Guild Wars 2

Before I get started, I thought I would tell you a small bit about my experiences with Guild Wars 2 so you will have a slightly clearer understanding of my position on the current status of the game. If you are not interested in this, feel free to skip the next three paragraphs (just below the the line) to move on to my suggestion/feedback.

I have played Guild Wars 2 for over 2,100 hours since early access, across several different characters. I have leveled 3 rangers, a guardian, a necromancer, an elementalist and a warrior, all to level 80 and have mid-range characters of the other three professions. Of those 2,100+ hours, maybe 20 of them have occurred in the past 3 months. If you can’t tell, I have grown somewhat bored with the game as of late, and I think I know the reason for it.

I feel there is a lack of strong variance for each of the professions. What I mean by this is that for each profession there appears to be one or two builds that used over any other. Now, as someone who has played a multitude of MMOs, I understand that this is generally the case, but one of the major draws to this game for me was the philosophy: “play the way you want”.

I have a habit of trying to play my characters in a way that is different from the ‘norm’. I try to make creative builds, something that is unexpected and still seems to get the job done, but this is something that is exceedingly difficult within Guild Wars 2. It becomes very hard to feel justified in playing the way I want when I do not feel that I am pulling my weight. When it becomes apparent (without any meters) that I could do more damage or do more healing or remove more conditions with another build, that is kind of a negative thing.

One of my suggestions for making professions become more unique is a combination of three things.

1. Reduce the damage of conditions by a small percentage; increase base damage of skill
2. Allow each player to have their own conditions on the target
3. Give each class traits to add additional effects to their conditions

I will go over each of these in detail.

1. Reduce the damage of conditions by a small percentage; increase base damage of skill

The reasoning behind this is two-fold. If each player can have their own conditions on a target and each of these conditions were to gain an additional effect, the amount of damage conditions do, should be reduced. To help compensate for the overall damage loss however, the abilities that generate conditions should have their base damage increased as appropriate.

2. Allows each player to have their own conditions on the target

This change would essentially remove the barrier that is caused by having multiple condition users in a group. This change further reinforces the “play the way you want” philosophy by removing these barriers.

3. Give each class traits to add additional effects to their conditions

This is a way that would make each profession, and perhaps different builds of the same profession, distinct from one another. Thieves could have a trait that made their poison also have an accuracy reducing effect (5% miss chance), where Rangers could have their poison have a mild slowing (attack speed) effect. Elementalists could have their burns cause the target to take increased damage, while Guardians could reduce the damage their burn victims deal.

The ultimate goal behind this is to add uniqueness to game where I feel it is currently mundane.

While it certainly has a humorous tone, I am completely serious about this build. I use it currently and love it.

http://intothemists.com/guides/2793-outclassed

I have several questions…

First, if a Ranger wants to focus on traps, they pretty much are forced into placing 30 of their trait points into the Skirmishing tree in order to pick up the two major traits that affect them. This leads to granting the Ranger 300 Precision and 30% Crit damage, two attributes that do not contribute to a trap build in any way. Wouldn’t these two traits lean more towards the Survival tree, not only because traps are not really something one would imagine being used in a Skirmish, but because that tree at least benefits the actual play style by incorporating condition damage?

Second, while I understand the Ranger has several interesting utility skills, why must they invest in entire trait lines in order to make full use of these skills. If they want to be affected by signets… 30 points. If they want spirits to move… 30 points. Traps to be useful… 30 points. Shouts to be… well… less bad… 30 points.

Third, why does Master’s Bond have to be removed on swapping pets? If the pet dies that is understandable, you have formed a bond with your pet and then let it down. As it currently stands, the trait is borderline useless in almost every situation. Oops, you entered water; stacks reset. Oops, you picked up certain environmental weapons; stats reset. Oops, you wanted to swap your pet out to save its life and keep your cooldown at a minimum like a good ranger; stats reset.

Finally, why did you make it so we can’t cancel out of the auto attack chain of sword? This is absolutely devastating to anyone who wants to be able to melee with this weapon. Not even the other two skills which are designed to get you out of the way can interrupt the chaining from the second to third attack.

I was experimenting with Nature’s Wrath when I noticed that the Healing Power increase from my Superior Sigil of Life was not being added to my power. I haven’t taken the time to test for a similar instance on other classes, but it caused me to wonder if this is a bug or if the trait is functioning as intended — meaning that only static attributes from gear are used when determining the bonus from these traits.

Does anyone know which case it is for this?

One of the main draws, for me, to Guild Wars 2, was that if you didn’t feel like grouping, you weren’t punished. I don’t always play alone. In fact, most of the time, I like to play with friends. However, they are not always available, and there are some times that I just want to play on my own. Have no responsibilities to a group. So here comes GW2… promising that there are pseudo groups; that you don’t have to “group” to accomplish things… that everyone can get credit for events and kills. That is what we were told; that is what I expected.

So, I am playing the game, by myself, and I encounter a set of events. You might know them as Pent/Shelt. There is a large group of people here farming these events. I decide, what the heck, I want to try and farm them for a bit too.

The event starts. I dash into a group and start swinging wildly. I hit all of the enemies for a total nearing 3000 before they all die. These groups are massively outnumbered. I noticed that I only get one loot. Oh well, guess I have crappy luck. On to the next group. Same thing, only this time, no loot. This series of events proceeds to happen over and over.

Why are these people farming this event, I ask myself. The drop rate is crappy. At least I thought so, until a friend and guild mate informs me otherwise. It seems, you HAVE to group with other people for these events because alone your damage isn’t enough to give you credit.

Fan-fricking-tastic.

So, why is this? Why are my efforts not enough? Why is there a minimum damage requirement before being considered for loot?

Are we afraid that someone might just run around hitting everything once? Is that it?

I am thoroughly disappointed with how this works. I hope that it eventually gets looked at. It is upsetting that I am once again, punished for my choice of play style (even if indirectly).

TL;DR – Play the game how you want, as long as it meets the requirements of how we want.

Is it possible to transmute legendary weapons? If so, now that the item will “retain the higher of the two rarities”, if I were to get a legendary, and then transmute it to have different stats, such as Power, Precision, Crit Damage, would the stats increase to match Ascended Weapons whenever they are released, or would I have to get an Ascended Weapon and transmute it again?

I am curious what exactly the purpose behind having group specific events is. In a game where a system exists that scales events based on the number of players participating, doesn’t having a limit on minimum players essentially institute an artificial barrier that is unnecessary?

For instance, the events in Straights of Devastation. Three assault teams (North, Central, and South) are attempting to get to the Cathedral of Glorious Victory (CoGV). As far as I can tell, to proceed with an assault on the cathedral, two of the three assault teams must meet at the Rally Point.

I personally have pushed both the North and South assault teams all the way to the Rally Point several times. I do this for two reasons. One, it is enjoyable. The events are challenging and engaging. The second is, a good portion of the playerbase either don’t care to know how, or are not interested in doing the pre-events leading up to the assault on the cathedral.

So, if I want to get to the CoGV, I have to get these two assault teams in position before other players come to reap the reward chest from the last event and to gain access to the vendor.

However, what happens if one of these assault teams bug, and the event chain becomes locked until the next server restart?

You might say that the central assault team is still available, but that is not the case. An NPC in Fort Trinity will tell you the truth of the matter. There is a Champion Risen Megalodon preventing the central force from moving out.

As most players are probably aware, sharks are no laughing matter in this game. Champion Sharks are far beyond this, with a single charge capable of eliminating the player in one fell swoop. Good luck finding a group of players willing to attempt to take this thing out.

So… story aside, why are barriers like this necessary?

There is an event where you retake an encampment in Fields of Ruin. The finale of this event spawns a veteran ogre named Khulaid the Conqueror. I suggest that when this NPC spawns, he bursts through the gate and yells “OH YEAH!”. It would make this event at least 20% cooler.

I kinda have to agree with the OP. There are some spots that just make me cringe.

Example: At the end of Cadeceus' Manor Story Mode, the interaction between Queen Jennah and Logan hurts. The way he just flops from one decision to another feels wrong. There are several instances like this throughout these story quests.

It reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN1Qc6M-z2w

So I purchased the Guild Wars 2: Original Game Soundtrack a few weeks ago from DirectSong. When it arrived today, I noticed it was missing one song I really desired. The instrumental version of Fear Not This Night that plays during the “The Source of Orr” story quest. Is there a reason this song was decided to be left off the soundtrack of the game?

Side note: To say I was pleasantly surprised to open the case and be staring at Jeremy Soule’s signature, was an understatement.

• Have the character select screen remember show/hide options you currently have selected. I prefer to have no helm visible on most of my characters (why put effort into the face/hair if you just hide it) and seeing the helm on character select screen feels awkward

• Reduce waypoint cost scaling. Also remove the cost to return to town. Players are just using the Teleport to the Mists > Lion’s Arch > Town method anyway.

• Change the cost of the Orichalcum level gathering tools to scale with other tools. (~2 silver) It is a waste of money to buy the higher tools and use them on other nodes. Having to carry around a set of Mithril tools is aggravating.

• Reduce or increase Rich nodes to 9 or 12 (a multiple of 3). Clicking on the node the 4th time for just one ore seems clumsy.

My first suggestion is to lower the cost of the Orichalcum gathering tools. I understand the need for a money sink in the game, but the only thing this is doing is causing me, and I am willing to wager a large portion of other people to carry around two sets of tools. Not very fun. Make these tools in line with the others.

Second, on the rich nodes, make them either 9 or 12 hits. The swinging again for one additional ore seems clumsy.

I feel that the Overflow servers are an excellent step in the right direction, but they seem to cause more annoyance than convenience. 9 times out of 10 I will just click the leave queue button because I am currently involved in an event chain.

My suggestion is to add an option that the player can enable, to no longer being queued at all. If they enable the “Opt out” option, and zone into an Overflow server no message will pop up telling them about a queue, and no message about joining the normal server will show up.

Water

• Water Missile – No changes necessary.
• Ice Globe – Reduce damage of detonation and add either a heal/regen/chill.
• Ice Wall – No changes necessary.
• Undercurrent – Doesn’t seem to work 100% of the time… might be a range issue.
• Tidal Wave – No changes necessary.

Air

• Forked Lightning – No changes necessary
• Electrocute – Reduce the damage a bit and add weakness for maybe 2 seconds (Currently hiting a target with all 3 bolts from Forked Lightning does far more damage).
• Air Pocket – Sometimes you might not want to teleport. Remove the automatic teleport, give it a shorter cooldown (3 seconds) but have the detonation increase the cooldown to the original 12 seconds.
• Air Bubble – No changes necessary.
• Lightning Cage – Something should happen to the enemy that is caged. Damage maybe… I don’t really know. Becomes more of a dilemna to move and be stunned or sit here and take damage?

Earth

• Rock Blade – Bleed should be much much longer. Instead of throwing three blades (we have two abilities that throw 3 projectiles) why not throw one blade (like a circular saw blade) that pierces every foe in a straight line. Causing bleeding for 3-5 seconds.
• Rock Spray – No changes really needed except I don’t really see a graphic for this spell. I have no idea how to judge the ranges.
• Magnetic Current – Add a secondary skill that repels either the enemy, you, or both, and deals damage to the target.
• Rock Anchor – No changes necessary.
• Murky Water – No changes necessary.

I think any number of these changes will improve the underwater combat drastically.

I am not satisfied with the underwater combat for the Elementalist at all. Fire is supposed to be intense damage with burning, but only one skill actually burns; Heat Wave, which seems to miss for some reason far too frequently. That coupled with the primary skill, Magma Orb, making Fire Attunement lackluster.

Water Attunement is supposed to be support/heals, but for some reason it has the hardest hitting abilities (maybe since you are under water, controlling water is more powerful?). The Ice Globe and Ice Wall detonations deal good damage, and if you get a foe trapped against the wall, Tidal Wave can decimate it.

I find that I rarely use Air Pocket in Air Attunement, as the teleport disorients me more than anything. The majority of foes I use Lightning Cage on, don’t move, forcing me to use Air Bubble to take advantage of it. This means I am having to use two skills to take advantage of one.

The bleeds that come from Earth Attunement’s Rock Blade are far too short. I am lucky to get a 6 stack on anything for longer than a second (usually around half a second). The Magnetic Current skill is nice, however being that we are a ranged profession, I generally do not want to use a skill that will put me right into the fray.

I have a few suggestions for the Underwater Combat to make much more appealing to Elementalists.

Fire

• Magma Orb – Remove the delay from the explosion. Have it explode when it hits the target (which would mean combining explosion and impact damage), and have the explosion cause 1 second of burning.
• Boil – No changes necessary.
• Steam – No changes necessary.
• Lava Chains – No changes necessary.
• Heat Wave – Other than fixing the targeting with this ability, nothing.

(continued in next post)