Guild Wars 2

maddoctor.2738:

Sartharina.3542:

Because it’s the stupidest encounter design concept to ever blight any game. Seriously – for everything this game does right, the “EVERYONE STACK IN MELEE” meta has turned this game’s instanced content into the laughingstock of the industry. It looks bad. It plays bad, and it makes any content in this game that requires it bad.

And if they increased the buff/heal range to allow players to play from ranged they’d be ignoring all the boss mechanics and attacks. That must be great game design indeed.

Take a look at any open world boss to see what happens without the stack in melee. At any Wyvern fight you can stay at a distance and semi-afk the encounter because no attack of the boss will ever hit you, unless you don’t CC it. The Chak Gerent when mobile poses no threat to a ranged player who can safely semi-afk the encounter, while, for obvious reasons, melee players have to put so much more effort in the fight.

That’s why Raid bosses have damaging auras around them, so you can’t just semi-afk the encounter from a safe distance, and instead must remain grouped, even at range, to receive buffs and healing. Without the damaging auras all the Raid bosses would be cheesed to death. Watch the solo Druid Cairn kill for proof.

As for Dungeon and Fractal bosses, you can range a lot of them from a very safe distance. Sure it will take longer, but it’s much safer.
All Caudecu’s Manor bosses have short range attacks that you can safely ignore while ranging them from a distance.
While ranging the Twilight Arbor bosses you can ignore the spirit adds. The last boss of Aetherpath is much easier to range than to melee, provided you have push skills.
SE1 P1 and P3 cannot even touch you at range, circle strafe around them while attacking them til they are dead.
You can kite Giganticus Lupicus around from a distance, have a much longer window to dodge his attacks, ignore his melee attacks and in general make the fight super easy. You can attack Subject Alpha from a distance and ignore all of his attacks easily, provided you don’t move much.

Range = safe. Melee = fast.

If staying at range renders an encounter trivial, that’ the fault of kittenty encounter design (And yes, the world bosses were plagued by this)

Most of the deaths I see in open-world fights are quite far away from the boss though, anyway, due to the massive area-denial the bosses spew out (Donuts for Gerent). And I find it’s actually easier to survive in melee – not only from the heals, but most melee weapons have defensive skills built into them, as well.

An update to the Wardrobe that lets us mix+match (And hide) Helms, Shoulders, and gloves with outfits would be great.

Dagger 2 should have a dodge on it, like Dagger 4.
Stab while dodging with the right hand, then stab while dodging with the left hand!

Of course, the absolutely worst and most disappointing part of Soulbeast has to be the Charr’s animations (World’s Wimpiest Punches and Kicks on what should have been the most beastly race) and the particle effect upon entering the fartshroud.

It should have been Chuka+Champawat. Shortbow is meta, the journey to crafting the bow is themed around the hunting of animals, conservation of nature (In spite of T2’s deforestation requirement), and care. It should have been perfect for Soulbeast, because it is themed around the spirit of animals. It also lends itself to a nice mobile condi switch-hitter build with daggers for close range and the Shortbow for slightly longer ranges.

Unfortunately, Soulbeast is an aesthetic disaster. Chuka+Champawat is a beautiful black, red, and gold bow themed around the soul of a tiger, with orange effects. Soulbeast, in contrast, is an overly-bright green fart based around leaves and vines… So I guess Kudzu, because clearly an elite specialization named Soul Beast is supposed to accentuate a Ranger’s connection to the assorted plants in the world.

Yes, I am extremely salty about the terrible design the Soulbeast was afflicted with – I was so hyped for that class way back when it was leaked, and dealing with the letdown of how awful the visual effects associated with the specialization since the demo has been extremely emotionally painful. Really wish I knew what the hell the designers were thinking when they made its effects.

CptAurellian.9537:

Sartharina.3542:

The stupidity in this game is about characters that use Longbows and Rifles and other ranged weapons (They don’t even have to be Longbow Rangers – Rifle Warriors. Longbow Warriors, Staff Eles, Staff Necros, Longbow Guardians, Scepter Guardians, Staff Mesmer, Scepter Mesmer.) all end up having to stack in melee range, which everyone outside of Guild Wars 2 rightfully recognizes as Completely kittening Stupid.

That almost sounds as if people were all over the place in the dungeons/raids of other MMOs, which is hardly the case unless specific encounter mechanics enforce it. Having the group close together has always offered a bunch of benefits, and since melee characters are rather range-restricted, that has always been close to melee range. GW2 does stack a bit tighter than other games, but the principle is exactly the same.

No, they’re not all over the place, but other MMOs do have a strong “Backline” and “Frontline”, with mechanics based around the presence of other players, not their proximity. And the extra space allowed in other games makes a world of difference in how enjoyable the game is to play and watch play out.

Bratec.7136:

Why people ignore that you HAVE to stack, you are asked by group leaders and game asks (via mechanics) for this.

Because it’s the stupidest encounter design concept to ever blight any game. Seriously – for everything this game does right, the “EVERYONE STACK IN MELEE” meta has turned this game’s instanced content into the laughingstock of the industry. It looks bad. It plays bad, and it makes any content in this game that requires it bad.

Soft CC should deal % damage to the defiance bar over time, since it can’t be stacked. Or, they need to make it so it can stack.

Any chance of the Soulbeast getting its awful fartshroud changed?

Tumult.2578:

“Needing to put in a few hours to complete the track is not in any way unfair. Players who attempt to complete the track, will. The vagaries of WvW matches will have little to no impact.”

So it’s ok that WvW players can buy tons of waypoints, even all of them, towards the PvE Gift of Exploration, using what they earned in WvW, but totally wrong that PvE players earn something in PvE and use it towards the WvW Gift of Battle?
Couldn’t disagree more.

Umm… what? The only thing you can get from PvP that rolls over into PvE is Hero Points (Which are mostly for allowing people to unlock their elite specs in WvW), not Waypoints.

Tzarakiel.7490:

I think you have misunderstood the meaning of ranger
ranger

1.
a keeper of a park, forest, or area of countryside.
“park rangers”
2.
a member of a body of armed men, in particular:
a mounted soldier.
US
a commando.

Definition says nothing about projectile weapons.

Nobody’s ever contested the definition of Ranger. Nobody has an issue with Greatsword or Sword rangers fighting in melee. The stupidity in this game is about characters that use Longbows and Rifles and other ranged weapons (They don’t even have to be Longbow Rangers – Rifle Warriors. Longbow Warriors, Staff Eles, Staff Necros, Longbow Guardians, Scepter Guardians, Staff Mesmer, Scepter Mesmer.) all end up having to stack in melee range, which everyone outside of Guild Wars 2 rightfully recognizes as Completely kittening Stupid.

And even with the definition of Ranger – in both Reality and Fiction,. Rangers are renowned for their marksmanship with long-ranged weapons. Yes, Aragorn had a sword – but he also had a Bow, which he used to deadly effect.

Dante.1763:

Idunno, my condi ranger does more damage at range than up close, however i still switch to melee in combat so that i can use my burst skills there(which also help my damage when using shortbow because vulnerability and might). Its far easier to stay behind a boss when you are close to them too, which is more damage my shortbow does.

That’s still melee, even if you’re using a ranged weapon.

Even just saving Trait/Utility setups would be a godsend…

This community really has its head up its ass if it thinks the “Stack and Smack” meta that permeates the game does anything positive for the reputation of this game. As someone who’s tried to get others into GW2… Among players who’ve tried the game, the ’Everyone stack!" emphasis makes the game look awful and play awful.

This game sells itself on its open world and easy grouping (Which encourage all sorts of playstyles). But for the ‘organized’ content you seem to think the stacking encourages, this game is the laughingstock of the industry. Seriously – to anyone who’s played any other game than Guild Wars 2, the universal reaction to “Everyone Stack up!” is “This is the dumbest thing ever.”

Every other game manages to do it right. Guild Wars 2’s trying to move in that direction. Playing a ranged character doesn’t detract from the importance of positioning, and “Everyone stand in the same place!” is the absolute WORST way to make a game emphasize such.

I’m pretty sure the $30 price point for PoF was mostly for players who already have HoT, to prevent the “HoT is $50 if you already owned core!” fiasco again. While you can get PoF without HoT, I think you’re going to be in for a really incomplete experience for doing so.

If you don’t have HoT, you WILL be held back in the following ways:
1. No access to guild halls. Not even the new one. So, you’ll have less functionality in a guild.
2. No access to the previous Elite Specializations, which fill different roles for different classes, and many are likely to remain Meta (Condi Berzerker, Chronomancer, and Druid are all going to remain meta, most likely. Dragonhunter will still be powerful in PvP for its area-denial. Tempest will still be a powerful Elementalist. Daredevil will still be unmatched mobility.)
3. No glider. Enjoy eating dirt if you fall from a cliff without your mount out.
4. No access to 10 of the game’s maps, and the rewards in them.

I’d rather have that awesome Nine Suns bow someone posted years ago. That thing was amazing.

I see someone linked it.

Yoroiookami.3485:

Fatalyz.7168:

I disagree with this statement. This skill is immensely useful, when used in combat, as intended (hint: it isn’t to run away).
…this skill is intended to be used in combat, for all of the previously stated reasons, as well as one that you covered. That being to offset the penalty of going into combat.

You don’t need faster movement speed while in combat. Most enemies don’t run away from you, if anything they do the opposite. It’s unnecessary and I would love to see the swiftness being swapped for something more useful. Either make it a skill to gain mobility, or make it a skill used for combat.

IndigoSundown.5419:

It sounds like this issue could be resolved if you made a minimal effort to either go around mobs a tiny bit more or use the skills just prior to running straight through it/them rather than while right on top of them.

It’s not that small. Especially in crowded areas and in Orr, where most enemies can see you from across the map. Your mistake was assuming that I don’t make effort to avoid enemies. My entire point is that now it’s significantly less reliable with warrior wielding a warhorn. Which is true. And it’s also an unnecessary change for such a small ‘upside’.

mist.9807:

The skill will only help you escape via crippling them.

I agree with your point, but if the skill was intended for combat, I’d prefer something else in place of (mostly useless) swiftness. Enemies approach you most of the time, you don’t really need bonus speed. If the skill was intended for ‘running’ I’d rather use it to run past the enemies without going into combat, which in turn slows me down.

sorudo.9054:

go D/WH and you will see why it is a really powerful skill, especially in big crowds it makes killing enemies a walk in a park.

I never said that it’s not powerful in combat. I simply see it as a skill that has the wrong mix of buffs that don’t make much sense together.

Swiftness is incredibly powerful in combat. You can save dodges by walking out of the way, reposition yourself freely, and easily kite enemies. And in PvP, it’s incredible. S

Sorry, but Necro Warhorn is not the “Must Run Across The Map!” tool you seem to think it is.

TheNecrosanct.4028:

I really don’t think it’s a strange creature to have in the desert. It’s basically an amalgamation of a desert hare and a kangaroo, 2 creatures not uncommon to the desert landscape. Also, someone earlier in this thread argued that they are very illogical beasts of burden, but these are mounts, not beasts of burden. There is a difference between the two. Mounts are meant to be ridden, beasts of burden are meant to carry heavy loads. Considering the PoF mounts are all about mobility and getting to places you normally can’t go, this kangaroo/hare creature fits the landscape and the reason for the mounts’ existence perfectly. Much more than the skimmer does, that’s for sure.

I’d say that a rider can be considered a heavy load – especially if it’s a Charr or Norn.

Sounds like some people think the boon share radius is 200, not 600.

Mikeskies.1536:

Warrior Longbow is a key weapon in PvE for Condi PS and Condi Damage Warrior.

Warrior Rifle did too much damage in PvP, e.g. Unblockable Kill Shot/Gun Flame used to be able to one shot Guardians.

Deadeye will be nerfed.

That’s a problem with Killshot, not Rifle. It needs stronger non-burst damage (And, IMO, pierce on auto)

I want this on my guardian so badly

FEMALE CHARR META

Kahrgan.7401:

dchsknight.3042:

I feel like all the Renegade hate. The look flipping epic. AND I feel people who say it is unfinished just went into a map and pressed 1. I feel it is one of the most finished of the classes.

Found the revenant player.

No you didn’t. Revenant players actually see how badly and unfinished their class is designed.

It’s the audio for Renewed Focus.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Rather have had the Griffon, the Spider, or even the cat, personally. And I’m a dog-person.

Cat?

I just want to hide the kitten “Disturbance in Brisban Wildands” greentext on all my alts.

Okay… i don’t know when it happened, but the past few days I realized when I zoomed out with Action Camera active, the ‘dot’ at the center has been moving with the camera, keeping it at a usable position instead of staying stuck in the center of the screen like it used to! Thank you! It makes it so much more fun to use with ranged weapons!

Hawken.7932:

I imagine it’s both to let you know what mode you’re in (I even have trouble remembering with that huge effect!) and for PvP for enemies to know as well.

Then they need to change it to something that’s not a complete eyesore that murders all attempts at fashionwars even when you do keep to the class’s theme, (Such as by wielding the legendary (Gold,Black, And Red) Chuka & Champawat.

They really should have all projectile attacks distinguish between ‘normal’ and ‘thrown weapon’ – have Thrown Weapon attacks use the weapon model as the projectile, legendary or not, and legendary projectiles should overwrite those, while being unique to the legend:
Sunrise/Twilight – As is, but without the hilt.
Astralaria+Frostfang – I think all axe projectiles are thrown, so they should be fine.
Bolt/Shining Blade: Shining Blade should have its purple flame thign, and Bolt should be a lightning bolt wrapped in lightning
Incinerator: Extended Whirling or straight bolt of fire, no hilt.

Ohoni.6057:

Agreed. The green viney graphics don’t fit the nature of the spec. It should be yellow to red in color, and more “animal-ish” than “plantish.”

I need to upvote this a billion times.

I hate the vines more than the smoke – the smoke is subtle, and can be sort of ignored. The Vines are these vibrant neon twisting, distracting things curling around the character.

Uncategorized Fractal.
Champion Rabbit.
Every godkitten time.

Can’t go wrong with Ranger and Warrior, both are really mobile, and visceral as well. I hope they change the Soulbeast’s fartshroud to something less overwhelmingly green and awful.

I think Warrior may be the best fit.

Hidden Depths have been largely ignored as not worth the time – you’re better off Chest Trainning (Apparently) during that time instead of going into the labyrinth.

Also, that stupid vine event is a pain in the ass to do.

All ranger elite skills are garbage. Glyph of Unity is no different. At least it’s not a near-instant long-duration Self-Fear like “Corrupt Me Now!”

From what I’ve seen of the datamined armors from PoF, we’re going to be disappointed in male armor options again – getting even more overdesigned garbage (Seriously, plz stop that)

It’s a kitten shame, though, because one of the cultural/aesthetic themes the expansion has is Ancient Egpyt, which had some really kitten impressive outfits for guys that covered very little while still being great-looking.

Depends on whether or not they remove Soulbeast’s godawful green fartshroud or not.

If they do, I may finally transition from my Warrior to my Ranger.

I wish more bosses (And actually, fights in general) worked like Mordremoth. When I get downed in an instance, I know the encounter was designed to be beaten within a single life. I’d rather have the opportunity to try again to rise to the offered challenge.

Checkpoints should be checkpoints – and reset the fight to the point it started. Not just an extra run at the battle as you left it off.

From what I heard, the Gryphon would double-jump. I was hyped for it, because I love catbirds (And thus play a Golden Winged Charr) – but it may have been cut if its alleged movement skill – Double-Jump and Glide – renders other movement skills (Notably, Raptor and Jackal) obsolete.

Zoltreez.6435:

this sooooo gonna happen i allready feel it…

I hope we can get a sandstone sphinx skin for the Jackal, or heiroglyphic lioness.

As far as horses – they were all beaten to death, and beaten some more, in the threads clamoring for mounts in Guild Wars 2 over the past 5 years. So now that we’re finally getting mounts, there aren’t any horses left (Though an undead, visibly beaten-to-death-and-more horse as a raptor or jackal skin would be awesome – but I think it would be met with misplaced ‘animal cruelty’ outrage like the Floppy Fish and chicken kicking)

ITT people need to recognize that you’re no more supposed to be able to Cleanse conditions than you are supposed to be able to Endure Pain/Stoneform Power attacks.

When you get hit by an attack, no matter whether it’s Power or Condi-based, that attack is going to try to kill you.

It is. Warriors have no ability to disengage (Or suprise-engage), and all their attacks are telegraphed. Their invulnerability – needed to let them actually fight – is on a laughably short duration.

It really bothers me how heavy they go into their Espec weapons, at least graphically. And then they nerfed the few that actually functioned without their Espec weapon (Greatsword, Axe, and Rifle Berzerkers used to be incredibly powerful and fun).

Soulbeast looks like it’s going to have amazing Greatsword support, and some of that might leech over to Longbow.

I wish we could get it through a PvP reward track.

LughLongArm.5460:

Swaping pet in BM is a bad idea. Making entering BM considered a pet swap is enough.

I’d rather have swapping in BM, without entering BM considered a pet swap. But the Reinforcement trait needs to be baseline, and share boons both ways.

Keep in mind that when you enter Beastmode, you lose 30% of your physical damage, and a massive pool of health. So, Sic’em is just a brief 10% damage boost.

I like the idea behind Soulbeast, and most of its skills (Love the dagger, though it might be a bit undertuned. But I like that it feels punchy and vicious instead of flaily), but I hate the animations, bladetrail, Fartshroud, and inability to swap pets in said fartshroud.

I don’t think allowing the beasts to be swapped in fartshroud would stop people from leaving it for greater effect (Accessing their pet’s F2, for example. Or for splitting to split aggro, or burst someone/something with a double-attack). Of course, they could allow pets to be swapped in fartshroud, and put a cooldown on both entering AND leaving it.

“Hopping out of Beastmode to use the pet, then pull it back in” is just as much weaving in and out of beastmode as “Hopping into beastmode to use Beast Skills, then hopping back out”

Hot Boy.7138:

I’m very excited for the jackal. I never bought glider skins, but I definitely will be buying mount skins. I want a fern hound skin to go with my sylvari.

Ooh, a Fern Hound jackal skin that turns into a glowing pollen cloud would be cool. Frankly, I hope they go out of the limited species, and give us:

A charr-car raptor. A Sphinx jackal. And a frog springer.

AsheR.1687:

I would love to see an ammo based slashing lunge added to the soulbeast dagger kit.

Umm… Soulbeast Dagger 3 is exactly this.

My big problem with Soulbeast dagger is the green bladetrail that wrecks Fashion Wars. I wouldn’t mind it on the effects that poison, but I like my weapons to be plain, please, so I can mix them with any color combination I want. (I also hate the fartshroud for this reason, in addition to it being a fartshroud).

First off – The Soulbeast’s fusion effect (Also known as “Fartshroud”) should probably be changed/removed/used only in the initial fusion and on splitting, with something less offensive to fashion wars in its place while it’s in operation. As a fashion warrior, I’ll also admit I’m not a fan of the forced bladetrail effects for Soulbeast and Spellbreaker daggers.

I think the Charr soulbeast animations need a complete overhaul – Charr have horns, tails, teeth, and claws, and should use them as their beast companions normally do (Or improve on their beast when possible) Some of these suggestions would also work for non-charr, who have similarly underwhelming animations:

Feline Skills:
Bite: Currently, the animation is… open-palmed punches? No. We have massive teeth and jaws, and should actually be able to use them. It may require tweaking of another skill or animation, such as one of the many roars
Maul: Currently it’s a double-swipe with one hand, and rather lame-looking, even for a single use. Re-use the Norn Snow Leopard transforms Auotattack. Let us rip and tear with our claws! In fact, the Snow Leopard form animations can be used for a lot of these animations, since it seems to use the Charr rig.

Devourer Skills: Alright, I admit I was hyped when they explicitly mentioned the devourer in the blog: They remembered my favorite pet! But unfortunately, the skills are lackluster.
Tail Lash- Currently, this is the wimpiest swipe/punch/uppercut I think I’ve ever seen animated outside of cheap early 3-D indi attempts at games. Sorry, but it is. It should use a larger, more dramatic animation – possibly unique. Unfortunately, Charr tails don’t arch over their heads. Therefore – we’re going to have to backflip! Other races could possibly get away with having a two-foot kick in the flip. But the current animation is terrible.
Devourer Retreat: Pirouette into the ground and pop up somewhere else? That’s not right! It should be a quick duck, followed by the tunneling to the exit and popping out again!

Bear Skills:
Again, we have Bite. It should be an actual bite, not that open-palmed punch
While not mandatory, a full-body flex would probably look better for Defy Pain.

Canine Skills:
Crippling leap: The “Two hands brought down” was dumb when Oblivion had it in 2006, and it’s dumb here. Honestly, re-using Snow Leopard skill 3’s animation would look better.
Brutal Charge: It’s a wierd, glidey kick that looks terrible. The Wolf itself lunges with its jaws. The Charr should likewise use their head- we even have horns! Re-using the Warrior’s Headbutt animation would be better than the current kick.

Drake skills:
Chomp: Again – we have teeth. Let’s use them, instead of this wierd, slow punch/swipe thing.
Tail Swipe: This is a wierd animation, and I think it distorts the body. An actual tail-swipe for Charr, and a Chuck Norris Roudhouse Kick (With the burst on the ground) for non-charr would be an improvement, IMO.

Bird Skills:
Swoop: Again with the overhead double-smash? I was hoping for something more agile and more or less floaty… though I guess Dagger 3 already stole whatever it could have been.

Spider Skills:
Okay, I’m at a loss for these. They look terrible (Just throwing something), but I have no idea what they could be.

Porcine Skills: OKAY SO THIS IS WHERE ALL THE COOLANIMATONS ARE HIDING! Brutal Charge should finish with a headbutt instead of a kick, though. We may not have tusks, but we do have horns.

Wyvern Skills:
Again with the Tail Lash – I’d rather it be an actual tail lash instead of this wierd, glitchy multispin.
Wing Buffet: This one needs to be reworked for all races. We should leap up with our arms oustretched for balance (Like the Crane pose from Karate Kid), and kick with both legs to knock our enemies back!

The bristleback skill is fun and fine.

The Smokescale’s Smoke assault is fine, but the Takedown sounds like it should be a tackle with both arms outstretched., not Yet Another Kick.

Jacaranda: These skills might look better as a spit instead of a throw, but possibly not.

Rock Gazelle: Finally! Animations that match our attacks! Just… bring the head down a bit more for Charr, so we’re slamming with our horns (Except for the minority of horns that are front-facing instead of top-covering or back-facing)

I like Poison Volley’s mass-tagging/area suppression effect!

ZhouX.8742:

The sic’em working on us in Soulbeast is not intended either obviously, this is a pet only buff and since it has already been asked numerous times from people asking devs if that is working as intended, there was no response.

We are the pet in Beastmode. Sic’em is the only shout that actually work properly.