Showing Posts For Abramelin.7356:

PVP basic game design: TTK (time to kill).

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

TTK sounds like something to be aware of in balancing pvp, but I’m skeptical about the ability of a simple metric to balance a pvp game which is actually interesting and enjoyable to play.

The first point is that GW2 is about capping and holding points, not just killing the enemy. So already TTK is limited (though still relevant) in how it can help us balance GW2 pvp.

On a basic level TTK seems better suited to a 1v1 game than a team game, where you want interesting abiltities to interact with each other. I also think that the difficulty of execution is an important factor – if one class is much easier to play perfectly, and the other is nearly impossible, then I would not say they are balanced although they may have the same TTK under your assumptions.

TTK also does not seem to take into account the value of support abilities like healing and control. Now maybe you want to build a more complex model that can do this on a per-group basis. Maybe with healing you can do it since it is pretty linear, but what about abilities where their timing is important, eg control abilities like stun and immobalise, how do you assign them a rating? These are abilities that might have no TTK impact if you do them at the wrong time, but very high TTK impact if you do them at the right time. To factor these in requires some subjective judgement I think, which means were are not just relying on maths anymore.

In this regard I don’t think you can model a fluid and dynamically interactive game like gw2 on a computer, where timing is so important to the result and there are so many possible permutations. Due to the interactivity of the various elements, the analogy here would be with quantum states rather than classical physical states. It does not take many qubits to make a quantum state unsolvable for the most powerful computers.

You can see these issues more clearly in a game like lol, which has more defined roles and abilities. A lot of champions are valued because their abilities enable a particular strategy or are useful in a particular context. For examples, a team might want a champ with a good initiation, or a good peel, or maybe a global map presence. How can you balance those around TTK? I’d say you can’t because they don’t have anything to do with TTK. They are about allowing a team to implement a particular strategy or get an advantage in particular circumstances which the team will then try to produce during the game (eg this team comp is bad in team fights but good at split pushing, so we need to avoid team fights and split push to take their towers). I think that if you wanted to expand the TTK concept to address those abilities you are diluting it to the point were if ceases to be a mathmatical model and instead becomes a format for ordinary stragetic judgment.

Now you might way, well GW2 does not have these kind of defined roles, so TTK is more applicable here. That is a fair comment, but it brings me to my final criticism. Is TTK the best way to design a team game which is interesting and enjoyable to play? I think GW2 PVP would be be better if it had more of the kind of strategic depth and variety that did not lend itself to TTK modelling.

Just watched revenant POI ;_;

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I think d/p thief could be a counter to the Shiro revanant. From the livestream it seems like the shiro dps ramps up during the fight. The d/p front loaded burst and reset ability should counter that, as they won’t be able to ramp up after we stealth. Plus they won’t be able to use all their juicy mobility skills if they are blinded or we are stealthed, and we can interrupt sword 3 with pistol 4, as sword 3 currently does not have any evasion frames.

The shiro revenant could be the final nail in the coffin of the s/d thief though, since it seems to have a similar playstyle while looking more effective at it. That would ultimately be a plus for thieves who enjoy the s/d playstyle and don’t mind changing professions.

It will ultimately depend on how much dps the shiro revenant puts out. The damage did not look that amazing in the livestream and anet has definitely erred on the underpowered side when it comes to revenant balancing so far. You’d expect the revenant to be at least decent at launch, though anet does weird stuff sometimes.

So, new patch, old Withdraw?

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Base coefficient is the base amount withdraw heals for, so yes the base heal was supposed to increase by 10%.

(Balance) Developer Livestream on Friday at 2pm PST

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I suspect the crit damage change is aimed more at WvW than PVE, since Anet seem to generally balance for PVX and the pve zerker concerns have only risen to prominence recently. Though it’ll probably affect PVE too.

For what it’s worth, nerfing crit damage won’t do anything to address the issues people have recently raised with the PVE zerker meta. It will only mean the same meta set does less damage.

On another note, any chance of getting the thief flanking strike (s/d 3) to cancel the autoattack the same way a dodge does? The evade is pretty unreliable when it has to wait for the AA animation to finish.

To clear the air about Berserker

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Some of the disagreement on this post comes down to game design preferences. Some people want a soft-trinity design while others prefer the all dps meta.

Nike has articulated a game design where support etc comes from traits and abilities while gear is an offensive / defensive trade-off. I think this has 3 problems for gw2:

1. It relegates all non-zerker gear to “training wheels” sets, which a player is expected to progress beyond. This basically trivialises the other gear sets as interesting choices
2. It does not explain the place of healing power in the game;
3. As BRA notes, there is not enough of a defensive trade-off with zerker gear, making it by the far the superior set for even average players. This could be addressed by more difficult combat however, which I assume the pro-zerker posters would also welcome.

My personal opinion is that a straight zerker meta is boring and one-dimensional. Stacking and whacking is a valid tactic but also boring gameplay (yes I know there is more to the gameplay than this). Trait and ability choices are not enough to remedy this.

Part of the issue other posters have identified is that all the important support in the game currently does not rely on stats. Perhaps one solution would be to make some of the important support skills, like reflect and timewarp, rely on a “support” stat which would compete with the zerker stats. Another solution would be to create a better use for the other control and debuff abilties in the game.

I think giving bosses frequent small attacks would not be a good idea. It would penalise low hp and armour classes. Also, requiring players to have x amount of defensive stacks is just as uninteresting as making such stats irrelevant. A better solution would be to add other mobs or avoidable damaging effects to boss encounters. This would create more incoming attacks to be absorbed, but it would also allow the skilled players to kite and avoid them in full zerker. It would thus up the skill level required to use full zerker, without making defensive stats mandatory. This is what Anet have already done with some encounters, such as Molten facility and fire shaman fractal.

However I do not think that zerker gear should be nerfed or defensive stats made mandatory for all players. I’d just like the gameplay and build choices to be more varied and interesting.

To clear the air about Berserker

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

While I agree with your op bra I don’t think ignoring the concerns of Nike and co is the way to go. It’s pretty divisive to just say “these guys are hostile and unreasonable, ignore them”. I don’t agree with many of their comments so far but they are not trolls and I’d like to understand where they are coming from better.

It seems like this zerker debate has become so poisoned over time that some people reflexively see any attempt to change the meta as either an attack on them personally (along the lines of the “stacking is exploiting” fallacy) or a dumbing down of the game for “bads”.

(edited by Abramelin.7356)

To clear the air about Berserker

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

@ODB
You’ve got it backwards. People aren’t against useless stats and they’re taking it out on the DPS meta, they’re against the DPS meta and they’re taking it out on useless stats. (Justifiably, as they’re one of the causes of it.)

Less build and role options is prettymuch the exact opposite of what an iteration should be aiming for.

I’ve been trying to see what you are saying in this post and I just can’t. This isn’t just a dps META…this is a dps game mode. The point of this game mode is dps. What other point could there be when the objective is to kill stuff? The trinity is purposely absent in this game to prevent anyone from being forced into following some “tank’s” orders or depending on some “healer” to keep you alive. This game is designed for individual accountability. There is no iteration that can or should correct this and have it be the same game that was advertised/sold/purchased. Re-read the pre-release description of this game. This game advertised that every class could fulfill all three roles…it specifically worded that phrase with AND instead of OR, which means that trying to make a dedicated tank or dedicated healer is doing it wrong. You should be doing all three at the same time. That’s why utilities are not affected by stats. That’s why dps is required to be efficient. That’s why there is no tank aggro system. That’s why healers are not required. Please stop trying to make this into a trinity game. There are no “roles” and there should not be any. Everyone should be fulfilling all three roles.

There is another frequent post I keep seeing about nerfing critical damage…all I can think about when I see that repeatedly mentioned is..

Except there is healing gear in the game, there are healing traits, healing abilities and healing utilities. The same goes for tanking. The fact they are in the game shows anet intended them to have a use. In addition anet has said they plan on addressing the zerker dominance, which shows they consider it to be a problem. The current pure dps meta is is a design flaw, not a design feature.

To clear the air about Berserker

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Good post BRA. I can’t help thinking that the root of the problem is the abandonment of the trinity. If everyone’s role is now dps, then the highest dps configuration will be best eg berserker. The problem seems to be that Anet removed tanking and healing, but left tanking and healing gear in the game (from a pve standpoint).

No one is seriously suggesting that non-zerker specs do as much damage as full zerker. What they want is for control and support specs and gear to be equally useful. Some people have said it is crazy for anything other than zerker to be the most efficient. I say it is crazy for a game to provide a large variety of gear and build options, only to render all but one “garbage” (as per the dungeons subforum) by poor encounter design.

However I can’t see how this can be fixed without reintroducing some form of role. Full zerker will be optimal unless someone has to tank and someone has to heal/support, but then we are into a trinity. Which raises the question of whether the removal of the trinity was a good idea in the first place.

I have a question for the pro-zerker people on this thread. Are you happy with the current state of gw2 gameplay? What kind of changes would you like to see to it, if any.

CDI- Character Progression-Horizontal

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

The challenge with “horizontal” progression will be to make it actually feel like progression. As other people have noted, people need to feel like their characters are improving. They also need goals in the game.

My suggestion is to tie a significant proportion of the horizontal progression to skill increases. That way people can feel like they are progressing, but they are progressing via their own improved skill rather than their character’s power. The horizontal rewards can both recognise these achivements and give the player’s concrete goals to aim for.

For example, the achievements for Fractals should be further developed (titles, armour). For dungeons, maybe do what WoW did and have achievements and titles granted for doing things the hard way, like clearing all the content or 4-manning it. Somebody in another thread also had a great idea to let people try and solo the various champs and bosses in the game via a “Queen’s gauntlet” style arena.

So in summary, tie some horizontal rewards to player skill progression. That will keep people motivated to keep playing.

What happen to Fractals Leaderboard?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I think the issue with the Fractal update arise from the fact that they were released as part of the living story process.

Anet obviously care about Fractals. They spent a lot of dev resources making them in the first place and they spent a lot more upgrading them. You don’t do that for a gametype you don’t care about. So how to explain all the bugs and issues, and more frustratingly, Anet’s failure to respond to the community’s concerns?

First, I think the initial bugs and missing features (leaderboards and weapon chests) arose because they ran out of time before the “set in stone” 2 weekly living story release date.

The problem post-release I think is that fractals were designed by a living story team, and that team has now moved on to its next living story project. I know the dungeon team was disbanded a while ago, so I assume that there is no stable team devoted to Fractals either. Accordingly, there is no one from Anet actually assigned to fractals anymore. All the complaints and pleas for communcation have gone unanswered because there is no one at Anet whose job it is to respond anymore.

Basically, Anet have allocated their resources for the next 6 months or so, and none of them have gone to Fractals. So even if they wanted to fix the numerous issues, they don’t have the available manpower.

CDI- Character Progression- Vertical

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Hi All,

Chris

Bump. We are close to being able to move onto the ‘focused’ Horizontal Progression part of this conversation.

Does anyone have anymore comments on the proposal above based on our discussions?

Chris

The above proposal for vertical progression really only relates to ascended gear. Since ascended gear is now pretty much all in the game (and noting your comments on ascended runes / sigils), does this mean there will be no more vertical progression going forward?

I would like to see futher vertical progression, which was not gear based.

HI Abramelin,

Can you elaborate on the type of Vertical Progression you are referencing please? This will help me better understand your question.

Chris

Hi Chris, thanks for reading my post. By vertical progression I mean character power increases, either through straight stat bonuses or more powerful skills. I would like to know whether there will be a way to make our characters more powerful in the next year or so.

As an example of non-gear based stat progression, I like LOTRO’s virtue system http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Virtues. This gave you incremental stat bonuses from doing certain achievement type tasks. There were lots of stat bonus types, but you could only slot 5 at a time. For exampe, if you killed 1000 centaurs you could get a +5% damage bonus to centaurs, which would compete against other benefit type for your 5 slots. You could give other types of benefit too, like +20% duration on control effects.

This system would allow a lot of options for build customisation and specialisation. It also encourages players to do a wide variety of content, so they could have a range of possible bonus types to slot in the appropriate circumstances. Plus it makes sense frmo a roleplay / immersion perspective, since you get better at something from actually doing it.

CDI- Character Progression- Vertical

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Hi All,

Chris

Bump. We are close to being able to move onto the ‘focused’ Horizontal Progression part of this conversation.

Does anyone have anymore comments on the proposal above based on our discussions?

Chris

The above proposal for vertical progression really only relates to ascended gear. Since ascended gear is now pretty much all in the game (and noting your comments on ascended runes / sigils), does this mean there will be no more vertical progression going forward?

I would like to see futher vertical progression, which was not gear based.

CDI- Character Progression- Vertical

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Brainstorm statement.

I am assuming that you wouldn’t want a progression system in which new skills and traits superseded/replaced existing skills and traits.

Thus all progression must be complimentary, enhancing your current roles, perhaps creating new ones rather than just making you more powerful.

So therefore the idea of statistical power creep is redundant?

Chris

Hi Chris, personally I like stat progression, but I would like to see it available other than by gear (though i think you could improve infusions as the last gear related stat increase).

My concern with your complimentary progression system is: will it actually feel like progression? If everything is no better than what we have already, where is the progression? The new heal skills are a good example of this. They are no better than my current heals (for necro and thief), so they don’t feel like progression at all to me. People hold up the GW1 skill system as a model, but it sounds like the new skills were often better than the old ones, so there was a power-progression there. The old GW1 skill system actually sounds pretty good, esp with way the skills were acquired.

As an example of non-gear based stat progression, I like LOTRO’s virtue system. This gave you stat bonuses from doing certain achievement type tasks. There were lots of stat bonus types, but you could only slot 5 at a time. For exampe, if you killed 1000 centaurs you could get a +5% damage bonus to centaurs, which would compete against other benefit type for your 5 slots. You could give other types of benefit too, like +20% duration on control effects.

This system would allow a lot of options for build customisation and specialisation. It also encourages players to do a wide variety of content, so they could have a range of possible bonus types to slot in the appropriate circumstances.

Another option to consider is “status progression”. Status is a very powerful motivator. If horizontal progression was tied in with the idea of status, I think it could be very attractive to players. This is where unique new skins are tied in with skill achievements. There is some of this in the game already, like the arah dungeon set and fractal weapons. It is not that well developed however. Fractals in particular would be a good avenue for this, but you would need to start adding some titles etc. Maybe some fractal armour too.

CDI- Character Progression- Vertical

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Another system I really liked in LOTRO was its legendary weapon system http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Legendary_Items.

You basically levelled up your weapon the same way you did your character. You could also slot it with different items, some of which gave buffs to specific abilities (eg. fear lasts 10% longer). It made you feel attached to your main weapon. The system gave very significant power increases though, so it might be quite difficult to do within the GW2 system. You would also need to extend the system to ascended items at least, and maybe even exotics. Still it was a cool system within the LOTRO game design.

CDI- Character Progression- Vertical

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I would like to see diagonal progression. I see this as an increase in character power vs different avenues that complement rather than replace the existing ones.

I think power progression is an important part of MMOs. In the classic hero story, the hero starts out weak, but gains in strength until he can defeat the adversary. This idea of “progression” is a key element in the hero myth and I personally find it is necessary for a truly satisfying fantasy mmo.

However power progression needs to avoid these 2 pitfalls:

  • Loss of player equity. This happens when a new tier replaces the old one. It negates the players efforts to acquire the old gear, and makes them feel like they have lost something. There would be a big loss of player equity if ascended gear was replaced in the next 2 – 3 years. To avoid a loss of player equity, what I would like to see are new systems of increasing character power. Ones that supplement, rather than replace the existing ones. I also think it is the loss of player equity that makes progession seem like a treadmill (expending a lot of effort to remain in essentially the same place), rather than a journey.
  • Content gating. This happens when you need to do content to get the power increase, but you can’t realistically do the content without the power increase. This is what happened with wow raiding, where you needed raid gear to raid. Therefore all power increases need to be accessible, ie. free of content gates. This includes skill requirements beyond the ability of the average player. High skill should be rewarded, but it should be rewarded via horizontal progression eg cosmetic items and titles (bragging rights effectively).

For this reason I think Anet’s current approach is correct: you can get the gear through play-modes that are accessible to every player. I would have preferred a system that did not require crafting however. The expense of levelling up crafting (200g) is something of a content gate, which requires new players to do a bunch of gold-farm grinding. The legendary system is cool, why not grant players “gifts” from certain activity related tokens that they can combine in the forge?

A prime example of the kind of diagonal progression I would like to see is LOTRO’s virtue system: http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Virtues. This grants the players stat buffs for completing certain achievements, and comes in ranks. For example it could give you a +5 damage bonus with daggers for each “dagger slaying” achievement tier, or +5 vs grawl for each grawl slaying rank. The cool thing about this is the fact that it makes your character intrinsically more powerful, rather than just your gear. It also makes sense from a rpg/immersion perspective, as doing an activity makes you better at that activity. It is also accessible and encourages players to play a wide variety of content.

LOTRO had a lot of different virtues you could increase, but you could only slot 5 at a time. So this added another element of build diversity.

Ascended gear for zerker guardian (numbers!)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Yes a 5% increase in power should increase damage by 5%. The actual damage is subject to a number of modifiers, but since they are all either multipliers or dividers, they should not affect the proportinate increase.

I did the numbers on getting ascended armour for my thief. I calculated a 2.6% damage reduction from the armour alone, increasing to 4% if I slotted 6 toughness infusions in the armour. The damage increase was a paltry 1.3% (against a base of exotic armour and ascended trinkets/weapons, no might buff). I used this site to calculate the damage increase:

http://jsfiddle.net/joelpt/NtTRm/2/

I am disappointed. Going by the stat increase from the weapons and trinkets, I expected +5% damage dealt and -5% damage taken.

Infusion Treadmill

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I think infusions are the way anet will allow players to increase their character’s power in the future. I definitely prefer this method to another tier of armour, as it preserves player equity (ie. it does not replace ascended armour the way a new tier would, thus preserving the effort the player put into getting the ascended armour).

The problem is that the current 5/5 infusions are so kitten expensive! They are priced at end-gear levels, which leads you to expect they won’t be replaced. One option to preserve the player-equity in these existing infusions would be to make the new infusions an upgradable version of them. That way you would not feel like you wasted a lot of effort getting the current infusions when the new ones came out.

PVE Balance needs some love

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I agree with the Mad Queen.

Dog, you make a good point about the professions being close to each other in terms of dps. However this is not sufficient on its own to make them balanced. In particular:

  • Those close dps rankings are for POWER builds only. Condition builds are in a parlous state for PVE. This is primarily due to the condition cap, but other factors also play a role, such as the speed with which a buffed full zerker group can kill a boss (not enough full dps vs ramp up time for conditions) and also boss design rendering the non-damaging conditions ineffective.
  • Those close dps rankings also assume that each profession has the same buffs. However some classes are better at bringing those buffs. Necro has none. If all classes do the same dps fully buffed, but only some classes provide the necessary buffs, then the game is unbalanced for PVE. Why bring a no-support necro when you can bring a warrior buff-bot?
  • It is both sad and justifiable that your post equates balance with dps. This a problem with encounter design which generally rewards max dps to the exclusion of most other things. However some of the classes do bring good defensive buffs, esp the guardian. Reflections are particularly important for fractals. If all classes do the same dps, but only some bring helpful utility, then the game is unbalanced.
  • Risk v Reward is off for a lot of classes. Warrior and Guardian can do a lot more dps safely than thieves and eles (I was particularly disappointed to see vigour nerfed on thieves in the last patch but left for Guardians). This might not be such an issue for the small minority of very talented players, but it is a big issue for the majority. This does not need to be perfectly balanced, but right now the warrior seems to be significantly ahead in its efficiency in the hands of the average pugger. I also don’t want to see more complex classes nerfed. Ideally however, each class would allow easy and difficult playstyles, which the player could choose. If not, it would be good if the more difficult professions had some benefit to compensate, either via utility or a modest dps advantage (eg. 10%).

Some balances to the classes to address these issues would be welcome. However I think the wider issue is encounter design, not profession balance. If the encounters were designed to reward different skills and trait set ups, then a lot of the balance issues would be solved. For example if conditions were more effective (esp non-damaging ones), necros would be more effective in dungeons. So I think the real issue is the encounter design which encourages the full zerker style combat. Some classes are better at this, which means the game is unbalanced in their favour.

Summary of Fractal Issues and Bugs

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

What I don’t understand is that anet were super responsive and apologetic about the flame kissed/human t3 armour issue. However they have been the complete opposite about this. Why the double standard?

Confirmed: Fractal Weapon Containers are 51+

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Wow this is a real pr screw up. If anet had just said the boxes were coming later everyone would have been happy at the news. Instead they created an expectation that we would get them this patch, and now everyone is angry when it was not fulfilled.

There were a lot of good ideas and content in the patch, and it should have been a real good news story. Instead the slipshod execution and bugs have left a sour taste in a lot of mouths. From wiping fractal levels without some form of recognition, to the dredge buffs, to the bugs, the underwhelming rewards, the fact there are still no titles, and now this. This really needed more work and people would have been a lot happier if they had waited for a more polished product.

You opinion about Dredge?

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

My friends and I are doing lower level fractals, but we still dread the dredge! We have always made it through, but it is significantly longer and more frustrating than any other fractal. I hate to think what it will be like with the button change.

In my opinion one fractal should not be much longer and more difficult than the others. Especially when that fractal is not something the players can choose to donor avoid. When the great majority of players hate one of your encounters in particular, then that encounter should be tuned to address those concerns. It should not be tuned to exacerbate them. I know we players can be a whiny exasperating bunch, but the developers should not take their frustrations out on us via the punishing dredge fractal, which is kind of what the buffs to it felt like lol.

Does lore matter?

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Ok I have stayed up all night thinking about the living story and scarlet and the fractals and the recent lore direction. I have finally figured it all out.  It all makes sense when you realise that:

Scarlet = Kim kardashian

Anet = kanye west. 

Consequently the recent living story = http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=%2F#/watch?v=BBAtAM7vtgc

(edited by Abramelin.7356)

Fractal levels above 30 to be reset?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

My personal fractal level is only 17, however I am very disturbed by the way Anet is handling the reset. One of the pillars of an MMORPG is character progression. If that progression can be reset, then it becomes uncertain and potentially meaningless. Anyone who wants to progress in an MMO, whether it be by accumulating gold, going up in PVP or WVW ranks, or accumulating gear, needs to know that any progress achieved is secure. Anet’s reset here undermines my trust in the security of any progress, not just that in fractals.

There is a good article on this concept here, which the author refers to as equity:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20130531/193353/The_Barrier_to_Big.php

I first worried about this when they removed magic find from celestial rings and trinkets with no compensation (despite allowing it for other types of magic find gear). This indicated that Anet was prepared to remove player progress (or equity) without compensation. The fractal reset shows they are prepared to go further. My fear is that in the future they will go further still. What is the point of trying to progress, to accomplish something, if it can all be taken away? And let’s face it, it is the progression which keeps people repeating the same content, not the intrinsic appeal of that content (champion farm anyone?).

I can understand Anet’s desire to reset fractal levels, but they need to do so in a way that maintains player equity. Not just for the sake of high level fractal runners, but for the sake of all players. I think that awarding titles to fractal players with more than a 30+ PR level would be a good way to do this.

A single Empyreal fragment?

in The Nightmare Within

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I’ve only been getting a single empyreal fragment as a reward from doing the chamber events in the tower of nightmare. Is this intended? It seems a bit stingy.

Dec. 10th Balance Preview (Necromancer)

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Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

My suggestions

To improve the trait, I suggest removing the health threshold and have it give might for all hits received while in deathshroud only. This would:

1. allow a player to sacrifice life-force for offensive power, which is cool and necro-y

2. give an offensive purpose to go into DS for meleers on single target fights . Currently, dagger does more dps than life-blast on bosses, even for 30/10/0/0/30 specs. This would encourage melee necros to dip into DS to “charge up” their dagger attacks via the might stacks. It would be particularly beneficial for 30/25 necros.

3. it would add an interesting skill component to necro play, as necros would need to know when to dip into DS to generate a few might stacks. It would not be worth doing for single big damaging attacks, or if the necro thought they might need to use DS as a defensive damage soak in the future.

The trait would not provide a benefit if the necro already had full might stacks, so it would not help the serious speed-runners or highly organised WvWers.

One other option (and my preference in a perfect world) would be for each hit recieved in DS to give the necro a 1% damage buff, stacking up to 10%. The buff would be lost when the necro was downed or re-entered DS (in which case it would start regenerating). This would be a cool and unique mechanic and would require the necro to make interesting choices about when to enter and re-enter DS. It is kind of complicated however and I’m not sure how feasible it would be to program .

Dec. 10th Balance Preview (Necromancer)

in Necromancer

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

The point is this thing is unbounded. You can be hit a bunch of times and it keeps stacking up the might. Maybe the duration is a bit low, but with no cooldown this is a good interesting trait.

You can be hit a bunch of times… while <25% HP.

I can’t speak for other Necros, but if I get hit “a bunch of times” while <25%, it doesn’t matter how many stacks of Might I get because I just died.

Like I said, it works while in DS.

Hi Jon, thanks for taking the time to talk to us like this. It makes me feel optimistic about the future of the necromancer class and the game as a whole.

I want to explain why I think Siphoned Power is currently a bad trait and suggest a couple of ways to rework it.

The problem with Siphoned Power

The problem with Siphoned Power is that it only gives us offensive power in circumstances when we are unable to use it, generally speaking. If a necro is below 25% health, he is close to death. Further, it will be unusual for a necro to be damaged down to 25% precisely. Usually the necro will be damaged beyond this, down to 20%, 15% or even 10%. So I think it is important to note that the necro will usually have some amount less than 25% when the trait activitates.

You noted that the trait works when in deathshroud. It is certainly more useful because of deathshroud. However:

1. It first requires the necro to have a sufficiently high amount of lifeforce to soak up the might-generating hits; and

2. the necro cannot be healed in deathshroud. This means that as soon as he or she leaves deathshroud , he or she is likely to be killed by the other player (or before even if the damage spills over into health once the life-force is depleted). Even if necros did not have the delay in getting our utitly bar on leaving DS, our heal still has a decent cast-time.

Further if the player is taking a sufficient number of hits to make the might stacks meaningful, his or her DS will be rapidly depleting. Basically, the necro is getting beaten up. In this case the sensible thing to do is to try to flee, with the result that the might stacks are wasted through non-use.

The only time a necro would sensibly “return fire” in these circumstances is if they thought they could kill the opponent before the opponent finished killing them. This will usually mean that the opponent is significantly weakened. In this case, the opponent won’t usually landing many hits, as the necro is counting on killing the opponent quickly (as the necro can’t survive a long fight). Accordingly, the actual buff from Siphoned power in this case will be small and short-lasting.

Some players do of course have channeled attacks which do several low damage hits. If the opponent fired one of these off, it could give the necro a decent might stack. However the necro would still be expecting the fight to be over quickly, so they would not get that benefit for long. In addition, what would the practical effect of having a few might stacks be in this case? Arguably it would only provide an actual benefit if it allowed the necro to kill the opponent with fewer life-blasts (I think we can assume the necro is life-blasting, since he is in DS and would be running away if there were multiple opponents). However Lifeblast is a slow cast, high damage spell. Accordingly, while it is possible, it would be unlikely for a few might stacks to mean the necro needed to use less life-blasts.

Therefore the might buff from Siphoned power will be of no use in most cases. It will give a benefit only in a “duel to the death” scenario, in which case the benefit will be slight and unlikely to have any practical effect. So I think that the circumstances in which the trait will give the necro a meaningful benefit are pretty unique. Given this, I also do not think increasing the duration of the might stacks gained would provide any practical benefit.

Dec. 10th Balance Preview - Updated Nov 6th.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

These are pvp changes that I fear will further unbalance pve. Anet could you please please make them pvp only? For example:

1. Necros already have weak support and are not desired in parties because of it. This patch further weakens necro support by removing the condi clear from putrid Mark and needing the ability to apply weakness.

2. Thieves are already squishy compared to warriors and guardians. However their vigour is getting nerfed. This will be problematic in boss fights and undermines the thief’s character as evasion melee. It is also unbalanced for guardians to retain their vigour in addition to all their heavy armour boons and defensive abilities while thieves lose theirs without such boons etc

3. Guardians are getting a damage buff, but they are already a top dps class in pve with full buffs (they out damage warriors).

[Necromancer] Putrid Mark

in Bugs: Game, Forum, Website

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Anet wanted to buff support skills last month. Necros have some of the weakest support. Anet gave several other classes enhanced condi clears to reduce condi dominance. So why is anet taking away a support skill and a condi clear from necros? This change is directly contrary to both the general direction they are trying to take the game and the necros class needs.

The way this has been communicated is also very poor. Anet’s post implies the nerf was intended all along. However there was no notification of the “major balance changes” and no reply to the numerous bug reports. This is not collaborative development. Instead it undermines the possibility of collaborative judgment by engendering mistrust and resentment in the playerbase. Anet if you want to work with the players then you have to be straight with us.

Dec. 10th Balance Preview (Necromancer)

in Necromancer

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Come on guys, at least they have n’t nerfed Siphoned Power.

Dec. 10th Balance Preview - Updated Nov 6th.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

This seems to be a PVP balancing patch. Has any thought been given to how it will affect PVE play? The nerfs to conditions for example seems harsh given how weak they already are in PVE.

Making these kind of changes to PVE for the sake of PVP seems crazy, given the disparity in numbers between the 2. I worry that Anet are too emotionally invested in GW2 being an esport to see this clearly. How many mmos are also successful esports? Too many of the design features of an mmo are contrary to what makes a good esport. For example, in esports there is usually little ability to modify units, so you can tell from the type of unit what it is going to do. This allows people to understand what is happening just by watching. MMOs have too much variability for this, and their roles are not clearly defined enough. Imagine if in chess you could spec all your pieces, so a night could move 5 moves diagonally. What would that do to the game?

Anet trying to turn their mmo into an esport is like a campervan manufactuerer deciding they want to get into motorsports, and designing all their campervans for the track. Gw2 is a good mmo. Don’t wreck it because you want it to be LoL.

Will we ever know?

in Living World

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

There are some unanswered questions from the living story, and I wonder if they will ever be answered. For example:

Who got Queen Jennah to use the watchwork creations as her security? It seemed like there might be something to this at one stage

Who is E?

What is Ellen Kiel doing now she is on the Captain’s Council?

What is Evon Knashblade doing?

What is happening with the Zephyrites? Will we ever find out about their connection with Glint? That storyline in particular held a lot of promise

What is Scarlet’s motivation? What is she trying to accomplish? She just seems to do these things with no rhyme or reason or evidence of a larger plan. And “messing stuff up” is not a larger plan.

Where did the steam creatures come from?

Did Scarlet convince the dredge and flame legion to ally? The fact they were both involved in her invasions suggests so, but that is the only evidence for it. I would have expected more of a dramatic reveal than that, given how much it was built up.

What is the deal with Scarlet and the Nightmare Court?

Where are all these Aetherblade pirates coming from?

The Elder dragons, etc.

The new krait instalment looks awesome, and I love the way they have changed the zone to accomodate it. However it’s hard to get excited about any new mysteries given the living story’s tendency to leave all the old ones unresolved.

TBH playing the living story feels like watching TV with someone who changes the channel every 5 minutes. Everytime you start getting interested in the plot, it skips to another program / instalment and you never find out what happened. I guess the stories might get picked up again in a few months, but by then most people will have lost the thread (eg Canach and the 2nd Southsun instalment).

Flame and Frost had some early issues, however it was at least a continuous story arc. Maybe the living story could be organised the way TV series are, where you have a plot for each episode but a wider story arc that links them all together and gives the series momentum.

30/25/0/0/15 vs 30/0/10/0/30

in Necromancer

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Funnily enough there is a post on reddit alleging the opposite (sort of):

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1o28fh/death_shroud_is_the_best_necro_dps/

What do you guys think of his arguments? I should add that in the comments posters seemed to agree that 30/25 was a bit better for organised dungeon groups. Plus someone mentioned that the SR 25 trait was bugged, which I don’t think the OP factored in. However it does indicate that 30/10/0/0/30 is a viable build.

I also found the discussion in this old thread interesting, esp Blood Red Arachnid’s maths:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Hybrid-vs-Full-Power-dps-wise

Celestial = Magic Find. Let us Re-Roll

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Yes please let us choose another stat set if you are not going to compensate for the removal of mf. Nerfing gear players have worked kitten is not a good way to run the game. And yes it is a nerf since mf was included in the stat budget.

Living Story update pacing: Alittle too fast

in Living World

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I personally think fortnightly updates are too fast and I feel stressed by them. It’s like “2 weeks to get all these achievements, gogogogo, now another 2 weeks of achievements, gogogo, you better finish them all before the next series in 2 weeks”. Monthly would be perfect. Or a fortnightly update which was just a smaller story development of the month’s main story.

Where is the story going?

in Living World

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

The Anet team do seem to be aware of these issues, and I do believe they are capable of turning what they have got into a good story. You have to admit though, it does feel very disconnected so far. Good stories don’t give you all the answers. However they also lay out a clearly developing plot path from the first page. So far, Anet has not given us a clear plot path, which has created the suspiscion that the living “story” is just a series of unrelated game updates.

The best story development and lore about GW2 I’ve seen so far has been in woodenpotatoes videos. There is some fascinating stuff there. Anet just needs to start developing some of those lore ideas and forget about trying to shoehorn anachronisms like elections, holiday resorts and opressive contracts into a fantasy world. It’s a fantasy game, don’t be afraid to write fantasy stories for it.

Why do people like Kiel?

in Cutthroat Politics

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I don’t like Kiel because she is obnoxious and bullying. I don’t appreciate someone threatening to perforate my spleen on a first meeting. I guess they were going for the “strong woman” type, but they have made her personally unlikable.

Personally, I find the choice between a pushy kitten and an evil cat a bit uninspiring. I’d definitely rather be sat next to the cat on a long plane flight though.

Tired of minigames.

in Living World

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

I agree with the OP also. Minigames are fine as an occasional distraction, and GW2 does them well. What I feel is missing is fantasy and a sense of progression (two pillars of what I expected from GW2 as a fantasy MMO). The game has made horizontal “progression” work better than I expected, but there still needs to be some sense of progress. So far the living story seems meaningless, given what happens in one update does not affect the next. So far it’s not actual a story at all so far when you think about it, as a story requires some continuity of plot. It’s more like a book of short stories.

The next thing is fantasy. God there are enough petty council politics, refugees, trade agreements and opressive contracts on the news everyday. I play GW2 for some relief from these things, not to be reminded of them. The Aetherblades, Zephyr Sanctum and Molten Facility were great though, more of those please!

Null OP

in Last Stand at Southsun

Posted by: Abramelin.7356

Abramelin.7356

Where did that quote come from faran? The latest patch notes say:

“Fixed an issue where NULL would become immune to condition damage”

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-May-28-2013