Guild Wars 2

PvP Mystic Forge: You can now convert PvP Mystic Forge components into other components. This requires purchasing an Arcane Converter from any glory vendor. The conversion recipes are as follows:

25 Arcane Orbs + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Crystal + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Crystals
25 Arcane Crystals + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Sliver + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Slivers
25 Arcane Slivers + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Orb + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Orbs

maybe they added that just for you?

Personally, I could imagine this change having a subtle impact on non-mesmer players facing a phantasm centered build. If they’ve heard of this cooldown increase, somewhere in their mind is the fact that each phantasm they see actually has a cooldown.

Honestly this could be passed off as a non-issue. However, I can imagine situations where people that before may have seen an iZerker stop next to them and think “just ignore it, they’ll pop another one out even if I do kill it,” instead recall the CD increase and give the tactic a chance. Aside from the mechanical change of additional seconds of downtime, it reinforces the idea that killing/disabling phantasms is a worthwhile activity.

I’m in no position to make calls on how balance is to be handled. I’m more than comfortable leaving it in the hands of ANet. I just want to share my perspective that there is more at play here, being such a new game, than just mechanical changes.

Tooltip icon for the item “Strong Swindler Pants” displays a glove rather than pants. Hopefully this is an appropriate spot to bring this up.

I’m really happy with the current system, very little downtime at all. I can get right into a game, and even after it ends I’m not frozen stiff staring at the scoreboard. Works out great for maximizing game-time when you don’t have much to spare!

Now, forgive me if I’m way off here, but isn’t the dodge mechanic meant to do just that? I understand that you’re probably talking about a flat reduction of damage across the boards—but you would never suggest that they reduce all damage by 100% right?

In the same line of thought: you can’t dodge 100% of attacks. It’s true, just impossible to do it. If you could, it would be a lot like reducing all damage to 0. Instead, ANet has put the choice in YOUR hands as to which “bursts” you want to deny. If you’re the only target around and there are 8 people lining up their biggest shots. . . you can completely NEGATE, not just reduce, every point of damage they put out—twice!

That situation is absurd of course, remotely possible but totally unlikely. It does a good job of illustrating just how little room there is to complain, at least in my opinion. With the ability to completely ignore attacks at a consistent rate, the problem becomes more about deciding which attacks are a priority and anticipating when they’ll show up. If you’re outnumbered to the point where two dodges aren’t enough—mixed in with your defensive utility(you’re packing this, right?!), it’s not really a “burst” issue is it?

How dare you OP?! Don’t you know if you spout stuff like this, we may not get our classes buffed??

For serious though; thanks for another refreshingly helpful addition to this forum. I’m still holding on to hope that eventually your first point will sink in. The promise of this kind of discussion keeps me coming back.

Just had to add my voice to the thank you side of this thread! I look forward to continuing to actually enjoy this game, long past the point in other MMOs that I would be forced to continually play the stat catch-up game.

It seems to me that the major complaint when the word “grind” or any of its permutations shows up in these discussions that it isn’t so much the repetitive nature of the activities(even at the highest level of “progression-based” games the grind simply becomes a sequence of: attempt to farm boss, farm boss, wait for new boss) but rather the statless nature of the reward.

ANet has done an excellent job, offering challenging content(the amount of “ZOMG DUNGEONS TOO HARD” posts seems to back this up) for a variety of interests. They have already mentioned releasing additional content—for FREE—outside of expansions. The PvE→gear tokens model in place here seems to be in line with what I’ve seen elsewhere; the main difference being the lack of a stat based reward. I’m starting to think this very lack of stat rewards, the thing that appeals most to me personally, is unacceptable to others.

There seems to be no shortage of people ready to convince me that I’m sure to get bored of this game sooner or later. As dreadful as that thought may be(I mean, I DID pay money for this game. . . once) it would have probably happened anyway, if gw3 follows the same core philosophy.

A large part of ‘skill’ in any RPG is learning the ins and outs of the available classes. The advent of downed-state abilities adds one more layer of skills to figure out. One issue that impacts the rate of understanding here is the fact these skills are only ever on display for short periods of time(under normal circumstances).

By far the biggest complaints I have seen on these boards, as far as downed-state PVP goes, are directed towards mesmers and thieves. This stems from their ability to ‘waste’ entire finish animations—not just of one player, but even a whole group.

Aside from the advice the OP graciously outlines, there are a few ideas I try to keep in mind to reduce time wasted during finishing:

IT ONLY TAKES ONE FINISH. I often see groups of two or more all stop fighting to finish one person. Stepping back not only allows you to continue the fight, it may put you in a good position to finish if your buddy gets knocked-back or tele’d away from.

DON’T JUST WATCH THE CAST. As soon as you start the sequence, pan your camera around looking for your next course of action.

KNOW WHAT IS COMING. If it’s a mesmer: it IS going to warp. Have your finger ready to move and stop the cast, and your camera set to swing around in search of her. With the mesmer especially, you’ll want to click-target the crumpled body laying under the bright red arrow; if you don’t, you may end up wasting a cast on a clone.

While I’m certain there is much more to consider, keeping these few ideas in your brain can help with any profession you choose. The OP points out some things I had not yet considered concerning role of downed-state in a game without dedicated healers. I hope that with time discussion turn away from how shocking it is that new mechanics exist, and towards understanding how to best approach each fight—down to the bitter end.

The mesmers thank you, as well. Honestly, there is a lot of variation within professions it would seem. Perhaps building a character with the intent of outlasting their burst and winning by sustained damage would be in order.

I don’t have any experience as an elementalist, so I can’t tell you any specifics. It does seem clear to me that a ‘flavor-of-the-month’ situation has already developed—just glancing at the top page of this forum makes that pretty obvious. With this in mind, frustrated players might find more relief in creating a build that counters popular tactics than demanding they be changed.

Personally, I am thrilled with the way sPVP is set up. I and my friends(including my brother, hafta love old-fashioned sibling rivalry <3) have been having a blast so far. I believe it promotes fun over points. Winning the match really doesn’t have a huge impact in the amount of glory you receive, so there isn’t much room to whine about that.

Mixing teams up is great for someone that really enjoys the game-play. It obviously allows for the most variety as far as match ups go. I also feel like it promotes good sportsmanship when the system discourages the ‘us versus them’ mentality by populating both teams with group-joins.

Certainly one of the most reasonable perspectives on balance that I’ve seen so far. I think it’s important to remember the team dynamic when dealing with a spell like Moa. I can honestly relate to the initial knee-jerk reaction of someone that has just read the skill description. In practice, however, it can seem impossible to get the spell to land.

I won’t pretend to have the depth of knowledge required to fine tune this game. . . but I have to admit previous experience with MMOs has me a bit nervous. With the amount of vocalizing going on with regards to PVP balance, I hope the team at ANet has a clear vision of where they want things.