Guild Wars 2

Yeah. Personally it was my first time doing the boss when we had the trouble. The 2nd group did much better and we saw the progress under 50% after 3-4 attempts at sparks / figuring out who had what.

My angle was that it would be nice if the NPC could notice if a party was too slow on the sparks and throw out a “We need to gather the sparks more quickly” or something simple that gives the players a nudge in the right direction. Not so much as a hand holder or nerf but simply a tidbit of information to represent “Hey, you need to do better if you want to beat this boss, it’s not a glitch”

I haven’t too much trouble figuring out bosses but something like a little NPC comment here or there could be helpful to groups having trouble. (and make the NPC somewhat useful to have)

Wanted to come back and report that it may have been a speed issue.

I just went with a group who did the spark part a lot quicker and we were able to chip Simin down bit by bit from there. It may have been coincidental that she always reached 50% and warped out. In the successful group she warped out very quickly at times but quicker spark runs led to damage sessions going under 50%.

Not asking for a nerf I guess… but perhaps a bit more clarity or variance. (Like maybe some way to disrupt or extend the duration Simin is vulnerable.) Kite + DPS racing against a regenerating boss is… tedious after doing that whole path.

Just want to mention that the 50% bug still exists. Please fix! (or just remove the stealth gimmick in favor of some non-invulnerable alternative)

Arah Path 4. Get her down to 50% and she hides for the stealth regen. That’s her gimmick that begins at that stage of the fight, but it’s not cool when it happens every single time at 50%. Doesn’t matter how long she’s been out of stealth, hit 50%, stealth again.

Being a long dungeon it’s incredibly annoying that we have to start all over. (and hope that it doesn’t bug again.)

The wiki has had this bug noted for quite a while now so I’m surprised a mechanic hasn’t been changed or a solution implemented to prevent this from happening. (I read it last year sometime when I considered taking my guild through) The boss itself isn’t all that terrible to fight aside from petrifications being annoying.

Maybe just implement the stealth thing every minute rather than having it kick in at 50% onward. I’ll bet the bug is centered around that first time 50% event… Somehow a variable isn’t flipping or some such and the session keeps thinking it is the first time at 50% which triggers the stealth/heal period.

I like the idea. One way to implement it while retaining the ability to sell blueprints on the market could be to make blueprints a bit like the Mini’s and how you ‘consume’ them to add them to your wardrobe.

Just have a Right Click option for a stack of Siege prints “Add to Siege Wallet”

To use the siege, a person could just open the Siege Wallet and double click to consume 1 charge of Catapult Blueprints, for example. Using the Stow option would add a charge back to the wallet (or alternatively return the blueprint to inventory)

The way I’m reading the wiki, it sounds more like a thrown consumable that would then disable the siege near it’s landing site.

“Deployment Range: 1200”
“Effect Radius: 450”

Deployment is the whole laying it down part, so a deployment range of 1200 implies that it can be thrown like a grenade and then the Siege disabling effect covers the 450 radius circle where it lands.

If it works this way, then it is useable against any siege that you could normally hit with a ground targeted AoE and things like that. That pesky arrow cart on the wall can be suppressed even if you don’t have Team Elementalist dropping flaming boulders of doom on it. I’d like to see things like the shield bubble on catapults block the deployment as well, adding a sort of counter measure against the trick and more or less eating that 10 supply from the other team.

I’m not sure about personal blocks shutting down the trick, but the built in siege skills should protect against it.

I think she was more or less pointing it out as the weak spot in his ‘resume’ from the Southsun events.

Think of it like saying “I have no doubt in your ability to do the work I want you to… I’m not worried about your skill. You were doing well staying out of sight while doing your thing in Southsun but then they managed to capture you. I’m interested in that because I can’t have someone working for me who’s going to get caught again.”

Donari.5237:

As I recall the big uber boss in the finale event for the first Beta Weekend was a little rabbit that wiped out zergs. I wasn’t able to stay up for the event myself, as it was 3 am my time on a work night, but I saw screenshots.

I’m pretty sure it was a rabbit, anyway.

That was a fun Beta finale. They had a great hunt for little creatures in the woods… with zergs trampling over racoons and such… and then the Legendary White Bunny of doom to finish it off. Then there were reports in map chat about giant Legendary Black Moa’s to the north so the zerg went stampeding up there to fight, doing mass driveby shootings of the wildlife along the way.

It would simply be awesome if they did random breakout great hunts like that once in a while as an extra activity/world event to keep the world interesting and ‘living’ aside from the storylines. Maybe have them grant a badge that you can trade in for a special weapon skin each time, or have a creature related headpiece available. Because REASONS!

Go find a Black Lion Armorsmith in one of the main cities. They are next to the trading post and if you go through their dialogue options they offer to convert your old town clothes to a useable tonic (infinite uses). You can do this with each of your characters to ‘recover’ whatever town clothes you were wearing before the Wardrobe was added. The default clothes can be obtained as a tonic in this way and can be used wherever.

This is also how you get your old purchased clothes converted to armor skins or tonics if you were wearing them before the patch.

I’d be behind this idea and buy every one of them. Guild Wars 1 had a bonus mission pack where you played Historical missions that took you into the past of a Hero from each Expansion. Each of them had a unique skillbar and mission dynamics associated with their situation. While they were just single missions, they were fun, action packed scenarios that let you play the heroes directly. They also had account bound bonus skins you could only get by completing the missions.

There are plenty of heroes in the game I think people would enjoy doing this with and there are many that could be fleshed out a bit more story-wise with an actual historical mission dedicated to them. Playing a mission of that character’s past is a great way to learn and connect with the heroes/villains of the game in a way that short stories do not capture. Destiny’s Edge characters, The Living Story Heroes/Villains, and other key characters in the game are all viable.

Wouldn’t it be a fun thing if every 2-3 months we got a new ‘Historical Mission’? That or maybe take 6-12 Months and put together a good pack of missions and release them for $10 real money like the GW1 set.

I liked Vael from GW1 and how he’d randomly show up and run around with you.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Vael

Or like Courier Falken, it would be cool to have the same NPC show up in random maps for an escort mission across the entire zone. Of course I may have liked him so much because he is the Guild Wars version of Captain Falcon.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Courier_Falken

It’d be fun to have wall traps that can be affixed to tower walls and/or as tower upgrades similar to cannons/mortars. When the upgrade completes, various trap nodes appear on the outer side of towers similar to build sites for cannons, but less noticeable from afar. I’m thinking traps along the line of flame jets or arrow traps you see in dungeons etc. They would activate when a foe enters their target area and have a cooldown based on the trap type. They could make some deadlier than others at the cost of extra supply to build.

Some ideas:

• Poison arrow (Rapid fire, hits closest enemy): Low damage w/ poison. Low supply cost.
• Flame Jets (1s AoE bursts every 3 seconds): Moderate damage w/ burning. Medium supply.
• Ice Jets (2s AoE burst every 6 seconds): Moderate damage w/ chill. Medium supply
• The Impaler (AoE with 7-10sec cooldown): Big metal spike for massive damage and stun w/bleeding. High supply.

And for Halloween:

• Mad King Thorn Trap: The Mad King’s pumpkin head bursts out of the wall and laughs to fear enemies in a cone in front of the trap, before slaying them and saying a joke. The slaying part might need to be nerfed after release, but it’d be funny the first few times!

PvP has reward tracks now. As you finish PvP matches you advance along a selectable reward track and get various goodies at each interval.

There is a reward track associated with each of the original dungeons, which are unlocked by completing the story mode of the dungeon.

Perhaps a /Squad Ignore command, similar to squad join but a way to specifically hide a particular commander’s tag for the rest of the play session.

As a measure against troll commanders you could have a squad block command to permanently hide their tag. Alternatively the whole ignore list used to mute people could double as a commander tag blocker.

I’m not a commander myself, but when I follow in WvW I often take mental notes of what separates the more successful ones from the mediocre/bad in terms of success, communication, and directing a group or zerg of random players.

Having a teamspeak is good so you can direct a lot smoother without as much typing.

Understand that not everyone will be in teamspeak, so use say/map chat to communicate orders with the non-teamspeak players. Sometimes you can have someone with you in teamspeak that relays the orders to say/map chat for you, so you can just use voice chat and focus on moving around/other commander things. Be flexible about it if you are running around with a bunch of random players, the more that hear the orders/plans the better.

Intricately learn the maps you intend to play. I suggest knowing multiple approaches to attacking each objective and when it’s a good time to try each approach.

Also keep an eye on your own following of players during long runs. If several people start falling too far behind, it is generally good to pause or find a corner to hide around so you can keep your army together. Group supply check, stack some static field/blasts, and move on from there.

As a quality of life thing, some like to take a 2-5 minute break after continuous treks to give themselves and followers the chance to clear inventory, grab a quick snack, use bathroom etc. Make sure to announce whenever you have to afk or leave so someone else can tag up or people know that you will be back in a moment.

I’m a fan of diversity in the AI opponents defensive capabilities. They could perhaps add monster only stats which reflect the various enemies we face. Some already have immunities like Hylek to poison, but the many other types could maybe take on resistance to particular things in order to vary up what is effective against them.

An idea: Add a Strength/Weakness variable to all enemies.
The strength outlines some kind of general resistance… like -50% crit damage taken, half bleeding durations, immunity to poison etc.

Weaknesses would be assessed with something like a stacking agony or flat bonus damage when the specified thing is applied. If weakness is against stuns for example, every incoming attack that would stun/daze/petrify/knockback will procure a stack of this bonus damage (regardless of defiance stacks). Weakness to burning applies the bonus damage for every tick of burn damage etc.

Bonus damage would be scaled based on how often that attack can be expected. So a stun bonus would be far greater than something that can be spammed much more easily like a bleed.

Likewise there could be still enemies that are neutral to everything and have no specific weakness or resistance. It would take a little time to balance, but I think it could really allow for some interesting approaches to content.

TLDR
There should be monsters with strengths and weaknesses against all of our various offensive stats. A kind of damage mechanic could be procured when said enemy’s weakness is exploited while the strength would be a flat reduction in damage from specific things. For example -50% crit damage to reduce the specific bonus damage of critical hits without nullifying them completely. Or something like -50% bleed damage.

I mainly play PvE, but really like this idea to give PvP players a high value reward to play for.

Think about how some grand PvP tournaments in games have large monetary prizes for 1st place. In a GW2 scenario that could basically come as winning a heap of cash, then buying/selling gems for gold, then just purchasing a legendary on the Trading Post. I spent a lot of time working on my legendary, but have no problem with the winning taking home legendary rewards for earning top spot.

I could see them making a PvP championship line of legendary skins that could be won in these big time tournaments if they want to add some prestige to it. If not the weapon itself, perhaps a selectable skin that sits in the achievement panel for anytime access! Either way there should be a significant and/or prestigious reward for winning on the big stage in PvP.

Is this option available? I know you can block a player’s text messaging but it seems when you get a troll running around ringing the bell on the highest note repeatedly that there is no way to stop the sound from that specific player. Today I left what was some fun WvW fighting because the same piece of crap player on our server (who I usually wish I could teamkill for this behavior) was running in the same mob.

People have mentioned that you can disable player sounds, but does that block all instruments that I’d hear out and about? Not to be stubborn, but I don’t think players should have to block player/instrument sounds across the board just to evade the treacherous ringing that the random sadists inflict. Some players play some pretty cool stuff at times on the instruments and I enjoy hearing it.

If it isn’t an option yet, might I suggest a mute/block system similar to League of Legends which blocks both text and sounds of individual players?

Thanks.

Liston.9708:

Spy kit works very very well solo for commune skill points guarded by champs. Click the kit, run past the mobs, press 1, and commune. Environmental effects from contested temples are way more problematic…..

In my experience those ‘effects’ seem to be targeted similar to a mob aggro. For example a minion or ally can grab the aggro of the statue, and all of the effects seem to focus around their location. I have kited away the balthazar fireballs and had a friend grab a skill point before. (Not sure if this is still how it works)

When I was running around with my thief, I found I could stealth through the contested temples without anything being thrown at me. If this is still the case, you can use the spy kit (if needed) to stealth before entering the statue’s vicinity and channel the skill point before it wears off. So a spy kit or a friendly thief with shadow refuge should make any champ or contested temple point no problem!

Rising Dusk.2408:

I had a super epic encounter last night where everyone in my champion ring died except for me almost immediately (we were fighting the shrieker). Then, I went on to solo the boss, killing it with 20 seconds to spare, and managed to finish off the power regulator with less than a half-second remaining on the clock. All of this was happening to the cheers in /say chat from the viewers, stunned that a Necromancer of all things soloed the boss and ultimately broke the chain. We went on to win the whole thing because of that success (we had no failures allowed left before bar filled), and it made me swell with pride to think that not only had I achieved something truly great and not only had I benefited about 100 other people, but that a group of them watched it in disbelief and cheered me on. It was nerve-wracking and absolutely unforgettably amazing.

It’s moments like these that I remember forever, and for that, I thank ANet for making such an amazing and awesome fight where I could show off my personal skill and make a difference for everyone.

I was in the ring next to you and my guildies got to watch that greatness. Clutch performance!

I’m really enjoying the divisions (lanes) and subdivisions (circles). While it is indeed frustrating when a single lane or circle fails miserably, failing the chain severing event, there is a cool satisfaction that is experienced when you’re in a finished circle cheering on the players adjacent to you.

It would be really cool to have some kind of world boss (or maybe open world guild mission) that plays similar to this event that is permanent. I think it was a successful design and the coordination aspect would suit a guild mission format quite well. (Tier of mission dictates number of lanes/circle equivalents open.) Even if the Merit/Influence Reward wasn’t too special, my small guild would play it to enjoy the mission style.

The tower defense style lanes including the siege and barriers was a nice implementation!

I could see a sort of expansion doing this kind of thing that could also serve to introduce any new class skills they plan to bring into the game. Rather than buying with skill points, the new utilities are unlocked by some form of Hall of Monuments Scrying pool instances where the player is put in an instance with some Hero NPCs from GW1 of similar class or something. (And use Asurans or engineer-like people for Engi’s.)

That or an alternative approach to class specific instances is to have some kind of College or Institute that trains the new skills with missions or something. To make it fit the lore, “After the Pact defeated Zhaitan, they established the Training Academies to further train their troops to be the best they can be.” Big building with a big foyer, 8 chambers (1 per class) where the class specialists responsible for the missions reside. I think 4 or 5 missions for each profession with a final reward of unlocking new skills would be a fun option. They could make the story angles coincide with the skills, like "A Priory researcher uncovered tales of a Warrior who could do (insert skill related action). " and then the warriors would be sent off with a pack of Pact Warriors or something to make them feel that this was warrior business in a multi-instance mission that results in uncovering a tome or some method to acquire the technique. It’d be REALLY cool to explore some GW1 ruins and find ghosts of NPCs from the first game that provide guidance or the skill itself like the GW1 skill trainers. After that, maybe players go back to the academy and do a sort of ‘showcase’ instance that directs players through some practical uses of the new skill.

Maybe introduce a minigame in there “Class vs Class” where it’s 5 ele’s vs 5 rangers in team deathmatch or something with defined loadouts. (Just throwing random ideas out to reinforce the class specialization of the place)

Most frustrating points in games just require the player to try different things or simply get better at the aspects which help complete the challenge. Survivability and awareness can get you through a lot of challenges in GW2 without the zerg, so I’d take some time to figure out what skills and playing techniques help your individual characters the most. Work to better yourself at executing those techniques/skill uses. If you can’t pinpoint what things are annihilating you, pay attention as you run through. It’s usually as easy as spotting a charge up attack or “That enemy type always starts fights with that high damage strike/stun”

If you’re being knocked around, bring stun break to get on your feet immediately after the hit, or a stability skill if available to essentially prevent any kind of stunning. Conditions are a pain, but every class has a way of managing them. In this one, the mines aren’t a big deal. Learn their radius so you can set them off safely or properly run past them. (You get 1 sec or so to clear/dodge out if you do run into them) From what I’ve experienced there shouldn’t be too many one shots from mobs unless they are elite or champs. The only other thing that really takes you out are mines.

If many players have completed the content, then it’s on you to rise to the challenge!

Some UI would be nice to handle this. I think a sort of WvW party window would be cool if they didn’t want to have it right by the names as is PvE. In it, parties could also choose to enable LFG and show up for other players in the same WvW map with some kind of description similar to how Guild Wars 1 Party window worked. (Then just auto remove that party from the list if they are 5/5)

Can at least invite/kick with text commands (if you don’t already) but UI of some kind would be much better:

/invite [name] – invite a player to join your party.
/join [name] – request to join a player’s party.
/squadjoin [commander_name] – join a commanders squad.
/leave – leave your current party.
/kick [name] – vote to kick party member (requires two votes).
/squadleave – leave your current squad.

I wouldn’t mind a respec option for the WvW traits. Here’s some thoughts on implementation.

For a manner of controlling it you could put the NPC in the starting area with a cost similar to trait respec or attach some sort of limiting factor so you dont have people all running around in the field and then quickly flashing over to arrow cart mastery right when the siege hits the ground. I’d like to see some form of limitation so its almost like a loadout of sorts when leaving the base that can be switched when you come back.

This ability to move around the points you have earned could promote people to try out different WvW trait lines to match the map situations instead of being stuck with specific choices until a few level ups come around.

For example, if my team plans to take on a heavily sieged up tower or keep we could go back to spawn and all spec up siege defense for the assault or additional supply carrying, then have specific members who will be dropping offensive siege to trait for the particular siege weapons, faster building and/or siege damage. —-Afterwards, people who might go havoc some camps can switch back to trait lines for killing guards, or warp back to spawn to spec up for supply running to that newly taken objective. I imagine things like guard leech stacks would reset on a respec.

On the other side, I can switch to mortar mastery for a keep defense and then afterward go back to get things better suited for running around the map. Or spec into repair/supply line for repair runs from camps, then switch out to go attack things.

I was frustrated with the bomb running originally, but found that when I adapted my utility skills to suit the challenge, that it came down to just being a quick at the turns, jumps and execution of skills. Now it’s very much doable, but still brings out the gameface when I happen to drop in there with a friend. Think of Mad Kings Clocktower or Wintersday… you run and make the jumps without much pause or you fail… similar concept. May take a few tries to get a handle on doing particular parts quickly.

I’ve done the bomb run with mesmer and ranger without much of a problem once I thought about skills to use and gameplanned particular landing spots to minimize griffins reaching me. Some of it you’ll want to plan out, so you know where it is best to make use of each skill and where you should be able to sneak by.

Only one person in the area needs to get to the end with the bomb and the chest will be open to everyone there. If you have a group of people have them slay griffins at the pinch points/drop downs you have trouble with before you get there or mesmers can help with portals to reduce the length of the run. Access to stealth is very useful for the big drops where you are knocked down on landing and for running through pinch points. Also consider any skill that can slow or prevent the griffins ability to get in a quick hit like a block, slow, immobilize or blind. Skills that can be activated immediately without casting time are good for those landings as you can cast them just before landing or just before a griffin hits you to block/blind them.

The chest at the end isn’t the greatest ever, but there is a certain satisfaction from the victorious attempts. Hope these tips help!