Guild Wars 2

Lol Zenith, I’ve been playing the game since Beta… I know how it works. This particular group was not downing anything anytime fast. It would’ve taken a while whether I was on my Guardian or Warrior. I never said I wanted to tank or heal (I’d get on my Necro or Ele for that ;P). But curing conditions with each shout, adding 12 stacks of Might from the staff (with a nice heal at the end), adding shields and regen through shouts or and using my virtues to give might, heal, regen, and shields… is support. And the only one of those abilities that takes time is the Might and heal from the staff. Not a single one of those takes my attention away from fighting the boss any more than I would already.

EDIT: That’s the thing laokoko, they were stacking right on him, hard to time the jumps. And I’ve done 20-29 without AR, you can avoid it for the most part. I didn’t use shelter cause I’m used to just avoiding the stomps. Had the Wall for one slot, and kept two shouts to remove burning, cause they kept complaining about the fire.

If I run FotM with my guild, I’m teaching them the fights. It’s not about “learning my role.” I was trying to support them more than myself cause we’d all keep taking a lot of damage from them wanting to do the fight a certain way, which I’ve never seen before and never had trouble with otherwise.

And people staying alive and being buffed will do more damage than the extra damage one person will do going zerker instead. Zerker is great for fights that don’t do a lot of damage, but in a boss fight where everyone is eating agony, not so much.

My complaint isn’t even really about zerker vs support, it’s the mindset that goes along with it. It’s not that support is inferior to zerker that made me not want to support other players, it was my experience with that group that makes me not want to support other players.

(Really this is just a big /rant, I know all pugs aren’t like that. But I really am going to stay away from my Guardian for a while because of it.)

I main a Warrior. I have a certain attachment to him as he was my first character, but I also have 8 other lvl 80s. Now, I also like to support players and love seeing the shields and green numbers when I play my Guardian, especially when I see players on the brink of death and I’m able to save them.

So that’s why today, it’s gonna be hard for me to say goodbye to the Guardian, at least for now. Fractals can take upwards of an hour, hour and a half, which makes getting the Relic rewards at the end pretty important to someone who works more than a full time job and is trying to finish up his degree. Now I know my fights, and I may not have agony resistance, but I know how to survive it and/or avoid it in the 10-19 tier. Me being traited for support, I’m often the only one that stays at full health an entire fight.

But when a group decides it’s best to stack on the last boss of the fractal and eat his stomps while expecting me to throw a Reflecting Wall when we first enter to protect us from the fire from the other boss, there’s not much I can do to survive as I’m not able to heal myself at that critical moment. The first attempt, before they asked me to do that, went okay. We lost most of the party early so I died so we could restart the fight. We wiped a few more times because of various reasons like someone running in early, but long story short, I was kicked because I kept dying while trying to support them instead of helping myself.

So, give thanks to a group of players with a crappy attitude for losing a support player. Guess it’s back to my Warrior where all I care about is swinging my sword.

It’s not that people are against the GS, it’s that there doesn’t need to be another profession where it becomes the go to weapon just for the fact that it’s a GS. We’re already getting another profession to use the GS with the Necro, and you know every Necro out there will be running with one.

This, coming from someone who has a GS Legendary as his only Legendary.

Firstly, can y’all stop saying “he” when referring to the profession and not Rytlock?

I think I’m with those that don’t want the Revenant to have a Greatsword. The melee staff will do much kitten kicking! Or maybe the Rev should, that way everyone else can gravitate towards it while I kick butt with the staff. >=)

I think the Rev should have:

Main Hand:
Sword
Mace
Axe

Off Hand:
Sword
Torch
Pistol
Shield

Two Handed:
Staff
Short Bow

Underwater:
Trident
Spear

Cerxi.5472:

I’d love a three-way toggle; back item only, hobosack only, or both (LET EM CLIP). I know I’m in the tiniest minority, but the way my elixir gun hobosack clips with my spinal blades makes it look like I’m wearing some kind of mechanical beetle on my back, and I can’t think of anything better.

+1

I hate how each time I equip my flamethrower, I have to go check/uncheck to show my backpiece. I want to see my spinal blades and sack at the same time, it looks BA! It used to show the backpiece again after using an ability, now it doesn’t do it at all unless you manually do it.

So yes:

A toggle to show back piece.
A toggle to show hobo sack.
A toggle to hide backpiece while hobo sack is out.

That’s all we ask for.

They heard my cry!!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/september-2014-feature-pack-improvements-galore/

…..and everyone else’s who has played this game.

I have seen absolutely no one wearing this backpiece. Honestly I don’t think it looks that great, but it’s at least unique. I have 8 lvl 80s, one of each profession, and each of them have their own backpiece. I have 18 back skins right now, 4 of which are other iterations of the Spinal Blades, 2 of the Vine leading up to Mawdrey, a Quaggan backpack, Toymaker’s, Multitool, and a Quiver which I don’t use because I’ve got Rox’s. So that leaves those other 8, Shattered Wings, Wind Catcher (which I hope to replace with the fractal back now that I’ve been running it for the prestine relics to make Mawdrey), Fervid Censor, Karka Shell, Rox’s Quiver, Light of Dwayna, Chaos of Lyssa, and Tempered Spinal Blades, for my characters.

Now I’m not sure what to do. I may replace my Sylvari Mesmer’s Fervid Censor with Mawdrey, or I kind of want to make a Sylvari Ranger because I just picked up the Tribal Short Bow last night and I think the two skins would work great with one. Not sure if I want to pay for another character slot and level up another Ranger though.

So I guess my question to you all is, is there any reason whatsoever to having two of the same profession? I pretty much just PvE, and I do like leveling, but it’s just hard to convince myself that I should have more than one of each profession.

J Eberle.9312:

ArchieD.6972:

When the party leader leaves, why does it automatically kick everyone else?

Yes. Yes it does.

I know it does… I’m asking why.

When the party leader leaves, why does it automatically kick everyone else? I know Anet can make it so this doesn’t happen.

I was just in a fractal, we got to the end and I’m low on bag space so I ask them to wait a sec before the last boss, they go ahead and pull. After the boss I again ask them to wait, I opened up a bank access to clear space, and the second I did the leader left, which kicked us and I didn’t get loot.

If anything send the loot to our mail, but I see no reason to kick a party cause someone left. Give a minute countdown or something after they leave.

EDIT: An additional note, please give us a way to view names of people in the group after the group disperses. It’d be nice to block people that don’t listen and leave early.

Mad Pig.2890:

5 of the 80s I only really play.

I like the choice of settings for each of your characters, it really plays into the “theme” that you’ve set for each of them.

Would just like to add my name on the list. It happens to me more than I’d like. Sometimes it takes a few seconds of moving my mouse around for it to “appear” (for me to see it). A few seconds in a fight can be critical.

Wow, you guys are awesome… love the comments. lol I suppose I’m not yet entitled to complaining that I haven’t gotten a precursor from the sound of it.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Azhure.1857:

Start a thread out of curiosity. You’ve got my attention.
Insert veiled insult in opening post to many of the players in this game that may or may not respond to your thread. You’ve lost my attention.

I do think he or she’s being light hearted in this case!

Of course I’m being lighthearted in the first post. In no way was I trying to insult anyone. For anyone offended by what I said, here’s a lesson: No one can offend you. You can only choose to take offense.

I honestly would play more if I could. Unfortunately, the date of the release was the same week I started my Master’s degree. That doesn’t leave much time to play. I started the thread out of pure curiosity, knowing that there are others who enjoy the game very much and have invested a lot of time in it.

Everyone’s life is different, I understand that. I played WoW more than I do GW2, but at that time due to a number of factors, I could and would. I enjoy GW2 more, but am just unable to play more at this time. Again, no ill intentions with the first post.

Been waiting a long time now. I’ve had everything waiting and sitting in the bank to make my Legendary, but 1500+ hours is not long enough apparently.

Updated 06.22.15

Age: 1904 hrs 20 min
Days: 1031 days

Avg. Playing Time: 1 hr 51 min per day

I’ve now seen people with 6k+ hrs logged, that’s insane! Take away weekends and holidays, and you might as well work for Anet!

Well there is already a “Dev Tracker” forum to see what they’re saying.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/devtracker

But I agree, I’ve been wanting that feature for a while. When I see a thread I’m interested in and it has a red tag on it, I want to see what their reply was.

SkiTz.4590:

Mea.5491:

All I want is Anet to make every profession useful and effective in dungeons.

Found the ranger (or necro lol)

I don’t know what you’re talking about. My Ranger kicks butt in dungeons. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much burst they can have, along with pretty good sustain.

Necro on the other hand… it might be better for him if it weren’t for the condition build I have set up for him. I have all professions maxed, and he drew the short end.

Yes please! I didn’t get to enjoy it enough the first time through.

Hey guys! Guess what! I’ve got new information that means you no longer have to be concerned over the jumping in the new map!

Ready for it? Here is is.

It’s not hard. Period.

You use your skill buttons, not even the space bar. So if you complain about the jumping you might as well complain about fighting too. Can’t hit 1 to jump? Then you can’t hit 1 to attack. Can’t hit 2 to dash forward? Then you have a problem because that makes two buttons you can’t hit. Can’t hit 3 to trigger a ground targeted skill? Then you can’t hit any button to use a ground targeted skill, and I doubt anyone can really get by with only attacking enemies using only skills 4 and 5.

Really though, how easy do they have to make it to make people not complain? Go back to GW1 with no jumping at all? The only part that is remotely difficult is getting up to the chest and diving goggles, which is optional content. Yes the diving goggles give achievement points, but guess what. Achievement points are optional.

I guess we’re seeing our entitled generation has grown up and made their way into the games. Get a reward for everything even if you fail? I guess you’re entitled to those achievement points without working towards it, huh? Some stuff is supposed to be more difficult to get. I can count the number of clicks it takes to get to most of the content in Dry Top.

You have a sun dash to get through the falling sand. You have a lightning pull to get to the rock, another to get across to the air crystal, you have three air jumps to get up, and you’re done. That’s all you need to do to play most of the content. Need to get over to the west side? There’s three more air jumps, all while pressing forward on the side of a cliff. Not even three, you could do two and walk around. Want to get to the north side at the town? There’s an extra sun dash. Want to get to the top to do your story? Add in one lightning pull, and four air jumps. In the Inquest cave? One lightning pull to get across. Froggy? Three air jumps and two lightning pulls. And lastly, your story instance that’s on the west side, one air jump.

That is it. Grand total of:

13x Air Jump
2x Sun Dash
6x Lightning Pull

You have to press a button 21 times to get to ALL of the content on the map, minus a chest and diving goggles which supposed to be an achievement and the lost coins, also an achievement.

21.

LeoWolfish.8917:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

No servers were deleted. The person is referring to the MegaServer implementation and the loss of Server identity for some. (You will find players from many different servers in your map.)

Ah right I get you now. I thought they meant their GW1 server had been deleted I didn’t realize they meant the current GW2 mega servers. I don’t think that has happened to me yet but I have no idea how you would even find out.

The only place where your selected world (or server, whichever you want to call it) is unique now is WvW. All PvE maps are megaserver maps which contain multiple worlds.

As someone who appreciates art and regularly attends art galleries, I have to say I like it a lot. No it’s not a realistic representation of the zone, as others have said, it’s an abstract one. It makes you study the elements in the image, which in a way tricks you into appreciating the brush strokes instead of what they represent. That’s a connection to the artist that’s not present in realistic artwork. The color palette is bold and represents the zone well. In a way, the style represents it well, too. Elements in the image are broken and don’t fit together perfectly just as the airship no longer fits together as it once did. The abstract style makes it hard to depict what the image is. In the zone, Dry Top, during the sandstorm it is also hard to make out things in the distance. The image and zone share this uncertainty.

The image itself and what it depicts forms this monumental form towering above. Through the shadows and highlights one is able to understand the landforms. When I first saw it, I thought it was a great loading image as it keeps your curiosity high. It waits until you’re in the zone to see what the real thing looks like. You can sit in the zone and take all the screenshots you want to get a realistic image of it, but the loading screen is a little more flexible.

Lord Kuru.3685:

A lot of people are complaining of the map making them nauseous. It’s probably the FPS drop doing that.

Oh boy, I remember when I had played Doom on XBox Arcade. I played for about 10-15 min then got really sick. After feeling better I’d try it again, and again got sick after about 10 min. I looked online about it, and found that others had the same problem and it was due to motion sickness caused by the framerate.

I don’t envy anyone who is getting nauseous in Dry Top.

I was doing this yesterday looking for the coins. lol I’ll do it again and get a screenshot.

Edit: Just ported some people up there, lost one because he kept running after going through the port. XD

Edit 2: Looks better at night. =)

Eggman.1405:

I can’t believe the Anet story editor thought that having people sit in a room was a good climax for an introductory chapter.

Maybe you don’t know how storytelling goes. You have a long build up, which were all the instances leading up to the fight with Aerin. The fight with Aerin was the climax, there’s your action. Then you have a release afterwards which slows back down and brings the story, all the information you’ve obtained, together. That’s what all the talking was about. We learned more about Scarlet and where she started which begins to explain all that we’ve experienced. No they didn’t reveal everything, that’s where the “sequels” do their jobs.

The story in GW2 is a marathon. Not a sprint.

Framerate: 68 fps
Settings: Max

Processor: Intel i7-3770 @ 3.4 GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7770 Series

Just for a comparison… this is with sandstorm, but not many people around.

I’ve got my Ele built for healing with healing gear. I told a group of people (about 4) to jump in and I’d keep them healed up. It worked, they all got the achievement. Got it easy by myself too.

Man your stations everyone!

pdavis.8031:

Not exactly. The OPs question has been answered in an almost verbatum fashion as yours, however the OP DID ask what we thought of the new leveling system. And that is what we are commenting on now.

“Well this doesn’t seem to be too bad of a change. What is your personal opinion about the new trait system ?”

This is a necro’d thread by Threa Dar who is having trouble with their traits. The original post died over two months ago. The reason you’re seeing this thread now is because of Threa asking a question, and that should be the reason for a reply now. If after answering Threa you would like to continue the conversation about traits with the OP who had probably forgotten about this thread long ago, go ahead.

Imagine this. You’re at a get together and you talk to a friend about him designing a house. Months later you’re at another get together and someone comes to you and asks you how to go about hiring a contractor, and you turn to your friend and start telling him what you think about the house he designed. Completely ignored the person who brought up the conversation of building houses, and continued a conversation from months ago. Rude, is it not?

Proper forum etiquette.

Threa Dar.8495:

I’m no longer getting any traits points whatsoever in first character which right now lv.80 when i reset the traits points i have 14 points and it does not cover the ones i try have active. Can someone tell me why it stop giving trait points away.

It looks like people are completely ignoring your post and replying to posts from 3 months ago instead.

You stop getting trait points at level 80. It has always been that way. Instead of 70 though, you now get 14, but since they’re worth what 5 used to be worth, it comes out to the same amount.

What you may be thinking of is Skill Points. You keep earning those each level, even as you “level” as an 80. But trait points always stopped once you hit 80.

This is how I’ve felt honestly. A complete lack of hype on Anet’s side. They’ve given us about as much as they’ve given for a Living Story update in the past, which hints to this not being as big of an update as we think. I hope I’m wrong, I hope we get a lot of cool stuff, but chances are we’ll be disappointed if we expect it.

StinVec.3621:

ArchieD.6972:

There’s a thread around here somewhere where someone was offering little rewards for the best looking party, and kudos if you found a good background to take the screenshot in front of. I’ll try to find it.

I believe that would be Lilith’s fashionable dungeon runners thread over in the dungeons forum:

• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Lilith-s-Fashionable-Dungeon-Run-Challenge

I’ve only made my way up to page 20 of it so far. Some pretty decent shots in there.

That would be the one

There’s a thread around here somewhere where someone was offering little rewards for the best looking party, and kudos if you found a good background to take the screenshot in front of. I’ll try to find it.

Aidan Savage.2078:

ArchieD.6972:

Am I the only one wondering why we haven’t heard more about it? I figured with such a big update, there’d be tons of information.

All we’ve gotten, and don’t take this wrong because I’m grateful that they’ve given us this much, is some concept art, a trailer, and some snippets of dialogue.

What kind of information am I looking for? Are we getting new zones and which ones/how many? Any major changes to the classes or working systems? Any new dungeons?

I’ve got deadlines to meet and may not be able to play tomorrow or the next day. I’m excited for the update tomorrow, just hoping for some more information.

Read the patch notes tomorrow. That’ll give you all the info you need.

I definitely will, but was hoping for more of a “here are some awesome things to look forward to tomorrow and we think you’ll be excited about this” announcement.

Or maybe it really is just another LS update like the other updates. Nothing big, maybe not even a new zone just yet. Maybe that comes later in the LS. Just a lack of information that I wish we had.

Am I the only one wondering why we haven’t heard more about it? I figured with such a big update, there’d be tons of information.

All we’ve gotten, and don’t take this wrong because I’m grateful that they’ve given us this much, is some concept art, a trailer, and some snippets of dialogue.

What kind of information am I looking for? Are we getting new zones and which ones/how many? Any major changes to the classes or working systems? Any new dungeons?

I’ve got deadlines to meet and may not be able to play tomorrow or the next day. I’m excited for the update tomorrow, just hoping for some more information.

Time Warden
Heavy Armor

Weapons:

Two Handed
Staff
Greatsword
Hammer

Spear
Trident

Main Hand
Scepter
Mace
Sword

Off Hand
Focus
Mace
Sword
Shield

Profession Core:

The Time Warden focuses on speeding up and slowing down time. Abilities would give quickness to allies, reduce cooldowns of allies’ abilities, and increase time between enemies’ attacks. The profession focuses on direct damage while applying weakness and other non damage conditions on enemies.

Skill Examples:

Time Rip – Greatsword ability #5
Create a rip through time. All damage you deal for the next 3 seconds is dealt again in 6 seconds at a reduced rate. Reduced rate is 50%

Time Travel – Utility Skill
Travel. Travel through time. Return to the location you were 5 seconds ago. Your health, skills, conditions, and boons also reset to that point in time. You are fatigued and all movement and skills are reduced to 50% the normal rate for 3 seconds.

Time Delay – Elite Skill
Create a time rift on the target’s location that delays damage dealt by the enemies’ attacks by 2 seconds. Lasts 10 seconds.

Pure Traveler – Major Trait in the Rift Line
Using a Travel utility skill cleanses conditions.

I know balancing a profession like this would be hell, but still something I would like to see and think would be fun.

locoman.1974:

Here’s mine. The thief (far right) isn’t 80 yet, but that’ll be more or less his final look (still deciding on dagger skin).

Nice action shots of each character! I went back and forth a lot on whether or not to have them wielding their weapons or to have them sheathed.

Just had an idea I think would be awesome! Make one fight scene including all of your characters! I’m thinking something like the Jungle Wurm (it has a lot of ground texture that would be easy to overlap to stitch together). One of your characters would be “your” character and the other 7 (or so) would be visible somewhere in the screenshot fighting too. It’d be a little larger project to undertake, but it’d be nice to see them all fighting together. Oo, maybe even using cross profession combos!

Sean.8274:

So, I spent all night on this. Thanks for the inspiration ArchieD and Yunjii Sun! Its all of my characters (except my elementalist who does not have his “final” look yet).

I still need to work on the fog at their feet…never done that before so it looks a bit unpolished.

Left to right:
Count Charon (Human Necromancer)
Cupcake (Asuran Engineer) front
Lucy Ursa (Norn Guardian)
Worf Rozhenko (Charr Warrior)
Suki Serra (Sylvari Thief) front
Vera Valentine (Human Mesmer) front
King Arcturus X (Norn Ranger)
Orion Oakenheart (Sylvari Warrior)
Sophia Sarabi (Human Ranger)

not pictured: Regulus Leo (Asuran Elementalist)

Looks great! I think I have to step up my game and make my characters look like they actually like each other. haha

Seeing lots of good stuff here everyone!

Yunjii Sun.3512:

Here are mine ^^

Really like what you did there! I stayed away from overlapping my characters, but you did a great job at it! The sketchiness keeps the characters in line with the “stylized” world of GW2.

(For anyone asking about the pencil lines, there are filters that you can apply that will do that and you can play with the settings for stroke lengths and count. Not sure if that’s what Yunjii did but it’s available like that if you’re interested. Just google Photoshop plugins and you’re sure to find some)

Argon.1563:

Thats so cool. :o

Did you just crop round each character and paste them on to the background, or did you take a screenshot of each character in the same place, and match them all together?

You don’t even want to see my file. It’s a mess! I screenshotted them all in the same location, for some it’s just the character model that I left and cropped in, others I kept part of the environment. I zoomed in just enough to get my whole character in the screenshots so I could have them as high res as possible, but that meant I had to stitch shots together.

Hi everyone! I just leveled up and geared my last profession to level 80. I photoshopped them together into a single screenshot to show all of them together! I’ve heard of many others having leveled up the same or more, so lets see them!

Attach a picture of your team of 80s!

P.S. – When I started, I didn’t mean to line them up a certain way, only to make it look like a natural position. However, it turned out that the Humans are on the ends, followed by the Norns, the Sylvari, and finally my heavies, one Asura and one Charr in the center. =D Also, the three on the ends alternate male/female as I have one of each for Human, Norn, and Sylvari. Kudos for anyone who has done something similar on purpose!

Edit – Uploaded a second image with them a little closer together. After seeing some of the stuff others have uploaded, it made me want to do more. Thanks all for posting your characters together! They look awesome!

06.22.15 Update – Changing out the picture to keep the 80s updated!

Chars: 8
Lvl 80: 7
100%: 1

Not seeing a reason to get the others at 100%. Got my title, gold star, and Gifts of the Explorer. Waiting on a precursor drop to use one of them, and until I’ve used both I probably won’t try to get another 100%. Focusing on getting my last profession to 80 so I can photoshop a screenshot of all of them together. Got it done, and there’s an empty spot waiting for my lvl 54 Ranger.

It’s funny, the order in which I made my characters reflects the percent of map completion I have done on them. The first character I made has 100%, the second I made has somewhere around 48%, the third 44%, and so on. My 54 Ranger only has something like 9%.

laokoko.7403:

ArchieD.6972:

Why would you want something that you can autoattack to win?

because people arnt’ trying to do excited boss fight. People are farming. And qutie honestly it get harder and harder to farm dragonite ore every patch.

Let me quote Anet’s Manifesto:

“I swung a sword, I swung a sword again, he-eey! I swung it again, that’s great. We just don’t want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that, no one finds it fun. We want to change the way that people view combat.”

So that right there attacks two major points: grind and combat. They don’t want people to just stand there swinging the sword, and that’s why I’m suggesting this change to the fight. It’s not fun. This is a game, which supposed to be fun.

As for farming dragonite ore, that’s a completely different subject to be discussed, which is the grind part. Should it be easy to obtain? Should large amounts of it be required? Should there be other ways to obtain it? It certainly isn’t required to have fun in the game, only to craft ascended gear. Again, different subject for a different thread.

Why would you want something that you can autoattack to win? That’s not a very epic fight at all, and the world boss fights supposed to be epic. The best part about that fight is the way he comes crashing in, after that it’kitten 1 and sit back and have a sandwich.

Sure making it to where people can’t stand in one spot would change it up a little, but this is a dragon boss! It’s better than that. Even the Claw of Jormag, after the update, people still stand in that spot even though it’s not a safe spot anymore. It’s funny how only about 10% of the people at the fight actually know how to avoid getting feared and pushed back, and it’s funny seeing how much they complain about getting feared 3-4 times in a row only to be pushed back twice. (shield skill! learn to use it! and dodge for the pushback)

Maybe the technical portion of it could be carried to a new boss, but they couldn’t be “Branded” in nature as that is purely the Shatterer’s doing. I’m not saying make it as tough as Tequatl but having more variety and somewhat of a challenge would be nice. There should be some threat of losing the big boss fights, not having a 100% kill rate.

About your “raid” comment, large groups of people fighting a common enemy are called raids. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want world bosses that Anet designed to be fought by 10s or 100s of people to not be “raid” content. There are plenty of common enemies, veterans, and even some champions, that do not require more than one person.

P.S.: When I think of “res” I think of resolution. I may have carried over “rez” from previous games. XP

The Challenge

The challenge with this fight is balancing people that are branded with those that aren’t. It is important that you get rid of the stacks of essences so that the raid isn’t overrun with branded creatures, but at the same time you need the Shatterer to Share Power to do damage to him. Using a calculator, I just checked and it looks like a 50/50 split would do the most damage, so branded players would need to be balanced on ANet’s side to make that challenging.

Explaining the Stacks

One player, when branded, will have 40 stacks of Branded Essence immediately applied, and the Shatterer will have 40 stacks of Shared Power applied for 15 seconds. This means, since 1 stack = .1% damage allowed, that 4% of damage (40 * .1) that players deal will be allowed. Say on a raid of 100 people, 1 person gets hit by a crystal. 99 people each averaging 1k damage a second (for easy calculating) will be hitting Shatt for 40 each second. 40 * 99=3960 per second to Shatt. If 50 people get turned by the crystals, then .1 * 40=4% per person 4% * 50 people=200% damage allowed. The other 50 people, still averaging 1k per second will be hitting Shatt for 2k per second, and 2k * 50=100,000 per second. If 99 people get branded, then 4% per person * 99 people = 396% * 1k damage from that one person = 3960 per second. So you see how it spikes at an even split. The players can even make that spike higher by the branded attacking nonbranded players during the 15 second spike and get a few more stacks of Essence applied, and after that initial 15 seconds after being turned, each Branded player would be able to sustain 5 stacks of Shared Power on Shatt (Shatt applies the Essence once every 3 seconds, his Shared Power buff lasts 15 seconds, so it would stack up to 5 for each player) so that some decent damage can still be done. 50 people * .1 * 5 = 25% damage allowed = 250 per second from each player = 12,500 per second from 50 people. Of course his health would vary depending on raid size.

Sorry for the bad formatting. It’s a lot of information running through my head and just wanted to get down. Hope it’s moderately easy to grasp though!

Edit** It is okay for me to say something about the Beta weekend events now, right? Seeing as how it was almost 2 years ago. I know there was the nondisclosure agreement and all, don’t want to get banned now for saying something. >.<

Grab your beta hats everyone, because beta weekend event #2 is the basis for this suggested update to the severely lacking Shatterer fight!

*If you see “kitten” anywhere, that means I spelled “Shatt” with only one ‘t’. I think I went back and changed them all, but I may have missed one or two.

So here’s my suggestion. I would like to see this branding of players in some form during the Shatterer fight to give it more flavor and make it a challenge. Doing this without pitting the playerbase against each other at a time when they should work together is a challenge, though, and coming up with a solution has proven difficult but doable. So here are the details about the “updated” fight!

The Shatterer’s Abilities

-Encases players in shells which must be destroyed
-Summons healing crystals in random locations, no one location is safe; prefers large groups
>>Players hit by the crystals’ AoE when they land are turned Branded; AoE cannot be dodged
>>Boss may still be attacked, but the crystals will continue to heal until destroyed
>>Crystals provide a rez location for any players that are defeated
>>Players that are defeated during the fight rez as Branded creatures
-Empowered Buff, immune to damage
>>Removed when Shared Power debuff is applied
-Shared Power
>>Applied when Shatterer adds a stack of Branded Essence to players
>>Each stack of Branded Essence applied to each player gives an internal stack of Shared Power for 15 seconds
>>Each stack of Shared Power allows .1% of damage through
-Branded Essence
>>Maximun of 40 stacks on each player
>>40 stacks applied to each player when they are turned Branded
>>Stacks are removed by hitting non branded players, each ability has a cd and exhausts between 1-3 stacks
>>Shatterer reapplies 1 stack to each Branded player every 3 seconds
-Stomp*
-Tailswipe*
-Breathes Something*

*These are actually threatening abilities that do a good amount of damage

Fight Notes

-If a Branded player is at 40 stacks of Essence, they are no longer receiving a stack from the Shatterer which means the Shatterer is not receiving an internal stack of the Shared Power debuff

-There are three large cleansing stations at the site which can only be attacked by Branded players. These cleansing stations take a lot of damage and precious time to destroy, and once destroyed, all Branded players in the region are cleansed of their Essences.

-If a player is killed by a branded player, the branded player is released of their Branded Essences and can fight Shatterer. The player killed will rez at a healing crystal as a Branded Creature.

-Crystals will be summoned often, so players will not have to wait long to rez as a Branded Creature. Because they are summoned often and in random locations, it is important the the stacks of Essences are removed so that the raid is not overrun by Branded players. For this reason, it is also good to not stand in large groups, as there are only 3 cleansing stations and they take time away from fighting the Shatterer.

-Branded players are tough but don’t do a lot of damage. The abilities that get rid of more stacks of Essence have cc abilities attached, such as a knockback or blind.

Azrael.4960:

Durmand Priory mission
(This mission concept is designed more for those who enjoy puzzles, so there will be a some jumping and key puzzles.) To support the operations of the Vigil and Whispers, the Durmand Priory calls out to its members to find out more about the latest incursions. Members are to go to the Priory and accept the mission from a Magister.

Mission particulars

hide spoiler

Priory members will go to the same location as the other orders, but again will be at a different entry point to the other orders to avoid masses of players.
Parties are required to maneuver through the tunnels avoiding patrols and fighting as necessary. Retrieve keys parts and form keys to open gates or doors, to activate bridges or lower platforms to jump across. Information such as data terminals, plans from veteran/champion mobs, examination of lava pits with special scanners that will be provided upon accepting the mission, must be collected. There will be a “gauge of data” that needs to be filled to complete the mission, but rather than a single level, there will be differing levels depending on the number of players involved. This level should be designed so that it is doable with as few as 2 players. when the gauge fills, the party is ported out.

Upon completion of the mission, players are ported out and hand over the documents/scanner to a waiting NPC and obtain their reward. A bronze bonus chest is awarded for doing it with 4 party members, a silver for 3 and a gold for completion with only 2 party members. This missions is designed to appeal to players who like to solo or duo dungeons.

My ideas are meant to appeal to each sort of player who looks for a particular challenge. Some, like me, love a good stand up fight, while others enjoy sneaking around and others like solo or duo challenges.
Each mission will favour certain classes, Vigil will favour those with good survivability, support and damage, warriors, guardians, necros, rangers, engineers. Whispers will favour mesmers, thieves, rangers to an extent. Durmand priory missions would probably favour races over classes depending on how a jumping puzzle would be incorporated into the mission. Norn and Charr have a notoriously hard time on those.

The rewards are granted to all players regardless of which order they chose. However, there will be a bonus reward in the chests for players who do missions for their own order. Each order would have their own set of tokens, which are only rewarded to players if they are from that order. i.e. Vigil tokens for Vigil members and so on. These can be traded in, along with a lesser amount of gold, for the orders weapons and armour.

Given the nature of the new missions, new exotic level armour and weapons for each order needs to be introduced, which would also gel with the fact that after the fight with Zhaitan and then Scarlet, new weaponry needs to be developed for the upcoming fight with Mordremoth or whichever other dragon appears. Makes no sense that the three Orders only have rare weapons.

I really like what you’ve added! The more ideas the better, it gets discussion going. =) I agree that the missions need to focus on tactics that are at the heart of the orders. People did choose them for that purpose afterall, and we only get to see a few steps in the personally story that displays the orders’ character.

Fighting for the Vigil.
Stealth for the Order of Whispers.
Puzzles for the Durmand Priory.

Sounds good, I’d be really interested in figuring out the puzzles! And orders forging new weapons and armor would be a nice move to transition to getting ready for Mordremoth, though I’m thinking maybe it’d be only one piece, as we don’t want everyone feeling like they have to upgrade their whole set. Shoulders maybe? I’d say back cause we could use more skins, but there’s plenty of choices for Ascended back items. Maybe it’s an upgrade piece to slot in on accessories, and they could add some visual effects such as glowing around the hands in a color that indicates your order. (might not be a good idea, just what popped in my head)

Oo, what about buffs or slot abilities that you can unlock through doing missions with your order? This could be a way to introduce a few abilities that maybe they’ve been working on but don’t know quite how to implement. The abilities could be stronger the more people that are of the same order around you.

Stooperdale.3560:

Normally a good suggestion will get no replies on a forum. Nobody has anything bad to say about it.

In this case though, you need to be careful about giving players low quality content. More content or more variety of content seems good but players can tire of it. In this case players seem to be doing something that they can already do easily at any time (kill open world mobs) and the longer they persist at it the more loot they get. That is grind.

The answer would be to design new enemies and encounters, but if a developer is creating new content why would it be hidden behind a guild invitation?

That’s true. The content needs more variety than “kill x” then “kill y.” Something closer to Tequatl in that there are different duties that must be done and there must be coordination between multiple parties. It’s hard to draw people away from zerging content though, but maybe less so if it’s designed right.

I’m leveling up my 7th character right now, at level 60. First 6 are at 80. Perhaps it’s my experience in playing the game, but I don’t find the content any harder with the new trait system. I don’t have the difficulty of having to unlock my traits, though, they are available to me as soon as I get to the level to use them and that may be where the difference lies.

That said, I don’t like the new trait system, as it has an odd rate of point attainment. One every six levels and then start getting two every six at level 66, then get two at 80 just two levels after receiving the last two. That’s what I think is insane about it, that no one could think of a better rate? I can come up with a lot of different ways to make it better. Here’s one that I just thought of in the last minute:

Start earning trait points at level 30 (as we already do). And unlock another point every 5 levels. You earn an extra point each time you unlock a new tier. Therefore, you earn 2 at level 30 for unlocking the Adept line. 2 at level 55 for unlocking the Master line, and 2 at 80 for unlocking the Grandmaster line. What this does is allow you to build right on to what you already have by adding two points in a line when the tier opens up.

As it is now, people want to take points out of lines they’ve already put them in to build up two points in the Master tier to get the Major trait in that tier. I just did this on my lvl 60 character. Master tier unlocked, I earned one point, so I took out a point that I already had assigned so that I could build up one of my other lines to get the benefit of the Major Trait in the Master tier.

So this system earns points at an even rate, always 5 levels starting at level 30, and you get two points when a new tier opens for you to add both points to an existing line and not have to take away from another. That took literally a minute or two to think up, I know ANet can do better than the current system.

Wanderer.3248:

tl;dr

Actually I read the summary, but couldn’t figure out what the post was about. Quests? Suggestion for living story? Fan fiction?

The “dr” part of that “tl;dr” is why you’re confused. =P I broke it down into sections so that hopefully it would be an easier read. The Implementation section covers how it’d be implemented.

It’d be a new system that would work much like dailies and monthlies, and would probably be listed under the same tab in achievements. It’d be set on a weekly rotation as I have it written out. If it makes more sense to be on a shorter or longer then so be it, that’s just what made sense to me as a way to set it apart from dailies and seem like it’s more meaningful since it’s tied to a major decision in your character’s story.

93 views and not a single reply? Apparently I’m not the only one thinking something like this would be a good idea, as seen in this thread posted 3 days after mine:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Order-Missions/first#post4065447