Guild Wars 2

I love the down-leveling. If I’m going to a lower level area I feel more powerful, but yet I still can’t just casually flick my finger to kill everything around me instantly. This allows me to help friends with alts without being absolutely boring while still giving me rewards as if I was in a higher level area.

Although I wish the rewards were better. It doesn’t feel like I’m getting the same amount of XP and loot even though I’m still working nearly as hard. I think more people would be more willing to revisit lower areas if the rewards were as good as being in higher areas.

Like everyone else said you’re missing a huge amount of people if you don’t have 35+. And I never use “haha”, but “hehe” instead.

@Apolyon, I’ve seen and used “uber” to mean “super”, “overly”, “very”, “awesome”, “huge”, etc. It’s sort of like “dude”. Used to convey lots of things besides what it really means.

Parthis.2091:

I have no problem with some PvE stuff in WvW, as long as it’s out of the way or offers strategic advantages. People have mentioned dragons; what if you could complete a number of events that spawned a dragon to fight for you? Perhaps one to defend SM?

These events could become a clever mechanism of splitting up the zerg (numerous events spread around the map that need to be completed at the same time? No one zerg can manage it). It may encourage smaller guilds to communicate, or provide lots of smaller scale fighting. Anything that stimulates interesting encounters must be good.

The point is, done well, PvE elements in WvW could be amazing. The ‘PvP purists’ and their monolithic zergy guilds need to realise that they don’t speak for everyone, and that the Environment has an impact on the quality of PvP in WvW too.

Very well put!

/unsigned

Some of us think if you want pure PvP that you should play the part of the game that was designed specifically for PvP only (matches). WvW was designed specifically to have both PvP AND PvE elements.

The problem is that they didn’t add enough PvE elements to make some people realize it was put there on purpose.

Many games in the past have had 3 styles of game-play.
1. Safe PvE. All PvE.
2. Dangerous PvE. Areas that were much more exciting to play in because you had to watch your back or be jumped from behind turning things into PvP.
3. PvP focus.

It’s obvious the matches was ArenaNet’s idea of PvP focus. It’s obvious that the various zones are meant to be safe PvE. It also seems fairly obvious GW2’s WvW was meant to be a mix of dangerous PvE and PvP along the lines of Dark Age of Camelot’s Frontiers, or Warhammer Online’s RvR Lakes.

Unfortunately the low population caps in the zones turned turned PvE in WvW into a stigmata which I totally understand. With limited slots for players, if you aren’t slaughtering other players you aren’t aiding your realm.

ArenaNet should make PvE in WvW somehow benefit the war’s effort. Have mobs drop supplies that PvEers can turn in to towers maybe. Award points to your realm with PvE kills maybe.

Suddenly you have another dynamic to the war. Make use of all those empty areas. Make it important to have roaming squads to hunt down the supply collecting PvEers. All supply camps taken? Send out small groups to try and collect supplies from the land and sneak them through enemy forces.

There’s plenty that ArenaNet could do to make PvE a productive, and fun, activity in the WvW zones rather than a despised one.

Considering I was doing one of the Temple events in Straights of Devastation the other day and all of a sudden I couldn’t see anyone except for random effects on the ground and a person popping in and out of existence here and there I’d say it’s not just w3 since they said in PvE it should be much better. If it’s still happening in PvE they need to do something.

I really wish they would fix this. The world looks great in surround, but it’s just way too awkward to turn my head far left and far right to look at tiny UI elements in the outside corners of the outside monitors. I end up playing in a window or setting it to full screen 1920×1080 so the game is triplicated (is that a word??) which are both less than stellar scenarios. Especially the triplicated (if not it is now!) screen.

Please allow us to position the UI elements in better places while using Eyefinity!

I think the position of the camera is my biggest problem with GW2. I love the Asura, but I can’t stand playing one because it’s very difficult to look up at anything. When you try to look at the sky, or tall things the camera is so low to the ground that it just zooms in to your characters butt and back.

Even on the taller races the camera is positioned too low. I feel like all I see is the ground around my character, and not the beautiful landscape. Zooming out just makes you see even more of the ground around your character and not the surrounding landscape.

On another forum I found an awesome post that shows exactly what I’m talking about: forum post look at reply 29

Yeah my girlfriend has two 15 slot boxes and I only have one. Was trying to figure out what she did to get the second box. Wish we could get a box for each character!

Lifelike.5862:

Kalizaar.4729:

Thanks for the guide, Lifelike. I’ve been trying to figure out good combinations. That ought to help a ton.

I think Forestnator has a good point though. However I still find the play style to be a lot of fun.

So you sort of have to weigh the fun factor on one hand and the disappointment at the idea that you’re not nearly as effective as other classes for the amount of work it takes on the other hand.

Well you can think what you want. I’m part of the largest guild on my server and everyone loves my build and always wants me along on dungeon runs and WvW, even if there’s guardians who could take up that spot. Maybe I’m not as effective a healer at a meta level, but I’m pulling my weight as an engineer and it’s certainly doable.

The ‘amount of work it takes’ should not be a factor for any serious player.

Well that’s good to hear. Puts a little hope into any engineers unsure of their future.

Thanks for the guide, Lifelike. I’ve been trying to figure out good combinations. That ought to help a ton.

I think Forestnator has a good point though. However I still find the play style to be a lot of fun.

So you sort of have to weigh the fun factor on one hand and the disappointment at the idea that you’re not nearly as effective as other classes for the amount of work it takes on the other hand.

I’ve come to accept that you can’t play a full support character in GW2, but it sucks that an all DPS character will get more rewards than a mix of DPS and support.

GW2 seems to have tried to improve on past games with various things, but they went backwards or ignored recent advancements in other things. Rewarding support players and area looting being two of the ones that I wish for the most.

@Grit I agree that each class has things they’re very good at. Although I would point out that if you were to take out one of those classes there would be another class or two that most likely would have a similar capability through some other skills. They may not be quite as good as the class you take out, but it could still be accomplished.

Not so with Portal. You take out Portal and nobody has something to replace that function. I think if another class or two had some way of doing something similar to portal then none of this “PORTAL Iz KEELNG WVw!!1” discussion would be going on. Well, besides the possible exploits that are being fixed.

If Thieves could turn 20 people invisible, give golems a large speed boost, and toss a rope ladder over walls for everyone to climb that would help. And Engineers could teleport 20 people, and use a spring loaded launch platform to hurl people over walls that would help.

Daendur.2357:

Mumu.6203:

MMORPG : Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games

Go play Street Fighter if you want 1vs1

Good zerg requires a hell of a coordination it’s not just about following the blue triangle.

this is one of the dumbest things i’ve ever read.
The only reason why someone likes to go in a zerg is that he has no skill and has to rely on numbers to win.
Zerging is not funny at all and require no strategy nor skill; it is just “cast the spell before the target dies so maybe i can get something”
How can you tell if you are a good player when you just kill ppl in 50 vs 5 ?
Go buy some skill and then split up!

Rambo was just a movie character. Numbers win wars, or vastly superior technology. A skilled player may be a better player but they aren’t vastly better. Therefore you still need numbers. Especially with having the downed mechanic to compensate for.

It’s silly to ridicule players for playing a game the way it was designed. Especially considering for all you know that zerg that just killed you might have had more skilled players in it than you had with you. Zergs are faceless. You shouldn’t assume each character doesn’t know what they’re doing.

If WvW requires one specific ability from one specific class then ANet is doing something wrong. I think portal is a really cool idea but in a system that is designed to make people want to play all classes and be able to play all classes to roughly the same effectiveness, requiring one class means something isn’t quite right.

They wanted to get rid of the holy trinity so that people didn’t have to have a tank, and have to have a healer, and have to have a DPS in a team. Well they managed that, but now you still have to have a Mesmer. That one ability is creating a scenario that they designed their entire class and combat system to avoid.

Once Tixx is in LA you will be able to do any of the days.

Kraken.4206:

I also wish there were either a solo option, or that it the dungeon were more like the Mad King’s Labyrinth. I happen to be a very social person, however, that side of me is usually something that is strongly integrated into my RL. I deal with tons of people at work and in my career, and though I enjoy it, it drains my reserves.

As an introvert, I recharge my energy, which includes my energy to be social, by being alone—and a big part of that is through gaming. I am not an anti-social person, nor am I a completely solo player; I’m an officer in a small guild, and I have friends. Holidays, though, are times when I’m over-exposed to social events in RL, and I especially feel the need for some alone time while gaming.

…snip…

I hear you. I’m very similar to what you’re describing. I prefer to game with my few close gaming buddies and sometimes enjoy some mindless solo playing to sort of recharge. Sometimes the act of trying to find others for PUGs just adds a bit of anxiety that I really don’t care to experience in a game. Other times I’m totally fine with it.

What I have learned though about the dungeons and WvW in GW2 is that most of them are pretty much like you’re playing solo in that multi-player mob way that GW2 has. People often don’t say a word, they just go about their business to finish the dungeon/event/whatever.

So what I’m saying is… Give it a shot some time. If you can get through the small wait in getting a PUG together the rest of the experience can still be rewarding even for those like us.

Ekove.4586:

Where do I even begin…WvW is a hybrid between PvP and PvE…you want pure PvP, go play sPvP.

I am tired of that argument…and the counter argument is too obvious to even bother writing it down. But sorry to tell you that WvW can never be what it is, nor can it be balanced without some PvE elements.

This was my understanding as well. Seems to me they were selling sPvP for the hardcore PvPers and WvW as a more relaxed, casual style of PvP that PvE people might enjoy. Which is why there are so many PvE elements in the WvW maps.

If that wasn’t ANets intention I’m fine with that as well, but that’s just what I thought they were working towards. Obviously hardcore PvP people want WvW to be hardcore PvP and take all of the existing PvE out of it which I can totally understand.

If a person is willing to spend gems on something like this then why not? I don’t see how this would hurt anyone else.

Without a class swap if a person doesn’t like their level 80 they either have to make a new character or just stop playing the game entirely. Having a purchased class swap would keep GW2 from losing some of those people that don’t want to go through leveling another character, plus give them more money.

That sounds like a win/win situation for everyone to me. More happy players, more money to ANet to make our game even cooler.

edit: and I should add that I would assume they would have to find new equipment for items that aren’t shared between the two classes. So now add in more market activity which is good for everyone as well.

It would be cool if dungeons scaled to party size. Sometimes a friend or two and I like to just play together without including strangers. It would be great if we could do more things in a group of 2 or 3, and yeah it would be nice to be able to do some things solo now and then. If I’m only going to be able to play a short while or I’m not sure if I’ll have to log off in a hurry I don’t like to join a group only to have to ditch them suddenly.

Sounds like a lot of fun. Would definitely be a very different play style and character type compared to what exists now.

The wagon is an interesting idea that would give you a lot of tools to work with unless it was destroyed in combat in which case you’d have to survive until the cooldown is over.

Red Falcon.8257:

There are many forms of support in GW2, just not in the obsolete form of refilling healthbars.

I guarantee you that -this- way of healing is much more satisfying and engaging than obsolete healing could ever hope; it requires a lot more to master than old healing tho.

Eh, personal preferences I suppose. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really enjoying this game and the combat is fun. However, like the OP in every other game I really enjoy playing a character with a focus on healing and while playing GW2, no matter what type of character I play, I don’t get the same rush.

I won’t quit the game or whine about it, but it’s a simple fact to me that if I play GW2 I can’t get that particular feeling I get when playing healing classes in any other game. That’s just how I, and a couple of my friends, and apparently many other people, feel.

I just had to learn to accept that and enjoy what IS in this game. And for a healer playstyle fix I’ll simply have to spend time in some other game for a while if I want it.

Having said that I definitely wouldn’t cry one tear, except maybe in joy, if ANet were to somehow introduce a healing focused play-style without ruining the current balance. I just don’t see that happening though.

Omega.1473:

Kalizaar.4729:

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet, but it almost seems like ANet originally intended the player to be able to block attacks. Not only do some mobs actively block attacks to not take damage, but in the Township of Claypool in Queensdale two of the activities are NPCs teaching you to block attacks with a shield and how to attack people that use shields.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Block

There are a ton of abilities that do this. Every class but Necro’s has one.

I’m aware of various abilities that block projectiles or attacks but I guess they all seem more gimicky and temporary than what the various mobs and NPCs in Claypool do where they hunker down behind their shield seemingly at will. I haven’t experimented much with the Warrior though, so maybe they do that?

Anyhow, the current “Block” abilities don’t feel anything like those “lessons” you take in Claypool. Just like the hold and aim lesson for the rifle. I’m just commenting that those lessons kind of feel like at some point in game development there was to be similar mechanics but they were dropped and turned into what we have now. And then they just left those lessons in. shrug

I like this idea! I think I would prefer the morphings were unique rather than existing animals or “monsters”. The look of the morphs could be created to reflect the primary play-style of that particular morph. And of course through traits and stats the play-style can be pushed one way or another.

The process of morphing could come through various means. Magic mutation? Spirit possession? Mad alchemy? Crystals with unique properties?

I kind of like the idea of the mad alchemy. I can picture your character gulping down different colored beakers and then shifting. Reminds me of the Alchemist from Asheron’s Call 2 a bit.

@Poe just out of curiosity how in the world would this type of character concept be anywhere near as offensive to a person as a Super Nazi soldier? I mean to each their own, but that just baffles me!

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet, but it almost seems like ANet originally intended the player to be able to block attacks. Not only do some mobs actively block attacks to not take damage, but in the Township of Claypool in Queensdale two of the activities are NPCs teaching you to block attacks with a shield and how to attack people that use shields.

As a thought exercise and with the intent of researching the possibilities and capabilities of AI it’s a neat idea. Imagine if a game were to host something like that with the understanding that any routines players could come up with would be used for two things:
1. Further the advancement of in-game PvE AI to create more lifelike NPCs and make battle encounters much more fulfilling.
2. Give security programmers a deeper look into how a “bot” might interact with the game, making it easier to stop such activity.

Lately I’ve been mostly PvE but usually I’m more like 60/40 PvE/WvW. I enjoy all aspects of games I play and GW2 really makes that easy.

Keep in mind posting this question in the WvW forum you will most likely get more PvP people answering.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw that girl jumping in the snow without shoes on.

Don’t Char have a national holiday declared for the day all realms legalized catnip?

The cool thing about the word “today” is that every day is today at some point. They should probably clarify if they really meant today today, or tomorrow’s tomorrow’s tomorrow’s today.

Yeah any time I WvW I’m crying in the back of my mind because I know I’m leaving all sorts of loot bags scattered across the scenery.

I remember one time we set up a nice ambush and I was manning an arrow cart, gleefully cackling as I rained terror upon a choke point. My eyes got wider and wider and my smile bigger and bigger as I saw a bunch of loot bags building up around me. Then I died before I could pick any of them up. Ugh… Now I could have exited the arrow cart to pick up the loot but that seemed like a selfish thing to do. Guess I need to learn to be more selfish.

My assumption was that the Zombie part of the WvWvZombie meant that one server would be randomly selected to be the zombies.

Since there is a potential to be 2 servers versus the zombie server, and to actually promote that over WvW (but not exclude it) the zombies would be buffed up to make them a serious threat.

That would be a lot of fun! The WvW would be tempted to fight each other over certain resources, but sometimes they’d have to set aside their differences or the whole map will be overrun by zombies. I’d play that!

Portal wouldn’t be so bad if while in WvW Engineers could repair siege, Guardians could revive a ton of people in a large radius or maybe add some sort of Light based strength to walls/doors or something, Rangers could call on the help of the local wildlife, Necromancers could raise defeated players, Elementalists could set enemy siege engines on fire, Thieves could rapidly transport allies across the map unseen, Warriors could plant banners that provided strong buffs to a whole battlefield, and Mesmers could could portal unlimited people short distances for precision strikes and making golems arrive at unprecedented speeds (oh wait, we have that one already).

What I’m saying is, it would be cool if one specific skill on one class wasn’t the ONLY skill in the game that provided such a large benefit to WvW. So much so that pretty much any battle expects mesmers to provide that service, armies have to spend time searching around a keep because that one skill could be their undoing otherwise, etc. If other classes had some large benefit to WvW then portal wouldn’t seem like such a huge issue.

Then there could be more strategies to develop. More variation in battles than…

Step 1: Portal bomb/be on the look out for portal bomb
Step 2: Hide mesmer in keep/make everyone run around frantically looking for that devious mesmer you know is hiding somewhere after you take the tower/keep

Rinse and repeat…

Bluestone.7106:

Kalizaar.4729:

Or you can have one computer shared by 20 people and all 20 people would be able to log into their own individual accounts on that same computer without issue.

As long as all 20 accounts don’t log in at the same time on the one computer lol. They don’t like multi-boxing :P

True! Important point.

I feel a bit sorry for people that can’t find joy in the act of playing a game, but can only find joy in a game if they know they possess the best virtual items possible.

Critical Brains, GW2 doesn’t care where it’s installed. It only cares who is logging in. You can install a copy on 10 different computers that you own and log in to play on one different computer a day if you like. Or you can have one computer shared by 20 people and all 20 people would be able to log into their own individual accounts on that same computer without issue.

Looks good to me so far! I definitely like the idea of the Breakout event.

Fudge.9527:

Dredlockrasta.8269:

Quit whining, portal bombing is preventable, people are just crappy at playing their classes.

The problem is no one wants to play defensively in this game, everyone runs around with great swords and kitten. One guardian with a 2h hammer can easily prevent an entire zerg portal bomb.

L2P

As a guardian that actually does this, I do want to point out that it’s not as simple as you make it sound because RoW has such a significant delay / cast animation. You have to have very good reaction time, teleport and maybe even stability popped to pull it off.

As for portal being balanced…I’m not really convinced that it is. What other utility skill on a similar CD do other professions have that is just as useful in WvW? Hell, Portal as a utility skill is more useful than any Guardian elite skills.

I also don’t think that a single skill should control how an entire game mode is played. At the very least, it needs a more direct counter (like a ranged, targeted RoW with a radius barely larger than portal’s).

I’m basically of the same mind as you.

I love the idea of the portal ability. However, in a game that prides itself on letting everyone play multiple ways to do the same thing how is it that one ability is so important, so game changing, nearly required, and yet no other class has anything even close to the same utility, and no class has a skill to counter it like everything else in the game?

A character can turn invisible for a short time but easily be killed instantly once they’re visible. A character can turn invincible for a short time but easily be killed once vulnerable. A character can aoe fear a bunch of people for a few seconds and then be killed instantly once it’s over. And then a character can instantly transport an invisible army and easily be killed after but…. uh… There’s a freaking invisible army there now to take revenge!

Where the heck is the rock/paper/scissors there that the rest of the game is based on? That’s now rock/paper/scissors/Ancient Dragon. Now if it was Giant Meteor/Ancient Tome of Mass Death/Greatsword of Complete Annihilation/Ancient Dragon it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Make available” does not mean “Make the only option to play”. I’m not sure how you came to that conclusion that selling the game on Steam would inconvenience anyone. Does selling the game at Walmart inconvenience anyone? Steam is just a store. If you don’t like Steam, buy your games at another store instead.

If GW2 were to become available for purchase on Steam nobody would have to use Steam, but people that DO use Steam might be drawn to buying the game which is good for everyone.

I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if they added more classes in future packs/expansions/gem purchases. The more the merrier! I don’t know that they’d make any class that was focused on support though since that would dangerously approach the trinity that they try so hard to avoid. I’m sure they could bring those classes back though as long as they changed them enough to stick to their “I don’t care how much you like to play a tank, healer or support character, you’re going to play a DPS character and like it!” philosophy.

zoobaby.7804:

Is this Guild Wars or Fashion Wars? Log in and kill some baddies in WvWvW.

Touché!

Basic Armor 101 is all fine and dandy when you’re LARPing, but when you’ve been playing MMOs since the dawn of er… MMOs and are thoroughly Americanized by the countless movies, TV shows, and games that depict bad-kitten looking people in armor without skirts/kilts/etc you get accustomed to certain styles whether they’re wrong or not. Dresses, skirts, kilts, etc. may be proper and more “real”, but it just looks wrong.

Every time I show this game to friends I get asked, “Why do all your characters wear skirts?” And me KNOWING what you say is true already I find myself asking, “Why do all my characters wear skirts??”

I think Mithran is suggesting that it would be nice if it worked that way. I don’t think that it currently does?

Yeah the lower the number of tiles the easier it is to design. I like your idea of having the multiple entry/exits per tile that can be randomly opened/closed to form different paths. If some tiles were designed properly they could even be rotated and/or mirrored when fit together to give the feeling of even more “randomness”.

I’m personally a fan of both tailored, custom maps and of randomly created maps in games. I’m also a fan of options. Currently GW2 has some good tailored, custom maps and with having a few paths we’re given a few options… sort of. FotM now gives us a little bit of randomness, although very limited.

An idea like this though definitely caters to the random, unknown feeling. You wouldn’t be able to tear me away from this if they implemented it!

Erthrak.4039:

Loot is preference over turrets, but if you’re moving, its easy to pick up the wrong thing. Also, in WvW, the loot comes to you (great!) but not in you bag, so if your running (85% of WvW) you may miss your loot all together. It would be great if your loot just went straight in your bag, and flashed what it was, and warns you when your 90% + full instead of just full.

I’d love for there to be an option that I could turn on so that loot just goes directly to my bags without me having to click on it (or repeatedly smash my slowly breaking ‘F’ key). I say “option” though because some people actually enjoy manually clicking bags and stuff and they’d start a riot if it was a mandatory change.

I seem to recall at some point someone in ArenaNet mentioned something about playing the game and not the interface. (or maybe someone else in another game did… anyhow…) Any OPTION provided to a user that lets them focus more on the game play instead of manipulating the interface is a good option. More steps/clicks to produce a result equals BAD. Less steps/clicks to produce a result equals GOOD.

Within reason of course. I have to say that because the next person after me will likely say “Oh sure, how about they just give you one button that has your character instantly ding to level 80 and you win the game and you can just go watch a movie instead!” You know someone is tempted…

These ideas aren’t about automating the entirety of playing the game. We’re talking about streamlining a single repetitive (OMG is it repetitive!! puppy) task that is often annoying, not fun. Repetitive skill activations to create big damage numbers is fun, not annoying. Repetitive ‘F’ smashes to make crappy loot go into your bags that you barely even look at is annoying, not fun.

Would love for dyes to be account-wide, but would even settle for a gem option. Although I suppose that would then dry up some of their current “pay gems for dyes” funds.

I agree on the too many skirts/kilts looking style for men.

Meabh.8417:

whiz.1596:

i would say if your in multiple guilds then each of your guilds should get the influence a player earns or at least a portion of it in some way wither the player Rep’s or not…. 100% influence for the guild your Rep’ing and maybe 50% influence for the ones you arnt at the time.

I actually like this idea. If anything, split influence amongst every guild a player is a member of with a majority going to rep’d guild. Might discourage people from joining too many guilds. shrug

I like this idea as well, although I think it would have to have some more complex logic thrown into it that tracks how much time/effort/influence a player actively provides to X guild. If it was an equal amount to the non-represented guilds people would simply start up a number of empty guilds to act as influence pools for personal guild storage and such.

The game would know that a player belongs to 4 guilds. It tracks the players influence gains and sees that the player gets 75% of their influence in guild A, 20% in guild B, 5% in guild C, and 0% in guild D. If they were to gain 100 influence while representing guild A they would get 100 influence for guild A, and then 50% of that would be split to the other three guilds based on their activity percentages. Guild B would get 20% of that 50 (10 influence), Guild C would get 3 influence, and guild D would get 0 influence.

If the player was representing guild B and got 100 influence, guild B would get the full 100, guild A would get 75% of the 50% split (38 influence), Guild C would again get 3 influence, and guild D would still get 0 influence.

If the player really wanted to work on his personal guild then at least the other guilds would still get some increase.

Of course the 100% for represented/50% for non-represented example here is an arbitrary percentage split and could be adjusted to some other amount.

I would also suggest that if such a system were implemented then also allow guild leadership to see members month-to-date or average influence contributions over a certain time period or whatever. This would let them see who is simply representing for 1 second to stay in a guild and then switching to another guild and who is actually an active member.

Of course this could also lead to elitist guilds (must maintain a 50k influence per blahblah to remain a member!) but that’ll happen in some form anyhow and people that don’t like elitism can easily find non-elitist communities to join.

Nearly every effect in the game can be duplicated by multiple classes. Heals, stealth, run speed, might, etc. is spread out among multiple classes. If you were to remove a single class from the game every skill’s effect can be duplicated by other classes for the most part. The effects that can’t be duplicated (very few) would hardly change any tactic or battle.

An army that consists of every class except Engineers wouldn’t be at any major disadvantage as an opposing army that has every class including Engineers. An army that consists of every class except Rangers wouldn’t be at any major disadvantage as an opposing army that has every class including Rangers. An army… (insert all classes besides Portal)… etc…

If, however, an army that has every class except the ability to portal goes against an army that does have the ability to portal then the army without portal is at a huge disadvantage.

If you were to remove/modify this one specific skill from one specific class (portal) then suddenly combat tactics completely change.

Why is it that one specific skill on one specific class has such a huge effect on battle tactics when any other skill or even a whole class could be removed with hardly any affect on battle tactics?

With how hard ArenaNet strives to make no class truly exceptional compared to every other class does everyone really believe they intended one specific skill, only available on one specific class, to have such a huge effect on the game?

We begged to have some sort of area-loot like other games have to keep us from spamming the poor ‘F’ key into oblivion as well as allowing us to change the loot button to another key to avoid picking up turrets, wooden planks, reviving NPCs, or talking to NPCs while all we really want to do is loot.

Deaf ears.