Guild Wars 2

Note: I’m sorry if this has been suggested before but here it is anyway…

I’ve played since day 1 and completed all my personal goals. I currently have 5 Level 80s and no desire for leveling another alt. If there’s new goal I want to achieve next – that’s learning a new profession on my existing main character whilst acquiring a separate set of gear and skills (ala FFXIV:AR and the coming EQNext).

I think this would be good feature for those who prefer to stick to their mains or for those altoholics initially then settled to a new main char later like me (I was once an altoholic for a year until I stick to my new main char).

There would be a disadvantage of course, like you’ll only get a map completion reward once and finish personal story once – though since this is an endgame feature than an early goal for new players.

This feature might be open to some exploit or something unintended consequences (i’m not sure yet) so some restrictions could be applied like you can’t switch while in combat or a timer before you can switch to another profession.

So here’s some few pros and cons that came into my mind:

Pros

- Cycle armor sets (light, medium, high) without relogging on different character

- Reuse character-bound items like legendaries when switching professions

- No need to worry that you might lose guild chat when changing profession

- Some players hate your profession? Switch profession (if you don’t want to find another group)

- No need to re-explore map

Cons

- Armor-type specific gears and Profession-specific items will only be useable by that certain armor class/profession

- You can only finish personal story once

- You can only get map completion reward once

- A requirement before a player can achieve this feature

I’m also thinking of not everyone would have access to this feature at first. So some soft of requirements should be completed first like acquiring account bound items across Tyria and then completing a set of event chain that will lead you to an ancient pedestal on Crystal Desert and ascend your character there.

Jon, Re: Ranger

As a full berserker traits (30/30/5/0/5) and berzerker ascended gear using Greatsword on PVE (On WvW, I use PVT gear instead), the Dec 10th changes will just gonna heavily nerf on my build as a whole.

Problems:

1. Natural Vigor nerf
As full zerk build, the DPS is abysmal compared to other zerk builds (no burst and low DPS). The only thing why I still use the build is due to its high survivability which I strongly feel makes up for the lack of DPS. In short, the survivability of the build will make the Ranger as paper close to zerk Thief/Warrior without upping its DPS.

2. Moving free-dodges on Greatsword auto-attack chain to Swoop
As mentioned in #1, the passive free-dodges on auto-attack gives Ranger high survivability which really makes up for its abysmal melee DPS. This skill is useful and FUN on WvW zergs (I use PVT gear on this aspect). This is really a problem due to the following:
a) The free dodges complements Rangers’ lack of stability and stun breaks.
b) Moving it to Swoop will make the free dodges on demand BUT on a slower cool down and slow casting animation.
c) The new free finisher on GS auto-attack won’t help the build in WvW as using fields on non-moving opponents is non-existent in wvw. You always go mobile while spamming auto-attack chain. The free dodges help the Ranger chance against Crowd Control attacks. And the new finisher won’t trigger as real players don’t stay at fields.

Summary:
PVE
- Survivability of melee GS build = nerfed
- DPS of PVE zerk melee GS build = still low and untouched

WvW
- Survivability of melee GS build = nerfed
- DPS of PVE zerk melee GS build = still low and untouched
- Free GS finisher on fields = real players don’t stay on fields

Disclaimer: I don’t wanna change my playstyle. The condition and Spirit build are already popular enough and I don’t want to jump on that bandwagon. The melee zerk GS build isn’t popular enough due to low DPS but this is the playstyle I like and having fun and want to stick with.

EverQuest Next will introduce Heroic Movements. I would love to see this in GW2. I’m not speaking about changes in movement mechanism but the animation aesthetics like the ff.:

- Instead of falling flat from the ground after falling from heights you would land on your right hand and left feet and right feet kneeling while your head is down.

- Instead of sliding with your face grinding the surface you would slide normally similar to EQ Next

In short, no changes on damage, delay, or mechanism – just the animation. You would still die from falling damage and would incur delay from getting back up.

Its the /rank I’m after where you can do the banner animation without killing someone. It isn’t changeable by any means except your current pvp rank.

I love PVP /rank Wolf Emote on PVE – it really suits to my character theme and personality. Now the problem is I don’t want the next rank emote (Tiger, Bear, etc…) as they don’t suit my character’s theme/personality. Should I stop doing PVP?

I can’t see any other way to make my PVE emote stuck with Wolf Emote without stopping to progress with PVP. But I really like the PVP aspect of the game. ArenaNet mentioned that you’ll be able to buy specific finisher animations in PVP and WvW but nothing is stated with buying /rank emotes.

It would be nice to choose your unlocked /rank emote as what you do to your PVE Title but it seems I’m the only one considering this as an issue. This was the same issue I had with GW1. When I achieved my Wolf emote from doing PVP, I stopped doing PVP so my emote wouldn’t change. But I missed the biggest part of GW1 – which was the pvp.

Video and traits/gear info included:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1he4kj/video_melee_zerker_ranger_gssw_casual_dungeon_run/

If that’s real then I’m not happy with the changes on Ranger class. My ranger is currently traited to a 15/20/5/0/30 BM GS and S/W zerker Ranger so that skill changes is nothing to me but a straight DPS NERF. Massive DPS nerf across pets while not giving any buffs with Ranger’s weapon DPS.

The nerf should only affect PVP whereas applying the same nerf on PVE will just give people more reasons to ignore or kick rangers from parties for having low DPS.

I also think that they should give incentives to melee build on ranger since you’re risking your life in front of mobs to help mitigate the mobs damage. And for the longbow buffs, I never liked going range with my ranger. If I want to be selfish by attacking afar while keeping my self safe, I have my elementalist for that. Please don’t force my ranger to use longbow by buffing it while nerfing the shortbow..

Ranger in PVP are OP, we all know that.

But in PVE, their overall DPS are lackluster the reason they (and I) always got kicked from teams right after joining. Not even giving us to prove otherwise.

It’s quite a shame that my Thief and Warrior that has exotic PVT gears and rare PVT trinkets simply out-DPS my 30 BM zerker Ranger with exotic and ascended Pow/Prec/Crit gear having them all traited to Pow/Prec/Crit stats.

ANet mentioned that they’ll nerf pets overall DPS. I can already see it in the unconfirmed skill changes post in reddit (if its not a hoax) – http://pastebin.com/2rrFg9pS. So there’s a huge DPS nerf on pets but not a single DPS boost on greatsword and sword skills on ranger.

ANet, Ranger + pet DPS are already poor in PVE compared to other class (specially Warriors and Thieves). If you intend to nerf pets, please only do so in PVP and leave their DPS in PVE.

^ I laughed so hard with that post.

But kidding aside, although this may vary from player to player, to some like me, this is a gamebreaking issue. If you can’t imagine how this feature is frustating to us try eating with yor your spoon/fork/knife swapped on your hands and do that for 9 months.

You have my ENDLESS THANKS. That update proves that ArenaNet is really listening and caring to us fanbase’s concerns/suggestions/feedbacks. Usual arrogant Devs would have just responded with “KITTEN YOU! Eat our kitten!” .

I, personally, would like to know the people behind the decision and implementation of the said feature so I can thank him/her personally.

THANK YOU
- for putting it on a very high priority list
- for not including this on your mentioned “redesign” that usually took months to implement
- for acknowledging us players who just can’t never adapt to right-click attack/interact and right-click as an exclusive camera feature was already burned to our mind

HOW DOES THIS BENEFITTED ME
- No more PUG teammates insulting me “NOOB!” for accidentally activating the lava bucket on Dredge Fractals prematurely
- No more wasted skills (ie, flame burst, dragon’s tooth) due to lost target (note: I use Autotargetting OFF)
- No more messing up with my target (ie, changing target to a teammate accidentally, target lost, etc…)
- No more rushing (via skill) to enemy head-on when I wanted to flee
- No more attacking a mob when I just wanted to move my camera
- No more mailing mistakes by mailing a different person with your items/gold (TO field is auto-filled based on your current target)
- Simply made me play better

TL;DR: This feature is simply the best update I got from you guys. Thanks again!

Evan Lesh.3295:

snip

…we’re adding a toggle for it in the next patch.

Thank you! You just helped hundred of thousands of gamers coming from other genres where Right-click is exclusive to Camera controls and Left-click is exclusive to targetting and other functions has burned to our brains. Gamers who’ve only played MMOs will never understand this fix.

And for those who don’t understand why we are like this, just think switching spoon/knife and fork on your left and right hands. That’s how very annoying it is.

…because pets HP are tanky enough.

Based on GW2Guru May State of the Game

Would like to start a discussion regarding this one.

In PvP, i don’t mind much as I feel OP in this area. But in PvE, i think this will affect the profession greatly specially those with full Beastmaster build. Rangers, are already getting kicked alot of times in the party just because our DPS isn’t on par with Warriors.

Some of the pets didn’t get the HP buff (ie., Reef Drake, Jaguar, Alpine Wolf, etc…) in the previous patch so I don’t think they should be nerfed with their damage. If so, at least buff Ranger’s damages themselves. The sword punishes the rangers by rooting them in one place so at least buff its damage.

Ranger class is already meh to the eyes of the warriors in PvE.

That’s the problem when you try to simplify things when it shouldn’t. Combining Camera and Attack/Interact is a, sorry for the word, dumb move. It really feels very iOS implementation on a PC platform. Who does that? Only Chuck Norris can play a game where one button does everything:

No enemy targeted – Camera movement
Has enemy targeted – One-hit-kill using Roundhouse
Door – Open door using Roundhouse kick
Wall – There is no wall
Cancer patient – Cure!

And that with only DoSomethingSmart button.

Probably the dev who designed that is no longer working in ArenaNet and the code is so complex/bad that no other devs wanted to touch it.

/*
 * MAGIC! DO NOT TOUCH!
 */
void cameraAttackInteractSoSmartYouWontTouchItFunction (...) {
   // insert super complex code here that nobody wants to touch it
}

Can we have an option to perma-stow my pet regardless if I get hit or not?

I’ve tried “Light Trapper Achievement” many times with my Ranger and keep failing due to my pet keep triggering nearby traps making the achievement almost impossible (if not impossible) to do on ranger. I then gave up, switched to Ele and get the achievement in just 1 try. Luckily, I have multiple professions but I feel sad to those who only have a ranger yet having a hard time doing it with pet in the way.

Evan Lesh.3295:

We have not forgotten about this. Sometimes as certain features get used by more of the game, it reveals issues that lead to a redesign. For instance, now that you can right click on people in PvP while spectating to switch follow cameras, accidental right-clicks can be far more disorienting than selecting a new target.

Thanks for the response. Can we at least know why its still on a very low priority when right-click is one of the most (if not the most) feature used in game and this greatly affects each player skills in PVE, WvW, and sPVP?

Isn’t it easy just to implement a flag to ignore game object selection at settings since object selection are all already handled by left-click? Do we have to wait for an expansion or 2 years for a complete redesign just for a simple feature that will greatly help everyone? I mean I don’t want to say what you should or shouldn’t do but we, players, are already begging for this fix for 8 months now.

That kind of fix will greatly improve our own control with our character in terms of attacking, mobility, target precision, etc…

I can only imagine some stubborn dev responsible for implementing right-click function with a strong opinion still thinks right-click-should-do-all-kind-of-stuffs is a perfect solution.

Right-click does:

- Select a target
- Interact with a targeted object
- Attack selected enemy
- Loot from nearest dead mob
- Pickup selected bundle
- Deselect target when targeting nothing
- Rotate the camera
- Open context-menu
- Works as an ‘F’ key on a selected game object

But in reality, it gives more harm than good, gameplay-wise:

- Prematurely activate an important-event-game-object (ie., fractal lava bucket) which makes the rest of the team go wtf! you noob! on you

- Stupidly run head straight to mobs with a skill when you just wanted to escape (ie., Ele’s Ride-The-Lightning away from enemy with Autotargetting set to OFF)

- Do stuffs you don’t intend to do (attack selected enemy, release target, target an ally, interact on an object, pick up useless object)

- Accidentally attack a distant enemy if it is already selected (if you are using a range weapon). Major annoyance when you are surveying the surroundings with right-click.

- Intermittently unintentionally target another npc/object which leads to wasted non-melee attacks if Auto-targetting is set to OFF. Major annoyance if you use range weapons a lot and your Autotargetting is set to OFF

And all that issues because all you just wanted is to rotate the camera properly.

Dante.1508:

Funny thing my pet says it has about 5% health left so i switch it and get 59sec cooldown why?

Happens every time..

The 59sec varies from your Beastmaster trait points. The higher the points, the less cooldown when your pet is dead. My BM trait points is maxed so I only get 45sec cooldown.

The 5% health is the issue I’m talking about. It means your pet is already dead and healing very slowly.

sostronk.8167:

Doesn’t your character have a voiceover for this? My ranger yells “PET DOWN!” when my pet is killed.

I missed it when there’s a lot going on and there are times my sound is completely set to off.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

The icon on your pet skill will show whether or not your pet is dead.
There is a little symbol in the center of the icon, and the rest of the icon is shaded gray a little bit.

The pet skill icon is too small for 1920×1080 and the stop icon at the center is even smaller.

Infernia.9847:

OP are you requesting a cue when the pet is near death or just dead? We have the auditory cue when the character says something about a dead pet.

Would be nice to instantly know if he’s dead or not by just looking to his HP without checking pet skill icon (takes about 1 sec but alot may happen within 1 sec). Greyed HP bar or something is a nice indication.

In high level of FotM, mobs usually do 1-2 hits to kill your pet. When a pet has 10% HP left I don’t know if he’s near death so I could swap it for 15 secs cooldown OR he’s already dead and reserve my swap skill to more critical scenario and not suffer the 40+ sec cooldown penalty.

I just can’t always watch my pet’s HP and his animation all the time to confirm he’s dead specially in heat of the fight.

Must be horrible on 800×600 resolution.

EDIT: I’m on 1920×1080 so I don’t have this issue and like this new feature.

I’m also one of you people who didn’t get the extra 10 laurels. I won’t whine. It’s part of the game that this kind of things happen. It’s not the first time (ie, 1) karka chest 2) extra one laurel on the first day it has been introduced) and I’m sure it will not be the last one.

Lesson learned, always left something out on monthlies as we don’t know what opportunity we can get from it as new patches arrives.

Calae.1738:

Developers in traditional MMOs have to account for healers and create content that has unavoidable damage. If all damage was avoidable; healers would be unnecessary.

In GW2 you can avoid damage.

I partially disagree. You can avoid damage but for how long? You have limited amount of dodge and stability at a given time. Challenge is how you will maintain those within 5-10 mins mini-boss fight who does a lot of debuffs and CCs (knockbacks) add up those mobs to make sure to deplete your dodges/stabilities. And surely, you haven’t met a normal mob that downs you in 1 or 2 hits no matter how large your HP pool is.

For me, downed state is there to counter the cheap attacks you’ll get in dungeons and FotM.

I’m guessing you haven’t played dungeons and FotM that many to not consider getting downed a punishment.

It’s a punishment for a couple of things in dungeons/FotM:

- You are not contributing damage while being downed
- Teammates who tries to revive you won’t also contribute on the damage
- You are risking your teammates trying to revive you their lives for being open and impossible to defend themselves in an instant against CCs and debuffs
- In a situation where there are a lot of mobs in a small area, the more downed teammates the more the others will be susceptible to get attacked by the rest of them.

Of course all that above varies a lot from PUGs.

Most of the dungeons are designed for 5 player team. Getting downed makes it harder for the rest to complete the events. The current design makes it possible for a group of 4 rangers, 4 necros, or 4 thieves to finish the content. The only thing that differs about them is how much effort they need to do to be on the same level with others.

If you want to increase the challenge, try doing dungeons/FotM with 4 players or less.

And a “Cancel” button please so I can join different servers faster and don’t have to wait 10 secs if the server I joined is full.

Yep, bugged few days now. The progress bar is full and trying other dungeons doesn’t give me any achievement points.

I think everyone who has a guild should be able to enjoy the Guild Missions on the same level regardless the size of the guild. I’m in a guild of less than 5 members who I know very well in real life. I want to enjoy Guild Missions on my guild without forcing me to add members or join larger guilds. Your would-be question “Why shouldn’t you just join a larger guild or invite more?” is perhaps the same as me questioning “Why do I see a lot of players with 5k achievements and having 1500+ hours of play time do not have a guild yet?”. Probably, each player has their own playstyles.

Again, I think Guild Missions should be there for everyone to enjoy without forcing them things they might not want to do.

Right now, it’s fine for me if I won’t be able to enjoy this. Sure, I’m gonna miss its fun and reward but I don’t think this will encourage me to join large guild or invite more people in my guild as those things are really outside my comfort zone.

EDIT: I still have an option to enjoy Guild Missions. Right now, the guild earns 200 influence a day. Without spending any gold, it would take at least 8 months for us to start a mission.

@Mira, not if your character is only at Level 40. The XP you gain on level 40 is too low compared what you’ll get from level 80.

@Luigio, they could at least extend the notification from 3 minutes to 30 minutes.

Really, thank you for disconnecting me (New Build 3 mins from notification) while I was 20,000 xp away from Lifetime Survivor doing crafting for 4 hours. Imagine the ingame gold let alone the time I spent to get the achievement which resets you when you log out. I’m now, again, ready to spend another 4+ hours and ingame gold to achieve the said achievement. I didn’t felt any frustration at all.

One thing I love about GW2 that isn’t featured in other games is when wearing a hat or hood a part of your hair is still visible which consistent with the hair model your of your choosing. It just shows how ArenaNet loves their game. But with the halloween update, it just simply make your character bald when wearing any kind of hat or hood which I thought is a stepback move. I hope this isn’t intended as I don’t feel like showing my hood anymore.

First the hair model I’m using:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/lxUJH.jpg[/img]

Before Halloween Update — notice the bangs she has
[img]http://i.imgur.com/cmoqc.jpg[/img]

Post Halloween Update — now completely bald!!
[img]http://i.imgur.com/HyeiH.jpg[/img]

LIFETIME SURVIVOR

Character Name: Countessa
First Death At Level/XP: Level 47 / 43,694 XP
Total XP accumulated before death (source): Over 779,259

Achievement Tier 1 of 2 (source): 200,000 XP without death
Achievement Tier 2 of 2: 500,000 XP without death

I’ve reached at least 779,259 XP at Level 47 without death and not a single progress shown in the achievement progress bar. That’s more than enough to earn the achievement title. Now that I died on before I reached Level 48, I still didn’t get the achievement.

Mystic Spike’s particle effect (Arc Lightning) is RED, making it similar as Inquest Dagger’s particle effect. Basing on all other Mystic Weapons, it’s particle effect should have been BLUE instead.