Guild Wars 2

Phaeton.9582:

Thedenofsin.7340:

Has ANet given up on capture point PvP?

Yeah once they’ve released the new game type they’ll delete the old one

No, not necessarily. In the future, we could do a combination of game types, in the same way that Call of Duty does multiple game types, or counter strike does multiple (escort or disarm).

We’ll have to see how that pans out, based on fan feedback.

I think the description needs to be worked on. Already talked w/ the other balance guys about this, we’ll look at it again!

It’s already fixed.

The build should be shipping to live as I type this.

Asuka Shikinami.5462:

Jonathan, don’t you think Warriors are just a little over the top at the moment? Such as the amount of sustain available even when playing glassy? The mobility/escapes from the gap closers in sword/GS where most classes require targeting for those skills to work? How short the cooldown is on some of the cc? Zerker stance stopping all condi’s instead of negative duration (isn’t this a bug, if so why isn’t it fixed?)

I know you guys like to look at the metrics and let things settle… but seriously, it’s been months… Surely you guys are aware of how much this has also affected wvw with increased stats…

Thanks for the thoughts!

Yes, Warrior is pretty beefy right now, and can dish out strong aoe CC with some specs. We’ll have to watch to see if any counters crop up to deal with it in the next few weeks. I do think the build is strong, and we’re watching it very closely.

If you’ll recall, Berserk’s stance was brought in at a 6s duration (and very few people ran it), and then went to an 8s duration. This was enough to get people to start trying to make a build around it, and this lead to the current sustain/cc Warrior that’s so powerful right now.

That duration may need to come down, now that their traits align and give them VERY strong sustain due to multiple sources or regen. It’s working as it’s intended right now, but the duration is longer than it was previously.

TL:DR – We’re watching Warriors very closely right now and waiting to see how the meta adjusts.

Hey Felivear, thanks for the post!

We knew for a while that Warriors were stronger than the meta seemed to indicate at one point, and we knew a fix for the sigil was coming.

Sometimes it just takes a while ( IN ANY GAME ) for people to try all builds, all combinations of strategies, all options, etc.

That’s why we want to see what today’s improvements do to the game, especially to support meta. I ran into a VERY strong staff Elementalist earlier on live, and was excited to see it when I did.

It normally takes a few days/weeks for builds to assimilate new changes into their kitten nals.

Due to that, we’ll be watching the meta to see where it goes and then make more changes in future updates.

The Sigil of Paralyzation was making Warriors (who used it to great effect) very strong, so went ahead and fixed it with this update. We have plans to rework all sigils/runes, but that Sigil, we felt, was so important that we had to fix it now, before we did a large balance pass on the sigils/runes.

We have to make sure we aren’t making you guys download new clients all the time for fixes. We knew the sigil of paralyzation was strong, but we also knew our fix was coming in today’s update.

Hope this makes sense and thanks for the post!

Just wanted to say that you guys are having a similar discussion to what we’re having internally.

Yes, the Warriors are pushing some of the condition builds out of the meta, but with our sigil of para fix, those same warriors will now be losing a little damage and a little control.

We need to give it a little while to see how the meta settles. Then we’ll be putting in trait improvement and skill improvements.

We felt the Warrior would eventually rise up to become the class it is now (it took a while for people to catch on), but once you guys figured it out, they did what we expected them to do.

Now we need to see where you guys (and the meta) go next.

Thanks for the feedback guys! We’ll look at this one and see if we can’t make it more easily understood!

It’s true that we don’t want to create a “monk” style healer/support class like we had in GW1, but we DO want to augment the efficacy of support builds.

And you guys are hitting the nail on the head – we want to make it so that some of the support skills help allies more than they help you, but they do it so well that a support role is justified.

It’s a balance between dedicated support and builds that are entirely self reliant. Once the dues settles on the trait fact pass, we’ll be looking at how to improve the support builds with another round of trait improvements for every class, as well as skill adjustments for each class.

Just wanted to jump in and say thanks for keeping things constructive!

The idea right now is to see how the current changes impact the meta, and then do another set of balance in an upcoming patch.

The trait facts were a lot of work, but the clarity they give you guys is VERY good for you. So we wanted to see if that would shake up trait builds at all in order to see how you guys adjusted. Once THAT settles, we want to make balance changes based off the meta at that time. We didn’t want to change all the trait facts and also add in a lot of balance changes on top of it.

We still did a lot of balance stuff, but we were careful not to go overboard with this patch. Just like we learned w/ the Warrior a few updates back, sometimes the meta can undergo drastic changes even if we do VERY little to impact the balance.

We’re planning on doing another round of updates to traits for every class (either changing #‘s, shifting tiers around to make more builds viable, or doing trait reworks), and we also have our eye on a few “apex” builds. But, again we don’t want to shave those too much.

Thanks again for the thoughts and feedback!

Chap + the balance tam

Just so you guys know:

We’re not entirely opposed to toning down auto attack damage in PvP (we could split some of the skills and leave PvE/WvW where they are, for instance). I think it’d be a great way to add more importance to the main bar skills, and, in fact, is something we used to have before ship.

There was a time in balance when #1 skills across the board were said to be “too ineffective” by many players to be used. So we made an effort to bump them up and make them more impact-full on the game, so that they didn’t feel like a waste of the #1 slot. There was also a time when most skills had higher recharges, and longer activation times/aftercasts.

From much player feedback, we found that by lowering recharges and cast times, the game FELT better for the person using skills. But, as you guys have said, sometimes it feels like you aren’t punishing by making someone waste a long-cooldown skill, or you aren’t rewarded for interrupting a powerful skill because it comes back too quickly.

Just wanted to say that we agree with you guys, but we have to balance the risk/rewards vs. how good the game feels to pay.

Thanks for all the great ideas! We’re definitely listening.

This thread is actually helpful to us.

When you guys list a small, concise list of things that need to be addressed, we normally DO take those lists and run down them as a balance team.

So thanks for that.

Also thanks for being constructive about this stuff, it’s very impressive when you guys reason together for the good of the game, rather than arguing (which can happen on any forums, about any topic).

Most impressive!!! Thanks all!

We’re still watching this thread guys! Thanks for all the ideas/critiques/concerns. I obviously can’t respond to everyone individually, but myself and the rest of the team are reading the thread and listening to your ideas. Our community team is also helping us to watch the thread so we can pull out ideas!

Thanks a ton for all the feedback!

Chap + rest of team

@ Rewards: We want to make it more fun to rank up and we want to provide more incentive to rank up. We also want to have more fun progression as you’re ranking up with cool rewards as you’re ranking.

We also don’t like how long it takes to rank up for some players after they hit a certain rank, so we’ll be addressing that as well.

@ Bigger maps: The idea right now is to make something that can scale in team size so that you can play it in bigger teams, or smaller teams. We also want to make sure we spread people out on the maps in a way that creates space, while also creating pockets where conflict is encouraged (and rewarded!).

We have different game types brewing at different levels of completion.

Some of them break away entirely from capture points and put the scoring emphasis on objectives/kills.

Some, as you guys know, are just different ways of looking at death match.

We don’t want to just release a ton of new game modes, so the reason we don’t talk about all of them is we’re basically testing a lot of them, and then we’ll see which ones work the best together.

As we’ve said before, we also want to be sure we don’t put out too many, and split up the players too much, while putting out enough so that you guys have variety.

We are working on new game modes. As we get closer to being ready to talk about them more, we’ll give you guys more details!

Aza.2105:

Mr. Sharp,

I’m confused about monk’s focus, does it no longer heal? Or does it give fury and heal? And what replaces the focus mind trait? Its the trait that makes meditations instant.

Mr. Aza,

Just fixed it to Focused Mind. Now going to another meeting.

Sorry for the confusion.

J

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/October-15th-balance-skills-updates-preview/

K it’s up, going to meetings!

Further down the Road

• We’re reworking the combat log to make it more easily used. This will involve help from a ton of departments, but it will help every player in the game. By providing you better combat information, you’ll be able to better make tweaks to your build, and you’ll be able to better adjust your play to deal with difficult encounters.

• We’re also looking to make conditions scale better in PvE/WvW leveling so that they’re more viable at different junctures in the level scale.

• Runes/Sigils are also something the balance team wants to improve. We’d like to see cooler effects on some of the sets, so we’ll be working towards that. They also lead to a lot of build diversity, so we want more sets to be stronger so that it gives you guys more options in your builds.

• The patch notes will be much bigger than this, but we just wanted to give you guys a little insight into what’s coming in the near future from the balance team!

• Traits. We’re always looking at traits and trying to fix the traits that don’t seem as sweet as others.

So that’s pretty much it! Feel free to leave feedback and ideas/concerns and we’ll be watching to see what you guys come up with!


-Balance and skill team

Class balance:
Overall we’re looking to provide more builds for all classes, across all game types (PvE, PvP and WvW). We’re also looking to improve support potential for many classes. A lot of players have asked for this style of play to be stronger, so we’re looking to make it a more viable option.

These are some HIGH LEVEL previews, and you’ll still see number tweaks, trait fixes, and bug fixes for each class in the actual release notes, but we wanted you guys to have some transparency into the release:

Warrior
We’re looking to improve shouts so that support via shouts is more viable. This means moving Lung Capacity to Tier 1 so that you can take it along with Shrug it Off and Vigorous Shouts. The Warrior is in a pretty decent place overall right now, and sees play in many types of content, as well as in PvP/WvW.

Guardian
We increased the power of many support skills which weren’t seeing much play. We reworked Purging Flames: it now removes three conditions from allies in an area effect around the guardian on cast while still burning enemies (enemies that enter or exit the flames are still burned). Once the skill has been cast, it then reduces condition duration for allies who remain in the consecration’s area. It’s hawt. Literally. All meditation utility skills are now instant, and Focused Mind now grants fury on meditation use.

Ranger
Sick ‘Em will now apply ‘Revealed” to enemies they target. We want to introduce some counter play to Stealth (players have asked for that for a while), so we thought a pet “catching your scent” might be a cool way to insinuate some anti-stealth into the game.

To help Rangers support allies, we increased the ability ranger pets have to support allies. For instance, the Bear condition removal isn’t strong enough, so we’ll be improving that. Moas and Fern Hound will also be improved.

There will also be # changes to some of the Ranger weapons.

Thief
Venomous Aura was very difficult to use, as the radius was fairly tight. We’ve now increased that radius a bit, so that it’s easier to share venoms with allies without huddling closely together.

We’re also looking at shaving the efficiency of Flanking Strike slightly, so that it now only removes 1 boon instead of 2.

Also, pistol main hand may see one of its skills reworked to better support allies. We have multiple prototypes that we’re trying out, so we’ll have to see which we settle on by the next release.

Engineer
We did some reworks on the Elixir toolbelt (f-bar) skills. These just didn’t have enough cool play to them, and we wanted to improve them. Like:

• Elixir S toolbelt is now guaranteed stealth.
• Elixir B toolbelt now guarantees Stability along with the random current effect. Base recharge increased to 30 seconds.

We also did QoL (quality of life) improvements to skills that saw little play.

And finally, Engineer turrets will attack the Engineer’s target. They still take time to rotate to face the target, and they still have their respective cooldowns when firing. But this means the Engineer can focus damage on a single target by using their turrets.

Elementalist
We’re working on the staff in an effort to make it a stronger support weapon, and we also improved the conjure weapons so that they’re stronger for support. You’ll see improvements to all 4 of the conjure weapons to make them stronger and better for support.

We also increased the healing on Water Blast, the radius on Geyser and we reworked
Unsteady Ground to make it function more like line of warding.

Mes
To stay in line with the support theme, we wanted to find ways the Mesmer could support allies. We looked at Mantras, and just didn’t feel they were quite strong enough to do this, so we made some improvements.

Power Cleanse: We wanted to add some condition support, and made it so that this skill can remove 2 conditions from 5 allies.

Power Break also saw an improvement, as it now grants stability to nearby allies.

Nec
The Blood line underwent some tweaks, as it’s something that Necromancer players often feel is a lacking trait line. Vampiric Precision, Vampiric Rituals, Vampiric Master have all seen improvements.

For QoL (again, quality of life) we also improved the Life Force meter to show the actual bar better (moved slightly so it’s not competing with the skill icon for UI space), and the bar now shows your current Life Force amount, and the tooltip also shows current/max Life Force available. It makes it much easier to see how much Life Force you have, and lets you plan your engagements better.

Hey guys, here are some of the improvements you can expect to see for the October 15th release. Let us know what you think about them and we’ll take this into consideration. Some of these may not make it in for that release, but I wanted to give you guys a high level preview of what we’re working on and give you an opportunity to give us your feedback.

Trait tooltips
Traits will now have tooltips in the same way that skills do. This means that you’ll be able to see EXACTLY how long an effect lasts, what its cooldown is, etc. We want this system to be as transparent as possible for our players, so that they can make the best decisions when creating their profession builds.

Skill tooltips as they pertain to traits
As traits impact a skill, we’ve also made it so that as skills are impacted by a trait, the skill’s tooltips adjust accordingly. Again, we want players to be able to see these details in their builds, so that they can build their characters exactly the way they want! We’ll be using different colors to show this so that it’s easier for players to see!

Other Misc. fixes:
Tab Targeting Improvements

• Now prioritizes Champs/Legendary, then players/clones, then everything else
• Deselecting your target now resets tab selection history (aka, you’ll start tabbing through from the beginning if you deselect)
• Can now tab target if your character can see the target (Was dependent on camera before)

Floater Improvements:
When you cause condition damage, all damage of a given type (burning, bleed, poison, etc.) will be grouped into a single # with an icon, making them much easier to read. This also allows players suffering from these conditions to more easily see them, and know when they should use condition removal. Note that this is an option, so that you can disable it if you want to (and return to the old system).

Better fast cast ground targeting:
We split this into 3 different options; so that players can more easily cater how ground targeting works for them.

1. Double tap to cast
2. Press the button to cast
3. Release the button to cast
   SO GET YO CAST ON!

Pet HP split between PvE and PvP
We wanted to make pets and summons more viable in PvE/WvW while making sure they didn’t become too strong in PvP.

Launch will now be stun breakable
We felt it made it sense to let stun breakers also help you when you are launched, since this is consistent with how stun breakers respond to other control effects.

/end of post 1

ensoriki.5789:

Hope there is something for Earth shield in there too.

There is a little bit on that actually!

Heading out for the night!

/waves to forums

Update: It came out to be bigger than I was originally intending, so I’m going to get it localized tonight and then post it as soon as I get it back! Sorry for the delay, but I want all languages to get to hear this stuff!

J

No, I could actually read it just fine. Wasn’t being sarcastic at all.

Also, we want to be more transparent with balance, so we’re going to be posting a list of the things that we’re working on now, so that you guys can see balance changes earlier than usual.

I’ll post that in a bit, hopefully today.

Killsmith.8169:

JonathanSharp.7094:

The 3 different game types and splitting skills. Splitting skills between all 3 of our game types (PvE, PvP, WvW) is very costly – it takes more time to split the skills, and then upkeep the split skills. Instead of upkeeping 1 version of a skill, whenever you make future changes, you now have to make sure all 3 are appropriately balanced for their respective game types. This is very powerful, and something we did in GW1 when we felt we needed it. We just need to be careful not to do it too much, or it means the balance team is literally balancing 3 entire games. As Freamon (from “The Wire”, btw if you haven’t seen “The Wire”, stop whatever it is you’re doing and go watch it. Unless you’re giving birth. In that case…wait until you’re done, then watch it immediately afterwards. Oh, and get your new son/daughter to watch it when they’re old enough.) usually reminded the other members of the cast, “All the pieces matter.” The different pieces of GW2 all impact the other pieces, and it’s something we must always bear in mind.

Chap’s woefully ill-conceived attempt at a metaphor on why we don’t spilt all skills off the bat: Imagine you’re in school, and in order to make sure you learn languages at an even pace, you have to split everything you do into 3 languages. For me, let’s say it’s English, Japanese and Latin (No, Greek, I liked learning Greek more than Latin). You start off answering a question on a test in 3 different languages. You rock. But then you do it more and more often. For every note you take in a lecture, you have to write it in 3 different languages. For every paper you write, you have to write it in 3 languages. For all homework, you have to do it in 3 languages. Every test. Every quiz. It may seem small at first, but if you’re not careful, you’re doing three times the work as normal.

Whether you like it or not, you guys already have 3 different games. Each game type has a different structure, different rules, and different goals. I get where you’re going with your analogy, but it’s flawed. You aren’t answering the same question in three languages. You’re answering English questions in English, Japanese questions in Japanese, and Greek questions in Greek.

The way you’re doing it now, you have to come up with a fix for one game type that doesn’t effect the other two too badly. I would argue that it takes more work to do that than it does to split the skills and balance to solve issues unique to each game type. The upkeep shouldn’t be costly at all, you just don’t fix what isn’t broken. What could be more cost effective than that?

You can argue it’s different all you want to. But as the people actually DOING the work, you’re wrong. Nice theory crafting though!

We have 3 major factors impacting all work we do for balance: time, scope (the amount of balance work we have to do), and resources (in this case, available work hours). All 3 of these pull from a finite pool of resources, and all 3 have direct causal relationships. If you increase scope (do more splitting of skills), then you can increase scope. Period. This means you’re now putting more stress on the other 2 pieces of this puzzle: time and resources. You’ve made more work. So until we extend the normal day to 26 or 27 hours, or put more days in the year (which isn’t going to happen with the earth’s current distance from the sun and rotation) it’s simply not going to happen, or it’s going to degrade the quality of work you DO get out of your hours.

And it’s more work to balance the game types differently. It still takes time to implement those changes. It doesn’t save time just by not worrying about how the changes will impact the various game types.

Awesome post, thanks for keeping the thread constructive guys!

Rating decay, randomizing solo Q games better (jumbling the teams better based on MMR) and rewards are all things we’re improving.

As for the build swakitten ue, we’re dealing with that with “Templates”, which are also something we’re excited about. It will be similar to the templates we used in GW1, which allowed you guys to easily swap builds/trade builds.

Thanks for the post guys!

We read all the threads – including this one. Thanks for making the effort and taking the time OP!

-J

P.S. Your english, while broken up a little bit, was still perfectly fine. I think I understand all the points you were making. It’s better than my rusty-kitten Japanese, so kudos to you for making the post!

J

Thanks guys!

We’re being very mindful about the way the Sigil of Para fix will hit Warriors. We’ve already got another balance patch brewing, and we’re being very careful to watch all the classes and see how they feel after we shave down the condition spam classes slightly.

As others have said, once we bring down the conditions that “hold down” some of the physical based classes, they will feel stronger. We’re aware of that!

Thanks again for the feedback!

Zanthrax.6538:

JonathanSharp.7094:

Zanthrax.6538:

@JonPeters and ColinJohansen

A huge thank you for responding…I suspect you guys are aware but definitely don’t underestimate the value of communication even if it is a little update on the same things your working on say every month etc.

@Colin I hope you can understand from players perspective being stuck with this meta for such a long time without change and then to watch PAX and see that response. That being said, thank you for responding and I would like to apologise for the crap your twitch chat had to deal with.

A question to Jon and Colin etc Do you guys feel that allowing the meta to stay in such a state for so long was a mistake in hindsight? Also do you agree with the sentiment that the Pace of PvP could be toned down to benefit both play and viewing pleasure?

In GW1, we had a major tournament, and we had a balance patch come out right before the tournament. The teams in the tournament felt that this was difficult for them, as they already had to travel/etc., so it really messed up their builds. BUT, I also understand how you guys feel – we held balance updates until later so that we kept the meta stable (even if it has issues) for the tournament.

There are 2 sides to that, and I think both sides have merit.

As to the speed, yes, I agree. We want to make the game more fun to play and also easier to watch. This isn’t only for esports, it’s also for new players. Slowing the game down slightly would allow more players to watch good players, and more easily figure out how to play. So I agree w/ you there.

First off sorry about calling you Jonpeters =P….just had his name on my mind constantly lol. Secondly thats refreshing to hear, I’m glad we see eye to eye on the pace of PvP. I understand that things take time and if you aren’t aware I personally have put so much money towards this game…and I have always understood that things will take time, I often likened it to LoL which took 1.5 – 2 years to really kick off and push into esports.

This PAX event was the first time I felt disheartened that all my money and effort is going to waste. But alas its my own short comings after being so positive for so long. For the record this is what I have done for the game purely out of my own pocket.

$500 to streamer " Shinryuku_ku "
$400 to streamer " Bitcloud "
$200 to streamer " TehMaker " ( only recently started streaming GW2 again )
$300 to EU Master of the Mists tournament.
$200 to Mist League
Purchased NA game for Sir_Koroshi
Approximately 1200-1500gold in giveaways, via Koroshi, Shinryuku_ku, GW2PvPTV etc.
~$800 in gem purchases.

I’m financially well off and have a great passion for your game. Lets make this this the PvP game I know it can be! It may be hard but I still reckon being open and communicative with your playerbase is still far better than going dark so to speak…even if its updating us on the same feature your still working on. =)

That’s very generous of you!

We’re trying our best to be as communicative as we can. I bet that you’ll see more activity this week, as people start getting back to the office after getting back to the office after the holiday!

And Jon and I are used to being mixed up, it’s ok.

Jumper.9482:

JonathanSharp.7094:

Jumper.9482:

Since everyone else is suggesting visual improvements,
Necromancer marks, IMO, should have a distinct signet-ish icon when casting. I mean, as it stands, every mark is pretty much equally deadly and you’re forced to dodge each one no matter which it is, but it would be nice to know if their Reaper’s Mark went on cooldown or not for example.
When versing a Warrior, when I react and dodge his Eviscerate or Hammer Burst, I know I’m safe for the next 9 seconds (unless he weapon swaps) and can act accordingly.
Against a Necro? I can’t possibly count their cooldowns…because, well, they all have the same animations..

This is assuming ANET doesn’t want to spend the resources to completely rework the Necro’s animations.

Nods, I agree. Some of those are hard to see, or all use the same animation.

The marks themselves may have different effects once they’re placed on the ground, but that doesn’t help if the mark instantly hits you or an ally.

Or, better yet, simply emphasize the color glow of the hand which swings while casting (Chillblains and Putrid have this but are barely noticable/distinguishable)
Make it similar to Heals or Moa/Mass Invis which are readable even on Asuras most times.

Countless number of games against Necros and 400+ games on Necro and I only just now noticed they had this “hidden” feature.

Nods. The reason you’re noticing the heal/elites is because they have their own cast effects (the blue glow for the heals, for instance) when they’re used. If we put that on all the marks, that’s 5 more skills using those effects…which means you’d no longer be able to differentiate them.

Sure, but then would you see it? And if there is a different effect for each sigil (or rune set), then don’t you need to make them more distinct than just a slight green weapon glow so you can tell them apart?

ilr.9675:

So wait… I heard more ranger nerfs… Could you all just please instead remove the whole class from PvP isntead? That’d be a lot faster and save a lot of time (and our sanity in PvE). Thanks

Wait til you see the update! You may be making it out in your mind to be more drastic than it really is.

Thanks for the idea Natsos!

Allie actually helps us a ton with that! She’s been really busy helping to set up PAX and assist CC/Sync with the logistics of getting here! Now that that stuff’s over, I bet you see her a lot more on the forums!

And Josh is also awesome! He’s going to be appearing with me on the next SOTG so we can double communicate with you guys!

Cheers!

See you Xeph! It’s always been a pleasure watching you play and listening to your ideas!

Good luck in whatever you decide to do next in life!

Daecollo.9578:

FOR EXAMPLE:

Wouldn’t it be cool if Sigil of Blood was actually a good Sigil?

Superior Sigil of Blood
30% Chance on Critical: Steal Health (This effect cannot trigger more than three times every 1 second.) This adds Opportunity Cost! So if people blob up together I get to heal more! [Maybe])

Additionally gives your weapon a leech effect when it procs!

Cool! Now I know when it procs because it has a cool unique effect! And its fun to use now because it actually does something significant like the other sigils do!

Agreed on the sigil needing a little oomf.

As to the effect: Yes, I agree it would be nice to know when it goes off. But, the other side of this is that it would add another effect into the game, which can clutter the screen. If we had a unique effect for all sigils/runes, it would create a lot more effects….which again, makes things hard to read.

I do like your idea though!

Agreed on the shaving + making sure we don’t overdo it with big hits to the classes.

Also good points about making sure that we don’t take away the things “holding down” some of the strong builds. I think Mes and Ele are probably ok for the most part, as long as we tone down the conditions output from some classes, and bring the S/D Thief in line.

Jumper.9482:

Since everyone else is suggesting visual improvements,
Necromancer marks, IMO, should have a distinct signet-ish icon when casting. I mean, as it stands, every mark is pretty much equally deadly and you’re forced to dodge each one no matter which it is, but it would be nice to know if their Reaper’s Mark went on cooldown or not for example.
When versing a Warrior, when I react and dodge his Eviscerate or Hammer Burst, I know I’m safe for the next 9 seconds (unless he weapon swaps) and can act accordingly.
Against a Necro? I can’t possibly count their cooldowns…because, well, they all have the same animations..

This is assuming ANET doesn’t want to spend the resources to completely rework the Necro’s animations.

Nods, I agree. Some of those are hard to see, or all use the same animation.

The marks themselves may have different effects once they’re placed on the ground, but that doesn’t help if the mark instantly hits you or an ally.

Zanthrax.6538:

@JonPeters and ColinJohansen

A huge thank you for responding…I suspect you guys are aware but definitely don’t underestimate the value of communication even if it is a little update on the same things your working on say every month etc.

@Colin I hope you can understand from players perspective being stuck with this meta for such a long time without change and then to watch PAX and see that response. That being said, thank you for responding and I would like to apologise for the crap your twitch chat had to deal with.

A question to Jon and Colin etc Do you guys feel that allowing the meta to stay in such a state for so long was a mistake in hindsight? Also do you agree with the sentiment that the Pace of PvP could be toned down to benefit both play and viewing pleasure?

In GW1, we had a major tournament, and we had a balance patch come out right before the tournament. The teams in the tournament felt that this was difficult for them, as they already had to travel/etc., so it really messed up their builds. BUT, I also understand how you guys feel – we held balance updates until later so that we kept the meta stable (even if it has issues) for the tournament.

There are 2 sides to that, and I think both sides have merit.

As to the speed, yes, I agree. We want to make the game more fun to play and also easier to watch. This isn’t only for esports, it’s also for new players. Slowing the game down slightly would allow more players to watch good players, and more easily figure out how to play. So I agree w/ you there.

We agree! We are working to make the game more rewarding, fun, and easy to get into. We’d love for the game to be an esport, but as you say, that’s not something you can force!

Strong + steady.

Sync/CC/The community at large
These guys were awesome. I just wanted to say a quick thank you to the teams (Car Crash and Sync, you guys are amazing), and everyone else who was involved with the tournament (thanks for the help Supcutie!). Everyone who helped with Mist League. Everyone who helps w/ all the podcasts and state of the game. I’d also like to thank all 64 teams that came out for the tournament.

Our game isn’t perfect. There will always be something we want to change, or we want to improve. Contrary to what you hear on the forums, the #’s for the PvP game is actually steadily growing. Some players are learning, but a lot of new players are coming into the game. We’re going to keep working to make the game the best it can be, and you guys have already demonstrated your great love and passion for the game. I know you guys get frustrated and feel the need to vent on the forums. I can see that. As a player of many competitive games, I get that. But we’re going to keep pushing.

We know we wouldn’t be here without you. We know we’re going to need your help and support as we get ready to climb the next mountain. We’ve heard a lot of your ideas and concerns.

• We are reworking rewards for PvP.
• We’re working on new game types.
• We’re planning more tournaments and working with a lot of well-known entities in order to help the game grow.
• We’re working to improve the teaching aspects of the game, and to make the game more easily understood.

When I see you guys posting on the forums about how upset you are about X or Y, I know that deep down most of you are saying: “Kitten dang it, this game could be good. There are just these things that are holding it back, fix this stuff please so that this game we love can grow!“

We feel your passion and frustration. We share it. So the next time you make a post and get kitten ed off that a dev doesn’t post, just remember that a lot of times, we’re talking about it at our desks, or in a meeting room, or on our way to lunch. We can’t fix things instantly, but we’re doing as much as we can, as efficiently as we can, with the time and resources we have. At the end of the day, all you can do is all you can do.

I can remember being a kid, sitting in my father’s study, going through his books, trying to understand what he saw in them. On his wall, next to the window which overlooked our back yard, was a framed picture, with this caption below it:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

I get it now. And, older than I was then, I realize how little time we have on this planet. So now I’ve learned to pick my battles, and invest my time only in things that I feel, after careful consideration, warrant the coin of my life – my time. (“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” -Carl Sandburg)

I think Guild Wars 2 is worth my passion, and that’s why I, like my fellow devs, work so kitten something that isn’t perfect. It’s still a work in progress, there are still SO many things we want to do with this game, and places we want to take it.

So if you get frustrated at the pace we’re making, or if you just need to take a break so you can try another game, or if you wait on something to be fixed the way you want it, that’s fine. We’ll keep working with our heads down, our minds churning, and our ears open, trying to make GW2 the best game it can be.

And we’ll be here when you get back.

-Chap

PS – Watch “The Wire”.

Notes:

• Suggested music while reading http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPWvpDm076o
• TL:DR – We love this game. We’re listening to you. We don’t post in every thread because we’re busy. Thank you for being so passionate about our game. Life is short – enjoy it. And you should watch “The Wire”.
• This post was written while taking breaks to cut up proxies and sleeve them for a Legacy storm deck (ANT storm), so I can practice for SCG Legacy Seattle.
• This post was written while under the effects of Radiohead and tea, earl grey, hot.

This is a very interesting thread, thanks for keeping it so positive!

As devs, we’re always watching the meta and trying to make sure we don’t “force” the meta in one direction or another. Metas are always driven by player perception, so our goal is to provide the players with multiple viable choices, and let them decide how they want to approach the game.

Perception of balance is key in how players approach the game, so our goal right now is to open up more options through balance without completely taking away the condition “meta” option.

@ MMR: We’re working on a fix for the grouping issue you point out in picture 1. This fix should also help to alleviate some of the queue issue as well.

@ Class diversity: I’ve also seen games (referring to your pics) with a ton of Rangers, or a ton of Thieves, or too many Warriors, or a ton of bunker Guardians. In your pic of the top players, you see 6 of the 8 classes. The community also seems to feel that Warriors are in a good place right now in PvP. That’s 7 classes. You could make a case that Mesmers have a hard time in a hard condition meta, and I think a lot of people would agree with you. They have counters to conditions, but a lot of players don’t like to run those in standard Mesmer setups.

@ Balance: Perception of balance is always changing, so we’ll continue to try to make sure all classes have good options!

So I looked into this, and I thought it was fixed. Are you still seeing it? Where are you seeing it? What’s getting through? Keep in mind that condition damage will still tick, but NEW condies should not be able to go through.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-winners-of-our-european-pvp-tournament-2/

And to add to what Allie said, some of these ideas are already on the schedule…and already have some elements being worked on.

Can’t give ETA’s, but we’re thinking a lot of the same things you guys are.