Guild Wars 2

LinseyMurdock.4165:

It would be extremely hard, if not impossible to make those things stack.

Unrelated to the primary thrust of this topic, but couldn’t you add a Mystic Forge recipe to combine 4 25-use BL kits into 1 100-use BL kit, and then 2 100-use BL kits with 2 25-use BL kits to get a 250-use BL kit? That would be pretty legendary if so, because I currently have ~30 BL kits and they’re way too valuable to just waste.

Khisanth.2948:

How about stuff like the PvP reward boxes?

You’re intended to open those, not store them.

I know this is a little off topic but can you guys make that when you convert Quartz to Charged Quartz Crystal you don’t need to have 25 Quartz in your inventory but can use the bank/inventory storage.

And about the main topic I would like to see added: +1 agony infusion(and maybe +3 +5 +7 +9 +11), all the mystic forge stuff(i.e philosopher stone), fractal research page, legendary insight, mystic forge stone, shimmering/tenebrous crystal.

Yes they drop from loot and. Chests as well as you get crafting materials

I don’t see the lich form as being male so I don’t see the need for an overtly female form.

the lich form looks the same on all races and genders, the most politically correct skill in this game tbh

No?

I’ve always taken it that you transform into a lich, not the other way around. If a Lich is male, then you transform into a male.

Much like the way that the Bear Form and stuff works, its always a big bulky bear, even if you make a skinny Norn.

I’m writing this from the perspective of a Chronomancer that has played over 2000 hours since the release of HoT. I’ve raided, gathered 200+ insights and done all the content the game has to offer so I think I can provide an honest impression regarding this boon stack change. I’d also like to express a thing or two about the game and why it is (was?) fun for me.

Like many others, I share the sentiment that this balance patch did nothing to make the game better in PvE. I’m not talking about the massive nerf to SoI; I know it was OP in WvW, but that is not what irks me the most. In fact, I’m kinda learning to like this new iteration of the skill.
What is bothering me the most, and the reason I’m writing this post is the Boon 5 stack cap introduced.
Why is this cap bothering me? For 2 reasons mainly.
The first: As a Chronomancer, this invisible barrier is making my skills randomly half as effective OR totally ineffective half the time. In other words, my skills are being subject of diminishing returns half the time.
As an example: Tides of times being 2 stacks will cause my next Well of Action or Signet of inspiration only give me 3 seconds of quickness a lot of times, granted I am at a over +18 seconds of quickness. This seems to be the magical barrier. Quickness under 18 seconds> your skill will be 100% effective. Quickness over 18 seconds> a LOT of times the skill will be 50% effective.
What happens with my elite skill Time warp? The fact that it gives so many stacks will make everything bad. Seeing my Timewarp active on the field and me inside… and then hovering my quickness icon, and seeing it tick down from 20 to 13s… is probably the most frustrating thing ever.

Example of Timewarp being useless https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdUKwiGjySg&feature=youtu.be

As you can see, my elite skill has been butchered to only grant whooping 4 seconds quickness here.

Now my question is… Why must I have to be Penalized for using my skills and my cooldowns too fast? Why am I being penalized and having my skills be half as useful or not useful at all even though I blew my cooldown? To be honest this doesn’t seem fair at all. This is the equivalent of having a warrior and his skills randomly starting to hit for half of their normal damage only because he exceeded 15k dps.

Regarding the 2nd point that bothers me: I was browsing Qt’s new updated chrono guides, and I found this chart.

http://puu.sh/rQE2I/ce8b55c1fd.png (source http://qtfy.enjin.com/mesmer#DomiRecall)

It is explaining a rotation and how to land it so you don’t overstack your quickness. That is when it hit me and I asked myself “Why in the world do we have to get to a point of making an excel chart so our Chrono skills don’t overlap and become half as effective?” I agree charts are great, and if they help you figure out how to be more efficient with dps numbers and rotations, all is great. But this? This is a chart so we use our skills and specific order so they don’t kitten each other! I am being penalized simply because I’m playing too fast or in a different cooldown order!

Many will ask, “What’s wrong with playing slower?” “Why must you play so fast to a degree your skills suffer diminishing returns?”

The thing is, that’s precisely the reason why I loved this game, its fast combat system. The fact that only Boon classes are subject to diminishing returns is unbearable to me. I don’t see thieves or Eles hitting arbitrary damage caps simply because someone decided that THEY SHALL NOT PASS over 30k dps for example.

Before the patch I could play fast, dodge, watch the boss, appreciate mechanics, do my thing, help, res a downed player, use my cooldowns when I knew were good and useful to keep the quickness love going. But now after this patch, the feeling of knowing that if i blew a cooldown half a second too early it might be useless is just too overwhelming. It sucks the fun out of this game, I feel like have to slow myself down and start ticking numbers in my head, I feel like I have to play with my eyes plastered to the cooldown timers ticking down so I have a small cue to know that its safe to cast something else.
This might have sounded like a Rant for some, and I apologize for it, but I had to take this out of my chest and express how I feel in hopes someone will notice and fix this… It’s the first time since HoT released that i feel i don’t want to raid anymore, and its the first time i feel I want to quit the game because I can’t play Chrono how I want to play it. I don’t want to have to start making excel graphs and play like a robot…

TLDR: The 5 max boon cap has made playing Chrono feel like a bother. Skills have a huge risk all the time of suffering diminishing returns despite you blowing your full cooldown. The cap feels restrictive, unintuitive and forces the gameplay to be slower and more calculated so you don’t overstack your boons.

What about WvW?
To be frankly honest, I have much less insight in the WvW meta. But as far as I know permanent boons have been a problem there and especially Resistance has been inconveniant.

On the one hand I believe that more spots for other roles than boon buffers could give the opportunity to take more classes that remove boons from opponents. Also there are WvW exclusive options to counter a boon heavy group, like boon removing traps or besiege weapons.
.

What about Open World PvE?
It would be beneficial there, too, because its far easier to run a “close to optimal composition” by random, because you don’t need more Chronomancers etc. than there are. It would reduce the discrepancy of time between an organized and a non-organized attempt. Also it would give the developer the opportunity to make these more challenging, because they don’t have to struggle with the fact, that you run increadibly less damage, just because the Open World suqad mates run the “wrong” classes.
.

Thank you for your time
I hope it is comprehensive and makes some sense. For game modes like Fractals or Structured PvP these changes have no effect, because you don’t encounter more than 4 allies, and from my perspective all large-scale game modes would benefit hugely.

Please tell me your opinion and suggestions, I hope to start a discussion here. And I also hope that the developers will think critically about that idea, and share their thoughts.

Dear Developer and User of the official Forum,
.

I hesitated to make this post, but got encouraged after I shared my ideas with fellow guild mates and friends. And being constructive is probably better than just flaming on the subreddit. My point:

I think 10-character-wide shared buffs – including boons like might and buffs like Empower Allies – would be benefitial for Raiding in PvE, big-scale fights in WvW and even Open World PvE events.

And I will elaborate on that. (In advance: I am far more familiar with Raids in PvE than playing WvW, so my arguments may be stronger when refering to raids. I tried my best to get informations about WvW from my fellow guildies and friends.)
.

But what are the problems with the current system?

Following may seem trivial, but stick with me. There are boons and buffs in the game as we know. They are – depending on the game mode – strong, especially if you have access to multiple buffs at the same time. So there is a incentive to get those boons that are mostly beneficial for your game mode. Thats for example Quickness or Grace of the Land for Raids, or Resistance in WvW.

But very few – often only one – class can give or give reliable a certain buff to 4 of his squad members. That leads to a superior composition, where certain classes get far more spots than other classes. In the raiding meta you maily want to keep Quickness, Might and Grace of the Land as good as possible while also having access to buffs like Alacrity, Spotter, Empower Allies, Ranger Spirits and Warrior Banners. All of them are on only 3 classes and they take up 6 of 10 spots on a Raid squad – and 5 of 10 before the balance patch. Currently you take 2 Druids, 2 Chronos and 2 Warriors, because only one of them can only provide the wanted and superior buffs for half the party, while no other class can give these buffs or can give them satisfyingly.

The buffs are so strong that nerfing the source will increase the demand of the source. That hurts class (and build) diversity.
.

What would 10-character-wide boons and buffs change?

If, lets say, a Phalanx Warrior would share its boons and buffs for 10 people satisfyingly, only every 10th spot would be reserved for a Phalanx Warrior – instead of every 5th. In a Raid squad that would mean you should bring 1, but 1 is enough.

In a common Raid squad that would only pre occupy 3 spots with fixed classes (/builds), 4 if you would have to run the pre-patch Chrono + Revenant combination to archive 100% Quickness, leaving 6 spots for 5 remaining classes. I dont know the exact established composition for WvW, but i am sure that it will open some spots there, too.
.

Would’nt that lead to a super group in Raids?

There were concerns about 10-character-wide buffs leading to a supergroup before the Raids were released. What I mean by a super group: You are most optimal using every class exacly 1 time in your suqad (And only 1 class twice of course). A super group would only mimic diversity, because you have every class in it, but only 1 Raid squad composition is viable. I don’t anticipate that either. But that will not necessarily happen. To be honest I even highly doubt that.

Besides the boons and buffs I talked about, the classes in Guild Wars 2 have access to a lot of utility, like removing conditions or removing boons, and have different ways to damage opponents. There will be fights where a role is needed, and fights where its not. So a squad may want to take a Necromancer or a Revenant to absorb their team mates conditions. Either one works, and thats the way it should be. But to prevent something like a super group the abilitys of a class should rarely be unique for that class. Luckily we have most of the unique abilitys on these 3 classes for PvE. Most of the others are interchangable between classes if needed, like the Revenant and Necromancer example.

I think it’s also a fine playground for upcoming Elite Specialisation. You could give the great quickness or might stacking abilitys to other classes and give the remaining classes Raid relevant utilitys that they can choose from depending on the encounter. If different Elite Specialisations offer options for all classes, there is no need for any class, but every class can be taken to a Raid. And limiting the need for these buffing roles to 3 or 4 will give the developers much more freedom for the designing for Elite Specialisations since there are more spots for unspecific utilitys in a squad.

JemL.3501:

There is absolutely no reason at all of why you cant obtain a prefix in the core game, that wont make people go and buy the expansion

‘’you want you buy it’’ you cant tell that to someone who prepurchased the game, yeah because i paid for the core content while others got it for free and only have to buy hot now, they will invest the same ammount of money i did for get the core content but they will have hot too

From what content did you obtain this item with the prefix? I can’t realy understand how you get an item that is HoT in core game … Is it a fractals thing?

I am pretty sure many of us players on this forum buyed core game before HoT, if you don’t want to buy it? Then don’t, but you will have to accept that you won’t have the access to all the HoT and season 3 content ofc.

There has to be reasons to get an Xpac OP. Do you even lift bro?

JemL.3501:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

You like that phrase ‘do you even lift’ don’t you. You used it in your other thread where you complained that getting exotic amulets as a reward wasn’t good enough for you. Just like this thread where you complain that the core game isn’t giving you the reward you want. Do you even lift [your credit card]? Because lifting your credit card and buying will get you what you’re asking for in this thread.

The game requires people to buy. It’s a business, not a charity. If you want it, buy it.

Edit:
’you want you buy it’’ you cant tell that to someone who prepurchased the game

I prepurchased this game too before launch and then I bought the expansion. So yeah. I can say it if I want.

are you a troll or what? do you even lift? i wasnt complaining about an exotic item as reward… i stopped reading there

So many people in this forums just like to jump to be in the opposite just because can

Ok. Since you didn’t read past the first sentence because you didn’t understand my comment then I’ll clarify my statement.

’you want you buy it’’ you cant tell that to someone who prepurchased the game
I prepurchased this game too before launch and then I bought the expansion. So yeah. I can say it if I want.

I paid for the core content while others got it for free and only have to buy hot now, they will invest the same ammount of money i did for get the core content but they will have hot too

You paid for the game 3 years before the HoT and you had 3 years to play it without needing to spend a penny more. At the 3 year mark the game was selling for $10. So that was the price of core Tyria the new people got. It was a $10 game. If you want to grudge them the $10 and not buy the expansion for that reason then that’s up to you. However a business is not required to hand out items for free simply because a customer doesn’t like the pricing, which is your argument here for making the prefixes available to non HoT purchasers.

Access to the HoT prefixes are part of the expansion. if you want the prefixes you can buy the expansion like all the other people who bought the base game years ago and then the expansion.

You like that phrase ‘do you even lift’ don’t you. You used it in your other thread where you complained that getting exotic amulets as a reward wasn’t good enough for you. Just like this thread where you complain that the core game isn’t giving you the reward you want. Do you even lift [your credit card]? Because lifting your credit card and buying will get you what you’re asking for in this thread.

The game requires people to buy. It’s a business, not a charity. If you want it, buy it.

Edit:
’you want you buy it’’ you cant tell that to someone who prepurchased the game

I prepurchased this game too before launch and then I bought the expansion. So yeah. I can say it if I want.

Corax.7381:

What the kitten is a doggie move?

I’ve never heard of a doggie move either. But from the context it’s where someone has decided that it’s unfair that they can’t get for free what a business is selling.

No OP. It’s part of the expansion. If you want it, buy it. It’s how ANet makes their money to make more content.

JemL.3501:

Corax.7381:

What the kitten is a doggie move?

It is like a kitten move but worse, because dogs are bigger than cats

Not always … http://www.lolhome.com/img_big/cat-bigger-than-dog.jpg

Prefixes aren’t the only thing that you only get once you upgrade to HoT. In many ways they are the least of what you are missing. The point of paid content is that you have to get it to use it.

What the kitten is a doggie move?

which cannot be obtained if you dont have HoT

I wonder if that’s a clue……

JemL.3501:

Currently there is some prefix in ascended trinkets and back items which cannot be obtained if you dont have HoT

That is a doggie move

Fix that

No, it’s a good business move.

Learn that.

~EW

JemL.3501:

Currently there is some prefix in ascended trinkets and back items which cannot be obtained if you dont have HoT

That is a doggie move

Fix that

It’s intended by design and most likely will not change.

Very nice.

I would love to make seasonal costumes for my characters but I spent too long getting their “normal” outfits exactly right to want to change them. I wish we had several “costume” slots that allowed either visual or physical change of gear at the press of a button. Then I would definitely create seasonal looks.

I know there are seasonal “Outfits” but I will never buy an outfit. They aren’t versatile enough for me to spend money on (real or virtual).

My reaper is rather gothy looking anyways, so every day is Halloween for her.

Looking good there ODB!

sophiewhite.3149:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Dante.1508:

This game really went to hell huh, i guess mmo’s just cater to the scummy customer base these days lol

This is not evidence of anything that ANet has done, so it’s not about MMOs catering to anyone, scummy or otherwise.

This is about people who are charging for what they believe is a valuable service, one that costs them time and effort. There are good arguments about whether it’s really all that valuable and about whether it costs much time or effort. But it’s no different than people insisting on payment for porting to hard-to-reach locations or people volunteering to tip folks.

what effort does this cost them?

Setting up and managing all the squads to ensure that everyone wanting to are able to get into all the instances.

Personally, I wouldn’t charge for this; I think it’s the sort of responsibility you assume when putting up your commander tag. Further, I wouldn’t pay for it, since I can obtain the service from those who don’t demand a payment. I think just the effort of asking and trying to collect makes it a headache.

All the same, some people think the service is worth paying for and some people are willing to organize to tap that willingness-to-pay. I see no reason why it matters to me or why ANet needs to concern themselves with it.

sophiewhite.3149:

what effort does this cost them?

Commanders of mm’s have to ensure that they don’t lose maps, and that players are in the right maps/using the lobby correctly. Good ones also monitor the meta in process to ensure success in as many maps as possible. If you don’t like or disapprove of multi-map squads in general, it’s obviously not something you care about. However, it is nonetheless time-consuming for the commander and worth it to the participants of the squad.

But, again, you’re not necessarily paying them for their effort. You’re paying a premium for efficiency.

Dante.1508:

This game really went to hell huh, i guess mmo’s just cater to the scummy customer base these days lol

This is not evidence of anything that ANet has done, so it’s not about MMOs catering to anyone, scummy or otherwise.

This is about people who are charging for what they believe is a valuable service, one that costs them time and effort. There are good arguments about whether it’s really all that valuable and about whether it costs much time or effort. But it’s no different than people insisting on payment for porting to hard-to-reach locations or people volunteering to tip folks.

I think more accurately, people can TRY to charge for spots. If you’re quick enough, you could probably transfer to the map long before they actually realize you haven’t paid and once you’re there, being kicked from the group is of no consequence.

Its allowed, but frowned upon. I don’t see why anyone would pay for this service, though. Multiloot squads are already in abundance for free.

I think the VIP reward is to wear a t-shirt that says “I paid for VIP and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”. I might be wrong though.

@OP, that sounds a bit like a scam.

This sounds like abuse honestly, considering that they aren’t actually doing anything to help you finish the meta. I mean at that point they wouldn’t even have to do the meta to still be taking in a few dozen gold every 2 hours

I see the Multi-Map as a bit different than the Dungeon paths. For things like Dungeon Paths the party selling the slot has to actually do work — i.e., get to the boss and defeat it. For LFG Multi-Map, the “seller” has to do nothing — just organize the group, and then kick people they don’t think deserve to loot at the end of the event.

I think Anet should really implement a timer that you can’t loot from the same event, regardless of the map you’re in, more frequently than once every <x> minutes.

Selling spots in a dungeon where there’s a party of 5 people or even a raid of 10 people is one thing, but selling spots to be able to open chests in a map or maps that many other people besides the seller helped provide to the purchaser is another thing entirely.