Guild Wars 2

Okay, first I want to say that I’m really hopeful of this post. You say you’re watching it, I hope so.

1) Maps. I love how the new BLs look. They are awesome. BUT, they’re much larger than they seemed in the beginning. After spending this much time in them, you realize that you really can’t play them as well as you could the Alpine maps. It’s the terrain. For the sake of WvW, maybe it would be best to switch back. Or possible make them smaller? Populations are dying because these maps aren’t conducive. I really don’t want to see all that work you guys put into this map go to waste, they are beautiful. (What happened to the map rotation?)

2) Stability. I agree that something needs to be done with stability. I don’t know what, but something. I actually caught myself telling one of our new guildies when showing him an old WvW video “that’s when WvW was good”. It felt horrible to say that, because I love this game and the expantion, but it’s true. Many people have left the WvW seen just over this. And those that have stayed have left the classes that provided stability as they feel that they can’t provide anything substantially useful. When the stability changes first came, we didn’t have the new skills and traits. So, it wasn’t so bad. There was a difference, but it wasn’t nearly as noticeable. With the addition of these new skills and traits we really cannot have a good balance of classes running around. We have to go hope that we can outlive the opponent’s CCs, rather than out smart/skill them.

3) Population. We have a few stacked servers in their tiers. And it’s driving the population from other servers either away from the game or to those servers. Now, don’t get me wrong, you should be able to join whatever server you want. But, there should be a better way to limit the amount of people who can play on maps at the same time. I know, people hated the queues in the beginning, but lets be honest… the queues are almost nonexistent for WvW now. T1 and T2 might have some, but I haven’t seen large sized queues like I did 1-3 years ago. We can work as servers to get the people who are queue’d to populate another map. If we can’t get every single person in our queue into a map, then we know that we’re full and we’ll just have to learn how to deal with it as a team.

4) Alliances. I know that as a WvW community, we asked for change. Then when we got it, we didn’t like it. But, we need a revival of some kind. Many people have been talking about alliances in the WvW community. I’d like to give it a shot. However, having an alliance without having the maps and other items that need repair happen first would be pointless. Alliances would die just as servers did within a few months. When we tested the Desert Borderlands, we had 3 servers only. So, the maps were much more populated. If you keep the servers, using these maps won’t work. If you go with alliances and only 3, they could work.

5) Transparency. I know that this has already been touched on by some staff and some players. But, I really want to put my two cents in. I see that we’re having a beta in April. That’s great! But please, be transparent with it. Yes, you all work here and put your time into this. We put our time into this as well. We don’t get paid, in fact, we paid for it. Many of the people in the WvW community feel like we’ve been ignored or shoved in a corner to be talked to later… after the decisions have been made. We want to be part of this great game and help it grow. Arenanet was known for having an actual relationship with their community. And that’s why many of us are here. We aren’t ready to give up on this relationship yet, many of us are still here after feeling like things have fallen apart. So don’t you dare walk out on us. :P

**Additions

6) Scoring & Siege. The way the score works right now needs some work. Maybe if the people who had a hard time capping something due to siege, but could fight like beasts had a bit more to offer their server in PPK it would be helpful. I personally, don’t mind capturing things, it is part of the experience. As well as defending a capture. But I go to WvW mainly for the fights, as do many of our WvWers. I’d like to see PPK points be increased. This is supposed to be a competitive game mode and if the only way to win is to sit in a capture and siege cap it to make it unbreakable well… that’s not very fun for everybody. Which brings me to the siege. It’s gotta have more of a limit somewhere, either the amount you can use or the amount of damage. If you have 60 people hitting your keep and all it takes is 3-4 arrow carts and a ballista to stop them completely, there’s a problem. You should have to fight them and push them out with more than 5 people and some siege. We didn’t gain anything, including population, by adding more PvE/siege type game play.

7) Waypoints. I understand why you changed the waypoints.. okay no, I don’t. Why did you do that? If a server owns something they should be able to use it should they not? I didn’t mind having to wait for a waypoint upgrade. Keeping the auto -upgrade is awesome. You have less room for trolls and you know that if you defend it and get your yaks in, it will upgrade. Why not keep that but make the waypoints on side keeps be something that we have to work for again? I can’t tell you how many times we had fun just breaking or making waypoints on another server’s map. Or even defending our own. Don’t get rid of garrison (Earth) waypoint on this map, for the love of God. These maps are large and take time to get across.

8) Rewards. Right now, there’s really not that much incentive to play WvW. It was new once, and that was incentive enough. It was new and there were people to fight on large scales and castles and towers. Well, it’s been three years of castles and towers and fights. We have ranks a few memories of doing the same thing over and over again and nothing to show for it other than some badges on a website. We also have a ton of points that are sitting in the WvW panel that we can’t use after we’ve ranked up and filled everything in. -I’ve noticed that you made a few changes to give people the option of using things in WvW to get their elite specializations. And in PvP you have reward tracks, titles, and a legendary backpack now. In PvE… well that’s where the gold is and all the shinies like legendaries and precursers and craft items and much more. Maybe, if we could get a little something more than a few boxes of greens and blues here and there?

Scratch that, I can’t use any at all >.<

Okay, so I know the bug for swapping legends when running a facet was fixed. Now, I cannot run more than one facet.

At 50% energy, not in combat, I turn on one facet, then try to run another (neither costs more than a total of 5 upkeep points) and they both turn off and have no cool down.

So, I took my time responding to this. And I’m glad I did. I read a lot of the responses to both changes and I have to say that I am disappointed in many of them. We want change, we want the WvW experience to get better, but we’re not willing to let them try things or try things ourselves to see what actually works? “It’s worked for 3 years” is not a valid complaint… or you wouldn’t be wanting a change. Sure, “nobody asked for this” may be a possibility, but we did ask for change. As a WvW player, I can see some negative things that MIGHT come of it, but how do we actually know without trying it out?

Give it a shot for a while. Besides, for many WvW players who did buy HoT, they will have plenty of other things that they will be doing outside of WvW for a while in order to gain new abilities, new items, and so on. And no, not just on YOUR server, on all servers. Yes, I am aware that not everybody will be doing that and that not everybody bought HoT. Take the time to get to know the new maps and the new “rotation” of things.

There are other dynamics besides the top three tiers’ and the lowest three tiers’. Yes, many of us spend a LOT of time in WvW while logged in. That doesn’t mean that we know what is best all the way around and at least someone is taking the time to look at it. The time being changed to the middle of Saturday afternoon was an on the fly decision that was made because of the posts that they received in response to the original. Do you really want that?

On the other hand, Anet, please for the love of God.. next time you plan to swap the day or time please don’t do it to your customers with such short notice. That isn’t really the best business practice. Yes, you have a facility and office hours, but your customers do not spend most of their time online during those hours. Please keep that in mind. Also, if you’re going to post something like that, a little more detail on the dynamics of that decision might help. I’ve been playing and reading these forums long enough to know that there was more to that decision than what was stated.

As for me and my guildies, we’ll adjust to whatever decision is made in the end and I’m sure that many others will as well. As players and customers though, be sure to give the most constructive feedback you can during this time. Take videos, screenshots, and find nerdy people who like charts. None of this “OMG WHY? YOU TOOK MY TOY SO NOW I WON’T PLAY” stuff is going to have a positive impact.

NO SPECIAL TREATMENT?!!! I SAY REVOLT!

Vogel.9613:

Switching from Guard:
- Wall of Reflection
- Easy access to stability and condi cleanse

That’s about it. If I’m really feeling nostalgic…. after a year… I can always hop on my guard.

Still waiting on that time machine…..

Sigh

Gaaroth.2567:

Ellsy.6780:

Not gonna lie…. I’m really hoping that the personal story is different for a rev and fits the lore and they are just waiting to surprise us with it.

Sorry to delude you not gonna happen for many reasons: time/cost, equality with other classes, the fact that personal story is only about our race/order choice, …
So yeah, 110% not gonna happen

You broke my immersion….and my heart. Rev isn’t equal anyway…. Rev is Charr Jesus. I will pay another $10 For a New Rev story……

Not gonna lie…. I’m really hoping that the personal story is different for a rev and fits the lore and they are just waiting to surprise us with it.

Champion Seer
Champion Channeler
Champion Invoker

I like seer a lot except… Aren’t we supposedly going to be interacting with Mursaat? Probably wouldn’t be good to be a Seer.

Booxos.8715:

Ok. I Know that i am an Old grumble but please. Let us support players that came from another MMO. Be a good support healer as rev. You have created great dynamic game where wvwvw Fights bring a lot of adrenaline but tablet is too slow to follow the fight. Would be gr8 to fix it somehow.

They fixed that with Druid >.<

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Hey all,

The Reflexive Hammers trait in retribution is going to be changed after BWE3, before launch. Right now since it uses projectiles that hover around you, they currently don’t work underwater and I think it no longer really fits the line as that is more about damage, plus it muddies the FXs around the character when the actual hammers are around you.

Soooooo…. I wanted to throw out an idea I had about a new GM trait for retribution to place it and see what you all think. The trait would be more dwarf stance focused since we don’t have a dwarf stance specific trait.

• It would give you some way to proc Rite of the Great Dwarf like at some percent health trigger or something and then make Rite of the Great Dwarf (both proc and the skill) have reduced condition damage taken as well while allies have the buff.

Let me know what you think.

Okay soooo… more tankiness yes? Honestly, I’d like to see another stunbreak that we have a bit more control over on that specific line. But, if you’re going to do something that at least gives us the ability to mitigate more damage in that stance I’ll take it.

Also…. I want a time machine and I’ll see y’all on 10-23-15.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

My revenant is soooo ready! Got lvl 30 scroll, tomes, ascended sets, bags, infinite harvesting, food/utility buffs, etc. I do want to craft another legendary before HoT though, but not sure which.

If you don’t have Bi-Frost (or hopefully w.e a possible new and awesome staff legendary will be) make it! Cause Roy…. the staff as a weapon and everything about it is absolutely AAAAMAZING!

superherofan.8042:

I have my tomes and most of my gear (can’t decide on the runes I want to use), but I’m still not sure if I want to have my Rev. be an altered version of my main (Guardian) or a brand new character. I guess I’ll make him a human regardless.

We think alike : ) I’ve actually decided though. As guardian(my current main and love) is heading in a direction that is not as enjoyable for me as a revenant, I have saved a name for my character to become basically my guardian revived (Elscia → Êlscia).

Although… I’m quite the nerd and went as far to make a YouTube video saying goodbye to my guardian as my main and showing a death scene then my revenant “emerging” from it…. I’m really excited lol.

I have all the things! Yet… I need more, because revenant.

I have 2.5 ascended sets ready. I have all the ascended weapons I plan to use ready. I also have materials saved for making more jic.

I have food, runes, and sigils stockpiled.

I have nearly 3 full stacks of tomes.

I have vacation time set.

I have been farming like crazy in preparation for making a legendary weapon… finally after nearly 3 years of playing. (was not lucky enough to ever see a precurser so gave up)

I have been watching every video, making videos, watching the updates on traits/skills/ balances ect, making builds, and just REALLY REALLY REALLY want it to be Oct 23rd already.

Yeah… sorry, even though this is “legitimate” it shouldn’t be. Guess I’ll be one of those very few who actually earns their stuff and ends up having people think I just farmed it via… I’ll call it what it is… botting some day eh. gg Anet.

Zaron.1987:

Nope name calling is NOT allowed here

It’s not name calling if this is a legal way to get the prestigious title of “Ultimate Dominator”. It would be the same as me posting a video of an actual WvW fight and letting everyone know what servers/guilds were involved.

SO, question… you are actually okay with people repeatedly jumping off of the wp and having another player kill them for the title of Ultimate Dominator? I find this disgusting. Especially since the recent post on updates for the new WvW map specifically said that the title had been “earned” by some people and it would decrease its value. I’m watching two… basically bots right now. This shouldn’t be allowed. This is wrong. I have a video and screens.. and account names. If this is allowed… then I’ll be sure to post a video of it and let others know just how this person gained this title. How does THIS not decrease the value of the title?

:D NOW, gimme a time machine so I can go to October 23, 2015. Hurry Doc!

You can find more information on [CAIN] via the Jade Quarry forums website.

Whoot, I knew you guys would come through! /happydance

aRestless.6213:

Calm down guys. They will fix the issue. If they wouldn’t fix it, there would be noone in the stress test, which would make the big stream, including analyst desk, battle replays and all that kind of stuff pretty boring.

Exactly. They’ll get it figured out and take care of it.

Dezert Stormz.7248:

No comments of anet apperantly?

It’s still only 8AM for PST. I’m hoping we’ll hear something from them during the business day.

It’s the full client. So 25GB (26,214,400 KB). I did the math (if I did it correctly) this will take roughly 101 days at a rate of 3KB/sec.

dawna.6290:

I gave up and closed the download. at 1kb/s its going to take many days to download the entire 25gb (someone on reddit said the last wvw borderlands test was the full 25). If they fix it, I’ll try again.

OH yes, thank you for the invite. The cheers of happiness from all the people who were invited and inTS last night were great to hear. But if it’s the full 25GB, I don’t think 90% of the people who got an invite will be making it to the stress test at this rate. This is a little disappointing. I’m also sitting at 2-4KB/Sec.

Energy:

I like the idea of bringing energy with this class. Especially since this reminds me a lot of a dervish/ritualist and the idea of the class is one that comes back and brings powers of legends we knew from the original game. But, please tell me that you are going to balance the cost of energy somehow? I did swap a LOT in order to maintain it, but that wasn’t enough in many cases. The amount of energy that some of those utilities require doesn’t make it easy to stay alive at all. And of course, I’m not asking for this class to be stronger than any other class. But if you’re going to make us not even be able to use our weapon skills when we’re out of energy along with our utilities, then lowering a cost or adding traits/trait lines that help us manage it would be lovely.

Stunbreaks/Mobility/Stability:

Okay, so of course this is a new class and it takes time to learn how to play a new class, but where are the stunbreaks!? Swapping legends breaks a stun. I found one elite that breaks a stun…. and requires a long cast time to utilize it without feeling like you’ve wasted that horrid benefit you get from it while using up an insane amount of energy. But if it costs that much energy to use it, and you don’t get much of a benefit out of it, and you have a cd on another swap….. auto-attacks are hard to hit… I can’t move about like I can on other classes…..D: dead. So, this is where I wanted to talk about energy management and utility options. Now, I know you that you’re not going to leave us with literally 5 utilities per legend that don’t give you any stunbreak in a single one of them except our one elite from that one legend…. right? Now, I am not a mathematician, but I do know this (see what I did there):

There are very little options for our utilities at this time.
The only stunbreaks we have are a swap and one elite from one legend.
Energy costs are too high to make feel like you can use your utilities “freely”.
The benefits you get from the higher costing utilities are not that grand.

Fix it I don’t know how, but fix that!

Traits/Utilities:

Now, I know that this is a new class. So, we’re not going to have the idea behind it that we’ve “now combined certain traits because we’ve learned to use our “magic” better” idea. But, I’d like to see better synergy with these traits. Many of them feel weak and out of place for what we’re getting. With other classes, you have the option of mixing a few utilities in there that are from different lines… like a shout here, a signet there, and a stance there, etc. Well, with a revenant, you don’t have that. So, it would make more sense to not only add more utilities per legend, but to also make sure that our traits (since we’re a bit stuck) not only reflect the playstyle/utilities that we’re locked into, but add greater benefit than what they do now.

So, that concludes my REALLY long review. I’m sure I missed a few things, but with all the time I spent on the new class this weekend, my brain is a bit fried from lack of sleep. I think that overall you have a great idea here. But it’s not ready. It needs some work for people to really feel like these are a great addition to the great classes you already have. (yes, I’ve played them all and pvp’d/pve’d with each) I hope that your team will truly take in everything everybody has said about this class. I know you can’t make everybody happy and make every single change that has been suggested. But, I don’t want to see it trashed like many have suggested. I want to see this work! I can’t wait to see what you have for the next beta event. And I can’t wait to see how revenant has evolved when I get to play it again.

Staff-
I love you. I love you for even having the idea of bringing in a melee staff weapon to Guild Wars 2. I’ve played other games that have a melee staff weapon… and I love you. However! I think that for the amount of damage that this is meant to put out (which is minimal since it’s a passive weapon) that the range on the auto-attack should be a little more. The orbs that it drops are nice, but something’s off with that. Maybe make the range on the orbs slightly higher, or just simply make the third strike a heal without orbs, or something. I can handle “close combat”. I played a chanter on AION and LOVED the idea of this, but felt slightly disappointed with that auto-attack. Skill #2 needs some work as well. The animation for skill #2 is nice, but for the range of the weapon and the amount of damage that skill #2’s proc does, it needs to either be a higher damage skill when you do proc it and possibly a range increase. Maybe making it a block would be nice, or a cripple…. something… something about it isn’t right. Skill #3…. again… whoever made this, I love you. Skill #4… the cast time on this feels a bit long compared to the output of the heal. Yes, it removes two conditions, but you have to actually manage to cast the skill for that to be useful. And maybe when the class is finished we’ll have better usage of our stability, or aegis, or something, to be able to use that. But right now, it’s very difficult to cast that and benefit from it. Skill #5….. I love you, but considering the amount of damage you don’t have with this weapon… maybe adding something at the end of that would be helpful. Like a small heal, or protection, or aegis? Anyway… staff overall… I love you.

Legends/Utilities:

King Jalis Ironhammer-
This legend’s utilities are lovely. I love that drop a “yellow brick road” of stability for my party and blast it for swiftness. I love that I can taunt people and interrupt them on occasion. I love that swirling hammer- and if you get two going with a proc from the trait…. lols. I do think that the animation on that swirling hammer could use some work though. A larger, more “stoney”, looking hammer would be sweet. And last, but not least…. WHY DID YOU BREAK THE ELITE?! Okay, I’ve calmed a bit… so let’s talk about it. That elite skill used to give invuln didn’t it? I thought it did, but I could be wrong. It would be nice to see that. Considering the elite takes so long to cast, it would be nice to see it do something like “Renewed Focus”. I mean… it’s not like other classes don’t have some sort of utility that makes them invulnerable. So, that would be lovely. If we’re not going to get an invuln out of it… please reduce the cast time on that and actually give us a protection buff with it x.x

Mallyx The Unyielding-
This one… disturbs me. Not only because Mallyx is just… disturbing, but because there’s very little you can do with it. Okay, I could be wrong, and maybe there’s other utility options that we’ll be getting with each legend, which I’ll discuss later. But, the only thing I found nice about this legend was the resistance and displacement. The displacement is REALLY handy when you need to revive an ally. But, if you’re going to have us “embrace” conditions, it would be nice to be able to spit them out a bit more easily or have that resistance be a little stronger. It’s already a little difficult to manage the energy you have and the cost requirements (which I’ll also discuss later). So, making these resistance buffs a bit stronger or last longer would be nice. As far as the idea of the legend and how the skills should work… I like it. I like the idea of embracing or pulling conditions to you and removing them from your allies so you can spit them out on enemies. But, because you are pulling conditions to you… you are more vulnerable, it would be nice to see a bit more survivability out of it considering it is a heavy class.

Centaur Ventari-
Once I got the hang of this legend… I couldn’t go without it. Of course, the overall survivability of the class due to it not being finished added to that, but man is that thing strong! I don’t know which team members made this, but gg. Seriously, gg. However, I do have some suggestions for it. Even with 1300 healing power, that heal is really small for the amount of energy it costs to keep it up. Now, it could just be that the class isn’t finished, so I had to heal more often due to mobility, toughness, etc. Maybe making that regen with the trait a bit stronger would be nice, or adding a second/third boon to that, like protection? That way you can manage your energy a bit better when you do have to use the utility. As far as the overall function of it… I love you. Once you get the hang of guiding that tablet, and knowing when to use certain skills…. it’s amazing. I cannot tell you how many times I was so glad I had it.

Revenant Beta Weekend Review

I had an interesting time this past weekend during the Revenant/Stronghold Beta Event.I played on my beta revenant pretty much all weekend. I learned quite a bit about the class by focussing on it. I have a few things to say about my experience.

Community Reaction:

Overall, the Revenant is a wonderful class. I know that many people disagree, I’ve read about it. I actually took the time to play this class for 3 days and at least 8 hours each day. (Weekends are awesome). Many people are confused about this class, which is why they’re not giving it the credit it deserves. And many are misunderstanding what this weekend was about: testing. On the first day, I quickly realized that anyone playing this class was not only going to be focussed in combat for the “easy kill”, they hated it. They talked horribly to the people who chose to play it and did nothing but bash the class in map chat all weekend. That didn’t make for a “fun” experience for a lot of people who wanted to test the class. Thankfully, I have tough skin.

Weapons:

Hammer-
The hammer, in my opinion, needs some work. I know that everything isn’t finished, but as it was, the damage output was sad compared to the attack speed, mobility, and cast time on those skills. Even at 2500 power and 30% crit chance, the damage sort of made me want to cry. I main a guardian and with 2500 power and that crit chance on my hammer I can at least get a 3500 critical hit with “mighty blow”. Also, a guardian’s hammer attack feels slow as it is…. this was slower. The auto-attack timing is fine. And #2 skill is spot on as far as animation (maybe a leap or a slightly faster animation would help with the timing on this). The #3 skill was a bit off. It could have been lag on my part or that the class animations aren’t finished. For some reason, I felt like I was being pulled into the ground when it landed. And on occasion, I got stuck in place for a second after skill animation had completely finished. Skill #4 is interesting. I think it will just take some time on my part to get used to having to position myself for it to work. Skill #5 animation is lovely. But for the amount of time it takes to cast it, you really should be able to get a heavy hitting skill out of it especially since it’s a ground targeted skill…. half of the time the target isn’t even where you land it once it’s finished. So, maybe it’s just best to use it as a blast, but would still like to see some damage come from it if I do manage to land it.

Mace/Axe Combo-
Since each of these are one-handed and we only had these as our one-handed options for this beta event I’ll combine these. I had the same issue with these weapons as far as damage output. It took me quite some time to find the sweetspot, or good mixture of power/prec/condi, for these to work like they felt they should. Even then, I feel that a slightly higher base damage or increase in condition output would help with these. As far as timing, animations, and skill cast…. love it. The combat with these is amazing. Though, I feel that again if skill #3 was a higher damage skill that the cast time on it wouldn’t feel so long. Also, you might actually be able to get at least a second blast out of it by the time it’s finished if that were the case. I got a second one… when I got caught in a wall or on terrain, but never a third. I would however like to see that box around the skill #2 fire field disappear…. and maybe look similar to the elementalist’s fiery greatsword #2 skill…. THAT is pretty.

Well, the original post pretty much sums up what my feedback post would have been. Nice job!

Born Villain [CAIN] is recruiting! We’re a WvW-focused PvX guild looking for all classes. As long time residents of Jade Quarry, our members have a solid sense of community and teamwork. We have advisors for every profession and highly knowledgeable members in every game mode. For more information, please pm or mail in me game.

Ahh Well, hopefully they can get this figured out and fixed. I’ve been working my tail off on these the last week to finish it up and really would like to see the rewards I’ve earned.