Showing Posts For Einlanzer.1627:

Please reconsider base-health values

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Yeah, I’ve long felt the gaps were too large, particularly when you consider that all professions are designed to have roughly equivalent damage output. The only balancer for low Health/attrition, then, is having really good utility, and well….

[Warrior] Longbow auto attack speed

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

so what is this now??

Warrior took Evasion from The Thief

Warrior took Aoe from the Elementalist

Warrior took Condition from the Necromancer

Warrior took Stability from the Guardian

Warrior took Mobility from the Mesmer

Warrior took Condition Removal from the Engineer

Now the Warrior want to take Range from the Ranger

Warrior!!

ENOUGH!! IS ENOUGH !!

These kinds of posts make my head hurt.

Berserker is not overpowered! (with math)

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

My comments are bolded and in brackets…

The issue with Zerker is actually very obvious. Part 1 is encounter design, but part 2 is indeed the stats themselves. Here’s why-

Precision masquerades as a normal additive stat but is actually a % multiplicative stat [what? All stats stack up multiplicatively. For instance, a +100 increase in armor to a mesmer will reduce the amount of damage it takes to 94.83% of its original value. It’s not like “if I take X amount of a stat, I will increase Y by Z” where Z is some kind of integer.]. Zerker (and its subordinates) are the only sets in the game that have bonuses to two % stats that directly affect each other [Wrong again. First of all, every defensive stat scales with every other defensive stat (though HealPow’s relationship to Vitality is a bit different), and the same goes for every offensive stat. For instance, if I reduce the amount of direct damage I take by 10% by increasing my toughness, and I also increase my health by 10%, then those two effects stack together- i.e. I live longer than if those stats were independent. To an extent, even offensive stats scale with defensive stats. Second… Again, every stat in the game is a % stat, not some kind of direct integer increase]. This creates a very obvious issue with relative scaling -

In a nutshell, zerker stats are backloaded, where all other stat combos are frontloaded. Zerker stats are weak at the baseline but scale hyperbolically [This isn’t really true. First of all, as mentioned before, due to the scaling of defensive stats related to one another, I can argue that they scale hyperbolically as well. Secondly, and more importantly, however, is that it’s not really a hyperbolic relationship anyways. For instance, in sPvP, putting on a zerker amulet actually decreases the relative values of power and precision. It actually increases the value of critical damage dramatically, but because CritDam can only come in very small quantities anyways, this tends not to matter too much. Also, see note at the end of this post.] Other stats are healthy at the baseline and scale linearly with moderate diminishing returns [Diminishing returns applies just as much to offensive stats. For instance, 1 point of power initially increases your damage by 1.18 times the amount that 1 point of vitality increases your defense. However, increasing your power by a a mere ~165 makes these two stats become the same in terms of strength.] This can be seen as easily on a level 30 toon (where direct damage skills are weaker than condition skills) as it can be on a top-geared 80 (where it’s the opposite) [not necessarily].

Changing crit damage from a percent to an additive stat was actually a very good move to make the whole system more scalable [it already is], and that’s how it should have originally been implemented, because that’s how it works for every other ‘grouping’. Now, direct damage will have a stronger baseline and scale in a more linear fashion [no stat can or does scale in a linear fashion; it’s physically impossible without making the value of other variables effecting that stat’s strength go up at the same time. Economics 101], making it much easier to both achieve and maintain relative balance (assuming Anet doesn’t drop the ball somewhere).

Of course, it’s clearly not the only thing that needs adjusting, but it’s the best starting point.

Note: The question of whether or not offensive or defensive stats scale better with stats of their own type is somewhat controversial. In the final formulas that I use for offensive and defensive amplification, these amounts are indeed multiplied. However, in marginal analysis of these stats, these values are not multiplied together, for a variety of reasons. So it depends on your point of view.

Thank you for explaining to me how very basic math works. I use the terms loosely to illustrate contrast. The point is that, even though all relevant stat pairings have multiplicative synergy, the growth curve for most stat combinations is comparatively linear, and you gradually get diminishing returns, which is to be expected.

The Zerker trio, though, is a little different – is has an odd configuration where power, crit damage, and crit % all three have high, direct, persistent multiplicative synergy (note that Condition Duration is not available on standard gear and Healing Power is not really comparable) and are set at low effect for the baseline but scale more steeply as they accumulate. This results in a comparatively hyperbolic growth curve that is quite noticeable both at low level and at top tier.

While I’m not as familiar with the actual numbers as some other people probably are, they’d have to do some seriously superb formula calibration for Zerker to sustain good balance at all levels relative to other sets the way it is currently configured.

Berserker is not overpowered! (with math)

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

The issue is that ANET is trying to fix a PvE warrior issue by nerfing zerker gear. No one ever said.. “Let’s run COF. Give me 5 zerker mesmers”.

Unfortunately, ANET has a weird balance methodology. Instead of fixing the core problem, they try to make wide scale other changes. Great for job security I guess, but horrible for balance.

At the very least, these changes should be made in PvE and not applied to WvW.

No, they are trying to balance the Zerker gear issue by nerfing Zerker gear. Except they aren’t just nerfing it, they’re redesigning it to fit into the schema that other gear sets use so it in a linear way like every other stat combination does.

Berserker is not overpowered! (with math)

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

The issue with Zerker is actually very obvious. Part 1 is encounter design, but part 2 is indeed the stats themselves. Here’s why-

Precision masquerades as a normal additive stat but is actually a % multiplicative stat. Zerker (and its subordinates) are the only sets in the game that have bonuses to two % stats that directly affect each other. This creates a very obvious issue with relative scaling -

In a nutshell, zerker stats are backloaded, where all other stat combos are frontloaded. Zerker stats are weak at the baseline but scale hyperbolically. Other stats are healthy at the baseline and scale linearly with moderate diminishing returns. This can be seen as easily on a level 30 toon (where direct damage skills are weaker than condition skills) as it can be on a top-geared 80 (where it’s the opposite).

Changing crit damage from a percent to an additive stat was actually a very good move to make the whole system more scalable, and that’s how it should have originally been implemented, because that’s how it works for every other ‘grouping’. Now, direct damage will have a stronger baseline and scale in a more linear fashion, making it much easier to both achieve and maintain relative balance (assuming Anet doesn’t drop the ball somewhere).

Of course, it’s clearly not the only thing that needs adjusting, but it’s the best starting point.

The issue with zerker is obvious and combat mechanics are part of the answer. For most people the zerker issue is the ‘zerker meta’ where people feel that zerker gear is required and there is discrimination against other gearsets. Because stat allocations are, in this case, about trade-offs between damage and survivability, there will always be one gearset that provides the highest damage with adequate survivability. When the current changes are implemented, the damage will decrease by 10%. But, zerker gear will still be the highest damage. The nerf will not have changed the zerker issue and relative use of gearsets.

If you look up a a couple posts I described why any reasonable change to zerker will have no affect whatsoever in the direct damage/Condition damage gear choices. The numbers will be different, but direct damage (zerker) will still be preferred.

The number one issue for the commonly understood zerker problem is simply that GW2 combat has only one effective combat role at present and there will always be one gearset that confers the highest damage with adequate survivability. You can change the stat allocations all you want and this will not change. You may change the name of the gearset with enough monkeying around but you won’t address the problem of everyone preferring the same one. The problem has to be addressed by rethinking combat in terms of mechanics certainly but also combat roles. The problem, remember, is that we only have one role, DPS. We don’t necessarily need to add set roles, but certainly effective equivalents.

The only thing the 10% nerf does is effectively lower the power level of the game on the player side.

Edit: So, for all you zerkers who grinded out the 10% increase of vertical progression in its first year: Anet giveth and Anet taketh away.

I’m not necessarily arguing against those points, I just think people aren’t seeing the bigger picture. Sure, Zerker gear will still be the most common. Sure, encounters and mob AI need to be redesigned to fully address the ‘zerker problem’, which includes non-DPS roles being unnecessary and lackluster. Sure, you may deal 10% less damage at the top end of the spectrum. However, the point is that you will feel more functional in sets other than Zerker, which is a good starting point.

Regardless, none of that changes what I said above. There is a scaling issue with the Zerker stats that is playing a role in the problem and is the simplest first step to remedying it. Moreover, the back-loaded nature of the Zerker set results in a wonky framework that is impossible to sustain balance within. Specifically because of how crit damage % is designed, Zerker will always be too strong (like it is at top tier) or too weak (like it is while leveling) relative to other sets.

They needed to make this change to bring the various stat combinations into roughly the same design schema so they can gauge and maintain better relative balance and improve scalability for the whole system.

I do hope, though, that they don’t drop the ball on the bigger Phase II of redesigning AI and mob stats. To fix the offense > defense problem, they need to make most mobs hit more frequently for less damage. They need to also find a way to resolve the condition cap conundrum, and they need to diversify boons and conditions and further empower healing.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

[Warrior] Longbow auto attack speed

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Yeah, this is very obviously a problem, and it isn’t unique to the Warrior LB. Autoattacks need to be effective enough to supply a healthy baseline of steady DPS while being supplemented by other skills. Most weapons function this way but there are a few outliers, which are always ranged weapons. They all have very poorly tuned aftercasts for the amount of damage they do which makes them about as effective as fighting with a wet noodle in most situations.

Thief/Engi Pistol, Ele Staff, and Memser Scepter are all in the same boat. Possibly others.

As an aside, anyone using the “warrior is not a ranger” argument have an amazingly poor comprehension of about a hundred different things, so please just stop.

Yeah, please buff the warrior LB autoattack, so the ranger LB is completely useless.
Wait, I’ve got a better idea: Simply remove all classes exept the warrior, since the warrior is top-notch in every single aspect already.
I simply love these warrior fools. Complaining about a weapon who doesn’t do as much damage as 100b GS while simply ignoring the fact that the warrior is THE best class in the game right now.
Get the belance fixed first, then you can start complain again.

Ladies and gentlemen, I exhibit evidence part 1.

Firstly, I don’t even main warrior.

Secondly, the issue of warrior LB auto-attack bears little relevance to the question of the warrior’s OPness OR to the question how effective the Ranger’s LB is. Ranger’s LB used to have the exact same problem, and they fixed it without fixing the Warrior’s.

[Warrior] Longbow auto attack speed

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Yeah, this is very obviously a problem, and it isn’t unique to the Warrior LB. Autoattacks need to be effective enough to supply a healthy baseline of steady DPS while being supplemented by other skills. Most weapons function this way but there are a few outliers, which are always ranged weapons. They all have very poorly tuned aftercasts for the amount of damage they do which makes them about as effective as fighting with a wet noodle in most situations.

Thief/Engi Pistol, Ele Staff, and Memser Scepter are all in the same boat. Possibly others.

As an aside, anyone using the “warrior is not a ranger” argument have an amazingly poor comprehension of about a hundred different things, so please just stop.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

Stat Design/Nomenclature

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

I like the name “Ferocity” for a crit damage stat, admittedly, but doesn’t it clash with the personality attribute of the same name? Will that be renamed, or will we just live with it?

Also, it’s inconsistent with other secondary stats that, since the last beta, just use descriptive names instead of the previous flavor names. I actually prefer the flavor names as it’s pretty easy to pick up what each stat does and makes them just sound cooler, but that brings up the question of stat bloat and how ‘intuitive’ it is, which leads me to:

Have you ever considered simply ‘removing’ the primary stats by folding them into the respective derived stats just to get rid of some of the bloat and make things less complicated? The distinction seems arbitrary and unnecessary at this point.

10 % damage nerf

in Thief

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

It fixes a rather obvious scaling issue in the game that is a direct result of Zerker having bonuses to two different percentage based stats that directly affect each other.

It’s a good change, frankly, even if it results in a net DPS loss at the top end. I’m willing to take it.

[Mesmer] Scepter 1 ideas/discussion

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

The most obvious solution is to increase the AA to fire at a reasonable speed. It currently does not. This is actually a problem with several ranged weapons in the game that causes them to be all but unusable – Thief & Engi Pistol in particular.

Berserker is not overpowered! (with math)

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

The issue with Zerker is actually very obvious. Part 1 is encounter design, but part 2 is indeed the stats themselves. Here’s why-

Precision masquerades as a normal additive stat but is actually a % multiplicative stat. Zerker (and its subordinates) are the only sets in the game that have bonuses to two % stats that directly affect each other. This creates a very obvious issue with relative scaling -

In a nutshell, zerker stats are backloaded, where all other stat combos are frontloaded. Zerker stats are weak at the baseline but scale hyperbolically. Other stats are healthy at the baseline and scale linearly with moderate diminishing returns. This can be seen as easily on a level 30 toon (where direct damage skills are weaker than condition skills) as it can be on a top-geared 80 (where it’s the opposite).

Changing crit damage from a percent to an additive stat was actually a very good move to make the whole system more scalable, and that’s how it should have originally been implemented, because that’s how it works for every other ‘grouping’. Now, direct damage will have a stronger baseline and scale in a more linear fashion, making it much easier to both achieve and maintain relative balance (assuming Anet doesn’t drop the ball somewhere).

Of course, it’s clearly not the only thing that needs adjusting, but it’s the best starting point.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

Thinking about it...

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

I’ve gone back and forth on this ever since the announcement, but I think I’ve arrived at the conclusion that crit damage % really is a problematic stat, and it’s probably a good thing they’re replacing it.

Why do I think that? Most people talk about the theoretical top-level effectiveness of zerker as a result of the way that triad scales. That’s true, but there’s a bigger issue than precisely how good the zerker stats are at level 80 that isn’t talked about as much. Essentially, the stat combination is back-loaded where as every other combination is front-loaded.

Every other combination starts at a healthy baseline then progresses in a mostly linear fashion, receiving gradually diminishing returns as the scale increases, while crit % and crit damage % are the opposite – they are very ineffective at the low end of the scale with hyperbolic growth at the top end, and the problem will get worse if they ever add more ways of getting more. Think about it – its two percentage stats that are directly tied together. No other stat combo has that. This is clearly not an ideal situation and not a sustainable framework.

You can tell the difference also if you’re playing a lower level toon. At level 30, your direct damage skills tend to be lackluster while your condition based skills are highly effective (particularly in PvE). This is because at that level you get a lot more bang for your buck out of condition stats and significantly less out of zerker stats. This eventually flip flops as you get closer to 80, and scales out of control the more bonuses you get to the relevant stats.

Anyway, I know this has been discussed to death but that’s just my two cents – you really shouldn’t have bonuses to two % based stats that directly affect each other on the same set.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

DE Upgrades

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

The following relatively simple things would make the DE system work much, much better (especially in Orr) and be much more scalable, IMO:

1. NPCs need to be tough enough to stave off defeat for longer than 10 seconds, regardless of whether or not they can win DEs alone or how much offensive support they provide to players.

2. DEs should not trigger haphazardly or on a fixed schedule. They should have virtually no chance of triggering when no players are present, and there should be a slow, incremental increase of trigger chance for any given moment based on the number of players in the surrounding area.

3. DEs rewards should have scale based on how long it has been since the last time it was triggered (just like mob kill exp).

4. More DEs should have specific pass/fail differences (akin to meta events) rather than simply being ‘we got it’ or ‘we don’t got it’.

Is there some reason these things haven’t been implemented that I’m overlooking?

NPCs should be tougher

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Why shouldn’t NPC’s be able to win events? If there’s no players around they should have a 50/50 chance at it.

I wasn’t really arguing that they shouldn’t be able to; I’m just making the point that if anything they at least need to have their defenses buffed so they can survive longer, whether on their own or with players helping.

Personally, I think the DE system needs some upgrades in that area – DEs shoudn’t really even happen unless there are players around, and the chances of one happening in any given moment should increase based on the number of players in the area. The rewards should also scale based on how long it had been since the last time the event was triggered.

This would balance out with the way bonus experience for kills works and would just make the game world, especially Orr, feel a little less ridiculous, and would also be a lot more scalable.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

NPCs should be tougher

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

One of the issues with trying to do DEs alone (or in some cases with small groups) is that NPCs there assisting die way too quickly. It’s not just a game-play annoyance, it’s also just kind of silly and immersion breaking. In general, NPCs (especially wandering ones) stay dead more often than they are alive simply because they die in a few seconds when engaging even a single mob, which is really just kind of goofy.

Note that I am not necessarily arguing that they should be able to win DEs by themselves, nor do I think they even need to provide more than marginal offensive support. They just need to not die so easily that DEs are often lost as soon as they start and so (especially solo) players aren’t completely wasting their time reviving them while losing the DE because they lack any support. Having NPCs be more survivable and pitching into the fight also just makes battles feel more epic and therefore more fun, especially for solo players.

IMO, it would really just make for a better gaming experience across the board.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

More variety in medium armor (esp male)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

There are a few really cool skins, but too many of them definitely look too similar, and I don’t think the trench coat look suits many characters very well – especially not thieves.

[Suggestion] Stat Display Changes in "H" Menu

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Yeah, it seems a little more intuitive. Part of me feels like they should just go a step further and eliminate messy redundancies by folding the primary stats into their respective derived stats and only displaying the latter.

For example – vitality has no effect other than increasing Health, so they should just change bonuses to be + health and remove Vitality. Same with Toughness and Armor, and Precision and Crit %. The whole distinction between the two groups is sort of an unnecessary and arbitrary holdover that creates needless complication.

I also kinda wish they’d use more flavorful names like “Ferocity” for the other secondary attributes, since you learn what they are very quickly and the tooltip has any description you may need.

That said, ‘Ferocity’ is already in use in the Personality traits – are they updating that? Anyway, this is something along the lines of what I’d like:

Power……………..Brawn/Intellect/Guile etc. (%)
Ferocity………….Precision (%)
Malice…………….Expertise (%)
Fortitude…………Health
Compassion…..Concentration (%)
Resistance………Luck (%)

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

If you're tampering with LB

in Warrior

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Please, for the love of the cosmos, increase the rate of fire or damage output of Dual Shot. It has to be the weakest auto in the game, and makes the LB feel very weak and clumsy as a primary weapon, even if it is still good in certain contexts due to the other skills.

Ranger’s LB was the same way until it received substantial buffs in recent patches to make it more usable. The same should happen here.

So, what about LB warriors?

in Warrior

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Dual Shot needs a major damage or speed increase for LB to be viable in most situations. Currently, it’s only good with certain setups under certain conditions.

Typical LS - ANet Gives No Help

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

This was my experience on Gunner’s Hold last evening:

1- Go to the Lorner’s Pass for the 21:00 robo-puppet event.
2- Fail event, instant death ..
3- Go to Bloodtide for Wurm event, wind up on overflow …
4- Start escort events, 2 succeed, 3rd one stalls due to the pirate bug, no wurm …
5- Go back to Lorner’s Pass for the 23:00 robo-puppet event, wind up on overflow …
6- Fail event, instant death ..

I would rank this as 0 fun and 3hrs wasted time …

GG Anet ..

Something similar has been my experience with most LS updates. This is what you get when content is rushed into the game with the notion that it will only be there for a couple of weeks.

I don’t think it’s necessary that Anet make their content really easy or hold your hand excessively, but this game frequently suffers from too little context/direction in general, making it feel like a frustrating mess to play. It’s a direct consequence of the content delivery style.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

Let the night be nighttime! ( QoL)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Slider is totally unnecessary – you already have gamma for that. just make it a bit darker at night time and it’ll be good enough.

Lol, we had this idea already and it got sorted out as the worst possible option.

No, sorry, I didn’t mean use Gamma to make nighttime darker. I meant Anet needs to make night a little darker, and if it’s too much for some people they can brighten their gamma bit.

There’s really no question that nighttime is too similar to daytime in-game right now, which is kind of immersion breaking.

What would GW2 be like with trinity?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Ever play football? Do you call the roles of a football team “forced”? How about a medical team performing surgery in an operating room? There we would find not only hard roles but scripted content as in the tools used for the surgery. Do you think creativity is possible for a surgeon when everything about their environment is so scripted? Do you think team members in an operating room find their work rewarding?

Everything humans do in groups where there are goal-directed objectives are done in a role-based environment. In fact, in impromptu groups the first order of business is who’s going to do what.

So, when you say “forced” roles, other call them “established”. My point is that humans are role-based in groups for a reason; it is the human way of approaching group objectives. There are also human needs met here as in the need to provide a unique meaningful action, meaningful in the sense that it actually mattered that you were there. And, of course, you violate human needs and behavior at your peril.

This isn’t football or a surgery. This isn’t a trip to the moon, a safari in Africa or a ballroom dance either. Improper analogies are improper. I’ve done the “established” (read: forced) roles before back in my WoW days. Just because something was established doesn’t mean it’s better. Tanking for the most part on my Pally tank was taunt followed by the 9-6-9 rotation while some poor sap healer did nothing but heal me. Established, forced, same thing in that context.

This isn’t that. This is a different form of combat. Our skills are, by design, covering often more than one aspect (d/c/s) and quite a few cover all three. Do I use Chaos Storm to damage the enemies, control the enemies or support allies? Well, yes. Different conditions require different uses. My focus 4 skill (the mesmer speed up thingie)… well, I can drop it to give allies a speed boost, to try and cripple oncoming foes or (thanks to traits) I can plop it between friend and foe to reflect enemy projectiles back at them, disregarding the speed boost/cripple aspects entirely if the situation warrants it. Why would I (or anyone really) want to give up that versatility, that flexibility in combat, the ability to dynamically respond to the situation at hand in exchange for “you go over there and shoot the boss”? Even worse, why give that up for “taunt – 1 – 2- 3 – 4 – 1 – 5 – 2 – …” ad nauseum?

In combat, if your buddy goes down you don’t leave him there to bleed out because you’re not a medic. You don’t wave a big, red flag over your head and yell “Shoot me! I dare you!”. You work together as a team and take care of each other.

Good post. Thank you.

Frankly, I find the ‘traditional’ trinity to be far too unrealistic and inflexible to be very engaging. Anet just needs to do a better job emphasizing roles within a soft system.

Let the night be nighttime! ( QoL)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Slider is totally unnecessary – you already have gamma for that. just make it a bit darker at night time and it’ll be good enough.

The 'problem' with PvE content

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

While Zerker likely has some small scaling issues, the more significant problem has to do with game mechanics. Specifically, it has to with the attack vs. defense paradigms and how they differ for players and mobs.

Players primarily deal low/passive damage with high/intermittent mitigation
Mobs primarily deal high/intermittent damage with low/passive mitigation

In other words, players hit a lot for little while mobs hit little for a lot.

In most games this would be relatively balanced, but, here, with the dodge system, it creates a problem where offensive stats trump defensive stats in PvE content. A 25% increase in damage is more valuable than a 50% increase in passive defenses by a pretty large margin.

This is likely to always remain the case no matter how stats are tweaked or adjusted. So, please look at ways to address this. The simplest start would be an across the board change to either remove autos and reduce mob HP across the board, OR increase the frequency of mob attacks while reducing their damage. OHKOs are annoying anyway, and they’re too common in this game.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

I wish people would stop perpetuating this myth.

Warrior with soldier gear, force sigil, scholar runes. 25 might, 100% fury, magic find food, sharpening stone, banner of discipline.
4800 ep
40393 ehp

Warrior with zerker gear, force sigil, scholar runes. 25 might, 100% fury, magic find food, sharpening stone, banner of discipline.
7500 ep
21284 ehp

So pvt has almost 90% more effective hp, but zerker has only 56% more damage?
Before taking into consideration heals on a high toughness character improve effective HP by more than they would do for a low toughness character?
Show me where zerker is statistically better?

You made several very big mistake in your calculations. First, you ignored the time factor. Obviously, the longer the fight lasts, the more damage you receive – or you get more points of failure when dodging oneshots. Second, you ignored the fact that lot of oneshots are really oneshots – working equally well against bunkers as zerkers.
Basically, you assumed that the worth of ep and ehp is relatively even. It is not. Currently, damage is worth way, way more.

Yeah, even though the numbers surprised me a bit, there are a number of other things at play that raw numbers do not take into account, mostly favoring offense.

The biggest is the fact that damage-dealing is done in a steady stream while damage mitigation is a periodic reaction, and is primarily done through the dodge mechanic. Therefore, a 25% improvement to damage is much more significant in practice than a 50% improvement in defense is, generally speaking.

I would say the biggest problem in PvE is the gigantic difference between player attack and defense (steady/passive and intermittent/reactive) vs mob attack and defense (slow/heavy and steady/passive), which causes offensive stats to be much more important than defensive stats are for overall effectiveness.

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

So a question to those of you who are asking for a gear change (celestial not withstanding). What exactly are you going to change into? If Zerker gear was highest DPS before, and as I understand it, it will still be highest DPS, what specifically do you want to change into?

This is a serious question. I’m having a hard time understanding the reasoning behind this request.

Some people crafted Ascended Assassin gear for ultimate min-max. After the patch Berserker will probably be the best in all cases.

This is the entire problem with this game.

The only ideal that matters is DPS.

With the berserker gear nerf – that situation hasn’t changed it actually has become worse.

Berserker gear will not be pretty much mandatory with most groups because of a generalized nerf across the board in overall players dps.

I’m not sure how Anet thinks this will promote any other type of player. People are used to killing things at a certain speed being this game is over a year old now. Reducing that speed will simply enforce and cement the berserker only thought process because now many people will be trying to make up for the dps they lost and will be less likely to want anything that isn’t the highest dps option from other group members.

This is a problem when you designed a game where only dps maters and healing or support aren’t viable nor rewarded options.

Welcome to 2014 – Where berserker went from wanted to mandatory.

This is a good argument. Hopefully they only do it as a stopgap and continue working to try to improve the role system and overall balance.

I took a 3 month break. Nothing changed?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

The whole put-it-in-then-remove-it-two-weeks-later concept in a futile attempt to simulate a real, living world was always a mediocre idea at best. There are a number of very serious practical problems presented by the approach that they did not seem to do an adequate job of identifying (and still don’t).

At the very least, they should have waited a year or two to try it and spent the initial post launch development on polishing the game, adding new features, and new permanent content to make it feel bigger and more grand, while adjusting the PS to prepare the world to move toward the LW.

The fact that they did very little of that and instead immediately started disrupting existing content and replacing it with rushed, small-scale, weakly written temporary content that they removed two weeks later, creating a poor grind experience prone to cause burnout, was terrible idea that quickly caused very serious, possibly irreparable damage to the game.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

The Great Library - replay old LW content

in Living World

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

I honestly don’t even know if this is a good solution, although it comes up a lot.

I kind of feel like the story should just be left intact in the game world so that it can be experienced as part of a particular character’s narrative, like how most MMOs do it.

Temporary content is a really bad idea

in Living World

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

ZenonSeth, while I can see where you are coming from, but I think you do not completely understand what the Living World is supposed to be. ANet has explained it so many times and well, lemme try to explain to you in simpler terms what the Living World is supposed to be.

Ok, so in real life, events come and go, a due date for a school paper, someone’s birthday, an election (of which we did have in game, do you expect an election to be permanent content? sigh) a solar eclipse, an avalanche, an earthquake. Those kind of events in life cannot be replayed, will you be there for all of those things? That’s up to you and what you want to make time for in life, but if you miss out on those events, that’s just the way it is, you can’t replay an election, or a natural disaster, you can’t replay a specific date in time, and that, in essence, is what the Living World is supposed to more or less entail, those events that happen, whether you are there or not, in a world that is LIVING and that changes from day to day. Or in this case two weeks by two weeks.

Now, ANet will be adding in permanent content, in fact they have added quite a bit of new permanent content, maybe not in the way of brand new zones, but that is coming, there just hasn’t been a real reason to open a new zone yet, story wise. But when the Living World story takes a turn towards, lets say Kralkatorrik, I can assure you we will get Crystal Desert zones, that will be permanent, those zones will be left in the game forever as a result of the temporary events of the Living World.

That is, in the case that they decide to ultimately do away with any expansions in the future. However, recent comments would suggest otherwise.

So to just sum all of this up, crying over the temporary stories of the Living World is like crying over missing fleeting moments of life that you can’t replay, THAT is what the Living World has always intended to be, and I think they’re doing a pretty darn good job at it considering it’s new to the MMO scene and they aren’t just copy pasting this formula from some other MMO and doing their own twist on it. If this isn’t what you want from an MMO there are a lot out there that you can play. I hate to put it that way, but this is the model that ANet has chosen and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

I’m pretty sure that there isn’t anybody who doesn’t understand this. The point is that it just isn’t as great an idea a Anet insists it is. Video games should not try to emulate real life; just one of many reasons being that you can’t be present on Tyria all the time the way you are present on Earth all the time.

Temporary content, when it’s the primary focus, does more harm to the game overall than it does good, which is quite easy to illustrate with a bullet point list of pros and cons. It’s not some revolutionary notion of how to make a better MMO; it’s never been done before because it doesn’t really pan out in practice. Most players want to see significant growth/expansion much more than they want to see forced changes to the existing world that they may or may not have played any role in facilitating. Most players want to be able to experience new content without having old content deleted. Most players also want to see substantially more new content than the LW has offered so far.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

Buff other stats instead of nerfing zerker?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

more than likely what ended up happening with the Ferocity patch is that they saw a problem that needed to be addressed and this was a stopgap meassure that could be implemented immediately while they work on a more permanent solution to the problem – which yes should involve a reworking on enemy ai, attack speed, and a rebalancing of other stats, like vitality, toughness, healing power, and condi damage.

This is pretty much how I see it, and why I don’t have that huge a problem with it. Something needed to be done, at least in PvE.

Extending Replay Value of Personal Story

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Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

They need to expand the PS in general, IMO instead of the LW. New missions, bigger missions, the ability to replay missions, and recruiting allies to customize and take with you in missions.

What would GW2 be like with trinity?

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Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

The ‘traditional’ trinity is way too rigid and pigeonholing, so getting rid of it was a smart choice, and it’s likely to fade from popularity gradually. However, an MMO needs a role system of some sort to give players some identity and direction of what to do in a team. Anet really needs to work on their execution of this in GW2.

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

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Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Well, apologies for the disdain.

EP means effective power and is a way of describing how much damage a character will do.

For example a naked character with 916 power and 0% crit chance (I know you start at 4% but I’m keeping it simple) and is said to have an effective power of 916.

For example a character with double his base power, 10% crit chance and 150% crit damage would have 1832 base power. 10% crit chance and 150% crit damage mean that 10% of the time you deal 150% damage and 90% of the time you deal 100% damage. This averages out 105% damage, or your crit chance and crit damage is giving you +5% average damage. This would mean that overall you have 1923.6 effective power, or EP.

Scale that up to the likes of my example above:
Warrior with zerker gear, force sigil, scholar runes. 25 might, 100% fury, magic find food, sharpening stone, banner of discipline.
You get 3135 power, 94% + the basic 150% crit damage, 67.57% crit chance (1831 precision). The crit modifier averages out at 1.973008.
3135 * 1.973008 = 6185.
You have scholar 10%, force 5% and natural ascended weapon 5%
for a total of 1.21275.
1.21275 * 6185 = the 7500 effective power I mentioned earlier.

EHP, or effective health points, is a little more complicated but essentially it describes how much damage you can actually take before you die. In my earlier posts I assumed no heals.
If you have 100hp but 0 resists/mitigation, your effective hp is 100.
If you have 100hp but say.. 20% resist.. that 100 damage hit will only deal 80 damage to you. It would now take a 125 damage hit to reduce you to 0hp. Thanks to your 20% resist, we can say your effective hp is 125. And every 100hp I heal, I get 125 more effective hp from.
If I have 40% resist? It will now take 166.6 damage to kill me! And every 100hp I heal, I get 166.6 more effective hp from. See how it’s returning more effective health the more mitigation I get?

It is difficult to describe EHP in a large, heals flying everywhere scenario (other than to say mitigation plus healing is extremely effective, thus why you see it in WvW). What is most useful about EHP from a PvE point of view is to show how easily you will be oneshotted or burst down by a failed dodge.

This is a good website for playing around with EP and EHP:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/
And that website is based on a forum post which I had a hand in (Lilitu) on gw2guru back in 2012.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/60838-math-damage-reduction-toughness-and-vitality/

I do concede that zerker is the best gear set. I encourage people to use it (and to learn how to actively mitigate damage) but only because the fights aren’t challenging enough to require mitigation and heals. I strongly feel zerker gear is doing what it is supposed to do, deliver high damage at reduced survivability. The problem is nothing threatens your survival anyway. Once things actually start threatening you consistently and you cannot rely on active mitigation to avoid everything (WvW? World bosses? PvP?) mitigation becomes very useful.

Hope that helps.

It does, thanks. While I’m not quite ready to admit there’s nothing statistically off about Zerker relative to other sets, it helps to see the numbers.

One of the big kinks in evaluating is, of course, the dodge mechanic. The simple fact that, particularly in PvE, offense is largely persistent & passive while defense is intermittent & reactive plays a huge role in skewing the reality compared to what you see on paper, which is why the ‘zerker problem’ is much more pronounced in PvE than it is in WvW or PvP, and why there’s also a clear issue with game/encounter design.

However, where I will argue from is that I don’t think there’s any way to fully address this (though they can certainly take steps to improve it) with PvE encounter design, nor is even attempting to fix it a simple endeavor. There is also the issue of how direct damage competes against condition damage. All in all, I think I still feel that a modest nerf was warranted, but they definitely need to ‘meet in the middle’ with changes to encounter design and reevaluate it from there.

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

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Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

HP != EHP
Hmm you don’t know EP either?
Bleh.

Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t graduate from the university of made-up MMO gaming jargon with a degree in useless theorycrafting. Instead of conveying your disdain at my ‘inferiority’, how about you enlighten me?

edit: you referred to them as “effective HP” (which I had already inferred) and “damage” in the body of your post.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

On topic, Zerker stats are too good compared to other stat combinations just by pure math. It needs retuning.

I wish people would stop perpetuating this myth.

Warrior with soldier gear, force sigil, scholar runes. 25 might, 100% fury, magic find food, sharpening stone, banner of discipline.
4800 ep
40393 ehp

Warrior with zerker gear, force sigil, scholar runes. 25 might, 100% fury, magic find food, sharpening stone, banner of discipline.
7500 ep
21284 ehp

So pvt has almost 90% more effective hp, but zerker has only 56% more damage?
Before taking into consideration heals on a high toughness character improve effective HP by more than they would do for a low toughness character?
Show me where zerker is statistically better?

“Oh but zerker gear scales better with boons and stuff”
Let’s add full bloodlust, add spotter, 10% dmg potion, power/crit damage food…

Soldier
6000 ep
40393 ehp

Zerker
9734 ep
21284 ehp

So pvt has almost 90% more effective hp, but zerker has only 62% more damage?
Before taking into consideration heals on a high toughness character improve effective HP by more than they would do for a low toughness character?
Show me where zerker is statistically better?

“Oh but zerker gear scales better with traits as well!”
Add traits to the above plethora of boons…

Full offensive traits (30/25/0/0/15)
Soldier
10599 ep
43281 ehp

Zerker
17398 ep
23423 ehp

So pvt has almost 85% more effective hp, but zerker has only 64% more damage?
Before taking into consideration heals on a high toughness character improve effective HP by more than they would do for a low toughness character?
Show me where zerker is statistically better?

Defensive trait setups only serve to magnify the dominance of pvt from a statistical viewpoint.

I’ve been saying for over a year now – PVT is the holy trinity of bang for your buck. You gain more survivability with pvt than you gain in dps with zerker. The amount of survivability healing will add to pvt compared to zerker is also ridiculous.

Sad fact is though, you don’t need to mitigate damage and you don’t need survivability when you can dodge/block/reflect/blind almost all incoming damage.
The gear is performing exactly as advertised. A player made choice to drastically reduce your expected survival time in exchange for higher dps.
The problem has always been the game mechanics.

The joy some people take in this nerf is embarrassing. It’s like admitting you’re not good enough to time your active defenses properly yet you still want to do as much damage and clear content as fast as people who are willing and able to succesfully ditch their defensive gear for offensive. I see a lot of people saying it is zerker faceroll easy, but not many people actually running pug 5 zerker fotm49s & meleeing bosses like the archdiviner.

owned by math

Wait, wait, are you seriously attempting to demonstrate offense vs. defense by looking only at power and HP, and expecting me to concede your argument? Or is ‘ep’ supposed to mean DPS? edit: I’m genuinely curious what these numbers represent and how you concocted them.

Also:

The joy some people take in this nerf is embarrassing. It’s like admitting you’re not good enough to time your active defenses properly yet you still want to do as much damage and clear content as fast as people who are willing and able to succesfully ditch their defensive gear for offensive. I see a lot of people saying it is zerker faceroll easy, but not many people actually running pug 5 zerker fotm49s & meleeing bosses like the archdiviner

This interpretation is hilarious. Whatever makes you feel more elite, I suppose.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

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Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Zerker gear was clearly a problem, you can complain that the content is severely messed up, and rightfully so, but zerker was clearly a problem.

I don’t know how anyone can defend the fact that zerker gained a 17% DPS boost from the Exotic-> Ascended upgrade while the next best set only gained a 5.2% increase in DPS. Defensive stats hit diminishing returns while offensive stats hit exponential growth, scaling was just downright broken, now they are fixing it.

Exo facto, The game was never intended to have ascended items!!!

\0_0/

Shocking I know. But it’s the truth. Yet they implemented them and their grind and have continually attempted to fix content for balance and continually screw ppl over and out of our time out into getting said items. Who’s problem/fault is it?.. Theirs but yet again they make it ours.

I honestly don’t know if your numbers are true. But if they are that’s hilarious! And back when ppl were kittening about ascended armor saying now they have to get ascended gear because you’ll be outmatched… Yep!

Fix the game not the tools. They hastily put in ascended armor without crunching numbers and doing math. So why should the people who spend countless hours upon hours attaining gold and mats be punished for crafting something Anet implemented?

#celestialarmorstatswap!!!

How exactly are you being punished? What a hilarious hyperbole. It was a problem before Ascended, too. Power, Crit %, and Crit damage just scaled too well relative to other combinations from the get go. You can tell it’s a problem right off the bat, because in lower levels condition and defensive stats are more effective than zerker stats, then by 80 it completely reverses.

In case you didn’t notice, the baseline for non-condition skills was set very low (presumably) in an attempt to accommodate the hyperbolic growth curve of the zerker stat combo and make sure they weren’t brokenly OP by level 80.

What they need to do, though, is ensure that zerker stats are now on a more linear curve, but buff the baseline for direct damage skills so that they aren’t pitifully weak from 1-79.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

This change makes about as sense as wealth/poverty disparity. By lowering how much the rich has doesn’t make the poor any better off. You can lower zerker to make the leap between zerker and anything else “more in line” but it does nothing to lift up equipment that is fundamentally lacking for what the game currently has with its in game content encounter system. A beautiful thread has already outlined this. Some enemies need toughness over larger health pools and their AI needs to be entirely different. A-net stacked their accomplishments with gw2 earlier in the year, and it was an impressive list. I do think though that it is time to see scarlett go away and living story take a backseat for awhile and the talented staff work on encounter design over new content.

You’re wrong. In a wealthy society, that’s the exact effect it has. The reason the US is so out of whack right now is entirely because wealth has concentrated at the top too much while the middle class has been pathetically manipulated into seeing the poor as the bad guys. In reality, 40% of this country is stuck in relative poverty, living well below the standard for other developed countries, simply because their wealthy employers are not made to pay them a livable wage.

On topic, Zerker stats are too good compared to other stat combinations just by pure math. It needs retuning.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

What would GW2 be like with trinity?

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Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

wtf is wrong with you people? whats wrong with having trinity and whats wrong with not having it? trinity is not outdated is timeless, and the hybrid model is something new. both have advantages and both are fun. if you like trinity play wow or wait for wildstar, if you dont play gw2 end of story

I actually disagree that the trinity as timeless, as least as it exists in WoW. It does very little good for the game to design classes around very, very rigid roles, and people are going to slowly but surely come around to that. Soft roles are clearly the way of the future. GW2’s design is based on that but the execution needs a lot of tweaking.

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

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Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Frankly, I don’t think this is a bad change. It’s rather obvious that the synergy between those three stats is too strong (the growth curve is more hyperbolic with less diminishing returns), which made Zerker objectively superior with regard to ‘bang for buck’. Plus, ‘Ferocity’ just sounds better than ‘Crit Damage’. I wish they’d do that with all the secondary stats.

Encounter design definitely shares part of the blame, but Zerker still needed to be toned down. I hope they continue working on polishing encounters and improving the ‘soft’ role system.

Zerker gear isn’t the problem. The problem is the game and it’s mechanics. Aswell as their flawed attempts at “fixing” encounters thus far… Defiant/10x the HP with extremely drawn out stand in place combat(wurm,golem,maw,etc)/condition caps not player based but encounter based and even if they were player based still make conditions in pve worthless… To name a few…

Also along those lines the way every dungeon is set up there’s no reason to run anything aside from DD(direct dmg) DPS builds.

-> We have no need for support outside of our own utilities.
-> We have no group synergy outside of measely combo fields.
-> We have no need for defensive gear for any encounter since we have built in defenses with our heals/utilities/dodges.
-> We have no encounters that require actual tactics outside of just dodging “X” attack. Stand in place AI falls into this too.

We could go on and on about this. But the problem will always exist in gw2. Remove zerker gear… Knights or pvt becomes the next hot topic, then that gets nerfed because constant qq because they’ve yet to address the actual problem, their game/core mechanics. It’s an on going cycle that will not be fixed. Especially if they keep going about using “duct tape” to fix a broken weld.

Plus everyone who doesn’t understand what every zerker/celestial user is so upset about… It’s wvw. Pve and wvw are 2 completely different beasts yet they feel the need to keep them on the same “balance” updates. The loss of dmg for burst/DD power builds vs other players is huge and makes everyone who spent all their time and gold crafting their gear now worthless.

The problem is both Zerker gear and encounter design, as I said. Zerker is still very likely to be dominant in meta; this only serves to close the gap some.

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Frankly, I don’t think this is a bad change. It’s rather obvious that the synergy between those three stats is too strong (the growth curve is more hyperbolic with less diminishing returns), which made Zerker objectively superior with regard to ‘bang for buck’. Plus, ‘Ferocity’ just sounds better than ‘Crit Damage’. I wish they’d do that with all the secondary stats.

Encounter design definitely shares part of the blame, but Zerker still needed to be toned down. I hope they continue working on polishing encounters and improving the ‘soft’ role system.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

What would GW2 be like with trinity?

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Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Q: What would GW2 be like with trinity?

A: Much better

^this.

I think most people disagree. Hard trinity is a very outdated and pigeon-holing paradigm. Having said that, though, the intended “soft roles” don’t really work and they need to be reviewed.

Live stream Updates/ see 2nd post for rest

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

How truly awful.

Why?

A 10% reduction in the output of Zerker builds will not make people more likely to use support builds (healing power/toughness/vitality are still bad stats that promote bad play).

It’s just going to make already tedious encounter 10% slower.

So its bad to make it so other builds are better?

This does NOT make other builds better! It makes critical builds worse. That is all! What about reducing crit damage by 10% will make inefficient stat combo’s BETTER? Do people not get this? Does the dev team not get this?

They did it to slow down the zerker sets so it’s harder on the zerkers, so they don’t burn through enemies fast enough to avoid most of their mechanics, and most likely as a way to bring the other classes up while dropping the zerker a bit at the same time. Zerker will still be king…just not by as much.

With a change as small as 10%, it seems only the borderline zerker players (those who barely make it through a boss) will see any real change in gameplay.

Everyone else (who use zerkers) will simply have runs that are 11% more tedious than before.

They should instead be putting more work into mob mechanics, groupings, and AI — but that would be too much effort, I guess.

They need to do both. They need to change they hyperbolic growth caused by Zerker and only Zerker stats, and they need to adjust encounters to make conditions/boons and defense stats more useful.

Personally, I think this seems like a good first step, at least on the surface.

Great, we're nerfed into oblivon 10 %...

in Thief

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

OMG, whine whine. Zerker needs an adjustment. This one could be good or could be bad, but I think it’s a decent idea.

This isn’t a nerf to Thieves anyway, it’s a nerf to everyone in an attempt to bring better balance to PvE at large.

Do u even play thief in wvw? This is a nerf to crit and a buff to condi’s. Thiefs are affected more than any other class by a nerf to crit sides maybe shatter mesmer because of how squishy we are we rely on our burst to live. Now they are nerfing this burst w/o an equivalent nerf to condi’s or toughness.

Didn’t they say in the livestream it was PvE only? Regardless, I’m not worried about it. Improving incentives to use other builds is a good thing.

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

On the surface, it actually seems like a good change. Crit % + Crit damage created out of whack hyperbolic scaling relative to other sets. It needed to be changed.

Zerker nerfed, allow us to swap asc gear

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

i would like to nominate this thread for the Overreaction of the Year award.

Well turns out it not an overreaction at all. They actually have to give people the option to change stats on zerker pieces now. No ifs or buts.

no they don’t. It was an overreaction.

Great, we're nerfed into oblivon 10 %...

in Thief

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

OMG, whine whine. Zerker needs an adjustment. This one could be good or could be bad, but I think it’s a decent idea.

This isn’t a nerf to Thieves anyway, it’s a nerf to everyone in an attempt to bring better balance to PvE at large.

Crit Damage Changes

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

On the surface at least, I think this is an acceptable change. Crit damage + Crit % created a problem with hyperbolic scaling at the end of the game that was unique to that set. All other sets provide more linear scaling. If it’s done right, it might also help non-condition builds work better prior to 80.

Zerker will still reign supreme, but people who don’t like it will be less gimpy. They need to improve encounter structure too to make defensive stats less pointless.

Live stream Updates/ see 2nd post for rest

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

I do think that the stats on zerker before had too much synergy creating too much of a hyperbolic growth curve, so something needed to be done about it, so this may be a decent change overall, but we’ll see.

Fixing both P/D and P/P

in Thief

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

pistol mainhand is so horrible. mainly #2
and the P/P set offers like no mobility or escapes

No, mainly #1. #2 is only bad because you have to reserve all your Initiative for #3 because of how bad #1 is.

So after Scarlet is discarded...

in Living World

Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

Like new zones, new Personal Story, new races, etc. How many people look forward to runing around Lion’s Arch pressing F to break 150 dragon pinatas for achievement points? I don’t know the answer to this one.

How many people look forward to exploring the Crystal Desert, engaging Primordus and his minions, or playing a Tengu? I don’t know the answer to this one, either; but I’ll bet it’s a hell of a lot more than the first group.

So no special events/holidays, just give us the dragons and huge updates. As soon as the game was released, they should’ve been working on that?

Wanting a specific feature or two to be adapted from GW1 to replace things that clearly aren’t working /= wanting to play GW1. Furthermore, I offered an alternative that is based on the LW and not from GW1. If you’re finished with hyperboles, feel free to contribute to the discussion in some way.

Regardless of how they develop the overarching narrative, the main thing GW2 needs is new permanent content in the form of zones, dungeons, skins, skills, etc. Temporary content only works when it isn’t the primary focus and doesn’t comprise the majority of all development resources and content updates. That remains true regardless of what the method of delivery is.

“Or two”? You wanted four, at least, features from Guild Wars to replace features in Guilds Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 wouldn’t be it’s own game anymore, and you’re not offering anything to improve on it’s features. You just want a rehash instead of encouraging ArenaNet’s endeavor.
I am in no hurry to see the addition of playable races, cities, zones, or dungeons. These are inevitable. What ArenaNet has done in their temporary, and some permanent, content, is build zones and dungeons. They have been explorations in the extent of this world’s design and capabilities, and how best to elicit joy. So that when they do release a substantial update, someone’s complaint will be that they hate fun.

Hyperboles again. Enhanced PS features /= a rehash of GW1. Did you even play GW1? I did, and I like GW 2 better. You are arguing with a strawman, and it’s disrupting the overall conversation, so I’m not responding to you again.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)