Guild Wars 2

IMHO the problem is compounded by two factors:
Condis got a strong damage boost which makes some classes now rival former burst specs in Time to Kill. While I agree that for PvE (and perhaps design further down the road, idk) this “unchaining” was necessary, it creates the lopsided meta we now face in WvW. This by itself is not the root of the problem though. Basically it would mean just a race to the kill with the old power specs.

The real kicker comes from a different aspect that many seem to oversee: Immunities and damage avoidance from classes. Before the big patch, these immunities and avoidance plays were necessary for the conditions to do their work. Now, you have damage output comparable to power builds but power builds were never able to run their damage and their immunities in parallel. A power spec that goes stealth or runs shieldblock and whatnot is not doing damage. The condi builds can though and that is where the crux lies.

And how does one defuse this? Hard to tell. Reducing the defensive mechanics will unbalance the power builds just as much, they are the primary counter against spikes after all so that should be a no-go. IF, it needs to be a mechanic that reduces the condi specs output when he goes turtle, so just dumping all condis and then sitting it out can be outplayed by the opponent. And notice the “outplayed” in my words, it should be something the opponent needs to play right, not something automatic.

Mayhaps a sort of “ramp up” damage scale for certain condis (the higher running ones like burning, torment and maybe confusion) where damage application over time is not equal but weaker in the beginning and strongest at the end. That would increase the value of cleanse (which can both be bad and good, has to be looked at carefully). But it would put the condi user on spot where it could be preferable to aggressivly push his condis and secure their runtime by CC rather than go turtle and let it run it’s course. Not an optimal solution I bet but rarely does “optimal” exist.

Think the event is nice but as usual, it’s the context that is the problem.
It would probably have been greeted much more positive if we had some more meaningful changes first.

A-Net: First the meaningful things, then the silly stuff. Not the other way round please.

1: Healing signet is off the bar for me. It’s regen style simply can’t deal with the insane burst going around. The on use is nice but mostly irrelevant in the grander scheme of things. I rather use Berserker Stance or even the Signet of Stamina.
2: A stun build using the mace has come up for me and it’s nice. I’m not sure what to combine it with best, but I guess the Skullcracker build by Burr on the forums is the way to go. Saying that… for the macing builds, many old warriors builds simply disappeared it seems.
3: Shoutbow is a little yapper you drag along with your zerg to have any sort of meaning. Other than that, it’s nothing another class won’t be better at.

To draw a sum below it all: The current Blitzkrieg Meta simply forces us into preemptive/preventive defensive play. That means the old tanki style or riding the regen of Healing Signet and the Adren regen are gone. Things like the Healing Signet on use simply don’t deal well with what is being thrown around. I rather try to unload a stunchain under the cover of Berserker Stance and get out again with Shieldblock and Defiant Stance than rely on any sort of tanking concept. Alone the necessity to rely on these defensive skills pretty much limits whatever skills can go onto the toolbar. I don’t see shouts as valuable considering how low their healing is in comparison to what I get thrown at me. That you have to sacrifice a Grandmaster Trait for the measly healing that doesn’t do much is just topping. Banners usually don’t find their way onto my bar as they don’t allow me to prevent my face from being melted in 4 seconds. The general “constant but small” buffing scheme has gone out of the window in my eyes, now it’s burn the strong but long CDs playstyle.

Well, Nighttime capping is one of the reason. Still somewhat understandable if culture wise, you guys have your free time later than the other EU zones. Doesn’t excuse the blobbiness of your guild raids. It seems to be a regular thing that two big BB guild groups unite against an already smaller zerg.

What dumps my opinion of the server is something completely different though: Roamers, even those cheesy condi thieves, that Alt-F4 when they are downed. Had a whole share of probably 4-5 different people who did that from BB in the last few days. It’s cowardice.

If you guys really want to get rid of the hate image, grow some thicker skin and accept the bashed in faces until you’ve gotten better. And don’t think yourself so great when you managed to 4vs1 someone with three thieves and a mesmer. Like dancing on the stomped corpse and such things. You don’t gain anything from doing that. Rather, you only sour the mood against you with that. Stomp the loner, maybe bow if you think he put up a fight and then be off. Showing some basic respect for your opponent can go a long way.

And yes, such a change won’t happen by next Friday. You’ll have to do quite some policing to get that out of the WvW populace again.

Patch putting alot more importance on a role that has the least reward in WvW, scouting. The people who thought that removing the white swords was a good idea should be forced to spend their working hours scouting on sub T2 servers. And every hour they work only gets paid if they actually thwarted an attack during that hour.

That or come up with a reward and recognition system for the scouts that actually honors the people investing their time into that role.

In my opinion, ArenaNet should put more focus back on game components that are more timeless, not so event-bound. I played GW1 and the only thing I currently enjoy about GW2 is the WvW. I spend most of my time there, I can’t connect to the Living World Story and the events really. GW1 had this air of the long journey. Going from seared Ascalon to finally arrive at the gates of Kryta through those kitten yeti caves, that was something. I’m really missing these moments in GW2. It has got this feeling of a squirrel running around between nuts falling from a tree. “Oh, a nut…Oh, another nut… oh another nut”. No real connection between the nuts and nut 1 is forgotten once nut 2 dropped.

Second, Guilds… The game is called Guild Wars… But for all intents and purposes, whether you’re in a guild or not doesn’t really matter outside of social aspects.

Third, the new way to unlock traits… I see what ArenaNet tried there. I commend the effort (it is the right idea IMHO). They tried to reintroduce the skill hunting aspect from GW1, an aspect that I personally really liked. Problem is… it doesn’t work in GW2:P This is tied to my first point, the journey. Getting an Elite in GW1 when not using the tome was a little journey of its own. And often, you needed good people from your guild for it. In GW2, it is just a chore. Because it doesn’t evoke that certain spirit it did in GW1.

This is fundamentally a result of the open world, adhoc-event design of GW2. Again, the design by itself is not a bad thing but it poses a challenge when it comes to percieved consistency and, for lack of a better word, wholeness of the world you wish to depict in the game. Right now, it remains nebulous to me and I can’t connect to it and my interest wanders to other aspects I rather enjoy (WvW).