Guild Wars 2

Sad, but true.

On land, a boss only has to be up for about 30 seconds and people come running to fight it. Underwater, the bosses just swim around with no one to fight them. (Unless they can be ranged from land e.g. the Mega shark in the Straits of Dev.)

I personally love Underwater combat, but not enough people do, and it means you can’t do this content. The only underwater events that have players are those that are starting points for retaking contested waypoints on land.

I’m really afraid underwater combat/content is going to end up dying off because not enough people do it.

Here’s to hoping they find a way to make players more satisfied with underwater combat.

Not sure about that, I started the event to kill the blood witch and in less then 5 mins she was swarmed by players.

How about giving more weapons?

Also, part of the reason is because we don’t spend enough time unerwater.
During the game we learn how to use our weapons and how to properly combo with them.

We aren’t underwater enough to learn how to use them, and as a result we (or I) find ourselves spamming buttons.

I think the problem with underwater combat against a truly hard mob is that you just can’t move fast enough to stay away from them. Most of the GW2 combat is based on mobility, so this is a big problem.

On land, you can do all sorts of things to slow them down or stay away, but in the water they’re far faster than you, and going head to head with a megaladon at close range has a guaranteed outcome.

It’s not that I don’t like underwater combat. I think it’s great. Problem is, it’s kitten hard.

A few classes get good enough ranged abilities and can keep moving, taking advantage of other players getting killed trying to tank. Mostly though, yeah, forget about it. Not worth dying repeatedly, hoping enough people come along.

Lately I’ve been playing Necro most, and for some crazy reason, they don’t get any underwater ranged attacks, nor any defensive block skills or anything like that. Vets are especially difficult now, but champs are just instant death.

Mesmer is unbelievably OP underwater with the dodge clone skill.

Under water combat sucks and honestly as a guardian i feel really under powered down there

í have the same feeling with my ele, sometimes it feels like my only underwater elite is the only skill which deals damage, actually so much that it’s just stupid

I don’t like Underwater combat much and it’s a lil disappointing to me since I was kinda looking forward to it.

I enjoy the underwater combat…. I like how it takes place in a 3d enviornment, shark pet is kool, the visuals are nice as well.
I like the change of pace…..

I love underwater combat, sometimes I find myself screwing up because I think I’m closer/further away to something than I actually am lol

I play a warrior and switch between speargun and spear and I find it fun.

It IS hard however, if your against a champion solo, forget it.

Necro skills are boring and awful underwater.

And trying to melee is a huge PITA, I have a problem with depth perception when trying to melee underwater lol.

I’ll fight some underwater bosses, IF I seen anyone else there. What I won’t do is any underwater boss in a CAVE. I mean who’s bright idea was this to put a creature designed to down people frequently in a place where you can’t reach the surface? I find that even with a group of players very few bother to revive players when underwater, so a cave based boss is just a good way to loose gear.

I remember entire teams fighting the shark in Bloodtide coast. I also soloed the hunter skillpoint veteran as Earth (DoT kiting to avoid their poison and after using whirlpool twice), which was tough as my usual wind.

The only issue I have with underwater is whirlpool’s really long CD and mob density.

I agree give more weapons for underwater combat…

Then again with me more weapons will probably mean i will be 2 x times more hopeless at it,
Having said that though on my travels around the world so far in the char area i have seen some guy hammering on a submarine.! {think it was there could be confused i guess}
Now….. give me a go at piloting that underwater and i will be in it all the time. ;p

Matthew Kline.8420:

I love underwater combat, sometimes I find myself screwing up because I think I’m closer/further away to something than I actually am lol

I play a warrior and switch between speargun and spear and I find it fun.

It IS hard however, if your against a champion solo, forget it.

I too experience some depth perception issues. Can’t get a good handle on how close I am(redundant). Makes looting a mini game.

Untouch.2541:

How about giving more weapons?

Pretty much this.
I’m not a huge fan of the Harpoon gun on rangers (except for the 3 ability), and I’m not interested in getting into melee range, so it really ends up being incredibly annoying to fight underwater.

Give me a proper, ranged, direct-damage weapon and maybe it won’t be such a huge problem. As it is right now, I just plink away, spamming 3 and my Jellyfish’s F2 attack whenever possible. :-/

I’m guilty of this. Seems I leave the UW stuff for the very last. Unless I need something to clear a map with, I might even pass it by….not sure why since UW combat is pretty cool. Maybe just cause it seems so slow, lol.

I love underwater combat here..

Most games it’s freaking ridiculous. Slow movement, bad control... yet here, it’s more fluid and natural feeling.

As for difficulty, i’m not sure what classes or what weapons others use, but I’m a thief with a spear gun. I am officially kitten with it. :P

I do group skill challenges solo (like the shark+3 extras) in the 50-60 level risen zone no problem. Takes a bit of practice, but it’s doable.

Same with last night, in the 35-45 zone. I was fighting a champion branded fish with about 4 or 5 others, and had the aggro on me the entire time because of how hard the speargun hit. I kept the thing at bay with cripples and used dodging appropriately. I think I had one close call, but that’s only because I timed my dodge wrong.

Underwater combat is a steeper learning curve, but once you master it, it’s a piece of cake. Kiting is slow, but a blast.

the underwater fighting blows for my Ele. My #1 attack hits for 1K on land and about 300 underwater, both lvl 80 weapons of similar stats

On my ranger, fighting with a spear made it a little better damage wise but still not really fun.

underwater looks awesome visually though, love it. Fighting in it, not so much

I think the underwater worlds are beautiful and interesting and while I will particpate in underwater DEs, I would enjoy them more if the things I need to perform underwater were more easily accessible. Unlike my other gear, my speargun and breather tended to lag far behind in level (more the breather than the speargun) and I never saw an option to fill my second weapon slot until very late in the game.

Debsylvania.7396:

I think the underwater worlds are beautiful and interesting and while I will particpate in underwater DEs, I would enjoy them more if the things I need to perform underwater were more easily accessible. Unlike my other gear, my speargun and breather tended to lag far behind in level (more the breather than the speargun) and I never saw an option to fill my second weapon slot until very late in the game.

Agreed here.. LOL

I hit.. 60? And still had a level 30 speargun and breather… I had to shop on the TP for a new gun, and hunt everywhere for a karma breather. I just noticed a second slot last night..and I just hit 70. -_-

I like underwater combat w/ my Ranger. I polar bear/jelly or polar bear/shark . Like the harpoon gun… really I do. I like the graphic of the piranah attack. I think they do under water right all around. No breathing meter is very awsome. The locals are varied and beautiful.
I’m not terribly critical… so.

Thrumdi.9216:

Sad, but true.

On land, a boss only has to be up for about 30 seconds and people come running to fight it. Underwater, the bosses just swim around with no one to fight them. (Unless they can be ranged from land e.g. the Mega shark in the Straits of Dev.)

I personally love Underwater combat, but not enough people do, and it means you can’t do this content. The only underwater events that have players are those that are starting points for retaking contested waypoints on land.

I’m really afraid underwater combat/content is going to end up dying off because not enough people do it.

This is just the sort of occasion where you want to get a group together.

I like underwater combat, and I never pass on a veteran whether they are underwater or on land. If it’s a champion, and no one is around, I’ll sometimes reluctantly pass it by or try to call some guildies out to help take it down. I think the underwater mobs can be just as fun…I liked the big undead shark, and there was an underwater drake and brood for a skill point that had really cool animations.

On Jade Quarry. No issues with people fighting underwater bosses even after a month. Maybe a call out on the map would help.

Sad that you are not able to do those. I am actually liking the underwater exploration, combat and events more than land. It’s just so different down there. Maybe my character is actually a half-fish/half-human hybrid.

The mobility problem really is the killer, since GW2 combat is very much about awareness and reaction. If you can’t react, bleh. The place to address the issue is to tweak the underwater AI to match the slower combat pace, imo, since it doesn’t make sense to be tumbling about like an acrobat while swimming. Unless you’re a quaggan. Hmmm. Quaggan form?

I’m an engineer and I fight underwater bosses all the time. Moreover, I don’t do it alone.

Speak for yourself OP.

I find most underwater areas to be deathtraps to start with. Mobs attacking from all angles, high respawn, lots of aggro, lower visibility at times, possibly weaker feeling characters. So adding a boss to the area is sometimes enough for me to say nope, not worth it, I’ll probably die and there probably won’t be enough people there because . . . underwater is such a deathtrap.

While I do enjoy underwater areas, I find the whole set up more difficult and my characters generally feel weak underwater — my Necro has a bunch of close range AOE’s (gah), and my Ele, well, feels about the same as on land which is fragile and squishy. Basically, adding a boss to an already dangerous situation is probably not going to entice me to go towards it for a questionable reward. xD

Though if there are enough people (and, there often are), I’ll often join in on underwater boss fights.

What they need is an underwater zone, and not just some random high level expansion area. My biggest problem with underwater combat from lvls 1-50 was that I didn’t have the opportunity (or need) to learn all of my weapon’s skills underwater, and did not realize for the longest time that I had a separate set of traits while underwater.

That and I would usually forget to try and upgrade my mask / weapon most of the time and end up trying to do underwater content with old gear. This is a problem of exposure, nothing else. Give people more reason to go underwater more frequently and they’ll learn to love it. IMO it’s rather well developed, just that people generally suck at it and some classes adapt better than others.

I have tons of fun underwater, fighting in 3 dimensions instead of just 2. I’ve never had a problem findin’ people when an underwater boss pops up and I’ve hit underwater mini-bosses myself more than once. Mostly it just takes longer and you’ve really gotta watch that extra dimension.

I avoid underwater as much as I can. My damage is crap compared to land, I’m swarmed by mobs, and my only form of AoE is on a ~24s cooldown and it’s not that strong either. Warrior btw.

It’s a shame too because I like the underwater environments but the combat is just tedious.

I must be the exception to the rule, I feel pretty strong under water as a guardian. But, I also get more mileage out of my trident than my spear. The trick seems to be to close distance with a trident and use all your abilities. I can solo up to 3 mobs at a time under water usually. If you are doing an underwater event look for a guardian with a trident. Free healing, retaliation and cures!

I enjoy underwater combat on my Ranger with a speargun. It gets a little crazy sometimes but it’s fun.

My problem with underwater Combat:

1.) Aggro Range – It’s far to high, on my Thief (who doesn’t have AOE skills) he can consistently get swarmed with 3+ mobs at a time (not to mention annoying baracudas and such) My guardian has a bit better AOE but it’s still not the same

2.) Attack is Boring – Most UW Combat is simply, 1 auto-attack until a cooldown comes up, most of the weapon cooldowns are useless, do little damage, do little utility, etc.

3.) Random Spike Damage – Some mobs do a TON of random damage without an indicator (Sharks can be pretty brutal in this department when they charge, I never see them back up or move first, just a huge chunk of health taken out).

Dunno. If damage for players was doubled it would probably fix a lot of things and make it more fun.

-
Well you can always increase the rewards by perhaps… 100% and then maybe we might do underwater combat.

I really only tolerate underwater fights as they’re needed.

It’s sooo sluggish and slow and can’t see and too many “invulnerable” mobs and not fun.

Just level up an engineer and solo them.

ya all my weapons attack are WEAK and i am constanly under attack of 5+ mobs and before i kill them new are respawned…

I find the underwater combat a bit…underwhelming. I feel underpowered on both of my characters when not on land (level 80 thief and elementalist). I can’t dodge like I want to, and especially on the thief I can’t even switch weapons so I am spamming the same skills over and over again. My elementalist is more exciting to play, but damage feels so low.

I play an elementalist and I usually do dagger/dagger so that that I feel like I do some dps. I have to move, dodge, strafe, and never stop moving to survive against ANY mob in orr.

Elementalists are all glass, and the cannon was given to warriors and guardians. :/

Elemantalists underwater feel like pure futility, even moreso than on land. I hate fighting underwater on my elementalist. You get auto attack and gimmicks. I can make a mob float or sink but I can’t KILL the thing in a reasonable amount fo time. The only elite skill that I think is marginal suck doesn’t work under water (summon elemental).

I like the idea of water combat, but having most of your few decent attacks stripped and replaced is annoying.

Sadly, underwater combat is 1 sliver better than vehicle-based garbage. With vehicle type crap, you fully develop a character and toss it all to use whatever limpness the vehicle offers. It’s almost as bad underwater when you’re stuck with some generic weapon of your not choosing and lose everything you’ve worked for on land.

Overall, I find underwater combat lacking due to how generic and gimmicky it is. I like the 3d fighting environment, but I don’t like that the abilities and stuff I pick for my character and develop mostly don’t apply.

As a warrior, I do less than half the damage underwater that I do on land. On land, I crit for about 1-1.2k on my first 2 combo swings, and harder on my third. Underwater, I crit for about 500 on the first 2 combo swings, and maybe 700 on the 3rd, AND I also attack a little bit slower.

The real kick in the pants for me though, is on land, my melee attacks cleave up to 3 targets, but underwater they only hit 1 (except for my ~20s CD spinning AE attack). So not only do I hit for half damage, and slightly slower, but I hit 1/3 of the targets I do on land (let’s face it, most underwater combat areas at 80 are swarming with mobs, so you almost never get just 1 enemy). Combine that with the fact that I can’t seem to find anything above a green mask, and going underwater turns me from a strutting warrior, into a cowering peasant.

My main is a necromancer, so my effectiveness underwater is hilariously pitiful. Another thing that adds to underwater difficulty is that the area in which enemies can spawn around you is larger because they can appear above and below you in addition to around the front, back, and sides. And it always seems that respawn rates are greater underwater too, although this could just be my imagination.

But if there’s an underwater boss fight I’m there, even if I die 15 times. Had a fun time with the blood witch the other day when there were about 10 people besides myself fighting her. We got slowly whittled her health down about half way before everyone died and gave up. I foolishly went back two more times thinking there would be someone else there but instead I just ran up some repair costs for no reason.

My main is also a necro and the only thing he can do in underwater combat is to make horrible sounds. I really hate all sound effects on the trident and I don’t use the spear cause, even with a rather tanky build, I’m too squishy under water.
I love the idea of underwater combat, but I hate every underwater event or quest cause both my kill speed and my survivability are way too low.

I fight underwater bosses.

Grenade kit makes underwater preferable to overland in a lot of cases.

I feel sorry for anyone who isn’t a power specced engineer.

Clearly we are the master race :P

Mesmer also has little problem underwater.

I can sympathize to some extent with those who find underwater tricky, but as someone who’s used to 3-d movement from City of Heroes and Champions Online, where you can fly and fight, and in CO do full-on underwater 3-d combat as well, I have to say the underwater combat in GW2 is fantastic, and if anything it’s been made a bit too easy compared to land.

It just requires a bit of getting used to, that’s all, a bit of practice.

In time people will get used to the underwater combat because it’s very different, but can be challenging and fun.

I love the mechanics of underwater combat, and I just generally enjoy swimming and exploring underwater areas. I just think some classes need some balancing between their underwater and on-land effectiveness.