So if someone wanted a defensive and offensive acended amulet for each of thier 4 toons they would need 240 laurels. Six months, assuming they do dailies every single day.
I’m very serious and also curious to know if you think this is reasonable and if so, why?
Every encounter they changed is bugged. Now I know for a fact they have no QA team. I can’t wait to play those buggy guild missions. We’re going to have a blast.
I had a friend ask me what he would have to do to get up to speed if he retruned to GW2. He started laughing after I told him what he had to do.
Back Piece – run fractals to get a vial of mist essence
Rings – run fractals to get pristine fragments (10 days, average 2 per day)
Amulets – do dailies for laurels (20 to 30 days)
Accessories – do dailies for laurels (60 to 80 days), run guild missions
Even if you wanted to catch up; just looking at what you’d have to do would make you want to quit before even starting. If you multiplied this by the amount of characters you wanted to gear up; you’d go insane.
Guilds will probably schedule guild missions like they schedule raids in other mmos. I left those other mmos because I didn’t want to schedule my life around a video game.
Ahh well, thats too bad. I had a good run up until now.
Why aren’t amulets and accessories obtainable in FoTM? Why aren;t they obtainable via karma?
Stealth was broken before the patch. Channeled abilities still target you and continue to attack you through stealth. In other words, stealth doesn’t break targeting.
Now, they made it so that you remain in combat during stealth. Like a debuff. They broke stealth even more than before.
The funny part about all of this is that they thought it would be a good idea to not fix anything about stealth and break it even more.
If an NPC has a channeled ability that is equal to the time of your stealth, the NPC will continue to attack you through the entire duration of the stealth and chase you after stealth runs out. This now makes stealth completely ineffective in those situation.
This spells poor design, poor coding and overall low quality.
I wonder where the poor bandwagoners will go next.
They probably won’t go anywhere. Between waiting another month for WvW changes and Febs content patch getting so much negativity; I’d wager that WvW is going to feel a little more desolate each day.
I had a good laugh at the champ chicken too. Bottom line though is they haven’t made a farming location more interesting, they’ve simply made the same level of reward more work to achieve. It used to be possible to avoid champs because they weren’t worth the effort—now, they’re in your face. I would love for them to create a video of a session where they decide to introduce stuff like this. It would be very helpful in understanding the thought process behind what they do.
You’re assuming that there is a thought process behind what they do.
Quake use to have a movement manuver called strafe jumping. It was a bug in the game code that players learned how to exploit in order to move faster. It later became a skill that separated the men from the boys. The designers desided to remove it in the early developement on Quake 3 Arena and there was an outcry from the fans so large you could hear it from the other side of the world.
The designers argued that this movement manuver was not intended. It broke immersion and was unintended design. The fans argument was that the skill when mastered, created a skill gap between players and enhanced competitve play. The designers decided to keep it in the game.
I understand your point of view. You mastered a new skill and you think that this skill makes you a better player. Although that may be true, it doesn’t mean that this skill can’t be made better. Skilled play is still required and I would argue that it makes the game even more skillful than before.
That’s a total moot comparison, as Withdraw is in no way game breaking. You completely missed my point. Learning how to utilize Withdraw is rather easy on it’s own, as several people have said in this topic already, but together with everything ells you have to do as a Thief, it becomes becomes part of a larger whole. It’s the little things that makes the difference. If Withdraw was just a dodge skill with a heal attached, then there wouldn’t be much reason for it to be a skill. Then it might as well just be a trait that says “Heal whenever you dodge. Cures immobilized, chilled, and crippled”. There needs to be some form of difficulty attached some places. That’s also why you have target based skills, next to auto attack skills.
You think turning your camera in the opposite direction of where you want to dodge takes skill? That’s almost as stupid as asking someone to learn how to drive a car that turns left when steering right. The guy is going to look at you like your from another planet.
Perhaps not in the long run. I’m banking on the achievement system to provide an influx of laurels and players opting to gear thier alts using laurels and ectos. I’m definitley not putting all my eggs in this basket. It’s a short term bet.
Well, I think it’s fine that something that is a part of a LEGENDARY should be hard to obtain.
Obtaining any part of a Legendary isn’t hard. A 13 year old with ADD could do it. If you meant long, tedious and boring to the point where I would poke my own eyes out then yes, I would agree.
They could have designed it to make you roll in whatever direction you’re moving, like a regular dodge roll. Then, if you don’t want to leave you don’t have to, but if you want to get out of there you can use it backwards like you would a dodge roll and get the current effect.
You could also just make all target based skills work like this, so you never would have to aim with your mouse! But why remove all challenge from the skill? The fun part is learning how to use Withdraw to your advantage. This is where “skill” comes in. It’s the little things that makes a good player great.
If you’re old enough, you might remember Quake.
Quake use to have a movement manuver called strafe jumping. It was a bug in the game code that players learned how to exploit in order to move faster. It later became a skill that separated the men from the boys. The designers desided to remove it in the early developement on Quake 3 Arena and there was an outcry from the fans so large you could hear it from the other side of the world.
The designers argued that this movement manuver was not intended. It broke immersion and was unintended design. The fans argument was that the skill when mastered, created a skill gap between players and enhanced competitve play. The designers decided to keep it in the game.
I understand your point of view. You mastered a new skill and you think that this skill makes you a better player. Although that may be true, it doesn’t mean that this skill can’t be made better. Skilled play is still required and I would argue that it makes the game even more skillful than before.
I would never pay a subscription again. Ever. All I had to do was look at Blizzards financial statements to make up my mind. Every dollar I gave them, they took 80 cents of it and gave it the shareholder. 20 cents on the dollar paid for thier entire buisness.
Thats why so many other companies tried to emulate them. All they saw was the money. Nothing else.
Why build a car that turns left when you steer right? to have funny driving.
Motorcycles turn their handlebars left to go right.
I once took my nephew (?) to a science show, and amongst other funny stuff, there was this bycicle that used those handlebars, only they were working “normal”. It was hilarious watching the 6 year old trying to veer right and going left all the time, with the following tumbles. However, even this six year old kid got the hang of it. The OP is less capable than this kid. Pathetic. And, guys, its a skill. Not a dodge. If it worked like a dodge, it would be less visible to opponents he was infact healing, not dodging. When i see someone using withdraw, i notice coz of this and the long distance traveled. I dont use head shot to interrupt it on these ppl, coz this heal is uninterruptible, for example. Maybe we need a moderator/dev coming here to clarify?
Are you dense? I am using the skill as a dodge already, along with everyone else. Do I really need to draw a picture to illustrate my point?
It doesn’t matter how much water you put in the glass, there is a physical limit to how much water the glass can hold. It’s either you drastically reduce the amount of water you can pour or remove the ability to pour the water.
It might be fine when you’re shooting from a safe distance like a pansy but, not so great when in melee range where the real pro’s hang out. All those spell effects clutter the screen and we have a hard time seeing NPC’s telegraph thier attacks; thus reducing our abilitiy to dodge at the right time.
Removing condition damage is not a solution it is THE solution. You just haven’t figured out any creative way to do it yet.
If any Conditon Damage exists on gear, you can replace it with Power. If Power already exists you replace it with Precision.
Traits that have anything to do with Condition Damage will have to be redesigned. Arenanet created a ton of traits in GW1. I’m sure they’re smart enough to think of some.
Weapon skills that have Bleed, Burning, Confusion and Poison can be redesigned to inflict more direct damage and ANY of the following; Vulnerability, Weakness, Chilled, Immobilize, Cripple, Fear and Blind.
If arenanet leaves conditions in this broken state; we as the community should not tolerate it. Developers should not expect thier players to continue playing a broken game.
Thats about the most kitten idea ever. It isn’t working right now, so just remove it…. They replaced magic dmg(common mmo element) and replaced it with cond dmg and I like it a lot more. No longer have to worry about hp, mag def, phy def, elemental resistance, etc. It is much easier to handle. Not to mention, this cond issue isn’t game breaking. If you need a moment to clear your eyes maybe this game isn’t for you. Cond dmg isn’t great, but its not broken.
Not broken? Seriously, get your head out of the sand for a moment and think this one clearly. It’s not broken in a 1vs1 pvp situation but it’s definitely broken when there’s group play.
I avoid condition damage on stats and traits precisely because of its ineffectiveness in group environments. There are two trait lines that provide condition damage and condition duration for every class. I avoid those like the plague because I know that the return for my investment is sub optimal.
Here’s a thought: Anet designed it this way because they didn’t WANT you to dodge in WHATEVER way you want. Wow, crazy eh?
The design is that Withdraw is a roll backward, deal with it. If that doesn’t suit you, consider it … flavor. They wanted to immerse players more with skills like this. Again, it’s designed this way.
If you’re not happy with it, may I suggest you offer your invaluable services and expertise as a game designer to Anet
If they didn’t WANT me to dodge in any direction I want then why am I allowed to do it? I bet you anyone who uses Withdraw uses it as an extra dodge.
I removed 10 points in Shadow Arts and replaced it with 10 points in Acrobatics to get some endurance refund on a dodge and Vigorous Recovery. Since Withdraw has such a low cooldown I can dodge almost indefinatley. This new build allows me to avoid so much damage that it makes Shadow Rejuvenation (regen while in stealth) look pretty terrible in comparison.
Removing condition damage is not a solution it is THE solution. You just haven’t figured out any creative way to do it yet.
If any Conditon Damage exists on gear, you can replace it with Power. If Power already exists you replace it with Precision.
Traits that have anything to do with Condition Damage will have to be redesigned. Arenanet created a ton of traits in GW1. I’m sure they’re smart enough to think of some.
Weapon skills that have Bleed, Burning, Confusion and Poison can be redesigned to inflict more direct damage and ANY of the following; Vulnerability, Weakness, Chilled, Immobilize, Cripple, Fear and Blind.
If arenanet leaves conditions in this broken state; we as the community should not tolerate it. Developers should not expect thier players to continue playing a broken game.
My point is you don’t have to “turn left to go right”. You could build it so that you can “turn right to go right”.
Why build a car that turns left when you steer right?
The skill is designed to roll you back. If you changed the skill into a target based roll, it would be much more difficult to roll back, as you would have to both turn and target first. Having a reliable roll back is also much better for situations where you are immobilized or otherwise unable to turn. And again, the times when you want to go left or right with the skill is next to zero, and turning your camera is already easy. So I really don’t see any reason to change it.
They could have designed it to make you roll in whatever direction you’re moving, like a regular dodge roll. Then, if you don’t want to leave you don’t have to, but if you want to get out of there you can use it backwards like you would a dodge roll and get the current effect.
Casual players are quite anti social from my experience. They never talk. In a hardcore PVP guild we’re talking about class balance, pvp tactics, strategies, min maxing character builds.
Your average joe six pack casual cares more about the color of the item he just got from opening the chest than anything else.
I would start slowly removing small and useless condition damage from traits and abilities on every profession. Let the complex ones require a complete redesign and remove condition damage from the game.
You’re overcomplicating the skill. The times where you need to go any other direction then forward or backwards, is next to zero. The point is simply to get out of a bad situation, from foes you are either facing, or who are chasing you. Turning 180 is as simple as pressing a button, if you just bind the key named “About Face”.
Dude.
My point is you don’t have to “turn left to go right”. You could build it so that you can “turn right to go right”.
Why build a car that turns left when you steer right?
Well, if the reason the spell evades backwards is because it’s called Withdraw; one can wonder why they haven’t renamed it to Evade and provided more control to the player.
Very little thought process went into the design of this ability. Most other skills in this game share the same fate. It feels like they ran out of time and had to think of something quickly.
The fact that it forces you to roll backwards feels awkard. If I wanted to go forward I would have to turn around 180 degrees and activate; which doesn’t make any sense.
This is much easier to do than you think.
Wether its easy or not doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make sense.
System 1
Turn mouse and face character in opposite direction of where you want to dodge then activate heal.
System 2
Press button for desired direction then activate heal.
I could emulate system 2 by using system 1. However, system 2 is far more efficient and less confusing. System 1 is like driving a car that turns left when steering right and turns right when steering left.
Wouldn’t this skill make more sense if you could control the direction of the dodge? It’s an instant cast ability too. Any direction + Withdraw would compliment acrobatics builds quite well especially with Vigorous Recovery.
The fact that it forces you to roll backwards feels awkard. If I wanted to go forward I would have to turn around 180 degrees and activate; which doesn’t make any sense.
If you build a system with good replay value, challenging and difficult enough to require coordination and teamplay, a toolbox on your class that requires a steep learning curve and years to master; developers will never need to provide updates as long as everything works without bugs.
LoL offeres more strategy and depth than Guild Wars 2 does and has 10x the amount of players.
It’s a beautiful morning in Queensdale. You’re out squishing spider egg sacks to help farmer Eda make apple pies. Suddenly a Thief invader pops out from the shadows and stabs you in the face.
I honestly feel that any decline in the player base can be directly attributed to the structureless feel of grouping, how everything seems to deteriorate into a shallow, mindless, and skill-less zergfest. Also how classes are structured…no direct healer to change up the role paradigm…all we have are classes that are largely homogenized with only flavor distinctions rather than tangible, effectual, and precise roles. Encounters are extremely poor, dungeons aren’t designed with any of the skill system depth in mind, and we have glaring problems with the combat depth. This game honestly feels like they took a great idea with Dynamic Events, but really dropped the ball everywhere else. The way i see it, if they dont address class balance, add more depth and specialization to combat roles and by association, encounters, add more skills, more stuff that people actually get excited about…if they spruce up the guild features..stop messing up existing structures and destroying the population with dumb design flaws (you’re going to gate content for GUILDS behind a population / activity threshold in a casual game that doesn’t even require trinity mechanics much less even playing meaningfully with other players? Really?)…People don’t want this kind of contrived trash. People want more combat depth, more reason to actually play the game with each other and together. I think it’s pretty obvious by now that this game isn’t gonna go anywhere unless they add a ton more depth to the gameplay, traits, and skill systems. In my opinion, this game should have been designed with a direct healer class, it would have been so much better and easier to design awesome content for. Plus, ESO seems to be heading that route…it will have WvW-like pvp on a mega server, Dynamic events, and also a trinity design structure which altogether will crush this game’s population if they pull it off.
I diagree that roles are needed. Healers are an obsolete system. They cover the mistakes of other players. Support can be provided in many ways that provide depth to gameplay.
-Creating a barrier that allies can hide behind for line of sight.
-Creating a bubble that allies can run into to shield themselves.
-Creating a cloaking field that allies can run into for stealth.
Combat depth is badly needed in Guild Wars 2 for ALL professions, not just some. In addition, the content needs to be actually challenging and rewarding for it to mean something.
I think most if not all thier resources are on player retention now. PVE is not only larger but also more profitable. The gem store is thier golden goose and pvpers don’t bring in any money.
