Guild Wars 2

Lonami.2987:

The elitism in this thread is depressing.

Imagine only a few pro guilds could play inside Eternal Battlegrounds. Imagine only a few top players could play in Legacy of the Foefire. Imagine Super Adventure Box had no baby mode and no continue coins. Imagine only players with at least 20k achievement points could get into new zones.

That’s what you are asking for. To keep “the rest of the scum” outside your special snowflake palace.

In the long run, time will give everyone what they deserve.

Indeed.

The game seems to be developing in directions I do not like, embracing the things that made me stay away from mmos for a long time. Oh well, time will tell I suppose.

Vayne.8563:

There’s stuff to do that wasn’t in the beta, like adventures, which are all solo.

That’s true. I forgot about adventures. We’ll have to wait and see how the population ends up on the new maps, but I’m pretty sure the devs thought about this potential problem way before we did

I think OP has a valid concern. Core maps have a lot of stuff you can do if you’re alone or there are few people about. The new map really needs a group to have something to do. I managed to do some events solo, but it was a slog and I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t want to test the new specialization. I worry that this, combined with the density of new, harder mobs will leave the maps deserted after they stop being new and fresh. Masteries may help populate them though.

The comparison with hammer Guardian seems relevant and highlights the problems with the Reaper very well. I love playing hammer Guardian in PvE. Greatsword on the Reaper feels like I’m face tanking like a hammer Guardian, but without the damage or the sustain. It just feels… unfair. Good, thorough write-up. Thanks.

I don’t think anyone has really answered OP’s question?

To give it a shot: Necros can do some nice stuff with conditions that affect them. They can use them to increase effectiveness of their heal or transfer them to the enemy, Even if they haven’t slotted those skills or use those weapons they also have a large health pool so there shouldn’t be much need to condition cleanse a necro usually. That being said I doubt a necro would be angered by it either. I don’t believe many rely on it for their main gameplay, but I’m not completely sure about that.

If you plan on helping your party with heals you should also be aware that necros don’t recieve healing while in deathshroud, so in that case it’s wasted on them.

Bought two 5 packs yesterday. Not one shadow dye in the first. Second pack: Every single dye was a Shadow dye! The statistical probabilty of that happening must be so very, very tiny it boggles the mind. No abyss though, but I’m not complaining. Not at all.

In a sub forum where discussions seem to base themselves on the in-game economy as an immutable natural force and the word of an economist is likened to the word of a deity, this thread is a breath of fresh air. IMO it might be one of the few that has some real and important discussions going on.

dekou.6012:

People already discussed this a year ago.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/tequatl/Please-stop-neglecting-conditions-in-PvE/first

It’s an obvious issue. Plenty of suggestions have been made. Nothing has happened. Discussion isn’t worth the effort.

I agree that there’s not much more to discuss on this topic. There have been multiple threads and suggestions over the past two years. It’s just such an important thing I would have thought people would be stoked to finally see a red post on this topic, and that some support for making this a priority would surface.

Paradoxically, I suspect the low activity in this thread (given the importance of the issue) is a good indication of how badly this needs to change. People simply don’t care about conditions in PvE. Either they don’t think it will ever change, or they’ve settled into their power builds, bought their power gear and just don’t care anymore. Only chumps still run conditions in PvE I guess.

It’s sad how this issue limits what would otherwise be a beautifully crafted and complex build system with lots of variety and room for individuality.

All I can say is I’m so glad to finally have some word on this. It’s so bad in PvE these days that people don’t even consider condition builds, effectively relegating much of the traits and gear to the sidelines in this game mode. Build diversity and game complexity suffers.

Do I wish this had been fixed by now? Yes! But still, thank you so much for finally letting us know conditions are being looked at actively. Fixing this would revitialize PvE. And thanks to the OP for asking the question in a way that got it answered!

I think there are two different types of loot that need different systems.

First you have the fairly valuable items like named exotics, giant eyes, certain lodestones etc. I would much prefer an invisible system for these, for example increased chance over time (i.e. concept 1?). The fun of these isn’t so much the value as it’s the ‘Wow! I got something good from a drop’ fun factor. Amassing tokens to exchange wouldn’t be the same imo.

Second are the hugely valuable items, mainly precursors. A drop like that will completely change most people’s economic situation in game. While it’s good for excitement that this can happen, I think it needs a different system as well. Either actually doable crafting (but we’re not talking about that now) or possibly a token based system that enables you to see your progress towards it (i.e. concept 2 or 2.5?). These drops are too important to people to be left totally to chance or some invisible system. Since the aquisition method for precursors hasn’t been changed quickly enough they have now become too interwoven with the rest of the economy, so this will impact the TP of course.

Also, it’s important to keep the possibility of good drops even right after one has been ‘handed’ to you by one of these systems. Otherwise you will have to play the game knowing nothing of much value will drop for ages.

One of your items is now permanently destroyed upon death. Which one is completely random. Is it a glob of gooey goo, or is it your Bifrost? Feel the suspense when you open your inventory to check.

Who’s wasting your precious time? Character names are now colour coded based on the mean time they use to complete dungeon paths. Red for sub-optimal, yellow for meh and green for racy.

It’s not really about being good or bad at the game, it’s about communication skills and empathy. Some people behave in a rude, condescending, aggressive and/or self-righteous manner. They don’t seem think too much about how other people feel. Being able to see yourself as the other person and empathise is a basic human skill, but it’s not equally distributed unfortunately. In my experience dungeons have a -10 debuff to empathy and communication skills

Personally, I’m very happy with the game. I play it most days and enjoy it a lot. I see the dedication and love that has gone into it, I enjoy the world and it’s characters and the difficulty is just right for me. Megaservers was great for me personally and increased my enjoyment of the game since I reside on a server with a small population.

There are niggles and issues of course, but all games have those. However, I’m unhappy with one mayor flaw in the game: the fact that conditions are close to useless in group PvE content. I’m upset that Anet doesn’t talk about this more, and that they don’t appear to be working towards fixing it (at least not as far as I’m aware).

It’s a problem that affects all classes (although some more than others). I believe fixing conditions in PvE would open up build diversity, make a lot of gear and play styles suddenly become interesting – it would be like a new game for veteran players and theory crafters, even those who never consider condition builds today. It could even ease the transition between PvE and PvP if they made the same builds equally viable in both game types. I realize it’s a difficult thing for Anet to do, but if it’s never going to happen I wish they just came out and told us.

That’s my mayor issue with the game. Others will not agree and have different priorities. That’s the way it is. But all in all, yes I’m very happy with the game and can’t see myself leaving Tyria soon.

The community can police this themselves. Commenting positively in map chat on commanders who do a good job (why does this almost never happen?), and requesting that people de-tag when not leading will go a long way. Make it socially unacceptable to have a tag up without contributing with leadership or guidance, but do so without abuse.

Good commanders have increased my enjoyment of the game a lot, and I have great respect for them. They deserve to know they contribute to the fun of the game.

I support the idea. It gives some indication of direction and focus, while staying within the communication boundaries you have to adher to.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Atlas.9704:

Maybe one of the CDIs could be more of what ANet thinks is important and we sit and listen for a change? I can’t remember if this was done in the past, but personally it would help discussions in the future.

I think that’d be an interesting discussion, you’ll probably be surprised to find the “big” lists aren’t that different, it’s just that since we can’t share the projects we’re working on to solve them – it’s not clear we’re actually working on, or even aware of or worried about the issue. Worse, when people see work being done in other areas shipping rather than what seems like a core area, they assume no work is being done and no one is even aware of the other issue.

At its core, I think that’s a lot of the problem communication wise – it’s a tough nut to crack when we’re also not allowed to discuss what’s in development, but I’m sure we can find a better balance than we have currently and your suggestion at its core could be a good way to help find that balance.

Maybe the community team could keep a rolling “top over-all concerns” for core development areas of the game from the dev teams perspective? We wouldn’t be allowed to go into specifics per our rules about not discussing what’s in development, but certainly categorical summaries could help?

IMO this would be a good thing to start with. It would enable me as a player to make informed decisions on my direction in the game. If precursor crafting was not seen as a top concern, I would know not to wait for it. If the problems with condition stacking in large scale PvE events was not on your list, I would know not to invest more in my condition spec necro for PvE. (Obviously, other players would have other top concerns).

Of course, knowing if the things that were the most important to me were actively being worked on would be optimal, but since this isn’t possible just knowing that the devs see these problems as important would mean a lot for my decisions on what to do in my game.

Personally, I’d prefer the CDI not be about communicating. I’d rather see discussions on important game matters tbh. CDI’s take time, and discussing how to discuss just seems to push the topics I’m most interested in further towards the horizon.

Personally, I’m disappointed because making a legendary was a goal that kept me playing. I have everything but the precursor and some dungeon tokens, but now it seems buying the precursor will be the only option for a while longer. Grinding that much gold doesn’t really motivate me to play.

It’s the same with ascended armour (at least light armour). I’ve made one piece, but the next is so far out of reach that it’s just not motivating. And I had many, many silk scrap stacks waiting for that crafting change. Basically, there’s not much in the way of personal goals for me in this game right now. I still play and enjoy the fantastic game world, just not with the same excitement and dedication as before.

Thanks guys. This is very helpful for us crafters.

Skritt have a hive mind, so maybe when you hit one skritt you hit them all? We will be overrun by vengeful skritt!

I see some discussion about alts and progression, and I thought I’d weigh in with my opinion too.

I have a necro with around 1500 hrs and this is my main character. I’ve recently started to level a guardian to around lvl 50. The thing is – I don’t want him to have access to all the stuff my necro has acquired. It ruins the feeling of progression for the new character. He has access to tons of mats, gold, karma, laurels, booster etc that he has in no way earned. If I want I can level him up to 80 and kit him out in exotic gear almost instantly. This situation gives me no grasp of what my new guardian has achieved, and means I don’t get the “oooh a green armour piece!” poverty-feeling I had when starting out with my necro.

As a result I wasn’t very happy with the account wallet thing – it just removed the “starting fresh on an adventure” feel of creating a new character. That doesn’t mean I want everything bound to just one character, but I would like to have to actively transfer resources from one character to another. That way I would be able to get a better sense of progression for new characters. As it is now, what has he achieved? I have no idea. Even skill points come on little scrolls.

Oh no! I came across this poor baby krait in Kessex Hills. Something terrible must have happened. I hope Krait is alright.

Saturn.6591:

That being said; I wouldn’t even want to join that party if you’d pay me 200 gold for doing so.

I saw a comment in a similar discussion about rangers. It went something like this:
“Your class is an idiot filter. It helps you avoid people who know nothing about build variations or the importance of skill and class knowledge.” While it may not be the whole truth I still think it’s a nice perspective.

I agree with OP. I too am a bit worried about placing living story content in such low level areas. I understand that it’s nice for people with alts, but having leveled with someone who is completely new to the game I see that the LS content (especially the harder stuff) is just a confusing and unwelcome hindrance to map exploration and getting to know the game. Hard content is good for people with high skill level, but it should be optional and something to seek out when you feel ready. It’s not really something that should dominate a low level map (although there may be story/lore reasons to do it anyway).

IMO a lot of people have forgotten the period when they themselves were new to the game (or even to gaming in general), and want all aspects of the game tailored to their current skill level. There are players of different skill level in the game, and they all need to have content available to them for the community to not become toxic.

As a fairly casual player who has no interest in Fractals, they have one important function. This is where I can direct all the players who complain about how easy the rest of the content is. When they want to change various aspects of the game to suit their high skill level thus making it less enjoyable for me, I can say “but that’s what Fractals are for”.

Maybe release reworked versions of all cultural armour to the gem store, then make the actual cultural armour ascended and let us choose stats on first equip? Not a perfect solution by far, but might take some of the sting out.

I agree that an open world dungeon is a very good idea. Not only can it be fun and challenging, but it’s a good stepping stone for players who want to try instanced dungeons but think it might be too difficult and don’t want to be a liability to a group.

This one has a few problems with spawns, scaling etc., but I’m sure Anet can solve such problems over time.

Solid Gold.9310:

So much conflicting information here, “I ran it solo on my (Insert prof here) and didn’t die once”, “2 of us did it and killed all the champs”, get with the zerg, get a 5 man party and so on and on.

Just saying……………

That’s because the difficulty can vary. If you run into champions other people have spawned and then abandoned, or if someone runs past you trailing lots of mobs who turn on you it will be very hard. But when it scales correctly a lot of players seem to be able to solo it. It’s all beyond your control really.

I thought aqua breathers were considered head-gear, but I can’t seem to be able to use it on that. It’s a shame. Would make a cool looking diving mask.

Rainshine.5493:

What server are you on? I guarantee if you miss the zerg by a couple of minutes on a populated server it will not be “easy” to solo the tower. You run into 4-5 vets with an elite and some regular mobs all the time. A ranged alpha strike can take you out in a blink. (Well … maybe not on a warrior :P but that upleveled ele would be hurting).

Not picking on you but people are obviously having very different experiences based on time of day and server size, and if something’s scaled up for that big group of people you just missed, it’s often bad times — even with stunbreaker, condi cleanse and a speed buff.

I think you hit the nail on the head here. IMO this LS has done a lot of very good things:

- The instances are well balanced. I’ve done them solo and in groups, and I thought the scaling was good. At least for a level 80 player. Not so sure about upleveled players.
- The tower encourages survivable builds, which increases build diversity in the game.
- The tower and the toxic kraits are beautiful in their own sick way.
- The content is a significant variation compared to the rest of the game.
- The achievements are not too time consuming, and getting the toxic krait mini takes a bit of skill. The achievement rewards are nice.
- The instances resonate with your personal story.

However, most of this means little if you enter the tower after a group has run through, and end up fighting endless veterans and elites in the same spot. You will die a lot. I you’re lucky and don’t, you won’t understand what this thread is complaining about.

There is a vocal group on the forums that asks for more difficult content, usually followed by the statement that everything in PvE is laughably easy. I fear that this will lead to a more toxic community focused on min-maxing and cheesy tactics, demanding that everyone commit every boss tell to memory to avoid being labeled as “bad”.

I really hope LS will not cater to this group of players, but that Anet instead places more difficult content in areas where you actively need to go for that kind of challenge. LS is meant to be for everyone. When I’m fighting my third veteran solo and the fourth spawns right next to me, it’s clear that it’s just too difficult to be fun for solo players.

I think the idea of content being both soloable and available for groups is the right way to go, but it’s very hard to balance. The difficulty of the tower is fine when in a group, but not everyone plays on high population servers, and not everyone plays at peak hours.

Since LS is a major selling point for the game, it seems to me that content should be accessible to every player and that they should be able to complete it without too much frustration, grouped up or not. The really challenging stuff should not be in LS.

That being said, the few times I’ve been in a group the tower has been a blast. But then I’m level 80 with 1000+ hours on this character…

This is a long thread, so apologies if it’s been said before.

There are many great ideas here, and as a long term player I would enjoy many of the proposed changes. However, I’ve recently started to level an alt together with someone who is completely new to the game, and this has given me a slightly different perspective. I have come to realize that this game can be confusing to new players, and that parts of the living story contribute to this.

These are some of the questions that may arise, but I’m sure there are more:
What is all this the new info to the right on my screen? Are they quests? Do I need to do those things? Will I survive if I try? Who is Scarlet and her minions, and why do I need to know that they are attacking a certain map? Do I need to go there for some reason? Should I? Or even worse: what happened to the map I was leveling on? Why are there suddenly all these super-tough monsters here? What’s this glowing door, and why am I suddenly in a huge labyrinth with monsters that one-shot me? Etc. etc.

Also, having a high level player help you in a low level zone is exciting and fun for a new player. Having swarms of high level players running round doing stuff as fast as possible while sending cryptic abbreviated messages in map chat? Not so much.

So while my lvl 80 character wholeheartedly supports the idea of having all maps to play on, I hope it can be done without disrupting new players and making them lose sight of the core game.

Although I’ve had much fun with the latest update, I agree with you on this. Too many experienced players complain about the game being easy, and how people don’t want to work for rewards. A server wide celebration with goodies for everyone is great for the community and good for new players as well. That’s what a holiday celebration should about – fun and games for everyone.

Lets hope Christmas celebration will be more like this.

Agreed. Moving skins to the Zenith model would be really good for gem sales imo. This is especially true for armour skins.

Having bought an armour skin for gems, it’s highly unlikely I will buy another. If I do, I need to aquire a new set of armour for it, or overwrite the skin I bought earlier and loose it. I’m reluctant to do any of these things.

People who enjoy changing looks would probably be the main buyers of new skins, but the current model makes it very expensive for them to buy more than one.

1. The condition cap is the most urgent issue in the game imo. It affects so many aspects of the game as well as the general mood and the interaction of the community.
2. RNG seems to bother a large number of players. Where does it fit, and where should it be removed?
3. Possible increase or change in end-game content without disrupting or confusing new players still leveling.

Warcry.1596:

Why is this needed? Bring ONE Condi player to dungeons, its DPS is rather strong.. (20 Bleeds hitting for 140/stack, 800+ burning). The damage seems low, but its consistent! I always have a condi ele in my party and if shes the only one applying bleeds and burn, the DPS is solid. The setup I described is unbuffed, and doesn’t include the attack damage, like Churning Earth’s 9k, or Fire Grab’s 10k. Not saying its AMAZING, but it’s something to consider.

Now, in general PvE, in giant world bosses like Tequatl, having no cap would allow 600+ Bleeds… and 600+ Vulnerability, think how broken that is. I may be slightly exaggerating, but think about what you’re asking for

I think your post shows exactly why this is needed.

As you indicate, one condition build in a dungeon is okayish. Adding a second is almost useless, especially if they both stack bleeds. This means that anyone who wants to make a build based on this main form of damage is severly limited in what parties they can join. This does nothing for build diversity, and is obviously unfair to a number of players who enjoy these builds.

And I don’t understand why you think that including non-amazing condition damage on a PvE boss is somehow “broken”, yet the same players doing direct damage would be okay. If you’re suggesting that the boss would go down too fast if condition damage was counted, then I would suggest the boss needs to be re-balanced. Almost completely removing the damage done by certain build types is not a fair way to balance these encounters.

I would like to suggest adding a craftable, unlimited use portal stone which takes you to Lions Arch.

This would be faster and more convenient than what players currently do to get there without paying WP fees (enter WvW and use the Asura Gate). The portal stone would only work outside battle, and only in PvE.

I would suggest that the portal stone be craftable by any of the weapon crafts, since armour crafts already have the univerally useful ability to make bags. To ensure that people craft and use this instead of the WvW shortcut, it should be craftable at a fairly low level and not cost an extraordinary amout of rare materials.

There are probably implications of this which I haven’t thought of, but it’s certainly something I would use if it existed.

Dungeons are interesting in that they so clearly show who has leadership abilites and who just think they do.

Real leaders will explain the dungeon to new players, help people who struggle, not leave others behind and bolster the confidence of the group when things go sour.

Those who just think they are leaders will explain things badly, complain and be condescending, not let an error go uncommented and create a negative atmosphere when things go sour.

Dungeons seem to bring out the worst in people. And sometimes the best.

Thank you OP. This was helpful.

This patch has been a lot of fun, and loving the new light armour set as well. Thanks for your hard work and dedication

Fsnowzombie.4352:

Mercypsy.9602:

Mercypsy.9602:

I’d very much appreciate a drawing of my Necromancer if you can spare the time.

This sub-forum is brilliant! So many creative people sharing their talent.

Edit: Added a few more pics

Because I live in hope

Edit: Page 6 btw

o:

Just came back from holiday and saw this! Thank you so much Snowzombie. She looks fierce and ever so slightly evil. Very cool.

These are lovely. Looking forward to seeing them with more colour. I think it would suit her.

We’re hipster necros. Necsters. Or Hipmancers.

As a condition necromancer, I would like to know this too. I would love a situation where conditions were considered necessary for a good group in PvE. Don’t think we’ll get an answer though. It’ll be done when it’s done if it’s being done!

I love to jump in a fulfill requests for help. Wish there were more of them really. I can’t remember a single time I haven’t been thanked, but if it ever happens I’m doing the /bow thing and then vanishing. Makes me wish I could disappear in a puff of smoke. Brilliant!

I stick by my necromancer. I don’t re-trait and re-equip for build of the month either, just when I get bored with a play style

Congrats! My Bitfrost is still so very, very far away…. Enjoy your new toy

Glad to see you guys are still destroying property all over Tyria

I think it’s a delicate balance. Used to be that Cursed Shore was so profitable that high level characters stayed there as much as possible, ignoring the other maps. In an effort to make people spread out more they reduced the profits in Cursed Shore and upped them for high level players on other maps (i.e. get high level drops on low level maps and guaranteed yellows from world bosses).

I like the idea, since just playing one map gets boring after a while. Unfortunately other problems have followed. Fewer people in Orr means many big events never get completed, and the more obscure ones just sit there. I reside on a medium population server, and there just isn’t enough people to populate the world. When people spread out more, all maps feel half-empty.

At least, this is how I see it. I wish Anet would consider merging some servers at this point.