Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Color swapping options on certain effects (barely visible red death rings) or something similar to a colorblind mode. If a smaller studio like Obsidian can do it with a Kickstarter game (Pillars of Eternity), I don’t see why Anet can’t.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
There are plenty of reasons to be concerned. The issue is the change in direction. Instanced PVE group content is becoming increasingly complex and challenging. Players who were able to enjoy it before find it less and less to their tastes.
Nothing in the open world not even comes close to offering the same type of experience as dungeon and fractal running.
And as a result, ableism is becoming more and more prevalent in this game and on the forums. HoT and Raids killed GW2’s spirit.
Even though I have yet to do this new fractal I can agree with the OP and other concerned fractal players. Unlike raids, fractals should be any class, and puggable.
Really though, raids can be done by any class and are puggable—it’s the community that makes it so meta-centric, not anet. I mean the same could even be said about dungeons and how the dungeon elitists will be like, “If yer not running berserkers you’re wasting everyone’s time.” Although, dungeonscensters HAVE chilled out a lot since nobody cares about them anymore.
The dungeon elitists back then were mostly speed runners. The berserker builds had nothing to do with actually being successful in the dungeon. But when ANeT removed the money incentive that speed running dungeons was built around the dungeon elitists began to disappear.
The builds for raids however are meant to deal with the speed at which you need to defeat the boss. ANeT created this little thing called an enrage timer to create an artificial difficulty level. Instead of a boss fight that any class could enter and take down the boss in an enjoyable fight, you need to DPS the kitten out of the bosses or you die due to the enrage timer or the instant death timer.
As for fractals, they were meant to be quick mini-dungeons. But they have recently been edging closer to raid-like.If you think the difference between dungeons and raids are the enrage timers, you’re sorely mistaken. Enrage is mostly a pity mechanic. If you’re hitting enrage, you’ve been failing mechanics consistently and generally struggling with the encounter. The mechanic is there to spare you a long, exhausting fight which you’re most likely to lose anyway.
The thing about the design of the new fractals is, they feature more mechanics. In this way, they are closer to raids. However, the same makes the fights much more exciting and fun to play. It’s just a new, and better, approach to designing instanced content. And in fractals there isn’t even the issue of the difficulty. Too hard for you? No problem, just drop down a tier.
And get trash rewards in the process.
Ah, so what you actually care about is the rewards, preferably received without any effort on your side. I’d say “good to know”, but it’s hardly news to anyone.
GWAMM and Champion of The Gods here. I’m obviously fine earning rewards, but not when the design is all OHKOs because you can’t see tiny red circles in the middle of 10,000 different effects. Such engaging, challenging design.
Agreed. They are supposed to be dungeons, not raids. Anet has been failing miserably for the last 3 fractal releases, each one becoming more raid than dungeon. Nobody gave a kitten about stepping stones to raids. If you want to get into raids, find a group for raids…
Quoted for ultimate truth.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
(edited by Makai.3429)
If fractals are fun for you, but one particular fractal, at one particular level, with CM isnt..wouldnt a wiser decision be to play the other fractals or levels, etc?
That fractal is really bad for any level and mode. I know that it’s the one fractal daily i will definitely pass on. The satisfaction that comes from finishing it is just not worth the frustration it causes.
Remember that it isn’t about the rewards, it is about the experience of the journey and the self improvement that always comes with overcoming a difficult challenge, and not every challenge can be completed in a day, or even a week or a month. The hard things in life are what make us stronger people.
That’s the problem. Not everyone plays games to become “stronger people”. Most play them just to unwind. GW2 lately starts to strongly switch the game emphasis from the latter to the former, which obviously will leave many players discontent.
Also, in this case, the “experience of the journey” is just way too painful. Which is a shame, because visually and storywise that fractal is really good.
Or downright unable to play because Anet has turned it into an amalgam of Dark Souls and Crash Bandicoot instead of the pick-up-and-play MMORPG it set out to be.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Being someone who hasn’t raided previously in GW2, I’d like to get into it. But honestly the vibe I have gotten across the board has been that its pretty much out of the question unless you are lucky enough to find a “training” group. I looked in LFG and it was pretty much only wanting exp players.
Yep. Good thing Anet decided to gate finishing the masteries behind Raiding, huh? No non-core XP for me for the rest of the game unless they don’t do the same stupid thing with PoF. But of course if they aren’t going to gate Masteries / XP behind raiding in PoF, why did they do it in HoT?
Hard to say why Anet does things.
I ended up paying for a run to unlock those masteries. Could’ve gone with a group, but Anet doesn’t believe in archaic ideas like colorblind mode or UI manipulation.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
A go-kart powered by my own sense of self satisfaction.
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Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
It’s a rough spot for sure since few people do T3 compared to 4 and the rewards are so-so. Wasn’t the case with dungeons back in the day, but that’s not the game today, sadly.
It was quite literally the same as it is today. If you ignored what people wanted you had a harder time finding groups. Nothing has changed except the sheer number people feeling entitled to being carried for rewards.
I don’t want to be carried, which is why I can’t/don’t do T4 or Raids – out of respect for other players and their time. Unfortunately the game is becoming more and more inaccessible to me, which is frustrating. I just wish there were a rewarding mode similar to dungeons from years past.
You mean like dungeons currently are ?
Or Silverwaste, or AB, or Lake Doric or any of the other absurd GpH sources….Yep the game is certainly moving away from easy content
Dungeons aren’t nearly as rewarding as they used to be, what with the nerfs and inflation. I may give Lake Doric a try, though – hides, I’m assuming?
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
It’s a rough spot for sure since few people do T3 compared to 4 and the rewards are so-so. Wasn’t the case with dungeons back in the day, but that’s not the game today, sadly.
It was quite literally the same as it is today. If you ignored what people wanted you had a harder time finding groups. Nothing has changed except the sheer number people feeling entitled to being carried for rewards.
I don’t want to be carried, which is why I can’t/don’t do T4 or Raids – out of respect for other players and their time. Unfortunately the game is becoming more and more inaccessible to me, which is frustrating. I just wish there were a rewarding mode similar to dungeons from years past.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Maybe in 2012. Fractals are now mini-raids.
That may be true for 99 & 100 + their respective CMs but overall it’s not yet. Fortunately, Anet stated that they will bring out different fractals in the future and not only boss-to-boss-to-boss ones:
There’s absolutely space for more traditional fractals in the future.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Shattered-Observatory-Feedback/first#post6659295
Thank you for the link. I hope this is a sign I’ll be able to do group content again.
The whole kitten game is based on pugging LFG or joining randoms in maps to do events, why the kitten would you break with expectations so abruptly? And then again, the encounters are not hard enough to actually make that claim valid: raids can and I would even say should be pugged by many.
They break up with expectations abruptly because this specific side content or call it niche is not meant for the majority of the playerbase.
It’s design intention was for players wanting the extra challenge. Difficult content that cannot be done pressing 11111 as long as people don’t realize and accept it they are walking the wrong path. 99% of the rest of the game is easy, easy puggable and can be done without effort and organisation. Give the 1% to players who love the challenge, love the team play and love the whole dedication you have to bring to raids.Maybe in 2012. Fractals are now mini-raids.
Oh hey look it’s over-reaction monday in full effect!
It’s also like people are complaining about something they were told was going to happen since HoT’s beta. With raids being their endgame Anet shifted some design (read T4 fractals) to be the stepping stone for Raids.
Calling them all mini raids is quite honestly, silly. You have 3 other tiers to chose from if you cannot do T4.
It’s a rough spot for sure since few people do T3 compared to 4 and the rewards are so-so. Wasn’t the case with dungeons back in the day, but that’s not the game today, sadly.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
(edited by Makai.3429)
The game has been taken over by Nintendo geeks
The game is more and more about movement skills and gimmicks. Just look at how mounts are to be utilized in the upcoming expansion. The vertical maps have much more appeal to gamers who like platformers. Jumping puzzles, once considered an “extra” to be enjoyed are now becoming requirements.
Just look at the living story. Some of the boss fights are actually not fights. They are puzzles. The whole “fight” is figuring out the gimmick that will allow you to damage the boss. Once you have figured out the gimmick the actual fight is extremely lackluster.
Not a fan of these trends
Agreed on all these points. I also don’t like the obsession with OHKOs, filling rooms with barely visible death rings, and general perfection required to play the game nowadays. I’m fine for challenging gameplay, but you shouldn’t be wholesale slaughtered because your foot is off by a pixel. Everything HoT and beyond has felt exhausting and overtuned, and tied with the already minuscule rewards, a bit pointless.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
(edited by Makai.3429)
So i spent like 2 months “grinding” all three living story map currency collecting to obtain full vipers trinkets, i then spent 2 months “grinding” pvp for asended wepons and Armour, i then change all stats to vipers… so i have been on this grind conveyor belt, put there by ANETS as these LS maps where the only way to obtain vipers… now after ive done the hard work, they are telling me my condi necro build will be rubbish its Power based now!!!!
Is this any better than the WOW gear grind, for it then to be changed?
Isnt this anti GW ideology, oposite to there “mission statment”GW2 is steadily turning into a game where the only winning move is not to play.
Well if im required to put as much time sink into rebuilding my gear to meet how Anet want me to play as i did for Vipers, then i will probably stop playing, i play casual. Im a paramedic that works 12 hour shifts, i dont consider a force in build change “fun new content”
I’m with you on that. It’s the same reason I don’t bother with legendary weapons…not much of a point with the mighty nerfhammer in play.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
So i spent like 2 months “grinding” all three living story map currency collecting to obtain full vipers trinkets, i then spent 2 months “grinding” pvp for asended wepons and Armour, i then change all stats to vipers… so i have been on this grind conveyor belt, put there by ANETS as these LS maps where the only way to obtain vipers… now after ive done the hard work, they are telling me my condi necro build will be rubbish its Power based now!!!!
Is this any better than the WOW gear grind, for it then to be changed?
Isnt this anti GW ideology, oposite to there “mission statment”
GW2 is steadily turning into a game where the only winning move is not to play.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
As a condi engi main, I am obviously not too happy with these changes. There’s just no reward for playing one of the most difficult classes in the entire game juggling a carpal tunnel inducing rotation once these changes take place.
I really hope there is going to be a substantial nerf to ele as well, otherwise we will see a return of the ye olde “power ele or gtfo” meta. And I really don’t want to return to that meta. I went through all the hassle of getting quip for my engi because i love the class, and I fear that I’ll never get to use it again for my raid premades or any lfgs because all the exp groups are only looking for eles. And as much as I would love to say that is an exaggeration, knowing the exp raiding community, I really can’t.
I feel you. I’m about ready to give up on Mesmer for Warrior/Thief 1 1 1 1.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Why is condi food being nerfed AGAIN. It was nerfed by 50% when HOT was launched, and now over 60% again. Are you just trying to brick everything in the game so everyone needs to buy the new xpac? The nerf to power food was 50% damage, this is worse than that.
Bingo. It’s going to happen before expac 3, too.
So raids will be 16% harder… Ty for killing my motivation. Just made 6th viper set, so that when i do raid I would be fully geared nope.
Also with the addition of power precision ferocity AND condi damage gear, ty for combining that with viper. It’s a kill to my gear, as that Grievers gear (of what the name is) is new meta… Ty Anet.
So in conclusion: 100% condi duration (clearly meant to be achieved by lots of classes) is killed… ty so much anet. And you think power has just as good food? Power has some things that are really strong for it (like decreased stun duration) wich is useless for most condi. This change is just a overreaction to the current raid status. (and making raids actually worse).
Someone lost their OP toy now they’re gonna throw a tantrum :p Grow up, move on, adapt, overcome.
Lost their op toy? If gear itself would get a +5% boost to overcome this no probs. But they didn’t. Power and griever are new meta no matter what cause this change. They have to gives tons of +10/20% condi duration traits to compensate for this (and they wont).
Atm i had a condi thief. Perfectly geared. 30k dps if played to best. Guess what people didn’t even WANT it. So op? c’mon. What makes me angry is i just invested in 6 viper full armor sets. And they are all absolute. Just changing stats with expensive orbs for insignia = 20g per armor set to change. Anet must refund me that. Grinding like hell to have on every profession a viable raid ascneded set, to then have it smashed to pieces by anet. No thanks. Look if at HoT they removed condi duration food (and i expected/hoped it back then! ) ok. I would be 100% ok with it. But they chose to not do so. And balanced the raids (start of HoT) on them. Now it’s over and power is clearly taking over for good. If most condi builds are stranded at 70% condi duration, then they have no place in raids.
And have you noticed how hard a condi engineer is to pull off? With these nerfs, condi engie is out of the meta for 10 years. and power engie? also bad. Thus these changes petrify the raid meta even further. Not a good decision.
Good thing you can easily convert sets now, 20g loss or not. I too have multiple sets of this stuff for raids, I’ll deal. It isn’t hard. Also don’t just think of this in terms of pve – this meta was destroying pvp gameplay especially in wvw where you’d have people stacking this crap in large numbers. With PoF comes new stat sets and specializations, I’d rather they preemptively nerf the potential for also breaking them into OP status prior to us getting them. You might not have felt OP in pve but condi was friggin ridiculous in any other aspect. Split balance is a thing I wish they would do, but they’re inconsistent with it, I expect nothing different now.
And Anet owes you nothing, nowhere does it guarantee that there won’t be any meta changes in future gameplay, this is something EVERYONE has to deal with, you aren’t special, you aren’t owed any refund. I’m someone who does more than just dps in raids, not only will I have to change my condi sets I’ll have to change my mesmer sets as well. You don’t hear me crying.
It still leaves a bad taste. What’s the point of grinding out gear if it’s going to be taken away on a whim? How much of your time and effort will be negated when expac 3 hits? It also goes against the original purpose of the game, being an anti-MMO MMO, but then again, that went away with Fractals.
Unless you are 100% new to this game, and I’m talking about in your first 6 months, there is little to no “grind” when stat swapping ascended gear. I feel like people who talk about grind in this game have never played any other MMO. GW2 is most definitely still the least MMO MMO I have every played, by far. That sentence was odd to type. The new fractals are not a necessity, you don’t have to have anything they drop, they aren’t integral to your “gear progression” in any way. Meta changes in every game, if it didn’t change at all in this game it would’ve already died. You have casual players and you have hardcore players, you can’t just pander to casuals, you will effectively destroy your game. Not a lot of people want GW2: Hello Kitty Edition and the people that do, don’t particularly play any part of this game beyond complaining in map chat about how hard it is to get one piece of ascended.
The gear has been changing since the beginning. People went from cheap exos to full ascended sets, a lot of power meta changed and a lot of power meta was effectively killed. Condi was due for an actual balance, people play more than pve – wvw has been a cesspool. I’m just waiting patiently for Reaper to be put back into its power corner, the condi version that exists for it is a friggin abomination and should’ve never seen the light of day.
I don’t want Hello Kitty edition either, but having my time and effort marginalized out of nowhere feels awful. I regret spending time on Leadership runes, and this will make me hesitant to pursue top end gear in the future.
Since I play more areas of this game than just raids I have around 6 full leadership rune sets. It’s whatever.
It doesn’t effect you so it’s not an issue. Got it.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Why is condi food being nerfed AGAIN. It was nerfed by 50% when HOT was launched, and now over 60% again. Are you just trying to brick everything in the game so everyone needs to buy the new xpac? The nerf to power food was 50% damage, this is worse than that.
Bingo. It’s going to happen before expac 3, too.
So raids will be 16% harder… Ty for killing my motivation. Just made 6th viper set, so that when i do raid I would be fully geared nope.
Also with the addition of power precision ferocity AND condi damage gear, ty for combining that with viper. It’s a kill to my gear, as that Grievers gear (of what the name is) is new meta… Ty Anet.
So in conclusion: 100% condi duration (clearly meant to be achieved by lots of classes) is killed… ty so much anet. And you think power has just as good food? Power has some things that are really strong for it (like decreased stun duration) wich is useless for most condi. This change is just a overreaction to the current raid status. (and making raids actually worse).
Someone lost their OP toy now they’re gonna throw a tantrum :p Grow up, move on, adapt, overcome.
Lost their op toy? If gear itself would get a +5% boost to overcome this no probs. But they didn’t. Power and griever are new meta no matter what cause this change. They have to gives tons of +10/20% condi duration traits to compensate for this (and they wont).
Atm i had a condi thief. Perfectly geared. 30k dps if played to best. Guess what people didn’t even WANT it. So op? c’mon. What makes me angry is i just invested in 6 viper full armor sets. And they are all absolute. Just changing stats with expensive orbs for insignia = 20g per armor set to change. Anet must refund me that. Grinding like hell to have on every profession a viable raid ascneded set, to then have it smashed to pieces by anet. No thanks. Look if at HoT they removed condi duration food (and i expected/hoped it back then! ) ok. I would be 100% ok with it. But they chose to not do so. And balanced the raids (start of HoT) on them. Now it’s over and power is clearly taking over for good. If most condi builds are stranded at 70% condi duration, then they have no place in raids.
And have you noticed how hard a condi engineer is to pull off? With these nerfs, condi engie is out of the meta for 10 years. and power engie? also bad. Thus these changes petrify the raid meta even further. Not a good decision.
Good thing you can easily convert sets now, 20g loss or not. I too have multiple sets of this stuff for raids, I’ll deal. It isn’t hard. Also don’t just think of this in terms of pve – this meta was destroying pvp gameplay especially in wvw where you’d have people stacking this crap in large numbers. With PoF comes new stat sets and specializations, I’d rather they preemptively nerf the potential for also breaking them into OP status prior to us getting them. You might not have felt OP in pve but condi was friggin ridiculous in any other aspect. Split balance is a thing I wish they would do, but they’re inconsistent with it, I expect nothing different now.
And Anet owes you nothing, nowhere does it guarantee that there won’t be any meta changes in future gameplay, this is something EVERYONE has to deal with, you aren’t special, you aren’t owed any refund. I’m someone who does more than just dps in raids, not only will I have to change my condi sets I’ll have to change my mesmer sets as well. You don’t hear me crying.
It still leaves a bad taste. What’s the point of grinding out gear if it’s going to be taken away on a whim? How much of your time and effort will be negated when expac 3 hits? It also goes against the original purpose of the game, being an anti-MMO MMO, but then again, that went away with Fractals.
Unless you are 100% new to this game, and I’m talking about in your first 6 months, there is little to no “grind” when stat swapping ascended gear. I feel like people who talk about grind in this game have never played any other MMO. GW2 is most definitely still the least MMO MMO I have every played, by far. That sentence was odd to type. The new fractals are not a necessity, you don’t have to have anything they drop, they aren’t integral to your “gear progression” in any way. Meta changes in every game, if it didn’t change at all in this game it would’ve already died. You have casual players and you have hardcore players, you can’t just pander to casuals, you will effectively destroy your game. Not a lot of people want GW2: Hello Kitty Edition and the people that do, don’t particularly play any part of this game beyond complaining in map chat about how hard it is to get one piece of ascended.
The gear has been changing since the beginning. People went from cheap exos to full ascended sets, a lot of power meta changed and a lot of power meta was effectively killed. Condi was due for an actual balance, people play more than pve – wvw has been a cesspool. I’m just waiting patiently for Reaper to be put back into its power corner, the condi version that exists for it is a friggin abomination and should’ve never seen the light of day.
I don’t want Hello Kitty edition either, but having my time and effort marginalized out of nowhere feels awful. I regret spending time on Leadership runes, and this will make me hesitant to pursue top end gear in the future.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Why is condi food being nerfed AGAIN. It was nerfed by 50% when HOT was launched, and now over 60% again. Are you just trying to brick everything in the game so everyone needs to buy the new xpac? The nerf to power food was 50% damage, this is worse than that.
Bingo. It’s going to happen before expac 3, too.
So raids will be 16% harder… Ty for killing my motivation. Just made 6th viper set, so that when i do raid I would be fully geared nope.
Also with the addition of power precision ferocity AND condi damage gear, ty for combining that with viper. It’s a kill to my gear, as that Grievers gear (of what the name is) is new meta… Ty Anet.
So in conclusion: 100% condi duration (clearly meant to be achieved by lots of classes) is killed… ty so much anet. And you think power has just as good food? Power has some things that are really strong for it (like decreased stun duration) wich is useless for most condi. This change is just a overreaction to the current raid status. (and making raids actually worse).
Someone lost their OP toy now they’re gonna throw a tantrum :p Grow up, move on, adapt, overcome.
Lost their op toy? If gear itself would get a +5% boost to overcome this no probs. But they didn’t. Power and griever are new meta no matter what cause this change. They have to gives tons of +10/20% condi duration traits to compensate for this (and they wont).
Atm i had a condi thief. Perfectly geared. 30k dps if played to best. Guess what people didn’t even WANT it. So op? c’mon. What makes me angry is i just invested in 6 viper full armor sets. And they are all absolute. Just changing stats with expensive orbs for insignia = 20g per armor set to change. Anet must refund me that. Grinding like hell to have on every profession a viable raid ascneded set, to then have it smashed to pieces by anet. No thanks. Look if at HoT they removed condi duration food (and i expected/hoped it back then! ) ok. I would be 100% ok with it. But they chose to not do so. And balanced the raids (start of HoT) on them. Now it’s over and power is clearly taking over for good. If most condi builds are stranded at 70% condi duration, then they have no place in raids.
And have you noticed how hard a condi engineer is to pull off? With these nerfs, condi engie is out of the meta for 10 years. and power engie? also bad. Thus these changes petrify the raid meta even further. Not a good decision.
Good thing you can easily convert sets now, 20g loss or not. I too have multiple sets of this stuff for raids, I’ll deal. It isn’t hard. Also don’t just think of this in terms of pve – this meta was destroying pvp gameplay especially in wvw where you’d have people stacking this crap in large numbers. With PoF comes new stat sets and specializations, I’d rather they preemptively nerf the potential for also breaking them into OP status prior to us getting them. You might not have felt OP in pve but condi was friggin ridiculous in any other aspect. Split balance is a thing I wish they would do, but they’re inconsistent with it, I expect nothing different now.
And Anet owes you nothing, nowhere does it guarantee that there won’t be any meta changes in future gameplay, this is something EVERYONE has to deal with, you aren’t special, you aren’t owed any refund. I’m someone who does more than just dps in raids, not only will I have to change my condi sets I’ll have to change my mesmer sets as well. You don’t hear me crying.
It still leaves a bad taste. What’s the point of grinding out gear if it’s going to be taken away on a whim? How much of your time and effort will be negated when expac 3 hits? It also goes against the original purpose of the game, being an anti-MMO MMO, but then again, that went away with Fractals.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
(edited by Makai.3429)
Or just make whatever build you like and git gut with it and enjoy the game.
Gods, this thinking that you have to have the only 1 build from whole game is the most toxic aspect of this game.
I’d love for that to be the case, but the meta overlords say otherwise. Good luck getting into a raid or t4 fractal as a Nomad’s Engie.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Well, Chrono’s now out the window and Mirage is dead on arrival.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
no, the rewards are practically the same if not better than before. you get both liquid gold from path and for repeatable achiev (+150 tokens). also token per path are increased and it adds up (if you have no recipes whatsoever, 1 path (100 tokens) equals ~60-100s. also tons of loot, lodestones, rares etc. AC even gives you lots of dust that got expensive nowadays. aether gives guaranteed skin selling for 2-10g.
fractal rewards aren’t significantly better unless you mean farming f40. kinda weak to compare farming to dung tours though
Good to know. Thank you.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
The whole kitten game is based on pugging LFG or joining randoms in maps to do events, why the kitten would you break with expectations so abruptly? And then again, the encounters are not hard enough to actually make that claim valid: raids can and I would even say should be pugged by many.
They break up with expectations abruptly because this specific side content or call it niche is not meant for the majority of the playerbase.
It’s design intention was for players wanting the extra challenge. Difficult content that cannot be done pressing 11111 as long as people don’t realize and accept it they are walking the wrong path. 99% of the rest of the game is easy, easy puggable and can be done without effort and organisation. Give the 1% to players who love the challenge, love the team play and love the whole dedication you have to bring to raids.
Maybe in 2012. Fractals are now mini-raids.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Still waiting on those visual noise sliders…
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Even though I have yet to do this new fractal I can agree with the OP and other concerned fractal players. Unlike raids, fractals should be any class, and puggable.
Really though, raids can be done by any class and are puggable—it’s the community that makes it so meta-centric, not anet. I mean the same could even be said about dungeons and how the dungeon elitists will be like, “If yer not running berserkers you’re wasting everyone’s time.” Although, dungeonscensters HAVE chilled out a lot since nobody cares about them anymore.
The dungeon elitists back then were mostly speed runners. The berserker builds had nothing to do with actually being successful in the dungeon. But when ANeT removed the money incentive that speed running dungeons was built around the dungeon elitists began to disappear.
The builds for raids however are meant to deal with the speed at which you need to defeat the boss. ANeT created this little thing called an enrage timer to create an artificial difficulty level. Instead of a boss fight that any class could enter and take down the boss in an enjoyable fight, you need to DPS the kitten out of the bosses or you die due to the enrage timer or the instant death timer.
As for fractals, they were meant to be quick mini-dungeons. But they have recently been edging closer to raid-like.If you think the difference between dungeons and raids are the enrage timers, you’re sorely mistaken. Enrage is mostly a pity mechanic. If you’re hitting enrage, you’ve been failing mechanics consistently and generally struggling with the encounter. The mechanic is there to spare you a long, exhausting fight which you’re most likely to lose anyway.
The thing about the design of the new fractals is, they feature more mechanics. In this way, they are closer to raids. However, the same makes the fights much more exciting and fun to play. It’s just a new, and better, approach to designing instanced content. And in fractals there isn’t even the issue of the difficulty. Too hard for you? No problem, just drop down a tier.
And get trash rewards in the process.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
I expect grind, platforming, lots of loose plot threads, and more and more OHKO red rings and effects that require flawless timing to avoid. I also don’t expect the game to get any colorblind support. In 2017.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
I feel you, OP. I used to love doing dungeons and fractals, but post-HoT it’s become challenging to find group content. It’s unfortunate that some of us are getting grandfathered out of the game because of raids.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
The Mandela Effect has taken over GW2. It was never Big Nosed Ted, folks.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Would either of you mind sharing some examples? I’m iffy on the set in general, but it seems to have a lot of potential with the right apparel.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Mind Spike: Average the boon/non-boon damage out as the new base damage and deal additional AoE damage when a boon is stripped.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Thank you for changing the final boss, Anet. As a disabled gamer, I dreaded doing it a second time to get the cat. A few friends who have similar issues will be appreciative, I’m sure.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
I didn’t have a lot of problems with this fight, but I have a few friends who swore to never even try it because their disabilities would make it too difficult. I’m glad Anet decided to tone it down and hope they will use the feedback for future LS installments.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Thank you, Anet. I know several disabled GW2 players who will be able to complete this tonight. Previously it would have been near impossible for them.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Episode 5: Blood Legion Homelands where we fight bloodstone-infused branded (why not?).
Episode 6: Whatever happens will lead us to the area south of Fields of Ruin.
Expansion: Elona.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
I’d like to know the state of fractals as well, but on the other end – I’ve been putting off t4 because of the difficulty.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Realistically the problem is that there’s a lot of people who would be perfectly happy with a ‘press F to execute caudecus’ prompt, and anything more difficult than that just makes the encounter progressively more aggravating. There’s really no pleasing those players unless the encounter is so easy that you don’t need to even think about it.
Problem is that gw2 caters pretty heavily to these players, so you can’t just ignore them. IMO this is the situation where a challenge mote would be appropriate. Lock some achievement points and a nice title behind doing it the proper way and let the other folks have their ‘press 1 to win’ fight as they want it.
I would prefer a nice middle ground like dungeon bosses or encounters from season two.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
I liked PvP prior to HoT and finally found a good place in it right before the expansion dropped. The speed and visual noise have quadrupled and I can’t keep up with it – I only need about 30 more wins to get Champion Illusionist, but I can’t bring myself to try.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Assuming this is for PvE, keep in mind that Berserker’s gear is easy to acquire. For topshelf Condi gear you’ll need Viper’s, which may be hard to get depending on your budget. I would advise to choose your armor class wisely before committing.
How would you obtain the gear? Should I just buy it from the market?
You can get ascended Viper’s trinkets from raids or living world maps (Bloodstone Fen, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier, Lake Doric). Weapons and armor have to be crafted, which is a much more involved process.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
This is a learn to play issue. You’re not hitting your special action key fast enough.
Personally, I consider that poor encounter design – the period of time you have to trigger that special action key is really freaking short if you have any significant latency coughAustraliacough.
Seriously, if we get too many more encounters designed like that, it might be what pushes me to leave, and I’ve invested a lot into the game and the community.
Everything else I could live with, but needing to constantly watch for that special action key to pop up because I needed to jump on it IMMEDIATELY was a step too far.
I’m in the same boat. By the time I finished the encounter I was too frustrated to care about the resultant storyline, and I worry Anet will design future encounters like this. Their obsession with flawless twitch play, which has become the norm since HoT, is ruining the game for myself and many other disabled players.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
I can’t help but wonder if the Faren gag is a slam on ERPers.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Assuming this is for PvE, keep in mind that Berserker’s gear is easy to acquire. For topshelf Condi gear you’ll need Viper’s, which may be hard to get depending on your budget. I would advise to choose your armor class wisely before committing.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Ran Domination/Dueling/Chronomancer and died three times. The constant CC and moving walls messed me up something fierce, and having the adds kill my DPS felt bad, but I persevered regardless.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
I enjoyed everything about this episode except the final boss, which felt unnecessarily brutal: the mechanics were easy, but the constant CC and mob spawns were ridiculous – and as a Mesmer, the usual DPS handicaps applied. The spinning walls also made me feel nauseous, which soured the whole experience. The worst part about it, however, was the unbound magic window: many times I thought I was being punished for using it instead of the intended result. That being said, I only died three times (miraculous for me because my reaction time in this game is generally bad due to a disability).
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
After being out of Fractals for almost a year, I’ve decided to stat swap my ascended equipment. I’m in the process of moving old infusions over to the new gear, which include +7 simple infusions; however, I have heard it is best to convert them in some way.
What would be the best use for these infusions? Sorry if my question is a bit vague, but it has been difficult for me to keep up with all the changes that have happened to Fractals since the last time I played.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Independent of whatever you are changing, it is great that you’re finally doing it in a split manner. I hope PvE balance can be looked at too so that some stuff can be buffed there while preventing PvP powercreep **cough**necro**cough** . With that said, these particular changes are looking promising; I like how you’re slowly introducing a support role into Guardian (as it should have from start) and tuning up Elem damage.
Echoing this sentiment: I’m also pleased the balance team is fixing this longstanding problem, though it also means overnerfed skills like Well of Precog will probably stay worthless since there won’t be a functionality split.
In any case, I’m eager to support this game again. Kudos, balance team.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
I’d guess Tempest with a focus on Air since Scrapper is a PvP elite spec.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
For over three years we had to put up with mobs that don’t move and could barely cast a single skill if they had any at all, and would generally die easily to a single, undergeared player with almost no build pressing their #1 button.
That is what is unacceptible.
What we have now is just the very beginning of what we should have, challenge. Though the mob AI still has a long way to go, it is better.
If you don’t like it ,don’t play video games.. its what they’re for.
The only real gripe I have is that in Bloodstone Fen it seems like mobs overswarm you and have too much health compared to the other newer maps. But every map seems to have gimmicks like this, such as Auric Basin having too many chargey things, and Tangled Depths being too excessive on the Chak goop.
I think this is kind of how ArenaNet intends it ?
This 100 percent. I’ve been running my Chrono around Bitterfrost Frontier with a heavy CC build and have enjoyed it immensely. Such a thing is unnecessary in core Tyria and unviable in HoT due to the overabundance of breakbars. I feel BF has just the right degree of challenge for open world content.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
(edited by Makai.3429)
The Great:
Many enemies in this chapter have high health (veteran or elite status) and no breakbars, which has been a phenomenal experience for utilizing CC and keeping illusions going. For the first time in my four years of GW2, playing open world content as a Mesmer feels fun, and it’s nice to bring life back to skills and effects that have fallen by the wayside. HoT introduced some sigils that proc on interrupt, but because of the overabundance of breakbars they felt clunky to use. Interrupts feel like they have real value in this map and in story instances, and intentionally or not, I hope Anet continues this trend.
Winterberries are a great way to keep players motivated to return to the new map, and having specialty food as a reward is a good method to introduce progression without bloating it with too many ascended choices or RNG pouches.
I’m a sucker for snowy environments, and the new map looks remarkable. It’s also nice to find little hidden areas off the beaten path.
The So-So:
Traversing the map, on the other hand, feels tedious largely due to the high density of enemies and the lack of significant travel options. Thermal tubes behaving strangely is a nice touch given the environment, but they only really lead to specific goals. The new mastery is a bit clunky to use, doesn’t gel well in combat, and feels insignificant compared to travel masteries before it. Adding a waypoint to the southeastern portion of the map, say in the valley before the hot springs, would be a welcome addition.
GW2’s story never caught my attention that much, but adding Braham to the list of condescending travel companions is a touch overboard. Norn are taught to revere heroes of great skill, and it’s weird how he just glosses over the PC’s accomplishments.
The Bad:
The hot springs area needs some kind of revamp because the event cycles too quickly, and having the heart quest NPC function as a necessary part of story progression just leaves a sour taste.
Map completion, like Ember Bay, is a bit frustrating because of how daily renown hearts function. It’s a big departure from the core game and it effectively forces a player to explore on Anet’s time and not their own.
The Ugly (Real Ugly):
I felt the story instances were the weakest out of Season 3, largely because Anet somehow overlooked features, which players praised in previous living story quests: there’s no way to track achievements and no restart nodes. Did you misstep a single pixel while dodging red rings and ice projectiles? Too bad. It’s another 30 minutes of slow walking, whining, and waves for you.
I didn’t have a lot trouble with the final boss in this chapter, though I can see why people say the directions are unclear. There’s little warm up time to get used to your surroundings or take in the mechanics by looking at status boxes (even then, “immune to normal damage” doesn’t say much), and as someone who relies on action camera, I had about a millisecond to see this information before the area became suffused with orange and ice blue.
I miraculously managed to get the “don’t get frozen” achievement on my first go (“don’t get hit” achievements are merciless for disabled gamers like myself), felt encouraged to get the five-minute one, and tried again. Braham and Garm ran into a corner of the room and I could do nothing to lure the ice beast to where it needed to go. I looked at my clock, estimated my five minutes had been up (again, no way to track achievement eligibility in the status bar), and just left, vowing to never to return again.
Which leads me to my biggest gripe: how unrewarding the meta achievement is for the effort it takes. Kicking a chicken numerous times gives you a title while completing every single achievement (bugs included) gets you a mote of AP and gloves that don’t really match with anything. Previous living story installments allowed you to complete the meta achievement with a few extra to spare – choice is always a good thing.
All in all, I enjoyed this living story content, especially the open world sections. However, I strongly believe Anet needs to put more effort into providing quality of life in instanced content and should try their absolute best to avoiding repeating situations like this.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
The Phantasmal Haste/iAvenger bug is going to be fixed according to a dev response on Reddit.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
Let us convert tomes to mystic coins on a 1:1 ratio: two birds with one stone and such.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
In the next elite spec I’d like to see Mesmer’s lack of DPS addressed by giving clones some kind of baseline damage. Shatters could be changed into something akin to Virtues, which would give your illusions buffs at intervals, though as a tradeoff, activating shatters would be modified in some way to reduce the profession’s burst capabilities.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
(edited by Makai.3429)
You’ve retooled you PVE gear because of PVP changes? I’m calling you out on that one. They don’t use the same gear, so why would anything BUT gear changed due to PVP affect the gear you use in PVE? PVE gear needs are determined by getting as much offense as you can with a little defense as you need. I’ve yet to see such a dramatic change due to PVP changes that would make anyone rethink that.
Besides, even if it did … it’s not really a reason to cry about it … games evolve, meta changes … to think you won’t want to adjust your gear because of game changes that happen in an MMO is nonsensical in the first place, regardless of where they happen. Any MMO veteran almost expects game changes to affect how they play, gear they use, etc…
Thanks, I needed a good laugh!
It’s really obvious that the PvP crowd is not seeing the PVE’s issue here.
Guess what? The requested change doesn’t affect PvP. No PvP player will get upset over loosing gear to a balance change because PvP gear is free.In PvE we spend a lot of time gathering resources so we can improve and eventually max out our crafting skills. Then we spend a lot more time gathering resources again to actually craft a weapon. Since this balance pass affects mesmer, lets talk ranger.
Some Rangers went through that gathering and crafting process and eventually crafted an ascended shortbow. In my case, about 2 weeks later a balance pass made the shortbow totally unusable entirely because of how it was used in PvP. So, it has sat in my inventory for years. Now that a whimsical balance pass made conditions worthwhile again it might actually get used.There is an enormous difference in how we obtain gear in both game modes. To me, it’s more important to protect the value of what we have achieved in the game, than it is to balance one game mode regardless of what it destroys in the other two modes.
Emphasis on whimsical because of how scatter shot a lot of these changes are. Sure, my Flameseeker Prophecies looks nice on my Mesmer today, but what about next week? If they just locked PvE stuff and balanced only when new elite specs come out, I wouldn’t have to second guess going on my so-called legendary journey.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.
I know you’ve got a beef, Stu, but let’s not stir things up.
Proud disabled gamer. Not everyone has the capacity to git gud.