Guild Wars 2

Changed Empowered and using ‘Shrug it Off’ now in the 2nd tier Tactics slot but still having the same problem of the boons not showing up except ‘Regeneration’ at the top.

It still shows the icon banner at the bottom row, where the signets for example usually go, and it will have the banner icon there too, with for example ‘Increases Malice’ etc, but it doesn’t actually do anything else.

I specifically used the +10% boon duration one to test, and hit my Signet of Rage, and from 39 seconds (base duration), the duration changed to 42 seconds. So it might be an icon related issue…

Did a test using Banner of Strength. Not seeing the boons added, they gave icons before but watching the character sheet, I saw the addition to power being added. Although from the time the banner was summoned, it took 4 seconds (by my count) for it to tick up. Still no boon icons, however.

I asked other warriors on the map if they are having this problem, apparently it is just my banners that are not working… I’m not sure why this is.

Everyone says their banners are working fine.

Banners of Strength, Discipline, Tactics, tried all of them and none are doing anything since this new maintenance. Before the new maintenance, only tactics was working properly, the others seemed to disappear with 26s left on the cooldown (Strength) or not working at all (Discipline).

Have not tried Toughness or the Elite Banner, but I hazard a guess that it is broken as well as the others.

I have them also traited for larger radius and 20% faster recharge. Before maintenance, only Discipline came off recharge at 2.0 seconds or so, later during playtime this changed to 6-8 seconds for some reason. I wonder if the DR code is affecting banners, that would be funny.

They are also traited to heal allies, and currently this is the only boon they apply, whether planted or the ground or held, the only boon they give is the regeneration bonus from 3rd tier warrior Tactics (trait line).

Also traited for Empowered (gives more power for every boon on you), I am not sure if this might be cancelling out the boons but they are gone. And I notice their effects are gone too, for example Tactics gives +10% boon duration, that is definitely not being applied at all. So it is not merely a matter of the icons not showing up.

What about if they added a 4th trait slot we could use? I think that would help things a lot. Three trait slots is not really enough. Especially with the huge cooldowns on some traits.

Seriously, it was funny at first, but now it’s starting to get really annoying.

Every ranged class picks up my banner and runs off with it, triggering speed boosts and charges, before I can get back from melee range to pick it back up.

I mean come on, it’s on a 96 second cooldown, traited, it’s not like you can just put down a new one.

I need my banner to be effective, but if everyone and their pet picks it off and runs off with it then what’s the point? I understand in dungeons, everyone should be able to pick it up, hence I say only party members should be allowed to pick it up, but in the world when you’re killing stuff or getting back to your banner only to have it stolen in front of your face, it’s kind of annoying!

I put it down two times and two times it was taken and ran off with. It wasn’t even a looting issue, just someone who took it for the speed boosts. It was placed far away from killing an event centaur, and the ranger just picked it up, nowhere near the corpse, triggered the speed boost and just ran off!

Meanwhile, I’m looking at them running off with my banner just as I was getting back from melee to pick it up. I was sad.

The second was a miner who just picked it and didn’t drop it, and ended up sitting on a cliff with it while I waited for them to drop it.

I just…. I’ve had it with banner thieves!

This is the most fun ability of the class and also the most griefing.

Dungeons.. The one thing in this amazing game that hasn’t lived up to the rest of it. They are not evolutionary. Everything about their mechanics is as archaic as archaic has ever been. It’s like playing one of those bullet hell games instead it’s an action rpg and has huge two legged tigers.

I mean really, players can’t even react to what is going on and actually enjoy playing with others because oops, you’re dead. Oops, your friend is dead. Oops, your next two friends are dead. It’s so cheap and kind of beneath you, Anet, to call this the next evolution in game play. It’s not evolutionary, it’s actually as archaic as the first video game boss was made, before they developed those guys to give them I dunno different phases. (Yes, I know bosses have different phases here too. But it’s not enough to be enough of a change from their previous phase which generally seems to involve one shotting you to death, and apparently the more this is done, the harder and more appealing the dungeon becomes. For some reason.)

Let people work off each other and actually figure out how to combo with others in order to succeed at dungeons, not in a time frame of a, one shot you’re dead. You can’t learn anything that way, anyway. The only thing you learn is that you don’t like dungeons. I think prior to this last dungeon patch, things were ‘okay’. I mean I wasn’t thrilled or anything but I had some runs where I actually was starting to have fun in AC story mode. Not AC explores mind you, those are on a ‘did not happen!’ basis.

Just fun, not a whole lotta fun, but was pleased with them in following the story, the cut scenes and ironically trying to survive. But there comes a limit to that, when you are no longer ‘trying’ to survive, the balancing act has been fumbled, and death is a near certainty. You can’t avoid, and can’t do anything about. That’s where I fear dungeons are headed and that’s not a good place at all to be…

Poor Rytlock…. That’s all I have to say.
grabs tissue box

You are not stopping the botters. They are still out there, and unless the system gives ZERO returns after a certain amount of things killed, they are still going to be botting for hours and hours on end. If you have code that expands it to include other creatures, they will just adjust their botting path.

You are just punishing the players. Like me, for instance!

I can’t go out there and happily eat my magic food, and do my best trying to get as much reward for my effort in the field (crafting materials, bags), because there is anti-farming code which explicitly says that this is a no-no. Why? If the game doesn’t make me farm, and we have a trading post, and if I choose to go out there of my own time and gather the ingredients I need to craft what I need, for as much effort as I am willing to put in the game, why should the game tell me that I can’t?

It makes no sense. The botters are still out there, they just make less, but you know what, your players still make less, are more frustrated by this than a botting program that has all the time in the world to deal with your drop rates and no emotion for when it draws no rewards.

What happened to FUN? When I first got GW2 I thought that this game might be over way too fast, but ArenaNet you are so stiffling our fun and keeping such a rigid, iron grip on the amazing world that you have created, that players can’t relax and actually ENJOY it! They are hit by under the hood mechanisms that are not apparent to them and frustrate them. You are pretty much telling US what fun means.

You have to go after the botters, not frustrate your playerbase -because- of the botters. And if you do have anti-farming code, then why are our crafting costs so high, and when we go out there to farm them after we figured hey, this item drops from killing this type of creature, and we get nothing but frustration because of your code… Who are we supposed to turn to? The botters! These are the only people who can sell this stuff on the trading post and are actually making money off of the inability of players to be self-reliant. Just because they have a program running doing this for them.

And as long as farming is not enforced, it can definitely be fun as a diversion to other game play (which there is a ton of), and with dynamic events being able to pop up anywhere, it’s never been LESS dull to be out there in the field, just killing things for fun and hoping to get something good on this kill or the next. But with this code, you know that won’t happen, and that ruins the fun of it. A lot of it is the IDEA that you can do it, but when you have code specifically implemented to stop you from attaining that next ‘tiny claw’ or ‘supply bag’ or insert random fun drop, it’s not really fun anymore and just becomes tedious. So it’s really one less thing that you can do in the world. No fun/random stuff.

Anet, you guys have to stop ruling this game with an iron fist, and let it stand on its own merits, and work on improving and adding new elements to the dungeon bosses and the world, create events, and just keep at it, making it more alive (and fixing the stuff that is broken). Not making the dungeon trash that is already one shotting you, erm I guess one shot you harder. Making travelling harder, it’s actually a chore, repairs are really high, and all of it just seems so un-necessary. I mean, the game doesn’t need it. It’s so alive, so different than anything else out there that you could stick a pink flamingo pony pinata for a repair mechanism and players would rejoice.

You’ve done an amazing job, please don’t start on being tyrannical with your player base. Not punishing the player or really abusing their time in the game.

Let us decide how to play and what that means for us, dictating to us how the game should be played is not the right way to go about creating a truly fluid game, a masterpiece. Those are my thoughts on the issue.