster types also makes things worse since again your dealing with respawns and such from all directions. GW2 client and fov doesn’t lend itself well to being aware of things going on all around you at long range.

Add all that to the fact we are 1/3 as effective combat wise with underwater weapons and it just frustration.

Dee Jay.2460:

Underwater combat would be o.k. if:

1. Underwater skills were more interesting and did more damage. They seem to do half of the damage your regular skills do.

2. I could actually maneuver in the water without attracting a bazillion adds. This is largely a byproduct of GW2’s insane mob density and respawn rate. Fixing that would do a lot to make underwater combat more bearable.

3. Mobs actually moved in predictable patterns and didn’t bug out constantly. Especially those big sharks and fishes zig-zag around the water due to their threat mechanic. It’s just wonky and very unnatural.

^ THIS

And I would add:

4. Lock on a single target better (especially valid in larger fights).
5. Bigger indicator for currently selected target.

I like underwater fighting in GW2 a whole lot more than I did in DAoC or WoW, but the z-axis issue needs to be fixed ASAP…

z-axis and camera control, thats all that needs to be fixed.

Combat is fine, the problem is you lose direction underwater.

Underwater combat is a mess and one of the weakest aspects of the game. The invulnerable mobs, clumsy Z-axis, clunky underwater weapons (many have abilities poorly thought out for underwater use) and so on. Urgh. It’s marginally easier with the ranged weapons, but the ranged weapons seem underpowered and take forever to kill anything. Melee weapons do more damage but the mechanics are just plain horrible, especially the Spear. And the mobs seem to bug out invulnerable all the time if you attempt to melee them.

As for the underwater environments, yes they are beautiful and atmospheric. But the underwater combat is so horrible it makes big chunks of the game world somewhere to avoid. Anet owe it those who worked hard to design the underwater environments to fix the combat.

i like the idea of it and mostly how it looks, but i dont like using a spear or whatever the melee weapons are because itll move out of range and ill have to swim up to it often bypassing it having to turn around and getting in range. i think i spend most of my time trying to get it to attack the enemy then actually fighting the enemy lol.

The underwater combat in this game is bar none the BEST I have ever experienced in any MMO.

Unfortunately, that is like saying I just found the best dentist to drill holes in my teeth – it still is not fun – I just wish developers would stop putting content under water – it never works well.

Plus, sharks. Undead sharks. Scary.

Not sure what you guys are talking about when you refer to the z-axis issue… Z isn’t “up” when coding. Just an FYI.

pandemos.3497:

Not sure what you guys are talking about when you refer to the z-axis issue… Z isn’t “up” when coding. Just an FYI.

You can start with this, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Z-axis

This explains it better perhaps, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-axis

As someone who does dungeons:

This is the 2nd worse part for me about dungeons (aside from every dungeon being essentially an annoying escort mission). HoTW path 2/3 are AWFUL because of this. Mobs charge through walls to and reset at random times. Not only that they made the bosses have huge HP so everyone skips those paths.

Corew.8932:

pandemos.3497:

Not sure what you guys are talking about when you refer to the z-axis issue… Z isn’t “up” when coding. Just an FYI.

You can start with this, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Z-axis

This explains it better perhaps, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-axis

Both those articles have different coordinate systems. Z is into screen space.

Edit: both are cartesian… neither opengl nor direct x use it by default and any sane programmer wouldn’t change it.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb204853(v=vs.85).aspx

I don’t like it for the same reason I don’t like 3d space sims, it is difficult to gauge size/scale because it doesn’t sit on the ground so you can’t judge how far away it really is. Depth perception. It’s like looking at self-similar fractals, is this thing a pebble or a planet? How big is it? beats me, just move towards it until you run into it.

Aside from the communication issues, assuming you mean “up/down” by z-axis, I’m curious what the issue is… I’ve had a lot of mobs go into walls, and I have to kill them with my pet and AoE. What’s the axis issue?

Nonlinear.9823:

I don’t like it for the same reason I don’t like 3d space sims, it is difficult to gauge size/scale because it doesn’t sit on the ground so you can’t judge how far away it really is. Depth perception. It’s like looking at self-similar fractals, is this thing a pebble or a planet? How big is it? beats me, just move towards it until you run into it.

No joke… some of the risen sharks aren’t so big, some are just frickin enormous. You don’t know until it’s chewing on you. Though if it’s more likely to be bigger if it’s a champ.

Hated it with my warrior, love it with my ranger. Plus underwater environments look amazing in this game and it’s usually where I’m getting the best FPS.

I enjoy it, but somewhat class dependent. I dig the environments and atmosphere too much not to want to be in them fighting stuff, it’s as simple as that really. I still get a bit of a thrill when I see a big open stretch of water, knowing there’s a ton of stuff to see down in the depths.

pandemos.3497:

Aside from the communication issues, assuming you mean “up/down” by z-axis, I’m curious what the issue is… I’ve had a lot of mobs go into walls, and I have to kill them with my pet and AoE. What’s the axis issue?

The issue mostly affects melee and involves the mob bugging out and going invulnerable (and healing back to full health in the process). This tends to happen most often when you are fighting on a different plane to the mob, either above or below (so yes z-axis means up/down in this context). If you aren’t level there’s a good chance it’ll bug out (and a fair chance it’ll happen even if you are level).

Of course this wouldn’t be so bad if the mobs stayed in one place as you could just make sure to keep level with them, but most underwater mobs warp around all over the place in 3D space and bug themselves out. If you play mostly as ranged underwater you won’t notice it as much, but if you try and melee you will.

Underwater combat is terrible in every game. It was a waste of development time that could have been better spent on other, better things.

I have to agree… underwater fighting sucks most of the time

Why would I fight underwater where i can’t use any of my utilities (like my golem or elementals) and the damage just isn’t comprable to fighting on land. AND the movement issues inevitably mean I die 3-5 times as much in water than I do on land.

There just shouldn’t be so much disparity in these environments… my 2 cents

Mesmer here. Can’t really complain about underwater combat.
Spear has the most damaging ability of the mesmer, and 2 speed boosts plus a blink.
Trident is excellent for support too.

Yeah that invulnerability bug is kinda strange, but aside from that it’s been fairly smooth and challenging.

And actually you can add utilities to your bar when you’re underwater. I’m not sure if it was intentional (I hope it was) but the little arrows pop up above your skills so you can switch them out like you would on land.

As a player of scifi ship combat MMOs the water combat for me actually was kinda easy of a transition. I stopped thinking of my toon as a living breathing entity and played it like a space ship floating in space. Kinda weird to think about yea but it works.

CrazyGoNuts.9536:

Underwater combat is terrible in every game. It was a waste of development time that could have been better spent on other, better things.

I remember questing in Vashir in some other game and it was quite lonely. There was even an achieve for defeating a giant whale that no one bothered with (even the achieve admitted it drops no loot).

I rather be in the underwater world then on land. It’s way more fun and more interresting to explore then the land part.
Mobs going invulnerable is a pickle at times but shrug **** happens. I am guessing at some point it will get fixed. Untill then killing that mob will take a bit longer.
I was so captivated by the underwater world that i didnt even look at skills to use underwater until many many levels up. They just werent needed and still arent.

Maybe because i am not in a hurry to get to 80 or because i play for different reasons that the bugs dont bother me THAT much. But if they DO annoy you then you sure can voice your discontent about them. It might show the developers where some priority bug issues are located.