Guild Wars 2

Here’s the plan:

Merge greater marks and soul marks into staff mastery or make them baseline->a huge amount of build possibilities opens up->some new traits and improvements are made to lifesteal and other stuff->the problem of being focused by 3+ people and being vulnerable to CC remains unsolved->we become OP for 2 days in 1v1 and small skirmishes as well as team fights where we are not being focused and then get nerfed back.

Now they just need to add more than 1 game-mode to solidify the deal for me, this is definitely on the right track.

But going from GW1 where we had GvG (important!), TDM, Flag stands, Node Control, Kill Count, Relic Runs, Ghostly heroes and a massive variety of maps to play on…to a handful of maps and a single game-mode….

I’ll just say variety is the spice of life :p

JonPeters.5630:

1) You can obviously have it without a healer.
2) Even games people consider to be DM have tons of secondary objectives (Quake 3, counter strike, Starcraft, etc.)
3) Objective based games tend to be both more total noob friendly AND more esport observer friendly as players/watchers can go/look at where the action will likely be.

Deathmatch without other objectives lacks things like a reason to engage, a way to break stalemates, and a tie breaker. It also creates much wider blowouts when someone on your team doesn’t know what they are doing (does this ever happen to you that you get a clueless teammate? Heh)

1) Yes, BUT – given all the animations, pets and whatnot, it would be nothing short of horrid to have death matches with more than 6 participants at a time, and even that is borderline unacceptable and eye-cancer inducing, depending which professions are taking part.

You once claimed how it would be possible to tell what is going on in a match by simply watching the battlefield. However, there are far too few skills with animations distinct enough for one to discern their casts in the midst of all the aoe and pet (there are some good animations such as warrior riffle n5, chunning earth, guardian/warrior blocks and rtl).
Cast bars on GW1 do a better job in that regard, and so do skill effects (e.g. the animations of diversion, shame, empathy after they have been cast on a target; naturally, the problem here was you could only tell after the cast which spell had been cast, but that problem hasn’t really been resolved on GW2 either, bar for some exceptions; those animations nevertheless gave important information you could obtain >by watching the field<).

2) GW1 random and team – now custom – arenas both have secondary objectives, but here’s the catch – those secondary objectives can either be completely ignored (which rarely happens in high level matches), or are likely to give one of the teams massive advantage, if their opponent did not bring a certain proffession (that ring any bells?), or team setup (classics: caster teams on priest maps camping the priest pit, flag maps without a caster on your team to carry the flag). So no, secondary objectives can easily create uneven situations and thus limit (or broaden, if done right) team composition choice.

3) How are objective-based games MORE beginner friendly than straight-out death match? They’re EQUALLY beginner friendly at best, but they’re usually far LESS beginner friendly. The reason for that is you need the kind of game knowledge that goes far beyond mastering, or at least knowing, your own/other proffessions.
Just imagine sending a team of 8 random players completely new to pvp into gvg and fight anyone who has half an idea about the map and its objectives.
I believe a choice has to be made here regarding which of the two – profession mastery/learning and tactical awarness – is easier to achieve, and create casual and hardcore arenas based on that estimation, instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach. I dare say that one of the two is, for the most part, more an innate player characteristic than something that can be learned through practice, and yet the game mode resolves around it completely.

I also cannot see how death match is less observer friendly – changing player perspectives and having overview over the field as an observer is far easier in a straight-out death match, simply because it usually takes places in a relatively small place, unless there are secondary mechanics involved.

From my own experience, the ONLY times people refused to engage in a death match was because of SECONDARY objectives that would give one team a significant advantage over the other.
Moreover, the blowouts beginners create in straight-out deatch matches are not much different than the ones created in objective-based game modes ala conquest style. As a matter of fact, they will very likely put their team at an even BIGGER disadvantage due to the tactical aspect that is an innate characteristic of such game modes. How can you possibly deny that?

I did my best not to go all rambo on you, but I would really like to see you at least elaborate on those points some more.

Didn’t they talk about this in the last SotG? They tried deathmatch, and it basically went like this:

1) Teams stand around staring at each other for a little while
2) Someone gets impatient and both teams run at each other
3) Everyone uses their elites
4) Huge clusterkitten
5) Elites wear off
6) Whoever happens to have more players left over wins

Doesn’t sound fun to me. I didn’t like WoW areas for similar reasons. Battlegrounds were great.

Just click on “create roster” and then click on “submit” without inviting anyone
It has the same functionality as “solo queue” button

I don’t get why you want this.

If you don’t want to play hotjoins, which you seem to not want to do…and you don’t want to play in a premade team, since you talk about wanting to just jump in for 30 minutes…how would removing the solo tpvp queue help you?

Seems like you should instead be arguing “please split the solo and team tpvp queue”. Which is a popular sentiment.

I agree it’s very annoying the way it is now, but maybe show them again when they are being ressed or something.

I don’t see why they wouldn’t implement it if they had enough time… It’s definitely not a priority now, but in the future, it only has benefits:

- ANet always says that they want the game to be beginner-friendly; the cast-bar would go a long way for that.
- Asuras; need I say more?
- If Obs-Mode comes along, it would help as well to make GW2 a better and easier to understand for Spectators.
- Sometimes it’s hard to see Animations properly, even on bigger Chars, because of all the effects…

Is there any scope for the introduction of cast bars?

Some may say it isn’t needed as you can attempt to learn every classes animations and you should know what is coming. Well even if you know animations there is so much going on on the screen that it becomes incredibly difficult to keep an eye on every skill, especially if multiple opponents are on screen.

As an example, today I was fighting an engi, bouncing about all over the place, no problems. I then spotted a rifle warrior aiming at me, but had no idea how long he had been stood there. Was he just starting to wind up his shot or was he a second away. I have no way of knowing without spending the rest of the time watching him and waiting for the shot, during which time I have to try and fight off the engi still.

What is the reason behind not enabling cast bars?

CHIPS.6018:

In GW1 most necro skills can cast right through walls. Vampiric Gaze and Dark Pact to name a few. That was, in a way, a necro speciality.

Gone were the good old days.

Sorry Chips, but as a GW1 veteran I have to let everyone know that casting through walls\objects was indeed possible for most spells. There were very few “spells” that fired a projectile which required line of sight.
But I agree, it is a real shame that those awesome gw1 mechanics are gone now. The biggest shame is that there are no curses any more.
DIVA

In GW1 most necro skills can cast right through walls. Vampiric Gaze and Dark Pact to name a few. That was, in a way, a necro speciality.

Gone were the good old days.

I know the increased cooldown does not seem nice however you don’t want to make the spell overpowered because the goal is to keep the game balanced. I would hope that they would start off by just reducing the cast time to 0.25 or 0.5 seconds and keep the cooldown how it is, and then if epidemic is becoming too overpowered increase the cooldown slightly. (Adding 5 seconds making it a 20 second cooldown won’t make that much of a difference, especially if you trait making it a 16 second cooldown, all in all you lose 1 second). However I still think it should be taken in steps to see how it affects the rest of the game.

I have been using epidemic since the start of the game and have always loved using it. Even when it was still a bit of a challenge to land an epidemic due to a 1 second cast time, now you have made it blockable, able to be dodged, can’t be used while they are in invulnerable and have to be in line of sight. I understand this “nerf” and agree with it completely because it leads to more intelligent gameplay. However now with all the new additions to the spell (which not many people where complaining about in the first place). It makes it really difficult to land a good epidemic now due to all the ways it can be avoided as well as mass AOE condition clear in this game. This has made the condition necromancer that runs epidemic not as viable which is incredibly unfair. There is a simple fix to it; reduce the cast time of the spell to 1/4 or 1/2 of a second cast (and possibly increase the cooldown by 5 or 10 seconds). Those changes would make it a higher success rate while still making it so the player has to pay attention with what is going on. It can still be avoided hence forth making it balanced. Anet in the future please balance out what needs to be balanced out instead of blindly nerfing/buffing things.

If any of you Necromancers are in favor of having epidemic keep the block aspect to it but reducing the cast time to 1/4 or 1/2 of a second please post and make this thread be heard.

I was inspired to change my classic look to a more super adventure box themed style

Rennoko.5731:

I am of the mind-set now that you are better off with focused rituals and wells. They are guaranteed to hit regardless of block/blind, they are AOE, they hit hard. The only reason I had epidemic is because of the synergy with high condition builds.

I personally had already started to transition to rampagers/wells for PVE, so it won’t be a big change for me. I would be willing to bet this change to epi is permanent, and likely to see further reductions in the future.

Previously I could target a class without a full condition clear and be pretty likely to get a good epi off…. now it is completely luck based in WVW baring someone randomly dodging or going invulnerable… because we all know that no one tries to use invulnerability skills when they are being focused with conditions….

Filing it away with corruption boon in the category or…. sometimes works… sometimes doesn’t… not worth the utility slot. (for WvW). I would have rather they hit the cooldown, than the functionality of the skill…. it was too hard a swipe in my opinion.

Pretty much. I might slot it if I’m approaching a small 5v5 camp skirmish or something, or when I’m just clearing NPCs, but never for any other reason. Even before it was hit and miss. Now it’s just yet another victim of necromancer clunkiness. The LoS nerf was particularly devastating, as a lot of a condition necromancer’s strength lies in the fact that they can just turn 180 and apply conditions along their retreat path. It’s not like you’ve got any vigour/leaps/teleports/etc to help build gaps. It’s also not like epidemic is in the same level as, say, Dragon’s Tooth or Illusionary Berserker. It’s not gonna kill siege. You’re not gonna build 25 stacks of bleed before your target wises up and backs away.

Cripes, more than half the time my intended epidemic target would be downed in the middle of the cast, resulting in nothing happening. Spectral Grasp/Corrupt Boon/Epidemic were my three common utility staples when I’m not ikittenerg, and now not a single one of them can hit reliably. Even still I’ll be stuck slotting them, because it’s not like the other utilities are that much better in the given scenario.

Should definitely turn the screen upside-down!

Same map rotation has been around for a long time already. It was supposed to be a temporary fix until random rotation was developed. But we have had it for 3 months already (I think it was added on january, correct me if im wrong) and it’s getting old.

For any team training or playing for a long session, maps get old really fast. If you ever liked one map, you will get tired of it really soon. This rotation also allows some teams to bring the “best” classes and builds for every map killing the fun, class and build variety. For example, on spirit watch week you only see teams running 3 eles with arcane shield.

I really think this issue should be looked at because once ladders are released and players start taking their ladder seriously, we will see the same classes with the same builds over and over (yeah, even worse than it is already).

I also think that once maps are finally random, there should be a few restrictions for class/build swapping once players get to know the map they are going to play. But that’s another topic…

How about we reduce that cast time on epidemic

I agree, whenever I pop quickness my brain’s mentality instantly changes, and I want to kill the closest person in two seconds flat. Luckily it takes about two seconds to get up from my desk and take a step, and then the urge is gone.

I for one am glad Anet didn’t let the effect last longer than that, otherwise WHO KNOWS what crimes I would have committed. Thanks Anet!

Agree with OP.

The combat engine is great and it is the main reason why people are still following the game’s development and are hopeful that changes will happen.

Conquest mode is lame at this point.

We already know about an alternate gamemode that works and isn’t TDM. Its called GvG and ArenaNet INVENTED it.

2 basses, win by killing the enemy Guild lord. It was like the MMO version of a MOBA game.

All you have to do as a Dev for Anet is incorporate positive mentions, or “POS-MENS” of GE products into your program. For example you could create a game mode where one of your character purchases, and is satisfied with one of GE’s direct current drilling motors for off-shore or land-based projects.

Product integration; setting a new standard in upward revenue-stream dynamics.

1 – Add Ranking (one for solo que, other for guilds), Spectator and Custom Arena (make so people can play deathmatches on them if they want).
2 – Announce a Big Tournament with $ prize that will occur in 2 months time.
3 – Make Mists F2P with the possibility to make 2 chars.
4 – Make a Tutorial in game so that a new player knows where to buy sigils, runes, weapon sets and stuff.
5 – Allow players to make templates for their builds, maybe have like 3 beginners templates that new players can choose from at first.

These steps will make GW 2 popular in no time.

Then:

4 – Add cosmetic armor on cash shop
5 – Add finishers

Profit.

Skin that you can use in PVP combat is a easy one. Not sure why ANET hasn’t done this yet.

waka.9826:

Skin that you can use in PVP combat is a easy one. Not sure why ANET hasn’t done this yet.

Yeah it’s like they don’t want money :p

Vuh.1328:

waka.9826:

Skin that you can use in PVP combat is a easy one. Not sure why ANET hasn’t done this yet.

Yeah it’s like they don’t want money :p

I can’t even begin to explain to ANET how bad I want to kill people in PVP while wearing a top hat and monocle.

Make Heart of the Mists free to play (like League of Legends). In order for players to exit the lobby and enter PvE or WvW, they must purchase the game.

Expand the gem store with custom outfits and skins for PvP. Add in purchasable graphic effects to weapon attacks, purchasable taunts, purchasable emotes, customized finishers. Add in premium glory boosters that give even faster accelerations than the free versions. Etc.

There are so many ways to make profit from PvP. The first and most important step is to make PvP even more accessible, though.

specialty finishers (like cow)

Our necros are happy with their staffs, they call Necro best badges farm-machine, so I dunno what is your problem...