Guild Wars 2

Sarrs.4831:

It’s pretty easy to do solo. I would wager that most classes can do it.

All classes can solo it, just everyone is running around with full zerker gear.

I just realized Transforming Elites is a great way to do it solo, as it doubles health.

And yes, Necromancers Death Shroud -_-

…

Um, does everyone understand that this thread is praising the design of the achievement, rather than QQ can’t do it?

As simple as this achievement is, it is really well designed.

Everyone will quickly discover surviving 15 seconds in the Quicksand is impossible alone or difficult unless you have the right armor stats.

So we gathered everyone who needed the achievement and made groups of 5. Creating water fields and blasting them as much as possible to the 5 people going for the achievement. Even a zerker thief with 10,000 health made it just fine.

Major props ArenaNet, making use of your combo system to make this challenge.

Zacchary.6183:

All the time.

I said without.

A Warrior without a Longbow, and be viable?

Guys, guys, guys! Settle down.

Lets get this out of the way, both design and mechanically Guild Wars 2 has a massive amount of room for improvement and it NEEDS improvement.

Just one problem, I’ve been suspended calling ArenaNet out on this. Calling this combat design experience novice.

The thing is, you cannot blame them for their closed mind. For 3 years, for 40 hours a week or more, they walk in, work on Guild Wars 2 and go home.

Guild Wars 2 is ArenaNets baby, tell them their baby is flawed and needs improvement and you might as well /resign no monk. There has been countless threads on this and I even made a video regarding this. But I doubt ArenaNet would even click the link let alone watch a single second :\

I hear you guys but ArenaNet need to get to the point they need to step back and ask themselves, this isn’t the future of Guild Wars 2 combat.

I play with a xbox controller. I can set it up so when I press the A button, it left clicks 20 times a second then set it back when I’m done.
Made it really easy to buy 2 million karma worth of Obsidian Shards.

If we had the option to right click then select “Buy in Bulk” for select items, this wouldn’t be an issue.

As for consuming Essence of Luck, we need to be able to craft better Essence in ALL crafting professions, not just artificer.

legion.7518:

Well I didn’t know you were supposed to channel the number 4 button, so I guess that’s my problem. I’ll have to test it to see if it works as you guys say. Sucks that i didn’t realize this, because it would have saved me a lot of frustration. Anyway, still learning new stuff all the time in this game. I’m a casual player obviously. Thanks all.

I can tell your an Elementalist as well, if you want some Elementalist tips feel free to message me, Nova Stiker.8396

legion.7518:

Ok what about the 2nd case I gave, where the mob dies at the same time as me. This is the one I find the most frustrating, and I’m pretty sure I’ve tried spamming the 4 button.

As stated, you can’t just spam 4 while under attack. It will get interrupted, go into a 5 second recharge. When you are using skill 4 (also known as Bandage) it will heal you 2% of your downed health each second, press it and wait until you revive.

You can only self revive when not under attack, otherwise fight the attackers and get that Rally.
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If the mob dies but you didn’t resurrect, it is probably because you didn’t hit the mob.

As for the same time? You died first obviously. Now, you can die and an enemy can bleed out shortly after but dead is dead, you aren’t going to rally as a zombie.

You can look at your downed skills in your Weapon Skills Tab in your Hero Panel if you are still really confused on what they do.

Disagree. I have bad news for you bud.

Skills 2 and 3 are stalling skills to buy you enough time for someone to resurrect you.

So what does the 4th skill do? The 4th skill is a self resurrect. As long as you are not damaged while casting this skill, you can revive yourself slowly. You can even revive yourself underwater this way.

In other words, you’ve been dying for no reason other than… Yeah. :P

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

i think a true glass cannon build that does not trait into cleansing ire may not require a longbow.

i.e. kill them before endure pain, berserker stance, balanced stance expires.

True glass cannon sadly does, the bleeding covers the immobilize in Pin Down making it far better than Throw Balas. I keep trying out different combinations (Rifle+Greatsword, Axe/Shield+Greatsword, Mace/Shield+Hammer) and each weapon I can replace 1 with the Longbow and fair vastly better.

Also, this topic was improperly moved. I wanted to prove a point how the longbow offers a lot of versatility, making it the must have second set. The only thing I want to see go is people using Pin Down while a foot away from their target.

It’s why the Hambow was and still is so popular, the Hammer has 3 more Melee attacks than the Greatsword and a useful Burst skill. The Longbow is basically an effective melee weapon when you want it to be as well, pinning down people next to you and firing an arcing arrow at your feet.

Hammer and Longbow are far from overpowered.

It just shows how poorly designed the other weapons are. Instead of making a Greatsword with a focus on AoE melee attacks, what it lacks in gap closers it makes up for a lot of damaging melee AoE, offering a couple skills that can hit targets from behind.
No, give it 3 gap closers!

A Mace is a heavy CC weapon.
So in the Hammer.
So why not make Mace for Warrior a more support weapon with a CC burst skill? Offering like 2 Blast Finishers as well as the ability to buff themselves and allies.

Duel Axes! There is something, so many whirl finishers-oh.
Whirl is the worst combo finisher
Buff spinning please?

The point is, the reason why every build, every setup begs for a Longbow isn’t because the Longbow is overpowered but rather every other weapon lacks versatility.

Jerus.4350:

The downside to guardian is their poor mobility.

I haven’t played ele much but so far the downside to it seems to be my limitation of only 10 fingers.

I play xbox controller, having 15 skills or 25 doesn’t make a difference.

That said, an Ele with have a much easier time roaming, beating players 1v1 thanks to good sustainability and taking camps. Aim for Celestial Ascended gear as you’ll make up for the lower damage for a constant 25 stacks of might.

However, Guardians are much easier to play.

In a high level skill match up between an Elementalist and Guardian, Elementalist will always win.
In a low-median skill match up, Guardian will always win.

A bad Elementalist is the same as a bad thief, prepare to get stomped all the time if you lack the skill.

What build doesn’t require a Longbow?

Also remove the fact some bosses are immune to critical hits.

ArenaNet needs to take a lesson from Dark Souls, don’t make combat where the rules change for this one boss because lazy design. If a boss is too easy because of reflection or critical hits, then the problem isn’t reflection or critical hits -_-

It’s like watching a bunch of DnD players where the game master is just randomly throws out rules so each encounter is more interesting or longer lasting.

Traits is proof of that:
“Hey guys, we need another trait for Warrior Discipline XIII that is interesting and fun to use.”
- “How about heal 10% of the damage dealt by a burst skill?”
- “How about dodging also grants 10 Adrenaline?”
- “How about burst skills have an extra 300 ferocity?”
NO STUPIDS. The Warrior removes blind when swapping weapons, think of all the non-possiblities. Clearly, swapping weapons is much more important to removing blind than PRESSING THE 1 KEY AND HIT ANYTHING.

PvE and PvP combat has a lot of problems and it’s not just conditions :\

As an sPvPer, the only thing that could use adjusting on a Warrior is Pindown and Impale. Those two skills deal way to much damage for their own good.

Pindown – Reduce recharge time to 15 seconds, reduce casting time to 1/4th second, reduce bleeding duration to 3 seconds and now cripples target foe for 5 seconds. Apply 2 seconds of immobilize if target foe is more than 600 range away.
Fixed.

Impale – Reduce torment duration to 5 seconds, applying a single stack of torment 4 more times over Impales 5 second duration, Rip’s now deals bonus damage for each stack of Torment.
Fixed.

Oh, while we are at it.
Arcing Arrow – Damage and radius is reduced by 50%. Range increased by 500, now has an additional effect: damage and radius is increased by 10% for each 100 range the arrow passes.
For the fun lulz.

Oh and change Berserker Stance and Endure Pain, but one step at a time…

Dear ArenaNet,

When you created the games balance, you broke down 8 classes, gave them each variety in their attacks, support, control and tanky-ness so that each skill feels unique.

That is a crucial steps when it comes to game design, however ArenaNet, you are only half way up stairs…
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Balance with variety was done with success and it shows, showing both good and bad. The Warrior Greatsword has 3 skills to chase with and a worthless burst untouched since open beta. The ranger Shortbow still lacks variety. The Necromancer and Engineer seems to have gotten the leftovers of the other 6 classes, apparently got the boring spam-friendly skills.
Why isn’t the Warrior Greatsword a more AoE melee focus? What makes up in lack of mobility is a lot of melee AoE damage.
Why isn’t the ranger shortbow more support focused? What it lacks in damage, makes up for it with buffing themselves and allies. Leaving the condition damage to the Torch and Axe.
The list goes on.

Speaking of support and control, Boons and Conditions needs major looking at as well, the variety is split between classes but mechanically are still a problem with balance. Conditions and crowd control are absolutely worthless in PvE and every boon except Stability is rewarded if spammed.
Not to mention neither conditions or boons scale ideally. Full glass cannons or full tanks can benefit from any boon that they apply. Condition damage is so low that spamming as many stacks with many different conditions is a must. Turning conditions into a dwindling fight of spamming vs. removal.
The list goes on.
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Which begs the question, what is the next for quality of combat?
Should the next step be better combat mechanics or better combat design? Or try to push for both?

ArenaNet, how the heck will Guild Wars 2 EVER achieve e-sports status when PvP breaking bugs still exist? How many threads on this issue must be made before it receives a fix?

It happens at least once every other match, where I must stop fighting in the heat of combat and type /sit.

Then again, combat breaking bugs are okay to run havoc for half a year. Has it been 6 months yet?

About 15 minutes ago Guild Wars 2 was updated so that you couldn’t use Sigils or Runes in the Aspect Arena.

Which was a shame, it was really fun! Every attack felt like rolling a slot machine, every time I got hit made my heart skip a beat. Killing 2 people in a single hit or being sniped from 1200 range. Being feared off a cliff, rooted to the ground or brawling it out with an enemy till 50% health with both players being unlucky.

A mixture of skill, strategy and pure luck.

In my opinion, for a mini game, there is nothing wrong with pure luck being a factor.

Welp, I’m not going to bother with a capture the flag mini game, off to farming.

Listen and Improve Combat.

I decided to make a video relating to an unjust suspension I received but more importantly how taking criticism and keeping an open mind is essential to improving Guild Wars 2 combat.

P.S. The video is not 17 minutes of me complaining about a suspension.

P.P.S. Picture attached below of the e-mail in case you are curious.

P.P.P.S. Rytlock has a total crush on Logan, DON’T DENY IT! He always wants Logans attention.

So while playing with the Wardrobe on my Mesmer, I noticed a crack with the phoenix pants.

Maybe my Mesmer should pull her pants up more, then again, it is doing it’s job of being very distracting…

It could be worse, could be my Charrs pants.

Alright everyone, spill it, what armor or armor combo have you discovered that showed a bit more than you thought they did?

Chill, the elementalists biggest weakness. Forget removing boons or CC. Chill.

Our skills already have high cooldowns so we rely on swapping attunements for the next damaging attack/defensive skill.

Since chill slows attunement, being stuck in air magic for 8 more seconds is asking to die.

I’ve played a lot of PvP on my D/D Charr elementalist, I can safely say we are incredibly overpowered. As a necromancer, you must have chill on you now if you get into a match with a skilled Elementalist.
Otherwise you’re never going to beat him/her and the ele is going to roam everywhere and stomp anyone.

I love it, but needs adjusting. The visual effects is extremely intense that it could melt other peoples low end computers XD

So… ArenaNet, update legendaries please?

As a main Elementalist, I have been having no problems wrecking in sPvP with minor condition cleanse. Rarely I run into a close 1v1 fight against any class, so far the most threatening opponent I’ve fought is the condition Warrior. It’s not the amount of conditions the can apply is the problem, but the consistency, each basic attack is basically a 1k bleed damage.

Oh and Elementalists OP as kitten now.

As for the WvW scene, I agree, conditions needs to end. Perplexity Runes needs to get the kitten out of the game. The amount of condition spam needs to stop.

ArenaNet, I’ve stated before how conditions is a bad mechanic. Do I need a degree in game design and development theory for you to listen?

The Celestial Amulet is a bit much on the Elementalist, makes up for a little loss of power to the Soldiers Amulet with a drastic condition damage boost (Churning Earth deals 4k damage over 8 seconds, even more when I get 25 stacks of might)

When it comes to other specs, it simply offers more defense compared to Soldiers.

When with Soldier Amulet my Elementalist was STILL wrecking face, shrugging off damage like it was nothing while hitting extremely hard.

As for Mesmers, I don’t know what is floating around but I’ve been seeing them hit like trucks even more so than the Elementalist and yet they remain pretty tanky. I’ve blown up glass Mesmers before and well aware of their damage output, something isn’t right when they hit my Warrior buddy, who has 3,000 toughness, by a 6k Phantasm Berserker.

Condition Warriors are more of an issue now, they don’t even need a lot of stacks as they apply a constant rampage of bleeding, poison and torment, absolutely shredding any tanky build.
I don’t mind them being good against bunkers but I draw the line of them bursting so quickly with conditions.

As I stated before, Engineers and Necromancers aren’t really an issue. Despite being able to apply so many different conditions, my Elementalist has yet be melted by them with an Auramancer build, compared to BM Rangers, Condi Warriors and a unknown Mesmer build.

BlackBeard.2873:

You forgot the condi bursts on engie and necro, but especially the engie. Between a single crit + swap, they can output 7 condis at one time. Its like signet of spite, but with no cast time.

Also, there is apparently some bug that birds can 1-shot people. I have heard of 22k crits from ravens. lol.

I’ve fought plenty of condition Necromancers and Engineers, yet my Elementalist had no issues fighting them.

I’ll need more claims of Necromancers and Engineers wrecking with conditions.

Ranger – Pets hitting extremely hard, felines hitting 8k+ with their basic attacks. Even supportive pets or tanky ones have been reported to hit high as well. I got hit by an owl that landed 7k, it does more damage than a zerker Backstab thief.

Mesmer – Having insane damage while keeping a good defense. Claims of Phantasms and shatters hitting extremely hard without a need for a glass setup.

Warrior – With the Krait Runes the condition damage and number of conditions inflicted can be overwhelming on condition Warriors.

Elementalist – Having superb damage with defense. The newly buffed Celestials stats allow D/D Elementalists to be a jack of all trades. (I main a D/D Elementalist but the amount of face rolling I do is ridiculous, a lot of builds don’t even come close to standing a chance.)

*More to be added

A list of builds to be looked at after the Feature Patch.

I am wrecking face in all fronts. There are still a few issues with other classes though and that might be your issue.
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Ranger pets are doing significantly more damage post-patch. Most likely a bug but people been seeing birds hitting 7k, snow leopards hitting 9k damage on just their basic attacks.
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There is also a Mesmer shatter build going around that seems melt people in seconds, while still remaining fairly tanky. I’m not 100% sure if that was the problem but I hopped on my PU glass cannon Mesmer and doing a shatter spike combo didn’t break more than 8k. So I have no idea how this Shatter Mesmer is melting over 10k in a single shatter and still remain condition bunker.

Phantasmal Warlock is bugged I believe as this mesmer wrecking build always has the Warlock up, probably it’s +10% per damage per unique condition more is applied to Mind Wreck. Turning what should be a ~6k shatter spike to ~12k-15k dealing if you have more than 5 conditions on you.
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Necromancers and Engineers are a lot less threatening but cleanse chill as soon as they apply it.
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If you have problems surviving, get some Chill reduction runes. Chill is the most powerful condition against us as chill slows attunement recharge. That’s fair right? It’s basically slowing weapon recharge. Fix ArenaNet? No? Well kitten you.

I’ve running Celestial Elementalist and a Snow Leopard hit me for 5k with it’s basic attacks.

Pre-patch I’ve never seen pets hit so hard. I’ve seen a Leopard 1-shot a thief as the thief locked the ranger into a Backstab spike. The thief said he got hit 10k by a Slash.

I don’t mind the ranger hitting hard but I draw the line when pets are hitting 5-10k.

Is this a bug or are feline pets intended to hit like trucks?

Uhtameit.2413:

Nova Stiker.8396:

Any class with condi spam or if you are playing an Engineer or Necromancer. You’ll be called a noob a lot.

Spamgineers perfect build with ranged, melee attacks, snares, stun, pull, block, invisibility, invincibility all wrapped up nicely in a giant 15 weapon lot skill bar. Engineers require skill when kits have a swap cooldown.

Or Necromancers rushing Death Shroud and abuse Deathly Perception to hit super high damage while remaining fairly tanky thanks to Death Shroud amount of bonus health.

Condi-spam is obvious, high ranked players see that kitten all the time (despite always running safety glass builds, which I am tired of myself). Condi-meta is still around and we all want it to go away.

Condi engineers that don’t require skill because no cool down on kits are being compared to Life Blast spamming direct damage necros.

10/10

Would read again.

Spamgineers basically have 23 skills available at any time and have nearly every mechanic in a single utility setup. I highlighted why Engineers have no skill for you.

As for Shroud Necros, the amount of damage and defense they have is stupid. It’s not entirely a no thought build but it’s low risk, high reward. They can run into a middle of a team fight, spam wells, shroud up, Life Transfer the enemy team dealing insane AoE damage then kite back and poke with Life Blast, jobs done, GG, easy.

Basically a super version of D/D Ele. I couldn’t care less about Dhuumfire, ArenaNet made it very clear you always have to carry heavy condition removal for now on.

Any class with condi spam or if you are playing an Engineer or Necromancer. You’ll be called a noob a lot.

Spamgineers perfect build with ranged, melee attacks, snares, stun, pull, block, invisibility, invincibility all wrapped up nicely in a giant 15 weapon lot skill bar. Engineers require skill when kits have a swap cooldown.

Or Necromancers rushing Death Shroud and abuse Deathly Perception to hit super high damage while remaining fairly tanky thanks to Death Shroud amount of bonus health.

Condi-spam is obvious, high ranked players see that kitten all the time (despite always running safety glass builds, which I am tired of myself). Condi-meta is still around and we all want it to go away.

In my opinion in PvP the only class that should be allowed to remain glassy yet have a lot of defensive options are thieves. Yet high tier PvP meta you see 5 players all running glass builds to spike a single opponent and use their get out of damage free cards when in trouble.

May the best invincibility skill win -_-

For those that don’t know, there will be a major overhaul to combat coming April 15th. New traits, buffed runes and Sigils no longer share cooldown.

In my opinion, the update won’t help much in improving combat as it’s only adding mechanics, not play styles. Sure, now some builds will be more viable and you can now experiment with more mechanics but in the end, it becomes a mechanical mess, a balancing nightmare.

I’ve brainstormed many various ways to improve Guild Wars 2 combat, aesthetically, mechanically and diversity. So much so I have made a document just so I can keep track of the mechanics I’ve brainstormed.

But then, my ideas and thoughts may not reflect well onto the community. For all I know, a lot of people might really enjoy Guild Wars 2 combat and the way it is setup.

As for me, Guild Wars 2 has a good building structure that is building the wrong way.
As for you, you tell me.

I made a form on Google Documents:
Fill out your opinion here.

And you can view your response as well as other people responses, here.

If you want, you can leave a summary of what you think in the comments of what you think of Guild Wars 2 combat and the way ArenaNet is improving it.

Lux.7169:

Conditions were not a problem in gw1 because… if you brought proper condition removal it would shut down condition builds. If you didn’t bring enough then you would lose battles of attrition.

Whereas in gw2 if you don’t bring enough condi removal you die in ~15-25 seconds.

If you do bring enough condi removal you typically won’t have enough damage to beat a condi class and lose the battle of attrition anyway. So everyone runs heavy condi and whatever removals they can bring and it creates the stale meta we’ve been stuck with the last 10 months.

GW1 had it’s fair share of condition and hex problems before. Hexway, poison barbs ranger, spear warrior, seeping spike. Seeping Spike, a CONDITION-like build could kill light armored opponents in 4 seconds in a single combo.
Complain about thieves? HA! Assassins had much more broken stuff.

It even had it’s issues of condition and hex removal. Peace and Harmony basically removed all hexes and conditions, heals for each one removed and was on a 4 second recharge. It’s been nerfed but it utterly wrecked any condi/hex focused builds.

It wasn’t broken damage wise as only Monks can use Peace and Harmony well, but can you imagine Guardians or any class having the ability to remove all conditions in 4 seconds?!

It was called Build Wars for a reason, your class may have 400 skills but only 20 of them were any good. You can argue another 20 was purely for farming.

Guild Wars 1 conditions and hexes worked because it wasn’t so spammy. Energy made sure you couldn’t use anything on recharge.

Guild Wars 2 conditions don’t work because you HAVE to spam, blow those 2 dodges and land all your most powerful condition skills.

Even though Energy kept conditions and hexes in check in Guild Wars 1.
Guild Wars 2 solution should be similar to how League of Legends handles the balance between attack and magic. Splitting the damage and effects. Even adding additional magic damage to physical attacks.

However, having a system like Magic Resist I find unnecessary. Making magic damage an alternative source of damage that aids you attacks, instead of the main source of raw damage.

Mechanically, conditions are impossible to balance as a damage source. It is simply lacking a lot of mechanics power has, in contrast, conditions are the least liable source of damage. Let me explain.

Power can be adjusted to the decimal, not only that, scaling with power can be adjusted do the decimal as well. The one thing power has that conditions does not is that power differs from skill is that the damage output differs from skill to skill. Allowing some skills like backstab and Hundred Blades to hit extremely hard in a small burst.

That’s one thing conditions have over power, is that they all scale with each other and they scale the same amount of their own type. Meaning that Grenade Barrage bleeding will deal the same damage as Explosive Shot.

Mechanically, they CANNOT work together. It’s two formula’s in a single mechanic, having one not outdoing the other, is impossible.

There is several other factors that drastically hurt the condition mechanic. Condition removal and condition duration stat itself.

In my opinion, condition removal should never exist. It is the reason why condition spamming exists. The reason why spamming as many conditions as possible is rewarded with victory is hindered with condition removal, condition damage will simply lose against a class with a lot of condition removal on it.

With to much condition removal, condition focused builds will simply not work.

So, what’s the balance between too much removal and too many conditions? It would be impossible to find the factor between those two. Now a days, people carry 2-3 ways to remove conditions to keep up with the meta, to much condition removal and you are sacrificing damage or defense.

It can all depend on what your opponent is packing, making the conditions you inflict utterly worthless or guarantees victory.

The other issue is condition damage stat, it doesn’t scale with all conditions like Chill or Cripple. Scaling with all conditions is not an issue, the BIG issue is condition duration does. It’s why condition damage and condition duration are always in strange spots. They work really well together, too well.

So Power is ALWAYS tied to condition duration to prevent it.
Mechanically, that’s like shooting yourself in the foot and putting a freaking Spongebob bandaid over it.
Sure, the bleeding has slowed but the issue is still painfully obvious.

Condition duration simply cannot exist with condition damage without breaking the game.

There. I have explained the issues with conditions mechanically and how it cannot be balanced.

So what’s the solution?
Remove Condition and Boon Mechanics from the combat.

You’re probably wondering where the hell Boons came from but I’ll get to that in a second.

Conditions simply cannot co-exist with power, mechanically it’s impossible to match the two.

If there must be an alternative source of damage it must follow these rules:

1. Can be adjusted to the decimal.
2. Can vary from implication.
3. Cannot be removed or denied frequently.
4. Cannot be better if implicated frequently.

Boons also fall into this category.

In my opinion, as much as ArenaNet dismisses the idea of Magic Damage or Boon Power. It is exactly what Guild Wars 2 combat needs to evolve.

No more applying 4k damage over 15 seconds with Bleeding.
If there was to be Magic Damage needs to be inflicted swiftly, armor ignoring, can apply various debuffs or flat out apply extra damage to skills. Magic damage MUST be weaker than power but makes up for it with different debuffs and armor ignoring damage.

For example, Frozen Burst with 0 Magic Damage slows enemy movement by 15% and casting speed by 5% for 2 seconds. But at 1,500 Magic damage, it can slow enemy movement by 52% and casting speed by 10% for 5 seconds.

The same needs to be done with Boons, no more boon types. Boons applied must scale differently.

Guild Wars 2 combat needs to evolve. Right now more maps are not going to help Guild Wars 2 PvP. If League of Legends can get away with only 4 maps ArenaNet, for a long time there was only 3 and even less before that, what does it mean for your game being a future e-sport?

More maps won’t make combat more fun, you must get your priorities straight.

Now my Thief and Necromancer is going to be running around with duel incinerators, despite the fact I spent probably 10 hours on my Necromancer.
I spent 9 months crafting 2 Incinerators, now they feel a lot less special on my Elementalist.

Stat change doesn’t make it very unique, considering I only ever use 2 stats on it. One stat for damage, the other for WvW and skipping mobs.

Are there plans to have a true legendary weapon stand out?

What about an Elite Skill tied to the weapon? Incinerator firing a giant beam of fire, Frostfang transforming the user to some ice dragon etc.

Right now a lot of people are upset that they made multiple legendaries, spent months on them and then they can just now copy it as many times as they please.

Some people have 3-4 of the same legendary on multiple characters ArenaNet.
I love the Wardrobe for armor but the Wardrobe for backpieces and legendaries or exotic skins like Infinite Light and Volcanus, I heavily disagree with.

Sars.8792:

Chaith.8256:

Phaeton.9582:

I dunno man cleansing water will still take priority IMO

Cleansing water is getting a massive buff, back to pre-ele nerf when it was a must-have.

better than pre nerf they added regen on crit hit, and soon regen on water trident .

The issue with Water Trident was it’s speed, not that it was weak healing. Either improve the AoE or the casting time or have it the trident projectile heals as it travels. Bad buff is bad.

ArenaNet would understand that if they payed better attention to the community but I digress, back on topic.

Balance starting with mechanics, then move up to things like traits and skills.

HATE THE WEAPON WARDROBE.

I don’t think ArenaNet understand the value of a legendary, how much hard work and effort goes into making one. There are items like Infinite Light, Volcanus, Mjölnir, Foefire Essence that always take a lot of effort.

Now my Thief and Necromancer can run around with dual incinerators and all I did was use a transmutation stone.

ArenaNet please reconsider some weapons (and backpieces) to not appear on the list to be transmutated.

Edit
kitten, this is what I get when I work on a thread then go to lunch, 3 other threads pop up on the same issue.*

Phaeton.9582:

The new ele builds can’t do everything at once though.

The new earth trait it strong, but on that build an ele is constantly vulnerable to either conditions or direct damage.. And needs to swap between the two to keep that sustain.

Staff cleansing water xxx/30/30 will be strong versus condition classes (and introduce heavy cleanse support). But again they won’t be able to 1v1 direct damage (but they can out sustain)..

Blinds are gonna be a big help on fresh air builds (30/30x) for thief matchups, but again I’ll still be able to casually two shot the best eles in the game with an evisc warrior..

But hey.. Maybe some crazy fresh air stone heart ele will come out of nowhere and blow the meta up.. Beats hambow anyway…

Don’t underestimate healing potential of Elementalists, even if the trait doesn’t directly affect them. Because it scales by percentage, you can heal allies 3,000 health with the Clerics Amulet when you swap to water. That is not including regeneration that also gets boosted to a massive 270 health per second, which adds up to ~1,500 health over 6 seconds.

In other words, healing 4 allies 4,500 health when swapping to water. Which can be done every 10 seconds and any good Elementalist will constantly swap elements to avoid using the basic attack as much as possible.
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Elementalists don’t need better support options, our best role for PvP is support. Offering a lot of defensive and offensive boons to ourselves and allies. This just seems like an unnecessary buff (ArenaNets balance theme).

This is what I am getting at, it’s like ArenaNet doesn’t know where to start to improve Guild Wars 2 combat quality.

ArenaNet, look at Amplified Wrath, why would anyone take 30 points into Zeal thinking, “oh snap, MORE BURNINGS! I want that!” Why isn’t it something like:

Amplified Wrath: Activating Virtue of Justice now teleports you to target foe and your next attack will critically hit.

But saying that is actually going against my point, mechanics first, traits second.

hooma.9642:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/my-thoughts-to-new-patch/first#post3806209

meta will change in double ele and more tanky than before.

Oh dear God help us, the meta is going in a circle! The Ele meta again?!

This crap needs to end ArenaNet, understand to fix and balance you start at the kitten combat mechanics core!

This balance update is just bad, it is Dhuumfire and Diamond Skin bad. Adding must haves and can do withouts across every profession.

The game is getting limited, very limited each passing ‘balance.’ There was the thief meta, elementalist meta, condi meta, stun meta, bunker condi meta now it’s going to the safety glass meta.

Rewarding high damage and well placed get out of damage free cards for winning.

Necromancers going glass and speed building life force, guardians going glass sword and scepter, Elementalists going glass, rangers spamming as much AoE immobilize as possible, everyone is going glass and the best damage free buttons wins.

Not to mention the perfect build Engineers with range, melee damage, pull, stun, block, invisibility, invincibility, snares all in a single setup. I haven’t seen many engineers NOT using Tool Kit, Grenade Kit and Elixir S.

Is this the ideal PvP ArenaNet? Not all games have good metas but Guild Wars 2 metas are worse than Guild Wars 1.

This balance update isn’t going to change anything in the PvP side. So far everything points to the same formula, the safety glass meta.

Mechanically, the biggest problem are conditions and boons, despite not being in the meta, it’s terrible design in both PvE and PvP.

All conditions and boons scale the same, while attacks scale differently. That makes it impossible to safely balance conditions and boons with other combat mechanics.

Condition damage will affect bleeding, burning, torment, poison, confusion damage the same no matter the source. Might will always grant 35 power and condition damage, swiftness always grants 33% speed etc.
That is a big issue.
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In my opinion, to evolve Guild Wars 2 combat, each Boon and Condition applied should be unique to the way it scales.

For example:
Bleeding from Crossfire should deal damage differently from Split Blade. Swiftness applied by the warriors Charge should differ in speed from Signet of Rage.

But that is just my opinion.
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I’m going to cut this short to avoid being ignoring like one of my good unnoticed last thread.

Before adding and balancing more traits, before adding and balancing new utilities, before adding and balancing new weapons to classes.

You should start at the core, the inside, the combat mechanics. Then build up.
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ArenaNet, if you think this is the idea of fixing, then keep throwing more wretches at the broken Iron Forgeman. I’ll guarantee two things, the pile of wretches will keep growing and nothing will improve.
Go deep inside and start there.

Scale off other stats? There is a reason why ArenaNet has it so Attribute Points and traits are tied together. It’ll prevent build that can be very tanky and very offensive at the same time.

But why don’t have it so traits scale with other things than Power, Condition Damage, Condition Duration and Healing Power? Wouldn’t it make it easier to balance and offer more build types?
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For example, I’d love to build a glassy, supporting, venom thief for PvE.

I want Venomous Aura, Improvisation, Sleight of Hand and Bountiful Theft. Getting a 20% chance for Venoms to recharge, giving my allies boons when I steal as well as when I activate a venom, etc.

My attributes are all over the kitten place! 200 condition damage, 20% of stealing recharge, 300 Toughness and Healing Power, 200 Power and 20% Condition Duration.

It’s so kitten lop-sided!
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But it would be a bit broken if you can go 300 power, 10% Boon Duration, 30% recharge reduce on stealing, 300 precision and 30% critical damage.

Dealing an insane amount of damage while giving your allies a ton of extra damage.

To fix this, why don’t traits scale off more attributes? Rewarding diversity without it being either overpowered or underpowered.
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For example:
Improvisation, 20% chance to instantly recharge a utility type? Pretty weak. Why not when you steal it’ll simply shave off the duration?

• Improvisation: When you steal, reduce recharge of your utilities by 0+(Vitality*0.003) seconds.

(Since thieves already have a min. ~1200 vitality as a thief, the lowest amount the of seconds that can be reduced is 4, technically not 0)

So if you had 2000 base Vitality with gear, it’ll scale to (2+6) 8 total seconds, as a thief you already have a naturally low health, so having it scale from something like Healing Power would probably make the trait utterly worthless.

Now, you don’t have to built high vitality for this trait to be viable, you can put 300 vitality into Attribute points to increase the reduction to 5 seconds while still having glassy armor and an extra 3000 health.

So this trait can be viable for both glassy and bunker/supporting thief builds.
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Look at Warriors Spiked armor, it’s worthless. Not only do you rely on critical hits but you also rely on Retaliation, which scales off Power. So you can’t be very tanky without good power and deal decent damage back with this trait.

That is so stupid! As you can easily build a viable, balanced Warrior that has a good defense and good offense plus be better without this trait.

Why isn’t it something like,

• Spiked Armor: When you take damage, reflect 0%+(toughness*0.0075) of the damage you took around you. (1 second cooldown, range 90)

(Warriors have a natural 1,200 toughness, the amount reflected will always have a min. of 9% reflected back, technically not 0)

There. Not only do you no longer have to rely on critical hits for the trait to trigger but the trait can be more effective if you have toughness which is a double edge sword as you’ll take less damage but the trait will also reflect less.

This would prevent building high vitality and healing power so the trait can trigger harder while remaining very tanky, you can still use it with high health and healing power, the difference is if you get hit 5k damage, you’ll dish back 450 damage with 0 additional toughness, rather than 750 if you built 2000 toughness.
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Last but not least Deathly Perception, instead of it granting +50% critical chance while in Death Shroud, you can have it scale off your life pool.

• Deathly Perception: While in Death Shroud, gain a .7% critical chance for every 1% percentage of maximum Life Force.

Wouldn’t it make more sense this way? It’s more powerful above that the current Deathly Perception above 71% life force but the critical chance drops when your max life force is below 71%. Rewarding careful use of Death Shroud, good timing to swap out.

A Necromancer can build less precision if you build some defense and relying on high life force for the critical hits, swapping in and out often or more precision if you want to depend on being in Death Shroud more.
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Now those are just examples of me trying to put my point across of how different modifiers and aid in balancing.

The point is the mechanics are there to help balance and add more interesting traits. Allowing more builds and diversity in play styles without locking traits with attributes.

With the low health poor and low armor, a thief can easily chuck away most if not all the Elementalists health if they are glass.

Where other glassy classes have time to react, kite, snare, heal. With the Elementalist you pop your get out of damage free card and hope you’ll survive until it gets off cooldown, that’s if you can get your heal off in time while the thief is 222222222.

Right now the glass Elementalist is still the “YOU FORGOT ME” damage class.

Give it one team fight for it to work and the other team will learn to focus and blow up the Elementalist to quickly turn it into a 4v3.

Did I mention the glass Elementalist can’t roam unlike glass Necromancer or Engineer? They rely heavily on their team to stay alive. Go ahead, try to use a glass Elementalist on a 2v2, you can’t.

To avoid confusion and frustration, you could have posted:

Game Update Notes – March 18, 2014 (1/2) or (1 of 2)

Now you have a lashing community to quell.

The biggest issue is ArenaNet developers not listening to the community.

The efforts on large threads requesting feedback on balances is an absolute failure. I recall over a thousand Elementalist balance changes and what did we get? Diamond skin. What did a large part of the community did not want? Diamond skin.

I main an Elementalist, I spent thousands on hours on him, we don’t need buffs, we really don’t. ArenaNet isn’t even listening to the community for the ‘buffs’, why not buff back Ride the Lightning? Heck, the problem with Water Trident is it’s slow speed, I do not care for the extra Regeneration, make the spell faster and you might see it have other use than spamming on yourself.

We have Engineers running around with good ranged, melee damage, pull, stun, block, snares, invincibility and invisibility all in just in 3 utilities. Nerf that, and you’ll might see some more Elementalist play.

We have Necromancers going full power glass but thanks to speedy life force building and 100% critical chance from Deathly Perception they’ll burst anything while shrugging off damage. Isn’t that an issue ArenaNet? I’m seeing less and less Dhuumfire mainly because everyone HAS to bring heavy condition removal or get their faces wrecked.

ArenaNet thinks we are poison, afraid to touch us with a 10 foot pole. They make a mistake and it’s like they are afraid to fix it. They take hold of their precious mechanics like a child and shoo away anyone that dares change it.

If ArenaNet wants to become good at combat design and mechanics, their behavior has to change to take critical and even poisonous feedback.
I’m sure there are plenty of people in the community that can tear the combat design apart and put it back together in a beautiful and fun way. But ignoring everyone is just going to hurt in the end.

Guild Wars 2 combat will never improve as long as ArenaNet developers continues to only listen to themselves.

garethh.3518:

@Nova Stiker

The game is just messy.
Customization… the traits setup, it is workable, skill trees tied to attributes, random pick and choose traits that could affect anything.. that’s fine, just VERY sloppy.
(sloppy customization makes balancing much more tedious)

Ideally traits would have been far more streamlined, tier one would have a certain kind of trait (like they all are condi defense), tier two a different sort, exc. exc.
When things are exceedingly similar, balance is much easier.

True. But I personally wouldn’t worry about sloppy customization for traits. Can’t be any harder to understand than crafting in Guild Wars 2.

Don’t lie, when you first crafted you made like 10 insignias and wondering if you were suppose to apply them to armor like an upgrade… Or eat them.

I disagree about there being so much customization. I believe it’s fine.

The problem is it’s in the wrong system. It works for a single player RPG, not an MMO

Traits’ problem is they simply affect to much, making them hard to balance. If you want to balance traits, you need more wiggle room.

The current trait system has to go.

For an MMO, there are limitless possibilities that traits can affect skills. You can have a trait system for every skill.

For example, say you can only pick 1 or 2 traits per skill:
Whirlwind Attack: Whirl in a target’s direction, slashing foes along your path.

• Increase range by 100
• Reduce range to 0, no longer evades, cripple foes on hit.
• Gain Might for every foe you hit (max 5 stacks, lasts 5 seconds)
• Reduce recharge by 2 seconds
• Increase the damage by 10%
• Gain Vigor if you successfully evaded, (5 seconds)

Look at all that WIGGLE room. Look at how much is available to balance!

• Increase range by 100<- too strong? Reduce range increase to 80
• Gain Vigor if you successfully evaded, (5 seconds)<- too good? Changed to: gain 20 endurance if you successfully evaded.
• Reduce recharge by 2 seconds<- not useful? Increased to 3 seconds.
  .

Now lets look at the current trait system!

• Diamond Skin: Conditions cannot be applied to you when your health is above the threshold.
  Balance that. Go ahead, don’t make it to strong that it counters to well and don’t make it too weak so it’s not useless.

Yes, you’re right, GW1 had a vastly larger variety of viable builds (and an exponentially larger number of possible builds), but EVERY lvl 20 character of EVERY class had 480HP!

Nope. Dervishes had 505 HP. Yes, it was on an armor but it was NOT an armor bonus.
A lot of builds and a lot of useless skills. Mending wishes to remind you.
Oh, don’t get me started on skills specifically designed for farming. I’m looking at you Shadow Form.

kylwilson.9137:

I must say, if the developers were to occasionally admit their mistakes, I wouldn’t be bothered by said mistakes, because admitting them is simply the most honest and mature thing to do, which earns respect.

I bolded the important part.

With this Living World season freaking finally over, I pray that ArenaNet will take a step back and rethink their entire stance.

When you create something, spend years on it, it’s hard to admit it has flaws.

Guild Wars 2 content cannot improve until the developers can say, “this needs major rework.”

ArenaNet Developers need to understand that when we complain, it also means we care.
My 10+ infractions means I care a lot. That’s not a joke. It may seem I hate the developers, which is not true, I love them, I just hate the decisions.

What I don’t understand why ArenaNet doesn’t mix living world with balance?

Just recently WvW was involved with the living world, it’s time for sPvP to do the same.

As game developers ArenaNet, you need to step back and examine every mechanic closely and determine if it is good, bad or ugly.

I can tell you for a fact, traits can be removed entirely for a different system that can be more fun, more engaging and more freedom for balancing.

Look at League of Legends, they went through plenty of mechanics changes. THERE IS NO SHAME! Roit knows full well when they kitten hard, admit their kitten s ON CAMERA and they have the most played game of all time.

Don’t treat us like we are toxic, don’t treat us like we are a massive group. Don’t be afraid to talk to us individually and often. We bite but it’s because we don’t want to let go. Embrace the loving pain XD

With my Dwayna backpiece and the new zodiac armor skin, my duel incinerators is really starting to lack. I can understand store armors/weapons as well as ascended gear having special sparkle and skin effects.

But my two legendary daggers do not? I’m a Charr Elementalist, my attunement to fire is the same visual as the ‘flame’ arms. It’s barely noticeable.

I just feel bad for everyone that has Frostfang, The Flameseeker Prophecies, The Minstrel and Rodgort. They also got the short end of the stick (underwater legendaries apparently will never see the light of day, seriously, whats wrong with adding a visual effect while on land?).

Legendaries got a look at a bit ago but only part of them, I say the other half should get a look at. Oh and all the visual bugs fixed.

Chaith.8256:

Nova Stiker.8396:

Chaith can never beat me in a duel and you cannot either. I know that for a fact.

I was changing my traits when you jumped me!
No bowing, I didn’t even swap from my bloodlust weapon, I get it, can’t win without cheating, it’s okay I understand you’re bad.

When you stop running I’ll be happy to duel you again.

Kyon.9735:

Nova Stiker.8396:

Chaith.8256:

Nova Stiker.8396:

The point is, low recharge invincibility + glass cannon builds has to end as skilled players know exactly when and how to abuse their get out of damage free cards and return favor with massive damage.

It GREATLY limits high end PvP to favor classes with low recharge, damage denying skills that can dish out major damage.

The getting of out damage for X seconds free buttons with high damage needs to end for every class.

Glass Engineers simply don’t exist in competitive tPvP. Countered too hard by Thieves, Warriors, and Necromancers.

Glass Necromancers don’t exist in competitive tPvP either. Deathly perception? It might be good if you could actually run that build without getting mowed down by Thieves and Warriors.

I stopped reading after that. I’m talking about competitive PvP, not hot join.

tPvP is NOTHING but either glass/decap engineers, glass power necros, a single thief and one or two bunker guardians.

Now, thieves are definitely good for stopping any glass build but it’s part of the meta. You want to have one thief spiking people

There is also no such thing as a Warrior mowing in tPvP. I stomp Warriors all the time on my ‘underpowered’ Elementalist. Nerf pin down and boom, Warriors balanced and I might leave Lyssa Runes, the reduction/change to Healing Signet is utterly pointless in my opinion.

If you are a glass necromancer or engineer getting stomped by warriors, that is sad.

Funny how you don’t know who this “guy” (Chaith) you’re replying to is since you’re talking about competitive tPVP.

I’ve haven’t seen a single Power Engi for the past 2 weeks in tPVP. Most are decap/bunkers. Eles? They’re basically considered “dead” in tPVP because they’re countered really hard by thieves (shatter mesmers are getting fewer too). There have been a lot more HamBow warriors too and I wouldn’t call them glassy because they have at least 20 points in Defense paired with natural Heavy armor and high HP while dishing out strong damage.

Chaith can never beat me in a duel and you cannot either. I know that for a fact.

What other build exists for Engineers that is viable other than decap or glass? Condition with Rabid? Utterly pointless, not when your grenades can land 30 seconds of poison and hit 6k, why have extra defense when you have Gear Shield on a 16 second recharge? Rabid or Berserker, that isn’t going to change the thief spiking you in his combo.
Sorry to say, you’ve been playing with and against a lot of bad engineers.

I also don’t know where your comment on Ele’s and Warriors came from. What I was getting at is Warriors fall off that skill can outplay them no matter what they use. Easy to master, falls off late.

That doesn’t mean they are useless, it does mean if you had a choice between a power necro or hambow, the choice is sadly obvious.

Chaith.8256:

Nova Stiker.8396:

The point is, low recharge invincibility + glass cannon builds has to end as skilled players know exactly when and how to abuse their get out of damage free cards and return favor with massive damage.

It GREATLY limits high end PvP to favor classes with low recharge, damage denying skills that can dish out major damage.

The getting of out damage for X seconds free buttons with high damage needs to end for every class.

Glass Engineers simply don’t exist in competitive tPvP. Countered too hard by Thieves, Warriors, and Necromancers.

Glass Necromancers don’t exist in competitive tPvP either. Deathly perception? It might be good if you could actually run that build without getting mowed down by Thieves and Warriors.

I stopped reading after that. I’m talking about competitive PvP, not hot join.

tPvP is NOTHING but either glass/decap engineers, glass power necros, a single thief and one or two bunker guardians.

Now, thieves are definitely good for stopping any glass build but it’s part of the meta. You want to have one thief spiking people

There is also no such thing as a Warrior mowing in tPvP. I stomp Warriors all the time on my ‘underpowered’ Elementalist. Nerf pin down and boom, Warriors balanced and I might leave Lyssa Runes, the reduction/change to Healing Signet is utterly pointless in my opinion.

If you are a glass necromancer or engineer getting stomped by warriors, that is sad.

Like ArenaNet said, you can have high damage or high defense but you cannot have high damage and defense.