Guild Wars 2

Xenesis.6389:

Why are you fractal people freaking out? This thread is just a quick note on pvp hot fixes coming this week not the entire patch notes. Jesus people read and understand the post.

P.S Spammable aoe on a 2sec cooldown that can crit for 15k?, most other classes would give an arm and a leg for that. Most aoe’s in the game are already capped to 5 targets.

Because:

• It’s not sPvP specific.
• But assuming it’s not, why is this the important part? There’s much much bigger and more urgent fish to fry.

luzt.7692:

Are these all the balance changes for tomorrow?

Yeah, I was thinking that, too. But actually they said not all of those might be in.

I am… confused.

When they said “balance patch” I was expecting hundreds (not exaggerating!) changes. Not a handful. Or even a dozen or two. 100+.

parisnicholson.3684:

The only reason they keep doing this is because they went way too far with the visual noise introduced by elite specs in HoT. When the first beta weekend came around everyone commented on how over-the-top the effects were for nearly every skill.

But.. that’s what sold HoT to me.

I’m serious. I got into beta, cast a few wells, fell in love. Used a Tempest, for once I was hyped for Eles because those overload effects looked amazing.

Why nerf the positive parts of these elite specs?

[quote=5834201No one has ever cried about the Staff AA being OPd before[/quote]

You’ve not been around here for long, have you? :P

Uh, wasn’t there the 50%-off-of-all-style-items sale?

If we’re just counting big things, here’s my top 3:

• Remove sPvP entirely, and make it a separate F2P game. Otherwise I can’t see “competitive-lulz” have any future, really.
• Interweave WvW and PvE much more. PvE players should have superior farm spots, however to get to those you need to brave danger-land, as they are in WvW or obtained temporarily via WvW. WvW OTOH should fully be integrated into the current PvE story, changing landscape and having events which endanger both sides of a conflict.
• Implement guild alliances to band guilds together into larger units. The alliance can have a guild hall which is one of the large current ones. Then add smaller ones for individual guilds. That way the space actually makes sense. -.-

Fozzik.1742:

My premise is this: It should be about fights. Mixing it up with your opponents. Clashing with red names.

The whole design should start and end with this. Everything about the game mode should encourage, incentivize, and streamline people fighting in large groups, small groups, and duels. Period.

Yeah, not sure I agree entirely.

That’s what it should boil down to. That’s the symptom.

The root cause should be some ulterior motivation to help, promote or defend your realm respectively server.

In DAoC this was done via three things:

• Relics giving up to a 20% damage boost even outside of WvW. The part where it affected PvE was important, giving everyone an incentive to go there and help out at least with relic defense and relic take attempts.
• Darkness Falls, a supreme loot grind zone (at the time) being open only to the realm leading in WvW. But, that’ll naturally drain a lot of their players from the WvW zone into that zone, and on losing it you don’t get kicked out. The zone was giant, so staying alive in it was quite important, especially since deeper in there were really dangerous mobs.
• Open world farming in WvW zones was slightly superior to PvE zones for quite a few materials, getting people into the zones.

Put those three together, and you had lots of fighting, all day long.

But the fighting wasn’t the primary design goal, the motivation to be available to fight was.

Fozzik.1742:

Dueling isn’t a dirty word.

No, but players always act as if it should be, expecting it to show balance between classes. Which is at best naive and if the player has more than two weeks experience with RPGs (of any kind) it is flat out stupid. Period.

If someone doesn’t mind duels decided as much by class and spec than by players, then fair enough. Those happen a lot, and should happen.

But expecting balanced fights on a scale of 10 or less players (even sPvP is really a stretch given 9 classes in the game with hundreds of skills and item combinations) is…really?

I think given the breadth of activities in and components of the game, it’s a bit of a shame that there are so few dailies.

I was just hacking wood in Orr, and I had the idea that there really ought to be a daily to clear out one of the wood spots around a statue.

Well, here’s a few more:

• Daily HoT Activity, specific one. Non-HoT owners get Daily Activity here, for the normal activity thing.
• Daily Meta Event participator, HoT, specific one. This gives daily world boss for non-owners, though the HoT one has significantly better rewards due to the time requirement.
• Daily Rezzes (please bring it back :o )
• Daily Guild Supporter (Keg or Mug or Ley Line Tool, this only shows up if your guild can still use them).
• Daily Zone Participation (get X% level of participation), the HoT counterpart to XYZ zone event completer.
• Daily Combined Arms, play 1 sPvP match, finish 1 event in PvE and 1 event in WvW.

DeceiverX.8361:

Aw c’mon guys. How do you think we thieves feel about all this stealth nonsense and seeing it even on guardians ._.

The difference would be that Shadow Refuge is quite useful in PvE. Mass Invis can be, but feels clunky as hell, and ofc there’s the PU issue.

My main point of disappointment is in name vs functionality:

Mass Invisibility.
Cloaks 10 targets.

Eh?

I was expecting it to cloak everyone in a 1200 radius around me. Because that’d be pretty slick.

Niekas.3854:

Im happy NA “pro” scene kinda stayed out of the Bunker boredom.

All 10 of them? Good for them, I guess.

We could use this for player feedback.

You could close the notification, ticking “More like this please” or “I’m not interested in this, sorry”.

Yay, feedback!

Jax.4903:

This makes a lot of sense, but to castrate our detailed special effects art just to accommodate spectators & tournaments is very wrong.

It was totally worth all 1 tournament and all 10 spectators to kitten off the other 95% of the game’s players! Yep!

Fay.2357:

And then once all that is gone, the thief pops out of stealth and kills you. If you tried to attack the mesmer during that, you’re just an awful player.

Or he just walks away, leaving you with CDs and nothing to show for it. Since the Thief popped stealth for all you know he did kill someone in the meantime, while you stood there looking stupid with that purple glow around you.

WvW roamers… sigh.

The theme of Elixirs is that you get a random effect.

I am invincible! (apparently)

Daralii.8940:

The nerf was very likely targeted at SPvP, not raids. Readability is an issue when spectating

You mean, accepting that an MMO’s class system is unsuitable to eSports wasn’t a viable option? /sigh

It’s nice that they make life worse for everyone because a tiny minority figured they’d complain about an unbalanced 5v5 mode looking nice instead of boring. Ah well, smallscale PvP in MMOs. Never been anything but a source of issues, in any MMO.

Nexxa.7306:

why I make no effort to hide my intolerance for the sort of pvpers who whine at every little thing they think might give someone else an advantage (Oh it’s too shiny! Distracts me! Bawww!)

What annoys me is that the devs listen to the stuff instead of making whining about this a bannable offense for “wasting dev time”.

Yeah, please remove more FX. The Chronomancers and Elementalists are quite happy with the results, we really ought to use this for more things.

I would also suggest to nerf the fx on orbital strike. It’s way too confusing for new players.

So far we have:

• Orbital Strike looks completely wrong. The skill deals high damage but has one of the tiniest visual effects in the game, clearly marking it as unimportant when looking at it. Plus if any dev has ever played C&C, ask them whether they’d like the Ion Cannon to look like this. :P
• Chronomancer wells keep their ground art and the butterfly explosion at the end (good), but lost much of the pulses. Honestly these could be ok, but considering how damaging or fight-changing some of them are, again, the art doesn’t match the relative importance.
• Elementalist Fireball is just… sad.
• Elementalist Fireball affecting other skills is bogus. The FGS, an elite skill having one of the fanciest AA animations in the game, now looks like a pea shooter. Great.

Dastion.3106:

“I make a pretty good team”

That’s pretty awesome, shame it wasn’t used as a Mesmer post-finisher taunt. “Me, Myself and I are better than you.”

We still need:

• Little icon in illusion circle for phantasms, showing the weapon-icon it was created from. For the Disenchanter show a wave-icon with a cut through it, for the Defender show a tower.
• Then for Chronophantasma, grey the circle’s inner fill color for phantasms who are on their second life.
• This inner fill depletes as the illusion loses health.

Hawke.1094:

As I said, the flaws that prevent MMORPG to go e-sport is the amount of complex, flexible and game changing factors.
There are too many things for game developers to balance.

Which isn’t really a flaw, either.
Only in regards to wanting to be an eSport. Because OTOH, these elements are exactly what makes the game long-term viable as a social gaming system for MMO-gamers. Including the constant balance-pendulum, which is rather important to not let class balance go stale.

I agree, although I’m a bit stumped to come up with a crucial or heartbreaking or intense moment in the personal story.

There was a nice moment in the living story, but the other ones? Not really.

Since*

Also hrm, I reckon you won’t be the only one who wants the stuff. Group up with others who want it, organize your own party for running them.

Hrm, I suspect the dolyak can be long-term crippled and you took it off from it?

But… I know some people are much more utilitarian, but shouldn’t your guild be people you want to play with and get to know?

As such, wouldn’t you find them via interacting with some of their members and thinking they’re cool people?

Honestly at this point I feel like any effort sunk into the “competitive” side of things is just a waste.

Because, this is a MMORPG. A highly PvE-successful MMORPG known for its casual-friendly nature, lighthearted design, quirky attention to detail, lots of interesting ideas (if not always executed well) and relatively open and inviting combat design in regards to grouping and teaming up.

Then it has WvW, a take on PvP which is of arguable implementation but which reflects many of the design ideas of the PvE side. It also serves well as another unique aspect as not that many MMOs had this type of PvP.

And then you have sPvP, which could only fit any less in with the above if you used a 3DS to run it and it used the graphics of Pac-Man.

It’s baffling that they sink so much effort into trying to promote it as an esport. The bigger problem is that while everyone knows the ship has sailed (especially given the prevalence of MOBAs for 5v5 combat), ANet keeps clinging on. It makes for a rather sad picture.
On top of that, both PvE and especially WvW could benefit from any additional manpower available. Big time. And those two modes (and in theory a reworked an repurposed sPvP mode) fit into the goal of being a good MMORPG.

Erm, this seems very much on purpose. Melee is supposed to reward the substantially increased danger from being that close up.

It’s a rather sad thing IMO.

6-degrees-of-freedom type combat was a very good idea, and honestly for the most part it works surprisingly well. What it needed was:

• Balance pass over weapon abilities.
• Most skills usable underwater (for example, GTAE → PBAE, this works for Necro wells for example but not for Chrono wells, really weird).
• The big one, but also not truly necessary, maybe rethink how to rezz underwater so that rezzing without going to the surface is very difficult but getting up there is an instant rezz (on a cooldown maybe). In other words the deeper you dive, the far far larger the risk.

Daralii.8940:

I’m pretty sure it’s for esports spectating and not for performance reasons, which is even worse. I’m not sure why they would think that it’s particles of all things that’s keeping GW2 esports from being a thing.

Everyone knows that combat looking like kitten is going to draw in all the hot chicks and the spectators! FACT!

It’s how all the esports games work. Starcraft never got big when it originally was developed against the CryEngine back in 1998. Only after they switched to the 2-dimensional and pixely Warcraft engine was it a smash hit.

These fx-nerfs are so depressing.

Yeah if these were optional, it’d all be good.

The way it is now, many skills look completely lame. Worst of all is Orbital Strike, which is more link Orbital fishing line, now.

Myrias.8732:

If people want to get rid of unblockable, we better get rid of stunbreak too. I think its OP that when I stun people they can get away. Nerf please

Like I said, it should be an actively activated skill giving you a limited amount of unblockability.

Just like it is an actively activated skill granting you a stunbreak and/or further immunity.

Honestly, as far as the tangential discussion goes, unblockable should simply not exist. Period.

Outside one one specific situation: A specific effect gives you temporary “unblockability”.
That is, compare what Revenants have in shiro stance. It puts a buff on them. That type of stuff. Other than that, no, if it’s an attack, and I can block attacks, I should be able to block the attacks. Done.

nearlight.3064:

20% life force is the standardized rule for duels.

Are we trying to “balance” 1v1 situations?

Cute.

Fatallion.5389:

Or maybe those icons could be switched to small colored circles around you. Every buff skill would have different color, for example regeneration buff as green, fury buff red, swiftness buff yellow, might buff orange/black or something and protection buff blue. That way it would be a lot easier for everyone else not familiar with revenant buff icons to really tell what is going on.

That’s be terrible.

Not everyone sees colors clearly. The current version has a unique location and a unique icon for each buff, making it trivial to understand which buff is active independent of color vision capabilities.

Your idea would more or less make it impossible.

Aveneo.2068:

Here’s a picture showing an alternative approach that I would have liked a lot better instead of that 2d ground decal. Small crystals hovering near you for the active facets, just like one of the quests in Auric basin.

Then the color can be different depending on the facet.

Same problem. Please don’t use color as a distinguishing factor unless you give an option to select colorblind mode and the type of colorblindness (and varying the colors accordingly).

Plus this would then need consistency. Currently all boons use the same color for the icon and mostly for their graphics (there’s yellow-white and blue components to the effects.

If each boon had a unique color anyhow, then fair enough.

But this way it’s just being made difficult for someone who is color blind, without any real reason. Unique position works well. If anything, the center circle should be see through or gone.

VanEinstein.5019:

clicking on

Really all I can reply to this is: ?_?

What I don’t is why GTAE skills don’t all change to PBAE underwater.

I mean, it clearly works for plenty skills already, for example Necro wells or Time Warp. Would it be that difficult to make all GTAE skills behave this way, enabling a ton more to be used underwater? :S

Jana.6831:

Question in general: You guys do realize that the precurser prices and the prices of deldimor aren’t made by anet but by the players = by you. If you don’t buy it it will become cheaper thus precursers will become cheaper to an extend. And currently “everybody” wants to craft a precurser so the demand is really high = prices for deldrimor and all mats are high.
So to say it’s a ripoff implies that the precurser prices were set and made by anet – they aren’t.

That’s quite true. The total cost of such a precursor could very well be 1g, assuming we sell each other the mats cheaply enough.

So, why is it so pricey? Why are people selling the components for so much?

As always , because people are happily buying it at that price.

Lorath.2504:

Because he doesnt consider working for this target to be an entertaining ‘journey’ but rather a prolonged visit to a labour camp.

Fair enough, but then playing a RPG feels a bit of a misplaced choice in games. There’s plenty genres in which no progression exists, as much as that has spread. Fighting games come to mind, or MOBAs, which only have momentary progression.

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

Conveniently, I posted not one but TWO possible solutions right in the first post!

They’re not really solutions, they just trade an aesthetically problematic mechanic for a gameplay one. Seeing the weapons of someone else is an important aspect of combat.

After a thread on reddit popped up about darker nights, I figured I’ll chime in with my own ideas about how the atmosphere of the game could be improved a lot (IMO).

It focuses on 3 key points:

• Darker nights (I know this is a touchy subject for some, but read below)
• Dynamic weather effects in most zones
• Night-dependent enemy behavior / map effects

Darker nights

Now, in the past this was a point commonly met with apprehension as if you play in a bright room and you got a rather shiney monitor, you can easily not see anything at all if the night is dark enough.
In the past, I would have agreed. However, nowadays we got Light Adaptation in the graphics options, eliminating the need for the night to be bright enough to see just as well as during the day.

So what I would do is reduce light further during the night. Especially with distance from the character, so that a “visible radius” effect is created, simulating how difficult navigating at night can be.

This would significantly increase atmosphere in many rather bright zones, like Kryta or Ascalon.

Dynamic weather

So… these snow maps.. their snow is hardcoded. That’s a shame. In a snow zone, I’d imagine I would get a mix of light snow, clear skies, mushy sleet and really bad snow storms.
This in turn could enable more fancy effects, like NPCs seeking shelter from the weather along the road or a snowstorm impacting visibility ala the night effect above.

Which again, would add a ton of atmosphere. And we got plenty zones to use for this, as some already show hardcoded weather effects.

Night-time effects

Remember playing Majora’s Mask? The NPCs had a defined day/night cycle and to catch them at a specific spot you had to be there at the right moment.

Of course, lacking the ability to modify time I wouldn’t do this here, but the enemies… during the night, focus on larger groups of enemies moving together for protection. Skeletons and ghosts would be on the rise, spawning more frequently. Some animals withdraw, others come out more at night.

None of these effects should exclusive, just vary the relative amount by up to 100% (that is, twice as many skeleton spawns during the night, for example).

Anyhow, those are my ideas in regards to atmosphere. Thanks for reading.

That’d be awesome. I would go for:

• Chop tree with hands.
• Bit into herb and rip it out with your teeth.
• Kick ore vein and it bursts into ore.

Aidan Eighthrain.8612:

Meaning : if you bought HoT and craft Dawn, you get to pay more than non-HoT player and more than its actual price (700g : ~70€)

I think this is pretty relevant.

Why would you buy the gems though? You got your fancy precursor, sure, but you also robbed yourself of a long-term ingame target.
Considering that the item adds ~nothing to your character, there’s no reason to rush it, ever.

That’s also rather the point of precursor crafting. You could already buy the precursor. If you want it now, buy it.
The new way to achieve it is for slowly gathering mats, realizing at some point that you kinda got everything (incidentally that’s how I got my legendary, realized "oh, I actually got just about everything).

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

Except I want to use shield. It’s both fun and really good. I just don’t want it messing up my look.

How would you do it? It’s a serious question, as having both on the back would lead to tons of clipping, but carrying the shield on the arm leads to tons of clipping, too.

Fay.2357:

It’d be closer to 2-4 stacks in practice. Rarely will you actually interrupt people, and rarely more than once.

And this is before looking at DE, which is right next to Mistrust

Please don’t.

I’m really happy that some mobs like the snipers, the chargers and the rollers are actually dangerous if you don’t read their description and pay attention to them.

I feel the game needs more of these. Encourage a social atmosphere, people wanting to run around together for protection and power.

PWNcakesAndROFLs.8263:

From a PvE perspective, I definitely agree with you, but you need to remember that apparently this game is balanced around sPvP, which inadvertently renders the majority of our non-kit skills niche or downright useless.

Agreed. And it’s hurting the game pretty badly in two major game mods (those being PvE and WvW) that balance is always centered so much around such a different game mode, mechanically.

Why you’d use sPvP as the balance basis when the majority plays something else is beyond me, though. The usual arguments are “but that’s where balance matters!”, but well, looking at threads like these, obviously it matters just as much elsewhere? Or look at the WvW complaints, sure balance should be based on one game mode working differently than the others instead of the majority?

Because for the most part, underwater combat is a goner and forgotten.

I mean, look at all the other elite specs. none of the Chronomancer wells work underwater, either. Revenants just flat out don’t really have underwater combat.

Honestly a much much bigger problem is how the Celestial – and virtually any new – gear cannot be traded. It’s all account bound.

New guildie levels up to 80, can’t give them an exotic set of their choice. Meh.

Please please don’t remove these.

I love that impact of WvW onto the PvE game. I loved the relics in DAoC, too. It’s what motivates me to go into WvW, make the week better for everyone else.