Guild Wars 2

In my opinion, buffs like applied fortitude/strength and foodbuffs as well don’t belong in WvW. They slow down the game by forcing people to stack up their buffs, reduce the already poor rewards for WvWing by forcing people to spend money on food and most importantly, they repel new WvW-players who simply don’t have the money and time to grind WXP by showing them they cannot compete with established guilds/players.

Anyway, that is just my opinion, I’m really interested in yours:
http://strawpoll.me/1632480

I love the buffs, I love the power creep, if you want to play without buffs goto SPVP.

I think they should remove everything and introduce straight out fist fights.

You’re absolutely correct but unless they downscale ascended armor and items to exotic stats in WvW there is no reason to remove the boons that can only be achieved in WvW.

As stated fights without buffs is sPvP. That said, Applied Fortitude specifically is a welcome addition thanks to the heavy burst and condi pressure in the game currently. The added health makes fights more fun and while it doesn’t solve the overall problems with heavy damage it certainly helps mitigate it in a small way.

I’d love to see all of it go. Food, Applied Strength and Fortitude, Bloodlust, Ascended gear. It would make WvW a much more enjoyable experience.

Straegen.2938:

As stated fights without buffs is sPvP. …

Stating that WvW without buffs is “just PvP” is wrong. You would still be able to mix and match your gear, something you cannot do in PvP.

Straegen.2938:

… The added health makes fights more fun and while it doesn’t solve the overall problems with heavy damage it certainly helps mitigate it in a small way.

The very reason damage is out of control in WvW is the power creep from food/gear/buffs. Adding defensive buffs doesn’t solve the problem. Only removing them altogether will.

The format would no doubt be better off without the additional inflation – including the world bonuses and bloodlust stat buffs, since you didn’t bring those up. I don’t think you’re going to have a lot of luck promoting that particular point of view though. The broader player mass has always been loath to give up their power creep once it’s implemented. There’s usually an overwhelming amount of resistance to change when it comes to taking away bonuses. Developers don’t tend to be cooperative either, making it notoriously difficult to turn back the clock.

WvW is closest we have to open world PvP where we can use things we get in PvE. I’m happy with my ascended gear, food and buffs.

You want to make Casual wars 2 even more casual? Suprising…

This post has been brought to you by the proud sponsors of Whine and those who cannot compete. In conjuction with unfair advantages.

In all reality,
1 it is not hard nor does it take long to obtain these buffs. 2 it is available to everyone so it is not exclusive.
3 if you do not enjoy the game play because you do not have/want to take the time to get the buffs, then find another game play style that conforms to your type of game play enjoyment.

Take a look at your poll. Turn this into a match up thread so it can be closed.

Food is an important part of many builds and can offer interesting synergies. I disagree that it affects WvW badly. In fact I think it adds an interesting lair of choice and depth.

But I agree that the Guard buffs don’t really add much of value to the game. They make Vitality feel unappreciated because you can get so much of it without trying. My Berserker Thief can achieve over 18.000 HP, my Berserker Warrior 23.000 HP. Why should I bother investing into Vitality if I already get so much for “free”?

I also think it creates an effect where you need to farm Guards before achieving your “optimal” state. And farming NPCs isn’t exactly something that needs encouraging.

I can understand having some sort of buff tied to killing Guards, something like “heal yourself for 3000 HP every time you kill a Guard” or “gain 200 Power and Condition damage for 60 seconds after killing a Guard”. At least that way you would be rewarded for using/abusing Guards in a clever way. But these static buffs are just “meh”.

Assassin X.8573:

This post has been brought to you by the proud sponsors of Whine and those who cannot compete. In conjuction with unfair advantages.

In all reality,
1 it is not hard nor does it take long to obtain these buffs. 2 it is available to everyone so it is not exclusive.
3 if you do not enjoy the game play because you do not have/want to take the time to get the buffs, then find another game play style that conforms to your type of game play enjoyment.

Doesn’t take long? I’ve been playing since launch I haven’t got AS yet…

Elmo Benchwarmer.3025:

I’d love to see all of it go. Food, Applied Strength and Fortitude, Bloodlust, Ascended gear. It would make WvW a much more enjoyable experience.

Straegen.2938:

As stated fights without buffs is sPvP. …

Stating that WvW without buffs is “just PvP” is wrong. You would still be able to mix and match your gear, something you cannot do in PvP.

Straegen.2938:

… The added health makes fights more fun and while it doesn’t solve the overall problems with heavy damage it certainly helps mitigate it in a small way.

The very reason damage is out of control in WvW is the power creep from food/gear/buffs. Adding defensive buffs doesn’t solve the problem. Only removing them altogether will.

Agree, remove it all. (Meh food is irrelevant, kink of like another piece of equipment. I wouldn’t put food in the same category as the “artificial” buffs.)

And I seriously have to question the comprehension of anyone who mentions sPvP to someone who likes WvW. Even if they changed it to use the exact same equipment it wouldn’t be remotly similar.

I quite like foodbuffs, it adds more customization that you cannot enjoy in PvP. Besides that PvP is a horribly gimmicky mess, its limitations in gear and foodbuffs also mean you get very different builds.

I am against ascended, but thats just the gear power-creep in general, for various reasons. And i dearly hope they end it here now and make ascended the acount-bound convenience gear.

I was also anti Fortitude and Strength. But Jim Hunter has an interesting point, its the only way to actually improve your characters combat ability in WvW from just playing WvW.
But i would like to see it more streamlined so new players arent shut out of two significant buffs for a long time. Its 230 ranks total, no small feat for a new player. Staggering this buff throughout the rank ups instead of end-loading everything.

Lets be fair, the whole rank-line is pretty much junk and people get it just for the buffs at the very last rank.
So a new player has to dump a lot of points into something pretty bad and boring, to get the 2 ranks that are a big deal at the very end of it all.

Thats also a lot of time spend not getting the more interesting masteries that adds new functionalities or new abilities to siege and supply. Or the far more useful masteries that actually help the war effort.
Its contradicting to want new players to be team players, but then expect them to not whine and dump 230 rank ups into a selfish buff.

I personally think that taking all the buffs out (Bloodlust, Guardkiller, Food Buffs, ect.) would be for the better overall then what we have now. Just because someone played X amount of time shouldn’t mean he is better then me. Him out playing me should be the reason, not because his world owns 3 borderlands or has guard killer R10.

I would love to see a system where if players didn’t have Exotic gear or are uplevels, they would “Rent” the gear and ONLY use it in WvW. I hate the fact that an up level is practically a 1UP for the enemy when a battle starts. Giving everyone gear to actually be helpful rather then hurtful would be so much fun.

Just my 2 cents on this topic but it falls to deaf ears since this game mode haven’t ever change from launch. Shame since it could be a real money maker and a stand out from other games out there

Sube Dai.8496:

Assassin X.8573:

This post has been brought to you by the proud sponsors of Whine and those who cannot compete. In conjuction with unfair advantages.

In all reality,
1 it is not hard nor does it take long to obtain these buffs. 2 it is available to everyone so it is not exclusive.
3 if you do not enjoy the game play because you do not have/want to take the time to get the buffs, then find another game play style that conforms to your type of game play enjoyment.

Doesn’t take long? I’ve been playing since launch I haven’t got AS yet…

Well, other than the weapon, ascended gear only give a minor stat bonus (The weapon give 5% more damage than exotics and that reflect on the damage of the skills)… Also ascended trinkets can be purchased with laurels, that you can easily get even if you only do wvw.

Ascended armor is a luxury I don’t care about, and I can still be competitive with the “full ascended heroes” out there… And I run some cheap nourishments that don’t even cost 2s each.

So in the end, all this cry about the buffs really is just about a minor stat boost, which implies in a L2Play issue instead of pointing a imbalance…

P.S: But I kinda agree that bloodlust should go…

Eviscera.9703:

You want to make Casual wars 2 even more casual? Suprising…

Whats more casual, buying strength (via money or via time spend so far) or fighting better on equal strength-level?

PvP mechanics in WvW would probably be a gain, I.e. I don’t play WvW to be able to use superior equipment, but because WvW is the more interesting game mode.

The diversity of builds available by using foodstuffs etc is one of the reasons I much prefer wvw to spvp. If they remove all the stuff mentioned above then it would just become a larger version of the spvp boredom.

ManaCraft.5630:

The format would no doubt be better off without the additional inflation – including the world bonuses and bloodlust stat buffs, since you didn’t bring those up. I don’t think you’re going to have a lot of luck promoting that particular point of view though. The broader player mass has always been loath to give up their power creep once it’s implemented. There’s usually an overwhelming amount of resistance to change when it comes to taking away bonuses. Developers don’t tend to be cooperative either, making it notoriously difficult to turn back the clock.

Yeah, bloodlust etc. certainly falls in the same category (and while I -of course- also use them along with guard buffs, aquiring them feels tedious). And let’s be honest: we all back off some seconds earlier than we must because we fear losing our precious stacks.

For the foodbuffs, some people say they like the diversity or power creep. I don’t think that is the case. Foodbuffs are used to enhance the meta build or defend against the meta. condi users use +duration, condi-“defenders” use -duration. we basically pay a lot of money and receive nothing because we use foodbuffs to counter foodbuffs.

Also, this thread’s intention is not to promote any kind of view, i’m just interested in other people’s view on the buffs.

I seriously don’t get why people cry about this all of the time. You have the option to use these things just like every one else. It reminds me of the spoiled kid that sits at a table full of food saying that there is nothing to eat and cries, except in this case the spoiled kid doesn’t want any one else to eat either.

I agree that it’s powercreep, and that all the available buffs in WvW make a significant difference, but I love my buffs… So I don’t want them removed. I’ve never once been killed by someone and thought “omg I had no buffs, if my food hadn’t run out!!” I can’t really justify using as many buffs as I enjoy using, because to those that aren’t a high enough rank or don’t have enough gold to afford it will be at a disadvantage but… a) it’s not my fault ANet has made it an option to use these things in WvW and b) it’s not my fault I’ve put a lot of time and effort in to the game to have the ranks and gold to afford those buffs and other players haven’t.

Also, while I’m thinking about it, WvW is kind of like an every man for himself anyway. It sounds goofy but I totally like to pretend we’re being attacked by hordes of zombies when defending SMC. The enemies are ruthless, brainless monsters that will do anything to sink their teeth in to your flesh. Why would I not use everything I can to my advantage in order to survive such an ordeal? When roaming out in the open, I could be swarmed by any number of enemies. When zerging I could be picked off, who knows. Best to be prepared and bring all the buffs you can.
ZOMBIES MAN.

The only thing that needs to be doen with WVW is to remove all of the food buffs and oils/sharpening stone/crystal buffs.
That stuff has nothing to search in WvW.
I know, WvW isn’t about game balance, but WvW without Buff Food and other buff item stuff like the oils, stones and crytals that increase the stats of a character, the gamemode would get a large step nearer to general “balance”.

The WvW ability buffs should stay.. they are part of WvW Progression in the game and they show you, that a player is definetely of a certain rank, when you see a player running around with both WvW Kill Buffs and they show you, that fightign against such aplayer might be more challenging, than fightign someone, that has not these 2 WvW buffs and its also needed for all the underleveled players in WvW to have a chance against someone with Max Level as long these self have at the moment of the battle none of those two buffs active.

After that change, Anet should remove the Shrine Stat Buffs and remove the Claim Stat Buffs from WvW guild claims and exchange these guild buffs with different new effects that have nothing to do with character stats.

Instead of increased Power, Characters in a guild claimed area for example could run faster on top of the perma +25% from signets/traits, while not having supply.
Instead of increased Precision, Characters in a guild claimed area for example could see enemies in that territory on the minimap.
Instead of increased Vitality, Characters in a guild claimed area could lose slower health while being in in downed state.
Instead of increased Toughness, Characters in a guild claimed area could have every 10 seconds for 2 seconds Stability.

Stuff liek this, that doesn’t makecharacters in stats alot more powerful, but instead gives therm just little helpful things, that would be just nice to have, but not mandatory.

The Shrine Buffs need to get changed to environmental buffs with each shrine having a different effect, so that people want to constantly claim as many of the shrines, as possible on the map.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ruins_of_Power
5 Ruin Shrines of Power

Bauer’s Estate, claim it, and in an area around it will Boons last 10% longer.
Orchard Overlook, claim it and in an area around it will Conditions last 10% lesser
Battles Hollow, claim it and in an arena around it will recharge the Class F-Mechanics 10% faster
Carver’s Ascent, claim it and in an arena around it won’t you lose your Buffs, if you die there. and gain 25% more WxP for Kills
Temple of Lost Prayers, claim it and in an arena around it you revive dead players 20% faster and chances for getting Loots Bags from Player Kills are 10% better

Something like that or similar would be far more interesting ,than the current system is …

It does not take long to get at least applied fortitude especially now wxp is account bound. The easiest way is use a birthday booster if you have one for a few of those karma train fridays alot of the servers have.

If you want to maximise the bonus then only use that character for WvW and preferably on those karma train events. You can easily gain 20 plus levels in a few hours.

If you spend your time roaming then I agree it can take a good while. I would prefer that guard stack buffs were not there to be honest that is wvw specific and is just a stat creep reward for time served that other games have fallen foul off. Food and gear , on kill stats, I am fine with, that’s part of the build process.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

I seriously don’t get why people cry about this all of the time. You have the option to use these things just like every one else. It reminds me of the spoiled kid that sits at a table full of food saying that there is nothing to eat and cries, except in this case the spoiled kid doesn’t want any one else to eat either.

Everything isn’t easy to acquire like the bloodlust buff or the guard killer R10 ect. A lot of those things take time to get or a good server. When people have their first experience of just getting slaughtered by a stealth thief or a immune warrior fully buffed and decked out, they feel helpless and lose the will to play.

Victory.2879:

The diversity of builds available by using foodstuffs etc is one of the reasons I much prefer wvw to spvp. If they remove all the stuff mentioned above then it would just become a larger version of the spvp boredom.

I can see why people would argue for food buffs to stay in and it is a valid point but, the thing I don’t like about it is that majority of the people that play WvW never use it. I usually only see the skilled/elite players using them making them more overwhelming for the casual player. Nothing saps the fun out of the game then losing a fight and feeling like you barely got to do anything. The game is just way too punishing for the casual player which, I think, is just one of the reasons why zergs are a big thing. Its the only way they can play casual and still have fun without getting slaughtered. I understand that these buffs aren’t the make or break points in these fights but they certainly don’t help the situation at all.

My biggest problem with food buffs is that they are just 1 more massive gold sink in a game mode that is already full of gold sinks.

I spend 99% of my game time in WvW because it is the only thing in GW2 that I enjoy, but in order to fund all the siege, upgrades to camps and towers, and buffs for multiple characters, I have to occasionally run dungeons just so I can afford it.

the problem in www now is that the lemongrass is to rare and it is expensive , no the buffs and no the masteries.

masteries are here to make new players bad and old players better than bad … with this way the new players have something to …. win by playing

Yah I have to say get rid of food bonus’s. One’s ability to fight should be based off the field and success he/she has had in combat, not based on a gold sink. Some cost for siege equipment(so new players can siege without having to make PvP kills first) is perfectly fine though.

just delete lemongrass poutry soup from the game and u will see how meta will change in a day to more balanced.

I don’t use buffs unless I face a worthy opponent who is using buffs. I get more pleasure out of beating people using buffs without using a single one myself.

If I get beat in a 1v1 fight with someone who is buffed up then I will rematch using some buffs of my own… but 9/10 times I win most of my 1v1 fights without using buffs.

If I am running with a zerg though and the commander puts down some food I will take some but if I am just map roaming then I don’t use buffs.

Hvaran.6327:

just delete lemongrass poutry soup from the game and u will see how meta will change in a day to more balanced.

also , they should delete the armors /weapons that have power and condition. the two main attack stats ….

I like my food. Shoo
I wouldn’t mind bloodlust getting taken out, I don’t care to stomp my foes. Though I know a lot of people enjoy that so ignore me. o.o

Reborn.2934:

Hvaran.6327:

just delete lemongrass poutry soup from the game and u will see how meta will change in a day to more balanced.

also , they should delete the armors /weapons that have power and condition. the two main attack stats ….

so pho tholl