Guild Wars 2

If a player specs very hard in the upcoming anticipated interrupt series, how effective will this player be against bosses/champions that have 50 stacks of defiance/stability or are otherwise immune to cc? I know bosses were supposed to have a different mechanic now, but will the bonuses of the attack still proc when you reduce the boss’s bar thingy? Same question if you remove a stack of stability?

I don’t have a screen shot but on multiple occasions I’ve been approaching a harvesting node and seen a persons name, but they appear to be underground under the node. As I get closer, the name disappears and I can’t find it again. Saw it again today and decided to check the forums. If I see it again, I’ll get a screen shot and post here.

I’m pretty sure the Gates of Maguuma would have at least some throwback in some for to the “mursaat rally” in guild wars 1 (google for details) seeing as it was held in maguuma stade. May not be the focus of the release, but I would be almost upset if there wasn’t mention of it somewhere in the lore of the area. It was a pretty awesome event, was anyone else there?

I have a lvl 80 everything, but instead of recommending something specific I’ll give you food for thought to help you make a decision:

General concepts:
I’ve found that picking a character in GW2 isn’t as much about what role you wish to play on the field as what “feel” you like to have in a character. For example, imagine two characters in a random different MMO, one drops nukes every minute and the other fires a tank shell every second. Suppose that when the math is worked out that over time these two characters have the same damage output. The difference is one has a fast tempo and one has a slow tempo. They are both effective, but they have a different feel. This is the primary difference between GW2 classes. On that note, I’ll describe some of the attributes of the classes.

About the ele:
The ele with a staff is a slower tempo point AOE damage from long range, while the dual daggers ele is a fast tempo from short range. An effective ele player can run through sequences of skills and attribute changes rapidly, requiring memorizing skill chains and a bit of keyboard crunching skills to execute effectively. Due to attunements, they have the second highest number of actual skills available to them in a single combat session (meaning no manual weapon swaps) in the game, first being an engineer loaded with 3 weapon kits. This means a single engagement can have a lot of tactical variety. They have some of the best mobility options in the game if you like a character that jumps around. Support is possible with the many fields they generate and while control options may be a bit limited, they are definitely available.

Engineer:
The king of variety, this class usually reaches its peak performace through its control options rather than raw damage, though raw damage is possible at the expense of survivability (google engineer SD build). The engineer is usually a reactive class with a high tempo, watching what its opponent needs then acting against it through snaring knockbacks and blocking. It is also fairly keyboard intense with toolbelt skills and weapon kits playing critical rolls in most builds. As mentioned, the grenade kit with the lvl 30 grenade trait is about as much AOE damage as can be done at the very long range of 1500 which is longer than any class except possibly the ranger. All grenade skills are ground target, again adding to the keyboard intensity. The bomb kit actually does more damage, but is a melee range PbAOE kit, and engineers that spec damage usually don’t survive close encounters where the damage outputs of all classes increase generally speaking.

Ranger:
Rangers can do damage but are usually the most effective when they are built for survivability. They can be the most difficult class to kill in the game. When built for damage however, they do put out a decent punch. The longbow is a slow tempo weapon where the shortbow is a faster tempo weapon. The ranger is fairly easy to play in terms of keyboard intensity but you have to take care of your pet for some of the master/pet skills to work which can be hard in tough areas. When built for damage, team support is fairly minimal, though there are control options available.

You already mentioned you didn’t like the necro, so I’m assuming you don’t like to play high condition damage builds which is how the necro tends to do its damage.

Mesmers can be built for ranged damage as well, but rely on phantoms remaining alive for some pve fights. The pistol phantom was strong enough to get nerfed in terms of recharge time, so you know its good Mesmers can be difficult to kill if you can’t figure out which one is the real one (look for the one strafing, rolling, or walking backwards as illusions cant do this). It is generally a high tempo class with lots of moving around. In PVE, opponents tend to figure out the real Mesmer fairly quickly however, so the class relies on other control techniques to stay alive, of which there are several. It is also a good support class.

Hope this helps, and good hunting

Lots of guilds like to do silly things like a minion master party in wvw or “The amazing guild of amazingness [amzg] is hitting tequatl at 5PM” or “super quiz spectacular with prizes!” etc. and honestly theses are some of the funest events with the greatest memories for the game. A lot of time is spent on advertising these events and many people miss out because they simply didn’t know it was happening. I believe it would be beneficial if an individual could post a player based event with a description, meet time, and meet location on a board in-game that other players could look at and decide if they wanted to attend. A quick visit to LA could have a quick blurb in the chat window like “there are 4 player events at the herald” or some such. I know people would do more if they could focus on the event and not the overhead work of getting the word out.

This post could be described as “wordy.” You have been warned.

So I know fractals is kind of supposed to be the elite zone, with higher lvls being harder, but the “elite” zones of GW1 (yes I count fissure and underworld even though anet doesn’t) I find were more fun. I’ve examined a few things that I believe made them more interesting:

1) Combatively simple, yet tactically difficult. I’ll explain this as there is a recurring theme in GW2 that I believe could be improved. Each individual monster in UW, FOW, Deeps, Urgoz, or DOA were fairly straightforward. They didn’t really have THAT much more health than the player, their attacks didn’t hit THAT much harder, and they didn’t even have a massive skill set to choose from. Individually, they were simple. The reason many teams wipe before they even get off the start pad is because of their tactics. There were patrols that could overwhelm a team that wasn’t watching their position, there were mobs that were very focused on killing certain people and there were mobs that were more general, and several of each type were between the team and victory. There were mobs that were supposed to be avoided altogether. The skills that made up their teams worked well together. In GW2, difficulty is increased by adding health and damage. By extrapolating the GW2 definition of challenge and fun, the most awesome monster to fight would take 37 hours of continuous pounding from 500 characters in order to kill. It would also, in one unblockable shot after another, permanently punt 5 players at a time into an alternate dimension completely out of existence from which there was no return. This doesn’t sound like fun to me, this sounds like a cheap way to make a game.

2) Rewards that require skill. Case in point: the Fissure of Woe armor crafter. First of all, the materials to craft the armor were very expensive, mostly because they were desired in order to make this armor. I’m kind of on the fence about super expensive armor sets, but I mention the FOW armor crafter because he was actually located IN the FOW. Not in some safe place, oh no, you had to be successful at several difficult challenges before he even showed up. Then you had to do a couple things before he would craft for you. This is awesome, because every time you wanted something, you felt like you earned it. Your armor came with the knowledge that experience and good play was required to get it, not grinding or a gem store. Unless your team flopped of course, then you get kicked out which leads me to point #3.

3) Team centric goals vs. Self centric goals. This is difficult to explain. In GW2, your frame of reference is your character, you are fighting out of your character and all you need to know is what your character knows. If your character survives, the goal succeeds. Your mind is centered in your character, and that’s good enough. In GW1, its often not good enough. This is forced because often your goal was not your own personal survival, rather the survival of something else, or the completion of a goal outside and away from your character. A player was forced to know how their actions were affecting their team, the allies of their team, and their opponent’s team. Your mind was tied in with your team, there was a part of your minds eye that knew where your team mates were and what they were doing without actually seeing them. There was a sense if the strategy that was being employed was running smoothly, stagnating, or falling apart. In GW2, the closest thing to this is combo fields and calling targets, both of which can be employed with moderate success from a self centric frame as they are employed with the goal of promoting ones self, not something else. A single goal of survival. Quite simply, in UW and FOW, if the terms of any quest were not met, the whole team was immediately ejected from the realm, forcing team centric play. Another example, In GVG, team survival was insignificant compared to the survival of the guild lord NPC, whose life is a far more complex and difficult to define idea than a circle on the ground. Such complexity invites variety.

Anyway, I am very sure the anet team is looking into building elite zones, mostly because we haven’t heard anything, which is usually a dead give away that they’re working on it right now. So before the designs of these zones get fixed, I wanted to get my two cents in. Oh, and if you’re going to put a difficult jumping puzzle in, maybe make sure that only 1 or 2 players actually have to do it while the rest hold out as not everyone is good at these things and I can see that being a single point of failure for such a zone for those who have trouble.

Needs to shoot something.

So we all know when we see a dragon it will eventually die. This is because there are so many people around that it really doesn’t have a chance of living. This takes the thrill out of killing one. There is no accomplishment here.

One big difference between the epic boss fights of GW1 and GW2 is…. The GW1 bosses could beat you. Dhuum was a crazy man. Urgoz had an entertaining fighting style. In both cases, the bosses aren’t easy, but they are possible through coordination. I think its cheap when you call a person with more health a “boss” and less health a “minion”. It degrades the game. A boss should have a style. A boss should be unique. A boss should be able to hold their own. A boss should have an angle, an edge that isn’t just a glorious amount of health and a large pistol.

GW2 can’t support such bosses in normal play as tactics aren’t emphasized as much as they were in GW1. There has been an effort to keep the learning curve low. Mobs expect to show up and win. This is ok for people who haven’t played GW1. For people who have played GW1, the learning curve is TOO low. You figure out everything the first day you play. There is nothing else to figure out. There are no frontiers to explore. You ruined us with your glorious game anet, and now us GW1 players only get our kicks when fighting something complex. To this end, there should be available exhibition fights, complete with the lead up and the show down to challenge players to actually design their team to both make it to and then take down the boss. The dungeons in this game just have mobs with more health. That doesn’t count. They aren’t challenging, they simply take longer to clear as you try to use a straw to fill the required swiming pool of damage that needs to be dealt to win. You already have jumping puzzles, how about a few tactical puzzles like the good old days? How about if Grenth kicks you out of the underworld you spent 1000 gold to get into when you fail ANY event? There aren’t any “harsh reality” areas in GW2 and they are really needed to increase the challenge. These could be an addition to the guild mission options you are exploring. Also, the zones themselves looked epicly harsh and alien in GW1, you got there and imediately knew you were somewhere you weren’t meant to survive long. Hopefully the elimination of a dedicated healer didn’t also eliminate the possibility of these areas as well, as these are some of my fondest memories of GW1 (besides GvG).

Simple things to help the communication impaired mob around you. Things you can yell like “Build this Siege!” or “Wall is Down!” or “Run more supply!” , “Follow me!”. Of course, these actually need to have sound because most people can’t read well when they are dodging bullets. That and tower gates are like those blue lights that attract insects to their death, once people are fixated on it they often don’t see that people are already inside through another entrance. Or if you’re worried about people being annoying and spaming these things, maybe the tower lord should make a few convenient anouncements regarding the integrity of his structure (complete with horns, bells, whistles, laser light show, fireworks, bonfires, lightning, the choir music that accompanies epicness, hoisting the jolly roger, camera view change, cutscene, that annoying thing that sounds like your phone is ringing, and a dwarf (kilroy stonekin preferably) dressed like a clown running with a giant arrow covered in flashing lights and filled with beer pointing to the downed section to eliminate any excuse that people “didn’t notice”). Then you could limit the noise making stuff to when there is unbuilt seige on the ground (target the unbuilt seige and hit an emote button to make noise). Once its built, no more noise.

AuroraFlare.1682:

Hmmm….when did Henge of Denravi lose it’s #1 spot?

Our rank is not representative of our current state. I think most folks got turned off to WvW early with the ridiculous wait que, so when TA pulled out, everyone was still in the mindset that WvW is unaccessable to new players. Now, new players get an experience where they are being destroyed in seconds due to being hopelessly outnumbered which keeps the numbers low. Its going to take a long time and a lot of healing to convince the majority to play agian. Still got a few die hard guerilla fighters out there though