Guild Wars 2

Maybe you should bug report it.

Many bosses have perma-reveal.

• Gorseval
• Keep Construct
• Xera
• Samarog (Might be only on the Fixate, not sure)
• Deimos

This is off-topic, but does anyone else still find it weird that Devs pretty actively post in these forums? It felt like we were in the dark ages for a long time…

All I was saying is this: If you’re just complaining about “Why no spoider mount Mr. Frodo?” then that isn’t the actual conversation.

The real question to ask it, “Why no spoider mount Mr. Frodo at the launch of the expansion?” There are – what – three or four other mount options? This isn’t like the pet on 1-9 professions or a few mobs in the open world. This is putting a premium expansion feature as something that is, at the very least, a divisive creature choice.

Why would they choose something divisive for the launch of their expansion when they are so many other options that are harmless? I cited World of Warcraft’s practices because comparing a MMORPG with mounts to another MMORPG with mounts was more apt and accurate than analogies about the real world or speculation from google searches.

Snow.2048:

There are various stores (including toy stores) that stock extremely realistic (far more so than one in this video game) plastic/rubber spiders/lizard/snake/rodent/scary-thing, prominently displaying said goods on their shelves and in their advertising.

You’re comparing a contained environment of a MMO to… real life? As a gentle reminder in case you forgot, real life is much bigger so it’s easier to avoid. A MMO is a much smaller environment. Both ArenaNet and Blizzard came to this conclusion, but for some reason you (and a few others) seem to think you know better.

Having a spider mount ship with the expansion is a really bad idea because there’s only a handful of mounts coming with it. That means you’d see tons of people swarming everywhere on those horrid things.

It took Blizzard 9 years or so before they made a spider mount in World of Warcraft because of concerns with arachnophobia, and when they finally did implement it, the mount was a massive gold sink. (2-million gold) I’m not guessing their motivations for this either. Their game director explicitly stated this is the reason why.

Besides, think of it as a favor to all the arachnophobes out there – do you really want massive spiders skittering around everywhere?

I’m sure I’m going to attract tons of WoW-haters though by even mentioning this other game. “But this isn’t WoW! It’s Guild Wars 2! It’s different!” No, it’s not… Sorry but if you are so desperate for this mount, you either (1) don’t care about what impact it would have on the game, from (2) its effect on others or (3) don’t know about (1) or (2).

What’s most troubling for me though is the fact that some developers at ArenaNet even considered a spider mount in a game with a choice of 4 mounts. It shows a quite a bit of ignorance on their part when it’s their job to make informed decisions, but at least in the end this divisive thing was shelved.

It can be even more inconvenient in raiding. If you are defeated, raid chests don’t quick-loot and I’ve seen numerous people miss their chest because they (without thinking) immediately character swap for the next raid or boss for their group. If they don’t realize their mistake in time, the raid loot for that boss will be gone for the week for them.

Behellagh.1468:

This is NOT WoW. In this game if you are downed or dead, you can’t loot manually. If you can’t loot manually why would anyone expect that you can if you have autoloot?

The reason I mentioned WoW is because Gaile mentioned she didn’t recall any game where people got loot (which they had earned credit for) while dead. I gave one.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I can’t recall ever playing a game where, when you died (essentially when you failed in some way), you still automatically were given every bit of the loot you would have acquired if you stayed alive, contributed to the fight, got ressed by a comrade, or used other mechanics (like WP) to rejoin the battle.

In World of Warcraft, if you fail to loot a creature which you have legitimate loot rights over, the game automatically mails you the loot. It doesn’t matter how you fail to loot it: Death, disconnection, negligence; every single bit of loot you earned is mailed to you.

Defending the fact that quick-loot doesn’t work while defeated is suggesting that, “Well, you had loot rights, but they’ve been revoked temporarily.”

I don’t mind the hammer but I think improving its skills would be a nice. For example, the #3 skill (The projectile reflect) isn’t that useful since most of the Fanatics are melee or use non-projectile ranged attacks. Maybe we could get some version of a few Archdiviner skills. (Like the cone-shaped slam or the cone-shaped pull)

Jski.6180:

Its the selling point to most of the gw2 players. It may of not been to you but its very important to ppl and the more gear grind and pve walls the harder the communally going to come down on anet. Your not going to convince me i am just being blunt what about to happen in gw2.

I don’t care nor am I trying to convince you about anything. If you care so much about the integrity of the Manifesto, I’m not sure why you’re still playing since they “violated” that with one of their earliest updates (Fractals of the Mist) when they added Ascended ringsr; you know, a higher tier of gear in a game they “promised” they wouldn’t add any more. Since then, they’ve done nothing but add more Ascended gear. (Shrug)

Jski.6180:

It matters a lot for a lot of players.

You’re linking a video that’s both outdated and irrelevant. It is (and always has been) another over-hyped piece of marketing campaign. For example: You can’t actually take a taxi cab to Tyria, despite what their cringe-worthy marketing suggested.

This “manifesto” is on the same level as that. It isn’t a binding contract; it’s vague PR drivel. They’ve said things on their front-page blog posts that have not been delivered, forgotten about, or completely reversing their decisions on.

Jski.6180:

The only proof i need to give you is this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU1JUwPqzQY

Raids do not fit with GW2 manifest and putting more behind a raid wall is putting more sins on GW2 and anet.

You’re linking a video from over 6 years ago. Most of the people talking in it don’t even work there anymore. Also, try toning down the hyperbole… “Sin?” It’s a video game.

I’m sure people are going to complain about the thief, gambler and drunk stripping aegis too.

I’m glad you brought up the CMs! The top complaints of them were, “The rewards were not repeatable” and “the non-CM mode was too easy compared to other raid wings.” The CMs demonstrated (unarguably) that putting time into another mode does in fact detract and dilute the quality of the normal mode.

Rednik.3809:

It will, if they are planning to expand raids any further from now, and don’t want to be fired by NCSoft management after another year of atrocious revenue rates.

My advice for you is to read what you quote before posting a reply next time. What I said had nothing to do with your reply.

Blaeys.3102:

This would – most likely – not take away one second from the development of the regular mode or any other content in the game.

Maybe you think if you keep saying this enough it will become true. It won’t.

@BlaqueFyre: The mushrooms are supposed to repeatedly apply poison to him. That’s a bug.

But as for stealth, the raid’s team shouldn’t have to fix something like this, it’s supposed to be the responsibility of the (in)balance team. This happened a few years ago when a group of perma-stealthed thieves killed the old boss of Twilight Arbor Forward/Up using nothing but traps and caltrops. In response, ANet added a damage component on trap arming to break stealth. Of course, since the right hand never talks to the left hand, someone else decided to removed it making this possible again. Honestly, I’m surprised it took someone this long to execute this.

Scykosix.7836:

But then the raiders wont feel as special snowflakes that they killed a scripted mob when everyone else will be able to do it.

First post and you already poisoned the well. At least you work fast.

Do you disagree with me? Would you also like to see an easy mode aswell?

I don’t care if an easy mode exists or not as long as it doesn’t cut into development time of the raid, so they’d probably need to take resources from another team. Depends what you’re willing to sacrifice.

Sorry about your bad experience. Not all groups are like that. Try looking for a group for Spirit Vale, because that’s the oldest raid and people have the most experience doing that. There are some easier encounters in the other wings to keep an eye out for as well. (Rescue the Pact Leader in Salvation Pass, Siege the Keep in Stronghold of the Faithful, and the second boss in Bastion of the Penitent)

I think it’s really weird that some of you in this thread are responding with so little empathy to a person just venting their frustration. They aren’t saying, “Nerf the raids” or whatever; they just said, “I had a bad experience, and it makes me feel this way.” I think the best way to experience the raid is among friends, so maybe try to join a guild with like-minded players. People are usually more patient with one another that way. PUG groups are more ruthless because they could dissolve at any moment, especially when they fail.

Stu Grockalot.2937:

I seem to recall that this got nerfed a while ago?
Is signet of inspiration still viable for spanning boons with a chronomancer?

While it was nerfed a while ago, Signet of Inspiration is still essential for a Chronomancer to do their role properly.

Good luck with that. Even World of Warcraft isn’t releasing the figures for its active playerbase anymore. All people do with this “information” is use it to justify and validate whatever biased opinion they were already predisposed to. I mean… look how people still hold up the “manifesto” video and say, “SEE! SEE! THEY LIED!” even though it’s been like six or seven years and most of the people in that video don’t even work there anymore.

Don’t hold your breath on this one!

More lore and story is lost and forever out of reach from Season 1 of the Living World since that content has been removed from the game. The only thing you have accessible at the moment are some summaries, which is way less than what you have for raiding.

fluffdragon.1523:

Well considering how at this point ANet has gone back on just about every promise they have made and the Manifesto.

That Manifesto was 7 years ago and most of the people talking in that YouTube video don’t even work there anymore…

I had to increase my Character Model Limit for that.

Mr Greggles.5908:

Even when pulled correctly, she seems to de-agro for no reason at any stage of the fight. It isn’t rare, it happens randomly during a prolonged fight with her.

It is not random. If she hasn’t used her teleport, she will leash if you pull her too far outside of her room.

Alchymista.8192:

FINALLY SOMEONE
Thank you.

What you encountered was not a bug. It was players poorly executing a “trick” to avoid Tazza’s leashing mechanic. If you care about the details, I wrote it somewhere in this thread.

Okay I’ll explain what’s going on:

In this game, every creature has a “leash” which is the maximum distance it will chase you before it loses interest in you, goes invulnerable and regenerates to full. This is intended behavior. Imagine a circle centered around where you aggro’ed the creature; these are the boundaries.

However, if a creature teleports, this will change the boundary of the leash. The center is moved to the new teleport spot. This makes it so that creatures with teleport skills like that boss can be moved further once they use their teleport.

The reason people can separate Tazza from her Champion is that she can teleport but her Champion does not. If you want to pull her out of the room, drag her to the top of the stairs and then wait for her to teleport. Once she’s teleported, you can fight her beyond the top of the stairs.

Amaimon.7823:

Yes, i use potions occassionally, not the large versions in t3 though. Yikes.. 8000 tokens for the infinite. Then I cant buy regular mist potions along the way.. even gift of ascension is only 500 tokens

If you have any characters with Simple Infusions leftover you can convert them into Fractal Relics as well. A +7 Simple Infusion is 150 Relics, which is more valuable than the amount of gold you need to spend to replace it with a +7 Agony Infusion.

Why would you necro a thread from over 2 weeks ago to talk about something off topic? Ridiculous.

I checked my block list and found you there. Rest assured, your plea has been heard: I won’t permanently block you. I promise to remove my block on you in 37 years.

Asgard Ragna.8165:

Nokaru.7831:

One thing that I’d like changed is how often pets get knocked back and interrupted by Ensolyss. I don’t like how my Frost Spirit gets pushed around so much that I have to just destroy it and resummon it eventually.

I noticed that the bombs in the Hallucination Maze targeted defeated players which felt strange.

I think the health on the boss in Tier 4 might be a tad high. It might be because of how the transitions on this boss go though. Currently we fight 33% of the boss’ health in the first phase, 33% in the second, 18% in the third and 15% in the fourth. I think it might feel better if it was 30%/30%/25%/15%.

I have done the last boss of 100cm quite a few times now and I have never seen a downstead player survive his charge attack when it hits with all hits. Not even warriors with their 20k+ life. So you are either lying, misinterpreted the situation or your or my runs were rigged.

I’m not really sure what you’re on about because I didn’t even mention Ensolyss’ charge attack in my post.

Tides of Time and Deep Freeze (Icebow 5) do not damage the defiance on that boss. If you don’t need Continuum Shift for your rotation, you can just CS your Signet of Humility.

If you’re seeing Invulnerability in Swampland, you’re doing it wrong.

Bring two Magi druids.

Tornupto.2304:

It may be able to display everyones damage, but it cannot read those numbers by itself. The other groupmembers need the same DPS Meter for that feature to work. Those DPS Meters are just communicating. Btw: as long as it only reads something its not ‘editing’ anything.

I’m not talking about a memory reader I’m talking about a memory editor. There’s currently three types of these programs floating around: Pixel scanners, memory readers, and memory editors. The “editor” (aka “hack”) is able to exposes data not normally readable. This program is able to view your gear (runes and everything), and also your damage whether or not you have this program installed on your end.

Actually, the more people I see using this “Unofficial DPS Meter”, the more exclusionary I’ve seen pick-up-groups become. There’s a memory-editing version floating around out there which can inspect you and also monitor the damage of everyone in the group. If you’ve noticed it harder to join a group, this is why.

So you can say, “DPS Meters are not bad!” and “They help people!” but in reality I’ve observed the opposite effect.

Would you be interested in an easy-mode raid that does not provide a direct path to Legendary Armor? (Easy-mode meaning a similar experience to normal-mode, but with more forgiving mechanics)

Goldfox.5729:

Mother of.. this thread is still going !? What have I done …

Every time some thread about raids gets any sort of attention, a certain cast of characters keeps coming to these threads to say the same lines they’ve said a thousand times before.

I hope that this story mode solution they are working up with will adequately satisfy everyone that wants to experience the story. Since a developer has come outright and told us bluntly that scaling difficulty isn’t in the future for raiding, it’ll be interesting to see what they do. Perhaps because they want to maintain the identity of raids being challenging content, an “easy mode” somehow compromises this.

When I think of “Fractals”, despite it having a rather high ceiling for difficulty, Fractals is not identified as “challenging content.” While Scale 100 Nightmare Challenge Mode is, “Fractals” themselves, for good or ill, are not. Raids do not have this identity crisis.

Quote Wars 2 everybody. These threads will never be discussions but rather the repetition of ideas from the same cast of characters.

You say this is a step backwards, but it feels much better than the old Fractal design of spamming projectile reflects and blind on everything forever.

maddoctor.2738:

Those nerfs show a much bigger balance problem though, how much certain professions rely on a single skill/trait to be useful. If only those skills/traits were the only thing keeping those professions in the meta, then there is a deep problem in the balance.

I never said I disagreed with the balance changes; my opinion on them is irrelevant. I’m also pretty aware as to why balance changes happen. (At least I know as much as most players do) I was pointing out the consequences to them since they can affect the experience of players that raid pretty heavily and some suggestions into softening the blow of some of these negative experiences; that’s it. I’m not saying, “Don’t nerf stuff!” or “The balance devs are dumb for changing my class!” or “Revert Slick Shoes and Signet of Inspiration!”

Miellyn.6847:

These 3 nerfs were because of raids, not just some side product.

I don’t even disagree with those changes. What’s your point?

My point was simply pointing out that, “the experience of raiders is at the mercy of PvE balance changes.” Raids don’t have a self-nerfing mechanism like other MMOs do with gear progression, so they don’t really get easier unless power creep enters the game somehow. Players have no control over this, and when their experience suddenly sours due to things outside of their control, it’s not a good thing.

I can both agree with the nerf/fix to Slick Shoes and also understand why the change makes Engineers sad. It also would make guilds that relied on this strategy unhappy. You can say, “them’s the breaks!” but I also see it as unhealthy for raiding, especially when the solution is makes guilds slip back into progression after having content on farm, forcing players into playing other professions they’d prefer not to, or facing the horrendously clunky systems we have to change our gear.

The biggest issue I have with raiding is that the experience of raiders is at the mercy of PvE balance changes. Here are some of the most noteworthy nerfs that have affected raid balance:

• Fix/Nerf to Slick Shoes on Engineer.
• Fix/Nerf to Condition-damage Berserker’s Scorched Earth skill.
• Nerf to Alacrity on Chronomancers.
• Nerf to Elementalist damage output in general.
• Nerf to Jagged Horror uptime on Necromancers.
• Nerf to Revenant’s Naturalistic Resonance.
• Nerf to Signet of Inspiration on Mesmers.
• Adjustment of duration-stacking Boon uptime.

Despite these changes, the raids themselves have not been changed. There are teams that have a harder time adjusting to changes like this since it’s quite annoying stat-swapping gear. We cannot extract Runes or Sigils from gear without paying ridiculous prices from the Gem Store. (Have fun getting a second set of Leadership runes for your Legendary Armor since you cannot extract it from your Ascended!)

I’m not saying that adjustments should not be made to professions, but when a class is nerfed it forces us to deal with the very annoying systems of Upgrade Extraction and Attribute Swapping. We need to use the Mystic Forge 7-10 times when this happens. It also just feels bad when the raids take longer than they used to and even worse if a guild now cannot kill a boss because of these changes. My suggestions for making balance patches sting less are this:

• Provide a better way to extract runes and sigils from our Ascended gear outside of (1) overwriting them, (2) salaving or (3) buying the ridiculously overpriced Upgrade Extractors.
• Streamline the attribute-swapping process. Preserve the upgrades in the gear so we don’t accidentally destroy expensive Infusions or upgrades.

Khyan.7039:

It’s mostly unnecessary drama tho.

You’re the one bringing up videos from almost a year ago.

Anyways, nice kill OP!

Ohoni.6057:

There are so far no statements out of an ANet gameplay systems developer that convey actual direct responses on how disruptive or difficult implementing easy mode raids as described above would be.

They’ve also not said how easy it would be to impliment either. That’s the whole point of the response by Gaile: You do not know, so stop pretending that you do. Even her opinion, which is far more informed than yours, is being dismissed off-hand by you.

The burden is proof is on the one making an assertion. If you say “It’s easy to do!” then where is your evidence to support this from the ANet gameplay systems developer? (Your own words) If you cannot provide it, then you simply do not know and you’re guessing at best.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Thanks for digging that post up for me, couldn’t be bothered to search for it.

This is the best example that he does not participate in “discussions” but rather just tries to exhaust you with his own opinion; it’s very one-sided. It’s pointless to try to disagree with him because you’ll end up hearing the same story over, and over again. He received a direct reply from ANet on this matter but since it was contrary to his own opinion he’s decided to pretend it doesn’t exist.

The sad thing is that we had a developer come to this thread and something of value could have been discussed. It has been derailed once again (for the fifth time?) by the same cast of characters talking about how easy it is to implement easy modes though.

Ohoni.6057:

All this would need, at most basic implementation, is to add three more wings to that list, “Salvation Pass (easy mode),” for example. No complete engineering needed for that. The infrastructure is already in place, they just need to apply it.

Wrong. (Link)

Gaile Gray

At this point, I need to interject. I am familiar with the process of changing to a multi-modality system of game presentation, having written about it long ago, when I was a journalist writing about another company and another game. For that game, too, players said “No big deal.” And they were absolutely wrong. They said, “Just tweak a few stats, lower a few spawns, and voila, you’ve got it!” No, that’s not how it worked. And that’s not how I think it would work for Guild Wars 2.

Ohoni.6057:

“It’s impossible to judge exactly how much time an easy mode would take, except that it would be less than a totally new encounter of equivalent complexity.”

It is impossible for that statement to be anything less than 100% accurate.

Now it’s accurate. The quote I gave was about this same topic. They aren’t my words; they’re ArenaNet’s. In case you misread, I’ll bold the important parts for you:

Gaile Gray

At this point, I need to interject. I am familiar with the process of changing to a multi-modality system of game presentation, having written about it long ago, when I was a journalist writing about another company and another game. For that game, too, players said “No big deal.” And they were absolutely wrong. They said, “Just tweak a few stats, lower a few spawns, and voila, you’ve got it!” No, that’s not how it worked. And that’s not how I think it would work for Guild Wars 2.

Ohoni.6057:

There is no rational argument that it would take the same amount of time to design an easier version of a fight as it would to design a completely different encounter from the ground up. It’s impossible to judge exactly how much time an easy mode would take, except that it would be less than a totally new encounter of equivalent complexity.

Ohoni, you’re entitled to your opinion, but you need to stop spreading misinformation, especially with regards to something you were explicitly advised about. (Link)

Gaile Gray

At this point, I need to interject. I am familiar with the process of changing to a multi-modality system of game presentation, having written about it long ago, when I was a journalist writing about another company and another game. For that game, too, players said “No big deal.” And they were absolutely wrong. They said, “Just tweak a few stats, lower a few spawns, and voila, you’ve got it!” No, that’s not how it worked. And that’s not how I think it would work for Guild Wars 2.