Guild Wars 2

Vagrant.7206:

JTGuevara.9018:

I can’t believe there are people defending condis.

Conditions are not only strong themselves, with sigils they’re even stronger. HoT traits ESPECIALLY make them stronger. Added on top of that, with some builds you can spike them instantly as if you were playing a power build. Warrior mace primal burst is a good example. Conditions can be mitigated through resistance and regen, but resistance can be stripped and regen is just worthless. Cleansing only works once and in the blink of an eye, they’re reapplied. There’s barely, if any, a reliable counter or a method of immunity against them. Before anyone responds, yes, I know about condi conversions and skills like defiant stance, but that’s it. Conditions don’t have a reliable counter to them.

Power builds on the other hand, can be….blocked, blinded, inflicted with weakness, mitigated with protection, invuln AND negation . I mean come on! It’s out of control! There’s a LOT of condi BS right now. Nobody can deny it.

You’ve clearly never played a condi build…

Because blocks, invuln, condi cleanse, resistance, and more affect us too. If you use projectiles, god help you because of all the projectile hate.

There’s more counters to condi than there are for power. You can spike a person with a power build. Spike them with condi (which I do, 11 stacks of burning on my engineer), and they have enough time to react and cleanse it. Playing the slow game? Druids and eles say kitten you.

Oh, yes I have.

Blocks and invulns may affect you condi users in the short-term, but conditions STILL go through them. With cleanses and resistance, there are costs and sacrifices to your build to get use out of them JUST to survive. If you’re focused by two reapers, no cleanses and resistance are going to help you! Sometimes conditions can even seep through resistance! When the effect pulses, there’s an instant when a condition can be applied. Conditions can also be appllied through sigils, passive and active traits and runes.

Milan.9035:

JTGuevara.9018:

I can’t believe there are people defending condis.

Conditions are not only strong themselves, with sigils they’re even stronger. HoT traits ESPECIALLY make them stronger. Added on top of that, with some builds you can spike them instantly as if you were playing a power build. Warrior mace primal burst is a good example. Conditions can be mitigated through resistance and regen, but resistance can be stripped and regen is just worthless. Cleansing only works once and in the blink of an eye, they’re reapplied. There’s barely, if any, a reliable counter or a method of immunity against them. Before anyone responds, yes, I know about condi conversions and skills like defiant stance, but that’s it. Conditions don’t have a reliable counter to them.

Power builds on the other hand, can be….blocked, blinded, inflicted with weakness, mitigated with protection, invuln AND negation . I mean come on! It’s out of control! There’s a LOT of condi BS right now. Nobody can deny it.

Stupid posts like this really kitten me off.

You are saying condi attacks cant be blinded or blocked???

Lets see the differences….

Vs power you got weakness and protection

Vs condi you got reaistance and cleanse

Looks fair to me….

If youfail to avoid an attack and get hit. vs power you get full damage, if its condi you get time after to deal with the damage.

It LOOKS fair? lmao

Don’t make me laugh!

Like I said, resistance can be stripped and also, corrupted. With cleanses, you have to build and trait for them to get benefits, and unless you’re a tempest/druid it’s STILL not enough. Cleanses can’t keep up with condis getting pumped out like clockwork.

Also, conditions CANNOT be blocked. Blocks only block direct damage. Blinds can be a nuisance to condi builds, but they totally shut down power builds.

I also forgot to mention, to add to my post above for what you can do against power builds. You can add freakin’ AEGIS to that list as well lol.

I hope not. Condition builds are easier to play right now. I primarily blame HoT specs and sigils for this.

I can’t believe there are people defending condis.

Conditions are not only strong themselves, with sigils they’re even stronger. HoT traits ESPECIALLY make them stronger. Added on top of that, with some builds you can spike them instantly as if you were playing a power build. Warrior mace primal burst is a good example. Conditions can be mitigated through resistance and regen, but resistance can be stripped and regen is just worthless. Cleansing only works once and in the blink of an eye, they’re reapplied. There’s barely, if any, a reliable counter or a method of immunity against them. Before anyone responds, yes, I know about condi conversions and skills like defiant stance, but that’s it. Conditions don’t have a reliable counter to them.

Power builds on the other hand, can be….blocked, blinded, inflicted with weakness, mitigated with protection, invuln AND negation . I mean come on! It’s out of control! There’s a LOT of condi BS right now. Nobody can deny it.

Unranked is…ok.

Balance is terrible, even though I’m playing a core build and doing alright. YES! I said core build.

The matchmaking is fair, at least.

Skynet.7201:

I’m already picturing a line of 3-4 cannons along a wall, with ACs and/or ballis to protect them and repair hammers on standby.

It seems nightmarish.

You KNOW they’ll do it!

Aeolus.3615:

They are a problem for bad players, who in is mind atack a keep w/o destroying siege first?

That is the same as cry about Oil on pvd situations….. when pvd players complain about oil when they dont even target it….

Gw2 is already a brain dead game, dont make it worse please.

They’re a problem for EVERYBODY. Siege is already strong in this game, even stronger in larger groups. I’m just saying…don’t make them permanent!

…then will there another poll to remove them? I think it’s only fair. I don’t think they should be permanent additions if they’re a problem for players. They should BOTH be on the chopping block in the future.

EDIT: To add another thing, this isn’t just about the repair hammers and cannons. This goes for any permanent change that people don’t support. They should have a say. At the very least, I suggest a rotation or future polls.

I realize that players feel that these should have never been considered in the first place, but….here we are. I feel the same way, now I’m just making the best of it.

Again. NO.

I voted NO for hammers, and now I voted NO for cannons. We already have enough siege in this game. Also, again, this change ONLY serves to benefit huge groups.

It seems pvp and pve are getting separate skill balance, I was just curious about wvw.

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

what do u guy think is the best season so far? i terms of balance and Match making?

season 1 has to be the worst for me and the hardest. the weird win and lose pip gain mechanic is confusing but fun when u lose to someone and gain a pip still lol. the balance is so horrible. bunker ele, engi, druid, mesmer. games ended with 100 points in 15 minutes. oh and the MM forces u to a 50/50, and pit u against a all solo vs premade.

season 2 and 3 feels rather similar. except that season 3 has to be the most balance in terms of availability of each class.

Neither.

The league was a disaster from beginning to end. It was a train-wreck.

Soooo…repair hammers won….

Why am I not surprised? As if siege groups aren’t strong ENOUGH in this game(YB)….

-sigh-

Thank you, Josh, for the response.

It’s great that you guys want to improve match quality and make divisions reflect player skill, BUT, the league system just makes all of that impossible. The way the leagues are designed and built just guarantees that these problems will always exist.

First off, pips. Pips system is not about skill, it’s about grind. This is pretty much a re-skin of the old point-based leaderboards but WORSE. Anyone can grind up pips to move up the ladder if they try hard enough. Sound familiar? It’s WORSE because the matchmaking system is mixed with the pip system. This brings me to matchmaking.

You can have a league system with PIPS or MMR for ranking, but you CANNOT have both. Thanks to the matchmaking, players get stuck on divisions and can’t grind their pips! Some players are more fortunate than others and have the MMR gods smile upon them. Others…not so.

I suggest an MMR-based ladder. I think we used to have that in the first couple years.

NeXeD.3042:

phokus.8934:

NeXeD.3042:

Spartacus.3192:

NeXeD.3042:

I’m guessing either dh’s or somwho they buff all vanilla specs.

no way will it be DH, because everyone at ANET thinks DH is in a good place and even as it is currently, all the scrubs whine that they are getting owned by Trap DH.

They don’t really balance for the low level population though…. I know it’s a higher percentage of the population but in the upper tiers dhs are garbage and we didn’t see any? (Could be wrong) in recent tourneys.

They do balance mainly for the average, most populated player base. They’re the one’s who keep the game going so I don’t know why you would say that… DH is a really good class when going up against Amber rated players so they need to walk a fine line with buffs/nerfs.

Nope they dont. They balance at the competitive level. Would be pretty silly to balance around the low skill players…. would absolutely ruin competitive play

Assuming “competitive” play actually exists…..

I don’t blame you, I’m done with pvp leagues, maybe pvp for good if this next balance patch doesn’t rein in this powercreep.

This isn’t just meta anymore. This is MUST-HAVE. If you don’t run HoT meta, def, disc, bersk you will not survive. The HoT powercreep is absurd. I mean who even runs arms/tactics anymore?

NOT ME.

Just scrap the leagues. They’ve been a DISASTER. I already gave them THREE chances. No more.

Jana.6831:

It’s hard to tell what impact the hammers would have. They’re supposed to work like traps, so you have to have supply to repair them. Even a blob is somewhat limited with that. I object the idea that rams, catas, trebs, basically all field siege can be repaired – worst would be golems, though, but it would be nice to be able to repair stationary siege in objectives (canon, mortar, oil) inbetween fights.
But even if this works on field siege it’s hard to tell how this would turn out before we haven’t seen it in live action, I guess.

NO the blob is not limited. They have more people! It’s hardly a cost them! You only need a few runners to resupply siege, smaller groups can’t afford that. They’ll get wiped.

As I said, repair hammers will ONLY benefit large groups.

Vote NO.

WHY are repair hammers even on the table? Don’t people see that this will only benefit large groups? Large groups with siege will be next to/if not impossible to break up!

None of them. The leagues have been a disaster from day one. I want them gone.

All I know is, if this balance doesn’t address HoT powercreep I QUIT.

I’m going straight to WvW.

Yannir.4132:

Class balance is very good actually at the moment, I’m only expecting minor tweaks here and there.

Only exception is DH/Guardian, which isn’t in a bad place either but it could use some more competitiveness. I’m also expecting some targeting improvements for revenants.

Ranked matchmaking on the other hand still needs a lot of work. The current matchmaking is the best one yet, but it’s not enough. It should distribute classes more evenly, and not drop 2 thieves in the same team as it does now. Or make 1 team include 4 necromancers.

You MUST be joking. Class balance is ATROCIOUS.

There’s only balance within HoT elite specs, but not in pvp. HoT builds have severely dumbed down this game. Yeah I’m bitter. PvP used to take some SKILL, now it’s just run your fingers across the keyboard and you get instant results. HoT builds are ridiculously powerful.

Looking at these threads, I think the ranking system (glicko rating) is THE source of all wvw problems.

The issues of world linking, population imbalance, server matchups, these are just the symptoms of flawed matchmaking/ranking system.

I like that Capricorn is coming, but we NEED balance badly. It’s just way more important.

These HoT specs are out of control. Even with the new(old) map, the game won’t be fun if there’s no effort to balance these builds. Me and others will just end up leaving pvp for good.

Capricorn!! HALLELUYAH!

Season 1 ruined those characters.

Season 1 had one-time events and they were never fully explored in depth. As a result, people hardly got to know them. Never mind the characters, people hardly got to know season 1 period! Later on, they were just shoe-horned into the story assuming you already DID know them.

Unfortunately, those are the first impressions people have of Marjory, Braham, etc. If only they were fleshed out further, for example, maybe people wouldn’t dislike them as much. People would accept them. An example, Marjory gets her own story mini-arc, her past, her family, her struggles. Braham would get his as well with his personal struggles with Eir.

Season 1 just did not introduce them properly. It’s unfortunate since this is your main cast of characters that your PC is involved with.

Tiny Doom.4380:

Just imagine how much faster we could get content and how much more content we could get if you just dropped the voiceover work. Seriously, voice acting in MMOs is and always was a gimmick. It’s not needed and if it’s really this much of a drag anchor then it definitely ought to go. I have played a number of other MMOs that started off using a lot of voicework and then dropped it and without exception the experience of playing them improved as a result.

Added to that I loathe hearing my character talk so the news that that is returning is irritating to say the least. The voices almost never match any conception I have for how my characters would sound and the dialog is usually something I cannot imagine them ever saying. If you’re going to force words into our characters’ mouths could you not at least add a toggle so we can opt out? I’d far rather they were silent. And yes, I know you all have a thing about toggles at ANet although I have never been able to understand why.

A valid point. I like the silent protagonist.

Although, voiceover or lack of there-of, doesn’t even bother me in the slightest. As a suggestion, maybe our character can speak in cutscenes then?

Thank you, Mike.

With respect to the living world releases, personally, I’m not that concerned with how often the content is released but whether how good it is. I’m sure others feel the same way.

Personally, I thought Living World S2 was your best one. The story grabbed my interest along with the gameplay mechanics and boss fights. Then came HoT and it all just imploded. The story really took a nosedive halfway and all the way towards the end. Plus, the last boss was a mess. The mechanics were buggy and some boss phases even ran out of sequence! HoT didn’t end with a bang, but with a whimper. Put it this way, I would play season 2 AGAIN and AGAIN over HoT story, that’s how good it was.

Marxx.5021:

Another issue with matchmaking is that allows friends to queue together in ranked even with mmr as different as it could be. There are lots of such minor flaws in the system. Class stacking, balancing, mixing pugs with teams, bugs, afk ppl – you name it. In sum the whole pvp is unpredictable -> not fair -> often no fun when you queue solo.

You can thank merging Solo and Team Q for that. If they were separate, this wouldn’t be a problem.

Well, I quit playing this joke league about a month and a half ago and let me tell you, it feels GREEAAAAT!

No pip stress, no goofy matchmaking, it’s unthinkable how I was forcing myself to have fun playing something that is not….fun!

I play unranked on occassion, but I literally have one foot out the door with pvp. If this next balance update doesn’t nerf HoT elite traits/builds and bring back Solo Q, I am DONE with pvp.

Exedore.6320:

They need just an MMR system. No reset needed. Tie rewards to your MMR (either current at the end of the season or highest MMR during)

The pip system is flawed to its core. The only way the pip system works is for good players to beat bad players and take their pips. However, pips can’t be zero-sum (only pip transfers), otherwise no one could progress. This is why you need safety nets and win streaks; they create pips. As more pips are added to the pool, players can progress further by transferring pips up the food chain.

EXACTLY. Pips system is just nonsense and needs to be abolished.

Just have MMR system with leaderboard like we had before and you’re good to go.

Astralporing.1957:

Hesacon.8735:

Excuse me for thinking an excursion deep into hostile enemy territory where the big bad enemy destroyed the fleet without flinching might be wrought with peril.

Peril is one thing. Having someone die to the screenwriting equivalent of slipping on something and bashing your head in is another.

LMAO it really was a stupid death! At LEAST Eir could’ve gone out with dignity, like fighting off the mordrem by herself. Really, though, I’d keep her alive.

I don’t know what they were thinking with her.

gloflop.3510:

JTGuevara.9018:

HoT traits and builds have RUINED wvw and pvp. The powercreep right now is absolutely absurd.

It took you this long to realize?

Oh no, I realized the powercreep waaaay back in november when HoT came out. I just wanted to post that I was tired of it. :P

More importantly, the powercreep has helped ruin WvW. I miss when being more skilled actually rewarded you, builds had risk involved. Nowadays, thanks to HoT builds, you get more room for mistakes/leeway during combat. HoT builds have so many get-out-of-jail free cards, it’s ridiculous.

This system cannot be fixed. If you have a system with pips, you’re going to keep having the same problems.

You gotta scrap it.

Surprise surprise. I stopped playing stronghold back in SEASON ONE because of the pip farmers. Welcome to the party.

HoT traits and builds have RUINED wvw and pvp. The powercreep right now is absolutely absurd. I’ve played since release and I can clearly feel the difference during combat. HoT builds are really strong, barely take any skill to use and give you more room for error. It’s nothing but spam. I’m tired of it.

Is it even possible to fix?

It ruined the balance. THATS for sure.

HoT powercreep is the worst in the game’s history. HoT traits and builds barely take any skill to use and they give you so much room for error.

Here’s another:

GET RID OF THE LEAGUE SYSTEM.

Ayrilana.1396:

So HoT killed WvW? Why is it that when I go into WvW that it’s more populated than it was before HoT launched?

Because it’s getting fixed.

Go to WvW at HoT release and tell me with a straight face WvW was populated. Nope! The remnants of whatever population was left confined themselves to Eternal Battlegrounds because DBL were a disaster.

Vayne.8563:

HoT has been far better received since the April patch than it was at launch. It’s old news. It didn’t ruin the game. It didn’t destroy the game. It probably drove some people from the game and attracted other people.

At most, it ruined the game for you.

Which is okay. Not everyone is going to like every expansion. This has happened in every MMO pretty much ever.

To say HoT didn’t ruin the game is pretty dishonest. What about PvP? What about WvW? Just check those threads and read the responses. HoT has been a DISASTER for those communities. Last time I checked, WvW and PvP were part of the game, too.

Granted, WvW is getting fixed. HOPEFULLY, PvP will get fixed next.

Daniel.9405:

Hello forums!!

I’ve been holding off buying HoT for now, and i’ve decided to come back to GW2.

I was wondering if by not buying the expansion, the players who do own the expansion could have an advantage over me in terms of power or anything in PVP or WvW

What am I missing out by not buying?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated

YES! HoT builds are far superior to core builds. HoT builds are mandatory in WvW and PvP, so you’re at a disadvantage.

However, in PvE you’re fine.

Spartacus.3192:

Ive said it before and will say it again. The biggest mistake ANET made was putting a Legendary PVE item as a grindable reward in a PVP League.

If they had made it a Skin and made leagues skill based we would be in a much better place.

Exactly.

The leagues and the legendary back item were meant for PvE players. By being inclusive to PvE players at PvP players’ expense, the leagues alienated BOTH.

Just abolish leagues and bring back the leaderboards!

Agemnon.4608:

Please get rid of the forced 50% winrate. My friend list is already full of triple digit AP people who I know I won’t be facing on the other team unless I lost enough. I had a big winning streak last week and now it’s tanking. Everyone is either too new or too good. I put someone on my list just for being a base game thief (you can tell from the dodges). I blocked out the names and even the AP (not all of them low) but wanted to show why I have the list if you read the nicknames. The ones without a nickname I blocked out since this isn’t a shaming post but a what I have to deal with post.

NO!

Leave unranked as it is. The matchmaking is fair, unlike the leagues. Mess with it now, you can kiss the pvp playerbase goodbye.

Crimson Shi.5047:

JTGuevara.9018:

The more I read this thread, the better WvW looks to me. Even then, a lot of people are saying THAT’S broken as well. Maybe less so, but at least it’s open combat and not fighting in a freakin’ circle.

Unless you have alot of the gear that was mentioned you’ll just rage. If you thought the pvp scene of HOT was OP wait till you try WvW . Food, stones/crystals/oils, legendary runes, sigils, and HOT specs oh my

In WvW you’re less limited in what you can do. You can zerg, roam, siege, use strategy, you have options. You can get around runes/specs/food.

(God Tier)
————ALL HoT BUILDS———-

(Trash Tier)
everything else

Can we PLEASE get real here people?

Allison The Strange.4519:

I miss the days before a class had the ability to make their heal, all utilities, and their elite an AoE daze…

I miss the days before a class had condition removal on their heal, all utilities, and elite…

I miss the days before half the classes spammed stealth and could crit for 5k on a dodge…

I miss the days before half the classes could load you up with 5 or more condis in one second and do it again the moment you cleared them…

I miss the days of having multiple viable builds for all classes instead of one or two…

There are many more things I miss from the glory days but the thing I miss most is having fun in GW2 PvP…

Edit:

RiP in GW2 PVP… August 28, 2012 – June 23, 2015

You said it. The leagues RUINED PvP. HoT builds RUINED PvP.

The more I read this thread, the better WvW looks to me. Even then, a lot of people are saying THAT’S broken as well. Maybe less so, but at least it’s open combat and not fighting in a freakin’ circle.

StickerHappy.8052:

DISCLAIMER: I do not want to sound elitist, I apologize If I do so. I am also not defending Anet at any given time.

As an avid PvPer since launch, I hate to admit it but the forums are full complaint threads that its getting to a point that its sickening.

Now if you really think about it, Anet/PvPers are on a lose/lose situation if they ever fix the leagues:

FIRST SCENARIO

• They make the leagues a true representation of skill and will impose stricter sanctions of division advancement like pip loss from amber, no more shiny rewards, etc.

What’s gonna happen?

CONS:

• Longer ques for everyone since the pvp population will dwindle
• Insert complaint here

PROS

The leagues will become what it should be, like LoL. Take LoL as an example, the only reward you get for the reaching the top division is prestige(aside from loading screens or icons). Nothing else, and as a PvPer, I am okay with that. I PvP because I want to become more skillful and play with skillful players

SECOND SCENARIO

• They still put the shiny reward for the leagues, make it access friendly for everyone so that anyone can compete

What’s gonna happen?

CONS

• Same scenario right now, endless complaints of “I can’t get the wings, so unfair, etc”
• Complaints of “I cannot progress, etc”
• Very borked Matchmaking system since the leagues will be still grindable
• Hence not a true representation of skill

PROS

• Bigger PvP populaion
• Faster ques

FINAL THOUGHTS: As a PvPer, I would not care if I lose a lot, because I am here to improve from my mistakes, I do not care If don’t get the shinies. I PvP because I enjoy it. So yeah no matter what anet does its still gonna be kittened up for them, Let’s admit it PvP Population is so small that making changes would be difficult.

Any thoughts?

STOP blaming the players. They are not the problem! Lay the blame on the league system. The leagues were meant for progression and to bring in a new audience to PvP, basically for PvE players. The thing is…they failed.

PvE players are unhappy they can’t progress and PvP players are unhappy they’re game mode is ruined. It’s not PvE or “casual” players’ fault that PvP is crumbling.

What I’m most disappointed in is the HoT elite specs. They are WAY too strong. HoT builds really take the skill out of this game. The PvP thanks to HoT builds has LITERALLY fallen into the precipice. They just encourage spamming, brain-dead gameplay and are much more forgiving. Every HoT build has some kind of “I win” button.

Compare core builds with HoT builds. Core builds are WEAK and cooldowns are HIGHER. HoT builds are STRONG and cooldowns are LOWER.

Shaogin.2679:

Sinmir.6504:

I thought the change was only that 5 solos could not be up against a 5 man premade. that was 5 solos vs 4 man premade and a solo.

This is exactly correct. Seriously guys, it’s not like they have an unfair advantage. You have the ability to queue as a team just as they do, you just chose not to and decided to come here and complain instead.

Real issue here is people limiting themselves to 4-man teams because the queue time for 5-man teams is too long. But I know, shame on them for wanting to plan ahead and make a reliable team before playing in a 5 vs 5 team match right?

People astonish me.

Seems to me YOU don’t get the real issue. People CAN team up and not limit themselves but what the hell does that accomplish? Don’t solo players get a say in this? Oh and for the record, solo players DO have an unfair advantage…AS A WHOLE. (Some solo players are good enough to influence games in their favor.)

PvP is a solo AND team game. Let’s get that straight. There is room for both, just like it was in the past.