Guild Wars 2

Dear ArenaNet,

I love this game. I really do.

It’s one of my hobbies. It’s a virtual lifeline home to life-long friends I live countries apart from now. I’ve spent thousands of hours enjoying what it’s given me.

I expect that in the experience of most of us now reading this thread that our games have generally tended to improve gradually over time to look and play better as patches are released but I honestly can’t recall one taking away such an immersive quality that helped define it.

Functionally, for me, these changes do nothing to enhance my gameplay. If they do for others, good, I’m glad and they should be available to those that want them, but they should also have always been an option. So much character has been lost from this game for so many of us with how you implemented this change.

So for now all I can do is raise my voice here and speak with my wallet. I’ll not be quitting and I’ll likely play as much as I always have but I’ll certainly not be buying any more gems while your silence looms.

We really need to know if you’re listening.

Sincerely,

10 years loyal

english if not my native, so i do apologize for any mistakes

i’ve been seeing this threat for a few time now,and i finally decided to make a post and and share my opnion.

wow, just wow, this change to elementalist really surprised me, the animation looks completly out of place when you compare it to other skills the ele has, it looks like iam throwing olives to my enemies, and iam not even talking about the air overload….

First of al i think that the lack of response here is just too…. weird. i though a post on the forums with at least 50 responses would be enough to get a reaction from the devs, but i guess not? or is it just to unconfortable to talk about this? i really dont know.

Second, and i think i speak in the name of everyone who shares a similar position to me, when i say that all we need is an answer like “we have decreased the visual effect of the skills in all gw2 , but we are developing a way make it an option on PvE”, that’s it, that is that simple, really. do you have any idea who frustating it is to NOT get any kind of answer? just receveing the silent treatement….

I really understand that big PvP players dont really care about the visual effects because all they want to do is muder eachother ingame, because doing it on real life in ilegal, but me as an PvE player who decided to play ele because those awesome fire skill effects…. just doesnt work. and i guess many engineers out there can relate to this…..

Just sharing my thoughts and making this thread to appear on the 1 page again.

PS: Anet, we are clearly not gonna just drop this subject… even if i have to talk to all my friends and guildies to came here and make a post on this thread to get your attention, trust me i will….

Sincerely,

9 years loyal

Interestingly, there is anet feedback on other threads, like the one about the camera. Repeated, recent conversation. Just not on this thread.

Yeah, its really starting to kitten me off how silent Anet’s being with this.

Meanwhile in “We don’t care about anything except Esports Land” Anet is trying to find out how to make even more changes nobody wanted.

I was having a hard time in the final HoT Story fight tonight figuring out where my wells were so I could stand in them while avoiding AEs (Chronomancer). This visual nerf hasn’t helped me “see the boss” better and it’s made it hard for me to see my own stuff. This is the pits. Terrible decision.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Interestingly, there is anet feedback on other threads, like the one about the camera. Repeated, recent conversation. Just not on this thread.

I’ve noticed that, too. It’s very frustrating, as I think people have been quite polite and constructive here, instead of the norm:

For the love of all kittens,

Please stop removing content (of any kind) A-Net!

All these gorgeous animations – just gone.
First the amazing idle animations – scrapped cause of “immersion” (give them back!).
Now all the good looking fighting animations.

What is next? Remove of camera rumble, low res textures to further “improve” the e-sport experience?

If you want to make things less “visually overloaded” implement OPTIONS to do so.

Stop removing things from the game.

Did all the old dev’s from the old animations team leave or how can you guys justify these decisions? It’s crushing my soul to see this happen all the time in GW2.

The art and visual style is one, if not The Best, thing about the Guild Wars franchise.

Sincerely,

A very sad Guild Wars ’o’holic.

I logged on my ele, just now and i went trough all the attacks to check for myself.

The new fireball is indeed disgustingly weak looking, however it’s not limited to that.
They did decrease the size of lavafont , eruption (really small now), shatterstone (scepter) Churning earth (woefully unimpressive now) and swirhling winds.
And one of my favorite attacks, lightning surge, it used to shoot lightning, now it doesn’t do that anymore…the target just takes damage… I really really really hate these changes

I chose Elementalist to use visually stunning and impressive attacks, not this weak looking garbage

LOL Anet sent me a warning scolding me for bumping this, WELL THEN REPLY TO THE TOPIC ALREADY.
People seem to think that this is actually desired by PvP players. I can’t speak in the name of all PvPlayers, but I for one love to pvp, and do it all the time, and I have NEVER had any problem seeing what was happening.

I don’t care if this thread gets 1000 replies and not one of them being from Anet, I will keep this thing alive until the matter is resolved. Actually, I don’t even care if they DO reply to this, I will only let this thread die when they actually do something on the matter, my only hope right now is that they’ll fix this when all this “pro league” nonsense goes away.

As you can probably guess, I have been monitoring the progress of this topic. While I cannot confirm that such a warning had been issued, I would be surprised if it had – Hirosama certainly hasn’t been any more antagonistic than anyone else on the forum…much less actually. His bumping activity is also negligible compared to the people who have written full and reasoned responses to the topic. If anything, this topic’s persistence on the front page is evidence of the response to the changes rather than a reflection of any individual’s “hostile” efforts. If such a warning were, in fact, issued I believe that would deserve a hearty finger of shame…there is no real reason for such a reprimand and I do believe that this issue has warranted enough concern to merit a response.

I am certainly not a fan of the recent trend that I have seen on the forums of merging posts without a response and (seemingly) hoping that the new merged post will be buried and forgotten. I would recommend that, as in the past, the merging of a post should serve as some indicator of the importance of the issue (as it spawned a large amount of sub-postings) and warrant some level of official response.

Ah well, I will continue to watch and hope that some measure of effects are returned, as I greatly miss the loss that this represents.

-Darksabre

Hirosama Nadasaki.6792:

It seems bumping is against the rules or something.

So is posting about account actions/moderated posts/threads from mods. Just a heads up

I was recently discussing this thread on another thread (it’s becoming something of a meme) and I realised something: maybe anet want to respond to this thread but they just don’t know how.

So I came up with these questions which might help:

1. What was the reasoning for reducing the size of projectiles? My fireball, for example, is only visible between myself and the target, during which time it is pretty much on its own and does not contribute to any visual clutter. Once it arrives at the destination, it is replaced by a different object, usually some kind of fire or explosion animation – and it is the combination of my explosion/fire animation and that of other players which obscures the target. It would seem more efficient to adjust the dimensions of the final animation rather than the projectile.

2. Is there any plan to introduce the visual options/slider idea, proposed in this and other threads, to allow a player to customise their visual experience? The question is not asking for a commitment on when such a feature might be implemented, merely the confirmation of whether such a feature is being considered.

3. If the above idea to customise the visuals is not being considered, what is the reasoning for that? Players have a variety of rigs, monitor sizes and biological differences. Any global solution may resolve the issue for some players, but it will still be too cluttered for others. Clearly, a player must have the means to customise their own experience based on their needs if the most effective solution is desired.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

I was recently discussing this thread on another thread (it’s becoming something of a meme) and I realised something: maybe anet want to respond to this thread but they just don’t know how.

So I came up with these questions which might help:

1. What was the reasoning for reducing the size of projectiles? My fireball, for example, is only visible between myself and the target, during which time it is pretty much on its own and does not contribute to any visual clutter. Once it arrives at the destination, it is replaced by a different object, usually some kind of fire or explosion animation – and it is the combination of my explosion/fire animation and that of other players which obscures the target. It would seem more efficient to adjust the dimensions of the final animation rather than the projectile.

2. Is there any plan to introduce the visual options/slider idea, proposed in this and other threads, to allow a player to customise their visual experience? The question is not asking for a commitment on when such a feature might be implemented, merely the confirmation of whether such a feature is being considered.

3. If the above idea to customise the visuals is not being considered, what is the reasoning for that? Players have a variety of rigs, monitor sizes and biological differences. Any global solution may resolve the issue for some players, but it will still be too cluttered for others. Clearly, a player must have the means to customise their own experience based on their needs if the most effective solution is desired.

Very good points, since fireball size doesn’t affect damage dealt. I mean it could (I can just imagine some players setting their fireballs to comet size just to watch the damage numbers roll in), but the reality is that it is purely aesthetic. If you want little blobs, you should be able to set setting to low/small/something. If you don’t mind awesome explosions blocking your vision, you can bump the settings all the way up! (That’s where I’d go.)

For myself, if I want little-spitting-gobs-of-chewing-gum fireball animations, I play Runescape.

Edit: I believe Runescape actually updated its fireball animation so that it looks decent now. Haven’t tested this recently though.

the sad bit is, I’ll never be able to do stuff like this again on this visual nerfing route we’re on…. and this is what I do for fun for people all over tyria

kinda ruining it for those of us who do photography stuff in game for people….

RollFzzlbeef.4092:

the sad bit is, I’ll never be able to do stuff like this again on this visual nerfing route we’re on…. and this is what I do for fun for people all over tyria

kinda ruining it for those of us who do photography stuff in game for people….

Those photos are wonderful!

Hey guys, is there ANY class that wasnt butchered? Which ones were the most kittened by this changes? So i know what NOT no play…

This is a pure example of putting the cart before the horse Anet. All for raids.

Some of the spell effect nerfs made a little bit of sense. Having ground effects last exactly as long as they do their thing is a good change, as it allows people to grasp the duration of their effects.

Then there are other things like turning fireball into a golfball sized projectile that does splash damage far larger than it’s ‘feel’ indicates. Or turning orbital strike into a puff of a lightning bolt.

I get that this was an attempt to reduce the amount of visual clutter in preparation for raids. But I want to say that THIS IS A MISTAKE. If player visuals are causing visual interference with raid bosses or any enemy NPC effects then you BUFF their effects, don’t tune down players effects to suit it. This is game that isn’t about the NPCs, and appealing visuals is important to players here.

Take FFXIV. That game has some of the most over-exaggerated player spells out there right now. Some of them are so flashy that they practically cause the screen to white out from the explosion. It hasn’t harmed players when they go up against some of the bosses because the bosses are simply larger than any player and have appropriate spell effects or tells to match them.

These are raid bosses. They are big, flashy and threatening in every sense with spell effects that match and overpower anything a single player can throw out constantly.

Vale Guardian as an example is a failure of applying these ideas. Many of its effects are subtle, quiet and tiny. Many times over I’ve heard people say they can’t even see them sometimes and start dodging based on timing rather than visuals in the case of the teleport ability. The lightning bolt is well telegraphed. The Seekers are frequently lost because of their size since a Charr standing on one can cover it completely and the red ring that designates its radius is so thin that people can barely see it, even after all the visual nerfs to players.

These are just my thoughts from raiding in other games. It really shouldn’t fall to players to compensate for a raid boss. Either through nerfing our visual skills, or having the boss have abilities so lost in the visual mess that a mere 10 players can generate. Buff the enemy visuals to overpower a players visuals.

And while you are at it, why not introduce a colorblind mode or at the very least get off this obsession with red and green.

But unlike GW2, FF14 lets you disabled friendly particles completely. Hell, 14 probably has the best options menu I’ve seen in an MMO.

And yet another thread is turning into one of those mega threads like dungeon feedback or SAB. Lots of people complaining and not a single response from Arenanet.

Mostly Harmless.7046:

Hey guys, is there ANY class that wasnt butchered? Which ones were the most kittened by this changes? So i know what NOT no play…

Can anyone answer this please?

Mostly Harmless.7046:

Hey guys, is there ANY class that wasnt butchered? Which ones were the most kittened by this changes? So i know what NOT no play…

Warrior wasn’t touched, mainly because there isn’t much to touch in the first place. Dragonhunter was heavily nerfed by this, but Guardian is otherwise unchanged. Same with Mesmer, chronomancer wells are lackluster and unimpressive now, but the rest of Mesmer is untouched. I can’t say much about Engineer since I don’t play it, but Orbital Strike is a joke right now. Necro is untouched as far as I know, so is Thief, Ranger and Revenant (ironic, since Herald elite skill is a fps killer). Elementalist was the most affected by these changes, Fireball is the most used Auto Attack from staff, and it is humilliating right now, overload air is also nigh invisible, and dagger earth 5 and dagger water 5 were also heavily reduced.

Siobhan.5273:

Hirosama Nadasaki.6792:

It seems bumping is against the rules or something.

So is posting about account actions/moderated posts/threads from mods. Just a heads up

Ops

ferdi.1452:

And yet another thread is turning into one of those mega threads like dungeon feedback or SAB. Lots of people complaining and not a single response from Arenanet.

I think that’s probably because we are asking for the changes to be undone or for there to be some setting or slider for the effect whereas the devs are probably planning to nerf more of the visuals to advance their campaign to de-clutter combat. If that is true then there is not much they can contribute to the thread.

DoctorDing.5890:

ferdi.1452:

And yet another thread is turning into one of those mega threads like dungeon feedback or SAB. Lots of people complaining and not a single response from Arenanet.

I think that’s probably because we are asking for the changes to be undone or for there to be some setting or slider for the effect whereas the devs are probably planning to nerf more of the visuals to advance their campaign to de-clutter combat. If that is true then there is not much they can contribute to the thread.

They can contribute by listening to us and NOT doing that. That’s the whole point of this thread.

Not impressed with the visual nerfs that are forced upon everybody, and suck it up kinda deal. Come on Anet, we play the game as well. Just to appeal to some, the rest get the boot?

Oh look, it`s happened again. I don`t really know what to say.

Regarding the update just released:

Dear Anet, don’t you have anything better to do than further shrink down all the effects and call it due to visual noise? Especially since this thread has been here unanswered for two weeks already.
Like a BUILD SAVING FEATURE?

God.

Elementalist

• “Wash the Pain Away!”: Reduced the visual noise on the effects associated with this skill.
• “Flash-Freeze!”: Reduced the visual noise on the effects associated with this skill.
• “Feel the Burn!”: Reduced the visual noise on the effects associated with this skill.
• The following skills have had their effects replaced with a new version to reduce visual noise: Frost Aura, Magnetic Aura, Shocking Aura, and Fire Shield.

Mesmer

• Chaos Armor: The visual effects have been replaced with a new version to reduce visual noise.

Necromancer

• Executioner’s Scythe: Reduced the visual noise on the effects associated with this skill.

Lets see how many other skills were reduced and not listed in the patch notes.

Please ANet stop ruining classes, and make this optional.

Forcing it on everyone is just false.

Regarding the most recent update:

You have got to be kidding me.

Wow! New patch – and new heavy visual nerfs to Elementalist.

They must be on a very bad E-Sports / PvP trip. That will kill the game in the end.

So… enlighten me, because obviously I am not smart enough to see the reasoning behind these nerfs…

Visual noise == actually seing the skills???

If you are doing this for competitive play, then I really have to ask myself how my opponents are supposed to see e.g. which aura I have currently up… (except for looking at the buff bar)

You are ruining the look and feel of this game step by step. And it hurts me to see this happening, especially as a long-time player who had the opportunity to enjoy this game in it’s original glory.

ANOTHER round of visual nerfs?

This obsession with esports is becoming really unhealthy for the game as a whole, especially since PvE is the main part of the game.

I wonder if they even care about the rest of the player base. Seems the target audience is not the majority. News of these nerfs is making me not want to play this game. And I have other games to play, so, might as well play them instead.

Fireball was never a problem

turn the sound effect down – ok
but the size? – please no !!!

Almost always the only things that case problems are:
effects that scale with enemy size
on top of that list is guardian burn because it just completely hides many animations…

skills that get casted on you and your allies rarely ever cause problems..

so look at those effects anet and adjust what needs to be adjusted there
and bring us back the real and only acceptable old fireball size

Well, I loved the original Executioner’s Scythe effect. Now I’m afraid to log in and see what happened to it.

My auras are an invisible egg
My fire and lightining overload are a joke they doesn’t look amazing anymore
My fireball is a spark
My eurption is a tiny floor crack
My meteorshower is a spark shower

Why, are they completly destroying the class that is supose to have the most amazing looking skills of all , which I love them most?

I also liked the fact my char said those voice comments everytime I swicthed elements…

Guess time to move to a new game

Gee, I love logging in & seeing my characters do NOTHING when I use skills.

So flashy.

Must nerf.

Loli Ruri.8307:

I wonder if they even care about the rest of the player base. Seems the target audience is not the majority.

I’m guessing some developers are thinking that even with these changes, people will still play anyways. Nope, I have other games to play. I’ll be back when the news looks better. Reading how “you can now toggle animations and effects to be simple/complex” or “we have returned all the animations and effects to before nerf” would be a deciding factor in me playing more. It seems I’m not the target audience, which from what I see in-game, is the majority.

As much as I love this game, I do feel that they are actively trying to force people out with these inexplicable changes. Me? I’ve just been getting my log-in bonus and that’s it. I’ve been playing Heroes of the Storm mostly, and having a blast with it too!

I sincerely hope that Anet rethinks what they’re doing with Guild Wars, because this ain’t working out.

Ok, this is a serious problem for me. The new Aura effects are really hard to see. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to see them on an enemy at range 600+

VaderCookie.8137:

Ok, this is a serious problem for me. The new Aura effects are really hard to see. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to see them on an enemy at range 600+

Came here to say exactly this. I can’t see the auras anymore. Visual effect changes should be an adjustable setting, not default across the board. This actually has an effect on play for me now instead of just reducing clutter.

Well, Visual “nerfs” is a very good thing. Finally they are reducing this crappy screen clutter. Game becomes more playable now. More nerfs please. I really like them.
Next thing to nerf: effects size resiseing on big enemy.

Just had a look at those auras and i wonder, if you make all these changes for PvP, then why do you create auras which can hardly be seen, especially in the heat of battle.

Just try to spot someone with magnetic aura, which is one of the most dangerous, during a team fight in pvp, i dare you.

You know what’s funny? While the air overload channeling effect is hardly seeable, the lightning coming down is still huge. PLS FIX!

Way to shoot yourselves in the foot.

Bring back the old devs, please.

for more visibility … the new auras are too hard to see … fireball still looks like a poor golfball … no changes to the visual nerfs, instead we get more … no response from anet ….

did anyone actually look at those changes?? i try to imagine somone from anet spamming fireball now while thinking “oh wow this looks amazing and i’m super excited about seeing this live”

we should crowd fund some muffins for the team for the good work they are doing
/s

Just a topic here for calling for a stop to visual nerfs. This is going TOO far. Fireball is not a ball at all now. Auras are now gone, we need to read status to see them… Just Stop it arenanet , really! All amazing visuals are going off that’s a pity why do you do that?!

next time on gw2 patch:
reduced particle effects on all legendary weapons to reduce clutter.
removed all animations from characters to reduce clutter.
removed all back piece particle effects to reduce clutter.
removed all skill animations to reduce clutter.
remove environment to reduce clutter.
remove all players to reduce clutter.
remove the game to reduce clutter.

in case youre wondering anet. im basically telling you to go kitten yourself.
MAKE THIS kitten OPTIONAL!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the feeling that whoever decided this, doesn’t fully understand the relationship between graphical effects and player engagement. They probably thought that graphical effects were only a pretty thing that could be done away with. However end of day, 2 things, the effects actually served a real combat practical purpose, and now the immersion is broken beyond disbelief.

This nerfing of graphics animations which was a game mechanic, not simply pretty effects, the nerfing of dungeons, the introduction of elitist raids which encourages meta perfection play, and lack of substance in the expansion, I just don’t feel motivated to play. Sigh.

With all those visual downgrades….. Am I to expect a GW2 client for my old Gameboy Color? … should I undust my old VGA Monitor? ….mobile version maybe?
On a serious note, if this effects are client sided why not just add it to graphic options? (I am sure many suggested this before, just can’t read all thread…just add me to the list)

NinjaWursti.9627:

Just try to spot someone with magnetic aura, which is one of the most dangerous, during a team fight in pvp, i dare you.

I play Dragonhunter in WvW roaming/PvP and already kill myself with True Shot because I don’t react fast enough. Now I don’t even have a chance!