Guild Wars 2

It doesn’t bring players back and it doesn’t retain players. It’s reminiscent of a subpar singleplayer game.

I’d honestly wish they’d scrap the stupid idea of Living Story and the pathetic content that it’s generated. The game has lost an extraordinary amount of players in less than a year, while core content aspects such as competitive, functional s/tPvP is still underdeveloped, WvW is only marginally better than on release, the economy is still in tatters (this coming from a guy who has plenty of gold, Sunrise Legendary, full gear etc) and no new zones aside from Southsun Cove, which is still woefully underdeveloped and uninteresting.

Great core aspects – tPvP, WvW, PvE – will keep people playing. Not pathetic seasonal content that is temporary and, worst of all, incredibly easy and therefore unengaging. The game lacks meaningful challenge and sense of achievement (again, coming from someone who has Sunrise legendary, which is all about persistence and not challenge/skills). It is basically going the way WoW has gone post-TBC, albeit at a higher pace; catering to casuals, thus bleeding users.

There was a recent article by one of the leading LoL designers, who commented that the last couple of years’ MMO-trend of “catering to the casuals” has all but destroyed the genre in the west. I believe this is very much the case, and that the best way of achieving succes in an MMO is by building upon some core concepts that are extremely hard and challenging to achieve. Sure, only a minority will reap the full benefits of such an approach, but much like TBC – the glory era of WoW both content and subscriber-wise – the western masses will surmount these challenges nontheless.

Right now GW2 resembles a Korean grinder mmo much more than the now long dead manifesto ever led us to believe.

xtriz.9617:

Juan Ignacio.8903:

you do realice that gw2 is dead right?

I hope your joking that’s GW2 it’s dead? Right now ppl talking about get new server because it’s to many ppl in Europe.

I dont know how it looks like in US.

Yeah, right, with all those EU servers at standard population during peak, which may as well mean ‘light’? No chance.

Girls On Top [WIN] is currently recruiting 1 Bunker Guardian for our competitive 5v5 roster.

ABOUT US

Schedule: Usually 20.30-23.00 but usually flexible. We play as many nights as possible, but we always prioritize real life commitments, meaning our schedule doesn’t infringe on our ability to prioritize other things if need be.

Skill: Our team has, despite a relatively casual schedule, managed to enter the higher-tiers of the current EU competitive scene. Proof hereof can be seen here:
!http://www.anook.com/uploads/pictures/10/4532/1/50fc6b5af0860.jpg! and !http://www.anook.com/picture/2634!

Mentality: We strive to have fun together. That means we get along socially as well as gaming-wise. Thus we’re looking for a sociable, reliable member who wants to be part of our little fellowship.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR IN YOU

Personality: We are looking for a person who is reliable, calm and intelligent. If you have anger-issues and/or trouble breathing and sitting upright simultaneously, don’t bother contacting us.

Skill and Communication: You need to possess sufficient skill and communicative skills to participate in high-end PvP.

Intelligence, Independence and Creativity: You must be able to adapt to whatever changes might occur to the game with intelligence. If, say, a build gets nerfed, we expect you to adapt to those changes in an intelligent way that benefits the team.

CONTACTING US

You can find us ingame by whispering or writing in-game mail to: Nimraphel.7819
You can find us on Anook on by writing to: Nimraphel or Miku or by following the nook called "The Scarecrow Ministry [VII]

The Necro builds are laughably bad. Really. This gotta take the prize as worst conceived guide I’ve read in a long, long time.

Nimraphel.7819:

Nimraphel.7819:

Getting new error code now:

1004:6:3:2083

And now back to:

42:6:3:2060

Aaaaaand now back to 42:6:3:2158

Nimraphel.7819:

Getting new error code now:

1004:6:3:2083

And now back to:

42:6:3:2060

Getting new error code now:

1004:6:3:2083

mithrile.9137:

Same issue:
Error Code: 42:6:3:2158
EU Desolation, more players

Same.

As I said, I agree that it’s a grey area and extremely hard to adjust without unintended sideeffects. However, perhaps it would be an idea to adjust the combinations that are most often the subject of macro-(ab)use – after all, these combinations are also the ones most commonly perceived as problematic in the game by both casual and hardcore playerbase alike.

Gintoki.6405:

if you was so lazy for example to set a macro for cloak and dagger/steal/backstab. you would get into the habit of doing that and your gameplay would probably become more predictable as a result

Predictability is the least of the problems with these combinations. If I face a mesmer I know that everything hinges on me avoiding the brunt of the shatter combo. If I meet a backstab thief I know the exact sequence of events that will unfold. The problem is that despite this knowledge of the fight, a single mistake on my part means I am in the gutter, whereas a single mistake on their part is often forgiveable due to their inherent escape options and survivability.

With the macro in play, it eliminates any mistakes they might make in terms of executing the combo. Thus it eliminates the human dimension in which errors inevitably will sometimes occur, further giving an edge to the macro-(ab)user.

Again, rather than flailing about in the dark in regards to whether or not we feasibly can detect macro abusers, how about the game is tweaked to diminish the power of these builds that benefit so highly from perfect execution? People from all tiers and strata complain about a simplistic metagame consisting of bunkers and bursters. Slapping a bit of cast-time on some of these bursty abilities would still allow for burst but would make these glass builds more dependent on their team and/or long-term sustainability rather than one-trick pony-playstyles in which they hardly even have to analyse the fights. Right now it’s picking the squishiest target and then letting the pain-train commence.

Kirei.1792:

either ur a noob and u need macro, or either ur good and u don’t need it.

That is a fallacy. A good player may not need macro, but if he never intends to participate in live tourneys then he might as well ensure that mistakes in the execution of the combo are effectively eliminated. Does it, over time, atrophy his skill and become a crutch? Maybe. However, if nothing can be done about it there’s little to deter him.

The thread is definitely valid and to be honest it’s quite mind-boggling how people seem unable to comprehend the rammifications of having macros run rampant in this game where twitch-gameplay is essential. More to the point, Sharp has confirmed that macros are bannable offense and illegal in this game, further highlighting how it’s potentially considered an issue.

Right now, macros aren’t a question of “rewarding smart players” – a ludicrous notion at best – or a question of whether or not they are needed. Anyone with the sufficient hardware can set up macros and watch their performance increase noticeably.

Hypothetically, I could set up my G15 and Naga to always ensure that with one simple keystroke, I do the standardized CnD+Steal+Haste+BS. Nothing fancy here, except every single time, regardless of circumstances, the combo will be executed flawlessly.

Hypothetically, I could ensure that I abuse the shatter combo every single time for some of those crazy instagib scenarios we’re currently seeing. No deviation in performance due to me not being infallible; the macro would ensure perfect execution with a keystroke due to my G15/Naga configuration.

The real problem is, as OP states, the fact that Anet seem impotent in this matter. And naturally so, it’s a grey area when it comes to human reactions; an amazing player shouldn’t suffer from being lumped together with macro-users (although the outcome of their actions become disturbingly similar).
However, arguing that “people shouldn’t adopt bad habits that they will need to unlearn in live tournaments” is simply absurd. It’s dubious we’ll ever have flourishing and regular live tournaments, and the majority of people honestly do not care as they won’t participate in live tournaments – they’ll keep blowing up people in regular paids because against most current paid teams (sub-top50 QP), macros infer too large an advantage.

Of course, it doesn’t help that there are self-admitted perpetrators of macro-(ab)use currently figuring in the top-50 leaderboards.

Apparently it was fixed a few minutes ago.

Hey Syko.

Will you be online tomorrow? Would like to whisper you ingame if possible and have a chat

Jason Segel.2908:

Nimraphel.7819:

Jason Segel.2908:

Tank HB warriors do really well. Dunno what you are talking about…

Really well? None of the top teams are even considering using warriors. Onibawan, CN, you name ‘em – not using Warrior. Only team using warrior are/were SuperSquad, and they’re arguably Tier2 by now.

We are not talking about the top 1% of players. We are talking about the teams who use HB tank warriors and can still one shot you. which is more than naming a few teams. Quit being so arrogant and trying to balance the game around the top 1%-10% of the players. That’s how you lose the other 90%.

So we’re supposed to balance the game – and one of the classes seeing least high-end representation and with a low amount of viable builds – based on people being too dimwitted to conjure up a proper build and/or utilize a simple stunbreaker and/or dodge roll?

That sounds like an absolutely terrible idea.

I’d really like to see those tanky omnipotent warriors that are jack of- and master of all trades. I’d really like to see their builds, how they perform and, more importantly, who they perform against; of course a sub-2k armor thief standing in a full HB will be demolished. Point is, they should. Just like any player voluntarily soaking a full HB without casting, dodging, moving or whatever.

But hey, we all know Warriors, not the incessant res-signet/IoL/GoR meta, along with iQ bunker eles and bunker guardians, is problematic, right?

Jason Segel.2908:

Tank HB warriors do really well. Dunno what you are talking about…

Really well? None of the top teams are even considering using warriors. Onibawan, CN, you name ‘em – not using Warrior. Only team using warrior are/were SuperSquad, and they’re arguably Tier2 by now.

Zid.4196:

That’s why LoL always balances for regular level play too, not just for top level play. They understand that certain high damage skills, while not a problem on pro level, destroy regular level fun. Maybe that’s one of the reasons they are the most popular mmo by far.

LoL is an MMO? You’re kidding? It’s a MOBA.

I’d much rather petition Anet to lock one of the three utility slots and create a separate category for stunbreakers to go into this separate slot. That way baddies can’t skip stunbreakers completely and subsequently come and whine on the forums. All stunbreakers have equal- or lower cooldown than the full Frenzy+bullrush+100b combo, which is the only thing that is even remotely an issue to the überbaddies in 8v8 hotjoin zerg.

All said and done, it’s beyond tragic that there are still people refusing to utilize a minimum of common sense and skill, instead opting to whine incessantly on the official forums for a skill that is completely a non-issue for anyone with a triple-digit IQ.

Jason Segel.2908:

Jonny.9370:

Jason Segel.2908:

Necro can give itself 10 stacks of might with blood is power. And I still don’t hit that high, invalid point.

I guess you didn’t read all of the post? 10 stacks of might is great and all but the point is that isn’t all warriors bring unlike the necro build you seem to be using. Warriors can build over 15. +12% damage from berserker rage, then add the vulnerability inflicted by the greatsword, and you are looking at around 400-500 extra power coming from might and about 15% extra total damage from traits and your debuff(not counting greatsword specialization trait).

And warriors only SEEM to hit super high since it occurs very quickly. They aren’t chunking 20k from people with a single weapon strike. What does your autoattack hit glasscannon fighters for? 2-4k each? So does the warrior, except he can do it faster through 100b. Which brings us to the real issue, imo. Frenzy.

I weapon swap to gain 3 stacks of might, have 60% crit damage, 53% chance to crit, 1900 power, + 10 stacks of might with blood is power + 25 vulnerabilities I cast on an enemy all within a few seconds. Still never hit higher than 7900 is. 25 vulnerability comes from well of suffering + spectral wall is instant 8 or 10 stacks each time you make them walk through it(lasts for 9 seconds).

They are chunking out 18k-30k damage from one attack(8 hits + last hit) called 100 blades buddy. Add frenzy to that(which they don’t even need) and = insta kill.

They can always use bolas and completely forget about frenzy and most classes don’t have a dodge that lets you dodge while immoblized. I don’t have an issue with this, necro has instant fear with deathshroud and you don’t have to be looking at your target. I have 3 teleports(2 away from enemies and 1 to them), a 3 second immobilize, an almost instant blind, and deathshroud can be used to soak up some damage. I don’t have an issue. But when I see other classes getting destroyed because they don’t have all these mechanics to defend themselves it’s really stupid.

In TPVP people who run warriors are godly with them to the point of they are almost complete tanks and can still take you from 24k hp down to 10k easily with 100 blades, yes it doesn’t kill you but it puts you in a bad spot, considering it only took them less than 2 seconds to do that, doesn’t sound like a tank to me but it is because 100b is still overpowered when you are tank specced. Tank spec warriors is a really hard thing to deal with in TPVP even if ur good. I am only complaining it does too much damage, I don’t think anything should one shot someone, and Arenanet does too, they nerfed thieves 5 times now?

Warriors will be nerfed. I don’t think it needs to be a huge nerf to 100 blades damage output, just make it so they cannot down you just by using one skill, no other class has that, why should they?

Pretty hilarious how not a single high-rated competitive team runs warriors in paids then, eh? All those teams scrimming 8+ hours/day must have really missed the memo, eh?

Damn, it’s funny how everyone hasn’t realized Warriors are the new Mesmer/necro/ele/guardian in the meta. Combined, of course. 100b is nothing less.

/sarcasm.

Oh, it’s Jasher.

He’s making these threads every few weeks in an incessant crusade against 100b specifically.

When people then present sensible, coherent arguments against it, he resorts to ad hominem attacks, outrageous hyperbolic arguments and eventually scuttles off when he cannot argue against the refutation.

If this continues I’ll keep reposting the numerous refutations to this senseless crusade – while of course reporting Jasher for spam as it’s the same old thread being revived over and over ad nauseum.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Thirsty.2875:

I have heard lots of players have this issue and fix it using an VPN. Not that it is a good solution but it is a solution.

Possible to elaborate?

The issue is insane, every single tournament, free or paid, we did last night had everyone freezing for up to 5-8 seconds, both us and opponents. It made the game nigh-unplayable.

lin.2814:

Blacktide guilds dont have motivation.
Play for that ? For server score ? For killing french pugs?

Most players tired wipe them.This was interesting first two weeks.
They are continue playing but just for fun.

I hope that next WwWwW patch will correct this situation. Sorry for my bad English.

This just in: Winner-team joining server jumpers whine about lack of motivation.

Wait, so quickness is broken but invulnerability-on-demand at shorter CD’s are fine? Wow.

L2p issue here. Quickness is easily countered. Hell, against warriors, already one of the weakest competitive pvp classes, quickness is more often than not their own death sentence.

Relentliss.2170:

Try dodging 100b when you are on a Foreign ping. By time you break stun and dodge a Frenzied 100b its mostly over.

100b not so bad

Different forms of Quickness, very bad all round.

As much as I can empathize with your situation, I don’t think balancing around (what I hope and assume to be) a small player segment’s latency issues is a good thing. If you’re an oceanic player then you have my sympathies, I’d definitely wish you had your own server, but I hope you also realize you’re in the minority, and that balancing the game around a latency issues affecting a distinct minority of the playerbase isn’t ideal.

If you’re an NA player playing on EU or vice-versa, well… There’s a solution for that.

And on the topic of HB: It’s borderline useless outside of Frenzy. Removing Quickness would have huge implications and necessitate a removal of the self-root on HB (which even then wouldn’t make it very viable as it’s still easily interrupted. We’d just see HB Warriors becoming useful only during Balanced Stance rather than Frenzy).

Yasha.5963:

Nimraphel.7819:

My posts factually refute the outrageous claims that HB is an infallible “I WIN” combination that is impossible to avoid.

Well, I never said HB is an infallible I win button, that would be an outrageous claim! Its actually one of the easier of such abilities to evade.

My comments about burst being excessive are relevant to the thread in my opinion, because I see the OP’s complaint more as a symptom of the games high-burst dynamic rather than HB in itself being “overpowered”.

At any rate I thank you for writing some well thought out and lengthy replies that didn’t need to involve insulting me. Maybe there was some level of misunderstanding on both sides about what we were trying to convey due to our passion for the game.

And let me also add that I am very interested in your views, even if they are different to mine.

Likewise – and link the kitten build Yasha!

Post 2/2

Yasha.5963:

(4) “Nonsense. My trap-spamming condition SB ranger can consistently farm 300+ glory/match in 8v8 sPvP with little effort.”
– You say my views are nonsense, and in the next breath modestly tell us how pro you are with a high toughness/condition build ranger…..Not only is this not empirical, it is supporting exactly what I said.

You misunderstood me. I didn’t flaunt my ego, I called you out on the BS claim that you can’t walk into 8v8 hotjoin and do well without being forced to go for Toughness. I think you grossly oversimplified the matter and made a wrong claim based as fact. This was further underlined by looking at one of your other posts in the Ranger forum, in which you said the following:

Yasha.5963:

Now I have to say that I really enjoy my ranger in spvp, I like ranged too so usually sport a shortbow and horn (for the speed buff). Of course you have to go tanky, but you can do condition tanky (best but direct damage is verrry low) or a powertoughness build (ok, good for taking out new players). Of course tpvp is a no go, but if you get a decent group in hotjoin spvp you can play a tough kiting type style that is a lot of fun-you do need to learn a new playstyle though, I remember the transition from a longbow sniper (aka thief fodder) to the tanky short range kiting style (actually very exciting)

I find that pretty enlightening once you mention that you run a…

Yasha.5963:

I run a high toughness ranger build

High toughness is not a free ticket to insanely strong survivability. Toughness doesn’t inherently make you a very strong tank. The trinity was abolished for a reason. I implore you once again… please link your build. I find it very hard to believe you’re devoid of counters to burst combinations of any kind, regardless of class. And I don’t think a bunker-style ranger running SB + 1h/Warhorn is necessarily the best choice or an infallible bunker-ranger build. There are better defensive options, especially if you insist on not swapping often.

Yasha.5963:

But in all seriousness I do think that we fundamentally share the same desire, to have well balanced and exciting spvp. And like I’ve said many times, its not HB I’m concerned about per-say, it’s the very high burst that some classes have in the game that feels somewhat cheap or out of place to me in a game this good, for reasons I and many on this thread have already mentioned.

This thread is specifically around Hundred Blades. Thus I hope you won’t derail the topic into a sweeping collateral vendetta against burst builds which might inadverdently affect Warrior, least represented class in tPvP along with Ranger, and which is in sore lack of any viable builds.

That aside, I agree that we both want an ideal game, and I respect that desire. I, however, base my arguments on 5v5 play at skill-level above basic. You seem – and no offence intended with this – to base it on 8v8 hotjoin, which is abhorrent since it is a gamemode in which zerging is promoted for glory farming rather than promoting actual intelligent and skilled play. 8v8 should honestly be removed, but barring that it should just never have any influence on balance as it promotes the wrong kind of play; in 5v5 stunbreakers are great because you can face-off against 2-3 people for a while. You might lose, but backup might also arrive and turn the tide of the battle. In 8v8 hotjoin you might as well not bother as fights are inherently uneven and/or overwhelming zergs.

Again, I’d respectfully urge you to watch streams between competitive teams. It’s extremely dynamic when the high-level teams face off against each other, and even in normal tournament pvp with a cohesive, organized team, those gib-scenarios are pretty much a non-issue unless you’re vastly outskilled.

I’d love if they removed 8v8 hotjoin and limited pvp into tournament pvp with ladders and ELO Matchmaking to ensure balanced match-ups. It’d create a far more competent pvp environment and would highlight how HB is so extremely weak in a controlled environment.

Post 1/2

Yasha.5963:

Your posts mainly consist of rhetoric aimed at belittling the views of those who have a different opinion than you.

My posts factually refute the outrageous claims that HB is an infallible “I WIN” combination that is impossible to avoid.

Yasha.5963:

(1) “Let’s just completely disregard that most rangers often engage in fights having Rampage As One running for 20+ seconds”
– Yes I see how this is empirical, you have the stats on what most Rangers run with, I guess you are on the dev team right?

I fully acknowledge and concede that I made an assumption there on behalf of the majority of Rangers. However, I won’t apologize for that since RAO is vastly superior in almost any given scenario to any other elite in a Ranger’s arsenal. It’s on a 120s cooldown as opposed to 150s (Entangle) and 240 (SoN). Entangle is easily broken and SoN, while good, is often too high risk compared to its rewards. I think you know as well yourself that a 20+s Stability, Fury and Swiftness is outright amazingly powerful, hence often being a prime Elite for Rangers.

Yasha.5963:

(2) “Let’s also completely disregard that if a HB Warrior has Frenzy, Bull Rush and Bola, the Ranger can just stunbreak + interrupt the channel. Problem solved. Rangers has numerous short cooldown easily-accessible ways of achieving this, regardless of build. As does most all classes.”
- Oh I guess by “numerous” you mean one, (being signet of renewal) and by “short cooldown” you mean 60 secs and by " easily-accessible regardless of build" you mean regardless of build as long as it is the build that includes this one ability rangers have that breaks stun and removes immobilize?

Your response belies lack of comprehension of what I write. You don’t need to break Immobilize if the Warrior is running Frenzy + Bull Rush + Bola. You break the stun and use one of the many interrupts available to all ranger’s weaponsets since the warrior will have no source of Stability.

This means you can counter it easily with both Signet of Renewal or Lightning Reflexes. Or you could just pop “Protect Me!” and troll the warrior. Both of the latter two are on shorter CD than the warrior’s combo. And hey, it is actually in fact possible to avoid the Bull Rush through normal means. Keeping the warrior outside 900 Range isn’t too hard, especially not if you’re running SB/chill trap since his primary gap-closer, Rush, will surely give his intention away.

Yasha.5963:

(3) “No high-toughness builds get killed in 2 seconds. None.”
– Hmm, not sure but this sounds suspiciously closer to a forceful assertion than empirical evidence.

I can’t really comment on anything specific since you categorically refuse to link your build so that I can adress your specific example, despite me asking for it time and again. I can easily link you all competitively used Bunker builds, be it Guardian, Engineer, Thief, Necro or Ele. I can make videos showing how they can all easily negate a HB or survive soaking one. I can post videos showing it from both Warrior and bunker perspective. I could do the same for a Ranger as I’d build a Bunker Ranger.

That being said, my wording could have been better; it implies that high-toughness build is a carte blanche to be able to survive burst builds no matter how badly the high-toughness player plays. That is of course a mistaken wording on my part; toughness is not equal to strong survivability by itself, and of course defensive utilities such as a stunbreaker is needed. That goes for all classes.

possante.8310:

stun breaks? some are pretty much useless, anything that dont give you block/invulnerability/teleport will not prevent you from escape burst damage.

Then it’s a good thing any mesmer worth their salt will have 4s distortion and 2s Blurred Frenzy back-to-back don’t ya think? Or Phased Retreat or blink or decoy or shatter-daze or…

possante.8310:

you use decoy go near him and do the mesmer combo and he will die.

Context and your position considered, this is pretty rich.

possante.8310:

so nope, your theory about use a proper build to avoid insane burst isnt possible on this game since most of classes only have 1 great build.

Wow. Just wow. I can name several Guardian builds, engineer builds, elementalist builds, Thief builds, Necromancer builds… that are all viable. Arguably Ranger and Mesmer has slight variety options as well, though I’ll concede the point that they’re currently nudged towards certain builds. Saying most classes only have one viable build is factually wrong when you consider the deviations amongst the competitive playerbase.

In this thread: Guy complains that he gets bursted down, likely due to completely foregoing the use of proper build and at least one stunbreaker/defensive utility, thinking that high toughness should ensure his success against an indeterminate amount of enemy glass cannons.

/thread.

Yasha.5963:

Snip

I can’t take this discussion with you seriously anymore. You completely ignore any and all well-founded empirical refutations of your arguments, and consistently neglect to provide any information that could help us have a constructive discussion.

You have your opinion, I have never disputed that nor your right to it. Just refrain, for the love of God, from presenting arguments and opinions as facts when you de facto refuse to provide information necessary to back up your outrageous – and therefore presumably unfounded – claims. Coupled with your partout neglect in acknowledging the ease of which HB’s combo is potentially countered makes this so-called ‘discussion’ a farcical exercise in banal repetition.

Part 2/2

Yasha.5963:

Is it so easy to pick the mesmer? How about when there are three mesmers? There are just not enough dodges and evades to go around I’m afraid.

I’ve yet to see any succesful team run triple mesmer because they’re so easily getting toasted by LDB Thieves, Engineers, Eles. However, I assume you are talking 8v8, in which case I am close to giving up; you seem impervious to the common sense that the majority of people in this thread try to present to you.

Or hell, let’s put this in terms you can understand: How am I to have enough dodges or evades against 3x trap spamming QZ’ing SB rangers? How am I to avoid 3x Backstab Thieves from splatting me? How am I to avoid getting knocked around ad nauseum by 3 Engineers?

I can’t. If I were to hazard a guess, I don’t think anyone should have an easy time against 3 people, be it of the same or various classes. I can’t decide if it’s hilarious or tragic that you’re even implying that you should stand a chance vs. 3 people of equal skill. Be it Mesmers, Thieves or any other class.

Yasha.5963:

Sure in an ideal 1vs1 situation you can pick it out, but it is not so easy in a typical group fight; and if the mesmer is good they can and have bursted down the highest toughness/healbot ranger I ran with before I could react. Bang! just like that dead. This was before the last patch and it hasn’t happened since, but maybe I just havn’t come up against a really good mesmer for a while.

Healbot ranger sounds awfully interesting, would love to see the build. Almost makes it sound like the trinity is back! … Alas, what relevance does it have after the last batch of nerfs and considering you haven’t experienced it for 2 full weeks? Also, examples taken out of context are anecdotal at best, making a poor foundation for discussion. Videos and builds please. If you’re so passionate about it, you’re probably also willing to fraps it rather than run to the official forum and take scenarios out of context.

Yasha.5963:

the very high burst in this game detracts from the enjoyability and sense of control and skill in spvp. Lets have some more enjoyable drawn out and tactical fights and less of the 2-sec you are dead stuff.

I’d suggest watching some competitive tournament pvp. It’s exactly as you describe and it’s very enjoyable to watch. 8v8 hotjoin is 8v8 hotjoin; it’s a zergfest centered around mindless zerging and killing rather than, y’know, winning the actual map. The builds therein reflects that. It is not fit for balance.

Post was too long, so here’s part 1/2

Yasha.5963:

When I run a high toughness ranger build a frenzy HB will kill me in 2-secs, mesmer burst has also killed me, as has theif burst, and some necro builds

It would be alot easier to relate to if you would actually link your build

Yasha.5963:

I think a burst class should be able to nearly one shot a squishy, but should have to apply some concerted team effort to take down tanky builds.

So hypothetically, would you say a high-toughness/no defensive utilities build is tanky?
Also, concerted team effort? No bunker should be able to sustain a 1v3-4 fight for an extended period of time assuming equal skill. Good bunkers will beat glass cannons, iQ ele, bunker engi, bunker guardian, LDB bunker Thief and bunker necros can all do this consistently.

Yasha.5963:

the problem is that its just not fun to be killed almost instantly even if you are running a tanky build-for which you would have sacrificed a lot so that you can survive.

I’m sure the warrior agrees that life’s harsh when he can’t do jack against a chain-trapping ranger with 20 seconds of stability, but that’s another matter… Link your build, otherwise the point is moot; I have a very hard time believing that a build dedicated to be “tanky” gets taken down in 2 seconds when iQ Ele, Bunker Guardian, Bunker Necro and Bunker Engineer can easily survive a HB Warrior, even if said warrior channels a full HB.

Yasha.5963:

the current over-the-top burst is negatively impacting the game- it limits what builds you can take into spvp. A ranger has to make a tanky build to do spvp, soley because of the high burst in the game.

Nonsense. My trap-spamming condition SB ranger can consistently farm 300+ glory/match in 8v8 sPvP with little effort. The Frenzied Bull Rush HB can be countered by a single stunbreaker + any of the many low-cooldown interrupts available in the ranger’s weaponsets. High toughness isn’t a carte blanche to go into sPvP without any defensive utilities and expect to excell. And at any rate, your stunbreakers are almost all on a shorter cooldown than both frenzy and bull rush. If you stand and soak a normal HB, well… the warrior is not the problem.

Yasha.5963:

Also since most pvp happens in a group in this game, and because immobilize is hard to remove (and many classes can apply it), it is actually quite easy to set up a burst attack. I get bursted down like this every night, there is no way for me to reliably and skillfully avoid it. Then you see with several classes able do it, you are really being exposed to a constant barrage of burst and cc.

Are you talking 8v8 hotjoin? Because when can we stop beating the dead horse and realize that 8v8 hotjoin is a FFA environment that is not a good yardstick for balancing?
I’ll give you one thing: PvP does indeed not occur in a vacuum. It’s more than possible to counter burst as it is to set it up. There are a multitude of ways to create area denial or cleanse conditions off your team/grant stability.

PowerBottom.5796:

Since the recent Patch, I’ve been playing around a lot with Ranger (I also played it a bit before) and I really think that there are various situations, in which the ranger totally excells other classes:

1) Quickness: Just the Quickness rezzes and Quickness stomps you get from Zephyr’s Speed are absolutely amazing in Teamfights and because the Ranger has it all 20 or even 15 Seconds is just awesome for Teamfights.

2) AoE: With either Traps, Piercing Arrows, Pet-Skills or other Skills/Traits, the Ranger has huge AoE-Potential, which is again very good for Teamfights.

3) Combo-fields and finishers: I’ve ran a build with Ice and Fire-Trap, Bonfire and the Healing Spring and the amount of combo-fields you put out is unmatched by any other Class. In addition to that, the Ranger has also a huge amount of combofinishers – the obvious ones on the bow, but totally underrated ones on for example Greatsword (leap every 10 or so seconds) or Offhand Axe (afaik the longest Whirl-finisher in the game and a two-way Projectile-finisher with rather short CD).

- Knockbacks: I’ve toyed around with Holding builds or offensive Point-cap-builds on the Ranger as well, because he has very strong Knockbacks or other options to get enemies off points: Fear on the Wolf, one of the strongest Knockbacks in the game on the Longbow, a decent knockback on the Greatsword (skill 4 when attacked in melee).

- Traps as counter to Portals: Another Option to use an offensive Roamer is with 2-3 Traps as a counter to Portals; It’s really nice if you can spam those traps on the Portal and have that insta-DPS on the ppl that get out of the portal, you simply start a fight with a big advantage and depending on how long it took for the opponent to get to the portal, you also have the CD’s almost rdy again very often even before the actual fight begins (just spam the traps and w8 a few seconds before you actually get on the point if the opponent doesn’t have vision of you, so you can get 4-6 traps on them right when the fight starts).

- Good Survivability: There are actually certain Traits and Skills available to the Ranger, that make him very very hard to kill:
1) Signet of Stone + Signet of the Beastmaster
2) Empathic Bond: All conditions transer from you to your pet every 10 seconds? There is no better Anti-condition-skill/trait!
3) Natural Vigor: a 5-traitpoint Skill that makes your Endurance reg 50% faster? Do ppl even realize how good this is?
4) Lightning Reflexes: A very underappreciated Stunbreaker.
5) Signet of Renewal: Stunbreaker and all Conditions away? Hell yes!
6) Companions Defense: Very nice Dodge-effect that works well with Natural Vigor, Lightning Reflexes (cuz of the Vigor) etc.

All in all, ppl just like to play their FotM-builds and are afraid to experiment with other classes – I don’t think that Ranger is a bad class: I’m not even sure anymore if he even needs any buffs at all, because I think he has potential that hasn’t been discovered or fully understood and tested out yet.

Quoted for great truth. This. So much.

If Anet manages to fix the pet AI the Ranger is potentially a true powerhouse. Currently pet AI is throttling the potential, but it’s there. Oh it’s there.

ryston.7640:

Riselight.3695:

Maybe you could offer players a class change scroll, so I could become one of this two OP classes as well

This will sound harsh but…

Its people like this, who want to role play their pvp characters, that really baffle me, and the concessions anet makes to them are just… gah

This. People asking for balance without grasping the most basic aspects of the game will only lead to degeneration of gameplay and level. The average gaming population need to learn that it’s okay to think again.

OneManArmy.5617:

Quickness is a broken mechanic and has no place in PvP. They should remove it.
It makes abilities like hundred blades OP.

Quickness is fine. It even comes with drawbacks, sometimes huge (Frenzy in particular). Quickness should not be removed. It’s a non-issue compared to, say, iQ Elementalist’s ability to stall vs. conditionbuilds. It’s a non-issue compared to how glass cannons are lacking viability in anything other than 8v8 hotjoin. Competitive teams eat glass cannons. 1h offensive guardians (just to give an example) eat glass cannons.

HB is not in any way OP. HB is usable every minute during Frenzy. Don’t tell me people stand mindlessly in a slowly channelled HB and soak it rather than dodge it. I’d like to think the average player is not that stupid.

Yasha.5963:

Nimraphel.7819:

Rangers:
Hard Counters: Lightning Reflexes, Protect Me, Rampage as One (most likely the warrior, if smart, won’t even try going at you for 20s+ straight due to the insanely long Stability), Counter Attack.
Soft Counters: Signet of Renewal (if used asap it’ll remove all your conditions), Hilt Bash (hardcounter /w stunbreaker), Concussive Shot (hardcounter /w stunbreaker), Point Blank Shot (hardcounter /w stunbreaker), Stalker’s Strike (hardcounter /w stunbreaker), Hornet’s Sting (hardcounter /w stunbreaker).

Yes Rangers can have all these counters available on demand and they are all on a shorter CD than HB right?

They are on a shorter or equal cooldown to Frenzy. Don’t tell me you can’t avoid a normally channeled HB. Posts like this really make me lose faith in the general pvp population.

I specifically listed those counters to the entire HB combo consisting on Frenzy + Bullrush + Signet of Rage + SoM/FGJ/Bola.

Yasha.5963:

There really is no reliable counter like you suggest

That would be dodge or normal stunbreaker + dodge.

Yasha.5963:

a Ranger may have one or two of those options in a build and the shortest CD is Lightning reflexes if traited 36 sec CD-but it doesn’t break immobilize which is what most smart players hit a ranger with, not to mention that if you are stunned you can’t use most of the “counters” you list anyway!

Let’s just completely disregard that most rangers often engage in fights having Rampage As One running for 20+ seconds which means they’re untouchable for the HB warrior in this scenario.

Let’s also completely disregard that if a HB Warrior has Frenzy, Bull Rush and Bola, the Ranger can just stunbreak + interrupt the channel. Problem solved. Rangers has numerous short cooldown easily-accessible ways of achieving this, regardless of build. As does most all classes.

Yasha.5963:

At any rate the point is not HB, the point is high burst in spvp is boring-whether it is HB, spammed PW, mesmer-burst or whatever. Getting killed in 2 secs even when running high toughness is not fun gameplay; even in a game like WoW the only time this happened was against twinks. The great thing about GW2 spvp is that we have a level playing field, however, these one-shot wonder builds really bring down the feel and enjoyability of the game.

Yet it’s funny how this is a complete non-issue in actual competitive play. No high-toughness builds get killed in 2 seconds. None. Also, your implication that high toughness should by itself guarantee long survivability is inane; toughness is not an excuse for lack of skill or bad builds. A necro popping Spectral Armor will likely get hit for 6k on a fully channelled hundred blades if he runs average toughness. Seems very balanced considering the Warrior is a one-trick pony.

Burst is fine, it’s easily avoidable and the builds running it, with the exception of PW Thief which, on the other hand, has other shortcomings, are sacrificing alot to pull this off. HB Warriors are extremely weak vs. good opposition, Shatter mesmers are easily countered by people with moderate awareness due to their squishiness outside Distortion.

To further illustrate the point about Frenzy’s vulnerability (also notice the guy running into Churning Earth towards the end of the video; perfectly illustrates why the average 8v8 hotjoin player shouldn’t dictate balance): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi-8NymXOtU

And against a non-frenzied target (notice how he has Protection and Shocking Aura up throughout the entire combo and how they are chained to his invulnerability for securing the stomp. Note also that he doesn’t have Bolt to the Heart there):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBFiyigIm6g

… I’d argue that burst is more – and infinitely better – than a HB warrior can ever really hope to consistently achieve in current state of the game. However, you do not see me calling for nerfs on this. It is hotjoin against bad, no/low-skilled non-responsive people and the build is gimmicky, just like HB.

MrQuizzles.6823:

I’m mostly just sarcastically pointing out that many people, yourself included, are being a bit overly-dramatic about defending the skill. The thread started out with people saying it was merely balanced, but then others stepped in apparently trying to convince us that it sucks when it quite clearly doesn’t.

As opposed to the not-at-all overly dramatic people crying incessantly for nerfs, oblivious to common sense, reason and facts?

Alas, it does suck. There’s a reason you don’t see 100blades in anything even remotely competitive. There’s a reason you pretty much don’t see any warriors at all, except for Fredwz, who is, conveniently, team-captain.

The reason people are defending the skill is not “just” because of any affection towards the skill itself – at least not for me, I can only speak for myself. OP has made two threads about this and there has generally been occasional whine about HB ever since release. All that whine has always been completely unfounded, based on faulty situational examples and completely disregarded any and all of the multitudinal counters to HB. It’s essentially glass cannon builds complaining that they can’t go without stunbreakers, toughness, vitality and that they actually sometimes have to dodge.

What disturbs me even more is the utter basic lack of self-insight these people exhibit. Backstab for 15k on HB warrior in Frenzy? Sure! 13k Fire Grab? Np! 10k Pistol Whip? Bring it! 11k Shatter combo? No worries bro! 20k Engineer burst with throw wrench+analyze+overcharged shot+rifle-turret gadget+hip shot in 2 seconds? 15+ bleeds + 6k direct damage from QZ SB Ranger? I could name even more, which would present a whole list of new weaknesses a HB warrior accepts in order to pull of the gimmicky combo.
This further underlines another important point that the whiners seem oblivious to: PvP does not exist in a vacuum. It’s rarely 1v1 (incidentally, HB Warrior is amongst the weakest 1v1 builds), and if the team focuses the HB Warrior he goes down extremely fast. HB is glass. It cannot survive even mild pressure during Frenzy. If focused from the start, chances are the warrior won’t be able to Frenzy in the first place at all.

Saying the defense is “overly dramatic” is pretty rich considering how you worded your own previous statement. Coupled with the zeal of which OP and others cry and whine for nerfs for one of the weakest burst skills (name one other burst/high-damage skill demanding active use of all 3 utility slots + elite slot to actually work to useful effect) for one of the absolutely weakest classes, well…. Get a perspective, mate. HB is, being very generous, merely decent.

MrQuizzles.6823:

You yourself, after pointing out that nobody used warriors in high-level play, called it “weak”, implied it had low damage and then went into a tirade about the multitudinous counters to it that absolutely everyone has and finished by calling it “impotent”. It certainly sounds a lot like you’re trying to convince us that it sucks. It’s a little ridiculous.

Again, you have obviously not read what I wrote. Or you don’t want to read what I wrote, either of which is beyond ridiculous since it, apparently, doesn’t stop you from continuing the crusade against HB.
I listed a scenario – widely acknowledged, too – in which HB is excellent (8v8 hotjoin vs. full glass no defensive utilities and low-skill opponents). Outside of that it is impotent, as god knows how many have pointed out. I even listed counters – and could list many, many more – that are widely available to everyone. I emphasized the point that most no/low-skill glass cannons don’t pick those skills because they are simply not playing intelligently or utilizing viable PvP builds. HB capitalizes on that.

To reiterate my point: Such a scenario is not ever a good yardstick for balancing. Nor should it ever be. I trust – perhaps naively – that you can see the reason in this. If not, then dear lord there’s little hope for s/tPvP if lowest common denominator dictates balance based on whim and is completely oblivious to sensible arguments.

MrQuizzles.6823:

nobody would shed a tear if Shatterstone was nerfed. Having it is already a lot like not having a skill at all.

That I can, to some extent, agree on. However, Elementalist is in a great place right now. It’s an integral part of the current meta, it’s one of the most widely utilized and viable professions right now, and it has alot of options. iQ build is arguably stronger than any Guardian bunker available, it’s the prime Treb-counter, it’s one of the best node-fighters. Ele is in a great place. While that doesn’t mean it deserves revision where appropriate, it does mean that at least it has other very viable options. Some other professions are sadly not as fortunate.

I am, all being said, happy that Anet is not doing sweeping, gamebreaking “balance fixes” like “that other company”. Roll out changes slowly and do not base changes on 8v8 hotjoin whine. If that had been the case we’d see zero instead of one warrior breaking through in high-level competitive, rangers would be back to auto-attack spam and Thieves would be removed from the game.

Also, why was OP infracted for his post?!?

MrQuizzles.6823:

So if the ability is already worthless/useless/weak, so easily countered, then that must mean that nobody builds around it any more. It’s a non-skill like the Elementalist skill Shatterstone. That must also mean that nobody will then mind if it gets nerfed, right?

OH WAIT, no, it’s not like that at all.

Either it’s so bad that nerfs to it are irrelevant and thus not worth arguing over or the people who are saying it’s awful are wrong about its effectiveness.

You’ve obviously not understood a word of what I’ve read. I won’t waste time reiterating what I’ve already written, so I suggest you go and reread it.
However, I will emphasize the essentials:

• Hundred Blades is excellent for capitalizing on enemy ineptitude – be it lack of basic dodging skills or lack of stunbreakers.
• Hundred Blades is useful once every minute when frenzy is up. It can still be countered by an insane amount of abilities, boons and skills, and it leaves the warrior extremely vulnerable. 15k Backstabs are common during a frenzy.

Again, it baffles – and slightly disturbs me – that you’re completely negating reality and the – inconceivable, right? – option that perhaps you just need to have one single kitten stunbreaker ready to completely counter a gimmicky Warrior build. Last I checked stunbreakers were all sub-60 seconds cooldown.

It’s effective against bad players. It’s extremely cumbersome and ineffective against people with average skill and intellect. There is a reason Warrior is not seeing use in competitive play. There is a reason Warrior is pretty much non-existant in paid tournaments.
It capitalizes on killing glass cannons who has no stunbreakers, evasion, skills or awareness. It gets mauled when facing proper opposition.

Again, I urge you to reread and understand the posts advocating against 100b nerf in this thread. Many of them are succinct, rooted in reality other than 8v8 hotjoin and reasonable. The nerfs, on the other hand, seem to scream for a single-button counter to a combination requiring 3 utility skills and an elite skill. It’s frankly disturbing how all the advocates for nerfing seem unwilling to equip stunbreak(ers) and negate it.

8v8 hotjoin is not a fit yardstick for balancing.
8v8 hotjoin is not a good measuring tool for balancing.
8v8 hotjoin is just that: hotjoin. Jump in, troll, relax, walk out. It’s not competitive.

In an ideal world you’d have 100% fair games every time. However, fixing this 8v8 hotjoins should not be a priority. Get matchmaking and/or ladder, which would actually rekindle interest in a dying pvp scene.

100blades is NOT a problem.

Competitive teams don’t utilize Warriors. Fredwz is the only high-ranked warrior to break through at competitive level, and part of that is arguably because he’s the team captain (no negativity towards Fredwz, but all other teams forego the use of warriors).

100Blades Warriors will of course have an impact in a zerging chaotic 8v8 sPvP match in which more people stand cluttered together, most are full glass cannon with zero stunbreakers and most people haven’t keybound dodge and instead rely on double-tap-dodging.

Do you honestly want balance to be based on that? Let’s not devolve and cater to lowest common denominator. 100Blades is weak. It’s a 4 second self-root that, against most normal builds, deal 9-12k damage fully channeled. This completely discounts the option that you might have Weakness applied or they might have Protection up.

100 Blades is rarely (if ever?) fully channeled on a person outside the Bullrush -> Frenzy every 60 seconds, and even that is avoidable, sometimes even 100% avoidable, with a well-timed dodge or a stunbreaker + dodge.

And to the person mentioning Bola’s immobilize: It is easily countered. It’s called Condition removal and/or Stun/daze/knockdown on the Warrior. You might want to use it. Outside of condition removal – since you seem unaware of it – I can, off the top of my head, mention the following counters:

Mesmer:
Hard Counters: Blink, Diversion, Distortion, Signet of Domination, Mantra of Concentration, Mantra of Distraction, Decoy (only vs. Bull Rush, not Bola), Blurred Frenzy, Phase Retreat, Illusionary Wave.
Soft Counters: Moa Bird (He will get 1 sec off of 100b), Phantasmal Defender (he will do 50% dmg, aka 1s worth).

Rangers:
Hard Counters: Lightning Reflexes, Protect Me, Rampage as One (most likely the warrior, if smart, won’t even try going at you for 20s+ straight due to the insanely long Stability), Counter Attack.
Soft Counters: Signet of Renewal (if used asap it’ll remove all your conditions), Hilt Bash (hardcounter /w stunbreaker), Concussive Shot (hardcounter /w stunbreaker), Point Blank Shot (hardcounter /w stunbreaker), Stalker’s Strike (hardcounter /w stunbreaker), Hornet’s Sting (hardcounter /w stunbreaker).

I can go on. Guardians and Elementalists would require alot of time to start listing due to the inane amount of counters they have. Engineers also have it easy vs. 100 blades, with several knockdowns, evasion, permanent uptime on Vigor etc… Necros? Any necro worth their Salt will have Death Shroud and/or Spectral Armor for stunbreaker + damage reduction. Thieves have several ways of avoiding it as well (don’t even get me started on LDB bunker Thieves). The ultimate paradox? 100b Warrior’s easiest target is other 100b Warriors.

As I said, I can go on. However, I think (hope!) you see my point. Pulling off a 100b combo arguably requires all 3 utility slots + an elite skill if you want to do it succesfully and to even mild effect. Even then, most classes have hard-counters to it.

Why is it some people – usually of average skill at best, no offence – want to nerf already impotent abilities that are easily countered? Why do you want a single-button counter to a combo requiring immense sacrifices to set up? Why are you so hellbent intent on kittening the already weakest class (along with Ranger) in high-level tournament pvp? 8v8 is not an indication of balance. It should never be the yardstick for balance. It should never have any impact on balancing.

garraeth.3267:

I don’t have a reddit account (don’t want one). You should take questions from your forums.

Your house is buring around you and you stop to smell the roses. Why are you ignoring the list of questions ‘Samuraikitten86’ compiled from the community and instead spending the short AMA time answering: “What games do you like to play besides Guild Wars 2?”

^This.

I am already in the process of submitting an article to the danish magazine Gameplay on how the gaming industry in general is increasingly utilizing unethical bait&switch’es and social media to (mostly unsuccesfully) spin their unethical business practices (manifesto being a prime example). If succesful I will promote it on other interested sites, blogs et al as well.

This cannot go unpunished. I am not vindictive, but we are seeing the industry losing massive legitimacy and having evergrowing credibility issues which will ultimately diminish and damage the industry. It also nudges players into ‘safe directions’ (see Call of Duty/FIFA/Madden’s annual succes), aka games with zero risk-taking and no innovation, rather than moving the genre forward since people become increasingly wary of putting faith into companies such as Anet. And for good reason; ArenaNet is obviously living in another world than a large segment of their users.

Erasculio.2914:

Ergo – I would not be surprised if NCSoft were pressuring ArenaNet to bring as many players as possible to Guild Wars 2.

No matter the cost.

Why then introduced a grindtastic treadmill demanding insane amounts of grind, which will no doubt only discourage new players?

In this thread: Newbies asking for nerf because of random warrior finishing off people in an already hopeless encounter in which they most likely had used up all endurance and stunbreaks (if they even had any in the first place ;-)).

100 blades is fine. Actually, it’s probably on the weak side. There’s a reason Warriors are pretty much non-existant in competitive teams.

Let’s hope Anet realizes that balancing after lowest denominator is a recipe for disaster and will keep balancing after the elite. It’s the only way to ensure stable, reliable balance.

On another note: If they – for some obscure reason – decides to remove/nerf haste abilities (a disaster if it happens as it’ll further exacerbate bunker build’s advantages), HB needs to be castable on the move and most likely receive a 25-33% damage increase.

ELO / Ranking is paramount.

This is indisputable; the fact that a rank 1 team can end up facing a rank 40+ team is kitten beyond description.

• Add an ELO / Ranking system
• Matchmaking
• Shove people into ladders corresponding to their skill. In fact, just copy StarCraft II in this regard.
• Hold weekly ‘(play-off)finals’ within each ladder between the top of (hypothetical here) Silver Ladder and bottom of Gold Ladder, much like a soccer league.

Then you’d see tPvP interest explode. Then you’d see people compete. Then you’d see people become engaged. Then you’d have people naturally gravitating towards competitive (esport)play.

Until we have matchmaking, this is impossible.

replicant.3620:

slazzy.7309:

When you actually grind for gear, come talk to me. When you only have speculation about what’s yet to come, you have no basis to argue.

Questions?

I’m guessing you haven’t played any of the new content or educated yourself on it. Two items were introduced in this new tier of gear that is bridging an invisible gap in gear that was recently discovered by the design team. The Ascended Rings are gotten from the Fractals of the Mist dungeon as a RNG drop once you have gotten to Lvl 10+ in the Fractal System. The Back Items are a new Mystic Forge recipe using existing T6/SP items and RNG drops from FOTM. This is just the start of the grind and as new pieces are added it’ll continue this way as far as we know.

Ascended Ring – Currently the only way to get one of these rings is via running the new FOTM dungeon. You also must achieve Dungeon Lvl 10 or higher (Same time Agony appears on bosses) before they start to drop. What that means is you have to run 30 Fractals aka 10 Fractal Cycles (3 Fractals Completed without Repairing) in order to get to Level 10. Now that you have gotten this far which ranges from 7.5hrs to 22.5hrs (Depending on group and Experience on average.) of running the fractals over and over you finally have a chance to run them more for a chance at the Ring you need dropping for you. You could be lucky and get this your next run or you could run it a 1000 times and never see it. Welcome to RNG fun!

Note: If you get to FOTM Dungeon Lvl 20+ you have a chance for the Infused Ascended rings dropping, so you get to start a whole different set of runs and fight RNG for the rings that you really want. So much fun I can barely contain myself.

Ascended Back Item – This is a fairly brutal unless you just happen to have an extra 50g-75g or so lying around. 250 T6 Fine Mats + 50 Ecto + 1 Vial of Condensed Mists Essence + 1 Gift of Ascension. T6 Mats… Either grind a ton of mobs for days on end or buy them off the TP for premium prices. Ecto… Still grinding mobs or dungeons then blowing up Lvl 70+ Rares/Exotics for a chance at them or spending a premium at the TP. Vial… Welcome back to the Fractals for a RNG chance at an essence drop. Gift… Costs 500 Fractal Relics from the FOTM NPC. So, that means you’re grinding the heck out of FOTM. Just grinding up to Dungeon Lvl 10 only got you 355 Fractal Relics… So, once again we are having tons of fun.

Note: I want my Ascended Back to be the Infused version! Well, put your Book/Quiver in the MF along with 250 Ecto, 1 Gift of Ascension, and 1 Glob of Coagulated Mist Essence. The back item you already made. The gift of Ascension you’ve made one that only took 8hrs or more, but since you’re high level in the dungeons now it’ll only take you another 4hrs or so to get. 250 Ecto… You must be swimming in exotics by now just waiting to be blown up. Coagulated… This only takes 5 Vial of Condensed Mists Essence (Remember that annoying RNG thing you ground out earlier… Now you just need 5 more) plus 1 Mystic Coin, 1 Ecto, and 1 Fractal Relic in the MF to make. I’m bouncing around like Tigger just full of fun now.

Infusions – Now that you have the fancy Ascended gear you have to fill in that pesky Infusion slot. For 75 Fractal Relics you get a Simple Infusion and for 225 Fractal Relics you get a Versatile Infusion. These are the Agony Resistance only and are sold by the FOTM vendor. If you want Infusions with additional Stats (which we know we all want), then for Simple you need 1 Eldritch Scroll, 20 Mystic Coin, 250 Karka Shells or Passion Fruit (Depends on Off or Def Infusion), and 100 T6 Fine Item. First two Items are cake. Karka Shells have a terrible drop rate (but I suppose you could buy the chest from the gem shop for some help). Passion Fruit are just a long gathering process. I think both would be about 5g on the TP or so. 100 T6… Well, we’re back to the annoying grind unless you’re willing to pay the TP Premium.

Note: Versatile Infusions – Having the simple ones is just ghetto. We need the best! The basic recipe is 2 Eldritch Scroll, 50 Mystic Coins, 100-250 T6 Mats, and 100-250 Passion Fruit/Passion Flower/Karka Shells/etc… The last two components are varied depending on stats and off/def/omni wanted. More and more grind or preimum TP again.

Now if in the making of the 2 new items you don’t see a serious commitment of time and cash that is a very insane grind, then I firmly believe you are in a state of denial, trolling, or just blind.

Anyone defending this insane grind – and upcoming grind for additional pieces – should read this carefully and understand both the immediate and long-term implications.

Great article.

Whether one agrees with the premise or not, this is what the gaming world needs: Accountability. If gaming is to grow, companies need to mature beyond the bait&switch that has become a trademark of many MMO-developers. Thus ArenaNet need to receive a storm of hellishly bad PR; because they’ve earned it, and it is by far the most effective way to ensure that they – and others – become wary of repeating this stunt in the future.

It cannot be stated enough: ArenaNet need to be punished for this stunt. Not because I want ArenaNet to fail – quite the contrary, in fact – but because integrity should always be paramount. No discussion.

Kain Francois.4328:

Hello Chris. Thank you very much for conducting an AMA. We’re very excited to hear from you!

I would be honored if you could please answer some of my questions:

o 1) Can we expect to see more on the Tengu in the future?
o 2) What did Koss write about himself in his autobiography? (“Koss on Koss” backpiece)
o 3) Is Karka meat edible?

Thank you!

This is why AMA is a terrible idea from the community perspective and why it’s purely a PR-spin from Anet’s perspective.

Really, are you effing serious?

Can we please have some focus on the PvP aspect of the game now? PvE’ers have gotten one update after another shoved at them, and no matter how many you’ll release, the PvE segment will burn through your content faster than you can produce it.

Part of why PvE is currently succesful is because PvP is sorely underdeveloped.

- Where’s matchmaking to ensure rank 1’s won’t get paired up against rank 40+?
- Where’s integrated ladders – no, rented arenas will not be a solution since alot of casuals won’t sign up on external sites for rented tournaments – like the ones in, say, StarCraft 2?
- Where’s more in-depth and publicly available stat-mapping such as damage done/healing done/damage evaded/damage reduced through protection in paid tournaments?
- Where is spectator mode?
- Are there any plans to make Warriors and Rangers even remotely viable in competitive? Currently only 1 warrior has really broken through in competitive and that is Fredwz, which, aside from obvious skills, is also because his team puts some effort into making it work; for all other teams it’s universally regarded as more optimal not going with a Warrior.

It would be absolutely great if Guild Wars 2 actually started being a bit, y’know, Guild Wars, and less about World of Guild Wars.

OP obviously hasn’t realized he can queue up as a team for FREE TOURNAMENT PVP. Which, frankly, is quite disturbing since, y’know, it’s been available for ages now.

Secondly, each borderland can, off the top of my head, have 3x 166 players playing. Most servers have, as far as I know, several hours during peak-times in which said borderlands have queues.

0/10 bad troll is bad.