Guild Wars 2

What type of setup does one need to run GW2 60fps or better in Lions Arch and large WvWvW populations?

What type of setup does one need to not experience frame drops when panning the camera?

What mmorpg is a good representation of how a game with densely populated areas is supposed to run?

When developers provide recommended system requirements does that mean they expect the game to run 60fps at all times.

Is 20fps dips in performance an acceptable and standard thing for mmorpg devs? Or do they expect their games to be running at a more stable fps?

I spent $35 on gems (against my better judgement and normal stance on cash shops) because i wanted the Copper-Fed Salvage thing, some bank space and personal space.

Here’s the thing, I spent the remaining gems on chest keys. Worst, decision ever. DO NOT do it. Total waste of gems. Because of this, I will NEVER spend a penny on GW2 again.

It left a bad taste.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/For-Science-Champ-Farming-7-3-gold-per-hour/first#post3143460

I believe this more than the OP. Way more credible. At least this person backed up their accusations with some kind of proof.

What’s the alternative? It’s open world content, people have similar goals they organize and join. Do you want more instancing? What do you replace “zergs” with?

My only issue with zergs is that the champions aren’t dynamic enough to challenge other skills besides dps.

extra subtle tells + overdone particle effects = bad design

People get the concept of “holy trinity” and actual enemy mechanics crossed up and confused.

“Holy Trinity” isn’t what makes an enemy “dumb”, bad design does.

I like the idea of people not having to be locked into a responsibility.

What I don’t like is the bad enemy design that doesn’t challenge people to do anything other than dps. What purpose does snaring and slowing an enemy serve in GW2? What purpose does healing serve, when you can just get downed and dps yourself back to life with rally?

When it comes to actual combat, there is no teamwork involved outside of the shoehorned combo mechanic and no real reason to have any other build but one that increases damage and vitality.

I’d like to see people have a need to snare and slow, a reason for people to heal, and a reason for people to pull and hold agro against enemies. GW2 is way too dps focused.

The Legendary pistol is the most ridiculous ugly and emasculating item in the game. I don’t understand how it was approved as a design choice. You spend time building your dashing cool hero and then you equip the “Quip” and turn into a clown fool.

It’s the reason why I was never interested in having a Legendary. Hopefully somebody who has some testosterone in their body gets to design new pistols.

I feel the same way about “Living World” as I do about how Dynamic Events were sold.

The players have no real influence on the immediate world. Much of the time things are too small in scope and anti climactic.

The first living story I remember was pulling items off dead bodies and lighting fires. I remember saying to myself “that’s it?” and logging off.

Little things such as having players pick up supplies and building semi-permanent things (like in WvWvW) could go a long way as previously stated.

If you had to pick one, how would you prefer to obtain gear and rewards in GW2?

A) Repeatable tasks to collect tokens to spend. Rewards are purchased with tokens.
B) Completing unique tasks one time. Rewards scale with challenge.

Discuss your preference and try to avoid what you think other people should be doing. What is your personal preference?

If Item A requires a ridiculous amount of Item B (that is minimally rewarded through various tasks) humans will find the easiest and fastest path to collect Item B.

Humans trying to find the easiest and fastest path is not the problem, it is the symptom. It’s human nature. The requirements for Item A needs to be changed to curb the behavior.

Remove the grinding aspects of GW2 things like Champtrains disappear.

To blame the mice in the maze, blame them maze designers.

Maybe if they hadn’t made everything so grind based people wouldn’t feel the need to do things to optimize and speed up the grind. It’s basic human nature and psychology.

Humans naturally try to find the shortest path to a goal. People want Legendary Weapons and precursors and ascended stuff so they do what ever repeatable content to achieve these goals. Humans will optimize and streamline in the face of repetition.

“Champtrains” are a symptom of a problem that ANet created with their design choices and philosophy 180. Removing that symptom will just create another.

It’s a no win situation for ANet though because if they simply rewarded people for accomplishing things straight up, there will be a segment who will moan and complain about “things are too easy and casual friendly” because of THIER need to feel special in a video game.

The only way to make things better is to put some content that has enough challenge to justify a great reward. Guild Wars 2 combat mechanics don’t allow for that challenge.

ANet put themselves in a tight spot and the only solution they have right now is “the grind”.

Can we have an option like this:

Particles:
[Show Player Only]
[Show Party Only]
[Show All Reduced]
[Show All]

I’m sorry. I’m a bit bothered at the fact that a developer would respond to this thread and completely ignore what people are talking about.

“I can’t see anything because of particle effects, and I’ve been complaining about this from beta” -Players

“Hey guys, we’re going to streamline the UI. You’re gonna love. K’bye” -Dev

What is that about? Am I out of line for being a little upset by this? Are we going to get all technical and do the whole “but the OP said”? What about the discussion and the major problem?

This is how ANet wanted the game to play. DPS spam, nothing else. It’s not even skill based damage either, it literally is just spam. It still feels like the “action” part of combat ) was shoe horned in to compete with TERA or something (at the time).

At this point in time it’s take it or leave it. I don’t think ANet would do anything to improve or correct even if they could. Maybe Guild Wars 3? =\

Harper.4173:

nothing in regards to my OP + useless banter + made up numbers

You’re honestly serving no purpose to the conversation though.

Harper.4173:

MrDmajor.7084:

Harper.4173:

Regarding aggro and " hate " – it’s not a good idea – this game was supposed to have no tank. And shouldn’t. The fact that mobs can randomly switch targets makes combat feel organic and alive.
Otherwise one class will be decided upon as the " boss handler " – he’ll keep the boss focused on him while all others afk/spam 1.
The " too random and chaotic " aspect you’re talking about is exactly how combat should be – organic and alive.
Perhaps you’re too used to other MMOs.

Regarding CC Skills – give those more punch in PVE and all bosses will be wrecked even sooner when zergs move in.

The dodge mechanic is fine. Between your two dodges and other skills that prevent/mitigate damage – ANY class should be fine in 90% of situations. If you’re having trouble that’s a personal issue – but the game shouldn’t change around that.

The healing skill thing is basically you asking for a more dedicated healer role.

So you’ve asked for a tank, and a healer to be put in the game instead of each player being an individual self-sustaining unit.
Basically you’re saying " make this game more like the other generic MMOs that I have played because it is too different and I cannot adapt" . Right?

No. You’re absolutely wrong. That’s not what I typed.

Your whole last paragraph was your attempt at doing the whole “you’re not good at the game so get better” internet guy thing. So I’m not going to bother seriously responding to you. You’re probably saving up the "Go back to WoW’ retort for later. Don’t bother.

Take me whichever way you want.
The bottom line is this – the game is not the problem here. The problem here are people trying to warp it into their own vision of what would be great.

For example – you might think the combat is chaotic and odd – but that exact combat system is what I love about this game. So if the combat changes you’ll like it more and I’ll like it less. There’s always a balance.

Why do you want the game to change so fundamentally?

People are trying to warp the game into what ArenaNet presented the game as.

If you like how it is, go on about your business.

Don’t join in with your cliche “get better” “no you’re the problem” angle. Go zerg around and button mash damage. I don’t judge you for being simple.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

No, it is the graveyard of threads that are too serious to get deleted but too provokative to stay on the main discussion, sorry… ^^

That sent me a pretty clear message (AGAIN). That’s pretty messed up. They ask for people to be constructive and when they are, threads get shuffled away from public visibility?

PVE
1. Refining Combat and Class Balance – https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/GW2-Does-NOT-Need-A-Holy-Trinity-BUT/first#post3049073
2. New Zones + Expanding Lore
3. Horizontal Progression + New Skills & Weapons

Does anybody even read these topics once they get “moved” to Suggestions? Well played and hint taken. =\

Harper.4173:

Regarding aggro and " hate " – it’s not a good idea – this game was supposed to have no tank. And shouldn’t. The fact that mobs can randomly switch targets makes combat feel organic and alive.
Otherwise one class will be decided upon as the " boss handler " – he’ll keep the boss focused on him while all others afk/spam 1.
The " too random and chaotic " aspect you’re talking about is exactly how combat should be – organic and alive.
Perhaps you’re too used to other MMOs.

Regarding CC Skills – give those more punch in PVE and all bosses will be wrecked even sooner when zergs move in.

The dodge mechanic is fine. Between your two dodges and other skills that prevent/mitigate damage – ANY class should be fine in 90% of situations. If you’re having trouble that’s a personal issue – but the game shouldn’t change around that.

The healing skill thing is basically you asking for a more dedicated healer role.

So you’ve asked for a tank, and a healer to be put in the game instead of each player being an individual self-sustaining unit.
Basically you’re saying " make this game more like the other generic MMOs that I have played because it is too different and I cannot adapt" . Right?

No. You’re absolutely wrong. That’s not what I typed.

Your whole last paragraph was your attempt at doing the whole “you’re not good at the game so get better” internet guy thing. So I’m not going to bother seriously responding to you. You’re probably saving up the "Go back to WoW’ retort for later. Don’t bother.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

The whole PvE system is set on only one pillar: Damage.

You can’t play as a tank, you can only choose to have more survivability for less damage. This won’t help the group.

You can’t play as a real healer, you can heal, but most time, the damage spikes are too random and you find yourself just spamming heals (sort of a healer, but it feels stupid as kitten).

You can’t focus on CC, because most bigger mobs don’t give a kitten about CC anyway.

You can just play as DD efficiently. So this game is a one trick pony. I don’t think ANet can fix this, or even the whole melee meta for stacking boons. It is more or less what we can expect for the future too.

Buffing conditions? Now you can do damage in two different ways, yay...

This is the kind of hopeless feeling I get when playing. I dedicated my time to 1 class and a little bit of 1 alt. I made the mistake of trying a build/gear that wasn’t "optimal" for the one trick pony game play. I didn’t know any better and ANet has made it clear by actions that I’M in the wrong for:

A) Not picking the highest damage class
B) Not grinding the "right" dungeon for the right damage/health gear
C) Having the audacity to play a supportive style
D) Having anything to do with Condition Damage

Survey Says:
[X][X][X]

I’d REALLY like to know how the devs feel about the combat at this point.

wasted.6817:

@OP
I agree on first 2 points, about aggro and cc, and disagree about dodge. Dodge isn’t the only mechanic available to mitigate incoming damage, it also connects with defensive/healing cooldowns point of yours in a way, that, i think, problem lies not in those cooldowns being too long and/or not having enough dodges, problem is that supportive playstyle currently totally outshined by nuke-it-all-asap playstyle. This answers to your first question, yes — PvE combat is too dps-centric.

MrDmajor.7084:

• Does anyone else feel that combat is way too random, forcing the only solution of “just… do… more damage?”

Spot on. Exactly how it often feels. Good example are Aetherblade pirates trash packs in recent TA dungeons. DPS, CC and Confusion flies out of them in every direction like every second. You can’t outheal or outcc this stuff, but you can nuke this kitten asap.

Thank you for responding. The dodge thing was something I thought about when observing how mobs behave. They have so little rhythm or timing to the things they do. There’s no reward for having good timing and spacing. It’s like you’ll time the perfect dodges only to get hit by a big attack the enemy decides it’s going to use on you 2-3 more times, or it’s some random silly AoE pattern on the ground that’s improbable to dodge otherwise. Players are given this base 2 dodge rule, but PVE doesn’t play by that rule. So the only solution is more health and kill it faster.

haviz.1340:

MrDmajor.7084:

After running around Mad Kings Labyrinth for a 2nd season I had the realization of how insignificant my skill bar was. I was just pressing whatever wasn’t on cool down in some cases. Combat improvement would help GW2 be better. Allow the players to solve problems in different ways besides simply dealing damage exclusively

It happens when you zerg or just generally in open pve.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

From time to time I wish too, that there was a bit more depth than just knowing when to dodge.

I hope at one point they can break the whole DPS meta for PvE (read everyone runs zerker gear).

I’m pretty sure most people in fact do not run zerker gear. But please, use more hyperboles, they bring much needed arguments into a discussion.

It happens in dungeons too. It’s just a smaller damage zerg. Everything besides doing damage is so insignificant. I can’t blame people for running Zerker gear because that’s the optimal solution for EVERYTHING. There’s no heal, root or enmity shout that can significantly turn the tide of an encounter right now. If I see mobs are stuck to an ally I can’t say “HEY YOU OVER HERE… FIGHT ME!” I can’t root them long enough for my ally to get away I can’t heal an ally significantly either. Its literally kill it with fire or die and do it again. The mechanics that ANet tries to include in some fights don’t change any of this.

Taking on a responsibility is not a bad thing in MMORPGs. There doesn’t need to be a Holy Trinity, but there definitely should be Holy Strategy.

There are aspects of combat I feel that are missing thus creating the issues a lot of us see in GW2:

• Mobs need enmity that can be manipulated by players. The ability to generate hate or grab mobs attention should be in game. Every class should have the ability or skill to increase or decrease “hate”. In turn mobs can maybe have a cool off period where enmity resets and needs to be rebuilt. Right now things are too random and chaotic. Maybe add the enmity stat to existing skills?
• Crowd Control skills need more utility in PVE. Melee mobs beeline for players regardless if they’re slowed, limping, or rooted. The time these effects last are insignificant to game play or strategy now. Just more effects to clutter up the screen.
• The dodge mechanic doesn’t match with the tempo of combat. Right now everyone gets 2 dodges while enemies can spam certain attacks over and over. What happens when there are more than 1 or 2 mobs attacking? What do players do after the 2 dodge? I feel that lighter armored classes should have the ability to be more mobile and dodge a couple more times.
• Blocking skills need less cool down. If a player can’t dodge then they should be able to use their blocking skills a bit more.
• The cool down on multiplayer healing skills need to come down more as well. Allow players to be helpful to others in more ways than just doing damage. Yes, let them actually keep people alive if they’re dedicating combat time to it.

All these suggestions are general and I’m not saying there should be a complete revamp but I think these things could improve the combat of GW2.

• Does anyone else feel that combat is too dps-spamcentric?
• Does anyone else feel that combat is way too random, forcing the only solution of “just… do… more damage?”
• Do the developers notice threads like this? What is their take on the combat?

After running around Mad Kings Labyrinth for a 2nd season I had the realization of how insignificant my skill bar was. I was just pressing whatever wasn’t on cool down in some cases. Combat improvement would help GW2 be better. Allow the players to solve problems in different ways besides simply dealing damage exclusively

I really only log-in and start playing heavily again when improvements to skills and things of that nature are introduced.

I missed a week or 2 of GW2 and missed a whole chunk of missions I thought were still available to do for Tequatl Rising.

This temporary content business is complete foolishness and the fact that they have doubled down on the concept is such a blatant disrespect to the player base. I don’t understand the decision making. I understand the need for temporary things to drive traffic but to make it so core to the game is foolish. I DESPISE IT.

Add Temporary Content to the list of “WTF Are You Doing ANET?” list.

There was a Charr protest but nobody saw anything because of culling.

I’m only impressed by the cool looking legendary weapons. I’m impressed by their look. Not by the person who has them. Some of the legendary weapons, are complete utter TRASH in comparison. I don’t want legendary weapons for my Engi because they are horrible.

I’m more impressed by people who have nicely coordinated and cool looking characters. Most of the time I’ve seen people with legendary stuff they looked ridiculous.

For once, the term “killing the game” is 100% correct. The particle effects all over the screen has been an issue since day 1. It’s TERRIBLE during combat in groups.

I honestly feel like the “action combat” that was implemented was shoe horned in at the last minute to compete with TERA. The mob mechanics and how the game plays contradicts action combat. Action combat is about strategy, reflexes and tells. All I can TELL when playing GW2 in groups is the amount of particle effects is too much. I can’t see the tells, I can’t see my AoE targeting. I can’t tell the difference between friendly mobs and enemy mobs. It’s just a pure clusterkitten and it’s BEEN that way.

Like I ask several times. Do the people at ArenaNet actually play the game? Or do they just play on their special dev servers and ignore what’s actually happening?

9/10 I don’t know what’s killing me, if I do I didn’t know when the attack was sent out or why. When enemy NPCs inflict reflect damage I’m usually at 50% before I even notice.

At this point they’re NEVER going to refine the combat, the least they can do is have some options for particle effects to turn them all the way off so players can only see theirs and MAYBE their groups.

When I first heard about the classes in Guild Wars 2 I made my mind up that I was going to play an Engineer. When I pick up mmorpgs I usually only have time to dedicate to 1 character and MAYBE an ALT. It was an innocent decision because I was under the assumption that all classes would be balanced to play however we wanted (based on the skills you chose). I figured Pistol Engineers main skills and tools deal w/ condition damage so I should focus on that.

I was ignorant to how condition damage worked and didn’t realize at the end of the day my condition damage really didn’t matter when playing with other people who deal condition damage. I didn’t know condition damage was worthless compared to direct damage. I am running a full Superior Rune of Nightmare Set. According to others, I wasted my time.

I took a long break from GW2. I felt like the class I spent my time learning to use and building out was looked over and there were no plans by ArenaNet to rectify how condition damage worked (among other reasons).

tl;dr
What Superior Rune set would be best for me to replace Superior Rune of the Nightmare? I like shooting my pistols, swapping to grenades or mines, I love the Toolkit and occasionally throwing down turrets.

I just asked the same thing lol. Apparently they do which is kind of scary.

All of this. The culling has always been silly but now it’s Monty Python absurd and it’s not even helping the performance. Also what happened to particles being toned down so I can actually see what’s going on during fights? That check box doesn’t help AT ALL.

INB4 “find a guild”

They’d rather Lions Arch and FoTM ruin the community and other region population.

Dear ANet please ignore class balance. Keep nerfing Engineers and others then finally remove them from the game. Do not have a sense of urgency about this. People do not point to class balance and bizarre nerfings as a reason to put the game down. The population is not dwindling at all due to character and class disenfranchisement. Continue with the great work and staying with your core philosophies.

reverse psychology <- does this work?

“Yeah, I think that kind of goes against our core design philosophies so we would never want to do that.”

Change cometh my friends.

“The game’s population is seriously declining”
“Nuh uh, it’s not I have 5 level 80s and I play them”

Somewhere between those 2 quotes lies the real truth.

To put things in perspective. I have no urge to dailies, monthlies or whatever. If they happen they happen.

It’s actually a quite silly and boring mechanic to chase. Another thing I guess I refuse to do to make this boring moment in GW2 history pass.

The nerve of me wanting story content, additions to bestiary, and new areas to roam. Don’t judge me.

Red Falcon.8257:

There are plenty of things to do at 80 yet you don’t like any of them.
What do you expect us to tell you? Move to a game you like or something.

I liked the Dynamic Events, I liked the Dungeons when they were reasonable to get done as well as a population to do them with, I like exploring new areas and experiencing new beasts, sometimes I did WvW before culling and door glitches and crappy class balance ruined it.

As dense, and derpish as the retort was this person has a 100% valid point.

If you do not like doing 100% map completion or doing “jump puzzles” and making Alts to do them again… leave GW2 alone, as the things I have outlined I liked were only meant to be done on your way to 80.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with the “Holy Trinity” what I thought GW2 was going to do was allow anybody to do anything w/o forcing them into that role permanently.

Every class should be able to viably Tank, Heal, or Deal Damage.

The battle system is very shallow indeed.

INB4 “This game isn’t for you”.

kenshinakh.3672:

It’s still the same content since launch with a few new areas. A lot of recent content were events/holiday so maybe that’s something you missed out on. There’s always new content being added almost monthly, so that’s something to look forward to.

I was around for Lost Shores and Halloween. Halloween was cute, Lost Shores was a big mess, I had no desire to do the cutsie Christmas stuff.

The game was a lot of fun when people populated the various areas and the Dynamic Content was fresh. Maybe I expected too much from ANet when they doubled down on the dynamic content thing. Turning GW2 into Lions Arch = Fractals ruined all of it though.

And there goes your ninja’d no content update as well. Nice.

Your response has a lot in common with Guild Wars 2 actually.

That’s what it feels like. I think Fractals was the worst thing that happened to the game for the simple fact it yanked the player base from other areas (that were already slowly dying out). I also think the unreasonable dungeon mechanics chased people away from higher level dungeons.

I don’t wish to get 100% map completion. I don’t wish to play Super Guild Wars Bros and do jump puzzles. I’d like to advance exciting story or make some kind of progress w/ my character and see other characters out in the world and join with them and do stuff… new stuff.

I try to log-in and not be negative, but I usually just end up running around aimlessly and then logging out.

I can’t be the only person feeling this way. I don’t hate GW2. I enjoyed my path to where I am now… but I feel like I “beat” a console game right now.

What the heck happened to the game ANet was advertising before launch?

/emote Quietly passes gas within a circle of RP’ers and disappears into the sea of heros of Lions Arch

ANet should do something about the state of the game… how about that?

Don’t worry. Soon everybody will be at the acceptance stage of grief for Guild Wars 2 dying, and they’ll stop caring enough to even complain about it. They’ll go away and the last few of you can make cute forum posts about the stuff you do to keep the fun times rolling in game.

Fractal Wars 2, it ruined Tyria, and in turn ruined the population.

At least it’s B2P so you can return from any extended hiatus.

Mirta.5029:

MrDmajor.7084:

Video game difficulty should not be something that goes beyond “reason”.

Guild Wars 2 difficulty is not measured by reaction, timing, position, and team work… it’s based on player base finding ways to exploit or find short cuts around bad design for some “cheese”.

GW2 battle design is BAD in general especially in dungeons. I’m willing to bet nobody at Anet has tested fractals at these levels or there would be “guides”. They just used some loopy algorithm to scale w/ the level and sit back and watch in amazement.

“Holy kitten, somebody got to Lvl 50, these guys are nuts!”

ever played really old games? Ping pong, pac man, tetris? The difficulty tends to be infinite. This is an infinite dungeon.
They’ll also release more asended gear during the year (they couldn’t because of the whole uproar), so just roam around until you get more gear against agony.
Now about dungeon exploits – it’s actually more damaging than rewarding. I hate groups that skip, because a) you’re missing out on the loot b) you make it really tough for squishies.
Also it IS based on reaction and skill. You know how easy it is to go down in a dungeon if you’re not tanking spec? That’s why you have to have a good dodging reaction. You can also use your skill to take down mobs 5 levels higher than you in PVE.

My bad, I thought it was 2012-2013.

GW2 Dungeons/Difficulty and battle system are poor. It is what it is. They tried to shoehorn some things last minute to compete w/ Tera but it was contrived.

Bad design does not = difficult. It’s bad design. Period.

Bad analogy. Bread is a consumable and your gratification comes from eating it.

Spending money on a game that is meant to have long term playability shouldn’t be compared to spending money on FOOD.

Developers don’t care. People have complained about re-spawns since DAY 1. Nothing has been done, nothing will be done. There will be no response, and my message to you will be deleted most likely.

Enjoy.