Guild Wars 2

There are some really nice ones indeed. Keep it coming guys. Watching this thread closely.

Cheers

Thanks for providing us with that awesome game. Really appreciated the chance to cast the EU Qualifiers!

SteppenWolf

Ixl Super Ixl.7258:

Steppenwolf I totally agree with you. You guys are doing a fantastic job. All shoutcasters and ML organizers and we really appreciate it. I really think ANET needs to step up their game and start taking responsibilities with these tournaments. Hopefully they will do in the future!

Thanks for your kind words =)

Okay guys, I want to state my point of view right now. This is just my personal opinion.

So to kick things off first of all congratulations to both teams you did a fantastic job and would love to see you guys scrim again soon to state who is the better team :P (I wouldn’t mind casting it though)

BTT:
I know that the tournament could have been planned more carefully and definitely in a better way. There were some restrictions in how much time we had and a couple of admins couldn’t do their job because of other problems so we needed to improvise a lot.

So, I promise that I will try to get things rolling more smoothly and more transparent for you guys. Decisions have been made, good ones and bad ones, most of us are currently getting into planning such stuff while having a full-time job in their shoulders as well. I hope you guys understand that we are just humans too and it’s like having two jobs^^ which is pretty exhausting.

I think we improved on our way with the league and with the first prelim. played and we will start improving trying to get the hype

Furthermore I would like to ask you guys for constructive feedback because I will be reading through everything.

SteppenWolf

Stream will be “free” to watch once we have everything in place

Here we go folks! All the information for the Guild Wars 2 Invitational.

The Eu-Qualifiers start today, at 4pm GMT. We will be able to show you seven exciting matches!

• Brackets

• Schedule

Streams:

• English Stream

• German Stream

• French Stream

• Spanish Stream

Be sure to check those awesome matches!

SteppenWolf

Hey folks,
so I did read through some of the feedback. What I want do is get my point of view into the room before I get “infected” by other thoughts.

This feedback is based on my casting experience as well as playing Necro the last 2 days (Only a small amount of points listed to stay on the main problems).

• Problem
  • Suggestion

Here we go:

• As I think the health pool as well as the DeathShroud are mostly balanced at the moment. They are pretty fast to kill without life force which puts them into a situation where positioning matters.
• The damage of the Necro is incredibly high at the moment which could be fixed in at least three ways (especially looking at staff)
  • Reduce the amount of players he can hit (e.g “You can hit up to 2-3 Players”). This forces him into thinking about who to cast an. A problem with this would be that Epidemic is still very strong —> Increase Cooldown (5-10sec)
  • Reduce the radius of his makrs to 180 again. This forces him to take larger marks—> less tankiness. Or he needs to be very precise with his marks. That could mean a dedicated play triggers the marks and cleanses afterwards. (Epidemic not as strong anymore)
  • Give marks a short ranger / make them disappear after 2 seconds. This is probably the most risky way since I am not totally sure how it would affect Necromancers and other builds. (Feedback please!)

I would like to see him more skillbased with more specific targets. This gives the enemy team the chance to split up (not everyone is spammed with conditions), but if played well the chance to be that pain in the * as it is now

SteppenWolf

Oh yeah. Please make that happen Evan.
Steppenwolf

Soo, as I am not nearly playing as much as most guys that have anwsered, let me try to approach from a casters point of view.

When I started casting GuildWars 2 you actually could cast most of what is going on especially when you start noticing little moves by members of a team to prepare a burst. Today… well. We had two spirit rangers two necromancers and a guardian. Disregarding the amount of effects people were just staying back and throwing things at each other not even trying to really engage. (Guardians batteling on point)

This doesnt result in an all out battle but more like a shifting line of territory. This include that it is not rewarding to take risks!
A thief can jump in and out —> No Risk
Necros spam their marks from 1200 range-→ No Risk
Warrior want to deal AOE damage —>Dead because they had to move in. This should be rewarding if done correctly

To fix that first of all the mistakes mentioned above need to be fixed. Not only by broken mechanics but by rewarding plays.

Max stealth duration could be 4 seconds —> If you can make something happen you played somewhat well
Reduce the area marks can hit + give them a “duration” —> People cant spam anymore because they need to focus someone(which would require skill) and you can move around them since they arent covering the whole point and disappearing after 10(?) seconds.

In general we should be careful about buffing anything right now. There is to much of everything and things should be tuned down.

Steppe

Bazeleel.8219:

I am going to have to agree with everything here but the freecam. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN for the game to be viewable by anyone that wants to watch.

The main reason is this. You need good angles in order for someone who has never played the game to see what is happening.

Guys, a free camera makes it even harder for people to keep track of whats going on ( It will never be as smooth at we need it). If we get some more features on the stationary cams (like the ability to circle a point) that’ll do good for all of us.
A static camera is way easier to follow (ever watch a sports match like soccer where the cameraman is running across the field :O?).

The idea of multiple cameras at a time is a nice idea but not suitable for casting. It is way to hard keep track of everything. One picture is the maximun of concentration anyone can bring. As well as the question: How do people know which screen I am currently talking about?

pot.6805:

Please keep show traits/equip on by default.

Well yes, I want that to. But it would be nice to have the chance to lock them for a while. Looking what build the other team is running is common right now which is awful. “Dude… they got 4 condi builds, get **** utility”.
Furthermore if a player decides to not show his traits, why not? If he is working on a new build to get an advantage let him be.

Kau.8495:

this needs to happen game wide to be honest cant see roses for trees when the spells start flying and honestly supprised it wasent an option at launch :|

Oh lord please let it happen (at least for observer, ingame is fine for me)

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Thanks for your commitment jianji, it’s really appreciated!

Thank you for keeping us entertained!

Greetings
[JnJ] SteppenWolf

Good points so far =).
Keep it coming guys.

-[Jianji] SteppenWolf

Good day Ladies and Gents,
as I am using the observer quite regularly as a shoutcaster I wanted to give some feedback about what I would like to see in future updates.

I’ll start off with the Custom Arenas going further to the Observer Mode.

As I’m not good at writing a wall of text here a list of notes (First the “bug”, second the “solution”)

Custom Arenas:

This is just a must have:

• Force map change
  • Simple but powerful tool which is a must need!
• Force server restart
  • For example for setting a new password
• Kick players from spectator
  • If a password was leaked it is currently not possible to kick from spectator
• Assign admins
  • Only having one admin is forcing this player to be online to use the arena properly

Some neat features I would like to see:

• Give the spectators (or admins) a ready button
  • This makes it easier for shoutcasters and teams to coordinate
• Don’t show equip and traits unless permitted
  • It hurts to see that players are looking at each others traits before a match, a dedicated list on who can see them would be awesome (could be a player decision or an public(!) list)

I really like the concept and the possibilities I see with them in future! Please keep going in this direction.

Observer Mode:

As it is not as clear here just a list.

• More stationary cameras or a way to move them
  • For example a “path”(like a rail) which can be used with “A” and “D” to move around graveyard on legacy
• A “Free-Camera” would be neat but is not necessary if we can add some minor features to the fixed cameras (semi-fixed would be awesome)
• The ability to click on players on the minimap (while holding shift or ctrl)
  • This is really a main aspect which is missing, it costs about 2-3 second to find the player in the list to click on it. Otherwise players could get a number like in GW1 for spectators so that they can be followed more easily.
• Disable stationary cams when holding shift or ctrl
  • Its sometimes hard to draw on the minimap and the camera keeps switching
• Do not reset the camera after using right-click to change the angle.
  • This can be easily achieved and is really annoying. Normally i use right click to pan the camera which would give me a reset in spec mode (Can be dodged by using left-mouse^^)
• Give us a status bar how far the point is captured
  • Could be the point filling up in one color (the ground symbol on the ground) or a bar on the Ui listing all available points
• Same goes for buffs (Chieftain,Svanir; Runes on Temple; Orb)
  • A neat little timer above the minimap or next to the points is more than enough

Thats it for the features, now for the current misplacement of the cameras. Sorry for skipping Capricorn

Cameras

• Forest
  • No camera is showing the Henge properly! (The one that is nearby isn’t placed very good
  • No direct cameras for Chieftain and Svanir
  • Mine camera is placed nicely
  • Keep camera could use a lift
  • “Mid” camera (south from Keep) could use a lift too
• Spirit Watch
  • Camera North-West of Wolf needs a repositioning (can’t be used because its to far away)
  • Raven camera is fine (unless you look to the east, there is a tree)
  • Cameras South-West and east of the orb respawn are fine, the middle one should be placed north of the orb (Wooden thingy south of raven)
  • Rest is placed nicely
• Kyhlo
  • Clocktower and Trebuchets could use a lift as well as the ones between them
  • Rest is placed really nice, like them alot!
• Temple
  • Both cameras facing towards the upper middle rune need a huge lift.
  • Adding a camera above the mid-upper rune would be nice
  • Temple and Altar could use a lift
  • All other cameras are fine for now.
• Legacy
  • Quarry needs a lift
  • Mid should be split in 2 one above each cliff leading to the outer points (or moveable like a train)

Well that’s it for the moment. Any additions or criticism is appreciated!

As time progresses I am going to update this list (with a new post underneath showing whats been added).

At the end I want to thank everyone working on the game! You guys are doing a great job. One thing I want to mention to is the nice work of people promoting our streams (mainly US :P).

Thanks for reading and greetings from Germany.

-[Jianji] SteppenWolf
ShoutCaster

Hey Folks,
Found a little bug playing around with my thief today.

If you go stealth (“Hide in Shadows” or “Shadow Refuge”) and you shoot an “Infiltrators Arrows”, your model will reappear for yourself and for the enemy, but(!) the stealth Buff is up and skills like “Backstab” or “Suprise Shot” can be used.

Any confirmation would be great.

Steppe (Fauux)

(Added a screen after using Infil. Arrow)