Guild Wars 2

Saiyan.1704:

There’s multiple issues here, and the dev listed a few of them on the front page. It all just boils down to this:

• True MMR – Matchmaking is the very backbone of how your mmr is governed. So when matchmaking is pooling professions out of a given pool and ordering them by rating/mmr, well, you just threw that calculation in the gutter by swapping pre-game or mid-game to another class that may not have the same skill level. This (among other items) just skews the system up, making your rating not exactly where it should be. It’s why the volatility is so huge… it must be minimized.

The real problem is not profession stacking… The issue has always been Matchmaking.

This statement about MM is so wrong on many levels. Every game matches players first (League, OW, …), then allows them to pick roles. By your logic, all these games ruin their matchmaking by doing it this …. or rather you have no clue what you are writing about.

ANet loves warrior, me too. Check this out:

It’s like complaining that Heartseeker doesn’t deal maximum damage while opponents are at full health. What a stupid thread.

The GW lore has never been well written. Zhaitan, the eldar dragons and their minions are the definition of generic fantasy villains. Scarlet is – for the lack of a better word – the least boring character among them.

Conditions profit from a single attribute: condition damage. In contrast, powerbuilds need power, precision and critical damage to work. This disparity allows condition builds to alllocate their stats to defensive attributes, while maintaining their damage output.

Moreover, there’s no attribute that reduces incoming condition damage. In contrast, power builds only deal a fraction of the total damage, because armor and protection mitigate tons of direct damage.

Does the leaderboard decay affect your MMR? In other words, does your MMR decline in line with your rank on leaderboards? If so, then it’s a terrible mistake.

Remove the market, and appoint John Smith as our central planner.

A roamers objective is to have fun by enjoying the challenge that he cannot find elsewhere in the game

teg.1340:

- Almost all warrior skills have very obvious animations, thus are easy to dodge.

Skullcrack?! The animations looks like the mace autoattack. Don’t come it with Hundred Blades having an obvious animation. The animation of the skill starting the stun combo matters, the follow-up skills do not.

teg.1340:

— All warrior mobility skills rely on the actual run speed. They are hard countered by cripple, chill, root and boon stripping (in case of swiftness stripping). They all have a fairly long traveling time.

How can you be hard countered by snares and roots with dogged-march/melandru/lemongrass? For many builds running +40% condition duration is not an option.

Maximum price fits better. Nonetheless, it’s a currency market, making the wording a matter of perspective.

The rising price (in gold) for gems does not surprise. ANet has constantly added new fancy items to their store, making gems relatively more valuable. In contrast, the sum of goods – purchasable in gold – has barely changed since therelease. The rising gem prices are therefore the trivial consequence of ANet’s update policy

Always queue, never WvW.

OdS has the best thieves of the world!

People do not understand the concept of variance. A lesson in probability theory would help.

Lotteries are fair. From an ex-ante point of view everyone has the same chances for the prize. Further, it’s safe to assume that precursors are reasonable priced, reflecting the true chances of the gamble with a little mark-up due to risk averse individuals.

The elementalist has been the dominant profession in PvP for the first 9 months. So, tell me, how could be the low base HP/armor be an issue now, while it has not in the past?

McWolfy.5924:

as a wvw player who have nearly 300 wvw lvl on his ranger i say ranger is your worst choice in wvw team fights. 0 support 0 cc 0 aoe

But they are good against doors, aren’t they?

Sorry, I have to break the harmony in this thread. While everyone seems to agree with the idea, I have to disagree.

Conquest itsself already lacks any kind of comeback mechanic, except for the guildlord on foefire. The linear point accumulation makes the gamemode already boring as the outcome of a match is predictable. The rally mechanic allows for comebacks and swings. One right decision can turn the tide of the battle. “Volatile” battles are great for both, players and spectators.

In League of Legends you can win a match by few smart decisions. Stealing Baron Buff or acing your opponents in the lategame may completely turn the match around. Sour losers will call denounce it as unfair and volatile, but the sudden shifts in the momentum make the game so great.

Why has the elementalist been the dominating profession for the first 9 months? Why has everyone stopped playing elementalist since the trait rework patch?

Obviously “low HP and low armor” are not the correct answers, these are just excuses made by bad elementalists. Further, there are no fundamental problems with the profession.

The trait rework patch buffed several other professions and shifted the meta in a direction unfavorable for elementalists. The condition meta combined with some minor nerfs made the elementalist an inferior choice in competitive play.

The ele does not need a rework. Some minor buffs could fix the ele such as reducing the cooldown of RTL back to 20s.

I prefer letting my opponents bleed out. Who cares about a single score point?!

This thread feels like:

“So, you’re really saying that the earth is the centre of the universe?” “Yes, it is just a matter of perspective.”

“It’s just a game! The principles of choice do not apply here.”

Nothing is ever free. Gathering all materials and then crafting an item may seem to be free of costs at first glance. However, you could have spent the time gathering on other activities or sold the materials. Therefore, gathering and using the materials are costs.

To illustrate the concept by an example: Cleaning your appartment is not free. You may not have to pay someone as you do it on your own, but you have to spend time doing it. In that time you could have enjoyed yourself or pursued another more productive activity. If cleaning were free, nobody would hire another person to do it for him. The same applies to gathering materials. It’s not a matter of perspective, it’s all about opportunity costs.

felivear.1536:

I mean look at the leaderboard fix and the 4v5 fix. How much easier can 2 fixes be? Leaderboard – fix decay, raise games required to 50 or 100
4v5 – Put in a “i am ready button” before the start of the match to ensure nobody has died of old-age since queueing.

The leaderboard should reflect skill not effort. Playing for some days or even weeks does not turn someone from TP into the typical hotjoin hero. That’s why a strong leaderboard decay is wrong. Further, matchmaking systems don’t need 100 games to evaluate players. Typically, 20 up to 30 are enough.

We need an “I am ready” button, but let’s not be illusional: it won’t fix the whole 4vs5 problematic, only a single aspect of it. Players will still go afk once things turn our bad.

The main problem: while the devs have shown dedication for the sPvP part, they certainly lack resources. If I were CEO I would redirect the resources to PvE, because that’s where the money is. I cannot imagine sPvP to be ever profitable.

Backpedalling warrior trying to show how great he is. Nothing impressive about this video, nothing overpowered about that warrior. The combination of sword and hammer is so terrible that it can only be found in WvW.

Nobody can beat – kill to be more precise – a D/P thief. Unless he takes high risks the thief can always safely disengage with combo-field stealth or shadow refuge. However, that does not make the thief overpowered or broken. A warrior with greatsword and sword/warhorn can also escape from every fight.

The ability to disengage poses a problem only in the open deathmatch arena of WvW. Without opportunity costs mobility is king. The problem with stealth and other skills to disengage is a fundamental flaw of the gamemode.

The population density of SFR is higher than in a slum of Mumbai.

I have yet to meet one of these condition warriors that simply kill everyone in their way. Simply by their design condition warriors do not work against players with brains.

Warriors are the best choice. Hammer/Longbow dominates sPvP, Mace/GS is the best WvW roaming spec and in PvE Hundred Blades is as popular as ever. Condition warriors, however, are still trash.

Yeah, amazing match-up. I cannot recall ever been chased to my spawn so many times.

Skullcrack is part of the stuncombo and hits up to 4,000 damage. Pressing 3 buttons for inflicting up to 20,000 damage is broken as the combo requires neither effort nor skill. At this point I’m not sure if you’re really that ignorant or simply a lobbyist fighting for his privileges.

Ottohi.2871:

This would break the build like taking Hidden Killer and putting it down in the acrobatics trait line. It just wouldn’t work because this trait is what puts pressure into stun builds. Otherwise it is fine as it because it only works on stuns and unless you’re being 100b’ed by a zerker it really doesn’t hit you nearly as hard as it seems. I mean, you get stunned witha mace for 4 seconds (thanks to sigil bug). Ok, the best he can do without going to a better weapon is auto attack. Lets up his damage by 2.5 times. He hits normal 600 and 1.1k finisher. He can do 2 sets of that or 6 attacks. He will always crit. You’re telling me you can’t stand being hit 11k damage? You could stun break outa it or have protection on you to make that 7.4k damage. Seriously? What do you play? This WON’T outright KILL ANYONE with BASE VIT.

Ironically, putting Hidden Killer into Acrobatics would be great for thieves. An offensive trait in a defensive traitline that compensates for the lack of precision. Have you ever asked yourself why nobody takes Hidden Killer?

Back to the warrior: you don’t have to be a zerk warrior to hit like a truck. With Fury and Unsuspecting Foe even warriors in mostly Soldier’s gear/amulet will crit you with every hit. You need only a 30% crit chance for a guaranteed crit every hit while your opponent is stunned. The obligatory 30 points in Discipline brings in Critical Damage. My warrior kills most players in a single stun that cannot break out of it anymore: Shield Bash, Mace Stun, Hundred Blades. It’s between 16k and 20k damage in total. That’s insane damage given the short cooldowns.

SweetCream.8051:

FirstBlood.7359:

I’ve been playing Warrior since release and – even against my self-interest – I have to admit that the profession is overpowered.

The culprits:

- Unsuspecting foe: This minor trait allows warrior to use defensive traits/armor/amulet, but still deal massive damage. Another poster tried to counter this argument with the Hidden Killer trait from the thief and ironically highlighted all the problems with unsuspecting foe. Hidden Killer is a grand master trait, forcing thieves to go offensive. Unsuspecting foe, however, is a minor trait and offers too much, especially given the amount of stuns from hammer/mace. How many thieves use Hidden Killer? How many warrior use Unsuspecting foe? The popularity or the lack of proves how flawed the comparison of both traits is.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stun
Hammer/Mace+shield has 3 stuns. Hammer F1, Mace F1, Shield 5
The massive damage only comes after one of those three skills.
You’re mad at the rate in which we can use said stuns, not the trait.

As a warrior myself I don’t have to be mad at anyone, except for ANet. With the heavy CCs from hammer/mace and nerfed Unsuspecting Foe our profession could still fill out a unique position in teams. The stuns themselves are not the problem, but their combination with the damage from Unsuspecting Foe is. Nerfing Unsuspecting Foe would force warriors to decide between offensive and defensive attributes.

I’ve been playing Warrior since release and – even against my self-interest – I have to admit that the profession is overpowered.

The culprits:

- Unsuspecting foe: This minor trait allows warrior to use defensive traits/armor/amulet, but still deal massive damage. Another poster tried to counter this argument with the Hidden Killer trait from the thief and ironically highlighted all the problems with unsuspecting foe. Hidden Killer is a grand master trait, forcing thieves to go offensive. Unsuspecting foe, however, is a minor trait and offers too much, especially given the amount of stuns from hammer/mace. How many thieves use Hidden Killer? How many warrior use Unsuspecting foe? The popularity or the lack of proves how flawed the comparison of both traits is.

- Healing Signet: In contrast to other professions the warrior is easy to play with its heavy armor, hp pool and passive healing effects. The passive regeneration lowers the skillcap of the warrior.

- Longbow: More of a sPvP problem. Longbow deals too much AE, too much power and condition damage. Moreover, it has strong synergies with the hammer as 2nd weapon and Cleansing Ire.

I’m not a fair roamer.

What happened to Desolation? In contrast to our last match up – RS vs Gandra vs Desolation – your server seems to have lost 80% of its population. Resistance and roamers from Desolation are non-existent. Is it some kind of tactic to drop in rating for the upcoming leagues?

ANet promised MMO utopia: no subscription fees, a fair ingame shop and a game without grind, a game where only fun matters. One year after, GuildWars2 turned into MMO dystopia. The last year brought us the most unsatisfying grind with the introduction of ascended items. ANet replaced the freedom of playing how and what you want with the chore that timegated content brings with it. The design of ascended items completely changed the role of the cash shop. Ascended items combine horrible looks with the best stats, thereby forcing players to use Transmutations Crystals. The hunt for aesthetics is the endgame, an endgame that forces you to use the cash shop. ANet started with a great vision, but – one year in – they betrayed their ideals and turned their game into the opposite.

Sometimes you have to kick so many people and relist, that the lfg tool marks your listing as spam.

Lux.7169:

Except no one is complaining about bringing 1 pet… aka iWay and RaO. They’re complaining about the ridiculous pull-out-4-spirits and spam evades on cd builds.

No one said iWay took skill. Some were better at it than others but the whole thing was laughable and people got hated on for running that cheese.

RaO was never complained about (much) because while it was an easy class to run, it wasn’t based on spamming CD’s but rather timing interrupts and training appropriately.

Bringing 1 pet is a lot different than using all 3 utilities and your elite to bring aoe passives that steam-roll most every non-AI build.

What has spamming evades to do with minions? Nothing. In the first GuildWars there had been more npc involved into the fights, yet nobody complained. Most of builds mentioned brought 3 – 5 NPCs into the fight, Ritualist spike and Jagged Bones builds even more. In GvG additional NPCs moved to flagstand once VoD started.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with minions or AI. The poor target system of GW2 is the problem, not the minions.

Most players seem to forget that the petting zoo has an impressive history in the GuildWars series. Starting with IWAY, over the introduction of the Ritualist, Natural Renewal builds to the popularity of beastmaster rangers with RaO.

Ironically, I haven’t heard a single complaint about AI during my GW days.

Ironically, since its golden days the ele has only been slighty nerfed. The current state of the profession is more the consequence of a shifting meta. Buffed necromancers, the introduction of “boon hate” and the dominance of S/D thieves caused the exodus of eles in tPvP.

The ele is fine. The ele does not need buffs. Other professions need to be toned down.

Poison as counter to Healing Signet is another myth of the warrior forums. Next to my favorite, blind counters Skull Crack.

Lina.9640:

This is why the Guardian is so powerful. The Guardian has an excellent base and its traits were decently designed. On top of that, nearly all of its weapons are useful in some form or another. It’s pretty much the only class that can go Damage, Support, and Defense, though obviously it’s better at tanking and support than DPS, but Anet seems to be willing to change that. It really is the gold standard class and Anet continues to dote on them while ignoring or gutting other professions, which is bound to create some resentment.

Would you call greatsword useful except for its aesthetic value? Would you call torch useful? Would you call sword useful?

Conquest with all its mechanics makes the Guardian so popular. The Guardian lacks mobility, but compensates with support and bunkering abilities. With this unique mix the Guardian fits into the role of the point defender that teams need on every map. In contrast to the old elementalist – great support, high mobility and insane sustain – the guardian has clear weaknesses such as the lack of mobility. That’s why the old bunkering elementalist was OP, while the guardian has always been balanced.

Back to the warrior: Currently, the warrior is out of balance for the same reason. Even bad players can bring the warrior with its low skillcap to great effect. The warrior offers too much for too little effort and does not have a clear weak spot.

Finally I have the gold for Twilight, but not enough Karma. Months ago, I couldn’t imagine that this would ever happen.

This discussion is so typical for class subforums. You pick out two skills from two different professions – Healing Signet and Signet of Restoration – and compare them in isolation, really?

In WvW the Healing Signet is completely broken. The combination of Lemongrass/Melandru, insane mobility and strong regeneration makes Warriors invincible. It’s almost impossible to kill a warrior. In sPvP Healing Signet is balanced, because Conquest forces players to stay and fight on points.

It’s naive to measure the balance by those pure numbers. Certain professions fulfill certain roles in a team. Synergy between professions matters. For example, the S/D thief was and still is borderline OP, but you won’t see any team running more than one S/D thief in their setup. While the S/D thief fills out its role perfectly, the team would benefit little from another S/D.

By your logic – by pure numbers – the Guardian must be the most overpowered profession. In reality however, the Guardian is the most balanced profession. You have to evaluate the professions in the context of the team composition.

Have you ever played League of Legends?

The problem with 15 vs. 15 Deathmatch is obvious: The game is not built for it. With skill effects of 30 players cluttering your screen the dodge mechanic becomes meaningless. Especially in melee trains it is impossible to indentify animations and single spells. How could anyone time their dodges under these circumstances? Further, with the AoE cap you cannot reliably target inidividuals. In the GvG clusterkitten your AoE spells hit randomly five people in the area.

The worst thing: your individual skill does not matter. In sPvP you sometimes see great gameplay by an individual that impacts the entire match, Teldo’s 1v2 at PAX for example. In GvG, however, the influence of a single individual on the outcome of a fight is minimal. 15 vs 15 is simply too much, for the game, the player and the spectators.

Life is a lottery. That’s why RNG has a place in video games.

That’s not how damage reduction works. High armor values interact with the effect of protection. Protection benefits an elementalist more than hearvy armor class with Soldier’s Amulet. That’s why top level guardians such as Arken run Berzerkers Amulet. Access to protection renders high armor/toughness useless.

S/D thieves will strip one buff instead of two. That’s not a “huge nerf”, because most classes cannot spam boons.

You said it: 42% damage reduction and the highest health pool in the game. Combine that with Shield Stance and Endure Pain. Again, how does power damage counter the meta warrior?

Daecollo.9578:

Didn’t know they had Soldiers gear in Spvp.

However yes, toughness isn’t much of a threat without protection. If you hybridize your power and condition damage instead of focusing on just one you can literally melt them.

What? The meta warrior has 40 – 45% damage reduction simply by the high armor value. Warriors don’t need protection to be tanky. In the current metagame damage reduction via armor is superior to protection. Protection – as a boon- can be easily stripped by S/D thieves. High armor, however, cannot be countered, except for conditions. Conditions are easily countered by Berserker’s stance and Cleansing Ire. In summary, neither conditions nor power damage pose a threat to the meta warrior.

Hybrid? Power and condition damage? Don’t get me started on this one.

So, power damage is the solution against meta warriors that run soldier’s gear/amulet? LOL!

Poison countering Healing Signet is a myth of the warrior forums.

Healing Signet and Adrenal Health need a nerf. Combined with regeneration the sustain of warriors is too high.

Reduce base healing, but increase the scaling with healing power.