Guild Wars 2

Siobhan.5273:

I’m glad TTS reported it for “bugs sake”. However, that begs to ask, why would folks come to the forums and exclaim over a known, and purposefully exploited kill done simply to report a bug, then post this…

See? That’s funky.

That’s because you’re addressing comments/claims made by three different people, not one more of a spokesman for an entire series of guilds than the other. Some knew what happened, others were just ego-stroking. Nothing too funky, I’d say.

A couple notes based on other comments:

1. Vapor Form within range of a tower/keep portal does not necessarily guarantee entry. An ele can be immobilized while downed prior to popping Vapor Form to prevent movement. Granted, sometimes upon downing, an ele will instantly Vapor Form. In my own experience, it’s almost never intentional and usually a result of being in the process of casting a 2 skill at the same time as being downed. IIRC if it does not insta-cast in this manner, the ele must wait briefly before downed skills are usable.

2. The proper balance would not be to allowing stomping to bypass Vapor Form, as this would leave eles with no actual stomp interrupt, counterable or otherwise.

I’m not against a skill change, but am not completely unhappy with the current downed state of ele. The two changes I could see being fair:

1. Short CD to prevent Vapor Form from insta-casting.

2. Preventing entry to tower/keep portals while in Vapor Form. However, the same condition should be equally applied to Vengenced warriors.

Yeah, great response time from Support. Quick and painless. Thanks! <3

The problem isn’t that pushing players of cliffs is “cheesy” or “takes no skill,” but that there is not necessarily equal access to such knock backs or pulls across professions. Consider a d/d ele, who cannot swap in combat to staff for Gust (which is a horrible skill anyway and basically requires that an enemy be standing still) and otherwise has access to only a single launch of 200 on a 40s CD (Updraft). Compare that to, say, GS mesmer 5, LB ranger 4, or any Fear.

Granted these moves are still pretty easy to anticipate and avoid, but it’s just one more thing that one profession must heed mid-fight that the other might not, and I can see why it could be incredibly frustrating for new players especially, who may not be as familiar with other classes.

The original Flamekissed set was one of the pathetically few light armors that look acceptable on male charr. Now I’m back to square one.

RIP, old toon.

Ken DeBoer.9268:

Next is a sickle that gathers pristine spores, just you wait.

If ANet hadn’t thought of it already, you’ve just doomed us all.

Sure, everyone is encouraging and well-wishing… until a lane fails on the platforms. Then that goodwill regularly turns into blame and vitriol, and that frustration is entirely justified. The whole “fostering community” and “splitting up zergs” thing sounds great on paper, but in practice there is nothing fun about everyone failing because of a few players. Despite those who claim this event requires “cooperation” from players, being unable to assist players on other platforms is not cooperation.

Defending the lanes from twisted clockwork minions is so easy it’s almost irrelevant. Performance on the platforms is all that matters. Moreover, poor communication of event objectives/strategy has made this event for many a process of trial and error, and leaves less skilled and knowledgeable players in the unfortunate position of being able to contribute to the failure of all, when that kind of pressure/responsibility should not be placed on those who are are new to the game and just trying to enjoy the new content. That’s not good design, in my opinion.

I’m glad your experience seems to have been better than mine, because for me this event has been frustration, punctuated by 1.5 hour waits.

I agree with Sorrow. Chill really screws up my timing with attunement swapping, combos, and movement, especially when applied to me repeatedly and maintained. In addition to those, condi-heavy builds and range are natural counters to the ele d/d playstyle. Mesmers and necros are great at doing both.

The bug essentially undermined the efforts of players who took the time to mine/charge their Quartz such that players like myself are now sitting on a nice heap of them without the same dedication. (Granted, I charged ~50 of my own during/after Zephyr Sanctum, but stopped when I found no real use for them.) This also caused the value of Quartz to drop significantly, as players had easy access to Charged Quartz with no real need for the lesser material.

The aura on Predator is pretty spectacular, and footfalls can’t be much less noticeable than those of Incinerator.

I think the real shame of the updates to legendaries from months ago was that Kraitkin’s glow was dramatically reduced, remains only visible (a generous word) at night time, and still appears to have problems making the transition from day to night such that un-/reequipping the weapon is sometimes needed. It no longer has the appeal of the legendary I crafted.

Donari.5237:

It’s fine to want to do all the achieves. It’s not fine to tell everyone else they get less choice/selection/flexibility in types of game play because you personally can’t do all the choices. Would you say “I don’t have time to run every dungeon path every day, assault every WvW keep, experience all the LS, run 100 sPvP matches, and take out every world boss on the timer, so please reduce the game only to world bosses?”

None of the proposed changes would actually limit the choice/selection/flexibility of dailies, only the upper limit on the daily AP reward and how it’s delivered. But also I believe this is a false comparison. A better one would read, “I don’t have time to run every dungeon path everyday, so please introduce a hard cap on the amount of gold that can be earned in one day from a given dungeon (or dungeons altogether).” Given how ANet has handled DR in GW2, the proposed changes to the current daily system are not so farfetched.

I want Arcane Wave reverted as much as any other d/d ele, but I also do not think that Arcane Brilliance should be ranged. The whole point of the skill and the trade-off in its use is the risk inherent to being surrounded by enemies, where counterplay exists. The skill has only a 3/4s cast time, but you can be blinded or interrupted. In turn, the player is rewarded with greater healing for hitting more players and a PBAoE that eles have otherwise never had access to. To remove some of the risk in using Arcane Brilliance as a close-quarters skill by making it ranged hinders that counterplay.

Maeggle nails it.

Being familiar with the various combos in that chain is the key to success, as the full sequence rarely plays out as intended when fighting. Know what skills will be available on-demand when swapping into an attunement, and use that to inform your choices.

Also know which skills in each attunement are most worthwhile. For instance, I will almost always use Cone of Cold over trying to auto-attack in Water with Vapor Blade. The damage and heal is often far superior. And learn to love Magnetic Grasp. Like many projectiles, it can be clunky and randomly miss or be obstructed for no apparent reason, but it’s an amazing skill.

Support. Only in the modest 300s on the NA leaderboard, but the process of doing everything every day is taxing, and the added points in tPvP will make it all the more. The achievement point system and dailies especially have gotten to the point where they detract from my enjoyment of the game and are not merely directing where my in-game time is spent (as they rightly should), but consuming it.

With regards to the PvP dailies, I’ve actually rather enjoyed hopping into sPvP matches as a casual PvPer (they usually only take 20-30 mins to complete), and give me a small opportunity to improve as a player and have offered some variety in terms of gameplay. I imagine tPvP to be a more competitive arena, and while having an influx of players seeking these new APs could revitalize that community, I doubt serious PvPers would be thrilled to be teamed with AP grinders. By moving APs to the daily reward chest, Anet can still reward players from each facet of the game.

tPvP dailies go against the casual side of PvP that I’ve enjoyed, and I will not be doing them. It’s just too much.

As far as I know, only one guild transferred(/returned) to AR. From what I’ve seen, the majority of our WvWing has been a pug army that we had until now simply failed to amass due to lack of interest. We hadn’t been doing well in the months leading up to the season, so people didn’t want to play. Like arKRazor says, it was a sort of positive feedback.

Things started to pick up around the start of the season, we had slightly more presence, performed a little better bit by bit (thanks in part to improved leadership and community), and it wasn’t until the last few weeks that our numbers of players (comparatively) shot up. It’s a welcome change of pace.

Daco.5847:

So with this logic is hitting through the door an exploit as well? I have even been piked through a door as well.

Seriously you’re complaining about us taking our own stuff back. stop being mad and remember it is only pixels.

I hope you don’t really fail to understand the difference. One is a limitation of the game, allowing ground target and melee skills with sufficient range to hit without line-of-sight. The other allows players to regain access to the innards of towers/keeps after their repair without having to go through the doors or walls or by using the portal of a living mesmer stashed inside, thus circumventing the entire gimmick of WvW—sieging.

That it’s “your own stuff” is not a valid defense.

As Dov touches on, I don’t think I’d really be all that bothered if Anet changed it such that these skills were obstructed. I imagine this would cause problems with clearly intended skill effects (that like of the ram mastery skill, Slam Impact) and would require more rework of mechanics than is currently on their schedule.

The real question on my mind: will Lingering Elements actually be fixed on the 10th, or will it be “fixed” like last time?

Assuming it functions properly, eles that invest a mere 5 points in Earth/Water and make good use of attunement swapping could potentially maintain more than 50% uptime on those bonuses. We may now be required to put 20 into Water to gain Cleansing Wave, but LE could be a welcome buff. I’m excited to see.

An arcane healing skill, eh? That could make for some interesting new options…

Arcane Power procs for each hit or negated attack, so against any sizable group (in WvW for instance) it would be spent almost immediately and would likely only immobilize 5 players for 1 sec each. Might help to guarantee those few hits, but I don’t think it’s worth the loss of a utility slot or Evasive Arcana. In that situation, I think it would better to focus on making good use of CC skills in combination with Meteor Shower, like Static Field and Frozen Ground.

1v1 I’d say Elemental Surge would be more effective when used selectively.

Jae.5138:

you guys do realize i run 1.5k tougness and i do run triple arcana _

it’s kinda hard to mistform when you literally get killed in less than 2 seconds

Then you already know what the problem and solution are: you need more toughness/vitality at the sacrifice of DPS.

Other than that, it’ll come down to skill usage. Armor of Earth to counter Basilisk Venom. Mist Form for emergencies. Immobilize, chill, cripple, stun, knockdown spam to counter stealth/movement. Know what skills you’ll have access to by switching into an attunement before you even switch (Ring of Earth and Magnetic Grasp are good examples of skills that you can rely upon being available when you swap attunements, and will be helpful against thieves).

I find Lingering Elements behaves as Ringil describes. The toughness bonus from Stone Flesh is applied after swapping attunements a second time, but not after the initial swap out of Earth. As for the “now always grants” bits, I’m not sure what they mean. Did at some point these attunement bonuses not always apply while still in that same attunement? Was it even more bugged than we realize? (Not as far as I know.) Unclear.

It’s one thing for something to be bugged. It’s another whole level of oversight to falsely claim to have fixed an issue. This is not the first time this has happened, and I certainly doubt it will be the last. Appealing to the complexity of programming a game is not a valid defense, and I’m tired of hearing it. This is a failure of QA.

They either know that it still doesn’t work or they don’t. Which is worse?

Dagraan.2854:

so what your telling me is they don’t know and anybody can freely download a zoom hack without any repercussions, cool.

FoV != zoom hack

Many games include the ability to change the FoV as a setting. As eithinan described, you get the same effect by simply changing the size of your GW2 window or by running in a different resolution. There’s nothing being exploited. As I said, it’s just a part of how games are rendered.

Dagraan.2854:

so can you tell me how does A-net know that you have multiple monitors?

/facepalm

FoV is client side. “They” don’t need to “know,” it’s just how the game renders everything.

Calae.1738:

You have no idea what hard work is. If a video game is hard work then I feel really bad for you. Especially GW2. Casual central.

Yeah, nothing’s harder than good old-fashioned manual labor. Back to the coal mines with you!

I never bothered with higher-level fractals, stopping shortly after 30, myself. I can definitely understand the frustration of players who did, however. I always thought there was a sort of allure and prestige to progressing personal level, and to have that become both account bound AND lowered to 30 alongside players like me who (comparatively) hardly touched FotM is a slap in the face. Sorry your dedication was wasted.

This has been a trend in GW2. With the changes to many rewards including those from dungeons, bosses, and now fractals, I have practically no reason to play alts. Granted I’m usually one to pick a class and stick to it, but any reward/incentive to play on them has been removed. They’ve just become pack mules and map exploration grinds to gather Gifts of Exploration in preparation for new legendaries.

On one hand, I like the idea of having account bound progression, but to remove rewards as well spoils it.

I still have a stack of his Representation Buttons sitting in my bank as a souvenir. ;D

I don’t think Shocking Aura (or any aura, for that matter) should be used as an emergency skill “for when people are getting low,” as you say. Yes, that’s one use, but the damage mitigation is better selectively used earlier on to interrupt/slow an enemy’s combos or high damage output skills.

I’d love to see Powerful Aura proc on fire field leap finishers, which would make it a little more enticing for d/d (Magnetic Grasp/Leap should be every ele’s best friend). That and having some use for the trait underwater, but I don’t see ANet even touching underwater combat any time soon…

And as Diogo points out, the Tempest Defense buff could be interesting. I really don’t want to lose either Evasive Arcana or Cleansing Wave, but being able to maintain a potential ~30% uptime on Shocking Aura would be mighty useful. Combine that with Powerful Aura in team fights, and that’s a lot of stun.

Powerful Aura is simply not going to do much for you in PvE. Sure, you can dish out some boons, but frankly that’s something other classes already have access to and can do, if not better. The real benefit is the effect of the Auras, themselves, which doesn’t do much against mobs with Defiance (champs/legendary bosses are the only ones that should really pose much threat or require teamplay in PvE, and even then they’re rarely challenging).

Where the trait really shines is PvP, where the chill and stun especially can help to turn a fight in your team’s favor. However, it’s still only going to be valuable in team fights when applied to multiple allies. Depending on whether or not you feel that you can reliably make good use of the trait in this way, you may find that Cleansing Water is more beneficial.

Using Magnetic Leap through a fire field is just a regular leap finisher and doesn’t cause Powerful Aura to proc. In the same way, leaping through Frozen Ground doesn’t apply Frost Aura to nearby allies, only to the leaper. Only the Aura skills, themselves, and traits (Tempest Defense, Fire’s Embrace) cause Powerful Aura to proc.

I agree it would be nice to have leap finishers synergize with Powerful Aura, but at least they’re not inconsistent (for better or worse). The one thing that kinda bothers me is that Fire Shield, unlike all the other aura skills and their applied effects, doesn’t have “aura” in the name and yet is still considered an aura.

Your backpiece will disappear if you RTL when your weapons are not drawn. So if you manually draw them before using the skill, are hit and put into combat (forcing them to be drawn), or use another skill first, you can avoid losing your backpiece. I wouldn’t be surprised if other classes can be affected by this as well if they use any skill with a visual transformation of the player, but I haven’t looked into it.

I’ve been hoping that it’ll eventually be fixed because it’s incredibly annoying, but this problem has been around for a while, so don’t get your hopes up. :P

remains open on JQ 4:07 pm EST

Aurora’s Remains was also the last area I was missing for Maguuma Explorer.

In the Shiverpeaks, I was missing De Molish Post, east of the Frostland Waypoint and just south of the “Help Explorer Brokkar” Task in southern Dredgehaunt Cliffs. This area is a little out of the way and contains no World Completion items, so try checking there.

I’m still missing one more in the Shiverpeaks, myself, so if anyone else knows of any other commonly missed areas, do share.

EDIT: Just found the last one in the Shiverpeaks. I was missing the Lair of the Serpent, just north-northeast of Coil Waypoint in SE Timberline Falls. The cave entrance is a bit obscured by the hill it’s above. Good luck!