Guild Wars 2

So pets have their own power, precision, toughness, and vitality. They seem to have 0 ferocity, healing power, condition damage, and agony resistance.

My question is, WRT the stats that are 0, are these based off the ranger’s stats? Does the ranger having agony resist give the pet agony resist? Does the ranger having higher condition damage cause the pet to do more condition damage?

Thnx

Trying that program now. Wow, where has this been all my [GW2] life?

So, I don’t know about other but when I am playing and controlling my character I move my pointer to the center of the screen (best guess) and then hold down the right mouse button. I have all my skills on shortcuts and I have the targeting set up so autotargeting is on but promote skill target is off.

I find this makes control and combat very fluid. I can switch targets simply by looking at them and not have to tab or mouse click. I find that this give me the best control over my character.

The thought though is with holding down the right mouse button and having to guess at moving the pointer to center screen. I would be nice if I didn’t have to hold the button down to get the same results.

That doesn’t mean I’d want to check a box and have the pointer gone. It still comes in use when dealing with windows (inventory, TP, making conversation choices, etc.).

So an option under “Combat/Movement” that creates this effect but is scripted to pause the effect when interacting with certain things (inventory, TP, making conversation choices, etc.) would be a great addition.

OP misses the fact that these farmers, while creating an increase in supply for certain items, also increase demand for other items. Items they want/need but don’t get by the particular farming spot.

A demand backed by the higher than typical income of raw gold (game currency) brought in by the same farming spot. This compounds inflation for such items.

Oh and as for shifts in the supply and demand curves over the long run, you missed how a change in price causes a change in the supply and demand. Basically, if the supply increase causing a shift to the supply curve resulting in an equilibrium price, this drop will cause an increase in demand. In the long run, price level doesn’t change much at all but what does change is the moving quantity. However, the influx of gold will cause a change in price. This has more to do with the quantity and uneven distribution of wealth amongst the players and its impact on price level than it has anything to do with supply and demand. The supply and demand is for mats involved in gear that is account bound.

In short, the mats have little impact on the game’s GDP but the influx of gold will have a greater impact. Put these two together and the net result is an increase in GDP (inflation). But go ahead and make false assumption on the short term price changes of just the particular mats that drop and mistakenly base the game’s entire economy on just that small inadequate sample.

Edit: Just went back and started reading your second post but had to stop. I stopped when you mentioned RL money being backed by gold. That went way of the dodo a long time ago.

Both the government and central banks have tools they use and policies they follow to regulate the money supply and thus control inflation. Gold hasn’t anything to do with it.

One benefit to get one of each class to 80 would be to get a honest feel with each class to see which one you like best. There really is no way around getting this feel than to just get them to 80, and even this has been nerfed with the NPE changes as you can’t get an honest feel for the class until you have the traits to mess around with.

With the shape of some of these fields, this would be a great help. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been in a field, killing the mobs that need to be killed, then suddenly realized that I’m not in the field anymore because the mobs are found bout inside and outside.

I actually find it strange that this hasn’t been put in from the start, strange but not surprised. Since events already have this.

DeceiverX.8361:

Daggos Skelito.2910:

After reviving my friend a zillion times, I asked about his traits. He said he didn’t have any because he spent the skill points on….uhm SKILLS! Wonder how many players are trying (<- notice the word TRYING) to enjoy the game traitless?? Very sad!
Anet, don’t you think it’s time to fix this?

Every single new player I’ve met has had this problem so far. Most of them end up not coming back for more once they realize this.

I can’t believe they haven’t reverted these changes. It’s like they’re afraid to despite it being a healthier change for the game.

Yeah, they have this superiority complex thing going on. It does more harm than good.

People say ‘no’ now but just wait till ANet comes out with new races. The forums will fill with “I want race change service” posts.

Zekvich.6701:

It is good because it is fun to have to do something for the trait, better than having it for free or having to use currency for it.

That is all though, the bosses have no theme, not enough players to kill etc, would need more improvements to make it exciting to do though.

It wasn’t for free and the rewarding part was gaining the trait points needed to unlock the slot. It used to be one point per level but it required 5 points to unlock each trait.

So every time you leveled, it actually felt rewarding because you were one step closer. I could make a new character, buy some basic weapons, grind out all the weapon skills in just a few minutes. Then, after that, each level gave a skill point, and from 10 on you got a trait point to. You then spent the trait points on traits, skill points on skill and only had to spend a little on a book to unlock each of the three tiers. Your utility skills were locked behind leveling but other than that, leveling felt plenty rewarding.

Now with everything locked behind levels, and traits the way they are, it’s not rewarding but rather tedious.

I first noticed it when I leveled up my Charr warrior and now I’m noticing other things with my Sylvari ranger.

I enjoy the personal story being uninterrupted with "go level up some more’ forced breaks. I wish it was a viable way to simply level a character up from 1 to 80. Anyway, I will level up doing other things until I reach a level where I can level the rest of the way via story without having to take any forced breaks.

With my warrior, I noticed some mess ups with regards Sayeh al’Rajihd. Earlier I meet up with Trahearne and Sayeh al’Rajihd to discuss the next course of action. Then later on, I meet Trahearne in secret so he can introduce me to Sayeh al’Rajihd for the first time….

Wait a minute….

Then with my ranger just now, I’m Sylvari so I already know Trahearne and we even have a “hey been a while” moment right before Tybalt then introduces us….

Um, yes Tybalt, we’ve met already….

Strange that they would add the “hey been a while” moment in addition to the introduction as opposed to replacing it.

Such small inconsistencies. Then there is the so called decisions. Instead of being carefully woven into the story in a natural flowing way, they seem forced. The decisions offered and their consequences are way too transparent. The problem is how they are presented to the player.

Other than that, the different paths that come form both the choices presented and race chosen make it one of the least grindy and most enjoyable ways to level….Well, it would be if it were actually possible to level the whole way through via the personal story alone.

Now I’ve heard the argument before. This is not a single player game, it’s a MMO. I get, and have no problem teaming up with other people. I believe it to be one of the appealing qualities of a MMO.

Yet, currently I can level to 80 via map completion which doesn’t require teaming up with others at all. So why not the personal story?

In addition to this, there are the story mode dungeons. Which, when chained, tell the tail of Destiny’s Edge getting back together. A story that parallels the player’s personal story both of which converge on the final chapter for both. The final dungeon ending with the defeat of Zhitan. So if solo is such a concern the solution is simple.

Have the personal story allow players to level from 1 to 80 BUT have milestones. The milestones being the dungeons which the player has to complete story mode before moving on with their personal story. That way new players can experience the full extent of the story in a smooth integrated way.

Fernling.1729:

BilboBaggins.5620:

tofumon.5924:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Deamhan.9538:

Wow, 60 pages of pretty much players complaining about the new trait system.

It’s called a hint Anet, take one.

They have. Now I suspect they’re trying not to make a move on this until they can feel things out better than they did the first time. Rather than, you know, rush into a change and botch it up worse.

And before someone suggests that’s not possible, please recall Murphy has laws about this sort of thing, and as bad as things are, they can always be worse.

Alternatively, they might have purposely designed this new trait system to be a big time/gold/skill point sink to make the game last longer and/or encourage lazy players to buy gold.

All the gold in the game can’t buy skill points.

Convert to gems, buy black lion keys and level up with the tomes.
I don’t think it was added for the reasons you quoted though. People were wanting something similar to gw1 and this was their initial attempt.

Doesn’t make a difference if you level with tomes (which only work on characters less than lvl 80) or by playing. A skill point is a skill point and when you are still leveling, the skill point’s primary use is still active. Using them to actually unlock your skills. Thus the only players who’ll have the spare skill points are level 80s. Then, there is the fact that there is no sense to how you unlock them. You have first tier traits locked behind lvl 70+ content. Also, I’m leveling a new character by map completion up to lvl 65, and now doing the personal story (up to lvl 70 and should be 80 by the time I need to be to continue the story). I have very few traits unlocked.

I remember them stating that this change was to encourage new players to experiment with traits they otherwise wouldn’t in the old system. That’s the biggest flaw in thinking right there. They think the problem is that we, the players, just haven’t noticed them or something. When the truth is, we measure their value and determined them to be not worth using. All people will do is go for the traits they want to use first and then unlock the rest as simply something to do.

Also, with the way they are locked and how unlocking them is not smooth and doesn’t happen naturally through game play (you will have to actively seek them out rather than stumble across them), people won’t bother until they hit lvl 80. This is the exact opposite of what they state about giving new players a better opportunity to explore different builds. If they want to go back to the drawing boards, that good but in the mean time revert the kitten change. Honestly this was one of those “it’s not broke so don’t fix it” kind of things. If all they wanted to do was encourage build exploration, all that they needed to do was put in the free refund system that currently exist and leave the rest as it was.

Wow, 60 pages of pretty much players complaining about the new trait system.

It’s called a hint Anet, take one.

The hat is fine but the outfit in general isn’t that appealing. Much prefer my Mesmer’s “Asian” themed outfit.

http://oi57.tinypic.com/30w9owp.jpg

Konig Des Todes.2086:

This is all preparations for extending the weapon sets for all professions. Necromancers get greatswords. Engineers get mace and torch. Ranger gets hammer. Mesmer gets main pistol and horn (with flute like skills). Warrior gets dual daggers. Elementalist gets hammer. Thief gets main sword and off-hand axe. And Guardians gets longbows.

I’d take Rifle for Thieves as a 1200 range weapon with possibly a trait to increase range. Trait name would be ‘Sniper’.

emikochan.8504:

hmm I’ve been playing since launch and the worst thing I’ve seen is someone throwing around the “noob” insult in spvp

aurora glade ftw I guess..

either way gw2 has the nicest community in any mmo i’ve played, except maybe EVE, EVE players love to help out and are really nice, though wether that’s honest or not, who knows :p

I was taking this post seriously until that one line.

Souto.2716:

So I’ve been playing so far and have liked the game so far, have gotten to 25 so far and haven’t yet felt bored because of the story and exploring and whatnot. But, the more i dig into it, the more i search the forums, the more i worry about endgame.

So my question is, outside of LS content, what’s the end game?

Playing dress up.

Paradox.1380:

No Capes!

/Message Body length must at least be 15.

Might be able to filter that out using chat options

Your not the only one, I agree completely. The changes they made in character advancement is abysmal. NPE my kitten . Only because any new player won’t know any different. Between the old way and new way, the old way was better. Much, much better.

As it stand, map completion is the only real way to level. I say that because leveling through crafting is costly, leveling through WvW is for masochists, and I’d rather do the map completion over and over than repeat the same couple events over and over.

As it is, I put up with grinding my way to level 70 then I get started on the personal story. I can then do the story back to back right to the end and level 80. Much more enjoyable. At least there I can mix it up by making different choices. Even if it all ends up the same at the halfway point.

Leveling other characters via the personal story using different race/choice combos would be ideal. Too bad you are expected to stop and do map completion between bouts of personal story if you start it right away.

I’ve always been partial to the “Krytan” weapon skins. Seems to have a kind of Victorian style.

1. That IS a memory leak

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak

2. Memory leaks can cause issues even when there is more than enough space available. This is due to conflicting data.

3. I’m not assuming anything. I can play the game just fine in most cases. In the odd case (always following a loading screen where old data should be dropped and new data loaded) some old data is not being dropped and it’s conflicting with the new data being loaded. Resulting in a performance issue.

I have dropped my graphics settings and still got the problem so it’s not an issue with the graphics. I run an i7 OC @ 4.5Ghz so it’s not the cpu. Temps are well below limit so it’s not a overtemp issue either.

I have experience with computers and programing. I’ve dealt with memory leaks on both ends before. Unfortunately I can’t deal with this because it is with the client and out of my hands, otherwise I would’ve done so.

There was no point in someone such as yourself even posting as this was not me asking for help. It was me informing those in a position to do something with a heads up about the issue.

abomally.2694:

That’s not a memory leak. It’s normal usage which varies depending on where you are and how many people are around (etc.).

Also, 2 Gig memory usage for GW2 is not excessive. If this is causing your computer to run out of RAM (more “swap” file usage) then you need more memory OR you need to free up some RAM by turning off background programs.

Read again and read carefully.

The 2gig occurred in the Black Cidital and this is not where the issue occurred. The issue took place outside the Black Cidital and happened with just 1.6gig used. Restarting the game caused it to drop to 1.2gig at the same location and no issue.

I have 32gigs of ram although windows 7 x64 home premium only allows me to use 16gigs. Between GW2 and other programs, my ram never exceeds 50%.

It would appear that the game has a memory leak issue. Every so often, the game lags down. That is, my FPS drops off and the game becomes choppy. So I did a test.

Starting next to Smokestead Waypoint (just outside Black Cidital) I entered WvW, then left through the gate to LA, waypoint traveled to the other gates, went through to Black Cidital, ran through and out the front back to where I started.

My memory peaked at 2,000,000K while traveling past the northern part of Black Cidital and sure enough, I was experiencing the problem when I got back to where I started. Choppy, low frame rates and only at 1,600,000K memory used.

I restarted the game, and after moving around in the immediate area, I peaked out at 1,200,000K memory used. Which means the game isn’t letting go of 400,000K as it should and I believe this is causing interference resulting in a drop in frame rates.

This isn’t the only situation where it has happened, just the situation I know how to repeat. I’ve had it happen a couple other times depending on what I’m doing and where I’m traveling.

Ehecatl.9172:

Who goes hunting with a pistol?

When I hunt bear with my bow, you better believe I pack a sidearm

Rentapest.6503:

I’ve noticed that since April…

I’ve noticed since the last time I played before taking a break that the game now throws loot at you left, right and center. To the point where it’s basically meaningless.

Perhaps they should decrease drop rates so players will be more appreciative to receive loot that they now consider junk because how frequently you get it.

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

Tao.5096:

Trading Posts in Starting area still are present.

in Queensdale Trading post is at Altar Brook Trading Post.

As reminder, usage of Trading Post is unlocked at level 8.
Unless something has changed again.

IT IS NOT UNLOCKED AT LV 8 GOD kitten IT! The tutorial to explain it is available at lv 8. You can buy sell trade at lv 1 (or 2) like always.

Stop giving him false information kitten it!

This, along with the OP stating how the now removed TPs were useful says it all. The NPE is a failure. It’s too much hand holding. Way too much. It throws so much reward at you at every turn that it all becomes meaningless. The information isn’t even clear as indicative of the quote above. It clearly didn’t improve the new or returning player experience as per the statements by the OP.

Then there is the change to the personal story. Horrible. You get on a role with it, and then you have to stop for a while. Breaks immersion. Hell, you forget some of what went on and you end up scratching your head. As it is now, I can level a toon up completely simply by doing map completion. No need to interact with others, it’s all soloable (even most events are soloable although not needed for map completion). So why couldn’t the personal story be a viable way to level to 80 straight through? At least to complete that you have to group up for the final dungeon, or did they change that too. Hell, the dungeons should be incorporated into the personal story. As it is now, I’ll grind to 70 before I even start it just so I can play through, only stopping for RL. The difference between reading a book and putting it down yourself vs reading a book and after a few chapters have it taken from you for a while. I’d rather be the one to put it down.

Then there is the change to traits which occurred just prior to my break. It’s a huge mistake putting off traits to such a late level. Especially when you can’t even plan ahead within the game. When it’s locked, you can’t even access it simply to view it. Same for skills for that matter. Pretty bad when you have to google this kitten just to find it out because something is greyed/locked out completely. Then there are the traits. Earning them isn’t a bad idea except for two flaws.

1. You access the minors at what, lvl 36? Yet some minor traits are locked behind content well above that level. Completely backwards to how it should be. All minor traits should be locked behind content for lvl 36 or less.

2. Unstable content. Because of events being prone to bugging out (ie. Temple of Melandru event), this makes obtaining it a royal PITA.

This has to do with the error which still exists despite the changes made and why it should be fixed.

When you get an inventory full of junk, you have some options. You can salvage it, vendor it, or sell it on the TP (I’m sure there are other options).

The two options I want to focus on is selling it to a vendor vs selling it on TP via completing buy orders.

As it is, I can empty the trash to a vendor in one quick swoop. Just pick the item at the top and start clicking. A double click sells and the list bumps up putting the next item in line.

Yet if I sell to buy orders, despite the extra clicks that make it take longer vs selling to a vendor, if you do it too quickly it’ll trigger an error.

When you sell to a vendor, this acts as a gold faucet. It converts the item that was generated by the game, into gold.

Alternatively, when the item is sold on the TP, the gold isn’t being generated. It’s simply switching from player to player. In addition to that, the item that was spawned by the game is being put into circulation via completing a buy order thus reducing the TP value of said item. Such a transaction comes at a market cost which acts as a gold sink. So we have two benefits. First is the anti-inflation of a particular item by putting the item into market circulation, and second is the anti-inflation of removing gold from the player base. The first has an added benefit of causing the price of the item on the market to more accurate reflect a fair market price based on supply and demand.

As it is, this error is a hindrance that encourages players to simply vendor most items causing an influx of new gold.

Now one excuse I’ve heard had to do with gold farmers selling dropped items on TP because they can get more gold for each item than they can using a vendor. So the error slows them down.

But there is something that is overlooked. Gold sellers are gonna do what they do regardless. So which would you rather have? Have them sell the items to a vendor and bring new gold into circulation or have them sell to other players which is neutral because the gold is simply switching hands? Actually with the transaction fees, it’s a gold sink.

If anything should have an error for selling too frequently it should be selling to vendors thus encouraging players to sell their goods on the TP.

So for the sake of convenience to the players, for the sake of encouraging gold neutral trading activity, and for the sake of increasing the gold sink effectiveness of trading fees, please do something about this error that has existed since launch.

This feature is something that should be standard in any MMORPG. It’s great but could we get a second weapon preview slot?

Best way to get keys (if not the only way) without spending RL money is to do map completion. The question is, once you hit max level and map completion, what other ways are there to get them? Other than converting gold to gems that is.

Teq, you mean the Group Event lvl 65…key point being lvl 65. This is for leveling. Oh and I’m leveling via map completion, personal story, and events that are nearby while doing the previous two (often doing an event completes a heart). You know, that thing called ‘play the game’ as opposed to gaming the latest FotM meta. Let’s not forget that grinding this karma also results in creating more gold. Which, not only doesn’t help the inflation issue but actually hurts it.

I propose the ability to purchase karma with gold.

Simply put, characters level too quickly for the karma they receive. This makes it impossible to upgrade your gear via karma vendors as you level.

If you could buy liquid karma with gold, then characters can make up for the karma deficiency using the in-game currency they accumulated doing the same heart/events/etc. that got them the karma and the levels they gained.

Karma can not be traded and is only used to purchase from vendors. The items gained by said vendors are bound and can’t even be sold to vendors nor salvaged. The price will need to be sufficient enough that the methods of converting karma to gold are not as effective as buying karma with gold. As not to make it possible to generate gold via a gold->karma->gold cycle.

Now typically when there is a change that will cause a shift to the supply or demand of an item, depending on the change, this often results in small changes in price (if any) and more of a change in moving quantity. Basically what happens is if an item became harder to obtain, the supply would drop causing prices to rise and moving quantity to drop. An increase in price means that less people will want to buy it provided that their are sufficient alternatives. This decrease in demand would cause the price to drop back down and moving quantity to drop further. The net result is a price that changes only slightly while the moving quantity is what really changes.

How does this pertain to buying liquid karma with gold? Being able to buy liquid karma and buy replacement gear from karma vendors will decrease the demand for gear on the TH. This will result in a drop in both price and moving quantity. Unlike the above example, crafters who sell their wares on the TH and players who put dropped loot on TH will continue to do so. Meaning any shift to supply as a result of the change in price would be minimal. The net effect is an over all drop in the price of gear.

I have come back after bit of a break and I can attest that the market is inflated. This change, if implemented, would act as a gold sink and would serve to help deflate the market.

This means that someone who invests in condition duration will have their conditions overridden by someone who invests in condition damage. As it should be since this would maximize dps on target and increases the likelihood that more players will get their fair shot at contributing.

For example, let’s introduce another condition spec’ed character. If based on dps per application, then both characters would apply their 12 each for a total of 24 and the power/precision build will apply 1 stack. All the characters contribute fairly evenly and over all dps on target is maximized.

If the power/precision build applied it’s 20, then the remaining 5 would go to one of the other two which means one character would be doing little to nothing and the contribution of each character would be out of balance. Over all dps to target is not optimal either.

So clearly restricting it so only the highest dps per application is applied is the best solution. This also works well with the nature of skills where higher dps per application and duration tend to be trade offs.

The only hole is with the nature of skills. Even if a character is spec’ed power/precision, they may have a skill that applies a burn for lots of dps but for a short duration. Meanwhile the condition build has a burn that does medium damage for a longer duration. If the condition build applies the burn, and then the power/precision build applies their burn, it will override the one on there. Increasing dps for the duration that it is applied but lower the duration over all. Potentially lowering the over all damage applied. Leaving the condition build SoL if that skill is still on CD.

Two possible solutions for this.

1. The higher damage skill applies it’s higher dps but it’s duration stacks onto the existing time remaining rather than overriding it. Then, when the condition build applies it’s burn, the damage doesn’t get overridden (so the higher dps remains) but the time gets stacked on more. This is a kind of synergy between characters applying the same damage where duration is increased as opposed to increasing stacks (since burn doesn’t increase in stacks). The problem with this is that, while the condition build is adding to the duration, the power/precision build is getting the credit for damage.

2. The alternative (and better solution) is for the condition build’s application of burn dps to be overridden by the power/precision build’s application and for the time to be added on. Damage is increased, time is extended, but if the condition build’s application is 3 seconds, and the power/precision build’s application is 1 second, after 1 second passes the dps of the condition drops down from the dps of the power/precision build’s skill to the condition build’s skill for the remainder of the duration. So a skill like burn will apply it’s damage for it’s duration for each character with a burn skill. Each character get’s a fair contribution. While solution 1 maximizes over all dps on target, only the character on the field who can achieve the highest dps of burn will get all the credit. I think, in this case, fair contribution is better than over all maximizing dps on target.

Vitality is a poor counter to conditions when talking about power vs condition. It’s not as if power damage is % based on target’s hp. Vitality is an equal defense against both power and condition alike.

Conditions have limits. Limited stacks, time limits, can be removed in various ways, can have their durations reduced in various ways and most conditions have a boon counter.

Physical damage doesn’t really have such limits or counters. While some of the boons that are counters to conditions will also counter physical damage, physical damage needs a hard stat like toughness. Without toughness, physical damage would be OP and if toughness reduced condition damage then conditions whose purpose of doing damage (bleed, burn, etc.) wouldn’t be worth spec’ing into. Doing so would be gimping your character.

I do agree that a character spec’ed condition should not have their applied conditions replaced by weaker sources.

You can have 25 stacks of bleed? So let’s say there are two characters. One is spec’ed into conditions but can only apply 12 stacks of bleed. The other character is spec’ed into power/precision but can stack 20 bleeds.

Now let’s say that the stack of 20 will do more dps than the stack of 12 once at full stack.

Who should get their stacks applied?

Answer is, the character who can only stack 12. While the character who can put 20 will do more dps for all 20, the character who can only apply 12 stacks does more dps per application. So the game would compare the dps per application. The result on target would be 12 stacks from the first character and 13 from the second. This would result in maximizing dps from conditions as well. If it was the other way around with the second character’s 20 applied first and the first character only applying 5, this would result in less over all dps on target. It would also severely off balance the applied damage from each character with the power/precision build doing all the damage and the condition spec build doing little.

So with regards to the two characters above, the first invested into a trait line that increase condition damage while the other invested into a trait line that increases condition duration. Which explains the difference between dps per stack and difference in max stats.

The game calls it a major trait slot but it’s the adept trait “Furious Speed” that I’m talking about. The game calls all the slots where you can choose what goes there “Major Trait Slot” which is why I said “The blue ones”.

So, I’m leveling another character for the first time since the changes to traits. It’s different to put it politely.

There is an issue, at least what I would call an issue, with this new system.

I just hit lvl 36 and got my second trait point unlocking the first major trait. The blue ones.

One of the blue traits I want to use, I have to complete Twilight Arbor in story mode. Recommended level is 50.

This brings me to the issue. If I can access it but have it locked at lvl 36, should the activities not be for characters of lvl 36 or lower?

K thnx

Something for Anet to think about….

An account feature where an invite gets sent to friend. The friend can then buy the game at a 10% discount and if that friend buys the game, the player who set the invite gets some Gems.

Allelya.6830:

Do you mean like Refer-A-Friend? Or maybe an in-game buddy to show you around and help you out?

Where I send an invite, of sorts, to someone and based on this “invite” they buy their own account and for doing so there is some kind of reward system in place.

I was wondering if there is any kind of buddy program in place.

Murlaine.4795:

I just don’t like how it’s called “zerg” in the first place. Leave that term in StarCraft please! It has no place in this game. Instead, I will CONTINUE to refer to large groups of people, as groups or crowds. Please, don’t ever use that word outside of StarCraft.

Thank you!

I’m pretty sure that’s the point of using the term. It references StarCraft in that, the mass group of players moving around represents a group of zerglings.

Bunter.3795:

ObsidianSaint.1079:

Dude, this is exactly how the game is supposed to be. Nodes are supposed to be random, if you’ve ever played a game like Runescape you would know how ultimately damaging it is to have the same locations for all the nodes.

The more random the better. I enjoy searching maps for nodes and killing enemies along the way.

Where is your red tag to show you’re a dev? I mean since you obviously know all about what’s intended in the game you must be a dev, right? I don’t think so.

This change is horrible for those of us who liked to harvest multiple nodes on multiple characters. It was (and to a point still is) a way to make money that in most respects is much better than playing the trading post as when we’re out gathering we’re out in the zone helping others, completing events and actually playing the game unlike the trading post flippers.

It’s still playing the game with the goal of lining your character’s pockets. It’s what many people do and it’s what creates inflation making the game less enjoyable by those whose focus of play is on many things other than gold/hour. It does so by making things in the game less affordable by those same people. It forces them to follow suit just for affordability sake.

Teon.5168:

“Play the game properly”

Whoa boy, can that phrase ever have umpteen different meanings to so many different players…….lol.

Yup, that’s why I defined what I meant by it with “in contrast to…..”

Dorian Ordenda.1398:

Do you not know what MMO stands for? That’s your answer. So much complaint
about such little issues. Relax and enjoy the game! If there are things you don’t care for, don’t play.

I don’t play GW2. I check in from time to time. Playing ESO now but guess what? Same issues. Aion? Same issues. WoW? same issues. Rift? Same issues. Need I go on? So I should give up playing MMOs completely simply because I choose to actually play the game properly but can’t enjoy it because it’s an MMO and what others do has an influence. Oh and yes, I said ‘play it properly’ in contrast to standing in place to kill the exact same content over and over or running laps. In other words, I don’t consider playing just the same 5 min worth of content (out of dozens of hours) repeatedly playing the game properly.

Oh man, the potential for WvW is huge.

For Borderlands:

To take a tower, you must first take and hold two adjacent supply camps. To take a keep, you must take and hold two adjacent towers.

For EB:

Same as the borderlands with the addition that you must capture and hold the keep of faction claiming the castle, and capture and hold the two towers closest to the castle of that same faction, in order to take the castle.

There, it’s not as much of zergs going in circles. You actually have to defend, not only for the sake of keeping it from you enemy but you must also defend in order to take more.

I agree with you OP.

ANet monitors the game. They know what the player base is doing. They know what and where the players gravitate toward.

Taking that into consideration, now consider the following…

I play ESO and I’ve noticed a glaring design flaw. Things like mines, Dwemer ruins, Ayleid ruins, etc. are not instanced. They each have a boss npc at the end with better drops than the typical mob. Guess what? Zergs. It’s like the Champ train except the zerg doesn’t actually move from location to location.

They don’t do this because the game forces them to. They do this because the game allows them to.

It’s pretty well known that the forums tend to be the vocal minority of the game’s player base. So going back to what I first said to consider, ANet is a business. They will appease the masses to line their own pockets. Since the majority of the masses simply want to play the meta of amassing in-game wealth and decking their toons out with shinies, the easiest and most effective way is to champ train, or boss spawn camp, etc.

So the content is centered around this. Zerg centered content. Sure, you get massive scale battles involving dozens of player but there is a cost to this.

1. The complexity of the battle on an individual level is inversely proportional to the number of individuals involved. The more people there are, the more the fight becomes standing in place pressing 1.

2. The feeling of personal accomplishment is inversely proportional to the number of individuals involved. The more people there are, the less you matter.

With ESO, they are in a place to fix the situation. All those explorable areas involve pressing “E” (default) on a door and going through a loading screen. They could make these areas instanced. They could also set the boss up with a trigger. Clear the randoms to access the boss. They could also make the boss spawn as a boss npc only once per character. After that, the boss is just a regular mob. If you want to get another shot at the boss, you’ll have to party up with someone who hasn’t completed it yet. All kinds of possibilities that would fix the current camping/botting situation.

As for ANet and GW2….I’ve all but given it up completely. Although I’m close. I suppose they could modify the dungeons so that you have to clear the randoms along a path before you can access the boss(es) of the path. It would kill speed running them.

Back before these champs drop those champ bags, they still dropped the 5 slot bag. It comes from the champ, not the champ bag.

There’s a drop in server population? I was too busy playing ESO to notice.

Yup, as said, what is required is an improvement to how down scaling works.

Depending on the Map level…

- Drop off the stat bonus on gear to match that of gear for the level you are in. For example, in a place like Queensdale, you may only have the primary stat.

- Reduce how much the stat bonus gives. I know it already does this but does it take into account the difference in quality? What I mean is, the best armor you can get is green (I think). If you compare a lvl 14 white to a lvl 14 green with the same stat bonus, the green provides a better bonus. So when someone in exotic gear becomes down leveled to lvl 14, are they receiving a bonus to their stats that would equate to lvl 14 exotic gear? If so, they shouldn’t. Since the best you can get at 14 is green, the bonus on down leveled exotic should match that of a green. As should the armor provided. Same applies to weapons too.

- I’ve never actually paid close attention to the change to runes and sigils so I may be making an incorrect assumption. Currently the low level runes only have two rune bonuses. The next quality up provides 4 set and then you have the final quality that provide 6 set. I think they are changing it so that you can get 6 set from the start. The difference will stll be the amount of a bonus you get. Eg. minor rune of divinity is +3, major is +5 and superior is +10. As a lvl 14, you’ll only have the +3 but as a down level, you could have a +10. They should change this so that when you are down leveled to 14, your divinity set will only provide +3.

- Traits are getting a pretty big change so this applies to the current system. The maps are already given a level range. We know that there is a minimum level to being able to unlock the next tier of traits. So given the map Queensdale. We know that, depending on where in the map you are, you will at most have access to the first tier. Since the map is 1-15, if you are down leveled to lvl 10 or lower, all the tiers should get greyed out. Points stay invested, but the tier is greyed out so the effects of traits selected within that tier no longer apply. If you move to another part of the map so you are above lvl 10, the first tier is no longer greyed out but the other two are.

That leaves the only one advantage. You’ll have access to all your skills but someone who is new and not down leveled will not.

Healing (Primary)
Toughness
Vitality

Draknar.5748:

Deamhan.9538:

SkyShroud.2865:

I don’t understand the idea of trinity balance.

Does that means that healer can defeat a fighter? That’s not balance, that’s making healer OP.

Your right, it would. Balance would be each not being able to kill the other. A tank is suppose to be good at taking damage without dying and not dish it out (that’s the dps job). A healer is suppose to heal damage and not dish it out. A tank vs healer, if balanced and all variables equal (eg. player skill), should result in a stalemate. The healer doesn’t do enough damage to break a tank’s…well…tank and the tank can’t out damage the healer’s healing.

And the third leg of the trinity? The DPSer? Can’t out-DPS heals or tankiness either? Or DPS can kill both. That sounds OP to me. And probably why the DPS:tank:healer ratio in trinity games is always terrible, causing groups to wait around forever just to get a group together.

I thought that would be obvious….

DPS vs Tank. The Tank can take a beating but not very good at giving one. The DPS is good at giving one but not very good at receiving it. So even though the DPS will put out more damage than the Tank, the Tank can take more of a beating than the DPS. All things equal, out of 100 fights, the win/loss should be 50/50 and each fight should be a fairly close match.

DPS vs Healing. This can go one of two ways. Either the Healer’s healing can out heal the damage done by the DPS, in which case the Healer should not be able to dish out enough damage to kill the DPS resulting in a stalemate. Or the Healer can’t heal back all the damage being done resulting in their loss but should be able to deal enough damage to the DPS to take them out. So out of 100 fights, the win loss should be 50/50 with each fight being a close match.

Sorry but current build diversity is DPS by means of spike damage, DPS by means of sustained damage, DPS by hard hitting Conditions, and DPS by long lasting Conditions.

That’s not diversity.

Control in PvE is pointless with the buffs the bosses have.
Conditions in PvE become pointless on an individual bases when such large numbers are attacking the one target.

Which is why, in PvE, zerker is what most go with.

Again that’s not diversity.

It is possible to make a character tanky, but what lacks most is ‘heal other’ which is more of a passive feature to some healing skills and not the focus.