Showing Posts Upvoted By anzenketh.3759:

I wrote GW2 Balance Manifesto

in PvP

Posted by: leman.7682

leman.7682

Ad. 5.
It really is the time to limit the amount of AI controlled entities that run around in PvP. Most of them have huge problems, getting stuck and dying in AoE. You can’t control them properly and you can’t rely on the AI code to run them.


Examples of good AI/semi-AI skills:
Ranger’s Pet (with all its faults), Bone Minion (the exploding duo), Flesh Wurm, stationary Spirit of Nature (ranger elite), a turret or two are also not a problem.

What makes them a relatively decent application of AI in PvP? They usually don’t create any significant clutter and they are fun to play around. You summon Bone minions solely to detonate them a while after. The Wurm is stationary somewhere outside of the point, so it doesn’t mess up the battlefield. When you see the ranger summon the elite spirit, you know it is very powerful and possibly game-changing so you have to play around it by bursting it down or interrupting the possible rez/cleanse. It’s all acceptable and even okay until people start stacking it.

The examples of wrong aka The Offenders Club:

  • Mesmer’s illusions and stacked mesmers,
  • Stacked minions and stacked minion masters
  • Stacked spirits and stacked spirit rangers
  • Stacked spirit weapons and spirit weapon guardians, but no one plays them so it’s okay (trololo)

Proposed fix:
Just rework those skills. Change them to resemble how bone minions and the wurm work like. Instead of having an army of passive effects and 10%-chances-to-proc following you, give players the entities that are summoned for a very specific purpose.

The utility spirits could be changed to a supportive AoE spells that last a couple seconds that give everyone in their radius a certain buff for a few seconds or maybe for a few attacks and then they disappear creating an effect like Cold Snap, Call Lightning, etc. It would be more fun to play around with the team, easier to create nice traits around them (like ‘active effect also when you summon the spirit’ and longer radius for example).

Additionally, get rid of Rock Dogs and all the random summon BS… ohh and don’t you dare add anything similar in the future. This part is very important.

The outcome:

  • More rewarding skills, that are fun to play.
  • Less clutter on the battlefield.
  • More elegant, simpler and easier to understand traits and effects without a ‘10-to-70%-chance-to-proc-to-give-an-effect-and-siphon-health-removing-a-boon-plus-run-a-marathon-and-win-life’ kind of design.
  • Less randomness connected to the AI.
  • Quite possibly less calculations on the server.
Leman

(edited by leman.7682)

I wrote GW2 Balance Manifesto

in PvP

Posted by: leman.7682

leman.7682

Ad.2.& 3. & 4.
The overall condition stacking/cleansing and boon stacking needs to be toned down to once again promote a skilled, timely usage.


  • NO profession should EVER be able to solely stack upwards of 10 stacks of bleeding, especially in the AoE manner.
  • Unloading all your condi skills on a target in the time frame of 5 seconds should be counter-productive and punishing to the player, not rewarding.
  • Defensive boons should be used as an answer to a certain offense, e.g. a guardian popping stability when he’s about to be updrafted, and they shouldn’t last for ages (some exceptions are allowed on professions that are boon-based)
  • NO profession should EVER be able to solely stack upwards of 10 stacks of might. Might stacking should be the product of complex team cooperation.

Proposed fix:

  • Nerf condition stacking so that there are less conditions flying around.
  • Buff the condition damage a bit to match power builds in their offensive capabilities and offset the stacking nerf.
  • Balance it properly with condition cleansing.
  • Apply boon philosophy outlined earlier.

The outcome:

  • A necro picks a target and in a fully skillful and optimal manner applies a tremendous and unprecedented 5 stacks of bleeding, that tick for insane 300 damage each. The opponent is in a grave danger. (The numbers are just to showcase the direction of the changes)
  • Stacking certain professions is less effective, because they can no longer cheese someone with insane pressure of damaging conditions and lockdown generated in 3 seconds.
  • Boons are being used less as perma buffs (I’m exaggerating a bit , I know) and more like a counter to spikes, CC skills, extreme situations.
  • People like it in PvE, because they are less susceptible to bleed cap.
Leman

I wrote GW2 Balance Manifesto

in PvP

Posted by: leman.7682

leman.7682

Ad. 1.
AoE should be utility-focused instead of damage-focused.


Examples of good AoE skills:

Well of Darkness, Well of Power, Epidemic, Frost Trap, Ring of Fire, Churning Earth (with maybe a lower raw damage or without it completely), Entangle, even Bone Minion explosion and Ranger Drake’s F2 (big damage, but very hard to pull off) …

Why are these AoE skills well-designed? Because they are strong and still have very good counter-plays. Ring of Fire for instance forces your opponent to make a choice, either stay inside of the Ring and endanger themselves to any pressure that you may put inside, dodge through losing endurance, pass through getting burned. Churning Earth is a another great skill, because it requires the ele to come close to you possibly endangering himself and forces you to step outside of the channel area and anticipate a possible Lighting Flash. The skill also has many counters to it – you can interrupt the channel, block the skill, dodge it, eat the damage and so on.

Compare it to the unblockable Well of Suffering or Grenade spam. Both from a safe range, dealing huge damage, no skill, no danger, no fun. Every profession has those skills.

Proposed fix:
AoE in general gives utility mostly. The damaging AoE skills are either situational, elite or require a close range and have possible counters.
Examples:

  • Well of Suffering – huge damage + some vulnerability -> no damage + a lot of vulnerability
  • Grenades – same thing – remove damage, focus on utility.

The ouctcome:

  • No more safe, long-range AoE damage dealing.
  • Offensive AoE being used with more thought, more timing, and more team cooperation, in the spirit of ‘The target is immobilized in the Well, huge vulnerability inc, JUMP on him, Mr Warrior!’, instead of ‘The target is immobilized in the Well, …, stomp him! … actually don’t! I’ll just throw in another AoE.’
Leman

(edited by leman.7682)

I wrote GW2 Balance Manifesto

in PvP

Posted by: leman.7682

leman.7682

Having read through Xeph’s thread and having played PvP after last patch a grave state of the game appeared before my eyes.

  • Skill floor is as low as it ever was.
  • The power level of certain builds is immense, creating situations of no-reaction and no counter-play.
  • The cheese is in the air. Everpresent. AoE/AI clutter as well.

In a game that is said to once have aimed at being a competitive e-sport.

It stops now. It has to.
SLOW DOWN the game.

  1. Change (nerf) AoE;
  2. Nerf condition application;
  3. Nerf condition cleansing to match the condition application nerf if necessary;
  4. Nerf boon stacking on some professions;
  5. Change AI skills (excluding the Mesmer and ranger’s pets)
  6. And for the sake of Almighty Karl – REMOVE THE CHEESE that was pumped into the game.
Leman

(edited by leman.7682)

Release notes July 23

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: ZudetGambeous.9573

ZudetGambeous.9573

danbuter.2314:

Weapons skins are RNG in Black Lion Chests. Total crap, but not unexpected. It would be great if you could get good things from skill, instead of just having money and luck.

Guess you missed the part about being available as a drop too..

And the part about the scraps dropping so you can work towards it instead of having to get lucky…

Vast improvement imo.

Pls explain

in Crafting

Posted by: Brother Grimm.5176

Brother Grimm.5176

Carrots (in LARGE quantities) are use in DYE recipes….. mystery solved.

The solution is THIS:

In short, buy the Bowl of Red Meat Stock for your own crafting and sell your carrots.

We go out in the world and take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances

(edited by Brother Grimm.5176)

Thanks ANET (Tradeable wep skins)

in Cutthroat Politics

Posted by: Kain Francois.4328

Kain Francois.4328

Aetherblade weapon skins* have been added to the Black Lion Weapon Specialist. For two weeks only, Aetherblade weapon skins cost only one Black Lion Claim Ticket! After August 5, Aetherblade weapon skins will cost their regular price of 5 Black Lion Claim Tickets. All Aetherblade weapon skins *are soulbound on use and can be traded until used.

Just wanted to thank ANET for making the weapon skins tradeable. This brings back the same thrill as Halloween whenever a Greatsaw drops.

I know there will be people who disagree with me, but in my opinion this is how to do the RNG properly.

Tickets and ticket scraps will continue to drop from the Black Lion Chest and can be used for select future weapon sets.

Nice drops all-year round!

(edited by Kain Francois.4328)

Release notes July 23

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: kokiman.2364

kokiman.2364

Venirto.4208:
Vol.5241:

Just remember guys to #VoteEvon

Voting for Evon results in cheaper BL keys for the next four weeks. So if you buy gems with real $ you get the best bang for your buck. And if you buy gems with gold, you should convert now.

But in 2 weeks time you will need 5 tickets for single weapon. 50 chests? No thanks, even if the key price was reduced by 50% I would still not consider it worth to buy.

Btw, why are you defending these rng chests so much?

But they removed the rng factor. You have to read the update notes.

GuildWars 2

Currently playing Heart of Thorns.

Release notes July 23

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Stark.1350

Stark.1350

Can we stop having the same stupid RNG debate every patch? It’s here to stay. Accept it or don’t. Having the tickets sellable is a huge step in the right direction. Plus it’s in a black lion chest, which dishes out a lot of other things as well.

RNG exists in EVERY MMO EVER MADE.

Can't support the candidate I want?

in Suggestions

Posted by: ZudetGambeous.9573

ZudetGambeous.9573

Vayne.8563:

You can support both candidates a bit till you get both achievements, which most people will do, and after that continue to support your candidate.

Do you remembre the NPCs on southsun that gave you the MF and gold find buff?

You had to run the gold find one for a period of time to get achievements but the rest of the time you ran the MF one.

The same will be true here. And because everyone will be doing it, you won’t lose anything by doing it yourself.

That’s true I suppose. Most people will be going for all the achievements so it will essentially just set a higher 0 mark.

Oh well, carry on then.

Achievement chests useless for non-PVPers

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Kaizer.7135

Kaizer.7135

Kraggy.4169:

I don’t PVP, ever, so why don’t my achievement chests give me something useful for PVE???

I’m fed up getting honor tokens and other PVP rubbish I’ll never use.

You get gold, laurels, MF boosts, exp boosts, Karma boosts, Weapon Skins, Armor Skins and Badges of Honor can be used to buy cheap exotic weapons and armor.

Stop complaining when it should be the sPvPers.

Release notes July 23

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: lordkrall.7241

lordkrall.7241

Venirto.4208:

@TriggerSad: You will need 5 tickets if you want to buy it after this event.

Really, “only” one ticket? Was it ever more than one? Also, the addition of the ticket scraps might help the players to eventually get the weapon but on the other hand it forces them to buy at least 10 keys (if they’re lucky), what makes the skin cost minimum 900 gems.

Yep, and before this people could be “forced” to pay 10 000+ gems and not get it, now they are more or less guaranteed to get them sooner or later. How is that not an improvement?

Krall Bloodsword – Mesmer
Krall Peterson – Warrior
Piken Square

Release notes July 23

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: LanfearShadowflame.3189

LanfearShadowflame.3189

“All Aetherblade weapon skins are soulbound on use and can be traded until used.”

Finally! Thank you Anet!!!!! Now, if you just follow this trend with all future event skins….

Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.

reason behind time gating quartz?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: morrolan.9608

morrolan.9608

ProxyDamage.9826:

To answer your question: Developers shouldn’t be focusing on how long something lasts in that sense. That would be the first mistake. They should be focusing on making the content enjoyable and sensible. Some people will complete it in a day, others in a month. Doesn’t matter. That’s their problem, not yours. Nobody is forced to step up, so why are some people forced to “step down”?

Once you go down the “this should take one month to complete” road you’re already wrong. You’ve failed. Game over.

And it seems to me that by having fortnightly living story content releases that they should have overcome the issue of keeping players in the game busy anyway, with no need for such extreme time gating.

Jade Quarry [SoX]
Miranda Zero – Ele / Twitch Zero – Mes / Chargrin Soulboom – Engi
Aliera Zero – Guardian / Reaver Zero – Necro

Gates of Arah the New Lyssa

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: TheKillerAngel.3596

TheKillerAngel.3596

Navi.7142:

Well, the solution is like every time that they will nerf the loot that drops there. -.-

It’s not nice that these guys try to farm there (it doesn’t make any sense for me) when you want to complete the event, but the solution should never be to punish the legit players that will do this event and shall be rewarded with loot.
If they continue to nerf these events by removing the loot drops from foes they will reach some day the point where nobody is interested in doing these events anymore.

But I wouldn’t know what to suggest.. maybe I would just ignore them and complete the event. ^^

The solution would be to make the reward from killing the bosses and completing the chain exceed the time investment of farming. If the event chain, which takes ~10-15 mins to complete, delivered , say, 2-4 high-value lodestones, several rares and possibly an exotic weapon/armor, and 5 skillpoints (these would all come from killing the bosses, as described in Colin’s post), nobody would farm the giant.

Think stacking and skipping trash is cheap?
Read: Playing to Win.
Guide: How to play a Mesmer in dungeons.

Too Much Temporary Content Can Only Harm GW2

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Iruwen.3164

Iruwen.3164

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/krewe-guild-wars-2-mmo-busy-adults/
GW2 has slowly become the opposite of that.

Iruwen Evillan, Human Mesmer on Drakkar Lake

reason behind time gating quartz?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: ZudetGambeous.9573

ZudetGambeous.9573

So many complicated reasons and explanations… it is really quite simple though.

They were testing the reaction and commitment of the playerbase before announcing that ascended armor mats would all be time gated. If the community had freaked out they would of held off on that announcement.