Guild Wars 2

infinityandbeyond.9652:

Amiron.1067:

Anyone know how to fix this or experiencing the same problem? It’s not gamebreaking, but I can’t play with that stutter, so I have to run the shadow settings on High, even though I know my computer is strong enough to run it on Ultra. Here are my computer specs:

Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition LGA 1150 Intel Z97
i7-4790k @ 4.00 GHz
2 × 4gb Corsair Vengeance (8gb of RAM)
780ti GeForce gfx card
Windows 8.1 64 bit

Thanks for any/all responses!

Hi mate,

What fixed this for me is running the -forwardrenderer command line argument. For more info please refer to the wiki
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Command_line_arguments

I gave this a shot, and it didn’t do much except blur/glitch the shadows and made the stutter worse. Very strange. I wonder if yours was a unique case? Or perhaps mine is the unique case. I’ve been reading online, and it seems like this stuttering shadows issue has been around since launch.

Zoxe.4651:

I am 2 months late, but I am and have been experiencing the same issue for the longest time. Due to it I am also running shadows on high instead of ultra, which makes me sad.

You have provided me with one answer though; it isn’t sli related, which I had thought for the longest time. Somehow this information makes me happy. I know another thing. Yay.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s Nvidia related. I’ve read somewhere it’s not an issue for AMD users. I’m still experiencing this issue, and it’s quite frustrating. I want to enjoy this game’s amazing art, but I guess I’ll have to settle for fuzzy shadows and sacrifice the distant environment shadows until they figure out what the issue is.

ANet, please look into this. This has been an issue for years now.

Video highlighting the bug:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVnToBKFU6E&feature=youtu.be

Anyone know how to fix this or experiencing the same problem? It’s not gamebreaking, but I can’t play with that stutter, so I have to run the shadow settings on High, even though I know my computer is strong enough to run it on Ultra. Here are my computer specs:

Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition LGA 1150 Intel Z97
i7-4790k @ 4.00 GHz
2 × 4gb Corsair Vengeance (8gb of RAM)
780ti GeForce gfx card
Windows 8.1 64 bit

Thanks for any/all responses!

I’ve contacted support five days ago, and still no response, so this was the only other place I could think of to post to for help. My old GW1 account is most definitely linked to this account, but I can’t access it using the same login credentials like I’m supposed to. Out of curiosity, I tried using my old email address that doesn’t exist any longer, and it seems to recognize the account, but I don’t know the password, and I can’t reset it because the old email address it’s connected to is gone.

bigmonto.4215:

Amiron.1067:

bigmonto.4215:

Amiron.1067:

Purple Miku.7032:

Amiron.1067:

Anyone that tells you warrior that the profession is subpar has no idea what they’re talking about. Sure, we’re not top damage, but that’s not as important as the buffs we bring to groups. Banners are fantastic, and I find myself often running a Phalanx build to help give my team 25 stacks of might.

Riiiiiiiight.

1.) Witty Response? check (albeit hardly humorous)
2.) One word response with no logic or reasoning? check

Congratulations! You meet the qualifications for the title of forum troll!

Actually I think his point is pretty clear.

Based on your message history, it seems you just came back into the game, which explain why you seems surprised.

Basically for PvE, the only reason for bring warrior is banner. Phalanx is generally only for pugs, since Ele can stack 25 stack much better. Warrior is also one of the last place in terms of dps. So yeah warrior is still very much in demand for pugs, or casual play. But in a pretty bad shape in terms of top level play. This is why your comment of “Anyone that tells you warrior that the profession is subpar has no idea what they’re talking about” is so ironic.

What’s ironic is you’re basing how often I play the game on my forum history. There are other places to talk about the game, you know (Reddit, GW2Guru, etc.) I hardly visit the forums due to the nature of the people in it.

I’m not surprised, nor am I wrong. The warrior profession is in fifth place with damage, not even dead last, and there are people here claiming that this profession is terrible, as if their banners/boons are an afterthought. Sure, if you’re looking for the top end optimal speed run dungeon clear, there are probably certain comps that fill more niche gameplay. But for your average joe running AC explorable for his daily gold, he doesn’t need to reroll his class just to run it a minute faster as an elementalist or thief.

What’s even more ironic is that it seems you are one of those people whose nature you don’t like. Keep in mind you are the first one saying someone “has no idea what they’re talking about”. I am only trying to explain why people might make a comment like “Riiiiight”. If you already know, then why ask for a “logic or reasoning”?

If you are only talking about casual runs or pug games, then who cares. This is a casual game by nature. Every single profession is in good spot in that case.

I hereby apologize that I believe some people have no understanding of terrible. But at this point, it’s a completely unrelated topic to the original post.

People here claiming that a profession is subpar will likely scare them off from what is otherwise an enjoyable and perfectly viable profession. I’m not going to lie and tell them that Warriors are the best at damage, because they’re not. But to tell them they’re terrible? That’s a hyperbole if I’ve ever heard one.

Purple Miku.7032:

My statements about warrior being terrible are of my own opinion, but the reasons I gave for it being terrible are factual and based off of things that actually happened in the past year.

You’re right! It is your opinion to make that claim, just as much as it is mine to say otherwise. Your “facts” can be interpreted differently.

Need I remind any of the hardcore players here that if you’re truly hardcore, you’d know that DPS matters far less than what team buffs a profession brings to the table. Necros, some of the lowest sustained DPS right now, would instantly replace Warriors should they gain the ability to use banners, even if their DPS was lower.

If you want to keep staring at outright DPS, by all means, you’re correct.

bigmonto.4215:

Amiron.1067:

Purple Miku.7032:

Amiron.1067:

Anyone that tells you warrior that the profession is subpar has no idea what they’re talking about. Sure, we’re not top damage, but that’s not as important as the buffs we bring to groups. Banners are fantastic, and I find myself often running a Phalanx build to help give my team 25 stacks of might.

Riiiiiiiight.

1.) Witty Response? check (albeit hardly humorous)
2.) One word response with no logic or reasoning? check

Congratulations! You meet the qualifications for the title of forum troll!

Actually I think his point is pretty clear.

Based on your message history, it seems you just came back into the game, which explain why you seems surprised.

Basically for PvE, the only reason for bring warrior is banner. Phalanx is generally only for pugs, since Ele can stack 25 stack much better. Warrior is also one of the last place in terms of dps. So yeah warrior is still very much in demand for pugs, or casual play. But in a pretty bad shape in terms of top level play. This is why your comment of “Anyone that tells you warrior that the profession is subpar has no idea what they’re talking about” is so ironic.

What’s ironic is you’re basing how often I play the game on my forum history. There are other places to talk about the game, you know (Reddit, GW2Guru, etc.) I hardly visit the forums due to the nature of the people in it.

I’m not surprised, nor am I wrong. The warrior profession is in fifth place with damage, not even dead last, and there are people here claiming that this profession is terrible, as if their banners/boons are an afterthought. Sure, if you’re looking for the top end optimal speed run dungeon clear, there are probably certain comps that fill more niche gameplay. But for your average joe running AC explorable for his daily gold, he doesn’t need to reroll his class just to run it a minute faster as an elementalist or thief.

Xyonon.3987:

Warrior is in a great spot right now – PvP WvW PvE. Stop qqing.

This. It’s hilarious seeing so many complaints when are profession is no where near the mess that some other professions are.

Purple Miku.7032:

Amiron.1067:

Anyone that tells you warrior that the profession is subpar has no idea what they’re talking about. Sure, we’re not top damage, but that’s not as important as the buffs we bring to groups. Banners are fantastic, and I find myself often running a Phalanx build to help give my team 25 stacks of might.

Riiiiiiiight.

1.) Witty Response? check (albeit hardly humorous)
2.) One word response with no logic or reasoning? check

Congratulations! You meet the qualifications for the title of forum troll!

Anyone that tells you warrior that the profession is subpar has no idea what they’re talking about. Sure, we’re not top damage, but that’s not as important as the buffs we bring to groups. Banners are fantastic, and I find myself often running a Phalanx build to help give my team 25 stacks of might.

I’m no pro-sPvPer, but I’ve been really enjoying my GS/Longbow build (4/0/6/0/4 traits) especially after the GS adrenaline burst 10% buff. And to think Warrior’s can’t bring anything to a WvW zerg/havoc group either is an ignorant thought.

Overall, Warriors are a great profession. Don’t let the nerfs we received a while back scare you away from playing one of the best offensive support professions around. If you’re looking for advice, PM me! I’d be happy to offer all the tips I know.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Amiron.1067:

hybrid.5027:

Amiron.1067:

Uh… what trinity? I mean, they wanted a Control, Support, and Damage trinity, and the only one really present is Damage.

I didn’t know my Damage reflected projectiles, blinded trash mobs, put Deep Freeze on bosses, managed their Defiant stacks, cleansed conditions and granted stability. I guess I wasn’t using Support or Control after all!

The issue is the gearset. You did this all in berserker. Which raises the question, why have any other gear stat combinations at all if none of them even compare in the slightest or have their uses in PvE instances?

You know exactly what I mean.

If you dont believe they have their uses in the whole game (restricting the discussion to just pve is a mistake), then clearly you’ve not done everything the game has to offer. I’ll be sure to not revive you in fractals after you’ve been splattered by mai trin

I clearly stated PvE instances, as that’s what I’m discussing currently. It is an issue if there is no build variety in instances. I understand some sets can be used for WvW, but that’s only one place in the game. Arguably, some sets can be useful in open world content, like the Silverwastes (condition builds are particularly helpful with husks), but these are very limited environments. When dungeons are run as constantly as they are and there is literally only one viable way to clear it quickly, it’s detrimental to the game’s health.

I have over 3000 hours on this account, and I’m not claiming to be hardcore, but I figure that would at least testify my experience in the game to talk about these issues. Mai Trin is literally one encounter where it’s beneficial to use toughness to mitigate standing in the bad, but even then it’s a detriment to your team if you’re doing lower DPS when you could be dealing more damage and still staying alive.

The game needs diversity, and it needs ways to allow players to specialize in control or support, while still remaining viable options.

Thaddeus.4891:

Amiron.1067:

hybrid.5027:

Amiron.1067:

Uh… what trinity? I mean, they wanted a Control, Support, and Damage trinity, and the only one really present is Damage.

I didn’t know my Damage reflected projectiles, blinded trash mobs, put Deep Freeze on bosses, managed their Defiant stacks, cleansed conditions and granted stability. I guess I wasn’t using Support or Control after all!

The issue is the gearset. You did this all in berserker (and if you didn’t, you were a detriment to your team.) Which raises the question, why have any other gear stat combinations at all if none of them even compare in the slightest or have their uses in PvE instances?

You know exactly what I mean.

Your first argument was control and support is not there, only dmg. He responded to that. Now you are talking about gear, which is another issue.

Ok so why any othe gear stats exist right?

Half defensive gear like knight exist in PvE for ppl that learn the game, learn a profession or just play casual and just want a easier pve experience. A lot of ppl, including all those zerker elistist (like me) used those gear as learning wheel and I’m glad they exist.

Condition gear is very good in solo situation and should be good in PvE, but there is an issue with condition itself in PvE that need to be fixed. Everybody know it and want it. From the casual necromancer to that elistist that solo lupi in a min.

After that a lot of gear is really good in WvW, but maybe you don’t count that huge part of the game?

And this right here is the issue. People see certain stat combinations as “training wheels”. That should never be the case. Every stat combination should be meaningful and add to the gameplay, not act as some sort of stepping stone to the almighty stat combination of power, precision, and ferocity. When one stat combination rules all, there is a clear issue in game design.

You keep bringing up WvW, but if you didn’t notice, I was talking about PvE instances. And even in WvW, berserker is still the meta in large zergs.

embarbarada.2096:

Burn Them All !!!!! XDD

Sylvari are friends, not fuel!

hybrid.5027:

Amiron.1067:

Uh… what trinity? I mean, they wanted a Control, Support, and Damage trinity, and the only one really present is Damage.

I didn’t know my Damage reflected projectiles, blinded trash mobs, put Deep Freeze on bosses, managed their Defiant stacks, cleansed conditions and granted stability. I guess I wasn’t using Support or Control after all!

The issue is the gearset. You did this all in berserker (and if you didn’t, you were a detriment to your team.) Which raises the question, why have any other gear stat combinations at all if none of them even compare in the slightest or have their uses in PvE instances?

You know exactly what I mean.

None, because they won’t use it. They don’t even have dx11, what makes you think they’ll have dx12, a brand new version meant only for Windows 10 users?

A personal discontent I have with the Warrior traits “Berserker’s Power” and “Heightened Focus”…

They encourage warriors to not use their adrenaline abilities, effectively diminishing gameplay elements. What’s the point of having adrenaline abilities when it’s literally a massive DPS loss to use them? I’d like to see these traits either reworked or removed.

Perhaps it could be reworked to give the warrior a five or ten second buff that increases their damage/crit chance by 5/10/15% based on their level of adrenaline when their adrenaline ability was used?

Don’t make traits that effectively remove gameplay elements of a class!

Hypetrain is going far too fast to consider that possibility, OP.

Choo chooooooo!

Beldin.5498:

Amiron.1067:

-Shadows: Pretty taxing. From “Ultra” to “High”, I gained 10-15 fps, depending on the area.

Is there any MMO where shadows are not one of things that eat the most FPS ?

At least i remember it from EQ2 and RIFT.

This is true. But I’d expect shadows to be more taxing than the water reflections. Other games can handle water reflections so much better than GW2 does.

I still believe the root of the problem is DirectX 9.

Missing some specifics, but here are my specs:

Windows 7 64 bit
i7 975 Extreme (overclocked to 4.1 GHz)
780Ti EVGA Superclocked
16GB of 1866MHz RAM
1920 × 1080 @ 120 Hz (3.00x Native Resolution via Nvidia Super Resolution)

There are things in this game that definitely need optimization, and badly. These things include:

-Water Reflections: Turning reflections from “All” to “Terrain & Sky” yielded a 25 fps gain… WHEN THERE WAS NO WATER AROUND. But there’s the catch! They placed water entirely beneath the maps of the world, so you’re always near water, you just can’t see it, and it taxes your machine unnecessarily.

-Shadows: Pretty taxing. From “Ultra” to “High”, I gained 10-15 fps, depending on the area.

-Character Model Limit: Anything above “Medium” in an area with a lot of players drastically lowers my fps from the usual 70-120 to 45~. It’s clear that the game, while designed for massive zerg battles, was not optimized for it.

Also, if they ever optimized the game for DirectX 11 (or, by chance the new DirectX12 when it’s released which is a long shot) we would see a large performance gain. DirectX9 is soooooooooo bad.

-What ever will people do if we don’t have a level cap raise!?-

… You know, play the game without having their gear become outdated? This is my problem with other MMO expansions; stop making the gear I worked my kitten off (or sometimes not?) out of date because of some silly idea we need to keep gaining levels to get more powerful. That’s so wrong. We can gain power through new skills/traits/weapons, and raising the level cap would make the extremely grindy ascended gear out of date. Can you imagine the nerd rage if they announced a level cap?

You could hold a marshmallow to the screen while viewing the general discussion forums and roast it in seconds.

Uh… what trinity? I mean, they wanted a Control, Support, and Damage trinity, and the only one really present is Damage.

As for Rangers? They’re perfectly viable now and deal good DPS as opposed to the Ranger of GW2’s launch. Anyone not taking a ranger is just stuck in the past.

Things become the “meta” because they’re, you know… usually so… efficient?

I mean, I might be going out on a limb here, but I don’t really see the difference.

Tom Gore.4035:

rapthorne.7345:

It may simply be a renaming of the game, much like other games do when they release substantial updates (IE, RIFT: Nightmare Tide/Storm Legion, AION: Ascension/Steel Cavalry, etc)

A substantial update is pretty much what an expansion is, by definition.

Have the naysayers really reached a point where they are now arguing semantics? “Yeah we’re getting five new zones, new race, new class and new skills for each profession, but it’s just an update. It’s not an expansion!”

In answer to your question? Yes. They will always find something to argue about.

They’re grasping at just about anything to make some sort of argument.

http://thumbpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/funny-society-donkey-metaphor1.jpg

OP in a nutshell.

Kalendraf.9521:

There’s a right place and wrong place to use RNG. The modified RNG method sounds intriguing, but it may not be the correct solution for everything. Here is a repost about RNG I previously had made on the gw2guru site which seem applicable toward this discussion:

There isn’t necessarily a one size fits all approach for this. The main issue with RNG often relates to it’s magnitude and frequency. For example, depending on the nature of the game, here are situations where RNG might be ok versus ones that are definitely not ok (ranges are intended as examples):

A ) Check occurs often, chance of success is relatively high (30% or more) = perfect place to use normal RNG
B ) Check occurs often, chance of success is moderate (10% to 30%) = RNG is probably ok, but alternative approach could be considered for fairness.
C ) Check occurs often, chance is low (1% to 10%) = RNG might be ok, but an alternative approach is likely better.
D ) Check occurs often, chance is miniscule (below 1%) = RNG should not be considered. An alternative method should be used instead.

E ) Check occurs infrequently, chance of success is relatively high (30% or more) = RNG is probably ok, but alternative approach should be considered if check occurs only at very long intervals.
F ) Check occurs infrequently, chance of success is moderate (10% to 30%) = RNG might be ok, but an alternative approach should probably be used instead for fairness.
G ) Check occurs infrequently, chance is low (1% to 10%) = RNG should not be considered, and an alternative method should be used instead
H ) Check occurs infrequently, chance is miniscule (below 1%) = This combination should be avoided entirely! For fairness, the game mechanics should not permit combinations where a chance is too low with infrequent checks.

Note – my definition here of often vs. infrequent are intentionally vague. For a general idea, “often” would be a check that occurs many times per hour in the course of normal gameplay. Infrequent would be something that occurs very rarely, or requires significant time or resource expenditure by the player to make it occur.

How do those relate to GW2? The following are intended as examples and the exact percentages may not fit the example ranges listed above:
A ) Chance of landing a critical hit (depending on build of course). Perfect place for RNG
B ) Chance of a mob dropping a random item (of any type). Other RNG could determine the specific type of item.
C ) Chance of a node producing a special item when harvested. For example, getting a gem while mining an ore node.
D ) Chance of a lockpick from piles of silky sand (often category might be a stretch here – is based on a player participating continually in DryTop events)
E ) Chance of getting at least 1 ecto while salvaging a rare with a mystic kit.
F ) Chance of a Black Lion Chest producing a scrap
G ) Chance of Mystic Forge producing something useful (exotic with rare skin, valuable rune/sigil)
H ) Chance of Mystic Forge producing a precursor

Now this is good feedback. Great approach, now the only question left is “what should the alternative method be?”

silvermember.8941:

The game has 4 too many races, which lead to kittenty armor selection. The other races imo adds nothing significant to the game except more work and less armor choices for humans.

should have stuck to 1 race like gw1.

This multiple races lead to a blander story than gw1 and gw1 was already bland and generic.

2 main things:

-The nerf everything attitude, its just sad…
-Blandness of the loot across GW2 and how there’s a disconnect with the devs and players over rewarding loot.

Buffing everything is only going to lead to power creep, which is signficantly worst than nerfing. Especially since a form of PvP is linked to PvE.

I have to disagree. I love the variety of races. My sylvari is my favorite character I’ve ever made in any mmo to date.

I honestly believe that the wurm and tequatl fights would make amazing raid content if balanced around 10-15 players. GW2’s newer dungeons, fights, and mechanics have proven that the dev team can create thought provoking encounters in a zerg, so I know they could make it work if they created raid style instances.

And when I say raid, I don’t mean gear treadmills. I mean fun content that requires an organized 10-15 man group. I really would love to see what ANet could pull off in that kind of environment.

Akisame.9508:

Amiron.1067:

Or you know, instead of giving rangers two pets (seems silly to me), they can take the easy route and just do what every other freaking mmo does and give pets AoE resistance so they don’t die within seconds of a boss fight, becoming practically useless.

Seriously, if they just did this, half of Ranger problems would go away. Unfortunately, ranger pets use the same craptastic AI regular mobs use, so you can forget about them ever hitting that moving target. There are so many problems with pets, and if ANet’s “amazing changes” are just more trait/utility tweaks, they’ve yet again done diddly squat for the profession.

C’mon Anet. 90% resistance to AoE. How hard is it?

Your right, that is half of the pet problems, the other half is the fact that our pets will not hit a moving target because it has to stop to do an animation before it attacks, so when the attack actually happens, the player you where attacking is not there anymore. This isn’t as much as a problem in PvE as it is in PvP and even worse in WvWvW. However, what are the chances of either of these two things being fixed? According to Anet’s description of the class, we are suppose to be a ranged pet class. It’s funny that a ‘designed’ pet ranged class has to resort to going into Melee combat in order to try and keep up with the DPS from other classes. It’s also funny how a Melee dps class, which was designed for melee dps such as warriors, can do more damage then ranger’s at range. They got the hole thing backwards.

It’s funny, is it not? It’s why my sylvari archer concept who wields Kudzu is a Warrior, not a Ranger. The damage is absurd on Warrior longbow.

And I agree. Pets need to be able to hit targets on the move, otherwise they’re still useless even if they can survive a nuclear blast.

whyme.3281:

I dont see any problem here, it’s this “everyone is a noob, we cant make the game more difficulty” thing, that ruins a lot of todays games.

Improving the AI would make PvE more challanging and more fun.

The pets damage on the other hand must be lowerd, because if they hit, they hit like a truck.

Why I dont understand is, why cant ANET make an envolving AI, lvl 1-30 like it is today, at lvl 30-60 they are smarter and at lvl 60-80, they use combo fields, dodge, heal, …..

And I dont think, they only have one AI for all enemies and Pets, bandits for example are smarter, they retreat and so on.

Having craptastic AI from a game design standpoint on purpose is the most horrendous idea I’ve ever heard. When I leveled my ranger in another certain game, my pet worked from level one to max, and I genuinely enjoyed having a pet. In GW2, the words “dead” and “useless” come to mind when I think about Ranger pets.

If ANet had brains when they developed the game, they wouldn’t have built pets around the same AI as regular world mobs. Terrible game design, and a terrible excuse on their end.

The fixes are simple; give pets AoE resistance, better responsiveness, and the ability to hit moving targets. Otherwise, this class will continue to be a joke in PvE.

Or you know, instead of giving rangers two pets (seems silly to me), they can take the easy route and just do what every other freaking mmo does and give pets AoE resistance so they don’t die within seconds of a boss fight, becoming practically useless.

Seriously, if they just did this, half of Ranger problems would go away. Unfortunately, ranger pets use the same craptastic AI regular mobs use, so you can forget about them ever hitting that moving target. There are so many problems with pets, and if ANet’s “amazing changes” are just more trait/utility tweaks, they’ve yet again done diddly squat for the profession.

C’mon Anet. 90% resistance to AoE. How hard is it?

LyricDawnhagen.7803:

Don’t listen to the nay sayers that call the Living Story “temporary or disposable content” The stories are adding new things to the game that stick around long after their chapter is done.

Sure, they’re leaving some interesting things behind as the living story content disappears, but the unique items you can’t get outside of that now gone content is depressing and stupid.

Why the dev team would think it’s a smart idea to make shinies temporary in a game revolved around getting shinies is beyond my understanding.

I’m going to eat my words now. They are indeed nerfing zerker gear (by ~10% they said), and I’m very disappointed with the dev team. Here I was hoping they would actually make other builds more viable.

Instead, they make the strongest build 10% less strong, while doing absolutely nothing to other stats to make them more desirable in pve situations. Shame on me for having even the slightest amount of faith in ANet.

No lag on my end. US East, Tarnished Coast. Perhaps try restarting your router and resetting your internet?

Omg, these are gold. LOL!

A sylvari approaches a woman in a bar and asks, “Hey baby, am I awake?” When she looks over at him, he adds, “Because you’re a Dream come true.”

shimmerless.4560:

Amiron.1067:

Fenrir.3609:

Amiron.1067:

For the fifteenth millionth time, they’re not destroying berserker gear. They merely stated they’ll be looking to address the current dominance of berserker gear in the current PvE meta. This does not mean it is getting nerfed.

Please, mods, close this shenanigan of a thread.

•Critical damage changes

I didn’t know the word “change” equated to nerf.

Flissy.4093:

God forbid a more risky playstyle is also more rewarding, eh?

Right?

“Change” is a euphemism for nerf.

Why people want to bring down the only risk/reward set in the game is beyond me.

For you, maybe. I’m willing to wait and see what ANet comes up with before proclaiming the world is ending and I want refunds for every gem purchase ever.

And, mind you, I’m not for nerfing berserker gear at all. All of my 80’s are decked out in the gear. I’m looking forward to seeing if they’ll provide buffs to the other stats and make other builds more viable.

We’ll have to wait and see, I suppose. I may very well end up eating my own words.

Fenrir.3609:

Amiron.1067:

For the fifteenth millionth time, they’re not destroying berserker gear. They merely stated they’ll be looking to address the current dominance of berserker gear in the current PvE meta. This does not mean it is getting nerfed.

Please, mods, close this shenanigan of a thread.

•Critical damage changes

I didn’t know the word “change” equated to nerf.

Flissy.4093:

God forbid a more risky playstyle is also more rewarding, eh?

Right?

For the fifteenth millionth time, they’re not destroying berserker gear. They merely stated they’ll be looking to address the current dominance of berserker gear in the current PvE meta. This does not mean it is getting nerfed.

Please, mods, close this shenanigan of a thread.

A lot of people seem to be forgetting that the developers are under strict orders not to reveal information before they’re ready. Yeah, I know, it sucks. A lot of fluff, a lot of hype, but no details to back it up. But that’s how the game industry works.

It could be worse, too. Riot Games had at one point promised a 1v1/2v2 league of legends map, but they just recently pulled back from their promise and are now abandoning the idea. I do not want ANet to make the same mistake. I can be patient and wait for more information when it’s ready.

As for a lot of people’s concerns about content updates slowing down, don’t worry. It’s not by much. Every month an average update (be it balance or living story) will be released. What Johanson is talking about is releasing expansion sized content soon that’s been in the works for a while.

What that entails? I have no idea. But they’ll tell us when they’re ready.

Fun theory, but it would never happen. If it did, it would leave boundless players upset and angry that an entire race has been cut off from character creation.

Kevan.8912:

Amiron.1067:

ANet needs to produce higher quality content if they want to keep me around and spending money on gems.

they need to produce content
because for now i see grind and tiers. not contents

It’s a bit harsh to say they haven’t been producing anything at all. It’s just that what they’ve been producing is content that is easily forgettable and, on top of that, temporary.

We need new skills, new professions, more horizontal progression, new armor and weapons to obtain (cosmetic wise) and better stories instead of the Scarlet joke we have now.

I’m truly torn regarding this game and how I feel about it.

On one hand, I love the potential it has. The combat, while lacking depth, is more active than most MMO’s (I think Wildstar is trumping it, however.) Professions all feel and play differently; my Warrior and Mesmer are two entirely different playstyles. There are also tons of little features GW2 has that really do make it stand out;

-Down-scaling in lower level zones to play with friends and to keep content moderately challenging.
-Deposit all collectible function (Sweet merciful Dwayna, do I love this function!)
-Unlocking skills you want to unlock as you level and progress your character.

On the other hand, however, this game is seriously lacking content. Living story has been, for the most part, dull. There are a few of them I love, like the Molten Facility and Bazaar of the Four Winds. But the others? More grind, less reward, and even less interest. My biggest gripe with the living story, though? It’s all temporary content. Which is the absolute worst thing a MMO can do, in my opinion. Especially one like GW2, without a subscription fee.

I logged in a month after Southsun Cove Secrets LS update, and I saw all the neat looking yellow flowers. I thought hey, those are cool! My sylvari would totally look great with one of those! So, I proceed to ask my guild (which, by the way, has been dwindling in size due to lack of interest in the game) “Where can I get one of those yellow back flowers?” Their response saddened me.

“Oh, that was temporary content. You can’t get them anymore.”

Preventing players from content in an MMO that allows max level players to play anywhere is a terrible design philosophy. We gamers are vain; we love our shinies. Telling us we can’t get said shinies is disheartening, to say the least, and doesn’t make me want to play your game, ANet.

Also, the story so far has been absolutely uninteresting. Why Scarlet instead of another elder dragon? I would have been fine if we only received small updates while we waited for a big expansion to come out (much like Factions and Nightfall from GW1) that introduces new professions, new dungeons, new skills, and new zones with well thought out and polished mechanics, stories, and rewards.

But instead we have Living Story, which, most of the time, is about zerging this, looting that, and zerging something else.

Another topic I’d like to address is 5 man content design, and how it caters completely to berserker based character builds. Why build a support character that heals when healing power scales so poorly and dpsing a boss as fast as possible is a much better and quicker way to proceed through the content? Why build around control and beefiness when, again, dpsing is clearly the faster and more efficient?

ANet, you need to change dungeon mechanics and/or buff the other two sides of your holy trinity. Stacking up in a corner, using Fiery Greatsword #4 and #3, and DPSing the boss like crazy isn’t thought provoking at all. Where are the mechanics? Fractals do a little bit of a better job of introducing interesting mechanics, but again, berserker gear dominates this area as well. I want to see more bosses with interesting mechanics, like the ones in Fractals. Not the zergfests, champ trains, and berserker dungeon runs. You guys need to revamp your vanilla dungeons, because they feel rushed, unprovoking in thought, and are a joke to run nowadays.

TL;DR – I think this game is a good game, but development for content is not going in the direction I’m looking for right now. Wildstar launch is coming closer, and I’m afraid that what it has to offer will be much more interesting than the Living Story garbage that we’ve been receiving. ANet needs to produce higher quality content if they want to keep me around and spending money on gems.

I disagree. The problem is not about zerkers or support/control being underpowered (which sorta is a problem), but instead the fact that boss encounters don’t require anything more than dps to beat it. There’s no reason to bring a beefy character or a healing support because encounters are designed around burning them down ASAP.

As soon as ANet stops with these boring encounter designs and focuses on making the other two roles important, zerker characters will always reign supreme. Again, zerker’s aren’t the problem. ANet’s current encounter design is.

Something I see people saying a lot of around this thread is that ANet is about to nerf zerker gear. They never said that. Jon Peters stated they’re going to address the dominance of zerker/DPS builds in PvE. This does not mean they’re nerfing Zerkers, so put down your torches and pitch forks, everyone. Could they nerf it? Possibly. Could they have something else in mind? Also possible.

I’m interested in seeing what they’ll come up with.

Exedore.6320:

And a comment on the MMO trinity: GW2 got rid of it, but they didn’t change the style of PvE encounters with it. It still plays like it should have a trinity. Almost every single PvE battle is still a group of trash mobs that get AoE’ed down or a boss that’s an HP punching bag with some easy gimmic. What if more content was like the dredge where they have group protection and daze/knockdown (preferably without the endless dredge clown cars)?

Exedore hit the nail on the head with this statement. This game plays like it has a trinity. Supposably it has a trinity. Damage, control, and support. Right now, control is nearly non existing, support is belittled by absolutely crap scaling with stats like Healing Power, and damage is the only worth while way to beat an encounter quickly.

What ANet needs to do is take a serious look at their boss encounter designs and ask themselves “How can we make healing, condition removal, damage prevention/reduction, and CC valuable in this encounter?” In my opinion, giving heals the ability to critically heal would be a great start to making supporty characters more valuable. Counter play to healing criticals would be giving poison the additional effect of preventing heals from critting.

As for control, I’m at a loss. I understand why ANet implemented Defiant; they don’t want bosses permastunned. But right now defiant is so restricting bat anyone that wants to be mainly controlling of the battlefield is pidgeon-holed because they can’t do their job 80% of the time.

TL;DR – Give support and control more meaning in your encounters if you want people to even bother running those types of builds. This game has a trinity, and plays like it has one, so stop pretending it doesn’t.

Tman.6349:

Aeonblade.8709:

Oghier.7419:

Because there’s no character progression.

If I wanted to play a straight fighting game, there are plenty of them to choose from. When I play an MMO, I expect long-term character and gear progression. If I want to play a MOBA or an FPS, I’ll go do that.

When I do PvP (and I engage in PvP in every MMO I play), I prefer open-world battles rather than e-sports. WvW is fairly well done in GW2, so that’s where I play.

This is a good post an explains why sPvP in GW2 has essentially been a flop. It doesn’t affect your actual character in anyway, you may as well be playing LoL for all the good it does your characters.

the rewards of being active in PvP are not tangible in the form of new shinies to be proud of till more come out. the MOST rewarding part of PvPing is honing your skill with your profession and playing against an intelligently controlled opponent vs. terribad AI garbage. the reward of seeing that stake sticking out of your opponents back is just as, if not more, rewarding as ‘another rare to salvage’. PvP will take you out of ‘robot mode’ and build you up as a player. surely a novice karate student might practice against a wooden dummy, but the blackbelts practice against their peers always pushing themselves to get a little better. there ARE rewards in PvP, but, for the most part, they are personal rewards and not something you can ‘show off’

While I’ll agree that pvp requires skill, I feel like you’re trying to insinuate that PvE takes none at all. If this is the case, I have to whole heartedly disagree and say that that it’s a very ignorant thought. Knowing how to handle specific mobs and landing the right timings in a rather chaotic fractal run can most definitely take skill, just a different kind of skill from the one you’re more familiar with.

And yes, there are (small) personal rewards, and of course the sweet taste of victory, but you need to remember this is an MMO, not Battlefield of Duty XIV. It’s a game that promotes the idea of cosmetic rewards, and I can guarantee you that I’d play more pvp if my character didn’t look like trash. I already grinded for a legendary. I already worked for cultural armor. Why do I have to re-earn those items?

Honestly, I can sometimes enjoy pvp, but there are a few things that really bother me.

1.) So tired of conquest mode. Give us team death match modes or arena modes. I want to fight people to the death for the sake of fighting and proving skill superiority, not playing king of the hill, dancing on top of a node like a ballerina. I loved arenas in WoW, and I think that GW2 sPvP would benefit greatly from a game mode like that since it’s so action based.

2.) Counter play is way too prevalent. It’s like a massive game of rock paper scissors. Your build wrecks one type of build, but in return, your build is wrecked by another one. But this is more of a MMO problem that I have, and is opinionated. I wish things were balanced like an FPS where it’s entirely about skill (think Quake Arena), not particular abilities, but it couldn’t be done here without homogenizing all the professions. It’s more of a preference for me, is all.

3.) All of my cosmetic items I earned in PvE mean nothing in sPvP. I can’t use my Kudzu, my sylvari gets stuck in ugly plate armor when I’d much prefer the cultural armor I’ve already earned and don’t want to grind for again, and like hell I’m going to do that. I already worked for it, why can’t I use the skin?

Travlane.5948:

Amiron.1067:

Strayhand.8216:

Travlane.5948:

THAT is why people do guild runs.

Fixed.;) And as I said, I’m not talking about 3 hour runs where people are wiping. I’m talking about this “go meta or delete your character” mentality. If you have a group that is in full berserker, and a group that has PVT armor and builds like e.g. 15 acro instead of 15 trickery, both farming fractals, the first group does 11 runs by the time the second one does 10. Who cares, really.

Only the people that want to do it as fast as possible care, which is perfectly fair, too. If your guild wants to run against the meta, awesome! If another wants to run full zerker, great! Thats their choice, just like going another prefix instead of zerker is someone elses.

I personally don’t see what all the fuss is about from others; just play the way you want to.

most dungeons it doesnt matter what you will run. you WILL finish. maybe 1 or 2 wipes but you will finish. fractals high lvls….. u could fail for 2 hours at one boss with bad players. no gonna happen in COF or HOTW or COE etc. so it DOES mattter bc u cant just play some crappy but fun build. your teamates are depending on you and relying on you. its their time too. if ur lvl 1 or something sure w.e. run what you want. if ur 30-40 or especially at 50 ….not so much. weve kicked people out at 50 on 3rd boss bc there ws NO OTHER CHOICE>

I agree about fractals requiring zerkers at higher levels. Which also saddens me. I wish there was more need for the other roles, because everyone going a cookie-cutter zerker build seems lackluster and doesn’t provoke a lot of though towards builds. I want there to be a reason for me to bring that support Ele, or a reason to bring that cleric geared Guardian.

I think that that’s the problem with fractals in general; it’s a dps race, and the mechanics boil down to burning the boss’s hp as fast as possible. If ANet took a bit to truly revamp fractals where bosses gained certain mechanics as you progressed that required something other than dps, it would really make for an interesting experience. Increasing mob hp and damage as the levels go on is not exciting or very innovative.

Well said, OP. GW2 isn’t perfect, but it’s a far cry from terrible and it’s a darn good game to look to. Did anyone mention the non subscription fee factor? Because that is also a huge reason why I love this game. I can put it down and come back whenever I like, without feeling obligated to play as much as possible since I’m trying to get the most out of my 30 days.

Geiir.7603:

Not broken promises? Did you see their MMO manifesto and played the game the last year?!

“We don’t make grindy games” was their first mistake; this game is all about grinding, whether it be dungeons, fractals, champions or others. Don’t even get me started on legendaries.

I try not to log in to grind; I just log in and do whatever I feel like, whether that be pvp, dungeons, or roleplaying. As they say, everything in moderation.

Honestly, my only complaint about movement speed is how you slow down in combat. Seems really silly to me that my character slows down from a light tap from a random mob. I would prefer it if we all had the out of combat speed that we currently can’t have in combat.

I prefer stealth as is. It isn’t stupid permanent like stealth in other MMO’s, and weaving in and out of stealth for mesmers/thieves becomes an art in and of itself that I find both challenging and fun.