Guild Wars 2

And it’s awesome when it happens.

Bakitten291:

Nothing was mentioned of you having one! Besides, what more is there to hear you talk about that we haven’t already talked about before? :P

I’m scheduled for later this month. And… I don’t know. Maybe… something. >>; I mostly just get on your case for being squishy in WvW, haha.

PEW PEW.

pewpewpewpew.

This game definitely has its own variety of problems when it comes to this stuff. Like Strifey said, it’s difficult to balance between the general pop and organized groups. That’s where explorable paths make sense: some of them are harder, some of them are fairly easy.

Of course, there’s a problem with that as well. Like cesmode said, many groups (even the organized ones) will seek to take the path of least resistance, i.e. the easier paths, for the sake of faster loot and dungeon tokens and what-not.

Bakitten291:

Looking forward to listening to amins’s show. Always been a fan of him on the forums. Will have to look into these later when i get home, but it sounds like I will have to wait for a WvW focused one.

Not mine? :< SOME FRIEND.

JQ wins, JQ chestthumps and BG and SoR make excuses ranging from “we’re taking a break” to “numbers!”

BG wins, BG chestthumps and JQ and SoR make excuses ranging from “we’re taking a break” to “numbers!”

SoR wins, SoR chestthumps and JQ and BG make excuses ranging from “we’re taking a break” to “numbers!”

Go Blackgate! I’m going to go back to actually playing the game now.

/clap

The encounters were fresh and enjoyable, the trash was adequate—which is about as much as you can expect from trash, in my opinion. We need more of this. But harder.

I come from a vast raiding background, but that isn’t what I want this to turn into. That said, I wouldn’t mind 8-man groups for future contenta la GW1, but I’m getting off-topic. As an experienced WoW-style raider and a big fan of mechanic-based fights, I found the encounters in the MF very refreshing in comparison to many of the other “boss” encounters found in this game. They were interesting, to say the least.

The first “boss” encounter was very exciting for me; not because it was overly interesting by itself, but because it made me realize that progress is being made. We’re on the right track towards more complex, interesting encounters in the future. It shows us what this game is capable of in terms of generating interesting PvE content that could potentially attract even the most hardcore of PvE players. Maybe that isn’t exactly what you want, but it’s still something. It’s still a big deal for those of us that still waiting for more complex and challenging bosses (read: not gimmicky) to crop up.

I’m not saying that WoW (and similar games) have/had more interesting boss encounters than Guild Wars 2. What I’m saying is that many of them were certainly more complex and difficult by design. Well, okay. Maybe I am saying that many of the raid-based MMOs’ encounters are more interesting, but this is a start in the right direction. There are definitely some challenging encounters in this game, but it is my opinion that they lack depth and complexity when it comes to mechanics. I think the most interesting fight in the game currently—barring the MF encounters—is Lupicus.

So, what can we learn from this dungeon? What can you, ArenaNet’s dungeon devs, take away from this content to expand upon and improve for later (hopefully more permanent) content? Well, here’s my short list of ideas:

1. Don’t be afraid to challenge your players. If people are wiping, they’re learning (usually). If everyone and their mother is one-shotting everything with zero issues consistently, it isn’t a challenging or enjoyable game; it’s child’s play. I’m not saying it should start hard and then get nerfed. I’m saying it should be just challenging enough to maybe cause some issues for less experienced players. I certainly wouldn’t say no to a Hard Mode or more difficult paths like in Arah, though.
2. Layering different challenges and mechanics is a good thing. That first MF encounter? Genius. The only thing missing was an active boss in the middle of it all as opposed to simply DPSing an inanimate core between phases. The last phase was interesting, but could have been a bit longer. That said, the last boss was very well done but could have been a tad more difficult as well. I only did it twice with a guild group, so perhaps that’s why it felt a little too “easy,” but I was very pleased with the way the bosses’ abilities meshed to make it a truly interesting (and from what I hear, pretty challenging for many players) encounter.
3. The trash was interesting and difficult, but not too difficult. There weren’t any one-shot trash mobs like in Arah, and they weren’t very easy to group up and walk all over. The Protectors and Gunners did a good job of making players really work for it without making them work too hard for trash.
4. The interim challenges and mini-bosses like the trolls and the freezer machine + effigy were a nice touch. More of those.
5. This isn’t exactly relevant to dungeon design, but I’m very glad that we’re moving back towards the GW1-type cut scenes. Please continue in that direction.

Just my 2 cents. Thank you for doing such a good job on this dungeon. I just wish it was staying a little longer.

Needs more WvW discussion.

Enjoying it either way.

Well, it’s no “Respawn Maybe.”

I posit that they have the ability to do separate balancing in WvW since they were able to change the damage value of Retaliation in WvW without changing it in PvE. I just don’t think they intend to balance it separately. It’s not the easiest concept to understand, but I do not believe (as they’ve said it themselves) that ANet intends to balance WvW perfectly or completely fairly.

It’s essentially supposed to be a big mess. After all, it’s not a couple of organized teams duking it out for leaderboard spots in an arena. It’s “war.”

sPvP /= PvP

I’m talking about the manner in which each is perceived and balanced by AN and the player base. I know what the definition of PvP is. sPvP is a gametype which is separate from WvW, and for a reason. WvW should not be balanced like sPvP.

I’m also not in the business of enjoying having people twist my words to mean what they want them to mean. Obviously, WvW is intended to be balanced, but it is not and never has been intended to be balanced in the same way as sPvP.

Both game modes are competitive in their own way and need to be balanced in their own way. That said, there’s no such thing as perfect balance in these types of games.

They make an active effort to balance WvW, but it still isn’t intended to be balanced like sPvP. They nerfed Confusion, they nerfed Retaliation. Those nerfs were in the interests of WvW. Many of the skill changes are in the interests of balancing WvW.

What I’m saying is that they do care about WvW, but that they do not intend for it to be sPvP. They intend it to be WvW. I view your post as an assumption that it should be/desire for it to be sPvP on a larger scale. It’s not supposed to be and it shouldn’t be.

sPvPers have sPvP. Let WvWers have WvW.

And my point is that, since years pre-launch, ArenaNet has said that it is not intended to be balanced as PvP. It isn’t meant to be “balanced” or “fair” at all. It is mechanically PvP, yes, but it is not balanced as and is not intended to be balanced as PvP.

It’s a game type in its own and should be treated as such. MMOs are growing; it isn’t all black and white, PvE and PvP anymore.

The mistake is assuming that WvW is meant to be PvP. WvW is WvW. PvP is PvP. I do nothing but WvW and I play for the fights and the objectives; I even have a YouTube channel dedicated to showcasing my player versus player encounters in WvW. but I don’t consider myself a PvPer. I’m a WvWer.

If I want to fight other players under “fair,” arbitrarily balanced conditions, I’ll go to sPvP.

Yep. I hate T1 with a burning passion. I’m only still here because of my guild. I’d rather be in T3 or below with an organized guild.

I’m mostly concerned with the supply-removing traps detailed in the recent teasers.

Am I the only one thinking that supply removal traps may be pushing the boundaries of what’s okay? Particularly in higher tiers, it’s hard enough as it is to assault certain objectives, particularly keeps and SMC. With the change to arrow carts, defense is absurdly easy as long as there is an experienced core of players “running the show,” per se.

That said, unless the traps are 1) expensive, 2) of small radii/target limits, and 3) only remove SOME supply as opposed to all of it (5 at most), I can see this being a big issue. Traps being placed on top of gates or popular walls to siege from with catapults can effectively kill a siege before it even starts with almost zero effort on the defenders’ part.

While I will obviously be making use of such tools as an avid WvWer, the potential consequences of making defense so much easier frighten me when I think about the future of this game and of WvW’s seemingly declining popularity.

Anti-stealth fields and such sound like nice, creative additions to WvW. However, supplying a group just to have it all stripped to whatever magnitude and have to turn around and move to multiple camps again to resupply is…extremely convenient to say the least. And what if the traps are easily laid again? What if you can lay multiples in one area? How inconvenient does it become to assault anything before people stop trying and just turtle their first reset night caps forever, or just stop playing WvW?

So, am I the only one with concerns like this?

I’m mostly worried about people burning out or getting too fed up with massive inconveniences and over-simplified metas like “stack arrow carts” and “stack supply-killing traps”. WvW isn’t fun if there’s nobody to play with or against.

Bringing this up. Honestly, too important of an issue when it’s something that actively gets people killed by putting their HEALS and ELITES on cooldown without the final effects triggering and the choice to stop the dodge from going off.

They also have Null Field, and the fact that sword rips boons on its autoattacks is… well, enough in my eyes. But I don’t play a Mesmer, so this is just my PoV.

Skill queuing is fine except in a few select cases. Dodge queuing is not fine. I sincerely hope it’s just a bug or something…

Hover your cursor over the space-saving symbol. I hate to say it, but even a child can understand what they mean by heart after about a month or two of playing. My 6th grade nephew gets it, and he’s not even 13 yet.

Symbols with mouse-over labels are just way cleaner and easier to fit into a menu.

Dodge queuing is a game-breaking mechanic (in my opinion) and should be removed. Skill queuing is fine; dodge queuing is not.

I don’t know if this was around before, but I’ve never ever noticed it until after the most recent patch, or the one before it… one of the two. I also don’t know if this is a bug or an intended mechanic. Either way, it’s awful. Here’s how it works:

You get immobilized (or stunned or dazed, I believe, but definitely immobilized). Let’s say it lasts for 4s. You hit your dodge key as soon as the immobilize is applied. 4 seconds later, when it ends, you automatically dodge. It does not matter if you no longer want to dodge. It does not matter if you’re in the middle of channeling a spell, a heal, or an elite: it will interrupt whatever you are casting and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Why is this an awful thing? From a strictly Guardian perspective, here is why. You’re being bursted while you’re immobilized and you had hit your dodge key right when you were hit with the immob. You no longer want to dodge; you want to use Shelter, so you cast it as the damage starts coming in. OH—too bad, the immobilize ended near the end of the cast and you didn’t get your heal, but it’s on cooldown now. You’re probably going to die.

Second scenario. You’re immobilized and you’re the target of 5+ people or monsters. You decide to use Renewed Focus because two of your three virtues are down from use to survive the last focused attack (WvWers, you’re used to this). You had previously used your dodge but were immobilized at the time. You have to use RF to get your virtues back up to survive. Casting… OOP, too bad. You got a second of Invuln, but your “queued” dodge automatically popped and interrupted the cast. You do not get your virtues back, you do not get your other two seconds of Invuln, and the ELITE is now on cooldown.

I’m sure other professions will have similar issues, and I don’t think I need to go any further with explaining why this is an absolutely tragic mechanic.

In the end, it’s WvW, not GvG, and you shouldn’t risk putting a queue on a map unless you’re actually contributing to the score. That’s not to say I haven’t spent some time on GvG here and there, but…yeah. If you want fights, go out and find them.

Besides, “GvG” shouldn’t be 10+. We all know what that starts to turn into, and you can play 5-10 vs 5-10 in sPvP.

I tend to judge games (and my ability to look at them) by graphical irritants like this. It’s a literal eye sore and it’s unfortunately bad enough to be one of the several factors that popped up this patch which are leaning me towards finding a new game…

I can’t stand the idea of a poop fist being the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

I use Justice on cooldown because my build gives me 3 stacks of Might every time I do, plus the 4 seconds (supposed to be 5) of burning right away. That, and I have +30% Virtue recharge so I can easily afford to be popping it on cooldown for damage.

As far as Resolve and Courage go…those are “OH KITTEN” buttons for the most part.

Sure thing. Went and aggro’d a few slow-hitting drakes real quick. Looks like a fist covered in poo. A fist of poo.

Also does 100% pre-patch in PvE. Ball-dropping at its finest. Needless nerf anyway.

It’s the same in sPvP, but it is absolutely nerfed in WvW. I haven’t looked in PvE.

…

341 in PvE. 226 in WvW. 66% of PvE value.

Retaliation is doing the same damage in sPvP as it was for me before in WvW.

Dafaq…

You’re missing something. In my videos I’m consistently hitting for 340+ with no Might and only 3 stacks of Bloodlust. Now I’m hitting for significantly less.

Watch the Asura at 0:25: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg5rF9WI6hU

And then check out the screenshot below. That’s with the exact same gear and food, add 15 stacks of Might. And the wiki hasn’t been updated for several of the patch notes.

I’ll need a refund on 7.

Retaliation is definitely doing less damage than before. Others have tested and reported roughly 66% of former damage. I’ve also taken note of it; pre-patch I was doing 330+ damage consistently with no Might stacks. I’m doing around 250 a tick now.

The Sigil of Energy bit was mentioned in the SOTG for April, apparently. I haven’t heard anything else about it, but it’s definitely worrying me.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find the new marker too large and annoying for a floater, especially when I’m in the middle of a large group. I play a bunker Guardian in WvW and am getting hit by large numbers of players at the same time very often, which means literal blankets of this intrusive hit marker emblem clouding the top-middle part of my screen for precious seconds at a time. It doesn’t help when I’m commanding.

I would have been happy with regular-sized text with a different color or something, or just a smaller graphic. It’s literally driving me nuts; seeing your Retaliation hit is not that important of a piece of information.

Incurafy.6329:

Christos de Soufre.3802:

Stealing the entire stack and duration of TWO boons is too much no matter how you spin it, especially considering how quickly initiative can be recharged and the fact that Thieves still have just as much mobility and stealth as they did before. Thieves did not need more sustainability and they did not need more damage. That’s all that this gives them, not to mention the other buffs they got this patch.

There’s still no way I’m dying to one in single combat, but the fact that they can leave whenever they want against anything less than a damage build and the fact that a 2-man group with a Thief + whatever else is now way more likely to total a Guardian of any build is more than a little annoying.

<Removed stupid passive aggressive comment.>

1. The fact that we can steal two boons is unexpected and we only expected one, but a Thief who uses S/D has no reliable burst and can only sustain damage, they are not the D/X Zerker burst Thief you’re so used to destroying.
2. Actually, Thieves do need a survivability buff, and this bug fix and buff was a step in the right direction. Thieves melt like butter under pressure, everyone knows that.
3. Thieves did not receive a damage buff, we received a huge nerf to our burst damage with Mug which actually affected non-burst builds and a nerf to Trickshot on our Shortbow which is our almost mandatory second set.
4. What you’re talking about was a bugfix that made a previously unused weapon set viable and gave Thieves an alternative role in tPvP as a boon ripper instead of our previous ONE build of burst roamer.
5. The other buffs were negligible but needed (eg the Venmous Aura trait still has a radius that is far too small to use effectively without VOIP communication.
6. If you aren’t being killed by Thieves then what’s the problem? A Thief who runs away from you in tPvP isn’t capping your point and if a Thief runs from you in WvW then you won anyway… it sounds to me like you just pointed out why Thieves need survival buffs if they’re forced to run because you can’t be killed…
7. Just remember that only Thieves using S/D builds (which will be a lot over the next month while it gets tested out) will be able to steal your boons, burst Thieves still exist and they are just as easy to kill as ever.

Thieves have access to two weapon sets like anyone else outside of Eles, and every Thief I know/see in WvW that plays power runs D/D + S/D, especially now. It’s not like you’re giving up your burst by running S/D, so you can’t try to feed that to anyone.

I didn’t say they received a damage buff. The fact that they can steal Might and Fury is an indirect (or direct, depending on how you look at it) buff. I feel especially sorry for Engis who can stack Might efficiently considering that Thieves can steal entire stacks now.

I was with single boon removal. I would have been fine with stealing an entire stack/duration of a single boon. But stealing the entire stack and duration of two boons at a time for a cost of less than 5 initiative is too much.

I know it was a bug fix, but that’s all it should have been (or that +making it steal instead of rip). That said, there were plenty of Thieves running S/D as an off-set of D/D for the dual stun break/teleport and for when the boon removal actually did work.

I don’t have an issue with Thieves by themselves—that I know of, I’ve yet to be able to fight any alone since the patch. What I have an issue with when if a Thief engages me with one of anything else. You can only dodge so much, and if the second is a Necro or a Warrior, the blocks don’t mean much either. Should one person be able to beat two at a time? Even if someone doesn’t think so, there’s no reason it should be as easy for Thief/x to trash a Guardian as it will be in many cases now, especially if they end up changing Sigils of Energy, reducing our ability to dodge instead of block, which is becoming increasingly weak due to the increasing introduction of unblockables.

Maybe I’ll still be able to kill 3 people alone. Maybe I won’t. Either way, “balance” is moving in a dangerous direction right now. My issue is still less with direct buffs to any one profession and more with the fact that the combined changes are making it so hard for Guardians to do anything but play AH/EM and run in groups.

Stealing the entire stack and duration of TWO boons is too much no matter how you spin it, especially considering how quickly initiative can be recharged and the fact that Thieves still have just as much mobility and stealth as they did before. Thieves did not need more sustainability and they did not need more damage. That’s all that this gives them, not to mention the other buffs they got this patch.

There’s still no way I’m dying to one in single combat, but the fact that they can leave whenever they want against anything less than a damage build and the fact that a 2-man group with a Thief + whatever else is now way more likely to completely total a Guardian of any build once their endurance is stressed is more than a little annoying.

I’m only angry because the only profession I care about is on its way to being pigeonholed when it comes to WvW. And since those are the only two things I care about in GW2…

The issue is that you can’t keep dodging. I’m a major advocate of “l2dodge,” but if it’s a zerker thief (they’re everywhere, by the way), you can burn through endurance pretty fast, and that’s all they have to wait for. Sure, you can block it, but we can burn through those too. 4 initiative isn’t enough. 5 would have been better, and only one boon per hit.

I’m less concerned with only fighting one person and more with two. I’m a WvWer, I’m not typically fighting one person at a time. Especially in T1.

It’s the first day. I’m sure they’ll get used to using it. I’m just going to hate going from “able to kill two thieves at once if I try really hard” and “lol got torn down because two thieves forced me to bottom out of endurance (especially if they nerf Sigils of Energy) and then stole just enough of my regen and protection that they could survive my damage but I couldn’t do anything about theirs outside of occasional blocks.”

Or, you know, “I just got torn down by a thief and warrior because the thief stole my boons on and off and the warrior shield bashed through my Shelter.”

The way they’re changing/nerfing our survivability (and that of others, like Eles) makes me wonder if they’ll ACTUALLY chance Sigil of Energy. Sure, it’s powerful, but it gives very little or no extra damage, which is important. Dodging is also becoming more and more one of our best (very nearly our only) ways to avoid taking too much damage. Our boons can be stolen/cause us to take more damage, and there are tons of (read: too many) unblockable abilities going around now.

There’s just too much going on for them to nerf Sigils of Energy before other things get brought up. If they keep chipping away at bunker builds, I feel like I’ll either be inclined to go Thief (despite the fact that I like Commanding) or Necro. I dunno.

A weapon skill that totally negates several Elites and has the ability to remove major (read: crucial, central, almost required for viability) sources of survivability and damage.

Sounds like too much to me.

I don’t care about Warriors. It’s just more damage to block and dodge. I can see if they’re using that signet. It’s only an issue if they’re with a group…or a single other person in most cases (which will soon be impossible to solo anyway).

Okie, it’s not getting nerfed. They’ve already given one profession the ability to steal our Regeneration and Protection (integral to many builds’ survival, whether people would like to think so or not) and another the ability to hit us even harder when we have said boons up. Plus, if they nerf Sigil of Energy, there’s absolutely no reason to nerf the heal.

Edit: Healway and the majority of its variations is going to stop working as well as it used to pretty soon. Blergh. Back to the drawing board.

It’s a Guardian. It relies on boons. The fact that I can be almost completely stripped of what keeps me alive by two Thieves in seconds is too much.

Hell, even a single Thief can rip my boons off faster than I can reapply them and still have enough initiative to stealth off. And now Corrupt Boon is unblockable. That’s fine if I’m only fighting a Necro (you can dodge just enough), but the days of being able to have any chance at all against more than one opponent are coming to an end at this rate.

I’m about to get really bored, really fast.

Pain in my kitten.

With the changes to other professions, primarily Warriors and Thieves, and the fact that one of our heals (Shelter) can be interrupted by Necromancers already anyway… no. I do not believe the dodge heal will ever be nerfed in WvW. The base heal is tiny and you have to give up way too much damage in order to give it a real “kick,” especially if they ever actually nerf Retal damage, as opposed to just its uptime.

At early levels, many of the enemy’s moves are very noticeably telegraphed and come slowly (for example, the melee centaur have a very slow and obvious attack). You can avoid these without even hitting your dodge key by simply moving out of range for a second or by moving to their side.

Just a little tip I found useful when I was leveling. It’s all about movement in this game.

Just watched the SOTG. They only thing they said about Retal was that they’re concerned with how much of it comes from light fields because it allows for groups to put it up very often. They’re concerned with uptime and will likely only change that.

Something about high group uptime lowering the value of direct AoE damage.

I also wasn’t aware that Retal did less damage in PvP. I feel like I would have seen that in patch notes somewhere in the last several months (granted, I’m only rank 15 in PvP and am almost exclusively a WvW player).

How is Retaliation being nerfed, exactly?

To clarify; I’m looking for advice on the what the future of large group Mesmer builds will be. Talking 15+ here, minimum. Clearly, shatter builds won’t work. I’m curious as to whether Glamour builds can be made to mesh well with Power setups and whether or not there will be a need to swap over from Condition/Glamour builds (since they work so well for Confusion application right now) after the Conf nerf.

For reference, most of the Mesmers in my guild/that I know run something akin to this condition build, which utilizes Rabid gear and glamour skills for Confusion application.

Obviously, Glamour skills are super important in WvW and I’d like to keep them on our Mesmers’ bars. So my question is: will Confusion be so bad after the nerf that it’d be more viable to switch to a Power/Glamour build?

As far as Mesmers go, will condition/glamour builds still be viable enough to run instead of power/glamour alternatives? Are power builds viable when building for glamour skills? What are you guys planning to do with your Mesmers?

I am of course referring to builds used for group support in WvW. Any opinions or build suggestions are extremely appreciated. Thanks.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

To clarify; I’m looking for advice on the what the future of large group Mesmer builds will be. Talking 15+ here, minimum. Clearly, shatter builds won’t work. I’m curious as to whether Glamour builds can be made to mesh well with Power setups and whether or not there will be a need to swap over from Condition/Glamour builds (since they work so well for Confusion application right now) after the Conf nerf.

For reference, most of the Mesmers in my guild/that I know run something akin to this condition build, which utilizes Rabid gear and glamour skills for Confusion application.

Obviously, Glamour skills are super important in WvW and I’d like to keep them on our Mesmers’ bars. So my question is: will Confusion be so bad after the nerf that it’d be more viable to switch to a Power/Glamour build?

Rank 120 – Legend
Rank 240 – Bronze Legend
Rank 360 – Silver Legend
Rank 480 – Gold Legend
Rank 600 – Platinum Legend

Rank 601 – “Forever Alone”

Mif.3471:

lorndarken.3702:

would you say you would still be subscribed after this long knowing what you know now about the wvw content and how much attention has been given to it ?

For a little bit of perspective:
Icecrown Citadel was end game in WoW for over 12 months. That’s $180 for one raid patch.

And Dragon Soul was even worse.