Showing Posts For Kadin.2356:

Remove ability to res finished players.

in WvW

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I’d really really like to see a dev response on this.

Was sitting here and thinking of all of the things that removing resing from WvW would fix and I really do think it could make a huge difference.

-Support roles would be more important than ever.
-Assassin style gameplay would actually have a point.
-Keep defenses would be a lot more harrowing with siege actually being able to thin the herd besieging them
-Small group play would increase to stop the Zerg from regrouping

Really, where’s the downside?

(edited by Kadin.2356)

Remove ability to res finished players.

in WvW

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I’m sure it’s been suggested time and again but in WvW it’s the ability to res finished players that makes zerg’s so powerful. If you were actually able to cull the herd with gorilla tactics it would really shake things up.

Reason I bring this up is that now as this is an option in custom PvP arenas I imagine the hard part of coding is mostly done. I mean what harm could it do just to test it out? If it’s horrible just disable it again.

How is 900 range still acceptable?

in Thief

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Honestly the 900 range AA had to be an oversight. At least I hope it is. I’d prefer ineptitude over maliciousness any day.

Last Refuge

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Ya know it doesn’t even have to be a stealth, just have it apply regen + aegis, that would actually be handy and I imagine wouldn’t require massive coding changes.

Remove Last Refuge - Now!

in Thief

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I’ve kittening had it with this bullkitten trait. I can’t believe how many times it’s got me killed.

Fix this kitten already. It’s not like we haven’t complained about it from day 1.

kitten it makes we want to smash my monitor at times.

/vent

What ticks me off is there hasn’t been a single “we’re aware of it” or “we’re working on it” post at all. It’s just been flat ignored for how long now?

Last Refuge

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Stop using it… You’re better off using the utility skill then this

That’s the main problem, you can’t “stop using it” as it’s the adept trait in the shadow arts line so as long as you go more than 5 points deep you end up with this Russian roulette of an ability.

make last refuge take precedence over whatever you are doing (interrupt any skill being used) and ignore outgoing damage so it puts a 3 second stealth on you that cannot be removed without another attack.

What so you can just attack from stealth without getting revealed? No it’s much easier just to, as I suggested, make the next stealth last 4 seconds longer so that you can actually stay in stealth and heal up a little (which is the whole point of the shadow arts tree anyway)

Proposed Steal Changes

in Thief

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

After quite a bit of playing my thief both in pvp and pve, there were a couple of things I disliked about steal.

1: When you’re out of range and you use it, it goes on a 5 second cd. Instead, I propose to change this so that it gives you an “Out of Range” message and no cd. Sure, this could be mitigated by taking the long range steal trait, but why should we have to waste a trait to fix bad mechanics? Also it begs the question: what if I actually take the trait and now I’m at 1601 and in the same boat.

2: The other thing that annoys me about steal, which mostly happens in pvp is stealth dropping targets. When this happens and you’re about to fire off steal, it uses the steal and puts it on a 30 second cd while you move about six inches and have no effects from any steal traits and get no ability for it. My proposed change to this is to make steal require a target to use, giving an “I Don’t Have a Target” message and not activating the skill.

Both of these changes don’t seem op, would be fairly simple to execute, and would make steal a lot more user friendly. Let me know what you guys think.

Yea lag gets me all the time. The icon is showing the ability is in range yet when I hit it I stay put AND it goes on a 30 second cool down. It really should never go on cooldown if the teleport isn’t going to happen. It’s a quality of life change that really needs to happen. That along with last refuge getting fixed would really help out a lot.

Last Refuge

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

This ability was designed and implemented before the revealed debuff was ever added and really really needs to be looked at. A quick fix would simply be to add 4 seconds to the next applied stealth, so that it can be a planned event instead of something fortuitous.

In its current state the tooltip might as well read: “Adds 3 seconds of revealed when you reach 25% health”

[Build] Back to D/D - Infinity

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

lulz, Valkyrie and Celestial

The “effective health” calculation you keep pointing at over and over does not take into account condition damage that completely bypasses toughness.

Who cares about EHP? Sure, Soldiers gives you more EHP, and you only lose like 200 HP compared to Valk, but thats not the point.

Soldiers gives more damage compared to Valk because you get to use more berserkers gear and precision is more valuable than critical hit damage. Thats why you use it.

You can still mix and match Beserk gear with Valk to pick up that added damage, and retain the crit damage %, which does play a larger role in the damage calculation than I think you give it credit for because of hidden killer. It makes EVERY back-stab harder. I’m not agreeing with Bigtower he clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but as far as beserk mixed with valk/soldier I think you are breaking even if not doing better with valk due to what I stated above.

To me it just makes more sense to me to mix valk with beserk if you are using hidden killer. If you are using executioner then soldier (with adjusted jewelry) is a better way to go (as you would want a higher base crit chance).

[Build] Back to D/D - Infinity

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

wtf wats going on here

Unoriginality.

/15char

[Build] Back to D/D - Infinity

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

lulz, Valkyrie and Celestial

The “effective health” calculation you keep pointing at over and over does not take into account condition damage that completely bypasses toughness. Show me a formulae that accurately accounts for the condition heavy meta and I’ll start believing it more.

The “effective damage” calculation is also skewed due to the hidden killer trait.

As far as celestial goes, yea there’s no reason at all to load that but I think that Valk gear is getting a bad rap due to bad math.

[Build] Back to D/D - Infinity

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Static bonuses stack with themselves when used on dual-wielded weapons, except for Superior Sigil of Force (only +5% bonus to damage) and Superior Sigil of Accuracy (only +5% bonus to crit chance).

Meaning they do stack just not 2x force or 2x accuracy. There are lots of posts confirming that.

[Build] Back to D/D - Infinity

in Thief

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVlUmSO3eS6E/5Ey2jdqCJKuHGVS1UdFwKA-jUCBYfERjEBgUBDRL9pIaslhFRjVXDT5SIS7K1mzFRrWKABVGB-w

-What I’m running currently and liking it. Basically you trade 6% chance to crit for 3k+ health. In my book that’s a win especially if you take hidden killer (which if you are running a back-stab d/d build why would you not?). That and the food is way way cheaper.

-Not many people run fleet shadow, but you run at 50% so you can actually catch up to people running swiftness (33%) and get the back-stab in. I find it hard to live without, almost every fight there is a case where I wouldn’t have been able to get into position fast enough without it.

-I’ve seen a lot of math against Valk armor (going for a mix of soldier) but the “effective health” calculation doesn’t take into account conditions which toughness does nothing for. In the end I just can’t deal with the loss of that %crit damage and having a higher health pool seems to even out with the condition heavy meta.

Most of this is just preference, but I’m liking it so far.

[Build] Back to D/D - Infinity

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I’d like to stay away from the initiative on stealth skill as it’s getting nerfed with the upcoming balance patch

It’s only getting nerfed for gaining stealth while already in stealth. If you are using CnD to stealth it’s unaffected. You are still going to want it if you are playing D/D properly.

underwater combat

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I don’t think anyone enjoys it, could be worse though. Speaking of which, what sigils do people run on their underwater weapons? I gave up and just slapped force on both of mine but I was thinking one that proc’s chill may be nice for chasing people down, and possibly the new torment runes as no1 stays still underwater.

Opportunist: In which we beat dead horses

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I see all this math going on and I just wanted to make sure that we were taking into account actual time on target. I can understand that’s not as big a concern for PvE characters but for PvP you are not going to be just straight up hitting someone as fast as possible. There’s going to be a good amount of downtime while you circle around and get a tick or two of healing from stealth before you re-engage. I see that really benefiting the new system over the current. It still might be an overall loss, but it will be much less than if you are looking at it as a 100% time on target situation. Couple that with the baseline regeneration increase and I’d be surprised if it’s not an overall buff.

Dec 10th thief changes

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

What I really really don’t understand is why all this has to happen at once. Sure, make the change to Infusion of Shadow. Then STOP THERE and see where the dust settles.

Balance is done with minute adjustments not with sledgehammers.

Dual Wield Weapon Stats

in Thief

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Abilities 1 – 3 go off of MH damage, 4-5 offhand. The STATS on the weapons affect both.

Making WvW a bit less zergtastic

in WvW

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

What about something like….. 5% damage increase for 10 players within 200 yards of a commander, prioritizing guild members, but only one bonus can be active at a time (meaning even if you have 5x commanders close together only 10 players within that area can get the buff). Gives you an incentive to break off into multiple groups to get the buff on the largest number of people, but at the same time pugs following don’t do any damage, they just don’t benefit.

Making WvW a bit less zergtastic

in WvW

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Well that’s a shame. I can see why that would be a problem. I haven’t given up hope however, it just requires a bit more thought.

Making WvW a bit less zergtastic

in WvW

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I’ve been thinking a great deal about WvW and while it is fun, I think it could be more fun if things were a bit less zergy. One way to accomplish this would be to scale down damage done to walls/doors based upon how many people are nearby the attacker/siege. An example would be something along the lines of, “For every friendly player within 200 yards past the first 10 (or whatever you consider to be a zerg) reduce damage done to the door/wall by X%”. Basically it’s just a number you can tweak to influence the scale of combat.

Currently there really is little reason to split up a force within a battleground. Beyond players scouting the enemy force, it’s most advantageous to simply blob up and steamroll as quickly as possible which makes the tactics a bit stale. With this in place it may make having multiple forces, and fronts of combat, on the field a bit more viable.

Quite honestly I don’t think anyone would really know how this change would play out but I think it would be a fun experiment. Worse case scenario it could be reverted if it makes the gameplay less enjoyable, which is the whole point in the first place right?

Well, It appears we've been pigeonholed

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

If your guild doesn’t want you to run hammer, then don’t run hammer. You should have known you would be expected to run what the guild expects you to run, just how I don’t like runing a boring glamour build on my mesmer for guild raids but I do it anyway because it helps the team.

If you want to “play how you want”, then don’t do anything which requires groups so you don’t have to be held to standards.

So there’s the rub right there. The mentality that Guardian DPS doesn’t meet “standards”. Is this reality? or just unjustified pigeonholing.

I know the knee-jerk reaction to this is “of corse this is false” but if guard DPS is being frowned upon then perhaps some changes need to be made? We shouldn’t supplant any of the other DPS options, but I’d at least like it to be a recognized, viable, alternative.

Well, It appears we've been pigeonholed

in Guardian

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Recently came back to the game and mentioned that I like to use hammer on my Guardian. Voice com got real quiet, “Don’t you mean mace?” was the reply. “Uhh, no I mean 2 handed hammer. Ya’know, kinda like Gallagher.”

Well that didn’t go over well at all. Apparently attempting to do damage as a Guardian is a cardinal sin if you want to participate in GvG. I was simply instructed to re-roll a warrior if I wanted to smash things.

This will not do gentlemen. This will not do at all. This game attracted me because of Anet’s attempt to stray away from these restrictive role classifications in the first place.

So you tell me, denizens of the forumscape, what has to happen for my hammer to be an acceptable tool for dealing with these conveniently shaped watermelon like invader heads.

A suggestion for a new mode of PvP

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Post held for future additions.

A suggestion for a new mode of PvP

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Note I wrote this long post and then realized that I front-loaded it with a lot of justification that most people really won’t be interested in reading. So I’m just going to lay out the bare bones of my idea at the top and then go more in-depth below that if you are still interested at all in reading further.

What I’d like to see introduced at some point in the distant future is a map that all 3 worlds can access (PvE Characters!) that has PvE content but is also instanced. This map would be small group combat based with PvE elements thrown in to keep things interesting.

What I’m thinking about is a rather large map, probably around the size of eternal battlegrounds, with a lot of z-axis (vertical) content as well. I was thinking something along the lines of a ruined city with multiple levels, catwalks etc…, with crypts of some kind below as well. Structurally very similar to the area directly in front of Blue keep in Eternal Battlegrounds, staggered with some larger open areas on each of the 3 levels.

Each of the worlds would have multiple static waypoints (at least 3 each) dispersed throughout the map. PvP would obviously be enabled and upon death (state after downed) players would immediately be forcibly respawned at the nearest friendly waypoint. Combat in this map would have no bearing on the WvW standing as it’s a completely alternative PvP mode.

There would be PvE elements dispersed throughout the map as well. Think along the lines of camps in WvW but perhaps with an NPC wave component as well as the static starting NPC’s so that you have to not only clear the mobs but also hold the point for X number of waves. NPC levels should be slightly higher than that of normal world equivalent say 83ish? with a very slightly elevated loot table to reward players for the increased risk of PvP.

Limit the population cap for each faction to 15 before starting a new instance of the map so that the maximum number of players is 45.


Ok, onto why I think it would be best to organize it as I laid out above.

-First, the map size has to be rather large so that encounters between the factions are not a given. I like having PvE spiced with PvP and the surprise element of coming over a hill and realizing another group is coming up the other side. That “ surprise” element requires the space to make it not be such an inevitability. Obviously groups will seek each other out but that “hunt” will also be part of the fun.

-Second having multiple levels with breaks in between leads to a lot of surprise moments as well. Not only do you have to keep your head on a swivel while clearing the PvE camps you also have to be looking up / down as well. Just adds to the unpredictability of the situation.

-Having multiple waypoints for each faction allows people to strategically jump around to different areas of the map if a particular part of it is being heavily camped. Basically a built in anti-zerg mechanism. The same goes with the downed->death->forced respawn system. This would make hit and runs on larger groups of players a viable tactic through attrition.

-Having PvE elements gives people a reason to be there in the first place. I like the idea of smaller PvE event pockets all over the map. It could either be world control based (think WvW camps) or timer respawn based (aka world PvE events). I think a mix of the two would be best but either would work imho. If it is control based then there should not be any “ownership” markers on the map as that would make it too obvious where players were at any given moment. Again the “hunting” element would be ruined.

-The population limit is a no brainer, if you are going for small group combat then having more than 15 from any realm would just turn into a zerg fest. I am well aware that there would be problems with higher population servers always having an instance or two alone to themselves but I would point out that since the WvW rankings will keep the servers as closely matched as possible this hopefully will not be as big a problem as it looks on paper. Also while people will be drawn in by the higher level PvE content the “fun” will lie in the PvP encounters along the way. While the larger servers may be able to farm a bit more comfortably I think that advantage pales in comparison to always having the “fun” instances available for use.


Well that’s enough for now I’m sure I could add a whole ton more to this but I’m sure the basic idea is conveyed well enough. Let me know if you’d think this would be fun!

(edited by Kadin.2356)

A bored gamer's plea.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

The knowledge that this expectation is unrealistic does not, unfortunately, make it any less boring.

It should, however, lead you to conclude that the problem and solution are both on your end of the equation, not arenanet’s.

take a break, come back in a few months.

Truth, but I really wanted to avoid making a “and thanks for all the fish” post.

A bored gamer's plea.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I’m writing this because I am bored. I have 3 awesome characters all geared up and I’ve played WvW to the point that it has become nauseating. There is really nothing left to do, which is why I’m sitting here writing this instead of logging in and playing.

I really like this game. It has a nice engine, character design, lore, everything. It’s just lacking the feeling of accomplishment that usually keeps me interested past this point in other MMOs, and before the flames start I’m not talking about gear progression here.

Before I get into the meat of the discussion I wanted to preface it with a simple statement: “My expectations are knowingly unrealistic”. You can’t eat the same dinner each night and expect it to be fantastic forever, regardless of how well it’s cooked. People, myself included, pour hundreds of hours into a game and then get disappointed when it starts to become dull. The knowledge that this expectation is unrealistic does not, unfortunately, make it any less boring.

So what can be done? Well let me get back to that “feeling of accomplishment” thing I was hinting at earlier. I’ve played a LOT of MMO’s and the ones that I’ve found to be the most engrossing did a really good job of rewarding players for time invested. The most common system of “reward” is gear, but using that as the only vehicle of reward ends up with that nasty stat creep that the community here rightly reviles. GW2 has a good alternative system of progression through item skins that keeps people engaged getting their character to look the way that they want, but that too gets old after a point. What this game really needs, to keep it fresh, are methods of “reward” that go beyond gear and aesthetics.

To find good examples of this you really have to go beyond the characters themselves. Player housing is a good example of alternative progression. Whole loads of things that can be unlocked and acquired there. Really tricky to do well but I’ll leave that to another post. How about NPC allies? Being able to pull them in and fill in a spot for someone who disconnected or whatnot? Gearing/skilling them up could be another way to add to the longevity of the game. How about mounts? I know they don’t really fit well into this game but a whole lot of content could be added revolving customizing the mount’s looks. The point is that it is another example of how you can reward players for spending time in the game without throwing class balance to the wind or creating any kind of stat creep. There are a hundred other ways this can be done, it just takes a little creativity and at the end of the day that’s what people are really looking for, something new, novel, CREATIVE.

(edited by Kadin.2356)

Scepter's Broken Autoattack

in Guardian

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

That is just sad. I didn’t realize it was so bad.

Guardian staff needs some love.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

This isn’t a thread about balance, these are suggestions for fixing a weapon to make it a more viable and popular option. Please take balance suggestions to another thread.

Guardian staff needs some love.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I’d like to see some changes made to make staff more viable. I think changes along these lines would make it a lot more popular that it currently is.

Fix skill 3 (Symbol of Swiftness)! Not having the speed stack with other abilities is frustrating beyond belief. This skill along with Mesmer’s Temporal Curtain really need to have this fixed.

Flip skills 1 (Wave of Wrath) and 2 (Orb of Light) so that Orb of Light is the default auto attack. Remove the “detonate” feature of orb of light so that auto attack works properly and speed up the projectiles to keep it in line with scepter.

-Reason for this: Not having a range attack is a huge limiting factor for staff, not being able to hit oil in WvW and not being able to range a boss in PvE make it a poor choice. While you could use it in place of a melee weapon with scepter+whatever in offhand for range it’s just a poor choice when compared to what 2hsword/hammer have to offer.

Make Wave of Wrath have a component so that if it is held down for 3 seconds it has a heal component as well as a damage (to compensate for the loss of the orb of light detonate ability) This is not nearly as important a change as the first 2 but would be a neat mechanic imho.

Am I wasting my time with Guardian if...

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Superior Sigil of Strength vs Accuracy

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Really? Huh, I’ll have to do some double checking.

Superior Sigil of Strength vs Accuracy

in Guardian

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Has anyone run the numbers on these two? I was immediately attracted to the sigil of strength as it is one of the few sigils that has no hidden internal cooldown. In larger fights I’ve seen a +5 stack of might pop up from a single mighty blow, that combined with AH for heals makes it hard to beat. That being said, it’s really hard to get a guardian’s base crit rate up and the +5% is really tempting.

Ascended Gear Progession: A Suggestion

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Yea, people want to be rewarded for time spent but reward =/= better stats. That thinking is the path to the WoW treadmill darkside.

Bringing the UI out of the dark ages

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Woow, people really love to complain about nothing…
This game has been out for a couple months… Give it time..
Other mmo’s have had years to get where they are today..

I think they know it needs major work but letting them know of our want for this does no harm.

How I'd like to see itemization handled.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

This is just my personal preference so take it all with a grain of salt.

First off I’d like to see all “end-game” gear stats be equivalent regardless of where you get it (world drop, badges from dungeons, karma, WvW). The only time new stats should be added is when a major release comes around (major major content release or expansion) so that people don’t feel like they are running a treadmill.

That being said one of my major complaints with the game currently is that there is not enough incentive to continue to play after getting maxed out gear (not enough seed in this skinner box!) and I’d like to see that addressed with cosmetic skins that require some major lifting to acquire. Not as crazy as say legendaries, but craftable items that require some rare drops from world combat, parts that you get from breaking down dungeon loot, and rare drops from gathering.

This, I believe, would incentivize general play beyond max gear level which is currently lacking a little bit. I always loved getting a world drop or a gem out of an ore vein knowing that it would sell well, but in this game there really aren’t any “payday” items that make the skinner box run properly.

(edited by Kadin.2356)

An idea

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Hia forums. So today I was thinking about the lack of level 80 areas, Yes, we do have Cursed Shore, but I really have no desire to go there. Then I remembered how GW1 offered hard mode, which pretty much buffed all the guys in lower end areas to higher areas. I’m not sure how, but if A-net could implement a feature like this to the players, it would be a great way to not only have to go to Cursed Shore for better loot and harder challenges.

TL;DR – Game should have GW1’s Hard Mode for Low end area with harder enemies/better loot.

Thanks for reading/skimming/scrolling on through this wall of text, and feel free to comment, support, bump, or ignore this!

That could work. Content updates will help this as well. My main problem is there isn’t enough as far as “rare” loot drops to make the skinner box run properly. Hard to get excited when the very “best” thing that can drop is only going to be equal to that which I can already craft. Very little motivation to PvE when you’ve already got all your gear completed really.

Some suggestions to make WvW more fun.

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Small groups are not what WvW is about. This is siege warfare, the kind of fights that were fought with tens of thousands of soldiers, and battles lasted weeks, months, a few even lasted years.

If you want to feel special as a roamer, go play real PvP.

Show me where that’s stated anywhere. At all. And yes, big battles are a major feature of WvW, they just shouldn’t be the ONLY OPTION. I want to see more tactical play instead of Player vs Door. If you like to zerg that’s fine, I just want some changes to make things more fun rather than monotonous.

Some suggestions to make WvW more fun.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Scaling is bad, and here is why:

Points gained scales to ratio. So, I cap at night and get a big point lead, then leave. Then nobody ever enters WvW again, and with a 0 on my server, the enemies can never get points, because the ratio scales to 0. Now, even though they own everything, they get nothing, and we win with no effort at all.

Scaling npcs to match large invading forces is also a bad idea. Because if we simply left, then npcs could hold most of our points pretty well, and it would be impossible for us to lose. All we’d have to do is be the first to cap, and then stay out for a week to auto-win.

You have spawn points, at waypoints, in any place you own that someone builds a waypoint at. If you don’t have people willing to spend the time, money, and karma, on upgrades, then you don’t deserve them.

Simple fix for the first situation. Make it so it never scales to 0. Maybe a maximum reduction of 50%. Meaning that it is at least possible during the prime time to recoup the losses incurred while everyone was asleep, whereas currently it isn’t.

NPC’s are nothing to large forces, it’s just a distraction, something to slow down the blitz capping that makes zerging profitable.

Adding more way points around the edge of the map wouldn’t invalidate the bonus of having way points inside keeps. All it would do is make it less likely for forces to get completely boxed in. I think a frontier being completely flipped to one faction is a failure of the system and I’m seeing that FAR too often.

Some suggestions to make WvW more fun.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I can’t think of anything about the res. Removing the downed/dead system entirely just for wvw makes little sense. An ideal solution is one that will benefit small skilled groups.

Personally, I find the maps big enough already. Having a bigger map will help with small groups in skirmishes and stuff. It might be cool though. What I’d prefer is a map pool with a rotation every few months to bring up new strategies for specific maps.

ANet designed wvw to be a 24h-nonstop-war. I like the idea. Also, not everyone lives in the United States or have a regular day job.

EDIT: From the above post, I think a timer to revive the dead players is an excellent idea. So they have a time limit to win the fight or continue fighting with less players.

How about larger maps with multiple spawn points? Makes the battle area larger so more room to maneuver, but takes some of the sting out of having to run back from death as you don’t have to run from the other side of the planet.

A timer may work but think about how it currently works. Small group bravely rushes in. Kills/finishes 3 players. Zerg starts to react and they are forced to retreat. 3 dead players are promptly ressed and all that effort is for not. That whole cycle is probably less than 60 seconds. The timer, if it’s going to have any impact, would have to be really small… like 20 seconds or less. I don’t know, I’d rather just force the people to res and use other mechanics like multiple spawn points to take the sting out of having to run back so far.

Some suggestions to make WvW more fun.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

No to the scaling for night capping and bigger maps. Yes to more map variety, more objectives, and respawn rates. Revives system could do with some work, but I’m against removing it entirely.

Instead of just “yes/no” I’d love to see some reasoning behind it. They’ve stated that they “don’t want any players time to be worth more than any other” so they aren’t doing anything about night-capping as those players should be able to play just like any other right?

Problem is the players playing at off peak hours are worth MORE as they are able to take one unoccupied tower/keep after another and put major points on the board with far less effort than those that are playing prime-time. Scaling the points back would just make it so that everyone’s time is worth the “same” as far as effort -> point reward is concerned.

As for ressing, I know running back to the battle is a pain but I don’t see anyway around that. Leaving it in it’s current state means that smaller forces will never have any sizable impact upon larger ones.

(edited by Kadin.2356)

Some suggestions to make WvW more fun.

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

no no no, there is an incentive, when i run around with out 10 man guild (8 online) we split into 2 parties and capp everything, camps, towers and sometimes even bay. in the end, we checked it once, we as a small group earned more karma and money than following the zerg, and as we had speced our traits to match the others someone very rarely dies, so there is an incentive for small group organisation.
about non-ressing, thats the essense of this game, teamplay, if we are just gonna walk over people then why would you even join a zerg, go solo stuff if you think you should not be helped or help others.

I think you badly missed the point.

Sure you can run around and ninja-cap things but they don’t stay capped and therefor are rather irrelevant to the point scheme. It’s good for “karma and money” but that’s not the objective you should be looking at, it should be putting points on the board.

I’m all for “teamplay” and that’s the point of the “downed” state. It allows you to assist those around you, getting them back on their feet before they are finished off. Removing the ability to res finished players however would make it possible for smaller forces to whittle away at zergs whereas currently that’s not really an option.

In many games the counter to zerg gameplay is “be where the zerg is not” and own everything else that isn’t being sat upon by the mass of players. Problem is keeps/towers (which are the majority of the points) can’t be capped fast enough by smaller groups and the end result is that they just get steamrolled by the time they have the door half down. Even if you do take something down, how long does it last after the zerg shows up? Long enough even to get a blimp on the point bar? Simply stated the current mechanics just don’t point to small group play as being a viable tactic to win and that’s all there is to it.

I want small groups (10, 5, even 2) to have more (additive) impact than just a mindless blob of people bouncing around. This would promote smaller scale fights which are really what make frontier style combat a blast.

(edited by Kadin.2356)

Some suggestions to make WvW more fun.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I’ve noticed a lot of player attrition in WvW lately, and asking around I think I’ve nailed down one of the primary causes. That being zerg gameplay. It’s boring playing in a zerg, and it’s also frustrating fighting against overwhelming odds. So if it makes gameplay less interesting why do people do it at all? Because it’s effective, and therein lies, IMO, the biggest problem with WvW in it’s current implementation.

So here are some suggestions to help make zerging less effective:

-Make the WvW maps bigger (more ways to get around the zerg and slower response time for players massed together)

-Make more objectives for small groups and make them worth more points

-Scale points gained based on ratio of players on a given map (meaning if blue has 2 players for every green / red then they should be getting 50% less points per objective in that map. Will help with the impact of night-capping as that relies upon one side having a dominant #’s advantage)

-Scale keep/tower NPC level & respawn rate to the friendly:hostile ratio in the area (meaning if a tower has a large amount of enemies, and not many defenders, within the immediate area around it then they should have to be dealing with an almost constant stream of guards coming at them)

-Add more safe zone spawn points so that it’s harder to “bottle up” a world entirely.

-And here is my big #1 suggestion to help fight zerg gameplay: Make the dead (not down but finished players) unable to be resurrected in WvW. The reason zergs are effective is it basically nullifies the risk of death. All you have to do is wait for your 40 buddies to pick you back up again. A smaller skilled force doesn’t have that option as they have to stick and move but such tactics are pointless if the people they manage to kill are right back in the fight a few minutes later.

I’m sure there are a million other ways to make zergging less effective but these are just what I could come up with off the top of my head. Anything to help move things in that direction, I believe, would greatly help increase the fun factor in WvW.

(edited by Kadin.2356)

WvW Suggested Changes

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Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

Also as soon as possible disable free server transfers. It really is a plague to the server balancing. You don’t even have to make any changes really just announce that “in the near future” the transfers will be cut off and that no warning will be given. So basically if people want to transfer, do so at the risk of getting stuck.

WvW Suggested Changes

in Suggestions

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

I’ve been playing in WvW a while now and as fun as it is, I think with a few tweaks it could really shine.

First off are changes to make zerging less effective. You can’t blame people for doing it as, currently, it is the most effective strategy.

1. Scale up all the WvW maps by 1.5-2×. Leave the keep sizes the same, just increase the distance between them. (This would also alleviate the problem of trebbing towers/keeps from inside adjacent towers/keeps which I think is a bit of a detractor to overall strategy).
2. Speed up dolyaks so that the time to travel is roughly the same as it is now.
3. Add another sentry post to all dolyak routes (more to do for smaller groups).
4. Make sentry posts tally points (1) just like camps/towers/keeps, visible from the drop-down (again for smaller groups).
5. Make the “out manned” buff actually give some +vit/tough bonus.
6. Possibly make sentry/camp/tower/keep NPC’s scale to the enemy/friendly ratio around them? (May not be necessary if changes 1-5 are done and zerging becomes a losing strategy)

Secondly I’d make the following changes to orbs:

1. Disable them until fly-hacking / wall-hacking exploits are plugged.
2. Make orbs so that they give points to the possessing realm but give the stat bonus to the opposing realms (reduced to like 2% down from like 5% just b/c there’d be more orb bonus’ possible). There’s no reason to make it easier for the dominant side to win, they are already doing so.

Then I’d make a few changes to commander:

1. Make it so players cannot see commanders on the map unless they “follow” that respective commander. Limit the number of commanders that players can “follow” at any time to 5 that is shared by all characters on an account (to prevent alt follow spamming).
2. Have a ranking system based on #’s of follows so that commanders of substance will rise to the top. Make the highest tier of commanders visible to all on the map. I know this will just devolve to a popularity contest but hopefully the good commanders will rise to the top and actually mean something.

All of these changes I believe will help make WvW a more fun and rewarding experience. At times it is fun to run with a large group (tower/keep battles are fun!) But at the same time smaller group combat is also a blast but is in rapid decline as it just doesn’t put food on the table point-wise. Some or all of these changes should help that I think. Let me know what you think!