Guild Wars 2

Could be worse, could have pulled both 15 stacks of burning and 10 stacks of bleed

I can’t begin to count the times that the passive on Psig has killed me.

Justine.6351:

I like the line of thoughts op has.

lol @ the person saying its skill to cover conditions, ya know except the part where builds can blob 5+ condi in less than a second.

The dodge button

It’s a thing

Stiofan.6720:

How about removing power damage from skills that give conditions.

Well warrior greatsword applies vuln so I guess we should remove it’s damage. Oh and if you’re running arms and/or sigils it can apply bleed too, so I guess warrior greatsword definitely shouldn’t be dealing power damage.

In seriousness removing power damage from condi builds would be a 25% to 40% damage nerf. Condi builds would lose damage competitiveness and would not be taken for any serious content.

The problem with the suggestions in this thread is that they all assume that condi builds are unilaterally overpowered. Which is completely false.

ATMAvatar.5749:

Crinn.7864:

I cannot understand how the game could have issues with writing to a text file. Writing txt files is something that freshman 101 programming courses do.

Those same freshmen tend to ignore little necessary details which can increase the complexity. Writing to a text file is easy. Logging in a friendly, usable, robust manner requires some additional work:

• What format do you store the logs in?
  • the human-readable format shown in-game
  • XML
  • JSON
  • CSV
  • proprietary, documented binary format
  • something else?
• Where do the logs go?
• Do you write multiple logs or just append to one, large log?
• If multiple:
  • when do you roll into a new log?
  • what naming format do you use?
• How quickly do the logs grow?
  • can you let the log output accumulate indefinitely?
  • if not, how do you determine when to prune old data?
• Do the log files need to be accessible in real-time?
• Do any of the above need to be configurable?
  • in-game configuration settings
  • text-based configuration files in the game’s directory
  • what should the default settings be?

…and I’m sure I missed some things.

Seriously?
Answer:
You use .txt files, with the timecode for the filename. logging to file starts on combat start and the file is closed on combat exit. You write to the file in real time. (why on earth would you store log data in memory?)

formatting is arbitrary. I’m sure the playerbase can figure whatever format anet feels like using.

You don’t need config files. You don’t need to worry about user settings. You are just dumping data to a text file.

Here I’ll give you an example from another game on what a combat log files looks like.

filename: “combat_2015-04-30_22_24_20_831073.txt”
snippet of content:
[22:33:14.743] Crinnhord] [Rhyeja] [Bleeding (Flechette Round) {2277183070404889}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (0 -resist {836045448945507}) <1>
[22:33:14.758] Rhyeja] [Crinnhord] [Assault {898601647603712}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (537* energy {836045448940874}) <1075>
[22:33:15.218] Crinnhord] [Rhyeja] [Bleeding (Vital Shot) {2115340112756992}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (504 internal {836045448940876}) <504>

Of course gw2 would probably use different formatting and whatnot, but you get the gist.

NikeEU.7690:

In what aspect of pve is defense discipline berserker the standard? I don’t think a pvp build is the best suggestion to give to somebody failing in pve.

It’s only not-standard because PvE buildcrafters have made the assumption that players don’t take notable damage.

If the OP is failing, it’s reasonable to assume that the OP is taking significant damage, which means running the total glass that meta recommends would be worse for the OP.

PvP builds would do the OP good because they give the OP defensive and sustain capabilities.

Would you use a Philips head screwdriver to screw in a flathead screw? No, you’d use a flathead screwdriver for it.

It’s the same way with traits, you take traits based on what you’re doing. If you’re in openworld where you have lots of running to do, you take runspeed traits. If you’re in a raid where you don’t have lots of running to do you don’t take runspeed traits.

Traits are simply tools the developers give us to solve problems with.

Emdrix.6124:

if the team lost mid fight in 5 secs its reasonable to afk since the match will just be a blow out anyway. its better to go afk and wait for a balanced match instead.

The first teamfight is easily the least relevant teamfight when it comes to predicting outcome.

In the first teamfight neither team knows exactly what builds the other team has. Niether team has taken the measure of how much pressure the other team has.

Teams often get wiped on first teamfight and then easily rebound because they adjusted based on what they learned in the first fight.

Coliseum should be unstickied

maddoctor.2738:

Unless of course writing something to the disk isn’t within what the game client is allowed to do, if I recall there was some talk about text files in the old discussion about build saving. There are “issues” if they allowed saving builds to a text file, like in GW1, so maybe the client can’t be given access to text files so easily.

I cannot understand how the game could have issues with writing to a text file. Writing txt files is something that freshman 101 programming courses do.

I’m not familiar with GW1’s issues, but I imagine the problems there might have been with people modifying the build files, which could cause all sorts of errors if the game tried to load the modified files.
Combat logging doesn’t require the game to read the file later so the above is a non-issue.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

For those who missed it, this is the post that the OP is referring to

DPS meter in game

Gaile Gray
ArenaNet Communications Manager

Hey guys,
We have a lot of tools that we use in the development of the game, but not all of them are available or supportable in the live game. Adding tools to the game that would require continual updating and maintenance would not be the best focus for the team. So while we’re aware that some players would like to see an official DPS meter — and clearly the community is divided on this topic — you should be aware that the team does not intend to add one to the game.

If you notice, the objection appears to be to the continual updating and maintenance required.

Which is why we should have combat logging to file. It doesn’t require continual maintence since it’s a function that the game does already.

Seriously just give us a option to dump the combat chat tab to a .txt file

omho combat logging to file should be a thing. Takes development burden off of Anet and allows us to customize parsers as necessary.

ThatNAESLGuard.6238:

2. tell someone to roll ele, then tell them to stay on top of you the whole game

As a necro main I can assure you that this doesn’t work.

If you’re a necro and you ask for someone to reroll support they usually just tell you to reroll

the problem with mentorship programs is that there are many players that want to mentor and few that want to be taught.

Most players simply assume that they are already good and don’t need improvement.

otetas.9675:

When you apply condi your already doing direct damage,

You’re right condi builds would still be applying damage.
It would just be a totally inferior amount of damage.

I’m sorry but there is way too much cleanse running around in this game to allow any kind of smart cleansing.

otetas.9675:

Crinn.7864:

otetas.9675:

so resistance isnt the 100% direct counter to condi builds.

Except necros because fear is a condi.

Resistance : “Damaging-Conditions and Movement-Impeding Conditions currently on you are ineffective; stacks duration. "
Non-Damaging Conditions: Vulnerability, Weakness, Blind, Slow, Taunt, Fear;
Its in the OP if you actually read it

even the ninja edit wasn’t fast enough :/

OP’s suggestion is still stupid and would essentially destroy condi as a viable playstyle.

If the OP’s suggestion went through condi builds would be worthless in PvP. Condi builds would have no real damage application and would be straight outclassed by power builds.

But whatever condi builds aren’t even strong except for warriors and mesmers. Obviously the most underused build type needs to be nerfed right?

Since we don’t have dps meters, we instead have “link LI or kick” instead

DPS meters don’t cause toxicity. They are just one of a great number of ways for players to arbitrarily exclude others. LI and ascended gear being other ways.

Einlanzer.1627:

No. Don’t agree. We should maybe have them for staging areas, but combat effectiveness in this game is about more than DPS, depending on your profession and build. This type of thing would just result in a lot of shallow elitism.

Why would it matter where you could use them?

Raids are literally the only place where dps matters. How would being able to use a dps meter elsewhere somehow create elitism?
Are you seriously afraid that someone is going to come up to you in Queendale and start smacktalking your dps?

Sometime I wonder if all the anti-meter, anti-log people have never actually played in a game with a dps meter.

Honestly I just want to be able to print the combat tab to a text file. :/

Astralporing.1957:

zealex.9410:

tbh as the hardest content in the game it should require you to have a build that is up on par with the dificulty of the content you want to clear

Oh, and here i thought it was about skill, not builds.

Generally speaking, buildcrafting and understanding group comp is part of “skill”

Unless you’re in the “twitch reflexes is the only thing that should matter” camp.

Rukia.9860:

Anet totally missed the mark on clothing in GW2, CLEARLY not the same designers as 1 because clothes were 10x better looking. Member when mesmers wore actual attire and not kittened capes all the time? Member??? Same goes with pretty much every other class.. there was ton of normal clothing. All we want. kitten capes and skirts jesus is that literally all you can design?

The reason gw1 didn’t use capes and skirts was technical, not because of taste.

Back in 04-05 when gw1 was being developed cloth physics was a new tech that was just starting to make it’s appearance in games, only the newest engines had it and even then the cloth physics was generally rough and buggy.

Game artists of that time avoided capes, trenches, and dresses because they simply didn’t have the tech to animate large flowy cloth.

I bet the reason gw2 has so many capes and skirts is because the artists at Anet where ecstatic at having the tech to do so, and do well.

ZacHank.1358:

Raise the effectiveness of non-meta build traits and you’ve mitigated the meta a bit. Lower the effectiveness of the current meta build traits and you’ve mitigated the meta a bit.

Anet already does that. If look at balance patches post HoT, they all involves buffs to underused traits and abilities, with nerfs to overused traits and abilities.

Avigrus.2871:

But hang on…

Necromancer
We feel that necromancers have been faring quite well gamewide, providing play and counterplay in many spots over the last few months.

Well there is definitely lots of counterplay…..

I get annoyed by the fact that condi warrior running defense & discipline with defensive stances has equivalent damage output to a full glass necro.

Necros are literally corruption bots and nothing else.

stability corrupts

Metas cannot be designed out the game. Metas are player created and player enforced. Metas are basically just accepted conventions.

For example PS warriors aren’t actually mandatory for raids. It’s entirely possible to generate 25 might via distributed might generation. However pinning all the might gen on the warrior reduces the workload of the rest of the group so it’s become the accepted standard.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

All that said, if I were writing, I wouldn’t generally call her a dictator except if I worked for the rebels and was writing their propaganda. Neither, however, would I admit that she was a dictator if I wrote for her Ministry of Information — it wouldn’t do, would it? The point is that the words have particular meanings and connotations and we shouldn’t confuse the two just because we like some monarchs and hate some dictators.

But that’s exactly what I’m arguing.

The Krytan throne is a monarchy. This is undisputable. I objected to the use of “crown based dictatorship” because dictatorship is not the correct noun to be using.

No monarchy in the history of the world has been referred to as a dictatorship. Historians, academics, teachers, etc do not use the term dictatorship when talking about monarchies. The word dictator and dictatorship are used exclusive to refer to regimes of the past two century’s where one individual has seized absolute power via either force or political maneuvering.

I object OP’s use of the word “dictatorship” because the OP is trying to downplay gw2 humans, but the OP failed to come up with any real arguments and instead resorted to rhetoric and wordplay. Heck the entire OP is nothing but subjective rhetoric combined with sparse bits of cherry picked lore.

Humans have been pushed back to their old homelands and ended up with one government to survive.

Human characters are in almost every map instance, and are easily the most populous of the major races. Many humans operate outside of Kryta, taking up as Pact soldiers, as pirates, as bandits, as traders, as traveling carnies, and as merchants.

I think the evidence shows only that the game’s writers don’t have enough space to cover that much diversity.

GW2 is Tolkien fantasy. The facets of real world human diversity are spread among the races.
Think of each race as a different facet of humanity. Norn embody the traits of self-reliance, and outdoorsmanship. Humans embody the traits of honor and duty, with the vice of political intrigue. Asura embody intellectualism and the spirit of inquiry, with the vice of academic elitism. Charr embody industrialism and nationalism, with the vice of warmongering. Sylvari embody curiosity and connection to nature with the shortfall of naiveté.

Boiling each races down to a set of characteristics allows the devs to cover a wide range of the human experience without needing excessive exposition. When you see some asuran gizmo while questing you automatically know that it’s some sort of scientific equipment – the game doesn’t have to explain it.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

It’s not “highly misleading” unless you misunderstand the terms. The OP is correct that Queen Jennah is a dictator — what happens if she was assassinated during one of the many “recent” attempts and Caudecus took power?

Caduceus staging a coup is irrelevant to defining a dictatorship. You don’t define governments by what would happen if they are overthrown.

Also absolute monarchies can only be considered a dictatorship by dictionary definitions. It’s still misleading by conversational definitions. Please note that misleading does not require lying, it just requires misrepresenting.

You could technically call a aircraft slamming into the ground and exploding into a fireball a “successful landing” in the sense that the aircraft is now on the ground. But calling it that in a conversation is misleading your audience, since no native English speaker is going to equate “successful landing” with “exploding into fireball”

It’s the same here. No native English speaker is going to associate “dictatorship” with “benevolent monarchy” and that without even going into the fact that Kryta has a democratically elected counsel.

Gerrand.3085:

State we being outpaced by Quaggans due to focus on deadlocked feudal politics. Crowd starts arguing the semantic differences of different feudal political systems -.-

Kryta isn’t feudalism. As far as we know the nobles do not have vassals. Also the commoners are not peasants bound to a lord either.

Besides Krytan politics is so much more interesting than amphibious meat sacks.

uncreator.5982:

whoa how do you level so fast? its been 2 weeks of casual play for lvl 30

Why level so fast? If it’s your first toon then you should spend the leveling time learning and exploring.

Leave the powerleveling for after your first 80. Besides powerleveling gets much easier after you get your first 80

I definitely enjoy the pvp here. The combat is good, and I enjoy the buildcrafting.

I could care less for rewards and enjoy the offseason more than the season due to there being less salt and angry raging tryhards.

the 5 over 3 split is actually a really good ratio for point objectives. If you have less than 5 then teams will stop pushing far due to lack of manpower. If you have more than 5 then bunking points becomes too easy due to excessive manpower making decaps impossible.

5 is just enough to incentivize playing all three points, while still being small enough to prevent stagnation.

TheDevice.2751:

Crinn.7864:

What we need is LF source that scales off of incoming damage.

you mean like spectral armor/walk?

Spectral armor gives you 8% of your life force per hit. It does not scale on damage taken.

I want a percent of damage taken given as life force type of skill or trait.

This is why I hope power Mesmer never becomes teamfight viable, because if it does, well, lord help us.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Um, a monarchy is, by definition, a dictatorship:
Dictatorship:
" a country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator."

Monarchy:
“a state or nation in which the supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in a monarch.”

In the UK (as well as other nations), the monarch is only nominally in charge; the laws are made by the popularly-elected government (if by “popularly-elected” we include the House of Lords). In a traditional monarchy, the monarch holds absolute power.

You might be thinking of a benevolent monarchy, in which the monarch chooses to act in the interests of the people. However, even then, they can change their mind at any time or relinquish the throne (due to death or personal choice) to someone who is not benevolent. Either way, it’s a dictatorship.

But it’s highly misleading to refer to a monarchy as a dictatorship. When you use the word “dictatorship” in a conversation it invokes images of Stalin, Mussolini, Castro, etc.

The OP use of the term “crown based dictatorship” is nothing but misleading rhetoric attempting to paint Krytan government as bad, when the Krytan government is certainly a benevolent monarchy.

Gerrand.3085:

solely crown based dictatorship,

Monarchies are not a dictatorship. They may seem similar at the surface but they are hugely different. Monarchies tend to be built around codes of tradition and royal responsibility, while dictatorships are just absolute power unrestrained by traditions or responsibilities. That difference is also why some real world monarchies have lasted for centuries while dictatorships rarely last longer than a generation.

Also the quaggans are changing fast because they are under threat. Humans do the same, but in the current gw2 timeline there is no immediate species-level threat to humans outside of the Elder Dragons, and none of the Elder dragons operate in Kryta.

What we need is LF source that scales off of incoming damage.

Keadron.9570:

Crinn.7864:

Xillllix.3485:

It was a fine trait before Anet ruined it.

Yes because having traits that read “gives passive immunity to condi builds” is such good design.

Diamond skin should supplement your condi clear. Not be the end-all-be-all of condi defense which is what the old version was.

How was it end all be all to break 10% health on a low health character?

Because Tempest exists. Condi builds simply don’t have the power damage to punch through the protection, aura, and healing output of tempest.

The only condi build that could possibly deal with old diamond skin is condi warrior because of all the hard non-condi based CC warrior has. Except of course that condi warrior didn’t exist till after the DS change.

No it’s a random flying wall.

just buy a exotic power set, it’s fairly cheap to do.

Manasa Devi.7958:

I’ll never understand norn. They proudly proclaim themselves sons and daughters of all kinds of animals, but call one a son of a [female dog] and they try to punch you.

“dottir” is interpreted as “daughter of” and should be preceded by the individual’s parent. If you see a norn named “animalnamedottir” then they are doing it wrong.

Dark Path is terrible and pretty much never connects to target.

Nikal.4921:

Also, why do so many long items (coats, skirts, etc.) flair out at the bottom. Clothing falls straight down IRL and it just looks odd and bad that it doesn’t do the same in-game.

Clothing IRL can be designed to flair out. However flared clothing has been out of fashion for almost a century.

And then there is Victorian clothing where everything has flaps and poofs.

When you say “2 handed” do you mean any two handed weapon or just hammer and greatsword?

After all almost every necro build runs a staff which is technically a 2 handed weapon.

As long as there are two or more ways to do something, one of those ways will be considered better.

This is how metas form.

We have dueling. It’s called 1v1 hotjoin arenas.

Dawdler.8521:

Unless you have the lower body of a hamster

So like an asura?

Lordrosicky.5813:

Ability to queue outside hotm

You can queue outside hotm. That functionality was returned.

And here I was thinking PvP content was PvP’ing.

Oh wait it’s 2016 people need to get spoonfed content 24/7.

Dark path needs to not be a projectile that everyone and their mother can outrun.

flow.6043:

Just a reminder: s2 was before Deathly Chill and Infusing Terror was nerfed.
Also, even though you could use mercenary amulets, necro’s survivability back then was just as terrible as it is now.
Everyone running takier stats was completely irrelevant to necro’s viability (which even in s2 was debatable btw).

Even if DC and IT where not changed we’d still have massive survivability issues currently. I doubt Mercenaries would save us either.

My mention to paladins meta was because paladin builds do substantially less damage than ferocity amulets. season 2 had substantially less damage in it, which allowed our LF generation to be effective.

But really we are arguing for the exact same thing just with different conceptualizations of the problem.