Guild Wars 2

Specific Game Mode
PvX, but mostly group environments.

Proposal Overview
In my opinion, a major contributing factor toward the ranger’s suffering over the past year can be attributed to a lack of focus in regard toward the ranger’s role/specialty in a group. Even though all professions can fill any “role,” most are known for a particular talent that only they do best (thief infiltration, guardian defense, etc). While the ranger can do a little of almost anything, they are outclassed at everything by at least one profession. This needs to change if the ranger is going to have a role in any party situation.

Goal of Proposal
First, we need to figure out what the ranger does better than other classes. In GW2, the answer is nothing, so we must look at other games and genres. For one, when I think of rangers or hunters in other games, three things come to mind:
1. Crippling and disabling the enemy to assist allies, while providing consistent and reliable damage
2. Multitasking; includes hitting multiple enemies at once (piercing arrows, splintering shots, and, yes, sending pets out to hold an enemy down) and securing one area while aiding another with ranged attacks
3. Control over the environment, thanks to traps, slowing skills such as cripple, and AOE buffs
These things hint at a potential overall theme for the ranger: A master and protector of their surroundings that controls the battlefield, using traps and nature spells to turn their environment into a safe haven for their allies, while using ranged power and utility to weaken and pick off foes from afar.
I firmly believe that this was Anet’s goal for their ranger, and that they gave them a pet for this reason. It’s a great idea in theory; with the ability to send the pet after one foe and attack another themselves, they are capable of doing more at once. The sheer variety of available pets also should add great versatility to the ranger.
I’m not going to rehash all the technical problems pets suffer from currently; others have that covered. Now that I have an idea of what a ranger should be, I’ll try to evaluate some of their weapons and suggest how they can fulfill the ranger’s role better.

Proposal Functionality
Here are some changes to the Ranger’s weapons that would help him become a master of control.
Longbow- Put vulnerability on auto attack, make #3 immobilize, and add confusion to #4. The LB should mainly be a damage weapon, but we don’t want it to be a clone of the warrior’s rifle. The ranger is about debilitation and positioning, so these changes, along with small damage buffs and pet fixes, should be sufficient.
Axe- Turn #3 into a ground target skill that produces an ice field. It chills and damages more foes and provides a combo field for allies.
Sword- Make Serpent Strike skill #2 and reduce the CD. This makes the ranger more mobile while providing a consistent DOT in poison.
Greatsword- Buff the damage and make #2 weaken instead of vuln. The weakness condition fits a defensive weapon more.
Torch- Maybe add blind to one of the skills? Makes sense with the bonfire theme and adds some utility/defense to the weapon besides “moar fire!!”
Utilities- I think this is where the ranger should show his mastery of the terrain. Traps and spirits are a step in the right direction. I think the problem with most utilities is that they’re just boring or have little impact on the battle. Better animations would make them more fun to use, and the functions can be tweaked to fit the ranger’s theme as a master of his surroundings. Shouts need a buff, but can potentially be great. For instance, “Protect Me” could apply to all allies within 300 units of the pet and his master.

Associated Risks
In PvP, CC is plenty fun to play with, but usually frustrating to play against. If the ranger gets too much CC along with a damage boost, they can be very hard to take down and not much fun to fight. But seeing how UP the ranger is now, let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, eh? :P

Recently picked up the game again and enjoying it, but I feel that the game still has some problems. One of them is the lack of varied endgame, but this is improving steadily. Another issue of mine is that the choice of order during the personal story, which was supposed to be one of our defining moments, led to little more than one chapter of missions and ceased to even matter at all come level 60, yellow-rank armors aside. To me, the order assignment seems to be little more than an excuse as to why you can’t lead the pact and rewards Trahearne for his lack of commitment, whereas I thought it would be a defining part of my adventure.

Why not implement an aid to both these issues with one feature?

Order missions would serve as short little sidequests that fit the mood of your order. For example, Whispers would have you sneak around Divinity’s Reach seeking out a spy, or stalk a mad asura into the Brisban wilderness to find a hidden lab. Vigil would have you protect one of the Lionguard havens in the world from rogue Risen or escort a witness to a crime, and Priory would take you into secret corridors of open world mini-dungeons you’ve been to before.

There are many ways these can be implemented. The daily rotation that was prominent in GW1 could be used well here. There could also be one-by-one progression, or you could do them in any order you want, or they could be tiered so the hardest and most rewarding are at the end.

I can see both solo and group versions of order missions. The biggest criticism group missions will receive is that it may exclude the ability to play with friends or guildies that chose a different order. To that, I would suggest that the ability to invite friends into your personal story be carried over into order missions. They would receive karma or something, and they wouldn’t progress at all in their own missions. That way, the playerbase is diverse but not separated, which GW2 has long strived to allow.

I sincerely hope the devs read this suggestion and consider it. I think it would a wonderful way to add flavor and identity to characters and let them invest in their order.

Sorry if this suggestion has been made already.

Bumping this because the problem persists, even after the latest patch.

Good to know! Thank you.

Hey people,

I had my display name changed in late January (the day before the first living story patch), and it took effect immediately. However, since the most recent patches, I have found that, in the guild tab only, my old display name and my new one take turns showing themselves under my listing. Sometimes it’s a brief flicker. My new name still shows on the forums and upon logging into the game. This is an issue that effects the guild panel only, as far as I’m aware.

Is anyone else in a similar situation? I would like this fixed soon, as my old name is not something I’ve missed, to put it mildly.

Keep the price, make the armor exotic.

Furthermore, when ascended armor is introduced, there should be a way to make exotic cultural armor ascended using the gift of ascension, like how the prototype fractal capacitor currently operates.

Yes, it is prestige armor. Yes, it should be expensive and mean something. It’s because of these things that it shouldn’t be useless without the cash shop.

This should have been in long ago. Many people that would use this feature are those who misunderstood the purpose of the names, or had theirs changed by a dev for whatever reason. Since this is basically an account name, we should have an option to alter it, if not at a whim. There are numerous threads in the Account Issues forum that are screaming for this.

If you’re afraid of people trolling, scamming, or violating the TOS then changing their name to regain anonymity, remove it from those people; they’ve sacrificed the privilege. However, the rest of the community would use the feature well.

Wouldn’t past infractions and play history stick with a person’s account, though? They might be harder to identify off the bat, but I don’t imagine that they would suddenly lose their entire record. Display names have been changed before, and I doubt their slates were wiped clean upon the rename.

I understand what you’re saying, but it seems that both problems are avoidable if someone’s record is tied to their account, not the name that I think is meant to quickly identify it.

This is really such a simple feature. You can change your display name on all kinds of social media, and the fact that it’s almost half a year into launch and still no option for people to do this on their own is sad.

Gaile mentioned that there are as many reasons not to allow it as there are to allow it. I’d sure like to know what they are, and, as paying customers, I think we’re all entitled to know as well. Worried about offensive stuff? Throw a filter in. Etc…

Someone had mistakenly used his e-mail as his display name, and that name was changed within 8 hours. With all the time the team has spent giving me excuses and locking my threads, they could have helped me and at least 5 other people.

And if this becomes a paid change…I will seriously consider getting a refund for my purchase of the game.

This is a response to the thread that someone else started and I posted in. I don’t mean to clutter the forums with the same issue, but I was unable to respond to the thread, since Gaile locked it immediately after her response to my post. And I would love to avoid such clutter by sending her a PM, but she’s made it clear she doesn’t like those (I would know, I tried a week and a half ago). Thus, this is the only way to make my response known, as I think they are topics the team should consider. If you guys don’t want to have a billion threads on the same topic, I suggest you reconsider locking every thread that appears to be resolved, or at least respond to you own PMs. Those habits are counter-intuitive to two-way communication, which I thought was the purpose of this forum in the first place.

Anyway…

“First, please, please do not PM me to get personal help. I answer in the forums, review tickets, etc., etc., and the agents respond to tickets 24/7. But adding to the 458 PMs I’ve been sent is neither effective nor appropriate.”

I tried a forum post the day it happened (around Halloween), and you locked it without fully answering my question. I can’t update my ticket since I closed it, not knowing I couldn’t reopen it (furthermore, I got two responders: one was dishonest, and the other didn’t read my ticket at all). Finally, again, I wanted to avoid forum clutter. Sorry for adding to your personal clutter, though.

“Secondly, I suggest that you read the response that you received. I don’t know for certain what you were told, but I believe you were told that we don’t change names upon request. And that is true. We’d rather have our agents focus on helping players with actual account issues than deal with secondary situations. In situations like that explained by the OP, we made a change because security was an issue.”

Actually, I was told that you cannot change display names, which is nonsense, since you did just that a week prior. If what that person meant is what you said here, your agents should be more clear in their responses.

Also, just to be clear, I’m not asking to take priority over security issues. I just don’t understand why you can’t solve both types of problems, which seem like such easy fixes. By changing it once, you’ve shown that potentially offensive names are worthy of changing. That’s why I don’t think this is beyond you. Which leads me to…

“I don’t see your name as being potentially offensive. Nor did the team, when it was discussed. I understand you want a change, but I don’t think you need a change, and we really truly want the agents to deal with issues rather than requests.”

Tell that to Mr. Smith, who just buried his late grandfather. I don’t know of any such person, but I suspect there’s probably a lot more people like that than there are who would be truly hurt by “Muffin Of Christ” (though I understand that name is not appropriate, thus I’m not arguing to have it restored). The name I suggested could never offend anyone, and I’m surprised that you don’t acknowledge this. I also find it strange that you didn’t think to abbreviate the name I had, or making it match my highest level toon, instead of coming up with something as elaborate as you did. Plus, how long does it take to type out a new name and save it? You did it for the other guy within 8 hours of his post.

“I don’t intend to sound harsh or dismissive. We may offer the opportunity for players to rename in the future. I’ll ask the team about this tomorrow, but I think this display name is going to stand, out of fairness to other renamed players.”

This is what gets me the most. I’m not asking for a special privilege over other players. I don’t think this is a situation anyone should find themselves in. Seriously, changing a display name or screen name is so simple and common. Twitter allows it. Facebook allows it. Google allows it. Xbox Live allows it (I think, it’s been a while). What bothers me is not that you changed my name, but are not allowing me the option of logging in and performing such a simple task. Forget new dungeons and events for a few days if that’s what it takes to include this feature, and, for the love of Dwayna, make it free (no gems).

For the record, I don’t mean to be rude either. I appreciate you getting on the forums and taking the time to respond, and that you were more elaborate than the guy who reviewed my ticket. I especially thank you for bringing this up again tomorrow, despite your doubts. If you read my ticket, you’ll understand why I’m a little PO’d. My frustration is that there shouldn’t be such hoopla in order to get a simple function carried out. I understand if you can’t make it happen right now, but am baffled over why this isn’t something I can do myself. My hope is that you read this fully and take it into consideration.

Ah, so you can change display names! In that case, I have a favor to ask. (I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but is seems that the OP’s issue is resolved, and I’ve had trouble getting you guys’s attention.)

You guys changed my original DN because “Christ” was part of it, but my fear is that “Coffin Fur Smith” sounds like “coffin FOR Smith,” which could scare some people. I’m actually surprised your “agent” hadn’t thought of this.

I submitted a ticket and was told that you can’t change names at all, which ticked me off a little, and my PM to Gaile has received no response. I’ve even gone so far as to report myself (which I should be able to do, since I find the name offensive).

My hope is that by having my display name match my character name (Shynn.xxxx), there is no chance in the world that anyone will be offended by my DN, ever. Thank you for whatever help you can provide.

I logged in today to find that my account name had been changed from MuffinOfChrist to…this. I get why it was changed, but I refuse to be known to the world as this. The only way to edit my account, from what I can see, is to change my password, but I know of no way to change the name of my account. Please let me know how to do this. Also, in the future, instead of changing my name overnight, please consider forcing it on me on my next login, like you do for characters.

Ok, just double checked pic. That…is terrible =(

Pumpkin carver and clock tower don’t count.

Anet has said so in numerous posts, but they really need to sticky it so people don’t panic when their achievements aren’t counted.

@Denial

I was unaware of those, but that’s not really the point of the thread. If there are bugs, then of course they need to be fixed. My point was that the only thing that frustrated ME with this puzzle was the long wait times and not the puzzle itself. My hope was to provide some constructive feedback in the midst of the nerf cries that are to be expected from something like this.

Um… I actually didn’t encounter any bugs, nor did anyone I heard from in that 4.5 hour frame. Maybe I lucked out. /shrug

…that awful wait in between attempts. For me, that’s the only thing that truly frustrated me. I loved how much effort it took to learn, adapt, and fail in order to beat this thing. I even enjoyed the social experience the mass instance created (even with those darn norns and nature spirit griefers). What I didn’t enjoy was waiting around for permission to try again. The worst part was the earlier you fell, the longer you had to wait. After trying so hard to remember each jump and adapt to what was before me, to be forced out of the action for an extended period was awkward. By the time I got back in after falling too early, the muscle memory of the higher jumps had receded, and the process repeats itself.

This only goes to illustrate how much I enjoyed my time in the puzzle itself, which, I think, is perfect as is. All the time in between breaks I spent browsing the net took time away from my perfecting my technique, which I would have preferred to do at my leisure, or at least on a faster timer. Even though it took longer for me to finish than it should have (4.5 hours), this is something I’m going to remember fondly, and I hope you deliver more masterpieces like this in the future.

Waited with my group for about half an hour, and the event chain to open the instance never even started. If my groupmate’s guild is correct, then the chain is bugged out. Dunno about other servers.

I’ve also had this problem since launch. It’s pretty embarrassing to jump into pvp and get facerolled before realizing I don’t have any major traits selected.

Sometimes, though, I’ll have only one or two of my previous traits active, usually my adept trickery major. It goes back and forth.

Also bugged for Thief pistols, but I’ve found that they are hittable only from a certain angle. Shortbow has no trouble at all, though.

Just south of entrance from Gendarran. Have no clue what it’s supposed to be, as there is no indication of anything going on in the area; you wouldn’t know there was supposed to be anything there if not for the map icon. This problem exists on (at least) Eredon Terrace and Devona’s Rest. Please get this taken care of. Thanks.

Edit. Nevermind. Nothing’s bugged. I just saw a vid and realized I was looking in the wrong cave. I feel like a moron now. Please close/delete/whatever and forgive my utter idiocy. -_-

Agreed. If anything, I’d like an option to make it less common as well. If the GW1 music is more rare, I think it could invoke some nostalgia on the instances that it does play, since it is no longer a regular part of the game. But I’ve heard the Granite Citadel theme more in GW2 than GW1, and same goes for the Pre-Searing themes, which I loved. I think those songs are special due to their role in GW1. Hearing them while butchering pirates in Bloodtide Coast just seems off. Also, the Echovald theme in Orr? Really?

I love most of the old music as well, but this is a new game, let’s start fresh, right? =)

(until we get to Elona; feel free to bring back the combat tracks :P)

@Byolith

Wow…if you killed THAT many oozes and didn’t get the next objective…that sounds like a completely separate bug =(

With all due respect to Arenanet (and I have LOTS of respect for them, don’t get me wrong), a week is way too long in between patches, especially if each one creates new bugs. If you have a fix planned and can implement it before the end of the week…why not? Most people would be willing to wait the 5 minutes it takes to update the client…well, I would anyway…

@Byolith

At the beginning of the fight, you want to rush whatever oozes there are before you warp to the deck, causing them to aggro you and fight them there. Once they ask you to plug in the leaks, grab one of the drops from the deck and rush to the cabin, jumping constantly (literally, nonstop) once you get inside. The only cues for identifying the leaks are visual spouts, as there’s no yellow tag or anything. Once you are on top of a leak, you should get an option to press F (or whatever you have your action button bound to), provided you are carrying an ooze drop. You have to be on the ground for this, and you’ll only get a split second to drop it before going back to the deck. It takes practice, and I recommend restarting the mission if you begin fighting too many oozes, unless you have access to heavy AOE.

I also found that if you go down, you stay in the cabin for a little longer after you rally.

edit: you don’t want to fight them in the cabin; just grab a drop from the deck, jump-rush to the cabin, and keep an eye open for a spout to hole up as quickly as possible. Then repeat. You’ll probably aggro oozes in the process; fight them on the deck.

The work around I found is to just constantly jump once you go below deck. You have to stop once you get to the leaks in order to plug them, but if timed right, you should have just enough time to drop the ooze before teleporting back up on deck. Just rinse and repeat and you’ll get it done.