Showing Posts For Fendelphi.7951:
I have been saying for over a year(mostly to my friends playing, mind you), that combo finishers should be more important for the gameplay.
Right now, it feels like you are playing a “lone wolf” game, when you consider that the potential of combo fields is not being fully used.
It is every man for himself in terms of build setup. Everyone who wants to do dps is able to get Fury and Might(and even 2-3 boons more) themselves, with no need to rely on Allies.
My idea is that combofields/finishers should be the main application of boons, and be a bit more important as a way to apply control effects and conditions(like cripple and immobilize).
So, to get a long duration of Protection or Swiftness, you would have to rely combofinishers, rather than gimmicky builds.
Same with other boons and conditions.
Stuff like Warhorns and Shouts would ofc stay as is. They might not be combofields, but the have a similar effect, as in, being a team buffer.
Ofc, each class should be able to have some minor “self buffs”(usually through traits), but they should be utilities which compliment combos, not overshadowering them completely.
So combo fields would have stronger effects, and would be essential in high tier play.
I’m guessing that it would make for a more team oriented gameplay and more “skillfull”, because utilizing your teammates combofields and finishers would be essential to Victory in battle.
A well placed combofield would mean your Allies would benefit greatly in the fight.
It would bring back the support aspect of the game, instead of having only tanks and damage.
Slightly off topic:
If we go back to GW1, we had some highly speciallized builds which relied on your team to Work. There were few “I can do everything myself” builds, if not only because you needed a healer nearby(in most cases…).
As you have access to your own heals and buffs in GW2, you dont “need” your team for other than focusing a target(or avoid being focused yourself) or to ress you.
A lot of games can make do without team buffing, but in GW2 we have combofields, and some classes/weapons have a high number of them, so it would be silly to not use them.
A staff ele is a good example. You have a lot of utility fields, but it is very hard to pull off something decent, when noone cares if they get your effect or not. Most of the time, it would be better for your(and your team) to just focus on yourself and dont risk using the combo fields(which half the time is a waste of 2 skills).
I want to make myself clear that I do not agree on the way they implemented the new skills. But they already stated that they (the devs) will not do it again this way.
Hopefully. But as they already changed their initial method, what is stopping them from change this statement again at a later date?
If there is something we should have learned from the gaming industry, it is that it is always subject to change and that nothing is holy, especially if the community lets them do so without objection.
@Deimos Tel Arin: But GW 1 had much more “Guild”, if you know what I mean. In GW2 you have to rely on 3rd party products a lot to get a decent guild running. And as for PvP, you also had the easy access for multiple loadouts and setups.
I dont know if it was because of that, but it felt less tedious and more “free”.
(edited by Fendelphi.7951)
Ok I will try to respond to everyone:
@RaZaC: Sure you can buy skill tomes. Still does not change the fact that it is not available as soon as you enter SPvP.
Even on their online “manual” it states that you will have access to the same abilities and traits as everyone else, even as a lvl 1.
That is no longer true. Now you have to “pay” for it.
@Deimos Tel Arin: Similar answer as above. SPvP used to be “jump in and play, if that is your thing”. So if I did not want to bother with farming and grinding, I could just jump into SPvP.
Now it is “jump in and play, but if you want access to every ability, you will have to pay or farm a bit in PvE/WvW”.
And when they begin to do that(paying “extra” for skills), what stops them from making new skills with similar requirements?
Like, they could introduce new eliteskills for every class, costing 50 skillpoints. Or new utilities for 30. Or a new weapon(for that character only) for 40.
@Acandis: First of all, “trash” is opinion based. Secondly, it does not matter if they are trash in SPvP.
I used to have the ability to test things, to try out different builds and setups, without having to worry about getting all the skillpoints first.
Now, I will need to pay for that skill(and for each class) to see if it is worth it. Meaning I potentially waste 25 skillpoints(for each character).
And what if the abilities are changed, so that they are no longer “trash”?
@Empathetic Fighter: If that is the case, there is no need to introduce them to SPvP.
…untill you have them unlocked in PvE. I think this is a huge step backwards for SPvP.
One of the initial goals for SPvP was that you could join it at lvl 1 and start playing with a leveled playing field(same options as those who have played for a whole year). Ofc, there was a matter of skill difference, but you did not have to farm gear or skillpoints to get into the action.
Now, you require 25 skillpoints to get the new healing ability for each class.
I guess, what I am trying to say is, that it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, and I am worried what more we can expect in the future, if this is somekind of new trend.(new skills only available for people who have played for X-hours).
What is even worse(kind of) is that I couldnt find a single thread about this topic. It is a big shift in the way that SPvP is viewed, and yet noone mentions it on the forum. Is the forum community this small?
I have for about half a year send bug reports about the “not-working” Mortar traits of the Engineer. I am getting tired that this has not yet been fixed, so now I will post it here on the forums instead(as doing it ingame seems to have no effect at all)
The issue is this:
Taking both the Trait “Elite supplies”(the text say that it increases range, but that is not true. It decreases the CD on the Mortar by 20%) and “Rifled Turret Barrels”(increasing damage and Range of all Turrets, including the Mortar) is not stacking.
If you take only one of them, they give their bonus as intended(so you can have either 20% reduced CD on Mortar skills or 15% increased damage and range), but if you take both of them, you lose the benefit of “Elite Supplies”.
Summary:
Taking both “Elite Supplies” and “Rifled Turret Barrels” will only give you the effect of “Rifled Turret Barrels”. The “Elite Supplies” bonus is not applied.
Is this similar to why the bleed and poison(and other conditions) lose damage when you are downed?
’cause it is already hard enough to deal adequate damage(capped at 25 stacks), but if you also lose out on ~10% of the damage of all your current conditions everytime you get downed, it is just another case of Power > Condition.
Sad that a bump is needed. The problem is still there.
3: Pet AI
2: Direct damage builds > Condition damage builds
1: Profession role: Everything that the necro can do, another profession can do better, or can do the same for a lesser cost, making them more versatile.
Engineer might not be able to as much damage, utility or something else as other classes, but they can do alot of it at the same time.
Necros that focus on damage will, beside being on the lower end of the damage scale, have less access to meaningfull utilities. That goes for both Direct and Condition builds.
Necros that focus on defense will lose out on a lot of their abilities due to the heavy investment in Death Shroud(only have 4 abilities in DS). Furthermore their lifesteal potential is either easily interupted(Dagger, Signet of Locust or DS) due to cast times and lack of stability and the others are so low even with investment, that most of the other professions have better passive regens when performing a defensive role:
- Warriors can heal about 3-400 per second, without regeneration boon, due to Adrenaline trait and Signet.
- Elementalist in water att. with Signet
- Thieves with Signet and healing venoms
- Engineers with healing bombs and traited passive regen
Ofc you have a lot of healing(life siphoning) potential as the necromancer(using a dagger main hand and wells), but it is very restrictive(short range, needs to hit stuff, danger of being interupted, 30 bloodmagic required).
The same for control builds. We have about 3 fear abilites and can get 1 or 2 more through other means(traits and items). All have low duration(compared to the standard 2-3 sec knockdowns or blowouts), low application ability and long cooldowns(not counting water).
Reaper mark: AoE, 40 second CD, 1 second duration
DS Doom: single target 20 sec CD, 1 sec duration, requires DS form
Fear: single target, 10 sec CD, 2 sec duration, requires Downed state
Even massive traited, you only improve 1 control ability, and it will not help your overall damage or defense much.
- Warriors have an up to 3 second, AoE fear(on long cooldown, granted) that also can remove condition and heal allies, if traited.
- Thieves can steal a 3 second fear.
- Ranger Pets with fear abilities
The other decent control is Chill, but both Engineers and Elementalist(even thieves) can get similar amounts of effective chill effects, while having eaiser way to apply them(grenades can with apply 6-8 second of chill every 20 seconds to an area, elementalist can apply chill in some form every 4-5 seconds, some of it being AoE).
The Necromancer just dont feel very unique, and the few things that should define its playstyle can be done in similar ways by other professions.
yeah it is probably your traited Virtue of Resolve(so that it affects allies). If those around you are at full health, they will constantly display the “immune”, because they cant get higher health.
hey this is not a bug. you have to target to cast for effect like this. so it simply means you were seen. no mesmer can cast this overwall without having a target selected there. and it’s not blocked by gate because it’s not a projectile style skill. it just summons beside the target.
To my knowledge, all other abilities require a line of sight if it is a targeted cast(like a fireball spell or other single target abilities and most ranged attacks that does not use cones and other form for AoE. This is not exclusive though).
Most often, if you dont have line of sight(objects blocking a direct line to the target), the target is obscurred and the ability have no effect and goes on a cooldown(not sure if it is full or partial).
That PB can be used in spite of having no line of sight(succesfully using the ability on a target, despite of said target being behind a wall or otherwise out of sight) seems to be a bug.
If it is not a bug, I would like Arenanet to make it clear on ALL abilities which ones require line of sight and which ones that does not.
Agreed that Stealth finishers should be removed. Really irritating and makes you wonder why you even have the “fight to survive” when the stealthed enemy(read: anyone affected by AoE stealth or can stealth themselves) finishes you without you or your allies being able to stop them(save for a very quick revive or Non-target AoE interupt, which is very rare).
As for general “counters” to stealth, I think that the usual AoE/CC plus awareness is enough in most 1vs1 situations.
I do think, however, that from a “logical” standpoint, stuff like setting the thief on fire(while they are stealthed) should semi reveal them. By that I mean, that you can see where they are and target them as long as they are burning, but the thief/stealthed enemy is still counted as “stealthed” for ability and combo purposes. But that is for 1vs1.
In a bigger fight with multiple opponents, a couple of thieves using their “clones” + stealth really gives them all the time in the world to make a backstab on someone engaging someone else. In these cases, a semi counter that can partially reveal the thieves(not breaking their stealth, but making them somewhat visible) will make it less frustating to fighting lots of thieves in teamfights.
Will just say, that even though they have claimed to have fixed the problem in this patch(Oct 7). It is still there.
What is worse is, it is even more common now and even happens while you are still alive(going from 118 damage tick to 104 for no apparent reason).
Dont know what they did, but it only made it worse for the Elementalist.
That is not really a bug is it?
Im not saying that you are wrong, but it has nothing to do with bugs.
What I would like is better AI for the minions. They Can deal good enough damage(about 2500 crits at lvl 80 for the standard boneminions when they detonate), but it is hard to actually focus target with them(they attack very randomly from my experience, and run after targets you dont are not engaging).
A quick note on this: I believe the decrease you’re seeing is from the +condition damage you have on your weapons. As far as I know, you have no weapons equipped when you are downed. Similarly, if you have a set of +condition damage weapons and a set of non-condition damage weapons and you place bleeds and swap sets, you should notice a similar difference in the bleed damage. However, I may be incorrect; a 15 damage difference on your bleeds is massive, so it very well could be the trait stats (or, perhaps, both). I’m not sure whether the weapon-swap change is intended or not.
This was done in sPvP, so weapon stats are “bare” with no extra condition damage. At best it would only effect the duration or chance to apply extra bleeds through crits(due to some sigils that gives extra bleed stacks on some crits or increases the duration of bleeds), but even that should not have an effect on the intensity of the already active bleed stacks.
Needless to say, it also has an effect on the intensity of Confusion, Poison and Burn damage ticks.
This is another example of why Direct damage builds are currently more efficient than Condition damage ones. As a condition stacker, you need the conditions to run their full duration at maximum strength to compare with the raw damage builds.
Getting downed or even killed becomes a serious reduction in total damage output over the course of a full fight.
What I would like to know is, if this is intentional(and if so, reason), and if there is similar drop in effectiveness for powerbuilds(hard to see, as you can not compare damage before/after downed with direct damage abilities), due to it being the “removal” of trait bonus stats.
To make it short, all damage conditions(bleeds, Burns and confusion) that are active when you are downed, gets reduced in damage.
My 104 bleed ticks(104 damage per bleed stack, per second) gets reduced to 89 while downed/dead for the rest of it’s duration(unless I get ressed). Confusion and burn effects get reduced too.
It makes condition damage builds quite “weak”, as you sometimes have to rely on the amount of conditions that you can apply before being taken down. If it then gets reduced by 12% while fighting to survive, you have wasted a lot of damage potential, compared to direct damage builds.
I suspect that you lose the trait bonus(up to 300 condition damage stats) while downed, and I wonder if there are other trait stats or even minor/major traits that cease to have an effect while downed.
To be honest I dont think that they will have a “Dervish” or “Ritualist” class in any future expansions, as some of their playstyles and flavour was used in the other professions(Guardian especially seems to be a mix of some Ritualist and Dervish components).
They might emerge under a different name, with a slightly different(addapted) playstyle though.
As for weapons, I would like Spears, heavy polearms and scythes to get into land based combat.
But before that, I would like the current weapons to be as balanced to each other as possible.
For Direct damage, take Sword/?(I prefer pistol) or Greatsword. For DoTs through conditions, pick Scepter/?(Torch most likely) or Staff.
My experience in sPvP with the Mesmer is that they will strike when they choose and will outlast their enemies quite easily if played skillful.
My personal favorite is the Staff + Scepter/Torch setup with glamours skills, focusing on Condition damage and team buffs. Each clone(normally dealing low damage) will apply the conditions just as effectively through their auto attack(the bouncing ball thingie from staff) as you do and will also buff your allies.
This leads to 4-5 Vulnerability stacks, 4-5 Bleed stacks(about 100 damage per second each), and almost permanent burning(about 640 damage per second) against single targets and even group of enemies when you have 3 clones auto attacking. Chaos Storm and Chaos Armor buffs and debuffs even more.
The Glamour skills can be upgrade to apply confusion(further boosting your condition damage potential) as well as blindness.
As for defenses, they have both decoy(Breaks stun, stealths you and leave a clone) from utility and the torch stealth skill, if you run out of clones.
Finally, Timewarp can be a huge damage boost if used in coordination with your team.
As for lockdowns, they can be quite disruptive(while not as disruptive as GW1), as you have a lot of daze abilities and also quite a few stuns(also you can count Moamorph as the longest lasting disable in the game. Shuts down every ranged proffesion). And the clones makes the enemy “waste” some of their key abilities like Bull’s Charge, if used at the right time, greatly reducing their damage potential.