Guild Wars 2

I’m lagging in borderlands right now (LOL), and I was wondering if anyone has noticed improvements since the supposed optimizations.

I still don’t go to EB because the lag is completely ridiculous every time someone farts on SMC, and now the borderlands I’ve been in have been unplayable for about 15 minutes now.

What about you guys?

Which would you prefer to be permanent: the instigator events or Karka Queen?

I would prefer the instigator events.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

After the zerg killed her, give or take three minutes, I was the only one to say anything. And that was, “Woot.” A minute later, a person said, “All I got was a freakin’ blue horn.”

If that tells you anything.

That does say it all. When I first did Molten Facility and the temple event revamps, people were like, “That was awesome!” No one said that with the Karka Queen.

One thing worth emphasizing that’s kind of been left out of this thread is the boss is extremely easy. It’s just another auto-attack boss. It has practically no mechanics worth mentioning — not even the eggs. I’m not sure how the developers involved in designing this fight or meta-event thought it would require an organized group or guild.

In fact, this isn’t even the hardest event in the game. Most of the temple events are much more difficult. Why don’t those give two rares or exotics as well?

What you said makes perfect sense, and it’s how scaling is supposed to work.

Pizz.3698:

There was only one dev on this and on a restrained amount of time. (The two ’’dungeons’’ that is)

This is partially inaccurate. The developers definitely had to deal with time constraints like any project in any industry does, but there was a whole team dedicated to the efforts.

From what we’ve heard, the same team involved with the efforts is also the main dungeon team — or at least includes the main dungeon developers. That should trouble anyone who wants a bright future for Guild Wars 2 because it shows the quality of boss design isn’t improving much, if at all, within the dungeon team.

On the bright side, the quality of boss design seems to be improving elsewhere. So maybe the leads for those teams should be brought over to the dungeon team.

I have yet to hear one person give positive feedback on the actual fight. The most positive response was from people happy that they got two rares or exotics at the end. Most people aren’t even calling it challenging; it’s more a zerg of mobs than genuinely difficult mechanics.

I know I keep saying it, but they really should get some of the Molten Facility people in whatever team(s) worked on the Southsun living story content and dungeons in general. I don’t mean to insult Robert Hrouda and his crew, but after receiving feedback about the two bosses in Canach’s Lair and Karka Queen, it should be clear that something has to change.

Once again, they should hand over boss design to the Molten Facility team. I don’t mean to insult Robert Hrouda and his team, but after receiving feedback about both the bosses in Canach’s Lair and the Karka Queen, it should be clear that some change is needed.

In general, it seems like ArenaNet is using bundles, such as the eggs in the Karka Queen event or the mine sweepers in Canach’s Lair, too often. Bosses should be interesting on better grounds.

If this portion of the living story is what they put their “best” dungeon team on for a month or so, yikes. They should have used the Molten Facility team instead.

As most of you know, a certain dungeon developer has been hyping up the Karka Queen meta-event as the true boss of this living story sequence. So I’m curious.

Do you think it lived up to the hype with unique, interesting mechanics?

Do you think the boss is actually challenging? (Do you think it’s more difficult than Temple of Grenth, for example?)

Do you think the rewards are adequate?

Cover Girl.2580:

why do you care how other people decide they want to play? what if they want to kill them? it’s their game.

Because it’s a bunch of people taking slots in world vs. world without contributing anything of value.

It’s the same problem behind the jumping puzzle’s separation from Eternal Battlegrounds.

Either way, it’s almost guaranteed to get nerfed until the orbs are reworked. I think the issue is awareness, not intent.

A chance to burn an enemy for 3 seconds on a crit would be ideal, although 25 percent chance would obviously be too low.

Andele.1306:

3 seconds of burning each time you fear?

Fear already has enough importance attached to it.

I have a feeling they’ll attach it to a pet or something along those lines because they said the overall intent is to get less played builds to a viable state. I’m just not very optimistic about it. I hope I’m proven wrong.

I have a bad feeling it won’t be in Curses or Soul Reaping, which would make it unreachable, but I’m cautiously optimistic.

First necromancer to win a tournament uses Spectral Walk over Signet of Undeath. Imagine that.

I re-did the five-man instance to see if I was being fair earlier. I was. The design is just awful. There’s no coherency to the fight, and it’s obvious that a bunch of loose mechanics were slapped together at the last minute. The result isn’t a challenge; it’s a total mess that isn’t even difficult because all the mechanics are poorly tuned.

Also, the boss’s tells are awful and constantly bug out.

If rushing the development of content like this is what it takes to release patches every two weeks or month, slow down. Quality is way more important than quantity.

This isn’t a rumor; they straight-up said this a few months ago. But I have a feeling their thoughts on the issue have changed since they didn’t do any major AOE nerfs and they said they’re letting the current meta settle before making further changes.

I think the best fix would be visible enemy cast bars, preferably under nameplates.

As far as I can tell, it’s fixed everywhere else.

It’s obviously not a huge deal, but anything that can make underwater PvP combat even worse should probably be fixed.

Was this made by the dungeon team? Was it designed by the same developer who did the jellyfish? That would be scary if true.

But if that’s the case, the Flame & Frost team should start working on revamping all the dungeons and fractals.

BadJas.5178:

Did you take off your armor? Could it be that the innate armor values do influence damage taken during DS, but the toughness stats don’t?
Just thinking of all the angles.

That doesn’t make sense because all toughness does is add armor rating, but I did take off all my gear. Still, from what I’m seeing right now with some quick testing, the damage pop-ups are still higher without toughness even with my armor equipped. Maybe I’ll do some more testing with it tomorrow.

But there’s really no reason to think toughness wouldn’t affect Death Shroud to begin with. Death Shroud is not a transformation like Plague, meaning it doesn’t alter stats. All it does is enable an extra health bar and abilities.

I’m not sure if there was a time in which it didn’t, but, for some reason, some structured PvP players assumed it didn’t work. This should correct that misconception.

Listening to the SOAC podcast the other day, someone said that toughness does not affect Death Shroud. I’m not sure if this was fixed with today’s patch or not, but my testing from today showed toughness does actually affect Death Shroud.

Methodology: I did two types of tests in a custom arena. For both tests, I started with full life force and had an engineer with no gear attack me with the rifle auto-attack. In the test with toughness, I wore all my gear and a rabid amulet. In the test without toughness, I took off all my gear and amulet.

Results with toughness: It took about 18-19 attacks to get me down. The displayed damage was about 30 percent lower (about 270 damage). My life force bar went down in noticeably smaller chunks.

Results without toughness: It took about 12 attacks to get me down. The displayed damage was about 40 percent higher (about 350 damage). My life force bar went down in noticeably larger chunks.

Conclusion: Toughness definitely affects Death Shroud. Whether it does so better than vitality remains to be tested, but this should make the toughness vs. vitality debate a lot closer than previously assumed. (Regarding that debate, it’s worth noting that vitality still makes death shroud much better for dealing with condition damage, but this testing shows that toughness should have an advantage against direct damage.)

I hope Karka Queen is better. But doing those two terrible dungeons after Molten Facility is an insane contrast.

I’m putting both above the jellyfish boss here.

After the brilliant boss in Molten Facility, this was a huge disappointment.

There are ways to make bosses easy and simple without making the completely one-dimensional. The solo instance is a clear failure in that aspect. The only redeeming aspect is it’s really short, but even that can be slightly hindered by the achievement.

The group instance is just as bad. The mechanic is so simple and one-dimensional that it basically doesn’t exist. The boss is a slightly glorified tank and spank.

Out of curiosity, did the same person design these two instances and the jellyfish boss?

Edited to reflect group instance.

It might be fixed but not listed. Someone test it.

This list is going to need a lot of revising today, but here is one bug that remains: Deathly Swarm still only cures one condition for each target it hits. It will copy three conditions onto the first target it hits, but it will only cleanse one. This goes against the description: “Transfer three conditions to your target on a successful attack.”

You’re supposed to fail guild missions the first time and without guides. That’s the whole point. You don’t go into a WOW raid and expect to down every boss on the first try; you shouldn’t expect that for guild missions, either.

The fact the challenge is so easily negated by zergs and guides means scaling and difficulty need serious work. Guild missions are too easy right now.

Playing with Plague Signet and Spectral Walk lately has really eased my mobility problems. Necromancers still need more to be in a good spot, but I feel the obsession with Signet of Undeath may be hurting the class in the meta game. It’s OK for a class to take one selfish utility skill, which isn’t completely true for Plague Signet or even Spectral Walk when it’s used to open up kills with AOE pressure, and excel in other areas, such as stripping boons and AOE pressure.

Just as an example, mesmers take Blink, which is mostly used to open burst moments through greater mobility. That’s selfish, but it’s ultimately better for the group as a whole.

Again, necromancers still need help because Plague Signet and Spectral Walk don’t quite cut it all or even most the time against an organized focus attack, but it’s better than not taking a necromancer and missing out on his AOE pressure and boom stripping just because he won’t be able to resurrect every three minutes.

While I appreciate the effort of the current casters, I agree with Griffon. Beyond the awful use of dead air, the casters consistently missed key moments in the middle of matches. Zombify’s Epidemics, clutch burst moments from the thief and mesmer, big peels, sudden switches, Java’s bad positioning consistently getting him killed, lord attacks, and attacks on side nodes were just some of the aspects consistently missed by the casters. The camera in general seemed to be on the wrong spot. (Bunkers should almost never be followed. The focus should be on melee DPS to capture clutch focus plays or ranged DPS to get the wide view of a battle.)

In general, there wasn’t casting for actual fights. Most of the casting was someone declaring a victory with little explanation of the specifics.

By the way, I was watching on a minimized screen and could still see the lord and side attacks on the minimap. There’s no excuse for missing them.

It’s the worst gear in the game. You’re not invited to groups because you can do everything mediocrely. You’re brought into a group because you specialize in a way that pushes the group forward and helps round out weaknesses or reinforce strengths. That’s how RPGs work.

From a game design standpoint, I don’t think it should be in at all. It’s too tempting for less knowledgeable players.

Retaliation needs a 0.25-second inner cooldown. That’s about it.

Cristobal.8640:

3.- DS is also fine, again learn how to use it instead of complaining. It’s only issue is Doom’s bug (doesnt do anything and triggers CD if used right as you enter DS).

This has never happened to me, and I tap into Death Shroud to instantly Doom most of the time I use Death Shroud.

Why does Raid on the Capricorn still exist? ArenaNet has already admitted it’s garbage by removing it from the tournament rotation.

Asomal.6453:

1 – More diversity (builds/amulets/traits/weapons/weapon skills/utilitiy skills)
2 – More skins
3 – A way to make gold out off PVP

The third one would make no sense because there’s no gold sink in PvP.

Making it as strong as Guild Wars 1 would be nuts, but making it 10- or 15-percent flat damage reduction or adding 15- to 25-percent critical damage reduction to the current version would be good.

1. Solo queue.

2. Random maps in tournaments.

3. Improved secondary objectives in the original maps (excluding Foefire).

It’s a team-based game, so obviously the ratings are going to reflect that. But I doubt someone was completely carried into beating the top teams 13 times.

How the system works is pretty obvious since it’s just a traditional rating system.

That guy with 13 wins beat the top teams in his region 13 times, so he deserves to be at the top.

That means you deserve to be 26 percentile, whether you agree with it or not.

With that said, there are some problems with the system that can cause huge fluctuations. For example, it’s possible to get a string of matches against premades and with really terrible teammates while solo queueing, which can easily cause someone’s rating to tank even when they don’t deserve it. In the long term, that kind of behavior does correct itself, but it’s annoying and skews the ratings in the short term when it happens.

Those mobs are objects, which are probably the worst thing in the game. Most of them are immune to bleeds, all of them are immune to crits, and they don’t trigger marks.

AwwDude.1597:

This has probably been said before but why not just roster v roster, if a guild or group of friends create a roster with 5 people(pre-made) they should then go against another group of guildies or friends who have then created a roster(another pre-made).

Now if people create a roster 2-4 player’s tbh I haven’t thought of that, but the idea here is to stop pairing rank 40+ or super solid groups vs a pug, because to be quite honest no pug like’s going against a solid pre-made, whether they are a high rank or not it’s just demoralizing and make’s tPVP less fun.

The second paragraph is literally the entire problem. It’s why the solution is taking so long.

Raids, or challenging PvE content in general. (Fractals are a numbers game, not a mechanical challenge that requires trial and error.)

I like what Jonathan Sharp said in the SOAC show today. He directly referenced the mobility issue. Considering the damage issue (lack of burning) is likely being fixed through a dark DOT, I’m confident about where the necromancer is going in the next month or so.

Always happy to show off.

Bumping this. At a time necromancers clearly need a little help in PvE and PvP, these builds are still faring well for me. Even though I only solo or duo queue, I am usually ranked in the top 1,000 in structured PvP with my world vs. world build. (Not currently thanks to a night of bad teams.)

Add life force generation out of combat. I’m thinking about 3 percent a second.

Structured PvP in Guild Wars 2 is essentially a MOBA. I don’t think the MMO defense really works.

The limited gearing in general does a lot more to pigeonhole builds than the traits, considering all the stat combos available in PvE aren’t even available in PvP. I’m hoping someday the developers realize that.

To me, the fact this isn’t fixed and wasn’t fixed on day one reflects on the game’s potential as an e-sport and how seriously the developers take the PvP side of the game. Does anyone doubt this kind of movement- and skill-breaking bug wouldn’t be fixed instantly in games like League of Legends or Dota 2? There’s no doubt in my mind Riot and Valve would roll out a hotfix within hours if, say, clicking to move sometimes randomly broke a spell in a way that was unavoidable and beyond a player’s control.