Guild Wars 2

Well not quitting as it’s my main and only character who can unlock half of the Elite Spec at the moment.

But the funny thing is, I find myself not using one single thing from Druid now. I tried to equip a staff and get into Celestial Form at first but it just added nothing to my open world PVE experience.

With no doubt the new HoT maps are more difficult. Well but if my ranger can’t defeat an enemy with his old abilities, the new Druid ones won’t give him a better chance either.

I used to name my eagle Fergal. But since names get reset so I don’t bother anymore.

Would love to have an attack skill in CA form, probably making #1 an autoattack. It doesn’t have to hit hard (like staff #1). But there are times when you enter CA and done with healing in a very short time, you will have zero output and have to leave the CA form, which immediately depletes half of your CA energy. Having an attack skill would make staying at CA form more valuable.

They never learnt the lesson of “don’t fix something that’s not broken”.

GS#1 evade doesn’t make rangers OP. It’s just right as they always wanna make GS a defensive weapon. And it’s actually one of the very few reasons that players don’t immediately throw GS away. So now they think about taking it out?!

Sword#1 is clearly broken for the rooting yet after 1.5 year they suddenly claim it’s intended. Why not just admit they are not able/willing to fix a problem? Locking down a target doesn’t mean it has to nullify your dodge. Stop justifying your bugs to players like they are 3 year olds.

Someone is clearly as clueless on fixing bugs as rationalizing it.

An option (i.e. you can still choose the default setting) of making in-game time/weather reflects the real situation can be interesting and nice for players who love immersion. The only problem is those night/day time sigils. People probably would use it for the bonus instead of immersion. lol

I don’t think this voting is fair to start with when they allow a player to cast more than one vote. It’s always the players with a lot of time to grind for tokens who will affect the outcome.

I know we can put in as many support tokens as we want. But do the votes of each player count as one only? Say I cast in 10 tokens for Evon and 8 for Kiel. Does that ultimately make it 1 to Evon and 0 to Kiel from my account?

I really hope it will work out this way, or players can actually grind towards the result. Like I only have 10 hours to play in a week. I can probably put in 50 tokens at most for these 2 weeks. While someone might be able to do that in a day or two…

I’m just concerned about the dungeon armor sets. Will they practically become “skins” after ascended armor is out? Or will we get a way to upgrade them into ascended.

Yea why would players who supported GW1 got unique skins and titles too?! They played a different game so they can have something that GW2 players can’t have?! It’s UNFAIR!!1!1!!!!

And why would GW2 got all those lore reference from GW1?! They are two different games so why would people who played GW1 get to know something GW2 players don’t?! It’s TOTALLY UNFAIR!!1!1!!!!

I know you can always go back to GW1 but I don’t care! That’s just unfair!

Hello. As title I hope that item stack limit can be over 250, especially when sometimes we need to exchange something for 500 of an item. It just feels kinda inconvenient.

Would totally agree with increasing the limit with gems or something.

Yea the pet DPS nerf makes me wonder if I should totally drop BM… mmm.

Wondering if Hybrid Beastmaster is still a good direction after the patch?

WvA.8624:

Can someone explain to me why BM builds are suddenly crap? I couldnt find something in the patch notes that said: now its unplayable

But I might have overlooked something.

I currently have 20 points in BM just to boost my pet a bit (since I have a build that gives all my boons to my pet, I dont want it to be completely cannon fodder). Still playable?

For one Zephyr’s Quickness will be moved from 5 points BM to 25 points BM! I’ve been using 15BM for a while but now I’m not sure if it’s gonna be 25BM or 0BM after the patch… mmm.

Well if you have the money, buy some new gears on TP and some transmutation crystals and it should be back to optimal state very soon.

I personally am not too fond of the idea of attributes tied to the armor piece. Makes every big balance patch a possible time that you have to redo the gears. Or I just try to tell myself “well the attribute difference isn’t really that big. I should overlook it and try to master my control skill instead”. lol

Hey Jon I think you forgot something. After the jellyfish skin got fixed, you should definitely lower its stats. If the jellyfish receives an appearance buff and doesn’t get any nerf in return, it will become “unbalanced” again.

Well or maybe you can give other professions some buff to compensate as well. Thanks for your hard work again. I’m sure you got hundreds or even thousands of things to do but you took the time to fix our rainbow jellyfish and even came here to make an announcement. How thoughtful of you!

I actually think Exotic should have the same stats as Legendary, even after Ascended is out. :P I don’t wanna spend so much time grinding myself a set of Arah armor just to find that they don’t have the top stats, not unless I use some Transmutation Crystals.

Seems that they wanna nerf mesmer’s Time Wrap from being a meta at dungeons. But then rangers become the victim.
Well who cares? As long as ANet doesn’t, none of us can change that.

I think the bigger problem is that if a profession is kitten so much due to one change in game mechanism, that profession probably needs serious work on all other aspects.

Thanks for such an informative article! Made a ranger player’s day.

Now that you have covered the viability of pets with only 5/0 BM points, I am also curious about how you feel with investing more than 5 BM points, say like 15? (That way you have 15s CD on pet swapping.)

Do you think the extra 10 points is worth it and significant? Or it’s more or less the same as only 5 BM (like maybe because that doesn’t make the pets much more tanky and have DPS, unless you decide to put in like 25 or more BM points)?

And what pets would you recommend when people put in 15-30 BM points?

You can choose 5 out of the lists to complete. But I do realize some items have been adjusted to make it more conditional (like completing GROUP events).

Anyway I don’t think a father with 2 kids and a pregnant wife should care too much about completing the dailies of an MMO………..

The OP is 4 months ago and where is the life improvement? If like they said, there are different teams for new content and fixing bugs / rebalance, what have the bug fixing / balancing team done for these 2 months? A 2-month long vacation?

If there is one thing about HOM that can be considered FAIL, it would be how inconvenient to get access to the rewards. I have only tried it out for the first month since launch, then I just don’t bother teleport to HOM every time, talk to the npc, obtain the skin and transmutate the armor piece by piece.

I have the same problem. Using Windows 7 and 64bit. Thought it was only me.

Fortunately(?) it’s not consuming CPU but only RAM. But would like to see this problem fixed anyway.

I love how WvW is no longer in the picture. But ANet mentioned planning on making wvw more rewarding. Can we expect a separate dailies and monthlies for wvw in the future?

Anyway I guess a better way to do the monthlies would be to lay out like 6 objectives, and you only need to finish 4 to complete the monthly?

marnick.4305:

If you’re really that bad that people kick you, no patch can save you. The only alternative is wiping and then the players resetting the dungeon without you.

A.net can’t help you with your own problems, OP.

I have been in PUGs that some of them are actually a few friends who need 1 to 2 more people to finish the group. During the dungeon they will keep running and don’t care if you are downed or fall behind. You are just the supplement DPS instead of a “teammate”.
I won’t be surprised if they have another friend who can join in the midway and then kick me out. So far this never happened to me but it could be a possibility and what the OP is concerned about.
I agree that you should need 4 votes to kick a person. That minimizes the possibility of being kicked for a mean purpose.

I’ll assign more resource on class balance and bug fixes. Have one designated person / team for each profession, MAKE them go through the bug lists on this forum and work on the items one by one.

I like the idea of having a pet. That’s why I have decided to have a ranger as a main before launch and he still is.

The problem is how inefficient the pets are at certain situations. Merely in PVE the pets aren’t that bad. But at dungeons, pvp and wvw they become horrible. Those are the parts that need to be worked on.

azazil.9541:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

“When it’s done.”

:D

Strange so strange… main game is still not done ( If you ask me it’s still in beta phase) and we are talking about Flame & Frost.

I think this update will also include content that lures players back to the existing lower level maps. The F&F storyline / events should only be a part of this update. And according to their article earlier this month, they will be focusing on building up on the existing content of the game.

Finger crossed this will roll out nicely.

Dastor.3546:

I still don’t get why they release a patch on the date itself?
If I was running an MMO, I’d think like: “Hey, so we want to release an update on the 28th. So, let’s make sure it’s at least downloadable the 26th and include ‘when-to-go-live’-times in the code, so that people can play it as soon as they’re supposed to, in whichever timezone they’re located…”
It’s 28/01/2013 9.28AM here, and I was just logging in to see what those new dailies were about and if there are any hints to the events unfolding this week, but no, nothing. Same old, boring dailies.

As so many have already posted in the ‘make or break’-topic, I too am starting to doubt whether GW2 will be in it for the long run. WoW wasn’t all what I wanted, but it sure did a better job at making sure to have some interesting content for all levels, all of the time… Leveling starts to become boring, because you’re always limited to the same few areas, WvW is boring if you’re on a ‘low’ populated server like me (Vabbi EU), not to mention the impact ‘less active’ servers have on getting decent dungeon groups started.

^ this.

Funny that it’s only a 24-hour time frame thing, but they always can’t come up with an exact time. Is it like they can’t even have a specific work schedule in the next 24 hours?!

Does it help to immediately press F1 and order the pet to attack? I dunno if it does but at least I do it every time just to make myself feel better. :\

I kept getting knocked down by them and even though they broke a few pieces of my armor, I still can’t get mad at them.
I don’t care what toy will come tomorrow at the asura city. Cause I will put in the materials to make myself a plush griffon! <3

After playing today’s event, I would totally say plush griffons! If that’s not possible, griffons will still do. :P

So the OP thinks Lick Wounds is too strong. What about the downed skills of some other professions are too strong too? If those skills don’t get toned down while Ranger’s does, it becomes unbalanced again.

By simply suggesting to tone down the power of a profession while ignoring others, is unfair enough already. Especially when the current balance of this game isn’t handled by the most skillful dev IMHO. We are always worried enough about getting unnecessary nerf at the next patch.

JonPeters.5630:

Fyi, the delay on first attack has been present since BWE2. It is there for balance reasons to give enemies a moment to react to the powerful summon.

OMG. Same thing happened back then on rangers. Shortbow got nerfed and they first claimed it’s an animation fix. Then the almighty you-know-who later stated that it’s actually intended as it’s not fun to spam the auto attack. So they nerfed the damage. We never heard from the almighty you-know-who again about shortbows. Case closed.

Same thing happens on mesmers now.

If all these forum posts can weigh over monetizing, ANet will listen to us. Sadly it doesn’t seem to be the case. Unless this buggy status is brought to public attention and actually impacts the game’s sales.

If anyone with connection to or influence on renowned gaming sites, and thinks it’s a concern that deserves to get noticed, please try to help get more awareness. It either makes people think again before buying the game, or makes ANet understand the importance of fixing bugs. Or they just think it’s totally OK to pile the bugs up and people will eventually get used to it.

Well I don’t care about Anet’s company structure regarding how many teams are working on what content.

The thing is, new contents are coming up fast while bug fixing is going real real slow. As avid players and also as customers, can’t we be unhappy about that?

And is it just me or their bug fix patches are coming slower after they start introducing monthly big event?

Check out the ranger forum at Guru. There are a few threads about greatsword ranger which might be helpful.

And if rangers can’t be the DPS in a group, at least focus on survivability and support. Warhorn (Call of the Wild) and some pet F2 skills can be supportive.

(But you might wanna try other professions if DPS is what you ultimately want. I’ve basically given up the thought of rangers being DPS after the Nov update.)

I agree with the OP. If ANet wants people to play dungeons, just set it to “dungeons finished” on the monthly, instead of FOTM only. That way you encourage players to get on other dungeons too.

I wouldn’t give a beep if the stat of Legendary, Ascended and Exotic are the same. If as ANet said the difference is insignificant, then why have it in the first place? Just keep the top stat at the Exotic rank and everyone would be happy.

Celtic Lady.3729:

This is a problem with all games featuring dynamic style events. The people eventually thin our and/or spread out and the DEs take over from lack of players. This reality should be taken into account when the game is designed so that DEs scale down to one or two players when there aren’t enough people.

Groups events that always remain groups events once launch is over is rather short-sighted.

Agree. Especially when ANet has been introducing new content that suck many players to a certain area. It’s one thing to be lore-oriented. It’s another to restrict playability.

Someday when ANet raises the level cap, will all the L80 Legendary become obsolete?

They can do stat progression all they want. But when they introduce a new progression, please adjust how easy the players are going to obtain second and third best stuff.

Like before Ascended was introduced, top stuff is Legendary, second best is L80 Exotic. So it is reasonable that Legendary takes you a long long time to get, while L80 Exotic takes a fair amount of time, and L80 Rare is almost like no time.

If they keep it in this scale, stat progression would be more acceptable to me. Say after Ascended armor is here, L80 Exotic is no longer the second best stuff. So the order should become: Legendary – long long time; Ascended – fair amount of time; L80 Exotic – no time.

And after higher level cap is introduced as they mentioned at the AMA, all L80 stuff should take you no time to get. I know this will give players who have spent days and nights getting that L80 Exotic a very hard feeling, but with this scale at least new players AND returning players wouldn’t feel they are lacking far far behind.

(Talking of hard feeling, it would be ideal if they introduce some way to upgrade your hard earned L80 armor to match the latest level cap without having to earn it from scratch. Well but that’s just my 2 cents. There might be many other problems involved as well. :\ )

Romeo.4378:

Again, it’s no secret that for many of us, gaming is very important to our lives. Whilst I cannot say I fall into this category these days, I certainly used to, and because of this I understand that for those of you playing for 8+ hours a day, Anet’s recent ‘betrayal of the manifesto’, has been taken very personally.

Well actually I think the players under the category of “can only play 1-2 hours a day” would suffer more from the new direction: gear treadmill and gated content.

With less time to play, we fall behind even more easily. I tried FOTM during the Karka weekend but failed to proceed to lvl 2. Now I never see anyone calling for lvl1 already.

Well I’ll still play but it would be harder for me to experience all the content if they are going to this direction.

They can keep the ascended all they want. Just adjust the stats to: exotic = ascended = legendary and see the reaction.

Madtavish.9037:

Also anyone who wants to argue :“Jon Peters said its gonna be on Nov 15Th anahshahasddsghahgdashgaggahgdsgdhasgsdhasd” then that person has to realize that A-Net aren’t group of demigods. They people. And people sometimes don’t meet deadlines. Sometimes then can’t keep up the promises. I bet anyone of you crying kitten was late to finish some work, sometime in your life. So shut up about A-net being late. I pretty sure they will provide us with the fixes you all so much desire, but everything needs time to be done.

Bulls. You’re still a student, or never have a job right?
When you are doing a job, you have to meet deadlines AND expectation. If you know you can’t, you let your clients know, instead of even making promise on an explicit date or results to be expected. Or you will probably get blamed, yelled at, demoted or even fired.

It’s not that hard to understand right? If you are a responsible person.

kKagari.6804:

cesmode.4257:

Sounds like my own fault? Because I dont want to be in a guild? So when did it become a requirement to be in a guild to experience all the content this game has to offer? Oh I forgot, with this patch.

Mate, its Guild wars.

LOL. Weakest argument ever. “Guild Wars” is about the lore of the game, not about the game mechanism, motto or any other things. I do agree that guilds should make your experience easier and funnier, but not pre-requisite.

Well I haven’t even got passed lvl1. Stuck in the swamp and no more time to play again. And this FOTM level thing is character based right? Means your other characters have to start from lvl1 too?

I will still play. Ranger is… was supposed to be my favorite but I also wanna try out other classes as well. This game doesn’t have monthly subscription so no loss to them wherever I keep playing or not.

But I simply won’t recommend it to any friends anymore, or even warn them before they are gonna buy it. Don’t want them to experience the same frustration. And that’s the only thing that matters to ANet – number of new players.

Iggy.9482:

The silence from ANet is what has a lot of people frustrated. If they just told us what they planned to do, or gave us some kind of an idea of WHEN or HOW this will be done, it would help. But all we had from them were vague promises that our class wasn’t forgotten in the Halloween patch, and if this latest patch is all they have done in the time, why is it that all other classes have had multiple times the amount of changes?

Wait. They (or he) had already told us what they are gonna do. Shouts, spirits being lackluster blah blah blah. And it was supposed to be delivered at the “next patch”, which is 2 days ago. The only problem is that it didn’t get delivered. Just because they only got 2 people working on it and there are over 500 skills blah blah blah.

TL;DR The only problem is their staff lied to us.

I guess the only effective way is to bring the issue to more public attention, like get mentioned on popular GW2 fansites or blogs. The devs don’t really have to give a beep about the posts on this forum. Any “inconvenient” topic gets deleted or merged immediately, and other people might only think “Ranger is a less popular choice of class due to personal preference. That’s it.”

Time limited events with bugs… what a joke.
Seriously just because you can keep pushing patches doesn’t mean you don’t have to test things through. What’s your motto of “when it’s ready” about?