Guild Wars 2

I actually read that full discussion before posting here, but ANet doesn’t really ever post there so I figured I’d bring an official inquiry here where ANet might see it.

And while I could do ‘simple’ dating, I find it to be too inaccurate for my tastes. I’d like to do precise dating instead, which does require a bit more details.

If you read that thread there is discussion about if the days are tacked on at the end or if they are spread throughout. As we don’t even know that we cannot be assured of any day past 90 Season of the Zephyr. And that’s if we ignore leap years and assume that 01 Zephyr = January 1st.

True. That’s why I’m asking what the foundation is. Perhaps someone will find some lore posting you and I have missed somewhere or perhaps ANet will grace us with an answer.

*crosses fingers*

Either way, I’d love to have my RP charas birthdays listed with the Mouvelian calendar instead of the Gregorian.

All those points aside, their current official statements are that the LS does occur in real-time and that the Mouvelian calendar does have 365 days in it.

With those two officially stated points in mind, shall we try to answer the queries instead of saying why it should not be?

As I see it, the change makes perfect sense in a ret-con sort of way.

The original intent of the calendar, created long before the Living Story, was to encompass just the world of Tyria. As the continued with the Living Story, though, the difference between the Mouvelian calendar’s 360 days and the Gregorian calendar’s 365 days would become apparent as the Living Story is supposed to be occurring in real time.

The Mouvelian calendar in use in Tyria was originally slated to have only 360 days, but 5 ‘extra’ days were ‘discovered’ by the asura as detailed by Angel McCoy here to better line up with the Gregorian calendar. I quoted said post here for convenience.

“Friends and fellows. Due to recent (amazing!) reasoning by scholars of the Astronomagical Society, we are pleased to announce that we have added the five hidden days to our calendar year! That’s five extra days we’ve recognized for you to advance your work before the annual review. Gifts and gratitude are unnecessary. We merely acknowledged them officially; we did not create them. May all your projects be almost as successful as ours.” — Mikk

As previous to these five days each season was slated to have 90 days in it, how is it that these extra days are distributed? Are they spread somewhat evenly between the seasons or are they tacked on at the end? And how are leap days counted in?

It would be kinda nice to get an official word on how these new days fit into the Mouvelian calendar so I can properly use it instead of the Gregorian calendar for my chara’s birthdays.

EDIT: Also, on what day of the Gregorian calendar does the first day of the Mouvelian calendar occur?

JonPeters.5630:

Also just because good changes were suggested doesn’t mean we can safely make them in time for this build, but they will see the light of day in future releases as well.

If some of the suggestions are being considered but can’t make this release, can you at least let us know what ones they are?

Gimme a gryphon. I don’t care what it’s stats or skills are. I’ll run it anyways.

DesertRose.2031:

Regardless of your weapon choice you’ll be in melee range the majority of the time anyway; unless you’re fighting from an extreme range, like 1.5k, being in range usually increases the likelihood to die and hampers or endangers your group. So, stay in melee, for your own safety and for the success of your group.
In my experience defensive stats hardly help you to survive in dungeons, what keeps you alive is Vigor; Engineers can keep up Vigor permanently with Speedy Kits and Invigorating Speed or Infused Precision and Invigoration Speed (likely the only choice after the next patch).

Again, I know of basic tactics. Again, not my first 80. And also again, some encounters promote ranged instead of melee. I don’t intend to always stay at ranged, but there are some encounters where it is preferred as well as times when you must slightly move out of melee to survive.

My experience has shown that defensive stats can make a difference. Yes, avoidance is best. But even the best occasionally take a hit, and a bit of defense can mean you can take two hard hits instead of only one.

DesertRose.2031:

You could put 5 more points in Explosives to be able to switch to grenades if needed.

I’ll need to consider that.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Healing Mist (Elixir Gun) is a stunbreaker.

Ah. Missed that as that’s the toolbelt skill. And Super Elixir for the (unlisted) condi clear? Probably why I didn’t consider it before. I’ll need to try Elixir Gun and Bomb Kit then. Probably not pure zerker, though. Mostly zerker, still.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Here’s a rule of thumb which is relevant to every class: take as much damage gear as you can survive with.

If you feel uncomfortable with full Berserker, go 3/3 with Knight. Or wear full Knight armor with Berserker weapons and jewelry. Mix it up to whatever you feel most comfortable with. As you get more used to the build and knowing what to dodge and knowing when to Smoke Bomb in boss fights, start slotting in more Berserker gear.

For damage, of course, you always want the highest output you can survive with. This isn’t my first 80, after all. S’my eighth. My main is a glassy ranger.

As for comfort level? That isn’t my concern. Mine is for maximal effectiveness. I run my mesmer with zerker/knights as the knights adds toughness that is shared with my phantasms. I know that some mix assassin with zerker to raise the prec a bit for more reliable crits. I was solely curious if there was particular need or use for the hybrid statting for engies as there may be for other classes.

Phineas Poe.3018:

If you’re really that concerned about survivability, drop the Elixir Gun for the Tool Kit. Pry Bar doesn’t deal as much damage as Acid Bomb does, but Gear Shield is one of the best block skills in the game. And you also have Static Shield.

We don’t have as many blocks as Guardians or as much health as Warriors, but we have our ways. Remember that stealth is a very powerful de-aggro, and that Smoke Bomb can function beyond simply blinding targets as a stealth field.

For weapon, I’d really prefer the rifle. It is far more enjoyable for me to use. While pistols are great and all, the rifle is a pure joy for me to use. S’honestly the biggest reason I do play my engy. For that rifle. So that would leave the survivability skills to kits and utilities.

With bombs, it seems, you tend to run two kits. How is it that you deal with stuns/CC and conditions?

Phineas Poe.3018:

Both. Shrapnel Grenade contributes a lot of bleeding damage. If you’re looking for just one set of armor for your Engineer, though, I think you should stick with Berserker.

So power then. Gotcha. I often run my damage sets with some knights, valkyrie, or assassin pieces to emphasize a stat or to add it a small modicum of survivability. Would a mix potentially be better or is straight up pure zerker the preferred?

Phineas Poe.3018:

I think bombs fare a lot better in dungeons than most people think. I used to think they weren’t worth using, but have been using them a lot more since the 240-radius buff. You spend an awful lot of time in dungeons stacking against walls anyway for Fiery Greatsword and Whirlwind Attack, so the Bomb Kit fits right at home.

I can’t think of any fights off the top of my head where I am absolutely forced to play at range. At least, not in dungeons.

Hmm. For bombs, though, I would think that you’d need a touch more survivability than pure zerker as you’d be forced into melee the entire time and engies don’t seem to have the damage mitigation of the other classes.

And I can think of a few encounters where ranged is still often used. With a bomb build do you use the rifle in those encounters or is the build compatible with ’nades when necessary?

Phineas Poe.3018:

30/5/0/10/25 is probably the most balanced Grenade Kit setup right now. Go from there and tweak it to your liking.

Do ’nades work best with power or with condi? Or a hybrid?

Phineas Poe.3018:

If you want to give bombs another try, I’m running 25/25/0/10/10 with mine right now. First link in my signature.

How do bombs fare in dungeons? More powerful or less powerful, damage-wise, than a ’nade build? And how does the build handle ranged combat?

Phineas Poe.3018:

I’d suggest going with Berserker, then.

As for how construct the proper build, what kits are you looking to use?

I’ve mostly used the ‘nade kit so far, though I am not adverse to the bombs. I’ve tried the elixir gun and the tool kit, but I’m not a fan of either. I also prefer the rifle to the pistols, when it comes to the non-kit weapons. Rifle is just too fun.

I should probably note that for my alts, of which my engy is, I don’t bother with multiple armor sets. I prefer a single armor set for all of my PvE needs and I don’t intend to bother with WvW.

After levelling all classes up to 80, I have found that the engineer is the only class to which I don’t understand well enough to know how to build/gear. That being said, I still want to have my engy be both viable and useful in late-game PvE and dungeon encounters.

Now I could try to dig through pages and pages of this sub-forum to try to glean what information is up-to-date and accurate, but that doesn’t sound like fun. So instead … what all builds/gearing do you find best for high viability in late-game PvE/dungeons?

1 – RP/Lore (They’re kinda entangled)
2 – Alt friendliness
3 – PvE specific class balance

WvA.8624:

Sorry if this has been asked before, but does the health increase from 15october patch also work for Pets and Spirits?

If so, does it make much of a difference? I want to run spirits again but they always die =P (same for pets most of the time..)

Yes. It affects both pets and spirits in PvE and dungeons. It does not, however, in WvW.

UnawarePolarBear.9502:

Sytherek.7689:

If the class is so crappy (it’ not), why do I see so many rangers in PvE?

Because this is the ONLY place the ranger is actually worth something.

They’re awful in WvW, broken in PvP, and lack generally ability to play anything but PvE content. It’s great that casual players are enjoying the ranger for it’s ability to face-roll monsters, but that’s the only thing the class is good for.

If you want to play WvW, or anything else other than PvE, you’re are doomed to fail.

Actually, you’re quite far off there, Polar. PvP is actually the ranger’s strongest suit. The pet isn’t quite as kittened in PvP as it is elsewhere and, as such, can be used to more of it’s potential there. Roaming WvW is probably where we’re next strongest as it’s quite similiar to PvP in combat style.

Now zerg WvW and late-game PvE is where we have the most trouble as we, aka our pet, need to deal with heavily spammed AoEs and extremely hard-hitting attacks, which the pet can’t see or avoid.

wbonetwo.2196:

You Ranger players should boycott this bullkitten. Rangers range weapons hit so weak to begin with. How can it be fair to allow our S/B to be same range as our axe… that is ridiculous.

Actually traited off-hand axe has further range than our shortbow. Yes. That’s right. We can throw axes further than we can fire arrows. >.<

AydenStar.4216:

Guardian/Warrior Wars 2

I agree, the favoritism is very blatantly and unprofessional especially when they are trying to push this game as an esport.

Extremely. I hold that the main balance devs should be forced to play only rangers in all game modes for an entire month. Maybe then they would be forced to see what we’ve been saying since launch.

Mardermann.7468:

I didn´t want to sound it that mean, sorry. Just really disappointed again with the patch.

I also main a ranger …well since early beta (when we actually kicked kitten with a greatsword ;-) ) … and nothing since then convinced me really that they are working on the real problem.

To me it seems they dont even see where the problem is.
Its like someone lost a leg and they putting little patches on and say “there there” ^^

Well they disappointed me for the last time with this “patch” thats for sure…
I wish you luck and have fun with your subpar class in a game where the balance devs not even find the right trait when they are looking for it…

I still laugh at that two dudes (man to think they are in charge of the balance changes…. suddenly everything becomes very very clear)

again… sorry if I was rude
I hope you accept my apologies… have fun Syn….

Yeah. I think we’re all disappointed with the patch. I will be enjoying a few more pets now that their health is buffed in PvE, as will I be enjoying the maul buff when I’m not using the sword. Other than that, though, we really didn’t get much in the way of support. In fact, one of our biggest supports got shanked (Vigorous Renewal, RIP).

I’m still hoping that the health buff is just a first step and more pet changes will be coming once they see how much (or how little, most likely) the health buff actually changes things. I think they’re massively overestimating how much that will help.

AydenStar.4216:

It sadness me too

I feel ANet in the past year has been very unprofessional with its game. The game looks and plays amazing but the quality they have put into balancing the professions in this game is just a sign of how out of touch they are.

The 2 things that happen in the last month that has destroyed any confidence I had in Anet.

1. The leak patch notes and the video from the leaker

2. The ANet employee that started trolling players during a GvG

Absolute signs that the developers are out of touch with their community.

I think the biggest sign is that they have repeatedly shown that they don’t seem to favor all classes equally. Some are blatantly visible favorites (ex. warrior) and some are blatantly underlooked (ex. ranger).

ilr.9675:

….Maul wasn’t the PROBLEM with Greatsword’s DPS… Infact it was literally the only thing good about it and anyone who could use a calculator already knew that.

Actually Maul did take a pretty big DPS hit when they changed the bleeds to vuln. This change brings Maul back in line with where it previously was, which was pretty good.

But yes, other weapons really need more attention.

Mardermann.7468:

Levetty.1279:

So how long have Rangers been waiting to be fixed now? 8 years?

Where was the guy who was convinced that this patch would finally fix Rangers because some random rep said they would at Pax?

his/her name was Synful Chaot or somesuch and he was like “yes they are working on it – some xyz dev was promising me that at pax (or somewhere) …”
^^
well guess what…. snip
where are the # of weapon changes Mr Colin said would come with this patch?
7% more damage on Maul (and the small Vulnerability buff on a skill we should use AFTER we stacked the vuln on the enemy)?

Thats it? Really?

Disappointed is not the word I am searching here… the word would be kittened out and I would get banned for it I guess…

Yes. Her name is SynfulChaot, aka me. And no, I didn’t say it would ‘fix’ rangers. Just that we’d get some attention. Unfortunately we got less than I’d like as well, though at least we did get the pet health buff. Outside of that, Maul, and the fern hound regen, though, I’m disappointed as well. I just hope we get more pet improvements as they see the effect (or lack thereof) of the pet health buff.

And yes, I still main a ranger.

gotem.5284:

Not even going to comment about viability…

Coming from WoW and how complex the hunter class was I am so disappointed in Rangers in GW2. The class is so kitten boring to play and you can master this class in less than a day.

If you are looking for a fun class to play I would pick another. At the end of the day this class is really boring.

Maybe I have to try a melee ranger or something but for bows you literally spam auto attack (don’t even do that if you have the auto cast on).

Yeah. You’re not going to get full effectiveness at range only. No class will in a game that rewards melee greater than range while punishing range more than melee. And if you go melee or mix it up with both melee and range it can be quite fun to play.

KedirakEvo.5719:

Im gonna hitch on this thread and ask…

So which class is easily casually played? All in a hard days work, I just wanna login and have fun and not stress myself over again playing a game (I can already expect some nasty responses over that line… But just humor me all right?). Seems ranger is playable casually, but to be optimal you have to work kitten this class?

Guardian is easy as sin. No micro. Just grab and go … and rarely die.

Use whatever is most useful. They’re telling you to not use our most powerful build because they don’t want to deal with it. Don’t give in to their demands. They, after all, aren’t going to not use their classes best builds, now are they?

Substance E.4852:

SynfulChaot.3169:

They’re too small. They don’t have the manpower to. Heck … it seems like there isn’t manpower for Living Story and a real GW2 expansion either.

Oh I’m sure there is, they’ve just crunched the numbers and decided that temp content with rng boxes brings in more consistent profit than doing actual, substantive updates or expansions. Hell, we haven’t even gotten any real permanent addition to the game map since South Sun showed up.

People keep asking for Elona or even Cantha (which will probably never happen because apparently Asian markets only go for the same old, overdone fantasy setting) when it’s a year later and we haven’t even fleshed out most of the map we started with.

It’s kind of silly that we still don’t have much of the maguuma jungle or the ring of fire despite them being so important to the plot of GW1 and holding key lore items.

It will come. It’ll need to. There will need to be more than just the slow infusion of content we’re getting right now. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy most of the Living Story stuff. But it just seems to slow of a medium for the large scale content that the other dragons will need. Or new maps. One new permanent map in over a year. We have at least another 10 maps just revisiting where we were able to go in GW1. At least.

There is so much potential. I really hope that once we kill the tired, weak villain that is Scarlet that we’ll see things drive in a way that feels like we’re actually doing something important again.

Durzlla.6295:

-_-’ cmon Anet… why are you leaving GW1 to die?

They’re too small. They don’t have the manpower to. Heck … it seems like there isn’t manpower for Living Story and a real GW2 expansion either.

CHIPS.6018:

I think as a community we should conclude that LS is happening after the PS. PS can be treated as a prequel or something. LS is where the main thing will be.

I hate PS in general. I don’t find them fun at all because its single player. I much rather do World Events. Even dungeons are better than PS.

GW1 never had PS. I don’t know why they bothered with it. I say forget about any future PS, and change them all into World Events and dungeons.

I think it’d be nice to get an official word as we’ve heard conflicting things from official sources. Well … some of us have, anyways.

And GW1 had a PS as well. That was the missions. It’s just that they aren’t required to progress through the map in GW2.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

“dead” was never used, technically. And yes, Mystic, it is semantics, but Anet always ensures they don’t lock themselves into a specific story path – so I’d be surprised if Angel said “Zhaitan is alive” rather than their current “it depends on where the players are in their own PS.”

While right now the Personal Story may be at one point or another in the timeline, the Living Story is happening now. So at this point in the Living Story, either the Personal Story is done or it isn’t. The Living Story isn’t mutable. It happens to everyone at the same time. It is a fixed time point.

As to whether or not she said it … well I heard it, but you can believe that or not if you wish. I do think it’d be nice to get an official answer, though, to confirm so everyone can be on the same page.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Now I’m trying to recall- who was it that said that Zhaitan was dead?

Original official post here.

Mystic Starfish.2586:

(Skimmed most of this thread)
Anyway, I was just in Sparkfly Fen, and Warmaster Narru ambiently comments “At least this locale is better than Southsun Cove”. Connecting the dots, Southsun Cove confirmed Zhaitan’s death (or defeat, but I think you’re arguing semantics and trying to make him be alive still), so Tequatl getting the new powers and such is after Zhaitan’s death as well.

No. I’m going off of what I heard directly from Angel at PAX. She stated that Zhaitan is not dead. She stated that the person saying that he was dead prior to Lost Shores was incorrect and should not have said that.

Leuca.5732:

— snip —

I think the biggest problem with the ranger GS is that it’s role and the sword’s role are reversed. For most classes the GS is the heavy damage weapon with the sword (or other one-hander of choice) being the more mobile, ‘safer’ weapon. For us, as rangers, the sword is our heavy damage weapon. That leaves the GS as still a good weapon, but one for which people expect different of it than it’s design.

As for Hilt Bash? Stun/daze are always useful to stop an incoming attack if you see the telegraph. Just because it isn’t a damage increase doesn’t mean that the skill is useless. The block/counter is the same. It’s about active defense, not offense. It’s about survivability.

Kal Spiro.9745:

I love how your solution to being put on the spot with a system that would force you to tell the truth is to figure out how to cheat the system so you can still lie. This is great because the whole point of this system is to prevent people from lying to the group about their build so other people who are not necessarily qualified to judge you or your build can decide if you’re acceptable.

It’s actually the same thing that I’ve considered since the first time I saw one of these ping suggestions. It shouldn’t be that hard to fake.

I am of the opinion that if you are pugging you should have to deal with whatever you get. If they are actively incompetent then kick them, but if they can do the encounters, whether they are perfect or not, too bad.

If you expect people to be using specific builds you shouldn’t be pugging in the first place.

Yeah. That’s my feeling on it. If someone says they know what they’re doing, you should give them the benefit of the doubt the first time. If you’re so particular so as to want people to run specific builds, then go find yourself a guild/personal group. Don’t force your build wants on randoms. In a PUG, the only build that should truly matter is your own.

jcbroe.4329:

The tool doesn’t force people to play a certain way. It allows party leaders to do a check, which is voluntary, to make sure that their party is aptly prepared to handle the dungeon, and/or built properly for the way that parties intent is to face that content.

Also, you can make your own party. Nobody is forcing anybody to play in any style because you can make your own party. In your party, you don’t have to do a build ping, you can just run a fun build. My Guild Wars 1 group allowed PuGs to run whatever they want, we just kindly asked them which weapon they were using, so we knew what role they’d be performing on the team. Nobody is making anybody do anything.

Unfortunately voluntary checks have a habit of being unvoluntary. For many of those people who would demand a check, were you to not ping your build you’d be kicked shortly. Even if you were the one who started assembling the group in the first place as the game has no actual party leader mechanic.

Leuca.5732:

SynfulChaot.3169:

I believe that it’s also due for a buff to Maul, the one skill keeping it from being even more powerful.

GS has terrible flow between its skills that could be drastically improved. A needed damage buff on Maul will not solve all the problems it has as a weapon; not even close.

I actually find use for all the other skills on the GS. One of the best gap closers with a very short cooldown, a block/counter for melee or long block for ranged, and a daze/stun. Good for survivability.

The real damage from GS should come from the auto-attack and from Maul. Just like those defending the sword’s auto-attack oddities, I’ll be one defending the greatsword’s 3, 4, and 5 as I find them to be great skills. At most, the block could use a bit of protection/evade while actually doing the counter. Other than that, though, those skills are good.

Sina.9208:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Weapon-DPS-Calculations/first

Check out this topic. This is more in line with my own experiences. (I could be wrong ofc, but anyhow we can probably agree that the GS is crappy weapon right now)

I followed that thread. Good premise, but the tester had a few testing fallacies such as only auto-attacking. Auto-attacking is the SBs strength, where the GS takes more benefit from skill rotation. He also didn’t take into account any conditions of any type, nor did he test the LB at anything but medium range (a good ranger will be at max damage range a majority of the time they use the auto).

The GS isn’t crappy but it isn’t where it should be either.

Sina.9208:

“SB Back: 16s 625 DPS (Bleed: 174 DPS, or 28% of DPS) (13 % more DPS than GS)”

And this test is not even taking into account the might stacks on your pet.

You missed the part where the tester noted that crit damage is capped in PvP, where this was tested. He continued to state that without the caps, aka how it acts in PvE, the GS should outdamage the SB. So in PvE and zerker gear the GS should outdamage the SB even if you can somehow manage to be flanking 100% of the time, which is practically impossible.

Sina.9208:

The GS dmg is just so low that it’s a worse thing to do in my opinion than using a Bear. Not wanting to use the sword is understandable, but meleeing with the Shortbow is better than using the GS.

Played right, the GS is still superior to the shortbow for a damage build. Don’t underestimate the power of the weapon or forget that it’s auto chain cleaves. I believe that it’s also due for a buff to Maul, the one skill keeping it from being even more powerful.

While the GS may not be in sword damage territory, it’s a higher damage melee weapon for power builds than the SB is along with being far more survivable between the auto-attack evade, the block, and the stun.

Lilius.9850:

Personally, I use sword/axe in dungeons, though i do switch them out for barrage on my longbow occasionally.

The problem with my sword/axe is that I die pretty fast due to poor armor…

Yeah. All it takes is one missed dodge due to the sticky attack and you’re downed. Why-oh-why does our best weapon have the largest drawback of any weapon in the game?

Jigain.8231:

Well, even though the meta is that defeated != dead, in lore defeated = dead until proven otherwise. In a lore-friendly setting, every character would have his or her own interpretation of what happened – and unless you’re playing a Mary Sue, it’s okay for your character to have been mistaken.

I know my characters, at least, will be more “oh sweet mother of Lyssa it’s back!” rather than “lalala I knew it all along” if ANet decides to bring Zhaitan back for round two.

This is a bit more problematic, though, for those that RP charas that have a greater chance of knowing. Scholars, soldiers, and the like that would actually have been in Orr or Arah.

And there is a difference between some people being mistaken and every sentient alive in Tyria being mistaken.

jcbroe.4329:

In guild wars 2, I can really only see people checking to make sure a ranger would be running a power based build with a sword, or even greatsword (I have A LOT of guildies who seem to think that ranger greatsword is rangers #2 DPS weapon), with Spotter and Frost Spirit. I don’t mean full zerker either, people let me get away with my zerker/knight mixes already.

In fact, I’d go as far as saying guild wars 2 will be even less elitist than guild wars 1, because with no PvX wiki putting up meta builds and vetting builds and etc, there is no quick list for meta builds that the large population is aware of.

Yes, people are going to get asked to change their playstyles. But aren’t we already doing that? I mean, even here on the ranger forums, we take every measure to say things like “don’t run bearbow” without outright just telling people how to play.

I can see it being used a lot more than in GW1. The community here is more akin to the general MMO community. Based on my own observations of GW1 and the MMOs I’ve played, lets just say that GW1 was far more ‘allowing’ than any of the MMOs where you could view another’s gear/build.

And, as I stated before, some playstyles may be quite useful but will still get rejected as it isn’t what others wish of it. Such as running a condi instead of power build, even if the party doesn’t yet have any condi builds.

Now I really wish to be proven wrong. I really want to believe that people wouldn’t abuse the system to try to force specific meta builds on all others. Based on observed player behaviour, though, it’s pretty hard.

cherrie.8907:

Chris (and ANet…): First of all, if you want to have a meaningful discussion with your players base, you really need to stop alienating yourself with all the PR talk your official posts are riddled with. Your first post here… it was difficult to read without cringing: if you want honest meeting of minds, stop being dishonest up from.

Please take a look at how Digital Extremes handle their forums for Warframe.
They are honest and upfront. There is almost no PR talk (that I can assure you a lot of your “most dedicated fans” are allergic to by now, one and a half years after your Manifesto – but since you read the forums you should know that!). And they have a brilliant “Weekly hot topics” where their Customers Relation representative highlights what was hot on forum and what team thinks about the feedback / what they plan to do.
Also, they never hide their mess-ups with – again – wall of PR garbage. They are not afraid to bluntly admit: guys, we kitten up, badly. We are sorry, here is what we are doing about it.
It saves a lot of bad blood, but also actually opens grounds for ACTUAL conversation.
Unfortunately – let me state it again – what ANet seems to be doing alienates fans. Stop it. Don;t let PR spin doctors edit your posts. Honestly, we can see through them. They are silly.

I do have to agree. Every time I see the blatant PR speak I just skip the post as irrelevant. People love the active back-and-forth, even if it doesn’t end how we, as players, may want it to. Josh’s SAB posts proved that. We may not have liked all the responses, but the dialogue was refreshing and wonderful. It felt like we were talking to a person instead of a machine, which PR responses basically are.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

I never understood why bear was so popular. Bow I get, but bear? Honestly if I was going for a pet that wouldn’t die I’d go for the ranged one with heavy armor, i.e. the devourer. Or if I was expecting my pet to tank for me I’d go for the one that could heal, i.e. the moa.

Some do for appearance. Some do because the bear can take far more hits than a devourer and can deal with conditions better to boot. Some do for the F2 skill.

jcbroe.4329:

People would be able to ping whatever they wanted though lol. Unless I’m mistaken, can’t you switch utilities and armor at any given time? You could ping one thing, and run something else. Why doing something as malicious as trolling the group like that would happen, I have no idea.

ANet already said the ultimate goal is to bring back the guild wars 1 template and ping system, in PvP first because it’s easier, but eventually for all game modes if possible.

It’s not necessarily being malicious. It could be as simple as someone wishing to run an effective build that may not be ‘meta’ enough. Someone, perhaps, running a build with a few differing choices in their traiting, or perhaps using a different utility or two.

jcbroe.4329:

And I don’t see any harm in picking in choosing who I want in my group. Particularly, I think I’m well within my rights to kick somebody who’s poorly geared, is running a terrible build, or can’t play their class up to the par I want them to. Go find another group to suck in, I have stuff I’m trying to accomplish.

Yes, it does do just as much good as it does harm. But the good it does is more valuable imo than the harm caused, as all it’s going to do is hurt a few peoples egos that aren’t contributing that much to their teams to begin with.

Not necessarily true. It’s not about the ego for those that will be excluded. And it’s all about stroking the ego for those doing the excluding. It will bar many from finding groups for dungeons, especially those with useful and effective builds that may be considered by others to be useless. Builds such as condi builds in dungeons. Or people running, as mentioned before, variants with a few differing traits or utilities.

Rutee.1058:

Now if it wasn’t viewable directly by others and you need to ping it then it isn’t as bad as people would be able to find the chat codes for it and then they could ping whatever the ‘elitists’ want them to while not sacrificing their own build on the whims of another.

The amount of effort it would take to look that up would appear to dwarf the effort to research an ‘acceptable’ build, no?

Also, wouldn’t the overall structure of the gear matter just as much as the trait lines, if not more? This isn’t at you, just in general.

Again, not necessarily true. I’d keep them on hand to sate those that want to force what they want me to play. I know I’m not running what many would consider to be optimal, yet I still find myself one of the last to fall and have very, very rarely had a complaint as to my performance. But based on my build, some would just pass me by.

And yes, gear matters strongly as well. Someone trying to force a condi geared ranger to run a damaging stat will, instead of getting better performance, will get someone far worse than if that player would bring their usual build.

Sarision.6347:

Running nothing but bears and longbow (and maybe even shortbow) in dungeons. Not only are you doing kittenty damage, you’re also not supporting your teammate nor receiving support from them.

Pretty much this. It’s running something “safe”, not caring about or attempting to boost the effectiveness of the party as a whole. It’d be akin to a warrior only running a rifle and never moving in to melee.

jcbroe.4329:

That’s how it was in guild wars 1 and that’s all I’m asking for. Party members shouldn’t be under involuntary scrutiny of their party leaders, but party leaders shouldn’t be forced to go in blind with party members that can potentially ruin the experience for them.

I think that’s the point of the thread though, that an “I play how I want” mindset is a terrible mentally for group play, and that when being a part of a team, concessions are made by everybody to some degree in order to be successful. You’re in instanced content, built for teams of 5, and meant to be some of the more challenging content in the game. An “I play how I want” mentally can be the bane of success in that atmosphere.

If people don’t want to make the concessions that their team is asking for, they always have the ability to make their own party and play it how they want with other like-minded individuals.

All I’m saying is that there are just as many players that want to take the most efficient route to success as there are players that want to “bearbow” it up, and that for instanced content, there is no reason why either type of player should have to unintentionally clash with each other and result in a bad experience, when there could be a system put in place that allows a party to make final preparations before ever entering the content.

I’m far more interested in the potential there for saving builds and for sharing builds with friends. Any use outside of that just has too much potential to be harmful. And like I said earlier, people could just subvert those trying to force build choice by pinging the codes for the “good” builds, not changing their own.

Now if people would use such a system to make sure that people weren’t running too useless a build (bearbow) or, say, too many condition builds then it’d not be so bad. But, based on observed behaviour among multiple games, it would quickly change to people forcing others to change their entire builds. Builds that they might not be geared for.

The potential for good is there, but so is the potential for harm.

jcbroe.4329:

— snip —

I don’t know. Like ‘gearscore’ systems, this has the potential to be very harmful to the community. You can say how said things don’t make the game worse until you’re blue in the face, but the hard fact is that once said systems are in the game that the ‘elitists’ in the community would co-opt it and use it to try to force others to run what they want them to. If you try to tell me that it wouldn’t necessarily happen then you might want to look at every other MMO that has such a system.

Now if it wasn’t viewable directly by others and you need to ping it then it isn’t as bad as people would be able to find the chat codes for it and then they could ping whatever the ‘elitists’ want them to while not sacrificing their own build on the whims of another.

Yeah. For those of us that RP, not knowing forces us to either ignore what’s going on and has happened or forces us to decide as a community. A solid official answer would make this soooooooo much easier.

And the chat with Angel was at PAX and wasn’t recorded, so there is no “official” confirmation.

Dromar.1027:

I would also like to see more Transmutation Stones being rewarded or at least a MF recipe to turn green ones into rare ones. Prob in my dreams tho.

Ohgods! I would love this. I have so many basic transmute stones that are useless and I have yet to receive even a single Transmute Crystal in all of my 4,500+ hours of play. I’d love to actually be able to use them. Please, ANet! *crosses fingers and hopes*