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Just Finished HoT and...

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

That’s HoT’s main problem. This isn’t the same game anymore and I don’t like the new version at all. That’s why I don’t want or need help, even if it’s generously offered. I want the core experience back!

I’ve probably expressed my opinion on this in a hundred other threads on the same subject, but I can agree that HoT perhaps went too far in one direction and that direction was a vast departure from the core gameplay. On the other hand, for players like myself, it was enough to grab and hold our attention where the core game never did.

LS3 seemed to present us with a bit of a mix of both, and I was satisfied with it as were many players who were dissatisfied with the original HoT maps. I think they struck a good balance there. So I’m hoping to see more of that in the next expansion.

Having said that, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hold out hope for at least one map like TD or VB. These are by far my favorite maps in the entire game, even if they aren’t universally popular. And by the same token, I hope they have some nice flat maps for players who like something more straightforward to enjoy. I think LS3 did a good job of making flat maps fun to play on – I still go back to Bitterfrost Frontier and Lake Doric even though they are nothing like Tangled Depths!

Just Finished HoT and...

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Thank you for your help.
I already assumed there were ways of reading the map which I haven’t mastered yet and you just helped me understand them a bit better. I will try and use your advice later today and hope this will shed some light on otherwise a gloomy situation.

Sure thing! Just try to be patient with it. While knowing what those map markers mean will help you to better use the map to get around, learning all of the little secrets hidden in TD takes a lot of exploring. There are hidden paths that are not only not marked on the map in any way, but also camouflaged so that you won’t notice them in passing.

Just an example of this: When you use those updrafts above the canyon south of Order of Whispers waypoint, if you look toward the canyon wall just west of the HP high up on the ledge there you will see a small waterfall. There are some tropical birds sitting there in front of some heavy foliage. This actually marks a hidden entrance!

If you go through the vines you’ll enter the cave at the top of the deeproot sink area, right near the Spider Queen HP. From there you can either glide down to the vista and take the tunnel from there to Ogre Camp waypoint or, if you glide around to the south of the Spider HP you’ll see a ledge with some vampire beasts on it. Behind them is a vertical cavern containing a mastery point and below that you drop right down to Dragon’s Passage waypoint and the Nightthistle HP!

You can also use those updrafts south of Order of Whispers waypoint to get to the top of the Great Tree. The left path inside the tree leads to a flax farm and then drops you right down into Ogre camp waypoint. The right path heads down to the bottom of the tree which connects up with the bottom of the canyon where Order of Whispers outpost POI is located.

Anyway, I could go on and on but the point is there is just a lot to this map. There are multiple ways connecting various areas of the map, not all of which are obvious. You can get around using the map if you know how, but it will take time simply exploring to discover all of these secrets. So just try to be patient with it and enjoy exploring it. It really is an amazing map once you begin to understand it!

Just Finished HoT and...

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Stick with it. It will get better.
At least, that’s what I’ve been telling myself. But the road to there will be long and tedious. I am still doing HOT and LS3 maps, but I already know Tangled depths will have a special place in my memory for a long time. And it will not be a pleasant one.

The map isn’t as useless as you think. You probably just aren’t used to needing to use the map markers the way you need to in TD.

For instance, take a closer look at the markers for cave entrances/exits and ramps. They have up or down arrows on them. These arrows indicate a shift in the map layer. Knowing this you can much more easily follow the pathways in TD by using the map.

Try it! Take a look at the cave marker south of Order of Whispers waypoint using the third map layer. It shows an up arrow indicating a transition point between the current layer you’re viewing and the one above it.

You will also notice that on the third layer the path from Order of Whispers waypoint is obscured by the path that connects the cave system containing the Troll champion hero challenge to the Order of Whispers outpost POI. However, when you view this same area in the top map layer you instead see a clear path from Order of Whispers waypoint to the cave entrance marker. The marker is telling you to switch from the third layer to the layer above it to view the correct path.

You will notice many such markers throughout the map with arrows indicating map transitions. These include ramps, stairs, caves, and even arrows all by themselves.

The other marker to pay close attention to are the Nuhoch Wallows. They have arrows corresponding to the wallow they connect to. For instance, look to the south of Order of Whispers waypoint. You will see a wallow marker pointing northeast to another wallow in the undergrowth connector. Just east of that wallow is another wallow that points to a wallow located right next to Teku Nuhoch waypoint.

You can tell which layer a wallow is on because it will appear transparent when you are viewing a different layer. In this way you can tell that the wallow east of where you teleported into the undergrowth connector is above you and you will know to take the upward path to reach it. This same trick applies to the marked roads themselves. When viewed on a different layer they appear transparent.

If you look at the positions of the various wallows you will notice something else that’s important to know. The wallows for each camp (ogre, teku nuhoch, rata novus, and scar) correspond to the “lanes” where the meta occurs, making it easy for players to waypoint to a camp and then wallow straight into the end of the lane they wish to join for the meta.

Knowing this makes it a lot easier to use the map to navigate TD. However, many objectives are still hidden off the marked pathways with no indication of how to reach them. That’s where the real exploration challenge comes in, and unfortunately there’s no other way than to simply explore.

It might help to keep an eye out for pathways that aren’t marked. Chances are that pathway leads to an objective of some sort. For instance, if you wander west from Teku Nuhoch you’ll see a cave with an HP marked on the map nearby. There’s no road leading to the HP, but if you just walk into that cave you’ll find it. Of course, other objectives will be a little trickier to find!

eles need buffed

in Elementalist

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

@Feanor

What you say really isn’t accurate. Vitality and toughness are only useless under two conditions: 1) When the attack that killed you in full glass still would have killed you in gear with vitality/toughness – i.e. pass/fail mechanics, which are quite rare in open world, and 2) When you make no errors that would have killed you in full glass. From ele’s reputation as the “squishiest” class, it’s pretty obvious a large number of ele players don’t meet this standard.

The same applies to your claim of it being safer to use full glass because faster kills present fewer chances for error. Faster kills do present fewer opportunities for error, but again this only makes you safer if you are less likely to die in the attempt.

To put it another way, in full glass you kill faster but you must make fewer errors. For many players in solo play, this is a bad bet when you could take longer to kill while having significantly greater margin for error.

Except it doesn’t really work that way, because in open world PvE play in particular, killing fast is your best defense. This is why almost no one is encouraged to use defensive stats.

I agree with the OP that Ele just feels too weak overall. I have trouble even beating groups of pocket raptors in the HoT maps when no other class I play has that much trouble. I don’t really know what the best solution is, other than to make their attunements other than fire more generally useful, which I think has been needed since launch.

Just an excuse to use my new-found ability to create really crappy quality gameplay videos. Please enjoy my latest: OMG! Pocket Raptors!

https://youtu.be/0uovXv6yVck

Anyway, when it comes to pocket raptors I definitely agree that a strong offense is the best defense!

Overall difficulty

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

You didn’t really specify what type of content you’re interested in.

Obviously, competitive game modes (WvW/PvP) will be about as challenging as any MMO that pits players against other players. I doubt you’ll experience much of a difference there.

Raiding in GW2 is fairly challenging and, unlike most other MMOs, there is no way to improve your gear. So the raids won’t get any easier as you progress through the various encounters. On the other hand, there are no higher difficulty tiers to progress through either.

Open world ranges from easy to quite difficult. The big difference with GW2 is that open world is primarily event-based. Instead of talking to a quest-giver and going out to kill ogres until you find his lost socks, you’ll see events just happen. For instance, a group of bandits might start attacking a farm and you can fight them off to earn rewards.

The nice thing about this system is that it can range from easy solo content to massive world bosses, and the events generally scale to the number of players present so that there are more and tougher enemies present if there are lots of players around than if you just show up by yourself.

There are also plenty of challenges designed for small groups that, while probably not blazingly difficult, at least won’t put you to sleep. This includes many of the hero point challenges in the expansion that spawn “champion” tier enemies.

You also have fractals, which are basically dungeons that have a difficulty scale 1-100. So you can play to your comfort level.

eles need buffed

in Elementalist

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

IF and i mean “IF” that weak skill gets that person killed repeatedly, and thus you cannot finish the level, then wouldn’t it be a bad idea to use a weak skill? Sure its fine to use a weak weapon you love, so long as you are able to survive, but there are going to be certain things more meta than others.I am not following meta advice on going fractals.My build is scepter/Dagger and staff, but it works for fractals, and that is mainly i don’t feel like using GS because i’m a condi build, and i don’t wanna be pigeonholed into 1 weapon.

I wouldn’t bring a non-meta setup into group play because other players are counting on me to fulfill a specific role. But you started this thread due to your issues with elementalist in open world, where I feel there’s a lot more freedom to do what you want rather than what is strictly “best”. Further, what is “best” even in the raid meta depends on the encounter, which also happens in open world.

To illustrate the point, I recorded this video today (first time posting to youtube or using gameplay recording software!). It’s just my elementalist using non-meta traits, gear, and weapons and going solo against the champion chak lobber hero point challenge.

Not the toughest champion in HoT by any means, as he’s big and slow and his attacks have obvious tells, but he does hit pretty hard and will make you pay if you don’t respect him!

https://youtu.be/OHxiDJdVKRU

I think you’d be better off using full zerk staff against this enemy. You’d take less damage and staff has better healing options than daggers to begin with. With ferocity on your gear instead of healing you’d deal more damage on top of being able to attack at all times where daggers are sometimes forced out of their attack range to avoid damage.

Despite all of that, you’ll notice I still had more than 5 minutes left on the timer to defeat this enemy. Open world is definitely designed to give players freedom to play the way they want. And elementalist has all the tools you need to survive and thrive with your weapon(s) of choice.

F The Meta

in Elementalist

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Seriously, I’m used to building for current meta in games like Wow in ages past, but I’m 40 years old, was playing EQ, NN, and UO, and of course vanilla Wow, Rift, SWTOR, and then (only because) I loved the Elder Scrolls franchise, I got into ESO, and actually had a blast and enjoyed the more action-oriented, dodge/skill based combat vs strictly tab-targetting.

Anyway, I think patience with a semi-theorycrafting/meta based focus is beginning to edge away in my “old” age. I also have zero patience or desire for guilds and raids, but basically would just like to enjoy the open worlds bosses, open world content from both expansions, maybe the occasional dungeon, lower level fractals, etc. with my son, who plays as well, and I think we will have plenty to do right there.

My point is, no raids, so I’m less concerned with the current meta builds, and would just like a website with some basic, well performing builds that would more focused on versatile builds that could encompass open world and dungeons, and maybe even builds that work well when duoing with another class, such as Ele/Warr builds or Rngr/Necro builds. Wouldn’t that be cool? Ok so tall order, but maybe someone could help and old slowly decaying gamer and his boy out?

Thanks.

You know how it is. Open world is about doing what feels right to you. So all I can do is share my current favorite build. Maybe it will give you some ideas at least.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAo4gcMonhlNs0AYEHhiwg09yuZHtCFgAwHE-TxBBQBYZ/hUqEUVq/EgTAArU+hK9AA4BAQKAOHDA-e

Zealot (power/precision/healing), dagger/dagger, water/air/tempest

- Swap out air for earth if survival is an issue.

- You may want to take powerful auras instead of soothing power when you’re teamed up with others.

- Take cleansing water where condi is a problem.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with this build. With only 11.6k health but 1k healing power, you heal to full very quickly only using passive/instant heals. Just swapping to water to proc healing ripple and using frozen burst + frost aura heals for 40% of your health more or less instantly, making it sort of counterproductive to use a heal like the signet active or overload water. And if you run powerful auras, all of those heals with the exception of the signet passive apply to nearby allies at +15% effect while also applying several boons.

The damage output isn’t bad at all either. You have nearly all of the power of a full glass build and very high crit rate. You’re just lacking ferocity, so your crits lack a lot of the punch of full glass. But you can still take down enemies quickly.

It’s sort of a more aggressive, offensive take on the support healer that is very survivable with solid damage. And it’s dagger/dagger! What more could you want?

Just Finished HoT and...

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I don’t see why having an opinion is such a controversial thing.

Personally disliked most of the HoT maps. Verdant Brink wasn’t bad. Like Auric Basin but Tangled Depths is annoying. My dislike of HoT was how the majority of the content was hard locked by the masteries which, when i started HoT, had no clue how to get more mastery points outside of the ones marked on the map (which weren’t enough). Even to this day, i am limited in mastery points until i do achievements i don’t want to do but at least the remaining masteries aren’t necessary to progress.

The reason i don’t like Tangled Depths is because the visual map is useless as a guide. At least Verdant Brink was open enough that i could explore to find out how to get somewhere or if you’re able to reach it.

Yes, the majority of content is locked behind masteries…a whole 4 points worth of them (bounce mushrooms, basic gliding, updrafts). By earning about as much experience as it took you to level from 70-80, you can explore all but a handful of objectives and complete every meta!

No, there were points in the playthrough of the story, I had to grind out Leyline gliding to progress while also needing to get the Nuhoch lore soon after in the next zone.

But what’s the point of attempting to berate me for not enjoying an aspect of the game that I felt is annoying? Your point amounts to zilch to me as I’ve already got most masteries unlocked but didn’t enjoy doing it.

All I can figure is that the gameplay is simply so unappealing that players who dislike HoT want to spend as little time there as possible. How else to explain why 4 mastery points is such a barrier to enjoyment or why taking your time to explore a map is unacceptable to a so-called “casual” population that shouldn’t be in a rush to complete objectives in the first place?

Perhaps you conflate your opinion to such lofty levels, you think everyone should just take your strawman argument. Just going to be straight up with you, you don’t matter.

Use facts, not salt. Your vague complaint indicated that the “majority of content” is locked behind masteries. I simply pointed out that you only need 4 points to explore the vast majority of the maps themselves as well as complete the meta events.

If “the majority of content” includes the story and 100% map completion as well, then you need 43 points, which you can easily earn in the process from strongboxes, insights, story, meta, and map completion. But that’s only if you need full map completion. Leyline gliding is not required to complete the story, as I recall.

If you want all of the big QoL upgrades on top of that, you need 56 points – only half of the total required to max all of the original HoT mastery lines.

You’re welcome to hate HoT and consider any amount of time spent there a grind. Just as I’m welcome to think that you’re exaggerating how much of a burden the mastery system is. It turns out my opinions matter as much as yours do. Cool, huh?

Just Finished HoT and...

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Im only in the first zone of HoT but from what I played I didnt like. It reminds me a lot of super mario. I wouldnt have much problems with all the mazes and new mechanics if the player wasnt required to level up skills in order to access different areas but how it works now is unnecessarily convoluted. Zones separately by upgrades works in games like metroidvania because that is what the audience expects but not in mmos like guidwars. The core game didnt play anything like this either. *Maybe important upgrades shouldve just been story/quest related once a new zone is reached.

Unfortunately, there’s no cure for players who feel HoT is too “platform-y”. However, if your issue is having to unlock skills in order to navigate these maps, you don’t have much to worry about. Bounce mushrooms, basic gliding, and updrafts will get you almost everywhere you need to go. Most of the other masteries are QoL upgrades or allow access to a few gated objectives such as a POI, HP, or MP here and there.

I love the HoT maps, but I didn’t even bother unlocking all of the masteries for over a year. Many of the most expensive masteries aren’t required for map completion and aren’t critical to anything besides collections and achievements. In fact, I believe you only need 43 points in total to do full map completion of every map, which you can easily earn in the process of doing the story and map completion itself.

You could still map complete and wouldn’t be missing much of anything if you avoided the last 20 points of Itzel lore, the last 16 points of Exalted lore, the last 20 points of Nuhoch lore, and all 8 of the raid masteries (if you don’t raid, of course). In total there are 112 mastery points associated with the HoT maps. So you could literally skip half of them, still do full map complete, and still unlock all of the big QoL upgrades.

It’s really not as bad as you may have heard.

eles need buffed

in Elementalist

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

@Feanor

What you say really isn’t accurate. Vitality and toughness are only useless under two conditions: 1) When the attack that killed you in full glass still would have killed you in gear with vitality/toughness – i.e. pass/fail mechanics, which are quite rare in open world, and 2) When you make no errors that would have killed you in full glass. From ele’s reputation as the “squishiest” class, it’s pretty obvious a large number of ele players don’t meet this standard.

The same applies to your claim of it being safer to use full glass because faster kills present fewer chances for error. Faster kills do present fewer opportunities for error, but again this only makes you safer if you are less likely to die in the attempt.

To put it another way, in full glass you kill faster but you must make fewer errors. For many players in solo play, this is a bad bet when you could take longer to kill while having significantly greater margin for error.

Except it doesn’t really work that way, because in open world PvE play in particular, killing fast is your best defense. This is why almost no one is encouraged to use defensive stats.

I agree with the OP that Ele just feels too weak overall. I have trouble even beating groups of pocket raptors in the HoT maps when no other class I play has that much trouble. I don’t really know what the best solution is, other than to make their attunements other than fire more generally useful, which I think has been needed since launch.

strange i have 2600 toughness and absolutely slaughter packs of mobs with condition damage and burst in Hot. Do you use use food or utility, or have your gear setup to match the chosen type of damage you use? when i’m aoeing I have enough defenses that for 7 or so seconds im practically immune to damage. Once you know your class in depth you ave the tools to do more than just smash a max dps aoe rotation, and its more fun.

Well maybe you can do that with condition damage, since condition damage is disproportionately weighted toward a single attribute, giving you the ability to hybridize. Power builds can’t really pull this off. It’s actually backwards, since power builds need defense more than condi builds do.

Really, all you’re doing with this post is showing how broken the game’s overall balance is.

Btw, I run power d/d on my ele. Crusader armor with zealot everything else. It works well, damage is solid, heals are amazing, and I can take on an army or most champions while playing very aggressively.

eles need buffed

in Elementalist

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

@Feanor

What you say really isn’t accurate. Vitality and toughness are only useless under two conditions: 1) When the attack that killed you in full glass still would have killed you in gear with vitality/toughness – i.e. pass/fail mechanics, which are quite rare in open world, and 2) When you make no errors that would have killed you in full glass. From ele’s reputation as the “squishiest” class, it’s pretty obvious a large number of ele players don’t meet this standard.

The same applies to your claim of it being safer to use full glass because faster kills present fewer chances for error. Faster kills do present fewer opportunities for error, but again this only makes you safer if you are less likely to die in the attempt.

To put it another way, in full glass you kill faster but you must make fewer errors. For many players in solo play, this is a bad bet when you could take longer to kill while having significantly greater margin for error.

Except it doesn’t really work that way, because in open world PvE play in particular, killing fast is your best defense. This is why almost no one is encouraged to use defensive stats.

I agree with the OP that Ele just feels too weak overall. I have trouble even beating groups of pocket raptors in the HoT maps when no other class I play has that much trouble. I don’t really know what the best solution is, other than to make their attunements other than fire more generally useful, which I think has been needed since launch.

So killing fast in PvE is your best defense, yet you find ele weak and have difficulty with pocket raptors. It seems to me that you might be missing something.

I don’t actually have my Ele in all zerker at the moment, but that doesn’t really matter – the fact is I can kill groups of pocket raptors with relative ease on any other class I play regardless of build/stat combos, and I frequently die trying to do the same on my Ele.

Well, I find it hard to believe you’re running a very defensive setup, given that you just told me offense is ele’s best defense and you’re dying to pocket raptors. If you ran any significant amount of vitality, toughness, or healing power I think you would have to try pretty hard to have trouble with them as even a full celestial build has no trouble taking them down in no time.

The defensive stats simply give you more margin for error so your gameplay doesn’t have to be as sharp to survive. With enough toughness or vitality you can just eat the damage and still survive (not that I’m suggesting you should!). With healing power the way ele can heal with passive/instant healing, by the time the raptors set up for another attack you’ll have too much health for them to take down.

Sure, you can also just burst them down in full glass and save time. But if you don’t use the right moves or don’t act quickly enough, they have a much better chance of killing you in response.

As for other classes having an easier time? Maybe so. But by the same token I can do things with my ele that I struggle with on other classes. I haven’t figured out how to solo mushroom queen on my thief yet, for instance. I can do that on my ele. Does ele need a nerf because of that?

Open world pve weapons

in Elementalist

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Yeah, you would think. However, in this game, it is impossible for anyone to stay at range for more than 3 or 4 seconds (at least if they are solo). All you can do is accept that fact and adjust your tactics accordingly.

Why fight it? Just go dagger/dagger! Everyone knows it’s the most fun you can have on ele!

eles need buffed

in Elementalist

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

@Feanor

What you say really isn’t accurate. Vitality and toughness are only useless under two conditions: 1) When the attack that killed you in full glass still would have killed you in gear with vitality/toughness – i.e. pass/fail mechanics, which are quite rare in open world, and 2) When you make no errors that would have killed you in full glass. From ele’s reputation as the “squishiest” class, it’s pretty obvious a large number of ele players don’t meet this standard.

The same applies to your claim of it being safer to use full glass because faster kills present fewer chances for error. Faster kills do present fewer opportunities for error, but again this only makes you safer if you are less likely to die in the attempt.

To put it another way, in full glass you kill faster but you must make fewer errors. For many players in solo play, this is a bad bet when you could take longer to kill while having significantly greater margin for error.

Except it doesn’t really work that way, because in open world PvE play in particular, killing fast is your best defense. This is why almost no one is encouraged to use defensive stats.

I agree with the OP that Ele just feels too weak overall. I have trouble even beating groups of pocket raptors in the HoT maps when no other class I play has that much trouble. I don’t really know what the best solution is, other than to make their attunements other than fire more generally useful, which I think has been needed since launch.

So killing fast in PvE is your best defense, yet you find ele weak and have difficulty with pocket raptors. It seems to me that you might be missing something.

How to survive pvp

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

BUt if you nerf bleeds that will kill necro, and we are talking about maybe 2.2.5k per turn on 20k healths.

So there is no way to survive as an ele? i’m forced to be babysat? granted i am a support class and going to require team but there is no decent way to deal with condies on ele?

Ele is actually quite strong at dealing with condi. Consider that every shout you use or aura you apply clears a condition and shouts that apply auras clear TWO conditions. Swapping to water also clears a condition. You also have magnetic wave, which will clear 3 conditions. And every time you swap attunements you’ll clear a condition as well.

How to survive pvp

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Dear users i am having trouble surviving as ele Auramancer D/F what can i do to survive when i am alone waddling trying to get from place to place? i took the build from metabattle and seeing no improvement please help.

There is a world of knowledge that can be shared on this subject, much of which is learned through experience.

Obviously, knowing the class you’re up against is useful because not only can you anticipate and counter their moves, you can exploit any mistakes they make. More experienced players can provide insight, but you’ll need to provide a specific matchup you’re having trouble against (e.g. I can’t escape this thief! He just keeps dodging all over me applying poison, cripple, and bleed!).

In terms of general advice, keep in mind that PvP is not static the way PvE is. Enemies in PvP react to what you do. Obvious, I know, but here are some examples of how this can be exploited…

Let’s say you’re trying to run away from a melee enemy, but they’ve crippled you and they’re now just laying into you as you slow-walk away. What do you do?

Well, you could try to use an active heal, but chances are they’re waiting for it so they can interrupt and finish you off. One possible way of avoiding it is to force them to make a choice. Cast overload air. If they only have one interrupt ready to go, they’ll either have to eat the damage while allowing you to heal and apply boons + shocking aura, or use the interrupt. In the latter case, you’ll be able to follow up with a big heal they won’t be able to stop.

In addition, they’ll have used offensive cooldowns in the process of attempting to burst you down. So now their offensive capability is temporarily reduced while you’re back to full health.

In more general terms, applying pressure can be a good way to force other players to play more defensively. If you hurt them enough, they’ll either back off and try to avoid more damage or attempt to heal. In either case, you’ve bought yourself some time to heal and recover cooldowns.

Also, don’t forget CC and positioning. For instance, if you use overload earth not only does it apply protection, reducing damage taken by 40%, but it pulses stability making it difficult for enemies to interrupt it. It also applies cripple and ends with immobilize. This will often force enemies off of you for a moment. If they don’t back off, you can gain distance and heal.

As a bonus, it also applies magnetic aura, which reflects projectiles. So now you have distance, an immobilized/crippled enemy, and if they try to use a ranged interrupt it will simply be reflected! That’s about as good a cover for a heal as you could hope for!

The examples of how to handle a given situation are as numerous as the situations you will find yourself in. PvP just takes a lot of practice.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Of course my way is the right way. My posts are, by definition, my own opinion. “For me” is implied. That being said, I’ve also seen both sides of the coin. I’ve used Marauder and Celestial. I’ve played in groups that adhere to the meta and I’ve played in groups that don’t. I see where the others are coming from, because I’ve been there myself. And I chose to move on, because it wasn’t how I’d like to spent my free time.

Nothing of the sort is implied in statements like:

“Defensive stats can be a useful crutch there until you’re comfortable enough with the class to not need them anymore.”

It may even be a true statement, although I strongly suspect that there are limits to what even the best player can do in full glass and that they ignore those limits because whatever they are is outside of the scope of what they consider necessary or worthwhile.

For instance, when you say that you don’t want to switch gear constantly because it’s unnecessary. What you’re saying is that while you could take on certain challenges easily with a more defensive set, it isn’t worth carrying that set around for the relatively few challenges where you would find it worthwhile.

That is a very different thing than saying that players whose priorities include those challenges and are not as focused on efficiency as you are are somehow less skilled. It’s entirely possible that they are equally skilled, but simply have different priorities than you do and therefore make different choices.

If you can acknowledge that, then you should be able to understand why taking the condescending tone you so often do in these discussions has you trying to explain it away as simply your own “opinion”. If you framed your opinions differently, nobody would object to them. But I expect you enjoy getting into these arguments, as it’s not the first time this has been pointed out to you.

New player needs help with a Prof

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Nobody knows at this point how the meta will change with the introduction of the new elite specs. So it’s going to be a bit difficult to predict how much in demand any particular class will be.

The solo play concerns come down to build, not class. Even classes with a reputation for being squishy can have good survivability and strong damage with the right build.

Having said that, necro is probably the easiest class for solo survival due to death shroud and access to minions. This makes necro somewhat less build-dependent than some other classes in terms of solo survival. And while necro isn’t considered a superior damage class, any class is capable of putting out more than sufficient damage in open world play.

Vitality and Dodging

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I disagree with the basic premise. Players don’t use full glass builds in organized PvE because it’s safer. They do it because PvE doesn’t force them to do otherwise the way PvP/WvW scenarios typically do. If you can have a healer cover your group in full glass and not wipe, it’s a no-brainer to do so. To do otherwise simply makes the fight take longer for no benefit.

If you’re talking solo open world, I still disagree. You’re telling me that having a bunch of extra armor, healing, and/or health actually makes it harder for you to survive? I can think of very few scenarios where this is true.

It’s one thing to say that full glass is adequate for survival and preferred for skilled players, and even that defensive stats are “useless” in that sense. I mean if you’re comfortable in full glass, then why wouldn’t you use it? It’s faster! But that is not the same thing as claiming that you are literally less likely to die in full glass than defensive gear.

It sounds to me like you have too little experience with defensive stats. Not that I blame you. It also sounds like you have little reason to waste your time with them. But as the basis for this argument, I don’t think your claims hold water at all.

No. They do full glass builds because it’s the most efficient. And it’s the most efficient because not only do you kill faster, but killing faster also provides you with the best form of defense because of the way that dodging works – it’s highly limited and not impacted by any defensive attribute, and it’s the main way you avoid damage.

I love how people are arguing with me about this when the game has been dominated by a berserker meta since launch, demonstrating that there’s a problem very clearly. Now, of course, it’s more of a problem in PvE than it is for PvP, but that doesn’t make it less of a problem in my eyes.

The solution to fixing defensive attributes is to expand the scope of both – Vitality to dodging, and Toughness to conditions (even if it’s just a small %)

You seem convinced that you have the proper solution to the problem, but it doesn’t add up to me. The fact is that PvE damage is too low and predictable for defensive stats to be attractive in organized PvE. In order for this to change, the frequency and amount of damage would need to exceed what proper use of dodge mechanics plus a group healer can mitigate. Adding extra dodges to vitality and mitigating condition damage via toughness doesn’t accomplish this. Thus I expect the DPS meta would remain due to being more efficient while presenting little additional risk.

It would only become less efficient if it were no longer feasible for players to run full glass in organized PvE and have a reasonable expectation of survival. Even then, it’s possible that groups would simply add another healer rather than expect everyone to nerf their own damage in favor of survival stats. They would do whatever is most efficient in any case.

Just Finished HoT and...

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I don’t see why having an opinion is such a controversial thing.

Personally disliked most of the HoT maps. Verdant Brink wasn’t bad. Like Auric Basin but Tangled Depths is annoying. My dislike of HoT was how the majority of the content was hard locked by the masteries which, when i started HoT, had no clue how to get more mastery points outside of the ones marked on the map (which weren’t enough). Even to this day, i am limited in mastery points until i do achievements i don’t want to do but at least the remaining masteries aren’t necessary to progress.

The reason i don’t like Tangled Depths is because the visual map is useless as a guide. At least Verdant Brink was open enough that i could explore to find out how to get somewhere or if you’re able to reach it.

Yes, the majority of content is locked behind masteries…a whole 4 points worth of them (bounce mushrooms, basic gliding, updrafts). By earning about as much experience as it took you to level from 70-80, you can explore all but a handful of objectives and complete every meta!

All I can figure is that the gameplay is simply so unappealing that players who dislike HoT want to spend as little time there as possible. How else to explain why 4 mastery points is such a barrier to enjoyment or why taking your time to explore a map is unacceptable to a so-called “casual” population that shouldn’t be in a rush to complete objectives in the first place?

eles need buffed

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Gaming is not all about min-maxing, gaming is about emotional and intellectual pleasure.

Which (pleasure) is subjective. So gaming can be about min-maxing. It’s just as valid as being about everything else.

You seem to have a problem with people expressing strong opinions different than your own. Why? It’s my way of play, it’s my perspective. To me, these are wasted stats. They give me zero benefit and they cost me stats which would give me non-zero one. It’s my own perception of the game, which I’m entitled to. As I am entitled to voicing my opinion, should I see fit. You may agree or disagree with it, but criticizing me for doing so can’t possibly be justified.

Your extreme example serves no purpose either. This would only be the case if the game designers in charge of balance were astonishingly incompetent. It would make the gameplay dull and the players would get bored and quit. Since none of this is true, I see no point in bringing it up at all. Yes, it could happen, in theory. Yes, it would be dull, again, in theory. However it doesn’t and it isn’t. It’s a pleasant experience, which I can’t say for playing with groups that wipe over and over again, spending literal hours on encounters which can be cleared in five minutes.

I don’t think s/he takes issue with you having an opinion or even the specifics of your opinion so much as the condescending way you express your opinion, which is a signature of your posts. Your way is the right way, and everyone else will see that once they get better at playing the game.

You seem to be completely unaware that you’re even doing it, as evidenced by your touchy replies whenever somebody points it out to you.

Playing a toon of the opposite gender?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Does anyone else feel uneasy playing a toon of the opposite gender, I do.

I’m a guy, and even though most female toons are more pleasing on the eye to look at, playing one just makes me feel, “Strange”, not to mention the countless guys hitting on my toon, only to find out I’m a guy, and calling me well, some unpleasant names to say the least.

Like I want to make a female norn warrior, because I don’t like how the male norn’s torso seems to be shorter on one side than the other, lol.

I don’t have this issue because I disagree that female toons are more pleasing on the eye. Characters are cartoons so I don’t prefer the look of one sex over another in the first place. In the second, 2/3 of GW2 species don’t even have an approximation of human anatomy so…no.

But I have always wondered why so many men say that looking at a cartoon female butt is somehow better than looking at a cartoon male butt. It’s a cartoon.

I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re either a bit insecure (I really like girls, honest! Let me tell you about it!) or are failing to properly communicate the distinction between finding a female character model more aesthetically pleasing and actually getting off on it. But yeah, I also find it a bit weird when people say this.

New player, prof choice?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I sure hope you get some responses, as I’m in a similar position: WoW veteran but that game has grown very stale, melee-oriented playstyle, recently picked this game up . I’m looking for a profession that plays something like the WoW DH: melee, highly mobile, not too squishy.

Once again, this doesn’t necessarily translate well. Since classes can play drastically different depending upon the weapon set and build they choose, every class can be melee, mobile, and not too squishy.

Take elementalist, for instance.

A popular raid build up until recently was scepter/warhorn fire/air/tempest. This build features the lowest health and armor of any class, is about as mobile as a rock, and all attacks come from range.

Compare to my current open world PvE build which is dagger/dagger water/air/tempest. Water is the healing traitline for elementalist, so I decided on zealot (power/precision/healing) gear as opposed to the 100% damage-focused gear one would use with the raid build mentioned previously.

With this build I still have low health and armor, but powerful passive and instant heals that make it so that unless I’m killed almost instantly I’ll be back at full health before I take another hit.

It’s also a long melee range build (normal melee range is 130, while this build operates at 300 range). And it features tons of mobility with a 900 range leap, 600 and 1200 range forward charges, full uptime swiftness, access to super speed (if traited), and may be supplemented with utilities such as a 900 range teleport and a couple more 900 range charges via fiery greatsword.

In other words, my open world build is melee, mobile, and not too squishy, while my raid build could be the complete opposite. All within the same class!

New player, prof choice?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

It works a bit differently here. When you talk about choosing a “melee” class, keep in mind a few key points regarding the GW2 combat system:

1) Each weapon offers a different set of skills to each class.

2) All classes except engineer and elementalist may switch between two weapon sets in combat.

3) Which weapon set is ideal depends upon the build (traits and stats) you’re using as well as the game mode (raid, fractal, open world, PvP, WvW).

So, while all classes are potentially melee classes, it’s unlikely that you’ll stick to melee 100% of the time with most classes in all game modes.

Having said that, I suppose if you wanted to be a melee-only class you’d be best off with elementalist. Since they are not designed with a weapon swap and because their PoF elite spec is designed around a melee weapon, I expect that between dagger/x and sword/x you will usually be able to find a viable melee-only build for this class in any game mode.

Still, it’s hard to find a class in this game that doesn’t have a viable build that isn’t at least partially melee-oriented. It’s just a side-effect of the way weapons work in this game. And it’s going to be difficult for anyone to tell you what you’re going to like. So no need to lock yourself in. Try whatever sounds fun to you!

Vitality and Dodging

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I disagree with the basic premise. Players don’t use full glass builds in organized PvE because it’s safer. They do it because PvE doesn’t force them to do otherwise the way PvP/WvW scenarios typically do. If you can have a healer cover your group in full glass and not wipe, it’s a no-brainer to do so. To do otherwise simply makes the fight take longer for no benefit.

If you’re talking solo open world, I still disagree. You’re telling me that having a bunch of extra armor, healing, and/or health actually makes it harder for you to survive? I can think of very few scenarios where this is true.

It’s one thing to say that full glass is adequate for survival and preferred for skilled players, and even that defensive stats are “useless” in that sense. I mean if you’re comfortable in full glass, then why wouldn’t you use it? It’s faster! But that is not the same thing as claiming that you are literally less likely to die in full glass than defensive gear.

It sounds to me like you have too little experience with defensive stats. Not that I blame you. It also sounds like you have little reason to waste your time with them. But as the basis for this argument, I don’t think your claims hold water at all.

Story missions too unfair for solo players

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I also saw some people streaming using the mouse to click on their skills…. Honestly… I won’t even talk about that…

That again.. really?

I can handle 3 buttons with my left hand and the rest i have to click. Before my stroke i could do 5 buttons and the rest i had to click.

Should i be ashamed or something?

Just be glad you can do everything blindfolded and on keybinds and stop making fun of those that can’t.

You definitely shouldn’t be ashamed and I understand physical issues from personal experience. There are things I’ll never be able to do in this game. I just don’t feel the game should be programmed around such issues, no matter how unfair that might sound.

It sucks when you can’t do stuff due to injury or disability. But game companies have a responsibility to the playerbase as a whole, rather than individuals. It’s a sad fact of life.

What i was talking about is the neverending witch hunt against people that aren’t adept at playing with a full set of keybinds and have to use a mouse to click.

Like it’s a crime to Humanity or something.

As for the ending instance of HoT… i done it as i stated earlier in this thread.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again. It’s how all MMORPG’s instanced content used to be done, by trial and error. Not by not using a mouse.

Just so you know, not everyone views it as a “crime”. To me it’s just a simple fact that some interfaces are faster than others.

Consider FPS games, for instance. It’s well-established that keyboard/mouse control is faster than controller thumb-stick control. Some games don’t even allow cross-platform play between PC and console players for this reason. Others add assisted-aiming features to compensate.

Unfortunately, in the case of clicking vs. keybinds, I don’t see that there’s anything they can do to compensate for the disparity without slowing down keybinds. I’ve heard they did this in FFXIV to some extent by introducing a significantly longer global cooldown to many of their abilities so that console players who obviously have only so many buttons on their controllers can use their skills without being at an extreme disadvantage.

In my opinion, that’s a terrible strategy that would destroy one of GW2’s greatest strengths: a fast and fluid combat system. Obviously, you didn’t suggest it. And I doubt anybody would given that we aren’t cross-platform in this game and I have to imagine that the vast majority of players use keybinds rather than clicking as it’s built into the interface from the start. But it illustrates the point that games ideally shouldn’t be designed to slow players down for the benefit of those who can’t keep up due to their interface.

Also, I realize you have disabilities, so I hope none of this comes off as insensitive. I’m just explaining my outlook. As far as having different difficulty modes to allow for players who use a slower interface (whether by choice or disability), I’m all for it as long as ANet considers it feasible in terms of development time/resources. Obviously, they always have to weigh how many players would benefit vs. how much time/resources it would cost.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

@Feanor

What you say really isn’t accurate. Vitality and toughness are only useless under two conditions: 1) When the attack that killed you in full glass still would have killed you in gear with vitality/toughness – i.e. pass/fail mechanics, which are quite rare in open world, and 2) When you make no errors that would have killed you in full glass. From ele’s reputation as the “squishiest” class, it’s pretty obvious a large number of ele players don’t meet this standard.

The same applies to your claim of it being safer to use full glass because faster kills present fewer chances for error. Faster kills do present fewer opportunities for error, but again this only makes you safer if you are less likely to die in the attempt.

To put it another way, in full glass you kill faster but you must make fewer errors. For many players in solo play, this is a bad bet when you could take longer to kill while having significantly greater margin for error.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I think its just that the dragons and wyverns where flax seeds are up above in the tree are just really hard for every class.Even on my ranger i had to constantly kite them and on my necro i had tor un away to avoid a lot of hits, and its pretty hectic when alone.

Again, you just need to learn your class and improve your gear. Elementalist can charge in and destroy those wyverns and so can other classes.

Playing a toon of the opposite gender?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Does anyone else feel uneasy playing a toon of the opposite gender, I do.

I’m a guy, and even though most female toons are more pleasing on the eye to look at, playing one just makes me feel, “Strange”, not to mention the countless guys hitting on my toon, only to find out I’m a guy, and calling me well, some unpleasant names to say the least.

Like I want to make a female norn warrior, because I don’t like how the male norn’s torso seems to be shorter on one side than the other, lol.

That’s funny. I have characters of both genders, but my current main is female and I’ve never had anyone outwardly assume I’m female simply because my character is female. In fact, I’ve been playing MMOs for many years now and I’ve never had any issues with this.

As far as I know, playing characters of a different gender than your own in an MMO is perfectly normal and most people don’t think anything of it.

Non-Flashy Character Screenshots

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I was just looking for an excuse to use the wizard’kitten skin…

Attachments:

eles need buffed

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

[quote=6735861;Jski.6180:]

eles need buffed

in Elementalist

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I was messing around and their survivability is a mess.

I was doing everythign in my power in maguma and i was getting frustrated i died like 21 times and got like 11-12 monster kills.They are sooo squishy and i had earth build, i mean jesus.

Give their protection and downed state some serious survivability buffs please?

Hi! We talked a lot about this in game. You’re frustrated. I know. But let’s be honest here. You showed me your gear and your first problem is that you’re using a random assortment of low level gear. It isn’t fair to judge the class based upon woefully inadequate gear going up against the toughest open world content available.

You only had 1800 power, <40% crit, ~190% crit damage, and only a tiny bit of toughness and vitality. To put it in perspective, even a full celestial tanky survival build would have about 300 more power with higher crit rate, higher crit damage, a good amount of condi damage, half again as much health, and a ton of toughness besides! You’re trying to do this with basically no offense and no survivability on your gear. Don’t be discouraged! This will get better!

Your second problem, obviously, is that you’re new to the class, you don’t know the first thing about builds, and you haven’t had any time yet with decent gear to become comfortable with your skills. Don’t expect the world when you haven’t had a chance to practice with even semi-decent gear yet.

I don’t mean this as a criticism. Believe me. When I first tried ele I had similar results: dying to trash pulls I had no issue with on my thief or necro. And I had the benefit of exotic gear! But I can assure you that the class is far from broken and quite capable of handling anything HoT throws at it.

Unfortunately, since you are EU I was unable to go with you and help you figure things out. Maybe someone who is on EU can help?

HoT and my Thoughts

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I feel the same way. The HoT maps are the best I’ve ever seen in an MMO. Tangled Depths is my favorite of all of them, although I really love Verdant Brink and Auric Basin, too!

HoT Finished- Unbiased Review

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Clearly that won’t work for everyone but there were plenty of players who were bored with how easy the open world is that aren’t particularly found of either instances or grouping. So dungeons/fractals/raids don’t work for those people. I’m one of them.

…….

The people who have the most problems with HoT tend to be guldless without people who run that content with them. They avoid grouping and they’re not necessarily very good at playing their characters.

Hi Vayne

In the first part you are saying that are plenty of people that are not fond of grouping to play Raid/Fractals/Dungeons – fair enough.

But in a later fragment , you are saying that the people that find HOT difficult are the people that also avoid grouping (also bad at their characters).

Not sure you are consistent with your conclusions.

Anyway, for me an expansion is targeted to all the people interested in the game, not a minority that likes their difficulty in the open maps. And speaking of difficulty, even after I ‘got good’ playing my char those maps were still frustrating to move through. I spent most of my time in the Auric Basin – the tamest of those zones, that also has a nice city hub.

I don’t think being alert 100% of a game session is healthy for a MMO or for the people playing it

I also expect the next expansion to not have the same level of open world annoyance so we can get back at an enjoyable exploration. Hopefully I’m not wrong…

While Auric Basin obviously has the least layered/complex layout of any HoT map, the enemies you face are significantly more difficult as are the events. I may be misunderstanding you, but you seem to be suggesting that the other maps have you on high alert all the time while AB doesn’t?

I’ve seen similar opinions numerous times and I’ve always found it confusing. I understand why players who dislike complex layouts prefer AB to TD/VB, but I really don’t understand why some players seem to believe that AB is somehow more solo friendly.

Wow did hot really change

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Lake Doric is one of the most boring map designs ever, but I guess some people who are directionally challenged like their flat planes.

Lake Doric’s layout is about as flat and boring as it gets, but I like the feel of the events going on in the map and the way it ties into the story.

Best way to solo HoT?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I was actually thinking of getting marauder gear for my ele.I was even directed by my guildy towards quantify for a build there, and i was asking around since some of it is directed at raids.I was told my guildy uses berserker and i argued marauder might be slightly better due to combination of vitality power ferocity and precision.

Also:Dagger attack 1 is absolutely terrible.Dragons claw has terrible range and you would be dead if you get that close to a enemy while dpsing.I feel like that first attack needs to be buffed.

Marauder is a great set for an offense-oriented open world build. It maintains much of the damage of berserker, but with a significantly higher health pool.

And you’re right, Dragon’s Claw is not a great attack and it hardly gets used in practice. However, there is no reason for d/x ele to stay in fire attunement. Instead, unload your big damage skills in fire quickly and then swap to another attunement.

I highly recommend taking the air traitline and picking up the Fresh Air trait if you’re running dagger. Unlike fire, air is not really a damage attunement. However, its overload is and Fresh Air will let you clear the cooldown when you quick swap to fire, unload your big damage, then swap back. And unlike fire, air does have a very strong auto attack with decent range that you can use to fill in the 5 seconds between swapping back to air and overloading again.

You just need to play around with it and learn what works. Ele is a complicated class and unlike following a raid dps rotation, open world is more fluid and requires you to make decisions depending upon the situation you find yourself in.

Best way to solo HoT?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

So wait:Condi Eles are kittened in pve outside raids? So what do you go for for pve solo? dagger focus? I said dagger focus because of onyx skin thing from earth which gives you protection.

Most players don’t like focus for open world because it’s a defensive weapon. No mobility, no damage. But honestly, you can use whatever you like. Literally any weapon set will work for open world because there are no requirements to meet beyond getting what you want out of it.

Having said that, you do want to make some effort to ensure that your build makes sense. If you want to go condi, it means most of your damage is going to come from fire skills that apply burns. So you probably wouldn’t want to use staff, for instance, because it is mostly direct damage.

If survival is an issue, you can try focus. But I think you’d be better off using some more defensive stat sets. As I said before, I really like water/air/tempest paired up with some gear that provides a mix of healing, offense, and maybe some extra vitality to take the edge off. A mix of zealot and valkyrie or marauder might be good because it maintains high power with solid precision, healing, vitality, and ferocity.

The basic idea is that you can take damage and use your strong healing to heal it back, often without having to resort to using your heal active (many players take the heal on skill use signet and rely mostly on the passive effect in open world) or water overload. This way you rarely get into trouble because you keep your biggest heals in reserve. Meanwhile, you still have high damage to take down enemies quickly, making them less of a threat even when facing large groups of enemies.

Best way to solo HoT?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

From what i’ve seen i’m starting to get a grudge playing a ele.Maybe having full condi gear but its beyond frustrating trying to survive and getting downed instantly and then using mist to move a few feet away and still die instantly.

This class just feels so squishy and weak that it becomes a chore to get Hero points.I’m not even sure how people can stand tangled depths with all the billions of adds and low dmg.

You shouldn’t be suffering from low damage AND low survivability. Glass ele has extremely strong burst that can take out groups of enemies very quickly. Alternatively, tankier ele builds can absorb tons of damage and heal it back quickly, making them anything but squishy.

Season 8 My Match Making - Response Please

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I see what you’re saying but I can’t agree that the massive lose streaks are part of anything to do with MMR settling and putting you where you belong.

If our peaks were 1550, don’t you think that MMR settling over the course of a season should provide us with an experience that looks more like: lose, win, lose, win, lose, lose, win, win, lose, win, win, lose, ect.. ect.. Especially considering that the climb to 1550 was rendering a similar experience to get there. When we climb to 1550 with a relatively balanced feel of match making, where every match is won or lost by 500 to 450, where players are being pushed to limits to evolve quickly to figure out how to win the match, that feels like where we belong. But when we “suddenly” get placed on a lose streak, immediately as we hit 1550, and lose 10 to 15 games in a row, not by 500 to 450 but more like 500 to 200 or worse, that certainly doesn’t feel like MMR settling to put us where we belong. It feels like a lose switch being pushed.

It’s also very strange that at that exact point of 1550, there is this ridiculous shift in match making quality. No, not a small one. It’s not that you feel your PUGs get a bit worse and your enemies get a tad harder, no. It’s this ridiculous switch that gets turned on, where the algorithm “tries its hardest” to find THE WORST players que’ing at the time to give you and find a team of people your rating or higher to stack on a team together, to make sure that you lose rating.

This is definitely happening but yet it shouldn’t be. There is no reason, with all the different demographics of rated players and actual MMRs out there, that at certain exact point in the rankings, you automatically pull the worst players possible vs. stacked teams of people who are the same rating as you or better. That in no way makes any sense for how the algorithm is supposed to work.

So why does this happen to some players but not others? It’s easy to see who it is happening to. It happens to those players that you see in plat 2 one day, then down in gold 2 the next, then the day after that they’re back in plat 2 again. Yet other players place plat 1, climb to plat 2 and then stay there for 200 games, only ever fluctuating up or down about 50 points or so. There are two extremes happening here with no in-betweens. One group of players have extreme fluctuation, all season, with no evidence of any MMR settling. The other group of players will take a rating and hover right in that rating the entire season, giving evidence of settled MMR. What the hell is going on here?

Kinda seems like rats in a laboratory where you have group A and control group B.

I dunno boys, just pointing out the patterns I’ve noticed.

I’m not saying they’re intended at all. The big win/loss streaks aren’t intended. That’s just chance. And certainly the system isn’t perfect or you’d always get a fairly even match. For that matter, placement would be perfect, too. And you’d never expect to move significantly up or down in rating from where you were placed due to a near-perfect matching system that gives you almost exactly a 50/50 win rate.

What I’m saying is that you can factor those win/loss streaks out under the assumption that we all get them (apparently with the exception of players who are either THAT bad/good or have found some way to game the system) and observe the overall trend. Sure, a bad loss streak might take you down to gold 2, but do you stay at gold 2? Likewise, do you hit 1550 and stay there? Look beyond the outliers (win/loss streaks) and what does the overall trend show?

As it pertains to my own experience, like I said, I didn’t just hit a loss streak every time I reached 1550. I hit loss streaks at lower ratings, too. I also hit win streaks. But what was consistent was that I moved up at 1450 and not at 1550. I was never able to maintain a rating above that level where I was generally able to at 1450, even if a loss streak could drop me below 1450 from time to time. Hence my belief that my final season rating of 1509 was right about where it should have been.

Season 8 My Match Making - Response Please

in PvP

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Yes, I do believe I am being targeted but I’m not exactly sure by what. I don’t necessarily think it is a group of people sniping or anet messing with me. I think more realistically there is something within the algorithm that uses players within my demographic of, “total matches played” “actual MMR” that likes to use us as stepping stones for other players. I also want to point out that the problem -always- happens to me exactly when I reach 1550 rating. It’s done this to me every season. Let me explain this:

<post snipped to meet 6000 character limit>

Honestly, that doesn’t sound all that different from my experience. However, I had a different take on what was happening.

If I repeatedly hit a certain rating and start dropping and never seem to be able to get past that, I figure I have exceeded my skill ceiling. Yeah, some of those games are unwinnable through no fault of my own. But it isn’t the losing streaks or unwinnable matches that indicate where I belong so much as the fact that regardless of win/loss streaks, I never seem to be able to break into a certain rating level and stay there.

I mean I had those unwinnable games in streaks at lower tiers as well, but despite that the more games I played the more I moved up…until I hit that ceiling. For me, it also happened at somewhere about 1550. I’d fall back to gold 3, move up to plat 1, fall back, over and over again.

That’s why I felt that my placement last season at 1509 was appropriate. If I belonged in plat 2, I would have been able to break into it over and over the way I did with plat 1. By the same logic, if I belonged in a lower tier I would have had trouble advancing beyond that tier. But over hundreds of games played, I didn’t have trouble staying in upper gold 3. It was only in plat 1 that I’d inevitably start losing more than I won, unable to advance to plat 2 even for a short time.

Those losing streaks HURT, but it’s the bigger picture that makes me think matchmaking works (at least in my experience through gold 1-plat 1) over time.

Can someone explain this to me?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Alternatively, you could wait for Jormag dye kits to go on sale. I believe those are the ones that have permafrost dye available? In the mean time, a far less costly dye might do the trick to give you close to the look you want. Have you looked into celestial dye? It’s not pure white like permafrost dye, but on many gear sets it shows up as a bright white color anyway.

Just FYI, the gem store appears to be running new sales almost daily the past few weeks. There’s a chance those kits might go on sale if you wait a bit.

Best way to solo HoT?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I’m working on a D/D Fresh Air Auramancer build for general gameplay. It might be a good option for you.

It uses Air/Water/Tempest for auras and boons, Zealot’s gear, Leadership runes, and Accuracy & Concentration sigils. With Fresh Air, you’re constantly generating auras from Overload Air, granting you healing, regen, and boons.

It’s definitely not a raid meta spec, but it’s safe for soloists without completely sacrificing damage. Swap Soothing Power for Powerful Aura and you’ve got a great team support spec, so it’s versatile. I’m likely to work on this set after I get my condi gear settled.

I’ll second this. My favorite build for open world is water/air/tempest. It’s fun solo or in groups with enough damage to get the job done, enough healing/support to make a noticeable difference to allies, and great personal survivability.

You can use several sets (mix and match). Zealot, celestial, valkyrie, marauder. Zealot trinkets and weapons with a mix of valkyrie and marauder armor can get you 2700 power, 46% crit (84% with signet, fury, and Aeromancer’s Training), 175-180% crit damage, as well as over 15k health and 650 healing power.

Not raid-worthy, of course, but more than enough damage to smoke trash enemies in open world and with enough healing and vitality to take a hit and heal it back against tough champions. If you run powerful auras you can provide a ton of healing and support to allies when you run in groups, too.

Why bother with ranked?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I enjoying killing and battles in pvp i have no need of random pvp items or anything pve that is in pvp from the “Season” pvp. Reward track is just a extra thing for me to get rewards from. My reward is the tears of my opponent or a battle scar to learn from.

It sucks anet has catered to the f2p and pve crowd thus ruining pvp for a majority of pvp playyers. The most toxic people i know are the pve reward hunters in ranked and the “top” players lol. So why torment myself in ranked when i can play unranked stronghold and carry a team of pugs vs a 5 man premade team. Hell the community is nicer in unranked. If i play conqcrap I’m at the mercy of my special needs random teammates. Only real pvp is TDM like gw1 but anet has wasted too much time on contrash by now. If we had 3 or 4 TDM maps that were good and not the half butt made courtyard pvp would be thriving.

If they only the devs had realized long ago that conquest is a horrible noncompetitive pvp mode that had no chance in ESL. Anet was too busy on more flashy crap maps, pve, but mainly the gem store.

I’m with you there. If PvP in GW2 has a major shortcoming, it’s lack of game modes. Conquest is fun and all, but I am puzzled by their adherence to only that one mode. Is it too difficult to balance between multiple game modes when they seem to struggle with balance as it is?

Season 8 My Match Making - Response Please

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

What is the premise here? You think you’re being targeted? I don’t get it. I mean I had a 10+ game losing streak 2 days before the end of the season, immediately following reaching a season high.

You want to talk about disappointment? There I was, 2-3 wins away from top 250 in my first season playing PvP with just a couple of days to go, higher in rating than I had been all season and I suddenly drop over 100 rating points on a massive losing streak.

The thing is, prior to that I was on a 9 game win streak. I fought my way up from a 1207 placement to platinum and I finished in platinum. Honestly, I finished right where I belonged based upon my last month’s performance (1509). I had ups and downs, fair matches and unfair matches, but the fact is I spent that last month repeatedly pushing into platinum 1 and falling back to gold 3. Over and over again. If I were good enough to be plat 2, I wouldn’t have had to struggle to stay in plat 1.

Yeah, I had a shining moment where a win streak brought me within range of the top 250 just before the end of the season, but I didn’t really deserve to be there and that crushing loss streak was only slightly worse than the win streak that brought me to my season high.

I wish every match felt competitive. I wish massive losing streaks never happened. But how can I honestly argue that the system doesn’t work? It’s the same system everyone else is using and overall most of us reach a point where we are really fighting for those wins and, more often than not, losing when we exceed our skill level.

I don’t know how the best of the best maintain awesome win ratios. I’ve heard there are tactics they use. Whatever. When I look at the leaderboard for my friends and guild list ranging from bronze to top 250 players, I see the vast majority have very close to a 50% win ratio. How unfair can that really be? It’s exactly what I expect to see in a proper matchmaking system. Players falling below 40% or above 60% win rates are exceedingly rare by the end of the season, yet we all have those massive win or loss streaks. What can you do?

What are these unkillable Dagger Eles?

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Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

If you don’t have strong burst and time your CCs well, you aren’t likely to kill a decent d/x ele in 1v1. They’re fairly tanky and have strong direct heals as well as cleansing.

The meta build uses the mender amulet (major power/healing, minor precision/vitality) and is very heavy on cleanses, meaning you need to really bring the damage to kill them on your own or they will just keep healing and cleansing through your damage.

The meta build uses d/f, which has very low damage and isn’t much of a threat in 1v1. However, d/d has the burst and CC to be a threat to less survivable builds. Be especially careful not to get caught in a lightning overload field as they will try to trap you in it with CC and then burst you down.

Story missions too unfair for solo players

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

A lot of us enjoy the more “epic” feel a tougher boss here and there adds to the storyline. I really don’t think many of the bosses are that difficult. Mordremoth is the odd man out because you can’t gear or build your way through the pass/fail mechanics. But I understand they added some sort of bypass mechanic for this phase?

You can’t please everyone. I’m sure even the least combat-oriented players among us don’t find all or even most of the storyline bosses impossible to solo. There are just a few standouts. But chances are there is a build that will get you through it. Hint: None of the storyline bosses are a DPS race (or at least not one that requires a glass build). Use a tankier build to ignore much of the damage.

I guess what I’m saying is that if you can clear most of the story without issue and without making any significant changes to the way you play, it’s better for you to make some changes for those bosses that do give you trouble than to request that the game change for you. Again, I only say this because many of us derive enjoyment out of the tougher boss battles in an otherwise boring (combat-wise) story. But, of course, you’re welcome to your own opinion.

Just Finished HoT and...

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I’m of the opinion HoT maps would have been fun if Anet hadn’t made the map exploration group mandatory. If you have to avoid a champion here, or use a backway in there the maps would have been fun. Instead they tied the exploration to the Meta. To even make it to Dragon Stand you must make the Meta event of Tangled Depths. And then to further lock stats behind the maps unique items and currency further limiting players access to needed stats Viper, Trailblazer, Wanderer’s, and so on. So why is Trailblazer’s soo expensive, because the Maguuma Lilly is extremely rare and it also requires a charged crystal that can only be made one per day and the Quartz Crystals have very few locations that can be farmed. These are never or extremely rare to gain from salvage. They could control prices by not severly limiting mats but like with Hardened Leather which is now accessible by way of Meta. Basically everything is tied to long drawn out events that limit accessibility and play.

You can reach DS via TD meta completion, but it isn’t required. There is a portal connecting TD to DS in the aptly named “Dragon’s Passage” area in the southwest corner of the map.

I definitely agree on the stat sets. Viper isn’t too bad since black diamonds aren’t all that rare, but all of the others are ridiculously expensive for no good reason. Why require such rare materials to craft these? I honestly have no idea.

Dragon Stand empty?

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

I was about to state exactly the same thing about the emptiness, will Arena update the worlds at some point so that this endless battle is over one day and turn that area into a more explorable place rather than a barren land of death mobs, basically Queensdale it.

It’s by design. Unlike the other HoT maps, the meta is the entire thing from start to finish. So there isn’t much point to being there if you aren’t doing the meta. That’s why you see dead maps when you go there. The map(s) that are doing the meta have already filled up and the map you’re on is empty because anyone who shows up there will leave, either joining a meta map or finding them full and moving on to something else.

Try showing up just before the dragon clears the map. Either the map you’re on will begin to fill up and organize or you can use LFG to join a map that is. If you show up later than this, chances are the meta maps will already have filled up and all other instances will be dead maps. That’s just how DS works.

To the new/returning players who think HoT is dead:

DS (and all of the other HoT maps) are quite active. However, a side-effect of meta maps and the megaserver system is that you often can’t just show up on a map and complete the meta. While you’re standing around waiting for the map to organize, chances are other maps are organizing and players are leaving your map for those organized maps.

Be aware of when the meta occurs for the map you’re on and use LFG to get to organized maps or you’ll find yourself hopping from one dead map to another wondering where everybody went. That’s why HoT appears “dead” when in fact it’s full of players. They all condensed onto maps that are now full, leaving depleted maps (your map!) behind.

Just Finished HoT and...

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Starting to play through them on my second character, and this time isn’t quite so bad. I think some of the problem on the first character is a lot of the map was hard to move around until you got through the relevant masteries. Since those are account bound, they are mostly open to my second character.
However, one thing that is still annoying is trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B. I don’t have a solution, but trying to use the map to figure it out is pretty much useless. So I find that there is a lot of wasted time trying to figure it out.
Perhaps that is part of the design (maps are confusing and hard to navigate). But I don’t find that particularly fun – given the limited time I have to play, going in the wrong direction, finding dead ends, etc, isn’t particularly interesting.

I can see why that’d be annoying, with not enough time to relax and explore until the puzzle starts to come together. On the other hand, many of us really loved that aspect of HoT.

I used to play WoW and all of their maps are “flat” as well as having flying mounts that trivialize exploration (even if they are super cool!). HoT was quite awe-inspiring in comparison, with those complex, layered layouts that you really had to just figure out by exploring.

Why bother with ranked?

in PvP

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

Unless your a pve person going for pvp related only gear i understand. But the ones who think the leader board actually matters i pitty you lol. I have more fun with less toxic people in unranked and i get the same rewards.

Hahaha so nothing has changed since last 3 seasons. Just a few happy or unhappy people from a few little skill and trait shake ups that didn’t change much from the last “update”. Still the stale game play of get on a circle or around it and dance. Since circle dancing conquest it still the thing anet thinks is “competitive”, so it will still be boring. Hell even the PoF update wont help or change much besides those who play deadeye will be yelled at to change to a running run teef. ( I’d laugh if bow / rifle deadeye became a thing lol)

Spammyvill in middle while one person dances around the sides and decaps will stay the same. ZzZzZzZz nothing new so i wont bother again. Seasons 1-4 weren’t bad but weren’t great, then came 5-8 which are just sad excuses for “competitive” “pvp”

If it isn’t fun in ranked, it isn’t fun in unranked either. So why are you still here? To tell the rest of us what a great competitor you are for opting out of ranked play? You’re a real champion, bro.

is "waste of dev time" a real arguement?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: AliamRationem.5172

AliamRationem.5172

If it’s any consolation, unless it comes from an ANet employee, it’s nothing but pure speculation. I find it annoying as well that people speak for ANet when they literally know nothing of the subject they pretend to be an authority on. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter because they aren’t ANet.

Of course, there are plenty of instances where a person is simply relaying what an ANet employee previously said. For example, I’m told that ANet has said they don’t plan to add more worlds to SAB due to the amount of resources required to create and maintain that project. Too bad! I’d LOVE to see more worlds for SAB!