Guild Wars 2

Nick.6972:

Where it goes from here?
Well, certainly not Cantha.

Maguuma, obviously :p
Mordremoth is there, isn’t he/she?

Sadly Anet have choosen the path of easy end. An explanation of all of this chaos from Scarlett herself would have been nice to see as cinematic, this was the only thing I was looking for and it was skipped.. Still wondering what the Aetherblades were supposed to ‘claim’ for her in EoTM too…
Too many questions not answered ingame to really say this arc is ‘ended’ in my opinion.

I’m afraid that in 2 weeks we will see Scarlett’s army disappearing forever as if nothing never happened, with some parts of the drill on the floor..
:-/

CC Danicia.1394:

So excited with the Kas & Jory story. I’ve had that last scene of them as my desktop background for a while now, ever since I screencapped it on my first play through on Dev servers. swoon

And that battle is awesome!

What got me was the look on Kasmeer’s face when she thought Marjory was dead. Those eyes! If I’d been alone in the house I might actually have howled! Great job on the face animations, really great job.

Seriously! I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor.

This has got to be the best LW update yet.. and I’m not just saying that because we all finally got to shut Scarlet up for good! The entire boss fight was perfect!! And the cutscene with Marjory and Kasmeer was beautiful (a couple tears rolled when they finally embraced each other, I’ll admit!) XD

I know not everyone will be as satisfied as I am with this conclusion, but I just wanted to post a positive thread recognizing the devs’ hard work The entire presentation of this update was just magnificent. AND THE LOOT! By the gods, I’ve never seen so many valuable things in my bags!

(and those Tormented weapons from Nightfall unffff…. Crystal Desert soon?? ;D )

I think the final instance could have been improved greatly by using illusion of choice.

Let me explain:

In the final instance Scarlet asks if we want to know why she did everything she did but Braham cuts her off.

The players have no word in this matter, and are just dragged along for the ride, rather than deciding (even if it is just an illusion) the outcome themselves.

I think it would have been way more interesting if the players had to make a decision, something like:

• Hear her out: Which leads to Scarlet saying something along the lines of “(cough) (cough) come closer, and i’ll tell you” so the players approach her together with Marjory and Braham. But just as we get close she yells “Fools!” and blows you all up (leading to the cutscene with Braham and Marjory getting injured).

• Finish her off: Which leads to the version we have now (Marjory and Braham closing in on her, ready to kill but she blows them up)

Too late for this chapter but please keep in mind how powerfull an impact a choice (and even the illusion of having one) can make.

… and only 9 characters. Will there ever be a way to implement all skins to use a system similar to zenith skins? I love the skins I have, and would be willing to use them if I could change them out for cosmetics only.My tequatl wings are rotting away with my oilspark backpack thingie and my antitoxin injector. My SAB backpacks are losing pixels! And my watchwork shoulders are getting rusty.

TLDR

If you don’t like the game, don’t play it. If you still tried this game months later and you still don’t like it, don’t play it. 99% chance the game does not suit you. Do not force yourself on it.

Meh … haven’t really had much problem grabbing citizens while running around getting heirlooms from the rubbles. The swiftness I am using to help run between heirlooms faster is also helping the citizens run away faster too!

Selfish Potion (Devil Horns) should have been acquired exclusively from the rubble piles. The name matches the deed and is a completely selfish act to spend all your time looting the city instead of helping evacuate.

Selfless Potion (Halo) should have been acquired exclusively from saving people (citizen rescue reward bags). You spent your time looking out for others, so the reward would match the deed.

By the end of it all, we would be able to tell who fought for lion’s arch citizens, and who was a jerk and thought only of themselves. Or at least who was savvy enough to take care of both!

I’d really like to rant about how the Heirloom farming takes focus away from the main event, but I have a feeling the designers of this event did it completely on purpose knowing players would do nothing but collect them. So instead, if you do similar ‘distractions’ for future world content, at least give us a way to praise those who helped and give dirty looks to those who didn’t and want to brag about it.

It’s very important to me, I can’t enjoy RPG type games if I don’t like the setting or story. I can’t even imagine me playing an RPG where I wouldn’t care about the lore but only about the gameplay.

I always give my characters appropriate names and dress them up appropriately to the setting. No flaming shoulders, no overuse of skulls, no rainbows, no boilerplate dredge armour, no nightmare armour on non-sylvari, no horrible full abyss demon guardians with bat wings or whatever it is they do, and no tentacle backpacks. Luckily, the pieces that I consider to be fashion disasters are quite limited in this game. ^^

While I’m really a traditional swords and sorcery person, I love how they blended in the steampunk-like elements. Though currently with the whole Scarlet stuff, it became a little too prevalent.

About the story .. I think with the personal story they started out quite good! But unfortunately it then started to feature the tree commander with the most uninspiring voice I’ve ever heard, who casually announces in one mission that he’s going to summon some blood fiend skeleton horde. My faithful guardian should really have had an option to deter him there, i.e. punch his lights out. :P

With the living story it was the opposite for me .. I think they started out quite weak with the seemingly random collect things in 100 places quests. Then some time later they got the content right; and even if some things turned into a zerg fest the first few days it was really nice to see that actual things happened, such as the Zephyr Sanctum and Jubilee. At times the writing was a bit hit and miss though, some parts were great and some (almost zany) parts less so. But overall I think it has improved tremendously over the year. To me, that was especially visible during the last few episodes starting with that tower in Kessex. That intro instance accompanying the Seraph was brilliant. Partly because I really like the Seraph imagery, and partly because it finally finally finally felt actually threatening.

Anyways, yes story and lore is very important to me. I discovered Tyria after friends nagged at me for ages to get GW2 at launch, and I like it to the extent that somewhere last year I also purchased GW1, to discover more about the history of the setting. Quite different-yet-similiar, yet it holds up very well for a 10 year old game!

Ouimette.5902:

The thing is that people is refering it to the jungle dragon since it is related to the sylvari and since the sylvari is made out of organic materials similar to plants it is only logical to call it a jungle dragon.

Wrong. It is referred to as the jungle dragon because Colin Johanson called it such . The theories of it being tied to the sylvari stem from the Crucible of Eternity dungeon, in which name the title of an Elder Dragon tied to it would be Mordremoth – since that “sector” of research is plant-tied (to things tied to the Nightmare Court), people argue that “Nightmare/Sylvari is Mordremoth’s corruption; Mordremoth’s corruption is plant therefore Mordremoth is the Jungle Dragon”. A fallible argument as Colin called it the Jungle Dragon because of its location (or rather, the location of its influence): the Maguuma Jungle.

Ouimette.5902:

So my point is, could it be possible that Mordremoth would look like a rock/jungle dragon?
Something in style like a mixture between these two.

[Jungle concept]
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Dragon_15_concept_art.jpg
[Rock concept]
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Dragon_07_concept_art_(Rock_Dragon).jpg

The former is 2007 concept art of a plant-based dragon (i.e., most likely to be early concept art for Mordremoth aka Jungle Dragon). The latter is concept art for a champion of Kralkatorrik, I believe.

Ouimette.5902:

Or is a more jungle/grass looking dragon more prefered amongst all of you?

Would Jormag be made out of Ice?
Is Primordus made of fire?
Is the deep sea dragon made of water?
Is Kralkatorrik made of crystal?

The answer to this, is no.

While Zhaitan had a rotten appearance, Kralkatorrik’s flesh is seen as is Primordus – and they are very much not elements (though Primordus seems encased in rock due to hibernation). This seems to be a common (mis)conception of players, that the Elder Dragons must be made out of the element their minions take. But the concept art of the Elder Dragons which encorporate elements is more of the vegetation and whatnot grown on top of the Elder Dragon, not being part of.

Ouimette.5902:

[…] Fang of the Serpent and Claw of Jormag hints towards a pretty snowy/icy looking dragon.

Utilizing champions to presume the appearance of the Elder Dragon is very fallicious.

This looks nothing like this.

And the tooth doesn’t really show an icy appearance, but rather hints that Jormag’s body may (super)naturally give off a whitish-blue mist.

Ouimette.5902:

However, most of the dragons have a look that links them to the area they are resident at.

I would disagree. Zhaitan had a decayed appearance because of the Pact’s actions to weaken him (removing his corruption, starving him, etc. – source ); Kralkaotrrik, as I pointed out, lacks anything to his skin – even though his blood crystallizes – that indicates him being crystalline or even looking like the Blood Legion Homelands (where he hibernated); and Primordus was encased in stone, so we don’t really know what his body looks like, but this is likely more a case of his environment encasing him than his powers or element affecting the element – and even then, we have no indication of what his skin texture would look like without that encasement.

So I would not say that their environment affects their body’s appearance. No more than what has grown or settled on top of the sleeping dragons.

NO NO NO NO NO! You are all WRONG! Scarlet IS NOT being controlled by some elder Dragon, and she DID NOT see an elder Dragon in the Eternal Alchemy. The truth is what she saw in the Eternal Alchemy was in fact, The Brain-Slugged HYPNOTOAD! And it was the HYPNOTOAD that hypnotized her and told her to put a Brain-slug on her head and she is therefore being controlled by the brain-slug!

Let’s talk about PvE. Basically, Ganathar already mentioned it. The only reason why eles are decent at the moment is the abuse of conjured weapons. The whole class is reduced to conjures because besides that, there is no reason to take an elementalist into dungeons if you have a group of mesmers, warriors, guardians.

You have the potential to deal high amounts of damage with your lightning hammer, but even if you use all your potential, the maximum you can usually achieve is to be at the same level with warriors. But then there are several disadvantages:

- People take your second lightning hammer, which is your main DPS source; have you ever seen someone grabbing a warriors greatsword out of his hands?

- you have to be in melee range as a class with the lowest base stats and hp pool

- the group support you provide with might stacking and fury on fire fields is often neglected because of guardians setting down light fields or mesmers with their chaos fields. No one takes away the banners of warriors, no one cancels a mesmers timewarp, no one removes the stability guardians give you

- the aggro system: if you run zerker gear, you will get focused most of the time. Considering the second point I mentioned, you are downed more often then any other class in dungeons

- your great cc and defensive utilities are useless because two of your three utility slots are occupied with arcane wave and lightning hammer, the third is usually signet of fire

Now consider the effort it takes to master the elementalist compared to a warrior, for example the might stacking combo followed by lightning hammer, which lets you rotate through 3 different attunements within a very short amount of time while they have to place down the banner and press button “2” and “3” with greatsword to deal huge amounts of damage. I have seen videos of warriors dealing 49k crits to the first boss in cof p1 with hundred blades. What’s the point in mastering a class when it’s not rewarded because there are classes that can achieve the same output with lesser effort und less disadvantages? Besides dealing damage, there is no “role” that the elementalist class fullfills in dungeons because 4 warriors can easily stack might and fury for themselves.

Let me conclude with this thought: What would be left if they nerfed conjures? You could basically dump the class.

Under optimal conditions eles are the best PvE class but it’s too bad that optimal conditions rarely occur. This means that warriors and guardians are usually better.

qft

Pache.9406:

Conncept.7638:

DHBM.7652:

Amok Threeohthree.8501:

Backpieces aren’t class bound, you can make a backpiece as a leatherworker and use it with a light/heavy…

exactly….
i just made the ascended version with leather squares…. its now on my charr warrior. gets your facts straight next time guys.

Get your own facts straight first, not everyone has every type of crafter, some even have none. I don’t play any of the medium or heavy armor classes enough to warrant a heavy or medium armor craftsman. Am I supposed to level one all the way up just for this one item?

Well, if “this one item” is valuable enough that you had to come whine about the price difference in the forums, then “this one item”, is valuable enough to level up leatherworker to 500. Besides, to get 500 leatherworking you need around 100g, which isn’t really that much. And you get achievement points.

It’s not about the ONE item.. its about light armor crafting getting screwed over to in a imbalance in costs of mats needed across the board… this was just used as a example.

Rather old interview by now and most frequenters have already discussed this in length. To sum it up, there’s really two issues with Angel’s wording. She says it’s their “natural role” but… how so?

There’s no indication that magic would rise with them dead – after all, it’s stated that magic rises as the Elder Dragons hibernate because, as we learned even back in GW1, they radiate magic while asleep. If their corpses function like Glint’s, then even their dead bodies will.

So the questions become:

1. What happens when magic g ets really high? There’s no indication that magic, on its own, in high concentrations is a bad thing. Though, maybe it is.
2. Does the magic of the world increase even without the Elder Dragons? If it doesn’t, then the Elder Dragons’ death just means that magic stabilizes.

And back to the “natural role” bit – is it like they’re part of the world itself, born with it? Or is it no different than saying a wolf’s natural role is to be a carnivore (so that’d make the Elder Dragons what, magivores?).

The sad thing is, we have no real indication to say what happens if magic builds up too high, thus no indication of what would happen to the world if they’re killed off. Magic is said to be finite resource, so presuming it doesn’t rise in quantity in the world without the Elder Dragons’ hibernation, then people using it would theoretically reduce it (but in a very slower state) until its gone. Though even with the ED awake, this should happen so it’s likely that magic, whether it’s stored within Elder Dragon or Bloodstone, is always constant in the world.

As to the last question: Lobsters taste better than crab legs, but crab legs give more meat per crab than lobster tail per lobster.

The monster in the background of that screenshot was The Leviathan, which was supposed to be a world boss event in Viathan Lake, Kessex Hills. For some reason, it was never added and we got the krait witch event instead.

Gift of Battle. (Battle not required.)

Sounds like a punch-line waiting to happen.

Ken DeBoer.9268:

Please make it rank 50.

I’m for increasing it. 30 ranks is chump change.

If people want a legendary, they should master all aspects of the game.

edit: If there is going to be a compromise for PvE players, then how about a compromise for WvW players?

How about reducing karma requirements or dungeon tokens?

The PvE people whined long enough. I mean they already have everything geared toward them, why not make it easier. It’s hilarious. Rank 30 isn’t even that bad.

Please make it rank 50.

I only think this is fair. Legendary is supposedly a process which takes you to all parts of the game, not just PVE only.

I was annoyed when badges were given out as part of achievement chest.

Agreed, +1. Awesome map design, visually beautiful, while at the same time allow for better strategy & tactics. I won’t lie, I fell 4 times tonight, and all 4 were by myself. Some people get angry when that happens, me, I was lmao. New map, new live & learn moments, great fun all around.

I do love the fact that big blobs of zergs aren’t as effective on this map. I never thought ANet could actually find a way to solve the “who’s got the bigger blob” issue in WvW. But it looks like they have with this new map design.

Looks like I’ll be leaving my Ele alone for the forseeable future.
I can understand the Devs asking for polite responses and constructive feedback,but…There has been enough constructive feedback in the Ele forums to fill a phonebook. Many,many great ideas and and well thought out arguments from much better Ele players than I will ever be.
Yet each balance patch is a just more frustration. When you read through the other profession forums it is much the same. Glaring faults and inequalities are just ignored. The introduction of Diamond Skin was probably the low point for me. It’s not a good sign when you read up on a new grandmaster trait and just laugh at it.
Looking forward to the new MMO’s on the horizon, had quite enough of the imbalance thankyou.

vanensang.1389:

ArenaNet … no offense but please don’t smoke too much pot at work because this is unbelievably … well … man this is not enough. It won’t change anything. Your PvP balancing team should actually start playing some PvP.

they do pvp…but only with warriors.
anyway,nerf smoke pot and buff ele.

I think we need to include in this patch a fix for ride the lightning, as the cool down increase was agreeably a mistake (use the line I’m giving you anet!) and we need cleansing water to have its ICD removed. Its not even on the tooltip. How misleading is that? So that too obviously is a mistake. Let’s fix that while we’re at it!

There. Two corrected mistakes, and I’ll be happy with my WvW and SPvP ele.

First of all the upcoming buffs for eles are a joke. They won’t change anything.

A short explanation why:

Let’s compare D/D eles right now/after the patch to the ones after release. They’re a good example of ele balancing. Here are the important nerfs and buffs since release:

• RTL
  15 sec CD -> 20 sec CD -> 40 sec CD + 1550 range -> 1200 range
  3 nerfs (1 nerf = bug fix).

• Signet of Restoration
  healing reduced by 18% (HS only 8% + active buff?) -> nerf removed
  0 nerf

• Lightning Flash
  stun break -> no stun break + no damage -> some damage + 45 sec CD -> 40 sec CD
  ~0 nerf (the buffs are nothing compared to the nerf imo but I want to be fair here)

• Mist Form
  only locks skills 1-5 -> also locks heal, utility, and elite skills
  1 nerf

• Zephyr’s Boon
  Shocking Aura aura bug fix -> only 5 sec boons instead of 10 sec
  1 nerf (= bug fix)

• Bountiful Power
  2% damage -> 1% damage
  1 nerf

• Cleansing Water
  0 sec ICD -> 5 sec ICD
  1 nerf

• Evasive Arcana
  4 blast finishers -> 1 blast finisher + Cleansing Wave reduced by 50%
  2 nerfs

• Armor of Earth
  90 sec CD -> 75 sec CD
  1 buff

• Burning Speed
  no evade -> evade
  1 buff

• Frozen Burst
  no blast finisher -> blast finisher
  1 buff (~0,5 of the EA nerf)

In total 9 nerfs (7 if you exclude the bug fixes) and 3 buffs.

The evade on Burning Speed is nice, the blast finisher on Frozen Burst makes up for 1 Evasive Arcana blast finisher (only ~0,5 nerf). The CD reduction for Armor of Earth is ok but the CD is still pretty high.

To sum it up:

9 nerfs since release and 3 (actually 2,5) buffs. It’s hilarious that some people think eles could be viable again after the patch. They’re weaker compared to release and since then other professions were buffed which makes the balance gap even bigger. Unless there’re some huge buffs in the future nothing will change.

My 2 copper.

Necromancer
The Dhuumfire change is going to sway many Necros from actually using it, for one you’re lowering the duration to 3 secs instead of the 4 base it is now. Another issue is that you’re putting it on Life Blast, a very slow moving projectile which anyone can dodge, and which requires the condi Necro to get in the enemy’s face to be effective.

In short, the added requirements far outweigh the “benefits” you’ve labeled. It requires player to enter DS, which would require Lifeforce (good luck with that in PvP unless using Staff or the Lifeforce granting Signet!), is on a slow moving projectile, and the utility disabling bug with DS means that by the time you exit DS and are able to cast Epidemic the Burning will either be gone or close to it.

Elementalist
Armour of Earth going down to 75 secs is good, but it’s still far too high for being a self-target Stability/Protection and stunbreak. Look at Guardian’s Stand Your Ground, this is a Shout which grants Retal/Stability to the GROUP, and also stunbreaks for the user, this is a 30 sec CD skill. Then there’s Balanced Stance on Warriors, granting Stability/Swiftness, as well as stunbreak, and is 40 secs of CD. I get that you’re trying to “shave” the skills, but please admit that you went overboard on several aspects of the Ele, the high CD on things like Glyph of Storms, Arcane Shield, Armour of Earth, and EVERYTHING in their 4 and 5 slots (like Ride the Lightning, still a silly nerf that has not been implemented on anything like Ranger’s Swoop, or Warrior’s Rush, so either actually implement it on similar skills (Note: This is a Very Bad Idea) or revert the RtL nerf) that easily could be brought down by a lot.

I intend this to be a constructive comment.

Where is the rest of it?

Seriously. You have a newly launched balance subforum as well as 8 dedicated class subforums with laundry lists of suggestions, constructive discussions of balance issues, and extensive lists of bugs and other longstanding issues. How is this short list of minor patches even remotely acceptable? ANet I feel that you are not doing enough to address the concerns over balance expressed by your population.

As an aside to this. I understand that ANet is very concerned about power creep. One of the consequences of this is that ANet uses a “nerf first” approach to balance, hammering down the nail that sticks out to even out the balance of various classes. In general we very rarely see a set of buffs where nerfs would do.

Sadly, one of the main outcomes of that approach is that every balance patch I want to play a little less. Something is taken away almost every patch (a build, a gear set, a rune set, whatever). This is a destructive approach to patching with the hopes that players will make somethings out of the shattered remains. In the long term this isn’t good for the health of the game. You need to generate excitement for patches, not dread.

This list of patches is extremely underwhelming given the quantity and depth of the issues that need to be addressed for every class. Please stop addressing the low hanging fruit and start tackling the major issues with classes (i.e., dumbfounding trait lines, useless traits, deeply flawed class mechanics, poor weapon sets).

By the time this patch comes out you will have had almost a full quarter to address balance issues and this is just simply not enough.