Guild Wars 2

xlion.3065:

A really bad joke. Can’t get into personal story due to endless loading screen.

Edit: It took 2 minutes to finally get into it … SO waiting it out might be a workaround.

Sadly, no. Simply waiting doeasn’t always work. I tried that as well and sometimes you’ll simply get disconnected that way entirely due to a timeout.

Basically any loading screen can freeze the game right now. happens to me about 80% of the time since the hotfix a few minutes ago.
Hopefully this is just a temporary overload due to patch and login activity.

The sad part for me isn’t the fact that the build got nerfed. Because it needed a nerf imo. Especially given how relaxed the playstyle was compared to its effectiveness.
What annoys me though is that we seem to have gone from over the top directly to the trashcan.
I am aware that balancing is an artform all in itself but for some reasons with balancing there seems to be no middle ground where the build would have stayed viable without still being too good. Was there really no other option than to break the build?

I have to ask wether it is intentional, that the repeatable achievement Toypocalypse Survivor doesn’t count towards the Seasoned Toymaker meta Achievement.

If it is it would be great if it were somewhere stated which of the achievements count and which do not. Or does it only count the first time? If it isn’t intentional I would like to report this bug.

After some testing using a VPN client, I found I can solve my problems doing that. So I seem to be one of the victims of being routed over flawed data centers.
Which if I understood it right, is neither the fault of my ISP nor Arenanet (nor Ncsoft). So it seems using a VPN is the only option for me right now, if I want to play GW2.
Only good thing is, there are free VPN access options around these days.

Sadly though, I experience more game crashes since I started using the VPN client. Still more crashes beats totally unplayable. It isn’t great though.

I am expriencing similar problems. I currently can’t really play during evening hours (CET) and weekends sometimes have problems even druing the day.
EU, Germany.
For me this isn’t as recent as the Wintersday patch. I have been experiencing these problems for about 3 weeks now, but it got even worse since the Wintersday patch. I was rather surprised it could get even worse.

I would like to add myself to the list of peple suffering from missing map completion rewards for Verdant Brink. 100% Tyria unlocked on the affected character as well.

I would also like to point out that the Ley-Energy Matter Converter unlocks reset. Is this a bug as well or is that actually intended?

The question would be: is there a more enjoyable/easier/faster way?
Of course, you can do map exploration and personal story and stuff like that, for example in Old Tyria using your new revenant, if that is your thing.
But I doubt that will be a as fast overall, if you are looking for speed. And events certainly won’t be on par. Unless maybe event trains like in EotM. Where the joy aspect is highly debatable, for me at least.

I thought the same Tulki, for unlocking Old Tyria masteries, a dungeon tour or even a single dungeon is truly helpful.

And like you I hope they do not reduce the amount of experience you get from dungeons. This at least would give them “something” that is interesting in terms for rewards. At least until you have unlocked all your masteries.

Anet however might decide this make unlocking Old Tyria masteries “too easy” or more precicely “too fast”. And since a lot of the mastery system is designed to gate content, thus extending the time people invest if they want to get somewhere and keeping them playing longer than the actual content would warrant, I am afraid they might just do that.

I already said it in the general discussion thread, but people overlook a major “currency” dungeons provide. Mostly because at the moment it isn’t really that relevant.

But with the mastery unlock system experience suddenly becomes a valuable commodity. Especially if the numbers shown in the 3rd beta weekend are an indicator.

A dungeon tour provides a lot of fast experience. So if you seek to unlock Old Tyria Masteries, dungeons are truly helpful in that regard.

I wouldn’t mind if they added someting additional, like more tokens or even better karma instead of gold to dungeons. Karma would be my first choice.

But people tend to overlook the experience factor. I will agree however that this is a finite amount of reward you can get, because once the masteries are unlocked, the experience again becomes of little value. So it isn’t a continuous incentive.

I’ve been absent from the froum for quite some time now, but the economy blog post got me to look what was going on here.

Maybe I overlooked it in the other comments, but I think dungeons actually still offer an interesting “currency”. Even if they nerf the gold into the abyss, a dungeon tour is one of the fastest ways to get experience in the game.
So if you want to unlock Old Tyria Masteries, I think a dungeon tour is still pretty useful in that regard. Especially if the experience cost for mastery unlocks they used in the 3rd beta weekend are any indicator for the cost on higher tier masteries.

So unless Anet decides this makes getting XP for Old Tyria Masteries too easy and changes this, maybe this is at least a bit of an incentive to do dungeons. Granted once your masteries are unlocked, the dungeons become most likely pretty obsolete for you in terms of rewards. Still it is something to keep in mind, I think.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Silberfisch.3046:

But thinking in PvE tems, a short duration block like that is most useful to react to a telegraphed attack. That usually leaves you with a very short reaction window though. And a 1/2 second cast makes the Shield of Judgement not entirely feasible for that task.
I would propose to reduce the cast time to 1/4 of a second or even remove it entirely. The latter might prove too strong though, which is why I included the 1/4 second suggestion.

It just requires a better knowledge of your encounter. In PvE, that’s something you can learn and predict. In pvp, it’s already prediction mindgames anyway.
[…]

The better knowledge works fine for slow cast attacks and maybe medium cast attacks, like the Ettin’s in the uncategorized fractal for example, but for anything fast on the other hand, like Lupicus’ kick for example, even someone who knows the encounter inside and out will be hard pressed to bring up that aegis in time with the half second cast time.
And again this is where I think a skill like that is supposed to shine. But that’s my personal opinion and maybe in the upcoming HoT content the attacks that warrant the use of a shield and this skill will have cast times that allow a good use of it. So it might be this is what the change was made in mind with.

I do have a slight concern about Shield of Judgement though.

Don’t get me wrong, a short duration block was exactly what the guardian shield needed and I am more than happy that it was finally added.

But thinking in PvE tems, a short duration block like that is most useful to react to a telegraphed attack. That usually leaves you with a very short reaction window though. And a 1/2 second cast makes the Shield of Judgement not entirely feasible for that task.
I would propose to reduce the cast time to 1/4 of a second or even remove it entirely. The latter might prove too strong though, which is why I included the 1/4 second suggestion.

I posted too early, it seems. I just stumbled across the “goating will survive” video.

Thanks for the answer anyway

Out of curiosity, a question for Purple Miku:
How much has the normalised leap/rush distance impacted your mountain goating?

The original trait used only the stronges effect and didn’t stack. I don’t think they changed that just because it moved from honor to virtues.

It’s not like it’s not available and that people refuse to use it. But it makes those skill pretty much mandatory in some cases.
We were doing SE p1 as well last night and blissfully ignorant we tried to do the skip to the first boss like we always do. The amount of conditions those inquest guys can produce really put some pressure on the whole thing. It was interesting but without classes that have an instant cast condi cleanse readily availlable it might be less so.

And in Wethospu’s example, a tick for 23k will instantly down any class running berserker gear and down anyone else in 2 ticks. So even if the condi cleanse is there it will be a close thing. And without it? Making something mandatory or close to mandatory is never a good idea.

Edit says: Typos too bad even for me.

Rasimir.6239:

Anyone know of a lone island with a good computer rig but without kids, husbands, co-workers or bosses where I could spend all my time playing games?

If you find that island, please let me know if there are others similar to it nearby. Can’t really ask to share your own since it defeats the whole “lone” part though. ;-)

You want animes to cry to? Watch 5 centimetres per second, or even worse Grave of the Fireflies.
Good films, mind you, but pretty sad.

xDudisx.5914:

I think the best solution would be reworking reflect skills, but making bosses projectiles unblockable is a good workaround.

No, it is not, because it negates not just the reflect option but eliminates a lot of other defensive skills as well.
I’ve lost count of the times I threw an Aegis out of reflex just to remind myself afterwards “oh right, unblockable”. And Aegis is by far not the only block skill in the game, just the most obvious.

I can accept the “rework reflects” solution, although “design encounters differently” seems even more useful to me. But it’s even more work than “rework reflects”.
“Make unblockable” is just hastily applied “something” but certainly no “good workaround” or even a feasible solution.

I am so tempted to post the LS instance stealth change. But since that was an actual bugfix, I guess it would be inappropriate.

Jerus.4350:

I imagine the hammer build will be nice as well, but you’ll lose your support.

wanders off to cry in a dark corner

I absolutely love the fractal hammer build. sniff

At least the damage oufput of guardians seems to get a buff, which I have to admit, I appreciate.

However, I will continue to mourn for all builds that used more than 3 traitlines.

My only problem so far is something that has been already adressed, but it remains my main problem: These changes reduce build flexibility, and quite drastically so.
No more option to use 2 adept or master tier traits if you want to. No more builds that use more than 3 traitlines.
These do cut down on the options availlable to players.

Admittedly however, I don’t see any really applicable fix for those with the new system. At least not for the second problem. So giving constructive criticism is sadly not really an option for me.

But I’m trying not to be overly negative. I’ll learn to adapt like anybody else. And on the plus side, a lot of the changes inside the traitlines look promising.

As with most changes, we get one part uppers, one part downers and one part candy.

It might be a bit obvious as far as advise goes, but if in doubt, have someone who is familiar with the paths describe them to you.
A lot of the paths have distinctive moments and those might jog your memory to help you remember wether you did a certain path or not.
Helped me and a few other guildmates a lot to avoid already run paths if it was just for the dm title.

NoTrigger.8396:

how desperate do you have to be to cry because of a few milliseconds difference in a guild wars 2 record run lol.

Well technically, they are having a little guild war right now. In some way at least, so it is actually pretty fitting.

winterchillz.2564:

/rant

It’s 5 AM and I woke up like one hour ago with a terrible toothache. At this point I’m ready to make a sacrifice to some god in order for it to stop.

/endrant

Chew on a clove. Or if that is too painful just keep it in your mouth roughly around the area of the damaged tooth like a long lasting candy.

Thank you for the answers, much appreciated.

Jerus.4350:

hybrid.5027:

They are called trash mobs, not treasure mobs. In every MMO ever the dungeons and raids have been primarily about the boss fights and trash mobs were either minor challenges or time gates. Sometimes I wonder if this is the first MMO people have ever played.

Whether it is or not people often put on those nice rose colored glasses when they look back at past games. Personally if we could do half the things I did in my first MMO we’d be looking at like 1min Arah clears.

Pull together one really big blob of mobs and nuke them to kingdom come?

Forgeive me for asking again, but a little while ago it was explained why GS on ranger vs lupicus can be rather detrimental for group health.
If i remember correctly it had something to with the evades on the GS AA chain and bouncing projectiles or splash damage. (I think it was the former.)
Since I can’t find it anymore, would some please again explain what exactly the problem is?

MHCerberus.1385:

To me skipping feels like going to a movie theater and asking to just see the last ten minutes and chugging your drink. The reason for all the threads is to poll the forum community and watch for changing feelings towards the matter. Avoiding fights and content is now viewed as skillful. Play how you want but at least read LFG postings. I get frustrated when I’m in a party and they all die because they wanted to skip over a mob. We then try over and over to skip instead of simply killing them. I love when Anet makes small changes to dungeons that reward not skipping, example is the bridge area of CoF. Now when you complete that bonus event you clear a safer area to stand while the targets respawn. Question: What makes a more skilled craftsman, completing tasks including small ones or only doing ones required and skipping over little things?
P.S. This put a funny image in my head of Bruce Lee saying don’t skip leg day. lol

The bolded part is the operative part of your main argument. To you it might be more fun not to skip. But that is entirely subjective. What constitutes fun is different for many people.

As for your craftsman argument: Every good craftsman will, once they have mastered a certain piece of work, try and speed up the crafting process time. Skipping does the same thing.
And despite how it may feel for you, skipping does not constitute a flaw in completing a dungeon. Just a faster alternative, if done right.
Which adresses the “viewed as skillful”. Because a skip done well is a piece of art in itself as much as any fight. Iris put it right. It can be like a race or a game of tag. Or if you use stealth and can’t gloss over the entire section with a single SR, it’s an infiltrator’s game.
But again here applies the “what is fun” problem. If you prefer to take out the opposition instead of leaving them behind in a cloud of dust or avoid them entirely, then skipping, as you state, is not for you. For others it is fun and a refreshing alternative to bash somethings face in.
Both approaches are equally fine, as long as you have fun doing them.

If anything, complain about people not reading your lfg tags if you advertised “no skipping” and they try it anyway. And guess what? The players who want to do the skips have the very same problem.
Oddly enough they are the ones who receive for hostile reactions for their preferences. Guess you now know in part – because most answers to your perceived problem are fairly civilised – how they probably feel.

Edit(h) says: Bad Typos!

Having a good time with Friends, mostly.

Other than that, there are 2 skins I’d still like to have, but… well… rng. So default back to reason one.

Rasimir.6239:

Laulajatar.4253:

But I don’t dare to go in there and check the tone of the complaints, lol, or the answers. A short glimpse made me run again and hide here.

Do you really want to be scared? Take a look at the german language general forums .

At least I learned a new word today: SJW. Never heard that one before …

Now I am curious but I don’t know which thread and posting you are referring to. And I honestly can’t get myself to filter through them.
So could you please elaborate a bit?

Because, sad as it may seem, I gave up reading german game forums about 6 weeks in when I started playing mmorpgs. Over a decade ago.

And here ladies and gentlemen, we have prime examples of people who don’t respect someone elses preferences, even when they are clearly stated.
It doesn’t matter if there are more efficient ways to do something. These groups clearly advertised what they wanted. If you don’t fit the bill, don’t join. Period.

I would like to add something. I think that most new players will stay away from groups properly tagged as not meant for them.
The problem most likely arises due to not-so-explicitely tagged groups. Pretty often you see a simple “p1” or “story”. And with these you have absolutely no idea what you get.
Granted, the majority of these seem to be what I label “quick” runs. Not an actual speedrun per se, but meant to finish the dungeon in a reasonably quick way. Which requires players who know what they are doing to some degree.

Then of course there are people like me who are guilty of using the simple “p1” tag as a signal for “free for all”. If I want specifics, my tag will show these. But for most these “nondescript” groups seem to imply a “quick run”.

So I think it can be resonably tricky for a new player who joins a group where you actually can’t discern, what people expect. As I said, I am guilty of this not so clearly tagging myself and I should probably change that in the future.

So I think to tell someone inexperienced to stay away from the “zerk/meta/experienced/XYZ AP/whatever” groups isn’t truly helping and comes of as condescending. Because they most likely will do that unless they are so inexperienced at the game that they don’t understand some of the shorthand. Or are simply idiots, who don’t care. but you get the latter ones with experienced players as well.

Maybe the game could profit from an ingame tutorial about how to properly use the lfg tool. Might help with the inexperienced players’ concerns.
Won’t help with the idiots though, because they won’t read it or won’t care.

I would like to add that the wings open up a new kind of visual challenge. Stick them on a charr or big norn and you won’t see much in melee besides big feathery thingies sometimes.

I’ve had this error code pop quite often by now over the past few days. Usually a workaround to get the affected characters back was to log onto a character in a region that is not as often affected like Hoelbrak. After that I usually got the affected character “freed” when logging back onto them.
But now one of my characters is stuck in eternal transit between Lion’s Arch and the Black Citadel. Stupid me for trying to use the asura gate, I guess.

When I try to log onto her the loading screens switch 2-4 times between LA and BC and then I get the Network Error Code others have already provided screenshots of.
I’ve been trying for about half an hour now and am close to giving up on my character for now.
A fix or at the very least an acknoledgement that this is being looked into would be very much appreciated…

It’s fun if you, after a lot of organised or semi organised instance runs (semi because half pugs / half friendslist) you get a call from a friend to go Arah p4 for her dm title and get a group as “un-meta-ish” as it can probably get.
A defensve built wvw elementalist, a wvw warrior, a semi offensively built ranger with an odd choice of weapons (slayer achievements in progess as I learned later), a mesmer with a TRULY odd choice of weapons for her build and the stats she used and my little guardian.

Sidenote: This is not a complaint, just a random tale about what I did a few days ago.

Was funny as hell because the people were all drawn from her friendslist and everyone was really nice on TS and that – to me at least – usually is more than half the job done. Albeit the entire thing took quite some time.
I’m not really familiar with a lot of Arah especially p4 myself. (Although there are a few people who try their very best to teach me glances sideways at deSade). I’ve done p4 I think about half a dozen times in total, whenever someone asked for help to complete a dm title. So next to no skipping or might stacking or anything like that.

The only time when I thought about banging my head against a wall was when our elementalist told me he had no place onhis utility bar o a glyph of stoms (for the sandstorm blind against trash) because he needed all his slots for things to help him survive better. Apparently blinds don’t help with that.

And it seemed that some of them found it odd that I adjusted my utilities so often or even more so adapted my traits to the various encounters (at least to the best of my limited knowledge about the fights).

On the plus side they had no problem with me pushing lupi into the wall and nuking him to kingdom come with WoR after our first wipe. And the mesmer was really cute asking twice if it truly was dead already.

I had my doubts about how Simin might go, but at least here the elementalist went full berserker (he carried the equipment with him apparently). I don’t know about the rest of the party, and it took a while, but she eventually went down, so problem solved.

All in all, as I said, it was fun, an interesting change of pace. But if it hadn’t been for a friend I don’t think I would have wanted to spend that amount of time in there.

dlonie.6547:

Miku Lawrence.6329:

You got your totally new dungeons aka fractals so stop complaining ~

Quoted “for great wisdom!”

The amount of wtf? prompting posts by Arenanet staff has certainly gone up dramatically for me in the last few weeks.
It would appear wisdom is not for me to be gained here.

Sarahfull.4930:

Q.Q Everyone just leave fractals alone!
fractals didn’t do anything Q.Q

sorry bad reference.. Ill sit in my corner now..

gives Sarah a hug

frifox.5283:

Sometimes I wish I did fotm and actually had a clue what’s the fuss is all about in this solo. What makes this solo special?

If it weren’t for Mai Trin, I think the imbued shaman would still claim the title of greatest party annihilator in fractals. Maybe if we had the metrics to check he still holds that title, but it has slipped from memory due to Mai Trin.

frifox.5283:

[…]
Sadly, not sarcasm. Last time I ran fotm was when fractals came out and even then only got to lvl 5 before deciding it’s something I won’t enjoy. Granted, my pug runs back then we’re all complete fails so that may have contributed to my dislike of that place.

I would recommend to give them another shot but maybe with people you know as opposed to pugs.
Especially if you realise they are to your liking after all – might happen or not, who knows – and intend to get to the higher levels and the instabilities. Some fractal/instability combinations I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies in a semi-to not-organised pug.

As for the original topic: Congratulations. Very nice video.

Hm, interesting. Thank you, Michael Henninger. You’ve just turned a topic that prompted reactions ranging from sad/disappointed headshakes to ourtright rage into something worthwhile again.
Also, and more importantly, thank you for correcting what we thaught after initial responses to be Arenanet’s stance on this topic and pointing out what your actual intentions/reactions are.

I think you/we should help new players. If they want the help. And if you/we actually enjoy helping.

And help can have various forms. Sometimes it’s information about builds, sometimes it’s about encounter mechanics, sometimes it’s about the tricks of the trade for certain professions. Sometimes they might want someone to carry them through something they still struggle with.
And sometimes it’s just to provide an additional member for a group of newbies who wish to explore a dungeon without you telling them much and figuring out stuff for themselves.

If you enjoy these things, then help. If you don’t, then don’t do it. There is no obligation to help. And these are no absolutes. There are days when you might be in the mood and days when you might not.

I think this system works for both sides. I mean, who would want a mentor who has a feeling of “I have to do this” opposed to “I want to help them, if I can and if they want me to”?

Also dlonie, if you keep this up I’ll be running out of +1 for your posts. And I’m not talking about only this topic.

dlonie.6547:

But the content is still doable for them. If the entire guild is laid back and the members enjoy spending an hour in AC because the group is having fun with their “unique” builds and playstyles, then let them have fun with the content at their own pace and play how they want.

Dictating that they aren’t having fun “properly” is the same flawed argument they make against us. It’s a game, not everybody is here to be the “best”. Our fun != their fun.

And it would keep them off the LFG >.> Well, some of them, anyway.

I think dlonie makes an excellent point here. Those arguments work both ways and just running a different build than the current meta doesn’t mean they are unwilling to learn.
You can still learn the encounter mechanics. Playing on a full healguard bunker hybrid or bearbow will change how punishing a mistake is and might cut down on the “aha!” moments of the learning process, but not the learning about the encounter in itself.
I prefer those “what the hell”-moments for my learning but not everyone enjoys that.

And i’ve seen quite a few cases of people moving away from the safety net those build and gear options provide once they feel comfortable with the encounter towards a more aggressive/offensive playstyle. The downside is, that they then have to relearn some of what they know, but that won’t stop someone willing to learn.

layzoe.6035:

rapthorne.7345:

Ettanin.8271:

Still, dropping “Lv 80 only” is out of question because below level 80 it’s likely you are missing essential skills and/or traits for your planned playstyle.

Why is enabling people to play dungeons of their level range out of the question?

I should not have to be level 80 to run level 35/50 dungeons, plain and simple

Because Anet designed dungeons that’s clearly meant for level 80s. Even many first time level 80s have trouble clearing dungeon such as AC and CM. You are being carried if you are under leveled.

I don’t mind taking one under leveled player but more than that, it makes a significant difference.

I don’t think so. I think they designed dungeons to be playable at all appropriate levels for the dungeon – appropriate as in the minimum level and above.
Which means that a well coordinated group of experienced players will be able to breeze through them and low level newbies will be presented with a challenge.
Both variants have their merits. The first group – the veterans – will be pretty fast and get their rewards quickly which will be most likely a major factor for those players at that point (note: not the only factor and not for all players).
The second group – the newbies – will have a sometimes fun and sometimes frustrating experience depending on the dungeon, professions and other factors, but they will have a challenge compared to what they know from open world. Still it is doable. Only requires much more time/patience/stubborness.

And this design for all comers is what prompts all the “no difficult content” comments from veterans, because Arenanet “forgot” the hard modes. But that is a different topic, so I’ll stop that train of thought here.

Thanks Tom, and good. Now I don’t feel like a total moron because I argued that swithing midfight to longbow sounds like a weird/not so great idea even with the new rapid fire fun time. Unless you intend to go ranged for whatever reason.
I had a discussion about that with someone and simply couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that being stuck on longbow AA about 40% of the time is a good thing.

Still limits the vulnerability provided by the ranger in prolonged fights to what maul (if GS) and whirling defense can provide. Oh well, at least frost spirit is back.

Btw. I have a ranger question about this new meta thingy with the longbow: Presuming that there is a fight that takes a bit longer, how often do you go back to longbow for the vulnerability? Or would you simply ditch the longbow in those cases and work with for example sword+horn, sword+axe/dagger (for the extra dodge), greatsword or some such?

Because going back to longbow every 10 seconds for the rapidfire and then camping longbow AA for 7 seconds feels weird. And if you only go back to the longbow every 30 seconds for when barrage is ready the vulnerability stacking is somewhat lacklustre in a prolonged fight.

And before someone says something about stuff shouldn’t live that long anyway: There are these weird things called fractals for example, where you actually can’t burn down some mobs that fast. Or if you run with a lot of non-meta players.

DonQuack.9025:

Understandable. I disliked Fallout 3+ because of the change from 1/2

I need to buy you a drink one of these days. At least now I know I’m not alone out there.

Congratulations, you have encountered one of the many new bugs… I mean features of the new system. Groups without groups.
Other than “weird bug” I absolutely have no idea, sorry.

As a related question: How does the game decide what lfg entry to keep if parties are merged? I had both happen, that mine was still used after someone merged and that it got replaced by the entry of the merging party. Do they keep the one with more original members in the party?

Most of the personal story stuff is still salvageable. Although I’m only at chapter 5 currently so I don’t know about the higher chapters. I was referring to the rewards you get for level ups.

I think that the ability to remove somone actively working to screw with the group is necessary, sadly. So I think disabling kicking is not an option. Reworking how it is handled however is a neccessity.

As for the Rating proposal: Flat out NO!

First reason: Simply because of new/inexperienced players. I’m afraid a lot of people wouldn’t care wether someone stated they are new/inexperienced or not, so them performing badly would result in a bad rating locking them out of dungeons. But how are they supposed to get better if they are blocked from participating?
A really good player would probably be able discern if someone is simply inexperienced or just bad at playing. There are some nuances, but I don’t think anyone can reliably always tell which is the case.
And I won’t even start on players who think they are god’s gift to the gaming community if they simply aren’t “believing” the could spot the difference.
Either way locking someone out for playing badly has the same problem as the lockout for inexperienced players: How are they supposed to get bette without training?
And what about people suffering from lags? Rubberbanding might be obvious, but missed dodges because someone has latency spikes are not always that easy to spot.

Second reason: kittens will be kittens.
It’s nice that you said that giving bad ratings on purpose should be punishable. But how will you decide what was a bad rating on purpose and what not?
If one rating differs greatly from the others, is malice truly the only reason for that? Maybe simply higher expectations or better understanding what the profession of the rated player can provide provoked the bad rating. What to do in that case?
Plus: If two or more people from the same guild (or simply friends in the same group) for example decided they don’t like player A, they could simply give him a collective bad rating and work towards him being locked out. Since there would be multiple bad ratings the system wouldn’t class them as outliers and apply them to player A’s bad ratings. Thus it opens the possibility for organized effort to lock out someone you simply don’t like.

Have you played SWTOR? I think they did pretty good on the immersion front. Game had other flaws though. Lots of them.