Guild Wars 2

My favorite thing is that there’s no pressure to join a guild, or play with a holy trinity, just so you can play certain content. I can just run up to a dungeon, ask if anyone got a free spot in a party and join them, and then I’m good to go. But the best part is that after the dungeon is completed, I have shared an experience with complete strangers, which has ended up bonding us closer together. Everyone gets something positive out of it. That is the greatest strength of Guild Wars 2.

The fact that you have to move and dodge, while attacking, makes all the difference. No one could seriously keep track of 30 skills, while also keeping positioning in mind.

The point of stealth has always been to give you more time. Time that can be spend on changing position, waiting for a skill to recharge, channel mantras, or using a healing skill without the fear of being interrupted. If you use stealth correctly, this change doesn’t make any noteworthy difference.

This isn’t exactly news, neither is it the problem with stealth. The problem is the Thief’s ability to rapidly reapply stealth, while in combat. The fact that the Thief can stack stealth to last over 5 minutes, is of no real gain, as the only benefit of it is to move unseen. And you can’t even really do that, as the effects you need to gain stealth with, are visible.

Any shadowstep skill will get a Thief out of Entangle, and they also have immobilize removal on Withdraw. It’s not really a problem at all.

The right time to use reveal, will be when the Thief is at low life and tries to stealth away. It’s not going to be easy to do. Especially if the reveal is only going to last around 5 seconds.

Today, most people play for the “experience”, and developers have long found out that making easy games is a lot cheaper. So it’s a combination of these two things. Players want to play games with their eyes, not their mind, and developers are constantly trying to find ways to make more money, which means dumbing difficulty on games down so players don’t get frustrated.

But that’s why, when a rare game like Dark Souls come out, you should throw all your money at it :P

The problem is not as much at the top, as it is at the bottom. sPvP aren’t losing players because the top players are leaving, as much it’s losing players because there aren’t any new players coming into it.

For the love of everything that is good; remove 8v8 from sPvP, and make a proper match up system for casual 5v5. There is nothing structured about 8v8. It’s a zerg fest, and for no good reason. All it does is give new players a false impression of what sPvP is like. Then, make ladder, matchmaking, and spectator mode. And then work on making sPvP, not only interesting to play, but also interesting to watch. Make people love sPvP, even if they don’t like playing it. Celebrate the top tPvP players and promote them, so new sPvP players have someone they can look up to, and aspire to become as good as.

I was hoping for a system that took player activity into account. This sounds like it’s just going to be one server dominating the other two. I don’t think players simply want new match ups, but fair match ups. Anyway, I will reserve my judgement until the score system has been in effect for a few weeks. But as it looks on paper, I’m not convinced.

Games make a lot of money from purchases today, and they aren’t nearly as expensive to maintain, as they were ten years ago. I also think a lot more people buy gems, then what is obvious, because there are plenty of things to buy that aren’t visible, like transmutation crystals, minis, or dyes.

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks for the feedback on the Living Story portion of Flame and Frost: Prelude. Here’s some context on how it works:

• The Flame and Frost story content progresses over time. You will not see everything today, tomorrow, or even the next day.
• Expect subtle changes at first. Maybe you’ll encounter some familiar characters. Perhaps you’ll be introduced to some new ones. You might see a new structure where there wasn’t one before.
• The Living Story content is initially about the thrill of discovery. We’ll put some markers on your map, maybe send you a letter, or parcel out details through certain characters, but the rest is up to you.
• As the weeks progress, you’ll notice bigger changes in the world. New events may appear. Plots will advance and characters will develop.

As always, we welcome your opinions. This is a new thing we’re trying so we appreciate your patience and input.

It would be a really smart idea to put this up on the overview in the “release” section. Not everyone will read the forum for this information.

Oh look, it’s this topic again. I will just make it as short as I can:

You should play with other players because you enjoy their company, not because you need them to continue playing the game. This means that if you want to spend time with other players, you actually have to talk with them first, and get to know them. You know…just like in the real world.

I think we will see a rifle for the Ranger, once we get more weapons in the game. This is far from the first topic about it.

And, yes, it makes perfect sense. Unless you are one of those people who thinks there are overarching “Ranger rules”, that must apply to all fictional universes..

Jazenn.7526:

Versatility as in being able to change roles during battle, still not as great a jack of all trades as ranger is. Elementalists can’t melee or do condition damage as well as ranger. Engi can’t really melee or do long range, can’t do as much damage as a ranger can outside of 100nade gimmick, and don’t have the same evade power as a ranger. Ranger is a better jack of all trades.

What you mention isn’t different trades, they all belong to the same category, which is damage. Different trades means changing from damage dealer, to healer, to boon supporter, to reviver, to “tank”, and then back to damage dealer again. All professions can do this in some way, but the Elementalist can do it a lot easier and efficient with attunements, and the Engineer can do it a lot easier and efficient with kits and utility belt skills. They can change between these roles while in combat, where as the Ranger needs to be out of combat to change pets and utility skills, and only have a limited amount of healing and boon support skills.

But the Ranger brings a ton of stuff to the table by having two bodies in one character, which a lot of people underestimate. I’ve had a lot of success with the Ranger in dungeons, being able to have my pet revive an ally while I keep damage on the boss, using the brown bear and Signet of Renewal to remove conditions, sending the pet to attack some mobs while I attack other mobs, and always having the pet to revive myself. If you control the pet right, it can sometimes feel like you have an extra player in the party. But sadly, whenever I play with other Rangers in dungeons, all I see them do is ignore and waste the pet.

If you do it all in one go, it will feel like grinding. If you do other things in between, it will simply be another thing you can do in the game. The choice is yours..

ilr.9675:

Kasama.8941:

And in PvP, a Ranger will mostly feel like damage output is too low, because the pet is not consistently hitting (or is dead) like in PvE. So it’s basically like playing two playstyles. One playstyle relies on the pet, the other tries to make up for the lack of damage.

I find snippets like this… a lot more informative for some reason than all the advice and lecturing from the number crunchers for some reason. So upon reading it , I decided to run around WvW looking for some test cases, IoW: ppl who could run forever without being boxed in by the Conquest format. …Yeah I think I see what you mean.

They also told me I’d have to basically apply a cover condition every 2 seconds just to keep cripple on them… (not only so I could keep up with them myself, but so that my pets could even make contact). They divided and conquered by forcing unexpected 1v1’s and simply couldn’t be downed…also told me the only good ranger there was something called RRR build. I’m guessing that’s some gimmick that lets the pet actually deal damage still? Regardless… it felt like their personal positions on skill curves was a game changer in general

Well, like most other professions, the Ranger is kinda forced into specific builds in PvP. The pet can’t hit consistently, the Ranger is bad at burst damage, and you don’t have any good way to support your allies. But the Ranger has good evades and good regeneration capabilities, and is good at stacking control conditions. So this means that the Ranger is forced into playing bunker builds, because of all the evades and regeneration, or builds that relies on stacking conditions, mostly because of traps. This is also because what these two builds do, is make sure that your pet will hit more often. When you play a bunker build, you can keep close to a foe and lock him down (mostly with sword), meaning he won’t be able to run around too much. And when you play a trap build, you get your snares from them.

It is possible to play a burst build though (which is what I play myself), but the problem is the high recharge time of the skills you use. What I do on an attack is; longbow auto-attack (to remove aegis and make sure I’m in range) > Hunter’s Shot > Rapid Fire > Muddy Terrain > Barrage > Lightning Breath > Entangle > Swoop > Hilt Bash > Maul > Crippling Throw. Once I go through that, I can usually go back to longbow and get some shots in, if my opponent isn’t dead already. The problem is then that after I do this, Muddy Terrain will be on a 25 second recharge time, Barrage on 30 second recharge time, Lightning Breath on a 30 second recharge time, and Entangle will be on a 150 second recharge time. So it’s basically one big attack, and then run away and wait 30 seconds for reset. If you go all the way into damage, it is possible to down foes using just your weapon skills, and not worry about what your pet does. But needless to say, you will be very squishy. And unlike a Thief, you won’t be able to just escape should your attack fail.

The sexiest Thief armor, is the armor that makes you invisible

jcbroe.4329:

@Everybody;

Here is another way of looking at it:

These are the damage stats we can invest into;

Power
Precision
Critical Damage
Condition Damage
Condition Duration

When it comes to maximizing DPS, direct damage needs Power, Precision, and Critical Damage. For Damage Over Time, no additional stat investment is required.

For maximizing the DPS of condition damage, you need; Condition Damage. For Damage Over Time, you need an additional investment of Condition Duration.

Based on investment values alone, condition damage is the better investment because it requires less stat investment to be effective.

However, as previously pointed out, this doesn’t take into consideration the requirements and hard counters to either of the types of damage.

Also, I forget the users name, but from the spvp forums, there was an argument of why shorter condition were better than long lasting conditions. Basically, the point was made that being able to reapply 2 second bleeds over and over is better than being about to apply them on a long duration due to the nature of condition removal in this game.

Because condition removal in the game is very tied to cooldowns, whether it be passive or active, the chances of having your damage removed is actually lower for low duration conditions than high ones. Take for example, ranger Torch. Torch 4 can apply a long duration burn, which, for most players, will be cleansed almost immediately if they get hit by it, making the skill do almost no damage unless the person lacks the removal to get rid of it.

However, skills like Bonfire and Flame Trap reapply 1s/2s burns over and over, and even though overall the damage over time is lower, the DPS is safer because the chance that a 1s or 2s long condition is going to be removed is much lower than a 10 second long condition.

That’s just an interesting perspective I found on the actual benefits of condition duration.

Direct damage does not need critical damage, and critical chance is less important then condition duration is. Even if you only have 2200 power, 20% critical chance, and 15% critical damage, you still have a viable direct damage build. Condition damage requires more attention to build choices. Because of the hard counters to condition duration (Lemongrass Poultry Soup, Rune of Melandru, Rune of Hoelbrak, and Rune of the Sunless), you need more then +40% condition duration in a condition damage build, in the current meta. Next to this, you also need to be aware of all the condition damage types, as the more you have, the more damage you will deal. Burn, poison, and 10 stacks of bleed, deals a lot more damage then just 10 stacks of bleed alone. And because of this, you also rely more on multiple skills, meaning you’ll want some form of skill recharge reduction, so you can stack your conditions faster. Or in other words; auto-attacking with a direct damage build, is more powerful then auto-attacking with a condition damage build. Condition damage only becomes more powerful, when you can continuously keep conditions on a target.

Yes, I think it would be a fun activity to do while waiting for an event. The basic system is already there in Costume Brawl.

What is this need people have to drag down others with them? If you don’t like the game, then just stop playing. This isn’t politics, it’s entertainment. If you aren’t entertained by Guild Wars 2 anymore, then there’s nothing to keep you here. Learn to let go…

I don’t see how sliding your finger over buttons is any different from using a macro? In fact, if anyone was to see you doing your 0.25 second combo in the game, they would probably think you were using a macro.

Norn Bow and Alpine Bow are my favorites:
http://i.imgur.com/uIGiv.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Z3Zgs.jpg

But I also like:
Forest Bow – http://i.imgur.com/yYGhM.jpg
Valley Bow – http://i.imgur.com/gRTMG.jpg
Longface Bow – http://i.imgur.com/MVsI4.jpg
Arching Bow – http://i.imgur.com/eV90T.jpg
Kudzu – http://media-ascalon.cursecdn.com/attachments/1/783/634835006171441655.jpg

Doesn’t affect me personally. I really only use shortbow to spam Infiltrator’s Arrow when moving, or Choking Gas and Cluster Bomb for AoE damage. But if shortbow is your main weapon, this is a stab in the back from ArenaNet.

Raze.8467:

They shouldn’t remove ‘heat seeking’ from ranged weapons, they should be adding it to every weapon that doesn’t have it.

I think ArenaNet would be hard pressed to find a play who doesn’t agree with this. Why would you make a weapon purposely miss, when you have the ability to control its damage? It makes no sense, at all!

I wouldn’t be playing at all if there was a monthly fee. I got a lot of other games I want to play, that don’t cost anything but the buy price.

A game that’s released with a monthly fee today, is just an indication that the game is so bad, even the developers themselves don’t believe in it. Games are so popular now, that the money made from purchases alone, is enough to make a profit. Anything ells is just icing on the cake.

Most people have a tendency to not know what they like, until they actually try it. What makes you think you’re any different? Stop being so close minded. Give it a shot!

Am I the only one who sees the irony in improving the toughness for pets, and then in the same patch, add a dungeon where pets get completely destroyed by AoE damage?

Well, at least we are heading in the right direction now..

Honestly, I think ArenaNet has covered it all. Any new profession would mostly just be a variation of the existing professions and/or races, i.e. hunter (ranger), assassin (thief), paladin (warrior), monk (guardian), priest (elementalist), shaman (necromancer), artificer (engineer), druid (norn), warlord (charr), and so on. And since professions in Guild Wars 2 are suppose to be heroes, we won’t see any “dark” professions.

The only new class I can really think of, is a Bard. But it would need a huge redesign to be taken seriously. Maybe something like a heavy armored Bard, that utilises sound by stomping the ground and pushing air, using a combat form based around rhythm and beats. It could use weapons like hammer, staff, maces, and warhorn.

Mesmers can be very effective bunkers =)

I was just watching a 12 min demo of Dark Souls 2, which is a game where the difficulty is very high, and dodging or blocking therefor makes a big difference. So that made me wonder:

If bosses or mobs in PvE could down you in 2-5 hits, would you spend more time playing open world PvE?

Obviously this would also mean there would have to be some changes. Some professions would need to be able to dodge more then two times, others might need more block or interrupt skills, and mobs would have more or less crowd control. However the basis for a kind of “Dark Souls” gameplay is already there. But would it make a difference?

Edit: I feel I should mention; the idea is not to replicate Dark Souls, but simply to make the difficulty of bosses and mobs in Guild Wars 2, similar to that of Dark Souls. The point would be to bring a sense of danger into the open world, and force you to be mindful of your surroundings. It would also mean that there would be overall less mobs in the world, as counter to the higher difficulty. Which in turn would mean mobs would have to have a higher drop rate as well.

So; higher difficulty (higher damage, but lower attack rate), less mobs, and higher drop rate for each mob.