Guild Wars 2

Ticket #404809

Has been 5 days.

User ID: Baughy.6971

@Gaile Gray:
Thank you, Gaile, he has submitted a ticket.

@DeceiverX:
While I agree that agreeing to the Terms of Service does subject you to those terms, I don’t agree that being subject to the terms means that the terms are reasonable or should not be changed. Just because the developers warn players that botting will result in a permanent ban on first offense (if they do) does not mean the developers were right in creating such a policy; only that they have the power to enforce whatever policies they make, whether good or bad.

I suppose you’re right in that showing cheaters that you have the control is an effective way to reduce cheating, but I feel that the same degree of control could be shown with a ramping level of punishment instead of immediately jumping to the most extreme penalty. And that is in the case of an actual offender. The presence of system inadequacies reinforces the unreasonable nature of using the harshest penalty on the first offense. If your method of control harms the people it was meant to protect then it is not doing its job, and you risk alienating your player base and thus losing or lowering your income.

If your guard dog barks from time to time at the people it is meant to protect, there is no harm done; if it bites them, the dog must be eliminated.

A close friend got me into GW2 about a year and a half ago, right when the game came out. We’ve spent countless hours playing and we both generally favor ANet’s policies in making the game more enjoyable and in handling its community.

But this evening when my friend went to log on, he found out he had been permanently banned for botting. He doesn’t bot; he doesn’t even know how to bot! We tried to think of what actions he might have taken that could have been mistaken for botting. He spends most of his time in PvP, he doesn’t have any sort of regular farming routine, and one look at his gear will show you that he’s just a casual gamer anyway, so he can easily get all the supplies he needs with little effort. not to mention that cheating is just not in his character!

Now he’s really distressed because all the time he spent in his favorite game may be lost, or at the least inaccessible to him for an indefinite amount of time, and all due to something he hates the idea of and that he did not even do!

So hopefully ArenaNet will get this resolved quickly, but even if they do, I have to ask:
Suppose for a moment he was guilty of botting. What on earth is the reasoning behind banning him permanently on a first offense? Especially if you acknowledge that your system is faulty at finding cheaters? I would understand a warning, or even a 24- to 72-hour ban, but permanent?! That goes way too far.

We would both like to keep supporting your game in the coming months. Please resolve this quickly and fairly!

My friend’s ID is Baughy.6971.

Thank you.

You did think that through quite thoroughly, Dingle! It sounds like a fantastic idea! I wish I could send some of these ideas straight to the devs at ANet.

I also think the profession mechanic for a Chronomancer could be an hourglass that refills at a certain rate. Time-manipulating abilities could last as long as there is still sand in the glass, but they drain the glass at a certain rate. Or of course, abilities could be stopped before they drain the hourglass.

There could also be a passive Benefit selected, such as
- Increased Endurance Regen Rate
- Increased Movement Speed
- Increased Action Speed
- Decreased Boon/Condition Resolution Rate
- Quicker Cooldowns

As well as a Passive Detriment which basically does the opposite of any of these things.

If a Passive Benefit is selected, it slows the Hourglass Recharge by a bit. If a Passive Detriment is selected, it quickens the Hourglass Recharge. Neither are mandatory to select.

I love all these ideas! My favorites here are Bard and…

CHRONOMANCER!

I actually had no idea it was scrapped or that so many people had thought of it, but I’ve had some great ideas in relation to it.

-Like skills that allow you to rewind an enemy’s movements. Or rewind your own movements also undoing all the damage that was done to you in that time.

-A Repeat field wall that stops enemy projectiles but duplicates every friendly projectile that travels through it.

-A skill that splits the user into two copies. The one you control is invulnerable but can attack enemies. The other copy follows you around, mimicking your actions 1.5 seconds later. It IS vulnerable and any damage done to it is done to you.

-A skill that marks the target’s position when activated. If you can lure them back into that same position within X time, they will get stuck in a loop for Y seconds.

-A skill that causes boons and conditions to resolve at half time on the user while active (so instead of Poison hitting once per second for five seconds, it would hit once every two seconds for ten seconds. Boons like Protection and Stability would just double in their duration). And a counterpart to this skill that causes boons and conditions to resolve at double time on your target.

-A stop-time AoE that literally stops everything in mid-stride within the target area.

-And more…

Leaving behind creativity-smothering, lazy, and futile complaints like
1) “that would be hard to design”
2) “that would be hard to balance”
3) “that’s not realistic”
etc.

If you were to design a New Profession, what would it be?

I have my own fledgling ideas but I wanna see yours first.

Game balance is something that can always be tuned and it is necessary for EVERY game. The more creative and complex the game is, the more difficult and important balancing it is.

If you reject an idea just because it would have to be balanced, this game will never change- for better or for worse- and I’d hate to see that kind of stagnation in a game that is already so groundbreaking.

However, while I don’t understand the argument about “no vertical progression” (how is this any different from Masterwork → Rare or Rare → Exotic?), I do sympathize with the idea of power creep. But again, if it is only your weapon that is getting slightly more damage output, I just don’t see that being a problem. I’ve never come across any party that only allows in players with Exotic weaponry, and I don’t see how it’d be any different here.

Considering the extremely steep price of Legendary weapons on the Trading Post and the amount of effort that goes into crafting them, I propose a couple of changes that would make all the necessary work more rewarding.

In my opinion, Legendary weapons should have:

1) Higher Damage Than Exotics.
Just like going from rare to exotic, the damage increase from exotic to legendary shouldn’t be game-breaking or overpowered, but it should be an improvement. And engaged players generally seek any way they can to improve.

2) A Legendary Skill
The regular five weapon skills would remain the same, but on wielding a legendary weapon, a skill button unique to that weapon would be added above the weapon skills bar (in the general area that elements for elementalists, steal for thieves, virtues for guardians, etc. would be, but maybe off to the right more).
This skill would be a remarkably powerful skill that may turn the tide of a battle but would be on a very long cooldown (perhaps 30 min to 1 hour) so it is TRULY legendary so that players don’t rely on it to win all their fights.

the Greatsword Sunrise, for example, could have an AoE ability where a blinding light shines over a huge radius around the wielder as he holds the sword high in the air, the light burning, damaging, and blinding foes that remain inside of its area of effect for say 8 seconds.

Remember, these are LEGENDARY weapons! They are the kinds of things that myths are made of, grasped tightly in the hands of ancient heroes as they struck down their foes by the droves. They should be imbued with the caliber of ability that sends the masses stumbling over themselves in terror!

P.S. >> If you have a suggestion for a particular ability that an existing weapon could have, please post it! And remember, these are 30 min or more cooldowns, so think BIG!

These are all fantastic suggestions! I especially agree with 1, 5, and 8.

1) You guys pretty much said exactly what I feel: the events should have much farther reaching consequences.

5) YES!! There should be range increases when firing from high to low, and range decreases when firing low to high – just like in reality. That would add some great tactics to the battlefield as well!

8) That would be SO exciting! I LOVE that idea!

I really like the idea of class-specific gear, while at the same time not being able to lose it like a regular item. However, I would definitely like actual class-specific garb more than class-specific auras. I feel like there are enough aura effects already, while there could be more distinction among the three armor weights (light, medium, heavy).

I would LOVE to see additional weapons added in the future! Crossbow is actually an option I hadn’t thought of, and it would be great as either a slow, heavy damage dealer or as having quick-fire options (this game is certainly more about being interesting than being realistic).

Also: liking the land spear, but I would probably end up labeling it the Polearm class so you could have spears, partizans, halberds, glaives, etc.

Another possibility might be Fist Weapons (like in WoW), which would include brass knuckles, katars, spiked knuckles, etc.