Guild Wars 2

One of the issues I have with the this whole berserker argument is that it suppose to be justified by the lack of defensive stats, but by that same notion there should be a build of some profession that caps out damage wise in Rampager’s or the new Sinister gear as they equally lack defense. Then we get into the odd critical hit immune object bosses (that feel a bit lazy in that over all design).

Dondagora.9645:

Given how they said you’ll get new mechanics, it isn’t exactly stated you’ll lose your old ones. Possibly, this might give you a new “Shroud” which fills your F2 button and gives you more skills as well as a new way to think about the distribution between your Death Shroud use and your other “Shroud” use.

A lot of this is determined by how Anet is defining new mechanics. This could be anything from complete change in skills to minor/major adjustments in functionality, such as minion control, Dark Path becoming ground targeted, or an all condition or all power focused death shroud.

It is really too soon to have any solid ideas, the demo at pax may be the first glimpses.

What exactly are you wanting out of the ranger? I would a specialization of another profession fit that idea better?

I’m not really an expert or anything, but after the trait changes last year build don’t really come into there own until the level cap. But I am sure that someone more familiar with necromancer (I haven’t leveled one since before the NPE/trait changes) will point you in the right direction.

The video look like they still had a pet, the alpine wolf if I am recalling it correctly. At this point if they got the same people who are improving the content behavior to put even a bit of effort into the ranger’s pets if would be like a totally new profession.

GreenZap.1352:

Hi

I’m new to the forum and I’ll admit that I haven’t played the game a lot since I bought it at it’s release not because I dislike the game.
In fact I’ve been following the game from the forums since I’ve bought it because I really like a lot of what ANet is trying to do here.

Here’s my critizism or my personal (uninformed) player view if you will of this game. My issue with the combat system is not the lack of the Trinity but rather that the game mechanics doesn’t “reward” you to play in ways outside of an offensive approach to tackle an encounter.

The idea of Guild Wars 2 is that we have no “roles set in stone” and that you should more or less be able to play however you want then how come that a build like Staff only; Caster/Heal/Support Guardian that focuses entirely on support/off heal and protection is not viable in a group setting?

I think I’m asking the wrong questions; my real question is really not why that particular build is not “viable” but instead why is throwing damage at a problem the only true solution for every possible encounter in this game?

If the idea from ANet was to make away set roles that you decide by creating a character of a certain class then why does the game so aggresively “punishes” you for trying to play a class or a weapon skill set “not by the book” or by trying to “specialize” into one “role”?

Let’s compare to another game namely ESO which suffers from issues due to poor development, unbalanced classes and combat yadda yadda but if there’s one thing that game does right then it’s the freedom for players to choose whatever class they want because classes doesn’t define your role. Skill trees and weapons does.

Sure I will not disagree that picking some skills here and there and some weapons are more viable then other and if you are not going with a cookie cutter build and utilize weapon swap then you will be less efficent but still; it works in ESO!

Even if you were to play a “less efficent” build in ESO you can still be beneficial and helpful to your team and it’s instantly fun and rewarding.
You can probably not get into the hardest endgame content and expect to be of any use if you are playing with a “less efficent build” but during your whole leveling experience including dungeons and easier endgame activies you will still be of use and helpful to your team!

Isn’t that where GW2 is supposed to be superior? Isn’t GW2’s idea about bringing whatever you want to a group/team and have fun togheter?

So why then is this game favoring damage stats over defensive/support stats to beat every single thing that the developers throw at you? Why?

What if someone want to play a Elementalist Heal/Support and only stay in Water/Earth? Why shouldn’t that be beneficial and useful to the team and thus rewarding for the player who wants to play a Heal/Support Elementalist? Why?

Why have we removed Trinity if we are shoe-horned itno everyone being a DPS role with limited group buffs/support?

If we can’t utilize other ideas then ANet have failed and we are back at square one, we have removed Trinity and made it into a “One-ity” (lol) that only accepts DPS and DPS only!

That’s my issue with Guild Wars 2.

Feel free to critize me, discuss.

One, no one should be criticizing you as a person, your ideas on the other hand are fair game. I would like to first state (in my opinion) that the nature of defensive stats in a bit of a odd place as they work quite well when compared within the stats available to players, it starts to break down with the tendency for the developers to design dodge or downed mechanics that reward twitch play/memorization.

One question a do have about you above mention elementalist why would they just sit in earth/water, when there are helpful option in all the attunement (fire field for combo when healing isn’t needed, blinds and other control in air)? I don’t play a lot of elementalist, but as I understand it making uses of all the attunments is crucial to the profession.

If you are counting global nerfs you forgot (for wvw/pve at least) the addition of the global cooldown on the life steal on berry pies, but I think warrior claimed that as a direct nerf to them.

Anet might need to set up a court date so the profession can get custody of the various global nerfs.

It isn’t just the max gear, I really think that that a large number of the supporters of more mass combat really are saying that they want a change to have a numbers advantage as well as a change for gear advantage.

Novuake.2691:

Bran.7425:

Novuake.2691:

Sounds Elitist to me.

But I fully understand WHY people insist on these classes in most dungeons.

Not exactly it is more like the dungeon were designed with metric tool sets and so was guardian, while many of the other profession were designed with imperial tool sets. You can eventual find a fit but the metric set does it smoother and is often the ‘right tool for the job’ in the metaphor.

Not quite, Mesmer’s are used for many solo runs of Arah for example and yet they are not part of the dungeon meta. I believe a mesmer holds the record for Giganticus Lupicus time too.

The meta is subject to change based on adjustments and exploit removal. Mesmer also possesses metric design (reflection was not well thoughout at all when placed into the PvE design, just imagine if retaliation was similarly designed).

At one time the meta was 4 warriors and a mesmer. For all we know due to powercreep the next meta might be 3 revenant, a (insert thief specialization name), and a druid ranger with dual pigs.

However the discussion of PvE is kind of moot point as balance there has/will probably always be subject to being of least concern so long as they continue to balance everything through the filter of conquest spvp.

Novuake.2691:

Sounds Elitist to me.

But I fully understand WHY people insist on these classes in most dungeons.

Not exactly it is more like the dungeon were designed with metric tool sets and so was guardian, while many of the other profession were designed with imperial tool sets. You can eventual find a fit but the metric set does it smoother and is often the ‘right tool for the job’ in the metaphor.

I think it all depends on what WvW is supposed to be. If it is a massive battle league were servers compete then spying is abhorrent and should come with some punishment, but at the same time there would have to be other regulation to ensure good matches.

On the other hand if it is an all out war then, do whatever it takes to win.

So which is it?

It seems to me that the direction and and design focuses around many of the professions has undergone a great deal of change from the original ideas at launch, so much so in some cases it appears that the original team (or the head there of) was replaced and so their has been a period of time where a lot of the design seems to be focused on remolding the profession to fit the image of the latest design team (or head there of).

How do you think the Revenant will stack up when compared to the transition the other profession have come through since the original launch?

I am curious on how the Revenant will pace compared to other original profession as I would guess it was being refined after the NPE changes were green-lighted. Current many profession are more back heavy (or many builds just do not function until cap level).

So did the designer take this tendency into account and will the Revenant develop and a more even progression? Secondly what would the design philosophy behind the profession?

Novuake.2691:

Hi there!

ALL classes are PERFECTLY viable in PvE.

The most popular for dungeon runs where some people suffer from the Elitist mentality are as follow :
Guardian
Warrior
Ele

However let me stress this, all classes can PvE just fine.

It isn’t just elitism for the PvE perception. Guardian is popular due to it supportive skill sets, and the fact that for much of the content they designers seem to forget that guardians are great at negating ranged threats (something that I would guess was part of the original design before they were given the option for a 1200 weapon/attack).

As for warrior no much that is funnier than seeing a ‘never-played-anything-other-than-warrior" main trying a different profession. The whole ’what do you mean that attack will down me’ rage as they learn what is and isn’t dangerous.

Before the steal health on crit pie gain an internal cooldown Whirling Axe in an aoe situation was a better “healing” skill than most in the game at that time.

It is a bit odd that the channel isn’t (or if it has changed resently remained so for as long as it had) interupted by dodging. Just seems out of place with most of the mechanics associated with channeled skills.

thefantasticg.3984:

Or just give a Specialization that replaces the pet altogether with new F skills. Didn’t Colin say (I didn’t get to read a transcript of the presentation yet) something about the F skills getting replaced with the Specializations?

For ranger it would be more than just the F-skills in would also have to rework the downed state as well. They built the pet into too much of the ranger for the lack of development that went into the behavior design of it.

Substance E.4852:

They can have a whirling axe as good as a mobile whirling defense when our warhorn is as good as theirs…

It’s the warriors if it isn’t “different, but better” in their favor they will never be happy.

I wonder how much power creep the new profession will need to have to make space for it in the pvp-focused design?

Substance E.4852:

scerevisiae.1972:

Sebastian Knight.4736:

Axe 5 still roots in place? Booo!

The real kicker is that the skill would still be crap even if you could move.

Not to mention:

• sword #1 still roots the user. quite frankly it’s pathetic this bug is still there 2 years after release.
• traps still only 600 range – half the range of necro marks even after taking a GM and master trait.
• pets are still kitten

Axe 5 would definitely be a lot better, still pretty marginally useful, but a lot better. I mean, imagine how much better it’d be if you could use it to create a mobile bubble in WvW to keep your commander from getting focus sniped?

I already use axe offhand on my S/A-GS build just because axe4 is so good in a lot of ways. It’d be nice if axe5 had at least some use as well.

Only issue I can see with Whirling Defense gaining mobility is the warriors continuing to demand Whirling Axe get reflection as well they already compare it to the ranger skill while being ignorant/willfully ignoring the movement interrupting channel on Whirling Defense, while the Whirling Axe (last time I checked) moves, its more targets, and is on a 15 second cooldown base.

Kilger.5490:

I dont think these are supposed to be earth shattering changes, just small quality of life type stuff, so I wouldnt get too in a twist. Nothing really major for any classes.

And yet it takes how long to put QoL changes out there. There should be updates like this every month not twice a yet. And the minute they have a solid fix to an exploit/bug it needs to be put in place asap. The only reason I can see for delays at this point is to not appear to have favorites among the profession (with might not even be the case as they tend to work on easier fixes first, but the perception of preferred profession could still happen).

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

I had a warrior that couldn’t be finished as he somehow was able to be stuck in the floor making my finisher hit next to him i reported him and eh started getting nasty with me after match saying, “You can’t report me for getting stuck in a floor!” he was deliberately using a bug or something… three times then his buddies came and killed me. It was the silent storm map. We won though.

Bugs are in a bad place with GW2 in the past as well as currently. Look at when elementalists were self-reviving with tornado, or their current (soon on the way out) lightning whip exploit. We these (and many others) get used in tournaments how can anyone really take the competitive side of the game seriously.

In temple I had a guardian knock me off of that walkway near tranquility and we both went down from condi, he couldn’t hit me with the downed beam, but the throw junk was hitting just fine, needless to say he remained salty for quiet some time. So right now it isn’t just bugs, but unconsistancies in the basic ways the skills work with the environments.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Whoa, this is the hardest stuff to get? kitten , I’m sitting with about 2000 of em in my bank just doing nothing, already got the ones i needed for ascended gear.

I was hoping this thread would’ve been something about giving them another use or something like mawdrey

There already is the Star of Gratitude (link below) is another use for them. As for a lack you could always just part a level 80 character (or a few) at the end of a jumping puzzle and vola you get a few every day.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Star_of_Gratitude

Astral Projections.7320:

Idk, I just don’t know. Which should get the dress and which not? And the dyes, which dyes would be best…. It’s so hard to decide.

Blood? Iron? Abyss?

I know! Humiliation!

Does it make you feel pretty?

But back on topic could someone enlighten the community on the general reasoning behind the focus/direction on/of the armor skins in the game?

DeceiverX.8361:

Nobody’s asking for a new class. Just the option for ranged DPS with no pet dependencies. That’s sufficient to fulfill the archer archetype, no? Rangers ARE the pet class. Rangers ARE NOT to be played as ranged-combat mains, as per the words of ArenaNet despite the misleading class description. Rangers ARE the byproduct of combining the original standalone Archer, Warden, and Beastmaster classes in early development of GW2 due to the lack of versatility each dedicated class would have had. I’m not talking about classes but roles. You cannot play a viable archer as a style of play in GW2, because that style doesn’t actually exist. That’s just a fact.

They just need to rename the profession CuttingRoomFloor and be done with it.

Belzebu.3912:

If Anet cares only about PvP balance, the answer is no, but that they focus their balance towards the PvP then I’ll agree with you.

Not sure what is preventing Anet from making new PvP modes, but I don’t think it is about the current class balance.

The amount of focus/decision in the beginning on balancing around conquest locks a lot of the direct the mode could develop from. Prime example being Death Match, what would really works for death match isn’t option/composition isn’t something that is likely to be seen in conquest, so death match is excluded from the truly competitive side of the mode. The same would be true for a conquestless capture the flag or anyother mode you could come up with.

Basically making balance changes that would not ‘break’ profession between the possible additional modes would be next to impossible.

Ayrilana.1396:

The chests were better before they removed the PvP rewards that you got from it which included skins. But like others have said, it’s free rewards from doing nothing other than just playing the game. We didn’t have this at launch.

Definitely. I regret that I held on to a chest to see the difference first hand. They are kind of meh, now only really notable are the tiers when gems happen.

StickerHappy.8052:

Do your enemies even see the items on the ground? I mean yea before, but ever tested it now?

I use the porcine family, and not even once did i see my target or anyone from the other team pick it up.

Or maybe they can see it and they just can’t use it. Like FGS maybe?

Just tested it in practice it can be picked up by opponents. So sloppy design is still sloppy.

And here I thought there would be a healing signet crack before turrets, guess I own my wife dinner of her choice, we had a bet going.

Harper.4173:

This is not the problem.

This is most likely true but nobody likes it because the content is old and making it take longer is only making it more tedious.

At least the rewards should also be buffed in some way or another.

With the focus on the NPE that doesn’t really stand up as to the new players they are wanting to retain the dungeon are not old yet, however the negativity and frigid thinking of the dungeon runners (looters) might me though.

Take the time above and finish the statement let’s see where this goes.

lordkrall.7241:

So it basically comes down to people not being able to pay attention to their health and thus uses abilities at a time where they would hurt the stealth given by the Trait? Or am I missing something?

One could of course also question if we needed yet another thread if there are so many thread already discussing it.

Or if they bottle enough tears then reveled might be limited to only skills like sick’em not only the thief attacking from stealth.

minions. minions everywhere. And fear don’t forget fear.

“Bite my shiny petal….”

dodgycookies.4562:

or allow wars to dual wield 2 handers ie: wow war’s titan grip

That got mentioned in an old interview and was compared to working ranger pets and giving mesmer a tactical nuke.

They are probably only applying the change to rush to make sure that it doesn’t make things worst. Less stuff to fix that way.

It just feels like sloppy design to have the forage skilsl work the way they currently do.

Alvagon.8710:

Yea and we drifted out of the topic of might xD

As for e-Sports and PvP in this game i hope it DIES so they maybe start treating the game as One, instead of 3 different mods.

Unfortunately they feel they are treating the game as one game, even though the majority of balance concerns/design elements are directed toward spvp.

If you look at the game as whole it is like they and one group that was very story driven and world building, but then they handed the entirety of the work on the engine of the game to the pvp team and then the PvE/WvW designers are stuck trying to apply workarounds to get the game functioning.

I think that the confusion change was more to make the creature applying it more punishing to players. Any changes like this favor the game controlled elements of the game over the players imagine retaliation getting a similar treatment.

Do you want challenge for the sake of challenge or challenge for the sake of more effort more reward?

solrik.6028:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

The problem is with their Forage skill that forces us to move to the item in order to pick it up and also that enemy players can pick the item up as well.

There is more than enough time before the enemy can pick it up. Literally, there is a cooldown before they can pick it up.

There was no reason for enemies to be able to interact with them at all image how pained-in-their-rear area, the elementalist would be the first time the enemy team used their own conjured weapon against them

Dadnir.5038:

Changes on Heal as one doesn’t make it more appealing. This skill grant absolutely nothing except health. What this skill truly need is to be tied to one of the ranger skill categorie. Just tie it to survival skill, add 5 second CD (up to 25 second) and everything will be fine because there will be room for us to improve this skill via trait.

I am very surprise that Heal as One was replace with one of the other heals for the NPE as they switched warrior to Healing Signet. As it stands you are right without additional effect of some kind I can not see any one using it in favor of any heal other than the spirit (which may be one of the worst heals in the game)

Wrong month for those kind of shenanigans.

REGGADO.1237:

Bran.7425:

Saiyan.1704:

Mesmer clones are also visible for no reason.

Mesmer clones are there to keep people from using the mini-map to quickly locate the real mesmer, asking to remove them would be like asking for the thief icon to remain on the map while stealth is active.

Im pretty sure he ment team mesmer clones visible for other teammates.

I doubt they could remove one without out effecting the other, or somehow breaking someother profession’s skill in the process.

Artaz.3819:

It depends on how the undocumented “leap” component works. If it’s like Ranger’s Swoop. That being said, it may also break the close-to-target usage… Wait and see

If it works like that enjoy falling off of stuff. Cliffs will become the aspect predator of warrior.

If the pets works at the level they are expect to, then they are too good (perceived easy button), if they remain horribly flawed then people can claim skill (and others will wonder why the rangers didn’t apply that development of skill into a profession that has better effort to effect).

I’d settle for them reworking the functionally on forage (so opponents can’t use them) and for pet name to be save client-side. And I am really not to hung up on the first one.

With the general amount of negative attention/feedback they are getting about ranger did you really expect anything? The fact that the entire profession didn’t get the nerf nuke, just to quiet the masses, is still a bit of surprise to me.

Lazaar.9123:

Try telling that to Oola.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Oola.jpg

Ok maybe hairplugs

Saiyan.1704:

Mesmer clones are also visible for no reason.

Mesmer clones are there to keep people from using the mini-map to quickly locate the real mesmer, asking to remove them would be like asking for the thief icon to remain on the map while stealth is active.

Ithilwen.1529:

People stopped wanting to play it because it was too strong.

I doubt that is the total reason, there is a definite ‘win at any cost’ mentality with the pvp, or why wasn’t there a gentlemen’s agreement no to exploit elemental all this time?