Guild Wars 2

Linguistically Inept.6583:

no.

… also its used a lot in wvw

Any reasons why not? I can think of many ways a stealth breaking AoE would be useful, and it would also add some ways to counter tactics which can be very difficult to counter at the moment.

And maybe its just my server which is mid tier, but I haven’t noticed anyone use this skill in some time in and I can only recall it being used on me around 2 times throughout my entire time playing WvW.

Linguistically Inept.6583:

Rym.1469:

I’d increase the radius and fix it to affect 5 targets. Making it 50% bigger would be awesome

this would be nice

… reveal wouldnt (im guessing the reasoning behind revealed being on sic em is at attempt to give ranger the opportunity to burst down thieves before they can restealth… which doesnt make sense with muddy terrain)

Reveal on muddy terrain would be far more tactically diverse than sic-em could ever be with reveal, some of which I listed in my OP.

Affecting 5 targets would also be a nice change and with its current effects it could use a larger AoE. Its cripple could also use an increased duration. If reveal was added however I would say the radius is fine, and it could probably use a longer cool-down of say 26-30 seconds to balance it out somewhat.

Welcome to the game!

I wouldn’t worry about equipment until you reach the max level (80). Up until then equipment variety is low and you’ll be frequently upgrading to higher level equipment. That said, focusing on damage stats (power, precision, critical damage, condition damage) on your equipment is always good early on as you’ll get by content faster. It is also a good idea to buy some cheap trinkets from the trading post seeing how they are difficult to get from drops.

However, once you reach level 80 you have many equipment choices and you’ll want to choose what compliments your build the most. I’m no expert on equipment stats or builds so hopefully someone else can help you out there, but you do have a good amount of time to figure it all out by the time you hit level 80 and start working towards exotic and ascended equipment.

There are no “item sets” in this game. We do have something similar in the form runes that provide bonuses the more of the same type you equip, but you can replace these with other runes as often as you like, destroying the old rune in the process. Its all about the quality of the item (white, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink) and the stat you want over anything else.

ANet is finally adding some counter-play to stealth through the Sic ’Em shout revealing the opponent, and it got me thinking how muddy terrain would also be a great skill to also add reveal to. Game-play wise this would be a great counter-play option to stealth while logic wise moving through the mud would reveal you through the footsteps left in it.

As it stands muddy terrain is a rarely used and a fairly weak utility. It immobilizes for 2 seconds on cast and pulses cripple for 10 seconds. The immobilize on cast is the only good thing about it because the cripple is weak, the AoE easily moved out of, and compared to traps it falls short.

Reveal could be just the thing this utility needs, and it would actually give rangers a strong role in WvW. They would be able to throw down what are essentially anti-stealth AoE which would break infiltration attempts and zergs who try to veil their way through.

When skirmishing the ranger could stand in it to gain a temporary immunity to thieves ganking them with backstab, they could use it on a retreating thief to both immobilize and stop stealth, and it would be the perfect thing to break a shadow refuge.

Out of all the ranger’s weapons I feel the main-hand axe could use the most work.

It is designed to be used with either physical or condition builds, but fails to excel in either. You have Ricochet which only does physical damage, but has low damage in a physical build let alone a condition based one, Splitblade which can apply 5 stacks of bleeding but typically does less DPS than a full Ricochet bounce would if you are in a power build, and Winters Bite which works well between the two.

Ricochet, its auto-attack, has an excessive after-cast that negates any weapon skills. It’s frustrating trying to use a skill during this after-cast only to see your character continue with auto-attacks.

The only trait it has (10% crit dmg) doesn’t fit well with its hybrid nature. It feels like they ripped this right off the warrior, which essentially has the exact same trait, the difference being that critical damage fits in far better with the design of the warrior and its axe.

For all 5 Splitblade hits you need to essentially be touching the opponent. This makes it a risky and difficult weapon to use in condition builds because much of your damage comes from this skill. Considering the risk and difficulty involved in lining up all 5 axes, the damage of Splitblade is not high enough.

Ricochet requires multiple opponents to bounce off, greatly reducing its DPS unless fighting multiple enemies. When fighting a single opponent in PvP I often find myself mashing the weapon swap button after exhausting my off-hand skills because the axe feels close to useless between its pathetic auto-attack damage and Splitblade requiring you to be in the enemies face.

Here are some ideas I’d like to throw out there to help address these things. Keep in mind these aren’t perfectly balanced so they may appear overpowered.

The after-cast on Ricochet should be lowered so it stops blocking other skills. This would also increase its DPS by a small amount which it could use.

Ricochet could bounce off allies granting 1-2 seconds of fury and have its hits increased from 3 to 4. This would sync very well with the pet and make the axe a stronger weapon against single targets.

Splitblade could cause 5 stacks of bleeding to any opponent it hits, regardless of how many axes hit them, and the physical damage of the skill should be increased by 100% This would make the skill far less conditional to use effectively while allowing players to get some minor burst damage in if they used it at close range.

The Honed Axes trait could give a 5% damage bonus against bleeding foes, as well as a 10% increase in bleeding duration This would make the trait fit in much better with the nature of the ranger’s axe.

This would be a nice change for a lot of content as it would allow pets to survive better between cool-down swaps.

However even with 70% more health, or even a massive increase like 400% for that matter, pets will still not be able to survive certain attacks or mechanics, such as shockwaves which are meant to be dodged or jumped over, mortars from the nightmare tree, AoE heavy bosses, mines, and laser walls.

Maybe after this change pets will have enough survivability for general content and they can then focus on making them more viable against enemies with specialized mechanics.

Littlefeather.8623:

Bri.8354:

DevonCarver.5370:

TheAmpca.1753:

Why don’t we get WXP for capping/defending these.

It’s far too easy to flip them just to farm WXP. One thing that is coming soon is an addition of WXP consumables to the player loot bags, which should make a pretty big addition to the amount of WXP you get from being in the area, assuming you are killing players. As to adding it to the general capping of the points, we’ll have to consider that pretty carefully before we make any changes.

Surely this can’t be the reason when addressing it is so simple. There are many solutions which would stop point trading, such as a timer before you could get WvW xp from a point again.

As it stands I won’t even touch the middle because of the lack of rewards. You can go around for 30 minutes and get less kills than a zerg will get in a single clash. You might as well stick with camps when roaming because fighting in the ruins of power will net you close to nothing.

Why not do something for your server once in a while instead of your XP bar?

Because in the end what ever I do has no impact whatsoever in the grand scheme of things due to the design of WvW being intentionally unfair. When the very design is meant to be unfair, why should I or anyone else take it seriously? You might as well go out and try to have as much fun as you can, and when I spend an hour in the ruins and come out with nothing, I’m not finding it very fun.

DevonCarver.5370:

TheAmpca.1753:

Why don’t we get WXP for capping/defending these.

It’s far too easy to flip them just to farm WXP. One thing that is coming soon is an addition of WXP consumables to the player loot bags, which should make a pretty big addition to the amount of WXP you get from being in the area, assuming you are killing players. As to adding it to the general capping of the points, we’ll have to consider that pretty carefully before we make any changes.

Surely this can’t be the reason when addressing it is so simple. There are many solutions which would stop point trading, such as a timer before you could get WvW xp from a point again.

As it stands I won’t even touch the middle because of the lack of rewards. You can go around for 30 minutes and get less kills than a zerg will get in a single clash. You might as well stick with camps when roaming because fighting in the ruins of power will net you close to nothing.

Zhaitan.2578:

Also, their is no avoiding specialized ways to take down mobs fast. Stacking is just the simplest and easy to execute. The real challenge of PvE comes in boss fights, where stacking is often suicide. In this case, ranged weapons are balanced just fine.

If all monsters were like those challenging bosses we wouldn’t have a problem at all. However a large potion of monsters, bosses included, lack the ability to sufficiently pressure attackers. Stacking is a result of this lack of risk involved, and when risk is what damage is balanced around, you have an issue.

Furthermore, there are 2 other factors that create issues with this risk vs reward system:

Enemies stand completely still and do not try to take specific action against melee attackers (such as moving away or using CC), leading to nearly equal attack up-times for both ranged and melee. In PvP, which damage seems to be balanced around, melee attackers constantly have to close the distance from their target, and this is not present in much of PvE.

Ranged can be put at the same risk as melee by some enemies who’s strength comes primarily from ranged attacks, which when combined with the above issue, can create equal risk for both ranged and melee.

champ.7021:

also Lupi melee greater risk than ranging lupi. Ranging and stacking on the mage crusher has less risk than melee stacking. Spider in AC wipes groups all the time when they dont know how to dodge or use wall so theirs a lot of risk in that. TA you stack a lot for the adds but trying to stack on malrona takes alot of coordination and theres alot of risk. Stacking in TA u/u and TA f/u is also risky for pugs. Maybe you should try to do these dungeons before commenting on them with a clear lack of information.

That’s only a few examples of bosses, all of which put higher risk to melee attackers than the majority of dungeon monsters. Go through the rest and you’ll see that many do not put sufficient risk on melee range attackers.

The damage of melee vs ranged weapons was balanced around a risk vs reward system. Because melee fights up close they have more trouble reaching the target and are in greater danger when fighting they are given a damage boost over ranged which can attack at a distance resulting in lower risk and more attack time.

This seems well balanced in PvP, but this method of balancing is flawed for PvE content where the risk of attacking and attack up-time is often close for both ranged and melee. This cannot be more evident than with “stacking” where players huddle in a ball next to the enemy and kill it safer and more efficiently than if they spread out.

I feel this is something that needs to be addressed. Either the risk of attacking in melee range needs to be increased to an appropriate level, or the damage gap between ranged and melee needs to be shortened to appropriately reflect the risk and attack up-time differences between the two.

Retaliation is probably one of the must frustrating things about WvW for me. A single barrage on my ranger or symbols and whirling wrath on my guardian can easily trigger 45+ ticks of retaliation, dealing over 9,000 damage just for attacking.

Something needs to be done about this. I shouldn’t be forced to back off and heal just because I attacked a zerg for a few seconds, even if none of them have attacked me yet.

Bright.9160:

And playing the piano is just hitting little bars with your fingers.

Just because you’re able to oversimplify something doesn’t mean it’s easy. If it was, everyone would be doing <15min dungeon paths in every dungeon.

I’m not talking about something being easy or not. Mastering skill rotations and creating efficient builds that sync well with your party can be difficult, as well as learning the enemies attacks and when proper times to dodge are.

But past that what does combat have? Other than mastering rotations and learning the 2-3 attacks every enemy has, what does the combat offer? Just take a look at the complexities of PvP combat to see how much more PvE could be offering.

Adding to my last post, the vast majority of combat in PvE is essentially stacking, skill rotations, and dodging, and any mechanics past that they are simply side-objectives which are separate from that of the combat itself.

Take almost any PvE encounter, strip away these side mechanics, and all you have left is stack, rotations, and dodging. There are no complexities in enemy behavior and our skills serve no dynamic role in the combat.

PvP also has side mechanics, but the difference is that the combat itself is much more dynamic due to the behavior and abilities of the enemy. If you took away side mechanics from PvP, such as capture points, you’d still have a rich and dynamic combat experience, but the same can’t be said for PvE.

For instance:
- Take the gun away from the Ghost Eater and you have stacking, skill rotations, and dodging (SRD).
- Take away the crystals from the jade maw and you’re just dealing with trash mobs and agony.
- Take away the pillars from Bjarl the Rampager and you have SRD.
- Take away the lasers from the destroyer in CoE and you have SRD.
- Take away the rifles from the Evolved Husk and you have SRD.

Now I don’t mean to put down these side mechanics as they are a good part of the game, I’m just trying to point out that the combat mechanics themselves are underutilized and that without these side mechanics all you are left with is “stacking, skill rotations, and dodging”.

I haven’t put a ton of thought into a solution to this, but perhaps a good approach would be bridging the gap between players and monsters? Right now they just run right at you and only have a few key attacks, but what if they had more capabilities of players?

- What if defiant was removed and they were given stun breaks?
- What if they could dodge or use protection skills at key moments?
- What if they had access to more skills?
- What if they used skills based on how they players were acting, like using more AoE if stacking?

The combat in the vast majority of PvE content barely begins to utilize the depths of the combat system. Just look at the Twilight Arbor dungeon encounters:

- Greater Nightmare Vine: Stack and watch for AoE.
- Malrona: Stack and dodge or projectile reflect the spit attack.
- Fyonna: Stack, no need to dodge or anything.
- Mortar Tree: Stack and use projectile reflect.
- Leurent: Stack, dodge the hammer shockwave.
- Illusion Tree: Stack.
- The Defiler: Stack, dodge or stability to avoid knockdown.
- Vevina: Watch for the AoE, retaliation, and confusion.
- Spider Tree: Stack and use projectile reflect, or let the spiders spawn behind the tree, use ranged, and dodge AoE.
- All “trash” mobs: Stack.

Where is the complexity in behaviors and utilization of our skills? It’s all just everyone huddling around an enemy and using typical skill rotations with minor changes based on attack patterns, which can be negated with a dodge or many times projectile reflect.

We could really use some more complex enemy behaviors, fighting mechanics, and utilization of our characters abilities (not bundles and pressing F on an object).

From the recent news post:

“We’ve broken the NA region into 2 leagues of 12 worlds each and the EU region into 3 leagues of 9 worlds each. The worlds in each league will compete with each other over the course of 7 weeks for a number of prizes based on their performance in each matchup and their performance over the course of the season.”

“Each world will be matched up with each other world in their league at least once over the course of the season. 1st place in each matchup will gain the world 5 points, 2nd place 3 points, and 3rd place 1 point. At the conclusion of the season, the worlds will be ranked in order of the total number of points they’ve acquired and all players who have completed the season long meta-achievement will be given prizes based on that ranking.”

“The winning world in each league will unlock a stack of supply dolyak finishers for their use in WvW and PvP. 1st place in the gold league will get a gold dolyak, 1st place in the silver league a silver dolyak, and 1st place in the bronze league a bronze dolyak. Every player will be rewarded with WvW account bonus chests based on the weekly results.”

From this its pretty clear that the lower population servers won’t stand a chance against the higher ones.

Rewards for server performance also seem to be more than just a finisher, although they haven’t gone into detail about what players will get from these.

It’s been over a year now and I have to ask, is there anything being done about condition stacking?

I understand this can be a complex issue in zerg play, but it’s even flawed in 5 man parties! I won’t even run a condition based build in dungeons because the ~1,000 DPS my burning and poison cause together takes a huge hit if anyone else in the party applies it.

I don’t get all the hate public groups get. I run a lot of dungeons and very rarely do I encounter issues. Even having 1 or 2 inexperienced players doesn’t have a huge impact on the group as long as you guide them.

What if this was combined with piercing arrows or 20% bow cool-down? Now that would be awesome!

Thank you for the communication, its very appreciated! I can get really frustrated at times with issues in the game, but whenever I listen to the SoTG or read a post like this, it assures me that you guys have improvements planned, know what you’re doing, and have the best interests of the game at heart.

And on the topic of PvP game modes. I’m sure you can fit in a few more without creating a population issue like you had in GW1 because the current modes do not appeal to everyone. I for instance do not really enjoy capture the point in SPvP and WvW doesn’t offer fair competition which keeps me away from it outside of guild runs, so I’m without a PvP game mode I can fully enjoy and participate in.

Chiolas.1326:

Bri.8354:

There’s just no way to create a fair scoring system, one which determines the victor by skill over numbers.

False. There are many options, however Anet hasn’t even done a test run with any of them. It’s not lack of way, it’s lack of will.

May the blobbing and nightcapping continue, hope you all enjoy your free ego booster kthxbai

I was talking more about how the league point system cannot be fair when it is built around the current scoring system that heavily favors higher population servers. If they revamp the system I’m sure they could come up with something that benefits numbers less, but as bradderzh points out, WvW competition is not meant to be fair, so for that reason we shouldn’t be rewarding the top servers.

Why not just allow us to reset them at the re-trainer for a fee? Between them being both character bound and locked in, it feels very restricting.

I’m truly surprised they didn’t make any changed to Rodgort. Compared to the other legendary all its effects are low grade. Its model is great and it looks cool how it shoots out fire when you draw it, but other than that it’s subpar.

A fundamental issue with WvW is that population is the most important factor in the scoring. Numbers give stronger combat strength and coverage, and as a result of servers with higher WvW populations have enormous advantages over those with lower.

This is an unavoidable issue due to the open world nature of WvW, one which has destroyed fair competition in the scoring system. And now there are plans to reward the top servers in this new league system?

There’s just no way to create a fair scoring system, one which determines the victor by skill over numbers. Even if servers on lower tier servers earn extra points when playing against higher tier ones, the end result will still be heavily tainted by the population imbalances.

WvW just isn’t designed for fair competition, so why design rewards which act like it was? Get rid of the server based rewards and instead give equal rewards to everyone who completed the meta achievement.

It would have been much better if they put the play time of these professions, not the number created. This would have created a much more accurate figure of what people are actually playing.

Muesli.9104:

One of the most? For a “legendary” almost ALL are underwhelming, considering what time and MONEY you have to invest to forge only 1.

General for all legendaries, they should modify how skills look. (its a lot of work, but hell the people farming for this stuff work even more).

Agreed. I have both Kudzu and Frostfang and my favorite part about them is about how they modify the projectiles, which is what most of their skills use. Rodgort on the other hand doesn’t even change the throw torch skill on my ranger. Heck, if i were to use it with my Frostfang the only thing that will give out thakittens a legendary is my hand being on fire. A simple asura torch with its particle trail would stick out more!

It would be nice if all legendaries would affect all their respective skills. Rodgort for example, should turn throw torch into a flaming dragons head and bonfire should get some unique particles.

And why don’t footsteps cycle when you use 2 legendaries? It would be awesome if when using Frostfang and Rodgort for example, the steps would cycle between fire and ice.

Impale.2503:

Will we still only get one even if we have multiple legendaries on one character? :p

That is the real question!

If they don’t prepare to hand over those gems!

I’m glad i never transmuted mine. I’ll probably use that transmutation splitter on my back piece so i can use a better skin without having to replace my old one or craft and infuse an entirely new one.

So I was watching the recent livestream and heard about all the awesome legendary changes but then it came to the Rodgort torch which won’t be receiving any changes “because it’s pretty rad”.

“because its pretty rad”…

This is one of the most underwhelming legendaries in the game. Its footsteps don’t stick out very well nor does the fire on your hand, it doesn’t add any particle effects to skills, and pretty much the only impressive thing it does is breath fire when you first draw it. The only thing that sticks out with this weapon in combat is the fire on your wrist and the footprints, and if you already have a legendary in the main-hand the footprints are gone.

I really hope she was mistaken because this legendary really needs an update, far more than some of the other weapons did.

My views on it:

In PvE its a beneficial mechanic that adds another layer to the combat. Because of it the enemy damage can be higher giving more reliance to things like dodges rather than players tanking all the damage, and if someone makes a mistake they aren’t instantly killed, they only fall down where their allies can help them back up.

However a problem arises when it comes to “stacking”. Since enemies have single target focused attacks or very predictable AoE attacks that can easily be dodged by the entire party, players can huddle together and if anyone goes down the group is already next to him and can instantly bring him back up.

Because of this the downed state removes any risk that stacking would cause otherwise, and in the end stacking is less risky than spreading out and keeping your distance from the boss. This causes some major issues in the risk vs reward system, which is what certain things like melee vs range damage were balanced around.

In WvW I don’t see the downed state as a beneficial mechanic. It gives even further advantages to higher numbers, is biased towards melee and high survivability builds who can use finishers better, some classes have obviously better downed states, just to name a few of the issues.

I do think the mechanic has potential and could use some major tweaks. My main issue with it is that there are not enough tactical options when dealing with downed players. When assisting downed players the only options you have are reviving or killing nearby players, and when reviving the only thing you need to account for is if you are going to be attacked when doing so. When finishing downed players direct damage can’t even out damage a single reviver, finishers are more melee based, easily interrupted, and risky, and its too difficult to shut down players who are trying to revive the player.

In order to address this, I can think of a few things that would help:

There needs to be a larger penalty for the player after he is revived, and possibly one for the reviver. This would make stacking less effective and give players more to think about when reviving a player; should they focus on finishing nearby enemies first or bring the player back up in the middle of the fight and have to continue fighting with a penalty?

Reviving needs to be easier to shut down. Making it would similarly to a finish, where they need to charge it up and it heals the player at the end of the charged revive, would allow players to more effectively shut down the reviver.

We could use more options than just reviving and finishing. Perhaps a system where certain boons and conditions affected downed players in special ways would work. Aegis could stop a finisher, immobilize and stuns could stop healing from revives, swiftness could increase bandage healing, stability could stop bandage from being interrupted, and things like that. This would essentially allow players to shut down or support downed players without having to revive, finish, or damage them, giving more tactical options.

Holland.9351:

Barrage should have a 2s immobilize added to the first hit.

So the first hit both immobilizes and cripples, and the following hits only cripple.

So basically like Muddy Terrain: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Muddy_Terrain

I like this idea.

The ranger being rooted while casting barrage, plus the delay before barrage actually hits anything, would balance out a short immobilize in my opinion. Right now because of these things using barrage leaves the ranger pretty vulnerable unless he stealths before using it, and makes the barrage very easy to avoid if you see the ranger start casting it, so a short immobilize on the first hit might make this a more practical in-combat skill.

This can also be done with point blank shot on the longbow and hilt bash with the greatsword.

However, using projectiles to interrupt an invisible thief from stomping an ally is VERY difficult to pull off in a general combat situation for two reasons:
- You have to line up concussion shot using right click to hit a pretty small target. Just try doing the same on a stationary player in lions arch in the time frame you would have to interrupt the thief. Not so easy, is it?
- Usually I see thieves stealth then stomp the downed player in a random direction, making it impossible to know just where to aim.

If you have a greatsword with you however, I would say hilt bash would be a reliable way of interrupting invisible thieves.

Going deeper into this subject, this is something which affects far more than just the ranger and his pet. Any companions which is designed to be a lasting entity, from minions, to elementals, to spirits, suffer from the exact same problem.

So much of the game is designed around constant repositioning and dodges, that these companions simply cannot survive effectively in many situations, especially in dungeons.

Other classes may be able to opt out of using these companions, an option the ranger does not have, but that’s just avoiding the problem. What these companions need is something to make up for their inability to avoid mechanics which are designed to be avoided with things they have no access too, such as jumps, dodges, and smart positioning.

Chopps, I feel as though you are missing the point of this thread. Sure rangers are far from a useless class and with a bit of skill on the part of the player can complete any content any other class can. However this does not change the issues with the pet detailed by the OP.

The living story releases are a great example of this.
- In the molten facility you had to go out of your way, sacrificing utilities and using the talkiest pets, just to get them to survive as they couldn’t jump over or roll through the shockwaves.
- Pets will blindly walk into and activate any environmental items, such as the underwater mines in the aetherblade dungeon, the mines in the southsun cove dungeon, and the mines in a Queen’s Gauntlet fight.
- In the aetherblade dungeon pets were unable to avoid the laser walls.
- The pet is unable to survive the constant AoE Liadri puts out.

The ranger can still manage to beat this content, but the fact is they lose a heavy portion of their damage if their pet dies, and even if they go through great lengths to keep their pet alive such as using utilities, a tanky pet, and constantly positioning it via recall and guard, they are perhaps put at an even greater disadvantage as doing these things have little positive return; you’re just keeping your pet alive for the sake of keeping it alive, eating up your characters actions, traits, and utilities, all while it is providing little aid to you or your team.

Pets just don’t fit in with the mechanics we have seen in these living story releases, and that needs to change. At the very least pets need to be resistant or immune to mechanics which they cannot reasonably avoid.

Katai.6240:

It doesn’t have to be uncapped. The problem is that a single person can keep 25 stacks of bleed pretty easily if you’re spec’d for that. How about we just double the cap?

It’d be much harder for two or even three people to keep 50 stacks. In a dungeon environment, that’s perfectly acceptable.

But what about things like burning? With just an off-hand torch on my ranger I can close to, if not fully, maintain burning on an enemy. If I’m using traps and a shortbow as well I can maintain burning and poison on multiple enemies.

This is a larger problem than bleed stacks in my opinion, as a single player can fully maintain burning or poison, which only has 1 stack effecting the opponent.

I’ve actually quit using condition damage focused builds all together, mainly because someone else in the party already has burning and/or poison up 50% or longer during the fight, cutting the effect of any conditions I would apply and potentially making them useless.

Something along the lines of increasing the intensity of some conditions but cutting the duration may help address this. This should only apply to PvE however as it would cause issues in PvP balance, but shouldn’t upset anything in PvE.

A potential fix that would be easy to implement:

A new type of transmutation crystal will allow players to add any skin they own to the achievement menu skin section. These skins would be account bound and could be withdrew an unlimited number of times. (basically function just like the zenith weapon skins)

This would also allow legendary weapon skins to be used account wide which is a common request, and allow players to use great looking equipment no matter their level.

Thoughts?

The price of transmutation stones alone isn’t bad, only costing 40 gems per or even less if you buy them in larger bundles. Additionally you should get a fair amount of them just opening up chests with the keys you get from leveling up characters.

The problem is when you throw in everything else associated with a transmutation, such as new equipment and storage, in addition to the crystal.

I honestly wouldn’t mind having to use a transmutation stone to get unlimited access to the skin that we could select to use in the dye menu, or something of that nature. That would keep revenue coming in for them through crystals and cut the cost and inconvenience of dressing up.

Quarktastic.1027:

I frequently screw up my hunter’s shot stealth because of this. I’ll drop a barrage, then realize I need to get out of dodge, so I try to stealth…and immediately fail.

It’s something that’s going to take some getting used to, though I find in-combat stealth to be rather useless in PvE.

It does take a bit of getting used to, especially since hunters shot turned from a “use this every time i comes back” skill to a “save this for the right situation” skill.

One thing I like to do is use hunters shot before barrage. That way you are stealthed during part of the the casting duration, and while barrage is going hunters shot is recharging so you can’t waste it.

I’ve actually found stealth to be really helpful, but its very situational. A good example would be the Arah run I did earlier today. When running past the risen I was able to use it on enemies to avoid getting hit, which actually saved my life. Against Lupi I used it when he used his AoE attacks in phase 2, which appeared to stopped the AoE from targeting me directly which made dodging it easier, and in phase 3 when he chased me and got close I used it to cause him to go after someone else in the distance, which saved me from getting hit.

silvermember.8941:

I expected Orr to be like a PvE version of WvW with sieging (NPC sieging) and capturing which would eventually lead to a giant boss appearing and fighting it.

The open world being like WvW, where both you and the NPCs dynamically fight over the map would have been cool, and from reading some of the design statements they made about the open world, it sounds like that is what they may have been going for.

As it stands however, events are far too static and do not respond to the events taking place throughout the rest of the world. No matter what happens, plinx is always going to show up every X-Y minutes and the completion or failure of the event doesn’t impact the game world. Oh and the jungle worm should be up in X minutes, lets head there then back to Orr afterwards, ignoring all the poor sylvari in the events nearby because there’s no reason to help them.

The current state of things Is just so far away from a dynamic world that it would take a MASSIVE overhaul to even come close to what they had envisioned.

silvermember.8941:

Or you could simply play attention and stop attacking the moment you think there is retaliation? ofc not saying they shouldnt nerf it either.

When the enemy knows they are going to be in combat, there is almost always retaliation. There’s no way to accurately tell how much you are going to get hit by, and if they are trying to push into your group, you don’t really have a choice; its either use barrage and potentially get hit by retaliation, or just stand there and let them kill everyone.

Well if you’re talking about the retaliation boon, the projectile the enemy reflects back at you would do more damage to you than the enemy would take from the retaliation.

If you’re talking about reflecting projectiles that the enemy reflected back at you, that wouldn’t work. Projectiles can only be reflected one time, after that they will just pass through anything that tries to reflect them.

What I find messed up is that if I use barrage on a zerg, I can easily get hit upwards of 10,000. The only way to avoid this is to not attack at all, and that is unreasonable.

They need to tone this down. We shouldn’t have to use a healing skill or retreat in fear of our lives just because we used barrage or a well lined rapid fire with piercing arrows.

Vayne.8563:

snip

Yeah, an instance would likely take people out of the open world which wouldn’t be a good thing. It also wouldn’t address the issues with the open maps, but would give players a wealth of highly replayable content, which would make the game world more filled activity wise.

Maybe a sort of instanced hard-mode-vanquishing system would be better suited for the game after they address some of the issues with the open world as to not harm it further, if something like it should be added at all.

The core of the issue seems to be dynamic events, and I think that’s what they should focus on the most. Players need more incentives to go out and do events across the world, and the pacing of these events needs to be better; wandering around or repeating events in circles isn’t good.

Perhaps more and longer chain events and giving players individual, map, or server-wide buffs for completing certain events and holding certain areas, would be a good start.

Maybe they can also add some randomly spawning chests around the world that would change location every hour or so, that would give nice rewards, to give people more reasons to go out and explore.

The forums are a place for discussion, and that’s one of the reasons you don’t see many threads thanking the developers.

Constructive criticism hold a lot of value for discussion. Players can discuss what is wrong with the content and what can be done to address it, which can result is a pretty complex discussion.

Giving thanks on the other hand, has trouble holding a discussion. Past everyone agreeing that the content is good and there should be more like it, not much could be added to the thread.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Getting all the events would put you up players against other players, as you may want a certain event in a chain, and they may want a different one.

So, at least when it comes to chains, only the “perfect” combination of vents in which no events are failed should count, or at least just the last one that makes the chain a ‘success’.

This is one of the reasons why I suggested instanced maps to be used in a vanquishing system. The open-world (referring to the huge amount of players who may come and go as they please) may be a great starting experience, but it has issues with things like replayability, challenge, co-operation, and your actions having significance or a lasting impact, which would very likely ruin any sort of vanquishing system.

An issue I’ve noticed, that is also a likely cause for much of the issue the OP brings up, is that the AI are so simplistic. All they do is run straight at you and use their skills in set intervals. There is no responding to your attacks or any dynamic action. Furthermore, the skills they have access to are often single-targeted, too easy to avoid, or just plain weak, giving no reason to use anything past a reflection wall and dodges to avoid damage in many situations.

What goes on in the dungeon meta as a result of this, is line-of-sight(LOS) and stacking, where a group can gather every enemy into a ball, huddle together in that ball of enemies, put up projectile reflects, and then just wipe them out in a matter of seconds. If anyone is unfortunate enough to go down, they have 4 people there to bring them back up in an instant, and if multiple go down you can just use something like a banner to bring them back, further reducing the risk.

This tactic applies to the vast majority of the game, where your entire team can fight nearly any enemy or group of enemies with full berserker stats and melee weapons with almost no risk.

This upsets the balance of the game in so many ways. Things which are balanced around “risk vs reward”, such as range vs melee damage, no longer work. Efficient play styles, builds, classes, and equipment stats are cut down to a hand full. Content is trivialized, creating less enjoyable fights and possibly an unhealthy influx of resources.

Enemies really need more complex behaviors and attacks. Its just silly that everything just sits there and repeats the same attacks over and over, regardless of what anyone is doing. They need smart reactions and attacks that counter things like stacking and berserker-melee, bringing an appropriate risk to using such things.

The poor state of the game world may also have a strong negative impact on the expansion of the game and is a possible reason why we haven’t seen a permanent map added since southsun cove.

Players are always asking to visit another region like Cantha, but would it be worth the development time to create an entirely new region when players are just going to abandon it? Or would it make more sense to make single zones via the living story which are removed after the event is over and player interest has died off?

These temporary zones and events are fine to have once in a while, but they have turned them into the primary form of content, and that is not good for the long-term health of the game. Things cannot only change, they must expand as well, and players need content which provides lasting value, not content which they do once or twice and never go back to.

Something definitely needs to be done to improve the game world, not only for the sake of the existing game, but also for its ability to expand.

One thing which could really help the game world, but not necessarily the open world, is a vanquishing system similar to that in GW1. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, if you killed everything in the map you would get a reward and progress towards a title. In GW2 this could be more based around dynamic event completion. However this would need to be instanced as zergs would ruin any sort of challenging mechanics that a vanquishing system would need to be interesting.

And while this wouldn’t address the issue with the open world, it would give a lot more meaning and value to the game world which would strongly benefit the game.

ArenaNet put a ton of effort into the open world and it was meant to serve as the core of PvE, but past leveling up a character it lacks incentives and once you finish map completion there’s no reason to go back.

I remember shortly after I got map completion standing in Lions Arch thinking “Now what”? I opened the map and saw a huge world, of which only Orr gave me any reason to go back to it, and even then it was becoming dull repeating the same events day after day.

I continued farming, not enjoying, Orr until the nerfs to drops, changes to the event timers, and the buffs to dungeon rewards, after which I saw no reason to head back to the open world outside dailies. I’m still an active player many months later, but my activities in PvE are almost entirely limited to dungeons and I only head out into the open world for 5 minutes if I need to for my daily achievement.

When I look at my own activities it’s pretty saddening. Out of the huge world that this game offers, there just isn’t any incentive or enjoyment to be found in the vast majority of it. And when I look at the population of these maps and the activities of other players, I don’t believe I’m alone in this view or behavior.

I see this as a serious issue because a huge chunk of the game world is pretty much “dead” once you finish up map completion. What this does is create a poor end game (I know this is a loaded word, but in its simplest definition being interesting activities you can do once you have explored the entire game) experience where most of the world feels void of purpose and enjoyment.

The core of the problem is that once you finish map completion all you are left with is dynamic events, where you can either wander aimlessly around the map completing events you come across, or go around in circles completing the same events over and over, neither of which are fun.

Dynamic events just don’t offer much substance in their current state and they do not begin to live up to what the developers had envisioned. Just watching the manifesto should make this blatantly clear, and the open world is suffering because of it.

So far their attempts to strengthen the open world have had little impact because their approach doesn’t address the issue with dynamic events. Southsun cove, despite all their efforts to bring life to it, has been dead since the living story event ended, suffering the same fundamental problems as the rest of the open-world maps. For guild missions, dragons, and living story events players just flock to the area for the event and ignore the rest of the world, then abandon it once the event is completed.

What we need are reasons to go back into the open world and actually do the entirety of the content. There needs to be a clear direction, goals, and for dynamic events to actually have a meaningful impact on the world or rewards/benefits the players receive.

Carighan.6758:

Create a new achievement for each jumping puzzle: Complete this puzzle while…

1. Not using Swiftness in any way.
2. Not using a Mesmer Portal.
3. Not using any ability which moves the character.
4. Not using a runspeed Signet.

In other words, “do it vanilla”.

And then have there be a title for someone who completely all JPs that way. And there we go. :P

I’m not sure how easy it would be to implement, and running it with other players might mess you up through group swiftness, but I do like the spirit of the idea. Maybe they could even provide better chest rewards for people who finish it in this way, like a guaranteed rare from world bosses.

Yamiga.7863:

160 posts later there is still not a single valid reason to remove portals from the game or nerf them…

There have been valid points by both sides. Just because you may not agree with one side doesn’t make them any less valid.

Anyways, I don’t think I have anything else to add to this thread so I’ll take my leave now. Thanks for the discussion everyone.

takatsu.9416:

just to remind about the post i made earlier again,

i think if all arguments are pushed aside,

you have to consider the players, ALL players.

there are some who are just extremely jumping challenged. they can try it for three hour and get nowhere, and get stuck in the same spot over and over or have to start again. especially on release when there were big and small characters crowded together

some people just can’t “physically” make it to the end of a jp even if they tried. some might have eye sight issues, sensitive to light, i also know some colorblind (even to certain colors only) that would hinder them. maybe someone who has a disability in their hand? who knows

people have different gaming ability. And even someone who is amazing at pvp and wvw, and fighting, but they might not be accurate with jumps.

at the end of the day, these people would be treated unfairly if there were no mesmers helping people with portals.

the portals are a must. Choose what way you want to get to the end as simple as that

I know this may sound harsh to some, but if someone can’t do the content, then they shouldn’t get the rewards for completing the content.

Just think if we expanded your line of reasoning to other content:

This poor guy can only play once a week, should we really give him the same amount of rewards as someone who played all week?

Another poor guy can’t manage to beat the dungeon, should we just let him skip all the enemies and still claim the full reward?

Its fine to be sympathetic to these people, and try to help them enjoy it, but giving them the same credit as those who worked through the content is wrong. And really, why would someone with these problems be doing the jump puzzle to begin with? If the point is the enjoy the content, which they cannot do, then why are they there in the first place? Are they just there for the rewards, and if that is the case they they don’t deserve them if they can’t do the content!

The super adventure box did this the correct way. It had an easy mode which allowed people to make it through the puzzle and enjoy things like the atmosphere, but this disabled the normal rewards. This is the right way to go, allowing players to enjoy it, but not giving them the same rewards for those who do it normally.

Arale.4207:

You’re playing the wrong game then. Like I said before, this isn’t the MMO where you reach the magical pinnacle of xyz and get to brag about it. That mindset usually breeds elitism and tiers players into can do’s and can’t do’s. It’s archaic in my opinion, and only lessens the amount of choice players have. We get it. You and a select few others want everyone to do something the same way, or not at all. Sorry to say but it’ll never happen. Portal has been nerfed probably more then any other skill, and this game is more about helping people & being social then gloating & being a kitten.

It boggles my mind why someone elses actions that:

A. Doesn’t involve you, at all.
B. Doesn’t affect your gameplay or end result at all.

Cause some hilariously bad campaign to get everyone to do something the same way, or not at all. How many times does it have to be explained that not everyone is as good as that one person who does the JP without using portal? There’s a myriad of reasons on why someone can’t do a JP. So they use a portal. Big deal. That’s not your achievements, or accomplishments, so it’s none of your business, and thus should be none of your concern. You honestly have no right to dictate how other people go about this, if it doesn’t affect your gameplay. If it dents some inner ego or something like that, you may want to consider a different game, because like I said, this game allows for very little gloating in that sense & I’m glad.

If ANet shared your viewpoint, they would have changed JP’s by now. Seeing as they don’t, it looks like player choice wins over old content barriers.

Like I’ve said before, my view doesn’t have to do with how I play the game; I am looking at this from a game design standpoint. Is it really so hard to move past personal biases and question if something like bypassing content with portals is healthy game mechanics?

You speak about achievements and recognition like they are evil, only used by “elitists” who seek to demean others, brag about what they have, and cause general upset in the community. But there is nothing wrong with achievements and recognition when they are not displayed in an arrogant way, in fact, they can actually be a positive thing!

And I’m not so sure about “this isn’t the MMO where you reach the magical pinnacle of xyz and get to brag about it.” We have plenty of status symbols, from prestige equipment like legendaries, to account medals, to achievement points. The entire end-game reward system is pretty much based around these status symbols, so perhaps people who aim for those things aren’t playing the wrong game after all.