Guild Wars 2

I believe they are associated with your account and stored on the servers and not on the client.

Anyways, the controller is different than a keyboard and mouse, (and probably not officially supported). The server might be confused when you switch between the two input devices.

I have calculated that Celestial Armor provides the easiest way to get an optimal amount of durability for my Engineer during WvW.

I’ve calculated that about 375-550 bonus Vitality and Toughness from all sources is an optimal range. It has to be both- anything outside of that range is not optimal.

This is also good for the Ranger too, because the Engineer and Ranger have the same base health and armor pools at level 80. The curves for other professions appears to be similar to that of the one I calculated for the Engineer, but I have not tested them as thoroughly.

My long winded post failed to upload….

CPU clock speed is of utmost consideration for running GW2 specifically. In general, higher numbers mean better CPU. The CPU is the brains of the computer and it delegates tasks to the other hardware.

Number of cores and threads is another important thing to consider, too. But GW2 mainly runs on ONE core even on my intel i7 quad core (8 thread) CPU. A faster clock speed will process GW2’s and others’ codes faster. However, it is likely that multi-threading will likely play a much larger role in future programs, so more cores will run things better. Clock speed is main consideration no matter what.

Next consider a laptop that has a Dedicated or discrete graphics processing unit (GPU). The integrated graphics on AMD’s and Intel’s current generation CPUs is just not sufficient to run GW2 optimally, but they can run games like LoL. Again, higher numbers generally mean better GPU. DDR5 memory is faster than DDR3.

RAM- consider 4-8 GB of RAM. Anything more or less than that range will either be too much or too little.

Harddrive space is really up to you depending on what types of data you typically save. Higher numbers mean more capacity and faster data transfer rate. An SSD is faster and much more expensive than a Hard disk drive (HDD). Aim for 500+GB. 250 GB will suffice.

Check out this website below for more information about specific hardware components and their real world tests and results.

www.cpubenchmark.net

Here’s the rig I’ve played almost 1k hours on:

Sony Vaio Laptop 2012
Intel i7 3632QM @ 2.20 GHxz
AMD Radeon HD 7570M/ HD 7670M GPU
with 2 GB DDR5 dedicated graphics memory
8 GB DDR3 RAM

It runs GW2 on medium settings, with a couple others on high at about 20-30 FPS overall
It runs Star Citizen’s alpha Hangar module on medium settings at about 20-30 FPS
While running several other programs and open web browsers at once

Monsters, maps, and encounters need to have more random elements in them.

• Accomplished by making new niches for professions to exploit
• Changing encounters and monster mechanics
• Other things

Randomness is a good thing up to a certain amount. If there’s very little random events happening in nature, then populations will likely go extinct when a disruption occurs. Likewise if there’s too much random events occurring.

I would really like to see more procedurally generated content and the combat to have a much greater need for Control and Support roles. Until the superiority of the damage role becomes useless for some situations, then the other roles will not be optimal or used as widely.

Monster, map, and encounter design changes need to happen coupled with changes to the professions for this to work. New niches need to be made for each profession. Killing an enemy has to make some events FAIL. Invent a different way of succeeding that does not involve killing the enemy(s).

Your latency will give you the value you seek.

You can also type /ip in the game’s chat window to see the ip address of the server you’re connected to, then open the command prompt, Windows Key + R, then type cmd.

In the black screen window, type /ping xx.xxx.xxxx. (numbers that the chat screen gives you where the dots and x’es are)

If done correctly, you’ll get data that tells you the amount of time that a packet takes to make a round trip from your computer to the server then back.

Note: there’s 1000 miliseconds in a second.

I’ve taken a more or less 3 month break from GW2, but I mained Engi and was one of a few remaining Engineer commanders on SoR after our collapse.

From my experience, the Engineer has the best pool of peel skills of all professions, and I regularly was able to defeat WvW groups that were a little bit bigger than my group because I peeled for my allies.

It takes skill to peel for allies, but a skilled player can easily turn team fights into their favor just by peeling at the right times. Its partly why I do not use the rifle that often- its harder to peel for downed allies using it.

Additionally, the engineer is harder to use and learn than most other professions. This is probably a major factor as to why its not widely used.

EDIT:

Damage currently reigns supreme than control or support, so professions and builds that exploit roles other than damage are underpowered and under-appreciated.

Try using a different build or a more optimal set-up?

A couple months ago, while I was putting together my main Engineer Commander Build, I calculated that about 375-550 points in BOTH Vitality and Toughness from ALL sources provides an optimal amount of durability for the Engineer. That is the best range, whereby more than 550 points has greatly diminished returns, and below 375 points gives greatly sub-optimal returns.

Optimal durability should be between 2.6k-2.9k Armor total, and between 21k- 24k HP at max.

However you get closest to those values is up to you.

Celestial is the easiest way to get close to those values without mixing many equipment types. (I’m also lazy and haven’t calculated the optimum ways to get to there by mixing types— too many combos)

This is good for the Ranger profession, too. The Engineer and Ranger have the same base health pools and armor ratings at level 80.

I have calculated other optimal durability values for other professions, too, and they appear to be relatively similar in raw attribute point allocation to the Engineer’s and Ranger’s curves. But I haven’t put my math to the test for the other professions.

EDIT:

For Clarification: These values are based on Exotic PvE/WvW equipment and trait values.

I agree, a Public Beta Environment of some sort is a feature that should be implemented, that way the community can provide crucial feedback at all stages of the development process and quash bad things before they hit the live servers, and to greatly improve things, too.

I understand that Living World Plot elements are spoilers, but some things are no brainers for being in a PBE.

Second to that, there needs to be about 100 viable builds for each profession to use that exploit combat niches. Otherwise we’ll still have stale and uninteresting game-play that some of us are feeling. The new niches must revolve around Control and Support and be interesting and fun to use.

Fun or enjoyable game-play keeps people playing the game for hundreds of hours.

Rewards can enhance the game-play and fun value, but I think they’re secondary to the ‘fun’ value, as the GAME PLAY keeps people playing a game regardless of the quality of virtual rewards.

The Ultimate Question Is: Why play a game if you are not having fun?

Here’s my suggestions:

• More viable build diversity
  Each profession needs about 100 (or more) viable builds
  Could be attained through new abilities, traits, profession niches, revamps to the trait and equipment attribute point systems
• Interesting and fun skills that make people laugh when used
• More skill shots
• Better spectator mode and camera angles
• Free-to-play accounts that allow people to have only 1 character slot and NO PvE/ WvW access
  This increases the population which has the direct effect of making more random game-play because the amount of players in the population is bigger and each will likely play differently.

Let’s do a thought experiment:

More viable builds enhances game-play because the likelihood of encountering the same combinations of builds is decreased. When the gameplay feels more random, then it feels fresher which reduces the repetitive feel of the game. Ultimately the chances of encountering the same thing is drastically reduced.

buckeyecro.9614:

Ultimately GW2 needs more of an emphasis on CONTROL and SUPPORT capabilities and needs to have thousands more possible combinations of builds, and several hundred more viable build combinations distributed throughout the existing professions, instead of the relatively few viable build combinations possible in the game today. There is probably only 40-75 viable builds in the game today, most heavily represented in the order of the Warrior, Guardian, Necromancer, and Thief. It needs a minimum of about 100 viable builds for each profession.

The trait system is a major system that can allow this to happen. I think it needs a major overhaul, and the trait system’s current iteration fails to build upon the established fundamentals of the previous system.

Nevertheless, how can this be done?

[Read My previous post on Page 16 of this thread for my proposed answers to this question]

Like many of us has stated previously, the trait system needed a major overhaul such that it eliminates the barriers that limit build and niche diversity. The trait and ability system in general is a great starting place for opening up new niches for professions and players to fill in the game.

Its current iteration fails to open up many viable builds for more professions. We still see a relatively stagnant ‘meta’ that hasn’t evolved much for a very long time.

Here’s the thing I feel inhibit build diversity:

Monster, encounter, and overall game-play mechanics favor doing ALL out Damage.

There’s not much need for Control and Support roles because the game-play does not necessitate these other roles, except in very limited circumstances, and the tools available to professions to fill these other roles are lackluster and ineffective.

Nerfing damage output will not help much- if at all- unless the mechanics change and dictate other roles for success.

For Example:

Create encounters that DO NOT REQUIRE KILLING for success. Killing the creature will actually cause it to fail. (This should help a little bit). Then create better abilities to better fulfill these new niches.

EDIT:

The trait system is flawed in many other ways as many others have stated, too. Especially for new and below level 80 characters. All else considered, if it fails to open up more viable builds, then the game-play will remain relatively stagnant for level 80 characters- this must be avoided.

Hi everyone who reads the General Discussion Forums!

I would like to ask the community for their ideas on what types of new abilities that would be fun and interesting to use while playing the game; focusing on skill shots in particular.

What is a skill shot, you ask?

Its an ability that usually casts a projectile at a targeted location linearly. It does not directly target an enemy, and is not usually an Area of Effect ability. Although there is some skill involved in using AoEs, however skill shots require more skill to use in terms of how they operate. In order to hit your enemy you generally have to predict their movements.

Keep in mind that the corner stone of combat in this game revolves mainly around Damage, Control, and Support roles. The professions typically do these roles from various lines (front, mid, and back lines) while in combat with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Be creative, such that it could be but does not have to be related to:

1. New Weapons
2. New Abilities for Existing Weapons and Professions
3. New Utilities
4. New Traits
5. Something else?
6. What would you like an Enemy to use against you?
7. What would make you laugh while playing the game? Focus on this

Try to keep it related to skill shots that focus on one or a combination of the combat roles in terms of Damage, Control, and Support as much as possible.

Please try to emphasize Control and Support functions when suggesting general new abilities, because these two roles are desperately in need of enhancement for all professions. It does not need to be balanced- as this is purely a creative discussion.

No matter what, the ability must be fun or otherwise interesting to use!

My insta-zerg icon.

Here’s my wish list in terms of profession changes as the game evolves:

• 100 Viable builds for each profession in a greater variety of situations
• Skill Shots
• Fun and interesting skills, abilities, and traits to use
• Several better soft counters to Warriors and Minion Masters
• Better emphasis and need for Control and Support roles
• Better avenues for players to play Control and Support roles at various lines (front lines, mid, and back lines)
• Un-linked attributes and trait lines- they should be separated
  It is probable that the linkage of attribute points and trait lines is causing much of the trouble to balance the professions since they are all not the same order of allocation between certain lines for similar trees.

The first point is critical because there’s only about 40-75 viable builds unevenly distributed throughout the professions with a heavy emphasis on the Warrior and Guardian. The more possible combinations of viable builds reduces the amount of sameness in the game-play.

I wrote a guide to playing the Engineer in WvW, but my guide is now very outdated due to the new trait system.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

You’re also missing the fact that China has almost 1 billion more people than the US and has the highest population in the world.
Also we don’t know the preorder sales numbers for US/NA.

China is currently the largest country in terms of population and easily outnumbers the combined populations of Europe and North America by about 100 million people.

Most of the World’s (Human) Population, about 4 billion people, live in Asia. Its about 10 times larger than the population of North America alone.

So Asia has a market that is about 4 times bigger than Europe and North America. Its conceivable that the game will be more popular in Asia than in ‘Westernized’ Cultures, if you consider raw regional game account sales numbers, and it sells proportionately in Asia as it did in the reset of the world. Even considering people who bought the Westernized version of the game from other parts of the world.

Speaking of cultures, translations between languages, and especially between English and non-English languages, are complicated. Words and phrases may not be often accurately translated correctly or maintain intended meanings. Pre-cursor could be actual weapons or something else when translated to English. We won’t know until the actual contents are verified through a relatively credible source.

Shameless plug for Sanctum of Rall’s community website.

I’m expecting several underpopulated WvW realms will undergo some form of merge, regardless of what the merge is called or marketed as. This is the technically the easiest way to solve the glaring coverage and scoring system problems in WvW. But this is the worst change the community can go through. Merging is probably only a matter of transferring account data to another hard-drive, and shutting down the hard ware.

I can imagine coding a new scoring algorithm could be extremely complicated and take numerous man hours to complete. The merge would only take hours to complete mainly depending on data transfer speed and amount of data transferred. It frees up state of the art servers to be used for other purposes by NCSOFT.

EDIT: My previous post on the Traits General Feedback Thread, explains what I would like to see changed in GW2, and why.

I want to be proven wrong about my suspicions, but I’m not optimistic about it.

Ultimately GW2 needs more of an emphasis on CONTROL and SUPPORT capabilities and needs to have thousands more possible combinations of builds, and several hundred more viable build combinations distributed throughout the existing professions, instead of the relatively few viable build combinations possible in the game today. There is probably only 40-75 viable builds in the game today, most heavily represented in the order of the Warrior, Guardian, Necromancer, and Thief. It needs a minimum of about 100 viable builds for each profession.

The trait system is a major system that can allow this to happen. I think it needs a major overhaul, and the trait system’s current iteration fails to build upon the established fundamentals of the previous system.

Nevertheless, how can this be done?

• Make each new ability unique, interesting, fun to use, and watch.
• Allow people to choose their stats on their gear
  —> Each individual Major and Minor stats with a few restrictions from a drop down menu. (At least for Spvp)
• Unlink the connections between 2 Attributes’ points per trait line, and give players nearly complete freedom in the allocation of their stat points for various Attributes.
  This is probably the best and first thing that can be done to greatly increase build diversity immediately.
• Create new skills that allow someone to actually CONTROL enemy movements and SUPPORT their allies effectively. Make sure they are interesting and fun to use.
• Create new traits that are each unique and greatly define builds and fundamentally change their game-play in fun and interesting ways.
• Many of the traits that are passive or manipulate numbers should be rolled or merged into the basic trait lines for the professions at various tiers.
  This would allow for more unique traits and mechanics to be created for the professions. It also creates less of a need for theory crafting minimal, maximal, and optimal builds. It makes it easier for those that do, too. It also makes it easier to balance if combined with splitting the trait lines and attribute point allocation.
• Roll each weapon’s Auto Attack into an ability that doesn’t have a # button, by making them initiated by opposite clicking (default button) on an enemy. This opens up a new ability for each profession and weapon.
• Make several traits greatly modify the effects of individual or groups of abilities.
• Create new abilities for existing weapons that can be selected similarly to utilities.
• Balance different weapon, armor, and trinket types to make less viable ones more effective.
  Ex: Values are larger for Healing Power than Damage values.

About 80% of all traits in the game are passive damage oriented traits that modify cool downs or otherwise amplify damage values.

These things combined with changes to PvE individual monster mechanics, would increase build diversity. Monster encounter mechanics must be evolved to reduce the necessity of doing damage, and that the control and support roles become vital for success in more encounters through the entire game.

One such encounter that has a healthy need for Control and Support roles is the Ice Elemental in the Dredge Fractal.

Ultimately, one change without the other will fail to open up a larger amount of viable builds, which provides more game-play options and makes the game-play feel fresh and vibrant longer.

Eowin Of Rohan.2619:

Hi,

The current Events API doesn’t work anymore. Cause : MegaServers. Current fix : World Bosses schedule.

But the events API didn’t only provide info about World Bosses. I was using it to keep track of all events status and their last status change time (my site was downloading the full events.json file every 20 seconds and comparing/updating all 100k+ lines in DB)

It was useful for a lot of things that became impossible with MegaServer :

• create timers of watching list for any set of events – examples : queen’s champions, krait witches, 3 achievement bosses in kessex, Scarlet’s invasions …
• find the list of active events/preevents in any area of the game, used mainly for daily achievements but also for exploration.
• find the list of all group events, again for dailies
• find the current status + time of any event over all worlds. Useful to find the last opened temple, a server where a given champion isn’t blocking a skill point (asura Oouo…), or where it has just been defeated (risen knight in Malchor’s leap where the event was active on most servers and in Preparation on all others but 1-2 and preparation = "boss spawns as soon as a player comes)

Currently all of these are impossible (ok, MegaServer mostly fixed the skill point champions issues)

This is why we need an API v2. In another thread, Stefan Larimore said “We will consider implementing a timer API based on this schedule for the future.”, but just he WB schedule wouldn’t be very useful. People are talking about “OAuth api v2” : will there be an event API similar to the old one but using MegaServer numbers instead of World IDs and where people can log in so the API can return their MegaServer ID ?

tl ; dr : old event API was used for much more than WB, we need a new API using MegaServers.

And last question : my domain name is going to expire soon. Anet, should I renew it ?

Regards,

Eowyn

I am wondering the same thing. I was in the process of creating a personal App prior to the Megaserver announcement, but I’ve tabled the project.

If you don’t get an official response, if I were you, I would not renew the domain.

Read through this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Does-arena-have-a-MMR/first#post3797418

Its a complex GLICKO algorithm with several variables that determine MMR. If they are using a good system (I think they are based upon my knowledge of statistics and reading their information, and experience), then it will get more accurate as the player population gets larger.

The MMR system is likely pairing people to make teams of a similar average MMR based on all of the players on each team. It may be randomly placing new players into games, or assumes they have a certain MMR for their first game. A higher MMR player will boost their team’s average to make up for players with lower, or have an assumed MMR by the system.

So if there are numerous new players, then it is more likely for you to get paired with them. The odds are not in your favor for being paired with non-new players until the system settles.

I know of at least one Large Community will call it quits when the Sanctum of Rall ceases to exist. And I wouldn’t blame them at all.

I think its probably only a matter of time before the servers are merged for WvW purposes.

Anyways, to put it nicely, there’s no reason for me to play the game right now, because I want to have a reasonable perception that the game is balanced and not stale. SoR is in a relatively futile situation, and its situation for the entire year so far has burned me out of GW2.

The game-play is stale and needs to become more complex, better balanced, and more viable combinations of builds need to be possible.
I want to see and use fun Skill Shots! And other uniquely interesting and fun to use abilities!

The Primary reason:

• Rangers are generally underpowered and unappreciated for most situations in WvW.
  They just do not have many viable or useful tools to use for a vast majority of situations in WvW even when using their most optimal builds.
  Other professions can do more damage easier and have more useful tools to use in groups even with suboptimal builds.
• Engineers are also in the same boat, but have a little bit more utility for more situations than the Ranger.

However, a great Ranger that really knows how to play a Ranger will be able to crush most of their opponents in 1v1, and help their allies in team fights.

The best commanders are charismatic leaders who will be positively remembered for what they did when leading others in the Mists.

I agree Mrs Stark is an incredible and Honorable Commander.

Enjoyment.

I highly enjoy interacting with a story of some sort, and computer games provide this the best out of all current forms of technology.

I play GW2 because:

1. Game-play is interesting, fun, and has much diversity in play
2. Story- Fighting Epic Mythical or Science Fictional Creatures, especially dragons with other people is really fun
3. Aesthetics- How beautiful is the world?
4. Sounds- How epic are the sounds of the world, including the soundtrack?

Most importantly, how memorable are the characters, game-play, world, and sounds?

These are the main reasons why I play the video games I have in my collection, watch certain movies or television shows, or read certain books.

Ultimately GW2 needs more of an emphasis on CONTROL and SUPPORT capabilities and needs to have thousands more possible combinations of builds, and a few hundred more viable build combinations distributed throughout the existing professions.

How can this be done?

1. Make each new ability unique, interesting, fun to use, and watch.
2. Allow people to choose their stats on their gear—> Each individual Major and Minor stats with a few restrictions from a drop down menu. (At least for Spvp with a few rules)
3. Unlink the connections between 2 Stats per trait line, and give players complete freedom in the allocation of their stat points for various Attributes.
4. Create new skills that actually allow someone to CONTROL enemy movements and SUPPORT their allies effectively.
5. Create new traits that are each unique and greatly define builds and fundamentally change their game-play.
6. Many of the traits that are passive or manipulate numbers should be rolled or merged into the basic trait lines for the professions at various tiers.
   This would allow for more unique traits and mechanics to be created for the professions. It also creates less of a need for theory crafting minimal, maximal, and optimal builds. It makes it easier for those that do, too.
7. Roll each weapon’s Auto Attack into an ability that doesn’t have a button, by making them initiated by opposite clicking on an enemy. This opens up a new ability for each profession and weapon.
8. Make several traits that modify the effects of individual abilities.
9. Create new abilities for existing weapons that can be selected similarly to utilities.

These things combined with changes to PvE individual monster mechanics, would increase build diversity. Monster encounter mechanics must be evolved to reduce the necessity of doing damage, and that the control and support roles become vital for success in more encounters. One such encounter is the Ice Elemental in the Dredge Fractal. One without the other will fail to open up a larger amount of viable builds.

I haven’t actively played the game for more than a month now, but I can assure you the Toxic Atmosphere is NOT the Number 1 problem with Spvp. Of course it is a very important problem that affects the ways people enjoy the game, but its secondary to the relative poor perception of balance between the professions, and the overall stale game-play.

We as a community have to work together to show that toxicity is unacceptable. This is the best way to solve this problem at its core.

The professions do not have many unique, interesting, fun things to use, or roles to fill. There’s very few, if any skill shots present in the game that require some amount of thinking and skill to use. There’s generally only a few viable builds for each profession to use that mainly revolve around Damage. I consider most conditions to be a form of soft control on another person’s actions, but generally only immobilize and torment control another’s movements. The other primary combat roles of Control and Support are vastly inferior to the Damage role and do not have many viable or useful applications outside of very small and unique uses.

There is not much point to preventing or controlling another’s movements when killing them is more effective. There’s not many ways of directly manipulating enemy movements within the professions, nor is there a strategic situation where this would be the best strategy to use. Although there are a couple situations where this is necessary, like the Ice Elemental in the Dredge Fractal.

Same with support: There’s not many benefits to supporting allies both aggressively or passively. Its always better to kill your foes before they kill you because there’s not many tools available to do another strategy. Giving shields to allies and other boons/debuffs/ effects would help open the support role more provided there was a greater need for them.

I could reasonably assume that IF the professions were relatively balanced and had better tools to exploit that made control and support roles; along with various front line, mid line, and back line roles all viable and necessary, then viable counters to blobs would become viable. Also defense needs to have a viable role. Each profession should be able to provide viable damage, control, and support roles from various lines while in combat that are relatively balanced to each other. Then zerging would likely become inefficient coupled with scoring system and map changes.

On top of revitalizing the professions by fundamentally changing them so that they have niches revolving around various front line, mid line, back line, damage, control, and support roles, along with siege equipment that also fill these roles, then WvW could be revitalized. The professions need to have their auto attacks merged into right clicking on an enemy would proc the auto attack, and the new open skill slot can become a new non-spammable skill. Preferably a skill shot since there are not many present in the game. More skills and traits should be interesting and unique and more should be skill shots. Additionally traits should give a profession and build a unique role to play. Finally there should be less emphasis on number tweaks in the traits. For example, EoTM would become more interesting if CONTROL was a much better combat role.

The scoring system would need to be scraped entirely and/or replaced to limit the superiority of coverage and population.

Additionally the best things about TESO’s AvA is that structures and fortifications must be taken strategically in an order. Camps first, then towers, then you can attack keeps. The system prevents captures if they are taken out of order. Rams cannot be placed down if any other siege equipment is actively attacking the structure. Essentially there is thinking involved. This should be applied in some way to WvW, but the maps would need to be remade so that towers actually provide strategic ways to Siege and DEFEND a Keep. IE if you lose a Tower or two, you will have a hard time defending your keep.

Ultimately, there needs to be a viable come back mechanic for the losing and outnumbered servers and for countering massive blobs. Balanced professions and balanced combat and strategy roles in terms of Damage, Control, and Support, would help make the game more interesting.

mahri.8410:

buckeyecro.9614:

[See my previous post] . . . .

Publishers usually, unfortunately don’t care of how much work have been put for a game, as long as a new game can bring them much more profit just for the initial hype. As example, the CoD sequels don’t bring something really new to the franchise, some
are really downgraded in quality. However, people continue to buy the games a lot, just by seeing the title CoD in the market. Unfortunately, for some players, the quality does not matter, it matters the name. NCSoft might think something like that, a sequel might grant them better venits just by the name. Unfortunately, sometimes, the initial hype brings bigger venits than a continuously supported game.

Exactly. Were Anet to develop another sequel I do not realistically foresee them tossing their engine aside. Their engine is probably their main Intellectual Property. However since NCSOFT technically owns Anet and likely Anet’s IP, and are a corporation, they will do everything possible to make as much money as possible even if it means throwing out an engine or fundamentally changing a game for better or worse that they likely spent millions to create if they could recoup a massive profit after doing so.

I will likely play a few hours a month mainly for the story from now on. So about the same as I do now. I play the game mostly for the story now. I like fighting dragons, and many games I have in my collection have the player fight some form of dragon or epic fantasy creature that mandate thinking while playing- not mindless massive 100+ person blob or bust content. Ultimately the trend of the changes detract from the fun factor for me because I like to think when I play a game regardless of what the content is like.

Anyways here’s a more detailed explanation to provide feedback to the people who read this post:

Ferocity and other number tweaks or new passive abilities are not going to reduce the necessity of doing all out damage unless the content demands other roles and strategies. The changes to boon duration reduce the overall effectiveness of the support role!
Optimal Foraging Theory dictates that animals will expend the least amount of energy and time for the biggest gains, so doing the most damage will be optimal until the content demands otherwise.

I enjoy water combat more than terrestrial combat- its more dynamic and interesting. I’m probably going to play Spvp only once in a blue moon until I have a positive perception that it is relatively balanced or most of these changes to Spvp are reverted. Yes it needed changes, but WHY was Water Combat removed entirely from Spvp, and why do we have to unlock new things for use in Spvp?

However, I have additional concerns that the general trend of the new changes detract from the fun factor for me, with the kicker being more 125+ man blob or bust content in the future. I like small group content- not crowd based content where its all a matter of mindless spamming. The mega server is probably preparation for more of the same content in the future. Although this is highly subjective and my opinion, however a diverse array of content types is always better because too much monotony breeds contempt.

I would have the world events randomly spawn once in about an hour and a half window, much like they did previously, that starts a map wide count down when the map opens visible to everyone in the map, and have a few maps of specific zones open at all times and selectable from a drop-down menu.

There are much better ways they can schedule these events and merge the servers while preserving the server communities. The systems are just not there to preserve current server communities in a non server environment. These should have been created before merging the servers IE: individual server chat system that is seen on all the maps, with a few restrictions obtained from testing and information gathering from the community. Anything short of this feature alone would probably see existing server communities collapse. I understand that only the Heart of the Mists has been merged but more will merge soon.

Hopefully they will merge the servers correctly and a developer will read this revitalized thread and take things to heart as they make further design changes to the game.

When I was reading reviews of this game, I read that GW2 uses a unique engine that they developed in house. It would be nice if Anet would utilize CryEngine 3 or even Unreal 3 for GW2— the program could then utilize multiple core CPUs and GPUs much better. We could then conceivably create community based mods for the game using the SDKs. But that’s calling for a complete overhaul and remake of their engine to use a new engine.

I do not foresee how it would be wise (profitable/ justified) for Anet to completely throw out their unique engine that made GW1 and GW2. They probably poured millions of dollars and thousands of man hours into making their engine before developing GW1.

I love your joke OP. Really-(not waving a sarcasm sign).

As a player who played about 50% of my total game time in WvW on an Engineer, All Out DAMAGE is now of utmost priority for engineers. At least for me anyways. My primary go to build that focused on durability was reduced to almost nothing. Based on my experience with the engineer and its capabilities and understanding the basics of every profession in the game, its Turret Build was brought up slightly due to bug fixes, but still will remain one of the weakest archetype builds in the game. On a number from 1-10 with 1 being weak, the Turret engie was brought to 5.5 from a 3 and other professions still will be on a continuum with Warriors being an 8.35, Guards 7.99. . . Need I say more? The major counters that an engineer has that allows them to be able to counter conditions have been significantly reduced (runes, sigils, traits).

If defenses are compromised then you have no choice but to go on an all out offensive.

I can no longer reliably command PUGS with my Engineer until I theory craft another viable durable build. It took me about 2 months to theory craft and test my former primary build. However, my small hit squad and highly mobile and maximized damage build got nerfed but its now my primary and as of right now only viable commander build. Now, if I want to command in WvW I’m going to have to make sure people in my group are using certain professions and certain builds- which is not something I want to do nor is it a goal of Primary Server PUG Commanders on SoR.

I’ve tried commanding most types of PUGS with my full damage build but it was only useful about 40% of the time whereas the other build was useful for nearly 80% of the time in a wide variety of situations and only switching 1-2 Major traits and using most of the utilities available to an Asura Engineer. Yes, I did make use of Racial Skills, too.

Regarding traits, I haven’t theory crafted the new system yet. Current level 80 characters won’t be affected as greatly by these changes, but any toon under level 30 will lose 20 trait points to allocate and lose access to at least 2 Major Traits until level 80. So essentially it’ll be about 5x harder to level up from level 10-30 and Ascolonian Catacombs and Caudecus’ Manor, etc, will be harder to complete by sub-80 toons because they won’t have access to as many traits stat points.

I have to completely redo my WvW guide and theory crafts for this patch to find optimal sub 80 builds. . .

Since the WvW team is relatively small and works with a large amount of code (probably hundreds of thousands of lines), I have great respect for the developers working with that many lines of code. I wonder what it’s like to pre-alpha test various builds for the game and debugging the errors.

Sometimes a comma or semicolon in the wrong spot can be extremely hard to find and actually break the program. Its almost literally like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Last summer I read somewhere on these forums in about June 2013 that there’s about 6 ‘dedicated’ WvW developers and the thread had a post that listed several of their names by an Anet Developer, and several also replied to the thread and said hi.

So let’s assume the Developers are Full Time Employees of Anet and work 40 hours per week, which equals 240 man hours per week (6×40) assuming the team’s numbers have not changed.

Realistically about 30-40 of those hours would be non actual programming/design time with the game’s code/designs. So the team collectively devotes about 200 hours of dedicated time working directly on the game. Programming is a grueling task and the general development cycle takes hundreds of hours to complete with entire teams of people working on a program. I can imagine that WvsW probably has hundreds of thousands lines of code. With the entire game having millions of lines of code. Maybe about 5 million as its more complex than WoW which according to Brendan Sinclair, has 5.5 million lines of code in http://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-outlines-massive-effort-behind-world-of-warcraft/1100-6228615/.

Jamais vu.5284:

It’s ironic that despite (or because, I wonder) gamers being probably the most cynical/jaded customer base a product can have, video game companies are allowed by far the most leniency among multi-billion industries when it comes to track record, professionalism and customer relations, as the red words in this thread once again prove.

Its partly why I support Small Businesses and Independent Businesses whenever I possibly can.

I have to respectfully disagree because the game is not complex enough to be a very popular Esport Title. Essentially, GW2 is too shallow in the profession’s abilities. However, I think there are several hurdles that GW2 can overcome before it gains widespread popularity as being a popular Esport worthy game:

1. Spectator camera angle
   In a very popular MOBA there is a relatively unbiased 3rd person overhead camera angle. Whereas in GW2 there is only a single 3rd person camera angle that focuses on one person.
2. Build diversity is greatly limited
   Sadly the possible combinations of builds and team compositions are probably less in number than several thousand in GW2. In a popular MOBA with 100 champions and items, there’s many more thousands of possible builds and combinations.
3. Perception of relative balance in the game
4. Abilities or builds make the game fun to watch and play:
   How many abilities launch/knock up/ down/ away enemies?
   I personally find it insanely fun to watch people fly and get knocked around.
   How many abilities are ‘skill shots’?
   How many abilities allow someone to actually control areas and bar enemies’ progress or movement in interesting ways?
5. The games have relatively predictable phases and strategies therein:
   Early game (1v1; 2v2 etc), Mid Game, and Late Game (mostly team fight) phases.
   GW2 doesn’t have many predictable phases and games are mostly about fast Team fights.

Now a suggestion could be to roll each weapon’s Auto Attack into an ability that doesn’t have a button, which opens up a new ability for each profession. Make the current auto-attacks initiated by opposite clicking on an enemy. Make each new ability unique and make them fun to use and WATCH.

Ultimately GW2 needs more of an emphasis on CONTROL and SUPPORT capabilities and needs to have thousands more possible combinations of viable builds.

How can this be done?
Mainly by allowing people to choose their stats on their gear—> Each individual Major and Minor stats with a few restrictions from a drop down menu.
Unlink the connections between 2 Stats per trait line, and give players complete freedom in the allocation of their stat points.
Lastly new skills created that actually allow someone to CONTROL enemy movements and SUPPORT their allies effectively, and new traits that are each unique and greatly define builds and fundamentally change their game-play.

I agree that the population should be pooled more broadly together, but server merges, but most especially for WvW, is a VERY BAD IDEA when combined with PvE/ Spvp megaserver system. I can’t stress this enough.

Let’s do a thought experiment:

For example many communities would collapse if they would merge servers for WvW. One of SoR’s biggest and probably one of the game’s most loyal guilds will quit the game when SoR ceases to exist and I wouldn’t blame them at all. Other servers would likely see some guilds and players do so, too.

An alliance system is the best solution if merges must happen. Its best to leave the current named servers in place but pool them together via an Alliance system of sorts and allow players to choose maps they join but with some restrictions.

By doing this, the Vanilla WvW maps would need to be overhauled nearly completely such that it is actually a brand new WvW experience. If you really want to fundamentally change the game mode, then go all the way.

Actually the author of: GW2: A Proposal for the Upcoming WvW Season has a great proposal and should be considered before merging the servers.

Allie, I just wanted to say thank you for all of your hard work for the community. <3

Good luck with your future endeavors!

Why not discuss the issue and their other imminent fundamental game changes more openly to gather feedback from the players before even considering implementing these ideas?

Why didn’t they just make the game like this in the first place?

What is meant to be to accomplished through effectively eliminating servers?

What has caused these changes to be made to the game?

All of the current explanations, at least in my opinion, are greatly lacking in an adequate and sufficient explanation as to why these changes are occurring. I would like to have a better understanding of Anet’s point of view so that I can arrive at a better conclusion.

I wish all of these changes would have been discussed with the broader player base FIRST, maybe even through a Public Beta Environment of sorts, announcements, or a discussion series BEFORE even being considered to affect the live servers.

This is why Arena Net must implement a Public Testing Realm so that they can get feedback from its player base with a more Representative Sample of their entire player population. Most of the critical balance issues and issues with the content and new features would likely be quashed before they hit the live servers.

I still frequent these forums and log in to the game every once in a while because I am optimistic that our collective feedback could still help make this great game what it could become before its too late. I’m glad that this game has evolved the MMORPG genre and created systems that hopefully future MMO’s will utilize at their cores. I still recommend this game to friends because it’s an evolved MMO.

Your post’s link made me smile as it is a track in my favorite game. My siblings and I probably have played that game about 500+ hours.

I feel the same way about GW2’s great potential – it’s my second most favorite game. I still see allot of potential with this game’s core systems (its Dynamic Events System; Scaling; General Core Combat Systems and Game-play but not its trait trees-nothing really game changing in there at all).

However, the short-term profit incentive reigns supreme and dictates what’s happening with the game for better or for worse. Yes its extremely important for profits to be made- but why fundamentally move away from the Manifesto?

WoW

I found underwater combat to be extremely fun in GW2 and am extremely disappointed in its removal from Spvp.

Geniekid.2645:

BeardRex.6739:

evilapprentice.6379:

The PvP in this game was marketed around skill based play, not grind based. Equal footing for everyone from the getgo. Skill and trait unlocks is directly opposite this idea. No one is complaining because things aren’t being handed to them, they’re complaining because the focus of the game was supposed to be Skill, not skill as long as you have grinded out the necessary abilities/traits beforehand.

So League of Legends is a “grind based”?

Even if it is, it’s the most popular PvP game in the world. People obviously like having progression like this. You might now. A small, vocal portion of the community might not, but people having been asking for this, and it is already proven to be successful in other games.

Just because people are now complaining, doesn’t mean there weren’t twice as many or more complaining that sPvP didn’t have a horizontal progression system.

First, correct me if I’m wrong, but LoL hasn’t been telling their player base that they would have all characters/skills unlocked at start like ArenaNet has.

Second, I would argue that LoL is succeeding due to merits other than having to unlock characters/skills/etc. I bet a lot of LoL players would love to have that aspect of “progression” removed, but they still play it because of all the other things that the game is doing right. DotA2 is also extremely successful and they haven’t had to introduce any horizontal progression that wasn’t cosmetic.

Those games are popular and successful because they are FUN to play regardless of rewards or progression. Why play a game if it’s not fun?

XacTactX.6709:

Personally I agree with the OP, I think all gear and skill unlocks should be available in PvP without any work. However, if ANet decides that they have to implement skill unlocks in PvP, we should pay attention to how much effort is required. If unlocking the 13th trait costs 1g for each character, I’ll say fine, it’s not ideal but it’s not unreasonable. If on the other hand it costs 10g for the 13th trait on one character, it will be too much work and too expensive. . .

I agree with you for the most part. . .but . . .

I would really really like to know why they are completely changing core game systems, instead of superficial and fluff explanations of why they are changing things and their goals for new systems.

“The addition of new skills and traits on a regular basis will of course mean expanded variety of abilities, builds, and tactics in PvP as well. As these additional skills and traits are added, they’ll be automatically unlocked and available for competitive PvP just like all existing skills/traits work today.” – Colin Johanson on July 18, 2013 in Looking Ahead: Guild Wars 2 in 2013

At this point I’m not sure if I will come back and play Spvp/ GW2 if at all because I do not have a thorough understanding of Anet’s point of view and their new goals and objectives for completely changing fundamental ideals of core game systems.

I don’t want to grind possibly endless hours for each trait for all 8 professions playing Spvp/ the game in general without sufficiently understanding why the grind was implemented.

The only things that kept the game fun for me was jumping into Spvp on multiple professions knowing from the get go any profession I used was relatively equal to everyone provided I used optimal or “best” builds. Now, using multiple professions will likely be a massive inconvenience unless I buy oodles of gems or grind countless hours farming content (karka/frostgorge farming, anyone?) to be able to unlock the new and likely very expensive and initially most likely greatly overpowered abilities to make me competitive.

Regardless of whether or not I agree with Anet’s reasons, I would really like to come to a better understanding of why the core principles of Spvp are being fundamentally altered. I will gladly put up with the new inconvenience provided I have a thorough and more accurate understanding of why and how. The previous information and explanations are not sufficient enough for me to arrive at a better understanding.

My advice:

Synthesized from information learned from Hardcore WvW guilds

Transfer to a stable and relatively balanced tier of servers. T1 is the most stable tier that offers the best chances for competition over the long-term, barring huge changes to WvW, the game-play, and interserver and intraserver politics.

Game-play

Game-play

Game-play

If the game is not fun or otherwise enjoyable, then why play the game?

For me (and my brother), the game is not currently fun to play. The game-play seems incredibly repetitive, stale, very blob-festy, and the PvP overall is incredibly unbalanced. I’m currently taking a break until the game becomes fun again. EX: when SoR finds a more relatively balanced match-up, the general content becomes less blob-festy, and general game-play becomes fresh, more relatively complex and balanced, and more randomness is introduced in PvP/PvE.

For example, at least one MOBA’s balance philosophy is to have each hero relatively balanced to each other. This makes the game-play feel balanced and enhances its fun and competitive value because the better player will most likely come out on top more often than worse players. And its extremely successful in terms of active population and profitability.

Complexity Runes can be really great for small scale combat in WvW. But for Large Scale, it can be useful with the right play-style.

Bursting the enemy down for small scale combat is currently a more optimal set up in general. However, I have recently noticed a difference of play-styles of people in NA T1 match-ups versus Non NA T1 match-ups. So it really depends on the specific opponent as some (not very many in WvW) will not be using condition removal at all.

Bursting down enemies is more effective in T1, whereas I’m still testing if DoT is effective in T3.

The best defense to most cookie-cutter thieves and other squishies is bursting them down as quickly as possible. You want to kill them within about 5-15 seconds of entering the fight against them or they will probably kill you in that time frame most of the time. At least that was my average time spent fighting them. I’ve found flamethrower juggernaut with more power is the best.

Now for other more tanky enemies, conditions can be more effective- on paper- since they have a high health pool in general. Conditions are really only countered by duration and removal capabilities because Armor doesn’t mitigate their damage.

However, conditions are easily countered by removal and most classes can very very easily remove them and some can have almost 100% complete immunity to conditions. Thus nullifying any condition builds almost entirely.

For example, many Warriors and Necromancers I encountered while roaming in NA T1, conditions were almost useless and a full rotation of full-condi grenades did maybe 10% total damage to a few warriors.

Summary:

1. Conditions can easily be countered by most professions
2. Bursting or high amounts of damage is generally a better way to go.
   Otherwise most enemies will kill you before you can react or kill them through attrition.
3. If you enjoy damage over time, like me, use it! Because your best play style is using the one you like the best!

(Place Holder for Future Additions to the Guide)
Yes, Clerics and Bomb Kit with “Elixir-Infused Bombs” can be extremely useful for supporting the melee trains. It can help keep your allies alive. Acquired through 30 points in Inventions in the Grand-Master tier.

My goal is to provide my readers with the information to use to make their OWN builds.

Possible Future Additions (Add when I can):

1. Specific Explanations for Builds or Ideas for Specific Roles
2. What are things used for
3. What I would use things for
4. Others

The Engineer is a highly versatile and all-around profession. It has a large plethora of skills to use. Its kits allow it to fulfill many different roles and used for a variety of situations. It is a jack-of-all-trades profession, where by it can reliably fulfill almost any role in groups, but generally cannot do many roles better than most other professions unless perfectly using an optimal play style and build.

It uses Medium Armor, and has an intermediate amount of overall durability when compared to other professions. It currently uses Pistols, Rifles, Harpoon guns, and Shields for its weapons. However, it is unique in that it can use turrets to control relatively small areas and use a variety of gadgets for some interesting play. It has access to many different types of combo fields and can easily initiate combos. Its unique mechanic allows each #6-9 ability to have a 2nd ability on the F1-F4 keys on its “Tool Belt.”

The Engineer’s best form of survival is through anticipating future combat and adapting for the situation. Its ability to maneuver and attack its enemies at medium to long range is another means of survival. However, it can reliably fight at relatively close ranges, and has multiple tools to use for melee combat.

The profession takes practice to be able to start to use it effectively.

Ultimately your best play style will be the one that you like the best.

Mechanics

Turrets

Turrets are useful for controlling relatively small areas with a general radius of about 1,000 units. There are several different turrets from which to use, and many are mid to long range. Beginning Engineers may find the Rifle and Healing Turrets to be especially helpful while learning to use the profession, as they can be reliable tanks and help deal damage. Each turret has an overcharge ability that basically makes it do a stronger attack. Picking up turrets reduces their cool-down so that they can be redeployed faster than if they were destroyed.

Elixirs

Elixirs are highly versatile and each has a specific use and generally provide boons, remove conditions, or do something interesting. The F skills for elixirs generally are AoE mid-range tosses that do a special but related effect to the utility skill.

Gadgets

Think of them as James Bond gadgets in a way. They have a variety of situational uses and each are unique. Need to knock foes back? Use the battering ram!

Kits

All replace the equipped weapons and have their own stats and play style. Each kit replaces skills #1-5 and works similar to bundles and other environmental weapons.

Equipment

The equipment stat type depends highly on the type of role that you want to fill. Since the engineer is extremely good at filling roles while on the fly, a more flexible set is generally more useful and cost effective.

Traits

Each trait line has some very useful traits that the engineer can find useful. Traits and point allocation depend highly on what role is to be filled and what game mode you’re playing.

1. For more Durability, put points into the Inventions and Alchemy lines
2. For more Damage, put points into Explosives and Firearms
3. For more overall usefulness, put points into Tools

• Explosives generally enhance the effectiveness of explosive weapon kits
• Firearms generally enhances the effectiveness of the primary weapons and flamethrower
• Inventions generally enhances general durability, defenses, and the effectiveness of turrets
• Alchemy generally enhances the effectiveness of all things Elixirs and changing the ways conditions affect you
• Tools enhances the effectiveness of tool belt skills, their cool downs, and overall usefulness

My World vs World Rules of Thumb

1. 30 points in both Inventions and Alchemy trait lines
   “Automated Response”- its a vital part of any Commander Builds or basic PvP builds
   Acquired with 30 points in Alchemy
2. 10 points into “Tools” to get “Speedy Kits”
   Its vital to any WvW build- provided you use kit(s)
3. Remove in increments of 10 from the Inventions trait line if there’s gaps, something unwanted, or something else
   Put these points into the other trait lines to make things that you like using more effective

Goal of your equipment build is to Optimize your durability:

• Soldiers is a good go to stat type if you prefer larger and more consistent damage and reliable durability
• Dire armor with a mix of Soldiers, Carrion, and Rabid trinkets are another good choice if you prefer Damage Over Time
• Sentinels is another good choice
• Celestial is a good way for getting a well-balanced more optimal build, although with a bit less survivability than the above types.
• As a last resort replace 1 piece of equipment at a time if you feel a glaring gap in your build after following the above rules