Showing Posts For Taellan.3654:
It doesn't make any sense. It just doesn't.
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Taellan.3654
Personally, I like these changes.
Dungeon gold nerf makes sense. This should encourage players who want to play the dungeons for the story content or challenge they provide and discourage players who skip through quickly just for gold (which dungeons weren’t designed for). I’m surprised it wasn’t done sooner.
Changes to salvage drop rates sound promising (I’d rather have fewer items that are more valuable than piles of junk), but we won’t know exactly what will happen until after the changes come out. I’m sure the new masteries will affect the economy in different ways, as well.
Let’s give it some time before we bring out the torches and pitchforks. 
I played a shadow medic this weekend (AC/SA/DD; couldn’t give up the team support of SA), and I had a blast. Stuck to Silverwastes and Verdant Brink. Dash works great with the build, getting me to downed players or away from enemies quickly. With the swiftness buff, I was speeding all over the place. So much fun! Took forever to kill stuff, though, compared to other players/professions. So other than the rezzing I did, which had little to do with daredevil, I don’t feel like I brought much to fights.
What I like:
— Overall concept of staff wielding brawler is awesome! So thank you!
— Glad the extra dodge is back! It was one of the reasons I main a thief. And I love the new dodge options in the GM traits. Dash is my favorite right now, but I see huge potential for the other two. Although I did like DeathBlossom 2.0 better from the last beta.
— I see a couple of different build ideas that look like fun (although probably not meta). Tried a CS/TR/DD gunslinger last beta that was awesome as well, and that was before the pistol buffs.
— Despite the animation issues and a few areas I think the spec is lacking, Daredevil is by far my favorite elite spec.
What I wish:
—At one point I gave up the condi cleanse master trait for the one that causes Pulmonary Impact on interrupt. Since I was using a build that was low on crit chance, it seemed like a good way to get in extra damage while stopping damage coming at me. I’ve never focused attacks on interrupting before, so it was a fun challenge. However, I feel like the damage from PI wasn’t enough to justify the trouble it takes to get it (giving up condi clear trait + replacing weapon/utility skills that could cause/mitigate more damage with ones that interrupt). I could do waaaay more damage with the crit-able, spammable weapon skills. I kinda see why it doesn’t crit, but could we get a base damage buff on this one, please? Or maybe a boon or something?
— A projectile reflecting 3rd auto attack that requires melee range and perfect timing seems a bit impossible to use effectively. Could this be changed to confusion or daze instead?
— A major theme of the thief, and especially Daredevil, is mobility. We’re supposed to be fast, we have wings on our boots! Why don’t we have more access to quickness? And where is the superspeed?
— After playing my beta thief for hours, meticulously crafting a build that would have some survivability and still be useful, I tried scrapper (still in celestial gear), and she was melting enemies and sustaining party members easily, and I was just brainlessly button smashing the moment skills came off cooldown. I don’t even know what half of the skills did, and I didn’t have to. There was so much AoE. So much damage AND party support. I don’t want thief to be THAT easy, but I don’t see why a bit more AoE or team support on thief is such a bad thing. I kinda feel like playing thief is restricted to only high damage builds due to squishiness (kill it quickly or get away before you die), and I was hoping Daredevil would bring more (lots more) stability and control to the class so we could stay in fights longer and contribute more than just burst damage. Instead, we’re just better at running away. :/
—I love using the finishers, but I wish I had more access to fields myself (coughdarkfieldonStaff4cough).
— I probably could have swapped out acro for any of the other specs and not felt any great loss. I’m glad we got the extra dodge back, but it sucks that it had to make acro basically obsolete.
Final thoughts:
I had more to say, but most of it has been covered by others already.
I really do love daredevil. Many of the issues mentioned above come from core thief problems and not the E spec itself, although Daredevil seems to be a step closer to fixing that.
IGN: Taellani
Thief Type: Artisan
Server: Eredon Terrace
Experience with thief: Playing since launch. I have 2 level 80s and both are thieves. I tend to play them exactly the same, so I’m currently trying out other builds to mix things up a bit. I love the energy and bounciness of D/D! Trying out a venom/support build as well as a P/P something build (working out the details on that one). Looking forward to the new elite spec for some more variety!
(cont’d)
Verdant Brink
I love the idea of the 3-tiered map. We only got hints of that in this beta, with the unfinished bottom layer and inaccessible top layer. I am really looking forward to exploring those maps when the expansion comes out.
Events were bugged this weekend, so I wasn’t able to explore as thoroughly as I would have liked, but what I did see was pretty awesome. The Itzel village in the trees was cool, and I’m guessing we’ll see more of them in the rest of the maps. I’m super curious about the Exalted and the lore behind that. Seriously, the whole map is impressive. Given that it is one portion of one level of one map, I have no doubt that the rest will be spectacular.
Didn’t get to test the masteries beyond the first gliding and Itzel levels. Gliding was awesome, and I can’t wait to fully master it. The bouncing mushrooms added a nice shortcut to areas once I got them unlocked, but some of them didn’t work as intended (unless I was supposed to be launched into a wall…
).
Masteries are a great idea for progression after lvl 80. Experience is useful again! It was a bit frustrating to level the masteries, but that was due to the bugged events. It would be nice if there were more solitary events here and there (I dislike event hunting), or like in the Silverwastes, where events are so frequent, they often overlap, but failure doesn’t break any event chain. In VB, I did manage to get to the end of one event chain and fight the wyvern. Some of the objectives weren’t clear, so other players had to explain what to do, which broke immersion a bit. It was a lot of work for one chain, which is fine, but I’m not really sure what the reward or purpose of it was. What’s the difference between a success or failure? How did it impact the night? Couldn’t really tell.
On that note, I like the concept of the day/night system. Feels a bit unpolished right now (likely due to the event bugs), but it has potential. I had fun smashing monsters at night, but I do hope that night isn’t just “defend against monsters” all night everywhere. I like the combat in VB (enemies are plenty challenging and keep me on my toes), but I also want to explore, and that is difficult if the whole map is a battlezone. It would be cool if there were designated war zones with high mob density, as well as some non-combat areas that were quiet and peaceful at night, even if we had to work for it during the day. I enjoy the night more than the day because of the glow effect and the night sky, but it would be frustrating if that whole time is spent trying to not die. I’d love to be able to just wander and enjoy the epic nighttime scenery.
Despite the few bugs, this beta was a lot of fun. Looking forward to the next one.
Beta access didn’t really have any impact on my decision to pre-purchase HoT, and I wasn’t even planning on participating initially. Glad I did, though. I had a blast this weekend! So here are my thoughts:
Elite Specs:
I tried Tempest, Reaper, and Dragonhunter, but ran out of time for Chronomancer (lol). I main a Thief; only class I’ve managed to get to 80 (I’m a very casual player). I couldn’t really get into the other professions. After playing some time on an alt, I just miss my thief! So I came at these 3 being somewhat unfamiliar with the professions at max level.
Tempest seemed cool, but I couldn’t really get into it. Play style of the elementalist isn’t for me, I guess.
Reaper was fun. Definitely fun to watch! Gives me something to look forward to when leveling my necro.
But my favorite so far is the Dragonhunter. I usually find ranged combat to be boring (I love my melee thief!), so it surprised me that I enjoyed the Guardian’s longbow skills so much. I think that plus the traps and new Virtues just made for really engaging gameplay. Only issue I noticed was the Dragonhunter trait (grandmaster?) that knocks back close range enemies almost never worked for me.
I get where the name “dragonhunter” comes from. My guardian is a sylvari, so she got to hear Mordremoth (nice touch, btw!). Guardians are champions of good. If the dragon is the manifestation of evil and corruption in the world, then it makes sense for the Guardian to be their greatest enemy. However, “dragonhunter” sounds too…casual. I think “Dragonbane” would fit the elite spec better; it is the Dragonbane’s sole purpose in life to put an end to all works of the evil dragons.
I realized when playing the Dragonhunter that elite specs are similar to the secondary professions from GW1. It felt like I was playing my Monk/Ranger with heavy armor instead of a tanky pet. I missed the secondary professions, so this is really awesome. Looking forward to seeing the rest of them revealed.
Revenant
I am in love with this profession. Almost like it more than thief. Adding Shiro and weapon swap made a HUGE difference from the Revenant beta. Dual swords are so fun! The profession mechanic is similar to others but different enough to be unique. I figured the energy + cooldowns on skills would be a problem, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Energy refills pretty quickly, and you get half instantly by swapping, so it was easily manageable with a bit of practice. Because the summons are so different from each other, you almost have to split your focus to get the most out of both of them. I felt like my Revenant had two faces. It was interesting. Very cool idea.
I mainly used Shiro and either Mallyx or Ventari depending on the situation. I loved how I could mix up the weapons and skills for interesting and engaging gameplay (for example, slashing away at enemies with dual swords and teleporting all over the place while ventari’s tablet zips across the field, or flipping between Shiro and Mallyx utils/elites while using staff to provide constant minor healing/support). I didn’t even touch Jalis this weekend, and I know there’s the elite spec coming, so this profession has a lot of fun possibilities. I do wish Ventari’s Tablet was automatically active when switching to Ventari since the rest of the skills do nothing without it. Also hoping there are a few more utility options (either some generic ones like signets, or one or two more specific skills for each summon).
After trying the Revenant staff earlier, I want melee staff for thieves even more now!
So do I!
I would like to see more quick attacks on the thief to show off their agility, and a leap or teleport. Maybe an AoE spin attack that applies confusion or daze to enemies, or grants allies quickness or speed or refills endurance.
Rev’s staff is more healing/defensive. I love that on the Rev, but it’s a bit slow for the thief, although the #3 skill I was kinda hoping the thief would get (or something like it). Same with #2 and #5 (but as a leap/TP instead of dash). You know what? Change the healing of the AA to a movement boon/condition with multiple targets, and replace #4 with an AoE confusion/daze spin attack, and I would love that on my thief.
As a super-sensitive person, I do empathize with the OP. I am introverted, sheltered, and can’t always tell when people are just joking or are being aggressively mean. However, I recognize this as a problem that I have (I blame genetics and my ultra-religious upbringing), and I don’t expect others to change to accommodate me. I need to learn to be less sensitive (or “grow a thicker skin”, which in nature occurs as something is exposed to “harsh elements” and is a regular part of growth and maturity). Until I do, I generally stay away from people or places in game that rub me the wrong way because that is not so much fun for me. And I play this game to have fun.
The verbal abuse in this game is a problem, but there is a system in place already for that. It isn’t going to eliminate the problem as a whole, because there will always be trolls on the internet. Despite that, and I think someone stated this already, this is actually one of the friendliest games out there.
As for the “visual abuse”, I really can’t think of anything in this game that could be used to be emotionally damaging. Annoying, yes. So annoying they’re driving me insane…? Okay, maybe, although “This person is really annoying” is not a good enough reason to report someone, IMO. I believe one definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, which is why people keep saying “Don’t feed the trolls”. It does nothing useful, and they’ll just drive you crazy.
There have been other threads and conversations about people following others to harass them by jumping up and down beside them while the other person is playing, throwing down skills, following them around to jump/throw down skills even if they waypoint, tracking them down to resume jumping/throwing down skills.
*Imo, what the people being harassed need to do is turn it around. Instead of them following you, you are leading them. You are now their boss.
Who decides where to go? You do. Who leads them into a group of mobs so they can be killed? You do. Who decides to go afk for a while, “forcing” them to stand beside you until you are good and ready to come back? You do. Who is making them pay attention to wherever you want to go, stand beside you while you harvest, do jumping puzzles they don’t want to do? You are.*
It’s all in who is making the other person do what they want. If you are running from them, trying to get away, then they are the boss. If you are leading them around by the nose, then you’re the boss.
Hahaha this is brilliant. XD
OP, next time you get griefed, you should do this. It might actually be kinda fun.
It’s not killing and you can notice this in pvp. People get “defeated” not dead. In GW1 players were killed so we got resurrection skills. Have you noticed there is no resurrection in this game? This is because we are not killing in this game, only defeating our opponents. Like batman. this is awesome and I feel better person finally playing a game where killing is not a goal. I also play healers and tanks because as a good person I should not kill anybody, no matter if this is real life or a game. I am a doctor in real life so playing healer is natural choice for me in a game.
This is why I like the change from rifle, which is an instrument of war, to staff for a thief. This weapon looks less harmful and I feel secure I won’t harm anybody with it but only disarm and defeat, but not kill.
Never considered that before. I like it. Thieves don’t have to be assassins or pirates. They can be heroes. Like Robin Hood.
And I agree. Thieves already have decent “deadly” skills. I’d like to see a bit more close range AoE support, maybe medium dmg with wider ranged melee (+100 vs sword or dagger, maybe?). The staff looks like it could bring some of that.
Hi! I am a veteran newb; I have been playing since GW: Prophecies, but I am super casual and haven’t mastered the game, yet. I would like to find a friendly group of people I can really get involved with.
I tend to play early in the morning (7am CST), but I have a fairly flexible schedule and can play mostly any time. I primarily play PvE because I’m OCD about map completion and I have a bunch of characters and the attention span of a baby skritt, so I don’t get very far on my own, haha. I have recently discovered the Silverwastes, which is my current obsession, but I would also love to get into WvW again or try out dungeons or fractals.
I’m currently part of a small guild of family/friends that generally has 2-3 active members, and we have sunk a lot of time and gold into our “shared bank”, so I don’t want to leave completely. I can’t give 100% rep. But I will rep with most of my characters and when I participate in guild activities. So…75% rep? Hope that’s ok. I am also looking for a guild in Eredon Terrace so I can join them in WvW at some point. I tried it before and it was fun, but frustrating when playing solo (and clueless). I’d like to try it again with a group of guildies.