Guild Wars 2

It’s definitely grindy. GW1 same thing. Despite being “anti-grind” in order to do any of the hall of monuments stuff for GW2 what did you need to do? Grind for months.

I guess what set the Guild Wars games apart is that you can play them without grinding and still like, progress through the story, but yeah any sort of long term goal with either game and you’ve got a hell of a grind in front of you. They’re not even subtle about the achievement interface replacing the quest logs of other games.

I like GW2 don’t get me wrong, but people tend to use the word grind as bad and it’s not. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s a necessary part of the genre. The gameplay is what’s good or bad, and for me, the gameplay is good.

I like the greatswords that actually look like swords, and not giant slabs of rock faces or stuff like that.

That said, GW2 does seem to have a nice mix of available skins. Like some other posts pointed out here, there are a fair number of functional-looking greatswords.

I’d like to see some more functional looking ones with subtle particle effects, kinda like Cobalt but less pronounced on the effect, but overall I’m satified with the options available.

Frequent disconnects since the patch on 4/25 here. No problems before the new build, but after, multiple errors (losing connection to login server, losing connection to server) occurring every few minutes alongside frequent latency spikes.

Giving up for the night.

I think I agree with the silvery blue more than the purplish black.

It’s a black color with a metallic sheen and in the preview picture in this thread the metallic sheen does look silvery blue. The sheen may look like a different color depending on the lighting/zone you’re in.

The design is like a lilac color. Pale light purple.

It’s not an easy situation for them. If they don’t say anything they get criticized for that.

But if they do say anything they get the OMG BROKEN PROMISES crowd. What are they gonna do? Response is negative either way.

I like the map, but I’m too lazy to switch to a map-specific build. Give us a build template system so I can be lazy but still be able to switch into something that’s useful on that map.

There isn’t really anything.

In all areas of the game, damage skills deal more damage to others than healing skills heal damage to others, and healing slot skills have very high cooldowns compared to weapon skills even if the healing done is similar to the damage done.

In addition, stats related to damage scale those already superior skills much better than healing power scales healing skills.

It makes healing power very dangerous to work with because you’re sacrificing so much to be able to put it on. I’m not saying it can’t work if you have an extreme specialist build working in very tight coordination with some friends, but for general use? Absolutely not. Not without significant mechanics changes to the game itself.

Pick the skin you like the most. That’s about all you’re going to get out of it.

Hannelore.8153:

I never said anything about any trait, especially since I just purchase them. I actually care about the experience of the game and when it is being harmed.

That’s fair, but the assumption that it’s about rewards is fair too, imo. I would rather the zones be like they are now than be like they were before: completely, utterly dead with everything crawling with Risen, except for an hour after the daily reset in which people took the temples only.

Let’s get constructive. Instead of defend events for things that people need to attack for their rewards, how about evac events? Group event to escort the Pact forces out of the temple area, and if successful, immediately launches back into an assault to retake the temple? That would seem to accommodate the zone population’s needs during peak hours, and if the event fails then the chain starts over like normal.

Hannelore.8153:

Its more that it robs players of an experience that cannot happen anymore…

If we’re gonna tell it like it is, then it’s more that it robs you and the OP of your chance to get that trait without paying for it. I mean, let’s not make it about players if it’s about the trait.

This is better than it was before. I like that the zones aren’t in a constant state of “risen have taken over all the things!” like they were.

Maybe the defend events where people are waiting on them to restart for trait points can be adjusted, but having all of the players on the same map is fantastic.

I’m fine with there being requirements to unlock traits, I just think the whole thing needs to be unlocked earlier than it is.

All 14 trait points should be available to the character by level 60.

It’s a major part of the customization, thus a major part of the fun of building a character. Having it fully available at level 60 ensures the player has some time during the leveling process to try out different builds and playstyles before committing to gear at 80.

Personally, it’s driving me nuts that I can’t play around with the traits sooner. Even for my level 71 guardian the options feel so limited by the current system, because 6 of the 14 trait points come after this.

I feel like level 20 is a good place to start the trait point distribution. You’re messing around with different weapons for the first ten levels, then different slot skills for the next ten, so it would feel pretty natural to start getting access to traits at 20. Unlock the second tier traits at 40, then the final tier at 60, and distribute the 14 trait points inside of this range.

(Edit to correct numbers for the current trait point system.)

If you’re dead set on not figuring it out, you’re not going to figure it out.

Jareth.4813:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the Megaserver tech currently only activated for Heart of the Mists?

Patch notes seems to suggest as such, with them planning on rolling it out to lower areas once they’ve collected enough data.

It’s in at least some of the cities, and probably sprinkled here and there in the leveling zones too. Field of Ruin is one.

Well I mean, it’s an MMO.

Personally, I like it. I’m also continually impressed by whoever is marketing these things to us, because they’ve turned server merges (typically a sign of a game in decline) into a new features that outside of threads like this generally seems to be well received.

Like the second post said, you had to actually USE the dyes on your alts and not just have the consumables in your bags.

Well, off the top of my head, T3 cultural is rare and not exotic. So if the armor pieces were exotic, it means the original skin was not T3 cultural. You get the original skin, and the current skin, not any transmutations in between.

If this is not the case and you’re certain the original pieces were T3 cultural, there should be some means of contacting support to look into it.

Not really. Game was fun last week, game is fun this week. If you convince yourself that a lack of transparency destroys that entire experience the problem isn’t the game, it’s your mindset towards it.

I asked if this was about a specific thing because these kinds of threads that speak broadly about the state of the game usually tend to be poorly communicated feedback about a specific issue (such as the trait points).

Anyway, back on topic, I do agree that transparency is good. But Anet’s above average in that regard to me anyway. Not great, but we do get some idea of both short term and long term goals, even if we don’t know the specifics until a couple of weeks before the changes land. Cannot emphasize enough however that you shouldn’t let a lack of transparency sour you on what is a good game right now.

I’m all for transparency, which is why I’m going to ask you what this thread is really about, instead of vague terms like “ambition” and “transparency”.

Is it the trait points?

PvP communities have always been toxic. GW2 is among the most tolerant and welcoming I’ve experienced in over ten years, but there are still people who just rage all over everyone. All that negativity just tends to rub off on others.

The good news is, positivity can work the same way. All you can do sometimes to just remain positive yourself.

I have the same problem most notably with sword and hammer F1 skills. Sword F1 will take nearly a second for the animation to start, by which point most of the time the opponent has moved out of its range, and hammer F1 I’m just standing there waiting for it to go off.

I think maybe it has something to do with CPU overload. My poor little Core 2 Duo just can’t keep up, I’m thinking. It’s not latency because that doesn’t affect me anywhere else. And when the scene isn’t busy (combat) the moves both go off instantly, but in combat there’s a significant delay between the button press and the attack going off.

Maybe the intention is that all rune sets are supposed to be (potentially, and when used in the right situation) as strong as perplexity runes are in small scale PvP.

In that case sweeping this under the rug (which seems to be what the current plan is) doesn’t really fix the problem, which is that the older rune sets just aren’t as powerful as they should be. I know the runes are currently being repurposed, which is great, but this could just be the first step.

Once each rune’s “purpose” is figured out and introduced into the game, how about another couple of passes to tune them each up and down, so that perplexity can become an option for the people who want it, without forcing everyone to go perplexity just to compete? I know resources and time are limited, but surely with some statistics and player feedback, the rune sets can be tweaked so that more of them than not are as useful as perplexity in the right build/playstyle.

I just hate to see a viable playstyle be removed because players don’t wanna deal with it. That’s sloppy on everyone’s parts.

Romek.4201:

@Corian

i guess you are in the wrong thread and forum

we talk here bout warrior in spvp not bout getting ganked in wvw by a random thief

But that’s exactly it. Thieves can perform very one-sided kills from stealth in an open environment. The ability for them to do that dictates that they must then be very weak in a controlled environment such as a static point in sPvP.

If we remove stealth and make thieves engage from sight, and disengage while remaining in sight, we can then buff them in said static point fights.

The devs can’t ignore the implications across the board of their balance changes, thus neither can we. Thieves are weak on control points because their strength in open environments/formats.

I lump mesmers in with the thieves because while not reliant on stealth, that they have the option does limit what can be done with them in terms of balance as well.

And I mention the UI because that’s where the biggest advantage is gained. Targeting is the player’s way of telling the game, “this is who I want to hit”. That they used stealth shouldn’t matter, and yet using stealth has the same effect as the opposing player telling the game “I no longer want to hit this target”, which is absolutely should not be happening. It is a huge advantage, and one that I don’t think was ever intended by the devs.

Why I post all this in this topic? Because the “problems” outlined in the first post with warriors go away when his style of play becomes viable in sPvP. That happens by removing stealth and then retooling the professions that used it accordingly.

Problem isn’t warriors. Stealth is the problem.

Professions with stealth cannot be balanced to fight on even terms because the massive benefits of stealth on top of being able to go toe to toe with another profession makes them hopelessly broken.

Thus, professions like thieves are either hopelessly broken or completely helpless, depending on how they chose their fights.

Remove stealth and place greater emphasis on other things (thieves: evasion, mobility; mesmers: misdirection, teleportation) to make play for those professions more about superior positioning than about breaking the opponent’s UI.

From there mesmers and thieves can then be buffed up to fight on even terms on points.

If you had two people standing next to you at the treb, were you really helping the situation by remaining there?

You can blame your team all you want, but you’re a major part of that team, and if you sat there arguing about how you should take the treb with them you didn’t help any.

And if they truly didn’t know how to play, then help them figure it out. This again is on you. You make this community hostile and inaccessible, then new people won’t come to it, and you won’t have people to play with. You make them feel welcome, they’ll tend to stick around.

I’m just saying, if you’re gonna go around assigning responsibility to everyone, assign some to yourself as well. We all need to be taking responsibility for the shortcomings of GW2’s PvP, because the players are a major part of that too.

I was okay with the orbs, I was just very sad that I couldn’t choose an instance to join with my guildies.

I’m gonna go on the other side of this discussion.

While I’m not opposed to messing with the way night looks, I am opposed to it in any way inhibiting gameplay. Maybe there’s a middle ground where night can look less like day, but still allow you to see clearly. Maybe we’re already at that middle ground.

As for “dark” areas, I feel like they invariably end up as the corrupted areas, and those I don’t like. Ascalon is gorgeous save for half of every zone being this hideous purple thing. Orr’s interesting but not three zones and a dungeon’s worth of that design interesting. I would like more creepy or desolate places, but not corrupted places.

I like the woods in that one zone with the haunted house, and it’s all foggy? I’d love to see a zone full of that. Would love to see more of like a melancholy beauty to the level design altogether, which Ascalon captures wonderfully.

Places that are actively evil such as the corrupted areas are just boring to me.

Keep it up, Darkhaven.

Proud of you guys and the work you’ve done over the past two months.

Dunno that buffs are necessary yet. Let’s see what people do with the more accessible rifle trait first. Could turn out it was OP all along, just completely underused (coughunsuspectingfoecough)

Would like to see the OP elaborate on what point he’s trying to make aside from posting something that’s just going to start arguments.

To my knowledge, ascended and legendary tiers are equal in terms of stats. The legendary weapons are status symbols.

We have already seen the ascended armor skins in game so yes, ascended armor is coming, but I’m not so sure about legendary.

Ascended weapons are crafted at 500 of the weapon tradeskill of your choice, while legendary weapons are made in the mystic forge. The timescale to make an ascended weapon is days to weeks, while legendary is months or even in excess of a year depending on luck and playtime.

Why, when they have equal stats? Like I said, legendaries are status symbols, and usually have a variety of special effects while carrying/wielding them including character glows, armor effects, footprints, and so on. They aren’t necessary to your gameplay, but if you need something to aim for, there it is.

Even before microtransactions in MMOs there were player-run casinos using in-game dice rolls. People just love to gamble. The more conservative among us may not understand, but there are still tons of people out there willing to try their luck.

The thing about axe is that it does damage and virtually nothing else. Fantastic for PvE, not so much for PvP, when sword does good damage in either power or condition setups while remaining versatile, and greatsword does good damage with great mobility.

Which I mean, it is what it is. It’s there if you want the pure damage, but in PvP you’re going to need skills that do things other than damage too.

I’m fine with metal, the problem is that the track there wasn’t good enough. The arrangement and the mixing/distortion/effects are just not on par with the other music in game.

I don’t mean to be down on anyone if this is like a studio recording of someone’s band but yeah, I would expect the bar to be set as high for future metal tracks as Jeremy Soule set it for the current orchestral. That’s extremely high, but there it is.

Have a look at this guy for some ideas. Not saying he has like the best arrangements ever but he does interesting things with a lot of different styles of music.

So, is this about the game, the content, the rewards?

…or is it about you wanting a weapon with a red glow?

5-10 man, probably not gonna run the shout build if I’m pug zerging.

WvW. I’m running celestial trinkets and weapons, sword/shield and switching the other set between hammer and longbow as necessary.

Now, I used to run a cleric’s set for this but lately I feel like I’m giving up too much stats by investing into Healing Power for not enough gain in shout heal scaling.

PVT I’m also not too into because I feel as if I don’t need that much in defensive stats.

Where my problem comes in is wondering just how much I can give up in defensive stats while maintaining the ability to stay alive. Or perhaps I should mix and match. I’m also undecided on whether or not condition damage is a worthy investment for my non-traited sword and longbow. Thoughts?

Those of you not understanding why the nerfs to earthshaker and staggering blow damage are significant, it severely hurts the hammer’s ability to deal burst—being a lot of sudden damage, and not the warrior mechanic sharing the name—damage.

Don’t get me wrong. I very much agree that the current hammer build deals entirely too much burst for how much survivability and control it has, but the problem was and will remain Unsuspecting Foe (and to a slightly lesser extent Merciless Hammer), not Earthshaker or Burst Mastery. Non-Unsuspecting Foe hammer builds are taking a huge hit to the little burst they had for essentially no reason at all.

Earthshaker and Burst Mastery being nerfed hurts everyone who uses hammers and everyone who uses burst—being the warrior mechanic—builds respectively. Unsuspecting Foe is still OP, the lolwarrior mace/greatsword build is completely intact (those who couldn’t break out of a skull crack aren’t going to learn how to read and dodge it), and hammer is left lacking in all other builds that try to use it.

I would propose instead to nerf Unsuspecting Foe’s crit bonus to 25% (while remaining a master-level trait), and also nerf Merciless Hammer’s damage bonus to 20%, while restoring Staggering Blow and Earthshaker’s damage. This change hits the build that was the cause of the problem, without ruining hammer for all other builds.

If you sacrifice burst mastery, the overall change to your damage isn’t going to be too much in PvE. The nerf was targeted at the warrior’s ability to spike down a PvP target.

You should probably be running 30 power and 30 discipline for the passive 15% damage/crit anyway in PvE, regardless of weapon choice.

As for your armor, you just need to have more than one set depending on what you need. I run with four.

Okay, will attempt to be as concise as possible, and for full disclosure, I primarily run a control warrior build.

Unsuspecting Foe – Acceptable. Crit chance may still need tweaking down.

Crack Shot – Love it! Hopefully more rifle warriors now.

Armored Attack – Love it! Maybe too strong now!

Spiked Armor – Interesting. Does not solve accusations of passive warriors.

Burst Mastery – Questionable. Seems unfair that all burst skills suffer because of Earthshaker burst.

Earthshaker – Questionable. Unsuspecting Foe and Burst Mastery changes already hurt this enough.

Staggering Blow – Very bad. Cast time needs to be slower, damage needs to stay where it is.

Skull Crack – Love it! This is how Staggering Blow should be changed instead.

Combustive Shot – Interesting, though I question if the duration is too long at tiers 2 and 3.

Check effectiveness of the following build in the new environment versus the standard hammer burst build in the current environment:

20 Arms: Furious Reaction, Unsuspecting Foe
30 Defense: Dogged March, Cleansing Ire, Merciless Hammer
20 Discipline: Vigorous Focus, Signet Mastery

Healing Signet, Balanced Stance, Berserker Stance, Endure Pain, Signet of Rage

The target audience is and always has been anyone who’s willing to buy.

If you think you’re too mature to play a game, you most decidedly are not too mature for the game.

I’ve always suspected that if the remaining portions of Orr are made playable, it will be after the land is cleansed in terms of the timeline. This is not without precedent; the best example I can give is Fort Trinity’s presence in Straits of Devastation even though it isn’t built until the formation of the Pact which occurs during the personal story. This also applies to any presence of the Pact in Orr, really.

The only downside to this is that we don’t really need more jungle/tropical areas.

I’ve said it time and time again, the only problem with hammer warriors is that Unsuspecting Foe dramatically increases damage for ten throwaway trait points.

Reduce Unsuspecting Foe’s crit chance bonus, and that build falls in line with other highly defensive builds.

Just to point out, this thread is 9 months old and some guy necro’d it in what looks like an attempt to start up dramatics.

Ignore/close/whatever.

Nevermind that. Where’s the engineer’s ED-209 elite?

Adding empyreal fragments to the jumping puzzle was a nice touch, thank you.

Adding 3-5 dragonite per kill on the legendary mobs would probably help a lot of people out, as opportunities to get dragonite are sometimes hard to come by. The events in the labyrinth are also in line with other large scale events that award dragonite such as world bosses or keeps in WvW.

Thanks for your consideration.

Whatever makes you happy.

About the only weapon we have that isn’t workable for solo PvE is rifle since it lacks AoE (even then it’s useful for kiting around champions). Bow has a lot of AoE skills and off the top of my head everything else hits AoE with autoattacks.

As for utilities, healing signet, the might and precision signets whatever they’re called, whatever for the third utility slot, and signet of rage.

The passive boost from the two utility signets is likely more useful than anything else when activated for solo PvE so you’re not even really going to use them. You can equip dolyak in the third slot for extra toughness and pop that one whenever you need a bit of stability.

There’s a trait that gives precision for unused signets but I don’t think it scales properly at lower levels anymore. Even with a lot of signets might be best to look elsewhere for traits.

First, can I make a plea NOT to talk about balance? It’s unending. There’s no objective goal, there’s no end point, there’s no time where you stop and say, “there, we’re done with balance.” To talk about it here and explain philosophy would give some players the very wrong idea that there is a reachable goal with balance, and let’s be honest. As long as anyone ever loses a fight in PvP, they’re going to bring up balance.

That said:

1. Growing the PvP community, by:
2. Making PvP more accessible and appealing, and:
3. Combating toxic levels of negativity within the community.

It really hit me the other day when I was in Mad King’s Clocktower and virtually every player I saw in there was wearing default PvP gear. There’s so many people to reach that for whatever reason just haven’t even tried sPvP. We could be doing more to reach those people. We being both the community and the developers.

Had no idea. I just stand in melee range and autoattack for 40 years because his HP is ridiculous. You don’t really seem to die in melee range.

It would be nice if the clocktower was at least equally rewarding as AFKing a champ train in frostgorge.

As I recall, Sanctum Sprint rewards 10 silver, an item, and a bit of karma every time you finish it. Why not do that for the clocktower?

I’m a big fan of this. Combat the destructive negativity while allowing the forum to remain, well, a forum, for ideas and what-not.