Guild Wars 2

Zaxares.5419:

Still better than smashing pinatas. XD

Better than 50 sonic device as well.

I would prefer a expansion or a 6 month content release schedule rather than the LS. I have no issue with not having an expansion. But this games Main story needs to start progressing.

I know some people enjoy minigames and such. But it’s not my idea of fun.

Lysander Freeman.4186:

I’d rather have full expansions that are completely thought out and finished than have a weak Living Story. The Molten Alliance was well done and then the ball got dropped.

molten alliance dungeon was good as were the two mini quests leading up to it. The road sign fixing and heirloom Fedx quests were not though.

Playing under pressure of “two weeks ONLY content” is not fun. Tyria is big… and because of recent updates I didn’t have time for anything else (WvW in particular…)

Lysander Freeman.4186:

I’d rather have full expansions that are completely thought out and finished than have a weak Living Story. The Molten Alliance was well done and then the ball got dropped.

I think the Molten Alliance flopped in the end because the threat ended up not being very threatening and the consequences seem non-existent. The parts of the world it took place in are unchanged, it was simply used as an unnecessary tool to send people to Southsun. As a faction I was never convinced they were a big threat (partly because I don’t think there was a single named character that gave them much a story or reason for being, they had no leader and no set goals, they were just baddies attacking people) and it’s really disappointing that they seem to have neatly dissolved when the new RNG box was ready.

I don’t think the ball got dropped so much as they have too many irons in the fire and they aren’t pulling any of them out. The story is trickling out but so far it’s all just set-up, nothing that’s truly compelling has happened. They keep introducing characters and what’s most frustrating, they seem to be setting up all new stories (which takes time) instead of utilising existing ones (which makes existing lore feel like it doesn’t matter).

The story is definitely going somewhere, I just think the drive to get there doesn’t have enough pit stops. The pacing with the story really feels off.

I really wanned to disagree but I can’t.
I was fan of this game for sooooo long. I still love it, and it hurts, hurts so bad when I see what is happening.
Thing that I think would be impossible to imagine for me half year ago… I fear updates, I fear new content. Instead of feeling excitement while waiting for new content (that will steal my time), I feel afraid of upcoming chore list that is called “Living Story”. Good joke, but joke is on me.

The only upside of this content I found so far is well… there is no much of Kiel involvement. I don’t know why, but I find even random NPC seraph personality richer, than Ellens, so yeah. Having her stuck in “land of selfishness” (the humble, modest, unpretentious oh-my hologram of herself in LA) is the only positive of her wining election and not participating in new LS… But I’m really schocked that Anet didn’t put some glowing effect on her and some awesome music in background. I would prefer “ode to joy” sung by tortured quaggans, hylek and charr chorus. That will give small tone of suffering to whole sweet-sweet-sweet Kiel winning deal.

Lord Azazel.8703:

@ Op – You are just mad that you could not kill any of the boss in the Queens Pavilion and thus you hate the update. Trust me not many people can kill those bosses. But that is the nature of the game. You cant be great at everything.. You have to learn to get up and try try again. But I could be wrong but I love this update.. This is a great update as its fun to do. I do not see why you could hate the update. Yeah its temp and that is a bad thing. But it comes back like the rest and that is a good thing.

I personally love this update. its Fun.. My guild loves this update… And many other guilds love it also. This is by far one of the best updates/ Patches we got

Actually, we killed four before we decided they weren’t fun, exciting or worth the waste of time.

When taking a round area the size of an auditorium, dividing it into six theme park displays, adding six legendary bosses that require no strategy and tons of boring mobs, becomes one’s idea of worthwhile content, then something is terribly wrong.

If this kind of stuff is successful for them, fine, but people inside and outside of Arenanet who understood the Manifesto and the potential this game possessed surely can not help but be saddened that the game has sold out those ideals for content aimed at a pretty low common denominator.

ANet hit a fork in the road last fall, From comments they made at the time they knew which path would further the potential of the game and build on the solid foundation they had established, but instead they chose a path that cheapened their ideals and diminished the product they spent five years developing.

When I say that a year ago I could never, ever imagine they could blow it as badly as they have, it’s not hyperbole, I truly mean it. It’s completely unfathomable to me that they have chosen this path.

I sincerely hope that the “long term project” they are working will rescue the game’s original potential and further the ideals of the manifesto, but, imo, the Live Team is just digging a deeper and deeper hole to climb out of.

I have no agenda beyond the good of the game and the realization of the ideals put forth in the original manifesto. My words may not make a difference, but I love the game too much to not try.

Because it’s much better to send 2 hobbits to throw the ring in the lava than to send an eagle to fly over it. Oh wait, wrong lore….

Well, hopes that these things would improve with experience is proven once again to be wishful thinking. IMO, this is by far the worst event in the Living Story chain to date and, yet again, another waste of developer resources.

You’ve taken a very free form MMO with a massive game world and reduced it to a stage on which to host the worst example of Theme park trash one could imagine.

The Queen’s Pavilion? Each piece of the pie is just a variation of a theme park exhibit of everything that is wrong with MMORPGs. Apparently, difficulty is supposed to make up for the complete lack of any redeeming design qualities, but it just makes the content as frustrating on a play level as it is on a design level.

The Balloon rides. Could have guessed we wouldn’t actually get a vista like traveling experience, instead it’s just another portal. Just gates to some stairs with a chest and an escort request required to unlock the door. Stale, boring, horrible; huge disappointment.

Yet another currency, because we all know we need more of those. Why not allow all holiday and LS events to share a currency, so players who are casual can maybe save up and buy something nice every other event, rather than just making it pointless to try to earn a temporary currency you may have no hope of making anything useful of.

Speaking of special currency, now we don’t just need special currency to get nice skins, we need that currency AND gold!

One of my guild mates that hadn’t completely abandoned the game, (the rest of the guild left after Guild Missions ended up being for large guilds only due to unlock costs), returned after a month away to check this out. It took us an hour to agree it was horrible, log out and go play something else.

Arenanet, you are killing the game. You are thumbing your noses at the Manifesto and apparently doing everything possible to make the game the worst kind of theme park.

I love the core game. It was very close to the game I’ve been waiting for since I started playing MMOs over 14 years ago. There was a natural progression for closing the gap between the game at launch and the lofty ideals of the Manifesto. It would have been hard work, it may have taken a couple years of steady progress, but the path ahead was clear.

Why have you abandoned the game world, allowing the illusion of life that Dynamic Events provided to flutter away as the world has remained stuck in an infinite loop, in exchange for the absolute worst kind of MMO content?

At this point, the issue isn’t more permanence, Living Story has culminated to the inevitable conclusion that Living Story itself is a colossal waste of everyone’s time and energy that needs to shelved for some miraculous Plan B asap.

It’s not fun. It doesn’t make the game feel alive. It’s frustrating for casuals. It’s the worst form of theme park content one could imagine. It diverts resources from where it’s really needed. It diverts players away from the assets of the game, the massive, richly detailed game world. It even sours the concept of Holiday Content, because Holiday Content is too much like LS content and many of us have had as much of that as we ever hope to experience.

If there is anyone left at ANet that believes in the Manifesto and actually understands what MADE this game so incredible, it’s time for you to show those who have become so lost the way back.

I can’t even couch this with anything positive, other than maybe that some of the skins are nice, even if they are wasted behind a currency that few are going to want to bother earning.

The biggest problem is that the content isn’t just a waste, but it’s actually soured the game for a number of people in a way I could never have imagined possible a year ago. You would have been better off doing nothing but the occasional holiday event than this.

What should you have done? Well, you should have stuck to the original plan you talked about last fall and created boatloads of new Dynamic Event content. Content that would have advanced the story with in each game zone told by the Dynamic Events that were there at launch. Adapting some, replacing some, rotating some in and out of circulation. That would have created a Living World. that would have preserved the sense of a dynamic game environment. That would have shed the negative stereotypes about Theme Park MMOs.

Instead, we got this mess.

Queen’s Pavilion is satire of everything that is wrong with really, really bad theme park MMO design, but it seems you guys are oblivious to the joke. It may be the worst part of the Jubilee, but the rest of it isn’t much better.

Namu.5712:

Rifter.6591:

Namu.5712:

They said they would not ban for it.

As it does not modify any GW2 files, nor does it automate anything it is legit.

It would be like you putting a sticker on the middle of your screen for crosshairs and setting your mouse up to handle actions differently then getting banned.

Not gonna happen.

It would have to modify the UI files themselves or at the least redirect the client to the combat mode files, either way that would be modifying some gw2 files.

Actually it doesnt mod any files……. you don’t need to modify a games files to add a simple direct 3d crosshair to a screen…. perhaps you should research a bit.

Also this was covered a long time ago by Anet on this specific “addon” if thats what you want to call it:

not even a minute on google turns up much info and dev responses about the info…. please research.
This is a very interesting question, and I appreciate hearing your thoughts.

As you are aware, we cannot approve or review or “vet” any third-party program; that is a given. However, our position is somewhat different than the one expressed in the GM response, so I’ve already contacted the team to be sure that everyone is on the same page.

Our general statement is that anything that gives advantage is forbidden. There are many utilities that help the player without taking a hit on others, without, for instance, being a detriment to the other players in a match. TexMod is one example of a program that doesn’t really give anyone an advantage over someone else. I’ve heard about certain programs that help disabled players, and those seem just fine, too. And of course there are others. We can’t say “Sure, use this and that and that other thing” because that’s tantamount to “approval,” but we do recognize the distinction between advantage-giving programs and those that simply make it easier to play the game under specific circumstances.

Thanks for pointing out that response. We’ll get things clarified so that future responses are consistent with our policies.

---

I think it’s ok to share this. I just want to be very clear that:

(1) we don’t review or approve programs, and

(2) programs can sometimes contain components that a legitimate player doesn’t realize is a cheat element

In the end, it’s good to go VERY cautiously with the use of any third-party program, but we appreciate that there are definitely situations when a helpful, non-advantage-giving program is extremely beneficial to players.

Considering how bad the stock UI is, and how many people compain about loosing the cursor in combat heavy situations i would think you could make a valid argument that anyone using combat mode DOES have an advantage over those that do not.

However from that reply it seems its ok but they dont come right out and say that either.

I wish they would give us a straight answer.

Wukunlin.8461:

spoj.9672:

Dempsey.8760:

zencow.3651:

Rangers actually have the best damage when supplied with a Lightning Hammer since their goes up to – more or less – the standard auto-attack damage (with full zerker that’s 1.5-2k, 1.5-2k, 4-5k on third hit), ON TOP of the damage the pet’s doing.

My warrior hits harder than that with a lightning hammer >.>

My mesmer hits harder than that with a lightning hammer >.>

My dog hits harder than that with a lightning hammer >.>

My lightning hammer hits harder than that with dog

wtf a serious post from dolan

I’ll throw in my list with absolutely no evidence to back it up so I feel included.

1. Ele – Vuln/Might/Fury stacking, AoE blind on auto attack, LH so the Mesmer can occasionally do damage, Fiery Greatsword – Mandatory
2. Warrior – Banners, Empowered Allies – Mandatory
3. Thief – Stealth if you don’t know how to run past mobs, blind spam.
4. Guardian – Aegis, reflects, fire field – Mandatory
5. Ranger – Spotter, Frost Spirit, DPS dependant on keeping pet alive. With some tweaks I wouldn’t mind seeing this added to the meta
6. Necro/Engineer – Straight up don’t know kitten about them, but they’ve gotta be better than Mesmer
7. Mesmer – Reflects, Temporal Curtain, Null Field, TIME WARP (glorious, glorious utility) – Mandatory

Also, grats on the kittenstorm.

Wukunlin.8461:

spoj.9672:

Dempsey.8760:

zencow.3651:

Rangers actually have the best damage when supplied with a Lightning Hammer since their goes up to – more or less – the standard auto-attack damage (with full zerker that’s 1.5-2k, 1.5-2k, 4-5k on third hit), ON TOP of the damage the pet’s doing.

My warrior hits harder than that with a lightning hammer >.>

My mesmer hits harder than that with a lightning hammer >.>

My dog hits harder than that with a lightning hammer >.>

DOG OP…..NERF DOG!!! it has the ability to consume garbage and hit you for over 9000 with vomit attack!

spoj.9672:

Dempsey.8760:

zencow.3651:

Rangers actually have the best damage when supplied with a Lightning Hammer since their goes up to – more or less – the standard auto-attack damage (with full zerker that’s 1.5-2k, 1.5-2k, 4-5k on third hit), ON TOP of the damage the pet’s doing.

My warrior hits harder than that with a lightning hammer >.>

My mesmer hits harder than that with a lightning hammer >.>

My dog hits harder than that with a lightning hammer >.>

I say this a lot: any class can have high DPS when played right.

I used to think that Rangers had low DPS. That was until I saw them do something other than spam the shortbow auto attack at range. The combination of Sword, Warhorn, and utilities actually meant for offense, and a ranger can dish out a ton of mini hits all at once.

A lot of people say Necromancers have low damage, but since I play a necro I also know that isn’t true. For condi necros, Epidemic is arguably the strongest attack in the game, moving 25 stacks of bleeding, poison, burning, and torment to 5 additional enemies at 1800 condition damage. Power necros can blow through enemies with 8K damage lifeblasts that pierce, stacks might, and stacks vulnerability at the same time. They also have 100% crit rate in Death Shroud and Lich Form, to boot.

A lot of people say engineers have low DPS, but that also isn’t true. They have difficult-to-use DPS. Engineers are the best hybrid class in the game. I run a hybrid HGH grenadier build, and I end up with 2700 power, 1700 malice, 50+% chance to crit with fury, 70% condition duration once my might stacks get going. My grenades hit like a truck, and they stack masses of bleeds and poison. I also have access to cone burns and AoE burns, ensuring a permanent burn on multiple enemies at once. We’ve already seen an example of what a bomb kit can do in this thread.

Right now, I’d probably say the lowest DPS* class is the mesmer. There’s a “*” there because mesmers can inflict a ton of damage in the right circumstances, as those 18 second Lupi videos have shown us.

I calculated my necro gets about 11318.44 dps without boons, vulnerability, stacks and banner buffs (With 4 conditions for target the weak). 12014.68 dps if the fight lasts less than 13 seconds. Im not sure how correct my calculations were but i could of made an error with base damage of attacks. Anyway this compared to a warrior with the same conditions using the 30/25/0/0/15 build, which is 11853.98 dps, is pretty impressive. From what ive calculated so far, necro dps really isnt that bad, its just the lack of utility and team buffs.

You can use the transmute trick to get the order armor you want on the character you want it on though….it’s just going to cost you some transmutation crystals.

1. You buy the armor you want (using a character in that order). The armor will be soulbound.
2. You then buy a “white” item of the same type from a vendor
3. Transmute the skin you want and the stats of the white item to make the item account bound.
4. Put it in your bank, take it out with the character you want to use it on, then use another transmute crystal to transmute the skin onto the stats you want.

It’s a shame really, because using control skills against bosses would be a very fun mechanic. It would make a lot of these encounters a lot more interesting. But instead they just render CC useless. Lazy design.

It kind of reminds me of how in Final Fantasy most bosses are usually immune to conditions. It makes the entire magic system redundant, since you might as well just use regular attacks (which when maxed out do far more damage) and spam summons. Which is of course what most players did.

To invent a combat mechanic, and then make all bosses immune to it, is to break one’s own combat system.

You have absolutely no idea what kind of kittenstorm you are stirring up with that question.

In my guild’s set up our eles are probably doing the most damage with lightning hammer or fiery greatsword but that requires warriors to lay down banner, guardians to lay down firefields, and mesmers/guardians to supply quickness

i got incinerator simply because there are no other cool looking daggers (Well… Almost) and i needed a long term goal to keep me playing. I LOVE having a goal, and see the progress.

Now, after my legendary i am going for commander status. Then to gear my warrior with weapons (Foefire power atleast) And we will see what i want after that.

Alice.8317:

So does this mean not all classes can do it? Also it was after several weeks, we only have four weeks and we have to queue up to do it and does this fight have a 2 min time limit too?

Seems a bit unfair and unbalanced, not fairly tested either. GG

Every class beated Liadri, but only 5 testers. Stop confusing people

I’l have to agree with the above comments, while it’s true most necromancers I’ve seen aren’t using DS properly, no matter how well you use it it will only take you so far.

That being said, a good rule of thumb is that if your Life Force bar is either full or empty all the time, you’re doing something wrong. Use it, but don’t waste it.

….looks like I have to use weapons of math instruction…
Oh well.

Practical tools:
Necromancer in basic armor, no relevant runes, with a stat comparison between Toughness, Vitality and Health while using Rabid, Carrion, Soldier, Knight and Shaman amulets, no trait lines at all.

Theoretical tools: Attacker with a 1000 damage weapon with Power stat equal to lowest Armor (1836) for simplicity, attacking using a 1.0 ratio skill every 1.0 seconds.

All numbers rounded to nearest integer.

Case #1 – Brainded player with no bonus Vitality or Toughness
Total Armor: 1836
Total Health: 18372
Total Damage: 1000 damage every second. Time to kill: 18 seconds.

Case #2 – Rabid amulet
Total Armor: 2480
Total Health: 18372
Total Damage: 740 damage every second. Time to kill: 24 seconds.

Case #3 – Carrion amulet
Total Armor: 1836
Total Health: 24812
Total Damage: 1000 damage every second. Time to kill: 24 seconds.

Case #4 – Soldier Amulet
Total Armor: 2480
Total Health: 24812
Total Damage: 740 damage every second. Time to kill: 33 seconds.

Case #5 – Shaman Amulet
Total Armor: 2759
Total Health: 18372
Total Damage: 666 damage every second. Time to kill: 27 seconds.

Case #6 – Knight Amulet
Total Armor: 1836
Total Health: 27602
Total Damage: 1000 damage every second. Time to kill: 27 seconds.

From these simple tests, we can conclude that… on the necromancer, it is a toss-up. The necromancer already starts with the ideal health:toughness ratio, and buying any stat in the same amounts increases his staying power in exactly the same way….
HOWEVER, let’s muddy up the waters a bit. Enter the dash a cases! For these, we will be using one heal and a full, unmodified Life Force bar of 60% life, no traits. The heal used will be Consume Conditions, because it is significantly easier to calculate that one flat burst than the regenerating effects of the other heals. Regardless of the TTK, only one heal and one Death Shroud will be used for these. With no healing power and no conditions, Consume Conditions heals for 5240, and will be used only after five seconds of combat, after the necro has taken 6000 damage. Since I do not want to get logarithmic here, and simulating degeneration normally is bothersome, I’ll just ignore it for now. It is a non-issue, since we have previously demonstrated that both toughness and vitality are equally effective at increasing life expectancy against power damage, the expectation is that in all toughness-or-vitality cases, the DS duration will be the same.

Case 1-a – Somewhat less stupid necro
Total Armor: 1836
Optimally Expanded Health: 34635
Total Damage: 1000 damage every second. Time to kill: 34 seconds.

Case 2-a – Rabid expanded
Total Armor: 2480
Optimally Expanded Health: 34635
Total Damage: 740 damage every second. Time to kill: 46 seconds.

Case 3-a – Carrion expanded
Total Armor: 1836
Optimally Expanded Health: 44939
Total Damage: 1000 damage every second. Time to kill: 44 seconds.

Case 4-a – Soldier Expanded
Total Armor: 2480
Total Health: 44939
Total Damage: 740 damage every second. Time to kill: 60 seconds.

Case 5-a – Shaman Amulet
Total Armor: 2759
Total Health: 34635
Total Damage: 666 damage every second. Time to kill: 51 seconds.

Case 6-a – Knight Expanded
Total Armor: 1836
Total Health: 49403
Total Damage: 1000 damage every second. Time to kill: 49 seconds.

Death Shroud is irrelevant as an argument, the interaction with power damage is exactly the same as normal health, and it doesn’t take a genious to figure out that percentile generation works effectively identically in both cases.
Without heals, toughness wins by a small margin, and the difference is less than a single hit with the theoretical attacker. However, the more heals there are, the more effective toughness becomes. Similarly, the more conditions there are, the more effective vitality becomes. As necromancers, we have fairly mediocre heals, but we eat conditions for breakfast, so I’ll let you gather your own conclusions.

Ok Jon. We have played it for a while.

We want it back

I was a necro, too. Then i took a nerf on the knee.

Now i’m engi. Then i took a necro on the knee.

Life makes more sense now.

Rangers got their blast finisher how about we get manual activation of marks so we can use them even when theres no enemy to blast or to give regen ?
Or maybe enfeebling blood to be blast its animation fits perfectly

And the recharge is atrocious; especially since the kitten thing practically requires the planets to align just right in order to do what it is supposed to do.

baylock.1703:

i like it as it is and necro can get mobility take worm minion and spectral walk.

The problem with wurm is that it necessitates setup. It isn’t an active ability which can be used to break away from a fight or to pursue unless you set it up prior to the fight. While it does have a place in SPvP to an extent it just doesn’t work in WvWvW where I’d argue we need escapes the most. Another issue with it is that it isn’t a true teleport like say a mesmer portal. So if an object comes between the player and the wurm it’s not going to travel the full distance. Big issue that.

I’d probably always pack wurm if it was a true teleport but as it stands I find it just as flawed as dark pact. And that’s really the crux of the issue here, no? We do have all these beautiful skills designed for mobility but they all come with crippling flaws.

Honestly it was better before the recent patch. Before you could keep within 1200 or so of your target, and it would still teleport you to them, even if they projectile flew a significantly longer distance. This make it good for actually chasing targets.

After the patch, they increased the projectile speed which was nice, but the change to prevent the projectile from going more then 1200 was a surprisingly significant nerf. It’s in a better state now if your target isn’t outright running away from you, (so in PvP it’s still mainly fine) but when chasing people down while in WvW it’s really killer to our ability to prevent people from disengaging. It’s not useless or anything, but it was an unfortunate change.

While I would certainly enjoy if it was an instant effect skill instead of a projectile, I doubt it would happen, I remember one dev citing the slow projectile speed as an intended, advantageous thing, to cast skills while the projectile was travelling. Of course I’d much rather be able to instantly teleport to them then start casting skills… But yeah.