Guild Wars 2

Looking at the new professions coming out with boons and conditions which are not available to the original professions it had me wondering if the original professions would still be viable. They also seem to have a really strong set of weapons/abilities as well. Anyone have any opinions on which original professions will still be played?

So I have started playing GW2 again after a very long break and I am shocked that there have not been any communication improvements for SPvP. Given that it is essentially impossible to type anything while pvping due to WASD movement, this game needs other ways to communicate to teammates in SPvP.

I think there are 3 routes that could address it. The obvious one would be to add voice chat into the client although there are people that would not like that for various reasons. The game could allow map pinging with context such as many MOBAs use. The other option is voice commands through keyboard shortcuts a la Smite.

The need for communication in this game to play at a somewhat coordinated level is higher than any MOBA yet this game lacks even the basic MOBA map ping system. I feel like the map ping system could be easily implemented and the others could be done without being a huge burden. Regardless of the choice that is made I think this is something that ArenaNet needs to get implemented.

For the record, I made this exact same suggestion multiple times on this forum 3yrs ago.

kdaddy.5431:

I disagree with you for a few reasons.

1- the old system forced us to use the same trait lines but before the trait lines gave bonuses. So the old 0-0-2-6-6 ele is now just earth-water-arcane cele ele. This actually gives us more options. You can play with different runes since your not forced into a boon duration trait line.

2- We were allowed to before to mix and match runes with amulet and rings in the old system. They just took out the rings and silly numbers from the old PvP amulets. Also making it so you can grab just 1 rune made it easier to change runes on the fly and play with your build. The new system also makes it easier for new players coming in. In the old system you would have a 2-2-2-4-4 eles and they were always wondering why they sucked. Now they have made it so new players coming in arent crushed solely because they made a terrible build.

Overall its made the game better. I do agree with you that they have forced some of the builds on us. I do agree that changing weapons and having to use a item to change its look just for PvP is lame. Though ultimately alot of these changes have made it better for the masses and the game is still mostly skill based.

What do you mean you were forced into trait lines before you got bonuses? You had minor trait bonuses that were fixed and major traits which could be selected. There were like 6+ major trait options per tier. Now you can only choose from 3 major traits from each group and you can’t mix and match.

I have a friend that wanted to me to get back into the game but I absolutely despise the fact that they killed customization which was one of the things that drew me to the game originally. I played this games for more hours than I would like to mention during beta and at release and one of the things that kept me going was being able to experiment with very different builds across the different professions. Sure, some of them weren’t viable but I helped create what was at the time the meta build for a couple professions. Being pigeon holed seems so boring.

Part of my bitterness may come from the fact that my old builds can’t even be developed with the new system but even without that fact I think it is garbage. Just because people are bad at theory crafting and are too lazy to look up builds online shouldn’t mean that people shouldn’t have the ability to create diverse builds.

Nocta.5274:

For balance purpose.
Also, the 3 lines makes little difference to most classes who were using 662 build ( or 30/30/10 depending on when you quit ) anyway.

Btw, I looked at the forum a bit and it seems like there are still constant posts complaining about balance. Has balance actually gotten any better since they dumbed everything down?

Nocta.5274:

For balance purpose.
Also, the 3 lines makes little difference to most classes who were using 662 build ( or 30/30/10 depending on when you quit ) anyway.

I played in the 30/30/10 period although none of my builds used that at the time. Generally most T3 Majors weren’t worth getting compared to either minor traits or major traits in other lines. It sucks that they felt they couldn’t balance the game with the build diversity they allowed. I feel really pigeonholed into certain builds at this point compared to previously.

I just tried the game out again and I was shocked to see that you are pigeon holed with your builds now. (I left when Temple of the Silent Storm was only available in hotjoin and I played with a competitive team that was one of the top NA teams at the time but we quit due to ArenaNet letting everyone down on their ESports promises)

Being forced to max out 3 different trees rather than being able to mix and match for different minor and major traits is extremely disappointing as one of the things I liked most about this game was its potential customization.

Additionally, you can now only choose an amulet rather than being able to choose the minor stat boosting item (I can’t remember if it was a gem or ring or whatever).

Finally, you are now forced to take an entire set of runes for your armor.

Why did ArenaNet decide to dumb down the part of the game that brought it so much depth?

Also, I think its dumb that to equip my PvP skins I have to use an item.

One of the few positives I have noticed is the new achievements which despite not existing previously, it has taken account of.

I admittedly have played almost 0 hours of GW2 in the past several months but I have followed the patch notes and the forums a bit. While some classes have had their dominant build change a bit it seems that the vast majority of traits and utilities are still useless. How did the designers manage to convince someone to put them in charge? It’s mind boggling.

GW2 in its current state is pretty much a MOBA game with 8 heroes.

A+.

Request for next one: Reference the “tip of the iceberg” blog post and the two Jons who somehow have jobs as lead designers.

Jon Peters and Sharp
Horrible game designers
The game is now dead

I’m trying to install GW2 so I downloaded the setup file. When I run the setup file it brings up the GW2 patcher screen, does a little download, the patcher then closes itself, another patcher window flashes open and then immediately closes. I do not get any options of where to download the game or anything like that.

I have tried downloading the setup file again but that has not helped me either. Any advice?

The SPvP lead designers are horrible and should never have a job as part of a PvP game with ambitions for competitive play ever again.

They could license the engine and put the development costs etc into the hands of others. They won’t make money on PvP with the current design team and pace of development.

Yeah they are pretty close. Probably only need another 6months to a year to have solo queue and matchmaking working. Which is pretty soon in ArenaNet terms.

Ezrael.6859:

The players that are happy are in game playing.

Those of us who are happy and enjoy the game rarely come to the forums, and post even less.

I’m enjoying GW2 loads and I know all the rl friends I got into GW2 since launch are all still playing and all still enjoying it.

The PvP community is already a minority of the player base, and the disgruntled forum complainers are a minority of a minority player base… so.

Yeah the game is healthy, just like ArenaNet’s parent company’s stock price.

OP is desperately searching for ways to justify to himself that all the hours he’s invested/wasted getting good at a game no one cares about might pay off in some way.

With consistently poor design with every “feature” ArenaNet has released I really have very little faith in them living up to the hype of the game saving patch to be released in February/March.

Maybe they will allow for competitive play then without out an associated fee. I guess if you screw things up so badly at first you can revert to standard ideas and call them innovative improvements.

lilz shorty.1879:

People in MMO’s never yet cease to amaze me at their qq. They CLEARLY STATED that this update was minor and brought small changes to pvp/WvW. As far as balance as you are qq about. This game is more balanced then most games yet you guys qq constantly. There are maybe a couple things that need to be fixed but its not even that bad. As far as the meta, nothing is forcing you not to play w/e you wanted. Stop qqing plz.

The type of thought provoking and intelligent post one would expect from someone with the name “lilz” proceeding their name. lol.

Davinci.8027:

This wasn’t supposed to a balance patch. Calm your kittens.

Yeah, we can only expect balance patches once every 3 months. That’s the model that most competitive games looking to achieve E-Sport status use, right?

This patch is a joke and the community should receive it as a joke. Regardless of whether the Devs downplayed what was going into the patch, the fact of the matter is the Devs have done pretty much jack and kitten since the game came out. Look at any other game with E-Sport aspirations and you will see the ArenaNet devs looking like they work at the DMV with the speed at which they do things.

luxen.8376:

You only had 1 balance patch since the game release, what makes you think every patch is going to be a balance patch? Just wait till they actually say “balance patch” before getting any hopes up next time.

And the 1 balance patch was pretty much a joke and didn’t really create any new viable builds. There is no reason to get any hopes up for any patch from ArenaNet at this point. They are just going to under deliver and then give PR speak about how great changes are actually on the way.

Defektive.7283:

Gilgamesh.2561:

At this point I’m starting to hope that Arena Net goes the way of THQ, and some more intelligent company picks up the GW2 IP.

The way of THQ = massive layoffs. You want people to lose their jobs because your profession didn’t get buffed? Wow.

Yes. Yes I do.

If your company sells a product that isn’t doing well nor meeting the expectations of stakeholders (which would be us, the community). Then that company has to do better to change their trajectory.

In this situation, I’d be perfectly happy with them losing their jobs so the IP can go to a company that can actually deliver the goods.

They can start with firing whoever came up with the tournament system. Then move onto firing the person who decided to create a “cost” to competing in the competitive mode.

daydream.2938:

Im extremely dissapointed the 1vs1 tourny costs three tickets. 1 or 2 tickets would have been way better. 3 tickets for a single round.

Used ot be 5 tickets for up to three matchs. COMON GUYS , get rid of those barriers to entry!

If this doesn’t demonstrate that ArenaNet has no kittening clue what they are doing then I don’t know what else could prove it to you since the usage statistics are private to only ArenaNet.

daydream.2938:

First off the balance changes and big pvp changes are coming in febuary, they said as much already.
Second there was small balance adjustments, as an incidental result of these changes.

Engineers got a tiny bit better, eles a tiny bit worse. which is fair. Further balance and big pvp changes are due febuary.

Yeah and based on the ArenaNet track record they are going to be poorly implemented and cause many new issues which we can then wait multiple months before receiving a fix.

Ayestes.1273:

They never said the balance stuff was in this patch. They only ever mentioned Feb/March in this regard. We were the ones that posted all the stuff about balanced changes in this patch.

I mean I wish there were balance changes too, but we got our own hopes up this time.

All you have to look at is their track record since the release of the game to know that the future patches are going to be a let down as well. They have demonstrated poor design and knowledge of their game since the game has been released and the idea that everything is going to be great 1 or 2 patches down the line is very misguided.

No changes to useless traits/utility skills. This is a joke. All ArenaNet balances around is the 1-2 viable builds each profession has which makes use of only a small number of traits/utilities while the vast majority are not viable.

This is a pretty big disappointment, pretty much like every patch since this game has come out.

These Dev’s obviously have no kittening clue what they are doing, I don’t know how they convinced people otherwise during the hiring process.

jportell.2197:

And then what the mesmer does have left will be useless for PvP our burst is outmatched by a warriors and thieves… Ele’s have the BEST GROUP HEALING power in the game… Necros have better survivability as far as the scholar professions go. What do we have that is useful in PvP portal and time warp. They are UNIQUE to our class and should stay as such. A thieves group utility such as shadow refuge has just as much of an impact as portal. Our 2 mass invisibility skills don’t even TOUCH how long shadow refuge makes players invisible… And once again the Portal is a bright glowing circle on the ground. Also if PvP is being played properly and people are thinking… They won’t have their entire team sitting on one point… SO portal will not be useful to the whole team just the one MAYBE 2 people that are with the mesmer using the portal…

Mesmers have pretty much the best boon removal in the game as well as great CCs. Portal isn’t the only thing making a mesmer viable.

1-6 normal keys. 7-9 on mouse
f1-f4—→ shift, Q E R
Elite c
dodge f
stomp g

set target: v
take target: t

Sprawl.3891:

ITT: people calling OP a noob but nobody with nuts to duel him

Why does a joke of a post deserve a serious response? There are many valid complaints about the state of PvP but I don’t think anyone with real experience with the game thinks you can get the same results with button mashing as with thoughtfully using your abilities. It might work against bad players but it won’t against people who know what they are doing.

I will duel him if he really wants to try to “prove” something, but I know that 1v1 doesn’t mean much in this game in the overall scheme of things.

SteepledHat.1345:

All this guy does is insult the credibility of people who disagree with him. Lol, it’s quite funny. This is clearly a mesmer witch hunt. Stop trying to nerf mes. Set your sights on something new that you can’t kill.

I don’t have a problem with Mesmers being able to kill things. I have a problem with the fact that mesmers are essentially a requirement for a competitive team and it hurts the variety of viable team comps because mesmers have abilities which are extremely strong and not closely replicated by any other class.

I attack the credibility of those who make statements which makes it clear that they have no reason to be taking part in the discussion.

I would be happy to see them make channeled effects stop hitting stealth people the moment they make missing an attack while in stealth result in breaking stealth.

Lordryux.9785:

i love how 90% of the players on this post are totally ignoring the fact that in spvp and tpvp if a mesmer even brings time warp to the table. (Which is totally kittened because MI is better in every way shape or form.) its still on a 210 second cooldown time. that is only enough for 2 uses or 3 per game and 3 is pushing it really pushing it. because most games dont last long if your up against a good team or your team is good and know wat thier doing.

By saying you should take mass invisibility over time warp you have lost any credibility you might have had in this thread.

Some of these solutions being offered sound a lot better in theory than it does on paper. The fact that someone said that engi grenadier is a counter is frankly hilarious. The size of time is large enough that someone can easily dodge grenades from 1500 range while remaining in the time warp.

Complaints aren’t based on the fact that it can’t be countered. Even your counters are not hard counters and can be negated by your opponents reacting to your proposed counters which is quite easy to do while still making use of the time warp.

The problem with time warp is not that it can’t be countered, but that it is such a strong ability that it pretty much forces teams to run mesmers (I would argue that portal is the bigger factor). Timewarp is vastly superior to any other haste ability and I believe it is superior than any other elite in the game.

Tokens? What are you talking about?

You can play with your friends by joining a tournament.

hackks.3687:

pretty sure the argument was in regards to the fact that the strength of the skill makes the mesmer a requirement in competitive teams. not so much about dying to or countering it.

on a positive note, I hear public eduction might get some better funding so all you forum lurkers with the poor reading and comprehension skills will be getting a buff. gratz!

This right here. While time warp on its own is probably a bit too strong (I think a duration nerf and slight decrease in the size would got a long way) the biggest issue is having skills in the game which make it a near necessity to have a player of that class using that skill to be able to compete. I believe it is a sign of poor game design.

This is a class based game so obviously different classes should have different tools to accomplish their jobs but they should be somewhat similar to one another such that you can use multiple classes for the same roll. Currently no class is able to provide the massive team support that a mesmer can provide while having as much liberty as a mesmer has to leave the back point open.

I don’t need to L2P when my team beat your team over 80% of the time we ever faced you. Just because someone has a different opinion than you does not mean they need to L2P or that you are better than them.

I want to make this game better for ESports and these two mesmer abilities have no comparable abilities available to other classes. If they really want to keep these two abilities which are unparalled by anything else, then other classes should have a near replica to promote greater comp diversity.

Also, just claiming they asked for your build doesn’t mean kitten and given all the BS you continual spout I give it no validity, sorry. The fact that you alluded to me being jealous is hilarious and shows how your twisted, egotistical thought process operates.

Look, everyone in this thread pretty much agrees that people, specifically newer teams that lose primarily in the first round, should be getting more playtime/value for their tickets.

However, my original point stands that your proposal is extremely flawed. In your system, the people who lose the first round are better ticket/gem wise than those who win the first match and lose in the second match. You are also ignoring that under your system the tournament begins to pay out more in rewards (tickets/gems) than are taken in from tickets. It is an extremely convoluted system in comparison to the alternative offered by Sataarcooeny.

I’m really shocked there has been no dev response to this thread though.

Mufa, I have read many of your posts, most of them are ridiculous and based around trying to create a 1 v 1 dueling game. Sataar is generally obnoxious but his words have some credibility, all you have are silly ideas and a weird perception of what is necessary for balance.

Rainu.6871:

If it’s split so that any change only affect PvE then fine. If not then I don’t see why something that only affects a very small (I’d guess max 5%) of the players should lead to more nerfs for a class that is already very weak in pve.

I’m glad we got the PvEers speaking up in every balance thread in the PvP section. Scripted NPCs are pretty tough to fight, any more nerfs to mesmers and they won’t be able to kill anything!!!!

Sataar’s strategy is to respond with walls of text using very weak arguments until the opposition gets tired of responding to all of the random arguments he brings up in the wall which all work to drive the thread way from the main point.

I’m sorry sataar but I’ve played against top teams when everyone was still in this game and you are far behind mesmers like Milty, Esplicz, Erichhimself (i think all 3 have quit though so you are better than most other mesmers but that doesn’t mean you earned the spot).

SAtaarcoeny.8476:

my true god you dont get it do you. you can just as easily have a ele or thief or guard or warrior or ranger or necro or engi fullfill the mesmer back point role.

you ask how do i know well kids here is a lesson. im a mesmer and i dont portal play back point alot of times i dont even equip portal cause we have other ppl do back point.

PZ after xee didnt have a mesmer and they still dominated. last night ZZYZX didnt have a mesmer and they destroyed teams.

you say i dont get it but i do i get that you need to L2P (and again i dont mean that in a mean way i mean that in you need to figure what your role is and your teams role and try and figure out the other teams role so you can agjust to it and if you L2P you can do it easily.

It isn’t just as easy having one of those other back point holders. They actually get exposed to back cap risk while helping their team, unlike a mesmer who can help their team without worrying about returning to their home point until someone attacks it or their portal fades.

Also, good teams can win against lesser teams with comps that aren’t very good. That doesn’t mean that their comp is ideal or viable against opponents of equal level. As far as you not being back point mesmer, well lets say I watched the video where you guys raged at Q when you guys were asking him to be back point necro. You don’t like playing backpoint and as a team leader you dictated that it was not your role. In the drama between you and your former teammates they stated the reason you didn’t do backpoint holding was because you lost 1v1s though…..

jportell.2197:

have you not seen the radius on the supply drop circle? Engineers have great group utility. I love healing turrets… And bombkits… they are great… the grenade kit can still slap more conditions on someone than a necro… ALSO engineers can throw an elixir onto their team which gives them OMG quickness for I think a little less than the mesmers…. If it would make all you whiners happy I could deal with them dropping our endurance to 0 when we use timewarp… I thinks that how it goes for quickening zephyr on rangers…. But you guys need to just suck it up and play or go play hello kitty island adventure.

Please create more condescending posts in which you demonstrate you have no god dmn clue what you are talking about.

This is not about making mesmers weakers in actual combat. It is about making the game better to play. If they were to change these two abilities I would actually like them to do something to help mesmers out because these two abilities are obviously a big part of the reason that teams take mesmers. Portal and Time Warp are pretty much the strongest two abilities in the game and no other class has anything that can match these two abilities making mesmers a part of nearly every competitive team.

This isn’t a cry about mesmers being too strong and blowing people up. This is about how their flawed design has made a mesmer essentially mandatory.

To all the people in this thread thinking this is about nerfing mesmers, it really isn’t. It is about making the game better to play. If they were to change these two abilities I would actually like them to do something to help mesmers out because these two abilities are obviously a big part that teams take mesmers. But as I stated in my first post, these abilities are pretty much the strongest two abilities in the game and no other class has anything that can match these two abilities making mesmers a part of nearly every competitive team.

When abilities are so game changing that every team is running them and there are no equivalents from other classes then there is a problem in design in my opinion. It doesn’t have anything to do with not being able to handle the abilities.

Oh and Xeron, quickness isn’t considered a boon so you can’t remove it with well of corruption like you stated.

Draygo.9473:

Not reading entire thread, but I would play paids more if they refunded tickets for losing.

I don’t find it time effective to go into a paid match for the cost of 5 tickets to only likely play one round.

If I play 1 round of paids I should get 3 tickets back
2 rounds 1 ticket back
3 rounds 0 tickets back (note that winners are getting Gems and QP’s)

essentially lower the barrier of entry down to 2 tickets a try if I keep losing. If I cant keep playing when I keep losing all I’m going to do is go into free.

Reducing the entry cost is a good idea. Doing it in this fashion goes against everything that is fundamental to a tournament system with entry fees however.

SteepledHat.1345:

You done? That caps was unnecessary. Mesmer burst is meh when you compare it to a warrior, guardian, and thief. I don’t see how my auto attack vs the auto attack of a guardian in knight’s rares would be a poor basis. If anything, it shows that the damage is probably higher in SPvP. I used it as an example because it’s the only person I’ve had the chance to stare at the screen while they play. She doesn’t SPvP because of people that yell in all caps and act silly. Can’t say I blame her.

Look, you are in the Structured PvP forum, you are then using your knowledge from PvE to take part in a discussion on balance in PvP. You obviously are not aware of the many other considerations that come into play during PvP which affects the potential DPS output of other classes. For example, you mention warrior burst, warrior burst in PvP is considered strong but extremely situational. While some teams run warriors, many do not because good players are able to respond to warrior burst fairly well. Mesmers can put together very strong combos that allow them to easily burst their opponent on relatively short cooldowns.

Comparing auto attack damage as a basis for damage output between a guardian and a mesmer is even more laughable. You really don’t have the depth of knowledge to be contributing to a balance thread for PvP.

SAtaarcoeny.8476:

Seether.7285:

Zzyzx.8906:

I would like to point out PZ did not change the meta. Jajja of JBUO changed the meta when everyone and their mother was saying “Necro was useless” months ago. He came up with a strong anti bunker build since every team was running 2 or even 3 bunkers and he and his team beat PZ with that necro build and then they asked him for his build and PZ started running it and incorporated it into their comp.

That is all, let the drama continue!

Lol what? I was going against PZ daily in paids with them running a necro about 2 months ago and while my team was active playing paids 4 days a week during that time period we never ran into JBUO……so I dunno how you are coming up with that.

Qwho had the original necro from day one that we dominated teams with (suoer squad when they was NA but they wont tell ppl about the few losses they had over here) and he was necro since day one of paids. im sorry we didnt ever exploit or bug and therefor not considered top team but we did great despite others abusing the game.

plus jaja was from newmoneys team which later became (AIM) were jaja asked qwho about his necro build which he later changes a little to what it is now a lil diff from Qwho’s and jaja started beating pz with us then kaypud started playing necro and double necro comps but you guys may continue talking about stuff u dont know the full story about. (i forgot i was kicked from QT and everyone hates me and i am aweful)

if you want a full true story about anything i would suggest asking ppl that have been in the mix sense day 1.

Lol, buddy, I was in the mix since day 1. And to be honest, on the few occasions my team lost to yours we would beat ourselves up over it.

SteepledHat.1345:

Mesmer doesn’t deal incredible burst damage anymore. We’re just about meh when it comes to damage. (For those of us that didn’t use the “exploit” we were always meh.) I fight in dungeons with my wife who plays a guard and watch as her auto attack nearly equals my mw at 9 might stacks. Just saying.

Anyway, game is super unbalanced. Either adapt or go play one of the classes that everyone feels are uber.

This is bs. Mesmers have done great burst damage with their shatters since pretty much release in PvP.

STOP USING PVE AS A BASIS FOR PVP EXAMINATIONS. DO YOU NOT REALIZE THEY ARE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT?

Here is another issue with thieves: Their strongest damaging attack (backstab) can be used carelessly with little downside. Once they are in stealth they can spam their attack button until they hit, they don’t have only 1 attempt to land huge damage. This is another poor design aspect imo.

One of the great foundations of game development is Risk vs Reward. The thief profession is chock full of low risk high reward abilities.