Guild Wars 2

Very unreasonable if the net result is that you will create a barrier of entry (perceived or actual) for semi-casual players who need to get anchored into PvP as well as the other game modes they already play.

We need more population in the game mode. That comes from players who may otherwise have shunned the system as being “no reward” based. So, clearly dungeon loot is a good thing to add. But then, you get into people wanting to be able to obtain titles, ranks, finishers etc without feeling like it is an impossible journey.

So a few hard core pvpers get upset. It really is inconsequential compared to the benefit of those new players enjoying the game mode. Not being rude, just very forthright. This is absolutely the right business decision.

You guys are missing the point. The goal of the PvP changes was to make the rewards more common with other game modes and to encourage people to try PvP who otherwise see it as a separate game. This breed of semi-serious gamer would never be comfortable if the coolest titles were quite difficult to obtain because they didn’t start in this game mode.

Let’s face it, losing a few of the hardest core players is really not much of a business concern for a game. Not for the benefit of anchoring your semi-casuals into another game mode. This change along with allowing dungeon loot etc to be obtained in PvP was just brilliant. Truly impressed by the business model.

This is exactly what the game needs right now. Casual players have to be encouraged to go into PvP to make it a more viable game mode. They want to obtain the highest titles, skins etc. If the climb is too great because they didn’t start in pvp, they won’t do it or stick with it.

Frankly, a few upset hardcore players is absolutely worth it to bring the casuals back to pvp. No question the right business decision. Brilliant how they unified the systems so that the PvEr or WvWer could actually feel like they are accomplishing something in PvP. In fact, if the casual player just plays two matches a day, I think you will find the whole experience more robust, varied and representative of lots of builds vs tricked out builds.

Let’s be honest, if a few extremely hardcore players quit but it delights a much larger set of players who might be thinking about other launches right now, do you really think ANET lost? Hardly, this is brilliant even if it does not work out for you personally.

The real issue is that there were so darn few dragons. You always base your game on the semi-serious but still casual player base. PvP went too hardcore and that is why its numbers were less than stellar compared to other game modes. This is exactly the type of changes that will bring more casuals into the mix!

Oh, I think in about 4 weeks after the patch goes live you will see how the bubble on the turret really helps. ESPECIALLY, because you can retrait so quickly.

Wouldn’t that cause all sorts of balance issues?
I mean as an engineer sign me up for a 4th kit!

BUT. . . .

All the traits that work “upon activating an elite” would be far too powerful for example because that ability is tied to activating the key representing all elites. Etc.

I don’t see this happening without a lot of headache. Id love it. Just don’t think it would be balanced or easy.

Playing PvP and WvW more there has to be a balance. I don’t want a zerker ranger running away and in 2 seconds coming back as a spirit ranger.

I don’t mind traits being templated given you still need to change the gear, but overall, it has to take a bit of time imho.

So “you will have the same number of points to spend on each of your characters”.

Does that mean that each character has the maximum points determined by how much wxp is in your account? For example, a 100 ranger and 50 engineer are now in a pool and they each can spend 150 OR

Each character pulls from the same pool and it divides the total? For example, a 100 ranger and a 50 engineer are pooled and each can now spend 75?

Note everything changes April 15th from sigils, runes and GM traits.

The Jack of All Trades Spec is

30 (Bomb Radius, Shrapnel, Extra Grenade and Range)
10 (Reduced Pistol Cooldown)
0
20 (Protection on CC, Regeneration)
10 (Perma Swiftness)

You run 3 kits (Grenade, Bomb, E-Gun) and can basically do a bit of everything.
Weapons are Pistol/Shield.
Armor would be Dire with rabid everything else.
Runes of Perplexity will always be better in WvW than others. Cheesy but better.
Sigils are changing but essentially having extra stacks of condition damage matters.

Lots of conditions, blinds, utility, blasts etc. It does take a while to figure out when and where to use it all! But it also has gear that fits a lot of other builds. But it is probably the best build for getting a sense of who you want to be.

I would tend to get the dire/rabid set for this build then maybe a tanky Valkyrie/berserker set for more of a healing/support build which looks like this:

20 ( Bomb Radius and Shorter Bomb/Nade Cooldown)
0
30 (Extra Power, Power Shoes, Elixir Infused Bombs)
20 (Projection Injection, Backpack Regeneration)
Get the healing power sigil for the rifle right now.
Right now I use altruism runes
Slot bombs, wrench, generally e-gun for more big heals and condition removals.
Healing skill varies for Healing turret (big groups) to Med Kit (scales sooo much better with HP and allows for more use of altruism runes).

Not that expensive and you then have two very different playstyles.

In a zerg, I find that the boon pets are the best. A good mighty roar.
I also find that group CC is quite helpful making hound and wolf popular.

Depending on your spec, the Fern Hound can be extremely helpful.

One set that is often forgotten is porcine. If your pet isn’t going to be rushing in fighting, it might as well create items that can be very situationally powerful. Lots of AE fields, stealth, heals etc.

So much of this depends on how quickly you can swap out.

Let me give you an example. Suppose this just quickly changes your traits on the fly but not your gear.

1) When do you need “Soften the Fall”? Really, only when you are about to jump down and attack the enemy or flee the enemy. So now you slot it quickly when you need it only.

On the other hand, you can’t quickly move from say berserker to spirit because you have to change weapons, armor, accessories as well as traits. Not efficient IN FIGHT.

BUT. . .

What if you have gone from small skirmish fighting in wvw and now are defending a keep. You have the time to swap out equipment, but there is no trainer. Great advantage.

So generally, while skirmishing I expect some minor trait changes like you would do with utilities currently. While changing game play (keep defense to skirmishing) I do expect people to take time to redo their templates possibly.

This looks like the right balance frankly.

Most people play multiple classes already. This is a bit odd of a request really.

When the ranger stows his pet, he becomes entirely focused on his target versus commanding his pet, companion and friend, as a result,

Rangers w stowed pets have a 30% chance to add an auto attack of the same weapon they are using when attacking with any skill. In the case of chained auto attacks, it would be the first skill (damage only). If not in range, the skill “misses” as normal. On AE skills, it provides a single attack to the ranger’s target or closest enemy if no target.
This attack can not crit.

I would have an X% chance to fire a second arrow (using the auto attack stats/damage) per attack (so multiple chances w rapid fire). Would NOT work on barrage.

% chance could be 15%

It seems to me that one way to help fix stat disparity is to look at armor and health.

The higher the armor, the lower the endurance regen and therefore fewer dodges.

The higher the base health, the less “mental” you are so your cool downs should be adjusted to be higher.

An engineer being middle on both, gets no benefit or nerf.
An elements list, being low tier health and armor, would get more dodges and shorter cool downs for more damage.
A warrior, being top tier in both, would dodge less and have higher cool downs.
A guardian, would have fewer dodges but see cool downs lowered.

Thief would get both benefits, but not really given they use initiative.

Then there is no need to adjust stats to common.

Alchemy Experimental Turrets and Gadgeterer

Buffs in Common:
Retaliation
Vigor
Fury
Might

Different:
Aegis v Protection
Regeneration v Swiftness

Overall, the boons are largely overlapping.

TURRETS provide:
AE
Pulse Every 10 Seconds
You can pick up a turret and reset it often faster than the cooldown of the gadget!

Turret v Gadget Uptime Given Pulsing
3/10 seconds Protection
10/10 seconds Swiftness
5/10 seconds Fury
3/10 seconds Vigor
3/10 Seconds Retaliation
10/10 Seconds 3x might

Now Look at Gadgets
3/40 Seconds Retaliation
5/25 Seconds Fury
4/20 Seconds Vigor
8/60 Seconds Regeneration
6/18 Seconds Aegis
6/40 Seconds 5x Might

Overall, UNLESS I am desperately wanting gadgets over a turret, the turret grossly outperforms on providing boons given:
1. Much Higher uptime
2. Largely Same Boons
3. AE Effect 600 units. HUGE.
4. Works on Elite Skill Supply Crate Turrets (assumption based on fortified turret description)

What would make gadgets far better would be to:
Remove a condition every 10 seconds replacing the condition removed with the following additional boon. Does not work when utility is on cool down. However, upon utility activation, engineer receives additional boon

Don’t forget that the healing is AE and the ranger doesn’t need to be by the bird or pet.
It is all about the value, but it really could be useful especially helping someone in a close fight by sending in the birds so to speak.

Ranger wouldn’t be OP.
Warrior wouldn’t suck.

As for guardian, it makes far more sense but it may result in needing to reduce guardian damage.

At least we agree the thief is ok!

Gadgeteer:

Change from current “upon use” to the same passive “pulsing” of Experimental Turrets. In other words, every 10 seconds while slotting the gadget. . . .

AED 3 sec retaliation
Battering Ram 5 sec fury
Etc.

This would be engineer only of course (because it is mobile) versus experimental turrets which are AE boons.

Synaptic Overload:

I like it maybe. You would take it with bombs and other power based kits/weapons.
Doubling the rate of fire on bombs just means when the delayed BOOM goes off you are in trouble. Doubling AA of rifle would matter too. I see it as a delayed wallop. And there are a LOT of knockbacks with the power kits. Would really help tranquilizer gun with other traits get higher bleed stacks too.

Bunker Down:

Again, it is a great GM trait potentially. Again, for power builds that have fewer conditions. We also don’t know if the bomb will create an effect or just be damage. I see this as a great way to escape by putting your target back into combat and slowing down movement. It also could be used to create a basic mine field or 1 time burst of damage as you are throwing grenades or fighting from a backline. You will have 3-4 of them up I would imagine in many scenarios.

Fortified Turrets:
If it effects everyone in the “hit box” of the turret and that new hit box is still big enough to “cover one or two” players then this is amazing. If not, it still is ok but so much of it depends on how big of a hit box is left. I see this way more as a tool that would be used if it protected players standing by turrets. It also will be quickly slotted when sieging. With rapid ability to change specs before a big WvW siege, this becomes a LOT more useful. Turrets by rams. Turrets on walls. Yep, it could be situationally very nice. 100% depends on the “hit box”.

Experimental Turrets: Again, it is a quick change that is situational from say roaming to more static fights. Depends on the range and how many allies get affected.
Importantly, will it work on supply crate turrets? There are some good ones for a roaming fight (rifle and fury) and great ones for a static fight (even more retaliation and protection). And it continues to pulse out the effect so placement of turrets could really matter in wvw siege.

Gadgeteer: Just not tempted to go 30 pts into tools right now. If I were, this isn’t a bad trait but it should “pulse” the benefit much like Experimental turrets does, just only to the engineer.

Well, there are classes that should get adjusted. The warrior should swap with the guardian for example. The guardian is the defensive tank. The warrior should be a high risk/reward berserker type. The thief is supposed to be high risk/reward and that is why they have so few HPs. Elementalist doesn’t have the damage for it. If it did like in most MMOs it would go to the low HP bucket.

Tiers should be redone:

High HP
Guardian
Ranger (the tough woodsman)

Middle
Elementalist
Necromancer
Engineer
Mesmer

Low
Warrior
Thief

One way to immediately balance some of the problems created with things like the Warrior (too powerful) or the Ranger (too weak) would be to have different tiers of CC based on the overall squishiness of the target.

So. . .

There would be three 3 tiers of targets facing crowd control (NOT damage conditions as making the warrior subject to all conditions made them useless in the past). One would naturally get 40% longer duration. Most would get zero change. The final tier would have significant natural resistance to crowd control.

This is done based on the class’ mechanic. A warrior should be offensive with a real knack for getting slowed down. A thief better avoid cc with stealth or else. On the other hand a guardian is well defensive by nature and the ranger just plain needed the help (and is the guerilla skirmisher you can’t slow down easily).

+40%
Warrior
Thief

No Change
Mesmer
Elementalist
Necromancer
Engineer

-40%
Ranger
Guardian

Trouble with the warrior is it can be too many things without ALWAYS being the jack of all trades and the master of none.

The warrior in its many weapons, specs and iterations with its high offense and defense is the jack AND master. That is well. . . jacked.

Don’t worry, it is a very minor nerf. . . . unfortunately.

Really really would help a bow or ranged ranger more than others just given distance.

Shoot from afar. Get out of combat quickly. Change sets. Swoop in for the kill.

Thieves have plenty of disadvantages to make up for this one advantage. The game isn’t setup to have conditions impact initiative.

I think the ranger needs more basic help with the bow to make it reach minimally viable status as opposed to not just buffing (but making playable) the bows thru traits.

Some basic functionality should be added to the bow WITHOUT traiting.

Engineers and elementalists are fine. Other classes get more sigils. We get more skills.
Sounds about right.

It isn’t like we have fewer ACTIVE sigils (you only get the benefit of the equipped ones). We have less ability to change out the sigils. Seems about right given we can change our action skills with kits and attunements fast.

Damage was too much on a single attack and death occurred too quickly. The number one problem with time to kill was and is condition damage. It was wholly unbalanced. People just got used to it.

It is about time frankly.

Your basic point is that the warrior is so incredibly OP right now that what should be insanely good GM traits won’t get used because there is something more insane.

I agree. The need is a warrior nerf.

Karma or Badges. Tomes just are necessary to make a bit easier in different play styles right now considering the volume of balance change (which I am looking forward to) in the game.

As I have stated in other posts, some of the GM traits across multiple classes seem weak until you really think about them.

For engineer, the bubble on the turret will be great IF a player or a few players can stand under it. You get 4 seconds of reflection and can in theory refresh it every 10ish seconds with 2 fast cool down turrets. Depending on radius and depending on if it reflects siege shots like the bubble on siege weapons. . . .

If you or a friend can stand under the shield of the turret (like siege) it could be extremely powerful. You can redeploy a single turret as quick as 15 seconds after you pick it up. Each is 4 second bubble.

Depends if a PLAYER can stand in the bubble. If yes, like siege bubbles, I see a lot of use.

Ok, this could be amazing or it could suck.
It depends on the radius of the reflection and whether it works like siege equipment which has a bubble and protects against siege projectiles too.

If a few players can stand under it and ALSO be protected, imagine what an engineer with a couple of turrets can do for siege or in PVP for trebuchet shots etc.

Now imagine 2 engineers or more coordinating turret bubbles (only takes 15 seconds to redeploy it). IF it resists siege shots, that could be extremely powerful IF you can stand under it and ESPECIALLY IF others can too. It has real potential.

Ok, just going to be contrarian and say some of these traits could be OMG amazing.

The Beastmaster trait could be hysterically OP. There are two factors that matter. The healing amount (which many say could be low) AND the speed at which you can do a command ability.

Look at birds. Lacerating slash is on a 6 second cooldown. So even if the heal were a base 1500 and could go to 2k, that is pretty amazing because of the speed at least how it reads.

Nature Magic is an incredible active condition removal for some condition builds. 2 conditions and look at the cooldowns. 20 seconds for traited muddy terrain. That is solid considering you will often have 2 survival skills and even faster effective removal.

Do block ranged attacks include blocking conditions that come from range too? If so, that could be extremely useful. You have great evades for big physical damage but it is the conditions that tend to not be telegraphed. 15% may be a bit low but it isn’t bad.

Wait and see. It wouldn’t be the first time that a blog description did not fully convey what a skill did. This might be a lot better than you think. Furthermore, it is 1 of 5.

Maybe the idea is that the thief is supposed to be the counter.

It is foolish from a damage perspective in wvw to not use them with a condition build. They really are that much better than all other options for a kit based condi damage engineer.

Sure there are other decent options, but this one is exceptional damage.

Heck no. Without change games get stale. Better to change frequently and adjust quickly. The only mode of gameplay that gets a bit more unbalanced is PvP but even then, the pace of change is too slow in this game not too fast (even for PvP).

There are far more casual players than hypercompetitive ones. There will be balance issues, but probably only a few critical ones.

I think reasonable people can look at what a class was at launch, how it progressed and why, and see that warriors were (or should or both you) (you pick if you must) designed around being the offense but lower defense melee character of the guardian/warrior set. They clearly, originally, were intended to have lower healing and condition removal. But when that turned out to be too much of a handicap, changes were made. Hence, the intention was and should be to have the class return to less defense. ANET, in making warriors playable, went too far.

The blog says April. Guessing April

Not sure we know near enough (is there an ICD on the trait and what is it? etc).
Only thing we know is that change is coming and it isn’t some wimpy lil change.

It could be OMG amazing. Really. What if you or team mates could stand under the bubbles? It works on healing turrets and the supply crate turrets.

What is the frequency of the bubble?

We seriously don’t know enough to be happy or sad for any class. What is exciting is seeing the scope of the work ANET has done.

Well we are seeing exactly one of 5 GM traits, so I wouldn’t get too upset.
We also are not seeing how turrets will or won’t be improved.
The potential is there. I would love to think that if you hit a turret with a bounce skill you could eat damage again and again.
It does work on supply crate turrets and healing turrets. That isn’t insignificant.
Also, we have no idea if you can stand under the shield of a turret. That could be VERY impactful.

All we really know is that ANET is making real and significant changes. I think we need to wait for more, frankly.

Reality Check Time:

1) We have no idea if the traits will be redistributed across lines.
2) We have but one example of one GM trait (every line gets a new one) of each class and are comparing based on that single point of reference.
3) The Trait itself isn’t bad IF it comes with something else like increasing attack speed
4) They may very well be adjusting the LB too

What I can say based on the blog is that the changes coming are significant and I would much prefer seeing big change versus wimpy change.

WHat build did you use?

The GW2 maps are pretty small frankly.
If maps were bigger, you might want horses (that disappear when attacked or throw you and you get stunned) for just OOC speed.

The necro is supposed to be a sitting duck if alone straggling in WvW. But have you seen their condi spam in larger fights??? That is balance.

The thief is fast. But they only really do well picking off stragglers. Makes sense.

Most classes can get by reasonably well.

Last suggestion I would support.

Actually, dodging physical damage is of greater benefit in a small fight because time to kill matters more.

If you dodge, physical damage, you can often avoid a large spike.
If you dodge a condition, you may avoid more damage but that damage is over time. There are often other ways to deal with the condition where the physical damage spike would be sudden and tip the fight from your being on the offensive to defensive.
Many times in a small fight, death occurs well before the DOT is finished.

To counter, condition damage builds. So if the fight drags, if I can dodge and evade your physical spikes, advantage condition.

Quite balanced at the moment really.

One of the big problems is that the meta has melee smashing into other melee. Well, frankly physical damage should typically try to get rid of the build over time condition damage. If you don’t (and often these days I see people ignoring condition casters upfront), you obviously pay.

One man’s hardcore is another man’s casual. I think more importantly, the game should allow people to “feel” like they are hardcore or to “feel” like casual, at night after work, couple hour play is rewarding and helping them progress.

But in general, no game is financially successful over-emphasizing the hardcore gamer except to draw them into the game to pull the casual base in. Fact remains, the giant majority of players are casual, never look at a board, and often only know a patch is coming because their computer updates on launch. They also monetize better.

In short, the way to kill an experience for the hardcore player is to ask a company to cater to them. Kill the game. Kill the experience.

GW is actually a game that rewards high skill better than most (and fortunately doesn’t require it to have fun).