I’m not too worried about the nerf although it would have been nice to drop the Initiative cost by 1.
I agree that it was supposed to be a snare primarily. The damage was just icing on the cake. The fact that it was super effective against 2 targets was probably never intended.
It was pretty naive of ANet to think they could pull this type of Event off in the most populated zone in the game. One loaded with NPCs and all other kinds of stuff for that matter.
This wasn’t ever going to go down well.
Yeah….nothing is working here. The enitre Server froze.
It was pretty naive to think you could have such a rare and special event in the most populated area of the game.
FYI in case you didn’t notice the change.
You can now salvage those occasional rare rings you come across that are soulbound on acquisition.
Nothing much has really changed about our build viabilities. S/D got a bit of a nerf but that’s all.
And don’t forget that WvW doesn’t count as PvP. So a lot of the PvP specific nerfs don’t take effect there.
Underwater Combat is fun and balanced.
Well ok then,
everyone I have spoken to in game or outside of the game has either a) despised underwater combat or b) feels more or less indifferent about it because they avoid it as much as possible.
Nowhere to date have I read anything from anyone who actually enjoys Underwater Combat in any situation.
This is obviously just my personal experience but I consider it fairly representative of the general perception about Underwater Combat in GW2.
What’s worse is that the Area possession capping mechanics can make it almost impossible to beat the Arah Event.
The fact that even a single mob will halt the lengthy “cap” mechanic and that they spawn these mobs inside the zone can make it really frustrating.
They really shouldn’t have single mobs spawning inside the zone during the “capping” procedure.
Wait for the new zone to open up. It may prove to be more profitable to farm.
No one has his problem?
Everyone has this problem.
Underwater Combat is just terrible or boring for pretty much any profession.
This has been known for ages and nothing has been done about it.
You are one very lucky sucker. But unless you plan to use it, I’d sell it asap as the price should drop now that the patch is here.
The amount of people isn’t really the problem. It’s the lack or reflection that’s hurting.
I mean when reading the patch-notes I felt like EVERYTHING that had been posted here in the past month was totally ignored.
People with much more insight into the meta-game made some excellent and reasonable suggestions and the designers just completely ignored it.
It’s like this game is being balanced around the personal play-experience of 2 guys.
Let’s wait and see what the new zones offers.
Maybe it will be more efficient than the Cursed Shore and we can all move there.
I think the Cursed Shore was generally ok in the regard that Plinx & Co offered the best Karma/hour but that other events often rewarded you with better/more loot.
That way people could chose between efficient loot or efficient Karma.
I acquired quite a few Black Lion Tools early in the game and I can confirm that they didn’t seem any better than your regular mining tools.
Just a waste of space imo.
I just got the Achievement after logging in after the patch. Was quite surprised to see it pop up so unexpectedly.
So I guess they fixed it.
I heard somewhere that Warriors were always defined as “average” and everything else was balanced around that assumption.
I guess it makes sense given the patch notes.
But then again when I read them they don’t make any sense whatsoever.
I fully agree with the OP,
this is just another of these changes that make ZERO sense given the context people took issue with Portals.
I mean it litterally changes nothing about tPvP strategies, WvW strategies or anything in the meta game really.
All it means that the bloke standing at the bottom of the Jumping Puzzle hoping for a Portal up is going to have to wait 30 seconds longer.
Wuuupeee….
I mean really? Who’s in charge of this show?
It may be a little too soon to give quality feedback but on paper it reads like they just changed some random things and went with it.
Maybe the Rune changes were supposed to fix Bunker Guardians, idk.
Like most balance changes I’ve seen in the patch notes, nothing here makes a lot of sense.
I mean I can understand them nerfing Dancing Dagger (but 50%, really?) but it’s like they purposefully ignored what was actually broken about the profession.
Nothing has change for WvW goes in builds , WvW is pve therefor , we were buffed not nerfed in WvW
Cept that whole 50% dancing dagger reduction.
Yeah but I only really used it for DPS against Rangers. And it’s not like they’re hard to kill.
It’s still decent as a cripple and that’s fine.
But to be honest, very few balancing decisions make any sense to me. Some of it just seems to be completely random.
I’m kind of surprised they managed to nerf us Engineers even more.
That was unexpected.
Yeah, it’s like everyone was crying about Thieves and ANet went and nerfed Engineers instead.
Lolwut?
I’m no expert when it comes to Guardians but I didn’t see a big nerf to their Bunker builds. Some smaller things, sure and there were some changes to Runes, but overall….not sure.
Thieves too didn’t see a nerf to Backstab as many were expecting. Instead they had Dancing Dagger nerfed as well as Cloak and Dagger.
I’m also not impressed with a lot of these “PvP only” changes. Having abilities function two different way is just surrendering really.
I mean we don’t have cutting edge PvE content, so I don’t see why balance there is so important. Just keep balancing around PvP and design everything around that concept.
Thief
Piercing Shot: Fixed an error in this skill’s damage tooltip.
Dancing Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 50%.
Blinding Powder: This skill’s recharge has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds.
Smoke Screen: This skill’s height has been increased to help it absorb projectiles.
Shadowstep: This skill is temporarily disabled underwater to keep players from circumventing walls when using it.
Tactical Strike: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% in all formats. This skill’s daze duration has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvP.
Leeching Venoms: This trait now scales based on the thief’s power.
Cluster Shot: This skill’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.
Cloak and Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
Body Shot: This skill now allows players to activate other skills sooner after the ability ends.
Sneak Attack: This skill will now only apply the Revealed buff on the first attack that hits an opponent.
Stab: Damage for this skill has been normalized so that it doesn’t deal less damage from behind the target.
Bountiful Theft: This trait no longer applies aegis at odd times.
Scorpion Wire: This skill’s range has been increased to 1200.
Shadow Trap: This skill no longer shadowsteps the thief when the trap is triggered. This skill now has two additional abilities: The first ability becomes available when Shadow Trap is cast and will destroy the current trap. The second ability, Shadow Pursuit, becomes available when an enemy triggers the trap. The thief may choose to activate this ability and shadowstep to the enemy that triggered the trap. If this ability is not activated after 10 seconds, the ability will fade and Shadow Trap will be available.
Piercing Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
Ink Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
Overall “interesting” changes in some areas and not at all what I was expecting.
This is getting annoying. I’ve been checking for an update every hour now for 6 hours. Nothing…
Is is really too much to ask to get a reliable time here? I mean the 15th is over in half of the world already.
I wouldnt say its too much to “ask”, but its too much to expect that a major content patch that also introduces new systems will always go swimmingly.
Just chill people, its the event on Sunday thats the important one-time thinger.
I would just expect them to keep us updated, I don’t see why they are making the same mistakes as every other MMO, if they would just communicate with their customers pre-emptively and tell us the patch will be delayed there would be no harm, but no we are left to guess, and that’s the problem.
I don’t get it either.
There seems to be this unnatural obsession in MMO developers to never say anything unless they are 100% confident it will come through.
I mean MMOs are always about constant change. That’s what keeps them so interesting and engaging for so long.
And yet here we are, hours from what is probably a 1GB large patch….and we are left twiddling our thumbs because ANet has kitten-all to say about anything.
What kind of PR is that that doesn’t want to talk to it’s consumers?
This is getting annoying. I’ve been checking for an update every hour now for 6 hours. Nothing…
Is is really too much to ask to get a reliable time here? I mean the 15th is over in half of the world already.
I’m pretty sure they do work in WvW. Only sPvP/tPvP will remove them.
But since you can also get them for free from a Black Lion Chest and because WvW isn’t competitive on an individual basis, I have no problem with them.
They could reduce the number of mobs, pets and minions running around in WvW for starters.
That alone should help with culling.
But then again it happens in sPvP too. I had a Daggerstorming Thief just 10 yards away from me yesterday. I could see the spell-effect, but couldn’t actually see the Thief.
On a related note: Is it normal that other professions have such a huge range of “junk” abilities?
I mean we can literally dismiss about half of our utility skills because they suck and dismiss more because they don’t suit our build.
They did say it would come on the 15th. But that day has come and gone now. Still nothing…
You’re right ryston,
just because something has a counter doesn’t make it balanced. And that’s why the build is getting a nerf.
That said, considering the amount of QQ you read on these boards about Backstab, only one in maybe 20 Thieves I come across actually played an all-out glass cannon Backstabber. The Bleed builds seem to be far more popular.
I actually Scorpion-Wired a Guardian who must have had Retaliation up or something just as he walked through his gate because I ended up pulling myself into the Keep.
Well actually I was stuck inside a wall at first but could use Infiltrator’s Arrow to get out.
Anyway, afaik there are a couple of freak incidents that can get you inside a Keep. But they are rare. Maybe there’s some exploits too, but none I know about.
November the 15th is almost over where I live and the patch still hasn’t gone live.
I’ve been really eager for those patch-notes and would really like to know when exactly the patch will go live?
Anyone have an exact time? Preferably CET?
i suppose it is completely unheard of for people who work at computers all day to get bored and post on forums to kill time.
i mean thats just crazy talk right there.
Of course this is a very common occurrence. I myself have probably wasted more time on forums than in game with a lot of video-games I’ve played in the past.
But this is not typical for a Casual Player. This is symptomatic for someone who treats his/her game as a Hobby…which implies some sort of personal investment.
What I think is the case is that you’ve always considered yourself a casual player and never really given it a second thought. Now I come along with my standards and suddenly you’re no longer “casual”? What’s going on?
You seem to have taken offence…for whatever reason because you’re uncomfortable with my definitions.
Player mentality (aka. casual vs. hardcore) is about how involved an individual is with a specific game. It’s not directly tied to play-time or occupation, although they all play a role.
It’s about what mind-set they apply when playing the game.
And the fact that someone is posting on the forums already implies a degree of involvement with the game that is significantly higher than that of your real “casual player”.
Are we expecting the patch today or tomorrow?
In about 45 minutes.
There’s actually quite a few events around the R&D Waypoint you can do while waiting for Plinx to respawn.
Arena, Rakkan, Agent something, Rakkan Fish-Oil collection and a few more, all within a minutes walk from Plinx.
Big mobs with lots of HP (Broodmother, Abomination) only need to be hit about 10-15 times to be “tagged” for Gold contribution. So you can move down to Pentient Camp while others finish the Abomination.
They changed this about 6 weeks ago. Since then Chests should always drop roughly your level of gear. This applies to Jumping Puzzles as well as event rewards.
Random drops from lower-level areas can be a little random. I’d estimate about half of the drops will be low-level while a few will be for your current level.
I always though Warriors WERE the best class to farm Dynamic Events.
But yeah, obviously if there are 20+ people farming Plinx, no one is going to have an easy time tagging mobs.
A few notes about “Casual Players”.
1. Casual Players don’t read the forums. They take the game as it is and have little interest or involvement in what goes on around it.
2. They don’t generally feel entitled to anything. They will do content that they can, and ignore stuff they cannot do.
3. They aren’t very vocal, considering their portion of the player base.
4. Time spent playing isn’t actually all that an important indicator for player mentality.
_________________________________________People who post on the forums are naturally more engaged in the game than most players. They care more and are more invested. Hence they are more opinionated too.
I would say you are wrong on nearly all counts. your notes and definitions are your opinions, and i would personally disagree.
just because someone is not hardcore does not automatically mean they dont care about the game or wont post on the forums. thats just being ridiculous.
But it isn’t. People like to title themselves “casual” because it makes them appear more balanced.
The vast, vast majority of the game’s player base simply does not care about what goes on around the game. They don’t care about content they can’t beat and don’t care about items they can’t reach.
I assume you are an “involved Gamer” who likes to think they are “casual” but the fact that you are posting here and discussing the game proves that you are 10 times more involved with it than your average player.
Funny, I always thought the glass-cannon Backstab build worked better in sPvP than it did in WvW/PvE.
Anyway, in sPvP I’m using a Pistol/Dagger build. Very durable but low damage obviously. It’s great for smaller scale fights.
However I can’t bring myself to play a Condition Damage build in PvE/WvW. Farming is a pain, too much competition for the Bleed spots etc and overall much lower DPS.
A few notes about “Casual Players”.
1. Casual Players don’t read the forums. They take the game as it is and have little interest or involvement in what goes on around it.
2. They don’t generally feel entitled to anything. They will do content that they can, and ignore stuff they cannot do.
3. They aren’t very vocal, considering their portion of the player base.
4. Time spent playing isn’t actually all that an important indicator for player mentality.
_________________________________________
People who post on the forums are naturally more engaged in the game than most players. They care more and are more invested. Hence they are more opinionated too.
That’s when you reach a new tier of “involved gamers”.
Those like to pretend they are casual, but are very vocal about certain things and have agendas and goals they pursue. They might not have a hardcore mentality or the play-time but they are equally as invested as a hardcore player.
“Involved Gamers” typically make up the majority of the only Forum Community of any MMO.
Then there’s obviously the “core gamers” who make up a significant portion of the forum population but only a fraction of the game population.
(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
Yes, I agree. Mystic Tonics especially are such a waste of space.
I don’t think they will increase the drop rate of keys since Black Lion Chests are one of these features that encourage players to spend real money on the game. And GW2 needs regular income.
At first I was a little reserved about adding rare crafting materials but since you can essentially buy Gold…it doesn’t really matter. So yeah, I’m all for it. Spice up the Black Lion Chests.
I’ve known about this feature for “weeks” now and have never sent or received any message or taunt from players I just killed/killed me.
And I play a Thief….a profession everyone love to hate.
So yes, while it may be a loophole, I don’t think it needs to be closed.
Yeah, while I see no harm in adding a 3-5 second logout timer I’d take pride in the fact that you caused someone to rage-quit.
They are out of WvW and have to pay both repair and waypoint costs now. That, plus they have to sit through multiple load-screens too. I know it feels like you’re being cheated out of your victory but in the end you’ve gained more that way.
What might help however is if there was a more distinct visual effect when someone logged out. I often find myself looking for someone I downed for up to 20 seconds before I realize they probably logged out.
Maybe some sort of “Puff”, “Bang” or “Zap” would be useful to indicate someone just logged off while in combat.
Ok, in this thread I’m asking you to rate every Thief utility skill (slots 6-9) on a scale of 1 to 10 according to general usefulness. Some skills are obviously more useful to certain builds or in PvE/WvW/sPvP so remember to specify that by referring to.
(Crit/Cond. build) or (WvW/PvP/PVE)
Assassin’s Singet – 6/10 (Good, but not outstanding in any situation)
Infiltrator’s Singet – 4/10 (Just another Shadowstep and low Initiative Regen)
Singet of Agility – 5/10 (Good for extra Condition removal, otherwise meh)
Singet of Shadows – 7/10 (Addictive, although minimal impact on actual fights)
Spider Venom – 5/10 (Often Redundant, ok for Condition builds)
Skale Venom – 2/10 (Often Redundant and Vulnurability is generally useless)
Ice Drake Venom 3/10 (Near useless in PvE, doesn’t last long in PvP)
Devourer Venom 4/10 (Very frickle ability, only useful for very niche builds)
Tripwire – 2/10 (A trap…with a 3 second knock-down….just not good enough)
Needle Trap – 2/10 (Very similar to Tripwire, Poison often redundant)
Shadow Trap – */10 (Extreme niche ability but awesome when it does work)
Ambush – 5/10 (Decent enough trap)
Roll for Initiative – 7/10 (Good stun-breaker, especially for ranged builds)
Blinding Powder – 6/10 (Decent “oh kitten” button, but fairly limited)
Shadowstep – 8/10 (Double Stun Breaker, Shadowstep and Condition Remover, awesome!)
Scorpion Wire – 6/10 (Unreliable but good when it works in WvW and PvE.)
Shadow Refuge – 10/10 (best Thief utility skill in game, never leave home without)
Caltrops – 6/10 (Good for Condition builds in sPvP and PvE. Just “ok” otherwise)
Haste – 7/10 (Good for burst builds and doing anything fast)
Smoke Screen – 8/10 (Blocks projectiles, Smoke combo field…pretty good ability)
This is just my assessment from someone who enjoys all aspects of the game on a regular basis.
Regardless of whether you share my individual assessments however you can tell that almost all of our Traps and Poisons are very lackluster. Poisons are often redundant in anything but 1v1 fights and Traps are just too weak.
I’ve gotten a few while farming in Orr since the change. Maybe 1 every hour or so. Seems fair enough.
Combo Fields give GW2 combat quite a bit of depth…or they would if they didn’t have a very specific issue.
The problem with combo fields is that they generally apply the same Conditions (or Boons) other abilities are applying anyway. What good are flaming Arrows when the target is already Burning? Why bother with an Weakness combo field when the target already has Weakness?
In general most Conditions applied by combo fields are redundant.
Hence I believe that if they are supposed to ever play a significant role in GW2’s group combat dynamics then they need to apply their very own set of Conditions and Effects. These effects would obviously have to be more powerful than your regular conditions but since they’d really only work in group combat that would have minimal impacts on PvP.
Cool ideas,
I’m not sure how it would work in practice but it sounds and looks good on “paper”. It would be fun if ANet could experiment with this internally.
There are a few elements which lead to snowballing in WvW.
1. Winning is fun, losing is not – Hence people who lose, stop playing WvW, those who are winning play more.
2. Holding lots of territory doesn’t require significantly more manpower than holding little territory. And this is really to do with the size of the maps and WvW design in general. Since you can be anywhere on the map within 2 minutes it isn’t any more difficult holding a large number of keeps compared to holding a few (or none). All you need is a single zerg to react to the enemies zerg.
In theory holding lots of territory would require more man power and thus put a natural cap on how much territory a server can hold. But this isn’t the case in practice. So all you really need is 20 more players at the right hour and you can steam roll the entire map.
The Patch should be downloadable any time now. The events won’t kick off until a day later to give everyone enough time to install.