Guild Wars 2

Vorgryn.9145:

The server selection only matters for WvW these days. If they had selected a different server you still would be able to play together in PvE and PvP.

They don’t care about PvE or PvP we’re Australians so any attempt at competitive PvP is futile, and the PvE aspect of Gw2 is lacking to say the least, they were interested in one thing, and one thing only, WvW, arguably the only real reason Gw2 still sees recurring player numbers too this day and it was the only selling point for them.

Randulf.7614:

All MMO’s have server capacities. Why is it Anets fault that server happens to be full?

Are all newcomers “kittened”? of course not, that is pure hyperbole. Plenty of people join different servers and have fun and engaging gaming sessions.

Incorrect, most MMO’s have server capacities that limit the number of users who can access the game, much WvW’s player queue. It is Anet’s fault purely because their system basically forces players to close the game, launch the game, check the server list, see full. Rinse Repeat Ad Infinitum until the stars align and they can actually begin playing the game. No other MMO on the market limits you from creating a character on a server, does it limit your ability to actually log in to the server due to queues? sure. does it make you spam log in constantly with the message “server is at capacity” and then close the game only to relaunch the game with the same message desperately hoping to get in? no.

Three of my friends whom I had just enticed into giving GW2 a shot have now abruptly asked for a refund for their copy of GW2, and here is why:

Server Capacity.

My friends and I were eager to begin playing GW2 together, enticed with the idea of working together in WvW after all the stories I had told them and the experiences I have had in WvW. GW2 was installed, they eagerly logged on to their games and they asked me, What Server do you play on? “Sea of Sorrows” I replied.

One of my friends responded, “uh, its not letting me select it.”

After a little back and forth, debugging and what not I came to the realization that the server was full and that they could not select it at as their home server. So I did a bit of looking around, “when does a server drop below the threshold and allow players to join”. Mixed responses, some saying to try selecting it at the wee hours of the night and into the early morning.

Fast Forward a week later only one of my three friends was able to make his world server Sea Of Sorrows. The other two at this point are very obviously upset and angry at this point and now, all three have basically given up and want a refund, and I honestly can’t blame them, they and pretty much any new comer looking to participate in an active and engaging WvW experience with existing players are essentially kittenED.

GG ArenaNet, you’ve basically made it impossible for me to introduce any friends to this game if they have an interest in WvW (probably GW2’s biggest selling point)

Yeah unfortunately if you enjoy playing WvW you are essentially kittened, at this point in the games life all the decent WvW servers are full, and the ones that have a half decent Australian player base are full, basically Anet wants you to roll on one of the more quite and vacant servers (see dead servers). But don’t worry mate you can still particpate in GW2’s engaging PvE system with other players from the better servers whilst they tell you all about how awesome and engaging WvW is on a tier 1 or 2 server. Enjoy!

So many people here miss the point of an elementalist, Go play something else please if you think we need an in-combat weapon swap…

So many people here don’t have a clue…

Elementalists do significant dmg under water, I have no idea what any of you are talking about.

Ontop of that we have 1 aoe blind, 4 stuns, and a chill skill underwater.

And then you have the gall to say WE DO NO DMG UNDERWATER.

Seriously, some people here need to learn how to play there class.

Marz, i’m sure they read these forums adamantly

Novalight, if you want to use one or two abilties to kill an enemy, go play a warrior., Elementalists are about having a ton of abilities to use, not 3 or 4.

I was using it and its not fine, its stupid (I main elementalist sPvP) it is obviously bugged.

Also those complaining about our lack of damage underwater, obviously haven’t seen the ludicrous amount of cc we get underwater.

Its to encourage what I believe the elementalist is about, switching to different attunments :P. However if you notice, alot of the traits I propose work in every single attunement, and none encourage sitting in one attunement for longer than 5 seconds (the time it takes for one buff to fully charge).

Yeah this is in no way a “Hey Arenanet, DO THIS” post, but rather my shot at what i’d like to see from traits if I designed them

Arcana

Focuses on the switching of attunements and enhances this aspect

Adept minor

Everytime you switch attunements, your utilities are reduced by by 5% of there total cooldowns.

Changed into a very interesting minor trait, (may be too powerful)

I – Arcane Mastery

Gain fury for 2s when switching attunements

VI – Renewing Stamina

Whenever you gain a boon, you gain 2 seconds of vigor

VII – Vigorous Caster

Everytime you cast a spell you gain 5% endurance.

VIII – Blasting Powder

All Conjures become blast modifiers.
All Cantrips/Sigils/Glyphs create an aoe based on attunement
All inactive Signets increase Aoe Radius by 50 each.

IX – Hasted Casts

Upon switching attunements your next spell has a halved cast time.

X – Arcane Energy

Each utility spell on cooldown grants 2% more damage.

Grandmaster minor

When switching attunements your next 5 casts apply a condition based on the respective attunement

PHEW that was alot, tell me what you think

Earth Magic

All about toughness, protection buff and bleeds/condition damage.

Adept Minor

gain 20 toughness for each second you are in Earth, capped at 100, you lose this buff after staying out of Earth for 10 seconds.

Adept Major

II – Grounded

All abilities gain 200 ranged whilst not moving

V – Stony Resolve

move 10% slower, you take take 10% less damage and gain 1s protection each time you are hit.

Changed from a nuanced ability, to a trade off between speed and defence

changed from a nuanced protection gain

VI – Stone Splinters

Every time you lose a boon you release splinters that inflict bleeding to everyone within 600 range.

Removed the boring 5% damage increase when at melee and gave an ability that works well with boon builds.

Master Major

VII – Strength Of Stone

gain 20 condition damage for each second you are in Earth, capped at 100, you lose this buff after staying out of Earth for 10 seconds.

Changed so not being in earth is not punished.

XI- Rock Solid

Grant (3s) of stability when attuning into and out of earth

Minor buff, and double use.

XII – Written in Stone

Your signets retain there passive effects
Cantrips/Glyphs grant 10s of protection.
Conjures cause 2s of knockdown at there summon location
Arcane spells inflict 3s of cripple on your target.

Changed to encourage a diverse use of utilities.

Water Magic

All about healing and vulnerability.

Adept Minor

Regenerate Health will attuned to water, and for 10 seconds after attuning out of water.

Changed to remove the discouragement to stay in water.

Adept Major

II – Shards of Ice

Arcane/Signet/Glyph/Conjure/Cantrip skills inflict 2/2/5/5/5 stacks of vulnerability for 10 seconds

Changed to include all utilities

III – Soothing Disruption

Arcane/Signet/Glyph/Conjure/Cantrip skills grant 5/5/15/15/15 seconds of regen

Changed to include all utilities

IV – Piercing Shards

Your abilties inflict chill/burning/bleeding/blind against vulnerable foes when in (ice/fire/earth/lightning)

Changed to be used on multiple attunements

VI – Vital Striking

Deal 10% increased damage while regenerating health

Changed to be less circumstantial

Master Major

VII – Icy Mist

Your mist form no longer allows movement but lasts twice as long

Changed to have a tradeoff and be more interesting.

IX – Chilling Serenity

While you have the regen buff you apply chill to those within 300 yards of you.

Removed cantrip cooldown that encouraged use of mass cantrips.

X – Rejuvinating Weakness

gain +20 healing power for each condition you suffer from

Changed from using specific utilities to a more interesting trait.

Grandmaster major

X – Aura Master

Each time you walk into a new combo field, you gain its aura.

Changed to a more interesting trait.

Air Magic

Encourage speed, crit and blinds. Remove any traits that encourage sitting permanently in air.

Adept Minor

Zephyrs speed

Swiftness now increase move speed by 40%

removed the passive 10% that encouraged sitting in air, and also this did not stack with air signet/swiftness.

Adept Major

III – Quick Incantations

Activating Sigils/Arcane/Glyphs/Cantrips/Conjures gives 5/5/10/10/10 seconds of swiftness

changed to discourage the use of one particular set of utilities

IV – One with Air

you move 5% faster every second, stacking at 25%, speed buff is lost after 10 seconds of staying out of air)

V – Soothing Winds

your healing skills are increased by half your current movespeed modifier.
so if moving at 33% extra speed, you heal for an extra 16% (rounded down)

Changed from a boring 5% of this stat to an interesting mechanic where if I cast a heal while moving fast, I get a better benefit from it.

VI – Bolt to the Heart

Deal increased damage based on half your current movespeed modifier.

An offensive version of Soothing winds

Master Major

VII – Arcane Lightning

When using a Sigil/Glyph/Conjure/Cantrip/Arcane ability gain 3/6/6/6/3% more crit dmg for 10 seconds

changed to discourage the use of one particular set of utilities.

VIII – Boonfull Winds

When using a Sigil/Glyph/Conjure/Arcane ability gain a boon associated with your current attunment for 5/10/10/10/5

IX – Air Training

For each second you are in air you gain 2% crit chance stacking at 10%, this buff is removed after staying out of air for 10 seconds.

Changed so not being in air is not punished, also changed to crit chance as that is what air is about.

Grandmaster Minor

Every time you gain swiftness, you gain for fury for half the duration of the swiftness gained.

Changed to not be a boring RNG trait.

XII – Fleet of foot

Your endurance recharges at 100% of its current rate as long as you are moving.

Changed from a very situational ability into an ability that encourages movement

I got bored, and decided I’d try my hand at reworking the Elementalist traits (My Favourite class), I’m a wannabe game designer and a proficient c++ programmer who some day wants to be part of the teams that bring some of the most awesome games out these days.

So I want some feedback on how well I did, as well as the flaws in my design.

So here we go:

Fire Magic

Focus on fields, burning, might gain, and remove the traits that encourage sitting in fire.

Adept Minor

Fiery Wrath

Whenever a Foe attacks you while attuned to fire, you build up a fire charge (capped at 5), when you switch attunements a large fire AoE is released burning enemies in a 600 radius, damage is based on number of stacks.

Adept Major

I’m only going to list traits I feel should be changed

I – Shimmering Heat

When you are downed, your mist form ability is not on cooldown, however you move 50% slower in mist form(can trigger every 30 seconds)

Changed to make this a more useful trait, giving elementalists a much needer way of breaking from finishers, the trade off being it cant be used as easily to move into a favourable position.

IV – Spell Slinger

Cantrips, Conjure and Glyph Abilities grant 3 stacks of might when cast
Sigils grant 40 power each when not on cooldown
Arcane abilities grant 2 seconds of fury when cast

I hate traits that force you to carry one particular set of utilities, allows for more diverse builds while keeping the theme of increased damage.

V – Burning Power

Every time you gain might, you do 1s of burning for every stack of might gained on next attack.

Removed RNG trait and replaced with a meaningful way of applying burning, by gaining might, something that fire does well at achieving. (Need to clarify how this trait works, if you gain 3 stacks of might than you do 3s of burning, if you than gain another 2 stacks, you do another 2s of burning, not 5).

VI – Internal Fire

For each second you remain in fire, you gain a buff that increases damage by 2%, stacking at 10%, these buffs are maintained as long as your in fire attunement, these buffs fade after being out of fire for 10 seconds.

Removed the flat damage increase (boring), and added a damage increase that takes time to build, while also allowing you to keep the buff for 10 seconds after switching attunement.

Master Minor

This is fine, however show damage amount in tooltip.

Master Major

IX – Fires Embrace

When Activating a Signet/Glyph/Cantrip, you gain a fire shield for 3/5/5 seconds.
When Activating an Arcane Ability, target burns for 2s.
When Activating a Conjure, target area burns for 3s.

Modified to not encourage use of a single utility type.

X – One with Fire

Fiery Wrath is now a blast modifier and can stack up to 10 times.

Changed due to first talent changing, has the chance to grant might stacks in fire fields and will do more damage potentially.

Grandmaster Minor

Burning Rage

deal 1% more damage for each stack of might on you.

Grandmaster Major

No Problems here.

Thanks Hellkaiser for pointing out the falacy that because other games do it, there’s nothing wrong with it.

A game without crits, still has a lot of random too it due to human interaction.

There is that fear that the game will become surgical, but with so many other factors that a human brain cannot process within the game, this is highly unlikely.

Think of this analogy, if I fire a gun blindly, where that bullet lands is not random, but a result of a ton of chemical and physical reactions that led to that moment. Humans can not process this result and so it seems random to us, however a powerful enough computer (i’m talking infinitely) would have know of the result decades before.

Arenanet does not want to making repetitive grinding profitable, killing the same mob over and over again is one example of this.

I can’t believe people have the gall to complain about this.
The way I see it is this:

Now where not forced to farm grubs as the most competitive way of making money. Hooray!

Combat RNG, at its core is a flawed design principle that first was proposed as a game mechanic for real world games, where an unpredictable element was needed to stop games from becoming tedious.

However, those were the days where your characters were small plastic figurines, or sheets of paper with there statistics written on them.

These days, YOU are the character, and you can control them in an analog fashion.

When I talk about RNG, the main culprit is Critical Hit, Something that should have been left behind a LONG time ago.

What is Critical Hit?

At its core essence, critical hit is a % dmg modifier, for every 1% of critical hit, your damage is increased by 1% (assuming that a critical hit is 200% damage).

As you all know though, the damage increase is not flat, but rather spikes unpredictably, and can result in a lower or higher damage increase.

Why Critical Hits are flawed:

Its not guaranteed, this may seem fun, but in a game like Guild Wars 2, where PvP is flaunted as a big part of the gameplay, something that could determine you winning a fight and losing a fight should not be a random aspect of the game. Something that you and the enemy have NO control over.

Proposed Solution

Solution A.

Precision now gives a % armour piercing effect.
(Possibly non-linear scaling to avoid exponential returns)

Why?

This gives a flat damage increase, that is both reliable and achieves a similar goal of increasing your damage by a %.

1 Problem

If the damage increase is non-linear, than against less armoured targets, the damage will be less, and against high armoured targets, the damage will be more.
This may not be a problem however as a nice side effect is that its harder to burst squishier targets.

Solution B.

Precision now gives a flat % damage increase, Critical Damage increase the rate at which precision gives this increase.

Solves the same problem, however due to the now reliable nature of precision, the % increase it gives may need to be lowered.

Other RNG in Guild Wars 2 that compounds the problem:

I’m looking at you 30% chance to do X on a crit, 10% chance to do Y when you attack, and .ect

These SHOULD NOT exist in a game like this, there are other reliable methods of getting the same effect

I.E

Every 4th attack applies a bleed (boring)
Every attack from behind applies a bleed (somewhat interesting)
After taking damage, your next attack applies a bleed (boring)

these are just a FEW examples, the more you have to think about how to utilize the effect, the better it is as this creates INTERESTING, and DIVERSE gameplay, rather than an arbitrary % dmg increase.

You had such a great opportunity with your game to break away from other RPG and MMO standards. Just because those games have CRIT doesn’t mean its a good thing.

TL;DR;

Crit and RNG based mechanics don’t belong in a flagship next gen MMO that touts itself as having a strong PVP based gameplay.

I just finished the butler CM explorable mode… HOLY HELL… took us 4 hours, we glitched past most of the trash…. and it still took that long…