Guild Wars 2

Well I still kind of would like a dueling system, just to mess around with friends (I know custom arenas would fulfill that) or challenge some random. I am not sure I understand the dailies however. If it’s just like the dailies/monthlies for the PvE side of things then that is pretty cool, if not, them I am fairly confused.

Other than that, I like this small blog and update, and can’t wait for the update notes. =)

Larynx.2453:

EoNxBoNx.9213:

Any build with a stun break and a player with enough common sense to dodge roll heart seekers.

Now fight a thief that doesn’t rely on a 1.5 second stun and heartseeker to win a 1v1 encounter.

Want to know a fun fact? Good thieves rarely ever even use heartseeker.

Normally a thief will use Assassin’s signet, basilisk or devourer venom, steal/mug, C&D, backstab, and use HSx2…

If the target is not dead. In tPvP most players live longer. And the debate on devourer and basilisk is solely because its a stun break now and devourer is not, and immobilizes are very stronk.

Any build with a stun break and a player with enough common sense to dodge roll heart seekers.

edamber.1549:

EoNxBoNx.9213:

edamber.1549:

- Backstab damage reduced by 50%
- Mug removed and swapped with a simple “gain 1 boon on steal”
- Cloak and dagger no longer stealth you and damage reduce 50%

- Backstab damage reduced by 50%
- Mug removed and swapped with a simple “gain 1 boon on steal”
- Cloak and dagger no longer stealth you and damage reduce 50%

/quote]

50% means half by the way. And Backstab does, not always crit for 14k. Probably can’t even crit for 14k with the Assassin’s Signet change. the most common is 11k -12k on another theif doing the same build or an ele or a very squishy necro or warrior. That damage cut in half. Do the math buddy. C&D crits for like 5-7 on a squish warrior necro. Mug Doesn’t need to be removed, the thing that increases it to 1,200 range needs to be.

There is a trait in the Trickery tree, that makes it a 1,200 range and makes it far hard to notice the thief is blowing all his CDs.

Pro Tip: Utilities are not on the same GCD with your main abilities GCD and already C&D is not a the same GCD with steal.

Backstabs usually crit around 6-8k on ppl with full exotic. I hit an upscaled toon today for 10.4 K that’s my record hit since patch, he might have been a lvl 30 or something who knows.

Hell they might even nerf it further, might even remove backstab. All I know is that they listen 100% to the QQers. Noone is talking about mesmers doing backstab damage with every hit from an illusion.

I agree some classes need buffs, mostly ele’s, rangers and necros though. Warriors, Guardians and mesmers are alot stronger than thiefs.

WvW Forums are that way —>

edamber.1549:

- Backstab damage reduced by 50%
- Mug removed and swapped with a simple “gain 1 boon on steal”
- Cloak and dagger no longer stealth you and damage reduce 50%

- Backstab damage reduced by 50%
- Mug removed and swapped with a simple “gain 1 boon on steal”
- Cloak and dagger no longer stealth you and damage reduce 50%

/quote]

50% means half by the way. And Backstab does, not always crit for 14k. Probably can’t even crit for 14k with the Assassin’s Signet change. the most common is 11k -12k on another theif doing the same build or an ele or a very squishy necro or warrior. That damage cut in half. Do the math buddy. C&D crits for like 5-7 on a squish warrior necro. Mug Doesn’t need to be removed, the thing that increases it to 1,200 range needs to be.

There is a trait in the Trickery tree, that makes it a 1,200 range and makes it far hard to notice the thief is blowing all his CDs.

Pro Tip: Utilities are not on the same GCD with your main abilities GCD and already C&D is not a the same GCD with steal.

I wouldn’t mind a complete overhaul on the thief traits and utilities. Make thieves more control based, and more team oriented for fights at keep. Still have the backdoor/roamer thief for tPvP because those are good builds.

Why a complete overhaul? Well their burst is broken and way to easy to do based on their traits and utilities. It makes the class a pub stomping class, and a class that everyone would pick to grind glory with. You don’t need something like that in this game.

Backstab is fine correct. The assassin’s signet + stealth for a 12k backstab doesn’t work anymore. So Backstab is balanced. But mug does good damage, especially when you go rooted or the thief has basilisk venom. Most players can break Basilisk Venom, the root is different. If you see him putting a poison on use a stability and you will be able to run. If the thief has Sigent of Shadows, he will be able to catch you and still C&D, and Backstab though.

By PvE gear, you mean PvE skins, (and I hope you do) I hope so. If you don’t mean PvE skins then we will never see a transfer over because PvE gear has stats on them, the PvP gear doesn’t it only has runes you put on them.

Lukin.4061:

“Obviously they will need to lower burst if this were to be the focus point of their balance, because it would just be 3 thieves, 3 warriors, etc.”

Nope, it would not be, since if they split dmg they would not burst anyone, since you know, they are easy to avoid, or if they focus on one target to burst him down, they still could get CCed away, blocked, retaliated, blinded, etc. So actually I would be happy to meet a team like that in arena mode, as much as I like to meet 3 thieves in tpvp…

Yep, and like I said, not every class has these abilities and would cause more class stacking. So, I guess what you are saying a team of guardians would be fine against burst teams. You don’t say?

Panther Chameleon.8465:

Coffeebot.3921:

The image is good for comedic value, but the message isn’t, mostly because anecdotal “evidence” doesn’t prove nor show anything beyond peoples ability to be incited to have a crowd reaction to stuff that they don’t like/perceive to be a problem regardless of whether it’s an actual problem.

So, you don’t think there should be a profession limit in spvp? Each team being limited by two of each profession. I think it’s safe to say there isn’t enough variety in spvp.

Oh yeah this is a GREAT idea lets clog the servers even more, in fact people might not even be able to join a game even though its not full. Pure genius.

Well it is unfortunate that we cannot just have the game that we need. Game’s like LoL Dota2, and SC2 are PvP only but are not MMO’s so it is a lot easier (sort of) to balance.

Aside from that. Anet is half way there with the pvp area being completely sectioned off, but if it was on it’s own server, (or something of the sort) maybe then they could make changes to the classes in Heart of the Mists, and not the PvE areas.

Something that people aren’t grasping is deathmatch arenas need CC. You have to CC targets that are dealing damage or healing. There is only a handpicked few of professions that have reliable CC. Thus that makes comps that you will see all the time, and even more class stacking than there is now.

Obviously they will need to lower burst if this were to be the focus point of their balance, because it would just be 3 thieves, 3 warriors, etc.

The point is, if they wanted to add deathmatch arenas they would have to change to much for very little.

Pray.9751:

JonathanSharp.7094:

felivear.1536:

Pray.9751:

In my humble opinion the best quick-fix for the whole problem would be to introduce single/duo queue free tournaments (or just single games) with a strong matchmaking mechanic.

Best regards Pray

Great post and this part is a great idea. Simple, quick solution while they iron out a good ladder system. This way, queues will still be somewhat quick since many many people queue solo or with 1 other friend, and you won’t have to get throat punched in Khylo anymore!

You can already do this.

Cheers.

insert random rant along with the hint that mocking your community while disregarding/misinterpreting a constructive post is kind of antisocial behaviour

No, you can not already do this.

Speaking of misinterpretation, everyone here must have. He is telling you, you can que for free tournaments by yourself, I do it all the time.

You can pug free tournaments.

Pug free tournaments.

200% is a lot. What I don’t understand is, why we don’t get a 100% experience similar to the kill streak booster. Obviously it is a lot harder to get kills more rapidly in sPvP, so then more the timer for it more reasonable. say 100% for glory with a 60 second timer.

This happens when you were on your original opposing teams trebuchet, and then you get switched or choose to switch, while still in the treb. Needless to say it is a bug and should be fixed. On the side note of competitive play, it doesn’t get effected because teams will never be swapped.

Kind of have to agree with this. If some people got to see how much damage some classes were doing over a time period (say a sPvP match) it will help determine who really is the highest damage class in this game, and not just burst.

Same goes for healing. Even though there is not dedicated healers, there is still healing builds. They already have the combat log now that data needs to just put tallied into a scoreboard.

MarcusKilgannon.5048:

Also, with the capture the flag variants etc, a good counter to bunkers would be a knockback or knockdown causes the player to drop the flag. It would make dodge timing, skill use and stability very key elements. Thoughts?

I like this idea, it make it more team oriented also. Then his teammates would have to be more alert and try and pick up the flag when it’s dropped, if it gets dropped.

I think a KotH mode would be awesome, so would a CTF mode. Deathmatch would not be as fun, the way the game is going currently. And the way you describe it I am not sure how it would work in sPvP, in tPvP oh yeah sure, but sPvP is about casual play. But to be honest, if they add any other game modes they would most likely only be added to sPvP, and not towards paid tournaments and tPvP in general.

In a CTF mode there are classes that have so much good defense and can feel immortal. Some classes that move so fast they would be able to get the enemy flag and get out. The One Flag Pull, same thing. A thief for example could Infiltrator’s Arrow and shadowsetp his way to the flag and the Shadowstep return, ( not to say the enemy team won’t have a thief) and get the flag in possibly less than 10 – 20 seconds. Maybe if it is the same distance getting to Chieftain as red team or Svanir as blue.

It would just be the same thing we have now, some classes would just out shine others in other ways, and it wouldn’t even be different classes.

Trigr.6481:

I’m a strong believer that if you release a game, you should have it with all of it’s core features already in the game at launch, being as balanced as possible. And if you cannot meet those standards I would “willingly” wait for a better game to be released instead of patching it as you go. People don’t tend to stick around while you tend to something in which you should have looked at prior. I also understand that there will be some things that you cannot think of until the game is literally in the hands of the consumer.

But it’s been like 2 months in and there are so many problems with PvP I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Here are just a few on the top of my head

-Block bug on guardians
-Invis Rendering Issues with Invis taking longer it should be on mesmers and thieves
-Necros have probably the most bugs in the game
-Thieves being able to 3 to 4 shot people

I can name many more but the point is those things listed are game breaking. People should not be punished for something that is either out of their control, or being abused by other players. There is no balance in that. People will simply leave before it gets fixed without a second thought.

Also why not add these features
Dueling
1v1 Arena Deathmatch
2v2 Arena Deathmatch
3v3 Arena Deathmatch
5v5 Arena Deathmatch

For those that are against this idea, simply do not play. Simple as that. I have wanted a 1v1 Deathmatch in any Mmo for as long as I can remember, and if you think this is unbalanced, just make a ladder and don’t give anyone rewards for it. I would still play just because I would want to face up against other professions from all servers for there mere fun of it.

When this game was released, where was your marketing? Where ever it was, it was horrible. I believe this game has A LOT of potential but you guys did a poor job of spreading the word. At least a month before Mists of pandaria was released every commercial on twitch was….you guessed it, mists of pandaria every single time. Long story short you did a poor job on letting the public know that you had a great unfinished game ready to roll.

Overall I think lots of people will leave this game really soon. I have lots of great games coming out next week and I don’t really see any reason to stay to try and find a 5 man team who is of equal skill as me, coordinate a time and try and wait in 30 minute ques to play a unbalanced game which should of been looked at and fixed sooner. You should of literally held back the launch, made people wait. And come out with a nice polished, balanced, finished game. But instead I feel as if you rushed it when it comes to terms with PvP balance. And you are losing your players for it.

Let me know your thoughts, thank you for reading. have a good one.

There is no reason to have 1v1 arena and dueling they simply bump heads with one another. 5v5 DM arena makes no sense also. Already have a 5v5 bracket, its just conquest style.

And I games always comes with bugs when they are released. You will also have people looking for stuff to exploit. I don’t know why some of these bugs are not fixed yet, I am not on Anet’s Q&A. But honestly, if you are going to act like you know something about how a game should be marketed besides playing it on twitch.tv, maybe you should just go work for Anet since you seem to know a lot about it, and telling them they did it wrong.

Fixed a few typos for you.

It’s the dodge on Flanking Strike. Happens all the time and I play an asura theif

garethh.3518:

EoNxBoNx.9213:

Wow, Kill shot and volley must soo, hard to dodge. I mean double tapping or even just using v is like impossible before the kill shot gets there right?

Volley is far better than kill shot. If a warrior gets a guy to blow a dodge roll or 2 (to avoid most of the dmg) on volley, the enemy might have just lost since they can’t evade the swap to greatsword and bull’s charge

Yeah man totally that means they can’t use their stun breaks either then they are out of endurance.

GankSinatra.2653:

Farm tournament tickets in tournaments to get in tournaments.

Then farm qualifying points in those tournaments to get in other tournaments again?

Why is arena net so scared about matchmaking and ELO?

It’s not that they’re scared of it, it’s that this game still has a problem with class stacking and certain classes will just out shine others and rise to the top. So, they obviously want to balance classes more, and then get a good system, and release it to us.

A good matchmaking/ELO system can work with their tournament style pvp. It will just be different. And imo harder, because as you go along the players are supposed to get better, once you get to the last map.

For a Ranged DPS/CC class Engineer best suits that role fairly well. I almost get annoyed at how much knockbacks, cripples, and knockdowns, they have.

Rangers are another good class for good damage and CC. They have good sustain, but not real good burst. They have chills poisons bleeds and a lot of good cripples. As well they have a really great immobilize, ( their elite ) Binding Roots lasts for 2 -3 seconds but you have to kill them for the roots to go away.

Necros are of course a good class for damage but like someone said they have some bugged abilities. Another big issue is their damage is condition damage, and currently everyone is using condition clears. Their CC is fears, and chills and cripple. But with condition builds you can keep up these CCs about 50% – 70% of the time depending on what class you would be fighting.

Elementalists are not really CC, but they have good burst, while being very fragile. They can be GREAT support, and kitten near invincible. But again, their CC is bear minimum.

I am sure about 90% of this stuff, if I am wrong about something someone correct me.

deapee.7516:

Punished for not dodging?

First of all, steal is a long-ranged gap closer…which grants stealth and does 4-5k damage…which allows you to immediately backstab.

It’s broken. 100% it’s broken. Why the devs don’t talk about it I don’t know, but people leave the game daily due to the lack of communication.

Hi. Steal can only grant stealth if you have put 20 points into the Shadow arts tree. Doing so you will have sacrificed a lot of damage and steal will barely crit for 4k. If you go into the critical strikes tree, that is if you put 30 points into it. And the range on steal is average, if you want 1,200 range steal you need 10 points in to the trickery tree.

Steal is pretty much fine if you mean C&D grants stealth, well then no kitten it’s supposed to.

Sounds fun think I might give this a try tomorrow. And I believe I have seen you around in a few tournaments, if you are the same person. You are an ele I think.

Just came in here to bump the thread a little bit, read the OP, and the game directors posts. This is a good thread, hopefully Anet stays this way.

It’s kind of funny when people give balance ideas. 50% is a big number, and would pretty much make thieves cooldown based, more cooldown based than they already are. If they lower backstab damage that would be fine, but then what damage do thieves have really, think about. Outside of PW and Backstab no one has found a good damage build yet.

tagnut.8621:

I wonder if, say rangers, got an attack that had no cd, did 4-5k damage per hit and jumped them back out of melee range thieves would consider this fair and balanced?

facepalm Heartseeker doesn’t do that much damage above 50% first of all. And secondly, an ability like that for a ranger would only hurt them from range, and all the abilities the longbow has are already good and work together well.

I would much rather them just add in system that gives glory over time. Say, about 3 glory every 10 – 15 seconds. And account for some people coming to your base you will get even more.

You know I am going to stop and think, I have said that I did not want deathmatch arenas in GW2 to myself, but after trying to pug some tournaments today, and with the small group of friends that I have, I realize that having 2v2 and 3v3 would be a good format. The way they could do it is simple. If they want the 5v5 conquest to be the focus of balance and the eSport then fine, 3v3 and 2v2 can be for fun and messing around in the Heart of the Mists. Honestly, what do you expect people to do when they are Glory rank 80?

This (imo) will help out small groups of players that are only in pairs or 3s. They can still play together with out having pug tournaments, or play Hot-Join.

I vote yes on 3v3 and 2v2 arenas, but leave the balance focus where it is now, and keep the ball rolling where its going.

What is so wrong with KDR? There is no way to tell skill right now but Glory rank and that just determines how long someone has been playing. KDR, will be a better way to pick up the right people, although a its not the best way until we have ratings and rankings, it is just a small detailing on the cake that is sPvP.

Evade build is not OP, and the damage is not good at all. Look it up it is only a strong build, and is good for backdooring.

How are people still talking about this? Heartseeker is a non-issue. Pistol Whip is almost a non-issue. Backstab is avoidable. Quickness is the problem not Heartseeker. And I don’t know how you can’t just evade roll out of it, seriously.

All these ideas here are pretty bad. Heartseeker is fine atm and can be easily dodged. The thieves still spamming HS are griefers more then anything. They are not good, they have no skill. They spam it until all initiative is gone, and stealth and get all back. They don’t attack bunkers and support eles because they wont do enough damage to kill them.

My guess if they want people to stop spamming it is only allow it to be use below 50%. Since that is when it really starts doing damage, or lower its damage above 50% to auto damage. But that wont stop morons.

Isabis.9561:

Paranoid.9542:

Isabis.9561:

Things

Did you try any other builds at all? Or did you go a glass cannon build then spam heartseeker?

I’ve tried power and condi builds. It’s either:
- spam HS 90% of the fight
- spam PW 80% of the fight, use infiltrators strike if kited
- spam Death Blossom 80% of the fight, use dodge when low initiative

HS build is total spamfest of one ability, really really rarely anything else is used.
PW and DB builds are spam as well, with occasional infiltrators strike and dodge (if dodge can even be qualified as ability), cloak and dagger – basically never used

It is sad that you actually think this way…There are more builds for thieves that don’t revolve around these builds. If you are spamming HS then you are bad and should feel bad. HS is avoidable and the damage above 50% is pathetic.

Animosity.5231:

Just gotta wonder if they actually thought 15% on PW would be adequate considering the set also brings immobilize, and PW itself has a stun?

Didn’t even lose 1k off the top, and it’s still a problem due to the ability to essentially stun-lock with Dev. Venom, Inf. Strike, and PW.

Suppose we’ll see. I still think the problem isn’t the damage so much as the hasted stun-lock it provides with quickness.

Smells like an appeasement nerf, I think.

With the damage nerfed like it was it now gives you time to actually use your stun break and get away. You will not die in one stun lock or 2 haste PWs. Just like the HS nerf, if you are dying to PW now, it is your own fault. Heartseeker you can evade, PW use a stunbreaker, or even stability right before they use PW.

Every class has a stunbreaker, they are just all used differently.

Flappy.2837:

Here is how the standard thief vs necro fight goes in the best scenario possible:

>I cast first spell, probable a slow mark
>Thief invis.
>Necro Evade first invis attack.
>Necro evade second invis attack.
>Thief fear.
>Necro DS and Fear. Only thing Necro can cast while feared.
>Both get out of fear.
>thief invis again
>Necro gets chain stunned and lose.

I cant cast Fear mark i can’t blind i can’t do ¤#&¤ all.
How is this fun and competitive game play? I can press every button available and still lose, while Thief can can press 3 buttons and win. Ive tried all builds recommended on the forum ive tried my own build for 2 days now and nothing works.

No build is even remotly close, no build has enough survivability. Ive seen a fare share of unbalanced games but for this to even get out of Alpha is just beyond me.

Sometimes players say to Devs “Do they even play the game” and they respond, “Ofc we play the game, you have to be more specific with what the problems are”. Well seriously, take just a few hours of a day and try it, you actually have to try it yourself to see how laughable that balance is. Even if it was in a rock, paper, scissor game it is just ridiculous.

In GW1 classes were balanced because the wide array of skills available so if you got stomped by a class/build you could switch build to specifically be good against another build/class. In GW2 that concept is just thrown out the window, and i am extremely disappointed with that, and I’m getting fed up with this.

You did not say or describe what build he was. Pistol Whip thieves do not have that much stealth but they can stunlock, and backstab thieves can stealth a lot and do a lot of burst damage from stealth

Um, whats wrong with people stealing boss kills? You can do it to them, and they can do it to you. In this case I don’t what class you are, but you should have used something to just burst him down before 2% health.

IDICERI.4268:

A full glass cannon thief has 15k health at most, 1050 toughness at most, even less toughness if he goes for a higher health pool(acrobatics). If he goes for a higher health pool he won’t be able to stealth more than 3 secs. He can’t stealth for 3 seconds when he revealed after stealth. He is playing high risk high reward. If at any point in time he is snared he is done for.

Advice:
Snaring forces 1 of 3 things: stun break(shadow-step removes condition and stun breaks, every good thief uses it), heal, stealth which cost initiative (he needs you to hit you for this) or the use of a stealth utility skill with a 60 second cool down. It is very very difficult in my case to land a back-stab while my opponent is moving backwards(dodge to increase distance) and turning in a circle away from the closest angle which my opponent sees me(this should cut the thief’s damage is half as thieves do more damage from behind or the sides). When the Thief reveals himself go from 1-5. He should be around 25% health or dead. Switch weapon set repeat process.

This is meant for whoever is having a hard time against back-stab thieves. I am not ignoring the fact that it does high damage which it does do. It is however easy to counter in tournaments because everyone carries some type off cc. I hope this was helpful and informative.

Pretty much this. A thief that is critting for more than 12k backstab, has low toughness, and a low healthpool, is killable, and quite easily. Depending on how they use their stealth set up, you should never been near a thief when he is in stealth, because that will happen 9 times out of 10.

EDIT: And I knew that once they nerfed HS, the real QQ would start about BS. HS, was never the real damage of a good thief anyways.

Xhieron.2168:

than these changes:

• Replaced half of the Mesmer and Thief utility skills with new skills.
• New profession mechanic for Mesmers: _
• Guardian healing reduced by 40%.

This right here, this is what you call balance changes? Nerfing Guardian healing by 40%., and removing half of the utility skills for two classes? I am so glad you are not a game designer, holy kitten.

It is just scraps from the beta.

Veldan.4637:

EoNxBoNx.9213:

Trying to fit them all in at launch would have only slowed the game down when it could have been released.

Which is what they always claimed to be doing, with their “when it’s ready” …

Well, that’s the truth. If you looked at the link I posted. If Guild Wars 2 were to launch with ALL of those features, this game would not be out yet, because they would not be ready. The best thing you can do is wait. Personally I would rather have a working ELO system than a glitched and exploitable one

At least the developers here are being somewhat active with their posts.

Tommyvern.1943:

I second this, If things don’t change I’ll be one of those players going back to MoP.

Even if things don’t start too change I will never go to that kitten game.

On another note please look at ArenaNet’s Esport subreddit for GW2

http://www.reddit.com/r/gw2esports/comments/zasau/improving_spvp_and_esports_on_gw2/

Things will change in the future, and all these features are coming. Trying to fit them all in at launch would have only slowed the game down when it could have been released.

Go to this link —-—- http://www.reddit.com/r/gw2esports/comments/zasau/improving_spvp_and_esports_on_gw2/

Here is some stuff from it
—————————————————————————
Tournaments
Add a MMR/ELO System for solo and team queue.
Add Paid Tournaments.
Add Custom Tournaments. // This whole feature could be replaced with a Custom Match option //
Let teams wear their own logo/icon/flag.
Pause/Unpause or Reset Map.
In depth Brackets (Single elimination, double elimination, BO3 & BO5 options).
Add Training Mode.
Players should have the option to invite others team.
Select the amount of rounds and maps on each.
Reset the map rotation every week or so.
Reduce the warm-up time from 5 to 2:30 or progressively reduce by 30s when a player hits “I’m Ready!”
Add rent servers protected with passwords
————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Spectator Mode
Add a Spectate Friend Option
Give the possibility to follow the same game by right clicking the name of your friend.
Add a spectator browser
Player Search
Filters by Map, ELO/MMR or type of tournament.
Every tournament should be able to be spectated.
Add a Replay System
Add the possibility to watch replays with friends.

MMR/ELO System Ladder
Possibility to check it online and trough the Wall of Champions.
Add full roster up to 10 members.
Add individual stats for each members.
Add Seasons (6-8 months)
Top teams of the season should be rewarded with a special chest.
Top teams should be rewarded with some icon on the portrait or title depending on their standing.

I believe Paid tournaments are going to have matchmaking, and have rankings, all that good stuff.