Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed that “Light on your Feet” trait doesn’t trigger when executing skills that cause you to evade during their animations. Like with “Stalker’s Strike” and “Quick Shot”, which have evade frames in their execution.

Right now the trait only triggers with dodging (the one which costs endurance to activate)

It’s duration and non-stacking are not a problem, as the trait doesn’t say that it will stack and it only lasts 4 seconds.

Mantras keep on recharging, even while they’re prepared. Before they only started recharging after all the charges were used.

I don’t see any thing that could cause this to happen with the traits, and I saw nothing regarding changes on mantras in the update notes in GW2 wiki.

Is this intended or a bug?

Well, I hope that it truly is a high priority on ANet to ensure there are open world PvE mobs that are NOT:

• low armor, low attack damage that do nothing else, very high HP, very rarely use boons, rarely use conditions, almost never use control effects or gain Champion rank too easily. *cough*majority of mobs in base GW2*cough*
• hit at best only 1-3 times, doing about 1000-3000 damage total, before dropping dead when players use full berserker gear.

Hopefully, atleast what I hope:

1. Mobs will use 1-3 boons on themselves and their allies, something that players can remove from the mobs to reduce their effectiveness, unfortunately swiftness is most ineffective boon for mobs to use.
2. Heavy armor becomes more common and other types of defense against direct damage builds (critical and non-critical), berserkers already are too effective in most of open world PvE.
3. Few mobs that focus on inflicting large number of conditions, in burst or slowly.
4. Mobs in Silverwastes hit rather hard, with the nerf of Vigor and some new “on successful dodge” traits, hopefully there will be mobs that keep on the pressure which can be mitigated with dodging and blocking, relieved with healing abilities or prevented with control abilities.
5. Mob ranks, Veteran and Elite are more used than just giving Champion or higher ranks to some big ones, just to ensure that there will be mobs that hit harder than usual but are vulnerable to control effects. Of course Boss monsters would have their new defiance system, to prevent zerg stun locks as usual.
   Example: bosses with their Elite guards, foolishly sends their Champions first to defeat the heroes, when the champs fall, the Boss goes in with support of his/her guard of Elites. Yer usual trope(?)
6. Mobs like Charge/Lunge Teragriffs that will use control effects

Sorry for your loss. May he rest in peace…

Well, it does sound like a nice idea, to commemorate some one great and who will be missed, either by tragic end or had to move on due to some other reasons…

I hope that Rangers can utilize it like a combat staff, you know the ones which are used in melee combat, instead of just a magic staff…

If I add into this:
I have 1 of each profession, all characters have 3 armors, Support, DPS and CC, tho vary in profession, where some have possibility of being combination of two or more.

My main character is a Necromancer, which has Healer/Condition-, Burst Direct Dmg/lifesteal- and Condition/CC armors.

My condition builds usually are left in the background.
Especially my main character, which is a Necromancer, who has very little use, only used in Dry Top and Silverwastes right now, due to heavy focus with conditions than Direct dmg (Tho I use a direct dmg build, but it involves heavy life steal components and usually involves multiple weaker hits to boost the life steal and direct dmg DPS).
Unfortunately, due to limitations of conditions (especially weaker spam conditions overriding my strong power conditions) and all events outside DT and SW on open world PvE, especially when mobs simply up their damage per hit and HP by insane amounts, HP is also the defense against conditions, since conditions deal damage up to certain rates and is limited by time, usually mobs have no survivability against direct dmg, so my conditions never deal much damage (thankfully the few times I did use my necromancer on group events, the dealt damage was enough to give me rewards, tho overall experience was “whats the point of using conditions and defenses, when I can use Direct dmg and kill everything faster than they can hurt me”.

My direct dmg builds have use every where, and they literally shred foes before they do anything to me, Cursed Shore has become the “farm” map, since I can simply wander through it and direct dmg DPS everything (except group event mobs) out of my way and gather the nodes…
Except in Dry Top and Silverwastes where I have to change the build to include defenses against dmg, going full Direct Dmg DPS is 99% suicide…

Well, my opinion:
Some of the “junk” are actually salvageable, I for one, salvage all salvageable and sell the junk along with the minor runes and sigils.

Then again, it does sound nice, to be able to set minor runes and sigils got from salvaging green items into junk items and get rid of them quickly while at merchant.

I hope this is what OP meant.

Officially, on the MWolves themselves it’s a useless boon (but might help nearby mobs to move abit faster), for players its harmless (haven’t seen anykind of advantage for foes to have this boon, and the mordrem wolves are already running past the speed limits)

How about make it to apply few stacks of might and fury?

Or perhaps it grants MWolves few stacks of Might or Fury, but nearby allied monsters receive Fury, Swiftness and few stacks of might?
With always applying Swiftness as cover boon for the Fury and might.

Well, this is all about use of boon manipulations and removals (like Corrupt Boon and etc.)

But yet again, MWolves are quite devastating foes anyway, keeping players on their toes…

And what if you allow the Husks to apply protection on themselves as additional direct damage hate? But can recast it on set intervals.
And possibility of pre-existing mobs (risen, bandits, nightmare court and etc.) being updated with similar but not same variety…

Well, can’t remember if I posted my necromancer in this topic, since I can’t find it with the forum search function…

Very apparently, it still hits just once, but I’ve seen the splash graphical effect happen twice with 1 cast.

Anyone else having this?

I just use “0-4-0-6-4”, with Reaper’s Precision, Banshee’s Wail, Bloodthirst, Vampiric Precision, Vampiric Rituals, Vital Persistence and Unyielding Blast traits, while Dagger-Warhorn/Axe-Focus and (healing skill can be Blood Minion, Consume Conditions or Well of Blood, Elite skill can be also any of them) Well of Suffering, Well of Corruption and Signet of the Locust on my full Berserker PvE Necromancer…

Sheer number of attacks generated with Locust Swarm and Dagger 1 combo, combined with wells for additional AoE (not to forget blood sigil, fire sigil, vampiric runes and foods which give additional life steal) with the life steal from traits will be quite potent when dealing with multiple targets (Well lifesteal can hit up to 3 times and etc.)

Axe-Focus will offer defensive choices with boon removal and attack punishing via Retaliation and so on…
But that’s just me…

I also despise the new “sway abit left, then sway abit right” with human female necromancer…

I really liked the old “slash down then slash up” (or was it “slash left then slash up” or rigth then up) animation, it had more punch.

I am basing these on for playing GW2 from 3 day early access on release date until last month…
Everyday intense playing as much as possible.

“Casual PvE Adventurer” worked well on GW1, I didn’t engage on farming, other than some green weapons I wanted, would say I did 100 times less farming in GW1, when compared to GW2.
All I did was move around PvE areas and combat mobs, then salvage and sell the loot I gathered.

I never bothered play GW1 or GW2 with lvls between 1-20 or 1-80, my casual adventures always began on max lvl. I also aimed for maximum gear as soon as possible.

In GW1, it was adventures and engaging combat. All loot from that adventures were enough to get near perfect lvl 20 gear…

In GW2 combat works only for lvls 1-79, at lvl 80, mobs become nothing, just small slow down if ignored, not a death threat.
Although it’s very clear, that ANet aims for casual gamers that play about once a week or less, which is reflected on mobs and RNG in Magic Find…

Mobs are super easy, so the RNG has to reflect that, since if it were higher, hardcore farmers and botters would wreck GW2 economy by over farming everything without any kind of opposition…

Do note: “Casual PvE Adventurer” means solo for huge part of the time, no parties or hard content, no repeated same type farming. Only play through game area, move to next one, mob opposition is enough enterntainment and loot. Champions are too hard, they kill players more than they die and they always require specific build, so there’s no freedom of build usage.

Every time I played GW2,

• Berserker was the most efficient build, anything else barely did well at all. If random player or bot came by, which are always geared with berserker and DPS build since majority are farmers using the easiest possible build to get huge amount of loot, they’d overkill the mob I’m trying to kill.
• Since group content was easy to take part, but is only possible with full berserker DPS build, any other build will result in low contributions.
• At lvl 80, I was reduced to farming of resource nodes only. When world bosses were given solid schedule, I tried those too, but only with full berserker gear and DPS build, which were requirement.
• Partying up is no go, since it takes too much time and party might disband suddenly, causing total loss of anykind of contribution.
• Mobs were super easy, because learning GW2 combat mechanics was viewed as impossible thing for players, according to ANets actions so far.
• Usable builds in solo were limited due to lack of mob ability to combat, huge majority of mobs (with exception of high armor husks, only different mobs) shared common stat combination of “High HP-Low Armor-High DMG per Attack-Long activation cooldown”.
  High HP combats conditions
  Low Armor reduces other damage source usage, since Direct Dmg sources deal damage without any limitations
  High Dmg per attack is cheap solution for enforcing players to dodge, but since mobs die faster than they attack, it’s pretty much nothing.
  Long activation cooldown works on all actions mobs do, attack, skill activation, etc. since mobs die faster than they attack, it’s same results…

Over 2 kittening years…

I’ve been to Silverwastes, full berserker does extremely well, and I don’t need to use all combat mechanics. Just stand near mob and spam skills…

Although my problem is the lack of content for “casual PvE adventures”, mobs that can kill me but not too hard, move around the game world without starting repetive grinding for mats and etc.
Pretty much what ANet told that the game should be played, no repetive grinding since there’s nothing else, either farm PvE easy mobs or go super serious no-casual on PvP…

PvP is not that casual…

If we’d use all combat mechanics in PvE, the RNG would have higher success rates, but easy mobs means farmers and botters would wreck the GW2 economy, thus it was set to very low, even if you have 300% magic find…

Well, this is about the end game…

Mobs offer some form of danger when at lower lvls, but once lvl 80 is reached, mobs become “mobs that can’t kill you”.

I do wonder if some of the player feedpack is actually by farmers and grinders, but I have no proof regarding that.

Well, GW2 endgame is grinding.

• Gem store gets most updates with various items.
• You need to get gold to buy gems, so the way to get it is to grind.
• Mobs don’t fight back properly, super easy to kill on lvl 80, especially with only 1 type of build, which is DPS berserker.
• The RNG Success numbers are very low, due to easy to kill mobs, if the number were higher, then grinders would quickly gather all the items needed to craft every legendary there is.
• Open PvE looses most of it’s interest, not all, leaving some mini-games which depart from the GW2 combat mechanics.
• Content that is released so far have very low replay value. Most might replay them only to get the achievements, after that, I dunno.
• Mobs that come with the new content, will always use high HP-Low Armor design, which means any other combat mechanics which don’t involve dealing huge amount of Direct Dmg in burst, will never get enough damage dealt to fullfill the contributions on their own. Conditions, boon manipulations and etc. This applies mostly on open world PvE tho.

GW2 is pretty much grind/farm game for endgame content.
Since it was aimed to be extremely casual friendly, it also makes the game very easy for farm and grinding….

Well, it also depends on personal opinions.
Content has extremely poor replay value for example.

If you wish to use any build you desire, forget about group events in open world PvE, they’re all tailored for Direct Dmg DPS builds, any other will never reach the optimal DPS to contribute. Unless you play solo.

Dalanor.5387:

FrostSpectre.4198:

Berserker DPS build is designed to hit high dmg against low armored targets. Every other build is designed to create or combat “longevity” mechanics like conditions, boons, healing, control and boon/condition manipulation.

I’m pretty sure berserker builds use these too if needed.

Do you have a solution against berserker DPS killing every mob in 1-3 seconds?
So that other builds can be used more widespread, especially ones which involves huge numbers of trash mobs and 1 miniboss, than what they do now…

Why are you still baffled by this? Trash mobs are trash mobs for a reason. They are just fillers between bosses. But if it offens you that much …
1. Skip them.
2. Kill them in less DPS oriented gear.
3. Write a petition for PETA.

The healing, condition, control, boon/condition manipulation is that they should also be usable in Open World PvE.

Mobs that utilize “Longevity” mechanics are extremely rare, so it’s waste of DPS potential…

Compare the number of mobs to target depending on build:

Berserker DPS builds can attack everything and get rewards from them, even if they’re trash mobs. Everything is easy prey for DPS builds.

Non-“berserker DPS builds” are limited to the 1-5 mobs of the whole event, which are champion rank and higher.

Should there be more berserkers than usual, even the higher rank mobs will die before 2/3 of other builds do anything.

There’s a serious imbalance for other builds in open world PvE, even though it should give equal chances for every build.

It seems that combat is not part of GW2 end game, even though it should.
Since at lvl 80, mobs will do pretty much nothing to you.
What else for “Casual PvE adventurer”?

Endless farming to get gold for gems to dress up simulator and rant random stuff on IRC???

Dalanor.5387:

FrostSpectre.4198:

But my problem is more to mob designs…
Since my “Casual PvE adventurer” play style means: End game = Combat and adventure…

For every build being equal you should have remove every gear set out there except one. You can’t make everything equal when they are different … Common sense.

It has nothing to do being zerker or not. Use the righ weapons with the right build with the right class and for kittens sake be social and group up …

You just constantly whine about your made up, non-existing problems and spam every possible thread you can. It starts to get seriously boring …

Well, now you have missed the point.

Check the mobs everywhere, except few world bosses, Southsun Cove and Dry Top.
Huge majority of mobs have High HP, Deal high DMG per attack, activates a skill once every 3-5 seconds, have abilities that deal pretty much nothing and have very low armor

Berserker DPS build is designed to hit high dmg against low armored targets. Every other build is designed to create or combat “longevity” mechanics like conditions, boons, healing, control and boon/condition manipulation.

The end game of GW2, because of lacking mobs that actually try to kill you and can kill you, if you’re not careful, is pretty much hardcore grind farming to get gold for gem store items to complete the dressing simulator and use IRC to communicate with others…

Skady.5916:

FrostSpectre.4198:

I really wish every build is equal, than 1/3 being superior…

I’m sorry, but this is not how things usually work in video games. You cannot just go out with random traits, random stat gear and random utilities and hope to be effective pressing random buttons. The thing is that another player who actually made an effort to learn the game and understand its mechanics will be quite more effective than you.

That means that he:
- will kill you in sPvP/WvW mode with his better build
- will be much more effective and useful for group in PvE with his better build

This is just how the things work.
Of course no one can force on you “meta builds”, you are free to run your own build no matter how useless and kittened it is. But please do not expect to be as effective as others and do not expect to be welcome into “effective meta groups”

There is another thing:
No one can inspect your build in GW2. That’s why players who “play how they want” tend to lie to their group and join it anyways despite LFG statement. This is the reason for conflicts between “meta” and “play how i want” players.

Add inspect option like it exists in sPvP and two player groups will be split naturally.

Do you have a solution against berserker DPS killing every mob in 1-3 seconds?
So that other builds can be used more widespread, especially ones which involves huge numbers of trash mobs and 1 miniboss, than what they do now…

2/3 builds suffer from literal “lack of targets” in general PvE endgame, since only mobs that don’t die in 1-3 seconds are champions and higher rank mobs.

As for PvP, every build have uses, berserker is not killing everything too fast because of variety.
As for WvW, I did play Healing/Conjure/Boon Support Elementalist with Cleric gear, but only with a small group, I did quite good job granting longevity to my allies.

FrostSpectre.4198:

But my problem is more to mob designs…
Since my “Casual PvE adventurer” play style means: End game = Combat and adventure…

Fully read my post before posting nonsense.

Problem with zerker gear: Why use other builds since this one’s superior.

I really wish every build is equal, than 1/3 being superior…
In my opinion, giving variety on mobs stats, skills, ranks and special mechanics with proper difficulty lvls, since this way 1 build will not be the superior, but you can still defeat them with any build you desire due to proper difficulty lvls.
Not to mention that GW2 end game at this state, is pretty much farming and dressing up with IRC, which is done with berserker gear and DPS builds…

Other problem that makes use of other builds nearly impossible is Group Events in open world PvE, since mobs die too fast and never employ any “Longevity” mechanics, like active defenses, boons, proper combat builds, etc.
Usually the trash mobs are part of that event, but only berserker DPS will enjoy about 100% of the event, via the rewards, while other builds can only enjoy with the 1-5 Champion or higher rank mob of the whole event.

But my problem is more to mob designs…
Since my “Casual PvE adventurer” play style means: End game = Combat and adventure…

Jaken.6801:

I do not actually get everything you just said.

1. If you call it review, then it is a very subjective and only covering a small part of the patch itself.

2. There is not enough explantion to your points, so that people, like me, who are not so well versed in the matter of your prefered playstyle and what you are on about.

3. What kind of “Endgame” are you talking about?

4. Are you upset about normal mechanics? What is so wrong with the hounds? Which area of the game are you talking about? (They are pretty hard for me if they gang up in the part “Not under my Command”)

5. What do you mean by “Universal Mob Design”?

6. Can you elaborate the term Farm Grinding ?
7. You use the term “casuals” very hateful and unreasonable, since you are actually the description of a casual player

Everythings given too easily, not to mention, end game doesn’t include “adventure the world and enjoy engaging combat” when ever there’s shown the significant gap on effectiviness between Berserker DPS and other builds.

Silverwastes, I went there with the grim outlook with only berserker gear and full selfish DPS build.
I didn’t need to utilize anything else than just deal damage, no need for active defense or any other combat mechanic that does something else than DPS.

GW2 is pretty much “farm grinding” game, mobs don’t slow players down, since they’re designed just to die, than fight the player.
The very little that is left, still annoys people. Have even some think that the mobs shouldn’t have any kind of skills that would slow down their farm trains…

GW2 lvl 80 end game: Dressing simulator with Internet Relay Chat and “Grind Farming”.
You don’t get much out of fighting the old mobs, which die too fast and cannot cast their skills, when ever players use Berserker gear and DPS builds.
Handicap yourself but someone will always come and wreck the mob before it manages to activate any skills.
“Offense is best Defense” here, I can’t play builds I like (Condition builds, Support builds or Control builds, which work only if mobs can actually resist and fight), if I play other builds, someone will eventually come to my spot and kill the mob before my character’s non-DPS skills do anything, which is annoying when trying to get a enjoyable fight where I can actually die if I’d use “stand-spam-DPS”.

• Healing is the integral of Support, but if mobs don’t deal damage that could be lightened with healing, it has very little use and takes away DPS potential.
• Conditions require time to deal damage, if mobs die too quick, then there’s very little damage done.
• Control is meant to prevent action, but if mobs die too quick before activating anything, then DPS has done the job of Control.
• Boon/Condition Manipulation work to turn advantages into disadvantages and vice versa, but if mobs die too quick, harmful or beneficial effects weren’t used due to having very little time to activate them.

“Universal Mob Design” is “High HP-High DMG per attack-Long skill activation delay-Abilities that deal little dmg-Very low armor”.

• High HP is used to resist Condition Dmg, but offers very little defense against Direct Dmg DPS builds.
• High DMG per attack, meaning mobs use same auto-attack as others, which deal alot of damage, but activate this auto-attack skill slowly due to Long skill activation delay.
• Long skill activation delay, means the time it takes for the mob to activate skills, usually mobs have 3-5 second delays for each skill activation, if you kill the mob fast enough, they cannot use their skills.
• Abilities that deal little dmg, usually activated at random and very slowly, deals damage in small packets and other variants, but the threat level is extremely low, as these skills deal less dmg in DPS comparisons.
• Very low armor, this is the important stat to resist Direct Dmg, this doesn’t offer any thing against condition dmg.

I’m not very fond of the “casual” design used in GW2, since it results this kind of end game, which tries too much on dragging players off from general combat mechanics and into more over-repetive activities. Easy mobs is positive thing for hardcore farmers, but not for players who try to play the game “adventure and do stuff”…

Well, I am disappointed.

As a casual PvE adventurer, who plays general PvE for engaging combat and adventure, mostly solo, farm only once per day or 2 days, rarely enter Hard PvE content or PvP unless it’s organized.
I did same in GW1, just played general PvE, mostly solo, and it was more enjoyable and every game mechanic worked perfectly according to encounter.
Played all expansions, and was pretty much attracted here by the last expansion.

In a way, it was “funding” of GW2, more slurs into the insult.

Negatives

1. Endgame content is just Dressing simulator with IRC and “Farming for disabled kittens” mode, combat mechanics are not use, since they’re too much for casuals
2. Active Defense is too hard for casuals, since casual = disabled kittens it seems
3. Mordrem Hounds now apply swiftness, which changes nothing, since they already run too fast and don’t get benefit from swiftness, so we can toss out all skills that involve removing or converting boons (Mesmers and Necromancers primarily, but this hits Necromancers the most, since they’re designed to fight enemies that try to resist dmg)
4. Mordrem Vile Trashers now die from any angle, since it seems to be too hard for casual to position themselves
5. Mordrem mobs use “universal mob desing”, meaning they’re impossible for “play how I want” and forces one to play berserker DPS or suffer other’s coming and stealing the kill so to speak
6. Silverwastes is all stand-spam-DPS, can’t say there’s “Play how I want”, since that is tossed out of the window for endgame, propably for being too hard for casuals to understand
7. The bosses in Silverwastes deal no damage so to speak, I did most of it by stand-spam-DPS without getting downed or defeated
8. The first mission on this chapter involved seraph ghosts that had huge amount of HP to counter conditions (among 2/3 of game combat mechanics, like the rest of Zhaitan Campaing did), but had broken shield stance from flame legion mob and possessed extremely low armor/0 armor, excellent for berserker DPS only, literally saying “Play berserker DPS and farm, or you’re effed up”
9. ANet has stumbled into the favor of farm grinding, since actual playing GW2 is impossible to casuals it seems…
10. Silverwastes is pretty much PvE version of WvWvW hold outs…

Positive

1. Only Mordrem husk variants had heavy armor…
2. Limited WP to the homebase in silverwastes, giving better reasons to revive defeated players

Although it’s a good idea, but I really hoped “starter zone” mobs would stay in Starter zones.

Give us more reason to use the combat mechanics and active defense, by making encounters with mobs that “actually tries to kill you and is capable of doing so”, than being “there to die for you and can’t do anything”.

What makes a game is pretty much the combat mechanics and active defense in GW2 case, same applies to every other game…

Not necessary to give us daily to encourage us to dodge or anything.

lordkrall.7241:

One would of course question why people that quite clearly don’t like the game still hang around on these forums everyday instead of just moving on.

Well, my reason for lingering, while playing GW2 has heavily declined to just “I feel like looking at huge dmg numbers that DPS builds do, until I get bored, since there’s no enjoyable combat in PvE” and “Well, new update, it might keep me interested until the lack of enjoyable combat in PvE hits again”.

As being “Casual PvE adventurer” who just adventures and enjoys combat, which is big part of the game, do short farming sometimes for extra gold and rarely tread near hard content or PvP, unless someone organizes it.
I was same in GW1, only adventures in general PvE, mainly alone…

I bought both GW1 and GW2 on release, GW1 offered good combat experiences that didn’t bore me, since I could use any skill I’d like to use, mainly since mobs use same skills as players and offer good fight for the adventures…

Yet it’s the combat mechanics offered in GW2, which keeps me from completely quitting or returning back to GW1, although over half of these combat mechanics are not used in content I play most…

Past months, I’ve spent most time in Dry Top, due to having better mobs (Although still despising the majority of mobs having same vulnerability to direct dmg, as in other PvE content), but repeating 1 map over and over becomes boring…

Positives

• Interesting combat mechanics
• Can play any build you want in PvE, but only in solo
• Charr and Asura depart the usual MMO character designs of “burly beast males” and “big breasted humanlike females with animal ears who wear armored bikinis”

Negatives

• In PvE, 2/3 of combat mechanics fall into heavy disuse, as those combat mechanics are designed to combat “longevity”
• Open world PvE mobs designed to die, too fast for some content, instead of fight the player and offer engaging combat, once gear is atleast lvl 80 Fine with Power as main stat
• Huge majority of mobs use same design that is highly vulnerable to direct dmg only, while having traits that pretty much resist or leaves out any other mechanics, like condition dmg or boon/condition manipulation
• Ranks are used very poorly, anything below Champion rank are trash mobs

If you are a player like me: “Casual PvE Adventurer” who moves around the game world and enjoys the combat and the rewards it offers, do only short farming of resources (once per day or so), rarely tread into hard content or PvP unless it’s organized

It’s gonna end soon after you realize the over simplified mobs that just die instead of fight (No enjoyable combat scenarios, group or solo) and uneven build capabilities in PvE, due to ANet thinking that “this mechanic is too hard for casuals” and giving Power/DirectDmg the superior chances over those other mechanics…

I usually do what I did in GW1:

1. Adventure on general PvE, but rarely touch PvP or hard content, unless someone organizes it
2. Enjoy engaging combat, where the mobs can kill me, if I don’t utilize combat mechanics in proper ways
3. Do simple farms on areas, once per day
4. Play variety of builds to enjoy the mechanics
5. Use conditions and watch mobs bleed out in every content

But unfortunately numbers 2, 4 and 5 are quite impossible, since Power based DPS will kill the mobs before my desired gameplay mechanics even do anything…

Especially GW2 Open World PvE consists of group events too, where Support or Control builds have very little use, since mobs die too fast and don’t put up a proper fight, easy one that is, but not the current “stand-spam-DPS” mobs that are there to die…

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

FrostSpectre.4198:

We have Lightsabers and Force already…

We call them Mesmers.

They apply illusionary beam like blades on their swords.

And they’re capable of mind control.

:P

Ah yes, but our mind control has been severely nerfed since GW1.

All those flashy lights mesmers make are illusions and mass suggestions.

Unfortunately no one is immune to it, so pretty much everyone sees them, if it’s directed at them.

We have Lightsabers and Force already…

We call them Mesmers.

They apply illusionary beam like blades on their swords.

And they’re capable of mind control.

:P

Rising Blade.9206:

I did mentioned to my guildies on putting exclusive abilities for the legendaries.

examples

The predator
warriors
-Fires a high energy shot doing critical damage and burns your foes

Don’t forget that it creates a gaping hole into the victims chest! :P

azyume.6321:

TL;dr: Smarter AI and less crowd control.

OP’s post sounds more like: “I farm, not play the game, I need to get there faster, simplify the mobs to point they just stand there doing nothing”

For Open World PvE, mobs have extremely minimal CC abilities, not to mention overly generalized stats.

Good AI would be good, but removing CC, is no no, since CC is part of Active Combat mechanics, which are barely even used in PvE.

PvE needs:

• Good AI as you said, so that they can utilize Active Defense mechanics better, to make combat more interesting.
• Stat variety on mobs, so that some mobs have more armor and other types of stat combos. 99% of mobs are trash mobs, with low armor, high HP, high dmg per attack, activates a skill once every 3-5 seconds and have abilities that is less potent than mosquito bites (lvl 80 Power-based fine gear is enough to just stand-spam-DPS to win everything in open world PvE).
• More potent abilities, current abilities are extremely pitiful (Risen farmer’s “Risen Arm” turret, which tosses smaller risen arms that poison, however this turret never even hits the player), even for casual (I’m casual PvE adventurer, a supportive one too, who enjoys combat and travelling more than farming, I never tend to play PvP or hard content, unless someone organizes it)
• Better Rank ratios, current one with bad stat and ability designs is horrible, NoRank, Veteran and Elite mobs that just there to die, Champ and above ranks that are almost the actual mobs, but only for group content.

Royale.5863:

Twilight:- Turns the user into a vampire. Extra Daze Duration & Confusion Damage vs Human Females.

Don’t forget sparkling during the day…

toxianguardian.4850:

I am so fed up with being yanked around, pushed around, knocked down, chilled, crippled, stunned, anything and everything they PACK into every godkitten zone to prevent me from doing something so SIMPLE as trying to get to my party! It’s REALLY getting out of hand, and just made it all too easy to switch off the game tonight and watch a movie instead.

Wanna pack a dungeon with all that stuff? HAVE AT IT, I definetely feel we should have to get smart to skip all those trash mobs!

But in the open world? C’mon ANET, give a dude a break, those are some big effing zones to be getting messed with the WHOLE way to your party.

Please tone it down.

/rant off

So, you’re saying that Open World PvE has to be even more easier than what ANet toned it down before?

Heck, for example:

• Risen Farmers used to launch you, now they just dig a turret that can’t even hit you if you move a tiny bit.
• Risen Putrifiers used to pull you when they Immobilized you, but now they just immobilize.

Unfortunately, since the mobs design is like this, it’s pretty much standard that players demand, since everyone looks for fast way to make gold, instead of enjoying the game and combat…

(Unfortunately, for myself, I bought both GW1 and GW2 on release, I played GW1 in general PvE and solo without going serious about hard content or PvP, I enjoyed the adventuring in the PvE areas, I could play pretty much any build without being useless, but to me the current state of PvE in GW2 is pretty much opposite, since are designed so that they just die, instead of putting up a fight…)

Use Berserker and kill everything in Open World PvE, since 99% of mobs share same design, they’re extremely vulnerable to Critical Direct Dmg or “Berserker DPS” builds.

Mobs don’t possess “Longevity”, so “Offense is best defense” there.

Note: “Longevity” = Utilizes Active Defenses to mitigate damage and make the combat scenario last longer.

/rant

Oh well, I’m just abit ticked off by the majority of Open world PvE requiring no use of active defenses, mobs lacking variety on stats and abilities, heavily uneven rank ratios in group events and builds that I like to play being quite useless…

Since Open World PvE in GW2= General PvE in GW1… (Sadly for me)

I started playing GW1 since the release, I tended to play solo with henchmen/heroes, only general PvE, and never did PvP or hard content.
Enjoyed the engaging combat there, even though it utilized forced “holy trinity”, I rarely got bored, since I could play any build I wanted…

:(

As topic name says, stupid and impossible idea.

Although it’d be nice…
Especially since Casual Gaming is quite different from Normal Gaming…

The biggest reason why this cannot happen, is that ANet very likely doesn’t have enough servers to do such split.
Lesser ones would propably be: Extra work for 2 different versions, balance issues, WvW, etc.

GW2 servers get split into “Casual” and “Normal” servers, Megaserver will not mix Casual and Normal.

Casual Servers retain super easy mobs and stuff for casual players. Drop rates are same.

Normal Servers on other hand, retain capability of Solo gameplay and “Play how I/you want” concept, but mobs are designed to kill, if players don’t utilize active combat/defense mechanics.
You can kill a heavily armored mob with berserker DPS build, if you utilize active defense mechanics, rather than just running to it and “Stand-Spam-DPS”.

Mobs would display:

• Stat variety, some mobs will have high armor others high HP and so on, in practical lvls.
• Potent abilities, mob will very likely use some healing, control, boons, conditions or boon/condition manipulation to create variable combat scenario.
• Better Rank ratios, NoRanks are Trash mobs, Veterans and Elites are advanced mobs with weaker abilities of higher ranks, Champions are minibosses and above are so on.
• and more

Reward system is also revised. Due to higher difficulty (While still retaining possibility of Solo gameplay and “Play how I/you want”), instead of huge number of Champions spawning with horde of mobs that die in 1-3 seconds, a mixture of NoRanks, Veterans and Elites will take the superior numbers, with only few Champions that can easily down players with variety of attacks (Not only 1-hit-KO attacks). Elites drop Elite loot bags that vary in quality, Champs drop Champ bags with higher chance of better loot, compared to Casual bags.

Take Engineers, take Flamethrower kit, Skill 1: x10, 5 attacks per second, hits 3 targets max with each attack.

One reason my Engineer has strength Sigil, since not many good sigils for AoE condition based build.

kins.3294:

How are the combat mechanics superior? Superior to what?

Well, it promotes the use of players own skills, you have to keep moving, position yourself and you can even dodge attacks at your own choice.

PvP has no issues with this.

PvE however, is designed to be too easy, open world PvE atleast, mobs die too fast and do pretty much nothing else than die, dying too fast makes “Offense is best defense” scenarios for 99% of mobs.

Common mob design:

• High HP, effectively resists Condition dmg, offers about no defense against direct dmg on it’s own.
• High dmg per attack, mobs rarely have anything else, basic attack and power attack.
• Activate a skill once every 3-5 seconds (Includes attacks too).
• Weak abilities, mostly does only 2k-5k dmg per hit, very rarely uses conditions, boons, healing, control or boon/condition manipulations. This results 2/3 of mechanics that have almost no use in general PvE.
• Have very low/0 armor, this is only stat that resists direct dmg.

Other problems, since PvE mobs are pretty much split into 99% trash mobs and 1% significant mobs. (Veteran Karka, Mordrem, Giant Beetles, very few UNIQUE dungeon mobs and significant boss monsters)

• NoRank, Veteran and Elites are trash mobs, while Champion and above are advanced and boss monsters, I call it “Bad Rank Ratio”.
• Due to the huge range of targets made up of trash mobs that die fast against Berserker DPS (99%), pretty much dominated by DPS, while Support and Control are useless builds.
• Support and Control builds have extremely limited target range in the 1% of mobs, where all builds have equal chances. Call that “unequal gameplay options” for “Play how I want”…
• Immobilize is the Stun in PvE, since it can actually break the behaviour of the Champion or higher rank (Good example being Taidha Covington, or now better known as “The Pacifist Queen”). Sometimes I wonder if boss mobs should just be resistant to Immobilize…

Combat mechanics include stuff like Conditions, Healing, Control, Boons and Boon/Condition Manipulations,
but all these mechanics work if the mobs put up a real fight, create need for players to invest on “Longevity”, since “Offense is the best defense” is tossed out of the window, if the mobs can really fight at some degrees.

Of course, it’s possible to achieve some degree of need, but not making “Play how I want” concept useless, mobs just should put up better fight, where the combat mechanics are used, not that insane lvls tho, so that Solo gameplay is still possible and that you can use any build you want, but other builds can actually change the results, than just huge zerg of DPS blindly trying to kill 1 mob that can’t fight back.

Problem of Ascended: They’re optional gear, you are not forced to make them in the first place, except for Fractals of +10 levels.

Ascended gear was added to GW2, because ANet collapsed on grindwhiner’s requests…

On other hand, ANet should scale the Ascended and Legendary gear back to Exotic lvls, that’s the way of GW2 meant to be, design taken from GW1, no gear progression…

Make sense you what talk no.

Makes no sense what you talk….

Expansion, what I hope is better open world PvE content, where my Necromancer (Which runs Condition/Corrupter build, to use against high armor and boons) doesn’t sit out for 2 years, only to be played occasionally in complete solo or to cook for food buffs…
Even more, it’s possibility to play Open world PvE with Support or Control builds, while not rendered useless…

(I played general PvE in GW1, never ventured into hard content there, or played PvP, so I’m pretty much Open World PvE in GW2)

Well, that’s my opinion. I have no certain opinion for other type of content…

Lorrainder.6053:

The perfect solution… Nothing more to add… If the dear team doesnt change that i must say its all about the MONEY…

But with so much things costing under 400 gems i think thats absurd.

Please spread that image…

Solutionnn.jpg

Same image as Lorrainder posted, kitten “img” code doesn’t work in GW2 forums…

I wonder why they decided on locked numbers only, instead of not adding them to the manual system…

Well, not to mention other problems in GW2…

What was it, after the Sept Feat Pack?
I don’t remember the exact date anymore, since I’ve had issues of not being able to play Support and Control builds on content I want, which aren’t dungeons or other hard content by the way.

Well, dunno if this flaw extents into PvP, but it’s very annoying to target nearest mob behind an impassable wall, that usually extents over 5 km on each direction.

If it extends to PvP, then it’s breaking the possibilities of “terrain based stealth”…

Dunno, but ANet has been experimenting with Mob variety on Mordrem, Giant Beetles and Legendary Sand Giant.

Before that they added Karka, most interesting ones being Veteran Karka.

These mobs atleast offer good targets for use of Conditions, since you cannot kill these mobs that fast as others.

Paul.4081:

Now, someone post how it looks on a Charr….Gimme a laugh.

Here’s the female Charr version…

Torsailr.8456:

Imbune.5497:

That dress is misogynistic and sexist. It objectifies women as it shows cleavage and is completely impractical in a combat scenario. If women wear dresses men should wear dresses as well.
#equality
/sarcasm

It does look cool though. If I were inclined to return that would surely be a must-own item.

Where’s my kilt?!

I don’t think kilt is gonna satisfy feminists!

Well, modern feminists…

:P

/joke

Needs “Buy 100 gems” option.

Also perhaps the option to type in the number of gold/gems you want to buy, like before.

Just my opinion.

Would blame most of this on mob design…

Or rather “Bad Rank ratios” on mobs…

Due to NoRank, Veteran and Elite mobs being trash mobs, that are there just to die and do nothing else, while making Champions and higher ranks as “challenging mobs” is quite messed up mob ratio.

If ANet had used better NoRank-Vet-Elite-Champ ratios, keeping the trash mob in NoRanks, making Vets and Elites into advanced mobs and so on…

This could reduce abit of the problems that lie in “Longevity” type mechanics, like Conditions, Healing and Control, by giving more targets to them and plain general better combat experiences.

But this is potential “Backbreaker for Casuals”, because to give “Longevity” mechanics more use, mobs have to be abit harder and more capable…

I wonder if they have issues coming up with an solution, because it could potentially destroy the casual design of GW2.

As Conditions along some other mechanics that create and combat Longevity, if the mobs are left as they are, those mechanics will never see use outside very few dungeons and few mobs on whole GW2, even if conditions and other mechanics are updated.

For WvW/PvP, mechanics that create and combat Longevity have pretty much equal chances, due to huge variety of builds used, when compared to current state of PvE.
Another difference in WvW/PvP, is that there are more targets for Longevity type mechanics, PvE having huge number of similar trash mobs that die too quickly while limiting Longevity mechanics to the smallest group of targets.

One way to create better use for Conditions and other mechanics, is to increase game difficulty, to avoid putting mobs that die in 1-3 seconds, activate skills very slow and don’t put up a fight.

If mobs cannot put up a proper fight, creating use for mechanics that work on Longevity can be difficult…

But this is just a thought, atleast when keeping Conditions as DoT, as much as possible…

Of course, it’d be nice to have engaging combat scenario, while solo, and have the feeling that use of any build has impact and results, while still keeping difficulty quite low…

Solutions like “add more HP” doesn’t work, since high HP hinders Direct Dmg very little, while makes it even harder for conditions…

Necro thread indeed…

Nomad gear has it’s uses, mostly for tanking-control combo builds. Warrior is one who benefits most of the ARMOR-healing-vitality, due to healing and control abilities tied mostly to Defense trait line.

But for PvE, 99% of all mobs are designed to die quick, which is not good for healing, control, conditions and boon/condition manipulation, or even for tanking, which are designed for mobs that don’t die in 1-3 seconds and to provide longevity to players.
Berserker is dominant stat choice, as it deals the highest possible direct dmg, if mobs die before they can do anything, it pretty much defends itself against damage and other effects…

• Healing serves no purpose, if there’s nothing to heal (If mobs die too quick without doing dmg)
• Control serves no purpose, if there’s nothing to control (If mobs die too quick and that 99% of mobs have no threat potential to be stunned, only champions and above are best stun targets, which is bad for open world PvE)
• Conditions can’t deal damage, if mobs die too quick (High HP is pretty much buffer against condition dmg, while Direct Dmg will deal damage with about no hinderance, due to lack of armor on mobs)
• Boon/Condition Manipulations have very little use, if mobs don’t use enough boons and conditions for these skills to manipulate (There tend to be 1 or 2 mobs per each mob family, that use conditions and boons, othervise there’s nothing for these in PvE)

Only the 1% of PvE mobs, which are world bosses with more complex mechanics, some dungeon mobs (Many still just use high HP as buffer without touching armor or anything else, so Direct Dmg will deal damage without much hinderance, while conditions suffer from the high HP buffer), Mordrem, Giant Beetles and Veteran Karka,
are the mobs where builds other than DPS have equal chances.

Other problem is that the Open World PvE mobs are “Super Easy Mode”, because of “High HP-High Dmg per Attack-Long action delays-Low/0 Armor-Harmless abilities” design, which was for Casuals, but means that mobs don’t do anything else, than just die. Most combat is done without dodging, strategical positioning or use of other skills.

Serophous.9085:

FrostSpectre.4198:

Serophous.9085:

Valento.9852:

FrostSpectre.4198:

Perhaps ANet adds some form of PvE based Fame system, if you fail events too much, perhaps the NPCs would turn hostile of the player…

But just joking.

Hey, but that’s a pretty good idea! Some additional consequences for failing events! yay

Yeah…whole zerg vs a few NPCs….

Welp, no one would be using those vendors for awhile…

The NPCs get PvP grade skills, high stats (even high toughness and vitality) and Legendary ranks…

:P

And if its still large enough zerg, wont die. Not to mention you just added MORE bags to be farmed making them legendary :p

But becoming legendary and proper skills, they’d slaughter everything with devastating 1-shot-down/sec AoEs that deal ridiculous amounts of dmg that even downed die in few hits, have unblockable and undodgeable attacks, strong DoTs that even bleeds deal 500 dmg per sec per stack and high resists against dmg in general reducing direct dmg source to 1/25, not to mention 10 billion HP…

And they’re set to not drop any loot.

Ridiculous stats…

Good luck staying alive…

:P

I have my ele with Exotic Cleric, monk runes, Benevolence sigil and Aquatic Benevolence. 47.5% more healing. I just toss in Elemental Attunement, Evasive Arcana and Conjures for additional healing blasts, boons and DPS support…

But I’m not sure with critical healing, throw in Magi’s stat gear (HEAL-preci-vita) and we’d have about 50% chance of crit, if the usual one is used…

As for PvE, healing has no use, as long as mobs die too fast and being unable to deal damage or effects before dying.

Best thing we could use now, is more hinderance on direct dmg…