Guild Wars 2

WasAGuest.4973:

Option to hide all particle effects other than our own. – During the common zergs, it’s nearly impossible to see our targets with the “Flash and Flair” or over the top particles and crazy looking backpieces.

Being able to actually see what mobs are doing during events would make them so much more fun!

My friends and I are having fun duo/trio/quartet’ing dungeons. While we do use predominantly Berserker gear most of the time, we enjoy swapping weapons, traits, and skills all the time.

We’re pretty casual, so it’s possible dungeons could still be reduced to boring static stack-fests by hardcore players even down a few people, but I honestly wonder if the main problem might just be that dungeons are simply too easy for 5 people.

Kinda surprised A-net hasn’t bothered to acknowledge this list at all. Hopefully they’ll implement some of the easier ones, at least.

1) There’s no need to place an arbitrary word count limit on concise, informative posts.

2) A voting system seems like unnecessary ‘bureaucracy’ (for lack of a better term). You guys can just base the topics on what players seem to be interested in. If one topic doesn’t generate much interest, then go another direction for the next topic.

Good post OP, makes sense.

I liked the idea someone had about emphasizing condition damage against certain mobs or during certain phases.

Also, they should add more unavoidable damage to the existing encounters.

Just those two relatively simple changes would probably make Berserker’s gear much less prevalent without touching its stats at all. It would also make dungeons more dynamic and encourage better team play.

For years before GW2, I thought to myself, “If I could somehow make an MMO, I’d make one completely focused on having fun without a dumb grind!” Arenanet actually got the chance to do that, but they quickly discovered that it just doesn’t work, and they had to start adding grindy mechanics in order to retain a playerbase.

I don’t blame the players, though. A successful MMO has to provide players with thousands of hours of entertainment. I don’t care how amazing your game’s content or systems are, it’s going to get boring after thousands of hours. The grind is what keeps people interested.

Fortus.6175:

If it became harder/easier would you appreciate it more/less?

I’d be impressed if you had to be really good at the game to get them.

Age of Conan isn’t target-less, but it had realistic AE arcs and dodging and more in 2008, heh.

For starters, I’d tell them to fix their dungeon mechanics and provide an API for websites to track all sorts of stats (fastest dungeon clears, ect.).

Siphaed.9235:

Lymain.6723:

I have a hard time getting into Living World events because they kinda feel tacked on to me. I’d be a lot more excited to try a new, permanent, difficult, and rewarding dungeon.

Hmmm,….I’m wondering if at all you’ve done the F&F Molten Weapons Facility, or the recent (and still open) Aetherblade Retreat? Because both were difficult and rewarding. AR is very, very difficult, and the rewards are at least 1 rare at the end, 1 gold, possibility of the Monocle (I so want!), and whatever the mid-boss drops. I’ve also received 3x Jade Weapon Tickets from all the coffers that have dropped for me in there (2 on one run!).

No, I haven’t done those. As I said, I have a hard time getting into these events. When I have forced myself into it (Wintersday, Southsun), I haven’t been impressed with the dungeons at all. Maybe I’ll give Aetherblade Retreat a try.

I have a hard time getting into Living World events because they kinda feel tacked on to me. I’d be a lot more excited to try a new, permanent, difficult, and rewarding dungeon.

Waffler.1257:

I picture Maguuma as Archie Bunker from All in the Family, while TC is definitely Marie Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond. Seriously, try reading some of the TC posts in her voice, it’s spot on.

Bahahaha! Perfect.

And by the way, I haven’t even logged into this matchup. Longer queues with all the fair weather nubs + fewer objectives/goals to go after…why bother? No idea how Arenanet thought this matchup was a good idea.

SoS pushed SoR’s castle when it looked like SoR was going to take our keep ~10 hours ago.

/hi5 SoS

iBlasiannn.4279:

I like the points you’re making, but I’m guessing this is only from the sPvP perspective, as thief in PvE/WvW is much different than thief in sPvP. Some of your suggestions are great, but would provide problems with balance in mainly WvW as the other source of PvP within the game.

Yes, this is obviously an sPvP thread.

I don’t sPvP much, in part because of sPvP specific nerfs like 4s revealed and CnD damage. Are those nerfs still necessary? I hope not.

Then am I correct to assume that everything stacks that doesn’t say “total”?

If the info is outdated, this should maybe be unstickied.

Matt Witter.6982:

Q: Do multiple levels of 1 ability stack together?
A: The only 2 lines that persist are the Cannon Mastery and Ballista Mastery lines. This means that if you purchase 3 levels of Cannon Mastery you will strip a boon from players, increase your damage, and apply more bleed stacks.
The other 6 lines replace their previous versions. If you purchase 3 levels of Siege Might you will have a total of 3% increased siege damage, not 6%. We are looking into the messaging of these two types and will improve it in future builds.

Does this mean that the 8th rank of Defense Against Guards only grants Retaliation but overwrites the defense bonuses earlier in the line? The descriptions of these ranks still needs major improvements. Based on the descriptions, it looks like the damage reduction from guards is the only thing that does not stack.

From what I’ve seen, SoR seems to use siege weapons significantly more than I’m used to. And really, just from playing a few hours, I’ve been struck by how coordinated they are in general. No offense to SoS, but I was similarly struck by how un-coordinated they were at the beginning of last week’s matchup. So basically, I disagree with the OP.

What Jaycat said. Also, you may wanna try Roll for Initiative instead of Blinding Powder (at least if you’re not using Withdraw…and I guess maybe you are).

If I’m CnD’ing off your clones, shatter them when my stealth is expiring (usually every 3-4 seconds).

I really enjoy fighting Mesmers as a Thief because there’s a lot of cat and mouse stuff that goes on, but I usually feel like I have the upper hand. Staff is good for the defensive abilities, but if they stick with it, the lack of CCs and damage on the weapon means I’m never really in any danger.

The “carrot” is ultimately about giving players a feeling of competency. There’s nothing wrong with that. We always want to feel like we’re good at what we do, and that’s perfectly healthy.

If GW2 is able to improve upon/reinvent the “hamster wheel” system commonly used in MMOs, that would be great. Obviously, there’s room for improvement there. However, I feel that this game currently does a poor job of making you feel accomplished/competent (but it has improved since launch).

Jscull.2514:

one thing about our group and a couple other smaller man guilds we know is the points system, capturing towers/camps/keeps/ whatever hasnt been fun after the 100th time taking something. We find enjoyment in fighting peoples best efforts on the field…using the open world platform to roam, best position our group for a fight, while giving ourselves the best advantages to win. Like the guy said, “there is a sense of whats over the hill” in wvw that IS NOT in spvp. We enjoy the random chance, the no time limit, the no kill limit.

/agree

And to add to that, you can set your own objectives in WvW each play session even if you don’t really care much about PPT. One night you might be picking off people from a zerg that’s occupied with another zerg/siege while the next night you’re taking/defending camps from other groups while the next night you’re roaming around ganking people. It’s much more of a sandbox style of play than sPvP.

Mezo makes some good points, but I don’t see why raising/removing the damage AE cap and doing something about revives (add revive sickness, or just force them to waypoint) would hurt anything. Large groups would still have the advantage in a head on fight, but it wouldn’t be amplified by those two mechanics.

HawkMeister.4758:

Edit: and agreed with the above poster, WvW is your key to actual longevity and a fiercely loyal userbase, not constantly rushed “GW2-soap” content.
See EVE Online or DAoC.

Agree 100% with this. When the mainstream/bandwagon gamers move on to the next big thing, it will be the WvW fans who stick it out and support the game for years.

It is a cool idea. A-net may want people to be able to earn every last point though so that the ‘grind’ never ends.

If you want to play sPvP, then play sPvP imo.

In my experience, DPS statistics tend to outweigh every other form of competency feedback for many people. For example, people will show pride in their DPS statistics even when the group wipes.

It would be cool if they could somehow create some sort of ELO-ish rating for PvE that, among other things, accurately credits you for carrying bad players through dungeons. It would be fun to have a statistic that shows a complete picture of your competency, but DPS isn’t that (and even making non-DPS statistics available isn’t enough).

Pretty the devs hate farming in their heart of hearts, but they know it’s good for the bottom line.

Yeah, but does the 50% boost actually work? It seems like it’s bugged and actually only giving 33%.

I had generally always played Healers/Tanks in MMOs, but I was having fun with Bastet in Smite just prior to launch, and the playstyles seemed somewhat similar. Now I can barely level other classes because cooldowns seem boring after playing with initiative.

I have an old spreadsheet that says the heal is 69+0.035*Healing. I think that’s for each initiative spent. I’m not sure where I got that from or if it has changed in the 6.5 months since then, but maybe you can easily test if that formula matches what you’re seeing?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fleet_Shadow

I assume there’s a hardcap on movement speed that is causing this trait to bug. With that in mind, I’d really like to see the description corrected to 33% and the movement speed bonus applied to Revealed in addition to stealth.

Not that I care about it much, but I’m wondering if the server rating system encourages TC and FA to stomp SoS into the ground. Seems like a close finish between FA and TC wouldn’t hurt either server much, but basically every point SoS scores hurts the other two servers. I’m not saying anyone should really care, but it’s a possible flaw in the system?

Harnel.6810:

I want this to be effective in all three setups if possible; PvE, WvW, and PvP

Can anybody help me?

My only real complaint with Thief in PvE and WvW is that I feel like I have to respec and switch gear all the time. For PvE, you can be pretty tanky with S/P, a mix of Soldier/Knights gear (and Berserker if you want), and lifetap food (Omnomberry Ghost, for example). Each hit during pistol whip can proc the lifetap. For WvW, you want to rely on stealth, especially the Shadow Arts line. For example, Cloaked in Shadow and Shadow’s Rejuvenation are very helpful for surviving (as is Shadow’s Embrace, but it’s hard to fit all three into your build with how many good major traits are in that line).

There are far better thieves than me around, but I hope that helps

Pixels.6532:

for wvw, i really like the Yishis vids

very helpful in his explanation of what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, etc.

Wow, great videos. Thanks for the link.

Tolmos.8395:

Phaedryn.3698:

Tolmos.8395:

For many players in other MMOs, the word “Skill” is synonymous with “Gear”. The raiders are “skilled”, everyone else isn’t. The hardcore PvPers wearing the top end PvP gear are “skilled”, the “noobs” wearing greens (regardless of the player behind the wheel) are not.

In FPS games and other games were everyone is of a base stat plateau, skill literally means 1 player’s ability to win against opponents/survive the game world.

In this game it’s a bit of both. For me, at least, when I whine about something not requiring skill I mean that I could do it with minimal thought and effort on my part as a player. My character, wearing all exotic gear and being level 80, can complete the task with me watching Dr. Who on the side monitor and only mildly paying attention to the game in my peripheral vision.

To date, with the exception of a few jumping puzzles, that pretty has described 99% of my GW2 PVE experience :-P

The closest to a high skill PvE battle I’ve had in this game was on the heart of the mist island. Go to where the various class sparring partner NPCs are. On the right side are 2 kind of close together- the warrior and the thief. Aggro both of them together and try to win. Be honest about it- don’t get the warrior to half health and THEN aggro the thief. 1 autohit on the warrior, then run to the thief (or the other way around). Dont fight back until both are fighting you.

THAT is a skill based PvE fight, IMO. It took me several tries before I could regularly beat that duo.

As a former “hardcore” raider, you are way off base with this assumption.

As I am also a former hardcore raider from both WoW and Rift, I stand by my statement.

So your guilds didn’t evaluate the skill of players who were applying? I’ve not raided in those games, but in the games I did play, we always evaluated apps for skill (in addition to attitude, reliability, ect). Gear was never rarely a factor because it was easily worth our time to get them upgrades if they were skilled, reliable, and fit in well.

Aeonblade.8709:

Skill is irrelevant in any MMO. Every single one, including this one, is a time investment.

Just because a game/genre rewards time investment does not mean that it can’t also reward skill.

Also, just because a game is easy for you does not mean that it doesn’t take skill. I’ve played with a lot of people who struggle to do things that others do easily. Ironically though, half the time people say that the game takes no skill it’s actually a reflection of their own lack of understanding/skill (eg “That Thief just killed me in two shots! Thief takes no skill!”).

Any time you do something better with practice, you’re exhibiting skill at doing that activity. I would label reaction speed and probably even the ability to focus on multiple things at once (avoid “tunneling”) as talents. Those attributes can improve with practice, but it’s more akin to lifting weights to improve strength (talent) than practicing your free throw shooting (skill).

I’m a longtime raider from EQ2. While I do miss raiding, I don’t miss scheduling 10+ hours a week for a video game. I’m actually kinda happy that GW2 doesn’t even give us that option, since development time (and rewards systems?) devoted to raiding would come at the expense of other types of content.

With that said, I’m a raider at heart and would probably try raiding in this game if they did implement it. However, I doubt (challenging) raiding would work very well in this game for a couple of reasons. First, unlike trinity games, increasing group sizes doesn’t naturally lead to more coordination. Yeah, you could have different people dealing with different adds/mechanics in this game, but everyone is still responsible for their own survivability, and things like combos and CCs get more jumbled in larger groups. Second, in my experience, gear progression is a critical ingredient for challenging content. Without it, the good guilds will clear the content extremely quickly and(/or) the lesser guilds will never clear it.

I’ve spent most of my MMO gaming time as a raider in Everquest 2 where my guild competed with other guilds for server and worldwide firsts. The game itself was fun for me, but what really hooked me was the competition and strong, cumulative progression. Unfortunately, that game is now well past its prime, and I’ve been looking for a more modern game to scratch the itch.

I really like a lot of what GW2 offers, but I haven’t played much since New Years because there wasn’t any hook to hold my interest. I see that they have added some progression to WvW with the new traits/AAs/whatever that you can earn. Is there any sort of ELO-ish rating in sPvP now? I enjoy dungeons, sPvP, and WvW (not so much world events or dailies). Where should I look for that competition and strong, cumulative progression that I like? Has it been added to the game?

Vasham.2408:

Could Arenanet fix the problem without adding the trinity to GW2? Maybe, but the chances are slim to none. It would take creative encounter design on a level I’m not sure they have or are willing to commit to and even then without that necessary foundation it still couldn’t compare to more popular MMOs in terms of difficulty.

It doesn’t take much creativity to increase the DPS and survivability checks in the encounters.

The “necessary foundation” is solid for difficult encounters. Sure, they may need to tweak some things like Unshakable/Unstoppable, Healing Power, ect, but there are a lot of ways players could deal with damage that comes too quickly to dodge (stealth, healing, vigor, protection, weakness, aegis, blind, cripple/chill/immobilize, ect).

Copy/Paste the build links

Control (Tank) Thief – http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fYEQRAsa6alcmyNHcS6E95Ex2jeqTe6pgsjtTxWtKA;TYALKGQcIYXwrgJGA

Gear – Soldiers Armor (Emerald Orbs), Knight’s Jewelry, Lifetap Food, Precision Crystals

How it works – Pistol Whip interrupts initially, then evades while swinging the sword for a total of 9 hits per target. This gives me high evade time (without even having to dodge/move) and procs my heals/lifetaps a lot.

Support Thief – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYEQNAV6alYmaPHcS6E95Ex2DgqTeqzAnvs/wVB;TYArCGlcIYTxrgJFA

Gear – Berserker’s Armor (Ruby Orbs + 2xWater Runes), Mostly Berserker’s Jewelry, Condition Duration Food, Precision Crystals

How it works – Primarily spam Cluster Bomb for DPS, which is a blast finisher (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blast_finisher). Alternatively, I can maintain Choking Gas, which is a poison field. With the “Lotus Poison” trait, I apply Weakness whenever I poison. The pistols are mainly for destroying things like the endboss of CoF path 2.

Mackdose.6504:

The roles aren’t designed to be structured, and it’s painfully obvious that you can’t get your head out of the “this is my job, and it’s the only one I have” mindset.

Right, the roles in this game are more subtle and nuanced than the trinity system. The issue is that players have very little incentive to learn how they work outside of tPvP and high-level Fractals. You can run through AC or zerg in WvW/hotjoins without hardly coordinating at all, which leads people to believe that there is nothing to coordinate. It’s like running super easy/outleveled zones in trinity games with just DPS because you don’t need a tank or healer.

Crapgame.6519:

I’m not sure what issues you are seeing or having to be honest and I also didn’t read the thread. It is of my opinion that if Nvidia could do something to improve it they would have. 3 of us playing in my house are on i7’s with 1 being stock and the two others OC’d the South side of 4 Ghz all with Nvidia cards. 1 is a 670, 1 is a 580, and 1 a SLI using 2×460′s. Performance is the same across all comps running windows 7 64 bit. Only difference between the systems is the Intel chip set. 1 is 67 series which uses a Crucial SSD and the other 2 are using the z68 set with a SSD has Cache and traditional HD for storage.

All of us are running with max settings but honestly we have also used Auto, minimum, max, etc. Nothing ever really seems to change other than the beauty of the game. In fact oddly enough the slowest of the bunch in feel is the SSD based compture which also has the 580 in it (which also happens to be the stock CPU).

So to me and those in my house the computers North of 4 Ghz seem to feel better compared to the stock CPU regardless of what video card is in there. If you have two monitors fire up performance monitor and you will see. I honestly think it is the game engine. It has some issues around rendering and culling. Also don’t use the ambient occulsion the driver mentions. I’ve had nothing but issues with it whereas ramdom textures will not appear which makes you seem to be in space

Short side of this. GW2 is CPU and not GPU.

That has been my experience as well. I was annoyed with poor performance, started messing with settings, and ended up just switching from native render sampling to supersampling…because none of the graphics settings had much effect on my FPS either way.

By the way, I’m running an i7@4.0 GHz with an overclocked GTX570.

Zogyark.4597:

MF food itself is fine since plenty of pugs don’t even use food for stat boost

I’ve always found that an odd place to draw the line. Food generally makes a much bigger difference than a sigil or a couple pieces of gear, yet some people who despise MF gear religiously use MF food. It makes no sense to me.

If you really only want to group with players who get the most out of their characters, you should demand that all your group members use non-MF food (well, the boon duration+MF food is iffy).

Toughness gets you aggro in PvE. Generally, avoid it unless you want to tank.

Yes, I wish the radius was larger. Alternatively, the short range may be justifiable if Leeching Venoms shared.

In my experience, it can be difficult/annoying to rely on heal procs from Withdraw because the heal (and thus the proc) triggers at the end of the roll. I quickly replaced my Centaur runes after one night of WvW for that reason.

The main issue with Venomous Aura is the very short range. It can be worth it for the immobilize/chill in small group WvW (or sPvP), but I don’t feel the benefit is even close to being worth the cost for PvE. Note that the lifesteal does not appear to share, which is a shame.

ZaiTh.6378:

Lymain.6723:

ZaiTh.6378:

How is it you think that 5 abilities is depth? That is quite opposite unless you are playing a solo or console game. After reading so many posts on here, it leads me to believe that GW2 is a lot of folks first MMO.

Keep in mind, that is 5 abilities for 80 levels. You won’t do much more than that….forever.

It’s not so much the number of abilities you have but rather the number of options you have to consider. For example, my friend was yelling at me for not doing a blast finisher in his smoke field to set him up for a stealth stomp in a WvW skirmish.

I played EQ2 for years, by the way, which has dozens and dozens of abilities for each class., but more abilities does not necessarily mean more depth.

I also played EQ2 on Nagafen. I was in the Top 5 for Kills on my Warlock. Also a top raiding guild on the Server. When I raided, I either Dps’s or in the MT Group with my Dirge. I cannot believe you suggested that GW2 has more of a variety and depth of game play. More abilities does mean more depth, how can you say the opposite? If I created a game that had 3 abilities instead of 5, would that have more depth? The what if someone made a game that only had 1 ability? Omg Depth Incarnate!

Well first off, I liked EQ2’s combat – that was the only reason I played it for so long. However, there are a lot of abilities that do basically the same thing in that game. You use one damage ability only because your others are on cooldown, ect. You have a huge number of abilities but really a much smaller number of true choices in combat.

GW2 is the opposite. You have more true choices than you do abilities. For example, any class with a blast finisher can provide area stealth if there’s a smoke field around. Even if they don’t have an AE stealth ability (slotted), they have that option in combat.

I agree that Dynamic Events aren’t really very dynamic and can sometimes be downright annoying. I also agree that the story (and voice acting) are lacking.

Aside from that, I disagree with the article. Players can figure out the roles and specs by…playing the game. That’s half the fun.

Sword + Pistol, Signet of Malice, and Omnomberry Ghost is the best way to melee in my experience. You get the interrupt + evade with Pistol Whip, and it has 9 chances to proc the heals (per target).