Guild Wars 2

This is something I keep hearing, that the entire Development team all play warriors. thats find and dandy for their free time, but if your designing a game your passionate about, why only play ONE class? Sure I can understand not likeing certain stuff, I wouldnt play guardian Dev team or not, but only ONE profession? for most of the team? thats a bit worrysome.
If this is true, why hasn’t the dev team been told to reroll their classes for a while to deal with concerns from the running players, like elementalist, mesmer, and theif. It begs a great many quesitons in terms of bias

I think they play pretty much all classes to some degree so in a way it is true. They don’t all main warriors though.

ah ok, I can see where people get the Bias on warriors, but It would be a bit worrying if the Dev’s had that kind of clear bias

Julie Yann.5379:

I think they play pretty much all classes to some degree so in a way it is true. They don’t all main warriors though.

Question is: “Do they play them all enough?”

Because from what I have seen, they havn’t. What they should be doing is assigning 1 balance dev to 1 profession for every profession. Then those devs collaborate with players who main the corresponding profession to help develop balance patches. Then the devs collaborate with each other to tweak the patches so they don’t hurt any of the professions.

WoW’s lead dev was always accused of favouring Mages and DKs. His main char? Holy Priest.

Goes to show, you’re rarely correct with these “considerations”.

What ? All devs play ranger because pet is OP

Err definetly not. I’dd recommend you to check on some video’s on their channel and check out their classes. They are most likely playing everything. They are also having main characters which are also very diverse. Some have engineer, some have elementalist etc.

The V.8759:

Err definetly not. I’dd recommend you to check on some video’s on their channel and check out their classes. They are most likely playing everything. They are also having main characters which are also very diverse. Some have engineer, some have elementalist etc.

Read the Ranger CDI and I feel you will change that opinion very quickly.
Hell, we had 2 pets that we’re exactly the same model with the same skills for over 6 months before they found out. After we told them directly.

OP, I can tell you what class the devs are definitely not playing: Ranger

They was once a dev (worked on dungeons) who did admit to playing a ranger, but he quit or was fired over 8 or 9 months ago.

I suspect devs playing nerco and engi are few and far between as well ..

Bri, to enlighten your memories: Robert Hrouda

Doesn’t matter what the devs play. It only matters what the balance devs play. And last I checked JP was playing a signet warrior with a greatsword in pvp.

Oh and hail to Robert Hrouda! The only dev who tried to stand up for the oppressed rangers; and got fired. We should host an event someday where everyone goes to Metrica and takes up one of the Hrouda Protest Signs.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Help_Hrouda_maintain_the_ecosystem_in_spite_of_Dr._Bleent%27s_research

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/3581129
Watch from 51:00 there is you’re answers those are the balancing devs.

tom.7468:

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/3581129
Watch from 51:00 there is you’re answers those are the balancing devs.

Yep, there you have it. Just see how the entire balance team lights up and goes crazy.

Warrior warrior, I play warrior too hahahaha warrior; everyone plays warrior.

I think the dev’s should all list their player profiles publicly so we know who we’re dealing with and what they play and main and their interests pertaining to the different game modes. It only seems fair and if they are a balance team that is fair why would they want to hide or deny it unless they have reason too.

It is painfully obvious no dev, period, mains a Ranger… That’s why we will remained handicapped with the band-aided pet.

Substance E.4852:

The V.8759:

Err definetly not. I’dd recommend you to check on some video’s on their channel and check out their classes. They are most likely playing everything. They are also having main characters which are also very diverse. Some have engineer, some have elementalist etc.

Read the Ranger CDI and I feel you will change that opinion very quickly.
Hell, we had 2 pets that we’re exactly the same model with the same skills for over 6 months before they found out. After we told them directly.

You didn’t hear me say dev’s are using every class alot. I am just saying that not all devs have warrior as main. Not speaking about them having ranger as main. I know a dev with a ranger is a very very rare phenomene.

Substance E.4852:

Read the Ranger CDI and I feel you will change that opinion very quickly.
Hell, we had 2 pets that we’re exactly the same model with the same skills for over 6 months before they found out. After we told them directly.

Quoted for truth.

thefantasticg.3984:

It is painfully obvious no dev, period, mains a Ranger… That’s why we will remained handicapped with the band-aided pet.

They also dont play necro and i am not sure if they play ele (i feel they dont).

Muchacho.2390:

thefantasticg.3984:

It is painfully obvious no dev, period, mains a Ranger… That’s why we will remained handicapped with the band-aided pet.

They also dont play necro and i am not sure if they play ele (i feel they dont).

You can say the same for thief. The Dec. 10th update discussion for thieves is evidence of that.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/arenanet-tracker/topic/278436-dec-10th-thief-changes/

They really believed that thieves were going heavy on the initiative gain and regen traits “because initiative regeneration was too slow and was causing players to either take traits to supplement it, or have their effectivness suffer”.

Now, that is partly true. The real reason why thieves never take anything else is because around 80% of thief traits are either situational or plain crappy. And I listed them, giving each of those traits a reason why they sucked. I even gave my general consensus about the thief traitlines and their problems. That comment even got some support. But nobody listened….

I could’ve also listed why certain weapon sets were prefered over others, but I had to confront the troll who wasted an entire page of comments saying the same thing he was saying for the few months prior. If you read through a few pages on that topic you’ll know who I am talking about.

The whole discussion was shot.

@OP. No. Incorrect. They are either warriors or decap engis.

Zacchary.6183:

Muchacho.2390:

thefantasticg.3984:

It is painfully obvious no dev, period, mains a Ranger… That’s why we will remained handicapped with the band-aided pet.

They also dont play necro and i am not sure if they play ele (i feel they dont).

You can say the same for thief. The Dec. 10th update discussion for thieves is evidence of that.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/arenanet-tracker/topic/278436-dec-10th-thief-changes/

They really believed that thieves were going heavy on the initiative gain and regen traits “because initiative regeneration was too slow and was causing players to either take traits to supplement it, or have their effectivness suffer”.

Now, that is partly true. The real reason why thieves never take anything else is because around 80% of thief traits are either situational or plain crappy. And I listed them, giving each of those traits a reason why they sucked. I even gave my general consensus about the thief traitlines and their problems. That comment even got some support. But nobody listened….

I could’ve also listed why certain weapon sets were prefered over others, but I had to confront the troll who wasted an entire page of comments saying the same thing he was saying for the few months prior. If you read through a few pages on that topic you’ll know who I am talking about.

The whole discussion was shot.

Good god, if the dev’s seriously think initiative regen is too slow then we are in even bigger trouble than I thought.

Substance E.4852:

Zacchary.6183:

Muchacho.2390:

thefantasticg.3984:

It is painfully obvious no dev, period, mains a Ranger… That’s why we will remained handicapped with the band-aided pet.

They also dont play necro and i am not sure if they play ele (i feel they dont).

You can say the same for thief. The Dec. 10th update discussion for thieves is evidence of that.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/arenanet-tracker/topic/278436-dec-10th-thief-changes/

They really believed that thieves were going heavy on the initiative gain and regen traits “because initiative regeneration was too slow and was causing players to either take traits to supplement it, or have their effectivness suffer”.

Now, that is partly true. The real reason why thieves never take anything else is because around 80% of thief traits are either situational or plain crappy. And I listed them, giving each of those traits a reason why they sucked. I even gave my general consensus about the thief traitlines and their problems. That comment even got some support. But nobody listened….

I could’ve also listed why certain weapon sets were prefered over others, but I had to confront the troll who wasted an entire page of comments saying the same thing he was saying for the few months prior. If you read through a few pages on that topic you’ll know who I am talking about.

The whole discussion was shot.

Good god, if the dev’s seriously think initiative regen is too slow then we are in even bigger trouble than I thought.

Yes… well they decreased the maximum amount of initiative-per-second a thief can have by 1/3 with that update. So you can stop worrying about it.

And tbh, idc if the profession gets nerfed as long as arenanet actually provides compensation for it. Like the whole profession gets a nerf in one area but then a bunch of the traits I listed are more appealing (i.e. 10% instead of 5% increases, utilities that don’t rely on all associated traits to not be a waste of slot space, trait placement that makes sense and benefits builds that use it, etc.).

Arenanet can start by looking at my list and testing it for themselves. :I

Substance E.4852:

Zacchary.6183:

Muchacho.2390:

thefantasticg.3984:

It is painfully obvious no dev, period, mains a Ranger… That’s why we will remained handicapped with the band-aided pet.

They also dont play necro and i am not sure if they play ele (i feel they dont).

You can say the same for thief. The Dec. 10th update discussion for thieves is evidence of that.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/arenanet-tracker/topic/278436-dec-10th-thief-changes/

They really believed that thieves were going heavy on the initiative gain and regen traits “because initiative regeneration was too slow and was causing players to either take traits to supplement it, or have their effectivness suffer”.

Now, that is partly true. The real reason why thieves never take anything else is because around 80% of thief traits are either situational or plain crappy. And I listed them, giving each of those traits a reason why they sucked. I even gave my general consensus about the thief traitlines and their problems. That comment even got some support. But nobody listened….

I could’ve also listed why certain weapon sets were prefered over others, but I had to confront the troll who wasted an entire page of comments saying the same thing he was saying for the few months prior. If you read through a few pages on that topic you’ll know who I am talking about.

The whole discussion was shot.

Good god, if the dev’s seriously think initiative regen is too slow then we are in even bigger trouble than I thought.

The correct answer is that it was both. If you took the traits for initiative then the regen could be fast and allow for constant bursts/stealth. On the other hand if you went without the traits it was slow and sustained DPS was bad. Myself and many others warned them back in beta that initiative regen traits were a terrible idea because they directly impact DPS and sustain in a huge way making balancing them impossible. You either balance based on people having the traits making all other builds kitten or you balanced based on them not having them making builds with them OP.

My major complaint when the game released is that the classes and the stat system were half baked. They needed a lot more work, fleshing out, and of course balance. The balance patches since launch have been incredibly underwhelming and a lot of times just downright nonsensical. I’d wager this next balance patch will be more of the same, I highly doubt they actually read the preview feedback and made changes. Heck they posted in the necro forums in the last balance patch about plans to put dumbfire on lifeblast and people told them it was a bad idea then, they still did it.

A couple of devs (somewhere between 6-8 of them) showed up late monday morning to play some WvW with my server. I am not going to name names or server, since that never ends well.

They also knew their stuff because we were able to go againt an uncoordinated zerg larger than us several times, and there is no way we would have won if 40% of our group didn’t know what they were doing.

There was a warrior or two, an engineer, a necromancer, a mesmer or two. I’m pretty sure I also saw a Ranger.

bri.2359:

OP, I can tell you what class the devs are definitely not playing: Ranger

They was once a dev (worked on dungeons) who did admit to playing a ranger, but he quit or was fired over 8 or 9 months ago.

I suspect devs playing nerco and engi are few and far between as well ..

They would probably be fired for playing Necro too then.

I don’t play warrior, but I distinctly remember a time warriors used to be free kills for just about everyone in pvp. It’s their time to shine. Let them shine.

Wars have been in the light too long that they’ve got sunburn. It’s time for Rangers to get some love, that class has been indisputably needing it for the longest time.

Hot Boy.7138:

I don’t play warrior, but I distinctly remember a time warriors used to be free kills for just about everyone in pvp. It’s their time to shine. Let them shine.

They were only bad in pvp but were (and still are) amazing in pve and a staple of WvW. Warriors have never needed a “time to shine”.

Allie Murdock.8152:

The answer is, we don’t. My first 80 was an Elementalist. After that, I started a Thief which I got up to 74, a Necro which I got up to 22, and now I have a Warrior that is 80. Also have alts of every class.

Also, when I was in the Alpha before I started here, I mostly played Guardian and Ranger to lvl80. This was before they had implemented events in any of the lvl50+ maps. I had a friend that helped me grind up, and we would run around showing off that we hit 80 by grinding mobs.

I dunno why I shared that whole thing, but the point is that we definitely all play a variety of classes, just like you!

Why’d you stop on the thief? You could craft level those last 6!

But Allie, do you guys play them enough? That is what this thread is really asking.

I spent my entire year+ playing this game on my thief and from what I have seen is that there is a large disconnect from what thieves need and what the devs think they need.

Now I don’t want to come off as flaming, but it’s the truth.

During the Dec. 10th the changes that were planned decreased the maximum amount if Initiative per second a thief can manage by exactly 1/3. I tried to offer alternatives because I knew that this would have pushed veteran thieves further away from the profession, which that’s what it did. I knew the update would hurt most of the builds while the only one to feel any buff was pistol/dagger, which it did.

So naturally I knew that the update that was planned wasn’t going to be constructive for the profession as a whole. And I even explained why. Half of the reason why thieves took the initiative regen traits is because the rest of them are lackluster.

It kills that profession’s build diversity when you have several overpowered traits for a very weak utility set (venoms) or you have alot of filler traits (every +5% damage traits) that do not provide any noticeable change to a build’s performance. They simply do not help in any way which is why nobody will take them.

We’ve seen one of the devs play a lvl 20+ thief in pve and a few devs constantly die in a fractal, but any experience beyond that is debatable.

EDIT: Seriously, I could have written a mutli-page guide for playing a thief filled with every bit of information on every trait, traitline, skill and weaponset with enough details to give players a general understanding of them all. And they too would see how much fixing the profession needs.

Allie Murdock.8152:

The answer is, we don’t. My first 80 was an Elementalist. After that, I started a Thief which I got up to 74, a Necro which I got up to 22, and now I have a Warrior that is 80. Also have alts of every class.

Also, when I was in the Alpha before I started here, I mostly played Guardian and Ranger to lvl80. This was before they had implemented events in any of the lvl50+ maps. I had a friend that helped me grind up, and we would run around showing off that we hit 80 by grinding mobs.

I dunno why I shared that whole thing, but the point is that we definitely all play a variety of classes, just like you!

The whole “Necro to level 22” made me laugh out loud. Not sure that helps the Devs’case in the “Do they play them enough?” question. The point is simply that the devs that make things happen in the balance moves have historically demonstrated a gross naivete with respect to the classes they claim to understand but systematically destroy.

Props on grinding 80 on mob kills, though. I would have flipped a table long before that.

I don’t think many play ranger, they still have not had any ranger representation in any of the pvp readyup matches

Zacchary.6183:

Julie Yann.5379:

I think they play pretty much all classes to some degree so in a way it is true. They don’t all main warriors though.

Question is: “Do they play them all enough?”

Because from what I have seen, they havn’t. What they should be doing is assigning 1 balance dev to 1 profession for every profession. Then those devs collaborate with players who main the corresponding profession to help develop balance patches. Then the devs collaborate with each other to tweak the patches so they don’t hurt any of the professions.

THIS MAN RIGHT HERE, HE GETS IT. Anet, this is what needs to be done, you need at least one specialist for every class, somebody who plays that class more than any other, who knows how it works.

Allie Murdock.8152:

The answer is, we don’t. My first 80 was an Elementalist. After that, I started a Thief which I got up to 74, a Necro which I got up to 22, and now I have a Warrior that is 80. Also have alts of every class.

Also, when I was in the Alpha before I started here, I mostly played Guardian and Ranger to lvl80. This was before they had implemented events in any of the lvl50+ maps. I had a friend that helped me grind up, and we would run around showing off that we hit 80 by grinding mobs.

I dunno why I shared that whole thing, but the point is that we definitely all play a variety of classes, just like you!

What this says to me is that you leveled up your first profession, your second got boring and lame quickly, your third got boring extremely quickly. Then you played a warrior decided it was fun rolling your face across the keyboard, and leveled it to 80. You have to understand why it is worrying when you thought two classes that you started first were too boring to play to 80. This and then you started a warrior which gives far more reward for skill and leveled it to 80. As someone who thinks a lot about design, I don’t understand why your not spending more time working on making other classes more enjoyable WHEN YOU DIDN’T EVEN LEVEL 2 OF THEM TO 80.

Allie Murdock.8152:

The answer is, we don’t. My first 80 was an Elementalist. After that, I started a Thief which I got up to 74, a Necro which I got up to 22, and now I have a Warrior that is 80. Also have alts of every class.

Also, when I was in the Alpha before I started here, I mostly played Guardian and Ranger to lvl80. This was before they had implemented events in any of the lvl50+ maps. I had a friend that helped me grind up, and we would run around showing off that we hit 80 by grinding mobs.

I dunno why I shared that whole thing, but the point is that we definitely all play a variety of classes, just like you!

Does any dev main ranger?:) Because I doubt any does..:)

Allie Murdock.8152:

The answer is, we don’t. My first 80 was an Elementalist. After that, I started a Thief which I got up to 74, a Necro which I got up to 22, and now I have a Warrior that is 80. Also have alts of every class.

Also, when I was in the Alpha before I started here, I mostly played Guardian and Ranger to lvl80. This was before they had implemented events in any of the lvl50+ maps. I had a friend that helped me grind up, and we would run around showing off that we hit 80 by grinding mobs.

I dunno why I shared that whole thing, but the point is that we definitely all play a variety of classes, just like you!

You’re not a developer, you’re just a community coordinator.

UHD.2634:

You’re not a developer, you’re just a community coordinator.

Oh my, what a nice thing to say. You sure know how to put on your best behaviour.

Anyway, I don’t think, the developers just play one profession. Warrior of course is the easiest to play, but they surely also main another profession.

VideoGamermike.5813:

This is something I keep hearing, that the entire Development team all play warriors.

And where did you keep hearing this? Right, “on the Internet.” This should have given you a hint about the soundness of your information.

~MRA

It’s true though. The devs in charge of balance are pretty much all warriors.
If you see a dev with a lvl80 non-warrior, they aren’t part of the balance team.

This argument gets recycled in practically every game. It’s just as BS in this case as it is every other time it’s been used. In MMO terms this game is still a toddler and balance is still going to be off in some areas.

While we’re on the subject, name me one MMO that has had perfect balance within the scope of a year and a half. In fact, name me one MMO with perfect balance period.

Keep in mind I will keep my scornful laughter to myself for your benefit when someone actually tries to name one.

Nobody seemed to be asking this back when Warriors were the worst PvP profession…

Arenanet is a big company, they most certainly play every Profession, as fun as it is to make crazy conspiracy theories.

AllNightPlayer.1286:

UHD.2634:

You’re not a developer, you’re just a community coordinator.

Oh my, what a nice thing to say. You sure know how to put on your best behaviour.

Anyway, I don’t think, the developers just play one profession. Warrior of course is the easiest to play, but they surely also main another profession.

And besides, no one wants to know if a CC ever leveled a character in PvE and then never used it in PvP. Everyone who watches Ready Up knows Allie plays a warrior.

Ouch Mrs. Murdock, you shouldn’t have said that. Especially since a lot of players have a general mistrust towards the devs and how they deal with certain classes. Now everyone will think that you didn’t play necro because…? Well, maybe because they’re not fun/ “weak”/ or just not good for leveling. Also MY question is, which profession do you main? I also have tons of lvl 80 alts but that doesn’t mean that I play them all the time. Which profession do you play all the time?

PLaying a class during alpha/beta/right after launch when they were all OP in some way does not tell you in the slightest what the professions can and cannot do today. Another thing, Mrs. Murdock, during the ready up last night, you said you and other devs play a lot on internal servers. Which is fine, for balance testing when you want an enviroment that is as sterile as possible. However, during my own time spent testing stuff on closed servers, i can tell you that what you cannot foresee from closed internal test servers is how the general public plays. Their tactics.
You can watch all the videos you want, but you do not know how a class plays in live mode, unless you go into live mode. 2-3 hours a week (for you) and X amount of hours for the rest, translates to roughly 1 raid for us that use your product. Now during 1 raid, you can either see some amazing progress, or have your rear end handed to you multiple times. In most cases the latter is more likely given the current META in PvP/WvW.

All i ask for, is that when you want to test something that is not strictly “future update” material. Test it on live servers. If you want to see how strong X build on Y profession is, play it on the live servers. Because that is where you realize the kind of skill you need to play the build, and in a game made to be serving the casual player, you need to account for the skill cap of a build, not just the theory.
(if we look at theory, rangers would be OP, because pet damage is quite high once speccing into it, but in reality – its not OP by a longshot)

Allie Murdock.8152:

The answer is, we don’t. My first 80 was an Elementalist. After that, I started a Thief which I got up to 74, a Necro which I got up to 22, and now I have a Warrior that is 80. Also have alts of every class.

Also, when I was in the Alpha before I started here, I mostly played Guardian and Ranger to lvl80. This was before they had implemented events in any of the lvl50+ maps. I had a friend that helped me grind up, and we would run around showing off that we hit 80 by grinding mobs.

I dunno why I shared that whole thing, but the point is that we definitely all play a variety of classes, just like you!

i think hes talking about PvP not PvE grinding

but really LB and S/S condi bunker warr has all these complete package set! insane heals, insane COndition damage and decent crit %,, Tanky, many Condition remove + rune of lyssa, Mobility. . . . GG

DAoC did it right. They had a dedicated team lead for every class, that was in touch with the game devs. They even took it a step further, and nominated a PLAYER, that spent all their time playing that class, to be the liason between the players and the dev team.

That player/liason listened to the player base, and organized things to pass along to the devs. I remember the Ranger team lead was Larian Le’Quella, and there was a ton of back and forth between him and the player base, and between him and the devs.

Players felt they were represented about their class they were passionate about, and felt they had an outlet for issues.

If Anet is smart, they’ll follow this example.

Allie Murdock.8152:

The answer is, we don’t. My first 80 was an Elementalist. After that, I started a Thief which I got up to 74, a Necro which I got up to 22, and now I have a Warrior that is 80. Also have alts of every class.

Also, when I was in the Alpha before I started here, I mostly played Guardian and Ranger to lvl80. This was before they had implemented events in any of the lvl50+ maps. I had a friend that helped me grind up, and we would run around showing off that we hit 80 by grinding mobs.

I dunno why I shared that whole thing, but the point is that we definitely all play a variety of classes, just like you!

well im sure devs play a bunch of classes, but there is still a disconnect. everything that gets balanced is based on spvp. this creates huge balance issues in wvw and the gaps there are getting bigger and bigger. i mean cc spam is ridiculous in wvw, the zerg with the most war wins. eles meteorshowers hit for 6k-11k and wreck everything on walls and meanwhile rangers arent even allowed in an organized guild, mesmers are boring veilbots that have to rely on stealth to not get cced to death and heavy armor classes dominate the battle field.
i always hear, yeah war is a little strong and needs a tweak.in wvw war need nerfs not tweaks. u didnt tweak glamour builds u flat out destroyed the only non ai aoe build mes had and never gave us anything back. rangers had a little shine when bm was buffed, but now they disappeared after nerfs too.
so yeah there is a big disconnect i think and whenever a dev says mes is in a good spot, im thinking:….so u are happy with the fact that mes is a utilitybot or roamer and cannot ever be part of dmg dealer in a zerg? making a light armor class a 1v1 duelist only with barely any aoe skills, multitarget skills, that is only functioning with illusions? well illusions die in less than a second in a zerg, so without ip no shatters….

so if u guys dont change things around wvw will pretty soon only be open for 3,5 classes war/guard/ele and the 0.5 is thieves as they get to gank the backlines…

id recommend devs to go and play a ranger in a zerg,play a mesmer in wvw and see how often things get obstructed, how little dmg u do, how little loot u get, and how boring the veilbot duty is, play an engi in a zerg play it for a few hours, follow an organized guild around and u will see the issues much better.

imo every class should be viable in every game mode, there should be build options for dueling and raids.ai based classes should have more non ai heavy build options…etc

I wish I got a dev playing only say Necro in PvE and actually caring about them being useless somewhere instead of just hearing the PvP balance team laughing about how some things are changing in PvP and not a word is mentioned about PvE.

I don’t play PvE anymore because people bash me for having a useless build, and if I want PvP I play something else.