Guild Wars 2

Warlock.7136:

I overheard some people talking in Lion’s Arch and I hope they were trolling. they said SAB is currently being fixed and coming back. I hated SAB and I breathed a sigh of relief when the date it happens rolled by without SAB, so i’m sending a forum prayer to the gamer gods with the hope that SAB will not return. the playstyle of SAB went out of date in the 80’s. I do not want the dev team wasting their time on coding levels with Super Mario Brothers movement and Legend of Zelda combat(grab improvised weapon and attack with it whack a’mole style). gw2 is a cutting edge game and it’s content should be cutting edge as well. 8 bit graphics and the above coding barely kept me entertained when I was 8 let alone now. I want my character with gw2’s advanced combat mechanics in all nonmini-game content.

Prepare for a world 3 of kitten. SAB is beloved by many and even though I disliked world 2’s auto death mechanic which looked to be a blatant attempt to sell infinite continue coins (another HoT button issue), I adore SAB and demand it’s improved return.

PlatinumMember.5274:

Arena net made it very clear Legendary collections would be hard. Their intent was to keep the value of precursor.

This is a ludicrous statement. Never, not once, ever, during the triumphant reveal of precursor crafting which was meant to get players to buy HoT did they say they would be designed to keep precursors on the TP expensive. The OP’s take on this is identical to mine, we were lied to so Anet could take our money.

Precursor scavenger hunt was one of the major additions to the game, it had it’s own round of applause at the reveal. If this system had been shown I’d still be waiting for HoT to drop in price.

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

After 2 weeks I’m not done with the story on my 1st character partly due to spending time doing Halloween but also due to the mobs. I was sitting down to tackle the story and after fighting and running through a never ending gaggle of mobs I reached a vet, who killed me. I went from soloing champs in GW2 to getting owned by vets in HoT. What did I do? Turned off the game. When others aren’t doing what you’re doing in HoT maps you’re screwed and it isn’t fun. I don’t mean I was on an empty server, I mean I was the only one in the area important to ME and my leg of the story.

These maps will be ghost towns unless you’re zerging events and that’s not fun to me.

I’ve found precious few vets I can’t solo. Not sure why you had an issue, but if you’re wearing zerker gear, that might be part of the problem. At any rate, I’ve run all over the zone solo and I’ve not often had a problem. And I’m by no means a leet player.

Wearing PTV gear and celestial trinks and not all vets are an issue but not all are vet level in difficulty. I seriously believe they aren’t called champs because they don’t want to dole out champ boxes.

Hi btw glad you’re enjoying HoT, it’s not my cup of tea.

After 2 weeks I’m not done with the story on my 1st character partly due to spending time doing Halloween but also due to the mobs. I was sitting down to tackle the story and after fighting and running through a never ending gaggle of mobs I reached a vet, who killed me. I went from soloing champs in GW2 to getting owned by vets in HoT. What did I do? Turned off the game. When others aren’t doing what you’re doing in HoT maps you’re screwed and it isn’t fun. I don’t mean I was on an empty server, I mean I was the only one in the area important to ME and my leg of the story.

These maps will be ghost towns unless you’re zerging events and that’s not fun to me.

Tigaseye.2047:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Tigaseye.2047:

Aidenwolf.5964:

As if free to play wasn’t bad enough you now want a Chinese style premium membership? I’d burn my Rytlock statue and never look back.

Actually, I don’t really want it, at all.

What I want (or would have wanted, if I hadn’t spent a small fortune, already) is a sub.

But, if the alternative is everyone getting practically no loot, for fear of some people farming gold and then selling it, or keeping it for themselves (and refusing to spend a penny of RL money on the game), then I can’t think of any other solution, really?

If this game had a sub I’d play another game. They wanted money they just sold an xpac. The fact that they’ve gone hyper stingy on loot after asking for us to buy the expansion is a terrible sign.

Well, games that have subs typically also charge for xpacs.

Or, at least, the most famous one does…

The sub is for the servers, to keep the game running and for ongoing (smaller) updates (patches etc.).

You can’t only pay for an xpac, once in a blue moon and expect that to cover everything.

Not saying you think that, obviously, but some people seem to.

I play the game, because (ATM) I want to play the game.

So, I’m obviously playing it despite it not having a sub.

But, as I say, I would prefer a sub, as then I know where I am, how much I’m spending and that I’m contributing a fair amount to the manufacture and running of the product.

As opposed to the current situation, where I’m spending too much and getting not very much back at all.

Presumably, because they think other people can’t, or won’t, spend anything otherwise.

Everything you’ve said is contrary to Anet’s own track record and manifesto. Had they not used those exact words pre GW2 you might get away with it, but I’ll link the video if you like.

Tigaseye.2047:

Aidenwolf.5964:

As if free to play wasn’t bad enough you now want a Chinese style premium membership? I’d burn my Rytlock statue and never look back.

Actually, I don’t really want it, at all.

What I want (or would have wanted, if I hadn’t spent a small fortune, already) is a sub.

But, if the alternative is everyone getting practically no loot, for fear of some people farming gold and then selling it, or keeping it for themselves (and refusing to spend a penny of RL money on the game), then I can’t think of any other solution, really?

If this game had a sub I’d play another game. They wanted money they just sold an xpac. The fact that they’ve gone hyper stingy on loot after asking for us to buy the expansion is a terrible sign.

Tigaseye.2047:

Truth is, if everyone was (an idiot) like me and spent a fair amount of RL money on a ton of cosmetic stuff, they wouldn’t need to be so mean with the loot.

Unfortunately, some people either can’t afford, or have no real interest in, cosmetic stuff.

So, apparently, we all have to be denied decent loot, to try to force us to spend (even more, in some cases) RL money.

I agree with it, in theory, because some people have virtually no real life money; so, the people with more, IRL, can (and probably should) subsidise the others.

But, we all know that some people aren’t poor at all – they are just extremely careful/mean with their money and/or don’t care what their chars look like.

So, us all being loot-starved, at least partly because of them, is not ideal.

I’ve said it before, but really what they probably should do is set a certain minimum limit, that they need people to spend (in RL money) on the game, for x amount of time, to make it healthy and profitable.

Then, after you reach certain increments, they give you better (i.e. more valuable) ingame loot, for the appropriate amount of time the money you have spent buys.

So, say they decided they needed $300 a year from us (I doubt they would need that much from everyone, but we have to assume some would still spend nothing).

Once you reached that amount, they could give you more rewards from playing for the next year.

Obviously, they would need to backdate this system to the start of the game.

So, say you’ve spent $600 since the start of the game, they could give you 2 years of better loot and so on.

Then, the people who couldn’t afford to spend any RL money and/or didn’t care about their char’s looks, could still play for free, as they do now.

Nothing would really change for them.

But the ones who do spend quite a lot, wouldn’t feel they had to either play too much, or poor endless amounts of RL money in, to get the few more cosmetic items they really wanted, over the next year, or whatever.

This system would not only be good for the players who have spent RL money; it would also, probably, be good for Anet.

As some of the people who have spent, say, $240 so far (and could afford it) might decide it was worth it to them to spend $60 more, in order to benefit from the scheme.

Obviously, this is all off the top of my head, so it might need fine tuning, but still.

The only two downsides I can really see are, firstly, that it might create a haves/have nots type of situation.

But, really, you already have that, with F2P and people running around in basic armour and with basic weapons, vs people running around with gemstore armour and legendaries.

The second possible issue is inflation, caused by more gold entering the economy.

Although, I’m not sure how much of an issue that would really be, as we already have gold entering from, real life money, gem to gold conversions.

More than anything, I think it would help retain people who spend (or who have spent) more on the game.

As there must be people who have spent quite a lot, but just can’t justify spending even more (in the shorter term, anyway) and don’t feel they are being fairly rewarded ingame either, so they stay away.

TL;DR: Consider rewarding people, who have spent a reasonable amount of money supporting the game, a little more in ingame loot/currency.

As if free to play wasn’t bad enough you now want a Chinese style premium membership? I’d burn my Rytlock statue and never look back.

shaquinna.2869:

Booey Bubblehead.4890:

Although I haven’t resorted to being a beggar (yet), as a guild leader I do agree with what you’re saying!

My guild roster has 300 players but the reality is that we have about 40-50 active players. As far as I’m concerned, what is being asked in terms of the materials is extraordinarily excessive. Not only do they want standard farmable mats, they also want players to give up their LUCK & PvP Reward Potions. IMO that is just plain ridiculous!

I agree with the PvP reward potions and the luck. I think they should not ask for account bound items in any way. We were lucky we had someone who is a fanatic PvP’er and stacked up on the potions because he already maxed his rank. (Thank you if you’re reading this!)

Asking members to give up their progress in game for the guild hall is wrong..

Yes, I know materials also count as progress towards crafting and making stuff in the Mystic Forge etc, but in my opinion asking for account progress like PVP rank or luck for magic find is something different.

SkyShroud.2865:

In my guild, as a leader, I record all the donations that are coming into either the treasury or guild bank. The list is growing longer and longer but at the same time, recording it is important because you will know among all your members, who are the one who cares and the one who don’t.

This is universal truth to all guilds, there are people who cares and people who don’t. Though it is noble for leaders to want to take care of everyone, but it is also very important to know the members who care and the members who don’t.

I do the same thing. As a leader it’s nice to know who helped us towards guild hall progression. I’m not saying those who don’t don’t care, but I’d still like to know who actually helped.

We’re lucky with the members we have who’re helping us towards our guild hall progression. We’re not ‘rushing’ our guild hall, but ofcourse we’re all very excited and we do want to see all the new stuff!! o/

If you’re unaware, those potions are for the PVP tracks regardless of rank being maxed. Your guildie is giving up fairly serious loot turning those in.

Dengar.1785:

Can you at the very least explain why you want your fully unlocked guild hall yesterday?

Because I don’t get all these newfangled entitled instant gratification lines of thinking.

Entitled ways of thinking? Use a better word. The OP is a GM of a guild and cannot provide the buffs available to guild members pre HoT. Doesn’t ask for insta unlocks simply that it wasn’t incredibly expensive to upgrade.

Entitled…

Grover.8753:

A little bit of info for some……

I finished crafting Spark yesterday and have Tier 3 Zap unlocked. All prices were rounded up to the nearest silver (even Master Crafter supplies, i.e. Thermo, primordium, Coal, etc.) I did all the math at current TP prices (2:34AM PST) counting NO BUY ORDERS and only using INSTANT BUY prices so that the total would come out to the most expensive cost.

Spark Crafting cost : 616g 14s
Current Insta-buy : 815g 98s

Zap Crafting cost : 866g 08s
Current Insta-buy : 915g
Zap Tier 3 requires 1 Capacative Bottle which was cheaper to buy than to craft so I bought it instead of crafting.

If you want a complete and total break down I’ll post it. SOME precursors may be more expensive to craft than they sell on the TP due in fact to their lack of popularity but these pres ARE CHEAPER TO CRAFT THAN TO BUY. So all this nonsensical BS about precursor crafting is too expensive needs to stop. Not all precursors require the same material costs and their prices will fluctuate but I’m sure well see many more Sparks popping up on the TP. Remember the market still needs to settle so prices will change.

Edit: Only need 1 bottle

Precursor prices on the trading post are manipulated by players and by Anet on the supply side and players on the demand side. You can grab a Rage cheaply but who wants an underwater legendary?

Precursor crafting designed to ensure those items remain as expensive as they are while at the same time reducing the amount of gold in the game (dungeon gold nerf) is shady imo. What a great thing Anet finally gave the player base after promising it would be in game in 2013 as part of the core game. We finally get it, and it’s smoke and mirrors, a shell game. Buyer beware.

Entitled? Someone who buys something, anything, including a video game is entitled to voice their opinion. I think this word is used by those who lack the vocabulary to choose a more fitting description of people who are dissatisfied with what they paid for.

Gynok.1756:

Precursor crafting wasn’t invented so people could get them easier or cheaper. It’s just an alternative to gambling or being very lucky.

If Anet had laid out this system during their HoT release announcement they would’ve been able to run the servers for 100 years off the hate it would’ve generated.

This is a bait and switch it’s not debatable

Nike.2631:

Aidenwolf.5964:

I’ve hated the loot system since launch, it’s incredibly bad design.

You might do better with it if you realize its not designed to make you happy, it’s designed to make you keep playing. Consistent satisfaction is actually something it actively avoids delivering.

GW2 is one of the most naked skinner boxes I’ve ever encountered. And in that light it’s also an incredibly well designed and financially successful system.

That in part contributed to losing half the players who bought the game at launch. GG

illustriouz.2594:

LezardValeth.9453:

I have played the entire game since the release date. Guess what? I barely get exotics, let alone rares.

that is bad game design

I’ve hated the loot system since launch, it’s incredibly bad design.

To the OP, I was most excited about precursor crafting / scavenger hunt coming to GW2 as I have waited for that since 2013. As the pillar of this expansion I most looked forward to as an incredibly unlucky player since launch it’s implementation is so offensive that I haven’t even (nor will I) started that mastery.

Fox.3469:

Aidenwolf.5964:

I congratulate every player mad/rich enough to craft/buy this skin. But if you want it to be a legendary, skin it on to a legendary. You made a skin, you have a skin, nothing more. I know it’s expensive that’s why I’m skipping it, it’s a skin.

It’s an ascended shoulder piece, not just a skin, it has ascended stats. As i said it’s not that big of a deal to me it stays that way, just personal preference. The way they described legendary armor would cost about the same as 1 weapon, makes an entire legendary armor cheaper then this skin atm, i just think it would be a nice gesture.

It is an ascended armor of course but it’s the skin that is unique, not the armor. A nice gesture would be making that a reward for a meta event or a scavenger hunt. You received exactly what you were promised.

Congrats on making the only non gemstore addition to Halloween 2015.

zporter.1439:

Elite specs were intended to be a new method of character development that would require you to learn skills more slowly, overcome harder challenges, and reconsider your play style.

Really is too bad that it died because so many people wouldn’t give it a fair shot. Instead, we were given it easily and now it’s lost the greatness.

The system has no effect on how good or bad the eSpecs are. People wanted to play the xpac with a new-ish style that was one of the selling points of the game.

I congratulate every player mad/rich enough to craft/buy this skin. But if you want it to be a legendary, skin it on to a legendary. You made a skin, you have a skin, nothing more. I know it’s expensive that’s why I’m skipping it, it’s a skin.

Zaklex.6308:

morrolan.9608:

Zaklex.6308:

You were not expected to be playing through HoT the first time with the Elite Spec, it was expected that you would use your Elite Spec on a second play through.

Second play through? You mean got through the maps doing the events? 1st, 2nd or 3rd play through don’t have much meaning when the game is relatively open world like HOT is.

And who said that anyway?

fellyn.5083:

Zaklex.6308:

You were not expected to be playing through HoT the first time with the Elite Spec, it was expected that you would use your Elite Spec on a second play through.

According to who?

These people that invent reasons for why it’s the way it is are kind of funny since the real reason it’s the way it is has been painfully obvious since about one hour after HoTs launch.

It’s content padding and that’s it.

Quite obviously reading comprehension is not at the top of peoples lists anymore. Intent, intention, inference…those 3 words(which hopefully I won’t have to define) are what I’m used to determine that the Elite Specs were not expected to be used on the first play through of HoT(story if you want to be that anal, but changing the entire class to your Elite Spec is going to make the entire jungle play differently, even if you’ve already uncovered all of the Open World areas…that perhaps is a matter of semantics, but I’m big on semantics.

You aren’t wrong of course anyone should understand this math.

214 Hero Points from Tyria (max including Krait Obelisk) is the most any player has on any characters when entering the jungle for the first time. Anet clearly intended players to be required to earn their eSpecs by nearly 100% the entire xpac through exploration. This should never be in dispute, it’s math.

This design wasn’t enjoyed by many players and has been changed but you are correct, they did intend for us to complete all maps in the Xpac and vanilla to get eSpecs.

I’m pleased they changed course as I have too many characters to run through Maguuma.

voidwarranty.6193:

Move along people nothing to see here, just catering to casuals again.

Love this. You play GW2 and consider yourself hardcore. You can’t make this up no one would believe you.

I like GW2 I’ve been here Since early access but there is no hardcore in GW2 and that’s fine. I suggest you try a harder game, not quit GW2, I’m not saying leave just try another one and see what hardcore looks like.

Hopefully Raids and high Fractals will be allowed to be super challenging but they will never touch competitive Raiding. After action reviews following successful Raids with actual data used to justify your continued participation in a Raid group is hardcore.

This is simply a miscommunication issue in 3 parts.

1. ELITE Specs aren’t actually ELITE, that’s a marketing concept to sell an expansion. I see a lot of kittens getting upset that they can’t be considered ELITE, but it’s a profession mechanic used to sell The Xpac, relax. The Specs will NOT be more powerful than base Specs, I guarantee it. Remember Anet desperately want to GW2 to be an eSport and PvE and PvP are are the same builds.

2. Many people actually thought eSpecs would be available at launch like any other profession. A few months ago we didn’t even know and by we I mean everyone, so don’t blame new players for being upset that they can’t play something that likely brought them to GW2.

3. WvW only players (who by the way are straight up hardcore and skilled) who never bother with PvE were being required to grind far more than the PvE side of the fence and that was unexpected.

In the end they’re just new class mechanics, they aren’t ELITE that’s just a tag line. For me the gating of eSpecs on my classes wasn’t “fun” so I welcome the change.

Nemesis.8593:

“The nerfs don’t make this game worth the money”.

http://imgur.com/150oL6m

I didn’t have high hopes for the expansion, but they actually manage to create something amazing… and now they are systematically destroying it with all these nerfs.

They just nerfed the entire Verdant Brink map… if they continue at this rate, the entire content will be finished in a month even by casual players… then the same players who cried “too hard OMG” will cry “OMG no end game, you suk ArenaNet” and then move on… just like last time.

I think this is it… if history repeats its self, there is no way ArenaNet can come back a second time from it.

Not trying to disagree with you by the way I’m pointing out that Anet are tuning these maps trying to find the right balance. The just went live Thursday and many areas hadn’t been played so they’re going to be tuned. These maps should always be a challenge imo.

lynspottery.6529:

I have come to the conclusion that the new HoT zones are worse than how Cursed Shore used to be with the mob density and horrific respawns of undead.

I ran through the new map (well more like I stumbled), died a few times and managed to get some way points and earn points towards my masteries. No matter which path I took, I ran into so many mobs it was difficult to even consider exploring anything that looked remotely interesting.

I actually got a chance to try out gliding…died a few times when I slammed into the side of a rock wall and when I lost the wind in my glider without being able to catch an updraft.

The new zone is so terribly overrun with mobs that it is not fun exploring. I hope Anet tones down the density and the immediate respawns so we can at least explore without getting downed every few feet.

I did this on my Ranger and used my war horn in order to keep speed up. I ended up letting my bear run blockage when I needed a quick get away and was fortunate enough to have a guildie helping me past the worst of the “mobjambs.”

I was a wreck when we finally stopped at the last waypoint (lower left corner of the middle map). I am sure my bear will be presenting me with his resignation tomorrow for the suicides he endured on my behalf.

I never did make it anywhere else.

This is supposed to be difficult until you unlock Masteries and even then it should always be challenging.

Healix.5819:

Hero challenges should be solo tests of skill similar to the Queen’s Gauntlet. They should have never been group events. After all, they’re not called heroes challenges and besides, there’s no challenge in a group.

They should have kept the mastery requirements though. There was no need to nerf that and reduce the cost.

I had thousands of skill points turned into spirit shards what about my time I’d already put in playing the old classes? I don’t feel like playing the xpac on what I’ve already been playing for 3 years, surely fun must be factored in, no?

Tuning
15characters

TheUnknownw.4293:

Everyone complaining about 400 being too much. Tell you what, i was happy with 400. I felt i was going for something, not just click and boom everything is done. I was woking towards something.
Stop nerfing stuff because average low skilled players can not do it. Really, if you wanna do something endgame, you should work for it, and i dont mean grind, i mean you have to get good and do stuff which requires skill.
All devs should understand that there are a lot more of negative posts because every player who can not do something because he is incapable of doing it and doesnt want to learn to do it will come and complain to get stuff “for free”/easy way. Players that are having a good time and are working towards hard content and so on dont have time to come and complain, they stay in game and play, they get better and they manage to do what they want.

Not wanting to complete the entire expansion playing our old core classes when we paid for new ones has nothing to do with skill it’s about fun. This will sound off to you I’m sure but you’re whining about skill points here.

Anet have metrics on everything done in game and are keenly aware of what is said about HoT outside of their game and this change is a result of players not enjoying a 4 day old expansion. I don’t care if I have left over HP I wanted to play the new classes on the new maps.

As for skill, any time, anywhere.

I have 3 of 9 (8 80s) characters with 100% map completion, I was 100 points from full Tempest when I logged off, I logged back in and my Tempest Loop was waiting for me along with a refund of hero points. All this means is I can run my Tempest through the last map of the expansion, try to be rational, Anet are never going to change back to 400.

It’s as if you think elite specs are ELITE and only you are wise enough to wield such awesome power. This is an MMO and as such caters to the masses. Just like GW2 vanilla you’ll have surplus hero points but this expac is about Masteries so go get a big number next to your name and try to enjoy yourself.

Justine.6351:

Crapgame.6519:

Justine.6351:

Chrispy.5641:

Justine.6351:

Yeah you almost die refusing to cast your heal skill, which is the type of heal you use above 75% health, and if you had used it you would have been able to use celestial form.

Translation:::
The Drooid is Awesome Guys! Its meant to be used with a healing spec so you ain’t not using it right unless you heal!!! So kitten this video!

Well…yes.

And in a power build, he could have generated enough AF to use CF if he wanted to. But he didn’t want to push heal because it would have negated the whole point of his Pitch-Fork video clearly meant to fuel the Druid-Hate Train.

Well, feel free to bring your own video to the table and prove otherwise? Just a thought.

They posted about it so know it is wonky. What that means is unknown at this time because change this and it is worse, change that and it is fine in pve but broke everywhere else, or change this and that and maybe sprinkle a bit of fairy dust over your shoulder and now it is fine everywhere but broke in WvW large scale fights. So now we have to remove it from WvW or put the grand 33% to it…

Ive posted several vids. I could link them here I suppose.

https://youtu.be/62xEZ_eM3_o
https://youtu.be/kpDyjMlGYc8
https://youtu.be/aQ6gxY8B6r0

and this is when I started to play around with druid. Learning to balance play and AFG and knowing when to use CF and when to not is occupying me right now. CF is a coffin in 1v1ish type encounters. The enemy will just free-cast into you as you try to selfheal with a heal only weapon skill bar. Sometimes I do pop into CF and Lunar Beam for a quick daze/heal/acient seed proc then pop out. The great thing is, I don’t lose all AF and regenerating AF is easier a second CF repeat. CF is really better at healing other allies when you yourself are not being focused. Hence the aoe healing aspect.

Speaking to the first video.

If you think that’s acceptable generation then you’re easily impressed. Front line 1 v 5 and CA for 15 secs will be yours!

He removed a change he put in.

Lord Trejgon.2809:

well I could agree with the statement of Celestial avatar being a little bit overgated in current form but I totally disaggre with “nerf” and explanation for it – as even in the reveal stream Irenio mentioned that even in Avatar form druid is not only heal but also some kind of CC and “situational opener” – hence CAF#3 and #5 even exist….

I’m not asking for the CC to be removed I’m not asking for the CDs on those to be removed either. I’m attempting to justify the removal of the AF barrier to the core profession mechanic. I’ll readily admit I went way over board in doing so.

Staggs.9372:

I’m gonna have to say no, no, no, and no.

Astral Force isn’t that hard to generate in PvE if you use a staff (which you should if you want to enter Celestial Avatar and stay in it since this is a healing form and staff is the only healing weapon set we have). I understand however that it might be frustrating in PvP for people who trait druid to get access to the 13 condis cleanse, the superspeed and stealth, or the damage buff for team mates and self, and so this is just a matter of being able to generate Astral Force threw more than a static amount every time you deal damage or heal. However, making Celestial Avatar something that only serves as a healing tool would be a terrible idea. We already have our 1 and 2 abilities that are basically the same. If they didn’t have the cooldown they have then we’d just spam one and forget about the other. But when in Celestial avatar, you sometimes need to put out some damage because everyone is full health, but you don’t want to leave it in case some one takes a big hit before it should have ended. To save this, removing Astral Force depletion upon leaving celestial avatar could help. Just like with Death shroud, you could get in it, do what has to be done, get out of it, but keep enough ressource to have it available if needed.
Making the forme a no damage and no boon is also extremely terrible design in a PvP environment. If you can’t get stability and are basically a shining healing beacon to enemies, you’re going to get CCd to the ground and beaten so hard at every tune you’ll wish you’d picked an other class… Plus disabling the pet’s damage dealing is also laughable.

Right now, the Druid as a healer is functional and efficient. It’s just a matter of knowing what you’re doing and having the right build. The issues with the druid come when you try to mix it with other talent trees for damage dealing and quickly realize it has not been thought for that.

Only real big issue I see at this point with the druid is the absence of other support weapons than the staff. Only thing I could find is a traited Warhorn to apply boons and regen to allies, but there’s no main hand support weapon to complete it so I end up using the axe because in PvE it’s a terrible idea to use the ranger’s sword because of the auto attack that can cause your death soooo easily.

That’s exactly what CA is, Healing and Cleanses for party support. The more selfish abilities are out of form.

As for AF filling quickly that’s only in large group situations and I believe that’s a failure of design. The form at minimum should be as accessible as Necro Death Shroud.

wolfram.8291:

Please please please ANET. Stand your ground. Weren’t Masteries and Unlocking Elite Spec supposed to take longer than getting to level 80 in the base game? Why are you folding to the elite spec complaints and not doing anything about the mastery farming?

You’re in the minority clearly

The Druid is not a Ranger. Unlike the other classes Elites the Druid is an entirely new playstyle and role and needs to be developed as such. The issues that arise from adding a Healing class are significant and I don’t make light of those so I’m adding serious Nerfs to my recommendations to compensate. Please let me know what you think, as this will change the class drastically.

The mechanics for everything I propose are currently in the game, I’m not asking for massive dev hours.

Celestial Avatar is the Druid’s core mechanic, not the Pet or Astral Force. The CA form therefore must be available when needed or wanted as all other classes core mechanics are. This should be universally accepted.

I propose removing out of CA form Astral Force generation enrirely as the generation of AF and Degen are a Major gating issue. Upon entering CA the AF bar would be full and heals would consume the AF but AF would be generated within the form to enable a Druid to remain healing if desired/required. A Druid actively healing could and should be able to remain in CA indefinitely.

If it’s felt Druids are healing too effectively tune the heals, don’t gate the core mechanic. In a competitive environment and raids the Druid in form is not contributing DPS and as devs you must see the benefit to balance that brings.

The Nerfs that make this work.

Upon entering CA the Druid loses all boons and boons cannot be applied to Druids in CA. In PvP this will help with balance and in raids it will mean that a Druid will have to leave form if targeted for self preservation.

Upon entering CA the Ranger’s pet also enters CA form (just a reskin, same as the Ranger) and the pets attacks do no damage. The attacks are instead AF generation filling the bar. This one in particular will cause panic but Druids in form are healers, period.

No other class has a mechanic they cannot call upon at will and the Druid must be able to use CA when the player wants to.

Thank you for reading.

Aomine.5012:

It’s hard to give constructive feedback in ranger forum section, because it seems 30 pages of constructive feedbacks on Druid BWE3 experience is not enough, that they have to literally just ignore everything people suggested and adding some random kittens that no-one ever mentioned (like AF degen OOC, smokescale f2 swap place), and straight up nerf Druid to oblivion without compensating it with anything.

We had a massive CDI going over every detail of the profession covering these and many more issues.
- Pet AI
- Pet Death
- 33% of our power given to the Pet
- Unresponsive Pet F2
- Pet not landing attacks
- Sword auto attack

And what did we collaboratively come up with? I say collaboratively because I believe it was Gaile who suggested it first… Aspects or Perma Pet Stow.

Did any of those issues or suggestion make it into the live game or HoT development?

- Pet 95% damage reduction, which is great but that’s all we got out of the CDI

I would love for the Druid to be great I am rooting for Irenio I really am. The class has the tools to be truly great not OP but a blast to play and useful in every mode.

Get it right make CA perma.

My Ranger was 1st into HoT and I sat him in favor of my Ele.

Very Druid-Like. It’s a whole new playstyle. /sarcasm

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Hey all,

I’m looking into the combat degen resulting in too heavy a gating of Celestial Avatar in PvE situations; from what I saw over the weekend it seemed overly restrictive in open world battles. If this continues it then the degeneration when out of combat is likely to be removed.

Serious design question, why is a time gated stance with abilities on cooldowns, required to generate AF at all?

10 sec cool down to re-enter the form
15 sec limit on remaining in the form
Abilities within the form on CD

Is it possible to simply 100% refill the AF bar upon entering CA and have the heals consume AF and then have healing/damage refill the bar while in the form?

It feels as though Celestial Avatar form is an afterthought currently and that’s a shame as I see a potentially fun Spec. I would love to see CA treated like an Elementalists attunement. The mechanics are already there.

Thanks for reading. (Tree form for reference).

People not used to healing in MMOs are the only ones enjoying Druid imo but that’s another topic.

Rikkado.7321:

GW2 was the first game Angry Joe ever gave a 10/10 iirc.

And he / they quit.

3 for me.
I love the new maps (but the abilities to access the full map is XP gated too heavily).

I love the story so far (I’ve barely done it since I’m trying to unlock Masteries to access it).

I like the elite specs least of all particularly Druid as the Devs Copy Pasta’d the class and it feels cheaply done (and I need to XP unlock them (nice of me to avoid using grind)).

The game runs smoothly and I’ve only run into a few bugs (although one is game breaking (I’m looking at you mega server)).

Solid 3 sounds fair. Since most of us are farming dungeons for XP to unlock Masteries we’ve already earned.

1st. Elite specs aren’t progression they’re a class. Progression is the mastery system and that’s what was communicated. Many planned on playing HoT on our new toys after 3 years of the same classes.

2nd. The slow pace of the xp bar has driven many including me to farm COF mindlessly tagging as it’s superior to playing the new maps. Think about that, 3 days after launch and we’re grinding COF.

3rd. The elite specs themselves aren’t all that elite. The Druid in particular is a train wreck.

Druid is kitten I’d have preferred ASPECTS (look it up Anet we had a CDI and everything). Druid could’ve been great but they can’t let Rangers be good now can they?

So Druid is kitten but not to worry we had ONE little gem our glorious Smokescale with it’s amazing attacks and it’s OMG did you see that Smoke Field! So Rangers not only could’ve but would’ve been incredibly useful in group PVE and elite in PVP (it’s our turn).

Removing the smoke field is a dagger to the back. It’s a lie revealed as a lie. Look at your new pets Rangers WE LOVE YOU TOO…. and then it’s gone, in a few days after launch.

RIP Ranger Aidenwolf

Dojo.1867:

Unpopular opinion here but are you aware that the smokefield does not blind? All it does was enable stealth combos and from playing ranger with this pet the last few days I found this VERY situational.

Being able to control the burst on the other side seems like a mayor improvement. I am sure it can be used a lot more frequently now aswell. You can succefully combo it with Sic’Em (would stop the attack before if you just use it when Smoke Scale started the mist walk) and you can stack 7 might with WHAO.

So unless they would also change the smokefield to actually pulse blind I MUCH prefer the new installment. You can hate me now.

Unpopular to the extreme because the F2 smoke field was the ONLY reason to choose the pet for me.

Accurate. Even when I see 10 others and we try to take down a champ the encounter times out. Solo PVE isn’t a thing in HoT

I’m very interested in the retroactive part of this.

MirrorOfNature.4279:

Aidenwolf.5964:

MirrorOfNature.4279:

Aidenwolf.5964:

ReaverKane.7598:

In case you didn’t notice, Guildwars 2 is a BUY to play game. If you don’t want to buy then its a trial.
If you bought core and don’t want to buy the expansion, then you play core (as in fractals up to 50).
And if you’re the kind of guy that even AFTER launch you don’t know what the expansion content is, then maybe you’re being kicked out of the parties for a few other reasons not due to having or not masteries unlocked.

This is a paying player (those freebies can’t post) so address him/her accordingly. When we BOUGHT Guild Wars 2 it was “pay once and play forever” in case you didn’t know.

What? Being a paying player immune oneself from being annoying and whiny in his/her entitelment how everything should be served to him or her on silver plate for paying 3 years ago? In case YOU didn’t know you paid for an MMO not a single player based game. Which means things change. You can’t really believe you’ll pay once for an MMO game and play it forever. If you do, then I suggest more walks out in the real world. Single player based games also have DLC packs being released, so you if you want to experience the new content the game has to offer, you need to pay. Even more so with MMO’s since they require non-stop support to keep running smoothly on daily basis, and this game never required monthly subs, so I really, really don’t get all of this complaints about prices and the need to pay for new expansions.

I’ve been here Since before launch. I bought GW because of the company’s philosophy. If you’re attempting to call me naive you’re wasting you breath.

Pre expansion GW2 should not have anything removed because that content was PAID FOR.

I keep seeing this 3 years ago you paid for product X comment and I think players like you are why gaming is kitten right now. You swallow half finished games and welcome DLC as if you’re not the one footing the bill.

As a player who OWNS all of the GW games including HoT I reject your thinking wholeheartedly.

To your comment about DLC specifically, DLC does not remove functionality from the core game. A paid GW2 player should always be able to do fractals up to 50 at the minimum.

Let me put it out for you in very short and simple sentance: This is how the real world works, mate. Whether you or me like that its irrelavant. It will not change on our account. In the case of GW2 im satisfied with the content offered, so I don’t have any complaints with my purchase and I think its well worth all the money I put away for it. There’s many different games and DLC’s for which I think the asked price is atrocious. The example with the DLC’s was to make a different point, one which utterly escaped you, I am afraid.

The new expansion is designed in a way to not remove ANY of the old content for the people who didn’t purchased it. As it should be. This kind of situations, can be blamed on the mindset of some players in the game, and not on Anet, because their intended design is not in flaw here.

I understood what you wrote I used it against your arguement. You mentioned DLC because it is relevant to this discussion however not the way you intended.

MirrorOfNature.4279:

Aidenwolf.5964:

ReaverKane.7598:

In case you didn’t notice, Guildwars 2 is a BUY to play game. If you don’t want to buy then its a trial.
If you bought core and don’t want to buy the expansion, then you play core (as in fractals up to 50).
And if you’re the kind of guy that even AFTER launch you don’t know what the expansion content is, then maybe you’re being kicked out of the parties for a few other reasons not due to having or not masteries unlocked.

This is a paying player (those freebies can’t post) so address him/her accordingly. When we BOUGHT Guild Wars 2 it was “pay once and play forever” in case you didn’t know.

What? Being a paying player immune oneself from being annoying and whiny in his/her entitelment how everything should be served to him or her on silver plate for paying 3 years ago? In case YOU didn’t know you paid for an MMO not a single player based game. Which means things change. You can’t really believe you’ll pay once for an MMO game and play it forever. If you do, then I suggest more walks out in the real world. Single player based games also have DLC packs being released, so you if you want to experience the new content the game has to offer, you need to pay. Even more so with MMO’s since they require non-stop support to keep running smoothly on daily basis, and this game never required monthly subs, so I really, really don’t get all of this complaints about prices and the need to pay for new expansions.

I’ve been here Since before launch. I bought GW because of the company’s philosophy. If you’re attempting to call me naive you’re wasting you breath.

Pre expansion GW2 should not have anything removed because that content was PAID FOR.

I keep seeing this 3 years ago you paid for product X comment and I think players like you are why gaming is kitten right now. You swallow half finished games and welcome DLC as if you’re not the one footing the bill.

As a player who OWNS all of the GW games including HoT I reject your thinking wholeheartedly.

To your comment about DLC specifically, DLC does not remove functionality from the core game. A paid GW2 player should always be able to do fractals up to 50 at the minimum.

Panites.6798:

Wait so how longs the expansion been up? And you are expecting to get the precursor today? Its not a get a free precursor card, its a long journey to get it. The feature has hardly been in the game yet you are whining about it, seriously grow up. Instead of living life just for a legendary, why don’t you actually play the game or did you spend $50 to expect a free precursor with the expansion?

L2Read before condemning. The OP clearly stated the issue with the mastery is “RNG” (I’ll also explain that RNG stands for random number generator since you might not know that either). Pre crafting was supposed to be RNG free.

Suinz.5968:

I have this feeling that this is content stretching. I don’t want to believe it, but it is the only logical conclusion as to why this is

The simplest solution is they want money. More and more money. They introduced precursor crafting like they were finally giving us what they promised but internally their data showed they wouldn’t make enough money selling GEMS, so we bought snake oil.

ReaverKane.7598:

In case you didn’t notice, Guildwars 2 is a BUY to play game. If you don’t want to buy then its a trial.
If you bought core and don’t want to buy the expansion, then you play core (as in fractals up to 50).
And if you’re the kind of guy that even AFTER launch you don’t know what the expansion content is, then maybe you’re being kicked out of the parties for a few other reasons not due to having or not masteries unlocked.

This is a paying player (those freebies can’t post) so address him/her accordingly. When we BOUGHT Guild Wars 2 it was “pay once and play forever” in case you didn’t know.

Roeore.6274:

Why could they have not have left it like it was in BWE3 and nerfed buffed it from there with feedback from there rather than spoiling the initial experience after the hype.

I wasn’t happy with the beta version of the form. It’s a healbot form, they lock it behind generation and timers which is lazy design.