Guild Wars 2

Empty Sky.6354:

I think you are wrong about time. If it would go on for too long,then you’d be reading posts here,how this game mode is too long. And can you imagine,if game ends up 4vs5 or something and people being stuck in game for 20min+ ? Formus would crash from all the rage.
As it is now,it’s fast paced and I like this. There’s always something to do. And I think its fair (as fair as it can be),that if you wipe whole team or you get wiped,that it’s not insta over for one team. (depending,where fight took place and so on). NPC themselves should be as they are now. Make them too strong and again people will rage,how a NPC is too strong.

There are various opinions on that subject, and while I potentially had a lot of fights this beta that ended way too soon, that might not be the case for everyone.
However, I’m not discussing specific suggestions in this thread.

Hey everyone!
I was very disappointed when I saw the changes made to stronghold.
After the last and first public beta, players were eager to play and were hyped to leave a huge chunk of good feedback.
This thread provided a lot of thoughtful suggestions, and adressed problems/frustrations that a lot of people experienced.
Even I tried my best to explain flawed scenarios and leave feedback:

“When killing an enemy player or even wiping the whole team, it didn’t really affect the match. It didn’t create an opening for the team to make a strong push or even make a strong comeback.
Imagine being pushed all the way back to the lord. The enemy team pushes with all 5 players. Somehow you manage to wipe them all, and rally to their gates for a nice comeback. The intensity would rise, but then you notice that you can’t even make it through the map before the enemy team has all respawned.”

None of these changes were even adressed in the slightest, such changes include:

• No reward for killing players, too short respawn times.
• Matches ending prematurely due to short time limit
• Archers being weak, useless and easily distracted
• Simply doing a PvE-race (lordrush) seemed to be the most viable strategy

A beta shouldn’t simply be a demo to try a rather finished product, and that is what I feel Stronghold is. This second beta won’t bring any new useful feedback for the developers, since none of the previous issues were adressed. Players will once again come up with the same feedback, which means we’re not getting any nearer the goal of a fun and competitve gamemode.

In my opinion this is really disappointing. I thought these tests were used to gather feedback, and actually react/respond to it?
It seems like it’s just a bad way of trying to hype the upcoming expansion.
If you ship the gamemode like this, I can almost guarantee that it won’t be a success. There are too many obvious flaws within its design.

Listen to your playerbase. In the end you are creating the game for them. This is a business, and we’re your customers. We really want to help you and provide feedback, but when it’s obvious you do not listen, our support will quickly fade.

I think it’s safe to assume it won’t get its own queue at this point. When Anet has set their mind on something, they’re too stubborn and proud to change it.

I’d like to know that I’m not alone with this thought!

Valid points. And I totally agree, killing players is not valued at all.
The reason that is, is because of the respawn-time. It’s 15 throughout the whole game.
This makes killing another player useless.
It brings with it another very negative thing, which is comebacks. Wiping the enemy team in a lord fight, just to find out that when you’ve travelled half the mad, the whole team has respawn and pushes for your lord once again.
Happened too often. This was said A LOT with the last feedback, but Anet does not listen to anything.
The game-mode is already set in stone at this point.

How about no one has it? Or just grant all classes 25% increased movement speed permanently. I do agree that it does not make sense for guardians to not have it, but imo it does not even make sense for any class to have it in the first place. Makes swiftness much less impactful, a boon that is already spammable to ridiculous extends.

Alright. I’ll write my initial thoughts and suggestions here.
I’ve always thought having a very powerful heal on the guardian was good thing, especially as an elite. It really allows for clutch-heals and is extremely rewarding if used correctly.
It’s a shame the Tomes are not viable as they are, so changing them is in my opinion a good thing.

Tome Of Courage/Signet of Courage:
I know Signets have a passive effect, which is very core to their design.
But keep in mind that such passives are also very dull, and add very little counter-play. Neither are such passive effects opening up for a lot of opportunistic play, they are very limited in their use and synergy with other skills.

Changing the Tome into simply being Light Of Deliverance is imo a good change though. Makes it much easier to use, and will allow for a lot of great saves. Additionally the animation is very good, and will be very spectator-friendly. It’s a simple mechanic, but it allows for very interesting plays especially in a gamemode like Stronghold.

Consider changing the type, or simply keep the category “Tomes” while still pushing these changes. I think having yet another passive effect will be unhealthy for the game. It’s impossible to account for in competitive games as a spectator.

Tome of Wrath/Feel My Wrath
Thematically it seems to fit quite well, but I’m very sad to see the fifth skill “Judgement” go. Zealot’s Fervor is not a very interesting skill, and will be yet another rather spammable skill. Why not change Tome of Wrath to be something like “Judgement is upon you!” and act like the skill #5 on Tome of Wrath now.
Guardians already lack CC, so this would also be a good way to grant them some. A heavy damaging AoE knockdown could be used in various scenarios.
I would suggest giving the shout a slight casting time (differs from other shouts, I know but it IS an Elite Shout), and a minor telegraph (could be the character stomping the ground while shouting).

If you dislike that idea, I would suggest changing the mechanic of the shout entirely.
My alternative suggestion would be:
Grant allies increased damage (~20%) and a chance to stun enemies on hit (or another secondary effect) for a period of time.
Already plenty of fury going on, we don’t need another source. Furthermore, guardians already have an elite that grants fury if traited. And quickness is fine, but I’m afraid your suggestion would collide with skills such as Time Warp.

I think that’s it!
Feel free to ask any questions.

Vizardlorde.8243:

KrisHQ.4719:

Traps are one of the most dull skill-types you could ever implement.
You throw them on the ground, hoping that someone are going to run into them.
I don’t see how this allows for any kinds of interesting play. Furthermore, people who chooses to play guardian, do it because they usually dislike what Traps represent.
And they even want to push the trapper/condi guardian with traits?
Even more kittened random condi-pressure that makes absolutely no sense?
Objectively this is extremely bad for the game. Sure some might think traps are fine, but that’s not my point, and it’s okay to think that. But it’s definitely not going to help the meta/gameplay.

The new virtues however sound like an improvement, they allow for greater utility and different playstyles, rather than simply granting boons or heal.

I know Anet by now, and the specialization is at this point pretty much set in stone, and as they release them they just hope people are going to like it.
I’m almost a 100% sure it will NOT get changed.
And that will be a huge disaster.

or you know throw it under their feet like every other targeted aoe…

At least ranger traps will be changed to have a preparation time, would be weird if that change didnt apply to guards as well.
If it does not. Simply “throwing” them (because you don’t just place traps, then they could just as well have been consecrations) on the enemy is still dull as ever.
Very few people like using spammable ground-targeted skills that apply random boons/conditions, because they’re very limited in their use. Heart Of Thorns was ArenaNets chance to do something new, giving guardians traps is a bad decision.

Traps are one of the most dull skill-types you could ever implement.
You throw them on the ground, hoping that someone are going to run into them.
I don’t see how this allows for any kinds of interesting play. Furthermore, people who chooses to play guardian, do it because they usually dislike what Traps represent.
And they even want to push the trapper/condi guardian with traits?
Even more kittened random condi-pressure that makes absolutely no sense?
Objectively this is extremely bad for the game. Sure some might think traps are fine, but that’s not my point, and it’s okay to think that. But it’s definitely not going to help the meta/gameplay.

The new virtues however sound like an improvement, they allow for greater utility and different playstyles, rather than simply granting boons or heal.

I know Anet by now, and the specialization is at this point pretty much set in stone, and as they release them they just hope people are going to like it.
I’m almost a 100% sure it will NOT get changed.
And that will be a huge disaster.

Black Box.9312:

KrisHQ.4719:

I think you have some fair points. Nothing much to discuss in regards to your trait comments. However, making Tomes like kits? No. No. No.
Having more classes that can more or less spam their skills like Ele and Engineer is not the way to go.
I would much rather that the #5 and #4 skills were actually useful, and I believe they can be with a few tweaks.
For insance, “Light Of Deliverance” should have a much shorter cast time, especially since equipping the tome also has a cast time.
It is literally impossible to time that skill, since GW2 is rather fast paced.
But being in the dilemma “Do I use my Tome now and go for the heal or do I save for later?” is REALLY healthy for GW2, and in my opinion we need more of these decisions to make.
Atm people just spam their elites; popping signet of rage whenever off cooldown, Renewed Focus whenever taking dmg, using Entangle to cleanse conditions.
Doesn’t really feel like an elite..?

You wouldn’t be able to spam skills. The idea would be that you could access the tome at any time, however the tome’s sub-abilities would have higher cooldowns to compensate. That way you aren’t locked into the current all-or-nothing predicament that it currently faces, let alone the whole “being a transformation and eliminating your utilities and virtues” predicament they face in their current form.

But having to decide if now is the right time, what you call “all or nothing predicament” is extremely healthy for the game. The game is already way too fast paced, with classes more or less spamming their skills constantly. It’s always better just to spam your abilities, rather than wait for the right moment.
And yes, this a slight exaggeration, but my point still stands.

I think you have some fair points. Nothing much to discuss in regards to your trait comments. However, making Tomes like kits? No. No. No.
Having more classes that can more or less spam their skills like Ele and Engineer is not the way to go.
I would much rather that the #5 and #4 skills were actually useful, and I believe they can be with a few tweaks.
For insance, “Light Of Deliverance” should have a much shorter cast time, especially since equipping the tome also has a cast time.
It is literally impossible to time that skill, since GW2 is rather fast paced.
But being in the dilemma “Do I use my Tome now and go for the heal or do I save for later?” is REALLY healthy for GW2, and in my opinion we need more of these decisions to make.
Atm people just spam their elites; popping signet of rage whenever off cooldown, Renewed Focus whenever taking dmg, using Entangle to cleanse conditions.
Doesn’t really feel like an elite..?

Lordrosicky.5813:

If these games ever go to time then it is a total fail. And I mean EVER. If they want a 15 minute time level they need to make npcs progressively stronger to ensure the game finishes.

You are a wise man, sir.

WvW competitive. Now that has got to be the best April Fools joke.

I see your concern about the defending zerg grouping up at one capture point.
I think the reason I overlooked it is because people never really defend. To my experience, it’s almost always the attackers that arrive first, and then the defenders come to defend afterwards.
However, you’re right in that there is not much incentive for the defending zerg to really split up. It might be more efficient for them to zerg the capture points one by one.

MY IDEA HAS BEEN REWORKED AND THE ORIGINAL POST HAS BEEN UPDATED

ORIGINAL IDEA HAS BEEN UPDATED
You can simply read the new iteration, everything should be explained

Hello everyone!
I tuned in to watch the new Desert Borderlands on Ready Up today, and overall I really like the design, it’s a beautiful environment. I don’t feel I can really comment on how it plays out, before I see and play it myself.
However, one thing I noticed was that every keep and tower only had one capture point.
It’s a thing that has been bothering me a lot about the Alpine Borderlands (and Eternal Battlegrounds), the fact that there are not multiple capture points in the large keeps.
Right now, a whole zerg of 30-80 people stand in the same small circle when capturing a keep or tower. To defend the tower, the defending zerg has to run into that same small circle to battle it out in an unfortunately laggy anti-climactic fight.

Some of the better large scale fights I’ve had in WvW, has been where the keep walls were down for a very long time, while dominance constantly shifted. This mostly happens when it’s a three-way fight, and the extremely large groups somehow gets split up. Bringing in multiple capture-points, that has to be capped simultaneously would force the zerg to split up, and therefore create a better opportunity for defending and having that intense fight for control.

Iteration 2.0 to address certain flaws: (Update)

Baldrick.8967:

OP’s suggestion makes defending too easy- just have all your forces stand on one point, whilst the attackers have to split to cap. then if they all come for you, send a recap team to take one of the other spots.

A legitimate problem to my suggestion was brought to light by Baldrick and others. So I discussed this with a friend and we came up with an interesting idea, that we hope would bring the dynamic fights of this vision to a reality.

For the sake of keeping this simple, let’s use Stonemist Castle as an example throughout the explanation:
Instead of the single capture point we have now, there would be three in total. Two additional points, one on the second floor and another at the top floor.
This has not changed, but to prevent the defending zerg from simply guarding one of the points imagine if you simply needed to control a majority of the points.

The new capture system would work like this:
The three capture points start in a neutral state, and function much like one node split into three. This means, that all progress in one node adds to the overall progress.
If there are no defenders, the attackers can still capture the keep standing in only one node. This is legit as long as the two other points are still in the neutral state. To capture you simply need to stand in the node without any defenders, it will add to the overall capture-score, like it is now. You do not need to capture it before it starts progressing. If a defender stands in one of the other nodes, the battle for progress will be a tie. A contested point with an ongoing fight functions like a neutral point.

Exemplary situation:
1 – Attackers, 1 – Defenders, 1 – Neutral.
The attackers now have three options, they can:

1. Capture the neutral point, which will give the attackers two points and the defenders one. This adds capping-progress for the attackers.
2. Kill off the defenders, capture that point and keep the last neutral.
3. Kill off the defenders and cap all three points.

The more points you have in your favor, will add to the capping speed. You gain +1 to your capping speed for each node you control. So controlling all three nodes will grant a rate of +3, controlling two nodes will grant +2 etc.
This also applies for defending, however just as it functions now, you simply just decrease/remove the capping progress from the attackers.

This will ensure that defenders can’t just guard one of the points anymore. If they do, the attackers can send small squads to capture the remaining neutral points. This would then force the defending zerg to split up. I imagine this would create very dynamic and intense fights, with a lot of possibilites for smaller groups to have an impact on the fight. Should there be no defenders, the progress would be exactly like it is now.

Now is the time for such feedback, if we hope to see it implemented or at least brought it to the test with HoT and the new Desert Borderland. I could even be implented for a limited testing period, just like removing the white swords from objectives.
What are your thoughts? Would it be good, or do you like how it is now?
Most importantly: Why?

Secret question for Anet:
Have you tried this internally? Seems a bit too obvious a thing not to have been tested.
If yes, why didn’t it work out? What problems did you face?

- Kris

I reaaaaally hope they do this. This way people are not afraid of missing out on loot if they do not zerg.

Even if the trebuchet is functioning like Khylo, we gotta ask ourselves the questions:
- Is it fun to use?
- Is it fun to watch?
I can’t put a check mark in either of those boxes. I don’t think it’s fun to use, and I don’t want to watch others use it.
I know that Khylo is used as a competitive map, but to be honest I think most players would like to be without the treb.
Why follow the same path of Khylo instead of trying to improve the game?

Greetings everyone!
Been a while since I’ve posted anything on here, but I’d really like to discuss this matter and shed some light on it.
ArenaNet has announced a new sPvP mode, which is great and really appreciated. It seems like a mix of GvG, Fort Aspenwood and a little sip of MOBA, which could potentially be a great combination!

So what is the problem?

Trebuchets. I cannot be the only one who thinks this is a big mistake. Manning siege is very uninteresting and requires very little skill, which is not great for a competitive gamemode. Nobody wants to be the one guy forced to use siege, and limited to using only 3 abilites – two of them being rotational. Furthermore, they are extremely frustrating to use because they take ages to rotate. Holding down #1 or #3 for 5 seconds while your allies battle for the win is so demeaning.

There is a possbility that the trebuchets are not manned by players but NPCs. This could be achieved by hiring them with supply or gaining their assistance by completing other objectives on the map. This would be a much better solution, and the trebuchets would function more similarly to towers in Dota 2. Just imagine having to actually man the towers in MOBA’s. I shiver from the thought.

I’d like to hear other opinions on the matter, and if you agree, let’s hope the word reaches Anet before they ship HoT.

#Saynotosiege

Hello!
I am writing this on behalf of a friend, who cannot access the forums nor the game.
After a break on roughly a year, he came back to find his account terminated. Upon login he received the following message:

“Your Guild Wars 2 account has been terminated due to botting, extended unattended play, using macros, or similar behavior. Attempting to automate gameplay through any means or attempting to circumvent idle-time restrictions in any way is in violation of the User Agreement and Rules of Conduct. The account closure is permanent.”

I cannot guarantee his account has not been used for such purposes, but I find it highly unlikely since I don’t remember seeing him online, I would take notice of that.
He submitted a ticket approximately 6 days ago, but has yet to receive a response.

Ticket ID: 1213710

It would be kittened not to lock all of the expansion content.
It’s even fairly easy to do. You can’t enter the new maps and skills/masteries are locked.
Imo what ArenaNet should do though is sell a “PvP Pack” that unlocks Heart Of The Mists/World vs. World maps as well as all gamemodes and skills/traits, but prevents players from going into PvE. I’d imagine people could either upgrade to this if they own the existing game for a lower price, or buy it with a higher price if you do not own either of the games.

Straylight.7529:

KrisHQ.4719:

Straylight.7529:

KrisHQ.4719:

I dont get it, someone enlighten me: Why do people want LA to be rebuilt?

“Theory of mind – the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others to understand that other people have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one’s own.”

I hope you are enlightened now

That didn’t really answer my question, did it?
I do acknowledge that there are people who want it rebuilt. Thing is; you don’t even know if I share that view, so your hasted White Knight-response is faulty. I dont mind either of the citites.
Please do try to explain why people want it back instead.

No, I didn’t answer your question on purpose in the hope you might do it yourself. I can think of several reasons why people might want LA to be rebuilt. Can you?
I’m not a White Knigh. I’m not defending anything.

No, I can’ actually, that is why I am asking.
Why would I spend my time asking a question if I already knew the answer?
I can assume something, but there might be something I’m missing.

Straylight.7529:

KrisHQ.4719:

I dont get it, someone enlighten me: Why do people want LA to be rebuilt?

“Theory of mind – the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others to understand that other people have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one’s own.”

I hope you are enlightened now

That didn’t really answer my question, did it?
I do acknowledge that there are people who want it rebuilt. Thing is; you don’t even know if I share that view, so your hasted White Knight-response is faulty. I dont mind either of the citites.
Please do try to explain why people want it back instead.

I dont get it, someone enlighten me: Why do people want LA to be rebuilt?

Would make sense to do a Paragon type, but that would require a Spear, and atm we don’t know if any NEW weapons will be introduced. Furthermore, it’s already an underwater weapon.
It would be nice since guardian is lacking in the ranged department. Also, if spears are one handed like in GW1 a Warhorn would also fit nicely with it.
If not then I suspect we might see a Longbow on guards.

Hmm. The Reaven.. I think I missed that part.

I remember that approximately 1½ year ago, I made a post about the lack of Concept Art Cinematics. It felt like you had strayed from that path, and we didn’t really see any of them for a long time.
Obviously your decision was not based on my silly post, but I am extremely happy that those cinematics have made a strong comeback.
I was on TS while watching and we all agreed they were both epic.

Good job!

I can only agree that if GW2 wants to achieve something in the competitive scene, it needs to be exciting to watch. – GW2 is simply not right now.

“Well. I love watching it. It’s just personal preference, how can you say that it’s not exciting?”

Very simple. I just look at the views on twitch to see how many people are interested. And the number is decreasing.

However, the problem is not only the celestial meta. I don’t like this meta either, since imo it does not promote teamfights/team-interaction but rather a lot of small duels around the map. Scattering all the fights like this is also very difficult to track as a shoutcaster, hence getting bad footage for viewers.

That said; We also gotta realize that GW2 has never been exciting to watch.
This is despite the fact, that the game is one of the mechanically smoothest games out. It has decent graphics and a reasonable price. So what is wrong?
Every single meta we’ve had has lacked “big plays”. The closest I can think of are Lord Rushes and some “Mass Invisibility” bursts back in the Team Paradigm days.

Simply changing the meta won’t help the game. People will stop whining for a few days, and then the circle will continue.
A lot of skills needs reworking to be active/interaction based rather than instacasts with no visible effect like “Shouts”, “Stances” etc.
A good place would be to start with Elite Skills, and then move on to utilities.

When you introduced the new healing skills, it was a step in the right direction.
Defiant Stance and Litany of Wrath are much more exciting than “Healing Signet” and “Shelter” which are skills with no counter-play. They are simply ALWAYS working.
But since the new healing skills were not used because they were inferior to the “always working” passive skills, you strayed from that path, which imo is a bad decision.
Shifting the game, rather than the meta takes time, you gotta believe it and stick with it.

TLDR; Problem with GW2’s success is not the meta alone. Changing it won’t help the game achieve a place in the competitive scene.

I agree.
Avoiding dublicate professions might even be counter-productive.
For instance:

Team 1:
Warrior – Using a tanky shout build
Guardian – Support AH build
Ranger – BM / Conditank
Engineer – Rather tanky turret enginner
Necromancer – Terrormancer

Team 2:
Guardian – Medi Guard
Guardian – Suppot Guard
Ranger – Pew Pew
Ranger – BM / Conditank
Warrior – Hambow

Even though there are two pairs of dublicates on team 2, their roster has a more balanced setup. Since some professions can fulfill multiple roles.
It’s fine that it’s accounted for, but as Lordrosicky said, it shouldn’t be a priority.

robertul.3679:

I thought you cared about pvp though. Esports and all that. But:
1)Maps. Skyhammer?? Spirit watch?? Courtyard?? Those belong in soloq also known as yoloq for obvious reasons. They are horribly unbalanced and broken hence it was a smart thing to keep them away from the real pvp that is supposed to be teamq. Well not anymore. Courtyard is the worst offender obviously since you rolfstomp the enemy team. They can’t even afk because dishonor so basically they have to stay there for 15min and die over and over. Not frustrating at all!

2)No more doing anything else while you wait for your queue to pop. No more 1vs1 on private servers or hotjoin, no more map completion or whatever else. Just staying in the mists and map chat. Amazing! Thank god with bank you can cosplay a bit at least.

1) These maps are only available off-season in ranked arena. Which is now. They will otherwise be withdrawn.

2)What do you do when you queue in other games? CS:GO, Dota, Smite etc? You can’t play with bots meanwhile either. Just Alt+Tab and do something else, you’ll get a notification when it’s ready.

Not signing this.

Oh. So you can basically get a 50% winrate?
That must be very nice for you

They should just add Team Deathmatch 5v5 and 3v3 as a seperate gamemode, and then make it a 100% clear that they will NOT balance the game around it in any way.
Otherwise Anet has to balance for two very different gamemodes, stealth and full-bunker teams would suddenly become good. So IF they choose to implement it, people need to know that it won’t be balanced at all, and should be fine with it.

I played against you in Courtyard, and can confirm that we were indeed 3 mates.
However, I don’t think we should judge the system yet, since it needs to balance itself out.
It should work fine, it does in Dota and CS:GO. You rarely meet a fully premade as a pug (never happened before), and two people queueing together shouldn’t be a big deal if the matchmaking is working properly.
The problem in our match was the MM. I believe our “team-rating” was much higher than yours.

Don’t really care about it, but I did notice the font was a little too big.

uberkingkong.8041:

China wont win, they have Nocturne Z on there team right? He’s a mid tier player and use to play NA, if you have 1 mid tier player and 4 top tier going up against teams with 5 top tier players than the odds aren’t in your favor.

Top tier.. lol. You mean the Celementalists running around spamming their skills?

SaintSnow.6593:

So classes interacting to further the utility or damage of a skill. Like powerrangers all jumping into a large mech suit to destroy kitten. As good as this sounds on paper, it would be honestly too much and frankly too good.

Yes, this could be one way to achieve it.
Another simple example to showcase what I mean could be:
Plague Form:
Become a virulent cloud that cripples enemies and amplify damage they take by 30% (number is irrelevant).
This skill would be extremely bad alone, which Plague Form now currently isn’t, since it lets you stay alive for an extra 20 seconds.
It would be a skill that depended on interaction with other skills, and if used correctly it could be devastating.
Imagine how it would combo with the reworked Dagger Storm or Tornado (see OP).

Definitely. Too many classes have way too easy access to vigor.
Dodges are incredibly strong and having the luxury of permanent vigor makes people spam them. This is not good for the game, because it promotes lucky dodges rather than thoughtful ones.
I’m hoping the vigor-traits will get changes again at some point.

@SaintSnow
I dont want to change everything to be team-oriented. There has be solo/duel specs that are very selfish. This adds variety to the game, and allows people to solo roam in WvW and what not. It’s good.
However, there has to be ways for teams to really coordinate some great plays. This has been done very few times with for instance Portal, and even Mass Invisibility. I’m from the days where Illusion Of Life was meta, and there were actually some great plays with it. It really needs a good setup to be useful, else you’re just wasting a 130s CD.

As have already been explained, simply because a skill affects allies it does not necessarily promote teamwork (interaction between allies), and this the key point of this post. Shouts are great examples of such skills. They affects allies and grant support in form of boons and condition removal, but there is no way your allies can interact with them.

You mention Supply Crate, but I’ll still argue that it does not promote any teamwork or coordination. The skill is very strong; that’s true, but when you’ve played it, the support simply comes from AI standing on the ground. Neither your allies or opponents can react to it in any way.
It does grant support, but it does not promote coordination and teamwork.
Hope I made things clearer.

Prysin.8542:

the only way to “Bring teamwork” to this game, is to find someone willing to play with you.

In short, make friends, play together, enjoy the game together and finally, succeed together. It is the only way to get teamwork.

Well, there is a “shortcut”. It’s called “Teamspeak”. And even in pug groups, it goes a long way in improving even the worst of individual players.

I rarely play alone, so I definitely have experience playing with a team.
However, there are still very few skills that actually require any real coordination.
One of the few skills that actually needs coordination is Portal, which is indeed a very interesting skill. This post is a suggestion to bring GW2 in a direction where such skills are not one out of ten. A good way to start would be with elites, since a lot of them are extremely egocentric, yet they all have a great foundation for such changes.

@Shockwave
Yes, you are right. Those skills are the ones that comes closest to requiring coordination. A skill such as Lich Form is merely used for straight up damage purposes though. It would be great if it actually had a few of the skills changed, that would allow it for even greater coordinated setups, and interesting plays.

Shockwave.1230:

KrisHQ.4719:

You can reach the full potential of all these skills in a solo-situation, which is what I want to avoid. I want skills that become extremely powerful if they are coordinated well within the team, and may be lacking in a solo situation or without a proper setup.

The full potential of the skills I listed is achieved when synchronizing them with your team. The results are simply more potent when used in team situations as I described, as opposed to when used individually.

So placing a Fiery Greatsword is synchonizing with your team? Renewed Focus reaching it’s full potential by coordinating its use? How would you do that?
Even so, skills like Supply Crate are even stronger the less players around, which means it actually loses potential if you’re with your team.
I’m sorry. I just don’t see the current coordination it takes.

But there is still very limited synergy and/or team-coordination.
Basilisk Venom is mainly used whenever it’s off cooldown, and simply as an extra stun for a better burst. There is no synergy with any skills. You can set up a burst with any other stun or immobilizing skill.

Fiery Greatsword can be dropped for your allies to pick, but that’s it. Doesn’t require any form of coordination, and still just used for mobility.

Renewed Focus is used simply as a panic-button, yes you get a few boons from your virtues, but you don’t need to set it up with your team. Do it whenever and it’s all good.

Supply Crate can be used to stun and interrupt which is nice. Aside from the stun the support is mainly just AI or packs you can pick up. No need to coordinate anything with your team.

Tornado. Let’s get realistic here, nobody uses it aside from a few people in skyhammer. Yes it can be used to interrupt stomps or resses, but still has no synergy and requires no teamwork to be useful.

You can reach the full potential of all these skills in a solo-situation, which is what I want to avoid. I want skills that become extremely powerful if they are coordinated well within the team, and may be lacking in a solo situation or without a proper setup.

Tome of Courage:
Currently a very interesting skill. Allows the guardian to get 5 new skills which could potentially be a huge deal, but it isn’t. Why not? Because for the #5 skill to have any use, it would as a minimum take 5-1/4 seconds to get it off. 1 second to channel the tome itself, 4-1/4 to actually channel the heal. Nobody can think 5 seconds into the future and magically time a perfect heal, it’s simply not going to happen. Another factor is that, for some classes getting fully healed is really not a big deal. They could potentially be insta-gibbed the second after, especially because the tome is most likely used when already in a very difficult situation. Give the tome channel a ½ second cast-time and the heal approximately 2 seconds. Additionally grant every ally 1-2 second invulnerability. The invulnerability could also be the #3rd skill, which shoots out in a cone, making it slightly more difficult to use (which is good).
This new skill could function as a counter to the new combo that I just introduced before. The guardian could potentially save his whole team from wiping, by using a stunbreak or having stability and then go for the heal. Keep in mind that the heal can obviously still be interrupted without stability, if you’re fast enough; 2½ seconds should be enough time. Even existing skills that see little or limited play will probably get used even more often. If a warrior survived or joined the fight later, he could ress his whole team with Warbanner. A Mesmer could use Illusion Of Life with potentially HUGE outcome, Time Warp would become extremely interesting in this scenario and even the warrior healing ability “Defiant Stance” could get some play.

Think about how Entangle, Tome of Wrath and Plague Form could all be extremely exciting skills with very little effort. Instead they are now getting spammed and EASILY countered (Entangle), or function as selfish “I will survive this kitten”-skills (Plague Form).
The skills that I have changed would also benefit PvE, since Tornado could now be used on large groups of mobs for greater AoE-cleave instead of pushing them away making it more difficult. Tome Of Courage could (as in PvP) do extremely nice clutches and saves.

To keep the post from getting any longer, I won’t post any more specific suggestions. But keep in mind that these changes could potentially be totally different if Anet has other ideas. It’s the general concept behind the skills that I think would benefit the game – It’s a direction more than specific suggestions. Higher risk/reward and more coordination between teams. GW2 needs to be more about teamplay and less about winning duels by sustaining yourself.

If you actually read everything, then I salute you! Leaving a comment is the best you can do if you agree, and even if you disagree I’d really appreciate if you would leave a comment that argues why.

Hey fellow players!

This post is going to concentrate on a vision for Guild Wars 2. Something to strive for to make Guild Wars 2 a better game, with hopefully bigger success; especially competitively. However, with each suggestion I will try to keep in mind that we have two other games modes as well. The foundation for every change will be already existing skills and features, to limit the amount of extra work required to make this work. Hopefully, this direction will set the standard for future content and features. To keep the post as short as possible, I will only talk about very few specific skills, but the general way of thinking could be applied to other skills currently in the game.

So what do I want to change and how?
The title briefly hints and what I want to change in GW2, which is teamplay and coordination between players. And how is that going to be achieved? Well, that is in fact not that difficult, since I believe there is already a very nice existing foundation for it. Let’s have a look at some of the current viable elite skills:

Basilisk Venom:
Short cooldown skill. Extremely selfish and does not allow for any synergy with other players.
Fiery Greatsword:
Basically used as a movement-tool. Does not allow for any synergy or teamplay.
Renewed Focus:
Used on both support and DPS guardian. Extremely selfish, does not allow teamplay.
Signet Of Rage:
Grants basic buffs and nothing more. No synergy.
Supply Crate:
Mostly used as an “I win”-button for duels. Brings a little support, but nothing that adds synergy.

Okay. So as you can see, a lot of the current meta elites are very selfish and stale. They do not allow interesting gameplay – Let’s get to the point. I will take some of the currently non-viable elite skills, and change them in a way that showcases my vision.

Tornado:
This skill is currently unviable, since what it does it actually what you would want it NOT to do, it pushes players or mobs away. This is making it MORE difficult for your team/party to do anything, so it’s extremely selfish. I want Tornado to actually draw enemies closer to it’s center (much like a tornado actually does), the closer you are to the center the more damage you take and the slower you move. It should be static, so you would actually have to set it up properly before use. Now the skill could actually make a difference in teamfights, if you coordinate it well with your team. How to coordinate it and how to counter-play it, we’ll get to later. The skill already has a great animation and is well telegraphed (even the power-up), no extra work would be required on the animation-part.

Dagger Storm:
Another Elite Skill that is telegraphed extremely well, with a nicely done animation. Unfortunately it is not viable at the moment. I would change the skill to have a higher cooldown and remove the bleed-stacks. The cripple could stay, since it does not make any significant difference. I would increase the base damage, and additionally give the skill a life-leech which would also function as a damage boost. Nothing more really needs to be done. Why would I do this? I would do this to simply increase the damage, thus making the skill something with a significant role in teamfights. The life-leeching has two functions: Thieves are squishy and need some way to stay alive if they cannot stealth. With life-leech the thief would be much better suited to survive a teamfight should the enemy team use retaliation. Retaliation would otherwise simply be too easy a counter.

You can probably already imagine how a coordinated team could use these two new elites with great synergy. An elementalist uses Tornado and grabs 4 enemy players, thief instantly pops Dagger Storm. This may seem imba, like a “win-combo” with no counters. So let’s look at ways to actually react to this new combo.

CONTINUED

Do #2 in a teamfight while everyone has retaliation.
Then tell me again how imba the skill is.

infantrydiv.1620:

This data looks pretty normal to me, definitely see more Engies than any other profession in Solo queue. I’d assume that it’s because of the extreme intricacy and difficulty of Engineer gameplay that draws so many Solo queue players to this class.

lol. I see what you did there!

Chungie.. Be grateful for your Llama!

Interesting data, nice work!
What is actually pretty fun to see, is that Engineer and Elementalist is obviously the top used professions atm.
Why is that obvious? Because they are easily the strongest professions right now.

The grammar.. My.. Eyes.. Halp!

What is this thread doing in the Structured PvP sub-forum? :s

In terms of straight up dmg, the warrior will be better.
But in Fractals the guardian can be extremely useful with reflects/destroying projectiles.

This has been discussed so many times.
Start with nerfing Rune Of Strength and Hoelbrak, since those runes are used by literally anyone anyway.
The might-duration is simply too much when you add the 30% from traits. The duration is base 20s from Sigil Of Battle and Fire Field Blasts, which is already long enough. Reduce some of the might stacking, and maybe shave some of the condition damage received from every might-stack.
If this does not work, well, then give the amulet a hit.

There is nothing wrong with having static abilities.
They help reduce the amount of spam that is already in GW2.
And they have a use against melee opponents, so I don’t find it a problem at all.