Guild Wars 2

This is total BS … this is it, the devs and Anet have screwed us over yet again … I’m quitting this game and going back to WoW …. this is the last straw … and what about the Ranger shortbow and Warriors in PvP, and what about this and that … and where is the new stat based gear for us “pro” players … and what about my mom, she plays too … and how about …

It’s a conspiracy I tell you !

hehe …

;-)

Simon.3106:

Ision.3207:

Joey.2769:

Increasing level cap = goodbye to remaining GW1 fans.

I disagree, and I say this as “one of the remaining GW1 fans”.

Raising the level cap will mean very-very little to anyone just as long as it does not also include yet another expansion of vertical progression through stat based gear, or a move towards must have classes (trinity model) for dungeons.

Basically, as long as GW2 stays true to the 3 features it marketed itself as for years (low gear grind, horizontal progression and no must have classes for dungeons), then it will be fine. The day it caves in to these, then, then it will be over. But not because the “remaining GW1 fans” will leave, but because the game will have lost it’s uniqueness. And then a whole lotta folks will leave, most especially the folks that came to Gw2 from traditional vertical progression MMOs for the specific purpose of not having to deal with stat based gear progression or the “4 of 5, need healer” nonsense.

I disagree, and I say this as “one of the remaining GW1 fans”.

That is just me though. I don’t like the way I level up in this game. I know several of people who has finished their 6th level 80 toon already, but I, for one, have only done 3. I can’t do the 4th because it’s so dam boring running around and explore the lands that I’ve done exploring. I also know of some people (funny people), who delete their character and redo them with a different profession just because they don’t like how their character look in that specific armor. They complain about how boring it is but are willing to do it for the looks. Very admirable

Simon, like you I dislike the 80 levels we already have, and find it more chore than fun to level new toons. But the 80 levels are not “deal-breakers” – nor would another 10 levels be deal-breakers for me (although I would not like it). The deal breakers are when the company does a 360 on the 3 features that set it apart from most other mmos in the first place.

I will say this though, the day they announce a level cap expansion, I will be VERY apprehensive. Because if ANET does NOT intend to go down the path of stat-based vertical progression, then why the level cap raise? Of course there may be other reasons for doing so that do not include yet another compromise to the vertical progression kids, but what?

Joey.2769:

Increasing level cap = goodbye to remaining GW1 fans.

I disagree, and I say this as “one of the remaining GW1 fans”.

Raising the level cap will mean very-very little to anyone just as long as it does not also include yet another expansion of vertical progression through stat based gear, or a move towards must have classes (trinity model) for dungeons.

Basically, as long as GW2 stays true to the 3 features it marketed itself as for years (low gear grind, horizontal progression and no must have classes for dungeons), then it will be fine. But the day it caves in to the WoW teenagers, then, then it will be over. But not because the “remaining GW1 fans” will leave, but because the game will have lost it’s uniqueness. And then a whole lotta folks will leave, most especially the folks that came to Gw2 from traditional vertical progression MMOs for the specific purpose of not having to deal with stat based gear progression or the “4 of 5, need healer” nonsense.

Hey guys, they finally announced that Ascended Carrion Valkyrie will be released with the July 9th update!
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Nah, I’m just kidding … but, fear not, because I’ve heard the GW*3* devs are working on it !

Burnfall.9573:

I don’t seem to know why many of you are so excited about this bi-weekly update.

You can be happy but not excited because the game isn’t balance and many many bugs still remain since release that have been intentially ignored.

Great ideas and suggestion have been ‘thrown under the bus’ intentionally,

I view this update as a tactic of distracting us from the lingering problems which has plagued imbalances among the classes.

Let me put it this way.. example; it’s like having your partner telling you that he/she will buy you gifs, take you out etc,,, every 2 weeks yet, he/she is continiously constanly Abusing and Tormenting you, every day,

Question is, would/should you be “Excited” or not?

As a Ranger class and for other “victim” classes, where is the excitements in all of this?

None at all…

This “updat, patch” will not heal the wound or make us forget the pain which was Intentionally permitted on us.

Fix Ranger class and class balance..

End Favoritism for our Abusers and our Tormentors

End Imjustice toward non-elite classes

End Rewarding Elite Classes with buffs and Rewards

Than maybe, maybe, we can have something to be excited of..

Other than that,

It’s the same Pain and Torment, over and over again..

Burnfall, I really enjoy your posts. And I mean that, they are always entertaining.

Your unrelenting hyperbole, conspiracy theories and moral indignation over a cartoon video game … well, it’s priceless!

Keep it going bro!

God knows I have loudly voiced my criticisms of this game (and will continue to do so – lol) …

But yes, to date, this is the best MMO I have ever played overall. Sure there are specific aspects of some other MMOs with I prefer over GW2, but in general, when talking about all 3 modes (PvE, WvW, PvP), then yep, GW2 beats out all my previous mmo experiences.

So now that I got that out of the way, time to go back to my regularly scheduled program of loud criticisms and suggestions. ;-)

Latinkuro.9420:

real life example for those that don’t get where I’m coming from.

you live alone and earn say $1000, this enables you to buy things and buy materials to create things. GW2’s idea of account bound rewards is in line with this

now you think hmm let me get a 2nd person and earn anotehr $1000 to enable me to buy more things , the game equivalent of this 2nd person is you need to lv it up and invest in it bofore you can actually profit from it. this would be alt gathering

now what the nay sayers are saying is this !

even if you have 2 jobs you are not allowed to earn more than the initial $1000 and even if you have a 2nd person that person would work and still not earn kitten ! now that you see this example doesn’t that sound insane, you should be able to earn rewards from that 2nd person/ character as well right ?

it is not my fault someone plays only 1 character
it is not my fault you do not have time to lv a 2nd character
it is not fair to limit me and others that have several characters this way

they want to take it even further and make it a rule that says.

you can only have 1 job and you only earn profit from 1 person even though you have several !

ahahahahaha —- dude, throwing a written temper tantrum won’t change anything.

1. Ascended Gear: aka, the introduction of that never ending slippery slope towards power creep known as vertical progression.

2. Armor and weapon skins: need more NON-RNG armor and weapon skins (most especially medium armor needs new skin choices). Also, the Legendary weapon skins could use more choices as well.

3. PvP to PvE bleed over: changes to class skills and abilities based on the current PvP meta not being separate from PvE and WvW.

Tarnished Coast

Engineer followed by Elementalist.

3rd place Honorable Mention: Mesmer

Lots of games have good end-game IF …………………

IF … gaming is not your primary activity in life.

In other words, If you have a girlfriend and spend time with her, if you have a full time job, if you have other responsibilities in life that take a great deal of your time, if you enjoy other hobbies or forms of entertainment other than cartoon video games, and for the teenagers: if your parents monitor your gaming hours and ensure its not excessive … if these things are true, then games like GW2 or WoW or Lotro or or …. will give you hours and hours of great fun, with a seemingly endless number of activities to do.

On the other hand, if you spend 5 hours a day, 6 days a week playing the exact same cartoon video game … then NO, there is absolutely no game I know of that will have an endgame for you, because you will have consumed the game within a few short months. In essence, if the game has become a full-time job in itself, you will not find an “end-game” in any MMO that I know of.

Odin of Ark.4860:

Is there a MMO where there’s DECENT endgame? I haven’t seen any.

try Gw2 … I hear that game has a pretty decent end-game for folks that approach games as a form of entertainment, and not work. They also say it’s a pretty good game for folks that love to compete with others on a level playing field without stat advantages.

But if you don’t like GW2, or it’s approach …

try, World of Warcraft. Despite the fashionable trend to bash WoW, ignore that, it’s a time tested oldie but goldie. WoW has plenty of classes and builds, does not require a high end comp, and has tons of endgame raiding based on the traditional vertical progression model.

Olterin Fire.5960:

Ok, let’s avoid the rock-paper-scissors thing then. But stealth is not just invisibility, it’s also giving the thief the initiative in the fight (no, not the resource). And a lot of it, too, given the high uptime on stealth. To be fair, such a thing does need a counter, even if optional and not bound to one mechanic.

One could make a case for certain ranger pets being able to track stealthed characters. One could make another case for the engineer goggles (the utility skill) to reveal stealthed characters. One could make a case for necros going into death shroud seeing stealthed characters. Etc. As it stands, stealth is the one combat mechanic that doesn’t have an ingame counter (short of full invulnerability – as in, full invulnerability doesn’t have a counter, not that full invulnerability is a counter to stealth). I’d be in favor of changing that – and I play a thief often enough to have utilized stealth more than I liked (sometimes).

Olterin, excellent post. Thanks for your input.

For many of us endgame is enjoying the game in the manner which we like. Whether that be fighting in WvW, doing PVP, roleplaying with guildies, dungeon crawling for new skins, grinding mats for a legendary, doing some DEs, leveling an alt, taking part in the living story, trying out new builds ….. ect, and on and on.

For others endgame is: Racing to cap level as fast as possible, figuring out which dungeon is the easiest and repeating that dungeon a hundred times till you have enough gold to buy 10 legendaries, raiding high level dungeons for gear that has better stats than what the majority of the player base has, going to WvW with some friends to gank people 4 on 1, fighting lots of 1v1s and losing despite claims to being “pro” players, screaming on the forums for Anet to add even more stat based gear so that their stat advantage can become larger and larger to help mask their lack of skill. And last but not least, starting a dungeon run with 3 guildies and then kicking some poor slob that is not one their buddies from their 5 man group right before the reward chest – then laughing their 16 year old butts off about it.

So as you can see, End-game can differ quite a bit from person to person.

Guys relax, a single class with stealth tracking will NOT break your ability to run very successful 3 v1 gank groups, or to be wonderful 1v1 solo roamers. Both in WoW (on my rogue) and Lotro (on my warg) I was quite successful in doing both those things despite the fact that there existed some stealth tracking. And many a victim to my stealth class, were among those stealth trackers. ;-)

Like I said, I believe having this included in this game would result in more WvW roaming fun, for both thieves and non-thieves. As well as being a good test to separate the skilled thief players from the less-skilled.

But I can surely understand why some folks would not want it.

Dude, a true hard-counter does not mean some sort of auto-win button where one class can never beat another. It means a class that has an ability/skill(s) that makes it more difficult to do so … that’s it.

roachsrealm.9284:

I don’t think stealth lasts long enough for it to be an issue, imo. Just use an AoE attack or something. Stealth does not equal invincibility.

Actually, a theif can maintain perma-stealth out of combat easily; and in combat for a good bit of time depending on build/gear. But, you already knew that. ;-)

As for avoiding class vs class “hard-counters”, they already exist, and in spades. Well, except for the one exception. ;-)

A single class that on occasion might get the jump on a stealthed ambusher is not game-breaking. Stealth tracking is a mechanic that exist in every major mmo’s pvp areas; and it does not in anyway decrease the number of players that choose stealth toons, nor break their ability to excel. On the contrary, it adds a great deal of flavor to WvW roaming, and I’m sure that at least the knowledgeable and well-played thieves would welcome the challenge. If limited to a single class, I can’t imagine this bothering any skilled thief player.

Guys Anet will never, NEVER, give you an option to drop the pet mechanic and just “transfer” the pet’s dps to the Ranger himself.

Because despite what the regular 30 to 40 Ranger forum posters and hardcore players would like, it would set the Ranger player base on fire. Let’s be honest here guys, 95% of the people that rolled a Ranger did so for 2 primary reasons: 1. Because according to the description, the class looked to be primarily a Ranged class, thus creating the perception of a safer class to play. 2. Because according to the description, the class would have a strong and helpful off-tank in Pets, thus creating the perception of a safer class to play. And nothing in what I just wrote is a criticism to anyone that rolled this class for those reasons. On the contrary, every single MMO I have ever played has always included at least 2 classes that fill this bill (one melee version, and one ranged version). In GW2 it’s Rangers and Guardians (obviously Guardians arrive at “safer” by a different means).

Well we only want the option to stow the pet, and transfer its abilities to the player himself, you say. Won’t wash … because it opens up a giant can of worms: such as, how much dps is transferred, is the stowed pet Ranger stronger than the beastmaster Ranger, will dungeons groups accept a pet ranger (if you think its bad now, let folks find out you don’t have to have a pet, and it will be the Ranger casuals – the 95% – that will take this hit the hardest). And guys, there is a large, and I mean large percentage of Ranger players that want a great deal of their dps/cc to come from their pets, and not themselves.

Lastly, MMOs survive long term by attracting new players, so these 2 classes, and the manner in which they are described/structured are not going to change in any drastic fashion. So any suggestions regarding pets really need to be on how to improve their ability to land attacks, and increasing their dungeon survivability.

Thematically stupid? Like half-cow half-cat toons? like blinking, teleporting, conjuring, obedient scorpians and spiders, talking rats, ect ………..

Please, for the love of god, don’t suggest to the nerf crazy devs yet another manner to nerf this class.

Erasculio.2914:

Insignya.8625:

NCsoft won’t have problem scratching it off their investment schedule – if Wildstar becomes the next big thing you’ll see this game with so much potential suffer because of your inaction.

Meh. Wildstar will see the exact same thing that has happened to every other big MMO released in the past few years:

• A lot of MMO locusts will jump there as soon as it’s released. Initial game sales will be between 1.5 million and 2 millions.

• The MMO locusts don’t want to play Wildstar. They want an exact copy of their first MMORPG, which for most people was WoW, whether they realize it or not (there’s an interesting article about this kind of behavior here). After a few months playing the game, they realize that no, Wildstar is not a clone of whatever game they are thinking of, and begin leaving.

• Developers start to panic when they see those players leaving. They notice that most of them are the ones who asked for features seen in every other MMO (they do want a clone, after all), and so they begin frantically adding those features, often in a rushed way.

• The game becomes a bit worse, some of those players who wanted to play Wildstar and not a generic MMO begin to leave, the game continues to lose players and the developers continue to panic.

• Soon, the game goes free to play, tries to adapt to a business model it didn’t really expect, and claim to have one million registered players, most of which have played the game a few hours and then left.

LOL

That was priceless !

Bravo !

OP, I get it, you want harder content and a better WvW dynamic.

Cool, I’m with ya …. just as long as this does NOT include any further erosion of GW2 towards stat-based vertical progression or the creation of any must-have classes (trinity model) for the harder content.

Otherwise, suggest away, and I’m with you.

Galtrix.7369:

Erasculio.2914:

Galtrix.7369:

How many games with gear grind can I consider successful? Nearly every single game with gear grind has been successful. WoW, Runes of Magic, Rift, every korean mmorpg on earth, Everquest, Lord of the Rings online, Ragnarok, Star Wars the Old Republic, Fiesta online, Perfect World, and the list goes on.

Most of those failed, at least in the West.

How many MMORPGs without gear grind have failed in this side of the world?

Sure, mmorpgs die of course, as do all games eventually. You can count them successful when they’ve lived as long kitten years, which all of them have. WoW is still going strong, as well as Perfect World, Lotro, and Runes of Magic. I can pretty much guarantee GW2 will not last as long as even Runes of Magic.

Galtrix, you may, or may not be right.

But one thing I can pretty much guarantee you is, that if GW2 try’s to compete with WoW, Lotro, ect …. on their terms (vertical stat-based progression, trinty, ect…), then yes, you will in fact be very correct.

Look it’s this simple, some people, perhaps a small percentage of gamers – I don’t know —- but some players would like to play a 100% skill-based horizontal progression mmo. One that once you reach max level and attain max gear through your learning process (leveling) then leaves you with a 100% equal footing (stat wise) with others that have done the same. And these players would like this for every aspect of the game (PvE, WvW, PvP …). And this, precisely this, was what GW2 was marketed as for years.

So please, PLEASE allow me this one small corner of the MMO market for my gaming style. And in exchange, I promise, I will never-ever foot-stomp and whine in the WoW or Lotro forums for them to re-invent the game to suit my play style, and at the expense of the people that play those games precisely because they have vertical stat-based progression.

Dangerkips.6035:

Ision.3207:

There are other possible “pay-offs” other than one which merely trivializes the content, creates power creep, and increases non-skilled based power of a character. The only good thing about stat-based rewards is if you are a terri-bad player in dungeons or WvW: because then if you max out a power stat advantage, you can somewhat mask your poor gaming abilities.

You can’t be serious. GW2 doesn’t require skill. It requires the dodge button.

Please don’t stoop to thinly veiled L2P comments.

Ahahahahaha

Well if it does not require any skill, then you have completely MASTERED the game, in which case any stat based reward should be meaningless to you? So why are you here?

LOL

PS: L2P

There are other possible “pay-offs” other than one which merely trivializes the content, creates power creep, and increases non-skilled based power of a character. The only good thing about stat-based rewards is if you are a terri-bad player in dungeons or WvW: because then, if you max out a power stat advantage over most of the other polayers, you can somewhat mask your poor gaming abilities.

Dangerkips.6035:

I find doing something as completely pointless as doing dungeons in all white gear for no reason other than to cure your apparent boredom is quite laughable.

I find figuring out and successfully completing a dungeon for a reward that makes the very same dungeon you just completed slightly easier to complete the second time, and then even easier to complete the third time, and slightly easier the ….. ect …. I find that, not only boring, but moronic.

Combination question and suggestion:

Does Anet have any plans to introduce a stealth-detection utility for one of the classes? Because as a veteran of many MMOs, most of them always included at least one class with stealth-detection abilities, and traditionally, it was usually the “Ranger” type class that was the designated “stealth-tracker”. That said, it really does not matter which class you give stealth-detection to (well, just as long as it’s not thieves – lol), whether it be Engineers or whatever, but stealth detection on one (and only one) of the 8 classes would really open up some non-zerg options in WvW (such as a greater interest in small-group vs small group encounters) .

Thank you.

Hi Bottosai, and thanks.

How about this:

Does Anet have any plans to introduce a stealth tracking/detection utility for one of the classes? Because as a veteran of many MMOs, most of them always included at least one class with stealth-detection abilities, and traditionally, it was usually the “Ranger” type class that was the designated “stealth-tracker”.

The rumor is that Anet will not be releasing any more stat-based vertical progression items, but instead return to the fully skill-based 100% horizontal progression game GW2 was marketed as for years. So it looks like the ascended trinkets items will be will be Anet’s stop point in the failed experiment of trying to please the WoW teenagers. And I’ve also heard that there is a massive number of beautiful new armor and weapon skins being designed by Anet, with a myriad of paths to attain them (laurels, dungeons, gem store, karma, crafting ect…). Of course your laurels will not be wasted, because they will be one of the methods of attaining the beautiful new skins and multiple sets of exotic gear so you can use many different builds for your character.

;-)

Great thread OP!

And I agree that the Ranger, at least as of right now, is the best candidate for an obsolete class.

However, the Ranger class will never-ever be the least played.

There will always be a huge following for a class described as being outstanding Ranged fighters, not to mention the devoted following pet classes have in every single mmo. So there will always be a ton of Rangers in GW2 (especially among open-world casual players). What you will see however, are the more veteran and knowledgeable players opting to change their main from Ranger to one of their alts.

Guys, be careful, be very-very careful …

Because every time one of you writes, “Now my SB has the same range as throwing an Ax …” it makes my skin crawl. Try and remember that the Necro throwing Ax has a range of 600, and given the current direction of the “changes” (nerfs) to the Ranger class, you’re inches away from having Anet ensure that your ax range is “on-par” with the Necros.

Ps: Of course I am assuming that a teeny-tiny ax damage buff (like SB got) along with a 300 range reduction in range is not already being planned! In fact, I’m calling it right now, that’s the next “buff” to rangers …. a miniscule Ax damage increase, along with 300 range reduction.

Burnfall.9573:

Also the necros have devs who want the best for their class. We Rangers don’t have devs, and if we do, they all want us to fail no matter what. (not only they nerfed our core, they aggressively with great effort nerfed our pets core as well).

They will do everything and anything within their power to remove that light in the tunnel for this class.

That is their true purpose.

Nothing much else.

ahahahahahahaha …

The “Nerf-Rhino.”

F2 skill: cannot be nerfed by devs no matter how many terri-bad players die to pet damage in WvW or PvP.

Well guys the only reason I created this thread was as a satire to mock whoever it was on the dev team that felt Ranger pets needed a damage nerf while NOT addressing the poor hit chance against moving targets. Ironically, if pets could in fact use their basic attack while moving, then the damage nerf would have been appropriate.

Unfortunately, as it stands now, for the sake of some very bad PvP/WvW players that could not avoid pet damage, we now have a pet damage reduction.

Hi Lokki !

Good to cya again!

Where’s Akard? He should show up any minute now.

I’m waiting on all my other dear friends that gather each month in this thread (and others like it)!

Hey guys, I say we start a new guild ….. “The Unascended” …. and our WvW guild emblem will be a blank space.

For Toby,

satire: wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly

Trust me, they are going to do it.

After all, it’s the ONLY logical explanation for the pet damage reduction. Otherwise you would have to conclude that the Ranger dev is incompetent, and that’s highly unlikely.

Guys, you need to relax; the pet damage reduction was VERY needed. In fact it was an absolute must.

You see Anet intends to change the pet attack mechanic so they can now land their basic attack while moving. But due to programing difficulties they were unable to include it in this update, so it will be released in the July update.

;-)

Bright.9160:

Enewia.1356:

That won’t change the fact that we have sustained DPS and still won’t be easily accepted in dungeon groups. The lack of Trinity results in a game where Dps/Burst Damage is god. Hence player with sustained DPS are kind of … useless for most people.

No, the reason some groups avoid rangers are more than your DPS being ‘sustained’.

It’s because your DPS is trash in comparison to almost every other class in the game. Your spirits are situational and die too fast to be useful. Your pets are a liability in most dungeons due to terrible AI and aggro issues.

And, mainly: most Rangers you encounter are longbow camping cowards who stay in the backline and effectively leech off the rest of the team and bring almost nothing to show for it. Their only decent melee options are clunky as hell, their cleave damage sucks, their sword autoattack feels about as smooth as trying to dial your phone using oven mitts and they rely on their stupid pets for damage as well.

That’s why people don’t want you in dungeons. Not because your damage is ‘sustained’ instead of burst. Skills in GW2 have such a short cooldown in general that there isn’t something like sustained vs Burst and most high damage builds rely on rotations. In a sustained fight you’ll still be outdone by Warriors, Eles, Thieves, Guardians, Mesmers, Necro’s and Engineers anyway.

If you rolled a ranger for dungeon PvE, you wasted your time and the best option is to just reroll something that is actually useful.

Until the day they give the option to stow away your pet completely, and give the ranger DPS a boost for doing so and fix the sword autoattack, I’m not taking a ranger on my runs ever.

Bright nailed it in his post. Well done!

BTW, I am NOT one of those tantrum throwing, “Rangers are broken and worthless” screaming noobs that you see on the forums. Actually, in many aspects of the game, Rangers are pretty solid (overland PvE, WvW ) and contribute nicely. But as far as dungeons go, Bright’s post nailed it.

For the Horde !

You know you play too much GW2 when…

… after reading the leaked patch notes you post something on the forums along these lines:

“WTF ?!? Anet, once again you nerfed, (insert the name of the class you play the most), but buffed the golden child, (insert the name of the class that stomps you WvW). "

Ensign.2189:

Warriors are taking a damage nerf in PvE from Heightened Focus and Berserker’s Power moving to the grandmaster tier. Their ability to stack a bunch of +%damage traits is what was allowing them to push their damage so high, and pushing those up to the top of their trees breaks up the Warrior’s ability to take them all. It’s a really inspired change that I like a lot, it makes you commit to full glass in PvE and won’t have a big impact on PvP at all.

In general they’re moving power on the Warrior from raw damage to resilience and durability, which should make for a more healthy class overall.

The condition changes to the Thief are similar. Thieves have too much power in their burst and their escapes, but don’t have a whole lot outside of that. They need power taken away from those areas (which are incredibly frustrating and not fun to play against) and shifted into condition damage and sustain, which are more engaging and open to counter-play.

I like the direction of a lot of these changes over-all. While a lot of the little changes don’t do much, the big changes tend to look pretty good. The stuff that I don’t like looks like the reflexive, ‘oh my god we’re making big changes to the game pull it quick!’ stuff that was thrown in last minute (nuking every weakness skill and trait because they’re afraid weakness might be good now, hammering stuff like cantrips and elixirs in response to making other utility skills better). Those are ill-advised, reflexive nerfs that clearly have not been thought through.

Otherwise? Even stuff like the range nerfs look like clean-up that will make it a lot easier to balance going forward. I approve.

Your post was well written, well thought out and highly accurate.

Bravo.

Terrahero.9358:

Torment, they have got to be kidding.

Here’s Confusion, do stuff and take damage. Here is Retaliation, hit me and take damage. Here is Torment, so much as move and take damage. Whats next? Dam:nation? Deals extra damage if target stays logged in?

And Thieves and Mesmers are two of the professions to get this. Seriously!? Every patch Thieves get a new mechanic or something? And dealing with these professions in particular involves a lot of moving. And its already a tough matchup. So this is just going to be so much fun…

ANet class balance still lives up to its expectations, so i expect a big disapointment for us tommorrow. And a headyhanded nerf to whatever we still call “viable”.

ROFLMAO !!!

When I read, “Whats next? Dam:nation? Deals extra damage if target stays logged in?” == I had to get up and walk around from laughing so hard.

I hope and pray they don’t do the total kitten move of putting a stun-break on an offensive signet that is commonly used automatically as soon as it’s off cool-down: like the the Signet of Fire.

Before you laugh, remember that they put a stun-breaker on the Ranger QZ skill (LOL), – basically ensuring that the stun-break on that skill will be wasted 99% of the time.

Let’s wait and see folks —-

For example, Torment, I really doubt they are just going to add this new condition to certain Mesmer and Thief skills/utilities without a trade-off of them losing out on other skills they have. (Now if they do indeed add Torment, without a trade-off, then they are totally NUTS – lol).

Perhaps the trade off for torment will be less access to stealth … in which case few people will have a problem with this. However, if thieves can maintain their current level of access to stealth AND gain this mechanic – the forums will explode. LOL

I think a lot of you folks are not reading my suggestion correctly:

It’s an OUT of combat speed boost …. OUT, as in, you are NOT fighting anyone or an NPC … you are just moving around the world without aggro from mobs or enaging folks in WvW fights … and the instant you do aggro a mob or engage in combat in WvW … the boost does NOT work … its ZERO, zilch nada … at that point your movement speed is determined ONLY by the trait and gear you have chosen.

No build, sigil, rune or signet becomes worthless, not at all … they continue to provide their bonus when its actually needed: while fighting

Rooks Zaer.5846:

I have to say that I felt out of love with GW2 on Nov. 15th. This coming from someone who got 50/50 HoM points in anticipation of the game, read both books beforehand, and watched every single stream of guildcast prior to launch. I really thought that GW2 was going to be revolutionary and be a giant leap forward from the 8 years of WoW-clones that companies have been feeding us. Finally a game that concentrates on fun rather than chasing carrots (for people that like this sort of thing, there are plenty of options already available). Ascended gear proved that ArenaNet really isn’t looking to think outside the box.

I absolutely agree that GW2 needed (and continues to need) more venues of progression for players…but ArenaNet took the easiest, dullest, and most alt-unfriendly way possible to address the problem: tossing out gear with bigger numbers. Nothing about the way Ascended gear was implemented suggests that it was premeditated…despite a quote from a single dev that say that it was.

I’ve still been playing the game simply because I have guildmates playing that I want to keep in touch with (we have a moderate amount of fun in WvW), and GW2 launched in kind of a dead space for MMOs. But the lack of competition for the game is only temporary, and I don’t think it has the stickiness it needs to survive the MMOs that are on the horizon (Wildstar, FF14 2.0, ArcheAge, TESO, etc.)

Once again, RooksZaer, another well stated post. Thanks.

But don’t bother engaging any of the “self-appointed” spokesmen for Anet that pollute nearly every single thread. These types are easily spotted because they spend most of their time lecturing others on nearly every topic imaginable. Always at pains to give the impression they actually know why the game company’s developers made certain decisions or changes, truth be told, they haven’t a clue. Unfortunately, these types have become more common in MMO forums; usually polite, but always pretentious, these creeps are nothing more than dedicated reverse-trolls. However, you do need to be careful when engaging them, because reverse trolls adore the report option.

The bottom line is, that GW2 was marketed for years as a game that would NOT have a heavy gear grind, must-have classes for dungeons (trinity) and stat-based vertical progression. It matters NOT the degree in which these elements were explicitly stated or implied. Because through forum posts, feedback and pre-release write-ups – the game company fully understood what the overwhelming majority of people believed these things.

Pre-release there were a great many assumptions made about the game, and when these assumptions became widespread, but were flat out wrong, Anet would often release a statement that cleared things up. That this game would have a power/gear plateau once you achieved lvl 80 and a full set of exotics was a clearly understood fact by the vast majority of people – and in this regard, at NO time did Anet feel they needed to “clear things up” with a statement. Funny that …

And to those that love to talk about how little the Ascended gear stat increases actually means, I say two things: 1. speak for yourself ONLY, for there are folks here whose style of play in WvW, and success or failure, is often determined by the smallest of margins. And 2. Stat based vertical progression has to begin somewhere, and of course when first introduced it will have a smaller effect than it will overtime.