Guild Wars 2

Can the game be saved? No, because many, like myself have solidified their perceptions of the game now. Unless this game gets a MAJOR overhaul, nothing will save it from itself.

Then again, (the game) itself will probably last a while, because some people like what it is, whether they’ve supported this company previously or not.

Whatever GW2 is, it’s….a game at least. Way I see it, professions are largely balanced altogether, but the balance is only considerate of 1v1 situations. As far as PvP goes, it’s too easy and incentivized to jump 1 person.

Especially since….well, ANET decided that they’re approach to resolving the ‘holy trinity’ of build roles would be to kitten healing/support functions. Seriously, one clearly obvious and long-recharge (cant even fake it out properly) heal with kitten-poor boons and/or heal traits. Quite the joke. It’s almost as if, assuming they’ve even taken notes from Guild Wars, they thought EVERYONE took at least one heal skill for maintain, instead of just relying on a Monk (or thought that Monk reliance was a bad thing).

So all there is damage. The game is a scale between some form of DPS and tanking (and if there’s a build that DOES manage to maintain/escape well? Instantly broken tier), coupled with a very active system; Nearly everything lowers redbar, or at least puts you into combat (Also to note: Melee gets to pull alot of shenannigans because you can move through targets. Ranged combat is at least better balanced by the wonky obstruction mechanics).

But even that would be fine if…well, other people just didn’t butt the kitten in on my fights. Joking aside, all the skill I enjoy out of this engine goes out the window if I face two or more people (ankitten ot a profession that can escape), or another person joins my fight.

So some people can accept the game for what it is; fast-paced, deathmatch-style combat, and it may live by attracting these players. I largely won’t accept this game anymore(or at least won’t keep it in my priority of games to play anymore), unless it can actually implement a better healing/support system to combat.

Somewhat minor inconvenience, but I’ve wondered for…well, the past +year why search function in the Trading Post, specifically concerning ‘Armor’ category, lack a filter for light/medium/heavy ? Indeed, I couldn’t recall ever using the various ‘armor placement’ subcategories’, and even if I did, the use would have to be countable on one hand.

If I have to use a search filter, I should have enough parameters so that I can narrow searches down to specifically what I want, but barring that, next priority is to do the least amount of searching possible.

Are there any other TP search filters you’d like to see implemented or adjusted?

mahariel.4981:

Risking all passive defense to rely on skill to mitigate through dodging and blocks is cheating?

No, playing my 11k hp zerker guard does not even remotely feel like cheating.

But of course, ArenaNet are catering to people like you rather than allowing organised group to reap the benefits of fully communicating either through party or voice comms, running strong builds and optimal rotations, we must ALL BE MEDIOCRE.

I’ve spent like £100 on gems in this game, and once again, the dungeon community is ignored.

GG ANet, you win.

Tried that berserker set vs. that passive defense strengthened, recently? Who won?

The problem isn’t that berserker set is great; I acually agree with:

dutchiez.7502:

If you want to go through with this, please do not make Berserker’s setups weaker but make the other setups stronger/more useful. Nerfing the zerker gear will only end in dumbed down and more boring gameplay. Buffing everything else will likely have similar effects but there might be ways to avoid them more so than when nerfing zerker.

Big damage should be big damage. But big defense has to have better (quicker might be a step in the right direction; No instant solution, but there’s no multi-strike block counter, on land at least).

The problem isn’t that you’re having fun with berserkers. The problem is somewhat two-fold; one, the game is designed for other build use, and two, other people aren’t having as much of the fun of success with those other builds.

Then again, addressing berserkers also means doing something REALLY different about scaling DPS versus ‘Survivability’

Suffice to say, I love this game, but I feel I have to stay away from it now. I know you guys are behind the curve a bit, Jon, but I await these changes!

It’s nice to see the concept of rewards addressed in the upcoming update.

But I still don’t think the crux of the problem is being targeted.

It seems Guild Wars 2 combat is built for 1v1, but when you have pvp matches of 8v8, it’s chaos. It’s also the easiest system to imbalance; just make it 2v1, and you’ve already won or lost. I’m also going to go out on a limb and say this is what leads to so much exploit discovery; players only look out for me, me, and me.

There needs to be some connect between immediate teammates, other than displaying base objectives and charging at it. Too often I see zergs rolling over stranded players. Getting a kill at any cost is too incentivised, and that’s not very interesting. This even extends to PvE as well.

Having more mechanics than skills that act in a radius is a good start; let’s get some ally-targeting going too.

I’ll take a shot at this.

Perspective is always important, but it’s something gamers tend to lack. Badly too.

So you have the general impression that Berserker gear is the best. It is, in one area of offense; it capitalizes on what makes power, and thus direct damage effective, which are precision, then further crit damage. That being said, you have the other stats for a reason, and skill will only get you so far with a full zerker set (it should be mentioned that zerker sets literally provide no defense; all of their stats sync perfectly, but for offense). Berserker sets have the rather simple, but universal counter of taking more damage (and you WILL take damage), even from weak power builds (read: Condition damage will hurt alot more, since they deal damage + conditions).

Condition damage builds are built more tanky or supportive, since you need time to continue to apply conditions, and thus need to survive. Effective in their own right (though perhaps not as viscerally satisfying).

I’ve listed the two main ways offense in this game works; damage has to be bolstered by crit, while conditions need time/survival to be viable. The problem I see is, that’s it. No other general directions to build into. Mainly that 3 stat combinations are limited now, (and its about the only limit on your overal build) but it’s this very limit is so stifiling that it causes most players this incorrect thinking that OP pleas against. If we could choose stat combinations, even if they’re wrong or don’t work well, I think we’d be a slightly less complainy bunch.

But who knows. I’m making it sound like I want build wars back. And I might; I sure as hell didn’t mind it in GW1!

PS: And give healing power some love, Anet. It’s beyond useless!

Chrispy.5641:

Its actually kind of freaking easy for a Ranger to hit 25 stacks of bleeding by themselves. I’m pretty sure that other classes woud have no problem doing it too. You don’t even need 2 or more people to do this either.

Yes, but you can’t maintain this very well, even if you build towards it. Not that this is a complaint; I was stoked enough with my build that I could even reach that point, but a high amount of bleeds still gets maintained. I could be happy with ~10.

But I’ll take my shot at a solution: Increase intensity stack cap with Defiant. I was thinking an additional ~3-5 stacks per max defiant tab beyond the initial 3 (I’m of the impression I do okay against some champs with the normal cap).

Since Champs are the mob type of issue here, and condition damage would definitely be OP without some sort of cap, just scale the cap with the amount of players involved.

What champ ability scales with player involvement, yet would still keep the condition intensity cap?

Parisalchuk.9230:

Vayne.8563:

Parisalchuk.9230:

Azure.8670:

He’s right honestly. Even if there are things you HATE about this game, and you want it to get better because youre a fan, theres just better ways to say things XIV on and off lately and that game honestly sucks, but the community is SOOO supportive of the game its amazing. SQENIX has been horrrrible to their fans for almost a decade and people still support them. ANET tries really hard to make a lot of fans happy, in a game thats three pronged. just be respectful and remember that this is a work in progress. Things game time and this is a great game whether things about it kitten you off or not.

A video game should not be a work in progress the same way your car shouldnt be a work in progress once its released… In an ideal world the game would have had the foundation for their 2 week release cycles prior to release and the game would have included all the basic features it needed (like leaderboards and custom servers for PvP) right from the start. When you release a half developed game as one of the most anticipated games your gonna have a bad time. Shame on us for expecting a AAA title to actually be AAA in quality.

A driving game shouldn’t be a work in progress. Every MMO ever made is a work in progress…not just at release but through the entire life cycle of the game, as long as it’s viable.

When you buy a driving game, you’re buying a game. When you’re buying an MMO you’re buying access to a world…you’re not paying for the program you’re paying for the account. It’s a completely different thing.

There isn’t one MMO I’ve ever seen, AAA or otherwise, that released as a finished product.

There is a HUGE difference between a game expanding and evolving and a game being a work in progress. GW1 for example expanded its world with updates like Sorrows Embrace and War in Kryta in addition to adding 2 stand alone campaigns and an expansion.

That is far different then releasing a game, changing how you want to release content after release and then doing work to convert the game to a new model in order to meet your new requirements… all while players are trying to play it.

First case is your expansion of a world, second case is poor planning and releasing a game thats not complete. Guess which one we got.

The only credit I’ll give you is that Guild Wars 1 was a pretty tidy, but restrictive in game in concept. You HAD to group to be effective mechanically, 8 skills, etc. Expansions (until Nightfall) didn’t add much, just new skills, and new story, which weren’t their prime focus anyway (nonetheless interesting).

And really, what changed in how Anet decided to update content, for Guild Wars 2? GW2 isn’t a skill-focused game as GW1 was, so you don’t see as many skill updates (wish I did, though). They also mentioned years ago that they did not want to do the same expansion system to provide large-scale updates. They want more story, and have an engine that lets them try new things. Though I won’t totally dismiss you; I think what you’re looking for, as well as myself and many others is a larger-scale update, both story and skill mechanics, than the type we’re getting, or ever got before. I’m happy that work continues on the game, but there is a ton of potential to tap.

I loved Isle of the Nameless (GW1) for this; The Master of Damage was an excellent calculator; taking into effect even condition effects, with frequent updates as well. I could see the most general way my offense was taking effect with the Master of Damage. HotM just has some golems I can smash. Fun, but they don’t even last under a full zerker 100b.

I can’t see why this isn’t possible in the Heart of the Mists, unless the general murkiness of trait effects (do +% traits stack additive or multiplicative?) is actually a problem (I’m aware that they’re additive, but how’s a newer player going to know?).

Perhaps just set up a golem with champ-tier vitality and instant respawn who will calculate the rate of HP fall/time.

Resing I can see teamplay in, but stomps? Do explain. I mean, I can stomp pretty well on my own, depending on the profession. And that is despite the downed, or even the active opponents.

Risk vs Reward is a great avenue to pursue in shaping the game’s meta; I do think that is on the developers’ minds, but…. I’ve never really been able to pin down what they’re trying to go for.

The game is active for a MMOG, sure. Your combat actions are as fluid as your skill/build choices. One can be strongly supportive, strongly damaging, but never the unstoppable spear or the unbreakable shield.

But I’ll take a leap in insight to say I don’t see my connection with other players. After a year of play, I’ve come to the conclusion that this game was build for 1v1, and all of your teammates potentially make interesting 1v1 fights significantly less skillful. Matches are easy once someone is rolling with you (and that is very much the spirit of Guild Wars!) However, with the current damage meta, hypothetical other dude is really only good for helping maul some other poor sod; he’s not going to play any other role than that; he can’t heal me for much, and he probably won’t throw me any boons (he’s probably built to kill other people as well).

So, if things are going to be that way, so be it; I have had a ton of fun with it during the year, and will continue to do so. But I’d really like to see some drawback to running damage; if not for the fact that players know how to exploit the damage build to its optimum by now, at least for a reason to back up and run with other players.

Are you cool with them?

Frankly, I’m having some issues with them, balance wise.

In no specific order, stealth, blur, elixir S, and stability boon will pretty much guarantee a stomp goes through. That’s 3 professions (mesmer, thief, engineer) that can stomp without reprise through their respective skillsets/mechanics. Stability is accessible for most if not all professions, but most notably Warriors are the most free to use it (just balanced stance), with Guardian right behind them (short duration). It should also be mentioned that stealth and blur, while having recharges, are often (if not easily) shortened to achieve the major goal of stomping; I can blur myself for a stomp every 50 seconds average per build as a mesmer. It’s almost not worth mentioning how easy it is to stealth stomp, either (blinding powder).

All of this I wouldn’t have so much of a problem with (even despite the fact that 3 of the highest damaging professions have the easiest time stomping), if there hasn’t been effort to curtail this trend. Mist Form and Life Shroud used to be able to do the same, which made nearly all the professions on equal footing (sorry rangers, save your RaO!). Now that they do not, I hardly find fighting in downed state worth the effort, or saving someone downed for that matter either.

This really just boils down to complaints, but I’m finding it defeating one of the more interesting mechanics that GW2, and its PvP was intending to offer. Feel free to add/subtract/multiply/divide.