Guild Wars 2

Yeah the tricky part about free weekends/trials for this game is that a significant part of endgame is open to these free accounts (which is good and bad…). They can influence pvp, wvw, and as mentioned gold selling, spam botting etc.

Unlike most MMOs where free trials are basically restricted to a starter area or level so that they don’t really have any impact.

Regarding Asmodeus/FrizzFreston: I agree and I think ArenaNet should:

1. Consider scaling back the amount of players allowed in each zone (to preserve difficulty…though this wouldn’t be effective if they decide to zerg up anyway).

or

2. Finally work on properly scaling content up for larger quantities of players. So that “zerging it down” isn’t the best and favorite solution on the minds of the majority of Gw2 players.

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

In one fell swoop Anet have got rid of one of my largest issues with the game…

Thank you and give the guys who did this a payrise…

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-megaserver-system/

It will also negate the need for server merges due to low population and help the overflow issues in a single stroke. It’s pretty much how things should have been designed from the start but better late than never

So kittening happy at this. I hated the server system and felt it was a step backwards in tech terms from GW1. There’s still the EU/US divide to breach but this is a quantum leap from where we were.

A great day for us both Shanaeri, it has been one of my biggest issues from the start as well. In fact, I posted in one of your first threads about this too (Features from Gw1 Missing in Gw2) back in September 2012. I am now much more optimistic about the future of Gw2 after seeing this change.

Lol unfortunately the megaserver won’t apply to Iron Marches yet. But perhaps we will find workarounds (using the areas that are megaserver-enabled as a sort of party forming platform for the areas that are not yet enabled).

Hoping the more populated mists and the new reward system will bring people back to PvP and attract first-timers.

Thanks to all the devs who have been working on this. I’ve been asking for the servers to be changed since September 2012.

Quote from Justin O’Dell on March 17th, “I can’t wait to delete the old PvP servers!”. In the “At this rate Anet might delete PvP…” thread.

Our grandmaster trait hits as hard as a mesmer adept trait…awesome.

Ya it will be nice for some builds though.

Can’t wait to see the devs using perplexity runes in pvp.

Interesting direction we’re moving in. Though perhaps annoying for PvP purists, I think the changes will probably be most beneficial to the game as a whole and to the general Gw2 population.

But all of these changes won’t matter to the average Gw2 player if the pvp balance is still bad and miserable for them to play in…

Also hoping more pvp goals will be added later on to fill the void of the rank grind disappearing. I understand seasons and season specific rewards were mentioned months ago, I hope that plan is still being worked on.

ellesee.8297:

these changes are great. finally Vee Wee won’t be the only rank 80 in the world. question though, what will Vee Wee get for being the first rank 80? seems like everybody else got rank 80 for free while Vee Wee really earned it.

:)

As mentioned, the LFG tool needs to become more prominent in the UI. It should not be hidden away in a window of a window. To my knowledge, there is still no hotkey available for opening LFG (please inform me if I’m wrong). Players need to open Contact list, and then click and click another 1-20 times to see all the group listings. This is simply more of an annoyance than it should be.

What I am asking for is a hotkey to LFG (and add LFG to the icons in the top left of the screen—separate from Contacts). And allow players to view all of the LFG listings without needing to click every subcategory over and over again.

Still waiting for confirmation of transmute cost to change gear appearance in pvp. But otherwise, great changes.

The red ring indicator is going to be added to meteor shower, probably with the April 15th patch (Allie said in February that a fix would be implemented for it).

This change should address most of the legitimate complaints regarding the skill. Personally I am excited that the change will remove the confusion caused by having allied/enemy meteor showers occurring simultaneously on the same area (hopefully the change will be sufficient to do so…but there may be so many red circles already that it will still be tough to distinguish).

I still think the tornado/meteor shower combo should be changed so that tornado does not boost the user’s base damage (modifying existing aoe such as meteor shower). However, tornado would need to be buffed so that it would be viable on its own.

Really not excited about any of these traits, though some look situationally useful. However, “Lightning Rod” seems very poorly thought out. Unless they are giving eles alot more interrupts (or the “lightning bolt” does massive damage…and it shouldn’t). There are just too few interrupts for this trait to ever be worth it. Fresh air seems like it will provide much more dps and utility than this new alternative.

Edit to comment on the rest:

Stone heart: Not sure it will be as practically useful as everyone is thinking. Yes you can avoid some big hits, but you’ll need to leave earth sooner or later (remember people thought diamond skin would be game changing too, it hasn’t been).

Blinding ashes: This could be really good…if people can reliably produce burning every 5 seconds with the ICD. But will it be an ICD per target like glyph, or 1 ICD for everything (like the warrior cripple/immobilize adept trait). Might be devastating for fire eles to keep themselves alive through blinds while doing massive damage. But with the ICD and the proc nature of some of the burns…the blind from this trait may not trigger every 5 secs, but more like every 5-10 secs or more.

Elemental contingency: Doesn’t seem worth taking over EA. Small boons to oneself vs. the utility of 5 secs AoE burn, AoE blind, AoE heal/condi remove, and crip/bleed/blast finisher…I just don’t think this skill will be worth it. Also, assuming the ICD is per attunement, and are the boon durations shown including the 30% boost from having arcana maxed out?

Aquatic benevolence: The devs seem to be hyping this up, but unless there are major gameplay changes coming in the rest of the feature pack…I really don’t think any of these “+healing to allies” modifiers will be worth investing in. There will be certain scenarios, sure. But overall, if I am maxing out water magic I would much rather have: -20% water attunement skills recharge (much better for healing/support), one or both of the condition removal traits, or aura sharing.

The trait doesn’t really appeal to me for any scenario, will wait and see though.

Good luck Marvin, be brave!

Hoping they are careful, elementalist could very easily become overpowered.

Edit: I do hope more options become viable with the patch (for all professions, not just ele).

Hi! I am very happy to see you trying so hard with staff elementalist! The arcane setup you have is definitely alot of fun to use (especially with the different effects from elemental surge). And I agree that celestial/divinity is appealing for staff (but it can take more effort to land kills…). But I worry that you don’t have enough condition removal for a lot of encounters (teamfights too). And the only stun break you have is on 60 sec cooldown. Regardless, keep up the good work and experimenting. I am glad you are having fun with ele!

+1, spectator mode sucks compared to gw1 obs mode. Gw1 obs mode is 24/7 automatic top play shown (though in replays). Gw2 spec mode is only useful a couple times a week when the “shoutcasters” are broadcasting some tournament. Maybe there is room for both in this game?

Regarding the above: Yes we do love to parrot on and on about Gw1 pvp because it was more successful than Gw2 spvp (at least thus far). Obs. mode might not save the game, but how is that comment proven false if obs. mode was never added?

Pardon my choice of words, perhaps I should have said “rarity” instead. Regardless, there are several tournament players with rank 70, and I had them in mind (though I do not mean to discredit Voa, as he seems to be a good player…though we currently only see him in hotjoin).

It is cool now because of the prestige associated with it, but I think Anet could’ve done a better job on that finisher. It is less elaborate and less detailed than most of the other rank finishers.

That is also the song featured in the sylvari introduction video (in the race section of this website). But yes, I don’t think I actually heard it in Caledon until a couple days ago.

I have a basic setup (though wireless for convenience): 2 button mouse with scroll wheel and regular keyboard.

I am currently glory rank 61, have been top 100 on both ladders multiple times, and top 50 several times as well (and I only do pickup groups). My main is staff ele, but lately I play different things/test builds in tournaments (so my leaderboard rank isn’t great at the moment). And I have plenty of room for improvement in my playing…

What I am trying to say is, yes I really think you can succeed with a basic setup. It just depends on how much control and comfort you have over your setup.

Whichever race you will be happy to look at and gear up for the months (and years?) to come. Racial skills just add some flavor, but generally they aren’t better than your regular skills (and most racials have no interaction with your traits).

Hoping this improvement will be available to elementalists outside of the 30 pt earth or water traits…

But where will the sharks live?

Hi Chukree, I think we played together a bit in Gw1 random arena. Strange finally finding you in Gw2 in your goodbye thread. Well, happy travels wherever you go.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Besides fresh-air, eles are pretty balanced nowadays. The problem are some other classes.

I think so too. Fresh air (really, just the electric discharge being instant rather than a projectile), diamond skin, and tornado/meteor shower combo are all bad design for eles. Everything else about the profession is pretty well designed (relative to the other professions anyway), but certainly could use adjustment in places.

Edit: Agree with Phantaram about necro patch…

Yes, enjoyed watching 2v2 tournament more than I enjoyed watching conquest tournament.

Would be an insane waste of a year of “story” if all that would happen is LA being attacked/destroyed. Wasn’t LA already “attacked” by the Mad King (sort of), the karka, Zhaitan’s forces, councilman assassination, etc. Why care anymore? There better be something bigger than this (Dragons, Gods, new lands being explored, etc.).

juno.1840:

Celtus.8456:

To be consistent with the rest of the game design, yes maybe it should have a single large red circle. But there are other hostile abilities in the game that do not have red outlines (and much worse telegraphs…come on, meteor shower is one of the best telegraphed abilities in Gw2), and elementalist is currently on the lower end of the power spectrum in this game. So, why now?

Edit: OP, you do make a very good point about the confusion over friendly fire. As a staff elementalist, it is annoying to be in a group fight vs another staff ele. I am sure there is alot of confusion for both sides about which meteor shower is allied and which is hostile.

Because some players are building full glass and abusing Tornado to pump up the damage of Meteor Shower in WvW (you can even find “look at me!” videos in this forum section on it).

Honestly if it comes down to a damage nerf, or little red circles, I’d go with the circles. Wouldn’t you?

First, I think tornado/meteor shower combo does need a nerf. Buff tornado but remove the damage boost it gives to your existing aoe (seriously it is a very unreliable elite on its own…). But yes, as I later went back and posted, some form of circle would be appropriate for meteor shower.

To be consistent with the rest of the game design, yes maybe it should have a single large red circle. But there are other hostile abilities in the game that do not have red outlines (and much worse telegraphs…come on, meteor shower is one of the best telegraphed abilities in Gw2), and elementalist is currently on the lower end of the power spectrum in this game.

Edit: OP, you do make a very good point about the confusion over friendly fire. As a staff elementalist, it is annoying to be in a group fight vs another staff ele. I am sure there is alot of confusion for both sides about which meteor shower is allied and which is hostile.

So, either give friendly meteor shower a white circle, or go ahead and add red circle…

They should just enable the PvP teleport from the tutorial, and send you back to tutorial when you leave mists (or attempt to pass through LA portal).

Or: Give option to skip tutorial if your account has already completed the tutorial for that race.

Add account-wide diminishing returns when the champs are done too frequently. Or make them spawn less frequently when being farmed in rapid succession. Yes, I said it, and the other 1000 events in the game thank me.

More impressed by people with style than I am by people who buy the most expensive gear in the game and proceed to use abyss/celestial dye on their armor.

I think the GW1 dervish has no role in Gw2, as the essence/role of the profession has been dispersed throughout this game. I see parts of dervish in guardian abilities, elementalist abilities, human racials, etc. I think new professions in this game will need to have a new theme/role that is distinct from the others present already. It saddens me to say this as I was a main dervish in Gw1 (and I’ll bet I played mine more than just about anyone).

I want trash mobs in EotM as well. I like grinding mobs in between fights…and killing other players farming npcs.

Hello, welcome back!

HPLT.7132:

Welcome back to your monologue

And this, lol.

Great to hear that, thanks!

Either they were using the combo described above, or the OP is a joke about RTL.

Remove map from rotation until fixed.

Best move would be to work on converting all of WvW into a green/blue/red battle, not a server one. Borderlands/EBG are already dead for most servers (outside of certain prime times). Edge of the Mists should stay active nearly 24/7 because of its design. The other maps should be converted over.

skullmount.1758:

I saw this too. But then some people I could see their names. I think you can only see the actual names of the people from your server. (I know I saw a few from my own that I recognized, but some names weren’t)

Yes, you can see player names from your server. But for the other ~7 servers you are allied with, you cannot.

Very pleased with the update, and this is my only major gripe so far. Why have you chosen to name our allies from other servers as “Team name-WvW rank”? I understand why you like to keep anonymity between enemies in WvW, but why between allies?

We can still chat with these allies from other servers in /say, /team, and /map chat, all of which will show their real IGN. Allied commanders from other servers will also appear anonymously in person, but viewing their tag on the map, the real IGN is seen. Furthermore, we can see the account names of allied players by clicking to report them, while for WvW enemies it will not show the account name.

All that being said, I consider this anonymity to be a hindrance to teamwork and socialization in the new map. Please consider changing it, or at least allowing it to be a toggle option.

No, I don’t think the game will necessarily improve by throwing money at it. They have (or had) plenty of development money but use it in ways that alienate much of the core playerbase. I do not think the past year of Living Story, failure to reach “e-sports”, WvW problems, etc. are because of lack of funding. I think it is due to poor leadership in the studio.

My response to this dramatic rant…adapt.

If it lives up to the potential I think it has, then yes, I think it will be the best update since Gw2 launched. The only downside I see is that it detracts from old WvW (which is imo extremely stagnant). I will probably exclusively play Edge instead of “WvW” and I hope they use it as a new model to remake old WvW.

I’m already disappointed by Gw2 tengu compared to Gw1 tengu.

TeamQ yes, SoloQ rarely. Too many people are not reliable for communication in solo q, and most attempts at communication are futile. Map pings/arrows might be the best option for solo q.

Really, the most you can hope for is that people know how to play and will watch the map/their mate’s hp bars and make gameplay decisions based on that information.

Use all of the weapons. But staff and dagger mainhand will give the most AoE damage.

Wanting clarification regarding whether this is the WvW map or just a LS version.