Showing Posts For Alaric.3654:
Fair warning: I am not a numbers/mechanics player at all. I tend to focus on the overall feel of something when it’s in my hands and I have to say that the staff feels much nicer to wield. There’s a better synergy between the skills, their execution is smoother— you guys did a great job in the time crunch.
Now, if you could just do me a solid with that Staff Auto-attack 3….
I would like to echo this sentiment as well.
While I do have doubts and concerns regarding the implementation and difficulty of raids in terms of how that affects the community, I completely, 100% support the raised difficulty of Open World content as demonstrated in BWE2.
Two perspectives here: One, the struggle and harsh environment of Verdant Brink pre-BWE3 worked wonderfully with conveying the narrative of your story.
Two, open world difficulty is perhaps one of the best vehicles for building the Player-helping-Player dynamic. No one needs to be particularly charismatic or well versed in whatever strategy is required to leap in and help others. What one person can’t accomplish, two may be able to, and what two can’t, three can drive it even further. Camaraderie is built through accessibility to help one another, not necessarily through ease of difficulty.
Orr, once upon a time, felt very similar to Verdant Brink and was justifiably nerfed due to the lack of density of players available to tackle its challenges after time had passed. But right now, with a swath of players ready at the gate and megaservers implemented, why not give it a shot?
I believe this is a valid discussion to have, and a point worth considering. About three years ago, the forums had a similar topic when ArenaNet announced the introduction of Ascended Equipment that raised much doubt and consternation that they were going back on their support of horizontal progression and putting in a vertical gear treadmill after the fact.
I and a good number of others expressed their doubts (others of course, spoke in favor of potential verticality— both sides being valid), but now, several years afterwards it turns out that our fears of GW2 going the traditional route were put to rest. The GW2 philosophy as it was stated was upheld.
Now, whether this was a result of community backlash or was smartly planned all along is a mystery to me, but the two conclusions I can draw from that whole event is this:
1. For now, I trust that ArenaNet will be able to implement new content intelligently and in a way that benefits everyone, including casual players like myself who have shied away from more traditional MMOs. They may not get it on the first try, but as a work-in-progress I believe they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt.
2. If you have concerns, voice them. Like the OP, I would also not like content to be pigeonholed into a position where certain classes/builds/setups are required and everyone is expected to run like a well-oiled machine 100% of the time. The option should absolutely be there, as there are a number of folks who enjoy that, but there should also be other avenues of approach for everyone else to join the party and have a good time.
At this point though, it might be too premature to judge which direction ArenaNet is going. It’s a bold one, and it may have a few bumps along the road but I do have confidence that of all the companies on the market, they’re best equipped to implement this smartly.
Fortunately, BWE3 will feature raids/healers/engis/all that good stuff, so we’ll be able to see for ourselves a week from now and provide the appropriate feedback.
I can only speak for myself, but it’s good to hear what is and isn’t feasible at this stage of development.
Appreciate the hard work and wish for the best, hopefully your animation tweaks add a good rhythm and fluidity of motion to the Daredevil’s staff.
If I were on a time budget and had only a few weeks to make tweaks to the class, I’d prioritize two things: The Staff autoattack #3 and the animation/timing of the dodges.
One of the greatest things about all of the classes in Guild Wars 2 is the fluidity with which each profession flows with their animations and skills. The Daredevil— while I very much love the concept and approach— seems to be a little lacking in this regard when it comes to its main weapon, the Staff. The motions of the attacks by themselves and when combined with one another feel a bit stilted and jerky.
Personally, I think making the autoattack #3 a variant of the humanoid Revenant’s third staff auto-attack would go a long way towards addressing the problem.
ArenaNet—
Not to swerve dangerously off topic here, but if you find yourself in the position that you’re hiring new blood into your writing team, I would strongly consider exploring this ShrikeTalon person as an option.
A few strong forum posts don’t paint the full picture of someone, nor do they say anything about operating in a group dynamic, but they’re a very strong indicator that you may have someone special on your hands. I’m becoming more and more convinced that everything he’s saying thus far is on point, not just from an observational perspective, but from a borderline-unhealthy-love-for-Guild-Wars + the Skill/Talent to back it up.
+1.
Thank you for offering us the opportunity to provide feedback here. If I had to prioritize my requests in three points, they’d go something like this:
1. Write what you love to write— I remember being disappointed in the Karka event not so much because it didn’t meet my story-expectations in terms of dragon-connections but because what we got as a replacement felt sort of troubled and dispassionate. I’m not sure if the same writers who conceptualized Guild Wars 2 are still on board or not, or if there’s new blood. Or maybe even an awkward combination of the two. Is ArenaNet chomping at the bit to continue its original story but is held back by some backroom politics? Are we trying to go in a new direction? It’s really hard to fathom where Guild Wars wants to go right now. But I personally would love the creative team to commit to an idea they love and go at it full force.
2. Permanent content. I’m admittedly an off-and-on again player, having fallen out of Tyria’s happenings for an extended period and coming back after a long hiatus. I do recognize that the development team has been hard at work developing a rather sizable amount of content for its players, but given the transitory nature of the Living Story, the game I left and the game I came back to feel very much the same. I know logically that ArenaNet has done a lot, but from my perspective, I don’t see or have the opportunity to appreciate that effort, and that’s a shame.
3. I would love to see the many subplots of the world advanced in some fashion. Jormag to the north, the spread of the Brand across the Fields of Ruin, Primordus to the … wherever Primordus is— I feel that many of the assets used here can be embellished upon and that the potential for story here is extremely high. There’s a strange sense that while the timeline of the Living Story is active, the world itself is static. But asking to have the entirety of the world constantly updating itself with events is asking for far, far too much work, and I do feel from what I’ve seen that this is the current pipe-dream for ArenaNet’s development team.
I think a good solution would be to have certain populated hubs be active (like Lion’s Arch, the major cities and Frostgorge Sound), have certain areas be static, representing a single point in time in which events have already happened (Such as Fields of Ruin, Caledon Forest and the like) and use new areas to advance the overall plot of the world (Crystal Desert, Maguuma Falls, etc). That way there’s a sense of continuity for long time players and the sense that nothing is lost to any new players you pick up along the way.
(For example, if you moved the plot south into the Crystal Desert to deal with Kralkatorrik, I don’t need the Shatterer removed from the game completely to assume that the Vigil wrecked that Dragon champion’s day. I can infer that from whatever events occur down in the desert. It’s something you’ve already done when a player makes their journey southward into Orr, and I think that worked rather well).
My goodness, this is perhaps the best, most engaging and refreshingly positive and constructive thing I’ve seen since…
Well, it’s been awhile. Last time I remember posting was to join the voices in protest of the Ascended Gear announcement way back when Karka were still just a twinkle in ArenaNet’s eye. Remember when there was hype and speculation that the Lost Shores Patch would bring about some interaction with either the Deep Sea Dragon or the Deep Sea Dragon’s minions?
It was exciting stuff! But then that patch hit, and the patch after that hit, and the patch after that… Every time we got a patch, it felt so tangential and detached from the main setting of the game that I admittedly got more and more cynical about the prospects of the game until eventually I just stopped playing outright.
But I keep coming back to take cursory glances at the forums and to boot up the game because I love the whole of Guild Wars 2. The setting it has in place, the story it wants to tell (and dragons!)— all of this gripped me and still grips me to this day, which is why I want to believe that Guild Wars 2 can fulfill its rather high potential for awesomeness and adventure.
And I think that starts with upvoting the heck out of the OP’s extraordinary criticism, which isn’t presented as a jab or a ‘take that’, but to me seems like it was made out of genuine love for both storytelling and Guild Wars 2.
If there are others out there like me who browse or read the forums casually without posting, but feel the same, please take a moment to sign on and voice your support on this one. This is good stuff.
Hi, this will count as the first and perhaps last time I respond on this forum— I absolutely love watching these discourses and exchanges about a game that I’ve found very enjoyable, but I generally don’t involve myself too much.
I feel the need to add a drop to the bucket however and make my voice heard. I am perhaps the closest thing to a casual player there can be. I haven’t seen Orr yet, haven’t done a single round of WvW and I’ve run through the Ascalonian Catacombs all of one time. I never followed this game or read up on it. I just up and picked it up one day simply because I wanted to enjoy it with a friend. Thus far, Guild Wars 2 has absolutely floored me. I don’t feel at any point that I’m called upon to do any work, only that I sign on and have a good time no matter what I do. It’s been an incredible ride.
That being said, this shift in direction is extremely worrisome. I will not see Ascended Gear for a very long time. I have no clue about stat impacts, the nuances of competitive play are unknown to me and at this point, the new content offered to me with The Lost Shores is nothing but great news.
However.
I believe the addition of gear progression and gated content via the Agony mechanic can and will influence me for months to come. I’ve had nothing but a great experience with the local community and I recognize that this threatens to change that. But how? My opinion is this: the way this content is being introduced is in such a way that the effects of it will be negligible at best to begin with. A back piece and a ring, I speculate, will have little to no immediate impact on the game. But it sets a very dangerous precedent and opens the door for more and more additions like this. You take one step in the wrong direction and you find yourself on the wrong path towards making a game that was once simply about having a good time and sharing that time with close friends and like-minded strangers to an exclusive, tiered game in which the spirit of cooperation is replaced with a cold numbers game in which people will have nothing to do with each other if they don’t meet a certain numerical standard. This isn’t a danger that will have an immediate, obvious impact. It’s a slow-killing poison that over time can and will damage the credibility and the pure joy of playing this game.
I urge the kind folks at ArenaNet to rethink their current course of action, and I urge those who are discontent with this addition to raise their voices not only now, but for weeks and months to come. I know I would very much prefer to be silent and just enjoy this fantastic game and for the most part I do, but I recognize that this is a potential game-changer and I cannot be silent about this. Thank you, and I hope you all have a pleasant day.