Guild Wars 2

Here’s a pic of me defending Air Keep from 5 guys, using a shield generator. They had a sup cata and eventually built a ballista, but the ballista could only hit with the AoE attack.

• Shield bubble was blocking half the shots of the cata and the ballista
• Shield bouncy bubble was constantly knocking people off the cata and damaging it.
• Shield wall was preventing people from getting back on the cata immediately.
• They only had one guy that was able to hit my shield gen from down there.

This defense felt more like trolling than griefing… “no… no… no… you can’t fire that catapult.”

I used to know an Englishman who would get giddy when he came up with a new treb defense spot to try in hills. He loved defending hills and sieging it up. Now, I’m excited about the possibilities of this new shield generator siege and I’ve been experimenting with it. But when you’re alone on the map… and no one cares if the air keep flips… and no one is going to come to help… and simply buying time just feels like a waste of time… and you don’t even get defense credit unless somebody dies or you repair a wall… Defending feels like a waste of time. Driving them off feels like a hollow victory. My shield generator did eventually win and take out the superior catapult and they left, and they didn’t try again.

I don’t feel like a homeowner standing his ground to save his family from a homeinvader… I feel like a guy that went to Wendy’s, and decided to defend the ketchup packets by biting anyone that comes near.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Jim Hunter.6821:

[…]

So killing other players in WvW is griefing and we should have more npc’s to fight……

Are you sure you wouldn’t just be happier in pve?

Don’t start one of those void ‘PvE scrub’ arguments. WvW is both PvE and PvP. We have PvE gear instead the standard PvP gear. There’s NPCs to fight. That won’t change anytime soon no matter hot much anyone may dislike that. Why is that? Because of the same reason I already explained: There’s no way to make sure there will always be players. So there must always be something else to fight or instead PvE it’ll be PvFreaking doors and walls. So, right now the only solution is NPCs. Unless some genius comes with a better thing.

So, what I’m saying is not “we need more PvE”.

What I say is that there should be fun reasons to stick at certain locations and defend them. And that I can’t think of anything else other than events. Why? Because, again, there’s no way to make sure players will always want to go to every specific location at all times, so AI will have to do.

So, you could do things having supply camps that look like farms, quarries or lumbermills start an event next to them in which some NPCs do something like mining some ore, chopping some trees, harvest some crops or slaughter some cows. And they will be attacked by other NPCs in the meantime, like wild animals, bandits, skirtt, ogre and centaur raiders, etc. If the NPCs finish their thing, the location gets a bit extra supply, and the current upgrade get a little progress bump. If they are killed and can’t finish, the location goes slower for a little while.

So what would players do? After capturing the spot, 1-2 player stay behind, and help the NPCs. While they guard the spot, they won’t get bored as there’s something else to do. And if enemy players come, the ‘Help NPCs’ event is interrupted, and the ‘defend the location’ event starts right away. Defend the spot, the NPC event goes on. Fail, the enemy takes over.

Players will always have to be careful, because they may get distracted with the NPC event. And enemies may take advantage of that to do surpirse attacks. Surprise attacks are cool.

If done right, when you roam, you’ll encounter players more often on every location, as it’ll be more likely for each supply line to have at least a few players sticking around doing the events between the camps and the towers and keeps, instead going with the rest of the zergs mindlessly flipping locations.

Wow…. look guys, I found anet’s target audience. A ”WvW player” that feels like the one thing WvW really needs to be more successful is more Pve…

Clearly you are on to something, that’s why things like the grub event, the harpy, and the new bl are so successful….

Um, to go with the current theme, I would say to bring a friend….

Just make sure he is on an opposing server. Ba Dum Tish

So that’s where all the druid/pet synergy went…

Guild Wars 2: Come For The Adventure, Stay For The Romance™

May utmost blessings and bliss be yours.

“Hey I bought Skyrim for 50$ when it came out, how comes you can now get it for a 5er?! That´s unfair! And you get the addons for free in the GotY edition! How dare you!”

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

So, I might be a bit of an oddball here, in that I don’t mind farming my tail off to build a hall. Did it in GW1, farmed all of the coin on my own with the exception of 2 npcs that my guildies pool funds and bought; long story. Anyway, so I don’t mind (too much) doing the same here. The problem I’m running into is not being able to grow my guild, at all. People don’t want to join little guilds anymore because “just playing” can’t produce any benefits anymore, and people don’t want to bother with the growing pains. They want to join a guild that’s already well underway, where they can get the rewards without a lot of effort. It’s insanely frustrating. I think I actually miss influence. The kitten favor gating sucks.

I was thinking about that when they announced these changes. Why should I, as an hypothetical player looking for a guild, want to join a small or new guild when I could join a big guild? Not only will everything be unlocked faster but the cost to me is less if I have 200 plus guildies also contributing. In addition, once guild halls are fairly well along, why should I join a new guild with a bare, no convenience hall when I can join a guild with a lot of nice things?

The way it’s set up is punishingly hard on new, starting up guilds. It strongly favors older, large guilds. People who want to start a guild and attract new guildies are going to have an uphill struggle to get and keep new people if they have no finished hall, no large roster and have to ask for donations.

Dengar.1785:

Or… You can just take your time building up your guild hall? It’s just a suggestion. It has been said that building your guild hall is a long journey that won’t end for a long time. What’s with all the instant gratification stuff you youngins seem to be obsessed with?

That’s a tad reductive. You make a good point but gloss over the fact that large guilds are able to spread costs out among a lot more members making it faster to do all this. People want to build up their guild halls and guild size shouldn’t be a fast track to success for this. It’s a terrible design choice on ArenaNet’s part. Go back and read Chris Whiteside’s Guild Hall CDI. Lots of players including myself wanted a pro-rated system for smaller guilds so that small guilds and large guilds could earn upgrades at a similar pace.

ArenaNet dropped the ball with this stuff. Instead of making it all about the enjoyment of the guild, it’s a material and gold sink. My guildies loved unlocking the guild. Once we saw how many materials we needed to do even the tavern, everyone went back to leveling. If we were in a large guild? No problem! Guild size shouldn’t dictate Guild Hall progression. <—That’s a design gaffe on ArenaNet’s part. There’s literally zero reason for that to have happened. =They went with using guild halls as a time, material, and gold sink, instead of making guild halls all about player enjoyment and socialization.

Kanebrake.6192:

BlackDeath.4398:

Some people lack common knowledge.. so I will spell it out for you all. WvW has a lack of players at the moment because obviously there is a brand new game out. People are trying out the masteries, There is a halloween event..

WvW has lacked players for a long time now. Yes it’s worse than it has been due to events and new pve content but this isn’t a short term problem that’s going away after the events are over and the content has been around for a few weeks.

Right now our servers borderlands are empty, people are blaming the maps for it, that is the issue… normally you get plenty of guild raids, open raids etc, but we don’t cos ppl r playing other content.

I am not saying 100% is ok, but there has been thoughts into the new system that can help with off peak coverage. People don’t like change, so they will always complain.
For example if there is an event somewhere that has nothing to do with the map…. same kitten in old home border, always events in the top corners.

But i am not going to discuss what people like/dislike, these are the maps.
Just be patient and go and play with your guild in a couple of weeks, then learn the maps because you will be playing them for a while or not at all. I don’t believe people are giving it a good chance right now because they are playing with small groups against virtually no enemies or a massive blob checking out the map.

Hey,

A quick warning for the HC WvW players out there:

Some people lack common knowledge.. so I will spell it out for you all.
WvW has a lack of players at the moment because obviously there is a brand new game out. People are trying out the masteries, There is a halloween event..

So like Taylor swift said: Haters gonna hate XD

The new maps are pretty big, so when you’re playing on your own or with a small group with little to few enemies.. it’s not going to be fun! Go and explore the map, and in a couple of weeks it will start to pick up again.

So stop spreading the hate please… there is no need, i took a look at the new maps and they tackled a lot of issues people have moaned about without telling you, so if you’re still not happy, you never will.

but we still have an entire core profession that’s entirely broken. weapons, utilities, pets, and a dozen traits that aren’t playable in pvp, at all. like, when do we start addressing this? why do we have to go 2 steps backward every time with the druid instead of doing things more thoughtfully (and with the player base consultation if needed), leaving the druid for a bit, and focusing on what matters.

OP is so blind it gives me headache. The Endless Bottle of Batwing Brew will INCREASE in price as time goes on. It’s the most annoying item they locked behind a huge RNG wall. I get the others, but this single item is just stupid. If only you could forge it, but no, it’s the same scheme as a precursor weapon: a single item locked behind a ridiculous RNG or hundreds of gold (which will increase even more over time). I’m fine grinding my life for all the other items, but this one is just inexcusable…

By the OPs logic I shouldn’t buy food at a store, I should just become a farmer and grow my own so I can get “free” food.

Firebaall.5127:

Bravo OP.

It’s not hard to get with effort. Those that are complaining about this are just being lazy and entitled. Heck, I’d even be ok with Anet adding the tonic to the cob vendor (100 cobs sounds about right). The point is…..put the effort in!!!

And some of us don’t mind the effort. Like I said, I’ve been trying for that stupid potion since 2012. Obviously it wasn’t necessary for anything at that time, just wanted it for my collection. Been farming for hours, including maize balm farming in the off season when that became an option. Been farming pretty much every night that I could be on since Halloween started this year. Guess who still hasn’t got one as a drop? Had the same kitten issue with Gwyn last year, at least this year I can farm100k candy corn for her (still working on that).

The rng might be just a tad much.

Endless Batwing Brew is the ONLY item hidden behind pure RNG, and even the price of those will drop before long.

Drop before long? You realize Halloween will be over in a week, and then the item from which this is an RNG drop will be further limited, thus further limiting it’s supply. Granted, we can still maize balm farm, but that took one hell of a nerf at the start of this holiday event. So how does limited supply equate to prices going down anytime soon exactly? I think you might be underestimating the demand for this item just a tad.

Still beyond all that….been farming for this item since 2012…. thousands of bags opened…. 0 endless brews. And you wonder why some of us are peeved?

Rangers, and the WvW game mode…

The Tina Turner to ArenaNet’s Ike.
The red-headed step children in ArenaNet’s family.

Another profession is OP with this rune, maybe in one game mode… so let’s nerf rangers. Perfect.

I agree with everything you said but you missed some big ones.

-Most fights occur around objectives but the new gimicky PvE mechanics discourage fighting. You don’t want to fight in an area where the enemy is getting free stealth or you’re constantly burning.

-Auto upgrades that don’t require supply remove the reason that most roaming fights occurred. The keeps are full supply and will eventually upgrade so the defenders just sit on the wall and wait for you to get bored.

-The lack of WP’s at T3 gives no incentive to hold anything. The WP’s you get are instantly given to you when you flip a structure so what is the point in defending when you can just flip something back.

-The new map rewards blobbing and helps the dominant server steamroll.
The skyhammer event is going to be one by whoever has the most bodies, which will usually be the dominant server. Auto upgrades reward whoever has the best coverage and make it take that much longer for the weaker server to get their stuff back. The barricades only hurt roamers and small groups, zergs PvD through them in seconds. The increased run distance, lack of +5, and change to the supply cost of G catas (not to mention auto fortifications) makes taking things solo or with a small group a ridiculously tedious task.

In the spirit of yesterday Colin blog post I want to provide my preliminary feedback on Guild Claiming and War Room upgrades.

I’m part of a WvW guild (~20 active players) and we set our priority to unlock all the upgrades for WvW (+ arena), so we rushed all possible upgrades and this morning we unlocked the War Room (thanks for correcting the bug with last patch!), starting the long journey to have everything unlocked to give our contribution to our server (GO WSR!).

I strongly back John Coperning statement that “Guilds are the lifeblood of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™, and it’s our desire that they become a greater part of World vs. World.” and I think it’s really important that guilds see their contribution matters, at all levels. Coordination between guilds should win matches, not numbers and coverage (but that’s another sad story which we hope it will be tackled soon as John stated elsewhere)

The good

Claiming announcement
After unlocking camps claiming, I went straight to capture a camp and claim it. We can’t yet do anything with it, but just seeing my guild name on the announcement was glorious. It reminded me of Hall of Heroes victories in old Guild Wars.

Gating claiming rights
I like a lot the idea of gating a bit claiming rights in WvW. Having a troll claim or simply a claim from an unknown guild just because some new players stumbled on Garrison lord was harsh.
It also rewards guilds for putting efforts and becoming a “qualified WvW guild”, being able to show to fellow server members that. Note: I’m not saying that if you don’t pursue those upgrades you are not a “real WvW guild” (it might be case for guilds focused on fights), it’s a different concept.
Camps and Towers are not hard to reach, Keeps is a bit down the line but obtainable. SMC is like a “prize”.

Upgrading itself
Not WvW related, but unlocking stuff in the guild hall is really rewarding, it’s not cheap but seeing our hall becoming better and better it’s a nice feeling!

Auras
Having stats buff in form of auras that will always be available on claimed structures it’s a good plus. It won’t change much but it’s a nice addition (except for Supply Capacity, see below).

Guild catapults nerf
They were simply too overpowered, 4 people could take a keep really quickly. Too much.

Too early to call

Tactics and Improvements
I was able to toy a bit with those during stress test. We’ll surely need to test banners and vehicles in “real action”. But I like the idea of those.

Guild Siege
Without unlocked recipes, it’s hard to know whether they will be worth over regular or superior siege. It could be another tool for guilds, we’ll see.

The bad

Supply Capacity
With the old guild upgrade system, Fort +5 Supply was a 200 influence (aka 10 events with 2 people, so about 20 minutes of playing) upgrade. It was available at Art of War 2 and amongst the first ugprades.
Now we have Auras, that have the undoubtedly advantage of being permanent. However, Supply Capacity has been moved to the last tier of upgrades, requiring Guild Level 37 and a good amount of upgrades!
I made some rough estimation yesterday, and I don’t see this upgrade being obtainable in less than 2 months (not mentioning the costs for all the upgrades, probably in the thousands of gold, which could be troublesome for some). Sure it will be permanent, but it’s 2 months!
Guild Arena in 2 months was a bad idea and as a matter of fact it was reverted to a smaller timeframe now (thank you)

While all other auras have limited utility (but being permanent will become nice addictions) Supply Capacity is the back bone of WvW upgrades. It’s like “WvW 101”

Having small groups (4-5 players) being able to play at 75% of their full capacity (while just a week ago the upgrade was a no-brainer) after ~3 years of the same is a questionable design decision. I’m worried that small guilds (~10 people) who enjoyed small operation will have another reason to abandon WvW, draining overall population.

It’s ok to have some progression, it’s ok to put some prize at the end of journey, it’s a terrible decision to strip us something we were used to do every day and put that behind a huge pay wall and time gate.

This decision will have (actually, already has) a huge impact on all levels, while favouring mindless blobbing over small organised play. Please, stop this policy right now. Make guilds have an effect on the game, all type of guilds, including small ones. Everyone wants to contribute with their possibility.

(I don’t even want to mention the fact that we will get +MF and +XP in the middle, like WvW guilds care about those)

Final Words

I like the changes of the new system (with the notable exception of +5), I think that will reward guilds more in the future.

However, supply capacity alone is keeping down everything. I can’t overlook it, it’s so important that everything else of the new system seems worthless to me.

TL;DR: Please switch back Supply Capacity back at the beginning of upgrade line.

This is a hideous change. The diversity of WvW, roaming, zergs, guilds of all sizes, is one of the things that seperated WvW from EoTM, and made it alive.

Our roamers and small havoc squads need support, and they need to have fun and be able to do what they do, they’re a vital part of the WvW community and what makes it so rich.

I say this as someone who doesn’t roam or scout, not having +5 for some weeks is an inconvenience but a not a game breaker for me – but I don’t want to lose the diverse gameplay and the playstyles, and most importantly the community it creates, from our BLs.

Please rethink this.

Ronorra.1530:

We are very friggin far from a fixed Ranger so please bottle the misplaced enthousiasm untill we see the Ranger class as something else then a joke. Where are the fixes for rangers that were mentioned in the same stream where druid was unveiled?

They made WHaO transfer all stacks of boons.
They made Sic Em able to be used with pet commands.
They made Spirit of Nature scale with healing power and quadrupled its radius.
They fixed Brown Bears F2 skill.
They buffed Murellow’s F2 by 100%
They fixed the bug with Hilt Bash that prevented it from striking a foe near max range.

It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

Hi Irenio

The out of combat degen for Celestial Avatar isn’t only limited to a pve environment, the whole mechanic of the Astral Force degeneration for all game modes is quite restricting. For example, even changing targets in World Vs World, will result in half your astral force gone as a result of the mechanic.

Cort.

The decay is the part about this I really don’t understand. Druids are supposed to be healers, right? I know GW2 wants to be different… but really? I can’t think of any other game I’ve ever played where a healer does not have access to their worthwhile heals maybe only 10% of the time!

Solo jungle exploration? Not once was I able to build enough AF to enter CAF. The only way I was able to utilize it was locate the nearest zerg and follow it around and spam staff 1/2 while strafing back and forth to hit as many of those zergers with the beam as possible. Then? Then when the mobs were just about dead or already dead? I had enough AF for CAF… which, of course, is when it dissipates faster than ice melts in Hell.

As someone who has played a dedicated healer in every game, I was so excited for druid… but now… you’ve given us a healer that can’t actually HEAL anything, since you can’t build enough AF fast enough (even on staff), and you can’t save your charge for when you really need it.

Get RID of the adrenaline like effect. It’s ruining the spec.

Really should make it the parallel to DS. No degen out of combat, and a bit easier to build. Right now it has both the restrictions of DS and Adrenaline but not even half the benefits of either it sounds like.

In the story content – like prologue instance, you have to improve the AI of our allies. Normally they dont attack, but only if the enemy attacks them or they get some damage from AOE. The enemy most of the times points at us (the players), so we may end up dead and our allies just watching us die…

the trick is to lure the enemy in our allies, in order for the to start supporting us… Or else they are not very responsive.

” I’m a ranger main and hate to see nerfs”…. But I’m going to go ahead and suggest them anyway….

Could you kittening not? Can we please go one kittening week without some ” ranger main” coming up with some hypothetical way that we are overpowered and claiming we need a nerf?