Guild Wars 2

The real question is, why bother with it. I can see this sort of app being useful for those realism shooters which don’t have a UI crosshair (for example Red Orchestra series) so you can shoot from the hip better, but in this game? You are seriously having issues with aiming in this game? Come on.

They will add cosmetic mounts. I am willing to bet on it. If they add something cool and not goofy, I might even get it for the RP factor.

However… add the darn capes ANet. Capes. Not hoodies. C. A. P. E. S. Long ones, too, not those short allmost-capes. Big, flowing, cloth simulates capes that can get you sucked into an asura aetheric jet intake just like that!

Make it so!

Another option is to add a “faerie fire” or tracking type of skill, which would prevent the thief from stealthing for x seconds if they are hit with it while in combat, or maybe cause the thief to leave glowing footprint marks behind while in stealth, which would become visible only if within a certain radius from the player doing the tracking.

This would not destroy stealth gameplay, but it would make it more difficult to get away for thieves, especially if they attack larger groups (hence higher chances that they will get hit by one of the above skills). The inconvenience of not being able to easily stealth and disengage would be compensated by the fact that someone would have to slot a utility skill specifically designed to counter thieves, and otherwise useless in combat, so not everyone would be running around with a “thief radar”.

I think majority of people get upset at the thief ability to reset a fight pretty much whenever they want.

I think being able to reset a fight is ok for a class which relies on their escape utilities for survival, but not all the time. It removes the kind of choices other classes have to make when it comes to picking fights. In a way, playing a thief is like playing an elementalist during keep defense. You can’t lose.

Or better said, you can lose, but you really have to make a lot of mistakes. People don’t like the fact that elementalists can just go banzai in the middle of a zerg in front of the gates, get downed and vapor form to safety. Every time.

Same with thieves. As a thief, you know you have your way out which works 90% of the time, so you can afford to just go in.

Now, I understand the reasoning behind such a class, as being able to harass means also being able to survive retaliation from much stronger forces. Just accept that people will loathe you for it, and that there shall be much /dancing on your corpses when we do manage to stomp you dead. :p

Sigurd Greymane, guardian extraordinaire

The only reason stealth is OP is because, for some reason, the devs haven’t included a mechanism for de-stealthing. Anything from debuffs which prevent stealthing to game mechanics which do not allow stealth to continue while performing offensive actions would do.

Right now, stealth really can be an answer to every single problem you encounter in WvW. Which then raises the question of why bother with anything else.

Erm, stability boon is not consumed when you get hit by a control effect (for example knockback). So if you want to prevent getting knocked back, casting stand your ground will insure that you cannot be knocked back for the entire duration of the effect.

If you want to block an attack, then only blocking abilities can do that, for example Aegis will block one attack. Focus #5 will block three such attacks, including the knockback portion of it. Stability will only prevent knockback, but will not do anything about the damage part of an attack.

Case in point, Aegis will block everything, including damage and knockback, but only once. Stand your ground or Retreat will only prevent knockback, but will do this for an unlimited amount of times during their duration.

IDarko.4709:

People following you can be annoying because they might use squishie builds and die, resulting in rallying the enemy. Or they die because they can’t hear the leader shouting commands via TS etc. Dieing is such a big deal because of rallying that it’s very undersstandable for guild groups to want to play alone. Besides, followers might not hide in time, so enemies will find them and the whole ninja attack or whatever might be ruined.

On the other hand, guild groups who actually think they can hide in WvW are very entertaining! Seriously guys, those huge red invader tags hovering over your heads, dead giveaway. And no, hiding behind corners and in buildings doesn’t work either. Those things sometimes even poke through walls.

Puggies used to be a problem for ninja groups when they would instantly go berserk on gates and pop swords, but that’s not an issue any more. As for rallying enemies, unless the group in question can guarantee that not a single one of them will be downed in any fight, I think that’s just an excuse to act elitist and creates division.

So forget all that, WvW is a server vs server thing, so just let’s all be nice to our team mates and play along.

Guys who are being followed, it is simple. If someone is following your guild group in WvW, they are well within their rights to do so and no, they are not harassing you. Especially now that there is no worries about puggies popping orange swords on gates when you want to ninja something with a small group.

Guys who are following, it is also very simple. If you are not commanding, turn the kitten commander icon off.

So don’t fight each other, you’re gonna get pwned that way. :p

Raptured.9307:

“Of course, as you learn quickly (and especially in WvW), it doesn’t work at least 60% of the time. People just dodge you, because they can time your Updraft from the sound of your RTL, nevermind visuals.” – you just walk and follow them for 1-2 seconds then hit 5… just thought this was an irrelevant detail

Not if you blew both RTL and Updraft on a dodge, which is what many people do since they “combo” those two skills regardless of what the opponent does. Which is my point.

My comments are not aimed particularly at you – keep in mind the internet is awash with class-vs-class guides, so the only reason I used parts of what you said is because they were already in this thread.

Generally I find that developing a reactionary playstyle, where you let your opponent extend their reach and expose themselves, then react to it, is better than trying to predict what they will do. Maybe sPvP is different, but in WvW you have so many builds, kinds of players, random factors, that trying to predict anything is an exercise in futility.

I would like to add a more generalist advice on the topic of you-vs-whatever.

A military strategist once said: “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy”. This is very true.

Often I see elaborate battle plans which rely on your opponent to do exactly what you imagine he would.
If you approach PvP like that, you will lose a lot against all but the most inept or inexperienced.

Instead, follow these simple guidelines for PvP extravaganza:

1. Know what you can do
2. Know what your opponent can do

and the biggest one

3. Play adaptively. Don’t have a “plan”. Don’t have “rotations” and “optimizations”. You’re not playing against a predictable computer. What if that GS warrior whips out dual axes on you? Or a rifle? What if your “remove aegis with RTL” gets dodged? What if you Updraft the guard and he has Retaliatory Subconcious traited? If you just go ahead with your DPS rotation, you’ll just nuke yourself half to death, then he’ll get up anyway and kick you the rest of the way.

Having a rotation in your muscle memory and a fixed plan in your head is easier, but if you learn to observe all the minutiae of combat, then you can actually begin to use all your skills in a most appropriate manner and do it fluidly, without thinking.

Eles can learn this lesson early on with the famous RTL+Updraft “Catch ’em” combo. It’s very easy to pull off, and if it works, you just flattened an opponent and set them up nicely for the rest of the fight.

Of course, as you learn quickly (and especially in WvW), it doesn’t work at least 60% of the time. People just dodge you, because they can time your Updraft from the sound of your RTL, nevermind visuals. Because you combo it without seeing what your opponent will do, you just wasted two very valuable skills before the fight has even begun.

So, no pre-fixed and elaborate approaches. Try to develop a fluid, reactionary playstyle.

Disclaimer: this isn’t aimed at any one’s particular post.

Mikemad.2495:

Lucas of the Desert.2165:

Enemy: Warrior
The fight is really trivial.

This makes my warrior sad.

Don’t be. He assumes the warrior will not use one of their many gap closers and CC abilities and not use ranged weapons, for some reason.

Once an ele pops their mistform, usually they have lightning flash for extra stun breaker and mobility but that’s it.

So basically you’d want to force them to pop mistform early on, then proceed to apply as much DPS as you can. Now, they can run away with RTL, but that either removes them from the fight or puts them just nicely in range of your rifle if they start legging it back towards you. You would have to watch for projectile reflection/absorption though.

I think warriors get a bad rap because there’s so many 100B users out there… people even forget that warriors have some really nice single target DPS on rifle. You can’t really kite a warrior, you just turn it into a ranged fight.

If its the look you want, it has the same look as Flame Guard, and you can buy that off a merchant.

Solution is simple. Put a long time limit on guesting. They had a time limit of seven days when the server transfers were free, why not have the same time limit of one guesting per seven days?

If you want to play with your friends, that should be enough for you. If you want to farm chests, well, now you can’t.

That would get rid of guesting overflow issues entirely AND keep guesting viable for its intended use, which is playing with your friends on another server.

Depends on the server you are on. Some servers are PvE centric, others have queues 24/7 for WvW. And some are just low population overall.

Fast growing thread in support about this, so yeah, plenty of people have the same problem.

fishybill.6908:

Dimos Avergis.1864:

fishybill.6908:

Login server is down it appears…

… oh and people, there are no EU servers, they are all in the US, Texas to be exact

Wrong, Wrong, Wrooong

All EU server are in Frankfurt/Germany

The Texas IP is the Connection to the Login Server and the Trade Post database in Texas/USA.

Like I said to the other guy, type /ip in game and see which server you are connected to?

You get the IP of the login server. Not your game server. Game servers for EU are in Europe. You think we would be able to get this kind of latency if the servers were all the way across the Atlantic?

@thread – same here, Piken Square. Can’t log in, error 42:6:3:2158

PinCushion.7390:

12k?! What the heck does your build look like? I’m running full Berzerkers and I’m lucky to get 5k on anything.

He probably has 30/30 in Fire and Air traited for max power and crit chance. Also Fire Grab does 20% more damage to targets that are already on fire, so that may have been a factor. Also factor in armor of the target, so it depends what/who you are attacking.

I run a semi-glassy build and my Air D/D autoattacks are regularly around 2000 damage, so it is definitely possible to crit that high.

Just don’t plow into zergs because you are going to be instagibbed. And yeah, you can’t 1vs1 with a GC ele.
Also, be sure not to be the “slowest guy” when retreating because you’re going to be instagibbed.
And don’t get caught up trying to take down a target in a zerg fight because you’re going to be instagibbed.

On a plus side, you get to troll people with Mist/Vapor form often. That never gets old.

Considering “battle tactics” in this game so far consisted of everyone spamming their damage moves, actually having to think and watch what you and your target are doing is refreshing.

So yeah, L2P. Every class has plenty of evasive and anti-CC abilities, and for a reason. Use them. Also, if you spot your buddies are in trouble, try stopping for a second to help them out, instead of just continuing with the damage spam. Teamwork ftw.

Kam.1780:

@Gaudrath
And what exactly your problem is with having this feature introduced in the Mists?

Oh, wait, I think I know: you can not bring level 2s to their knees with your level 80, is that right? If you do want dueling, it should be competitive, not a slaughter.

I cited my arguments why I do not find it appropriate dueling in the game and brougth up a possible alternative for those who would really like to have it. Your answer? Arrogance. If that is how duelists behave then, no, thank you I don’t want this in my game.

In my eyes in PvE there is no place for player versus player battles. Bring it to the Mists, full stop.

No, my problem is that as a roleplayer, I could not enjoy roleplay dueling, for example Norn Moots, if duels were for a PvP lobby only.

As for level 2’s they don’t have to accept duel requests from level 80 characters. Common sense.

The arrogance is on your end, for assuming all players who want duels are b*stards.

Gallian.7630:

I see so many Norn Guardians around, truly yes I think there’s many of them.

But, ironically I think that guardian does not “fit” the Norn. I see the Norn as hunters more than anything else, similar to “hunter-gatherer” shamans if you want to see it in a way. The classes I think that fit the Norn best are Ranger and Warrior. The Guardian, in my opinion, fits much better with Humans. But this is just subjectively what I think.

I disagree. I think Norn Guardians fit the lore perfectly. Guardians are essentially “mystic warriors” – so in the context of Norn culture, they would be warrior-shamans. Furthermore, the fact that Guardians are supposed to face overwhelming odds on their own and conquer them, fits Norn culture to the letter. In fact, Guardians would make perfect followers of Owl, due to the former Spirit’s nurturing and protective nature.

Asura are a comic relief race. Every single “midget” race in any MMO is a comic relief race. Just goes with the territory of tiny people smashing things with oversized hammers.

As for the rest of GW2, as others have said, plenty of serious if you look at it as a whole. You got your cursed nations, terrible, world-ending monstrosities, families rent asunder, personal tragedy, war, people dying left and right, human sacrifice, religious intolerance, kidnappings, racism, genocidal characters… so an occasional Asura with a Yak towing an oversized laser gun intended for blowing up a Skritt moonshine distillery is actually a nice change of pace.

Kam.1780:

GW2 promotes player co-operation. It has a vast lore that has no place for duels at all. Personally I would not like to see player dueling in the open world or spamming map chat with dueling requests.

I seem to remember Logan and Rytlock duking it out at one time…

Duels are everywhere in GW2 lore. Every time two enemies fight with swords and axes, they duel. Who said it has to be formally announced as such?

Map chat requests can be blocked, if they annoy you, just like any other map chat spam. Duel requests should have an option of auto-decline, just like random party requests.

So the only reason you don’t want to see a duel in the game is because it would bring tears to your eyes to see two Sylvari fighting?

Oh wait. Happens all the time. Norn? Yup. Charr? Check. Asura? Of course, the little buggers love to fight between themselves. Human? Of course, that’s what bandits are for.

And if you are worried about “teabagging” and other assorted 12-year old behaviour, make duels end honourably, with a forced /bow upon defeat of either player, no kneeling, no supplication, no dropping dead.

There are ways to make duels fit nicely in the lore and the world. It doesn’t have to be “to the death” and it doesn’t have to be hateful.

Burrid.4739:

Gaudrath.6725:

Hate it. Previous version looked like an Air elemental, not a Lightning Crab Elemental. Don’t know whose bright idea was this, especially since it is a waste of time better used elsewhere.

I like it.

Why does it need to look like air? Would you rather have a fire as a fire elemental, a piece of ice or a rock as ice or earth elemental?

Because it is an Air elemental? Fire elemental looks like a fire elemental, Earth is animated rock, Water is animated ice and Air is an animated lightning crab.

There is literally a ton of ways to make the old orb have more character without turning it into a crustacean. Would you like to have the Earth elemental look like an Eagle made of rock? This makes as much sense.

They did it this way because it was the quickest. It’s a slap-job. No new animations, no new models, they just reused what they already had and glued it together. As I said, lazy, unnecessary, and the results are sub-par.

Pietoro.2014:

People duel in WvW all the time.

Maybe you guys could make a Fight Club guild and find some corner of a WvW map to do your thing.

Only if you like the rest of us busting up your little fight clubs. WvW is not about dueling, unless you want to stage an epic, mano-a-mano duel between commanders in the middle of a field before a massive zerg fight. I’d be down with that.

On the note of dueling, yes, please add it to the game. Also add the option to auto-decline duel invitations for those who prefer not to be disturbed. Easy enough.

Leo G.4501:

Gaudrath.6725:

I do remember, and if I was the art director on the team, the artist which came up with that particular gem would be in the closet cubicle for a month.

Rule no.1 in MMO game design: if the item is something a portion of your player base has already invested in, you can improve the existing concept, but you do not change it. Ever. If you really want that new concept pushed in, you give players choice and options.

Rule no.2 of game design: you do not waste time on re-doodling stuff that is completely fine while there are items which are outright broken.

Which leads me to believe that there is, in fact, no Lead artist on the team and ANet designers just do what strikes their fancy.

Where are missing skill effects? Where are missing legendary effects? How about more weapons and armor skins?

Nah, let’s just slap the karka skeleton on top of the air elemental orb and call it a month for the graphics team.

Arbitrary numbered rules are arbitrary.

But I’d say neither of those rules has anything to do with game design…maybe with customer support and PR or something…

no. 2 is closely related to feature crawl, the bane of game developers everywhere. Look it up.

no. 1 is there because you don’t want your designers pi**ing the playerbase off.

Oglaf.1074:

GoZero.9708:

I think the picture you posted is the light from “Judgment”.

Whatever it was, it hurt my eyes! Also, you should’ve seen the damage everyone took seconds later because no-one could see the AoE circles on the floor.

Haha.

It is an elite skill you can only cast pretty much once every 3 minutes. And it is awesome.

I’d just like to add that you can’t kite a Guardian. First, we have plenty of gap closers. Second, we have plenty of CC abilities. And third, kiting relies on inflicting conditions, which Guardians eat like treats.

Personally, I mained an elementalist and switched to Guardian. While eles are great fun, and offer unparalleled versatility, Guardians offer more freedom. Yes, freedom to play the game.

PvE, I regularly did content 5-6 levels above mine, I can solo champions any time if I feel like it, charge into a big group of undead and smite them all like some kind of gleaming thunder god…
With ele I could do none of that, even though the skill selection always kept things fresh.

However, if you often switch utilities and weapon sets depending on what you want to do, then playing a Guardian is far from boring. Despite being a heavy melee character, combat feels fluid and your attacks feel powerful. Plus, if you like being able to charge in and save people in the nick of time, Guardian is just perfect for that.

In WvW, any class is interesting to play since the enemies you fight are always different and unpredictable. But again, to me Guardian offers better freedom… you can solo supply camps more easily, you can survive zerg fights better and generally you have a wider range of options available to you on the fly, without having to switch builds/gear around.

Not so sure about that. Have you ever seen anyone mention the air elemental looks, nevermind complain about them?

And yet, people have been complaining about certain subpar or missing effects for months and got nothing.

It just feels to me that there is little or no supervision or direction in ANet’s art department. Or else whoever is in charge seriously needs to improve their prioritization skills.
This and the unicorn-with-butt-tatoos shooting legendary bow makes me worry about more than look forward to what they have in store for us.

Venn.7623:

Gaudrath.6725:

TheGreatA.4192:

It is rather annoying that the strongest classes in the game also receive the best downed skills while the least powerful ones have to worst.

As if they don’t have enough as it is.

The fact that eles have one of the best downed skills is because if you try to actually do some damage, you get downed a lot. They need it.

Can you give us your opinion about Warriors?

Vengeance? First, it’s on cooldown when you get downed, that’s why you stomp a downed warrior immediately, pop stability so they can’t interrupt you.

If they get back up, just immobilize, cripple or chill and kite. If they avoid being stomped by a zerg and get up and don’t get chain stunned, immobilized and knocked down, then I guess they deserve to die inside the keep.

Nothing to write home about.

edit
Just to be clear, even when specced for damage, warriors have a much higher survivability than eles who spec for damage.

I think most classes have pretty good sets which fit with the class. Yes, with Mist Form and Vapor Form you can troll people in WvW, I once held up half a zerg single handedly by raining fire on them from a wall and Mist/Vapor forming to safety if they got lucky with their counter fire… but the laughs are on them. I was a single ele on a wall. They could have safely ignored me and punched through, instead 20 people were so focused on killing me they forgot why they were there in the first place.

Columba.9730:

Lol well I WANT it to avoid getting curb stomped in small scale WvWvW.

Eh? You think a 3% difference in your stats is going to make a difference? Honestly, you should spend those 5 hours improving your skills, that’s going to have a much better impact.

Avatar Rage.4369:

Gaudrath.6725:

Safer Saviour.9685:

Actually, I quite like it. Before it was the weakest of the elementals in terms of looks. It was… an orb. Now it has a degree of character.

It was a wisp. A form perfect for an air elemental. Now it has all the character of a lightning crab… a ground hugging, crawling creature. Might as well make the Earth elemental all misty with a feather boa stuck in its rear.

I feel I must disagree, I can honestly say that I have never saw an air elemental look like the new model. And for that I like it. I am in the camp the the air ememental lacked character, as in it did nothing. The other elementals all have idle animations and look like they are living being. The old Air model was just a ball, it bounced from time to time.

That’s a matter of taste… to me a floating ball bouncing from time to time has plenty of character – for an Air Elemental. Character isn’t something you get from having limbs, or else R2D2 from Star Wars would be a really boring character.

The main point is that nobody complained about the old looks. And there are plenty of unfinished graphics in the game. Obsidian Skin literally has no effect!

And finally, this change is loved by some and hated by others. Previous look was loved by some, while others were indifferent. That’s a change for the worse whichever way you turn it.

Columba.9730:

Gaudrath.6725:

Columba.9730:

Lol, read again. NOTHING is dropping now vs. loot was dropping before. NO LOOT now. items dropped from every 3rd mob before. they changed it. I am not complaining about bad luck, lol. they made nothing drop now.

why do you care how i choose to play the game. I don’t like doing fractals. i could live with farming mobs. why do you care?

Because you choose to play the game in a way that doesn’t give you what you want and then complain about it.

Do you see anyone complaining that lvl4 Moas in Wayfarer’s don’t drop ascended pieces? Because that’s what you are doing.

If you don’t want to do fractals, then right now you can’t get an ascended back piece. Simple as that. Simply accept that you can’t get everything by doing anything.

dude they were dropping items. why did they nerf it? That’s my question. I don’t want an ascended piece to drop. I want the vial, which requires tons more farming.

Secondly, they said there’d be other ways to get these things. where can we obtain the backpiece outside of frectals.? simple questions, really.

I guess people who love fractals feel threatened by those who don’t like doing them, lol.

Not at all. I treat fractals like other dungeons, sometimes I enjoy them, sometimes not, which is when I don’t play them.
Maybe they nerfed the drops, or maybe you got hit by the anti-botting measure, DR, which auto-nerfs the drop rates and loot quality the more you farm in a certain area. You spending 5 hours in the swampland sounds like a prime candidate.

It also makes you a greater lover of fractals than anyone, since you could have done like 5+ fractal runs in that time, with better loot overall and a higher chance of getting a vial.

So what you are doing is making yourself focus on fractals more than those who play them normally. Fractal lover. :p

Columba.9730:

Lol, read again. NOTHING is dropping now vs. loot was dropping before. NO LOOT now. items dropped from every 3rd mob before. they changed it. I am not complaining about bad luck, lol. they made nothing drop now.

why do you care how i choose to play the game. I don’t like doing fractals. i could live with farming mobs. why do you care?

Because you choose to play the game in a way that doesn’t give you what you want and then complain about it.

Do you see anyone complaining that lvl4 Moas in Wayfarer’s don’t drop ascended pieces? Because that’s what you are doing.

If you don’t want to do fractals, then right now you can’t get an ascended back piece. Simple as that. Simply accept that you can’t get everything by doing anything.

As others have mentioned, Icebrood wolves have a strong opening attack that can easily rip out a third of your health.
If you are specced as a GC, and don’t dodge a pack, they can down you instantly if all their attacks land at once.

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

learn to dodge? brilliant. maybe you can tell me what those icons at the bottom of the screen do.

if you like playing the game as a challenge, that’s fine. you’re entitled to your preferences. so what makes you so great that me and Mil are not entitled to our preference of how we like to play?

if low levvel areas are easy and high level areas are hard, then we all get to play how we like. but no, you’d rather eveyone play how YOU want them to play. that’s a kitten move. you don’t see me and Mil telling you the whole game should be catered to our preference.

besides, I DO play in high level areas and WvW and I love it. but sometimes I like to go back to easier areas and just explore, help out newbs and such. It is kitten that I have to risk fixing high level armor to just walk around.

But I guess you guys would just rather there be no levels at all. Cuz if they are all the same difficulty, what’s the point?

I’m sorry, but low level areas are easy. Pushover, in fact. Then again, so is Orr. You think Orr is hard? It’s not.

If you are getting killed in lowbie areas, you need to improve your playing skill. A lot. Maybe stop clicking the skill icons?

So to answer your original question, no, dying easily in this game is not an issue. Maybe if you insist on facetanking mobs with your “fire mage” or something, but all things considered, PvE in this game is really not that challenging at all.

And my argument about lowbie mobs being farmed still stands. Read it again. Lowbie mobs can drop lvl 80 loot. Still think oneshotting them is a good idea?

Silver.8023:

hithlain.4385:

I don’t know how you can be ranged in GW2, especially when solo in PvE… Sure, to engage a fight, this is fine, but once the monster is coming I’m unable to keep range, except a very small one. And for this, scepter or staff is fine, I just run around the enemy, firing…
But for this kind of use I usually prefer the staff, as it can hit several enemies at once…
The scepter 2nd attack is useless while pulling as the mob does not stay in, so you need a still enemy, and this can be achieved only when you’re close to the target, target smashing at you…

My Thief, Warrior and Ranger can all kill enemies solo in PvE before they even get to me.
What you said, however, is a perfect example of Guardian “Ranged combat”!

And my guardian can kill enemies solo in PvE without getting hit once. Yeah, they get in range, which doesn’t help them much.

Each class has different mechanics. We’re supposed to be able to take the hits. We’re supposed to be right there, toe-to-toe. Ranged combat is not what Guardians are good at. Because… if they were… well, then we’d be good at everything and the world would be full of blue balls of rage.

Winds.3087:

Gaudrath.6725:

Depends if it is important to you. Some of us invested considerably into getting a Charged Potion, the effect of which was then completely changed.

As I mentioned, imagine if they did a simple graphic change on Sunrise that removed that shiny blade and replaced it with dried guano.

Or just take a look at the torrent of complaints that ensued after they broke the glow on some exotics last patch.

You can’t make people put a large investment into something and then change it just like that. It is just not done.

The point is, only part of people will consider this simple graphic change as dried guano. Other part will actually like that. And there’s always larger part of those who simply don’t care.
Ultimate decision and the way it should be is in hands of designer.
Remember recent ponybow changes.

I do remember, and if I was the art director on the team, the artist which came up with that particular gem would be in the closet cubicle for a month.

Rule no.1 in MMO game design: if the item is something a portion of your player base has already invested in, you can improve the existing concept, but you do not change it. Ever. If you really want that new concept pushed in, you give players choice and options.

Rule no.2 of game design: you do not waste time on re-doodling stuff that is completely fine while there are items which are outright broken.

Which leads me to believe that there is, in fact, no Lead artist on the team and ANet designers just do what strikes their fancy.

Where are missing skill effects? Where are missing legendary effects? How about more weapons and armor skins?

Nah, let’s just slap the karka skeleton on top of the air elemental orb and call it a month for the graphics team.

TheGreatA.4192:

I reckon you’ve never been in zerg fights where a glass ele can run into a zerg and safely run back to their own zerg after going down like a sack of potatoes. Having to chase a guy after you’ve already beaten them, and get focused by his teammates, is not something I enjoy to do in this game. When you go down you’re supposed to stay down unless you get ressed.

If you go down a lot as an ele, I’m afraid it’s you who has a l2p issue. A real skilled ele will not go down while destroying superior odds with relative ease.

Simply and utterly not true. A skilled ele will not go down easily if specced for it, but they won’t be destroying anything either. An ele who has the ability to destroy entire groups quickly (I’m one of them) WILL go down easily if focused by even remotely skilled players.

P.S And you don’t have that much survivability in 1vs1’s either.

Winds.3087:

No reason in arguing about purely graphic change.

Depends if it is important to you. Some of us invested considerably into getting a Charged Potion, the effect of which was then completely changed.

As I mentioned, imagine if they did a simple graphic change on Sunrise that removed that shiny blade and replaced it with dried guano.

Or just take a look at the torrent of complaints that ensued after they broke the glow on some exotics last patch.

You can’t make people put a large investment into something and then change it just like that. It is just not done.

Safer Saviour.9685:

Actually, I quite like it. Before it was the weakest of the elementals in terms of looks. It was… an orb. Now it has a degree of character.

It was a wisp. A form perfect for an air elemental. Now it has all the character of a lightning crab… a ground hugging, crawling creature. Might as well make the Earth elemental all misty with a feather boa stuck in its rear.

TheGreatA.4192:

It is rather annoying that the strongest classes in the game also receive the best downed skills while the least powerful ones have to worst.

As if they don’t have enough as it is.

The fact that eles have one of the best downed skills is because if you try to actually do some damage, you get downed a lot. They need it.

For example, as a Guardian I can rush through a zerg using teleportation and stun breakers + Aegis and rely on my much higher survivability to just plow through and reach the gate.

As an Ele, I get melted if I’m even remotely slow about it. One immobilize and that’s it. So I have Vapor form to compensate.

As a Guardian I can hop down in front of a gate, maybe drop the Wall, knock some heads around and dodge back in without immediately being blown up. As an elementalist, if I get pulled off a wall or decide to troll the attackers, Mist/Vapor form are pretty much my only options for staying alive.

So it balances out in the end. If your downed skills are weak, that’s because you don’t really need them that often.

So you guys are the equivalent of those slapstick pirates who drop their cutlasses in the middle of a fight and throw themselves in the mud groping as soon as someone spills a few doubloons, right?

Solution is to not be greedy! The great tradition of foot soldiers everywhere dictates that the enemy should be defeated before you go after their boots.

Svarty.8019:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Binding blade will find a stealthed thief.

This is a good tip. The #5 on greatsword will tag them, and then you can pull them but they still won’t be visible, but they will be next to you.

They can hide, but they cannot run sort of thing?

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

Just played again against a SINGLE Icebrood Wolf in Snowden Drifts. His FIRST strike took HALF my health. When downed, my normal lightning strike which would take a good chunk of health from an enemy (which has saved this squishy class many times), now takes off not quite 10%. Complete BS man. I’m getting kitten now.

Learn to dodge? Honestly, how the hell did you get to 55 as an ele without learning to dodge? Stayed in Queensdale all this time?

You guys complaining about downscaling, you realize that low level mobs often drop loot at your level, right? You think oneshot mobs that drop high level loot wouldn’t be such a farming temptation every farmer in the game would swamp starter areas?

Or is that what really upsets you? That you can’t spam autoattack and farm lowbie areas anymore?

You think this is hard, wait until they add new DE scaling to the rest of the world. Ask Orr farmers how that one worked out for them. :p

Winds.3087:

More reasons to stalk endless spark tonic!

Except if the reason you got the tonic in the first place was for the old elemental looks… lots of karma went into that one and then they just completely change it.

Imagine if they changed Sunrise to look like a giant worm on a stick. Same thing. You invest in something and then they just snatch it away and replace it with something completely different.

So personally, no, I don’t like it at all. Not only it doesn’t look like an air elemental, but they could have spent that time fixing graphics issues which actually need fixing. Obsidian Skin noexistent effects, anyone?

They really need to push the Orr event scaling out to the rest of the world with the improved rewards. Right now it’s all reward and no risk at all. But when you get a few champions stomping people around at Claw’s, then it’ll be a different story.

Also consider this: with the improved rewards, prices will drop which means your gold will be worth more. I’d do dungeons and other non-overloaded content for gold, then use that to buy the stuff you need. Let the reward rush simmer down, in a couple of weeks people won’t be swarming the events as much.

Harbinger.9645:

Gaudrath.6725:

There are no “massive” bugs plaguing the game. Just the usual MMO ones and they sure don’t wreck anything, you can enjoy the game as normal. Stop with the drama already.

People being ported into WvW battlegrounds where they aren’t even in the same tier, Mesmer’s core functionality doesn’t work properly all of a sudden, people getting rooted in place after using certain skill combinations, Ranger pets following people over entire maps without the owner anywhere near by…list just goes on man. It’s fine if you don’t care about these bugs but to a lot of people they are ruining the play experience.

So, if these bugs are so beneath your threshold for caring would you kindly keep from trivializing them? That would be awesome, thanks.

So you are saying everyone gets ported to a wrong tier all the time? Or one in a thousand players that port to WvW? Pets always follow across maps? Or just on a rare occasion? Bugs? Yes. Gamebreaking? No.

I got stuck in geometry twice the other day during a dungeon run because my teleports landed me inside the ground and a statue. Do you see me complaining immediately about it on the forums? That’s what some people do, and it is getting annoying. You’d think the game is a complete disaster, when it’s anything but.

There are no “massive” bugs plaguing the game. Just the usual MMO ones and they sure don’t wreck anything, you can enjoy the game as normal. Stop with the drama already.