Guild Wars 2

Tammuz.7361:

players who are carrying banners are kinda boring, when i hit them, they dont hit back very kitten a more serious note: banners would be decent if we could say spawn them or carry them on our back as opposed to not being able to use our weapon while carrying them, as they are right now they either:
a) sacrifice mobility
or
b) sacrifice players to cary them instead of participating in the fight… since lets be honest, banner ability damage and utility is a joke

dont get me wrong, they theoretically could do fairly decently in seige fights since the mobility loss is negligable as your fighting in a fixed area and if anyone backs up significantly they lose the choke point, cap point etc that they were fighting over, but in open field they are really lackluster…

Okay, now lets put theories aside and get back to reality a bit. For starters, the supporter isn’t supposed to be focused on combat. He should contribute in damage where he can but because he’s called a supporter and not a fighter, his role is ultimately to support the team. So, he very well can carry the banner and he can set it back down if need be…it only takes a second so lets not exaggerate things. On the other hand of reality, take a really good look at the typical zerg…and how there’s usually somebody or even several somebodies who obviously went straight from character creation to WvW. They should definitely be thinking about carrying the banner and using its buff skills while staying out of the fight as opposed to jumping into the middle of it with starter equipment. But, again, it only takes a second or even less to pick up and drop a banner and the benefits don’t instantly stop the moment you leave its radius so there’s plenty of room to play. Even out in an open field, on the move, and what else have you. I’ve seen it put to use in action many times and it works extremely well, hence me opting to run this build as opposed to all these waypoint warrior builds that are supposed to kill so fast that healing doesn’t matter…and I’m constantly having to raise them. Now, THAT is what brings a team down, when your supporters are constantly having to stop what they’re doing to revive all these big damage fanatics because they clearly weren’t even close to being as invincible as their egos thought.

Tammuz.7361:

Warlord.9074:

Someone will jump on here and tell you that they are the best and thats the only effective way to play a warrior. Truth is they used to be the only effective way to play a warrior. Since then warriors got a lot of new and nice things. You still play a shout warrior the build hasn’t changed and you cant use most of the new stuff warriors got. So I say its not the best anymore. Its still works but thats all there is to be said about it.

I actually want to say its not as good as it used to be. If you didn’t trait shouts to give adrenaline, you could get berserkers power or heightened focus. Not anymore. Those were the only traits that helped the build do damage, now it hits like a wet noodle.

Who is scared of a shout warrior on the field its a free bag in my eyes.

probably still is the best way for most warriors to go in wvw…

built properly earthshaker with a shout heal hammer build hits for an AVERAGE of just shy of 25k total damage consistently (assuming u hit 5 people), not really wet noodlish in my experience

for some reason though there seems to be this odd fad with running pure pvt gear on a warrior right now, though i cant for the life of me figure out why.

banners are fun: they require the warrior casting them and his raid group to stand still to be useful. This is very fun for me as i hate having to chase people down to kill them!. standing still also gives our ranged classes abilities plenty of time to work on you too!

Quick! Somebody send ANet a suggestion to let people carry banners! Oh, wait…

Hmm…I’m thinking it’s a matter of you liking a lean towards offense or a lean towards defense. On the shield side, you get an extra step to prevent damage while on the mace side, you get an extra step to deal it.

Yaki.9563:

The problem with banners healing is it’s a regen buff, which doesn’t stack intensity so you basically are counting on no one else having regen to maximize it’s potential. Pretty unlikely in a random group or WvW.

But it still heals more damage than shouts. I’ve personally tested this myself so I’m just not seeing how anybody can claim that shouts heal more damage. In one quick spurt? Yes, but now you’re down that spurt and those buffs. Now somebody else needs a lift…down two spurts and those buffs. So on, so forth. If your PUG or zerg just isn’t playing up to par, then you’re going to run out of shouts very quickly. Face-tank some champions to see what I’m talking about. Even with a good bit of toughness, they can dish out enough damage, to include condition damage, to counteract the pace that shouts recharge, even with shortened cooldowns and Dwayna runes. But banner regeneration can still manage to recover such lost amounts. Also, it’s true that regeneration doesn’t stack in intensity…from one source. See what happens when you’ve got two or more banner warriors around. And no, I don’t mean using more than one of your own banners because the “source” counts as the player, not the banners so two completely different characters who are traited for healing banners will increase the regeneration intensity. And if done right, you’ll still have permanent buffs in place because of the various banners being used as opposed to shouts that can easily have their buffs stripped.

The nerf card is to Guild Wars 2 as the race card is to real life. Both get used way too often and for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with their intended purposes.

cloudysan.4397:

TwoWaysyaWowT.3160:

Well, believe it or not but the greatsword isn’t the only means of high damage output…people do use two axes or even an axe/mace set-up. Heck, even axe/sword. Sheesh, even hammers are fine and anybody who nit-picks about using anything other than a greatsword is just some elitist snob to begin with who gets off on splitting hairs. The longbow is also a pretty handy thing to have around because of the crowd control capabilities and AoE attacks but as it has already been said, if you don’t truly need to use it, then get in there and do some toe-to-toe damage with your melee weapon(s). But if you do have to fall back for legitimate reasons, then I really don’t see why using a ranged weapon would be an issue as opposed to not doing anything at all or even exiting out of the instance completely.

I think I should’ve eleborated on “something cookie cutter” meaning axes. I’m fine with axes but I’d still prefer a totally ranged option(or one that mainly uses ranged combat but has a fallback like a shield or something =) ).
I’m aware that you can play something different than the GS but some people look at you funny(yes those elitists). I’d just like to have the ranged build option to play my warrior again other then that I can play my other classes and “can” my warrior for the time being(pun intended). Maybe some patch will give the bow new traits to look into.

Which brings me to my next point of how if said elitist won’t have you around because of your build, then he’s obviously not as elite as he thinks. I mean, wouldn’t a TRUE elitist be able to handle his own under ANY circumstances since they’re just s-o-o-o-o powerful and what not? By the very logic of these unchecked egos, they should have no problem at all with handling a level 1,000 fractal with nothing but rabbits in their party.

So, if you ask me, a GOOD player as opposed to an “elite” one will make it work. You wanna’ hop in a dungeon with me with a completely ranged warrior? Noooo problem. Have a glass cannon of an elementalist or a completely scattered Mesmer? No big deal. Challenge is something elitists supposedly eat for breakfast so such shouldn’t be of any consequence to them if they truly are “elite.” Not that I’m calling myself “elite” or even “good,” I’m just not one to stick my head up a certain anatomical cavity because I don’t like your style of play. Contribution is contribution and as long as you’re contributing, that’s good enough in my book.

Yep, as it’s been said, shouts are simply only good if you’re going to pair them with condition removal. I’ve personally tried both builds and shouts simply don’t recover the same amount of health that banners do. No way, no how. And the only two “real” arguments that can be made is that “there’s not enough room to maneuver with banners” and all I can wonder is…have they even tried using inspiring banners? That increases the radius and it’s PLENTY of room to manage the typical battle. The other argument being “I can’t loot during a fight ’cause I end up picking up the banner!” Well, why in the Hell are you trying to loot DURING a fight? You’re supposed to be contributing to the battle, not stuffing your greedy pockets. The loot will still be there when it’s over so do what you’re supposed to be doing and help others in the freakin’ battle!

Wethospu.6437:

About 4-5 months ago Anet changed Jade Maw at level 50 and above. Usual tricks (99% ressing or revive orb) won’t work and Maw deals over 100 times your health during the Agony.
You can still progress by doing uneven levels if someone can open them. Those videos with even levels were done before this change was implemented.

Pretty much everyone who has done high-end content agrees that dealing high damage and using active defenses (dodge) is good while passive absorbing doesn’t really work.
Crown-control does barely anything to bosses and even with full tank spec you won’t last much longer unless you avoid attacks (which kind of fights against whole concept of absorbing).

On open-PvE you can tank stuff quite well, but then, you could also just kill them with high-damage spec.

Alright, so Maw would then be a invalid argument for both sides. But as for the rest, it’s really just the same points being made and in the end, it’s always the defensive player coming to the aid of the offensive player. Ironically, with the offensive playing insisting that it’s all about DPS…until he or she somehow comes across something that can’t be out-DPS’d and now said player starts whining and crying about how nobody’s reviving him or how he’s not getting the healing that he needs. Why is this so commonly an issue if it’s really all about DPS and nobody needs healing? Gee, I wonder. But to each their own as some will always side with DPS and some will always side with defense. And I’ll just keep on saving the day for the DPS folk ‘cause they’ll always give me job security. =D

Wethospu.6437:

You know you can’t do level 50 Fractals because Maw would constantly kill you?

ORLY? Then I must be imagining videos of people running it at level 68. Pleeeeeease, do the community a favor and spread facts, not assumptions or misinformation. It does nobody any good. Do you personally run this build? Clearly not so why are you using false information to troll?

cloudysan.4397:

Hello warriors!

I’ve had my warrior for a long while and haven’t really played her ever since I got her to 80 reason being I HAVE to use GS to do good damage or use something else cookie cutter which made me play other classes.
I’ve always loved the longbow but when I joined groups and only used my LB or my axe/shield people got mad at me and booted me out of groups.
How viable would a longbow build be nowadays? I played my warrior like 3-4 months ago and have only briefly played not following the patch notes of the warrior that much.
IF it is viable what gear/weapons would one pick?
Thanks in advance.

Well, believe it or not but the greatsword isn’t the only means of high damage output…people do use two axes or even an axe/mace set-up. Heck, even axe/sword. Sheesh, even hammers are fine and anybody who nit-picks about using anything other than a greatsword is just some elitist snob to begin with who gets off on splitting hairs. The longbow is also a pretty handy thing to have around because of the crowd control capabilities and AoE attacks but as it has already been said, if you don’t truly need to use it, then get in there and do some toe-to-toe damage with your melee weapon(s). But if you do have to fall back for legitimate reasons, then I really don’t see why using a ranged weapon would be an issue as opposed to not doing anything at all or even exiting out of the instance completely.

Casmurro.9046:

TwoWaysyaWowT.3160:

Casmurro.9046:

I think healing power for this game is too weak, specially for warriors, you will not be able to heal out all the damage you will be taking. When i started playing i used the Dontain’s warriors build, which was soldier gear with berserker’s trinkets, i had good survivability with 30k hp, but the fights were taking too long, for example to kill a veteran risen giant in Orr would take forever.

The best thing i did for my warrior was to craft a full set of knights armor and get berserkers weapons, the damage i was doing increased a lot and i actually got more survivability, since the mobs were dying faster.

I never used my soldier gear again, and now i’m trying to get used to always use berserker gear on dungeons but it can be a pain on some situations, at least in AC i can use full berserkers, even when i’m the one in charge of protecting Hodgins in that burrows room.
I really think the best option for warrior is knights gear exatly like you are already doing if you want more survivability, but allied with a good dps build.

Eh, what kind of damage are we talking about? I can cruise around Southsun and Orr by myself with no problems and dungeons are also pretty doable, even with a PUG…is there somewhere where the mobs are even stronger? Er, I just passed Level 50 in Fractals, too…not entirely difficult, either.

You kill mobs with clerics gear in a warrior? I’m sure you can survive in though places with that gear, but a fight that could be finished in 1 minute will last 10 minutes with that setup, in this game critical damage is too OP and healing power scales horribly when you add too much of it. Its better to kill stuff faster to increase survivability.

“Er, I just passed Level 50 in Fractals, too…”
Please, you don’t need to lie here, you may have experience in killing solo the Champion spider and Champion bandit in Queensdale, but you don’t need to exaggerate to make a point.

No need to get kitten over the fact that your way isn’t the only way to get things done or perhaps even the best way since it’s now becoming obvious that your way just might be lacking if you’re not able to do high-level fractal runs. Seriously, you’ve obviously never tried this particular build so it only makes you look foolish to assume things. And I’m not talking about some “pseudo-build” or partial attempt. You either go all the way or you have no say because you don’t know how effective it is or isn’t. But since I do and since I have no real reason to lie, meaning keep the cyber-stroking of that weak internet ego to yourself, then I can speak from experience. And the fact of the matter is that this build gets the job done and gets it done in the manner that the OP was asking for. You did catch the “damage absorbtion” part of his request, right? Or do you just like hijacking threads to stroke said weak internet ego?

Casmurro.9046:

I think healing power for this game is too weak, specially for warriors, you will not be able to heal out all the damage you will be taking. When i started playing i used the Dontain’s warriors build, which was soldier gear with berserker’s trinkets, i had good survivability with 30k hp, but the fights were taking too long, for example to kill a veteran risen giant in Orr would take forever.

The best thing i did for my warrior was to craft a full set of knights armor and get berserkers weapons, the damage i was doing increased a lot and i actually got more survivability, since the mobs were dying faster.

I never used my soldier gear again, and now i’m trying to get used to always use berserker gear on dungeons but it can be a pain on some situations, at least in AC i can use full berserkers, even when i’m the one in charge of protecting Hodgins in that burrows room.
I really think the best option for warrior is knights gear exatly like you are already doing if you want more survivability, but allied with a good dps build.

Eh, what kind of damage are we talking about? I can cruise around Southsun and Orr by myself with no problems and dungeons are also pretty doable, even with a PUG…is there somewhere where the mobs are even stronger? Er, I just passed Level 50 in Fractals, too…not entirely difficult, either.

That website is confusing as all Hell…lol! I won’t say “yay” or “nay” but I will suggest that if you want a build that absorbs damage (tanky?) then you might want to give a mace/shield a try since it allows you to block, interrupt, and dodge attacks twice…each. Keep the bow, though…very helpful for crowd control. From there, switch your defense line to Shield Master, Sundering Mace, and Cull the Weak. For your tactics line, I’d go for Inspiring Banners, Lung Capacity, and Inspiring Battle Standard. Also, lose the 10 in Strength, add it to Discipline and go for shorter signet recharges. As for your armor, full Cleric with Superior Water runes. Put a Superior Sigil of Life in your Cleric bow and Sapphire Orbs in your Cleric mace and shield. That way, you can get your 25 stacks with the bow, then switch over to your mace and shield and have the added benefits of the extra two orbs. Trinkets should also follow the Cleric line with Sapphire Orbs unless you start getting into Ascended territory, in which you’ll want the Healing Omni Infusions. Yes, some will say there’s no real difference between the +4 of regular infusions and the +5 of the Omni ones but I say “every little bit helps.”

As for your skills, I personally use Healing Signet since it provides the regen but ALSO since you’ll have shorter recharge times on your signets, you can use the Healing Signet to help heal your allies because of the sixth effect of the Water runes. As for the rest, I usually keep the Dolyak Signet and run a shout…For Great Justice or Shake It Off…and a Tactics Banner. Also, if I’m outside of a dungeon, I usually keep the Rage Signet handy for its Active ability and if I’m in a dungeon or particularly harsh battle, then it’s the War Banner for me. As for consumables, Omnomberry Cookies and potions that are relevant to whatever dungeon you’ll be in. This set-up will allow you to face-tank quite a few champions all by yourself aaaaand you can always play around with the various shouts and banners to suit whatever you’re going to be getting yourself into. If I’m gonna’ be dealing with a lot of dangerous conditions, then Shake It Off. If it’s just a matter of raw damage, then FGJ or perhaps On My Mark.

Or if I know that I’ll be just fine without any shouts but I want to keep certain NPCs alive while making things easier on myself in the process…using the pipe repair event in Shaemoore as an example…then I can simply switch to two banners, excluding the elite one, and drop one at each repairman’s location because the banners also heal NPCs and be on my way. Maybe knock out a few bandits to “tag” the event and head on to whatever else I want to do ‘cause the pipes will be repaired before the banners expire. Essentially, multiple banners means being able to provide an extremely effective means of constant healing and buffs at multiple locations. But if you’re on your own or don’t need to cover so much ground, then Tactics Banner and Dolyak Signet is all you really need. Get your 25 stacks, fill up your adrenaline, eat you a cookie, and you’ll definitely be surprised by how much damage you can absorb without even bothering with blocking, dodging, or interrupting. And your fellow peoples will thank you for the insane amount of regeneration that 1900+ healing power provides.

*Also forgot to mention that your spear and harpoon should also follow the Cleric line with Sapphire Orbs but I’m sure that’s obvious enough.

**And yes, I know you’re Level 65 but this outta’ be something to aim for since 15 levels will be over with before you know it. A general guideline, if you will, but for tankiness, healing power and toughness are the way to go.

Eh…can you be a little more specific about what you’re looking for? “Defense” is a rather broad term.

Hmm…well, I personally run a mace/shield because being able to block, dodge, and interrupt everything twice is always nice in my book but I would still think that a warhorn would be better for group purposes since its skills affect everybody on your side.

The “big secret” in this game is that any class is a go when in the hands of somebody who knows what he or she is doing. People that have an animosity towards a given class are only haters because they couldn’t figure out the proper mechanics to playing said class. So, the trick is obviously to find the class that suits your specific playing style…assuming that you’re actually aware of your playing style…and I’m not saying that as a flame, I’m saying that as an actual observation of some players who build their character towards one end of a spectrum but actually play on the other end. Kinda’ like a glass cannon who wants to face-tank everything.

Yep, I second the notion of not being stingy with your Karma because of how easily it can be earned. And, well, there’s really not that much end-game content that’s worth spending any on if you ask me. Er, unless you just like the look of certain karma-based armor and weapons. And I’m also in favor of looking for better equipment every ten levels or so. Five levels might get a little kitten your pocket when considering the rate that you actually gain levels and the means available to do that. For instance, how you can simply do a few “beginner” hearts in your starting map, then travel to another race’s starting map to do a few of their beginner hearts. Rinse, wash, and repeat in a cycle until you’re knocking out all the hearts.

To politely answer your question kitten many are incapable of doing, the answer is “no.”

Oops, I think I’ll apologize for the brain fart comment ‘cause I’m apparently having the brain fart…okay, so a little over 1,700 healing power after gaining the 25 stacks from the life sigil. =P

Sagramor.7395:

TwoWaysyaWowT.3160:

I’m actually wondering why crossbows aren’t in this game. What’s the point of a long bow and a short bow? Just toss the short bows and replace with crossbows…

What you suggest makes no sense. Crossbow is essentially a personal ballista. Shortbow is a quick firing shorter range bow that the Longbow. A Crossbow would function more like the Warrior’s Rifle. A long range, single target, slower ranged weapon.

A bow is a bow and when considering that the majority of rifles in this games are along the musket line, it’s kinda’ hard to be able to (#3) rapid fire ‘em if ANet was going by real world standards. Me personally enjoying archery and firearms in real life and all. But in terms of diversity, it makes no sense to have a long bow and a short bow. And let’s not even argue about real world mechanics in a fantasy game ‘cause the last time I checked, you can’t fire one arrow into the air and suddenly have it raining arrows in real life. So, again, for the sake of in-game diversity, a crossbow would have been more logical in place of the short bow and perhaps rename the “long bow” to just being a “bow.”

Heck, they could have even kept the same skills but simply use the model of crossbows.

Yaki.9563:

TwoWaysyaWowT.3160:

As it has been said before, healing shouts are iffy. You only get the bonus when you use a shout but at the same time, you only heal when you use the shout. So, I’m surely not the only one who sees a problem with this as opposed to a c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t source of healing and a c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t source of bonuses? Much more effective overall because I’m not having to pick between keeping my party buffed or keeping them healed. And with over 1,500 in Healing, the banners are definitely a good thing if you ask me. Especially when you literally see a good quarter of the enemy’s frontline scatter to the winds or Alt-F4 when they notice that they’re no longer able to do enough damage to counter such effects or even remove the other boons that the banners provide since, again, it’s all c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t. Furthermore, I can still pair shouts with healing banners and have those extra bonuses as well. Or, if I happen to be fast enough, I could also switch traits at opportune times during a battle and pretty much allow myself to have both healing banners and healing shouts. Oops, did I say that?

1500 healing? So you’re arguing effectiveness when running with an inferior gear set?

Also, regen stacks duration. You probably don’t recognize it but half that banner regen is wasted when it overwrites or is overwritten by other regen.

And so are any benefit of healing shouts when you’ve used them all up to cover the damage that your team is taking, then to have all those boons stripped? Inferior, indeed. A constant will always be better than a sporadic and that’s a fact.

Just how is a full set of EXOTIC Cleric armor “inferior,” by the way? Did ANet release ascended armor or did you just have a brain fart? What about EXOTIC armor upgrades? I mean, I’m pretty sure EXOTIC is the top tier unless we’re talking trinkets. But yes, full exotic Clerics armor with six superior Dwayna runes, sigil of life on my Cleric rifle, once that gets all 25 stacks, I switch over to my Cleric mace and shield which are also fitted with Sapphire orbs as are both of my Cleric rings and earrings. And one ascended amulet of protection with an Omni healing infusion. Comes out to 1,522 so far.

*To include 30 in Defense and Tactics.

Basically, the average player doesn’t like challenge and would rather take the quickest and easiest route to the “end game” so they can whine and cry about how there’s nothing else to do. Er, that’s also quick and easy.

It’s really just a coin flip since you can make builds that are so similar between the two. But, of course, you’ll get fan boys who will practically live and die by one or the other. Personally, I’m liking warrior better than guardian simply because it’s what I prefer in terms of play style and it has definitely served me well. I mean, as far as PvE goes, if a build can solo champions, then it’s good enough in my book and both classes can do that pretty easily. The same for WvW: If you can make a build that will actually “turn the tide” in a given encounter all by itself, then that’s good enough. An example of this would be with the support aspect of both classes. If you can approach a battle and you can clearly see that your side is losing but once you start adding your healing/support measures, your side suddenly starts dominating, then that’s a good build. But, again, it’s just a matter of playing them both, feeling them out, and seeing what you like more.

I’m actually wondering why crossbows aren’t in this game. What’s the point of a long bow and a short bow? Just toss the short bows and replace with crossbows…

As it has been said before, healing shouts are iffy. You only get the bonus when you use a shout but at the same time, you only heal when you use the shout. So, I’m surely not the only one who sees a problem with this as opposed to a c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t source of healing and a c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t source of bonuses? Much more effective overall because I’m not having to pick between keeping my party buffed or keeping them healed. And with over 1,500 in Healing, the banners are definitely a good thing if you ask me. Especially when you literally see a good quarter of the enemy’s frontline scatter to the winds or Alt-F4 when they notice that they’re no longer able to do enough damage to counter such effects or even remove the other boons that the banners provide since, again, it’s all c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t. Furthermore, I can still pair shouts with healing banners and have those extra bonuses as well. Or, if I happen to be fast enough, I could also switch traits at opportune times during a battle and pretty much allow myself to have both healing banners and healing shouts. Oops, did I say that?

Personally, the difficulty seems to be the same, no matter where you go outside of dungeons. Or Southsun. But the point is that I’m still waiting to see the “living” part of this “living world” concept. Maybe it’s just me but in the real “living world,” the same things don’t always happen in the same areas. Toss in some more champion spawn points across the zones and randomize ‘em. Keeps things a bit fresher if you ask me. I’d like to be able to venture into an area and actually NOT know what to expect for the most part ‘cause that’d make the “living” part of a “living world” more, well, alive. Also, as far as aesthetics are concerned, I’m pretty sure Oblivion and Skyrim are a couple good examples of how “living” can really be. Notice how the regular folk in GW2 are constantly going around in circles at all times of the day? Wish I could do that in the real “living world” but I can’t…I have to sleep, I have to eat, and just do different things from time to time. Really, this whole concept can be great if certain people would get with the program instead of treating it like another marketing gimmick.

*To clarify the added spawn points, I don’t necessarily mean make more champions, I just mean make more areas for champions to SPAWN and they don’t necessarily HAVE to spawn at these areas. Or at all, hence a randomized timer, too. Making things too predictable is exactly why camping is an issue on larger servers. I mean, really, there’s actually websites that have TIMERS for crying out loud. Yes, know exactly when your favorite boss is about to spawn. How is that “living” in any way, shape, or form?

I’m thinking centaur or perhaps a new race but really more-so going with centaur. Maybe a defector? I mean, the actual face has absolutely no Charr features. And let’s not forget that the Collapse seems to be stirring. With “weird noises” being heard from the depths that are supposedly just drakes…uh-huh…

Keyce.8137:

Considering how many people run Arah, maybe we don’t see a corpse because you people keep taking small chunks of it to go buy weapons and armour.

Kidding aside, I’m constantly seeing people forget that we shot down a severely hungry and weak Elder Dragon. Whatever Eyes of Zhaitan he had left were not able to move around sufficiently to see what the Pact was trying to do. We destroyed the Mouth of Zhaitan, effectively starving him by making sure he would never ever eat magical artifacts ever again.

Though… much as I want to defend the personal story, Anet likes to leave out juicy details in a lot of things I take interest in, or make us have to dig for it. While it’s not bad to scrounge for lore, leaving out important details like “Zhaitan is hungry and blind and weak and this is the best chance we have to shoot him out of the sky with a BIG SCARY LASER” was a big mistake. And that (I would believe) is why people are so disappointed by his defeat.

Well… that, and I felt like he never really was the threat Anet wanted him to be. Everyone shooting him down with flak just didn’t seem as cool as it should have been. It needed more unending tide of Risen on the deck, while firing the cannons.

But that’s exactly what I’ve been getting at: When you have a team of developers at the helm of a game and they’ve already stated “nothing is off the table” in terms of what could happen in the future, it’s practically a given that we’ll see Zhaitan return in some way or another. That’s the beauty of keeping the cash cow going, you know. Heck, let’s say that they do finally get around to giving us the body that we’re looking for. And? All they have to do is wave the magic wand that is their own game design and if they so choose, we’ll be going another round with it.

It’s just a matter of if they want to go ahead and give some real conclusion to that event by bringing him back and giving us the finale that we really want or if they’d rather let him take a back seat for a bit while maybe another dragon gets its time in the spotlight. All I do know is that it’s about time for some “major” content instead of another round of Dragon Bash or some seasonal gimmick.

Well, I don’t think it’d be too much to ask for zone-specific randomness. Does the Champion Bandit in Queensdale ALWAYS have to spawn in the cavern? Do the pre-events for Shadow Behemoth ALWAYS have to be at the same locations? What about the wasp and boar? They can easily be moved to other locations as well, as the same with the spider. And yes, I think the timers definitely need a re-work to be more randomized and maybe even longer between occurences so people won’t camp out so much and make it harder for others to get in on the event before it’s over. Gets kinda’ irritating when somebody calls an event but as soon as they call it, it’s already over because of all the campers.

*And also Cave Troll! He’s another one that can easily be relocated from time to time. Come on, peoples!

**And that giant barracuda, too! All those bodies of water on that map and you’re telling me we can’t make him pop-up elsewhere?

Let’s also not forget that spirits can return to their bodies, as per a certain Charr quest if I recall…

Well, that would seem to be the case but until such is actually implemented, things can always change. Especially since Grubb and Soesbee don’t seem to be so sure of anything about the subject in my opinion. “The idea is…” “Or potentially…” Yep, I’ll just stick with the good ol’ “seeing is believing.”

Konig Des Todes.2086:

TwoWaysyaWowT.3160:

Weeeell, such work would be necessary to truly create a “living world,” wouldn’t it?

That’s the core of the oxymoron that is GW2, isn’t it now?

ArenaNet doesn’t have a “living story” they have a mixture of an evolving and a stasis story. The core release being the stasis, everything since being the evolving.

Sort of the same kind of issue that the personal story is – you make decisions, but those decisions don’t affect anything in the long run. Similarly, the “living world” changes, but the original story is still there. And to truly make the game a living world, they’re going to need to start removing/reducing/changing the open world’s core story.

But they’re not going to do that. Not for some time, I’m sure. Maybe in 2014. Maybe. But my hopes aren’t up.

And this is part of the main reason why I hate the temporary content. By ArenaNet’s “living story” ploy, the original content shouldn’t be available anymore. So why the hell are they limiting players of the newer content but keeping the older content unchanged (and not even improving it at that!).

Ah, but excuse my rant. That’s not lore.

We’ll just have to wait and see. But if you ask me, one can quickly run out of ideas for content if they keep up this two-week pace so sooner or later, revisitation is going to have to occur and I hope such revisitation turns out to be for the better with fresh ideas and not just a complete “re-run.”

Konig Des Todes.2086:

TwoWaysyaWowT.3160:

1. It’s been how long since the defeat of Zhaitan and Risen are still everywhere? You would think the developers would have replaced ’em with other enemies by now if Zhaitan is truly no more.

You don’t honestly believe that when everything that was available from the initial release is still available, do you?

They’d have to remove or redo dozens of hearts, hundreds of events, and perhaps thousands of NPC dialogues.

That’s not going to happen. No time soon. Honestly, why they want all their initial release stuff kept but their living story only retaining a good 20% (and I dare say, that’s rather generous of a number to attribute!) of the content is beyond me.

TwoWaysyaWowT.3160:

2. Even though the developers stated that he is dead in terms of canon, again, the Risen are still all over the place. And the developers technically contradicted themselves when they also stated that “nothing is off the table” in terms of future content which leads to….

Technically, that’s no contradiction.

Also, it was said he was defeated, not dead. Good difference.

Also, Risen being present doesn’t mean much, given how it is explicitly stated that the Risen were still around, but would slowly be eradicated by the Pact.

Weeeell, such work would be necessary to truly create a “living world,” wouldn’t it? But I like the clarification between “dead” and “defeated” for the masses to realize. However, all I can assume is that it’s still around for the glaringly-obvious reasons. ANet holds their “living world” concept on the highest pedestal and yet, they’re apparently not willing to tie up these loose ends for some odd reason. That tells me that they’re either a bunch of people who can’t back up the talk or they’re intentionally leaving the loose ends as they are for the stated reasons. Er, Zhaitan not being dead and is only recovering from its defeat for the time being.

Indeed. And I just retested my theory against the same spider with absolutely nobody around. Same results. Pretty strange when considering that I run full Cleric’s gear with 30 in Defense and Tactics, using healing banners, healing signet, adrenaline healing…pretty much the whole range for a tank/support warrior build. Before this update, I could practically be AFK and take the spider. After this update, with absolutely no changes to my build, I can be killed in two hits. Hmm…but this seems to be the same for ALL the champions as they all seem to have been given a significant boost. Regular enemies do seem to be the same, though.

I’ll just have to be the picky one of the bunch and will hold my belief that Zhaitan is still alive until I see an actual corpse because:

1. It’s been how long since the defeat of Zhaitan and Risen are still everywhere? You would think the developers would have replaced ’em with other enemies by now if Zhaitan is truly no more.

2. Even though the developers stated that he is dead in terms of canon, again, the Risen are still all over the place. And the developers technically contradicted themselves when they also stated that “nothing is off the table” in terms of future content which leads to….

3. Something as “cheap” as a good ol’ questionable plunge into a dark mist can easily lead to a comeback so, again, if there’s no body, then as far as I’m concerned, he’s still alive. He might be a tad bit shook-up or severely injured and is maybe recovering but until I see that body (or maybe a tooth like Jormag’s in Hoelbrak?) I can only assume that he’s still alive.

I don’t know…I mean, I could be wrong but it seems like warriors took some kind of a nerf. That or the champs have been given a pretty stout boost ‘cause I used to be able to take on the Champion Spider in Queensdale by myself but now I can’t even come close and I didn’t change anything about my character. Some are telling me that it’s just the scaling but I’m not so sure ’cause I do usually play during peak times on Tarnished Coast and have never had issues like this until this update so…?

I just read the patch notes and I don’t see anything that describes a real nerf to healing but even with combined healing signet, adrenaline healing, and healing banners, and over 1400 in healing itself, I’m still no longer able to regenerate the amounts of damage that I used to before this update. What gives? I mean, I used to be able to go toe-to-toe with a Champion Spider and now one bite takes away half of my health? This, also including a pretty high amount of toughness because all of my gear revolves around Cleric.