Showing Posts For mikefang.4182:
I’m pretty sure they’ll release an unlimited logging axe, and I will indeed buy it when it becomes available. However, I’m hoping there will be a fourth tool available as well; I’d like to see an unlimited salvage kit, too. Hell, since it can be used to get multiple kinds of materials, I’d be willing to pay extra for it (extra compared to the pick and sickle so far, that is.)
It’s nice to see for a change a player who doesn’t main a thief that actually appreciates we don’t have it all that easy. I’m slowly getting into more WvWvW, and it is NOT easy, especially when you’ve got the full on invasion going down and you’re side is the one defending a tower, keep, or whatever.
I typically play D/P-P/D, while sometimes going with a S/P – P/P loadout, and through playing PvP, I’m getting better (I think) at taking on other players. However, I find that teamwork is DEFINITELY a key when fighting as a thief. I’ve occasionally taken down opponents in a one on one fight, but it’s not easy. Building yourself to take damage as a thief seems to necessitate sacrificing your ability to cause damage, and you really do have more abilities for the latter than you do the former. Some strategies to thief PvP and WvWvW that work (at least for me) seem to be the following:
1. Always keep moving. This isn’t a stand-your-ground class.
2. Back up your team mates. You’ll have longer to dish out more damage and debilitating conditions if the enemy isn’t focused on you.
3. Keep your distance as much as possible. Going toe to toe is a really fast way to die against warriors, guardians and mesmers.
4. Don’t wait until you’re almost dead to heal yourself. You take a lot of damage from just a few hits; if you’re close to 50 percent health, go ahead and heal before you take a one-two shot and get put on the ground.
5. Have at least one or two skills loaded that can cripple or stun opponents. It might help you get away if the fight turns ugly and sets them up for a smack down if you play it right.
6. When in a group, don’t move in first. You don’t want to attract attention, let someone else lead the charge.
7. Know how to use Shadow Refuge. It’s the best way for you to help your team mates, especially if they’re downed. Throwing a refuge on the both of you will let you revive them, particularly if there are other members of your team still keeping the rest of your opponents too busy to worry about the players they can’t see anymore.
8. Know when to retreat. If you see one enemy coming your way, you might be able to lead him into a trap or do the battlefield dance with them, depending on their class. But if you’ve got two or more coming at you, or even one with NPC support (a necro with minions, a ranger with their pet, etc.) then you’re likely outmatched.
9. Finish them off. This is actually a good rule of them for any class; if your team puts someone down, try to pull off a finisher on them. Thieves can be in a particularly good position for this, though, if you can go unnoticed. Once the downed player uses up whatever evasive maneuver they have to avoid one of your team mate’s attempts at a finisher, you can jump on them with your own while they’re still in cool down.
10. Specing yourself for condition damage can make you a real threat to players. Longer poison times and stun durations can help you keep the enemy on the run from you instead of towards you. It might make you a bit of a glass cannon, but if you can dodge and stealth skillfully, you can avoid or recover from most of the damage coming your way, while landing enough blows to grind down your opponent with DoT and weakening conditions that screw up his/her strategy.
I can sort of agree here; the thief in this game doesn’t -really- feel like the thief or rogue classes of other games. They seem less like actual thieves (known for things like sneaking, lockpicking, disarming traps, stealing, etc.) and more like lightly-armored fighters that focus more on movement and speed than on heavy armor to absorb damage and strength. However, since the classes are really designed so that no class has anything that can’t be done by every other class, I don’t see how this can be changed without seriously rebuilding the class mechanics.
Tbh, I don’t see the point behind the alcohol items in the game, since they don’t grant buffs or seem to do anything regarding character behavior. I think it would be appropriate if alcohol items became useable items, like the tree branches, rocks, etc. that you pick up as environmental weapons. A character could be shown holding a drink in their hand, and could have a set number of sips or lengthy chugs they could use with them that would be animated. And yes, drinking enough, fast enough would cause the character to behave drunk, weaving around, walking unsteadily, maybe even randomly falling down. It would definitely be a fun mechanic to use for roleplaying.
There’s a decent variety to the minis that we’ve seen, but frankly I’d like to see some that are a little more…sensible. As in, stuff that you can actually imagine player characters keeping as pets. For example, I’ve always wanted my character to have a raven or crow for a pet. Thing is, my character’s a thief, so he can’t just go out and tame one (not even sure if ravens or crows ARE tameable). A mini of that kind would be ideal. Also, more mini versions of some of the wild animals you encounter – boars, hyenas, wargs, rock hounds – would look really good, and I think would hold up the aesthetic of GW2 a lot better than having players being followed around by, say, midget impersonators of Destiny’s Edge.
I’d definitely like to see a fishing mechanic, minigame, etc. I know it seems odd, but it would be a neat thing to have for my character to take part in, as well as open up a lot of possibilities. Fish could be used in cooking recipes, or if player housing was created, could be transformed into display-able trophies to mount on a wall. Other items could be discovered through fishing, such as treasure maps in bottles, encouraging exploration.
Player housing is definitely something I’m interested in seeing. I think it would make home instances (which is really the only place I can imagine player housing outside of a player guild hall being located) much more relevant. As it is, I rarely visit my home instance, because there’s really nothing there that I can’t find elsewhere in the game.
“1. Better rewards for sPvP. I don’t want anything broken, and I don’t want a gear grind. But I think it would be cool to have something like… sPvP collectible minis that you can only get through playing sPvP. Not through the Gem Store, not buyable off the Trading Post, etc. Like, since the ranks are already named after different animals, it would be cool to get a little Rabbit Mini after completing the Rabbit sPvP rank. And a Deer Mini for the next rank, etc. And it would be cool if their animations were aggressive in some way, like the Deer Mini lowering its head and shaking its antlers or something. To show the attacking sense.
“2. A way to tell which exact dungeon paths you’ve completed in your Hero Window. Currently, you can see that you’ve done 4 out of 5, for example, but it doesn’t say which ones. That means if you’re going for Dungeon Master and you did all but one of the AC paths, but you did them all on your first character, months ago, you have to dig through dungeon guides and try to think, “Oh, that sounds familiar. I think we fought that boss. Did we? Or was that the time we tried that path, but that one Necro left mid-dungeon and we couldn’t find a replacement so we never finished?” etc., etc. If the game can track that you’ve done 4 of 5, it should be able to tell you which 4, so you can clearly see which one you have left.
“3. Consistent item stacking. It’s annoying that regular items seem to stack up to 250, but things like salvage kits won’t stack at all, even if you have one stack of 7 and one stack of 6 — they won’t stack to 13. And gathering tools won’t stack, either. I’m not sure why this happens, but even if they don’t want you to be able to carry 250 scythes around at one time, they should at least let you stack two separate piles of scythes as long as they don’t exceed whatever they want the limit to be.
“4. Boosters and Minis count as collectibles and then get accidentally deposited. I love the instant-deposit option in the inventory: Deposit All Collectibles. But I think there’s a logical difference between several soft wooden logs and a few PvP Glory Boosters. I can’t count how many times I’ve pulled out my boosters and a mini to fluff around with me, then gone and gathered some stuff, and then thoughtlessly clicked Deposit All Collectibles to get rid of my gathered items… and forgotten that I have now lost my Booster and my mini. And I usually don’t remember that until I’ve already hopped into an sPvP game. And then it’s a giant pain to get out of the game, go back to the Mists, access my bank, grab my Boosters, and then try to go find another sPvP game. And it’s even more irritating if I already spent half a game as a Spectator just so I could be assured a spot in a full 8 vs. 8 game. And yeah, I know there are invisible bags that prevent things from being stolen or deposited, but I’ve had problems with that because the bag is bigger than I need, and new collectible items immediately fill the next open bag slot, invisible or not, so when I Deposit All Collectibles, then half my gathering tools stay in my bags because they’re naturally in the wrong bag, etc. I just think Boosters and Minis shouldn’t count as collectibles.
“5. Less sexist flavor outfits. Now, Arena Net is actually much better about stuff like that than a lot of companies. But for a case-in-point, the other day, I was super excited to see a Pirate Outfit in the Gem Store. The picture of it looked super cool, and when Dahkeus tried it on his male human, it looked epic and awesome. When I tried it on my female sylvari, it looked like one of those “Sexy Pirate Costume” things you find in Halloween stores — the top changed into a bikini-looking thing, etc. I was really disappointed. If you go to GW2 Armor, you can look at Sylvari Male medium armor vs. Sylvari Female medium armor — they look pretty much identical (except for the Named set, which could also be fixed with this suggestion). If Arena Net can do that with regular armor in the game, then surely they can do that with the awesome-looking flavor outfits in the Gem Store. Or, if they really want to offer “sexy” clothing, they should have it look the same on males and females. Personally, I’d love to see Dahkeus’s male human in a pirate outfit with tight pants and a cut-off shirt that shows off his stomach."
So, there’s a few suggestions right off the bat. Did anyone else have any constructive criticism they’d want to share?
“I want them to be better at cleaning up after Living Story events. In the Charr lands I’ve run across 5 of those listening devises and there’s still a bonfire in the Black Citadel. That stuff shouldn’t exist anymore.” (note: this was posted on May 27, so the issue may have been handled already.)
“I wish it were advertised that PvP is essentially a separate game from PvE/WvW GW2. It’s something I didn’t learn until recently, and I think it’s a really novel concept.”
“Guild Hall: We had these in GW1, we need them in GW2. There were a variety of halls that you could choose from that had styles more menacing to a more elegant style. I hope they put these in real soon as it will open RP opportunities and… guild parties!
“Charr Armor: We are approaching a year now and some Charr armor pieces on multiple sets are still messed up or just don’t look right, especially the shoulder pads which levitate. I hope really soon they will devote some time into fixing this.”
Recently I’ve been getting into the video series “Jimquisition” over on The Escapist. While I don’t agree with everything Jim Sterling says (or always care for his sense of humor…) I’ve been impressed with his ability to cut to the heart of an issue. One video I watched recently was this one: www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/5743-You-Should-Be-Mad-at-Diablo-IIIs-Always-Online-DRM
While the video focuses primarily on Diablo III’s always-online status and the problems it creates, it also touches on several other issues. One of the ones that struck close to home with me in particular was this one: many gamers want to complain about problems a given game has, but they’re afraid to because they believe, and rightly so, that the community at large will yell at them and shout them down, call them self-entitled and say they should take whatever they’re handed and be thankful for it, all the mistakes and problems in the world be kitten ed. But if you love a game or a game series, you -should- be willing to point out the faults and mistakes because nothing will ever get better if nobody acknowledges there’s room for improvement.
With that concept in mind, I’m wondering if we, the players, could level a bit of constructive criticism at Guild Wars 2. While I still think that it’s, hands down, the best fantasy MMO I’ve played to date, I do feel there is room for improvement. And I’m wondering if anyone else is interested in chiming in with their own two cents. So, with this goal, I would offer the following criticisms myself:
1. The game needs more roleplaying mechanics. When this game was being advertised, the interactive nature of the environment was something that really caught my interest. So far, we’ve seen the environmental weapons; the fallen branches and broken boards we can pick up to wack enemies with. However, we haven’t seen much else. For the roleplayers, we can definitely use more things like chairs that can be sat in, player housing that can be decorated and furnished, more emotes, perhaps animations for eating and drinking when not in combat that would play when sitting at special tables found in bars and in houses. Arenanet seems to be working on expanding flavor content, such as with its dancing book in the gem shop. I think we need to encourage (and see) more of that.
2. Where are the entertainment mini-games? Another feature that sounded neat when I first heard about it in dev interviews and articles were the mini-games like the bar fight, Asuran chess, Charr drag racing (I think), the human shooting gallery, and so on. But so far, I haven’t noticed any of those mini-games available. When I go to the shooting gallery in Divinity’s Reach, for example, I’m -still- told that it’s being hogged by a private party of NPC’s. Maybe I’m just missing something here, but if this content that was talked about before release still isn’t available, I think it should be made part of a content update, and soon.
3. Downed skills may need some tweaking. I will give the game credit that it actually poses a challenge, even in PvE when fighting enemies that are the same level as you. Grouping up is definitely something I’d encourage. However, I don’t think solo should be impossible, and there’s one particular mechanic I think makes it harder than it should be: the less-health penalty after you get downed. While I can see where the developer’s thinking was, wanting to discourage players from being reckless, when you have opponents who can down you in a 1-3 attacks, even without the penalty, it starts becoming less of a challenge and more of an annoyance.
I posted this topic on my guild website as well and got several responses from guild mates, each with their own thoughts and suggestions. Without dropping names for the sake of privacy, here are their thoughts as well:
I’m curious to find out if there’s been anything new about a PvE version of the Commando hat as seen here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Human_male_PvP_Commando_armor.jpg
It’s the perfect hat for the look I’m trying to go for and I’d like to see Arenanet put it in PvE, but I’ve yet to see it outside of PvP. I gather a lot of people have been asking about this, and I’ve heard a lot of different responses: It’s at one of the karma vendors…it’s not in PvE right now…it was removed from the game entirely…so what’s the situation currently?
I’ve always made it a point to gather crafting materials, even ones I don’t need, while I’m out and about in the game. Going from place to place, I’ll always collect wood, metals and cooking components, selling whatever I don’t need at the auction. But lately, I’ve been noticing the drop rate for salvageable leather items has been really getting scarce. Hides don’t drop regularly from animals, junk-grade leather items or leather scraps don’t seem to drop frequently from the sentient enemies I fight either.
This is a bit perturbing for me, since I’m a leatherworker and a huntsman. I’m kind of loathe to give WoW any sort of credit, but I’ll say this; it did at least have a guaranteed way to acquire basic materials for all its crafting skills. Mining guaranteed metal, herbology guaranteed herbs, disenchanting guaranteed magic dust or whatever the hell it was and skinning guaranteed leather. I was honestly rather surprised GW2 didn’t include any sort of skinning mechanic for animals. Instead you’ve got to rely on salvaging leather materials.
Has anyone else noticed any other kinds of materials getting tough to find? For that matter, would anyone else be interested in seeing a skinning mechanic of some sort for the game?
I definitely agree with the idea of previewing an item’s appearance on the black lion trading company. It would be really handy to know exactly how an item will appear on you (especially armor) so you can buy items for transmutation.
I’m a level 53 thief seeking an RP guild on the Tarnished Coast server. I’m an adult player who has a job so I’m not always able (or feeling up to) playing every night, but when I do I like to know I have a guild I can talk to and ask for help when I need it. I’m also willing to provide assistance whenever it’s required and I have the time. I’m also an avid RP’er, and enjoy roleplaying within the context of the game’s content as well as for personal stories. Formal guild events like meetings and planned dungeon events I’m willing to try, but I may not always be able to make it. Contact me at your convenience if you’d like to discuss my joining your guild.
Just adding my two bits to this pile: I’ve also tried The Hatchery several times now and it won’t let me complete the mission.
I’ve found the D/P combination to be very useful. Using the weapon swapping ability, I actually will swap between a D/P and a P/D set (I imagine my character tossing his weapons from one hand to the other, heh). I’ll use the D/P when close combat is required, while using P/D when keeping your distance is preferable. I’ve found doing so allows me to handle most any situation that comes my way. Of course I still get knocked on mykitten a few times, but it wouldn’t be fun if there wasn’t some challenge to it.
So, when I was planning on my look for the game, I remember seeing a tricorner hat while skimming an article on the character and costume design for the game, which it looks like they’ve given to some of the Lionguard. But I don’t see anything like that for thief players in this game. The closest I’ve seen is the Musketeer-style, swashbuckler’s sort of hat with the one-side-turned-up brim, which isn’t quite what I was hoping for. I wanted a genuine tricorner hat, or something similar, perhaps with a lower face wrap so I could pull off a look like a 17th, 18th century highwayman. Does anyone know if there’s a tricorner (or tricorner-like) hat available anywhere, maybe as a dungeon reward or something?
same problem for leather, everything is a bandana over the mouth intill pirate, which instead of being a musketeer hat, like it is for everyone else, is a tiny cowboyish hat that just looks comical.
You did not just diss the ascalonian hat
http://i.imgur.com/8aHae.jpg
Huh. The Char have pimps. Who knew?