Guild Wars 2

Throwing my hat in the ring too.

It started out with lagspikes, however chat was working fine (no delays, could see messages from others). Shortly after I disconnected. Now I can enjoy loading screens for hours it seems.

Sooo.. any updates from Telia Anet?
It’s beyond annoying and training highspeed towards the “kitten this bloody kitten” Station. During prime time (18:00-21:00 UTC), the packet loss through their servers ramps up 80-100%.
Since Telia servers are the last hops before the NCSoft Servers might i recommend… contact your ISP Anet? Standard techsupport answer in your face.

Oh and a last bit for a complete picture.
Concurrency products with servers physically based in NA are running with double digit ping with close to zero packet loss (2% on a bad day).

So yeah, as someone who did raid and raid leading for some years in that game (no need to mention the name) I’ll drop my thoughts in if you don’t mind.
Enjoy some anecdotes after my 2 cents.

I had my share of raiding in my time as you can guess, so I am rather glad that there are none here for the time being. No Tequila and the 3 headed do not qualify for that in my book. But if things are rolling that way let me give you some thoughts about what can go wrong when designing a raid (encounter).

So what definition of raid would I not want to see?
The one with gear treadmill. Beat raid x to get access and gear required for raid y, ad infinitum.
The one that requires you to have a certain lineup to even try it.
The one that needs people with positioning knowledge and movement skill, so you can actually find people to raid with you.
The one requiring you to chew through 15 min off so called tactics.
The one where key functions of the fights are placed on one or two people.
The one where you can’t take more than x meele, because fight mechanics.

Just from the top of my mind. I suppose the CDI will support you with more, or just ask other game developers for some pros / cons.

Story time: Just for shaking heads, laughs, and maybe weeping a tear
Baron Geddon, hearing the server wide known legendary “and if your fish vomit or your cat is on fire.. MOVE OVER THERE”. Suffice to say from that day on the tactic-description contained “..your girlfriend tells you we are pregnant..”.
Nefarian. The instant GG that was the Shaman Class Call. He summoned a forest of windfury totems that if proccing allowed him to hit 3 times instead of once. Did i mention the other factions special class caused him to go invulnerable for some seconds? Note that there was no enrage timer on that one.
Trash mobs AQ40 before the princess, I almost died laughing as our choleric melee-leader spit rage on teamspeak because they were kicked around all the time (A mechanic of that mob and not a bunch of LB #4 spamming rangers mind you).
Attuning new raid members for Hyjal and BT, going for Kael’s vial that day. Yeah shockingly back in the day you had to fulfill some long quest chains to be allowed inside some raids. Of course you cannot expect from people to do some work beforehand so we are porting them around the whole world until we stand before the raid boss. Next up would be knowing what the boss we have to beat actually does. Naturally they didn’t inform themselves beforehand. After listening to 15 min of boss explanation we wipe on the second advisor because they didn’t listen. Obviously the term “spread” was too hard to understand.
Illidan, guild first kill. 24 man. Because our Main Tank didn’t feel like it that day.
Naxxramas 2.0 Kael’Thuzad, everyone down exept for a lonely bear tank. “You know, they won’t kill me but i could use some help.” Watch in awe as he shapeshifts pulls off a combat rezz tanking Kael and the 4 adds just to realize that the cooldown for the aoe iceblock on non-primary aggro targets should be up long ago. See 2 iceblocks and have a good laugh as you respawn to wipe the floor with Kael for good.
Anub’Arak 50 trys left 25 man hero, first pull of the night. The guild officers are betting on who will cause the first wipe. The hunter won. Hugging the adds butt so the don’t shadowstep and instagib his sorry kitten didn’t work because they were in his deadzone. Good thing he should shoot Anub’ anyway while the melee cleave the adds.
Some purple dragon 25 man hero, I receive a stacking debuff that when dispelled anihilated everything within a certain raidus depending on the amount of stacks. As usual I run out of the camp and start counting on Teamspeak. There never was a dispell but boy the fire covered the whole arena.
10 man hero spine of deathwing. try #100something. He does his first barrel roll and there fly 2 dps that had nothing else to do than stand on the safe spot.
Several occasions. “Where is x? You know we cannot do this without fear ward right?”
Several occasions. “Do we have to take bob with us? We had some problems. I don’t want to raid with him.” Yay couples.
Of course there are good memories too. Watching Cripp in High Warlord Gear wrecking things. Receiving a beating by the 4 horseman. Standing before M’uru pre nerf comes to mind. Finally beating Mimir hero and advancing to Algalon. Seeing Ragnaros grow Legs. The general chit chat babbling and laughing with the core of the guild over the years. Finally having full BIS gear. Consoling a warlock that after 6 months still not a single Class Robe dropped. The first BZZZZZZZZZT as you encountered C’Thun. And many more.

Finally, just because it’s true:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I want trebuchet launched Asuran Special Forces so bad…..

Chris

Off topic I know, I know.. Ashes on my head.

I give to ye: Shakes & Fidget – Gnomination (Sorry can’t find the english version, it disappeared after they ran in some trouble with the publisher)

Back to lurking.

I guess you want to have some serious answers:

Profession talk?
Here. Have a whole subforum dedicatet to that.

My kryptonite?
Cleric’s bunker eles (ToL NA finals show you what i mean), PU mesmers, bunkers, decap / turret engis, perplexity runes, bunkers, 3 min necros, condition thieves (they just needed the talent for 5 stacks confusion on steal), read the forums for more.
Ready Up’s with the so called balance team (the whole 2 of them) and grouch resulting in giggling, random laughing, "we think it’s cool, and no one knowing the names of skills (see the ready up on the new healing skills for how not to do it).

And just to repeat what has been allready said: Can we balance more often than every 6 months with some shaving?

/tipshat

P.S.: btw grouch, what happened to that WvW tournament CDI announced on ready up episode 14, 2 weeks ago? You know the one that should appear on the forums last week according to you?
Episode 14 At 17:24-17:45.

Hey look, another straw on the camels back. I wonder how many more it can take. And before you ask or throw me an infraction know this is the positive attitude speaking.

I did not receive the Season 2 Reward Chest, though i have the not so hidden achievement for 2nd Place with my world.

- I never transferred, neither before nor during the Season.
- I have finished every single last achievement of this Season. Sometime during week 2 or 3 iirc.
- I entered both all regular WvW Maps as well as Edge of the Mists to check if this would trigger the reward to be applied. Obviously it did not.
- Gaining a WvW Rank was also no help.
- Yes i have checked ALL characters.

There is no need for a copy + paste response. Simply send me the reward via the in game mail system.

Add in the fact of overflows that have a massive failure rate (100% from personal experience), people don’t care even if you chew the tactics for them and stuff them down their throats, and we have a worthy end for the living story season one.

Bugged zergcontent servered with a cover of overflow and relying on average joe kitten of to MLP.

It is not only the Shoulders. It is half the Armor.
ahem

Honor of the Waves Dungeon Armor (heavy)

-Shoulders:
Angle and size changed, as well as some weird outlining outstanding rim added.
-Chest:
The most upper part of the cloth was taken up a layer, it now covers beards and looks like a ruff.
- Gloves:
Size changed (hurrdurr biggerisbetter.. NO)

And that is only what i saw at a glance. If someone wants to do a full comparison via screenshots be my guest.
Now to hope this is fixed faster than in a certain other big mmo..
ah the memories of mocking orcs for more than half a year because they stole some childrens shoulder armor.

edit:

Let’s see..
Nice Looks.
Outmanned.
Blobs.
Skyhammer.

In other words, like the old maps with a feeling of skyhammer added in, while taking away the ability to avoid blobs thanks to chokepoints (bridges) everywhere.

The only positive regarding this map, imo at least, is the fantastic visuals. Great work there as always, a pity I do not play to appeal my diminishing eyesight.

Josh Foreman.8250:

snip

Well I had my share of wins and fails so let me hammer this in your brain for the future.

Why exactly do you have to give those people the learn to play lection during a world boss? Cram them in a single player instance and if you have to throw at them a fullscreen message to change the 7-0 abilities or spend their traitpoints. The chance that they will actually improve instead of whining, moaning, kittening, and crying seems pretty much zero to me no matter what, so can you do me a favor and get them out of my way?

I used to tell people what to do during and before the encounter for several days.
I witnessed people with champions at 10% trying to rezz full dead bodies instead of killing it while the timer ticked down from 60 seconds.
I saw people getting annihilated by facetanking the 2nd champion.
I was astonished as they ran full circles with him instead of luring it into the mines.
I don’t want to mention how many have blown themselves to pieces with confusion.
And much more.

Now draw a picture of Average Joe.
Would you want him at your side?

Oh, and just for the record, only one win was pugstyle. And even there we had 3 failed chain phases.

I’ll try to make this short as you will have enough to work through anyway.

Vertical vs. horizontal progression:
Well, in short i am here because i got burned out of hunting the dragon. Aka get BIS gear, new tier released, enemy buffed according, rinse and repeat.
So i got hooked up to the idea of “easy to reach gear ceiling” originally displayed during the development of GW2.
I spent some hundreds of hours in GW1 before the release of GW2 hunting skins and more (Obsidian armor, elite charr hide, vanquisher titles, explorer, etc.). That is what i seek(ed) in this game. The ability to drop out and come back to the game without any disadvantage be it a month or a year.

Accessibility:
That’s your own decision. Cater to the players that have few time to spare or those that have 8 hours+ a day.
Just as input: would you rather grind skillpoints (for example, don’t get hooked up on it) to get that healing skill or do something you feel more like? Be it gathering, chatting with friends in LA, or some high lvl fractals?

Personal Notes:
To me progression has become a synonym for a flawed system, let me explain. It’s as if the game is not enough to keep you going so we slap at you stuff to grind out.
You know as they say, it’s not about the goal but about the journey.
If you want to take the route of carrot on a stick “that blizzard gameand it’s clones” is over yonder.
vague gesture (emotes, a kingdom for emotes..)

Yours sincerely,
Thyrm

Nothing to see here, just some deleted words. innocent whistle

Anyway, it’s not a bug. It’s a feature.

Remember a time when risen abominations didn’t ae-slam, shoulderthrust through the zerg, risen wraith had no well of darkness (cough grenth temple defense event after the priest), risen gorilla didn’t play donkey kong throwing things at you, groundpound everyone close to death, risen ravagers chaos storm was a thing never to be seen, risen spider champions had no “egg sac infusion”, risen champion broodmothers were a meatbag to beat upon, .. you get the hint.
In short, this is all part of the design. Sure you won’t see a single patch note on the mentioned effects but it is obviously intended.

The real problem, or BUG is that the events spawning those enemies are not accordingly rebalanced or at the very least that the objective does not scale.

Allright, some locations where I regulary encounter(ed) bots. Note that there might not be bot activity at the moment but maybe this information is of use to you nontheless.

Server: Gunnar’s Hold
Zone: Malchor’s Leap
Location: West of King’s Passage PoI (undead sucide bombers mostly abused to level up bots);
Location: Beacon Torch PoI, northeast near the skillpoint, note: I don’t get there often, it might as well have been an unusual place rather than a hot spot.

Zone:Frostgorge Sound
Location: Snow Climb area;
Location: Firesnake’s Tail, the whole valley;
Location: Shattered Ice Flow waypoint east & northeast, the Icebrood Colossus’ are highly endangered;

In short:
Yes, yes you are.

In long:
Different enemy have different aggro mechanics. They even often use a combination of these. There was a great threat floating around regarding theese a while ago. If you want to know more do some research.

That said the most common used are the following:
target in melee range (hello warrior)
highest armored target (3100 armor say hi)
Shield (yes i have seen enemy that usually go for the highest toughness target switch on the skimpy guardian for switching to scepter + shield)

So yeah, having read your stats it is obvious you will be the first to get bashed.
Btw from my expirience with pugs you will be first target most of the time even with as low as 2,7k armor (soldiers prefix armor alone) because almost no one runs the meatshield setup.

Allright let’s do this.
My feedback:

Once in a lifetime event(s):
Let us hope they stay that. Stage one was a server sided lagfeast in Lions Arch followed by a on several NPCs bugged scavenger hunt. Though found it positive to get Lionguard weapon skins without humongous amounts karma.
Stage two had problems in communication, the building of the trebuchet was never announced ingame and the break untill the ship was sailing was also misleading. On the island then the eventchain was very entertaining.
Stage three had the famous problem of culling, being rolled over by invisible veteran mobs and essentially twoshot in power toughness vit gear, yeah no. Another downside the amount of karka to defeat twice during part of pushing the ancient. Finally the rewardchest. Kitten(<- self censored) this. People pulling out Dawn, Dusk, the Lover and other 100g+ weapons while I get about 3g worth. Felt like a baseball to the groin.

Dungeon(s):
No update to the LFG “tool” was a very bad move. Make it worldwide / serverwide and allow to set comments for which dungeon and difficulty. With FotM and it’s scaling reward system most of the “old” dungeons have been killed of. Try to get a pug group to get through the whole of SE storymode.
FotM only partially unpuggable. Swamp and the dredge one with the pressure plates to be precisely. Don’t get me wrong, I like a bit of challenge but I also like it to be clear how to overcome them. This is a issue with the “daily reward chest” You get rather easy through 2 fractals, you get swamp and you know you have just wasted about 30 min because some impatient pug will leave and that’s that.

Ascended Gear:
Oh boy. I bought this game for a simple reason. A easy to reach stat plateau that will not be increased. And here we are 75 days later.
A new higher tier of stats, requiring a hillarious grind to get that will lead to content block (agony resistance requirements). And if that is not enough that gear can get infusions. For all those that do not know it the infusion has nothing to do with agony resistance. That is applied seperate (250 ectos and more, wiki it). No the infusion is a further stat increase.
Bait and turn with the bait being several years of PR, advertising and blogs stating this will not happen.

General Balance:
Here is a hint. The mosquito esque damage of cloak and dagger was not the reason so many people have been complaining.
Otherwise I can’t say much regarding this. Weren’t rangers supposed to get a bit of update this patch? Maybe a bit much retalation / Protection uptime on certain classes.

Art:
Great work art team. Nothing more to say just enjoying the looks.

Gem Shop additons:
Meh, couldn’t care less. Give me a way to unlock certain dyes / minis and we can talk. Also more cosmetic armor like the primeval. RNG for solid money won’t make me spend a dime.

Legendary pre-weapons:
Just because this tickles me. We were told before the patch there will be a way to aquire them “more of a scavenger hunt” yet zommoros was convinced to increase his close to non existent chance to grant one of those to a little less than non existent.

In short:
Get yourself better communication. Make big events less of a server crush. And most of all reduce the stats of ascended gear to exotic level while turning infusions (the item slapped into the slot) to various levels of agony resistance.

A customer (maybe not to long to stay this way).

P.S.: hey look, more feedback on a specific topic of this patch
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Thoughts-on-Ascended-Gear-Merged-threads/first

well, here are my 2 cents on this whole incident.

- game release: exotics level is the highest statwise.
- 2 1/2 months later: look ascended gear, now with 8% higher stats + infusions*
- expansion bubbles: ??

• Offensive, Defensive, Omni. Now try to tell me those will not give you more strenght in terms of outlasting / killing your enemy, even if that enemy happens to be found in one dungeon ever. The only way to do that would be “makes you glow softly” or something among the cosmetic line.

As you can tell the problem I foresee is if Arenanet decides to add more tiers with again higher stats thus creating the infamous gear treadmill.
And yes I have read the post from Chris Whiteside and I would recommend him a carreer in politics if he leaves game developement (design).
Why? Well it is written the way you can interpret whatever you want into it. Not adding a new tier of gear every three months? How about every six? Every Expansion? Never? You get the picture.

In short:
We have to wait and see for future updates, in the meantime let us trash our rings and backback and grind for the ascended just to have the relaxing feeling of being done stat-wise again.
Here’s to hope this doesn’t turn into World of GuildWarscraft.

Just a matter of opinion.

Okay, just been trying to do this:
Worked through the wiki list from top to end (sans loch jetz one). This means I located, equipped the goggles, and jumped of the nearest ledge towards a body of water.
33 / 37
IF the achievement is checked on equipping the goggles there is a bug.
IF the achievement is checked on the dive (entering the body of water) there is your bug. Some dives just turn me back into combat armor mid fall, Sculptor’s end in Malchor’s Leap as well as the Jetsam Isle one in Lornar’s Pass I recognized this.

Looking foward to a fix asap.

P.S.: Just for the sake of hope and sparing my patience from more loading screen adventures it would not be possible to just set the achievement to 40/40 now would it?