So let me get this straight.
Automated tournaments which are literally pure 5on5 where you have plenty of time to set up a comp with your pug, sort out communications and then also time to prepare for enemy comp when match starts are all unfair.
What is fair is you getting 5 people in the same party and voice coms to face one duoq and 3 soloquers.
The reason this is fair is because you cant win an AT. If you get to make a premade and face soloqers you can win. Which is fair.
????????
He said that there should be separate 5 man and solo queue. To me there should be separate tournaments based on your pvp rank without decay. Have a bracket for bronze to silver 2, one for silver to gold3, and one for gold 3 to legend. Make the rewards scale with the bracket.
Having tournament where you have a chance to win makes sense. No sport throws novices and pros on the same bracket. People need to be challenged, and learn how to play as a team, but a bronze level team isn’t going to learn anything going up against a legendary team.
Most sports have a much more limited number of teams selected by a small numbers of elites, so that’s not in any way an accurate comparison. Tennis, though not a team sport, is similar in that basically anyone can try to get into tournaments, which is how you get big surprises like Rafael Nadal winning Roland Garros at the age of 19.
I suppose you could have noob and “pro” tournaments, but really these low-level players should just be practicing their 5-man game more if they want to win. Not ask for easier opponents. True competitors ask for true competition. If you bring a level 10 bulbasaur to challenge the elite four, is it their bad for being so strong? Or should you maybe have evolved it to a Venusaur before challenging them?
Tennis has many levels of tournaments for different skill levels and age groups. You need a certain rank to even be considered for the draw at Roland Garros. The point isn’t to get rid of automated tournaments, it is to expand the number of people playing organized 5 man teams. Right now bronze/silver players aren’t going to learn much entering a tournament because they are just going to get a beat down. If they have a chance to compete with players of a similar skill level they will have more fun and potentially grow the community.
I like the idea of many levels of tournaments. Hands down, the best way to implement it is MMR-based, like in unranked. That way, every player faces competition on their level.
All this defensiveness lol. Seems I hit a nerve around here. You guys need to relax. I’m not trying to take away ATs, I support them. I’m just saying that they’re not going to grow like people say they are. They’re not the answer. You need queues. You need tdm.
Yes, I’m aware that I can’t pug my way to victory. But that’s beside the point. I used my own experience as an example. If ATs are all that the PvP community has to look forward to, we are in trouble.
You can’t really expect ATs alone to hold regular pvpers interest.
(edited by JTGuevara.9018)
Why are you making it out like “pro players” have access to something regular players dont. AT’s are supposed to be the hardcore content newer players aspire to compete in. after watching a few they dont even seem like that though they just faceroll.
but thats a different problem that’s rewards currently the top players are burning through AT’s like crazy but as the hype fizzles away it will become easier for regular players to win at’s but dont expect to win in a PUG it even works that way with raids so i dont see what the complaint is
Because they do. It’s called skill.
As far as ATs being for hardcore teams? Fine by me. I just don’t think regular players should be left out in the cold. Regular players need to play with people on their skill level. They need a functioning queue.
A dose of reality. It’s going to take time for regular players to get good enough to compete and win. How long do you think they’ll be interested? Not everyone’s going to keep PUGing so they can be constantly eliminated in the first round. There’s going to be less and less people playing ATs. Before you know it, it’s going to be the same people playing.
Bring back separate solo queue and 5v5 regardless of population.
If you want new teams to form so PvP can prosper, give them a reason to. Those decent, competitive players that left PvP? You’re not getting them back. They’re GONE. They’re already playing other games. Also:
Bring in 2v2, 3v3 TDM to unranked/ranked.
ANet, it’s time. Bring 2v2 TDM to queues already.
Before any of that happens, can we have save-able build loadouts in PvP?
I’m envisioning a mixed queue for ranked/unranked including different modes. Switching every game for the best build can be an extreme hassle over the long term.
Regarding ATs, it’s a mode to placate people who look for hardcore 5-man premades. It’s doing its job well. We simply lack the population to give everyone a chance to win.
AT was definitely a great added feature. Now we may sound greedy, but having options for the more casual PvPers, like the ideas you mentioned, wouldn’t hurt.
Well, I’ll BE greedy then! Established and pro teams have their ATs. What do the rest of the PvP population have? An exploitable ranked queue?
We need PvP that serves the majority of players, that means separate queues of solo and 5v5. I don’t give a TOSS about the population. That’s just an excuse to not change things. Otherwise, we’ll be stuck in the same dam circle. Bad matchmaking = Low population = bad matchmaking = low population…
Elite Specializations - were a terrible idea
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: JTGuevara.9018
Elites should be Split from core in pvp. You play à core build in pvp, you’ll most likely get trashed by your team
or ,in some rare cases, death treathened.
Now THIS I can get behind one hundred percent!
I’ve decided to play a couple of tournaments. I went in with PUGs straight to three first-round exits. I then realized that automated tournaments are not the answer like I thought they would be.
ATs are for established, organized 5-man teams ONLY. They’ve practiced and trained together. PUGs are strictly fodder. How do you even expect new PvP teams to form and take an interest if they’re getting tossed in the first round? How you expect PvP to prosper and have fun? New teams need competition on their level. Which brings me back to this. This is the same thing I and many others have been trying to put forth for years.
Bring back separate solo queue and 5v5 regardless of population.
If you want new teams to form so PvP can prosper, give them a reason to. Those decent, competitive players that left PvP? You’re not getting them back. They’re GONE. They’re already playing other games. Also:
Bring in 2v2, 3v3 TDM to unranked/ranked.
ANet, it’s time. Bring 2v2 TDM to queues already. You brought in 2v2 only for hotjoin? It’s already dead. Nobody is playing it. I’m tired of circle-dancing. At my latest tournament game I played, I see my teammates just STANDING AROUND. They’re not even trying to cap any points. One person DCd right in the middle of the game. It’s like nobody cares about capture points anymore. lol
In conclusion, ATs are not the answer like people say they are. Pro and established teams are just going to keep farming new competition. They won’t “rise up and adapt” as being theorized in the forums. They’ll just quit. The skill gap is too great. Monthly tournaments won’t do jack, either. Still, I support ATs. They should be kept. But they won’t save this game.
I would want a 2v2 queue and leaderboards before 2v2 AT… but sure let’s have 2v2 AT also.
I agree. 2v2 is way overdue. It’s already dead in hotjoin. Nobody is playing it.
Elite Specializations - were a terrible idea
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: JTGuevara.9018
OP, I agree. At the end of the day, elite specializations made gw2 worse not better. Elite specs broke the game, pure and simple. These specs grant boons, conditions, power and defenses all in one build. There’s no tradeoffs. Worse, I think elite specs created a “skill gap” between players between those who bought HoT and those who didn’t. They should’ve never existed.
The next expansion is around the corner. Sadly, the best I and others can hope for is that the next set of elite specs are not overpowered to oblivion. That they’re on par with HoT. Core specs will be stuck in the bottom, as usual. If this is going to be the new order of business with every upcoming expansion, then there’s no point in playing PvP. The new FOTM will be the order of the day and we all have to wait until it’s nerfed. Then next expansion comes. Rinse and repeat.
What I remember is that elite specs were supposed to be an addition, not an upgrade. I remember pre-HoT beta weeks. EVERYBODY in these forums were complaining that elite specs weren’t strong enough. ANet, I believe, was taking suggestions and feedback. Unfortunately, they made a HUGE mistake by buffing them in their design. And so….here we are….
You can’t do much, when more people are leaving GW2. The level of toxicity is the biggest problem and the class balance was the biggest set back for many players. WvW and PVE is by far the best to play and PVP will only bring you headaches.
I mean for heaven sake, why are they included beta maps in ranked?
Are you kitten kidding me?Their PVP start was bad and distant to fail in the future. All they needed to do is follow GW1 footsteps and that’s it.
Um I don’t think toxicity was or is the biggest problem in PvP. Toxicity is in every PvP game’s community. We keep trying to tell you guys guys. Why “we” are leaving the PvP scene in this game. And yall continue to ignore us and keep claiming it’s toxicity.
Since I plays Smite now for my competitive PvP experience. I’ll use that as a example. Smite My match quality there is super high. Win or lose I’ll easy say 90% or more of the matches in that game. Are fun, super competitive, loads of mid match swings, mid match counterplay, and even a few Epic -Out of left field comebacks from zero to a win at the last second.- So in Smite it’s easy to look forward to PvPing over there.
Now lets talk about GW2’s PvP system. Without even talking about balance or what not. ANet’s system clearly feeds certain people wins, and others loses. As more and more players figure this out. They stop playing. I’ve found myself personally on the receiving end a few times. Of facing against teams of 2 high quality duos with maybe if I’m lucky one “ok” duo and the rest of us solo’s. After getting stomped like that quite a bit till it becomes the normal. And then on top of it noticing the types of matches these “top end” players get most of the times. I’m mean even when they are streaming. The MM system will rarely match them against each other. Instead it pairs them together to stomp on a few poor players. That will go on to lose 2 to 4 games worth of matches in a 0.00000001% situation. Then there’s the blatant match manipulation going on as well.
So naturally players either do one of three things. They either just sit there and mostly afk for rewards. They either stop playing ranked matches altogether, and go elsewhere. Or they just follow suit and start contributing to the woes of the PvP community. Either these things only serve to do one thing. That is the make players not even want to care, or try, which is what we have been seeing for a while now.
I can honestly say GW2’s have lost a good majority of it decent to good players, because of the completely unfair and no at all fun or competitive MM. Maybe even all of it’s actual competitive PvPers. Simply because the MM makes GW2’s PvP matches and leader boards a sham. So in turn it forces it’s self fulfilling prophecy of there are not enoth people to make decent matches for. And that’s why MM can not work. Which was a complete lie about 8 to 10 months ago. It had more then enoth people to grant fun and even matches. It just refused to. So people moved on the other competitive games that had MMs that produced even, meaningful, and competitive matches. ANet failed to make a MM system that promotes a evolving PvP community. Just like it’s WvW MMing system for a long time there.
Exactly. Ranked is nothing but a racket. A sham. Leaderboard and rating mean nothing. There’s only exploiters and the exploited. If the system actually worked, you would see beginners at bronze/silver, veterans in gold/plat and pros in legend. But you don’t. Vets and newbies are stuck together in all divisions thanks to placements. When that happens they literally cannot advance. They’re holding each other back. Vets have to carry and newbies can’t pull off wins, they don’t have the skill yet. Exploiters will exploit, of course. Get good placements, place in plat/legend, play one game every 3 days and you’re good to go. A little bribery, throwing, queue dodging, all set!
Basically, play fair and you get punished.
Now I ask, does anyone actually think that anyone competitive, sportsmanlike and fair-minded is going to stick around? I say…no! They’ll flee to auto tournaments, wvw, or another game.
I’m fearful that the next elite specs will be powercreeped to oblivion…again. History is literally repeating itself. I only PvP because this balance patch is a step in the right direction and for automated tournaments. If ANet releases overpowered elite specs with the next expansion AGAIN, then I’m done with PvP for good. There’s no point in playing any further. It’s not fun being forced to play the new bells-and-whistles just to keep up. Forget it.
A smart company would not d that because that would mean death for the game. Not saying that anet is smart im saying they arent that stupid.
I don’t rule it out. Companies get desperate in times of financial stress. At the end of the day, money talks. Most businesses just fall in line.
I’m fearful that the next elite specs will be powercreeped to oblivion…again. History is literally repeating itself. I only PvP because this balance patch is a step in the right direction and for automated tournaments. If ANet releases overpowered elite specs with the next expansion AGAIN, then I’m done with PvP for good. There’s no point in playing any further. It’s not fun being forced to play the new bells-and-whistles just to keep up. Forget it.
Elite specs were actually nerfed with the last patch, but yes I agree. It’s not enough. Elite specs are not overpowered in terms of numbers, but by DESIGN. They’re a direct upgrade to core specs. I think you can nerf elite specs to the ground and they would still be superior to core specs.
Before elite specs, you had tradeoffs. Now you don’t. Elite specs give the player everything they want in one build: heals, boons, condis. Nothing but spam. They take the player’s skill away.
Unfortunately, I find that this game tends to cater to pseudo-competitive kiddies who just want to farm wins. This is where the “git gud” culture comes from.
(edited by JTGuevara.9018)
Rifle REALLY needs a buff and rework. It’s mediocre. It’s not ‘bad’, but GS, hammer or axe are much better. Also, like everyone else says, even longbow is stronger overall. The rifle needs more utility, it needs something else going for itself besides Killshot.
At the very least, PUT BACK THE PIERCE. Pierce was unique to the rifle, it had a tangible use. Also, add bleeding like it used to have. That way it can also be used in a condi fashion.
WvW is a different story. Rifle shines there, but PvP not so much.
I’ve been having a great season. Middle of Platinum, still climbing. I have never been this high up before.
Just play your game and do your best every time.
Nope…already quit. Unranked and tournaments from now on. :P
No one is good enough to hold a 90% win rate with no match manipulation in a system that has no division segregation. Anyone who believes that has clearly never played against top/pro players in inhouses and scrims. They aren’t the carry god juggernauts that you believe them to be. It just feels that way when you land on their team in a ranked match and they have someone on an alt throwing on the enemy team.
~ Truth
Exactly, it’s not rocket science. One person, no matter how good he/she is cannot be in control of the other four. It is impossible.
—shakes head and facepalm—
lmao! Who’s bright idea WAS this? lol
Players have enough ego as it is. They don’t need another reason to rub it in the losing teams’ faces. It promotes a bad atmosphere, both for the winners and losers.
You’re playing with house money. That means, yup, the house always wins.
But playing with house money means you have nothing to lose, you can take big risks because you’re playing with the house’s money not your own. It means the casino has either given you money to play with, or you are so far ahead that you have nothing to lose. It’s the complete opposite of the house winning lol.
That’s only on the surface.
It doesn’t matter how good you are. The house always wins. You think the casino is going to let you keep winning all that money? The casino will go out of business! If you do miraculously walk away rich, the casino is just going to tilt the tables for the next sucker. Or…they’ll just send their muscle at you, break your legs and toss you in the river.
Keep winning ranked, what happens? Matchmaking eventually goes against you. Afkers, trolls, newbies, bribers, cheaters, duos, you name it. You keep fighting it, but losses keep piling up. So you keep dropping tiers. Ranked is nothing but LUCK.
I highly recommend carrying Dogged March and Melandru runes to negate their condition duration. Also, of course, resistance. There are times you won’t have access to resistance, that’s why I recommend those two things.
I’m just shaking my head right now. Ranked is a joke. It is rigged. It is exploitable. Playing ranked PvP is basically getting screwed out of your money at a casino. You’re playing with house money. That means, yup, the house always wins.
Honestly, I’m surprised that people are still playing. With 2v2, automated tournaments, the new HoTM and practice arena, why do people still even bother with ranked? Ranked means nothing. Leaderboard means nothing. The only people left are exploiters and newbies. Veterans have LEFT. Those trickle of vets still playing…let me tell you this…you’re not going to get anywhere.
With less and less people playing ranked, the matchmaking is just going to keep shuffling the same people. Guys, do yourself a favor. Quit. If you want to scratch that competitive itch or simply have some FUN there’s, unranked, tournaments, lobby arena, 2v2. If you don’t like any of those, WvW or find another game, because I guaran-kitten -tee that you’re guys are wasting your time in ranked. It. Is. A. Racket.
I gotta admit, I like it. Small scale fighting was long overdue. The only thing I hate is that it’s elite specs or bust. Build diversity pretty much doesn’t even exist. “Meta” builds are even more strictly enforced than in conquest. On patch day, I went out with core power warr and got hammered and lost my first 10 games. I slotted in bersk and started winning some of them.
-shakes head-
OP, this whole thing is rigged. I can’t believe people still even bother with ranked. Ranked is a joke. Tiers and leaderboard mean absolutely nothing. The only people left are the pros, exploiters and the newbies. Veterans and intermediate players are long GONE.
Honestly it’s fine. It’s only crowded because it’s the new shiny toy. Once the novelty wares off it won’t be so bad.
They do need to fix 1200 range classes being able to flag and snipe from the balcony.
Yup!
Had two people like that today. You could just get people to focus and spike them. Or better yet…heh….that DH pull. XD
Because people cried that they have long queue times so now MM just throws whatever into match and calls it a day. From what i have seen, it looks for 5 ppl in similar rating, once it formed a team it forms enemy team. If it can’t find 5 players in the same range for enemy team, it widens the range. Given how population continues to diminish due to a lot of issues, it becomes even more glaring and situations like following are a norm now:
team A: 1800, 1850, 1800, 1750, 1780
team B: 1850, 1700, 1400, 1455, 1555
Take a wild guess which team will win in such scenario and how many rank points will player 1850 from team B lose/gain?
Team B will obviously lose. The 1850 player will lose huge amount of rank points because the system compares only his MMR and avg enemy team so according to that calculation the match was fair and even and player 1850 shouldn’t have lost. This is huge slap in the face because that 1850 player certainly was trying his best to carry that low rank burden and gets rewarded with rank loss worth of 3 wins. Effectively you play in negative unless you duoq with top players and/or exploit/farm bronzies at 5 am. No wonder people barely pvp and quit this game.It is 3rd season in a row where i preach for reducing MMR range for MM at costs of queue time and award/deduce ranks based on team avg mmr vs enemy team avg mmr (so you don’t get punished for having gold teammates vs legend players) and not just player mmr vs avg mmr of the enemy team. But they would rather ignore these issues, remove carrots from pvp and let the community bleed out.
P.S. those examples are not exaggeration, i (as plat) had gold teammates while facing team consisting of top 10 players. What the point of matchmaking? Might as well play lottery.
Exactly.
That same 1850 player is the one factor propping up the system. He’s carrying not only his own team, but also the fight against the opposition. He’s carrying BOTH sides. That’s a double burden. There’s just no. freakin. way anyone can win under those conditions. Let me lay out that math again:
Team A: 1800, 1850, 1800, 1750, 1780
Team B: 1850, 1700, 1400, 1455, 1555
Do you guys see that bolded number there? That’s the person carrying both sides. Makes his team and the opponents look good. The more people that leave and quit ranked, the worse that the matchmaking gets. The worse that the matchmaking gets, the BIGGER this numerical gap gets. The system pretty much just takes a DUMP all over veteran players.
Another thing, don’t think this happens only at “certain” tiers. It happens in every tier! Every single one! Bronze to legend. I’ve read the posts. “So and so team in plat doesn’t know how to rotate!” “I’ve got a ‘carry’ build that I’ve used in gold.” etc.
lmao—I’m not surprised
Folks, the system is rigged and exploitable. Deep down, I think you all know it. Just admit it. Some in these forums, these so-called “pros” who think they’re good won’t dare to admit it.
You live and die by placement matches. Period. Your skill rating just stabilizes overtime as it did mine. The amount of rating I gained and lost when I started was in the late 20s-30s, now it’s in the teens. HOW THE F—- do you even expect people to advance? Unless you duo, bribe, cheat or got good placement there’s not a snowball’s chance you’re getting up the tiers. No matter how good you are.
I gave it a shot for a few days just to see how ranked was but…nothing has changed. As usual.
Yup, going back to unranked.
(edited by JTGuevara.9018)
MMR shouldn’t really matter to you unless you are in range of the leaderboard, it’s not even applicable until then honestly. It’s great to gauge, very relatively, where you stand; however it is VERY IMPORTANT to note that your rating is subjective and WILL fluctuate. It is also incredibly important to understand than when you get into LB range, you are now at a point where you will be subjected to match manipulation (out the wazoo, certain people even continue paying for wins/loss in off season, COUGH COUGH), and equally appalling the actual MM system itself.
When you are high rated in the current system, you are expected to carry (literally) any rating below you. There are no protections for your rating, I have PLENTY of screenshots from the past 2 seasons where the rating disparity between the lowest rated person on my team and myself was over 500, at some points over 700. That’s multiple divisions of difference in skill on the same team. When you are high rated in the current system, the game changes from SPvP to, “which duo can wipe the enemy team silver/gold players first.” Very simply, those players do not have the game awareness or mechanical skill to A. defend themselves and B. make the proper decisions regarding rotation on respawn, which compounds the snowball.
As an aside, the complete disregard for the integrity of the leaderboard (by both the players and Anet) in seasons 5 and 6 was enough, exclusively, to bar the game mode as a whole for the foreseeable future for me after ~20k games played (even bad players can win matches at 4:30am EST playing against OCE players with 1k+ ping while they are duo’d AND sync queuing to throw). The fact that not a single punishment for people OPENLY throwing matches on alts to snipe rating, is disgusting. It happened to me more times than I can count, and every single one of those alt accounts (had to add them to flist to dodge them if I wanted any actual play) are still being used today!
Should we discuss how much IRL $ certain people made these past 2 seasons because they knew they wouldn’t be punished???
When the system changes to prevent rating disparity like in past seasons (200 rating is acceptable across the entire team), punishes those who match manipulate (with permanent bans), and prevents class stacking (very real reason it wasn’t allowed in tourneys or did we forget double rev or even 5 man dd ele?), I may come back. There is currently far too much wrong with the system. So the frustration is not solely on your shoulders, Anet have catered to it greatly.
So basically what you’re saying is that this whole thing is RIGGED. Good to know!
Looks like it’s the same old bs then.
I’m interested in 2v2 and automated tournaments and how they will be brought out. If both of those take off, then I think ranked will be a wasteland.
2v2? Mmm interesting. I’m not even mad that it’s only custom arenas. ANet needs to test this out before they put out a queue. 2v2 being added, even if only in custom arenas, can only be a good thing imo.
Let’s see…
Warrior:
1. Adrenal Health—This skill now has added functionality. In addition to the healing per adrenaline bar spent, warrior is now also healed for 1000 HP every time they land an attack.
2. Killshot—-Cast time has been reduced to 0 seconds. Damage has been increased by 200%. Damage increases by another 100% when target is below 99% health. (Cooldown reduced to 1 second)
3. Healing Signet—Passive: Healing increased by 1000 HP.
A DAGGER?! Pfffft…passs
I’d like to add another post.
Personal Story and Season 2 were easily the best parts of the story. They were done right. Personal story had your story and introduction to the world. Eventually you were woven into the conflict with Zhaitan. The Zhaitan campaign ended with a bang. Fireworks, cutscenes, credits. “Fear not this night” to this day almost brings me to tears. I’ll take Trahearne ANY day over “you know who” who I’m about to bring up next paragraph.
And on the other side, you have Season 1 and HoT. They were easily the worst, imo. What I notice about season 1 and HoT is that they both force the plot. They try too hard to build hype for the sake of shock value. You’re forced to accept certain characters and plot elements. It was done with Scarlet in season 1 and it was done with Faolain in HoT. Scarlet was pretty much shoved down our throats, let’s not sugarcoat it. Eir’s death was wasted trying to hype up Faolain and it just backfired miserably. There’s no conflict or anything of interest there. They literally have zero history of interaction together. The ‘shocking’ revelation in Rata Novus, “The dragons have a weakness.” made me “—facepalm—Nooooo! You don’t say!” To top it off, HoT had a weak, weak ending. “Modremoth is dead…well…see ya!”
Season 3 had promise until chapter 5 and the Balthazar reveal. They should’ve ran with Lazarus. Instead, again, the plot was forced. Done for the sake of shock value.
As far as premade 5v5 team play?No absolutely not,ask anybody who’s relevant to the scene.
There is a scene lol?
Same question I was asking myself lmao!
Changes to SHIELD BASH are nonsensical.
You’re welcome…
I gotta admit. Shield Bash nerf is just ABSURD. Everybody was fine with it for 5 years! All of sudden NOW it’s a problem? Just….lol
Put it back!
I’m not as cynical as others here, but I can definitely see ANet doing this. Still, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt…as least for now. This patch is ok.
Best build so far in 2 years… adapt or die. The game was stale and people claimed pvp was dying.. They change it up… now its worse? logic much? So many left the game over that very meta you claim was balanced and good LOL. Too funny. Man the population of this game got so bad defending that previous meta. It was all copy and paste builds and now you need to actually think? Thank god they trashed sigils all of you sheep using the same stuff isnt how a game should stay…. it was extremely stagnant.. Oh and yeah i been around since beta and mostly pvp and wvw. Only thing im a little upset over is Plague but I get over it since im not a cry baby.
Man what happened to actual skill instead of mindless previous meta. Yep it was mindless i actually didnt participate in previous season over how bad it is and was. All the people upset here got carried by builds.
(Oh and i play all classes well except ele which i know got hit sadly with no buffs to compensate for the other nerfs which were needed…. so dont think im some elitist to one)
You said it. This is one of the better patches of the past year or two. It’s actually got me to come back after I quit. It’s got my attention. Not totally on board, though. Only unranked lol.
That being said, I am literally just laughing as I type this. Elite specs and skills were shaved ACROSS THE BOARD. OP sigils were reworked or deleted. And people STILL complain lol. I was a vocal critic of pvp during the past seasons about elite specs and balance and I gotta say, this is a good patch. ANet deserves some credit.
Scrapper…nerfed.
No, they nerfed Protection Injection, a core engineer trait. It is incredibly backward to nerf elite specializations by nerfing core trait skills (essentially widening the gap further between core and elite builds). We want condi engi and rifle engi to be a thing again. This kind of nerf goes entirely against that, and only makes those builds weaker.
The gyro nerf is whatever. Nobody cares about that. You’re still going run two to three gyros this next season because, aside from the Elixir Gun, nothing else is worth using.
Let’s see:
Protection Injection—from 5 to 10 seconds
Bunker Down—from 2 to 3 seconds
Compared to….
Med Pack Drop—A buff to Supply Crate that now cleanses condis for your TEAM!
Flame Turret—buffed and reworked
Rocket Turret—buffed and reworked
Thumper Turret—buffed and reworked
Bulwark Gyro—nerfed
Purge Gyro—nerfed
Core engi got some love. Not really widening the gap if you ask me.
This patch is actually one of the better patches of the last couple of years, imo. At the very least, it’s got me to come back to pvp after I quit. It has piqued my interest. Unranked only, though. That’s as far as I go. I won’t even bother touching ranked until they bring back 5v5 and have separate solo/team queues. I’m not totally on board, though. I’m wary that ANet will powercreep the new specializations of the next expansion and repeat the mistakes of HoT.
Man, this is too funny. All this poo-pooing. This patch is a step in the right direction. Elite specs and skills were shaved across the board. That is fine by me! Supposedly that’s what we wanted!
Berzerker….nerfed.
DH….nerfed.
Scrapper…nerfed.
Druid….nerfed.
These are good things. In addition, sigils were reworked or deleted. Cut down the passive bs like Sigil of Hydromancy, which is just plain nonsense. Who the F—- wants to get chilled on swap? Not me.
That being said, this patch is ok, but not great. Necro got buffed too hard. Elementalist got hit too hard. Since defense and sustain also got shaved across the board, I think condi reaper is going to dominate this time around. Ele/tempest is STILL going to be a healbot just to survive. Imo, core elementalist really got the short end of the stick on this one, if anyone deserves to hate this patch, it is them.
Now, condi rev. Not worried about it. Condi reaper and warr will melt them like butter and turn ’em into pancakes.
Rev? Seriously? The profession that you can condi from 100-0 in seconds due to their lack of cleanses? That rev? As a condi warr I just melt them like butter.
Meanwhile, nobody is talking about all the necro buffs.
I am, scroll up xD
Heh sorry :P lol
Come on really? Warrior changes are fine.
All that changed was a slight shave to Healing Signet and Shield Bash. Endure Pain did get cut in half, but so did its cooldown. It’s arguably a buff since now you can use it twice a minute instead of just once, plus Defy Pain. You get more use out of it now.
Also Headbutt needed to be changed, imo. It was way too easy to catch people and one-shot them. Arc Divider is not that big of a deal. Any elite specs/skills that get nerfed is ok with me! Supposedly that’s what we wanted!
We’ll be all right.
Rev? Seriously? The profession that you can condi from 100-0 in seconds due to their lack of cleanses? That rev? As a condi warr I just melt them like butter.
Meanwhile, nobody is talking about all the necro buffs.
they removed EVERY chill sigil, even Ice….
GOOD! They should!
Elite specializations killed pvp. Before that pvp was “ok”. Elites specs are too strong but they were never changed to be balanced with core traits and skills. You know there is a problem when nearly every class is REQUIRED to use their elite specs to be competitive. There is a huge difference between choice and required.
Absolutely correct.
I agree, OP. This is a bad plot twist. The Lazarus plot was killed in its tracks to haphazardly debut the God of War. Balthazar’s character took a hit, imo. Subterfuge? Theft of technology? Not very honorable of the God of War. Even if he was weakened over time….come on man! Make it believable! Plus, he had to deal with Taimi’s shenanigans. Her little plan backfired and Balthazar basically cleaned up her mess. Taimi’s character is getting to ridiculous mary sue levels. She has way too much influence in the story.
Still, what’s done is done. The story will now shift towards the human gods and that is a good thing.
The plan was originally to use the machine to pit the energies of Jormag and Primordus against each other, so the machine was set up for that purpose when Balthazar stole it. When big B then gets inside the machine and uses it, he is intercepting that energy for himself. Since he had it right next to Primordus, we saw the effects on Primordus, but the same thing was happening to Jormag far away. When the machine was on it was working on both dragons at the same time. Now, if it works at such long ranges, why would B bring it right next to an elder dragon? I am guessing because B had a base of operations already set up nearby, and since the player couldn’t immediately follow him into the volcano it worked as a stalling tactic.
—sigh—the story is a mess after chapter 5. It just doesn’t make much sense to me.
Still, this is how I interpret it.
It’s been established that killing elder dragons destabilizes Tyria. So Taimi invents a machine to “pit Jormag and Primordus’ energies against each other”. But here’s the thing, doesn’t that just make things WORSE? Think about it. You have two dragons that are AWAKE and FIGHTING. That clash of magic is going to rock Tyria even further. A dragon that is merely just awake means that magic in Tyria is already out of balance.
So, I guess it’s thanks to Taimi’s shenanigans that the freakin’ human GOD OF WAR haphazardly made his debut and bailed out her little behind by absorbing the impact of the clashing energies of Primordus and Jormag and putting them to sleep.
If this is what was intended, then it should’ve been explained a lot better.
IMO it is possible the term “Deux ex Machina” is not the more precisely, canonically correct. What’s the word we should use to describe that ill staged, sudden, annoying Lazarus Mystery/Balthazar Reveal?
Simple, a bad plot twist. A curve ball.
This is one reason I’m not a fan of “plot twists” in entertainment. I was enjoying season 3 until this chapter when it just went for shock value. No suspense. No explanation. LIke it’s supposed to ‘impress me’. The sudden Balthazar twist just killed the Lazarus plot in its tracks. Nothing but a “Gotcha!” to the audience. His return was pretty underwhelming, imo. Of all the places to debut one of the human gods…an asura lab?!
I’m not even against Balthazar coming back, but….not like this….Ah well, what’s done is done. I wonder how the next chapter will attempt to explain this.
(edited by JTGuevara.9018)
The problem with gw2’s writing is simply that the story goes too fast and tries to do too much at once. There are too many plot elements being introduced and left unexplained, all for the sake of the twist.
For me, the thing with twists in a story is that I already anticipate the reveal in my head. I already see it happening. It’s NOT about shock value.
I agree OP, this chapter sucked. The plot just went way too fast.
You have a monumental reveal of the God of War with NO build-up?! No foreshadowing? Not even of the gods existence? Just…poof! In a run-of-the-mill, freakin’ asura lab? IMO, at least, Balthazar should’ve been revealed at the end of this chapter to hype up the final chapter or revealed at the end of the final to hype up the expansion.
To top it off, the ending was worse. Just pure confusion. Is Primordius asleep? WTF happened to Balthazar? Why does he need a machine? And mercenaries! Is he weakened?! I’m just dazed and confused about the story as I’m fighting Balthazar’s pups and Taimi just keeps screeching in my ear.
This chapter just puts even more pressure on the final chapter to attempt to explain and salvage what the hell happened in this one. How is ANet going to explain all this?
This chapter was disappointing.
Everything just happened way too fast. You have a monumental reveal of one of the human gods of Tyria and there is NO build-up, no foreshadowing. It’s just….bam. Balthazar. I didn’t even believe it was him at first! The plot just goes at the speed of light, you don’t even have time to take in a monumental event such as this. Then the story just bombards you with Fire Islands? Mysterious voices? Elder Druids? Mercenaries?! I barely had a clue what I was doing in Draconic Mons in the first place.
To top it off, the ending was even worse. Just more confusion. What happened to Balthazar? Primordius? Was he put to sleep? I did not have a clue what even happened.
IMO, Balthazar should’ve been revealed at the end to build hype for the final chapter, NOT the beginning. Or even better, reveal him at the end of the final chapter to hype up the expansion. But…it is what it is.
Gah! Disappointing chapter.
First, the reveal. There’s no build-up, it’s just…bam. I didn’t even believe it myself at first! IMO, a monumental reveal such as this needed to be at the end NOT the beginning.
Second, the ending. Bad. Bad. BAD. Deus Ex Machina all over the place, NPC screeching objectives in my ear while I’m fighting just downright ruined the immersion and epicness of the occasion.
4/10