Guild Wars 2

I, too, would rather cripple removed from the end of the sword 1 chain than having leg specialist go back on ICD. The third bleed stack would be a nice to have, or I dunno. A stack of torment’s probably too strong.

Not that I disagree with everything you’ve said, but if you get to a point where you’re waiting for someone to fix things for you, you’ll be waiting forever.

Do what you can with what you’re given and try to remember you’re supposed to be having fun.

And yes, I know, everyone’s response to that is going to be BUT IT R NOT FUN. It’s not because of the game. It’s because you’re dead set on not enjoying yourself. The one thing people can change about the game experience is their perception of it. Might as well enjoy it.

Dunno circumstances of this one, but instead of putting everyone back into the puzzle it’ll start reporting everyone’s scores like the other activities do when they’re over, and then eventually bring up a scoreboard.

This also gives the achievement for completing an activity, incidentally.

Anyway, the instance doesn’t seem to allow players back into the maze after that.

Has happened in two instances to me so far.

I’ve been doing the Mad King’s Clocktower jumping puzzle for a bit now. I’ve probably seen twenty people and every last one of them is wearing default sPvP gear.

There are so many people out there that haven’t even tried sPvP.

Struck me as sad.

It’s less about the game and more about their mindsets. No amount of patching or work will fix this, because no matter what is done, someone won’t be satisfied and they’ll keep infecting others with negativity.

It’s like a virus.

I think the dev team is doing the best thing to try and combat the negativity by communicating more. If people feel like someone is working on it they might be less prone to that negativity.

Notice none of that has anything to do with the actual state of the game. Like I said it’s a mindset.

I love skyhammer, my only problem with it is that purpose-built skyhammer builds are maybe a little too strong there.

Hopefully these changes affect those builds, but not the general idea that poor positioning can and will get you killed.

For WvW you are scaled up to level 80, but generally speaking the only thing that scales up is your HP. You’ll still be a really easy target in WvW. But yeah, in WvW you have to use what you earn in PvE.

You can’t level in sPvP sadly. The exp system is replaced by a rank system that unlocks new armor skins the higher up you go. There’s also several nice sets of armor and weapons you can get for just winning solo and team arena matches, which are equivalent to just queueing up for a battleground in WoW.

There’s also shooter-style hotjoin servers that can be fun, but not really competitive.

Well, since the sPvP format gives you immediate access to all of your tools (you don’t have to level or gear up or unlock skills for sPvP!), you can just make a bunch of different professions and immediately take them to Heart of the Mists to see what they’re like at full power.

I will say that in GW2 there’s less of a distinction between ranged and melee because a lot of professions or builds will have both a ranged and a melee weapon set. So it’s less about ranged or melee and more about when it’s best to be at a specific range.

I would say the only profession that doesn’t have extensive range options is guardians, but even they have at least a couple of ranged attacks.

If you have more questions let us know.

We’re already starting to move away from it, it’s just something that takes time. I know that’s not the response you’d like to hear, but if the devs made massive kneejerk changes every time something emerged strong, something else would be equally broken afterwards.

Speaking specifically about you, build what gives you the best chance to win fights. Yes, the traits that increase your damage are more “fun”, but you need to keep in mind that others are trying to kill you. It’s not your right to win fights in PvP.

What is in your control is what fights you engage. If your build is weak to conditions, don’t run in on a spirit ranger or condition necro 1v1. Key element of conquest is to force favorable fights, so kind of evaluate what you’re getting into before you run in.

Lastly? This one’s a bit harsh but let’s set it straight now. That someone has an easier-to-play build than you does not mean you’re more skilled than they are. Again, step back and evaluate, and come up with a better solution than broadly blaming the meta.

I understood what you meant when I first read the ticket selling thing, but yeah, that’s not something people are going to pay for.

Another thread reminded me of this one: allow custom arenas to host activities so guilds can organize stuff like keg brawl matches. I imagine that one won’t be like a smash hit home run in the monetization department, but people would use it.

God, Aion.

How many Theo labs runs did I do, and never got that freakin’ staff.

You’ve played MMOs enough to know that balance is cyclical. Don’t worry about it. The upside of GW2’s structured PvP format is that you won’t have to level or gear a new profession even if you do decide to build what’s currently popular.

The thing that’s going to hit you most if your primary PvP game has been WoW, is that GW2’s PvP is so very much more faster, much more fluid, and a fair amount more “twitch” than WoW was. Not that I’d call GW2 a twitch game, but it’s moreso than the WoWs and the Rifts. Because of this and less buttons to press you’ll see a very significant difference between the players who are managing their skills effectively and the ones that aren’t.

Coming from Rift myself, I felt like I was starting over when learning GW2 PvP, but a couple months in I feel like I’m getting the hang of it. It’s fun. It’s not problem-free but end of the day it’s fun.

Also, not everyone agrees with this, but I would suggest using “solo arenas” as your primary PvP format while you learn the game. It’s pretty much like a battleground queue, drops a bunch of you in a match, runs it. There are also hotjoin rooms that function like shooter multiplayer does but they don’t really teach you the competitive side of the conquest mode that well.

I’ll also throw out there that GW2 has a number of other minor/non-combat PvP formats in the form of “activities” which are at least worth a try, as well as non-competitive WvW mode in which servers are pitted against each other in large scale battles. Think a 24/7 AV with siege weaponry and four huge maps. That mode uses your PvE gear and skills, though, so whatever you use in there you have to earn in PvE first.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Edit: My bad, think I misunderstood the transaction.

The point is, change arena tokens to weekly rather than daily. It’s a hassle to maintain on a daily basis.

200 per week comes out to be a similar cost anyway?

I wouldn’t be surprised at all.

That said, I won’t complain if NA is lacking good engineers, because the best ones are really dominating solo queue with the tools they have, from my experience.

I wouldn’t really call it nostalgia. MMO players are willing to give new games a fair shot, to the point that they just go from game to game.

I think what happens instead, is that players enjoy the game until they read the forums, and the forum negativity infects them. Like had they never touched the forums they’d still be enjoying themselves, but because they do they grow increasingly bitter.

And that’s not really a dev problem. Nothing the developers do, change, or add will fix that overwhelming negativity. It hit nearly every MMO to come out in the past ten years. It’s something we have to fix on an individual basis, I think. Mindsets need to change, and people have to ask themselves whether or not they’re enjoying the game before they let silly things like balance and lack of secondary esports features ruin that experience for them.

The good thing GW2 has going for it is because there’s no subscription, it’s easy to just come back later. There isn’t this overly dramatic “quitting the game” or “leaving the game” thing here. GW2’s like any non-MMO video game that you aren’t playing. You didn’t quit it or leave it, it’s just sitting on your shelf until you play it again. Maybe people need to take some time away, go mess with the next in a long line of games that’s being hyped to fix all the PvP problems, experience that disappointment and negativity yet again, and then come back to good ol’ GW2.

This game does more things right than wrong. Hate that you guys just refuse to see that.

Yeah I don’t buy this thread at all.

First, the OP implies that high skillcap builds should have an advantage over low skillcap builds. That is absolute garbage. Some things are easier to play than others. The solution isn’t to make the harder-to-play things stronger, it’s to make the harder-to-play things as accessible as the other builds. QoL changes go a long way towards this. You do not get the right to win fights because you pick something that is hard to play, and you do not get the right to complain when you lose because of the build you have chosen. If you were that ill-prepared for the fight, skillcap isn’t your problem, building properly for what you will face is your problem.

Let’s not even mention that using that term skillcap at all is laughable, because it implies that everyone playing is the best player ever at that thing. Absolutely not true. You can’t talk about skillcap being a factor when virtually no one is at the skillcap. Yes, even for “lower skillcap” builds, there are huge differences between the best players and average players. If you begin to think for even a second that all you do is spam every cooldown you have no matter what freakin’ build it is, you’re pretty solidly average, in much the same way a button masher can luck his way into wins in a fighting game. I would say part of skillcap is knowing when to engage and not to engage, so putting yourself in position where you’re either wasting time, or straight up losing, against a bunker build is something you have to realize you can’t afford to do in conquest.

Knock all this nonsense off.

Mrbig.8019:

Do you know that the hammer AA is the strongest DPS source of warz along with Axe autos ( only if you land the third chop, otherwise Hammer is way better) ?

Just to inform you.

First, I’d like to see a source on that little bit of info. Partly curiosity, partly because I wouldn’t mind using a hammer in PvE. Visually much more satisfying than the axes are.

But on topic now. If anyone facetanks melee in Super Mobility Bros. 2 long enough to draw a proper dps parse, they’ve got bigger problems than what weapon the other guy is using.

It’s PvP, man. I just got done saying this isn’t about what does the most damage to a target dummy.

Ostricheggs.3742:

They don’t make a “trade” for this. If you don’t take merciless hammer then I pity you.

Last stand is unnecessary. Calling the common trait choices a “trade” is hardly justifiable to consider the build as a whole completely fine and not overpowered. You trade EXTRA stability (the build already has one form of stab) for far more damage and far more CC. The build already has absurd condi clear with cleansing ire.

I understand why you’d respond that way to hyperbole, but a large majority of the guys points still stand and can be gathered into one build. You can even get multiple forms of stab with either lyssa runes or dropping bulls charge for dolyak sig…

Yes, you get most of those things, but you don’t get all of them. Nerf Unsuspecting Foe and the damage is no longer reliable as well. I have time and time again said that Unsuspecting Foe is too strong a trait for too little investment.

As for saying Last Stand isn’t a trade, look at this thread. What’s the complaint? Stuns, and damage applied during stun. There, at least for warriors, is a trait that completely shuts all that nonsense down once a fight and turns that OP hammer warrior into a 500 damage tickly feather, and you’re going to say that’s not a trade? Of course it’s a trade. How could it not be? Look how hard everyone’s raging about stuns. C’mon.

It’s not optimal for the build’s outgoing damage by a long shot, but if more people in general were looking for ways to negate the advantage of others instead of what does the most damage to a target dummy, we’d be far more advanced in figuring out the meta than we are, and we wouldn’t be waiting around two months for balance patches to change things for us.

This is silly.

Ostricheggs.3742:

On a medium golem without popping signet using melandru runes with 1.9k power.

2k AA crit.

This is why the forums are a joke. People lie like crazy.

Allow me to direct you here:

Corian.4068:

(there is a hammer trait in the defense line that gives +25% damage to stunned targets, so maybe what you’re experiencing is autoattack crits while stunned, but warriors also have to trade either stability or condition cleansing to take that trait)

And then here:

Corian.4068:

But yeah, warriors have a number of workable builds right now, and people think every warrior can do all of these things because some can do some things.

Which was in response to here:

JinDaVikk.7291:

3350 armor 2k power 85 crit chance (during a stun) blocks condi immunity multiple stabilities and condi cleanse on less than a 7s cd. SHould I also mention the auto attacks are minimum 2k?

Do you have multiple stabilities in your screenshot? Did you hit 2k autoattacks at a minimum?

Don’t call me a kittening liar.

Hammer autoattacks are most certainly not 2k with 2k power, lol. Even at 3k power when they start hitting decently hard, they’re too slow to do any kind of real pressure damage unless you’re also stunned (there is a hammer trait in the defense line that gives +25% damage to stunned targets, so maybe what you’re experiencing is autoattack crits while stunned, but warriors also have to trade either stability or condition cleansing to take that trait)

But yeah, warriors have a number of workable builds right now, and people think every warrior can do all of these things because some can do some things.

I still think most of the complaints come from people getting themselves caught in 100b. That move is SUPPOSED to hurt if you’ve set yourself up so poorly that you get caught in it, guys. Don’t get caught in it!

I’ll watch the video a bit later, but I’ve said time and time again the only thing about the meta warrior that is too strong is Unsuspecting Foe. Too much damage increase for too little investment.

It’s at the right place as a 10 point skill, imo, but for a 10 point skill it needs to be nerfed down to 20%. The build is still viable, but players now have to actually choose to add enough precision to crit reliably rather than getting it all for 10 throwaway trait points.

If you’re dueling, use a mace instead of a hammer. Hammer’s for multiple targets, and mace skull crack dominates a single opponent. You can use skull crack to set up your other weapon (a lot of warriors love to skull crack into 100b).

Also, shouts? Why shouts? Run a stability utility of your choice (balanced or dolyak), zerk stance to nullify conditions, and then whatever you feel you need for the last utility (stomp, bolas, fear, adrenaline signet, cure conditions signet).

Who said it’s a massive PvP saving patch?

It’s just a balancing pass, people. If you hype it beyond what it’s supposed to be, of course it’s going to seem underwhelming.

If you want to join hotjoin games to get an idea of what to expect in PvP fights, that’s fine, but if you want to learn the conquest game mode just jump into solo queue.

People may or may not rage at you but solo queue isn’t a tournament format. It offers you a way to play proper conquest matches without having a team, and it’s the best place to learn how to play it.

If you ever aren’t sure what’s going on, ask and hope someone answers.

1.
Kyhlo – Each team has a treb that can do major damage but can be evaded. When the treb is destroyed a repair kit spawns that can be run back to repair the treb.

Foefire – Each team has a gate in front of their base and an NPC lord in the back of their base. Killing the other team’s lord gets your team 150 points.

Temple – Buffs spawn, I’m pretty sure at regular times. The most important ones are Stillness which spawns direct center of the map that doubles point gain per objective held, and Tranquility which spawns below Stillness (either fall down the holes to either side of Stillness, or take the tunnel from the middle point) which flips all three points to your side.

Forest – An NPC spawns on either side of the back path. Killing it results in some points and a buff. It’s very possible to steal the kill.

Spirit Watch – An orb spawns in the center that can be run back to points. Running it back to your point scores some points, running it back to the other team’s points neutralizes it.

Skyhammer – In front of point B is a portal leading to a platform that controls the Skyhammer cannon. Unlike the Kyhlo trebs, the cannon cannot be dodged/blocked. Beware that many people on the platform run specialized map builds designed to knock you off. Be very careful, or if somehow they didn’t notice you enter the platform, knock them off instead of attacking them.

2. Solo arena is solo queue. Don’t worry about the word tournament being thrown around in there. It’s just a way to play proper conquest matches without a team. Hotjoin has a lot of 8v8 servers and most people don’t really bother with the objectives, they just zerg around for fights.

3. Don’t. Again, highly recommend solo queue. It’s the only way to learn, and everyone else will just have to deal with it.

You can’t dodge or block skyhammer, but there is enough time to run out of its range if you’re able to. Usually the back corners of points are safe if people are firing right on the center of the point. Or like on B you can just drop down and jump back up.

Yeah, that’s the problem. It’s working correctly, but it starts new players way too high when it should be starting them at 0%, imo.

This isn’t quite the same issue, but I think a better way of looking at health totals right now would be by examining, and then increasing the value of the vitality stat.

First, change base vitality to 0.

Then, increase vitality scaling so that people who build for high vitality (1500+) can get a similar amount of HP as they would currently.

This makes it so that people have to choose what defensive stats they’re building around in a similar way that offensive-oriented builds have to choose between power, condition, or crit builds.

Only after that, imo, we can look fairly at base profession HP and determine if a change there needs to be made. It’s a tricky thing either way though, either the base HP totals were assigned based on relative survivability of skills and mechanics, or the other way around. Several balancing passes later, I think we all agree that they don’t necessarily match up anymore, especially considering build variants on each profession that may not have access to all the things that put them at a certain HP level.

I will say this. Professions having different base HP is the correct idea, but the numbers to me are just a bit off.

Instead of being down on new people, explain to them as best you can what’s happening and why. You help them out some, maybe they take what you say into consideration next time. Don’t be a kitten.

It would help for a bit, but right now the community is so toxic to itself that we’d either drive people away or spread the negative perception of the format.

Is it possible you were the fifth wheel in a team arena instead? I kinda figured if four join a team queue the matchmaking system would pull one from solo.

Luck is in crits.

Your positioning is at all times either in your control, or in your opponent’s control. In that regard, it’s LESS luck based than any other map in the game.

Errant Venture.9371:

Well HOT kitten , maybe they’re listening after all?

You really think so little of them that they’d just outright ignore something like guild halls and GvG? Don’t be insulting.

That said, you probably shouldn’t get your hopes up either. That “dated from last year” thing in particular could mean this was or still is a shelved project. It’ll take time even if they’re actively working on it.

But like, they aren’t stupid. Don’t act like they are. They’re making decisions based on a whole lotta things we don’t know. You don’t have to agree with the decision but they aren’t sitting in a shadowy room going “yes, let’s make the players hate us by refusing to do things for them!”

C’mon.

I also think CTF wouldn’t really work. As much as I love the game mode, GW2 is in precisely the wrong place for it to work. There’s too many interface barriers for it to be like a shooter CTF, and it’s too fast to be an MMORPG CTF.

I think a tug of war mode might work, where control is fought over a dolyak or something and the dolyak slowly moves toward the base of the team that has control. That would allow for secondary mechanics too but I don’t think we could reuse most of the current maps for that mode.

Thanks for the replies. Is there any kind of obvious tell for when this is about to happen? I’m not the most observant person about details as they’re happening but if I know what I’m looking for I can probably do better about it next time.

Never had that happen to me before, but the combat log (this was earlier today so I don’t remember fully) said a lot about “chain lightning” (static discharge?) and a big ol’ bomb that did about 4000 to me.

I have over 3500 toughness so I’m not used to being bursted down from what I felt was a healthy amount of life and I’m not even fully sure what caused it, but I’m pretty sure during one of them that I was over 15000 HP and then within about a three second span downed.

I suppose I need to be more careful about where I’m standing, but what precisely causes this and what can I be doing about it?

I’m a warrior running a bunker build if it matters.

There would be very very different styles of builds and play in a format that wasn’t so focused on specific points on the map as conquest, yeah.

A part of me wants to see them do it just so the devs can see how stupid of a mechanic stealth is and how much it would dominate that mode.

Heck, they already know if being stealthed on a point doesn’t flip it in conquest. If they know that stealth is just a button you can press to avoid all consequences, why is it in the game?

They posted on the forums weeks ago that the balance changes for October would happen on the 15th and not the 1st. You can look at the overview of the changes on the general forum, though keep in mind the final changes won’t be precisely as outlined.

You guys get so worked up lol.

In terms of content development, the target audience is anyone who is currently living.

Yes, cash shop games make a lot of money from a very small portion of the playerbase, but the cash shop isn’t anywhere near the focus of GW2 in terms of gameplay. It’s just there.

Victory!

15oooOOOooo

Stability. And no, hearing how much you have to sacrifice to gain stability isn’t going to fly, since more warriors than not have a healing slot, 2 utility slots, and 30 trait points invested into things that do nothing but give them a chance to survive.

It’s pretty clear that the back banners were inspired by sashimono, but I too would like to see them more prominently displayed. Maybe provide a new banner that rises up behind and over the head at a higher rank, and then a double banner at an even higher rank.

I imagine if there was a solution that wasn’t either unnecessarily complicated, or didn’t open up the possibility for widespread abuse, they’d have done it already.

4v5s happen to the other team as much as they do to you, so it kind of evens out in its own stupid way anyway.

I dunno about hotjoin, but I’ve found solo queue to be fairly reasonable for an MMO community. Yeah there’s frustration but like, abuse? There’s very little of it from my experience, and most of it tends to be when new players are teamed with more experienced ones who expect them to know what to do.

I’m really excited about the bronze league as currently planned. I’d say just about anyone in the bronze league could go into it expecting to have a reasonable shot of winning.

…except maybe GoM.

This is the right path for the devs because the meta is currently shifting on its own. Yes, everyone clung to necros and spirit rangers right after that one patch, and then they realized warriors are strong so we’re moving towards control for a bit until the bunkers and 1v1 builds neutralize the control people.

Just let it settle.

Yeah, but that’s every game that’s tried to woo MMORPG PvPers in the past decade.

How many more games are we going to overhype and then drive everyone away from until we realize maybe the games aren’t the problem?

garethh.3518:

Every forum is whiny.
The community doesn’t make the game, the devs do.

If negativity on the forums, on the most supportive and constructive forums I’ve seen yet, is kittening them up, they shouldn’t be devs in the first place.

People play MMOs to entertain them, focusing on the positive is nice but makes no sense when your choosing what to do with your free time… a bad game is worse than most anything else… that is GW2 issue not the populations.

That’s the thing though. You brought up free time, yet here you are spending your free time talking about a game you think is bad? Why would all these people be here if the game is bad?

No, it’s a good game, and people are choking the community and themselves to death with negativity. I know there’s problems, but I come back every day because it’s fun. Is it not fun? Give that some serious thought. Yeah, kneejerk reaction says no because we’re all so busy being negative. But everyone’s so freakin’ invested on here despite that. Why? Why if it’s not fun? Why if the game’s not good?

It is a good game, and it is a fun game. Change mindset.

While there are improvements that can definitely be made to the leaderboard and matchmaking, I don’t think a reset does anything but recreate a lot of the initial matchmaking problems.

I would say no it’s not bannable, but at the same time don’t be surprised if they change hotjoin to prevent glory farming.

In other words if you’re going to do it, you’d better get started.