Guild Wars 2

Zamfir.8462:

Years (decades!) fRPGs and MMOs going back to EverQuest and beyond have taught us this. It’s sad that these lessons in history have been lost or ignored.

I dont know if its that I have grown up and lost my sense of adventure, but I remember how much fun it was playing old-school mmos like EverQuest. I had no clue what I was doing, the games was ACTUALLY hard, but it was fun as hell to just explore and see what happened. Sometimes you’d play for a whole gaming session, and not accomplish anything, but you explored new areas and learned something.

I dunno, maybe the target audience now wants it this way. Log in and get to work. Waypoint to an event and start grinding.

And dont get me started on the difficulty. Even if the entire game was scaled up to HoT difficulty, GW2 would still be one of the most solo-friendly MMOs.

Sort of torn on this.

I have been having fun in HoT, but after completing the story on my second character, I realized there is little reason for me to play at the moment.
At the moment, HoT does not have enough to offer to justify its price tag. Id say it was worth about $20-$30 in its current state.

Sure, they added a ton of features and a lot of new areas, but if you actually look at the THINGS to do, there isn’t that much (even for a casual player like myself).

My biggest complaint is still the mastery grind. To me, it seems as if there wasn’t enough content to keep people busy enough until the next update, so they adjusted the grind on masteries to slow everyone down. The problem is, for a casual player like myself, just like legendaries, I dont see any need to grind and unlock more masteries, just so I can grind and unlock more.

I really hope this isn’t he fate of MMOs. I hope there are some game developers that realize the majority of people play for FUN, and not just OCD trying to complete everything.

Suggestion If we are going to be waiting for content, which means we’ll be repeating content, dont make it so obvious, and give us something fun to do.

-Open world PvP in certain areas with the results of those battles having affects on those areas (ex: Meta events change based on PvP standing in that area)
-HOT zones, with certain things to do – ex: Hunt XXX mob for certain materials, or help NPC faction in their war.
-Epic lore quests. Not just obvious grinds, but instead, combine knowledge, skill, luck, and grind and put a worthwhile reward at the end.
-ANYTHING….

Asmodal.6489:

knight.8926:

if you pair the longbow with traps then its good. But bow alone will pretty much leave you helpless without any other utilities. maybe you can use shouts to help kite. honestly i feel super slow i might end up with runes of traveler and theres no getaway card with DH like with ranger

that depends entirely on the content you plan to do. If you go full glass on the bow and pick you fights right it is completly viable. If we are talking about open world pve I think DH and LB is absolutly facerolling in the dps area.

Just startet testing yesterday but the only challenge are defiant bar mobs in HoT everything else just melts away after five seconds.

doing 3.8k AA attacks and another 9k on a 4 sec CD with multiple ways to keep does at distance is just crazy and I fell it will get toned down.

and this is without any utilities DH lets you grab a crazy amount of damage modifiers. Our F2 is a great escape tool, simply because its enough to add in another true shot.

I do not know yet if it is my style because it might get rahter boring and I like taking 4+ enemies on at once (open world) but I have to play a little more with it.

Shhhh.

My main is Ranger (Now Druid), but Im also now playing my DH as a ranged DPS/Support. To me, more fun than core-ranger.

Ranger – Pet is a large factor of playstyle. Ranger’s have a lot of mobility through auto-attack, and various skills.

Dragon Hunter – No pet so you are more of a lone ranger. You have access to heavier armor and stuff like Aegis, protection, blind, retaliation.

For me, so far I think with a little skill, the DH is very survivable and can dish out some good DPS. The ranger is a little more “clunky”, having to deal with the pet, but it definately has its uses.

Lastly, I will also say that you could go Druid and go Staff/LongBow. You’ll still be able to dish out some good damage, but you’ll also be able to support with heals.

tl;dr

Go ranger if you want (or dont mind) pet, and want to be more mobile, with the option to switch to support through healing with staff.

Go Dragon Hunter if you dont want the pet, dont mind being less mobile, but more tanky, and may want to support through various buffs and blinds.

Lastly, Heavy armor usually looks better

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQJATRn8cClChddCGCBEEhlAiCbF+udQe7D/03KAeg3E-TJxEABps/Q1lBA4JAEwlAAA

This is something I have been playing around with and its working for me. Im sure its far from meta, but it fits my playstyle and is fun. Sorry, the build isn’t complete, I couldn’t figure out how to make the build editor work for equipment. For the most part, though, everything is Zerker, and then I switched out my accessories and rings to get a bit of healing/prec/vit.

Its obviously set up for map completion and soloing, but with a few minor changes to the gear and the traits, it can be tailored more to large scale events. I really like the Honor line, mainly for dodging more and Protective Reviver. These both come in handy right now in the HoT meta-events.

Celtic Lady.3729:

dankid.9321:

3)Hero points are not soloable. This one may sort of be legitimate, but not everything has to be soloable. C

I still think this was a bad decision on their part because I think months down the road there are going to be a lot of legitimate complaints about people not having enough players on a map to finish these. Having map completions soloable when there is plenty on any given map that is group-oriented doesn’t really seem game-breaking to me.

Initially, when I was frustrated, I felt the same way. But they can always scale them down later when/if the populations drop. I’d rather have that, then have them be too easy now, and everyone just breezes through them.

Also, keep in mind with the lowered amount needed for full unlock, you only need a few Hero Point unlocks from HoT. I think I was only at about 52% world completion, and did all the “Commune” HPs I came across in HoT, and then maybe about 3-5 actual fights.

Tyrantis.8640:

Andred.1087:

Solid assessment. I think, though, if masteries were tied specifically to the activities they’re related to, people would just be complaining that they have to grind those activities. Whereas now, since it’s all based on gaining experience, you can do anything that gives you experience to train up your masteries.

This is exactly true.

I’m fine with how masteries are. They are account bound, not per character so its OK that the progression is slow.

Im perfectly fine with the rate of gain, I just think they could have been a better way to progress them. XP grind is a simple formula, but its not going to wow anyone.

I will say that the actual masteries themselves and the gating areas (MP / HP) behind certain specializations is a nice change.

I would still like “Epic” quests as an option for something different to do. The collection achivements that unlock unique skins look like a step in the right direction though.

This is coming from a “casual” gamer averaging 1-3 hours/day with most days at 2 or less

This post is sort of my pseudo review/rant. I see a lot of whining on the forums, and while some of it is warranted, I feel the majority is just people not knowing what they want and just complaining.

Valid Complaints
1)Mastery grind – This too me shows that the devs are either un-imaginative or just lazy. It is definitely a “grind” and there is little to no skill involved in unlocking masteries. Just plain and simple, time spent grinding.

I would have rather seen their unlocking being tied to either use or story, or both. Ex: The more gliding you do, the more glider masteries you unlock. Or, learning the different lores being tied to side quests.

2)Elite spec’s taking far too many HP’s (resolved) The fix for this was perfect. With the original being 400 to fully unlock, it meant that for many, they’d complete most of the HoT story having to play with their original specs or a kitten Elite.

3)Healing being thrown into a game that was not designed for healing (Druid mainly) – This one, Im kind of on the fence on. If you are going to be a main healer, the group UI is maybe sufficient to heal efficiently. But healing people outside of your group is very clunky. In small groups, it seems to work and the Druid/staff skills actually feel quite right. But in large zergs, its just a clusterF and I feel so disconnected from the game.

4)Im sure there are others, (maybe others can share)….

Just people whining
1)The game is too “hardcore” or un-soloable. Now this may be profession specific, because I played through as a Druid which is most situations was almost invincible. I did die a lot more in HoT than in the core game, but most of this was falling while tryinig to explore. For me though, the difficulty was perfect about 95% of the time. There were a few battles (non boss) in the story mode where myself and the entire NPC group got wiped immediately These weren’t game breaking, just required a second try.

But I think the problem here is people are either so used to running zerker builds or not knowning how to dodge and prioritize targets or positioning.

Enjoy the challenge, it will make you a better player.

2)Class balance and nerfs. Every single class forum has most people complaining about how they got the worst elite spec and how their class keeps getting nerfed. While some of these are legitimate complaints, give the devs some time. The expansion has been out a week. At least they are making changes and trying to find balance. My advise would be to NOT invest too much into any or your builds at the moment and make something adaptable. Try different things.

3)Hero points are not soloable. This one may sort of be legitimate, but not everything has to be soloable. Case in point, I ended up gliding to one of the more hiddent HPs in Verdant Brink and there were two other guys there. They stated they was no way we could take it without at least one or two more. We tried once and got wiped pretty quickly. We then changed things around a bit, and were able to do it the second time. Me being a healer actually made it all possible. So, yeah, it sucked that it was challenging, but it was more rewarding when we beat it. But there are some that are just ridiculous.

Review at this point
At this point, Id give the expansion an 85%. The story was definitely too short, as I completed it in a little over a week while just playing casually. Im hoping through LS though that there will continue to be regular updates and that this was only a preview to the story. I wish the devs would be a little more imaginative with achievements and tasks. Old school games like Everquest had lore quests and class specific quests to earn unlocks. Instead, the simple formula seems to just be add arbitrary grind to slow players down. Overall though, Im looking forward to going through and earning more achievements while trying to unlock more masteries.

At first, I was thinking the OP’s question was sort of silly since it is so easy to get into CA quickly.

But maybe this is even more reason to just ditch the astral force and just allow the player to change forms at will (with a cooldown).

This way, if you want to stay in CA all the time, you can.

Just a suggestion. Im sure these have already been mentioned; as they are common for Druids in other games, but the following would add some utility and variety to the Ranger/Druid.

1)Damage Shields – ex: Shield of Thorns.
Few options here:
a)For XX seconds each attacker receives damage
b)Damage shield nullifies XX amount of damage and attackers receive damage
c)etc.

2)Stacking regen – been mentioned many times before, but instead of stacking in duration, stack in intensity

3)Wards – Ward negates XX amount of damage

+1

Well written and pretty much agree with everything.

The key point that I agree with the most is the whole “heal bot” feature. I would rather have a “fun” specialization than just something added that makes our class needed. I dont want to mindlessly spam heals.

I’d like to see staff work somewhat similar to Glyphs. All skills should have a base healing amount, and a boon, BUT, if the healing is not needed(based on a percentage of healing applied), then damage is done and a condition is applied.

Ex:
Say #1 skill does 500 healing to any targets it passed through, but all targets are fully healed, then instead, it will apply 500 damage to the target. There could be cutoff point, so that if one target only needs to be healed for 50 damage, it wont trigger the heal, and still 500 damage will be dealt.
Say another skill does AOE heal for 2000 and grants swiftness. If the heal is not needed, then 2000 damage will be applied AOE, and cripple will be applied.

Key points:
-Staff skills and damage are very “MEH”
-The only purpose of staff is to charge up for Celestial.
-Celestial heals and support are WAY better than anything staff has
-Troll Unguent and Healing Spring charge up for Celestial almost as fast as Staff
-If “dedicated healer” is going to be needed, then the goal for Druid will be to get into Celestial form and spend most of the time there.
-When heals are not needed, the Druid should be contributing damage and making sure Celestial is charged.
-So far, there is no time to switch weapons. You spend the majority of time in Celestial, pop out, charge up celestial, maybe blast a bow 2 and then back into Celestial.

Outcomes
-For most situations, whatever build you were using previously will still work. Just replace one trait line with the Druid Elite line.
-Use Troll or Healing Spring to charge up Celestial before battles and when exiting Celestial
-For weapons, either keep what you previously used (since staff is weak), or pick one weapon, and have the staff just in case you need an emergency charge for Celestial

Overall Outcome
-I think the Druid elite does achieve the goal of making Rangers/Druids more desired (maybe only in some situations)
-There is potential for many different builds and “variations” on playstyle.
-But….. When healing is needed, its pretty much going to be " f5, 3, 4, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 4…… 6, f5, repeat…… or something like that"
-When healing is not needed immediately, then you dont really have any utility other than I guess you can take some stress off people by popping random heals, and maybe the glyph that raises damage 33%.

Here is how I would fix shortbow (and long bow).

Longbow would become more of a “ranged” weapon focused on DPS and opening fights.

Shortbow would become more of a control/evasive weapon set

Longbow
1)Keep similar, but as damage goes up from further range, speed goes down. (or accuracy goes down). Add a trait to negate the negative effects of long range
2)Charge shot – longer the charge, more damage, but also longer cooldown
3)Evasive skill – fire a crippling arrow and grant Vigor
4)Keep same
5)Keep the same but instead of cripple, arrows cause bleed

Shortbow
1)As range decreases, speed increases, but damage also decreases. (This could offer some interesting synergy with certain sigils)
2)Replace with current LB 2
3)Poison shot plus grant stealth
4)Roll past the enemy hitting them in the back and inflicting bleed
5)Short duration confuse (Melee range – hits enemy with the bow)

I wasn’t able to watch the twitchcast, but read the overview on Dulfy.

It looks like we have a transform similar to Necro that has some additional effects based on active glyphs?

But what about our pet?

Now Rangers will never be allowed in group.

/Autokick Ranger without staff

I was really hoping that we’d have some AOE ground target healing skills.

Obviously I haven’t played Druid yet, but Im hoping this way is fun. Not having ground target skills or directional based skills just feels kinda, blah to me.

StickerHappy.8052:

Bearbow. Elite Specialization. Bows that shoot bears.

This. Except we are only going to get one GM trait and it will be: “Damage is increased when using bear pet and longbow”

I dont know why nobody has realized this yet.

If you think about it, all other classes’ elite specs. are a unique class that is not found in other MMO’s. But Druid is common in other MMO’s

So it makes sense that Druid will be its own new class, and Ranger will get some other elite spec.

:)

Im guessing one of three things:

a)Just more pets or slightly more control of the pet

b)Ability to “consume” or “bond” with the pet. This would either shapeshift the druid, or just add various effects.

c)Ability to give pets special affects; either universal for all pets, or dependent on type of pet.

Lastly, I think its possible there may be something very “special” for Druids since they could play into the lore of HoT. But I dont see how this would be balanced and fair.

This would make no sense. A two-handed weapon in one hand?

Let me preface this by stating Im not concerned with what is Meta, and instead, just in what is “fun” and viable.

So im a returning player, came back for HoT and am getting some more characters up to 80 to prepare for the launch. I haven’t decided which class I’ll play yet as my main, and will probably play multiple for a short time after launch until I get a feel for each.

I mainly play PvE doing world events, WvWvW, and just screw around and try to have “fun”

In other MMOs, I typically play the “hybrid” type classes (Bard, Ranger, Monk, etc.) These classes typically are DPS focused with some other unique utilities. I also often play the Druid class, and even RP’d my early GW2 Ele as a druid.

So naturally, Im looking at Ranger, Guardian, and Warrior. These three classes have the “flavor” im looking for from a RP’ing perspective, but now its time to decide which is the best fit. I’d like to stick with Ranger as my main, but it currently seems like the worst choice. Even ignoring all the Meta talk, it just doesn’t “feel” right.

Questions
1)What (if anything) can the ranger do better than the other two?
After playing Ranger up to 80, and starting to level my guardian, it seems like guardian is all around better. Granted, this is just for PvE leveling, but my guardian has great burst damage, both single target, and AoE. She has decent mobility (on par with the ranger) plus the class utilities synergize well with various builds and add to survivability.

The only advantage I can see to the ranger is that having the pet and a longbow, you can avoid damage all together most of the time. This is ok in PvE in most situations, but isn’t going to do much in PvP.

This is my biggest gripe with the Ranger. Since we have the pet, our personal DPS must be reduced. Controlling the pet is clunky, and if you want them to survive, you basically MUST spec into beastmastery.

2)What is a “fun” Ranger build that involves a bow?
For me, Ranger MUST use a bow. This is more important than the pet even. In other MMOs, typically, the bow is what makes the Ranger, and the pet is sometimes an option or specialization that can be taken.

But in GW2, its sort of backwards. The focus is put on the pet, and the bow is just another weapon. And to me, longbow is sort of boring. I was thinking something combining LB and traps could be fun, but then I see they changed the trap mechanics.

Anyone else thinking along the same lines as me. I WANT to stay with Ranger/Druid, but Dragonhunter seems like it might be better and more fun. I guess that will depend on what Druid has to offer.

I pre-purchased and registered the Standard edition and Im a “Veteran Player”, but I did not receive an additional character slot.

When I log in, I see 5 character slots still (Plus now 4 four ‘beta’).

Do I have to wait a certain period of time?