Guild Wars 2

Gaile Gray.6029:

We’re very sorry about that. There was a small e-mail glitch and that survey went out to a few people to whom it should not have been sent. We apologize for the confusion!

So I don’t have the expansion then… I understand… Thank for reaching out to me…

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Probably a mass email that you got by accident. Since you didn’t do the beta, just delete it.

Lightsbane, I think you are mixing two concepts that work on different levels.
DPS (Damage per Second) is not separated from damage per hit. It includes it. DPS is not a fixed value, it is an average aplied over a certain group of attacks, wich describes how much damage those do “per second”, in average.

Example:

7 Fast attacks along 6 seconds doing 12 damage = (12/6=2) = 2DPS.
1 Slow attack along 8 seconds doing 16 damage = (16/8=2) = 2DPS.

These 2 have the same DPS. It doesn’t matter for this measure (“DPS”) if that damage comes from 1 attack or from 12, or if the attack is completed under a second or not.

From a less abstract point of view, however, faster attacks are more reliable than slow attacks, simply because they have more chances to hit. If you miss two or three of a bunch of fast attacks it doesn’t matter so much because you still can hit with the next two or three, but if you miss the one and only big damaging blow you have, you are kittened.

I like the Reaper + Greatsword a lot (In fact is the first time I’m interested in playing a Necro), but the slow-but-damaging combination IS less reliable than a faster one. GS should be doing WAY MORE damage to be truly viable.

TLDR:
1- Add the damage for a full rotation with dagger, then divide it by the seconds it take to complete.
2- Add the damage for a full rotation with GS, then divide it by the seconds it take to complete.
3- Compare.

Lightsbane.9012:

Firstly, mmo players across all games make the mistake of missing the other type of damage: damage per Hit and reaper GS fits this very much so. There is a class similar to this in TERA, dubbed slayer(or berzerker), which hits very slow but very hard. this is the theme of reaper’s greatsword. it does not have high dps, it has high dpH
And i’m having a lot of success with it in WvW frontlining.

Well, idk if you’re talking about PvP or PvE (either way it shouldn’t matter) but the Reaper GS has both low attack speed and low damage per hit. According to every bit of hard math I’ve seen, the GS is outclassed in dps by dagger MH in every way. Even spamming GD below 50% hp is less dps than simply clicking 1 on dagger MH. Please prove me wrong, I’d welcome it, but all the math and my own personal feeling when playing reaper screams that GS is not up to snuff atm.

While I enjoyed the gameplay of the dragon hunter, there are a few complaints I have about it.
-First, the synergy between traps and the longbow is severely lacking. Especially in the new map, you don’t have a lot of time to “set up” enemies. Especially ranged enemies with limited los breaks. If the traps were ground targeted, this might fix the synergy a bit.
- After playing with the traps for several hours, I ended up ditching most of them for my old skills, mainly purging flames, and sword of justice. There just isnt enough reason to carry the traps over the skills that provide significantly more utility.
-The virtues have very nice animations, and are very pretty, but the cds are way too long to lose the passive buffs on them. The leap is a 60 second cd, and you lose regen while its down, for a mediocre heal and a leap. The spear is nice, but its 8 seconds longer cd than the old justice virtue, and it doesn’t seem worth it. I never used the shield, so I cant really comment on that, but I feel like I dont want to use the active virtues cause the payoff isnt big enough to warrant me losing the passives.
-The longbow was fun, and I felt a lot more mobile than before (still looking for that passive speed boost btw), but the 2 skill as mentioned previously needs a bigger payoff to root me for 2 seconds. I felt like I was almost on par with my ranger AA wise, but the other skills need some tuning.
All in all, I think it was fun to play, but its not quite there. It feels kind of halfway ready…

Here are the problems I see with DH.

1: Since the virtues are no long instant they cannot be used while casting another ability. (This is a big hit when it comes to survivability and ability to adapt to changing situations)

2: The AA is rather slow given the damage it does (its actually the same damage then the scepter at 3x the cast time. If it had a 1/2 second cast time and a bit more damage it would be perfect)

3: Deflecting Shot feels kinda meh. If it was a knock back in addition to stopping projectiles then it would be excellent. (it would also allow them to change the heavy light trait into something useful)

4: Piercing Light, this trait is very meh. If it caused all hits with the bow to also bleed then it would be worth using.

5: Zealot’s Aggression. Given the the guardian has very few ways to cripple foes & they require trait investment perhaps this would be better suited triggering off of enemies with vulnerability.

6: Soaring Devastation. Given you recently reduced the duration of the immobilize to 1 second perhaps you could add something more on to it (given the CD of the skill and the fact it effects such a small area perhaps it could daze enemies it hits)

7: Dulled Senses. There are only 2 ways to trigger this trait currently, one is with the shield & the other is via getting another trait. Please change it to be triggered by knock downs, knock backs, stuns, dazes, fears etc…

8: Heavy Light. Like I suggested in complain number 1, deflecting shot really should be a knock back. I say that because it would have more counter play & allow for the creating of another trait.
9: The low damage on traps. As is they need to be doing allot more damage before they could ever be considered worth using vs meditations or shouts.

10: Dragons Maw. The pull radius is extremely small & the fact it only effects one person is laughable. It should effect at least 3, if not 5.

11: Traps, & the amount of sustain you give up for damage that can easily be avoided.
Assuming complaint number 1 & 8 where addressed you could easily change the trait heavy light so that it reduced the CD of traps and caused them to do a 1 second immobilize when triggered.

After playing it more, i have a few more complaints. On both Warrior and Ranger if you have something selected behind/beside your character and you try to attack it while inputting no controls (left, right, forward, backward) the character will turn and attack it. When on DH, if you have something behind/beside your character it tells you no line of sight, and does nothing, even if the selected thing is in clear view when you manually turn around. Also when you use Warrior’s #3 skill on lb behind you or beside you while running, it fires and lands. If you try this with the #3 or #4 skill on DH, it does the animation of it firing, but it doesn’t actually become airborne.

warbignime.4610:

chaw.3916:

Some of the damage seemed a bit low. My only major complant is that you can’t move and use the 2 skill, it makes me feel like a sitting duck while i’m trying to fight competitively to have one of my lowest recharges make me stand still.

I’m fine with not moving while charging skill 2, but the skill needs to do higher damage than current . The skill is meant to be doing high damage with limitation, but the damage currently is just mediocre.

Ok, we have to compare this to ranger it is very similar. Ranger’s #2 lb skill does much more dmg, you are allowed to move while using it, and it is impossible to dodge the whole attack. DH’s skill does less dmg, you can’t move, and it is dodgeable because it fires only one arrow with a huge tell that it is being used.
On top of this, how many other ranged weapons are out there that have 2 skills that require you to stand still to use?

I was surprised that I actually like the DH, I just felt the bow could be a bit of faster firing.
And I think being able to throw traps ahead of you might work alot better.

Im running a pure condi build with mine and it actually wrecks stuff just don’t use all traps take like the spinning blades one. The 4 skill does a HUGE burn. I have a few nitpicky things with it like casting times ojn virtues and not being grounded for skill 2. The other traps are kinda Meh for what they do and need lower cooldowns or buffed to the point that they are more useful. Bow skill 5 also needs to fence in enemies IMMEDIATLY. among other things people have said. Personally I like the longbow the new virtues and the spinning blades trap with whirling wrath and purging flames is pretty good synergy. hopefully they will listen to us and touch it up more.

Filed a report with you guys about the Dragon Hunter in game, but wanted to see what others thought of it. Here was my take.

Nothing about the dragon hunter makes me feel they could hunt a dragon… The theme feels really off. Why is our virtue of justice a spear when we are using a bow? why not a huge arrow of binding light that chains them to the ground or to you? why are there angel wings on retribution? It feels really out of place… also why would we use this ability to jump forward if we are trying to stay at range and have no close quarter combat abilities? Surely it isn’t to leap forward and try to lay a trap that takes far to long to cast that also wouldn’t help fight a dragon? The only thing I can think of is to use the last virtue to put up a shield for a few seconds and then back up and repeat.

Then arrow bounce, sweet for attacking multiple targets but not for attacking a single dragon the size of a fort. The only way this will help is if you can aim for the head and have it hit the hand and deal full dmg. The pierce shot is meant to hit multiple targets in a line. then the arrow that blinds and destroys incoming projectiles, cool, I guess this ought to reflect or defend against breath weapons. #4 a flaming arrow that leaves a light combo field… I think that ought to be a FIRE combo field for a FIRE arrow. Then #5 a cool AOE that allows you to imprison 5 enemies with arrows….

However, none of these abilities will do anything to dragons in this game. You can’t destroy a breath weapon with #3, you can’t blind a dragon and have it miss, piercing past the hitbox doesn’t do any more damage, and you can’t cage a dragon with AOE. They are immune to all of these effects and it has meh DPS from its abilities. How is this a Dragon hunter?

At least give us a few abilities that make sense to fight dragons. This just feels like it doesn’t know what it is supposed to be. It can’t fight a solo target well, it can’t fight a swarm well. using the abilities feels the same, 2&3 and 4&5 are redundantly feeling abilities that don’t affect combat enough in damage or status effects. I end up sitting there waiting for the long cooldown on my abilities just pressing 1 and seeing it do meh damage at a slow rate and trying to maintain distance from enemies despite having tanky stats because there aren’t any abilities to deal with close range combat. Nothing that makes me feel like a dragon hunter at all.

If this is the class you meant to make, I’d call it something else, if you intended to make a class specialization that could actually fight a dragon I feel its fallen woefully short of the theme. It needs a way to deal more concentrated dmg, or have effects that actually work on bosses. Then they need to look and feel the right size for fighting the dragons of tyria.

I look forward to seeing what you guys do with it.
What did other beta testers think about it today?

Given that the guild bank needs to be accessed from a specific NPC (or a Guild Boon), I think you could somehow probably code it so that Beta characters can’t access those (pure speculation; I was an English/History major and I’m now a project manager, not a game dev/programmer or schooled in computer science by any stretch of the imagination).

I’m somewhat gratified to learn I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Its somewhat ironic that a game named Guildwars wouldn’t let you play with your Guild during a big reveal.

An interesting experiment. Say ANet leaves the difficulty substantially as is. Will those claiming they want such difficulty still want it six months after launch? In other words, will the harder mobs provide longevity in and of themselves, meaning (some) players will repeat the fights over and over and over just because it’s fun? Or, will there have to be reward incentives that keep the content vital until such time as it’s been farmed out? So far, the latter is the state of the game, but the former represents ANet’s vision.

Apologies upfront if this topic exists elsewhere.

With both of the previous two Beta events I was very excited to try out the new content, however I rapidly found that participating in the Beta meant I could not belong to my guild. In my case, I’m a guild leader and I like to be able to talk to my members, coordinate activities and partake as a group. Because the guild page was disabled on the Beta character, this core game experience was lacking and I felt that I was, sadly, unable to participate in the teaser.

I understand that the “new” guild functions would not be there but I should still be able to see my membership list and represent accordingly.

My two cents.

I think ideally, mobs should vary a bit based on location.
I really don’t understand the people who want every trash mob fight to be a white knuckle teeth clenching sweat dripping heart pounding fight to the death where missing a single dodge or reflect by .000000000000000000000000000001% of a second means instant death. Makes no sense to me.

Does that mean I think such mobs shouldn’t exist at all?
No.
Simply that Not every freaking mob on the map needs to be that way.
We call them trash mobs for a reason, they’re filler between points A and B and while sure it can be interesting for them to be dangerous for a bit, after not that long simply moving around is going to be insanely tedious.
Want to walk to the other side of the map for something?
45 minute death slog, get killed on the way, grats start over.

Now, I like interesting mobs. For example the snipers that keep getting mentioned.
1. I do think they do just a little bit too much damage.
2. However, they’re fairly easy to kill, glass cannons if you will.
That is a good design, powerful, but dies quickly if you know how to get close.
What isn’t good design, is mobs that are that dangerous but take minutes to kill because they also have insane health.
(This was my problem with a lot of the mobs in SW, far too many vets and elites. Would have been a lot more interesting to fight if it didn’t take so long to kill each one, and that was a heavy part of what made them dangerous the sheer HP counters.)

You want interesting fights.
Cool.
We just don’t want every single fight to be that way.
We don’t want to fight every single mob between points A and B every time we make the trek
Trash mobs rarely dropped anything interesting anyway, and if they keep the same mindset that SW had they won’t drop almost anything at all
People keep saying we need more challenging and more rewarding content.
But all I see is harder and less rewarding.

Hi all.
I did not get to play much, but I did play the elite specializations and I loved them all especially the reaper.

I did not go to the actual HoT map because I read on the forums about how difficult the content is there.

I will go there to see for myself, in the next beta, but guys, am I going to locked out of playing HoT because of the difficulty involved? Are there things to do for “Average Joe” players?

Tons and tons of nothing but difficult content is wonderful for the young elite gamers here, but, what about us casual, not so coordinated, players to whom this game was marketed towards? Are we not allowed to play HoT? Are we not wanted?

Actually, us uncoordinated casual type folks, are probably the ones who buy gems with actual money to turn into golds….if this is true, locking us out of a new expansion by putting in extremely difficult play with not a drop of content for us is…stupid.

But, that is just my opinion

I loved all the elites, and my Necro is looking forward to getting his new shroud

Lisa-Drinking coffee and trying not to worry.

Sykper.6583:

Setting the tone, if you are running berserker, the zone will be much more damaging than you are used to. Running Glass cannon carries some risk now.

Snipers are fine.

No they’re not. snipers are fine is ur opinion, mine differs. Trash mobs should never be that op where u have to use all ur recourses to beat them, especially with the huge numbers of these trash mobs everywhere, even during the day, night time is ridiculous.

JustinFarfan.6840:

these kind of posts is why we cant have actual hard content. because players complain about it being ‘too hard’. seriously ):

hard content should be optional for a reason….

this wasnt.
after doing it for each beta character its more annoying than fun.

So people don’t dodge in normal PvE? Is that what you are telling me?

Welp it’s official, I guess I am a nub and should go back to not playing. I dodge all the time in Central Tyria and I run out of Endurance all the time. The same in PvP.

I don’t know when everyone got good at the game. Must be all that gear and stuff I never get. :p Oh well, it seems that it’s 60/40 in favor or harder difficulty. As long as people are having fun with it and it’s not possible.

Throw enough bodies at something and you’ll get through it. At least it’s free to Repair nowadays, so the penalty for dying isn’t too harsh.

binidj.5734:

Questions of how challenging mobs are or are not aside (you want to discuss that, there are other threads waiting for your opinion) I can’t help but feel that there are simply too many of them! Mordrem tendrils are a particular pain in this regard, it seemed at some points that you couldn’t walk 5 feet without one of the things throwing little red circles at you! Somebody (probably several somebodies) at ArenaNet have worked kitten hard to create the jungle and I’d really like the chance to look at it! Fewer mobs with a lower respawn timer would be good … give us a chance to breathe and enjoy the environment! Make fights epic not annoying. I had enough of this sort of mob density in early (and arguably current) Orr thanks awfully … if I want to wade through endless mobs, I’ll head there.

Agreed, everywhere i went there was mobs everywhere, it was impossible to stand back and enjoy the scenery. with the having to watch every step due to difficult terrain and then being mobbed by mobs every second, how are we to appreciate this new zone?

tbh, i’m sick to death of fighting all the time. It would be nice to have some places where we had some more interesting non-combat stuff.

Well their way to make the place challenging is so similar to Soutshsun Cove : loads of rapid fire wielding ranged mobs. ¤Fun¤ ensues :p

I wonder with what kind of rewards they will bring the players to play this maps
since without them i say they will be barren like Southsun Cove after a short time.
Was exact the same .. everybody wanted “moar challenge” then we got that zone
and after a short time it was a wasteland.

Rather than giving us all these boxes that instantly fill inventory with tons of junk you don’t want / can’t use, why not put in merchants at the starting point that sell bind on aquire “pick your stat” gear of choice for free or like a copper each?

For instance you can have a vendor for armor with tabs for heavy / medium / light , one for weapons, one for jewelry, and one for sigils / runes. Then we can jump in, grab the gear we want, and not have to dig through all the boxes and then delete all the other junk.

I did have fun with the DH, but I agree with a lot of what’s been said.
My major issues were:

1)Again.. CC is made significantly less fun by making the duration short & the activation slow. If you have to do this for PvP sake, fine, but apply it ONLY IN PVP. stop balancing PvE around PvP. Most of the important mobs are already immune to an entire spec (control) do you have to hamstring it even more?

2)Slow trap activation is a bit ridiculous. The bow dmg is low, do we really need an activation time so that we do less damage?

3)Not enough actual control. There should be a KB or a pull so that we can actually manipulate the enemies into the traps instead of having 1 option. aggro.

4)The projectile blocker is a waste of a skill. being able to stop ONE projectile is absolutely meaningless in PvE since pretty much every meaningful attack that any mob does is an aoe. Stopping projectiles in PvE is only useful when there are many mobs attacking from all directions at once. This ability should be replaced with (or also have) a pull or a KB. Stop balancing PvE around PvP.

5) The new virtues need new passives. Not only is it supremely boring to have the same passives, but it mean the class mechanics are actually still the same. That’s not much of an Elite Specialization.

6) The whole “Dragon Hunter” theme is supposed to be a big game hunter/foe of the great evils & yet it’s pretty terrible vs Champions & Bosses since the damage is low & the control is completely useless against them. It would be awesome if somehow this was the only spec with CC that worked on mobs with defiant, but something’s gotta change if you want the theme to fit. Right now it should be called the Creep Hunter cuz it’s good on lots of weaker enemies.

7) I absolutely love Bow 5 but the wait for the cast before the CC is brutal. feels like yet another PvP only balanced skill.

I like it, but the amount of setup required to do decent damage & the fact that traps are melee makes it a meaningless option. If the CC lasted way longer & we had KB I think this spec would have a distinct reason to be used. Right now It’s not even a good Ranged option cuz I have to drop traps at melee or spend the entire fight walking backwards (which you often cannot do for many reasons)

At first I loved it and was instantly taken by its shiny effects and all that came with it, then I started to look deeper.

First thing I did was compare it to ranger longbow and warrior longbow, just to see how it matched up. I found that Warrior longbow wasnt really in the same range as it filled a different role, so I scratched that from the comparison.

Now, as for the Ranger Longbow vs Guardian Longbow, I found the ranger version to in every single way, be better than the dragonhunter, shorter cooldowns, better damage, better trait synergy, and if you equipped two longbows you could get some really sweet CD reductions going on.

For example, the skill 5 on dragonhunter is practicall the same skill as the skill 5 on ranger longbow, except it has 20 seconds longer CD for an immobalize that requires the enemy to be in the area of effect when it ends… Not always the easiest thing to ensure, dmg wise they appeared roughly equal so no real complaints there, also the dragonhunter version is amazingly stunning to look at.

The nr 2 ability, true shot vs barrage, basically the ranger version does roughly twice the damage, but it also takes about twice as long to channel, however, it is usable while moving, which coupled with cripple traits for longbow, makes it quite abit more usefull than the dragonhunters true shot.

True shot, while I love the short CD and the nice damage of it, it does root you, it has to fire twice within 8 seconds to match a rangers barrage. But despite this, I really think this ability is in a good spot atm.

Auto attacks… Oh boy, even at the shortest distance, the rangers auto does more dmg, and it pierces (if you spec into full longbow mode), the Dragonhunter one bounces, which while amazing for groups, means its damage is very… meh, at single target encounters.
And I mean for a spec designed to hunte these huge dragons in the jungle, why is its single target so meh?

Also, lets move on to the traps, the traps of the dragonhunter are all pretty much power based, compared to the rangers more condition focus, that said, traited ranger traps have CDs below 20s and I think one or two above 20s but below 30s, the shortest CD on dragonhunter, was 25s, with a few going up to kitten .
They are just to long, traps are hard to use as it is, having such long cooldowns is not fun utility gameplay.

That said, they are very graphically pleasing, really amazing effects.

But to try and close things off, I feel that while the dragonhunter is cool, everything it sets out to do as a ranged attacker, a ranger can do better. And for an elite spec to lose out to a core ranger, it doesnt feel right.

I mean, arent the elite specs supposed to be you know…. Elite at their role? And as a ranged dmg dealer and trapper, Dragonhunter just isnt up there.

Also the virtues need to be able to activate while you are doing other things, currently, they are cool, but not all that practical due to this, also the wings? Give it ABIT more range will you? It hardly feels like a leap worthy of wings atm….

My suggestions to make DH a good option for a guardian.

Traps:
- traps have ground target. It’s range spec. after all.
- Purification e Fragments of Faith trigger on ally’s movement, not the enemy’s.
- Purification grants protection, fragments of Fragments of Faith remove conditions too.

Longbow:
- the LB can hit 270°, that’s to say it can’t hit only behind;
- skill #1 hits faster;
- skill #2 doesn’t root the character;
- skill #3 can target an enemy;
- skill #5’s durations is shorter so the immobilize effect is more predictable;

Virtues:
- Wing of Resolve has more range;

I only have a one or two problems with the drangonhunter so far…
First: The Longbow, my goodness the auto skill…it’s just horrible! you should improve the speed a bit more because it feels so slow like your using a scepter! If i’m using a Longbow it should feel like i’m using a longbow and not something else.
Second: If i’m using Longbow the point is to be far away from the enemy but if i’m going to use Traps for my utility skills I have to be either close enough for my enemy to trigger them or put it down and hope they trigger it….i freaking hate that! I would like for the traps to have like Ground Positioning on them so that way if i’m using a Longbow and can still stay far away from my enemy and know for a fact that my enemy will trigger the trap when I “Ground Position” it.
Third: The second skill on longbow i hate the fact that when you use and move it cancels the move, I should be able to move and use the skill freely….ughh anyways those are a few things I wanted to point out, hopefully somethings change come release <.<

My feedback~!

Longbow was a great choice for Guardian imo. The hype for it was very high for me. It was my first beta character! Getting into game I was excited. The second I shot off an arrow my excitement started to dwindle.

The AA is very slow. The animation of the arrow is even droopy looking. The damage isn’t worth how slow it feels. I would rather it never bounce what so ever and provide with a good amount damage.

the 2 roots me. Aye me… I already feel slow enough as a guardian. And I’m rather bored of always having to slot for Rune of the Traveler. If I invest in burst this root will be the death of me on many occasions. Traps around me or not. o.o

3 feels very . . . underwhelming. I would love to trade this for some instant damage . . . seeing as we don’t have any in the kit.

4. Love it. I love this skill! I don’t know why. Symbols always feel a bit meh but this one was fun for me. I like the range I can drop it down on someone with. I wish traps worked more like this.

5 on the kit . . . the cast time + delay + CC as the final effect? As someone who loves arrow rain effects this one just didn’t feel strong to me. I wish I could suggest something better but I’m just at a loss for it right now.

Traps. I love the effects on the traps (Minus Dragon’s Maw) but I hate the setup. How long it takes and how close I need to be for them to be effective. That aegis trap would be great to set up for frontline . . . but I’m supposed to be able to play backline now. I can run back and forth sure but I’m slow without rune of the traveler. Running speed for someone who needs to manage range is a big deal to me.

My wishlist for DH

Run Speed +25% trait
More synergy with traits
More synergy with backline play
Faster paced combat / damage
Instant cast on virtues.
Choice of which virtues we lose from Guard. Sadly I don’t really enjoy any of them minus the new block. I don’t want the leap at all. It’s just too short of a range to be useful to me.

The Final Word
The concept can be good. But it needs to bring more to the table. We don’t need it to be the best ranged option but it needs to be a tempting one. We are giving up blocks, blinds, holds, and what not (Scepter, Focus). And if we want to play from the backline we would be investing more into power, precision, and ferocity which means we would be taking a large dip in Vit and Toughness which means less survival overall.

Anyway it was a great chance to try it out and I’m excited to see how things change for the next beta. \o/

The concepts of DH are great. But its when its put into play that it gets sluggish and awkward. I am firm that if we could place traps like we do wells or kit 4 on LB it would enchance our backline play.

The only mobs I have an issue with are the snipers. When there’s multiple snipers there’s very few options available to you to stay alive unless on a class with a lot of active defenses

Absolutely impossible to solo for the average player. Guess thats another beta weekend wasted for me then.