Guild Wars 2

As someone that has raided since Spirit Vale opened, I’ve never understood the drive for Magi’s gear. You receive nearly non-stop heals so vitality isn’t a desired stat, and last I tested heals don’t crit so why precision?

Zealots is superior imo, and am able to raid heal fine in full Zealot’s with the latest changes.

Thank you, I couldn’t find a thread on it

Just completed Verdant Brink to 100% for Waypoints, Hero Challenges, POIs, and Vistas, but did not receive a map reward chest.

To confirm, I traveled to a different zone and re-logged… while I wasn’t expecting rares or exotics, a couple transmutation charges or something would have been nice.

Sinsko.9342:

What about the issue that prevents us from getting through 14 because we cannot interact with the tracks?

(Notice the green progress bar doesnt fill in the top right)

/secretgate :P

WORKAROUND –
1. Quit the story from your quest Journal
2. Activate a different chapter
3. Quit that chapter and reactivate 14
4. Zone out of Tangled Depths and walk back into the zone line

Then continue with Sign Cutting and it worked for me, hope it does for you too!

What about the issue that prevents us from getting through 14 because we cannot interact with the tracks?

(Notice the green progress bar doesnt fill in the top right)

/secretgate :P

Unable to find a clear answer on this -

-Do we know if HoT will have additional files to download at launch?
(Or are they already downloaded on the current client)

-And if there is a download, what the approximate d/l size will be?

This is hugely important for me, cause I have to play on a tethered connection right now and would have to move my desktop to another location for a full (large) download.

Any links or references would help, thanks!

Traditionally I tend to build my characters with some access to AoE skills while still having some single target burst.

Such as: Longbow & Axe/Warhorn -or- Shortbow & Sword/Warhorn

Staff feels more single target/direct, and I’m not sure what fits better with it. A lot of builds I’m finding are for PvP, but looking for more of a PvE setup. I’m testing Staff & Sword/Warhorn but feel like it lacks a bit on the AoE/Multimob tagging and fights unless I pull them all into melee range.

Thoughts/Suggestions?

I’d be ok with Trahaerne having a fatal end at the start of HoT…

Nothing too extravagant, more along the lines of… stumbling on the top of a keep, tripping over a rock and falling to a death from just the right height.

100% Fan service, and little effort to design.

NoxInfernus.2361:

Rule #1 of MMO’s – Never take valuable vacation time off on any launch day.
The game in question will be:
1) late in launching (towards the end of day
2) riddled with bugs that the testers missed, and will be hot fixed several times – interrupting your enjoyment.
3) the starting areas (in this case verdant brink) will be full of so many people you will miss a lot of what’s going on.
4) server issues will arise lagging out or crashing the game
5) Trolls. So many Trolls
6) All of the above

Save that Vacation day for the following Monday (26th) and treat yourself to a Monday long weekend.

While I agree with the above completely, I cannot say that I agree when it comes to Guild Wars.

ArenaNet does beautiful things with their servers.

Zui.9245:

For accessories, put versatile simple infusions (or other +5 AR granting thing) into the regular slots, and put a +8, another +8, and a +9 into the Agony Infusion slots (located on infused rings, and infused back item). This will give you 55 AR, enough to handle level 49, and since these can all be swapped on any character, it means any of your characters could handle up to level 49. It’s pretty much the sweet spot, as to be able to handle level 50 on any character without other ascended gear, you’d need to slot +13, another +13, and a +14. Very expensive—better to just get 3 pieces of ascended armor to be able to handle level 50.

This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

Roguefire.8174:

If its not (infused) then the slots you are referring to are for the +5 agony infusions you can buy from the fractal vendor once you enter the fractal portal. You must infuse the item to apply the crafted agony infusions.

Look at these 3 pages, and you will find all the answers you need.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/BUY-4373
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Versatile_Simple_Infusion
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infused

Thank you! I looked over some of those.

Generally, what are people putting in the Infused back for +AR?
Is there an amount thats sort of the sweetspot (without going for +16 and spending an insane amount of gold)?

Just crafted my first infused backpiece, was curious as to how people are slotting for
Agony Resistance (and other stats) in back, trinkets, and even ascended armor.

Some of these infusions are pretty expensive – especially the infusion that can be made to +16 yikes.

(i.e. 10 on the back/5 in rings?)

Obviously the fractal scale would play a role, but any rule of thumb?

EDIT: Did some searches prior to this post, couldn’t find the info I was looking for, but even a link to some source would be appreciated!

Atherakhia.4086:

Dead ones cause ANet.

Spiders – Ranged attacks and they tend to stay out of the melee mess.

Lopez.7369:

Wat.

/10char

Not sure what OP was asking, but does anyone know how to do this achievement?

Overmind.3094:

I agree. I have been waiting for months for this to return. I am willing to spend real money on gems for this

Rox’s Quiver was only obtainable by gems.

However, I don’t entirely agree with this idea. I like exclusive items in the game for players who’ve put the time and effort in from the start… sort of a way to show that we’ve been here from the start to get these rewards… including titles like Volunteer or Mad King.

HOWEVER, that being said – there should be more quiver options in the game! lol

OOHHHHHHHHHH thanks guys! The way it sounded was that we would get Unidentified Dyes in place of what we had!

I read through it a couple times… and got confused with this:

When you unlock a dye after the feature pack is released, all characters on your account will have unlimited access to that color.

Seemed like we would have to get them again… -whew- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!

Coming here to express some frustration with the upcoming changes to the dye system. While I am happy that the dyes are FINALLY becoming account bound, I’m not happy that they are not retro-active.

Playing from Day-1 and spending hours and effort collecting rare dyes on my main character (400+ dyes), it’s a bit frustrating to see that if I want those dyes account wide I have to obtain them all over again.

HOWEVER – if someone just started out with GW2, they can collect them, and BAM – have them across all characters. As a veteran player, I feel this is more of a slap in the face, then a privileged – even if I’m getting some unidentified dyes for my alts.

Wasn’t there something in the works to quest for a pre-cursor?

Azure Prower.8701:

Save them for ascended leather armors.

Thanks for the advice.. i havent looked into ascended gear, gonna do that now

Have been busy with a lot of RL so my GW2 time has drifted for a bit.. but it’s back now

I’m cleaning out my bank and find about 1800 Thick Leather Sections that vendor for more than the trading post is offering….

Is there anything useful to do with these now? (Like when all the butter could be turned into other stuff), or is it just vedorloot?

Thanks

There’s always something to complain about.

Achievements are about your personal progress… and there’s nothing stopping you from doing what others did to earn the achievements you’re missing out on.

-It’s when achievements are no longer available is when you should be concerned.

Kryptonite.9376:

I would like Lisa Ann

LOL!!!

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Perhaps, it depends on the server. I just used the one in Diessa, although his icon is still missing from the map, and over his head. But, he is still there and accepting audio logs.

What server are you on? I’m gonna guest over there to turn this in…

Any chance someone could post a Screenshot? I’ve been to both Diessa and Wayfarer’s and the NPC seems to be missing – not just the icon.

I’ve yet to check the other zones, but the 100 karma per on the nice stack of audio logs would be nice to get

Can’t seem to find the turn in NPC’s but I’m still getting drops. Anyone know if we can still turn these in?

twoscoops.6913:

Please explain why you completely nerfed our dungeon viability by adding 1s to the revealed debuff.

Were we overpowered to begin with?

Thanks

Been trying since the patch…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Why-was-stealth-changed/first#post1606818

No answer… and when I posted a similar question in GENERAL discussion (because stealth also affects other classes), I got a warning for violating the forums by double posting the same question… Yet…. ArenaNet wouldn’t answer it.

I followed up with an e-mail to ArenaNet, and got a generic canned response for a double post.

I’ve since given up on the thief breaking changes for our CLASS DEFINING SKILL – with ABSOLUTELY NO explanation. Haven’t played my thief since this craptacular change.

Haven’t been to Arah in a few, but did it yesterday with the Thief.

We were on phase 2 (the phase that Lupicus spits all over, and does his underground teleport comeatcha shoryuken). I was in a bit of hot water and with my shortbow at short-range I dropped a shadow refuge… moments later the boss THEN went underground… and came after me… while stealth…. while PREVIOUSLY stealth before the attack or animation occurred. Forcing me to a downed state and then threw green slobber all over my body, finishing the job.

What THE &!$#!

The other group members were attacking… although they were just a bit further out than me, and I know Lupicus has a knack for going after targets that are closer. However, what really burns me up about this… is I was just rezzed from being completely dead… to become completely dead because of his this stupid mechanic.

Maybe I had threat because I had more toughness than the rest of the group? -shrug- (20 points in Shadow Arts)… I don’t know. However without the ability to roll protection or other boons, being a melee class with the lowest health pool really stinks.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Health

Is this just a fluke? Does this happen to other thieves?
I know channeled attacks aren’t affected by stealth anymore (blargh) but what gives? I wasn’t even attacking or in sight.

Any suggestions?

randomfightfan.4091:

As a main thief, I don’t get why everyone is complaining about these changes. I actually feel like they BUFFED stealth. Try it out before you crucify me.

Mobs and bosses no longer instantly drop agro:
- meaning they no longer instantly walk away, resetting their hp
- they react in a more predictable manner making it easier for you to position yourself to capitalize
- less likelyhood of using something to save yourself (hide in shadows/shadow refuge) only to have it end up getting you killed (trying to stop the mob from resetting or it resets then comes back after wounded you)

Even though enemies will continue to search for you even though you are invisible, they won’t target you so stealth resing and fleeing are still extremely viable options.

And last but not least, you, as the player, can still maintain stealth long enough to make the mobs drop aggro completely so you can fully disengage… but only if you try for it. That means the bosses/mobs won’t disengage from you unless you let them.

I’ll post up a few vids soon showing how thief is still stupid op in PvE

Can you post some videos of you fighting Young Karka while you’re at it?

Raidium.3916:

Sinsko.9342:

Raidium.3916:

I don’t know about you guys, but I love the change. Now I can backstab Giganticus Lupicus without it resetting. It improved my overall DPS in dungeons by a lot.

I never had an issue with him resetting… just curious as to what would possibly cause a reset?

That is of course, aside from the rest of your group being out of combat or climbing under your shadow refuge without attacking?

I can only think of a handful of times that a boss actually reset when we didn’t want it to… but in EVERY dungeon I run I feel the pain of being top of the aggro table.

Umm I usually duo Lupicus with a warrior and occasionally the warrior needs to space to replenish his health out of combat while I hold aggro backstabbing it without a reset. I also don’t understand why people are complaining about “PvE” thieves? Maybe thieves need to learn to dodge instead of hiding in stealth 24/7. This mechanic change is definitely a buff for backstab.

Ahhh another ‘learn to dodge’ argument… which then I could follow with something cynical like “Dodging is not the issue.. although if you’re running with greens and blues you might not be on top of the threat chart either.” – but that’s not constructive and doesn’t help the situation at hand.

However since you brought this up and you’re the one ‘holding aggro’ so your teammate can heal… I’m curious… do you backstab from the front? or do you use your stealth time running through/around the boss to get behind it to backstab?

Cause it would seem to any rational person that the time it takes running around a monster like Giganticus Lupicus is valuable damage dealing time where before we could C&D/Backstab swap almost instantaneous.

Just thinking about it though there are also 3 people in the group that are hopefully doing something else constructive… so then you put the boss on a spinning pedestal each time you stealth which means attacks are flying all over the place in all directions and causes more trouble for the group overall especially in fights where aoe/cone damage is apperant like the spider in AC Explorable.

Am I over-thinking this? I hope so. It’s over-thinking things that help groups understand and progress… and it’s what coordinating traits in a group for maximum damage output and survival is all about.

So it’s clear to say that with the aforementioned that the issue is not dodging, but the mechanics of an encounter based on the stealth change.

Of course, all of this is irrelevant because the initial question at hand in the subject matter that you are referencing was never answered in your banter about all this ‘complaining’ and learning to dodge. Let me remind you what it was:
Just curious as to what would possibly cause a reset?

Raidium.3916:

I don’t know about you guys, but I love the change. Now I can backstab Giganticus Lupicus without it resetting. It improved my overall DPS in dungeons by a lot.

I never had an issue with him resetting… just curious as to what would possibly cause a reset?

That is of course, aside from the rest of your group being out of combat or climbing under your shadow refuge without attacking?

I can only think of a handful of times that a boss actually reset when we didn’t want it to… but in EVERY dungeon I run I feel the pain of being top of the aggro table.

jROON.7501:

I run this, use daggers/pistols/sb depending on the fight.
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckc0zzzMoFlCMMFrMm0xax0caqzMsa
Stealth didn’t do much, anyone who is complaining is using stealth wrong (or kittening for no reason). Shadow refuge, basically the only way to escape previously, is the same, You can’t stealth and stand still for 3 seconds and expect to escape, but then again you couldn’t do that before. The down skill stealth are almost useless now however.

I respectfully disagree. If you feel stealth didn’t change much then I would guess you don’t frequent dungeons or group content. Running a high crit/power build, with emphasis on backstab it is very challenging to get behind targets when you’re the focus of attention.

Other professions don’t have the same issues:
Guardians, Thiefs, and Eles are on the low-end of the HP pool, however our defensive mechanism… stealth.. doesn’t even diminish threat… and we don’t have a way to run the boons or buffs like the others.
Professions like Warriors for example top the HP pool so they can focus on damage statistics. However Thieves are now put in a tough spot now because if we don’t stack Vitality then we’re hurting, and if we Stack toughness there is potential to be focused even more.

If you need a point of reference check this out: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

So does the Stealth change affect everyone? No.
PvP? There isn’t much of a change at all unless you count monsters in WvW.
Solo play? You now have to get out of combat like anyone else.
Group play (i.e. Dungeons)? ABSOLUTELY.

I would run FotM & Explorables pretty much every night with Guildies and almost a week into the patch I’m really wondering what my future as a Thief may be. I obviously love the profession but with absolutely no aggro reduction I’ve been hurting… and so has my ability to do a fair amount of damage as I’m switching to short bow, kiting, and hiding away from the group for 15+ seconds in a Shadow Refuge just to get a heal going. It’s terrible

The Guardian and Warrior I run with know this best.

No official response found yet… drat… gonna keep waiting I guess.

Does ArenaNet look at the class forums? lol

Doggie.3184:

They changed it to fix a bug with bosses resetting (mainly with Arah’s boss from hell). But they only focused and fixed resetting and didn’t even stop to think even a little about how it effected Thieves, thus causing more bugs and mechanic flaws.

Do you have a post from ArenaNet on this?

Being primarily a PvE Thief and Dungeons being my favorite and most played part of the game… there have only been a handful of times that a boss has reset on my group unexpectedly. I would be absolutely devastated if this is the reason.

Alpha.1308:

some people,though,were saying it was “because mobs would reset if you were soloing and they didn’t want to re do the whole thing”
but i doubt that
highly

If the way stealth worked was SO BAD… well there are other options they could roll with, like giving stealth an inherent aggro drop mechanic… or if the stealth system is really as bad as they thought… remove C&D, and get rid of ‘stealth attacks’ like backstab.

-Which of course, is very challenging to do if you have a 2-3 second window on stealth and need to run behind a monster who is channel-locked-front-facing you. lol

It just blows my mind that such a major change was made this far after launch.

When a CLASS DEFINING ability that we’ve been using for the last 6 months (and almost a year if you played through the betas) gets changed… you have to wonder what happened.

However, the patch notes were very subtle about the change, and I personally haven’t seen a post from ArenaNet.

Why was stealth changed?
Is there a post (from ArenaNet) explaining the reason for the change?

I’ve seen discussion threads like these:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Enemies-are-expert-trackers-now-stealth/
But would love to get a REAL response.

Alpha.1308:

Sinsko.9342:

Dundir.2853:

I run a high toughness tanky type Thief. Usually I have a heavy or two in my pve groups that can take threat from me AFTER I stealth. This is no longer an option. Now I have to be more creative in tanking, kiting and moving more. A lot more annoying for the group that now needs to chase mobs more. Tank switching was viable with stealth dropping aggro, now it is not.
Also, now that downed skill 3 is pretty much useless will we get a new one?

This is exactly whats going on. EXACTLY.

With the lowest hp pool and no mitigation we’re screwed… but when we fight a mob that does channeled attacks… (like the young karka) we can stealth as the attack begins, but the monster will keep channeling and facing you and you can’t attack back then you’re just a ‘pseudo-invisible punching bag’…. and that’s impossible.

If the thief’s CLASS DEFINING ability gets shredded, then it should be countered with something like immunity during stealth – especially if mobs can track, attack, and not drop any threat.

Anyone who disagrees, roll a thief, unlock C&D… level it to 10, 20… whatever, take it in a Fractal… and tell me just how much fun you’re having.

^this
only invulnerability would mean even more ridiculousness especially in pvp,or just simply before an extremely over powered boss attack that’s difficult to dodge and no one has endurance left,everyone would just roll Shadow Refuge on party and/or Blinding Powder right before it connected….not sure if you were serious about that or not though….but everything else /yes

I have no idea what it would take the programmers to have a channeled attack stop from a mob… it appears that there’s some issue, just like when we would stealth and jump back on the monster and it would take the enemy a moment to realize it was being attacked. (PVE)

Actually… does anyone know ***WHY*** there was a stealth change?
A post from ArenaNet?

I’d love to get some feedback on this from the horse’s mouth as this DRASTICALLY changes the class… but was slid into a patch note very nonchalant.

Dundir.2853:

I run a high toughness tanky type Thief. Usually I have a heavy or two in my pve groups that can take threat from me AFTER I stealth. This is no longer an option. Now I have to be more creative in tanking, kiting and moving more. A lot more annoying for the group that now needs to chase mobs more. Tank switching was viable with stealth dropping aggro, now it is not.
Also, now that downed skill 3 is pretty much useless will we get a new one?

This is exactly whats going on. EXACTLY.

With the lowest hp pool and no mitigation we’re screwed… but when we fight a mob that does channeled attacks… (like the young karka) we can stealth as the attack begins, but the monster will keep channeling and facing you and you can’t attack back then you’re just a ‘pseudo-invisible punching bag’…. and that’s impossible.

If the thief’s CLASS DEFINING ability gets shredded, then it should be countered with something like immunity during stealth – especially if mobs can track, attack, and not drop any threat.

Anyone who disagrees, roll a thief, unlock C&D… level it to 10, 20… whatever, take it in a Fractal… and tell me just how much fun you’re having.

Mystogan.5689:

I’m also reading that thieves are no good in dungeons. Hmmm, I’m usually a great help in dungeons and sometimes thanked by my party members. I always hear this and that about stealth, attack power, etc but not one is talking about combo fields. I haven’t really played around with other jobs much but as a thief I abuse the hell out of combo fields. Thieves have a lot of skills that compliment fields and also moves of their own to combo by themselves. The fields help the party so much as well, especially in fractals and dungeons. So no, I don’t believe thieves are useless in dungeons at all.

You’re missing the reason that people are upset. Combo fields are great and all, but the issue is if your a thief and and you’re getting focused in a group… stealth is a class defining ability that we can use to get out of a rough situation.

Additionally, when the Guardian we run with is in hot water, I throw down a Shadow Refuge or Blinding Powder for him to get back on his feat and maybe get the monsters off his back for a couple seconds.

Check this out: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro
Now, assuming that the High Toughness/Low Vitality causes more ‘threat’ – it would seem the Thief is naturally prone to being the focal point of attention general speaking as we are on the low end of the HP pools with Guardian & Elementalist.
This could be a potential issue for thieves being the focus of attention in dungeons when we run with Warriors, etc – as their high HP pool doesn’t always encourage toughness in their builds.

Yes, I’m probably reading too much into this… but I love to min/max my stats, and coordinate with the group I run with. Knowing I have to sacrifice some stats to beef up my vitality because of a stealth change is a bit disheartening… especially when its a change to a CLASS DEFINING ability.

This of course leads in to more issues, like builds becoming ineffective and trying to find Ascended gear having stats like Valkyrie that don’t exist.

Auesis.7301:

I don’t get the concept of mobs resetting too fast after a stealth. That has NEVER happened to me. Not once. Even when traited for longer stealths, I can wait until the very last second of the duration for a backstab and a mob won’t reset.

The mobs would reset, but their hp wouldn’t completely recover. The monster would sheathe their weapons, turn, and head back to their spot… in this time the thief could attack a couple times before the monster became aware.

In the new system the moment stealth breaks, the enemy comes out swinging.

This of course, would be okay… if the moment the stealth occurred the monster couldn’t track you either. I mentioned this earlier… I was fighting Young Karka and they lower their body about the time I C&D (Stealth) their missile/channeled attack would start (as the animation was already in place even though the attacks weren’t going off)… and the missile attack continues to follow and track me as I run around the Karka trying to get a backstab… also the monster is facing me CONSTANTLY through this so in the effective 2 or 3 seconds we have of stealth, become INEFFECTIVE as the mobs still track, face, and inflict damage while you’re just an invisible punching bag.

jamesigall.5938:

Hey thieves – so I was just browsing peoples reactions to the patch and this thread caught my attention due to something that happened to me during an AC Explore run the other day. Playing on my dd ele, and and an 80 thief were the only ones that were really paying attention during Kohler, and on one of his ability activations pretty far into the fight the other 3 failed to dodge or stunbreak out. One of them was also an ele and decided to vapor form off the cliff into the water, while our thief dropped a shadow refuge over the 2 downed guys to revive. Unfortunately, this shadow refuge stealthed all 4 of us up the top, and Kohler instantly reset, from about 25% hp. We got back to him before he reached 100%, but he probably regen’d 5+ mins of our work (hey, it was a pretty low dmg group :P). If this fix stops this, I’m all for it

If a boss resets from stealth because you have two downed people, and you have two other able bodies NOT ATTACKING the boss (for whatever reason)… then the stealth isn’t the problem. There are other things that the group needs adjust.

The real issue isn’t stealth dropping us out of combat… I’m fine with the change so the boss hangs out, or whatever.

The real issue (and some thieves wont realize this for a while): threat/aggro tables.

If the thief was the focus point of the bosses attacks (and a good chance that he was given that he’s Melee, low vitality/high toughness, high damage) the moment that stealth fades he’s coming right for the thief who is trying to rez.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

The bad part is now we have to trade our stats on gear & specs that we’ve been playing for 6 months to bump up our vitality… which then leads in to other issues like Ascended gear not having certain stat lines and closing the doors on some decent builds.

Stealth keeps the monsters coming, fine.. but something should happen to threat table when a monster can’t see you.

Alpha.1308:

hammackj.6210:

I just don’t see the point of stealth now. This needs to be fixed.

/agree
they pretty much WANT it to be “stealth when you need to recover or avoid getting hit too much,but do it fast and get out of there and waste precious time you could be attacking and killing because you’re only safe for the 2seconds of stealth any class other than Thief can pump out”

Not only this, but i was fighting Young Karka today, and with their missile attack (the one that drains drastic amounts of your HP) stealth is ineffective cause not only do the missile (channeled) attacks continue to flow at you and do damage, but the monster continues to face you…

So for a short stealth window you get:
Damaged/Loss of HP
No damage done to the target
Awful positioning to followup with an attack (backstab, etc)

Absolutely AWFUL.

stone cold.8609:

From my limited playtime, this change has really broken the stealth mechanic and one of the biggest sources of surviablity/utility to the Thief class.

I’d have to say now after playing a half day with the new mechanics, that stealth in pve is pretty much useless.

Alpha.1308:

“Additionally, when the Guardian we run with is in hot water, I throw down a Shadow Refuge or Blinding Powder for him to get back on his feat and maybe get the monsters off his back for a few seconds.”

but there’s the exact issue,we should be able to throw down Shadow Refuges and Blinding Powders to help out our allies,and yet they just auto attack through it,without being prepared
unless every time we announce “HAY I’M STEALTHING YOU HIT ESCAPE QUICKLY”
they would just get Revealed and end up getting all that aggro back immediatly and get attacked like nothing happened,the same issue with resurrecting as well,with at least resetting (or reducing) aggro would at least by them some time to (hopefully) recover

I didn’t even consider the aggro drop/rez…

This is going to be the pits now. I understand removing graveyard zerg, but fighting threat tables to rez someone? boo!

Revyri.3487:

I feel like I’m constantly the focus target for the AI now. I ran a fractals and 3 explorables and I’m always the one being attacked now. Might just be me, but I don’t remember it being this tough.

My issue is that if you’re getting focused in a group, stealth is a mechanic we can use to get out of a rough situation.

Additionally, when the Guardian we run with is in hot water, I throw down a Shadow Refuge or Blinding Powder for him to get back on his feat and maybe get the monsters off his back for a few seconds. If the aggro doesn’t at least drop (doesn’t have to be an aggro reset), then it entirely changes the way some of us have played Thief for the last 6 months. I’m not opposed to keeping threat, but with a full stealth, there should be SOME sort of an aggro drop.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro
Now, assuming that the High Toughness/Low Vitality causes more ‘threat’ – it would seem the Thief is naturally prone to being the focal point of attention general speaking as we are on the low end of the HP pools with Guardian & Elementalist.

This could be a potential issue for thieves being the focus of attention in dungeons when we run with Warriors, etc – as their high HP pool doesn’t always encourage toughness in their builds. So Warriors can keep stacking Berserker stats, while we have to sacrifice this to pump in more vitality.

Yes, I’m probably reading too much into this… but I love to min/max my stats, and coordinate with the group I run with. Knowing I have to sacrifice some stats to beef up my vitality because of a stealth change is a bit disheartening. Although, I’ve yet to personally test this, and is just a theory at best at this point.

Pentalic.5409:

Dual.8953:

Using stealth no longer resets NPC aggression tables.

I’ve been testing this out and it seems to be exactly as they state. When you gain the Stealth buff you are safe from being attacked just like before. Exiting stealth, however, you will have the same amount of aggro as before you gained Stealth.
It’s a good implementation without completely destroying Thief PvE.

The only issue with this, is if you’re getting focused in a group, stealth is a mechanic we can use to get out of a rough situation.

Additionally, when the Guardian we run with is in hot water, I throw down a Shadow Refuge for him to get back on his feat and maybe get the monsters off his back for a while.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro
Now, assuming that the High Toughness/Low Vitality causes more ‘threat’ – it would seem the Thief is naturally prone to being the focal point of attention general speaking as we are on the low end of the HP pools with Guardian & Elementalist.

This could be a potential issue for thieves being the focus of attention in dungeons when we run with Warriors, etc – as their high HP pool doesn’t always encourage toughness in their builds.

Yes, I’m probably reading too much into this… but I love to min/max my stats, and coordinate with the group I run with. Knowing I have to sacrifice some stats to beef up my vitality because of a stealth change is a bit disheartening. Although, I’ve yet to personally test this, and is just a theory at best at this point.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

So with no more free transfers, and WvWvW a requirement to get World Completion (which still doesn’t make any sense), is it possible for worlds that are no good at WvWvW to accomplish World Completion?

To me personally, it seems this is an impossible feat now. You now have to rely on your world to dominate in WvWvW in order for you to get World Completion. If you are not top rank and dominating, you will never be able to access all the Points of Interests. I currently only have one part of Eternal Battlegrounds completed because it is the one spot we always start in. Even after the reset today, we are still in the same exact location. In order for me to get the other areas, we have to dominate the whole map (which is highly unlikely as from my observation, we are awful at this) or I am going to have to pay to transfer to a world that is dominating WvWvW.

So is this it? Am I stuck forever without being able to get World Completion because I am required to do WvWvW and we will never dominate for me to be able to get those areas discovered? Or is the plan all along for me to have to fork over more money so I can transfer to a winning world and then pay again to transfer back?

Eventually your server will have control of each territory (Green, Blue, Red), just jump in WvW and get the areas you hold while you can if you don’t participate in WvW much.

It may be somewhat of a hassle, but by no means impossible.

Typically I do dungeons with Guildies/Friends etc… we’ve all been gaming together for quite some time, and it’s great going through a few paths each time we get going.

The downside to this, is that we don’t learn the fast “just run through everything” methods like most people do in the pug groups… but that’s ok… we have our own system… and we have SO MUCH FUN.

One day we were short a guildie, so brought in a pug and did path 2… the showed us some spots that were pretty cool, but then proceeded to climb up.. over the map etc… I didn’t feel comfortable doing it cause of where we were in the dungeon, and really… this caused us to skip like… three groups of mobs? Big deal. One of the people in the group struggled getting to the area anyway so we went the old fashion way, and I’m glad we did.

However, on any run that I pug in to… time and time again… everyone complains that we don’t use the map exploit and it leads to big fights and usually the pug rage quits… (which is funny cause by that point we’re almost at the boss).

I don’t know… -shrug- I’m not going to risk a ban over something that’s an obvious exploit… but I’m shocked with the rage most people have when we run with mostly a guild group… and all they say are things like “Everyone does this… whos gotten banned by doing it?” and I just say “Not me.”

I don’t know, maybe this is the norm… but I just needed to vent out frustration with this, I guess. Thanks for hearing the rant.

Brutallyk.1250:

Sinsko.9342:

Brutallyk.1250:

Hello everyone,

First of all, this is by no means of whining about fractals being too hard or the loot being bad, it’s about the players who join a higher level fractal that don’t know what to do and aren’t willing to listen.

With the disconnecting issues being fixed, I started playing Fractals again and joined a group from gw2lfg and set off to doing Fractals LvL 36. Our first fractal was the asura one, we made it fine to Old Tom, we started stacking tears and were deciding who gets which position but suddenly our warrior rushed into the boss.

The tear mechanic starts at lvl 10 and I am sure by the time you reach 36 you should learn that tears are stacked (not necessarily needed but we were a low a dps group 2 guardian 1 ele, mes, war). Upon a short conversation we learned he wasn’t on lvl36 or anywhere close, just wanted to join.

Previously when we wanted to do 36, everyone was 36 or higher. It took longer to set up a group but at least people knew what to do.

I am sure there are exceptions, really skilled players who can skip first 35 levels but lets admit it, this is very rare.

I still think, players should be able to join levels higher than their levels but I think there should be a cap to it like Personal Level+5. Otherwise in time, noone will trust the pugs or most of the runs will go terribly wrong.

Why that does cause some issues… I don’t know if a change or a limit is in order just because someone lied about their fractal level.

However, this issue is easily remedied by removing the warrior and being able to bring someone new with ease… and if this player didn’t inform the group of lack of experience, I wouldn’t expect the group to keep him around unless he put on a clown suit and did magic tricks.

Not a Serious issue with fractals imo. Annoying for sure though.

Removing that player and bringing someone else isn’t a solution. That player might be the instance owner resulting in everyone being kicked from the fractal.

It’s not a solution because what you’re dealing with really isn’t a GENUINE problem.
A genuine problem that COULD use a fix would be: Kicking someone, and they are the instance owner causes the rest of the group to be removed.

You’re running a PUG group and no matter what limitations there are in game, there will be issues. It’s just the nature of the beast. I’m not saying I don’t sympathize, cause I really do. However putting on an arbitrary restriction isn’t a solution in this situation… do your best to prevent it, and there are ways of doing that.

Brutallyk.1250:

Hello everyone,

First of all, this is by no means of whining about fractals being too hard or the loot being bad, it’s about the players who join a higher level fractal that don’t know what to do and aren’t willing to listen.

With the disconnecting issues being fixed, I started playing Fractals again and joined a group from gw2lfg and set off to doing Fractals LvL 36. Our first fractal was the asura one, we made it fine to Old Tom, we started stacking tears and were deciding who gets which position but suddenly our warrior rushed into the boss.

The tear mechanic starts at lvl 10 and I am sure by the time you reach 36 you should learn that tears are stacked (not necessarily needed but we were a low a dps group 2 guardian 1 ele, mes, war). Upon a short conversation we learned he wasn’t on lvl36 or anywhere close, just wanted to join.

Previously when we wanted to do 36, everyone was 36 or higher. It took longer to set up a group but at least people knew what to do.

I am sure there are exceptions, really skilled players who can skip first 35 levels but lets admit it, this is very rare.

I still think, players should be able to join levels higher than their levels but I think there should be a cap to it like Personal Level+5. Otherwise in time, noone will trust the pugs or most of the runs will go terribly wrong.

Why that does cause some issues… I don’t know if a change or a limit is in order just because someone lied about their fractal level.

However, this issue is easily remedied by removing the warrior and being able to bring someone new with ease… and if this player didn’t inform the group of lack of experience, I wouldn’t expect the group to keep him around unless he put on a clown suit and did magic tricks.

Not a Serious issue with fractals imo. Annoying for sure though.

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

The thing I love the most about GW2 are the little details. Like how the asuras ears perk up when they are in combat. How a random conversation between NPCs turns out in a DE. Little books with lore. Funny references on gravestones. The way my female sylvari looks when she is just standing still, curious about everything . The way amors can be sexy, without turning my characters into lost hookers.
It just makes a wonderful atmosphere that invites you to look beyond the obvious.

You’re right… and I think we can all appreciate the small details and effort that comes through because of the solid foundation.

The little things bring the world alive.