Guild Wars 2

I have a max size Asura Engi and other than the Elixir S camera bug, haven’t noticed any issues with her. Honestly, it’s so much fun being Asura, why would you want to pick anything else?

Plus, since Supply Crate is really our only elite option, having a racial golem or 2 while leveling is pretty nice.

No no no no no no no……..no!

Damage meters, even those that show your own, will eventually lead to required-dps-zerk builds that are required for speed runs and the like. The devs can use these meters to create balance, but I don’t want them in this game. What drew me to GW2 (and GW) was that it’s not like WoW. I don’t want to feel like I have to adhere to a cookie-cutter build or else get kicked.

It took me a while to remember the original character select screen for GW1. Had to flip my mental rolodex quite a bit. I think they emulated Diablo 2’s character select screen at launch, but the newer one let us showcase each of our characters better.

GW2’s original login screen was fantastic. I remember the 1st time I logged in during the BWEs and was super stoked each time that dragon-2 slashed across the screen. Now it’s just a glorified list of links to the website…kinda lame. I mean, I understand the need to inform the players, but maybe bring back the old screen and just add a drop-down window with that stuff in it.

The issue with downscaling is that at level 15 you’ve got single-stat gear while at 80 you’ve got 3-stat gear. Meaning that a downscaled 80 will have a piece of gear with (arbitrary numbers) 10 power, 10 precision, 1%crit dmg. But a true level 15 will have 10 power.

Also, a 15 will have a 20 sec cooldown on their spammy high damage skill but a downleveled 80 will have a trait lowering the CD to an even more spammable 16secs.

Some things you just can’t downscale. Unless, you want a downscaled 80 -> 15 to suddenly lose all traits that cannot be acquired by level 15.

step 1 – stop mashing keys
step 2 – read the skill descriptions
step 3 – pay attention to what the enemies are doing
step 4 – pay attention to what other people are doing
step 5 – check the wiki

Trait for reduced Deception cooldowns. Then slot 3 stealthing Deception utilities. Spam stealth and Backstab. That’s about as direct damage as you can get and the trait is available at lvl 20.

My porcine pets were always my favs when I played ranger. I loved the dug up items but thought the utilization was clunky. Thief gets that but better implemented with Steal. I’m traiting into that so that I can steal on a 19sec CD and get stealth, regen, daze enemy, boon steal, might, vigor, condition cleanse and/or initiative every time I use it. Sounds like too much fun not to try. Something like this maybe.

Personally, I’d like to see more skills attributed to our weapons. However, if they won’t do that, then many traits need to be reworked to provide the variety they so want from them. There are some great traits like Juggernaut and Kit Refinement that change the way you use skills and the way they act (I’m an Eng, sry for the Eng examples). They add variety and dynamics. Other traits like “weapon x deals y% more damage” or “increase range of weapon z” are boring and, while useful, don’t exactly add that variety of gameplay style traits are supposed to bring.

Anet should put all kinds of fake off the wall stuff in their DAT files, just to mess with the data miners. Things like a new completely OP gear tier that will cause forum rage, only to find out it’s bull. Or pandas or quaggan genocide or a new currency or intentionally awful gear or mounts or account bound exotic gear boxes for free or…..i mean have a ball with it Anet.

Actually, I like it. On the surface it seems zergy, but that’s not the most efficient way to win the event The more citizens saved, the better the reward loot. And that requires not a single monster zerg, but rather a number of groups stationed at various locations and succeeding events. Give this patch more than a day and you’ll (hopefully) see fewer zergs and more organization.

Also, I love the back items!

I’ve posted on a similar thread about this topic but I want to add that I am really happy with GW2 as a whole. When I was still playing GW1 and heard that the follow-up would be a departure from the style of the original I was a bit annoyed but also curious. The graphics are amazing, the engine is awesome, the character personalization is involved, the storyline is personal. BUT…gone are the countless ways to build your character, gone are library of elites around which to build a clever design. We are stuck with a small selection of stock skills that allow (for instance) Rangers to only have about 3-4 design iterations. We all look so beautifully unique, with an array of pets at our sides, and dye palettes galore…but our skill sets are limited. Some great things in GW2, but the best part of GW1 was the never-ending array of builds I could create and test and run in FOW or PVP.

As an aside, I like the idea of each weapon having a pool of available skills from which to choose 2,3,5. For instance, for Axe/Torch, Axe could have 6-7 available skills to choose your 1-3, and Torch would have 4-5 options from which to choose slots 4-5. Weapons like Greatsword could have 10 possible skills from which you choose your 1-5. A 4th utility slot would be pretty clutch too.

I think hideable boots is better than gloves anyhow. A lot of boots look awkward on Charr & Asura.

I’ve been playing since BWE2. I’ve logged enough hours that my wife has noticed but no so many that I’m rocking multiple exotic sets on my numerous 80’s. But I’ve been playing…

And then I rolled an Engineer.

And I’m having a blast. More fun than any other profession I’ve played, which is a plus, except now I feel I’ve wasted all those hours (albeit fun hours) leveling classes that are not Engi. All the dyes I bought, all the map completion effort, all the holiday items acquired, all the crafting leveled…for nothing because this little Asuran Engi is so much fun I don’t think I’ll ever go back to my Ranger or Guardian or Necro.

@Atherakthia: The Empathic Response idea does solve some issues. First, it makes the ranger more team-friendly. A pet howl that chills nearby foes is nice. But if another howl originated from the player as well, that’s more chills = more targets and/or longer duration. Good for control. Or good for aoe regen, fury, might, fear, cleanses, etc.

Secondly, it adds more dynamic to the ranger. Placing your pet far away so that the 2 howls affect multiple areas vs doubling up on a single target. If it’s an attack, like the Raven’s strike, that’s 2x hard hitting spike.

And lastly, it’s more synergy with the pet, which I think is needed. As I mentioned above, if you have to pull your pet back in a zerg/dungeon to keep it alive, you can still use your F2 skill originating from the player and so the pet still serves a use. Pull your jaguar out but go stealth and crit hit hard anyway? Cool.

emikochan.8504:

All the pet classes are perceived as weaker, so the problem must be in the pet AI, It needs to be buffed.

Pet classes (Ranger, Necro, Engi) are hampered by a reliance on an ally without the ability to dodge/avoid damage, have less health than ourselves, are unresponsive to commands, and when killed have a long CD before they can be brought back up, thus severly hindering damage output. If you place 40% of a Ranger’s damage into the teeth of its pet, and then make it so easy for a pet to die, you’ve severely cut the Ranger’s ability to deal consistent damage. Same goes for turrets and minions. Not to mention sub-optimal AI and pathing.

I’m trying to press the “+1” button more but it won’t let me.

This just seems like an obvious filter option and for the life of me I can’t figure out why it wasn’t in there from the start. I’ve never seen a trading post/auction hall/etc that didn’t have it.

Finn.7243:

Make it a chain attack.

You could do something like:
Chain 1: Shoot an arrow that does more damage the further away your are
Chain 2: Shoot two arrows in quick succession
Chain 3: Charge a shot, if range is greater than set amount, it cannot be blocked

You could make Chain 3 have a longer charge time than basic attack, kind of like Guardians hammer Chain 3. These are just thoughts though, you could make Chain 2 involve the pet somehow, like how sword gives pet might, you could make it grant the pet some boon or inflict a condition.

Actually, I like this idea very much. Since our SB is just a standard shot, I like having LB#1 being a chain attack. Especially since we should be using it at range.

(remove base distance requirement)
Chain 1: Shoot arrow that cripples for 1s
Chain 2: Shoot 2 arrows that deal more damage the further away the target is
Chain 3: Charged shot that deals big damage & grants pet’s next attack to deal +10% damage

I dunno…that seems overly complex. But we need something that let’s us attack at long range effectively (buff damage at range instead of slashing it at close range). Giving the 1st attack a 1s cripple would help keep that range. And having a charged shot would feel like an epic sniper. Let it synergize with our pets so that at close range even if we can’t deal optimal damage w/ our bows our pets still gain a bonus to be more effective.

Still wondering why we just let her calmly walk to and through the portal. No instinct to at least throw a half-hearted swipe at her?

Don’t forget that Divinity’s Reach also has an Asura Gate to Ebonhold. So they can get some reinforcements from there too.

On the other hand, that could be a good tactic for the Charr. Attack DR, forcing them to draw on Ebonhold for reinforcements and supplies, thereby weakening EH. The Charr then launch their main attack on EH while their feint attack on DR keeps them busy. With EH the main focus, the Charr could topple it, close the gate, and take back the last vestige of Ascalon from the humans.

I think Anet has made “gold farming” more fun by negating the ability to do the same thing over & over & over & over & over & over….

Hit SSC for a bit, run some events, then bounce into CoF, then hit up Orr for some DEs, then run CoE, then back to SSC, then a fractal…you’re mitigating the grindy boredom by being forced to change things up. I get that it doesn’t let you “play how you wanna” but it’s Anet’s way of reducing grind by making it less appealing.

Kumu Honua.2751:

…next to your tri-color keys.

I’ve got 1/2 a row in my inventory of all those Marionette items in stack of <25. Can’t bring myself to trash em.

This is not WoW.

Dwarves are dead.

Elves…no.

If you hover over the zone names in the world map and they all say 100%, then it’s the Chantry of Secrets for sure. GL

Also, even if you have 100% on a zone that has since gotten a new POI (see JayMack’s list above) you may have to rezone into them to get credit. Like a reload of the map info.

Fair point.

I’ve never been one to crunch the numbers in games. I accept your facts if you’ve done the math. It’s a shame though, because I’d rather have a complex damage system (direct damage, crit procs, rolling conditions, damage boosts based on burns, etc) than “run Zerk.” I don’t play warrior cuz they’re boring. I like the idea of skill/trait synergy. I think my bias is just to avoid being let down.

Decklan.7540:

I don’t post my suggestions for anything other than very slight quality of life changes on this forum anymore, so I cannot answer your question with a confirm or deny, and adding some more instant cast abilities to our toolbelt is as minor as they come.

I’m sorry if I am being vague, but there are certain people on this message board who berate and dissect every word I type then gang up on me with their legions of guildmates/followers so I keep most of my ideas to myself now.

Can you believe Decklan? He just said “certain people” like he’s…..nah I’m kidding. lol I don’t even know who you’re talking about. Don’t feel like you aren’t allowed to post on the forums. That’s what they’re for. But if you’ve caught flak in the past, maybe reread your words before you post them to make sure you aren’t being _ (fill in the blank). If you are, rewrite it. If not, post it. Everyone’s ideas should be welcome. Just don’t flame, troll, or be an kitten .

JonPeters.5630:

I see a lot of talk about ranger weapons, but I don’t think that is the real problem. I think sword and longbow are both good weapons, which is why the changes take longer. The problems are deeper, in pets ability to hit moving targets, trait lines with not enough viable choices and skills that are often too specialized to really compliment the weapon builds. These aren’t things we can change overnight. The change to Greatsword block was in fact a very difficult change, but we made it because we knew it was the right thing to do.

The fact that the playerbase is unimpressed with the unimaginative bow skills may not be your most immediate concern, you can’t discount it as a viable argument. After all, we as players are the voices you want to give creedence to. Professions need to be not only viable & effective, but fun to play.

JonPeters.5630:

There are >500 skills in this game, 480 traits, and 2 designers working on this.

Wait, you only have 2 people on your staff working on skill & trait balancing and bugs? That’s….kinda ridiculous. Can you pull a few people from your Special Events team and put them on something that we really need dealt with? Like making our skills, traits, and utilities fun, effective, and not broken???

I don’t think they’ve ever deactivated a MF or crafting event recipe, only taken away methods to acquire event materials. So if you’ve got the blade shards and recipe pieces, you should be golden.

Might experiment with bringing Elixir Gun. Its toolbelt is a regen/stun breaker and it gives you a retreat (or forward-leap if you spin around first) and a cripple/swiftness shot that can really help your escapability.

Nope, only spent about $80 in the last year I think. But I got all the game’s content for the purchase price of the game, and those gems were specifically for things I wanted. I got the unlimited gathering tools, and the magitech armor, and 3 extra character slots. That’s money well spent in my opinion, because I none of it was game-changing but great QoL items.

Taygus.4571:

Seras.5702:

Before I got a chest after each knight I helped down. Now I get 0 no matter how many I kill. I liked it better before. Reward loot aside, I’m never going to earn enough power cores for my backpack at this rate.

Buy them, plenty of people are getting cores and selling.

Actually, plenty of people aren’t getting them. Some are. Thus, their prices are higher than they should be. They’re in high demand and short supply. Sure, I could buy them. But I’d rather earn them than spend 50g buying them.

+1
I have more fun with my engineer than I do any other class. Even after hours and hours, it doesn’t get old. So much versatility and a dynamic playstyle makes it a joy to play.

Tyria’s rotational duration is not the same as Earth’s. In-game the whole day/night cycle takes like 2 hours though…at that rate people would be spinning off the planet. It could be a bit longer. But definitely not synched to Earth.

Lore aside, I work 8-5 Mon-Fri & wouldn’t want to only get to play in the daytime on weekends.

Also, Signet of Midnight would be heavily affected, making it standard for players like me who play primarily in the evening/late at night.

One other thing that might be helpful in your quest. From your questions, I get the feeling you played that other popular MMORPG that I won’t mention. So did I. But GW2 is intentionally not not like that game. So throw out your preconceptions & expectations and enjoy the ride that is GW2. Its world is beautiful. The professions are uniquely crafted, the trait system is superior to those old talent trees, the races are original, and the lore is fantastic. I hope your computer is decent because with the sliders up, you can totally just explore Tyria without killing anything and just enjoy the view. Don’t be afraid you’ll miss content either, because the auto-scaling means you can do everything everywhere in your own time and it’ll all still be relevent.

I know for sure you can equip the same weapon in the same slot for each weapon set (ie – shield offhand) but I don’t think you can effectively swap the way you’re asking.

I bought one. Had 800gems sitting in my acct for a while with nothing else really striking my fancy. Debated it for a couple days. Finally, I bought it when I ran outa mining picks mid-rich ore node. Figured: this is the convenience factor. And I like it.

I was so let down too that I walked in and was suddenly just fighting him. I mean, realisticly it makes sense that Canach sees an intruder and just attacks, but it’s contrary to the whole GW2 theme. Where’s the monologuing? Where’s the “surrender or die” dialogue? Where’s the Canach voice saying “give up!!”

It felt very anti-climactic.

And why am I supposed to read the chat to know that he’s arming his mines? Shouldn’t that blink on screen or have an audible cue? Couldn’t Khiel be behind me screaming “look out, it’s gonna blow!”?

Julie Yann.5379:

redslion.9675:

What about just swapping the active hps with the passive hps?

That is the most simple solution.

The passive should have been +180 vitalty like the other signets passives and the active should have been a base heal + 15 to 20sec regen.

That would be horrible. Activate your signet and you’d lose hp due to losing the passive 180 vitality. If you had low hp you could actually kill yourself.

“Holy Trinity” is a Christian thing.
“The Trinity” is a gaming thing.
“Trinity” is a Matrix thing.

That is all.

@coglin: The reason I added turret-based cleanse ideas is because I felt like it could make a turret build more viable. As it is, they have a lot of traits and are 1/4 of our utility options, yet nobody brings them for anything other than control, and that’s PvP only.

As for EG’s Mist, yea I thought about potential OPness too, but I was trying to add cleansing to lesser used tools. I love the kit, but I didn’t think EG was used much.

abiyde.5064:

Okay, we’re both kind of right.

I was testing with point blank enemies which seems to work. But at range it doesn’t work.

It doesn’t work the way you think at melee range. Think of the cleanse as a splash originating from the target. Projectile finisher through the field and hit the enemy and it cleanses conditions from allies within a small range of the target. So if you’re at point blank range it splashes you for the cleanse.

The notion of being upset that challenging content is not soloable when geared with zero defense is mind-boggling. What do you expect to happen? There’s a reason it’s referred to as “glass”…it’s easily breakable.

Lokki.1092:

Seras.5702:

But I’m playing GW2 and running dungeons. Clearly, what I want to do is be in a dungeon.

That is the difference between you and others.

Some people have run that particular dungeon a dozen times. Some people have run it 200 times. They are not there for the dungeon they are there for the reward.

To use your driving analogy. You may want to go shopping because you like the drive, and you love to just spend time at the store, its fun to you. But recognize some people just need to get groceries for their family. The fastest route is optimal because they have a goal. If you were carpooling it is reasonable that you taking an hour for a 15 minute drive would upset them.

That’s a fair point and a good analogy. Unfortunately, the only way to solve this is for a LFG system to have an option box for:
- speed runs (know the fights & shortcuts, zerker only, w-w-w-w-m)
- non-speed runs (don’t be an idiot, that is all)

I think it’s a neat item but poorly executed. Having tried all of the professions, you can’t really know if you’ll like it or not until at least 15-20, sometimes longer. Free lvl 2-20 means that you have to use it right away to get its maximum potential, and that could mean wasting it on a profession you don’t like.

They should have made it useable on any lvl 20+ character, leveling it up to 40. Still a free 20 levels but useable once you unlock the weapon skills and some utilities and get a grasp on the class.

Anet gave the community what they wanted. Stop complaining about getting something good. Man, can’t please anybody.

If you’re downing champs solo, I wouldn’t use focus unless you need the traited reflection. I’d stick to the sword offhand and even pistol. Champs hit hard so using these offhands you can place your phantoms at range in a circle around your target and keep them from getting insta-stomped. As they drop you’ll just replace em.

You’re right about no aoe without iWarden, but the immobile nature of the phantasm is a pain. I prefer GS for that because its phantasm attack is a whirling aoe that keeps it at range between attacks.

The build won’t change too much from fight to fight. But I like to change up my weapons depending on the situation.

Also, check out the new healing signet. It lets you summon back-to-back phantasms so ramp up time is non-existent.

JETWING.2759:

Have some problem with my suggestion?

Yea apparently he ignored Warlord saying that there are no tricks for warrior because it’s straight-forward ez-mode and decided to focus on your contribution.

Obviously, it’s not a build you’re going to run with in all situations, but it sounds like fun being nigh-unkillable camping a capture point.

Not every build or tip needs to be pro dungeon raider or WvW approved or PvP meta. The more fun, variety, goofy, unique, and experimental the happier I am. Variety keeps things fresh. Sure I’ll have my gear/build for serious content, but I wanna goof off too sometimes.

Imaginos.3756:

• Guard & Sick Em I’ve never found a use for Guard and Sick Em to take up a slot on my 3 utility bar and these changes don’t do anything to make me want to use them.

Guard & Sic Em have some functionality beyond the simple tooltip that actually make them quite useful.

Guard gives stealth & protection (as the tooltip says) but it also sends your pet to a location & it will stay there for 3 mins or until recalled. This offers a form of control. The prot is a nice spike defense if your pet is in range of an impending aoe attack.

Sic Em increases pet damage by 40%. Use this before a Jaguar pounce or a Raven swoop and you’ll net some pretty hefty damage. Also, the speed increase makes it much easier for melee pets to hit moving targets, which results in more than the 40% damage increase because more hits are landing.

Just food for thought.

So you just want pointy ears? Roll a human, give em long hair that covers their ears, pretend. I like that GW2 doesn’t follow the cliche elf, ogre, human, dwarf motif. The races have plenty of similarities to those classics, but with enough flair to make them unique imho.

heartless.6803:

I would like just one set that is profession specific. Something that I could wear that is unique.

^ this.

kokiman.2364:

No thanks. I don’t want to support people who teach players to not think anymore.

also: complete guides before the update comes out.

Antara.3189:

No thanks, Don’t need anymore spoiler content than there already is.

Pretty sure nobody forces you to go to her site for spoilers or to turn off your brain.
Ever think that some people could use a hand finding that last crystal or a hint for how to progress thru a JP or want to see what kind of selection of axes are out there? Not to mention a nice synopsis of each event and what they bring. You gotta admit, though they’ve been getting much better with it, sometimes Anet isn’t as clear about certain details as they could be.

#dulfyforprez

I wouldn’t say the game is getting “harder.” Due to the trait pushback to 30/60/80, Anet reduced the difficulty of just about everything in the open world. Not to mention that crit% now scales properly, increasing downscaled players’ crit%. Which means, the game got dumbed down.

My buddy just started playing the game last month. He’s finally settles on a class and is about level 38-40 and can’t understand why he’s 1/2 done leveling and still has barely any traitpoints. Not to mention he has to either buy them (waaay more expensive than before) or spend all kinds of time being directed to specific content to unlock them. This makes combat become rather stale after a while, being unable to trait and experiment with builds. I feel bad for him honestly. By the time he hits 80 he’ll still be endeavoring to unlock traits he should have automatically earned at 60.

I’m fine with champ trains disappearing. Honestly, they’re mindless zergs that exploit champ schedules and promote 11111111111 combat. Not very fun (subjective, I know) but they made it incredibly easy to earn decent loot bags/gold, not to mention trivialized monthlies.

Dungeon reward reductions are dumb. With the champ train nerf, dungeons are the primary and best way to earn gold. What’s more, they’re at least challenging and require more than 1111111 zerging. You actually earn your rewards.

Of course, with the trait pushback, now new level 35-45 are at a serious loss for strength when joining dungeons like AC and CM. Where before a level 40 would have access to some great traits at the master level, they’ve now got like a single adept. How…underwhelming.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Vlawde.1895:

Good thing this game tried to be more original and not recycle the same races you see in every other MMORPG.

Haaaa Haaa haaa..

Charr.. Orc, Tauren, etc.
Sylvari… Fae. EQ2 Fae are even plant born. Elves.
Norn. … Barbarians, Halasians.. eq staple for 13 years.
Asura are soooo Gnomish. geez.

Charr.. Orc, Tauren, etc.
Sylvari… Fae. EQ2 Fae are even plant born. Elves.
Norn. … Barbarians, Halasians.. eq staple for 13 years.
Asura are soooo Gnomish. geez.Not much of anything in this game is “original”.

sorry. Weird formatting error.

Interesting though. 30 year old NES junk is ecstatically raved about, but elves are no go. I find it very funny.

Your argument is basically:

take a race from WoW, EQ, etc
pick a different race in GW2 that has the same_ish_ body style
say they’re the same

Charr =/= Orc – they are both large, non-human, war-based. That’s where the similarities end. Totally different lore, morality alignment, alliances, etc. And the only similarities they have with Tauren are they’re both large animal-esque races. That’s it.

Sylvari =/= Elf. They’re both ethereal in feel. That’s about it. Elves are immortal & wise. Sylvari are <25yrs old & generally naive.

Asura =/= Gnomes. They’re both small. Wow, they must be the exact same. Asura are magical, gnomes are tinkerers. Dwarves build stuff, o so do Asura.

Game developers have to make the races they choose diverse. Just because there are races that are small and large and hairy and lithe and peaceful and warring…they aren’t the same thing. You’re bound to see similarities but to say they’re unoriginal because Anet made a small race so they must be gnomes is ridiculous.