Guild Wars 2

Nobody can catch a Thief if he’s got the right spec. Better get used to it.

Our singet gives us a +25% runspeed increase.

With a only 5 points in Acrobatics we gain Swiftness with every Dodge.

Our Short-Bow allows us to teleport 900 range almost instantly (usable every 4 seconds or so).

I’m sure there are a few other things as well that could be taken into account.

Overall though I’d estimate that Thieves, if they put their mind to it, can travel at almost 150% speed all things considered.

Well first of all I’d recommend you isten to the tutorial NPC at the enterance of every map. He will give you brief overview of the map and the situation.

Then you should look at the map and get a sense of location and where the action is going on. Points of conflict are genrally marked with crossed-swords. If these swords are near a contested keep or watchtower, it’s safe to assume this objective is under siege. Depending on what side your on, you should either help attack or defend it.

You can also simply ask in chat upon entering the map “Hello guys, what’s going on? Where’s our zerg?”

People will probably respond with a specific location on the map. Finding a your zerg (zerg = large group of players) should probably be easy from there on. Following you zerg is probably the best idea until you get a little more comfortable. It can be frustrating at times, especially if the zerg doesn’t have a leader because it obays certain “mob dynamics”. You’ll figure them out soon enough, just be sure to check you back on a regular basis to see if it’s still there

A few useful hints would be:

1. Always try to carry supplies with you. You can pick them up at any supply depot, but your server will prefer it if you only took them from actual supply camps and not from keeps. The amount of supplies you are currently carrying can be seen at the top, next to your score.

2. Siege weapons are deployed by buying a blue-print from a Siege merchant. Ideally anyone would carry at least a Flameram around with them at any time (costs 6 silver). But so many peole are cheap they don’t like spending their money on WvW. Once you get the blue-print you double-click it in your inventory and set it up at a particuar locations. Rams obviously need to be deployed right infront of an enemy gate.

Then however they still need to be constructed, and this is where the supplies come in. Since you can’t carry around more than 10 supplies at once you rely on other people to come and help build with theirs. That’s why you should always carry some around with you.

If you do die, don’t respawn right away. If your allies are still in control of the battle you can still be rezzed, it just takes longer. Still better than walking all the way back.

If you do see a previously unnoticed group of enemy players let people know in /team or /map. Always report a rough estimate of the enemy’s numbers and where they are heading. Something like “inc 20+ on Bluebriar”. Bear in mind that many zergs seem larger than they are thanks to the large number of pets and minions running with them.

Try one of the designated French servers around 4 or 5 AM CET.

Yes, I’ve been having issues with this as well and it’s pretty frustrating.

It happens with the Short Bow too that it will randomly start auto-attacking thus breaking Stealth in the process. I’m not exactly sure what’s causing the issue as it doesn’t happen all the time but it’s pretty annoying.

I still believe this is somehow a topic where the developers still haven’t grasped the total extent of the problem and what implications it has.

I know players like to think developers are always so much wiser, have more insight and generally know better (which is often the case). But ANet really needs to play catch up here or they’ll loose a lot of credibility.

This is not some class imblance that can be sorted out by waiting for the meta game to evolve. This is a geographical issue that is really limiting the enjoyment of WvW.

No, it’s not challenging to walk up to a specific point on a map.

It’s just luck that you happen to be online if and when your server ever owns thay specific keep. It’s also totally inconsistent with the rest of the exploration, which is not challenging either.

There is really no good argument to defend the way things currently are.

But hey…as long as server transfers are free….at least there’s a workaround.

Getting 100% world exploration is something most people will pursue at some time in GW2. As such they have to go through the ordeal of reaching all the POIs and Vistas in WvW.

That’s all fine and dandy.

But I don’t comprehend why it is not possible to reach some of these points without owning the respective fortress/keep. In fact, it almost forces players to use server transfers to reach some of these points in a heavily fortified areas that they will never have access to otherwise.

Servers with weak WvW performances will have an even harder time getting these.

I really don’t understand the reasoning here.

If you have to hide all these points and Vistas in random fortresses at least give people away to reach them without owning the respective fortresses.

Where do you get these kind of ideas when simply modifying the score board would address 80% of the complaints?

It strikes me as a very convoluted idea and far too complex for the nature of WvW.

My problem with Initiative is that it encourages you to only use your most efficient attack. There is no encouragement to use other skills for damage as they all share the same resource.

And that fact that only the weapon utility skills actually cost Initiative really limits the opportunity cost analysis we have to perform.

Sure, sometimes it’s important to choose between an Infiltrator Arrow or a Dancing Dagger but those moments are few and far between.

If our utility skills actually cost Initiative I might have a better opinion of it.

Matt Witter.6982:

Greetings everyone!

We’ve received lots of feedback regarding night capping. Many want to know how Arenanet views this. Our answer is that WvW was developed as a never ending continuous battle.

We feel that everyone should have the ability to contribute no matter what time of the day it is. How we’ve came to this conclusion is that no player’s time is more valuable than another. Everyone has different off peak hours for whatever reason. Players should not be punished or unable to experience and view the same content as everyone else because they play at a different time. They too are paying customers.
This is not saying that we are against any adjustment to scoring, or against developing another mechanic to improve the capping system. This is simply saying that we will not be changing WvW based on some players’ idea of off time hours.

Please use this thread as the main discussion for this topic.

Good, but nobody ever asked for such a thing.

The only requests were for some sort of adaptive mechanic to limit the impacts on the overall score. Not more, not less. That’s all that was ever asked for and something you didn’t exclude.

Edit: I feel at this point it might be right to bring up the two best suggestions I’ve heard to this issue.

1. Award points for actually killing players. WvW is after all a PvP activity. If every kill added a +1 to your servers score then at least PvP would be rewarded, not just taking keeps.

2. Scale the current value of objectives with the current number of active players in WvW. Ergo, the more activity is going on the more rewarding WvW is.

None of these two suggestions would in any way impair the playing experience for anyone playing at any time. They are merely modifications to the scoring system to more accurately reflects a servers WvW prowess.

In before “stop being so selfish”, “recruit american guilds”, “why should they have less fun”, “your night time is not their everyone’s night time”…

and last but not least “deal with it”.

That should cover all of the standard one liners regarding this issue.

Idgarad.6105:

Kyus.3812:

The nightcapping debate needs to change names to what the actual problem is.

Its not about night capping. night capping should be there as a viable tactic. it should also encourage people to play who have an alternative work/sleep pattern or live in another time zone.

What the actual problem is, is that the scoring system reflects too heavily on who has the majority of players during low population hours. This trivialises primetime combat. A medium populaton server can win at prime time against a full/high pop server. Any scoring during that time is irrelevant in comparison to the score that the server is able to maximise during the lower population hours.

Simple, contribute 1 point for every enemy player killed. Prime time now competes with offhour players.

Not a bad idea.

You’d have to see how it affects the overall score but I could see it working out. It’s certainly a step in the right direction by rewarding PvP more than PvD (players vs. doors). Maybe repost this as a more detailed suggestion here on the boards.

Raze.5420:

- “Even a medium population server should be able to fill most battlegrounds.” – If this is the case (posted by one of the most vocal and frequent posters for the anti-nightcapping minority) then what is the problem. If even medium servers can fill the queues and negate the large population how can you argue that nightcapping is an issue? Credibility = 0.

Way to quote out of context. Why don’t you quote my entire post, not just the segment that suits your agenda.

But let me do that for you.

Also, it’s great how the queue system already limits the potential advantage high-population realms have over lower populated ones.

Even a medium population server should be able to fill most battlegrounds.

But somehow asking for a fix to a much “cheesier” imbalance is somehow too much?
Talk about double standards…

What I’m saying is that the impacts of a drastic population imbalance are somewhat mitigated by the queue system (because only a limited number of people can play at a time). High population realms still have a big advantage, but it’s mitigated.

All that we, the supporters of some kind of measure, (preferably a score system that scales with current player activity) want is something similar to mitigate the effects of “late night Players vs Door” on the overall score.

And just a note. If you look at the quality of posters pro and con a the issue you see a very clear image.

90% of comments defending night capping are simple one-liners that don’t contain a single argument and rarely go beyond “Don’t be so selfish”, “my night is not your night” and “why do you hate Australians”.

On the other hand at least 50%…probably more of the posts asking for some kind of mitigating mechanic are at least reasonably written statements containing at least a semblance of reasonable arguing.

Idgarad.6105:

Better yet, realize that the other servers are just like your and realize they have the same issue population wise. Stop blaming “offpeak” because you offpeak players are worse then the other server’s offpeak players.

Better yet, open a map, check where which languages are actually spoken and where servers can realistically recruit a player-base and then come back with an informed opinion.

Not everywhere is the United States you know.

Kyus.3812:

What the actual problem is, is that the scoring system reflects too heavily on who has the majority of players during low population hours. This trivialises primetime combat. A medium populaton server can win at prime time against a full/high pop server. Any scoring during that time is irrelevant in comparison to the score that the server is able to maximise during the lower population hours.

Well said,

maybe calling it “night-capping” really isn’t that helpful to the debate because people can’t look past the word and see the real issue.

It’s about the reliance on overseas players to be competitive (not possible for every language).

It’s about the relative meaninglessness of daytime achievements compared to what goes on during the night. (E.g. 100 vs. 10 vs. 10 is more rewarded than 150 vs. 150 vs. 150)

Those are the true problems and they are real ones.

And yet people half the people still get caught up on “lol..but it’s not night time here, rolf”.

Kazim.2043:

I don’t recall any posts suggesting pausing the war overnight

And nobody ever did. But the night-capping fanboys are so blended by their opinions they don’t stop to think for a minute if there might actually be a point to all this.

Also, it’s great how the queue system already limits the potential advantage high-population realms have over lower populated ones.

Even a medium population server should be able to fill most battlegrounds.

But somehow asking for a fix to a much “cheesier” imbalance is somehow too much?

Talk about double standards…

RamonDomke.9638:

Hi Everyone,

All is fair in love and war – and as love, WvW is a battlefield.
There are exploits, I’ll give you that – but then there is coordinated effort to ensure your world or your team uses each and every resource they have to their advantage.

War is not fair, war is not pretty, war gets out the worst in us – and the best – and even if we have excluded open world pvp from the rest of the game, this is exactly what happens on the WvW maps: It is the ‘playground’ for strategists and great tacticians, it is the place for coordinated efforts and mean ideas in the middle of the night.

Night capping is one of those valid tactics to score some points in a lasting battle – to get your world the upper hand, or cancel out daytime supremacy by another well coordinated opponent.

As Guild Wars 2 will progress in time, so will world vs. world and core gameplay mechanics. But for now, night capping is one valid possibility to ruin your enemie’s days – pun intended.

I respect that you finally came out and took a stance.

But way to go about not addressing a single concern regarding night-capping. Basically you just said the same thing all the other night-capping fans have said in the past. “Deal with it”.

Ok…fair enough, but you realize this basically tells any server out there without a significant overseas population (German and most UK servers) that they have virtually no chance to compete.

And this “all is fair in love an war” is bullkitten. Because this is a game first and foremost and not everything is fair game.

Sieges are tedious business at times in WvW, especially when you go through more than one set of Siege weapons. Having half your raid constantly running back and forth between a supply camp isn’t exactly fun. I understand the necessity for supplies, and that’s fine, I’d just like to propose an additional feature.

Allow us to tag friendly Dolyaks into following us with their supplies. These Dolyaks could then be walked near a Siege location and then provide as a mobile supply station. Obviously they’d be a popular target and only have very limited supplies (70/140 irrc) but it still beats having to run around while missing out on all the action.

Just an idea.

Occasionally when laying siege I encounter something or someone that frequently causes a massive knockback for everyone standing in melee range of the gate, including those operating the battering rams.

I was wondering what this is since it’s very annoying and I’m not really convinced it’s working as intended. Is it some kind of Guardian ability or are players building siege weapons in their own keeps to knock people down?

I too would really appreciate an official response to this hot-topic. It seems like both sides are entrenched with their ideas.

On one side you have people arguing that you should leave it alone because every playtime should be treated equally on the other hand night-capping is considered cheap and undermines a lot of the successes achieved during the day against real hard opposition. (Server success is achieved at night, not during the day.)

Both are somewhat viable opinions at least.

But ANet really needs to take a stance here. They either have to accept that they’re putting realms without a significant overseas population at a serious disadvantage or introduce a system that somehow deal with it.

Anyway, we as a community need to know. Sooner rather than later.

Hold your breath there it’s hard to follow your reasoning.

Anyway, if you’re looking for the next carrot to chase I don’t think there is one (except a Legendary). You can get exotic gear within a month, possibly more if you’re very specific about a certain look, but then that’s it gear-wise.

Then again, if you like Online FPS how come you can’t play an MMO without chasing a carrot?

The lack of a carrot is quite a common complaint and yet people play Battlefield 3/Modern Warfare etc. for years “just for fun”. Why not bring that attitude to an MMO?

I’m assuming this was by a single attack, yes? Becuase the game adds up the damage from various damage sources once you die (aka. you took xyz damage from 3 Heartseekers).

Anyway, 8900 sound extremely high even for Heartseeker. The only possible way it could have reached that high is if:

1. You yourself play a glass-cannon build, ergo have very low Toughness levels.
2. You were under 25% health at the time (because heartseeker does more damage the less health you have). This would also mean that despite the big number you never really took that much damage as you wouldn’t have that much health.
3. The Thief was specced especially for Heartseeker spam or at least was running a heavy crit-build.
4. He combined it with the “150% damage on your next attack” singet.

I’d say you’d need at least 3 out of those 4 elements to come together in order to get such a number.

That said, you could get hit by and even bigger Backstab number. It’s not uncommon for Backstab (a Dagger attack from Stealth) to reach 5 digits against other glass-cannon builds when combined with the 150% damage on next attack singet.

I just did the Shatterer Event for the first time since GamesCon…2008 iirc.

And god was it a let down. Hell, I even recall it being more interesting back then than it is now. It was litterally an auto-attack spam fest, nothing else.

I mean it looked visually impressive, no doubt, including great animations etc. but there seem to be zero actual encounter mechanics. He was invulnerable for a few seconds and I think he spawned some cyrsitals but that didn’t last long.

I’ve had more of a challenge vs. some Veteran mobs than fighting that dragon.

Not to QQ but any MMO player here will know what a reasonably challenging encounter looks like. Why don’t the developers?

I just wish 80% of events were about more than spamming AoE into a group of mobs that dies in about 2 seconds.

I agree with all except friendly fire. That’s just a no-go in such a chaotic environment as is W3. Maybe for Siege Weapons only….but that’s a big maybe.

I too think a week is ideal.

Kietay.2345:

You are completely right c: Like many problems MMOs have, most can be solved by adopting the general way EVE does things. It lets players have the power to do what they want with very few rules. The clever and able succeed, the less able do not. Perfect justice. No smashing the hard working teams simply because they are better at something.

EVE is a single server for the entire population. That changes things drastically.

Scuzzy.2713:

The only problem with this idea I can see is that it has the potential to be abused, by servers logging out en mass to deny the opposition chance to gain points to make a come back. Therfore artifically affecting the normal playtimes of that server for thier own benifit.

However with a slight change to this idea it could work – the percentage points of the ticks were based upon server activity to date (i.e no one can now affect this) it could work.

Same sort of percentages as above, but already predetermined based upon past activity – if a server that historically has had little night presence then a ‘night capping’ server can only gain limited points of them, but when playing against other servers with a history of 24hr representation then normal points resume.

Though the above is still liable to manipulation..

Oh come on, that’s such a far fetched idea it won’t ever happen.

By abandoning a fight, a server effectively surrenders their entire possessions to the enemy. That alone would more than compensate for the lower score coefficient.

waeren.9743:

No, it’s a pretty horrible idea.

All you’re doing is reducing the overall impact of the points during the off peak. This ain’t fair for the people playing then and it does not change the fact that the map can be easily capped by the realm with an higher population.

So no.

Sounds like you just want to PvE your way to victory.

So yes.

And no, it doesn’t make it more difficult to cap. It just limits the score significance during inactive hours. I still don’t see how this is supposed to be bad.

Scuzzy.2713:

The only problem with this idea I can see is that it has the potential to be abused, by servers logging out en mass to deny the opposition chance to gain points to make a come back. Therfore artifically affecting the normal playtimes of that server for thier own benifit.

However with a slight change to this idea it could work – the percentage points of the ticks were based upon server activity to date (i.e no one can now affect this) it could work.

Same sort of percentages as above, but already predetermined based upon past activity – if a server that historically has had little night presence then a ‘night capping’ server can only gain limited points of them, but when playing against other servers with a history of 24hr representation then normal points resume.

Though the above is still liable to manipulation..

Oh come on, that’s such a far fetched idea it won’t ever happen.

By abandoning a fight, a server effectively surrenders their entire possessions to the enemy. That alone would more than compensate for the lower score coefficient.

Yes, I share the same problem, currently using Chrome on Windows 7 – 64 bit.

W3 is at its best when you have major armies on all three sides duking it out.

I believe that is something we all can agree on. It’s also the premise W3 was designed around.

Hence I propose that W3 should be the most rewarding when exactly that is happening. My suggestion is to scale the point rewards in W3 according to the current player activity.

Afaik the Eternal Battleground allow for 166 players on each side, ergo 500 players in total. Due to this limit we know that the game does actively track the amount of players currently active in W3. So the tech is there.

Now the idea is to scale the point rewards according to the total number of active players.

-Taking a total of 300 players as the basis for 100% this would mean.

-If 500 active players are currently competing in W3, then the points accumulate at 166% the standard rate.

-If 300 players are currently competing in W3, then point accumulate at 100% the standard rate.

-If 100 players are currently active, then the W3 score accumulates at 33% the current rate.

This ties the score reward directly to the amount of PvP going on in W3, which only seems fair since it’s a PvP competition.

Things to note:

1. The number is based on the total number of active players. Population imbalances are irrelevant. If one realm has 166 active players and the other have 0…they still get the 56% rate.

2. The game updates the current number of active players live…just before each “tick”.

Thoughts?

I would like to add (because the quote/edit buttons seem to disappear constantly) that we would not be having this debate if there were large armies clashing on every server at night.

Nobody is against people playing at night. It’s just that night-time battles, due to numerous issues, are typically very, very one sided and are exceptionally effective.

BlurKiller.1976:

Dee Jay.2460:

DavidMonthen.4398:

so you want to punish players that can only play at night because they have to work in shifts?

Why is this punishing anyone? Just because the keeps score counts for less?

Do you want to punish people who play during the day for not playing at night….when the real magic happens?

Bullkitten argument is bullkitten.

Please.. Its your argument that is BS. Why should anyone’s effort be count for less. GW2 is an international game, if you do not know what that is, it means there are players from ALL OVER THE WORLD playing it.
If you have some common sense, or a little geographic knowledge, you would know that the whole world does not share the same timezone. To you it may be night(assuming you are from NA), but to players across the world(such as asia, oceanic) its morning/afternoon.
All this night-capping crap whining needs to stop. I’m from asia and everytime i log in to wvw i get a little annoyed that we get referred to as the ‘night crew’. You wanna solve this problem? Recruit more asia/oceanics into your servers, if not, kitten.

But the whole world isn’t meant to be playing on a single server. They are regional for a reason. Time-zones (and latency) are part of those reasons.

It’s funny how somehow it’s not ok for something achieved at night to count less but it’s ok for your day-time achievements to be virtually worthless because you don’t have a night crew.

It’s the same argument just turned around.

And it’s still ineffectual. You see, you keep repeating the same argument.

Why should it count less, why are you disrespecting xyz etc. etc.

I can tell you why night capping should count for less!

Because more often than not, night cappers are PvEing rather than PvPing. Why should storming a keep against a dozen NPCs count the same as storming a keep against 30 defenders?

The real flaw in your argument is that you tie the quality of someone’s achievement to the amount of score-points it rewards, not to the actual effort and commitment it takes to achieve.

You seem to think that only because a night-cap would count for less, that it somehow undermines the quality of someone’s gaming experience.

It doesn’t. It’s like saying Basketball is more fun than Soccer because you have higher scores.

I have the same problem. I’m not sure when and how it’s related.

Maybe the direct invite only works if the other guy is in your field of view, I’m not sure.

DavidMonthen.4398:

so you want to punish players that can only play at night because they have to work in shifts?

Why is this punishing anyone? Just because the keeps score counts for less?

Do you want to punish people who play during the day for not playing at night….when the real magic happens?

Bullkitten argument is bullkitten.

albi.9518:

ginzo.8792:

and can i just add this ; to those who would argue that off peak or night crews do so cos it’s their primetime.

french canadians if they want to play with folk in wvw can play on NA servers and play in daytime prime if they so choose. playing on euro french servers is an active choice , they choose to play during the servers nighttime.

same with south american spanish speakers , they can play on NA servers if they choose , but actively choose to play on eruo spanish servers knowing they will be fighting against nobody in wvw.

if you choose to play at a time where you will face no opposition in wvw then you don’t deserve to be catered for at everyones expense.

So you’re saying that we do not deserve respect because we sacrifice the best 3W parts (big defenses and attacks) just to play with friends instead?

By the way it’s not that bad during the night, there are still opponents, the fights are even more strategic because it’s not just a “who has the most players and who will use clipping at best”, it’s actual tactics when you are alone inside the lord room and a group of 7-8 attackers are on their way (happened yesterday).

How come every night-capping counter-argument always involves:

“Why do you disrespect xyz players?”

How does wanting a solution to night-capping having anything to do with respect or hating? I doesn’t make sense and it’s not a real argument. This is like saying “Why do you hate America” as a counter-argument against Obamacare.

It makes no sense and it’s not a fair argument.

Actually, I have yet to hear a good argument against a night-capping solution.

The only so called arguments I hear sound something like this:

1. Why do you disrespect/hate night players
2. Recruit late night guilds
3. Stop being selfish!

These argument would really hold up well in a real debate……..yeah right.

Well the French (Jade Sea), despite their average day time performance, have more than the other two realms combined, thanks to their Canadian player base who basically cap the entire map every night.

So they will be moving up the ladder no doubt. Vabbi will probably move down.

Not sure how exactly this works but you might end up facing Abbadon’s Mouth..

Bloodsteel

ALSO: STOP kitten DISCRIMINATING AGAINST PLAYERS WHO PLAY AT NIGHT (/rage). There are people that just CANNOT play at any other time during each day (day being the 24h period of time, not time of daylight here). So by saying this is a better representation of each servers strength you are basically excluding those players from counting to the servers strength. Meaning you are saying. “Nah, you guys don’t count.” Thats a kind of discrimination. I am not sure if ANet is going to tolerate it here for discussions sake, but if I WAS them I wouldn’t.

I hear this “argument” all the time but it makes no sense.

Nobody is “discriminating” or “disrespecting” late night players. I don’t even know how people get this idea in their head.

Asking for a fix for night-capping is just about balancing the relative effort of day activities vs. those achieved at night. It has nothing to do with wanting to “punish” people or discriminate against them. So stop claiming that.

So far the only arguments against a night-capping solution have been:

1. Stop being selfish!
2. Recruit late night guilds!
3. Why do you hate late night players?

None of those so called “arguments” are reasonable or even logical in any case.

I have yet to read a logical argument in favour of night-capping/

Yes, a Backstab focused build can hit that hard, but relies on a spec dedicated to just that one trick pony.

When going glass cannon vs. glass cannon, most classes are going to come up short vs. a Thief. Stealth simply gives them an upper hand that is hard to compensate in a 8 second fight.

With night-capping in it’s current form…no, because what’s the point if what you achieve during the day with 150+ friends is rendered obsolete by what 30 people do at night.

The question is whether PvE will keep me entertained that long.

Decent video, the clips weren’t that great but at least you were good enough to try out different weapon loadouts and not just spam Pistol Whip for max crits.

ref.8196:

I play melee 90% of the time. I do not ever get one-shot.

Keep as much Aegis, protection and retalitation as you can, you can do this directly through some traits/skills, or even better with combo fields.

It’s probably slightly different for a Guardian compared to other classes as they have very high base-line defense.

And before people tell me to dodge or go defensive etc….I’ve done all that. I’m not an “ololol bigkitten fat crits” guy. I do whatever it takes to get the job done. I run a 15/30/5/20/0 build with balanced stats (Lysia’s Exotic set).

I could fully accept if this happened to a all-out Berserker set player. But it happens a lot. And when I say one-shot I don’t necessarily mean a single ability. Some mobs like to chain together certain attacks etc. that still end up killing you unable to react (yes, even with stun breakers).

I think the melee hate in this game is a culmination of multiple elements coming together.

1. Far more anti-melee mechanics in game than anti-ranged.
2. These abilities have much shorter animations and are less visible than many ranged abilities….thus harder to avoid.
3. Particle effects, point of view etc. all limit what a melee can see coming.

I think that’s an element that needs re-balancing. Especially if you consider how many fights are really quite boring from a ranged PoV.

I play a Thief and have been playing catch up with the dungeons, both story and explorable mode over the past few days. While overall they are enjoyable, I’m more than frustrated by a lot of the mechanics.

As any good PvEer I always have a ranged weapons ready. I’d like to use my melee weapons occasionally, but I almost always regret it about 3 seconds later.

This is what happens: Snooze-fest boss-fight with a bajillion HP and lackluster mechanics (think CoE final boss(es)).

After watching the fight evolve for a moment…spamming damage into the boss…

“Hmm, lets’ give melee a try…it does more damage and feels more visceral”.

Shadowstep to the boss…attack once or twice…BOOM…get one-shot because kittens you, that’s why.

Get rezzed…resort to watching TV while character auto-shots the boss from range.
_____________________________

Now this doesn’t just happen with bosses, it applies to a lot of trash to. I can’t count how many times I’ve got bored of ranged DPS and Shadowstepped into melee…only to get one-shot by who knows what. It happens all the time, in every instance, with all sorts of mobs and it’s frustrating.

I can get behind melee being the high risk/high damage option. That’s ok….but melee would have to deal 10-times more damage than it currently does to off-set the risk you put yourself in.

I really hope this is addressed soon because I’m already seeing “LFM XYZ explorable mode…no melees”.

If you’re hoping to provoke the Germans you’ll have more success posting on the German forums.

Anyway, this kind of trash-talk is what W3 is all about.

I’m just not sure it belongs here.

Hey, I’m on your other server opposing Jade Sea. Yes, Jade Sea is extreme, especially a night when the Canadians all log on. Then they control 90% of the map whereas they’re only average during the day.

It will probably take a few more weeks before you (and many other servers) finally oppose enemies of roughly equal strength. Currently things are still very volatile and W3 is still evolving as people get more and more organized.

You’ll just have to hope that people don’t lose all interest in W3 until then.

1. Mesmer (really strong 1v1, great utility)
2. Guardian (some builds have both high defense and good offense)
3. Thief (can get quite far with their glass cannon builds)
4. Warrior (kittenload of damage when specced accordingly, otherwise…so so)
5. Engineer (some specs have amazing burst…but hard to generalize aside from that)
6. Rangers (nothing much to say really, they seem very average)
7. Necromancer (few and far between, they don’t seem that strong)
8. Elementalist (rarely a very threatening enemy, don’t know why)

Purely my opinions.

I want what 150 people accomplish during the day to matter compared to what 20 people achieve at night.

mangarrage.1062:

Well with one of the main concerns being night capping and with the very small window of overlapping playtime (which ofc would obly be viable on 2 weekend days) all you would see is flipping over and over again during the different prime times which in essence would make the biggest problem people are seeing worse

The biggest thing is people can control populations and people can even out servers, the ones on the zerg or very populated ones simply won’t

Exactly, latency issues aside, WvW is at its best when you have a large number of players on both sides clashing. That’s what it’s really all about.

That’s also why night capping is such a heated debate because it essentially avoids the clashing and just goes for the path of least resistance.

melchiz.7182:

We all know that WvW is headed for an obvious death as people gradually realize that their accomplishments and efforts have zero impact on match outcomes. We should thank those responsible for the sad and untimely demise of WvW, as they are helping ANet to avoid such game design oversights in the future.

This is the true crux of night capping.

Not what 95% of the players achieve during the day decides the outcome of W3.

What 5% of players achieve at night does.

People don’t seem to get the issue with night-capping. It’s not just about getting yourkittenkicked.

It means that 70% of your W3 performance isn’t dictated by what goes on during peak hours, it’s dictated by what happens at night. Instead of the server community deciding the outcome, it’s decided by a small (or not so small) minority of late night players.

What this also means is that a server will eventually find itself matched against servers that completely DOMINATE them during the day, similar to what was described above.

That is until the night crew comes along an balances out the score again by taking everything back.

The result is one team dominating one half of the day while the other completely dominates the other. It’s not a fair and balanced battle, it’s not a competition…it’s not fun for either side.