Guild Wars 2

“I’ve played over 3,000 hours on my main. Where’s my automatic streak-breaker precursor?”

Meglobob.8620:

Its the 1st time I personally have seen any developers trying to counter bad luck with RNG in any game. So far all the developers effort in any game involving RNG has been to restrict good luck and to stop them getting rewards too quickly. Which often leads to players becoming disenchanted with the game because nothing good ever drops for them.

Actually, this is exactly what dungeon tokens are for – you get the possibility of drops from the chests, but you are assured of an Exotic after every X runs.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

• Dragon’s Jade Armor
• Aetherized Armor – gem store (Aetherblade heavy, medium, light)
• Winter’s Armor
• Fused Armor – gloves (molten gloves, achievement reward)
• Sclerite Armor – shoulders (karka shoulders achievement reward) (kind of?)
• Zodiac Armor – gem store (Zodiac heavy, medium, light)
• Bloody Prince Garb
• Dreamthistle Armor – gem store – currently unavailable: gloves, shoulders
• Lovestruck Armor

You probably have a point on the Aetherblade/Aeitherized gear, though in my head matching “Aetherized Armor” would have some mechanical animation to it like many of the weapons in that set do.

Fused Armor would still need to be different for each weight range – at least 15 new pieces, and really, they should have 3 new/different gloves so as not to cheapen the existing reward. Similar observation for the 3 Sclerite Armors and 3 Dreamthistle Armors.

All announcements are presented in "server time " .

While I agree that it would be pleasant to have Devs include UTC (possibly in parenthesis) when they talk schedules, for the most part they’re speaking conversationally and that means referenced to their local time. Its the number they’re going to be looking for when they check their watches. But since that frame of reference is just about always Pacific Standard Time, the number to add or subtract to find your own casual, conversational, read-it-off-your-watch value doesn’t change that much.

(I’d also like to apologize to the entire world about Daylight Saving… it annoys me too.)

How do “legitimate seller” and “kick” overlap?

I can see a person willingly and knowingly leave a party to create a slot to be sold, but that doesn’t require kicking.

Backward Sass.6791:

I was hoping the halo was opaque. Lighting and particle effects really effects the halo, and not in a positive way.

No City of Heroes pics! …You’ll make me cry .

I hope the Ranger thread uses a technique we saw employed to good effect in the Character Progression thread: In the very first post, invite people to list the three things they most want to change/address about the class.

Because if you don’t lay the groundwork from the very instant you open the thread asking for a short list, the avalanche of multi-post shopping lists of every tweak, fiddle, and microscopic bit of tinkering people have dreamed up over the last 15 months is going to be breathtaking.

Judging from the game’s financials, there’s plenty of time for elegance. They are not in panic mode (nor should they be) and they’re not going to massively restructure the profession (nor should they).

You seem dead set on ignoring experience-based advice, but I will try one more time.

Gameplay changes are errata. They are necessary as problems become apparent, but every single time you issue errata you also erode player confidence. Along we fixing your problem, errata also says “We were stupid, sorry.” The thing is if you tell people your were stupid in the past often enough, they start to feel you are also stupid in the present, and then they take their time and money elsewhere.

The only real defenses against this are to not issue errata for minor problems where the improvement to the Game doesn’t outweigh the damage to the Brand and to occasionally issue errata that is so amazingly clever, polished, and elegant, that people will overlook that they were playing old-and-inferior because the new-and-improved is just that awesome.

40 changes at once will never look clever and it’s simply not polished. 6 changes with deep, rippling impacts across the system that will redefine the emergent play in a way that’s interesting and fun? That will cross the threshold into clever enough to pay the price for tinkering.

Your focus is on the Game. What your plans largely ignore is that the first allegiance of the Balance Team must be to the Brand, not the Game. If you can’t create solutions that serve both, they cannot incorporate them.

Alice.8694:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

If Braham suddenly professes a desire for ham? That’s fanservice.

I think you mean… Hamservice.

Well, whatever it is, it’s making me hungry.

Nike.2631:

If you can’t make progress with some nuanced, surgical strikes

Swagg.9236:

Nuanced, surgical strikes, just like what we see with the [Healing Signet], Dhuumfire, Torment update, right?

Not particularly. Actually I think the Healing Signet adjustment will be a lot more effective than people give it credit for – I’ve been playing various forms of regeneration-based heroes in MMOs for around 8 years, and Regen is delicate. The difference between Godmode and inescapable death spiral can be a lot less than 8%.

“Surgical” as in keep the number of change per profession in the single digits – hit fulcrum issues. Don’t rewrite 40%-80% of the weapons skills when 20% and a tweak to a Trait will dramatically shift the balance of power in the direction you’re seeking.

The banner post is about turning Warrior Banners from passive stat buffs that stack in duration into stat buffs that require players to remain within the effective radius of the banners at all times in order to more consistently receive their effects; also the goal was to remove any permanent boons granted from banners.

Then rather than dinking with both the pulse time and the effect duration, just adjust the effect duration. Then write the whole thing as a single note that applies to all banners. And briefly explain the purpose in the note.

The warrior was crippled from birth. It needs a whiteboard treatment for a lot of its very boring and/or lack-luster abilities.

Serious as a heart-attack: Then your project is DEAD. You’re literally 2+ years too late for a do over. Like it or not, the class functions at a serviceable level. Could it be better? Of course, but for people managing a working enterprise that’s not the point. This boat will not be rocked to the point of possibly capsizing.

Like I said, I like your vantage point, but your approach lacks elegance, and for the magnitude of changes you’re looking to induce nothing less than elegance is going to sell it. Maybe you’ll see the need to polish it in that fashion to create a convincing case, maybe you won’t. But at least you’ve heard it mentioned .

It seems pretty clear the entire system was designed around incentivizing players to branch out and pursue a variety of activities. Or, if you prefer, to bar people from advancing who only do one or two of the three categories.

I doubt they’re going to overturn a system just because its working.

I still think they’re not ley lines in the usual sense. They are magic flowing towards something. Something that draws magic in and eats it.

Like many roots feeding a single tree…

I like villain straight shooters too – ones who know they are monsters and don’t flinch when confronted by the horror of what they have done.

“The destruction… The horror… What have you done?”

“Exactly what I set out to.”

The Lost Witch.7601:

Should quotes be included in those 200 words?

I don’t see how they could be. The quotes themselves will take up 200 words if not trimmed carefully.

Its a little sad you see brevity and providing context/support as mutually incompatible.

Trixie.7614:

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

The last time I opened 15 chests I got 1 hairstyle kit and 2 makeover kits.. How did he only get 1 makeover kit out of 500? O_o

I got a precursor from 20 gold worth of rares. How can people not get precursors from 1000+ rares? O_o

Try doing it again and see if it’s clearer .

sorrow.2364:

Giving also spirit weapon damage immunity bringing another unkillable AI build into play is a good balance choice?

Its a return to how things were when the Spirit Weapon skills were actually useful. Its maybe faint recognition that the only summoned entities that actually have value commiserate with their opportunity cost are Warrior Banners… which are also immune to being countered by damage.

I really hope that this list was 90% spot on and ArenaNet is mostly covering their backsides while they track down which play-tester can’t keep their yap hut.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Her guild distrusts her. The people that associate with her guild distrust her. Just about every non-sylvari NPC we see her contact distrusts her. The only praise she gets is from other sylvari, and it’s just the praise the sylvari give to all of their firstborn.

Put it in context – most members of Destiny’s Edge start their conversations with “I should kill you/I wish you were dead”. The so-called ‘distrust’ she so-called ‘labors under’ doesn’t stop her from being the most influential and persuasive member of the group in the eyes of all the others and rather than being a handicap is there mostly to give her the chance to be oh-so-much more understanding and patient with the others, because “if only the others would see the big picture (like me) instead of being tied up in their petty squabbles… BLAH BLAH BLAH.” Yes, Caithe. We know. The writers have a huge crush on your entire species. Plant-elves are the new elves. ((sigh))

“Collaborative Development Initiative”

It’s been described by the Developer leading the effort as a think tank. Most of the discussion is between players/peer review, but the host occasionally comments or guides the topic through questions. Towards the end ideas are gathered and carried off to be discussed by the full team that handles those issues.

Your best bet is to use the Dev Tracker on the boards, and just scroll down looking for Subject lines that have “CDI” in them. Most of them will be by Chris Whiteside talking about the overall process for the next round, but the host for the Ranger thread, Allie Murdock dropped in briefly in This Thread.

Cush.4063:

Lol that tells me what time it was put up a couple days ago but not where :p

Look at the post date on that – it’s NEXT Monday (the 24th) not last Monday .

And regarding the balance profession CDI threads, I still need some info. Thanks though.

Good luck!

Your official response on start time, sir.

The run time has not been established, but there is a sentiment that 2 weeks could work best.

No schedule has ever been mentioned regarding additional/future Profession discussions. I think we’d better not scare them off with this one .

No, the March 18th patch will definitely hit before there are 8 rounds of CDIs .

Past experience suggests Ranger will be the only profession to have a CDI before March 18th.

Hope this helps.

These backpacks look to have come directly out of the CDI dicussion, with the ability to take the same item and promote it in stages until it gains endgame stats.

Its an experiment, and on the whole I think it’s been a lot better received than the process behind the Dyana/Grenth back pieces. Hideously rare recipes which still called for a vision crystal and 15 bolts of cloth (with NO alternatives for using leather or metal) and demanded 7 of the most expensive lodestones and 50g in the form of Icy runestones.

They are all linked in a sticky at the top of the forum page~

Collaborative Development – Master Sticky

Maybe not as graceful as a sub-forum, but moving/renaming them has broken the links so leaving them in-situ seems best.

It even has the format proposal, thought the copy there is slightly out of date…

I’ll be honest: the forum equivalent of grabbing a Balance Team Dev and holding them down while they’re hit with a waterfall of comments and ideas and last desperate hopes is the sort of mildly unpleasant experience they’ve kinda earned for themselves by letting the issues with that profession fester for more than a year. You can go into the various profession forums and see mixes of enthusiasm and irritation that align nicely with the percentages that came in on the recent poll, but the Ranger forum… it exists mostly in a state of despair. Over 90% percent of the players who responded indicated Ranger was in need of attention. The platitudes being scattered around claiming Rangers are in a good place Need. To. Stop.

We’ve needed to have this talk for a long time, and if its a bit impassioned, a bit outraged, a bit royally ticked-off, then that’s part of what the Devs need to hear too.

While you’ve had a lot of good thoughts in this series and I find your opening summary of the Warrior very compelling you’ve got a couple of things seriously crippling any hope of seeing action based on these presentations.

The worst offender is there is simply far too many changes. Were I you, I’d set my “Total Chaos inflicted on the playerbase” budget down to around a third of what you’ve been flashing around. If you can’t make progress with some nuanced, surgical strikes you are not going to be given the go ahead to re-write the game. For example, the entire post about banners is NOISE. Its an exercise in fiddling with bookkeeping that just takes up space.

The game isn’t on a whiteboard. Its running on live servers before a large paying audience. Work with and respect what’s there rather than throwing every lever and twisting every knob in sight.

Too bad if they are, because that was a list of changes packed with Win.

Mostly rumor and hearsay, but it tastes like the ArenaNet design style to me, so I’m hopeful. Try here.

hellsmachine.4085:

I suggest you wait until the next balance patch because warriors are going to get hit pretty hard with the nerf bat.

Judging from what I’ve heard Warriors are going to get a slap on the wrist with a nerf bat – a bunch of fairly small, fairly deserved tweaks. I read it as going to be more of a case of some of the under-performers getting some genuine positive tweaks and maybe coming a little closer to par…

…And Guardian Spirit weapon builds dancing the streets accompanied by a cloud of their newly indestructible blue buddies . That is going to rock so hard.

Now we’re gonna have to go in and tear down statues of the Great Leader Linen. Possibly in the center of the Glorious City of Linengrad.

And in another 6 months that statement from Colin will be as old and as out of touch with the current paradigm as the Manifesto …

raises hand But, um, er, there are humans by the barrel-full in the Aetherblades. And those are Queen Jenna’s automatons bulking up Scarlet’s army. Does that mean we can burn down Divinity’s Reach now? (not saying this is a bad plan, just checking on the extent of our license to commit mayhem)

By players, maybe. Somehow she ends up being the voice of reason in the teenage angst festival that is her guild . Or maybe its just the gushing even other Sylvari do about her (“Have you ever been hunting with Caithe?”) piled on top of the general fawning heaped on Sylvari by NPCs the world over .

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Caithe is the only NPC in the entire game who is unimpressed in some fashion by Scarlet.

Probably because Caithe is annoyed at being displaced as this game’s biggest Mary Sue.

“No, no, no- no, no- no, no- no, no, no!- No…”

Silly moles. Death has come amongst you and all because you refuse to turn over your sacred fibers peacefully.

Set up a vendor of the blessed linen and ye shall be spared. Well, spared death by blade and fire. You might drown in all the coin we shower upon thee.

Be it otherwise? Then burn and scream and be as the wheat before the scythe – “farmed” shall be thy epitaph.

On the subject of “How have the CDIs actually had an impact?” I have to say:

The progression path for the new bladed backpacks from blue stats all the way up to Ascended matches a suggestion in the Character Progression thread almost word for word.

Which makes the turn around time on that crazy fast.

In the part of my brain that wants Tyria to make any sense whatsoever, Trehearne is sticking close to the Source of Orr – because if he leaves for more than a day or two his great engine of cleansing begins to wither. He will be bound to that place for the rest of his life, his freedom sacrificed for the future of that poor, tainted land.

Because his victory should come at a cost so high no player wants to be the one who has pay.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

Or they do have a spotter who is a mesmer that is simply hiding behind a illusion.

Ok, I hadn’t really strongly supported Tengu as the next playable race (though with them sharing a digital skeleton with Charr they’d be comparatively easy to do…), but now I REALLY WANT to play a Tengu Mesmer.

xsquared.1926:

Highest Mobility – FGS ele outruns a warrior. Outside of that they have the highest landspeed, yes.

Are thieves allowed to come to this particular chest-beating match? Because they’d like a word…

xsquared.1926:

Highest Healing without healing – Correct.

I believe Rangers can substantially top this value if we’re just counting passive effects… but what they have to give up to do it cripples their other options and effectiveness.

Nike.2631:

The Warrior is Easy-Mode but fun to PUG with because it makes everyone near them easy-mode too.

Flissy.4093:

A correctly traited Guardian is better for that. You can carry with reflections and well timed Aegis’. Also perma prot if you opt for a Hammer build.

Eh, both of them are set up for it, but I enjoy the difference too. I despise Guardian’s Scepter but like Warrior Longbow, so for fights where ranged combat is more appropriate for my reflex-speed, the Warrior is a little less stressful.

While I have nine 80th level characters and enjoy different aspects of each of them, the vast majority of my play is divided between a Support Warrior (sword + horn/longbow with regen-Banners), a walking cloud of AoE buffs called a Guardian (Sword + Shield/Staff with Empowering Might, Inspired Virtue, and Battle Presence), and a Ranger (Axe + Horn/Shortbow and whatever useless Utilities/Trait I’m puttering with that week).

The Warrior is Easy-Mode but fun to PUG with because it makes everyone near them easy-mode too. Handy for dungeons. My Guardian has a commander’s tag so I use them when I want to direct traffic in WvW or zerg-based content. My Ranger is just for chilling out in zergs, because Ranger’s Axe #1 auto-attack is absurdly good at tagging everything.

That’s not the leak they were talking about. The one they disavowed was about new elite skills.

KOPPER.1458:

This would be really cool, but consider the kind of work that would have to go into something like this? If this is even possible?

Given that it was a fairly ordinary option in City of Heroes, yes, I believe the crack programmers at ArenaNet could figure it out if they had to, same as having a shield equipped covers your back item out of combat, and shifts on to your arm in combat. The tags/triggers are already present in the code and we can see them.

Beyond the grotesque pay-to-win being suggested here, we’re back to raw, naked Power Creep.

You can go faster. You can go faster forever. But it comes with a cost – one of your utility slots eaten by a Signet if you’re in one of the lucky classes that has the option, or all 6 of your Rune slots.

Anything that gives the same benefits with no drawbacks is going to wreck the balances already in play.

You want speed? Pay the price. It’s there and has been since launch in most cases. You just don’t want it enough.

Obtena.7952:

And for the price, they are CHEAP mats to buy … much cheaper and faster than having the pick.

You keep saying that like prices aren’t subject to change. They’ve more than tripled in cost since the “Oh, they’re only 34c” defense was first mounted.

Facepunch.5710:

Here’s my space-punk thief!

I’m almost alarmed how well that worked.

If the leader boards don’t give you tangible, mechanical benefits, most folks would NOT call it vertical progression.

McWolfy.5924:

Pets will never work in wvw situations and we dont have any realy good team skill.

Pets as they exist now don’t work. That doesn’t mean that workable pets are impossible .

We have good team skills (Call of the Wild, Healing Spring, Spotter, Frost Spirit) we just have terrible variety for team skills… Part of the problem being combat is so one dimensional there’s not many benefits anyone wants, and that leaves very few needs to fill.

Atherakhia.4086:

Well I’ll post up a couple and see what others think.

Here’s what it looks like after an editing pass .

Rangers: Burst & AoE Suggestions
A problem facing Rangers is they don’t do enough meaningful damage. While they have strong sustained damage abilities at range, it is burst and AoE damage that wins fights. In these areas Rangers have almost no options whatsoever. In WvW, burst and AoE are key to success. Since the Ranger currently has no ranged burst potential and no meaningful AoE at all, provide this to the Ranger in a way that fits the theme of the profession and comes with inherent risks and choices.

Make Ranger Attacks that Matter
Make Longbow #2 similar to Warrior’s Kill Shot – a long induction, high risk/high reward burst/spike. Rangers already have several ways to multiply the damage of a single key attack, but they have no one-hit ranged skill strong enough to properly leverage these abilities.

Convert Barrage to a Utility Skill where its damage and utility can be improved without drastically increasing its cooldown. Barrage would gain an initial immobile effect and bled on each subsequent hit. As a utility skill, Barrage will enhance a range of builds without locking-in weapon choices.

Challenges to Overcome
Adding a new utility to only one profession could unbalance the Utility Skills progression. If necessary, Spike Trap could be removed, as the new Barrage provides similar ranged Immobilization, without demanding the commitment of Trait slots.

Choosing which weapon graphic Barrage defaults to for Rangers with 0 or 2 bows equipped could also present some technical challenges.

Hope this helps .

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

The things I’m going to contribute are shout suggestions, weapon suggestions, some outlining suggestions about the pet and some traps and the role of the ranger as archer and his role in a pseudo trinity.

I think its a sign why ranger was so overwhelmingly voted "most in need of attention’ that all of these topics could lead to improving the Ranger experience. there is just a ton of things out of whack with this profession…