Guild Wars 2

Wryog.5073:

Has anyone done the Subject 7 achievement on an ele? I always kill an ooze or don’t burst fast enough.

Yeah, I did it earlier using full Berserker gear, with S/F using a fresh air build (30 in air and 30 in water) and swapping attunements rapidly to abuse the Lightning Strike on a swap and the one on the Sceptre.

Stay far enough away and the oozes spawn under you, but wont heal the boss. Use the Focus skills to mitigate damage, and use the healing signet to regenerate health each time you cast. With fast attunement swaps and lots of instant casts, as well as the blinds on the Sceptre, you mitigate a lot of damage and get a lot of heals.

Cantrips are good skills to take as you can trait for Regen and Vigor on each use. Dont take the elemental elite though, as there is a chance it will get within healing range of the boss and spawn an ooze underneath it.

So you miss out on a minipet, it’s no big deal. It’s supposed to be a rare item, not something everyone can obtain after a few goes.

That being said, it sucks if you can’t complete it because of PC performance issues, I feel sorry for people that are struggling to beat her because ArenaNet decided not to make it an instanced fight.

Crovax.7854:

I’d love to know wher this ominous “luck” comes into play that all the bad players are reffering to, when trying to justify why they couldn’t beat her….

Right, so you can beat her every time then? What is your twitch channel, I want to see this? :P

Targeting the orbs to kill them before they yank you is a massive pain, and the timer from them spawning to yanking you is very short, making this even worse.

Also, the camera is useless, whoever designed these arenas and decided to make them part of the zone didn’t do us any favours, but I suspect that was deliberate.

Yeah, getting her down is going to come down to luck more than skill, not much I can do against the orbs when targeting them is hit and miss, and actually damaging them without ‘Obstructed!’ popping up is also hit and miss.

Iavra.8510:

Actually, they spawn directly under whatever damages Subject 7. Good to know for mesmers as they will spawn under the phantasms and thus near to the boss.

Yeah, makes melee pets particularly troublesome.

Best way is to go D/D, focus on killing Stitches as fast as possible (as she heals) then go for the ranged guy next (he drops that annoying aoe). While you are killing these 2, use your snares to kite the 2 melee bosses, but be ready to dodge roll to avoid their ranged attacks (the captains has the usual charge up animation).

Once the 2 ranged are dead you can take down the melee. It is tough, but doable, even in Rare gear (I only just came back to the game, and Ele is my only 80 so I don’t have much choice). Used a mixture of Soldier’s and Berserker’s gear, with a spec that was something like 10/10/15/15/20.

Top tip, the oozes spawn directly under you as you damage the boss, so if you damage it from range, the blobs will be far enough away that they wont heal him.

Using the Glyph that adds a 5 sec Cripple was the way I did it (make sure when you cast it you are in Earth Attunement though), and using the other Cripple/Chill effects from the D/D weapon set. Also, 15 in Earth will perform an AoE Cripple when you switch to Earth Attunement.

From what I understand, once you eat the 4th meat, it stuns you, but this didn’t happen to me. It is possible I had Stability at the time, but I’m not sure.

It is pretty pointless fighting them until you have 3-4 stacks, so save your high damage skills and focus on dodging the CC and keeping the dog controlled. As soon as you pick up the 3rd meat, start hammering the dog, Chill it when the 4th meat is thrown and you shouldn’t have any problems finishing it off, and then killing the Norn.

Sancrea.7496:

Maybe they should make it so block and reflect will actually affect his 1 shot 1 hit kill, cause i’m not a ranger that can use pet to tank it or XXX invulnerable skills.

Ever tried learning to dodge roll?

DiogoSilva.7089:

nerva.7940:

faceroll low skillcap build, getting nerfed, etc etc. not clicking.

It’s a Dual Dagger Elementalist build. One of the hardest builds to master in this game.

The hardest builds to master are the ones that no one uses because they aren’t as effective as the flavour of the month builds. D/D is easier to play than S/D, as button mashing is more forgiving as D/D. S/D requires more skill in other words.

This Elementalist attitude of ‘hardest class to master’ is a fantasy, none of the classes in this game have a high skill cap. The Ele simply has the highest skill floor of all the professions, and that is easily overcome by buying an MMO gaming mouse.

DiogoSilva.7089:

How many of you poor, saint souls have never, ever abused AoE to do dynamic events? Are you going to all tell me “oh, this idea never once crossed my mind”? No. We all abuse AoE for events. There’s no other optimal way to play them, because AoE is crazy strong. One of the ambitions behind this game is that you should play the build you want; but at the moment, for events, you either go AoE, or are at disadvantage.

How many of you have seen mobs dodging your AoEs? Probably not many, neither, especially with some good control skills. Sure, it is the fault of the enemy’s AI too, but if all enemies in pve could and would dodge, it would create the opposite effect: be extremely annoying for aoe players.

How many of you haven’t abused AoEs to clean entire capture points in pvp (and farm glory in the process)? Remember, at the smaller points, dodging and evading aoe damage is not an easy option, because it gives away the control of the point, and this might decide the outcome of the entire match. Or how many times haven’t you just spammed aoe on downed allies and anyone trying to rez them, because it’s simply easier and more effective than using the more risky finish mechanic itself? That’s cheap.

And WvW? WvW zergs are an AoE spamfest. This is a fact. None of you can argue against that. The format itself motivates that.

Matter of fact is, AoE is almost always better than single-target damage in this game. When you fight two mobs, are you going to quickly burst one so you can have some room to breath while fighting the remaining one? No, you’re going to AoE spam them, because it’s easier. Maybe if both options were equally viable strategically, but they are not.

It’s true that the devs must be very careful with how they nerf AoE, and IMO, they should find unique mechanisms that trigger at specific situations, and not simply make a straight damage nerf all across the board.

However, if any of you want “statistical proof”, just enter WvW and walk and pick a few flowers, just enter spvp and check what is happening around the points, just go take a walk in normal pve and check what is happening in dynamic events.

No one is whining? How many people have complained that some portions of GW2 are zergfests spamming aoes to each other? How many rangers, necromancers and the like have complained that aoe compeltely destroys their minions? How many melee players have complained that it’s almost impossible to melee in a slightly crowded zone because they would be AoE’d to death?

Very well said

ThiBash.5634:

Zantetsuken.9051:

Want to suggest a counter to that, saying as you think you know something about military tactics?

Easy, throw down your own AoEs on the portal where they’re all supposed to appear.

As for the rendeing, you don’t balance the game based on server performance issues. You fix the server.

Good idea, because the moment the portal goes down, the other team usually waits 5-10 seconds for everyone to notice it before they jump through :P

It is easy to ‘fake’ a portal by placing one down as a decoy, and using another placed behind to attack. Using TS, you can co-ordinate when to buff up and when to stealth, just before dropping the portals. Not that this is even necessary given the speed you can get through a portal.

The moment the portal exit goes down, the waiting group all hit F at the same time and bomb the area before the defenders even see the portal. Nice try, but your idea is on par with ’don’t stand in the AoE’ :P

darkace.8925:

Zantetsuken.9051:

Individual AoE damage isn’t the problem, the problem occurs when 20 players all stack AoEs in the same space. In WvW, there are guilds out there that stack the best AoE classes and can wipe out large groups of players in seconds. This change will make combat in sPvP and WvW far more involved and enjoyable.

Throughout the entirety of military history there have been instances where one force was outmatched by superior strength. Do you know what the did? The good ones adapted their tactics while the bad ones became footnotes in history.

From what I can tell, WvW is supposed to be a tactical affair. Instead repeatedly charging headlong into that large enemy group you know to contain several players capable of inflicting area of effect damage, adapt your tactics.

Or just * and moan about how unfair area of effect damage is and wait for ArenaNet to dumb it down.

Do you play WvW at all? That situation you just described is how PvEers think World PvP works. Only a moron would use tactics such as those you described, and organised PvPers aren’t morons. They spend their free time adapting to changing tactics while you PvEers spend yours grinding the same boring content again and again.

The good guilds stealth & portal into the middle of an enemy force and annihilate them in seconds with AoE. They can drop dozens of players before they even render due to culling. The only telltale is the game gets sluggish a second before red numbers start jumping out of your player, then you are downed along with everyone else in the vicinity. Then the other team appears out of thin air, several seconds late. It is a brilliant use of game mechanics, and very admirable for guilds that execute it well, but it sucks the life out of combat.

Want to suggest a counter to that, saying as you think you know something about military tactics?

Draemos.8045:

Zantetsuken.9051:

This isn’t really relevant. If you increased the 4 to 30 so it was even numbers, and then looked at the AoE damage, that is where the problem lies. Guilds are using culling and AoE damage to wipe out large groups in seconds before they even know what hit them.

Like it or not, that causes players to quit, because that kind of combat isn’t fun. There is no fighting involved, just AoE spam followed by a long run back from the Waypoint.

This change, if it goes far enough, will make combat more involved and enjoyable.

The thing that’s likely to cause people to quit is sweeping nerfs to their classes when 80+% of their damage is AoE based. Nobody complains about AoE, they complain about getting mutilated by a thief in the span of 2 seconds.

True, but people have complained about AoE as well. Some glass cannon builds in sPvP struggle because once committed, they can’t get out of a fight, and they die to casual AoE damage in seconds. Warrior and Elementalist are prone to this, whereas Thieves and Mesmers have stealth, which allows them to extricate themselves, giving them a huge advantage.

If you have an Ele, go into sPvP with a full glass cannon build, you can easily die even if no one is targeting you, because of AoE damage that is inherent in some of the weapon skills (all of which get used in a fight, it would be wrong not to).

Necromancer Axe is a single target weapon right? Yet Unholy Feast is an AoE attack, and is indiscriminate in who it hits. That kind of casual AoE damage, when used by several players, wrecks glass cannon builds, even if no one is trying to kill them.

I would have preferred to see health pools increased, but I suspect that would be harder to balance.

morrolan.9608:

Zantetsuken.9051:

Seriously though, AoE damage needs to be nerfed for PvP reasons.

Not IMHO, I mainly WvW and I have no problem at all with the amount of aoe damage.
If there was a problem where are the complaints about it?

I’ve seen complaints about AoE, but then, I’ve seen complaints about just about everything on these forums. ArenaNet stated a while back that they were looking into AoE damage being too high, I think that was in response to sPvP concerns though.

We don’t actually know the extent of the nerfs just yet, some skills may be untouched and others heavily nerfed. Your opinion is your own, as is mine, but I found WvW to be so much better when everyone was low level. Damage to health ratios were much better, letting large groups actually fight instead of steamrolling each other by surprise. AoE and culling make for very fast, and very boring fights. Culling will probably take longer to fix, so it seems AoE damage is the solution.

I would rather see health pools tripled to be honest, but AoE damage being nerfed is good enough for me. Who knows, ArenaNet might be nerfing AoE damage for different reasons, but in my opinion, it is needed, at least for PvP.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

Might as well remove staff weapon from Elementalist.

Just because you may get several of those Elementalists clustered, doesn’t mean you should nerf their weapon attack.

This will off balance the game more than before.

GG…

Yeah, because all of our combo fields are totally worthless unless they do high damage.

Lol, for my argument? AoE damage is getting nerfed, end of story. If this was an argument, I would have already won

To be honest, I don’t care if this change makes PvE more difficult/time consuming. I’m just offering an explanation as to why it needs to happen. Instead of creating dozens of whine threads, maybe you lot should ask ArenaNet to nerf the health pools of mobs to compensate for the damage loss.

Esrever.8613:

Zantetsuken.9051:

Esrever.8613:

Zantetsuken.9051:

Mitch.4781:

Zantetsuken.9051:

Individual AoE damage isn’t the problem, the problem occurs when 20 players all stack AoEs in the same space. In WvW, there are guilds out there that stack the best AoE classes and can wipe out large groups of players in seconds. This change will make combat in sPvP and WvW far more involved and enjoyable.

Maybe not stand in aoe like an kitten then? There is a dodge manoveure. Or at least maybe make it so that Aoe in groups of more than 5 is affected …rather than punishing pve dungeon players…

Ah right, you’re a PvEer. That would be why you don’t seem to realise that good guilds saturate a large area with AoE making it impossible to get out of with 2 dodge rolls. And when you are taking damage from 20 different AoE attacks, most people are downed before the attacking team have even rendered (that’s right, the good guilds abuse culling to make their ambushes far more effective).

And that doesn’t even take into account CC.

stop being glass cannons if you are dropping to like 2 AOEs.

You need to learn to read mate, I said 20, not 2. Go into one of your precious PvE dungeons, pull 20-30 mobs into a pile, and let them hit you. Now you know what WvW feels like :P

thats what happens when you don’t kill them with AOE…. kitten If 30 mobs are in 1 spot, hit them with AOE.

If you are attacking something with 20 AOE you are playing WvW wrong. Zerging a heavily fortified area LMAO. Have fun with that. Pro tip, zerg places the enemy isn’t defending well. And use your own siege.

Wow, thanks for those pro tips, you’ve really made a difference. My server will be Tier 1 in no time thanks to you and your tactical genius.

LieutenantGoogle.7326:

In WvW its more of a issue with culling than actual AoE damage, don’t kid yourselves.
I’ve rarely see anyone die from being AoE’d on a wall unless they had binding roots on them or if they got pulled.

Go look up Red Guard, one of the European WvW guilds. The good guilds DO use CC with their AoE bombs. You make it sound like a fluke if someone dies to AoE.

Don’t kid yourself, AoE damage needs a nerf, at least as far as WvW goes. Dungeons can be rebalanced to give the mobs less health if it slows dungeon runs down.

Esrever.8613:

Zantetsuken.9051:

Mitch.4781:

Zantetsuken.9051:

Individual AoE damage isn’t the problem, the problem occurs when 20 players all stack AoEs in the same space. In WvW, there are guilds out there that stack the best AoE classes and can wipe out large groups of players in seconds. This change will make combat in sPvP and WvW far more involved and enjoyable.

Maybe not stand in aoe like an kitten then? There is a dodge manoveure. Or at least maybe make it so that Aoe in groups of more than 5 is affected …rather than punishing pve dungeon players…

Ah right, you’re a PvEer. That would be why you don’t seem to realise that good guilds saturate a large area with AoE making it impossible to get out of with 2 dodge rolls. And when you are taking damage from 20 different AoE attacks, most people are downed before the attacking team have even rendered (that’s right, the good guilds abuse culling to make their ambushes far more effective).

And that doesn’t even take into account CC.

stop being glass cannons if you are dropping to like 2 AOEs.

You need to learn to read mate, I said 20, not 2. Go into one of your precious PvE dungeons, pull 20-30 mobs into a pile, and let them hit you. Now you know what WvW feels like :P

modomario.4196:

“Guilds are using culling and AoE damage to wipe out large groups in seconds before they even know what hit them.”

Solution? Not being in a gigantic zerg…. It’s a kitten meta and aoe would be the way to change that.

Are you a PvEer by any chance? :P

Mitch.4781:

Zantetsuken.9051:

Individual AoE damage isn’t the problem, the problem occurs when 20 players all stack AoEs in the same space. In WvW, there are guilds out there that stack the best AoE classes and can wipe out large groups of players in seconds. This change will make combat in sPvP and WvW far more involved and enjoyable.

Maybe not stand in aoe like an kitten then? There is a dodge manoveure. Or at least maybe make it so that Aoe in groups of more than 5 is affected …rather than punishing pve dungeon players…

Ah right, you’re a PvEer. That would be why you don’t seem to realise that good guilds saturate a large area with AoE making it impossible to get out of with 2 dodge rolls. And when you are taking damage from 20 different AoE attacks, most people are downed before the attacking team have even rendered (that’s right, the good guilds abuse culling to make their ambushes far more effective).

And that doesn’t even take into account CC.

This isn’t really relevant. If you increased the 4 to 30 so it was even numbers, and then looked at the AoE damage, that is where the problem lies. Guilds are using culling and AoE damage to wipe out large groups in seconds before they even know what hit them.

Like it or not, that causes players to quit, because that kind of combat isn’t fun. There is no fighting involved, just AoE spam followed by a long run back from the Waypoint.

This change, if it goes far enough, will make combat more involved and enjoyable.

Individual AoE damage isn’t the problem, the problem occurs when 20 players all stack AoEs in the same space. In WvW, there are guilds out there that stack the best AoE classes and can wipe out large groups of players in seconds. This change will make combat in sPvP and WvW far more involved and enjoyable.

I think it saves you when you are in safe areas, I was running from point to point to finish the last 3 hearts and a vista, not to mention gaining a level.

So I just managed to complete Blazeridge Steppes, and went to make a cup of tea. When I came back, the game had disconnected, and when I managed to log back in, I found that the game had rolled me back by about an hours worth of play.

Is there any way to turn this ridiculous feature off? I really don’t want to have to do these boring heart quests more than once.

The game seriously needs to be looked at and finished off, so I welcome this news. It just wasn’t ready for release, but it was pushed out anyway (despite many known issues from beta still being present) and since then we have had Halloween and Christmas as well as a content patch, but only the more serious bugs/exploits have been corrected.

The game is suffering from lack of maintenance to correct the bugs and QoL issues (such as respawn rate) that are dragging it down, I just hope these issues are going to be the priority for the incoming patch.

And then there is the underwater combat, and the underwater skills synergy with the Traits (ie why does my Auramancer have no underwater Aura etc). Maybe we should have a separate trait setup for underwater combat, as we do with utility skills? There is still much to do to get the existing content to a high standard. With Easter being the next major holiday, they have time to get the game to the standard it should have been at for launch.

Nothing about this game makes me think ArenaNet have a QA team.

It actually makes me laugh, that on the surface, the game is so gorgeous to look at and listen to, so polished, but when you start playing it, you realise just how poor the actual development has been.

Respawn rates are ridiculous, given the boring amount of time it takes to kill mobs, you can actually find yourself stuck in a loop. Underwater it is even worse, as you can’t fully see the area around you, so getting adds is pretty much unavoidable.

I escorted a group of Crusaders into a cave full of Risen (a dynamic event), and ended up fighting 8 Risen by myself. I managed to kill some of them before dying. I ran back and died another 2 times, before managing to clear them. No sooner than I started reviving the crusaders, the mobs were back, again, 8 of them (how the kitten do your events scale anyway? 8 kittening mobs for a single player? really?) and naturally I wiped again.

At that point I just logged off. Despite the professional appearance of the game, under the surface it just hasn’t been fully tested at all, and now that the game is actually live, and the devs are working on new content, this isn’t likely to be changed. Same with the amount of bugs that were reported in beta and STILL haven’t been fixed. It boils down to resources, and they are pouring theirs into the next chapter.

Leveling as an Elementalist has been nothing less than a tedious chore, no matter how well I manage my attunement swapping, no matter how well I use my abilities, I just can’t overcome the raw damage caused to me by simple auto attacks. Against anything more than 3 mobs, I have little chance of surviving, I can’t kill fast enough, or survive the damage long enough. My gear is pretty much all karma gear I buy from the heart vendors the moment I complete the requirements.

There is a balance in MMOs, between mob difficulty, mob density, aggro radius, respawn rate and reset distance. If mobs are harder to kill, and there are lots of them, then the respawn rate needs to be very long to compensate. This game gets it so wrong, it is even worse than Rift was (Rift was bad in places, not many though). The only part of that balance ArenaNet have got right is the aggro radius, at least on land. Underwater it needs to be reduced to compensate for the reduced awareness caused by the camera.

Reset distance is just laughable as well, pull mobs away from roving patrols and you run the risk of them resetting. Not very funny when a Champion mob resets to 100% health because the guy he was focusing on tried to run away from the moronic damage he was taking.

WoW got the balance right, which is part of the reason new players stayed with it during leveling instead of quitting in frustration. It is unlikely I will stick with this game, I detest playing unfinished and untested games, especially when there is a high probability that nothing will be done about it.

Whoever programmed them? The AI in this game is very basic, they aren’t tough because of that.

Dredge are tough because they hit hard, often and take longer to kill than most other mobs. That has nothing to do with smart programming.

This game is all about the stats

Raytek.6193:

Every MMO forum is like this.

Except Firefall’s. That is actually a pretty mature community. Probably because all the nimrods haven’t migrated there yet.

Because they inject themselves with apple juice, which gives them really bad farts :P

Fanboy threads are just as useless to a forum as rage threads are.

Much of the criticism that has been leveled at ArenaNet is fair and justified (although in reality it is likely Nexon that are to blame). They made many promises during development, and then changed their minds AFTER people paid for the game. Just because you love their game so much doesn’t mean that the players who were lied to aren’t entitled to be angry about it.

This.

I’m tired of playing MMOs that neglect the world in favour of instanced dungeons. Might as well have made GW2 like GW1 if all you intend to do is force players into instanced content.

Nope, they lost me when they announced new gear would be added AFTER the game was released, despite their previous promises that this wouldn’t be the case. Their cash shop tactics are pretty sinister as well.

In fact, I wont be buying any game that profits NC Soft after this. Cash shops should be about value, not a scam.

Melee clones should be killed as a priority, especially if the Mesmer producing them is a Shatter Mesmer. But if you are using a melee weapon, you can do that quite easily. And if the Mesmer is setting his clones on you, it is a safe bet he is going to spike you, in which case, you can counter it.

Biomanz.9302:

Talentless huh? Big talk for a doomsayer declaring the game is a failure and unfixable after 4 months. Name me another mmo that had perfect balance after a few months.

Also, staff playing their own game must be the very best in the world right?

Spread your bile elsewhere

For a game that uses fixed stats for sPvP, good balance is actually achievable, and should be demanded by the players. Other MMOs allow PvP and PvE gear to be worn for PvP, and that typically creates unintentional results which skew balance. As the devs never want to adjust the gear (as it is often shared by other classes) they adjust the abilities of the OP class instead. And as new gear is added, new problems arise.

With a game like this, there is no way for balance to be skewed, so we have every right to insist that it is good enough if they want us to play their game. Realistically, it takes time, but in 4 months ArenaNet still haven’t even fixed all of the bugs that were reported in the beta weekends. Look at how long it took them to fix Evasive Arcana, a bugged trait that produced a completely overpowered effect (blast finishers on every dodge roll).

At this rate, it will take almost until the game is 1 year old to get it where it should have been at release.

Jumper.9482:

It takes thief 0.25-0.75 seconds at the very least to do that kind of damage. (Or, in a Warrior’s case, 1-2 seconds)
More than enough time to shadowstep/endurepain/deathshroud/distortion/mistform/etc…
When a Mesmer can burst for the same amount in 0.01 seconds, this is NOT balanced.

I would even go as far as to say if Mesmers could burst 50k dmg but it took them a quarter second or more to do it, it would be balanced.

Removed the link to vid as it provoked too many trolls.

Mesmer clones need to travel to their target before they detonate. If it takes 0.01 seconds to blow them up, then you are standing too close to the Shatter Mesmer’s clones. Standing too close to the Shatter Mesmer’s clones. Standing too close…..

They need additional game modes. I didn’t really think it would be an issue just having a single game mode (capture and hold), but the lack of variety really drags down the whole PvP experience. Add that to the lack of viable builds, and the entire PvP experience drops drastically.

As for Glory farming, ArenaNet kittened that up when they added the Skirmisher bonus. Before that was added, the worst players (ie the ones that fought in the middle of nowhere and were a burden to their teams) walked away with the worst rewards. The players who attacked and defended the points walked away 3-4 times as many points.

Then some idiot came up with the idea of rewarding the bad players for fighting in no mans land, and hot join capture and hold turned into team deathmatch, without the teamwork. At that point, players took the path of least resistance and went for the easymode farming classes ie Thieves and Mesmers, as stealth and clones offer unrivaled survival when using glass cannon builds.

Also, the Glory reward system is awful, I want to be able to save up and buy what I want, not rely on RNG to give me the same crap again and again. I think a huge amount of work is required to get PvP to a place where everyone will be happy. Which is a shame, because during the first beta weekend, there was so much promise in this game.

Shukran.4851:

Zantetsuken.9051:

lvis.3824:

And again someone who does not realize that you still do dmg to a stealthed thief if you just use AE or your #1 skill. ….

It’s these players who come to the thief forum all day and QQ about perma stealth … another proof that it’s always a L2P issue, thanks for the evidence dude.

Lol, I love reading posts from desperate Thieves who are scared stiff they will get nerfed

Crutch classes are for bad players

i find difficult to find the disperation in this thief’s words. i am a thief and i dare anet to not nerf thief, as other burst builds, so we can have a nice game with all balanced build in which only spike (focus) count on kills.

Hang on, you dare ArenaNet not to nerf Thieves because you want a balanced game where focus firing is the way to kill players? Even though a Thief can spike a 3.2k armour bunker build from 100% to 0 without any assistance from other players? Having that kind of burst and stealth is the reason so many bad players flocked to Thief. Because the mechanics of the game compensate for the lack of skill these players have.

The good news is, you won’t need to level the next flavour-of-the-month profession when you abandon your Thief after stealth gets a severe nerf. The burst will be toned down (and bunker healing as well) but stealth is the real problem with Thieves, and it will be gutted for all non-stealth builds. ArenaNet will lose too many casual players if they don’t.

lvis.3824:

And again someone who does not realize that you still do dmg to a stealthed thief if you just use AE or your #1 skill. ….

It’s these players who come to the thief forum all day and QQ about perma stealth … another proof that it’s always a L2P issue, thanks for the evidence dude.

Lol, I love reading posts from desperate Thieves who are scared stiff they will get nerfed

Crutch classes are for bad players

projectcedric.6951:

Zantetsuken.9051:

ArenaNet can push the prices up past the point that you can afford them just from farming gold. And the amount of gold you can farm ties in to how much time you spend playing per day. Some play more, some much less.

Also, once you make that first purchase in the cash shop, it becomes easier and easier to do it again, unless you have a lot of patience, or no cash to spare. Don’t expect to be getting anything easily in this game. If they can make you grind for it, they will, to encourage you to take the ‘easy’ option of buying gold.

How about “Im not paying extra money for a game I already paid a one-time payment for just to get an aesthetic weapon that has statistically no advantage over something I can also get for less trouble in-game”?

That’s up to each person. For me, I have little interest in such things. I can easily afford to spend money on in-game cash shops, but I choose not to unless I am buying something that has no effect at all on the game. Skins, emotes, fun items, I am happy with things like this. Buying gold though from the very people who are in control of the market and can manipulate it to suit themselves, well, that is going too far.

This game is pretty much ruined because the cash shop is behind every decision that is being made. The good news is, the game isn’t brilliant, so walking away isn’t that hard. Staying away will be harder though, due to no sub fees

ArenaNet can push the prices up past the point that you can afford them just from farming gold. And the amount of gold you can farm ties in to how much time you spend playing per day. Some play more, some much less.

Also, once you make that first purchase in the cash shop, it becomes easier and easier to do it again, unless you have a lot of patience, or no cash to spare. Don’t expect to be getting anything easily in this game. If they can make you grind for it, they will, to encourage you to take the ‘easy’ option of buying gold.

Every decision that they make in 2013 will be aimed at increasing revenue in the cash shop. At the moment, people are trying desperately to obtain precursors, failing, and leaving the game (such as one of my Guild mates did, he was so sick of trying he deleted his main and walked away).

So you can expect ArenaNet to add a way for everyone to get their very own precursor. That way, everyone will be chasing the mats for them, demand will increase and prices will go up. People will buy gold with real money to be able to afford these mats.

We might even see an expansion towards the end of the year, with a new level cap, new zones, new instanced dungeons (/shudder) and of course, new gear. And because they will have learned from mistakes they have made so far, you can expect a more streamlined way to get everyone to buy some gems, instead of just a small minority spending lots and lots of real money.

As for PvP, chances are the loss of interest from the casual side of the game will prompt a balance pass to be made that changes the way the game is currently played, so that the game is more 1v1 friendly. As for WvW, no idea, that game mode has its own set of issues. Swiftness granting NPCs, like the ones found in the cities would be nice though, as all that running around can be very tedious. Granting a 100% run speed buff, but having it fall off the moment the player takes damage, would be brilliant.

critickitten.1498:

Kacigarka.5176:

So either you work for it, or you can just complain for another 10 years but nothing is going to change just because there are few whining individuals

Except that ANet has already admitted that they don’t like the way Legendaries are currently obtained and are going to make changes to the system.

Whoops. Guess you’d better stop whining about how other people are whining, then.

Yeah, except they aren’t going to make changes to your benefit. The smart financial move would be to give everyone their own precursor (and hence the desire to obtain their very own legendary), then strangle the supply of mats needed to craft them. Prices would rocket, and the only way most people could achieve it would be to buy gems for real money, sell them for gold and buy the mats on the TP.

In other words, expect precursors to become more common, demand for mats to soar, and prices to also rocket. And in the background, some greedy exec will be rubbing his crotch in glee at the amount of real money it generates.

The holy trinity was a lazy approach to encounter design. It used to be good back in the day when DPS were forced to watch their threat or die, and the raid/party wiped when the healers went out-of-mana.

Blizzard warped it later on though, they gave tanks infinite threat (where they could only lose aggro during the first 10 seconds) and the lazy inclusion of enrage timers meant they didn’t need to balance mana/mana regen anymore.

If a game allowed each character to play as every profession/class, and didn’t require gear/stats to play in each role, then you could make a game with more than 3 roles, knowing that any player could fill any role at any time. I could accept that, but the inflexible and lazy system Blizzard used needs to be eliminated from MMOs.

ArenaNet are on the right track, but again, their system has its own flaws they will need to address.

I have no idea about their commitment to E-Sports, but the Feb patch is supposed to be a PvP patch. They haven’t given any details yet though. If all we get is another map and some other fluff, then I don’t fancy their chances much :P

Indeed, then use that gold to buy the items on the TP. I wouldn’t be surprised if drop rates were tied to the amount of items already on the market. Lower the supply, push prices up, force people to buy gold. Pretty sinister, and the reason I will never touch the cash shop, but it was pretty obvious this would happen. Even people who want to just farm their Legendary are being pushed into buying it for real money instead.

I doubt it. If the downed state was identical for each profession, then it might work.

Elementalists had the worst downed state on release, making them an easy choice for first kill. Then a very lazy change by ArenaNet (swapping Vapor Form and Grasping Earth) completely changed that. And even 4 months after release, the Elementalist is still plagued with bugs. I suspect the other professions are as well.

Also, who would be the audience? The casual GW2 sPvP players? Many of them aren’t even playing anymore, due to the lack of 1v1 balance where bunkers and spikers are concerned. The amount of dead servers in the hot join browser is proof that people are losing interest.

Also, many people are waiting for the PvP patch in February. I suspect if it doesn’t deliver then even more will walk away. This means monthly tournaments, custom servers and a ladder system all need to be added. Paids need a lot of attention as well, the cost is insulting and the queuing times are suffering as a result. Greed dominates.

That will never happen. People spend real money on gems, and then sell the gems for gold so they can buy the precursors (as well as the mats for the weapon). That is kind of the whole point of having legendary weapons. ArenaNet will never be allowed to change that.

At a guess, if you want to get rid of permanent DR, spend some money in the cash shop :P

DRs exist to limit the amount of goods on the market, which drives prices up, as well as force farmers to consider buying the mats instead of just farming them. ArenaNet wants you to buy gems in the cash shop, then sell them for gold, and then use that gold to buy the mats you want.

Instead of just selling value items in their cash shop, they chose to sell gems (gold) as well, and they have the means to manipulate the market to force you to do just that, if you want your legendary that badly.

Or you could realise just how futile it all is and give up. They will only force you to do it all again when the first expansion is released anyway. And the next one, and the next one. They aren’t going to let you do it for free without making it as time consuming and tedious as possible.