Guild Wars 2

It’s boiling down to this.

Players are more interested in doing Fractal’s than WvW and websites like gw2lfg has made it exceptionally more easier to find groups. Tier 1 (for example) use to be full 24/7 on all the servers, but now it’s instant queue’s and on many maps servers are outmanned during prime time. Yet, the server’s are still listed as FULL.

Player participation in WvW is down because let’s face it, it’s getting stagnant. I’ve been doing WvW since the game came out and the biggest frustration I’m having is the guilds I like to play with getting up and leaving.

#1. AH works on any boons you apply to yourself and allies and it heals for about 60-80 (depends on +healing). Literally it does what it says. You apply a boon (protection, regen, might, etc) on yourself and people in your vicinity you’re going to get healed each time. With the staff it can trigger 60 times in its duration for some ridiculous amount of healing.

#2. Staff is good for roaming around because of the #3 skill speed symbol.

#3. If you’re playing more “support” than I recommend 3x Superior Monk and 3x Superior Water runes.

Oh, so it does work on yourself? I’ll have to play around with it later. Honestly, I didn’t even go in combat to test it. I just turned it on, asked some people, and went on my merry way.

raw.6857:

Of all the bad things A.Net did to GW2, removing the mana bar is one of the most insanely idiotic ideas they ever had. Whoever pitched that one internally should be degraded to the lowest QA position they have, and may god have mercy on his soul.

I never thought about that. I wouldn’t say idiotic, but they were shooting low in terms of skill requirement for classes.

In other MMOs I would have almost 20 different key binds (!) and mouse binds. This game its 1/3rd as many buttons.

SWTOR’s war zones were incredibly fun and that game was one of the most balanced and fast paced PvP games I’ve played. Literally I would be shaking on close matches.

GW2 PvP is too slow paced and the limited amount of abilities at your disposal and class depth isn’t interesting enough to keep me playing in sPvP. Also, the lack of a diminishing return system on CCs and having to rely on “stabilities” isn’t a fun mechanic. In SWTOR if you got hit with 2 or 3 CC’s you would become immune to CC’s for about ten seconds so you had to be strategic about them.

Also, with no tanks or healers it takes out another aspect of the game. There’s no class synergy in this game. Everyone is just a DPS. The current maps available in sPvP are just boring and reward zerging instead of defending.

In SWTOR you had capture the flag, demolition, capture the point, and a semi-capture the point slash demolition. Every map required different game play and strategies to win.

WvW is loads more fun because of how strategic / tactical it is with large group play and coordination.

I swear every patch I keep hearing my female Sylvari say different things.

ThePainTrain.8190:

ComeAndSee.1356:

I tested this in WvW and people were reporting getting the bonus out of combat.

hmmmm its seems a little bugged then.

Well, if the trait worked on yourself it would be easy to test.

I tested this in WvW and people were reporting getting the bonus out of combat.

Alarox.4590:

Evalia.7103:

While thats true allright, It’s the same as saying communism is better. It is theoretically better,

Not really.

SiNoS.2147:

A guardian’s best tool is the fact we are a pain to kill if built right.

(If) built right. Assuming you aren’t built right, you won’t be as tanky as people tend to believe Guardians are. Every class has survival builds, it’s just that Guardian ones are more popular due to less viability in other areas and because of “holy warrior” archetype being seen as innately tanky.

Guardian’s are only “tanky” because they can pour self healing on themselves through different means. You take as much damage as everyone else, but your boons and self-healing are the only thing keeping you alive and helps balance out having 10k less HP.

The downside is you’re more susceptible to burst and if you can’t heal yourself you’re screwed.

Thiefs survive basically because they’re slippery and they can pick and choose their fights while always having the option of escaping. Guardian’s don’t have the option to escape, but Thiefs can’t take a pounding like a Guardian.

joaosequeira.2184:

I still don’t get why the other games of NCSoft have good LFG tools in-game (Lineage2 and AION) and the game they put some much effort in doesn’t have a tool like that lol.

LFG tool hasn’t been necessary until Fractal’s came out. You use to walk in front of the dungeon and there would be 20 people parked out infront of AC and COF. I never had a problem finding a group back then.

It’s just the stupid mechanic of having different levels separating people that’s screwing everything up and everyone is going to Lion’s Arch now so you have overflows splitting everyone up.

Also, MMOs like Lineage 2 and Aion are forced to copy WoW features because WoW has made the MMO community lazy. I played Lineage 2 when it came out in 2004 (!!!) and it was a revolutionary game in its time. It’s castle siege system is the grand daddy of GW2’s WvW.

Gamers expect every MMO now to come standard with everything WoW has.

I thought this was supposed to be fixed weeks ago?

I haven’t done CoF path 3 in months.

The boss isn’t hard, but the breath arch is ridiculous.

Edenwolf.6328:

ComeAndSee.1356:

Are you talking PvE or PvP? PvP they changed it to only last 3s, but in PvE it’s 5s.

I’m talking about pvp, that’s where I want to use it most. 3 seconds on 30 second cooldown is bizzar. I can’t believe this skill was brought down from 5 to 3, really?! 2 seconds longer was op?

It really had to do with being able to get perma-uptime on protection. You use to be able to Hold the line + Shield + Save yourselves with protection + boon runes for 100% protection up time.

You can still do it in PvE. Pop all at once and get 25s protection.

Aeolus.3615:

ComeAndSee.1356:

Amins.3710:

Oh, and LOL at having to equip staff just to get around the map. Staff is horrible for roaming by yourself.

Why do people always make statements without getting their facts straight?

Staff = 10-11.5s of swiftness (depends on rune+boon trait). 12s cooldown if traited.

Well enough to get you across the map.

Iv’e suprised many mesmers or thiefs with "Retreat " plus 2nd sword skill wich teleports and blinds target , the 20sec 33% faster helps by alot.
…and i feel im teling to much here.

Well, nothing matches my thiefs mobility atm… Perma 25% speed bonus and Short Bow teleport.

Amins.3710:

Oh, and LOL at having to equip staff just to get around the map. Staff is horrible for roaming by yourself.

Why do people always make statements without getting their facts straight?

Staff = 10-11.5s of swiftness (depends on rune+boon trait). 12s cooldown if traited.

Well enough to get you across the map.

My only complaint about Stats is how underpowered Toughness is at the moment.

You can stack up 100% toughness in every piece of gear, slot, and infusion and player’s in PvP can stick hit you for extremely high numbers. 4k’s, 6k’s, and even 8k’s flying around.

How is toughness supposed to survive in the world of Might bonus, high critical damage bonuses, and vulnerabilities? A player who stacks high in defenses shouldn’t be ripped apart by Thiefs and Warriors like they’re wearing a t-shirt.

Staff is good enough to get you from point A to B, but it gets repetitive having to slow down for a few seconds.

I play bunker build and 9 out of 10 times it ends up as a stalemate.

Are you talking PvE or PvP? PvP they changed it to only last 3s, but in PvE it’s 5s.

I don’t get why Kill Shot has to hit so hard. I have 3,200 armor and I’ve been blasted for 12k~ by one before.

Tier 1 just isn’t what it use to be. Player activity, attendance, and guilds leaving is starting to hurt. Add in Fractal’s and you got a losing combination.

Tulisin.6945:

ComeAndSee.1356:

They very likely added culling because of the issues with SWTOR’s failed Ilum.

Ilum was supposed to be a massive PvP map, but it ran horribly even on the most powerful computers when you had 80 players rendered on your screen. Also, you couldn’t turn off titles and stuff so it clogged up the screen.

Conversely, The Secret World’s open FactionVFactionVFaction PvP zone runs pretty great, likely as a result of their decision to implement “uniforms” that reduce the amount of data to be sent to which uniform and which faction.

GW2 was still in development while SWTOR was out and it’s no coincidence that several things added to this game were a result of SWTOR’s failure.

• SWTOR had no transfers for half a year which caused ghost town servers and players quit. GW2 launched with free transfers.

• SWTOR’s Ilum ran like complete trash. A mass 40v40 battle with a clunky game engine and every character high resolution model and five word title above their head rendered at once. GW2 has culling and no player titles.

• There’s no WvW/SPvP dailies because SWTOR had PvP dailies and people just came in for their dailies and left.

You’ll get less bags, but your contributions can be enormous.

Guardians can stop an entire enemy raid in their tracks with walls and sanctuaries. Tomes are very powerful in mass PvP.

Most guilds don’t make full use of their Guardian’s as much as Mesmers though because they don’t want to force people to play specific builds. When I was in Condemned we use to have multiple Guardian’s coordinating in guild chat and Team Speak and we could literally plug a hole in choke holes.

3-5 Guardian’s chain walling + sanctuary = you aren’t getting in.

They very likely added culling because of the issues with SWTOR’s failed Ilum.

Ilum was supposed to be a massive PvP map, but it ran horribly even on the most powerful computers when you had 80 players rendered on your screen. Also, you couldn’t turn off titles and stuff so it clogged up the screen.

I only run away if wasting my time 1v1ing isn’t productive. If I’m bored I always stay and fight, but everyone always runs away from me because I’m heal / tank built guardian.

You still have to make an active effort to tag players. As support Guardian my main form of tagging is through wall of reflection and using staff skills.

Stridix.4260:

U can buy ascended rings now at fractals.

What is the required material?

Been using that LFG website today. What a God send.

I was able to form 14, 15, and 16 groups in less than 5 minutes after posting. I think people are starting to catch on more with it.

I’m looking at it now. It’s +1% boon duration instead of power.

Honestly I rather have the power.

Strength in numbers is very good now. I tested it and WvW and people report that it does work.

I just wish it worked on myself though.

This same crap happened on HoD. You win for a few weeks and then guilds leave because they feel they “beat the game”. Now SoS has to deal with one of their maps that PRX took care of having no coverage.

I don’t blame them though. Tier 1 isn’t what it use to be. It’s just sad seeing outmanned debuff constantly, but I honestly don’t see what kind of competition they’re going to get on European servers that are always medium – very high population.

Score 12 PM EST.

I got my bag, but I left on the last phase because it lagged so bad it wasn’t fun.

I freelance right now, but in WvW I play in other guilds vent. It’s the closest thing to being in a guild without having attendance requirements.

Fun match, but my only complaint is why the maps aren’t slammed full. Seeing outmanned debuff in Tier 1 is just sad.

Direct head to head would result in stalemates.

Score 8:34 pm EST.

Score 7:19 PM EST.

kakipukul.4732:

Developing MMO cost 100 of millions.

Not all MMOs cost that much. SWTOR was rumored to be $200 million because the game was ENTIRELY voice acted with over 200,000 lines. SWTOR failed because of numerous underlying issues that Anet took serious during its development. Why do you think we have free transfer off the bat? SWTOR’s servers got jam packed at release, but then people quit and half the servers turned into ghost towns which caused a lot of people to quit. Also, the World PvP that was promised never came through and the World PvP you had made you lag completely out and that’s why you have culling in WvW.

If GW2 came out before SWTOR I honestly think it would have been much different. More or less everyone is tired of the WoW clones right now.

NCsoft is getting rid of MMOs that aren’t generating them any cash.

I’m honestly still impressed that Lineage 2 has lasted so long. I played that game’s beta almost a decade ago and I still have very fond memories of it years after. Hell, Ragnarok Online is still kicking around.

Basically its just going to be Lineage 2, Aion, and Guild Wars 2. I’m not a huge fan of Aion because it was a giant gank and korean grind fest.

I don’t know about you, but I play a “bunker” Guardian and Thiefs have gibbed me in under 3 seconds numerous times. Frenzied hundred blades combos or a kill shot landing = splat.

Alice.8694:

Hunt.1925:

Feedback:
I don’t think any thief should be able to kill anyone in less than 2 sec. Before you start flaming me, I’m a tanky elem with full exotic gear with toughness and vitality. I have scarified a lot of power and Precision for survivability and I still get 2 shot’ed. If I was using my Power, crit and precision gear it would have been a one shot kill. I’ll even post a screenshot to prove it. So yes something needs to be done with a Thief’s C&D and BS. Getting hit for 11k+ in one hit is outrages with 2600 armor. Now if I was using my full excoitc glass canon armor that would have been a one shot kill.

Numbers like that are only possible in world vs world vs world, sPvP has limited crit damage bonus.

They’ve already said WvWvW isn’t the focus of their balancing for obvious reasons.

sPvP is gear capped basically at the optimal level for game balance. In WvW it’s just crazy the amount of damage people can put out. You’ll be full HP and downed in seconds before you know what hit you regardless of how much armor you’re packing.

Haste is really a big contributor to the burst problems right now.

Ukiah.9740:

ComeAndSee.1356:

If Anet is like how Bioware was with SWTOR they focus more on fixing exploits than punishing the people actually doing them. They basically deny it or tell people that it’ll be fixed in an upcoming patch so it isn’t worth their time punishing somebody if its going to be fixed by then. They only took action against speed hacks, economic exploiters, and bots, but everything else was “fine” until they fixed it.

That is probably (90% sure) why there isn’t a option to report people for exploiting / cheating. They’re too afraid to whip out the ban button because it can damage their public image and lose subscribers (i.e. money).

It’s funny though. Bioware and Anet both police their forums with an iron fist.

I am reassured to find I’m not THE ONLY person who has noticed a similarity to how certain developers have handled the support and community aspects of their respective products. One wonders if lessons will be learned and arrogance dispensed with or if history will repeat itself.

The big difference with Anet is they actually talk to their players (and they talk to them like they’re actual real people). In SWTOR, Bioware would slap in class nerfs on the PTR and there could be twenty forum posts about it and they wouldn’t say a word. Getting an answer out of them was like pulling teeth.

Anet had another advantage because they were still in development when SWTOR was out so they learned a lot from their mistakes.

Score: 8:53 PM EST. SBI slipped into 3rd place.

Niim.9260:

Adaneshade.2409:

This, sadly, seems to be the attitude of most gamers new to this style of PvP…… There are many of us though that remember the “Realm Pride” from DAoC and carry that attitude over to this game. (10 years only Hibby, btw ^.^ for King Lug!!!)

A lot has changed since DAoC both in the gaming industry and the community of players as well.

You can’t grief your own server. You can’t fight people on your own server except in sPvP. There’s no ganking. You are leveled up to 80 in PvP. You can’t see player names in WvW. It is server vs server so your server has to work together. There’s no raiding. There’s no ranking system. Gear is just for looks.

There aren’t real “servers” in this game. We all play on one giant server mainframe. There’s just designated maps for each server and the rest are overflowed when they fill up.

SWTOR had dailies like this and it caused a lot of problems depending on server population. You want to just walk in and win 3 matches in 30 minutes, but then it turns into a two hour adventure.

Also, it caused serious problems with people just coming in, finishing daily, and then bailing. In Ilum (open world PvP map that lasted like a month) you had constant see-saws on the main cap. It would be 40v40, but then people finish dailies, leave, and then it turns into 20v40 and vice versa all day.

People weren’t doing it for the PvP, they were just doing it for the free gear. Also, can you imagine the people complaining how their server sucks cause they can’t get their 50 kills in a day?

You guys have to remember with those old videos you had Orbs as well.

I play full support Guardian like yourself and the only real way to get badges in bulk is having to play more aggressive with the staff and walls of reflection.

WoF will get you the most tags. Staff symbol does dmg and you can throw it in a group of enemies. Got up close, throw some hits, and retreat.

I mean, I don’t care about badges ATM. I just use them to buy siege.