Guild Wars 2

Posted by: Linnael.1069

Linnael.1069

PvE players hate it because they can’t run around as fast out of combat.

PvPers and WvW roamers hate it because it’s just strengthening disengage, which is boring and annoying.

Zergers don’t care because you can’t use dashes without breaking the blob anyway.

Come on Anet. Smart positioning is already made half pointless by shadowsteps, and now you’re just dumbing down PvP even further to implement a change that makes PvE players unhappy?

Remember when Ride the Lightning got huge nerfs because it ignored cripple/chill/swiftness? This functionality used to be a massive balancing point for certain skills. Are we going to see similar nerfs to every other mobility skill in the game?

Edit: The post originally containing my response to the series of comments wondering about the techniques behind my statistical modeling has been unfortunately deleted. I’ll just say that if you would like, feel free to read the title as “No division of the playerbase is positively effected by these changes at a general level.” I would recommend an in depth study of mass communication techniques and strategies to anyone who has further questions.

Stormbluff Isle – Syliara
Elementalist – Necromancer – Warrior

(edited 2015-06-10 22:17:33 by Linnael.1069)

Misconceptions regarding Level gating.

Posted by: ColinJohanson.2394

ColinJohanson.2394

Game Director

Hey folks,

Wanted to pop by and give another update on where we stand, as well as to help provide some information on some of the more common misconceptions we’ve seen floating around as well:

- There are bugs! We’ve seen the content direction system (the little arrow) pointing people at super high level maps when it shouldn’t, some systems/features not unlocking as intended for all characters on your account once your first learns them, some systems level gated that aren’t intended to be, balance issues where certain levels appear to be very out of whack, etc. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, our team is working to figure out what happened here and fix these as quickly as possible.

- There is misinformation: Numerous systems that show up in the level up guide that teaches you about things in the game when you gain levels are not locked out, the system simply tells you they exist in the game to help give you a better list of things you can do. Just because it’s included in the level up guide, doesn’t mean it’s actually locked out. You can dodge from level one, jumping puzzle from level one, etc. There also appear to be a lot of folks chiming in who haven’t actually played with any of the system, and are making claims that aren’t remotely true.

- There are some things happening at the wrong levels. Things like utility skills and elites are intended to come at approx. the same time they used to in actual game time, we sped up leveling for levels 1-15 and had them slide back in levels a bit to offset that pacing, they are not currently where we want them to be in the level up system. This was an oversight, and will absolutely be fixed.

- Not all of these changes were made as ways to teach the game, some of them are to provide a better sense of pacing, reward and progression. Early on we want to give a sense that you’re rapidly gaining new abilities, rewards, and learning new things as you level up. We added the level up reward messages, and the actual rewards themselves, and took abilities you’d usually use around that point in total game hours and presented them as unlocks (or things we teach that are already unlocked) to help give a better sense of pacing and progression.

With the addition of the new rewards, messaging, and level up screen to make leveling more exciting: we also wanted to make sure you had that feeling of excitement more often early on in the game, and presented new learning on a more regular cadence. So we greatly sped up leveling from levels 1-15. Many of the things unlocked at later levels are earned at about the same time period you used to start using them in the old system in actual real game time, we just staggered them out across the levels since we sped up leveling to make the game feel more rewarding early on.

- In general, this system is intended to be not only better for new players, but our hope is by the time it’s all in place you’ll find via the better rewards from levels 1-80 via the level up guide, the better rewards from personal story, the faster leveling from 1-15, and the ability to toggle the content direction system to help you with map complete will make this a better for experienced players as well.

- Over a years worth of testing with new players found we were absolutely able to keep them both more engaged, and more likely to return to keep playing Gw2 as a result of the intended system. That is at the end of the day, a win for all of us since all of you need more people to play with! However: if we find in the live environment that isn’t true and we’re not retaining new users better, we’ll absolutely both share that information with you, and continue to iterate to make it better. We keep very real time metrics of player retention for new users, and we’ll know very quickly how effective the work we’ve done is. I want to make it clear: what we used to have absolutely wasn’t good enough for our standards of retaining new users. Before we do some of the other things we want to do with Gw2, we had to fix this, period.

- Finally, I want to add that a few things (hello traits!) are things that can be improved for players who make multiple alts, we’re aware of this, and though company policy prevents us from discussing what’s in development: I can say we know Gw2 can be an even better game for people who love making alts in the long run, more info: when it’s ready™.

How a new player feels about today's changes.

Posted by: TheGreyGhost.1835

TheGreyGhost.1835

As stated in the title, I began around 2 weeks ago. I finally had the money to buy GW2 after wanting it since January. I played it for a few days, went off and played Elite: Dangerous, then came back to GW2 a few days ago with a vengeance, having a wonderful time.

My initial experience was marked with some confusion, which is normal for a new player, but also excitement at what GW2 had to offer.

“Oh, I can dodge? Cool!”
“Movement and distancing as important elements in MMO combat? Great!”
“What are weapon skills? Main and off-hand weapons? Oh, I see. Skills for each weapon hand. I get it.”
“I need to use a new weapon type to unlock that weapon’s skills? Makes sense.”
“Area events? Awesome! I even get a nice reward in money, karma, and XP for doing them, too!”
“The A.E.D skill needs 25 skill points? kitten , I only have 7 now. I’ll save up for it, then. I can’t wait till I get it!”
“I can progress through the story at my own pace? Nice! The next part is level 8 and above, but I’m barely level 7. I’m sure I can do it.”
“That was a much harder mission than I anticipated, but I still did it. Barely. I’ll level up more, since the next mission is for levels 9 and above. Let’s explore and see what I find.”
“I’ve found skill challenges, vendors, and interesting areas, characters, and quests! I can play at my own pace! This game is great so far!”

This is the first MMO I’ve played that didn’t horribly gate skills, didn’t lock the story because you weren’t at that exact level, didn’t force you to really do anything a certain way. It gave me freedom to play how I wanted, something sorely lacking in most MMOs, which force you to do things a certain way or unlock things in a certain order. I could unlock almost any skill for the slots I had, even the 25 cost A.E.D for my Engineer. Sure, it’d take a long time to get it, but it’d be worth it in the end.

Already, playing today’s update, I was met with several unwelcome changes. Slot Skill 8, which I’d unlocked just yesterday at around level 10, (I’m now level 12) was now relocked until level 24! All the other skills I was planning on getting soon were locked until I leveled up to an arbitrary level, rather than being a choice I could make at any time. My next story mission was for levels 14 and up. So, I was happily exploring and leveling until I got to that. The missions being spaced out every few levels gave an always just-in-reach goal to achieve, before the next mission which set the bar even higher for you to reach for. It was great.

Now, I can’t get back to the previously level 14 mission I had access to as late as yesterday morning until I get to level 20? What the hell is this! That constant drive for success, and the feeling of connection that the story and world quests combined to give has been skewed to all hell. I tried playing again today, but these changes changed the parts of the game I liked the most, the freedom of progression at your own pace.

Arenanet, these changes claim to help new players. As a very new player myself, these changes changed the parts of the game I liked the most, and confused me with changes to weapon and slot skills that already made sense.

I hate to say it, but I feel a little cheated. The game I liked has changed, and most certainly not for the better. I hope this helps convince you to genuinely reconsider the changes you made in the context of the game and new players.

Are you making changes that really help new players? Are you truly making it a better player experience? So far, I would say to both of these, no, Arenanet, you haven’t. GW2 is the first truly fun MMO I’ve played in some time. Don’t break it like this, Arenanet. Please.

About that blix exploit....

Posted by: Chris Cleary

Chris Cleary

Game Security Lead

A fix is currently being prepared for this issue.

While the behavior (design) of this event was acceptable in the past, changes in the game over time have created an environment around this event that has become increasingly toxic (for the community) due to unintended use/change of mechanics.

Players should not feel that they are in the wrong for completing an event (or event chain), and that is what is happening with this event. The respawn timer for this event will be significantly increased.

Professor of Bearbow Math @ Tyria State // @Shazbawt // “The Crippler”

#OccupySAB2014

Posted by: rareba.8607

rareba.8607

Stop the LS! Give us SAB and some SERIOUS WvW/GvG content!

#OccupySAB2014

in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath

Posted by: ntx.2976

ntx.2976

You love Super Adventure Box, so do I.
Come show your support by gathering around moto and his Super Adventure Box at [Magustan Court Waypoint] in Rata Sum

Attachments:

SBI

Commander Tag Changes Feedback [merged]

in WvW

Posted by: Tommyknocker.6089

Tommyknocker.6089

Just need to give it the ability to be visible to squad/guild only and I’ll be happy.

Megaserver Rollout Update

in News and Announcements

Posted by: Martin Kerstein.3071

Martin Kerstein.3071

Head of Global Community

Greetings!
We want to give you an update on our rollout of the megaserver technology. It is progressing nicely, and we have turned it on on the following maps:

The Grove
Heart of the Mist
Black Citadel
Timberline Falls
Southsun Cove
Rata Sum
Straits of Devastation
Fields of Ruin
Brisban Wildlands
Hoelbrak
Iron Marches
Blazeridge Steppes
Dredgehaunt Cliffs

As a reminder – once we turn megaserver on for a specific map, you will not be automatically placed in the new map. You have to leave the map and enter it again. You will also not be able to join your friends until they do the same.

We are continuously monitoring the process and will continue rolling the tech out to more maps based on that. Have fun playing!

gw2 precursor recipe/scavanger hunt news?

in Crafting

Posted by: Mark Katzbach

Mark Katzbach

Content Marketing Manager

We want to let you know that the ability to build your precursor will not be in our upcoming Feature Pack. The way progression and rewards work in Guild Wars 2 have changed quite a bit since we initially talked about that feature, and our main horizontal progression systems are about to get some additional updates in the upcoming feature pack. Because of that, we are looking into several ways to integrate building your precursor into our new updated reward and progression systems we’re working on, which is requiring additional development time and iteration. As always, we’ll share details on this system once it’s far enough along in production we’re ready to discuss it.

Combat UI improvements

in Suggestions

Posted by: Thypari.9043

Thypari.9043

Have a look at this video of a fan made mod:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpdgW_G4FyU

The only difference from how I am playing GW2 right now without any mods is:

I don’t have to hold right click all the time
The mouse changes to the middle position of the screen while rightclicking, so I don’t have to move it manually to that position before I start a fight. And I know where I will put AOE abilities on the ground even while I am using right click to move.
My Aoe Abilities are always casted at the crosshair position
fast targeted ground targeting on button release: While I hold the button I see the circle indicator. When I release the button, the spell goes off.

These are only some things, which would improve the combat significantly. I hope they will get addressed, because other competitive games like league of legends already have these features. (e.g. smart cast on button release is a hidden option and everybody plays with it)

Best wishes,
Thypari

Spoiler What did scarlet do?

Posted by: ColinJohanson.2394

ColinJohanson.2394

Game Director

Traveller.7496:
Mordremoth.

I just have to wonder how Colin thought this was a “one in a million” prediction.

As resident Colin, I said this back when the world thought it was Primordus or a time travel story line, as more clues came out the theories got MUCH more correct, by mid-february the correct theories were certainly far more plentiful. Also the one in 10-20K number was about the entire story in the final 2 releases, not just one specific part of the ending. Only a couple of folks correctly guessed LA getting nuked before we gave any of the hints for example.

Above all else, I just want to say how much fun it has been watching everyone theorize over the last few months. It’s one of the coolest parts of the living world experience to me. Where it goes from here….well you’ll just have to wait to find out!

Vote for the Profession Collaborative Development

Posted by: BlackBeard.2873

BlackBeard.2873

I am unclear, are these professions that need BALANCING (nerfs and buffs), or just professions needing buffs

Balancing:
1. Warriors – (nerfs)
2. Thiefs – (nerf zerk, buff other)
3. Elementalist – (buff)

Buffs:
1. Ele
2. Ranger
3. Thief (NON-GLASS ONLY)

Official state of skill lag and server optimizations

Posted by: BillFreist

BillFreist

Gameplay Programmer

To follow up, the client optimizations that I mentioned before went out with the build today. Let me know if you saw improvements. Feel free to list your specs too!

-Bill

Official state of skill lag and server optimizations

Posted by: BillFreist

BillFreist

Gameplay Programmer

Thedenofsin.7340:
Were there any optimizations for AMD CPUs?

Theoretically everyone should see an improvement.

Game Update Notes - February 4, 2014

in Game Release Notes

Posted by: RubiBayer

RubiBayer

Content Marketing Manager

February 4 Content Release Notes
LIVING WORLD
The Edge of the Mists
Tyria is reeling in the shadow of the titanic horrors Scarlet Briar has recently unleashed. With its attention diverted, however, Scarlet has struck again—this time close to home. The dangerous mastermind has released a powerful enemy through a portal into an undiscovered, fragmented region of the Mists. Heroes of the Mist War are needed to explore and secure this new realm, but what will they find, and what does this latest attack portend?
A Study in Scarlet

Captain Ellen Kiel is seeking help with a development in Lion’s Arch. Join her at Fort Marriner in Lion’s Arch for more information.
Meanwhile, Marjory Delaqua and Kasmeer Meade have acquired different artifacts from Scarlet’s machinations from the last year.
Lead the investigation to piece together the puzzle that is Scarlet’s plan so far.

Taimi’s Troubles

Taimi, a gifted asuran prodigy, has been marooned in the Edge of the Mists while investigating Scarlet’s motives. She needs the player’s help to escape.
Can players avoid the perils in the Edge of the Mists in order to recover the golem parts she needs?

Unstable Portals

Whatever Scarlet did to rip open the Edge of the Mists portal in Lion’s Arch has caused unstable portals to open intermittently in some of the more dangerous areas of Tyria.
Fight off Aetherblades to restore these portals and use them to join the battle.

Achievements

Players can unlock achievements by investigating Scarlet’s motives, helping Taimi in the Edge of the Mists, and using one of the unstable Edge of the Mists portals in the wilds of Tyria.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
World vs. World

Introducing the Edge of the Mists
- A brand-new section of the Mists has been uncovered for players to battle in.
- This new WvW map will always be available and, unlike existing WvW maps, is able to create overflow instances. This means players no longer have to wait to play WvW, regardless of the number of players attempting to play.
- The map can be entered from the WvW UI screen or from Lion’s Arch.
- All European worlds will be matched up with one another in the Edge of the Mists. All North American worlds will be matched up with one another as well.
  - Worlds will be matched according to which color they are in the current WvW matchup. For example, all green worlds will be on the same team in the Edge of the Mists.
- There are nine special objectives in the Edge of the Mists, each with a different boss to defeat and bonus for capturing and holding.
  - The Overgrowth Region
    - Altar: Defeat the elementals guarding the altar to capture it. Once the altar is captured, players can power it up to gain an immunity boon.
    - Observatory: Defeat the three grawl tricksters to capture the observatory. Once captured, players can purchase a sentry turret that will mark enemies on the map.
    - Statuary: Defeat the stoneworker to capture the statuary. Once captured, players can use the supercannons to bombard enemies.
  - The Frostreach Region
    - Forge: Defeat the smith to capture the forge. Once captured, players can craft Koda’s Hammer, a bundle weapon.
    - Bell Tower: Defeat the bell ringer to capture the bell tower. Once captured, players can ring bells throughout the Frostreach region to summon Spirits of Koda to defend the area.
    - Shrine: Defeat the Voice to capture the shrine. Once captured, players can summon the Claw to patrol the Frostreach region.
  - The Badlands Region
    - Workshop: Defeat the mechanic to capture the workshop. Once captured, players can purchase a mechanical siege devourer transformation.
    - Airport: Defeat the pilot to capture the airport. Once captured, players can purchase air-strike items to call down remote air strikes on enemies.
    - Wurm Tunnel: Defeat the wurm to capture the tunnel. Once captured, players can use wurm tunnels on the map to travel across great distances.
- There is an additional new objective type in the Edge of the Mists: Reactors.
  - These objectives are guarded by one creature and, when held, will provide additional supply at specific objectives.
  - Building generators at each reactor will increase the size of the supply deliveries.
- Each region has a tower and a keep associated with it.
- Each keep has a specific bonus that accrues for the team holding it when they capture and hold other objectives in that region.
  - Overgrown Fane (Overgrowth Region)
    - For each objective held in the Overgrowth region, players will receive an increasingly powerful buff.
  - Arid Fortress (Badlands Region)
    - For each objective held in the Badlands region, automated turrets will be activated in the area to defend against invaders.
  - Thunder Hollow (Frostreach Region)
    - Each objective held in the Frostreach region will increase the strength of snowfall in the area, which impedes invaders.
- The Edge of the Mists resets every 4 hours, and the score from the map does not affect the score for the current WvW matchup.
- Victorious worlds in the Edge of the Mists will receive a supply drop in their home borderlands map upon victory in the Edge of the Mists.
- A new, permanent achievement group has been added to the WvW achievement category for the Edge of the Mists.
User Interface and Queue Improvements
- The WvW panel, opened with the B key, has been updated to more closely match other UI elements in the game.
  - It now includes separate tabs for entering WvW, viewing the detailed score, and viewing WvW ranks and abilities.
  - The Mist War tab includes information about the Edge of the Mists, the current score in the WvW matchup, the buttons for entering each map, as well as information about the queue status of each map.
- The queue for WvW has been updated.
  - Players are now able to see their position in the queue for any given map.
  - Players can now see the current queue status of each WvW map on the WvW panel. This includes the number of people queued to enter the map.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General

Fixed a bug that caused the legendary drake in Angvar’s Trove to occasionally become stuck.

Rewards

WvW Bonus Chests: Increased the drop rates of ascended weapons and armor. Armor will drop approximately 1.5 times more often than weapons.
Guild Missions: Increased the drop rates of ascended weapons, armor, and trinkets. Armor will drop approximately 1.5 times more often than weapons.
Tequatl: Increased the drop rate of all ascended weapons. Further increased the drop rate of Sunless ascended weapons.

Profession Skills

Warrior

Riposte: Fixed a bug that caused projectiles to continue being reflected after the skill was canceled when traited with Missile Deflection.

Necromancer

Signet of Vampirism: The active life-siphoning effect of this signet can no longer be applied to inanimate objects, such as WvW gates.

World vs. World

The Righteous Indignation buff has been updated in the following ways:
- New icon
- New visual effect
- Reduced the outgoing damage multiplier from 300% to 200%
Increased the amount of Dragonite Ore dropped by keep lords.
The WvW panel is now visible everywhere (in overflows, while guesting, etc.).
The right-click player menu now works properly while in WvW—showing options for party invites, whispers, etc.—for players who are not enemies in WvW.
The player location UI now displays specific WvW map names and the correct home shard when mousing over players who are in WvW.
Fixed some bugs related to WvW queue ordering.
Fixed WvW queue-related exploits.
Added a requirement to attain rank 30 in WvW in order to purchase the Gift of Battle.

Living World

Fixed an issue that was causing the Detached Great Jungle Wurm Head to remain invulnerable after the timer started.
Fixed an issue in which the wurms were not properly deactivating when the event failed.
Fixed a rare issue that could prevent the Detached Great Jungle Wurm Head from reemerging.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

New Lovestruck weapon skins are available at the Black Lion Weapons Specialist for the introductory price of 1 Black Lion Weapon Ticket for the next four weeks. Black Lion Weapon Tickets can be found in Black Lion Chests.
The Permanent Cute-Quaggan Finisher is now available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 800 gems. Players can now have cute quaggans dance around their fallen foes in PvP and WvW when they use this adorable finisher.
Glory Boosters will no longer be sold in the Gem Store starting February 11, 2014.

Improvements

The Flamekissed Light Armor Skin has returned with a new look and can be obtained for 800 gems in the Style category of the Gem Store. All existing Flamekissed Light Armor pieces have been upgraded to the new look.

(edited 2014-02-05 00:55:16 by Moderator)

[PvX][Thief] Last Refuge

Posted by: hihey.1075

hihey.1075

Thedenofsin.7340:
Josh Davis.6015:
Last Refuge is something we’ve been talking about quite a bit internally, and we certainly don’t like the way it can occasionally unintentionally punish players.

We’d like to keep the minor traits in Shadow Arts thematically the same (stealth based) rather than simply providing boons or something similar. Keep that in mind when you’re suggestions changes for Last Refuge.
RM
Thanks for the feedback!

And you are giving Desperate Decoy the same treatment, right?

Well, the main reason almost EVERY thief is complaining about Last Refuge is because every thief who chooses to spec into Shadow Arts is going to have this trait, since it is a Minor trait, hence mandatory.
Desperate Decoy, while it might give the same problems as Last Refuge, is optional.
I am 100% sure that if Last Refuge was not a Minor trait, no one would be complaining about it because no one would simply take it at all.

Pillow Cake
Worst Thief EU
One Handed One vs One Videos

[Thief] Black Powder

Posted by: Noliver.1475

Noliver.1475

I am just gonna leave this here..

I play S/P and if you think Stealth helps s/p, you are suggesting that you nothing about the profession and you really should go roll a thief before you blabber out stupid suggestions.

SP thiefs are known to be <b>stealthless</b>… adding a stealth to BP will actually hinder me more as I enjoy more of the blind function and I will now have to someow trigger that using another skill..

it will help p/p but then other people will be complaining about P/P is OP due to stealth+range (OMG!!) and will be again nerfed to the depth of hell (since they are already on the ground they cant really go lower apart from this)

In reality, more stealth does not equal to better. If its not broken, dont fix it.

[Thief] Black Powder

Posted by: Aberrant.6749

Aberrant.6749

The risk is being interrupted and having spent a lot of ini in the process with no reward. Stopping a bp->hs will wreck a thief and force them to start popping utilities to make up for it. It would be more forgiving if they didn’t have to hs through the field.

They also lose out on the c&d damage (doesn’t apply in sPvP where c&d needs a buff to make up for the higher risk though).

Tarnished Coast
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa

(edited 2014-01-17 21:31:28 by Aberrant.6749)

TTS Almost defeated the Great Jungle Wurm

in The Origins of Madness

Posted by: Crystal Reid

Crystal Reid

Game Designer

Jumping in here for a moment to clarify a few things because there are some misconceptions about that attempt in particular.

1) TTS did not kill the Wurm. A GM was able to examine the boss and get some info and they were off by 0.01%. Even if they had killed it, that is not the end of the encounter, there is still another phase.
2) We’re investigating why the Wurm did not burrow when the event failed.

TTS did manage to sever the heads of all 3 Wurms later in the middle of the night and were the first to see the final phase.

(Balance) Developer Livestream on Friday at 2pm PST

Posted by: docMed.7692

docMed.7692

Josh Davis.6015:

Runes and sigil rework

Sweet; please tell me all those “After 26 charges” or “On kill” sigils are getting reworked.

http://twitch.tv/teamriottv
http://twitch.tv/docmedb2e
http://teamriot.org

[PvP-wvw] Thief- Backstab

Posted by: Aza.2105

Aza.2105

hihey.1075:
Aza.2105:
Keira Ferland.5619:
Lol, backstab is fine as it is. What really needs looking at is S/P and Dire P/P thieves.

So its fine that a attack with no counter play hits a player with 2100 toughness for 4.7k?

Yes, it is.
Learn to play issue.

I do not mind people being in disagreement. But at the very least you can constructively illustrate what you feel the “learn to play” issue is.

Amd Ryzen 1800x – Amd Fury X -64GB of ram
Windows 10

[PvX][Thief] Last Refuge

Posted by: evilapprentice.6379

ens.9854:
evilapprentice.6379:
ens.9854:
It want my anecdote. Corner cases can be found anywhere. What if a warriors defy pain activates just before he clicks defiant stance, that’s 10x worse. If you want to talk about a feature that gets thieves killed, make a thread about failed teleports.

Never said they shouldn’t change it, but people are not being objective about it.

I am being perfectly objective about it – my entire argument is about objectivity. A trait intended to be positive should, at worst, have a neutral effect.

In your example, endure pain did not penalize the player – it just did nothing, which is my entire argument. The worst that should happen is no effect, not a penalty.

You misread. Defiant stance is the heal skill that only heals you when you take damage. Defy pain is a trait that activates, just like last refuge, based on a warriors hp pool. This situation penalizes the warrior if he doesn’t have the superhuman reaction time to stop himself from activating his heal when defy pain incidentally triggers.

My bad – something sounded off in my head, but i ignored it. Though the comparison still doesn’t really hold up for 2 reasons – you can choose not to slot Defy pain while running defiant stance (many thieves would kill for just the option to just turn off last refuge) and your talking about the interaction between 1 skill and the trait, rather than an entire mechanic broken by anything that does damage.

I speak from experience that last refuge is extremely rarely negative if you are aware of it and being purely objective. If you want to mash buttons and need something to whine about it is a perfect scapegoat.

I wasn’t referring to you specifically; but people are being stupidly over dramatic about how bad last refuge actually is… I have survived countless times where I would have died without this trait, and won many duels because of it. There are also plenty of times that it triggers and I am able to cancel out of my attack to take full advantage of it. The number of times that it triggers and I break it AND I need to stealth in the next 3-4 seconds are nearly nonexistent; but I recognize that some players may have trouble with it in certain playstyles (x/d WvW troll builds in near death oh kitten mode). Unload is emphatically not one of those situations… how were you going to panic stealth yourself anyway?

Again, it does not matter how often LR screws you. You should not have to play around it. The consequences for not specifically altering your playstyle because LR might trigger soon should be LR was of no use to you, not LR penalized you with revealed. That is the crux of the objective argument – it should never penalize you for not specifically playing around it, that is bad design.

If you’re a thief and haven’t
pre-ordered HOT at this point,
save yourself the money and don’t bother.

[PvX][Thief] Last Refuge

Posted by: Aeden.5896

Aeden.5896

ens, you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.

You claim that experienced thieves know when to expect last refuge to proc. Bullkitten. At what point are you “expecting” this? 30% HP? 50%? 75%? Oh I see, it depends on many factors because you’re so experienced. So what do you do while “expecting it?” You just don’t attack and tank damage until it procs? That is a terrible tactic that will kill you just as often as LR’s troll reveal problem.

The issue is a lot of times you can’t avoid it. Yes, you might guess that it will proc in the next 3-5 seconds, but most of the time the best course of action is to bet on a cloak and dagger rather than do nothing.

[PvX][Thief] Last Refuge

Posted by: evilapprentice.6379

ens.9854:
It want my anecdote. Corner cases can be found anywhere. What if a warriors defy pain activates just before he clicks defiant stance, that’s 10x worse. If you want to talk about a feature that gets thieves killed, make a thread about failed teleports.

Never said they shouldn’t change it, but people are not being objective about it.

I am being perfectly objective about it – my entire argument is about objectivity. A trait intended to be positive should, at worst, have a neutral effect.

In your example, endure pain did not penalize the player – it just did nothing, which is my entire argument. The worst that should happen is no effect, not a penalty.

If you’re a thief and haven’t
pre-ordered HOT at this point,
save yourself the money and don’t bother.

[PvX][Thief] Last Refuge

Posted by: evilapprentice.6379

ens.9854:
First off, most people over rank 20 react to a backstab in under half a second (even though it is extremely unlikely a thief opens with backstab and not heartseeker or cnd). Second, even if you a not running last refuge, if that thief backstabs you under 25% you are going to die if you attempt to do anything other than teleport away, including stealth. In this case the blind from the effect is still beneficial.

A lot of people are quick to blame things after the fact without really considering if they would have actually survived otherwise.

The only change that could be made that wont create an outcry of “thief OP free passive immortality” is changing it to a stealth that doesn’t give reveal or bonuses but can still be broken immediately as suggested by Ichishi a few posts ago.

Your anecdotes do not change the fact that a trait which is intended to be beneficial should never penalize you. Regardless how often it will occur, how helpful it will be, and so on, it is bad design to have the trait penalize you – the worst it should do is nothing.

If you’re a thief and haven’t
pre-ordered HOT at this point,
save yourself the money and don’t bother.

[PvP][WvW] Backstab

Posted by: Maesk.8753

Maesk.8753

xsquared.1926:
Blocking the backstab should just reveal the thief. Same goes for a ’’miss’’ if the thief is blinded.

problem solved

Minister ricefarmer please go.

1/10, best I can do.

[PvX][Thief] Last Refuge

Posted by: evilapprentice.6379