Guild Wars 2

This almost feels like… they are pushing away the vets and relying on freebs to fill the gap back in so they can continue with underwhelming expectations(or no expectations a freebs typically haven’t seen the game prior.)

Darksabre Aldarion.4159:

Talk about being thrown under a bus. I don’t wish for my enjoyment of the game (which has drastically suffered as a result of my Tempest, Chrono, and DH being “visually nerfed” as they call it) to be dictated by the whims of the PvP crowd. Neither do I think they should bow to mine, so I think a slider is the best solution.

Darksabre’s entire post was right on target! Since this visual nerf is all about PvP, why not limit it to that (if a visual effects slider is totally out of the question by A-Net)? Why take away the visual enjoyment of everyone in PvE? Mesmer wells were truly a work of art, but now all five look like generic blobs; I can’t even tell which well I am casting by appearance anymore. I enjoy PvP at times, but enjoy my solo play much more… well, at least I did. Please A-Net bring back the full special effects… at least have the courtesy to reply to our concerns!

Jax.4903:

JaddynnStarr.5201:

Make an option in the graphics option tab that either has a bullet to click or slider bar that allows for 3 options: OFF>>>MIN>>>MAX.

That is exactly what will work & what everyone has been asking for, but the silence is deafening.

I view the powers as an extension of my character’s appearance & persona. Can you imagine how players would react if A-Net suddenly changed the appearance of races without rhyme or reason? Well, something similar has happened and apparently if we don’t like it, too bad.

This is what we all want, give us back our fireball and give mesmers and other classes their big AOE stuff.

The lack of communication from ArenaNet here where it’s needed is disappointing =(

“We listen and read your comments but sometimes we don’t have time to answer them all”

Yeaah right… Some threads need you to communicate more than others and this is one of them.. So communicate with us here about this issue PLEASE!

Most of the new hot affects were over the top. I haven’t seen most of the new versions so I can’t say if they went to far or not.

But the Fireball one is just comical. I didn’t even notice it for a couple days. After a few years you gloss over some things on screen and its so puny you haven’t make a deliberate effort to even notice.

Can anyone explain to me the logic of nerfing Fireball and leaving Meteor alone? It’s essentially the same animation x 10.

If there’s still any need to highlight how this change is not merely cosmetic, it was driven home to me recently. I was standing around in Fireheart Rise when I started getting fire damage. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I wasn’t standing in lava and nothing seemed to be hitting me.

Then I looked around and noticed an ooze some distance away that seemed excited. I realised it was throwing fireballs at me. Tiny, spark-sized fireballs.
I hadn’t noticed because there’s so many sparks flying around Fireheart Rise already.

Enough already. Can we have our fireballs back?

We’ve reached over 200 replies and none of them are from Anet. Faith levels in this company decreasing rapidly.

I have no opinion either way on the visual nerfs, but I’m posting in solidarity because I think it should at least be acknowledged by a red post.

Almost a full week and zero attention. Neat.

Please make a slider for this… Or anything that lets us customize. I am NOT happy with these changes.

I cannot see my fireball through the chaos of Tequatl battles anymore. During the finger phase, I can’t tell if I’m locked onto the correct finger half the time and have to keep double checking my icon to see if I’m actually firing or am out of range. I certainly can’t see where to position myself to take advantage of alacrity fields. This unnecessary change is making battlefield awareness in zergs worse, not better.

Everyone here ranting and complaining but doing nothing. Anet will continue in this practice until you hit them where it counts; their wallets. As in my previous post I stated that I’ve had enough and started the refund process. Well I’ve received a full refund from my HoT purchase and my sons. I promise you Anet heard my voice loud and clear.

Are they going to modify any promotional material to reflect these changes?

I am shocked that A-Net is is seemingly prioritizing PvP $$$ Tournaments over their loyal PvE player base who want their special effects kept in-tact. Is GW2 becoming League of Legends deluxe with PvE taking a backseat?

A-Net really needs to go on the record about this special effects nerf. Is this temporary or are we supposed to just deal with it because this is what they have decided? Either way, I would like to have a straight yes or no answer instead of hanging in the air.

Jax.4903:

I am shocked that A-Net is is seemingly prioritizing PvP $$$ Tournaments over their loyal PvE player base who want their special effects kept in-tact. Is GW2 becoming League of Legends deluxe with PvE taking a backseat?

Did you play GW1 by chance? Or know anything about it? Would answer your own questions there.

Jax.4903:

A-Net really needs to go on the record about this special effects nerf. Is this temporary or are we supposed to just deal with it because this is what they have decided? Either way, I would like to have a straight yes or no answer instead of hanging in the air.

To be fair, players from all modes have asked (loudly) for the sparklies to be toned down a bit (read: lot). People often post pictures on here of the mass of shinies when trying to fight bosses, complaining they can’t even see them, and as such can’t see the tells that they need to dodge.

NecroN.8306:

Everyone here ranting and complaining but doing nothing. Anet will continue in this practice until you hit them where it counts; their wallets. As in my previous post I stated that I’ve had enough and started the refund process. Well I’ve received a full refund from my HoT purchase and my sons. I promise you Anet heard my voice loud and clear.

So I’m supposed to hand over something I already bought and poured so much time into in the HOPES that they’ll revert these changes? Anet may or may not refund my money, but they can’t refund my time. If enough people join in this thread they’re just as likely to give us a compromise.

Either way, I am most certainly NOT buying anything more from Anet until they regained my trust.

The fireball change specifically doesn’t do anything to make things easier to read because the impact particle, which scales with target size, is untouched. All it does is make it harder for the ele to tell if they’re actually attacking without looking at their hotbar. Engineers had the exact same issue when they nerfed the orbital strike particles, to the extent that you couldn’t see if it was going off WHEN SOLOING.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

If there’s still any need to highlight how this change is not merely cosmetic, it was driven home to me recently. I was standing around in Fireheart Rise when I started getting fire damage. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I wasn’t standing in lava and nothing seemed to be hitting me.

Then I looked around and noticed an ooze some distance away that seemed excited. I realised it was throwing fireballs at me. Tiny, spark-sized fireballs.
I hadn’t noticed because there’s so many sparks flying around Fireheart Rise already.

Enough already. Can we have our fireballs back?

haha! That had me cracking up!

Not that your imminent demise from an excited ooze amuses me… but your description did!

Siobhan.5273:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

If there’s still any need to highlight how this change is not merely cosmetic, it was driven home to me recently. I was standing around in Fireheart Rise when I started getting fire damage. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I wasn’t standing in lava and nothing seemed to be hitting me.

Then I looked around and noticed an ooze some distance away that seemed excited. I realised it was throwing fireballs at me. Tiny, spark-sized fireballs.
I hadn’t noticed because there’s so many sparks flying around Fireheart Rise already.

Enough already. Can we have our fireballs back?

haha! That had me cracking up!

Not that your imminent demise from an excited ooze amuses me… but your description did!

Thank you. Oozes are so excitable. And they’re always trying to reach out and hug you. It breaks my heart to fight them. They’d make great pets if they didn’t leave puddles on the floor.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

To be fair, players from all modes have asked (loudly) for the sparklies to be toned down a bit (read: lot). People often post pictures on here of the mass of shinies when trying to fight bosses, complaining they can’t even see them, and as such can’t see the tells that they need to dodge.

When hundreds of players are gathered around a world boss, lag & poor visibility are givens. As long as players can easily lock their attack cursors onto the boss, does being lost in a crowd or endless explosions really matter? Too many special effects never hindered my ability to help our map win an event or to get an ascended weapon chest from Teq. A-Net already provided a particle effects slider to remedy that.

I’ve never heard one person in my guild of 500 complain about their combat powers being too majestic, dazzling, or artsy. In fact, people are now saying the opposite; combat is not as fun because some powers no longer look impressive or distinctive. Toning down the special effects is partially erasing the identity of each profession. Players who appreciate the art in computer graphics and feeling super heroic have really taken a big hit by these visual nerfs. A-Net should give us players the option to decide if we want to toggle on/off full or partial special effects.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Thank you. Oozes are so excitable. And they’re always trying to reach out and hug you. It breaks my heart to fight them. They’d make great pets if they didn’t leave puddles on the floor.

hehe! I agree!

I feel that way about Dolyaks. I just can’t kill them. Oh, and the little grey ambient critters. I can almost hear them saying, “Can I be me!?”

My husband thinks I’m a loon..

This is a horrible decision. Always got to love how e-sports somehow ends up stepping all over the good time of the people who couldn’t care less about that stupidity. Wish they’d stay out of our games and find something else to ruin.

BEFORE/AFTER…..

Nexxa.7306:

This is a horrible decision. Always got to love how e-sports somehow ends up stepping all over the good time of the people who couldn’t care less about that stupidity. Wish they’d stay out of our games and find something else to ruin.

Following the money usually answers many questions in life. Has GW2’s PvE player base been thrown under the bus because there is big money to be had in E-Sports? It is looking that way. A-Net is saying nothing to the contrary.

World War III.3869:

BEFORE/AFTER…..

This post.. I laughed.

This thread is full of +1’s. I wish ANet would hear us….Some folks are being really creative in their distress, but until then, this plus one, is for that post:

Friend of mine is an RP’er. He wasn’t able to get into the Mages Guild because his elementalist couldn’t impress the judges enough to pass the entry exam. Now I have to listen to his whining.

Anet pls

I also want fireball back the way it was!
It’s actually embarrassing to play staff ele now… I feel everyone is looking at me… stop staring I know fireballs are supposed to look bigger…

Bumping to bring this back to the front page

This does need some official attention. Why crap on the majority of your fanbase in favor of these select few?

Coming soon to the gem store, spell enhancers to undo the visual changes. Only available bundled with a Mordremoth mini and Kormir outfit, because coherent themes are outdated.

Change the staff animation a little and it will look more like the spit ball we’re shooting now.
Never seen the forums this upset in general. No response hopefully means they are too busy adjusting things.

Daralii.8940:

Coming soon to the gem store, spell enhancers to undo the visual changes. Only available bundled with a Mordremoth mini and Kormir outfit, because coherent themes are outdated.

My Elementalist’s face thinking about this (and it ain’t good!):

Siobhan.5273:

Daralii.8940:

Coming soon to the gem store, spell enhancers to undo the visual changes. Only available bundled with a Mordremoth mini and Kormir outfit, because coherent themes are outdated.

My Elementalist’s face thinking about this (and it ain’t good!):

Whoah. Her glowing eyes are bigger than our fireballs!

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Siobhan.5273:

Daralii.8940:

Coming soon to the gem store, spell enhancers to undo the visual changes. Only available bundled with a Mordremoth mini and Kormir outfit, because coherent themes are outdated.

My Elementalist’s face thinking about this (and it ain’t good!):

Whoah. Her glowing eyes are bigger than our fireballs!

HAHAHA!!

How sad that that is the truth? lol!!

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

To be fair, players from all modes have asked (loudly) for the sparklies to be toned down a bit (read: lot). People often post pictures on here of the mass of shinies when trying to fight bosses, complaining they can’t even see them, and as such can’t see the tells that they need to dodge.

And i’ll be able to see so much more with the 50 adjusted smaller effects happening at the same time

Srsly though that is not a problem of the effects as they are but more of the scaling. They could just stay the way they are to counter this instead of upscaling them to the size of the boss.

This trhead was about to fall to the oblivion… But it refused.

Anyway I still can´t believe this change. The new fireball is so tiny that is barely visible, our(fabulous) chronomancer wells have been srinked… I really fear what´s next. I don´t think these changes are going to help in any way. If a change like this is implemented it must be done in a way that the players can choose if their effects are shrinked or not. A simple slider that said “shrink all/other´s/none particles” and that´s it.

Please revert these changes. Please let us choose.

WHy won’t they revert it? The game runs terribad ever since that patch. It looks terribad ever since that patch. ANd it still is a resource hog! I’m just so angry that one patch could do this to my gaming experience. I’ve been here since gw2 was released…everything was originally on low with the rig I had and it looked and played great. I’m back after 3 years and everything looked and played great on medium. Now just out of the blue they shovel this patch to “address community problems with the game being a resource hog” and now my game runs and looks horrid compared to before. And they don’t even list it in the patch notes or admit to there being issues or annouce they are trying to fix them or do ‘something’ to address concerns. NOT COOL. Do I need to open a ticket? Is that gonna be helpful?

Cerby.1069:

WHy won’t they revert it? The game runs terribad ever since that patch. It looks terribad ever since that patch. ANd it still is a resource hog!

I was running GW2 64 bit which was an improvement in performance for me. When I started experiencing crashing after the infamous Nov 17th patch, I thought it might be a 64 issue and switched back to the normal client; but, GW2 is still crashing & kicking me to my desktop multiple times a night. So, not only do the visual nerfs look terrible & are glitchy (turning invisible at times even when soloing), we also have a major instability issue brought on by that patch.

I totally agree with everyone else. Bring back our full special effects, give us players an effects slider so we can choose visuals to our liking, and roll back that horrific, unstable Nov 17th patch!

I’d like to add that many people really wanted to see all the new skilleffects when they were released in the beta weekends or beginning HoT. They often asked to see all the dragonhunter traps or the mesmer wells and so on because they wanted to see how awesome they look and got excited. Now all these effects are toned down, imagine how it would have been if they were like that from the beginning. People would be ok with it because it was never different but overall just “meh”, nothing special.

I do feel bad for all the fx people who created the great effects. But i feel even worse for the players.

Btw one of my favorite skills was 5 (Judgement?) of Tome of Wrath. That thing came up so rarely but when it hit…oh boy.

Bumping this. Arena Net thinks they can just continue ignoring this topic. Wrong!

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

If there’s still any need to highlight how this change is not merely cosmetic, it was driven home to me recently. I was standing around in Fireheart Rise when I started getting fire damage. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I wasn’t standing in lava and nothing seemed to be hitting me.

Then I looked around and noticed an ooze some distance away that seemed excited. I realised it was throwing fireballs at me. Tiny, spark-sized fireballs.
I hadn’t noticed because there’s so many sparks flying around Fireheart Rise already.

Enough already. Can we have our fireballs back?

I’m beginning to have similar issues, I’m not receiving proper visual ques while being attacked. This is now more than just about having a preference for how things used to look, its now affecting gameplay.

Another bump for good measure.

With changes like this Anet is showing how it really cares for it’s select few customers.
GW2=eSport Fail!

Wish they’d make it a toggle. I don’t play casters to not have my spells looking flashy and impressive… but I wouldn’t mind the e-sport lovers having the option of turning them down. I simply detest the fact that these currently unwelcome new faces are being catered to while the rest of us are disregarded entirely. In fact it kind of leaves me upset and vindictive towards them.

Nexxa.7306:

Wish they’d make it a toggle. I don’t play casters to not have my spells looking flashy and impressive… but I wouldn’t mind the e-sport lovers having the option of turning them down. I simply detest the fact that these currently unwelcome new faces are being catered to while the rest of us are disregarded entirely. In fact it kind of leaves me upset and vindictive towards them.

I can agree with that sentiment. Lots of hate to go around.

Don’t give up on this issue, guys. Stay angry. Stay Loud.

My ele half ruined, my engineer who looked terrible before now looks even worse. Why didn’t you create toggle for this? This is the same nonsense as removal of some character idle animations…actually no, it is worse
Edit: and please stop pushing for that esports nonsense and rather fix your game. You should finally come to terms that gw2 PvP has no chance of becoming a serious esport with so little diversity in feasible builds

Can we please have a slider for the effect settings? That would be great and everyone could play as it suits him!

This thread is turning into same kind as dungeon feedback or SAB. Hundreds of posts from players that aren’t satisfied and not a single word from Arenanet.

The effects should be reduced on others’ skills, not your own.