Showing Posts For idiggory.6019:
You’re reading words that aren’t there. I never said lazy, I said they hadn’t done it. If you chose to do it with a low level instead of a 80, well, that’s your choice. You made your bed, now sleep in it. Every other event in the world (dragons come immediately to mind) give scaled loot, why would you expect this one not to?
I’m not saying you are wrong, but your argument is poor.
As a one-time event, this was fundamentally different from every other event in the game. Alluding to them as a standard for the way this one should behave with regards to loot really makes no sense, because it doesn’t behave the same way as other events do in general.
Which doesn’t mean to say that you’re wrong that it should give scaled rewards. But your reasoning here is seriously flawed.
I can see both sides.
On the one hand, scaled rewards means you might get something you could actually use sometime soon.
On the other, putting in two and a half hours of work (the time it took my overflow map to complete the event) to get a sub-par reward is far from satisfying.
Ultimately, I have to fall on the side that condemns the scaled gear for three reasons.
1. I reject the notion that it’s acceptable to “punish” players in MMOs for not being as hardcore as others. I think it’s archaic, and I think the MMO genre has suffered for a long time because of it. GW2 is actually a game that does what it can to ensure this is never the case—dungeons are highly accessible, even if highly difficult for many players. It’s easy to participate in events and earn rewards (and even if you don’t hit the gold reward, you’re not really missing out on much).
Telling someone they don’t deserve the level 80 gear because they haven’t put in the work to get a level 80 sounds too much like this to me. Yeah, maybe they didn’t earn a level 80 yet. But they did earn the gear. The gap between a scaled 80 and a true 80 in the context of this event was NOT that much. You were just as likely to go down as anyone else, and the lag ensured you weren’t really doing much more damage at all. Realistically, every player was more valuable as a rallying tool than anything else.
2. The reason you would want scaled gear is to use it. But the gear wasn’t skewed in favor of what you could use. My Warrior’s random stuff was medium armor and a trident. I couldn’t use any of that. And because of its reduced value, my ability to trade it for something I could use was far lower than for level 80 gear. Plus, let’s face it, even an exotic is going to be replaced VERY quickly while leveling. So the mileage for the reward is also reduced compared to level 80 exotics, which you’re more likely to use for some time.
And because all of what I got was 10-20+ levels higher anyway, I’m still waiting to use it. So waiting slightly longer for 80s gear would not have mattered. Hell, because one of the static rewards was level 80, I’m waiting anyway.
Also, let’s not forget that the level 80s got unique skins from the Lost Island stuff. Yeah, I can get that by doing Fractals. But at the very least, scaled gear should have had the new looks.
3. I just fail to see why doing this event as a true 80 is intrinsically different than doing it as someone who was 32 or 47 or whatever. If you think there was a massive difference, you’re kidding yourself. The single most important dynamic of this event was rallying. I saw level 80 signet warriors going down nonstop. My Warrior brought banners (most importantly, Battle Standard) and used his Longbow to create combo fields. Which one of us was more useful?
Because the damage numbers coming in were so high, and the mitigation at the other end so severe, your level and gear realistically made little to no difference. Your superior gear wasn’t going to save you from the blanket poison or boss roll. Your higher output wasn’t going to mean much when only one in five hits actually did damage. And you DEFINITELY weren’t doing far better when most of the damage to the Ancient boss came from gas or boulders.
This event was won by throwing bodies at it over and over. Lower levels were realistically just as capable as the true 80s were in this regard.
So yeah, they pulled their weight. But then they got sub-par rewards.
Every profession is meant to be different. Not just in tactics, but also in terms of how complicated or active they are.
Not every profession is going to suit everyone’s specific desire, because we all want a different level of both complexity and activity.
If I had to place them on a list, I’d say that Ranger was the least complex, and Guardian was the least active. Mesmer is highly complex, and Elementalist is extremely active.
Warrior is somewhere in the middle. It’s not obscenely complex, but your tools are generally unique enough that you should be investing effort into planning when to use them. Your tools are often strong, so you need to be constantly putting them to good use. Just to use an example, because just about every warrior will know it from leveling, take the Greatsword.
Your auto-attack chain is two small hits that apply vulnerability (iirc) and a big burst hit at the end.
Your 2 is a super powerful 8-hit burst, but you’re rooted in place until it finishes. If you just use it on-CD without proper planning or preparation, you’re going to take far more damage than you should. And to make matters worse, your enemy could charge someone else and the attack is wasted.
Your 3 skill is a whirl finisher, but you move in a line as you use it which gives it a great positional element. It’s great for group AoE, but also great to damage your enemy while moving out of an attack area without wasting endurance.
Your 4 skill is a ranged option that will hit everything in a straight line from the direction it was thrown, and then everything as it comes back to you, plus adds cripple. When you take the time to plan its path, it can be incredibly powerful. Just use it to hit one enemy and you’re probably wasting a lot of potential control and damage.
Your 5 skill is a gap closer. Great for the obvious purpose, but it has other applications as well. Moving out of range for a big attack area, for instance. Maybe you draw an enemy away from the group, cripple them with 4, then charge back to the fray. Etc.
So even though it’s generally hailed as a lol-easy weapon, it’s complexity actually allows for a lot of unique tactics. Sure, the skill threshold is set fairly low. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t sizable returns for using it with more skill.
And your F1 adds Adrenaline for a nice +20% Crit, which you can use for GS burst OR you can switch to another weapon and make use of it there.
And then there’s your second weapon. Take a rifle and you’ll be one of the game’s best single-target kiters. It’s not a super complex weapon, but it’s powerful. If you let your bullets pierce, you can do some solid group damage too.
Take the Longbow and your tactical capability just sky rocketed. You now get to play with two great burst skills, and you can create fire fields to play off of with your GS finishers, or self-chain the bow for Area Might.
Or maybe you take Axe/Warhorn as your offhand, so you’re constantly moving through close-mid ranges, switching between support, control, and damage. Etc.
When I approach the Warrior that way, as something I need to play with tactical awareness, it’s a lot more fun. Not so complex I feel exhausted just keeping up with everything, but not so boring I just spend all my time auto-attacking (like what I essentially do with my Guardian now).
If you just auto-attack as a Warrior, you’ll do better than most other professions doing the same. Doesn’t mean you’ll do well. And there’s just as much of return for having skill with this profession as any other.
Humble suggestion, ignore the event and fix things like targeting / bugs / class issues / bug-gated dungeons first.
Yeah, that’s not even a possibility.
The event is likely bundled with the mid-November patch that includes massive number of bug fixes and other changes. That patch will be going through the final stages of polishing and testing at this point, to ensure that all the separate fixes bundled in it work with each other, and will work transitioning from the live version of the game.
They can’t just ignore the event, because the event is a necessary part of launching that patch, which introduces a new area and a new dungeon. To decide not to focus on the event means going into the patch and removing it, which is even more work than just continuing to polish the build as it stands.
Finally, why exactly are you assuming that the exact same people who would work on targeting would work on other fixes? Assuming GW2 operates like every other game, it’s managed by development teams with varying roles and responsibilities, some of which might be shared between them, managed by their lead designers.
So just ignoring one aspect of development doesn’t mean much. They probably have people actively looking into different options when it comes to targeting, but none of those even matter until they can do more testing, and it’s definitely less vital than making sure the patch doesn’t break the game.
I’m confused by your post to be honest.
Well, first of all, condition damage does absolutely nothing for a GS sans traits, and doesn’t do much with them (bleed on crit is pretty much it, and I’m not even sure if that checks against your +con).
Precision doesn’t buff damage directly, but adjusts the crit chance accordingly. Hundred Blades is 8 seperate strikes summed together, each of which has a seprate crit chance. So higher precision will in general lead to higher overall results on the attack (which isn’t to say always—a 60% crit chance could result in a HB with 0-2 crits, and a 20% crit chance can get you one with 4-6—both scenarios are obviously rare).
There are only two other stats that will directly affect that— Crit damage and Power. Power increases the “base” damage prior to being modified for the crit multiplier. Crit damage increases that modifier.
Meaning, if crit damage is 1.5x your attack, and your attack would normally do 100 damage, you get 150.
If you have power that would normally give you a 150 damage attack, and a crit modifier of 1.5x, you’d get 225.
If you have power that would normally give you a 100 damage attack, and a crit modifier of 2x, you’d get 200.
If you had power that would normally give you a 150 damage attack, you’d get a crit of 300.
So, yes, +crit is very important for getting big numbers. But so is power. And crit damage doesn’t hurt at all either (though it’s relatively useless when crit chances are low, it’s amazing when they are high).
I can’t comment on your exact scenario, since we don’t know your stats or traits, but yes—if you aren’t gearing for precision at all, you’ll be facing low HB numbers. I am assuming you at least have the Precision from the trait line, though, since you’re going Power+Con. That means you have access to some solid GS traits that can help.
And, honestly, the low level gear is nearly worthless. The level cap for the stats is just too high.
It’s not just out-leveling, there’s a very good chance that you’ll already have something better before you ever even reach the required level to equip it.
IMO, we need a 3-5 level reduction on just about everything. I stopped having full sets of gear ready for each 5 level cap because I was only equipping 2-3 of them by the time I got there, and would replace those quickly enough anyway.
As an example:
For example, the Chain Coat you can craft at 15 has 52 armor.
A level 14 piece of scale armor is 56 armor.
WORN chain coats at level 16 are 54 armor.
So, really, it just isn’t worth it. You’re at best going to get a minor upgrade, which you’ll replace quickly enough anyway. At worst, you’ll already have something better.
I’m not saying crafted gear has to be WAY better. But if it’s going to be strict 5 level tiers, it should really be better than most stuff that doesn’t require the tier +3-4. 1 level just isn’t worth it.
I admit, I’ve gotten super spoiled by the collections tab. The ease of doing your banking is just too good. Between WoW, TOR, and FFXI I’ve spent a LOT of time in the last decade organizing my bank in MMOs.
The Raw Materials collection tabs are amazing for two reasons:
1: Deposit from anywhere. Not having to head all the way back to the city to deposit your goods when you’ve been farming is just amazing.
2: Automatic organization. For players like me, who hate when their bank is jumbled, this is a godsend.
The only thing that sucks is that inscription, seasoning, etc. items, the interim between raw goods and the finished product, have no storage tab. There’s also a HUGE variety of them, and if you don’t carefully plan everything you do with a craft, this becomes an issue fast. It’s not so bad for the weapon/armor crafting, but Cooking can VERY quickly take all of your inventory space when you’re doing discovery (unless you use a guide, but that takes the fun out of the craft).
To that end, I’d love to see collections tabs added for the ingredients lists. To be fair, it’s only really a big deal for cooking. The pattern for other professions is clear enough that minimal effort means no waste. But for cooking, it’s a whole other game entirely. Discovering Pasta before you’ve discovered Simple Poultry Soup, for instance, means there’s a good chance you just have a random ingredient cluttering your bags or bank.
I’m not requesting it for free of course, I’d happily pay for it. The sheer size of the storage gain means it would have to be pricey, too. But I can’t think of any expansion option more worthwhile, tbh. IF you are a Chef, at least.
Do people really not understand that running, updating, and expanding a game takes a lot of money? They have to pay to operate the servers that hosts the game, they have to pay the technicians who keep that running smoothly. They have to pay for this website, the writers who provide the copy, the translators who make it available across language barriers, the moderators who keep track of the forums.
They have to pay designers to constantly work creating new weapon/armor skins, dungeons, zones, quests, and characters. They have to pay people to optimize these changes across the range of PC capabilities.
They have to pay for customer service, marketing, and advertising.
They have to pay operating fees for all of their locations and services.
And they have to recuperate MILLIONS spent in developing and launching the game.
Besides the initial cost of the game, that’s the only money they are guaranteed from their continuing players. They’d don’t make money through subscriptions. So every day spent keeping this game going just keeps increasing their costs without increasing their revenue.
And at the end of the day, they need this whole venture to be profitable enough for it to be worth it.
So BOO HOO, the items you buy with gems aren’t super cheap. Boo hoo, it’s 67s, 1g, whatever for a key to a Black Lion Chest. All that you find in BLC are items to make some tasks in game more expedient, plus vanity items.
ANet has made the choice not to restrict ANY content to players who don’t want to pay any more. Hell, even the OPTIONAL stuff is completely available through in-game currency.
If you’re going to moan about the price of completely optional, quality-of-life items that in no way restrict you from enjoying the actual game, then you are pathetic and your sense of entitlement if the perfect example of what’s wrong with modern gamers.
This also applies to the rumors that ANet has been pushing up the cost of gems. True or not, they’d be completely within their rights to do so.
It’s an infographic that shows karma sets by regions. It doesn’t have that exact set, but it has similar ones.
But that was my point, you can’t have a conversation about the power of hammer throw, at least not a meaningful one, without first having a conversation about the whole picture it is a part of.
Whether or not it is a weak ability only matters if its weak in context. That stuff is important. Maybe Hammer Throw is under-powered relative to other profession’s downed state abilities. But that doesn’t matter if Warrior as it stands now, as a whole, is well balanced with regards to other professions.
So, sure, by all means consider to discuss how weak you think Hammer Throw is. But that renders the thread relatively useless for any practical application. Unless you are going to discuss the ability as a part of the profession (and it’s subsequent balance) overall, you aren’t doing anything of value. You’re just ranting.
It may very well be true that HT is under-powered. My post was never meant to say otherwise. It was only to point out that a weak ability doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the profession—balance necessitates that EVERY player have abilities of varying power. And if one profession is designed to be a little bit more powerful in their normal state, they have to be a little bit weaker when downed.
The problem is with the balance. Vengeance is an extremely powerful ability. If you don’t get rallied in the 15 seconds it takes to come up, you have a free 15 seconds to take down your opponent. And with Warrior burst potential, that’s nothing to scoff at.
Then with your chance to rally on enemy defeat, or the associated trait, you may get to live on. Warriors are currently the only ones able to self-rally in the downed state, and that’s pretty huge. Buff their other two skills and it becomes ridiculously OP.
Also consider that it’s possible that the philosophy of the downed state is actually profession-dependent. It’s purpose might not be considered the same by the devs (this is, of course, conjecture on my part). But it does make a certain amount of sense to balance some professions such that it’s hard to get them down, and easier to dismiss them once they are, and to have some professions that enter the downed state more easily, but can melt faces while there.
When I look at the Warrior right now, I see a profession that’s super tough to get down, with very strong offensive, defensive, and control capabilities at any range, not to mention insane burst potential with most weapons. But once you down them, there’s a 15 second window where their abilities are vastly reduced. If you don’t defeat them in that window, you’re dead.
That sounds like a really powerful class to me. When I look at it in that broader sense, I’m not convinced there’s any problem here. If there is, then Vengeance really has to go before anything else is changed. I’d be sorry to lose it, because it’s amazing, but I’m not going to pretend like anything else wouldn’t be OP.
Just to add another example, because I’m kinda bored anyway, think about the Mesmer instead. They’re hard to get down because of their ability to control the battlefield, but they themselves are quite squishy if you can manage to watch your confusion stacks or catch them in the act.
Their downed state has to be appropriately powerful to compensate. But it’s not powerful in an untoward insta-win kind of way, like Vengeance is, but in the same way the class is—they are going to do everything in their power to control and befuddle you while they escape, and their downed state gives them three great tools for doing so.
I may not be right here—I’m perfectly happy to admit that—but I think people really need to take the time to wonder if the idea of comparing downed states in a vacuum is actually an appropriate representation of reality.
I’m also not saying balance is perfect by any means—it’s fully possible that, say, Throw Hammer does need a buff even with Vengeance as it is. I’m just trying to bring the conversation somewhere I think is more constructive.
Swift Arrow is an NPC that starts a Skill Challenge on the eastern edge of Caledon Forest. As of right now, the NPC does not spawn (and to the best of my knowledge, he is unkillable and should never despawn in the first place).
This keeps players from completing their Caledon Forest maps, and from obtaining that skill point.