Guild Wars 2

I think the vast majority of players in this game will not reach out for third party software that may or may not work for them and their hardware just to be able to have this basic functionality.

Teldo, back at the very beginning of the game, made mention to this lack of feature and no progress has been made/discussed since. That is the purpose of this post. To make a push for a simple quality of life feature that would benefit a large majority of the player base.

So its been 2 years now and there still isn’t character specific keybind profiles available. WTF. Get on that ANet please. I am tired of hating life everytime I want to play an alt

Ive been busy as hell and have taken a break from this game for a while now. I have come back, the meta is better, the UI is better, the megaserver thing is awesome. Things seem so much better.

With all that said, how is Skyhammer still in solo que? The outcry has been tremendous and I am very surprised that this issue hasn’t been addressed in some shape or form. That map isn’t fun for a large amount of the community (including myself) and on top of that, Skyhammer games consistently have had more AFK’s, logoffs, and lopsided-noncompetitive matches than any other map in Solo Que.

Please address this issue. Implement a map voting system, or a veto system, or remove it from the solo que rotation. I know people worked a lot on the map and they want it to work but the simple fact is the map is unbalanced and a black sheep among a majority of your core pvp community. We really need some sort of action here

—Clown Shoez

So the patch is probably already ready to ship and these crys will probably have little or no effect on whether or not we see this change, but what the heck Ill post anyways.

Build I run that this change ruins:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vgAQJAWRlknpWtNoxMNcrNig6B2ldfHJFmGrVSBudhA-ToAg0CuIKSVkrITRyisFN+Y9B

The logic given by the dev’s defending this so far falls very short in my opinion.
Build customization != intimidation in any case.
When people are hesitant to enter pvp, I can say with great confidence that stat choices in amulets has very little/ nothing to do with it.

Taking away stat variations that have been available to us since release should go over really well. If my best build as a mesmer forces me into a condition line even though it is a power centered build, why would i want to synergize with that?

Arena-Net I truly think that you should put your heads together and ask yourself, how does this change affect the game in a positive way?

If your logic truly is that allowing a small statistical variation in an area of the game where the stat variation is already at its most confined, please show us some metrics or evidence that this change really will improve new player experience.

So I am in game now, and there is a player ~2,000 range away from me. I can move my cursor about a 1/2 inch to the left or the right of this character and still select this character.

Most of the targeting confusion for me comes not from the visual cues, but from the disconnect of what I am hovering over with my cursor and what is selected. Its my hypothesis that these “click-box” overlaps are the main cause of the problem.
I think if you were to tighten up the “click-boxes” to better outline the character shape, a good bit of the confusion of who you select as a target could go away.

TLDR;
I think accurate clicking systems would help more than an obtrusive visual change

Chaith.8256:

So, my suggestion #1:

• Automated Response: Drink an Elixir C when struck below the health threshold. Threshold: 50%, Recharge: 40s. (Same as Elixir C)

Suggestion #2:

• Automated Response: Activated Automated Response when struck below the health threshold. Threshold: 50%, Duration: 5s, Recharge, 60s.

As usual, Chaith coming in with logical solutions. I feel like these suggestions fit your criteria the best grouch. Low hanging fruit as well as relatively simple changes fit for fast, easy implementation.

Dahkeus.8243:

candlecan.9827:

First off, as many have stated already, the initiative buff last patch is the largest factor responsible for thieves causing balance issues.

If I were to change pistol whip this is how I would do it.

Split the skill into 2 parts and invert the order.
Part one: Slash repeatedly with your sword and evade attacks

Part two: Whip the enemy with your pistol stunning them (1/2 second stun)

This ensures that if you want to use the skill offensively, you must actively CC your target before hand. If you want to use your PW defensively for an evade, its still accessible on the first activation of the skill.

Have the skill act just as Flanking Strike/ Larceonous Strike do as well. Once you use the first activation, flip to the second for x amount of seconds. If you use the 2nd skill it rotates back to the first, if you dont you have to wait out the duration until the 1st skill is available again. This helps to negate spamming evade frames.

I think this is the cleanest way to help negate the issues plaguing this skill.

If you split the skill this way, I can’t think of a single reason to ever use the second part. The only reason a 1/2 second stun works on Pistol Whip now is because it immediately chains into a heavy hit. Without this, it’s a tiny stun where you can only really land the first attack of an AA chain. The only real advantage of having a stun this short if you can’t get a burst in is to interrupt, which can already be accomplished at range with Headshot. Either that or they would just use the ability once, then use the second portion and chain immediately into the first step of the skill again to get the effect of the current Pistol Whip.

My thinking is this:

First time in the fight the evade and damage portion of the skill acts like blurred frenzy for mesmers. Its can be used on demand for an evade or you can Infiltrator’s strike to immob into your slashing. Then the skill flips over to the stun. For example purposes lets suppose the skill flip lasts for 10 seconds if unused. You now have a 10 second window in which the skill is “primed” and can work as it does currently, stun —> damage. If you just haphazardly use the stun to “burn” it and access the evade again, you have used initiative on nothing and it would have consequences (in theory). If you go Infultrator’s Strike —> Slash —> Stun —> Slash, with the correct initiative costs this would deplete your initiative and leave you vulnerable (aka an all or nothing move if you try to cheese the mechanic and squeeze all the burst you can from it).

Another words the purpose of the inversion is to apply some sort of initiative cost to “prime” the skill into the stun→slash combination. It would require timing and management that the skill currently lacks and it would potentially curb the effectiveness of blindly spamming 3.

Marlafox.8715:

Dear Arena Net,

This community hates thieves. So in order to fix all problems with the thief class you need to remove off hand weapons. Reduce auto attack damage, reduce total initiative to four, make sure thieves have chill and weakness constantly applied to them, Give the thief only five trait points, remove all teleports from the class, Make sure the only utilities the class has access to are traps, remove all forms of healing, make sure thieves have a constant target over their head, and remove the short bow from the list of thief weapons. If you do all of this then the community might not hate thieves as much.

Pistol Whip has a wind up. The wind up is hard to see at a distance or if the thief is an asura (this is a whole different can of wurms). This why most thieves use teleport skills to land a pistol whip. The stun portion of this skill is block able so you can just walk away from the thief. The thief is not evading when casting the stun or in the last few swings of the “whip” portion of the skill. Clone death + necromancer pet death still goes through the evade frames. The damage pistol whip does is hardly greater than one auto attack chain. Hundred Blades does more damage and can be used more often per minute then pistol whip.

People say its cheesy and skill less. These people are probably playing PU phantasm mesmers, MM necros, Sprit rangers, Hambow warriors, or any other type of passive play style. They have forgotten how to react to active play. People also seem to forget that all thief weapons share the same resource pool. A thief with no initiative swapping from S/P to D/D will not be able to perform cloak and dagger right away unlike a warrior going from spamming his hammer skills to then spamming his longbow skills then five seconds later switching back to his hammer.

They want the evade frames gone; the stun gone, Initiative increased, and the damage reduce even further. Without the evade frames the thief will die if they use this skill. The community basically wants free kills. The stun makes sure half the damage from pistol whip lands unless in a few cases you get lucky with RNG quickness or pop haste. Some guy wanted the initiative increased to eight, as a thief you only get twelve or fifteen initiative. So in order to use pistol whip you lose out on first strikes and a large part of lead attacks traits. It also leaves the thief with only four or seven initiative. PvE wise the weapon set is now garbage if that were to happen. The stun can only hit one person. If that person isn’t you take a step back. If that person is you, you will actually have to use a survival utility to live! Group retaliation or just retaliation will still wreck a pistol whip thief.

Arena net I beg you lock this forum. Do not change anything with pistol whip YET. Release the March 18th patch. See if the community can actually learn to counter pistol whip before you decide to gut this weapon set. Go after passive play first. Your game has a fun active combat system. Don’t wreck it because people refuse how to learn to play.

What do you think of my suggestion? Would you be OK with spliting the skill like S/D?
To a degree, I agree with you. There is no need to neuter the skill and make the weapon set unviable. On the other hand though, dissuading people from #3 spam and adding depth would increase the skill needed to pull off this weponset and allow for more enjoyable gameplay for both the thief and the opponent.

First off, as many have stated already, the initiative buff last patch is the largest factor responsible for thieves causing balance issues.

If I were to change pistol whip this is how I would do it.

Split the skill into 2 parts and invert the order.
Part one: Slash repeatedly with your sword and evade attacks

Part two: Whip the enemy with your pistol stunning them (1/2 second stun)

This ensures that if you want to use the skill offensively, you must actively CC your target before hand. If you want to use your PW defensively for an evade, its still accessible on the first activation of the skill.

Have the skill act just as Flanking Strike/ Larceonous Strike do as well. Once you use the first activation, flip to the second for x amount of seconds. If you use the 2nd skill it rotates back to the first, if you dont you have to wait out the duration until the 1st skill is available again. This helps to negate spamming evade frames.

I think this is the cleanest way to help negate the issues plaguing this skill.

JinDaVikk.7291:

I love people who cant do basic math…

Can we rename this thread stop afking on home?

GG

ELephantitas

this^ this^ this^ this^ this^

Lets not skew this argument into a casual vs. pro debate. This is not the point anyone is making (any logical person that is). Of course casuals are needed. PvP’s playerbase needs them. All things that are not under debate.

What I think most of us are saying (or atleast me), is that integrating PvP in with WvW and PvE are not going to directly help the playerbase or health of the PvP system. Those who already play the game have chosen which aspects of the game they enjoy and a reward system is not going to “convert” them. Correct me if I am wrong, but dont people from other parts of the game already come to pvp just to complete their dailys?

PvP will not retain these folks who are lured into PvP for the rewards. PvP needs people who want to PvP in the first place. It has nothing to do with the casual vs. pro crap.

tldr;
shinies != PvP support

Very good point KarsaiB.

When you draw in PVE players, it is good for the game, for the player base and so on, but the retention factor of these recruits is most likely to be VERY low. In my gaming experience, most people who PvP exclusively might try PvE but thats not what they purchased the game for, so inevitably they go right back. Same for PvE players. They like the game style of PvE and they might try PvP but inevitably its not what interests them. The amount of people who play both equally are a rare breed.

Building features (more maps, game modes, build templates, map voting, etc…) and a greater attention to balance and depth will be a much greater help to PvP than any further integration of PvP into the other aspects of the game. Granted the rewards will be a nice addition (not ungrateful), it just seems like so much focus is going into something that will not support the health of PvP and its community much, if any.

Evan Lesh.3295:

I like this question. As you said, our focus right now is to better integrate sPvP with the rest of the game. This will hopefully do one major thing: Bring more people into sPvP that are already playing Gw2. This will mean more competition, and better matchmaking. The new ladders (which I hope you’re giving feedback for in the CDI thread) should be a good way to gain prestige for being the best.

Apart from competition and prestige, what kind of things are most attractive to the high-level players? Personally I’m not hyper competitive and play all parts of the game, so the rewards overhaul will be amazing for me :P

Metaphor time, guys hang on its gonna be a long one LOL

Say your trying to sell an old used 90’s sedan with 100,000 miles on it. You spend a bunch of time and $ doing body work, painting, and making the car look amazing. You even offer free oil changes every 5,000 miles if you buy the car. You then advertise over the interwebs. Your probably gonna get a pretty good turn out of people coming to see the car. It looks good and people are drawn to it. One problem, when they test drive it, it drives like a 90’s sedan. People are drawn to the car because of the looks but no one wants to drive that car everyday.

Now scenario #2. You take said car and you sink all your time and money into dropping a beastly engine in the thing. I mean this car will drive like a dream. You advertise the car, but guess what? No one comes to check it out. It can drive like a Lambo but no one wants to drive around in what looks to be something a scrap yard would offer.

Senario #3. The you take the resources you have, put most of it in the engine to make the car drive really well. The rest of the time and money goes into buffing out the scratches and maybe a new paint job. People arent turned off by the looks, the turn out to sell the car isn’t as good as senario #1, but you start getting offers on the car left and right.

Woa that was a long metaphor. So in short what I am saying is don’t allocate your recources trying to satisfy one area all at once. If you spend the greater part of 4 months on nothing more than reward revamps, chances are the community is gonna be pretty salty. The car will look pretty but its gonna drive the same. The inverse is true as well. I am talking about balancing the balance. Thats right I said it, balance inception if you will.

Things that will satisfy the majority of players, both new and old, should above everything else, take the highest priority.

This means features!
game modes
build templates
ladders and seasons

Also free quick checkups on the car would be a nice feature all car owners would love. If the car sticks in 3rd gear, you should look at it for us and tell us what you think.

!http://www.bloomberg.com/image/iHvmUUAZxDa4.jpg!

Whitey.6185:

It used to bug the hell out of me that temporal curtain didn’t apply swiftness if you already had it. I run with signet of inspiration so often just as I put down the curtain, SoI would pop swiftness on me and the curtain would just be wasted, that or someone else puts swiftness on me, again rendering my curtain useless.

So I am glad it finally applies swiftness whether you have it or not, just a shame it came with a 50% reduced time. However, the guardian’s symbol of swiftness ticks up the longer you stay in it, so to get the most out of it you need to stand in it for the duration of the symbol. The curtain may now work like that, where running over it gives you 6 seconds then ticks up for additional times passed through, which would make sense seeing as it says it now gives swiftness when you already have it.

So IMO this is more of a buff than a nerf.

Once again, this is all speculation but your guardian example worries me. The guardian move is a symbol, designed to be stood in. Temporal curtain is a wall effect and no other wall move in the game gives stacking boon application

Redball.7236:

It might be that it applies 6 seconds extra every time you run through it, that would be pretty good actually.

I don’t and won’t know until the patch hits but I am under the assumption it works like other buffing ground skills. For example, if you run through your fear wall as necro, it does not stack protection. I applies prot 1 time and will not reapply until that boon is gone. I am to assume temporal curtain abides by the same mechanics

Paragon.5479:

what do u think about other changes about mesmer?Will death clone still be viable and how shatter mesmers are affected with this changes?Mobility was never strong point of mesmer

I have never played clone death builds so I cannot speak on that issue (I have never seen them as viable in the first place). Shatter mesmers will be generally unaffected by these changes IMO. Mobility nerf hits all specs if you choose to take the focus offhand. Mobility has not ever been a strong point of mesmer, I agree, but 12 seconds of swiftness atleast allowed a mesmer to decap or far push relativley quickly when available. Roaming is still about the only thing power mes specs can do well and this is a large hit to that

ahuba.6430:

while it doesn’t make much sense its not that big a deal to make such a QQ thread. and focus isnt the only mobility weapon, you got staff too. so the chaos armor swiftness actually makes up for that nerf

at least theres nothing about deceptive evasion

I don’t know how familiar you are with mesmer, but I can tell you that carrying Staff and Sword/Focus isn’t viable in any build. That and even if you do carry both you are gonna have 5 sec swiftness on 35 sec cd and 6 sec swiftness on 25 sec cd. Ill say it again, Chaos Armor buff in no way makes up for the temporal nerf.

And I am not QQ’ing btw. I am trying to bring attention to a change that is bad for the class and the game. What role does mesmer offer to a team in sPvP? Currently the only role we play is roamer, glass cannon and we are never taken in a group because thief completely overshadows us. With our mobility going in the wrong direction, mesmer will now be more lost in the meta than it already is….

This post is under the assumption that the leaked patch notes are accurate.

Temporal Curtain: This skill now applies 6 seconds of swiftness, down from 12 seconds, and will now affect allies already under the effects of swiftness.

Why? Like wtf??
So we finally get the bug fixed and they are like hey lets have a 25 sec cd with a 6 second swiftness??? 50% nerf…. yea cause mesmer mobility needs nerfing. We were so broke with 12 seconds on a 25 sec cd.

What playstyle do we offer a group now. Portal every blue moon and a minimum precence in teamfights….

Keep up the good work balance team. The only logic behind this change I could think of would be for WvW. And we know balance in that phase of the game is so good that a refinement on ability to add to swiftness stacks in a zerg takes precedence over every other application of the skill.

If this is true, rethink it please. The only weapon to offer any type of mobility. And NO, the change to chaos armor swiftness DOES NOT make up for this nerf….

sigh

Figured i’d hop in here to contribute/praise/help-out.

First off, I find it pretty awesome that our Mesmer comrades happen to be all non-toxic and helpful bro’s and gals. Thanks for keeping our community non toxic, keep up the good work.

Secondly, I have been in love with a lockout build I have created and refined and I figured I would debut it here. I am in no way reinventing the wheel but I do find my build to do VERY well in sPvP. O yea, this build was created and tested for sPvP strictly so I cannot speak about its viability outside this game type.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8dlwzyqnRTmGb9IipHBnvJckUYasWJF42FC-TsAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFN+Y9xuAA

Wont go into huge details as the build is pretty self explanitory but I will hit a couple of points. GS necessary for its offensive potential, S/F over Staff because it has greater damage potential, lower cd and more reliable interrupt (focus pull compared to Chaos Storm), and phantasm is very strong on immob targets (iWarden is buggy atm but it seems to behave most of the time if paired with an immob). Adept tier of Chaos tree is Debilitating Dissipation b/c you have 30% increased condi duration and 2 out of the 3 condis are very usefull (although your bleeds do very little damage I have seen it force condi clears…. so in rare cases 3 out of 3 are good). I consider this build patch proof (actually made this build in reaction to vigor nerfs), boon duration and application is about as good as it gets (man i love me the prot/vigor/swiftness durations). If you try this build try to take advantage of your push/pulls in conjunction with an interrupt to neutralize points. Displacement + immobilize = win

Compared to traditional shatter meta, I would say this build is stronger with certain exceptions. Mainly, its stronger than shatter against thieves but weaker than shatter against Warriors.

Also Chaos Archangel, just as a suggestion on your original post it might be helpful to add protection alongside weakness under the damage mitigation example.

Sweetbread.2679:

What? People actually expected Anet to not completely kitten up something in a way that benefits warriors above all other classes? Why are we even hoping that these people aren’t completely incompetent at this point. We all KNOW it’s going to break warriors even more and we all KNOW it’s going to take them 3-4 months at least to fix it. Why even bother?

You must be new here

Does this surprise anyone? How is this news?

People were calling this right after the ready up when they announced it.

You guys have fun pointing out the obvious to A-Net over and over again. It seems like its working.

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/540/685/b1d.png

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

You have nailed it. Mesmers were a mistake to add currently how they are.
They work off the brass ring theory. Phantasm keep repeating their damage, clones if left can be used for shatters. If you purposefully destroy phantasms/clones they cause you damage. If you do destroy the phantasm/clones they get recast easily.

This ultimately means the mesmers source of damage is coming from mechanics that are not the mesmer themselves. If you wanna hurt target A you have to manage target B well. If you going to shut down target B it can damage you, but not target A. While removing target B, target A damages you. Once target A has created target B it then goes on to damage you and Target A now can play active defense whilst their passive attack does their damage for them. It was flawed thinking in my opinion.

Dude, can i plz haz dat build yo!!!
Dat build must own dem nubs in dat face, 360 no-scope style. link dat build editor and put me on trak 2 be #1 mesmur universe.

o wait, what if you spit in the direction of the real mesmer? dat distortion OP
NERF NERF NERF

they codi cleanze for dayz, gots all that armur and health, and they dont even do there own damage, den they got that distortionz. dey be like da terminator of GW2 with all dat illusion health and if u manage 2 killz da clones, BAM…. your insta-dead.

I think the orb concept is a good one but is poorly implemented in Spirit Watch. 30/15 points puts far to much emphasis on orb running and allows the secondary objective to take the entire game over.

My idea is to put alters (like the one that spawns the orb) at all 3 bases as well. They never spawn an orb but instead hold the orb spawned at the beach.

Transporting the orb to a point you own will result in double the point gain. If an enemy player is able to channel the orb at point it has been placed, then the orb is destroyed and will respawn at the beach again (on a timer of course). The channel to dethrone the orb needs to be quick (1-1.5 sec) but follow all the rules current channels do.

Transporting the orb to a point that is not yours and placing it on the alter will decap the node and knock out enemy’s currently in the node (similiar to the effect felt when tranquility is taken on temple of the silent storm). The orb is destroyed when placed on the alter and will respawn on a timer.

Transporting the orb to a point that is neutral will do nothing. Preferably an alter will only spawn when a point is controlled. This allows for counter play to orb running.

Due to the decrease in importance, I would also allow players to run normal speed but keep the mobility moves impaired and continue to not let swiftness be applied to the runner.

I think this would encourage organized plays and node control much more than the current version does. Just a thought, throw me some feedback and tell me what you think.

Cynz.9437:

hate me all you want, but i welcome less AI

If anything these changes will actually push the mesmer meta further in the direction of stealth and AI dependency. So we are on the same page then?

jmatb.6307:

Perma dodging is stupid, and I’m not sold that the Mesmer is being ripped off.

How is it a bad thing to establish a ground rule that if you have all your illusions up that you don’t get anything from DE?

If anything that encourages the Mesmer players to pay attention more, not reward them for wasting clones. Clone on Death should be a defensive mechanism, not an offensive one.

I don’t think anyone here is arguing for perma dodging. Mesmer is so dependent upon dodging that a nerf to this degree could have very dramatic changes to the play-style and viability of the class. Most people are just expressing their concern regarding this as well as trying to suggest better solutions than the one proposed on Ready-Up.

To your second point, the DE change might seem like nothing big but there are many situations in which this could entirely change fights. To steal from another thread just to give you some examples (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Alashya-on-Mesmer-Changes/first#post3522467)

-Currently against some professions you are going to dodge backwards to create a clone between you and your opponent, so that the clone can soak the damage. Not that you can do the whole dodging back, against certain profession you have to use this, otherwise you’ll just die. Now that will no longer be possible.

-Another example is the terrain unevenness. F.e. I get attacked outside of the clocktower, dodge, then go into the clocktower, and now can not use one of my clones, because he is outside (or stuck on a different position). Now even if I dodge multiple times inside the clocktower, my first shatter will only contain a very very low number of useful clones. It could be possible, that the whole shatter is wastes, because the clones are stuck somewhere.

-Imagine your three clones are standing at a certain range, but you want to create a clone next to you, to get a good daze off. This will also no longer be possible.

BlackBeard.2873:

Actually, reducing the amount of dodges available for everyone should help bring glass-cannons and bunkers closer towards a median. Bunkers can’t survive as long, and glass-cannons need to spec slightly more defense rather than just go all-in on offense while relying on the dodge-key to save them when their burst doesn’t work.

This sounds good in theory but in actuality I dont think the results of these changes will render anything close to your logic.

Homogenizing roles and bringing everything closer to a “median” sounds good but in my gaming experience, anytime this has been done it has resulted in much less appealing gameplay and depth.

The main point of me creating this thread is to bring attention to the fact that this game has endured a power creep and damage is much higher and more prevalent than before. Nerfing the ability to mitigate this without also addressing the power creep could lead to disastrous results. This is not a sure thing, I am only speculating as everyone else is, but I think it is necessary to express these concerns to further discussion and find creative solutions to the issues at hand.

jmatb.6307:

There’s nothing wrong with having to wait until one of your clones die before dodging. Vigor is the best boon in the game, and only spending 5 points to get perma dodging, especially since Zerker gives around 40% crit chance by itself, is pretty stupid.

I’m actually somewhat encouraged by the most recent cast b/c Peters was talking about wanting skill to be more of an emphasis. It seems like they’re moving away from the “some eles just stay in one attunement” casual babysitting mentality.

It is absolutely encouraging that the devs seem to have shifted their mentality towards a more skill based meta. This issue though is that making changes off of philosophy alone does not equal better play. I understand that only investing 5 points to get permanent vigor is an issue (for both guardian and mesmer, with guardian being much less problematic because crits are harder to come by). A nerf is warranted but the way in which it is being done is not optimal for the play style necessary to be successful (for both guardian and mesmer). Why not move the trait to a higher tier? Why not make the trait 3 seconds of vigor every 5 seconds (thus making it useful on its own, but also encouraging boon duration to achieve greater synergy)?

The deceptive evasion nerf on the other hand, doesn’t really make sense to me. As others have stated, this is a nerf to ALL mesmer builds not just clone on death. If clone on death is the issue the devs want to address, then please devise a way to affect it without changing the entire profession. Making clone death blockable is a great suggestion. Hell, why not change the mechanic so that replacing a clone doesn’t count as a clone death?

With the new announced changes, it is obvious that the devs are on a mission to reduce dodge spamming.

I think this is good for the game and most of the community has called for such action. It is important that dodges are used thoughtfully and are limited in use in order to create skillful play.

But let me express my concerns with these changes. As logical as all these changes sound, in application they could currently be very bad for the game. With the amount of damage and skill spam available, this game could quickly devolve into who spammed what the fastest. Everything from glasscannons to bunker guards will see their ability to survive literally get cut in half.

If this trend of nerfing dodges is to continue then raw damage needs to be brought down significantly, animations need to be designed (for things like necro marks), and skills need longer cooldowns to promote timely and skillful use.

Cutting out dodging without also looking at these factors could lead to a VERY different gaming experience.

I also know the devs mentioned reaching for boon duration to counteract the vigor changes and this also sounds logical in theory. In actuality its is only going to hurt build diversity and for many professions it will force you to spec in trait lines that are useless.

Please consider these factors when making these changes. Encounters currently are pretty spammy but atleast its a balance of skill spam to dodge spam. I cant say how encounters will be after the changes but this is one PvP community member who is worried.

Why not change the mechanics on berserker stance from condition immunity to something like “you are unable to take damage from conditions for x amount of time”. This way things like poison cripple and blind are still effective because they can at least be applied. To make up for the nerf, attach blind immunity to a different utility skill to promote diversity among warrior builds (similar to utility goggles for engi). I would put blind immunity on something like “on my mark”.

cymerdown.4103:

For Team Arena (I’ll only list the meta/most powerful spec for each class)

S Tier
Hammer Longbow Warrior
Trickery Thief (D/P, S/P)

A Tier
Spirit Ranger
Bomb/Nade/R Engineer
Confounding Suggestions Mesmer (once CS is bugfixed, this would go down to B Tier below Necromancer)
Bunker Guardian

B Tier
Condition Necromancer (tough time with Warrior atm, otherwise middle of A tier)

C Tier
S/X Fresh Air Elementalist

For an idea of what I think should be adjusted about each of these professions, check out https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/The-Ken-Document/first

Totally on board with this assessment. Thiefs and Warriors are the only true balance offenders at this point in the meta. Engineer condition spam is still very strong and I would put it above spirit ranger.

People are starting enter team arena matchmaking solo in groves because the rewards are superior to solo arena. I duo q (so obviously I am not the healthiest to to the team arena sceen) and since the patch, team arena has basically been solo q. I suggest one of two solutions to the issue:

1) Do not allow parties of 1 or 4 to enter into team arena

2) Do not allow parties of 1 to enter team arena. If a team of 4 enters matchmaking, ask a player from solo arena if they want to sub in a team arena for bonus rewards.

felivear.1536:

• Duo Queue – Is there anything on the horizon to improve queueing for 2 friends? Right now, the option is team queue, where you’ll almost definitely face a full 5 man team, or struggle in hotjoin to get and stay on the same team.

This has been my question for sometime, but if I may, I think I can better word it.

Currently sPvP only supports parties of 5 and solo play in competitive environments. Are there plans in the future to help cater to mixed party sizes in competitive play?

Archgoat and I would be eternally grateful if this was a question that got some air-time/attention

New thread idea:

Chaith’s opinion on Female Mind Games’ opinion on Sensotix’s opinion on Dec 10th changes.

Also I will always be referring to myself in the 3rd person from now on. Candle can out

Passive traits like shared anguish, mirror of anguish, reaper’s protection are all on internal cooldowns and currently there is no way of managing them as a player who takes the trait or as a combatant fighting against it. Much like kit refinement for engineers, could we not get some sort of buff indicator to allow for better information to both the player and the combatant?

Acandis.3250:

candlecan.9827:

So I might be mistaken, but I believe I heard grouch saying that there were some slight modifications to the map to pave the way for a change down the road. Thinking logically, I dont think A-net is going to throw away one of their maps into hot-join. I currently agree that this map is incredibly not fun to play but maybe these map changes in the near future will make it bearable. In A-nets defense, the changes they made to Temple of the Silent Storm were pretty amazing and made the map tournament viable. I am willing to trust that this can be done again (well maybe Skyhammer will never be tournament viable but I can see it being playable in solo-q)

Keep in mind when they released Temple, they put it into hotjoin only for months before releasing it into the Queued/Weekly rotation.
And instead of doing the same with Skyhammer, they just went balls to the wall and have made us endure through this way past what we should’ve.
I don’t disagree in saying that its a fun trolly map, but why should people trying to compete for “ranking” have to put up with such a sorry excuse for a competitive conquest map.

I completely agree that the map was forced on us. All I am suggesting is instead of continuing down the path of complaining and boycotting the map, maybe swallow the frustration for a bit longer in hopes that the coming changes will improve our lives. This map should have been in hot-join and tested out before forcing it in ranked play but I think a-net has made it pretty obvious that it is here to stay. So lets look forward to a change for the better in the future instead of dwelling on mistreatment in the past, thats all I am saying

I am fine with the rez and the rez on death stuff. The rez on death can completely change the outcome of a fight/game but I feel like recognizing the mechanic and choosing how to handle it as a team (either to kill it/not kill it/ hold off on AOE spam so it doesn’t die) promotes some form of coordination which is a good thing.

The healing and condi cleanse however is a bit insane.

Some ideas to tone it down but keep it viable:

Allow the healing and condi cleansing but if the spirit uses its rez, then the spirit gets tired and cannot heal/condi cleanse for a period of time

Limit the # of people the spirit can rez with its on death activation

Maybe increase the interval or tie the activation of the condi clease with another skill or ability (something to the effect "if the ranger uses a healing skill while spirit is acitve then all affected allies cleanse condi’s)

Just some ideas for thought. I understand that this elite is incredibly important to the classes viability in tournament play, so affecting/nerfing it to much could be a bad thing. I am not a ranger so if any of my ideas are horrible, i apologize.

So I might be mistaken, but I believe I heard grouch saying that there were some slight modifications to the map to pave the way for a change down the road. Thinking logically, I dont think A-net is going to throw away one of their maps into hot-join. I currently agree that this map is incredibly not fun to play but maybe these map changes in the near future will make it bearable. In A-nets defense, the changes they made to Temple of the Silent Storm were pretty amazing and made the map tournament viable. I am willing to trust that this can be done again (well maybe Skyhammer will never be tournament viable but I can see it being playable in solo-q)

This is just an example of further watering down and dumbing down the game. In my opinion this is an absolutely terrible change. Intelligent backcaps are gone, any necessity for coordination… a thing of the past. Hey just flood the gamer with loads of information so they don’t have to use their brains or mouth (or god forbid draw on the map). I am normally not this negative, I have dealt with the steadily raising of the skill floor and lowering of the skill cap. I have stayed quiet and positive for the most part. This though just absolutely depresses me and I really don’t know why this was snuck in the game.

I say snuck because to my knowledge no discussion has been had with the community to even gauge if this was a good idea. Just another surprise change that absolutely hurts the game. Today is a sad day for GW2.

Scoobaniec.9561:

candlecan.9827:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Healing_Signet
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Adrenal_Health

Healing signet 392 (402 with 20 in defense trait line) + Adrenal Health (assuming 3 strikes of adrenaline) 360

402+360=762 per second.

I am not a warrior, I have not tested this, these numbers are assumed off of what the tooltips say. If I am incorrect please let me know.

“This forum is ripe with intelligence” u just proved it.

Even wiki states

“Triggers on an interval of 3 seconds (not shown as a trait fact) "

Fair enough I deserve that. So the true number comes out to be 522 per second. I originally stated 600 per second. My mistake. I will quit posting because obviously I may not be the most qualified to speak on the subject. All I know is I am not the only one who feels like the warrior sustain is over the top by default. I just feel like addressing the synergy of Adrenal Health and Healing Signet might be a more constructive path on fixing warriors rather than messing with weapon sets and damage related traits.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Healing_Signet
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Adrenal_Health

Healing signet 392 (402 with 20 in defense trait line) + Adrenal Health (assuming 3 strikes of adrenaline) 360

402+360=762 per second.

I am not a warrior, I have not tested this, these numbers are assumed off of what the tooltips say. If I am incorrect please let me know.

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

candlecan.9827:

Lighter.5631:

candlecan.9827:

I am not a warrior, so let me be the first to apologize if what I am about to say is inaccurate.

From my perspective, the only issue with the current version of the warrior is the effectiveness of healing signet without any need to reach for healing power. It has been suggested before, but why not nerf the base heal of healing signet slightly but make it scale better with healing power? If this isn’t a viable solution, could we get an explanation of why not?

I think specifically targeting just the hambow build is way to narrow minded and does not address the true issues with the warrior class.

So much misinform in this forums, people QQ about how healing signet is OP without healing power and toughness and with PPC, that’s not true…i can easily backstab you to death with a ptv thief..it’s at its effective level where it should be..it will still heal up some of your hp slowly even you dont have any healing power..

so you think that targeting just hambow build does not address the true issues being that warrior can finally be tanky when specced tankiness with healing signet? or healing signet can finally be on pair with other heals? ok

i just don’t get the logic behind all these comments, people complaining about hambow build being op, so we will nerf the skill that is not op when used on other builds, which no one complained about!

you misunderstand. I am not complaining about hambow. In fact, I am advocating that they leave that build alone because they are currently discussing nerfing that build directly. My view on healing signet comes from witnessing multiple different warrior builds that posses HIGHLY potent offensive capabilities, yet enjoy the sustain that no other class with such offense offers. All I am saying is that if a warrior wants that “tankyness” than offer it to them, but at the cost of having to at least devote healing power to achieve it.

Mediation guardian. HgH engi. These 2 alone enjoy all the same damage and sustain..please don’t over dramatize with statements like, “No other profession.”

This forum is ripe with intelligence. Countering my statement about warrior sustain by using HgH engi as an example. I won’t even go into how stupid that is.

Instead I will further define what I am saying when I say sustain. A warrior with healing signet and Adrenal Health can, without healing power, achieve easily a rate of 600 health per second or greater. That combined with Cleansing Ire (adrenline on hit) pretty much ensures no lack of adrenaline, so this 600 health/second has extremely high up time. I, along with many others, feel like this is an absurd amount of healing for not having to invest in any healing power. Let me repeat, no other profession in this game offers a class 600 health per second without taking some form of healing power in your runes or your amulet. Not your HgH engineer (lawl) or your Meditation guardian.

The combination of adrenal health, healing signet, and cleansing ire is the issue and allowing that synergy in offensive builds is not congruent with any other build in the game. period

This entire thread just makes me LOL. How in the world with this leaderboard do you differentiate those who sync que’d, or those who legitimately earned their record. The current system is broken, admittedly so by all parties; how on earth do you want to reward people for this??? The best thing is to fix the leaderboards and totally forget about this shameful period in PvP, not rewarding players with a title for achieving a rank in a pool ripe with exploits and inaccuracy. 100 games IS NOT a sufficient filter to stop those who dont deserve it from being rewarded.

I agree completely that something needs to change with Lord mechanics. I think making the lord immune to transform effects is a great Idea.

I don’t think I would go down the path of making the lord statistically more powerful.

Instead I would like to see some kind of active way for a team to help defend the lord and keep him alive. Maybe have a channel effect for the defending team that can be triggered once every 5 minutes that does an AOE stun to all attackers. Good teams could line up the stun activation with the lords heal allowing him to heal up instead of getting interrupted every time.

This might not be the best idea but what I am advocating is an active play a team can make to help defend the lord instead of just having to watch helplessly as the lord goes down with nothing they can do to counter. Currently if a team does a full lord rush, it really doesn’t matter what the defending team does, the lord will be killed.

Lighter.5631:

candlecan.9827:

I am not a warrior, so let me be the first to apologize if what I am about to say is inaccurate.

From my perspective, the only issue with the current version of the warrior is the effectiveness of healing signet without any need to reach for healing power. It has been suggested before, but why not nerf the base heal of healing signet slightly but make it scale better with healing power? If this isn’t a viable solution, could we get an explanation of why not?

I think specifically targeting just the hambow build is way to narrow minded and does not address the true issues with the warrior class.

So much misinform in this forums, people QQ about how healing signet is OP without healing power and toughness and with PPC, that’s not true…i can easily backstab you to death with a ptv thief..it’s at its effective level where it should be..it will still heal up some of your hp slowly even you dont have any healing power..

so you think that targeting just hambow build does not address the true issues being that warrior can finally be tanky when specced tankiness with healing signet? or healing signet can finally be on pair with other heals? ok

i just don’t get the logic behind all these comments, people complaining about hambow build being op, so we will nerf the skill that is not op when used on other builds, which no one complained about!

you misunderstand. I am not complaining about hambow. In fact, I am advocating that they leave that build alone because they are currently discussing nerfing that build directly. My view on healing signet comes from witnessing multiple different warrior builds that posses HIGHLY potent offensive capabilities, yet enjoy the sustain that no other class with such offense offers. All I am saying is that if a warrior wants that “tankyness” than offer it to them, but at the cost of having to at least devote healing power to achieve it.

I am not a warrior, so let me be the first to apologize if what I am about to say is inaccurate.

From my perspective, the only issue with the current version of the warrior is the effectiveness of healing signet without any need to reach for healing power. It has been suggested before, but why not nerf the base heal of healing signet slightly but make it scale better with healing power? If this isn’t a viable solution, could we get an explanation of why not?

I think specifically targeting just the hambow build is way to narrow minded and does not address the true issues with the warrior class.

Reevz.2617:

You should really adjust the skill more than just numbers, necro marks for example still have little to no coutnerplay. this has ALWAYS been an issue give marks travel time or somthing already.

you should really find an alternative from traits like incendiary power there is no counterplay in that at all. Also be careful with buffing rangers because most of what all their builds do is auto attack. you should really lower auto attack damage across the board and skills like pin down and hammer 4 on warrior need better more discernible animations, hammer 4 should be a longer cast time, it’s borderline undodgeable even if you’re looking for it only..buffing initiative regen is a mistake

^This.

Also a serious review and analysis of imob stacking (PVP only) would be beneficial. Personally, I think it is over the top for pvp formats and should be reverted to its previous state.

The current system has been punishing my friend and I since its inception. I think its been punishing much of the community for a while now too. 4 or less people can’t get together and play any arena format without
1. being hit with HUGE queue times
2. getting bottom of the barrel unskilled teammates no matter what the situation
3. generally being locked in position on the leaderboards
4. forced to play non competitive matches against highly coordinated groups of 5
5. forced to play non competitive matches against a motley crew team with much less skill

I’m not necessarily saying I want a ranked format, just one that allows friends to play and benefit from their skill level and receive worthy allies and opponents in a game. Why not have an un-ranked, any-roster size, arena and get rid of Hot-Joins?

This current system is really a HUGE barrier of entry to any want to play SPvP. It is holding back so much fun that the community and their friends could be having. You fixed tournament tickets because of this issue. Won’t you please look at implementing something for people in my situation?

When this queue was entered it was around 12:30 am eastern on a Wednesday. An off time, yes, but an hour+ queue time is outrageous.

!http://postimg.org/image/45h47itlv/!

Oni Link.4621:

In my honest opinion HJs are bad because:

• People that wan’t to play “seriously” without risking their rank in LB (leaderboard) don’t have any alternative. Want to play seriously? Go to solo queue and risk your rank. Don’t want to risk? Go to play random games in HJs.
• New PvPers go to HJ, play a few matches (most probably the 8v8 zergfests) and think "oh, so PvP is… “this”? seems a giant random confusing brawl, not really “technical” as it should be". And bye bye to newcomers.
• New PvPers learn to play in HJ which basically means they do not learn anything because compositions are completely random, there is no strategy involved, teams keep changing since people can leave and join anytime… They can train 1v1 if they are lucky enough to meet alone players around the map but that’s all. No teamfight or strategy learning.
• Since HJs are the “default” match, people don’t think “let’s do a match” since a game where players keep changing and teams are always unbalanced is NOT a match, is a FFA random brawl.

Solution:

• Remove HJs.
• Add Co-op (players vs bots). It will be awesome as a training ground for new players/builds (and people aiming for daily achievements will go there rather than ruining matches).
• Add a tutorial (not 3 no-sense quests) the first time you enter the Mist. The tutorial should be a simulated match with bots (maybe the player vs 1 bot). It should explain how the game works (capture points, kills, secondary objectives).
• Add a new type of matches, called “normal” (or whatever). Basically they will work the same as Arena but without leaderboards involved. Matchmaking will be PVP rank based (not Glicko based).
  It means that whenever you want to play a not-ranked (I use term “ranked” for leaderboard matches) match, you can solo queue or create a roster and the server will match you against a team of solo queuers or team with the same average PvP rank (with lowest deviation possible).
  Obviously if you queue in 2 and get in a team with a 3-man queue, then server will search for a similar composition (2+3) with same average rank.

Basically this system is the common system in online competitive games. It will also prevent all those empty HJs room so the arena list will show only custom arenas.

In all seriousness, how has this not been the model used in GW2? Why invest so much time and effort into a system that is obviously not breeding anything other than exploitation and un-informed play? At some point as a developers, I would hope ANET has the courage to objectively look at a problem, and seriously consider if your current system is even worth trying to fix or whether investing time NOW in a better solution from the ground level up is superior. I don’t know this answer, none of the community does. The fixes listed above seem like an awfully great alternative to the system in place now though. Just a thought

Some one please explain to me the complexity in reading tool-tips and pressing buttons. The argument by the OP is poorly worded and misleading. He is not scared of complexity, he simply wants to be lazy and still be viable in-game (not an insult, I very often feel lazy and inattentive after a long day).

If I am mentally exhausted after a trying day of work and I just want to escape and have fun for a bit, I don’t come home and challenge someone to a game of chess. When you choose to play PvP, thats basically what you are signing up for (a dynamic, fast-paced, thinking mans game). I don’t understand the logic of embracing high efficiency to low effort builds and classes. I am all for everyone having fun and competing but geesh this argument seems really lame to me. It feels like watering-down the game to embrace this midset is a REALLY bad idea unless you come up with some more valid talking points.

An honest question, isn’t the increased damage stats from a 2 hand weapon over 1 handers kinda the equalizer on this?

It might not be up to the same level as having another sigil but if every weapon set has a 2 sigil option, then i know I will be trying to optimize 2h builds all day. Just a thought