Guild Wars 2

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Bitoku Kishi.8346:

I’m guessing they might be able to be slotted into any Legend, which could be pretty convenient to replace some of the less useful Legend skills…

The problem is that they are balanced around having 1 skill bar and not 2 for the right half of your bar. They are also not made with energy in mind and would need to be changed to work with revenant, but would muddy the purity of each legends skill set playstyle. I thought I had mentioned it before on one of the initial streams, but racial skills won’t be usable on revenant.

Thanks for the reply Roy, I appreciate it.
I have to say I’m still siding with the others in this thread who feel it is unnecessary and even detrimental to deny Revenant racial skills though. I don’t really see any racial skills as being more powerful than the Revenant’s regular skills, and can’t really imagine how it could imbalance them in any way. The other classes all have access to them anyway. What it would do is add in some potential variability though, that I think could be fun to play around with even if I don’t really see it significantly benefiting the Revenant at all in a technical sense.
I also similarly agree with others in thinking Mistfire Wolf should be usable as well in place of any of their elites. Even though it’s a useless skill, it would again give another small degree of variability that could feel fun, without really hurting the class at all that I can see.
In the end, I’m sure I will love playing the Revenant class regardless of what happens with this issue. But I just wanted to throw out this suggestion anyway. Thanks for listening.

I totally agree too.
Not only this, but it would help Phantasm builds if we could hover over the “illusion dots” above the weapon skills and have it show at least the name of the illusion in text. It gets really hard to keep track of which illusions are out sometimes, especially when using scepter.
This isn’t as big a deal for clone/shatter builds, but for Phantasms it would be really nice to know which Phantasms are out there without having to find them visually. It sort of reminds me of the issue Necros had with minions in GW1.

If you need long range healing, Ventari is great.
Herald makes for a better tank and short range party buffer though, so I’m not really sure what situation Ventari would be needed… maybe if you just feel like being a GW1 Monk again

Halan.7931:

Most of the threads here are “Gimme more cool things”
And their daddy Roy is like “Sure darling, you want anything else?”
Yeah, as a thief/ranger I’m jelly.

Come to the Revenant side… we have cool things…

I’m guessing they might be able to be slotted into any Legend, which could be pretty convenient to replace some of the less useful Legend skills…

There’s no reason you can’t use hammer with Glint legend, it works fine too.
And there’s a lot of support skills in the game that is 600 range or even less, even for long range attackers (soothing mist and the ranger shout trait, to name 2 that imemdiately come to mind)

Cecilia.5179:

Without Mallyx, Revenant simply doesn’t stand a chance against even the most temperate condition specs.

You’re giving the solution to this problem right in your opening statement: use Mallyx stance, or at least the Corruption traitline.
Other classes aren’t always going to be able to handle conditions well unless they incorporate certain things into their build specifically for them as well. I don’t really see much of a problem with this. It sounds like the Revenant players you came across just weren’t built well enough, more so than it being a problem with the class as a whole.

I tested Revenant in PvE quite a lot, including Dungeons and 20+ scale Fractals. Last time it didn’t do so well, but now it’s a fantastic class with Herald added. I really think the Glint legend works well… it feels really solid, and gives a lot of fun options, but still feeling unique and well balanced. Unless it gets nerfed significantly between now and release, I’m pretty sure Revenant will most likely end up being my favorite class, in PvE at least.

The only thing I’d suggest is that some of the utility skills for the other legends seem like they could use some improvement (Jalis and Shiro in particular), as well as some of the traits seem somewhat underpowered throughout all their trait lines in general. But I think it will still work out as a great class even if they don’t get any further changes at all.

I agree with the original poster, Revenant is easily my favorite class right now.
I think it could still use some tweaks… in particular some of the utility skills for Jalis and Shiro could still be improved, as well as some of the traits throughout all their specializations.
But overall it’s an amazing class that’s very fun to play, and Herald really brought it all together.

Don’t nerf Unrelenting Assault, it’s a great fun skill that’s strong but not unstoppable. Honestly I can think of many other attack skills on other classes that are just as good overall. Like people have said, it has a powerful effect but it can be countered many ways in PvP.
And in PvE it’s one of the only heavy hitting dps skills they really have, as well as an important damage mitigation skill for tanking.

Adamantium.3682:

I agree. It seems like Herald was the only elite spec designed to be a part of the core profession. The first 8 professions are fine without their ES, but the Revenant to me seems like it was obviously designed from the start to use Herald.
Herald is not an addition but a core part of the profession, and a very important one at that.

I felt this too. It’s Herald that makes Revenant make sense, and I’m pretty sure it was their first designed legend (and I think this is supported by seeing Glint related stuff going on in the very first HoT trailer).

I tested Revenant out a lot this beta in PvE, including Fractals and Dungeons, and I can say it is an extremely effective and powerful class using Herald. This was a pleasant change from the previous beta that was lacking Herald, where it was difficult to get the Revenant to be able to do much of anything effectively without it.
This time around, Herald changed the class a lot, and I really didn’t find much use for the other Legends at all. I ran multiple 20+ scale Fractals with it, and could easily stay in Herald the entire time. Not that this is a bad thing, it’s a fun specialization, and I hope it doesn’t get nerfed at all. I think if anything the other Legends may need some buffs though.
As for traits, Herald seems to benefit immensely from the Devastation line, but the third choice seemed very variable, and allowed for some nice potential build customization based on preference.
Overall I think it’s a fantastic class now, but I do think some of the utility skills of the other Legends could use some improvement, especially Shiro and Jalis. Glint Legend is really the one that feels really ‘right’, while the others feel somewhat clunky (aside perhaps from Ventari).

Your guild name and tag: Serenity of the Night [Moon]

Your guild’s preferred gameplay choices:
Mostly focused on all aspects of PvE, including Dungeons, Fractals, and Guild Missions. We also dabble in PvP and RP.

Your home world and your guild’s preferred language:
Mainly based on Tarnished Coast, but we recruit from any server. English speakers please.

Times you are particularly active:
We have people active throughout most times of day. Events tend to be scheduled during North American evening times.

Guild leader in-game contact info or a link to your guild’s website or forums:
Please contact Gigas Lionhart or Valynn Lionhart, or see our website at serenitymoon.net

Other info you’d like to include:
We are a large fun PvE guild looking for friendly active people to represent us as their primary guild. We currently have around 200 members, and our guild chat is usually quite active. We are a stable North American guild run by a husband and wife team, with the guild originating from Guild Wars 1. Players of any experience level are welcome.

Overall I really like the Reaper, after taking it through Fractals it seems like an amazing spec for PvE at least. But here’s a technical issues with one of the new moves:

Death’s Charge – Feels really awkward right now, with how it just dashes straight forward in whatever way your character is facing. Should either be target tracking (like Warrior Greatsword’s Rush) or manually targeted (like Warrior Greatsword’s Whirlwind Attack).

Overall I really like Dragnohunter, after taking it through Fractals it seems pretty solid for PvE at least. But here’s a few technical issues with some of the new moves:

Symbol of Energy – Feels awkward that it can only be placed ahead of you. Should be able to target anywhere within its range around you (like the Thief Shortbow’s Choking Gas).
Spear of Justice – Feels awkward that it can be wasted by activating without successfully targeting something. It should require a valid target to activate.

Overall I really like the new stuff, but here’s a few technical issues with some of the new moves:

Dragonhunter:
Symbol of Energy – Feels awkward that it can only be placed ahead of you. Should be able to target anywhere within its range around you (like the Thief Shortbow’s Choking Gas).
Spear of Justice – Feels awkward that it can be wasted by activating without successfully targeting something. It should require a valid target to activate.

Reaper:
Death’s Charge – Feels really awkward right now, with how it just dashes straight forward in whatever way your character is facing. Should either be target tracking (like Warrior Greatsword’s Rush) or manually targeted (like Warrior Greatsword’s Whirlwind Attack).

This “extra slot or base game” a good idea. They should definitely give a character slot no matter what for players that already have the GW2 base game. Because let’s face it, how many are going to be sitting on an unused character slot if you’ve already been playing the game? (my guess is almost none)
Players that are coming in fresh can get both games together, and won’t necessarily need an extra slot. But if we already have the base game, it should just automatically give us a free extra slot instead when we purchase any version of HoT.

Wolfey.3407:

Point 1:
-Boost all common NPCS to Elite Status (silver ring around picture)
-Give all current Elite NPCS champion Status with a unique attack/ function
-Give the Lord the ability to shout revive allies within 600 Range twice.
(after two times the lord can no longer use that ability)
Point 2:
I personally think communing with a Barrack while under attack is fine; however, I do not think you should be able to commune with a champion summon while under attack.
Point 3:
-Removing the walls around the supply area and adding another shortcut from Red to Blue lanes should help introduce more player interactions and combat.
Thoughts? Ideas? remedies?

None of it will really matter if you can easily win by getting your entire team to only make skritt and rush their base.
Point 1: My bomber elementalist can currently kill the lord in seconds. Improving the NPCs hitpoints and/or defense will only make this type of build even more important and unbalanced towards to bombing them down quickly.
Point 2: The Champs don’t really matter. It’s a waste of time to even go after them, when you could be spending that time rushing instead.
Point 3: This might help, but you really only need enough supply to make enough skritt to break through their doors, afterwhich supply becomes a waste of time to even think about.
I think the main solution isn’t to improve the NPCs, because players will always be able to take advantage of NPC stupidity no matter how strong they are. The real way to buff the lord’s defense is to simply make it REALLY easy to get to your own lord…hence my previous suggestion for an allied-only teleporter between your supply doors and your lord.
Putting in a teleporter like this would mean you can easily divert to defense, and more importantly keep defending the lord pretty reliably with players rather than NPCs/environmental stuff. It would be a lot tougher and require more strategy to take out the lord this way, because of the big time penalty for offending players to return after death, vs. minimal time penalty for defending player return.
As it is now, I can run into the lord with my bomber elementalist and nuke the crap out of everything, and even if I die it doesn’t really matter, because I’ll be back in about as much time as it takes the players that I killed to come back.

Even with the added timer now, it’s pretty much a guaranteed win as long as your team does two things and only two things:
1. make skritt
2. rush their base/lord.
The only way to counter this tactic is for the other team to do the same thing but even faster. Defense is completely pointless. 90% of the stuff in the map is pointless distraction, including the hero spawns. All that matters is dumping all your initial supply into skritt door bombers at the start, and then following them to victory.

One of the main reasons defense is pointless is because it takes almost as much effort to get to your own lord as it does theirs. A possible solution I can think of that might help is to make it a lot easier to get between your own base and your own lord. If the developers don’t want to redesign the whole geography of the map, then maybe an allied-only teleporter that can take you back and forth between a spot near your initial spawn area (maybe where the supply doors are) and your lord’s room would work out well.

nexxe.7081:

Don’t hold your breath. Dungeon team was disbanded to shift focus on open-world zerg encounters.

Well I hope the developers will read this thread then, because I’d like to speak on this issue.

I’m a guild leader of a guild that started at launch (technically it was a GW1 guild), which currently has around 200 people in it, and has consistently had over 100. This has given me access to seeing a lot of people’s general play tendencies. Throughout that time, I’ve noticed three (and really only three) main things that keep people in the game over time:
1. SPvP
2. WvW
3. Dungeons and Fractals

Some people will stay in the game for a time in order to do specific PvE attainable goals, like Living Story, crafting Legendaries, or leveling new characters. But once completed, they generally either go back to one of those three things listed above, or stop playing.
Now of those three things, there’s really only one that covers the PvE side, and that’s dungeons and fractals (in other words, elite instanced content). And without an interest in this, it has really seemed that no PvE focused player will really stay in the game permanently and consistently.

I know that a guild of ~200 people doesn’t represent the entire GW2 community, but I do feel it’s a pretty decent representation for me to base this conclusion on. So I hope developers will consider that this list may legitimately represent the most important things to focus on if they want to keep people playing HoT over the long-term.

I’d be fine with more Aetherpath type stuff, as long as it’s instanced and gives good rewards that makes it worth doing. Fractals have been my favorite part of GW2 since they were introduced, so I am glad to see some focus on them via the Fractal Mastery track. But I’d like to see some more instanced dungeons as well beyond that.
Without that, what do they expect people are going to keep doing? Sure people will play through the HoT storyline, but what about after that’s done? They need to be looking ahead and add in content that people will want to stay in the game for months down the road after release.

They really need some good new elite instanced content, either dungeons, fractals, or maybe some more involved 10-person dungeon type instances. I don’t know how everyone else feels, but the beta content all felt pretty grindy and/or boring to me. From my experiences with MMO’s, their PvE game is made or broken based on their elite instanced content. And I agree that they need to step up their game in that department too.

In TA Aether path, my team defeated Sparki and Slick, and it spawned the chest and opened the west door out of the room as usual. However, whenever anyone tried to walk out the west doorway to progress further, it kept warping us back into the room. We each tried relogging, going to different waypoints within TA and back, but it kept warping us back no matter what any of us tried to get through the door to go on.

I tried searching for this specific bug but couldn’t find anything about it anywhere.

muckshifter.9731:

ANet will be complaining there are no people for the Beta test … LMFAO!!!

It would actually be pretty funny if, in a game-wide protest, nobody touched DT or SW for the next week. I know it won’t happen, but I still wonder what would happen, theoretically…

I think their low drop rate on this beta key might not be as much of a problem if it could be dropped from everywhere. But why limit it to DryTop and SilverWastes? If it dropped from all areas of the game, then it would still be rewarding active players, and you could have a chance at getting it by going about doing what you want to do… seems like a win-win to me.

Making you go to the two grindiest maps in the game and farm the same content over and over for hours, if not days, just seems like a really bad decision on ArenaNet’s part though.

Pockets.3201:

I’d love a key for the beta, but I just can’t bring myself to spend hours on end in some rather boring zones farming for something with a really low drop rate…
Especially since I’m not getting much else for the time I waste there.

Exactly my take on it too. Both DryTop and SilverWastes are just plain grindy, and most people I know of tend to hate it there.
Now ArenaNet is trying to coerce people back there to grind some more by throwing in beta keys, rather than actually trying to make those areas inherently fun instead.

Test.8734:

That’s ArenaNet these days, I guess. It really shows us what kind of players they’re making HoT for.

I’ve actually been a bit worried about HoT because of this. Both DryTop and SilverWastes seem way more grind-focused than pretty much any other maps in the game, and most people I’ve heard talk to about them in the game have said they hate the grinding aspect that’s involved in them.
Now they’re throwing in beta key access to try to get people back into them to grind some more, rather than trying to make those maps more inherently fun instead.

notebene.3190:

Getting an email as the result of RNG takes no effort on my part. This seems a bit more like the Hunger Games.

Farming SW or DT for hours and hours takes no real skill or effort either, it’s just plain grinding in the most stereotypical way.

This seems really ridiculous. I just went through an entire SW run (from 0% to Vinewrath). I asked as soon as Vinewrath was dead if anyone in map chat got it as a drop, and not one person said they had. So what sort of ludicrously low drop rate have they put on something that doesn’t even give us anything permanently? And more importantly, how much does ArenaNet want us to have to grind for it?

It seems useful in general, and a great idea for RP in particular. There’s a lot of times when even using /s chat for RP can get difficult for RP’ers, especially when other RP’ers are doing the same in the same area, and it can definitely lead to clogging up the chat for others who aren’t interested in it. You can always use instances or party chat to get around this, but both of those are limited to 5 people. When you’re trying to run a RP with more than than 5 people, all the options available have potential problems, with the best of the bunch seemingly being to find a secluded area, use /s chat, and just hope and pray that it doesn’t get totally ruined by some other RP’ers or RP bomber showing up that interfere in it.

As someone who’s leveled six characters to 80, I think this change seems detrimental to new players. Why make people wait longer to start getting traits? I’ve tended to wish I could see more effects from traits earlier than I do now in the current system, not later. Low leveled characters never felt too powerful to me from having too many traits, if anything it feels like characters are a little too crippled in that way until getting past level 40. And it just sounds boring to have to grind through the first 35 levels before getting to choose and use any major traits at all.

I like all the other ideas about this that ArenaNet posted in their blog post, but this change to the level-to-traits ratio disturbs me, and I really hope ArenaNet will re-consider it.

I think they at least need to let us extract the previous infusion when you add a new one to an item slot.

The way it is now you’re basically faced with a big problem. Suppose you have a +10 agony infusion, and want to put it on an item. If you ever intend to raise that slot’s infusion level with an even higher one above +10, you’re basically going to be throwing all that investment you put into the +10 away.

This just gives players more reason not to use an agony infusion the higher level it is, and more reason to sell it instead. This seems counterproductive at best. If they want us to feel comfortable using our higher level infusions that we take time to create, they need to at least let us be able to potentially extract them somehow in order to not lose all that progress.

I don’t know if everyone feels that way, but I can tell you that it’s going to be really hard for me to actually use a +10 or higher agony infusion knowing that I’m potentially throwing it in the trash later on by doing so…

I’d like to see an option for GW1 style ground targeting, where AOE attacks auto-cast on your current target.
I’d also like it if you could hold a friendly target while using healing/support skills, like Water Blast or Orb of Light.

After organizing some guild bounties over the past couple weeks, here’s my main concern with them…

If people are having to pre-track the targets in order to reliably kill them, then it seems pointless to have them move at all. Either the pathing is intended to make you have to hunt them during the timer, rather than before it, or it just doesn’t really make much sense to have them moving at all. Tracking them ahead of time seems to be countering what looks like ArenaNet’s intention in having them move around in the first place.

Personally I think it would be a lot better if the targets didn’t ever move, and always spawned at the same location. Make the battles with them tougher to compensate if this would make guild bounties too easy. People generally don’t seem to enjoy tracking them down (at least in my guild they don’t), they just want to fight them. If most players in general feel similarly that it would be more fun for guild bounties to just focus on challenging fights rather than tracking, then please give people what they want on this one ArenaNet.

As a leader of a fairly decent sized guild (membership currently over 200), I just wanted to throw in my support for more stat reporting functionality within the ‘G’ screen.

I agree that the single most important thing they need to add is a “last logged on” column somewhere. Since I made my guild at launch, I’m sure I probably have some members who aren’t even playing the game anymore. But it’s impossible for me to conclusively determine who due to the lack of this ability to see when they last logged in, and as a result I’m kind of paranoid to kick people out even if I don’t ever see them log in myself.

Another thing I’d really like is some sort of reporting feature that tells me what percentage of the time someone is representing my guild while they’ve been logged in, compared to what percentage they’re representing other guilds. I’ve got members who sometimes represent other guilds, which is okay in some degree of moderation, but I don’t know how to tell when someone has completely moved on to another guild and never represents mine, and was just too lazy to actually leave my guild. This basically makes them the same as a member who never logs into the game at all, but again I don’t have the reporting tools necessary to determine who falls under this category.

So please ArenaNet, add some more stat reporting to the ‘G’ screen and let me clean my roster of dead members already.

I’m glad to hear changes are coming. Having to grind the same dungeon over and over seems counter to ANet’s philosophy of being flexible in how players play the game. And needing so many tokens from one single dungeon is just plain ridiculous and really goes against the philosophy of trying to minimize repetitive grinding.

Here’s an idea I thought up for solving this issue, and while I suspect ANet already has plans of their own to solve this issue, I’d still like to hear what other people have to say about my idea. The change is simple and basically just involves two things:
1. Have only one type of token that drops from all dungeons, and have all dungeon armors use those same tokens to buy.
2. Have each dungeon armor vendor refuse to sell you any of their token items until you’ve completed all three explorable versions of their dungeon.

I also really like the idea mentioned here of making the tokens account bound instead of character bound. And point 2 above would solve the concern some people have about low level characters getting the higher dungeon armor too soon.