Guild Wars 2

Ross Biddle.2367:

ODB.6891:

I would never take power block in pve unless it affected bosses. I had no idea that it formerly bypassed defiant….that would be enough to make me take it for pve.

You know, it still effects bosses now. You just need to coordinate the removal of defiant first.

That said it’s PvE. Who cares. Seriously, just stack and spam 1. Oh and spam F for your loot thereafter.

Real mature answer there..but whatever. I could say the same thing about pvp, wvw, whatever. I guess I should expect responses like that from kids.

I would never take power block in pve unless it affected bosses. I had no idea that it formerly bypassed defiant….that would be enough to make me take it for pve.

I wouldn’t mind it if the leaps either had evasion frames…as if you were in a dodge roll, or if you could actually break the animation by manually dodge rolling. I never understood the complaints about this until I recently rolled a ranger…not being able to dodge on demand is obnoxious. I’m also not a big fan of it leaping me out of melee range/into an unintended spot, when my target dies….breaking a melee stack..soaring off into bfe in a pve encounter is bad.

All that being said, the 1h sword is my preferred weapon on a ranger so far…I just want more control of my character and more multi target melee on it.

Phyrak.7260:

Ranger CDI

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Collaborative-Development-Ranger-Profession/first#post3682544

If you’ve seen my posts on ele’s sticking to a single element and engineers and their kits

The rangers are on my hit list for an in depth look into traits and skills and the potential of how the ‘spirit of animal x’ will work both passive and actively

-Phyrak

I would also play a ranger if I did not have to deal with the perma pet situation. I do not enjoy micromanaging a poorly designed AI pet. I have been thinking the same thing as a solution as you have apparently. Stowing the pet granting the ranger an “aspect of the pet” type bonus. This would solve 90% of my issues with the ranger profession.

The below is not directed to Phyrak, but just to the flavor of other posts so far in this thread:
Its always funny looking at all these other posts telling anyone who doesn’t like it to re-roll though…as if the game design decisions are theirs to make. No one is asking for pets to be removed from the ranger class. No one is asking for any nerf to pets or the play style of other rangers. What is being asked for is an option for a different play style for rangers that choose to build/trait for that specific play style. I’ll never understand how people get so bent out of shape when someone even suggests and option that won’t even affect their own play experience if they choose not to use it themselves. That’s like getting mad about the addition of some random new option in the settings menu that you don’t intend to use anyway.

Windsagio.1340:

Pet is unfixable in pvp, that’s just something you’ve got to live with. They just can’t make ai and pathing work against targets that don’t stop moving and can jump.

I wish they would make an option to merge with/consume the pet in some way. I just have a bias against permanent pet classes. The AI for pets just seems to be terrible in all games so far and it annoys me having that constant pet running around/doing unintended things/not doing intended things. It especially bothers me that they count the pet as part of the class damage and it fails to deliver that damage consistently.

If they had a mechanic similar to mesmer’s shattered strength or a merge option like destroying the pet and having the player take on aspects of the pet in exchange…I would really consider playing the ranger class.

I would also need them to do some serious rework on ranger weapons. I can confess to being seriously annoyed and kick happy with rangers in fractals/dungeon groups. I go into a rage every time I see that bear/bow set up. When the entire group is in melee combat and then the ranger is like half a map away spamming lb…that irritates. If the melee weapons were better, that would be awesome. It has been said numerous times by others, ranger pbaoe moves like aoe healing and such…are completely useless to the group when they are used away from the group.

I have been running a signet/phantasm build with blurred inscriptions and triumphant distortion for pve lately. I have tried a significant number of builds involving phantasms and zerk gear and I think I like this one the best so far. I really dislike mantras and I sub in clone/glamors as necessary.

Here’s my take on the signets:

• Signet of the Ether (35s CD)
  • Passive: Gain Health every few seconds, based on the number of active illusions you control.
  • Active: Heal yourself and refresh all phantasm skill recharges.

I generally like this one with the exception of zero contribution when all illusions get smashed. Even when that happens, the active allows me to reset all phantasm skill cool downs immediately, heal for a decent amount, with the side bonus of triggering 1s of distortion due to blurred inscriptions. Pretty good in my opinion.

• Signet of Inspiration (45s CD)
  • Passive: Grants a random boon every ten seconds.
  • Active: Copy all of your boons to nearby allies.

Please take the junk boons off of this and give it passive 25% run speed. Please stop holding this utility back for flavor reasons. Yes, I like the randomization of boons this gives, but I do not like the useless boons it gives with their useless durations. I mean seriously, 3 seconds of protection, 1 stack of might, 5 seconds of retaliation, 5 seconds of fury. Those boons are just over-budgeting this utility and unnecessarily diluting its effectiveness. Either remove these space wasters or make them worthwhile via duration and/or intensity. You could even have it generate 3 boons at a time versus one at a time…that would make it more likely to get something decent/appropriate when needed. Take swiftness off of this as a boon and make it passive 25%.

• Signet of Domination (45s CD)
  • Passive: Improved condition damage.
  • Active: Stun your foe (3s).

I never use this one. I’d say this is more of a pvp/wvw utility. Seems decent enough for those purposes. Active CD seems a bit longish though.

• Signet of Illusions (90s CD)
  • Passive: Grants more health to your illusions.
  • Active: Recharge your shatter skills.

This is one I generally stay away from. The additional illusion health is decent, but not really necessary for my build as I generate phantasms pretty quickly anyway with Signet of Ether’s help + traits. I do agree…the active and passive contradict each other pretty bad. The CD is terrible as well. I generally don’t use this one, as I rarely shatter, the CD is too long, it has a cast time…negating the benefits of blurred inscriptions, and There are many utilities much more useful.

• Signet of Midnight (30s CD)
  • Passive: Improves boon duration (10%).
  • Active: Blind nearby foes (5s).

I actually like this one a lot for my build. First and foremost, it is instant cast + low CD, which means it works perfectly with blurred inscriptions. Second, it is a stun break, which makes the difference between knocked down temporarily and dead as a glassy build. Third, the blind definitely doesn’t hurt…just in case something is about to get me when I’m low health and my 1s of distortion has just ended. Yes, the 10% boon duration is trash, but the active is exactly what my build needs.

My main gripe with signets is that they have cast times when paired with blurred inscriptions. Defeats the point of the 1 second distortion frame when you have to wait for a cast to complete before its active. I guess this is more about the blurred inscriptions trait, then it is about signets, but I think the combination should make all signets instant cast and give 2 seconds of distortion…enough to compensate for lag and such.

Carighan.6758:

Riverbane.7215:

Mesmer is literally the only class that doesn’t have a speed boost outside of a specific weapon skill/runes.

Guardians. :P

retreat, save yourselves, and staff

MarkusParkus.8467:

One last thing.. Arcane Thievery not bugging, going on CD at max range, randomly missing and seemingly being blocked by Aegis would be nice.

Arcane Thievery at least doing the condi removal …even without a target would be amazing. It should do the condition removal no matter what…target, no target, out of range, etc.

Levetty.1279:

25% speed buff utility or even trait depending on placement.
Let us use Spear on land.

Boom my Mesmer would have 100% map completion in a day.

They could solve the speed issue easily. Just fix signet of inspiration. Take some of the junk boons off of it (random swiftness, retaliation, single stack of might, 5 seconds of fury) and just make it give a passive 25% run speed like other light armor profession’s signets. Oh yeah..the 3 seconds of protection may as well go to…or increase the duration. They could even go a different route, and make it give 2-3 boons at a time…with a high probability that one will be swiftness. They really could fix this if they felt like it.

Mea.8967:

IDK if I’m in the minority about this or not, but for the love of the six, PLEASE no more channeling for mantras

I think the entire design of mantras is just terrible.
1. Channeling
2. Empowering Mantras trait: pressure to only slot one utility type to get decent dps
3: Empowering Mantras trait: pressure to not actually use your utilities at all
3: Mantras being the only utility type that does any “interrupting”…synergy w/interrupt traits

If you can’t tell….I absolutely hate mantras. Yes the power build damage was nice for my power/phantasm build in pve, but in the end, I just dislike being forced into that route and the mechanics of it so much that I dropped all mantras and went to a lesser damage output build.

Riverbane.7215:

25% Passive Run Speed Trait – Mesmer is literally the only class that doesn’t have a speed boost outside of a specific weapon skill/runes. I am so sick and tired of being pigeonholed into using a weapon/runes I don’t want to use just to keep up with my team mates in PvE/WvW(the game modes 95% of mesmers play the most….). Arenanet may not be worried about it because they only balance around sPVP but this one single problem makes me not want to play my mesmer outside of solo PvE. I love my mesmer but when I’m forced to kitten my spec just to keep up with my friends its depressing, especially when I play 4 other classes that don’t have to put up with this nonsense.

This ^

Also lack of swiftness stacking from the two poor options we do have with any other swiftness and with themselves. Its absolutely ridiculous that TC swiftness will not even stack with signet of inspiration random swiftness. This, on top of TC swiftness not stacking with any other profession’s swiftness.

I also take issue with the trait blurred inscriptions. A 1 second duration on distortion…with signets that have activation times. At the very least, the signets need to be instant cast when paired with blurred inscriptions and have at least a 2 second duration to compensate for potential lag/timing issues.

Maybe this is a WvW thing because I’m not really seeing practical application of this new Light Aura in PvE. The problem I have with it is the “when struck” part. Optimal PvE is always going to be a damage dealing build and that is not one where you want to be “struck”. Optimal PvE is going to be about avoiding/blocking incoming damage, while doing optimal damage output. That pretty much defeats the purpose of this new Light Aura.

I would be all over it if it acted more like a blast finisher and applied decent stacks of retal and vuln in an area around the leap. This still isn’t worth potentially blocking a fire field with a light field.

As far as generating the aura via mechanics…I’ve played with it a little and it seems to generate the aura when i use ileap across TC to a target on the other side of it fairly reliably. That still leaves the issue of it not doing anything beneficial as I’m using distortion frames to not get gibbed…and therefore not getting “struck”.

Esplen.3940:

@ODB, our profession mechanic is shatters and illusions. As such, should we not be intended to use shatters in every fight? Is it their intent to make us use illusions in every fight?

Why, then, do we spawn things that deal a significant portion of our total dps while staying alive while our profession mechanic relies on destroying them?

If you don’t understand that, let me explain it to you: You can only make cakes, but you’re allergic to eggs. If you want to eat a cake, you have to work around the fact that you’re allergic to eggs. Why, then, are you only capable of making cakes?

If you still don’t understand…
Illusions don’t add to our dps. They account for a large portion of our dps.
Burst skills don’t add to Warrior DPS, they’re [supposed to] account for a large portion of their dps. (Bar Eviscerate, since someone will axe me about it.)

However, Warriors get a large damage bonus for not using their profession mechanic when they don’t, in most builds, need to use it to improve dps.

Mesmers, on the other hand, don’t get a large bonus for not using their profession mechanic when they don’t, in most builds, need to use it to improve dps.

….

Eventually, my point will boil down to (if we want to keep Shatter in the game, which we do) Shatter skills should be select-able because as they are, they are very pidgeonholed in their uses (bless your lovely soul, Distortion, I will love you even if we get to pick our shatters).

Okay, the initial condescending tone withstanding, I’ll bite. I have no lack of understanding how shatters or the mesmer class works. What I was seeking clarity on was your parallel of warrior’s class mechanic versus the mesmer class mechanic…specifically if you were referring to adrenaline or the burst mechanic part of it…versus our shatters. I’ll agree that both illusions and shatters are our class mechanic, since they are both required for the class mechanic to work…despite other classes actually having all components for their class mechanic actually be a part of their class mechanic bar. That being a point of semantics and I have no interest in the semantics. The majority of your post just now pretty much revolves around semantics, as “improving dps” and “dealing a significant portion of dps” equate to the same net effect. I also have no interest in taking this on a tangent about warriors versus mesmers…as that is never a productive discussion and I have no issues with the way another class performs…only suggestions for mesmer improvement. We already perform closely in mechanics in terms of our illusions functioning close enough to adrenaline to boost our damage. I wouldn’t want it to be anymore similar as I enjoy the difference. Neither my initial post, nor the reply were aimed at getting a guide to mesmer, a guide to warrior, nor a criticism of your idea/opinion. Essentially it boiled down to that last paragraph you wrote about shatters being selectable, versus my idea of the phantasms being on that bar as selectable instead.

Esplen.3940:

I play Phantasm in PvE (well, more of the flavaflav 6/4/0/04 with tweaks as necessary), and the shatters I use are…

Mind Wrack as a finisher, when I know a mob is going to die, because it’s a significant burst/overall dps increase since it doesn’t hold any flaws when used right at the end of a battle (bar between battle cooldowns, but we’re not spamming it, so no big deal).

Diversion as an interrupt, now I usually have 2 interrupts through weapon skills and if I really need a third, I’ll slot MoDistraction, but Diversion is helpful for clearing Defiance on things like Dredge Fractal final boss fight, where nobody likes helping you clear Defiance and you’re effectively 1 man interrupting (and reducing Defiance) any time the oil misses.

Tl;dr: Can we get treatment on our Shatters similar to Warriors and Burst Skills? It actually makes sense, if you think about it…

I’m not really clear on what you mean by treating shatters similar to warriors burst skills. What I think you are saying is to still have shatters as our class mechanic, but to have illusions increase our dps depending on how many illusions we have active…like adrenaline…just have the shatters as burst/cc/survivability? If so, that works too. I just think it would be a better mechanic to have the phantasms themselves be our class mechanic..not the shatters. I’m saying to decouple phantasms from the actual weapon skills…making all phantasm types available to all mesmers…regardless of what weapons you have equipped. Phantasms provide nice and varied utility (wardens blocking projectiles, mages with confusion, duelists with projectile finishers, swordsmen with leap finishers, berserkers with cripple). Shatters are really situational and play style specific in my opinion. I recently picked my mesmer up again after an extended period on my warrior and another extended period on my guardian, so take what I say with the knowledge that I am definitely not the most experienced at mesmer. I rarely do dungeons…I primarily do fractals (30-50) and I’m currently addicted to dry top rewards.

I also play 6/4/0/0/4. I alternate from sw/sw + sw/foc to sw/sw + gs. I’ve recently given in to ANET’s pressure to slot mantras in order to squeeze out some decent pve dps. I’m pretty unhappy with that as I prefer a mix of utility types (glamors, illusions, and signets), but empowering mantras is just too much of a dps boost to ignore. I think its bad design to pressure players into ignoring all but one utility type and to discourage use of utilities like mantras do. 4% dps penalty every time you use up charges on a mantra + cast time and cool down getting it back. Why would I nerf myself if I don’t absolutely have any other choice?

Esplen.3940:

The problem is that Phantasms account for roughly 40% of our sustained dps, meaning unless you’re going for a non-sustained dps burst build (aka Shatter), you’re not going to use your class mechanic.

I like how Warrior holding onto their class mechanic got addressed. However, it only got addressed because it was unnecessarily large amounts of damage bonus being added in place of a damage skill. Since Mesmers don’t have a trait giving us more damage for each shatter skill off cooldown, we won’t be getting that same mechanic addressed.

Basically, what I’m complaining about in this post is the fact that we rely so heavily on our Phantasms for dps that it’s kind of silly that our class mechanic is to get rid of them for a small, small burst.

Now, for a literal representation of how our DPS is without Phantasms (ignoring you, shatter), 100b can easily hit 30,000 damage. Imagine with that exact setup, you instead dealt 18,000 damage because a mob cleaved your banners, effectively dropping your dps. (Shhh, it doesn’t work perfectly, but that’s how weak our attacks are without Phantasms making up the difference).

I can’t help but agree with this. A class mechanic that is almost unusable by one of the two primary builds of a class is bad. My mesmer is a phantasm build and the only shatter I would ever use is distortion..and that is the last resort if I am about to die. I would much prefer our class mechanic to not revolve around destroying illusions…maybe instead move our phantasm summonings to the class mechanic bar and have shatter’s be available via a different mechanic.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

These changes won’t make the mesmer class any more enjoyable in PvE.
Build variety is still non-existant.
Leveling and open worldl will still be a chore compared to other classes, tagging is nearly as bad as before.
No swiftness buff.

The changes are neutral in matters of PvE. That’s why I won’t come back to GW2.

Which could probably seen as bad, if ANet wants people to play their game.

So all together, the changes are not enough and therefore bad.

I agree with the lack of build diversity. I like the mesmer class, but I dislike being pressured into slotting all or majority of mantras to squeeze out decent pve dps.

I also dislike being pressured into having a focus equipped at all times to have decent OOC movement speed. I just can’t understand their logic on restricting reliable OOC movement speed to this one option on a mesmer…and this being the only class with such a restriction?!? This is a really bad choice to impose a flavor restriction on.

Overall, the changes they made were positive ones…just in such small increments that it is frustrating and too minor. At this rate, it will be a decade from now that they finally fix half of the issues…and no one will even be playing this at that point. They just need to man up and make some serious attempts at balance versus this snail pace approach. At the very least, that would shake up the class hiearchy and make the game more interesting.

UrMom.4205:

don’t forget the minor traits you have in order to run PU, gain regen at 75% health and gain prot whenever you gain regen. So now if you get a crappy roll on PU, say might, swift, and regen, it will pop prot too. I think the changes are minimal and fair.

What upsets me more is that a lot of these changes are brought on by the insane amount of QQ from the forums after last weeks ready up. The patch isn’t even out yet and we’re getting nerfed. The community frustrates the hell out of me.

Its the only way ANET knows how to balance…forum balancing ftw. They clearly don’t do it by play testing, otherwise these changes would have been in the initial skill bar info instead of following the ready up. All the while, they continue to ignore basic QoL requests like OOC run speed sans focus. They continue to ignore logical requests like a pistol main hand for 1h power builds now that they have moved the scepter more into condi territory.

It doesn’t even stack with the random swiftness from signet of inspiraton….

Domination

Power Block – like StickerHappy said above
Confounding Suggestions – Also like StickerHappy said above
Empowering Mantras – I think this trait needs a complete rework. Forcing mesmers into using mantras only…to get a damage output increase is bad. This damage increase needs to be based on something other than pressuring zerk builds into ignoring all other utilities.

GM Minor

Wastrel’s Punishment – This trait just seems vague and difficult to gauge its effectiveness. I would much rather this be replaced entirely with something power related and under the mesmer’s control…maybe a non random, boon generating trait…like fury, might, or protection..that does not require shatters.

Dueling

Harmonious Mantras – No real comment here as I just generally do not like mantras. This seems like a decent GM
Furious Interruption – The quickness duration is extremely short and should apply to phantasms…just like the above poster said
Triumphant Distortion – This trait does not belong at GM level. This is like the adept minor trait in guardian’s radiance line. It only works on trash in pve and has a significant ICD. I’d take this as the master level minor, but not as a GM major. I’d take something at this level that provided fury on a frequent basis since this is the precision/ferocity line.

GM Minor

Confusing Combatants – The effect is minor…I’d never choose this unless going for the GM slot.

No real comments on Chaos, Inspiration, or Illusions GMs.

So this upcoming feature pack openly states they are taking scepter further into condition territory. This leaves zero ranged main hand power weapons, not the the scepter was really a power weapon to begin with. This leaves one logical decision for a ranged 1h weapon for power builds…main hand pistol! Please implement!

I can’t even comprehend why they would think it is okay to have mesmers be the only profession to be stuck with requiring a specific weapon to have decent OOC movement speed. At least guardians have two utilities that grant swiftness…combined they have nearly 100% swiftness up time. Every other light armor wearer has a signet that has the passive 25% OOC movement speed + at least one trait/utility with swiftness/movement speed.

We’re not even talking about in-combat movement speed (as we already have that), this is about quality of life, running around the world, event to event, keeping up with teammates that may or may not have group swiftness (or maybe you were out of range when they used group swiftness).

Using portal as an excuse to make mesmers feel like they are running in slow motion versus all other characters is just that….an excuse…and not an intelligent one at that. Portal requires you to have been to a location…and extremely recently…to be able to use portal to get back to that location. That does not even remotely sound like it accomplishes the same thing as OOC movement speed between events/across a map.

Forcing us to keep a focus equipped just to be able to have decent OOC movement speed is just a bad decision…since this restriction/requirement is 100% not applied to any other profession. Its not like I wouldn’t use a focus on its own merits (the aoe pull, reflect, iWarden), so ease up on the movement speed restriction. I pretty much hate having to switch to this weapon from any other I have currently equipped…just to not drag across the map in slow motion.

We have some prime signets that would be great to attach 25% movement speed to (just like the other light armor classes). Signet of Ether and Signet of Illusions come readily to mind. Especially Signet of Illusions as its current passive is just a band-aid for the weak trait (persisting images) and lack luster phantasm survivability in general.

I do tend to think that movement speed for all characters needs to just be re-evaluated. The speed other characters move at with the 25% increase should be the base. No one enjoys moving in slow motion, and the sacrifice of desired utility slots just to compensate is a negative, not a positive on game play experience.

I would just like to add that our power trait line (domination) could use some serious improvement as well. It feels as bad or worse than guardian’s power trait line (zeal). I can’t even find an excuse to go beyond the first two traits. The only possible reasons would be for the torch or GS traits, which I don’t use. Going the power route generally means using melee weapons, yet the only weapon traits in the power line are for GS and torch. There are the interrupt traits, but those are useless against bosses in pve. There are the confusion traits, but the reason we are going power is for power…not for condition damage. In short, this trait line is a hot mess. It lacks identity and strays from its purpose. I hope this is something that is being worked on in this upcoming feature pack as was possibly hinted at.

I’ve just come back to my mesmer after extended stints on my guard and warrior. My mesmer build is zerk sw/sw + sw/foc phantasm. I run zerk on the guard and warrior as well. I only pve.

I have also noticed the severe deficiency of phantasm survival versus some of these living story bosses.

I am extremely reluctant to change traits/gear to overcome this as I chose this build for my enjoyment…and that is pretty much the point of playing…to enjoy. I would understand If the difficulty was damage being too low to clear content, or just an impractical build for the game mode, but illusions are a core functionality of the class…and I built around them!!! I keep signet of illusions slotted and the persisting images trait. With that much invested, they should not die this easily.

I don’t think the solution is all that complicated…have signet of illusions also give protection to illusions. Currently, the only thing they really have for survival is padded health…we all know how much damage is being output in these one shot attacks by pve mobs/bosses now…hp alone isn’t going to get the job done. Illusions aren’t smart enough to dodge…so give them protection in addition to the health from the signet in pve only.

Oh yeah, I feel obliged to also yell and scream about the lack of swiftness/passive run speed outside of equipping a focus and the fact that we still do not have main hand pistol.

Obtena.7952:

J Eberle.9312:

Obtena.7952:

J Eberle.9312:

Obtena.7952:

J Eberle.9312:

I’m playing how I want, in my own party that I create. People join and expect me to put up with how they want to play. They ignore my request in the lfg, they don’t care about pinging gear and somehow we are on equal footing when it comes to being in the wrong. I don’t think so. They can make their own parties the same as I make mine. I’m not forcing anything on them, they can choose to join my group and adhere to my rules or they can choose to make their own group with their own rules. Never have I joined their groups and told them off for running terrible builds or doing stupid crap because I respect their rules, now all I do is expect that in return and I get abuse hurled at me and labelled an elitist. Lol.

That’s a nice story but play how I tell you people have been hating on play how I want people since BEFORE the LFG thing was established.

That’s irrelevant and doesn’t take away from the fact that this is happening.

I’m not arguing it’s not happening … I don’t even get the point of bringing it up.

Here is an interesting mind experiment … make a game where 100% of the people that play it play how they want … would that game have all of these hateful threads about elitists, etc….? You guys aren’t recognizing that cause and effect here. You slap a guy, he slaps you back. Now your complaining you got slapped? That’s some good revisionist history there.

Sorry not seeing how me making my own party, minding my own business and then having people ignore my requirements and abuse me = my fault.

Of course not … you haven’t done anything to promote intolerance in the game ever ><

A cooperative environment where each person is depending on the other for success is not the optimal venue for tolerance. It would be different if each individual had no impact at all on success…if success was guaranteed with no variance on time, effort, and opportunity cost.

Obtena.7952:

J Eberle.9312:

Obtena.7952:

J Eberle.9312:

I’m playing how I want, in my own party that I create. People join and expect me to put up with how they want to play. They ignore my request in the lfg, they don’t care about pinging gear and somehow we are on equal footing when it comes to being in the wrong. I don’t think so. They can make their own parties the same as I make mine. I’m not forcing anything on them, they can choose to join my group and adhere to my rules or they can choose to make their own group with their own rules. Never have I joined their groups and told them off for running terrible builds or doing stupid crap because I respect their rules, now all I do is expect that in return and I get abuse hurled at me and labelled an elitist. Lol.

That’s a nice story but play how I tell you people have been hating on play how I want people since BEFORE the LFG thing was established.

That’s irrelevant and doesn’t take away from the fact that this is happening.

I’m not arguing it’s not happening … I don’t even get the point of bringing it up.

Here is an interesting mind experiment … make a game where 100% of the people that play it play how they want … would that game have all of these hateful threads about elitists, etc….? You guys aren’t recognizing that cause and effect here. You slap a guy, he slaps you back. Now your complaining you got slapped? That’s some good revisionist history there.

Problem with your argument is missing the first “slap”, which is joining the party that you clearly did not meet the requirements for. That is the cause. The effect is the kick/complaints.

Saint.5647:

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

It’s bad because the effort in completing this encounter in nowhere comes close to the reward you get for completing it.

The effort for fractals hasn’t been rewarding in the traditional sense to begin with. It’s still the closest to testing your group though and is probably the most fun “dungeon” in the game.

Run with a close group of friends and it’s a blast.

“Run with a close group of friends… " should not be a requirement to have fun. Even then, who’s to say that all of those friends aren’t even more terri-bad than the average pug.

This would be a moot point if you could simply choose not to get mai trin as your final encounter, but I am personally against limiting the already limited rng of which fractal encounters you get.

I think the correct solution is to have deeper game play challenges than ridiculous one-shot mechanics…especially when you make them a combination of either undodgeable or unblockable. An encounter that spams one-shots every few seconds, for the entire encounter is not my idea of a fun or interesting encounter.

The only reason I can see that they would even think to ramp up the incoming damage from this encounter, would be to over compensate for those wearing “tank” or “healer” gear…and managing to negate/trivialize the majority of her previous damage. Those wearing zerk gear were already having to dodge/block/cleanse to survive this….so this really added nothing new to them….just more extreme overkill. I think the more logical solution to that problem, with trivializing her damage output through gear, would have been to nerf the mitigation from the gear….just like they nerfed the damage output from zerk gear (for the exact same reason…trivializing the encounters through gear).

Talking about the logical result of increasing damage output combined with them specifically mentioning new healing and toughness gear. Combining that with previous snippets about wanting said gear types to be more useful and with the constant forum sentiment of wanting to “do something” about a berserker meta. I guess its too much of a stretch to see how these things could possibly be related. Yes, the ideal thing would be to block what can be blocked or dodge what can be dodged, but then you factor in pugs, who are allegedly supposed to do the same content and see how well this goes.

Relativity.3264:

Oega – I love the challenge but it seems more appropriate to level ~80 – Mai trin was already harder than the other 2 bosses at 50, if anything the other 2 needed a buff

But I would like to see this difficulty again when they unlock higher levels

My real issue is why are they equating non-stop one-shots (or near one-shots) to difficulty/challenge? I like difficult content, but it needs to be difficult due to boss mechanics…not due to ridiculous damage output on every hit every few seconds. I’d appreciate a strategy approach versus trying to force “tank/healer” requirements into every group. Its not even vaguely disguised…introducing new toughness/healing gear in the same patch when they start ramping up incoming damage…

Just ruined the last type of content I was rarely able to bring myself to play in this game. Just the possibility that my entire pug fractal run will be an even worse waste of time due to forcing a requirement for “tanking” gear on the Mai Trin encounter!?! This is on top of the horrible reward rate/rng. I can’t understand why anyone would even want to play this one-shot garbage…when they go out of their way to make sure the only way to reliably succeed is to wear toughness/healing gear. There is no excitement or thrill in that….I’ll pass.

Simple solution, don’t stay in a group with more than one person with the same guild tag. I make it a habit to check guild tags and quit groups like that immediately. Too much hassle to deal with. Either they play a certain way and expect everyone else to mind read and follow, or you get shenanigans like this kick and replace for a guildie at the last minute. Pugs should be pugs…not some partial guild run looking to take advantage. Better to start over immediately than deal with wasted time and no reward at the end.

I’m constantly scanning pug groups I join for warning signs to bail (extremely low dps, obvious signs that the rest of the group is on voice chat instead of in-game chat, more than one with the same guild tag, bad weapon choice, buffs indicating low dps builds, notoriously bad classes for fractals). Learn the warning signs and what you are willing to tolerate and your pug experience will get better.

maha.7902:

i find it kind of hard to make jokes about this when cryhards make threads about it over and over again and just openly flaunt their lack of understanding of the game

/negative nancy off

lol at the new term “cryhards”. I haven’t heard that one before, but its so appropriate that it made me smile.

D I V A.6018:

spoj.9672:

Your choice of classes is good. You have everything covered. But yeah switch that guard to zerk. Ideal comp would be D/F ele, phalanx war, hammer guard, thief and mes.

What is the focus for on the ele though?

More blast finishers because of the focus…for might stacking I think. Although the ele and the phalanx war at the same time may be overkill for might stacking

@VideoGamermike

At some point, the rational person will consider the following question:

Is the entire world crazy…or is it me?

Funkinmofo.9635:

If Anet were to add a save/share build template function similar to what GW1 had that might be part of the solution. It would only show the traits, utilities and equipment currently worn. (sort of how the pvp build panel looks, first screen shows currently equipped weapons and rune set along with attributes while a second tab shows traits)

My only concern with that much detail is that certain professions have inherently lower stats than others…specifically due to damage increases based on trait percentage modifiers. If left up to players, they are going to look for the numbers and that sets up an entirely new criteria for exclusion for those not knowledge about specific classes and builds. I’d be happy with just the general gear type (soldiers, zerk, etc) versus an arbitrary numeric requirement on how much power, ferocity, precision, etc that is required to not get kicked.

Jerus.4350:

ODB.6891:

Jerus.4350:

ODB.6891:

kokiman.2364:

Veydar.5017:

My LFG, my rules. Abide or get kicked, it’s that simple.

This.

frifox.5283:

I ping my zerk gear but wear equally skinned clerics.

Stuff like this is a bigger problem for the community.

The only things you should be allowed to change once in a party are weapons and traits. That would solve that problem.

how so? You’d just leave your zerk gear in your bags and ping from there. Though it’s a silly idea to do in the first place and you’d have to be a really kittenty person to even try to pull that one.

That would pull from a previous post I made in this thread. LFG filters on gear type and primary stat type to even be able to see the lfg post and get into the party. They could even make it so that you can only ping gear that is currently equipped.

Like most solutions to these kinds of problems there’s always goign to be loop holes, or there will be too much coverage to the point that it hinders our play.

Just to throw one out. Ok listed by primary stat right? Ok, so PVT gear in a zerk group passes…

And issue your suggestion would create, I want to ping my buddy a peice of gear I just got to drop, but I don’t wnat to use it, i’m gonna sell it, or possibly give it to them, but now I can’t because you can only ping gear you have equipped.

It’s tough to get a solution that fixes the problem, doesn’t have loop holes, and doesn’t cause other problems. Sometimes it’s better to just let us have the freedom and figure it out for ourselves in a case by case manner.

True, I can see those issues. What I meant by gear type was zerk, versus, soldiers, clerics, etc. The primary stat type filter would not have to necessarily be limited to one stat. I still recognize the issues even with this level of filtering though. I really wish there was a comprehensive solution that would eliminate the whole situation of needing to do gear pings vs having to deal with dishonest or illiterate party members. A solution that removes the while situation of negative feelings about certain players being angry they can’t join groups that they see in the LFG tool. Something that stops players trying to force themselves on others who don’t want to group with them. Something that would just take player integrity and honor out of the equation entirely by impartial system restrictions.

Jerus.4350:

ODB.6891:

kokiman.2364:

Veydar.5017:

My LFG, my rules. Abide or get kicked, it’s that simple.

This.

frifox.5283:

I ping my zerk gear but wear equally skinned clerics.

Stuff like this is a bigger problem for the community.

The only things you should be allowed to change once in a party are weapons and traits. That would solve that problem.

how so? You’d just leave your zerk gear in your bags and ping from there. Though it’s a silly idea to do in the first place and you’d have to be a really kittenty person to even try to pull that one.

That would pull from a previous post I made in this thread. LFG filters on gear type and primary stat type to even be able to see the lfg post and get into the party. They could even make it so that you can only ping gear that is currently equipped.

kokiman.2364:

Veydar.5017:

My LFG, my rules. Abide or get kicked, it’s that simple.

This.

frifox.5283:

I ping my zerk gear but wear equally skinned clerics.

Stuff like this is a bigger problem for the community.

The only things you should be allowed to change once in a party are weapons and traits. That would solve that problem.

They just need to do what they have been avoiding this entire time since LFG was implemented….add filters for gear type and primary stat types into the tool.

Problem would be solved. No more pings necessary. You know exactly what type of build/player you are getting. Maybe even take it a step further and not allow those not meeting these filter requirements to even see the LFG request. That eliminates all the QQ that brought about this ferocity change to begin with. No more joining to either get kicked or drag the group down. Everyone gets to play how they want…which as I understand it is the original intent.

Those wanting no skips, no stacking, zero damage gear, etc…can have their 2 hour runs and those wanting speed runs can have their 15-20 minute clears.

Ethics.4519:

The “zerker” only groups will now be much more strict.

You have less room for error. Say a guild group with 4 people (all zerker, optimized build) used to run dungeons in a certain time frame, they could just add a 5th of whatever (cleric guardian most likely) and just carry him. Now that they got nerfed, that 5th person NEEDS to be zerker to make up for the nerf.

The better idea would have been to stop hating on the most efficient build, and embrace it.

Exactly! From what I’ve seen, all the hating is coming from the non-zerkers in denial.

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

maxinion.8396:

Axelwarrior.9084:

The problem isn’t caused by the stat, it’s caused by the dungeon imbalance.

Currently, Berserker’s is ALWAYS the best solution to everything (well, maybe with rare exceptions, usually being Assassin’s) because we can bypass the difficulty by stacking/skipping etc.

If “exploits” weren’t possible, then we’d need more survivability in dungeons and thus Berserker’s wouldn’t always be the best option.

Was waiting for the “exploit” comment! Top lel.

I’m kind of divided on stacking, but it’s totally hilarious how everything is an “Exploit” to some people.

Correction: Everything other than face tanking.

Wethospu.6437:

In my opinion if we get passive defense checks we should also get damage checks. Note: pre-nerf Simin doesn’t count as a damage check.

Fantastic idea, if one way is fair..so is the other.

Dalanor.5387:

Wethospu.6437:

In my opinion if we get passive defense checks we should also get damage checks. Note: pre-nerf Simin doesn’t count as a damage check.

Actually i had a run long time ago in CoF p1 when the Effigy started to heal back when i stopped with dps. The sad part, i was on my mesmer with 4 warriors. :/

I had that experience once on the same boss quite some time ago…it really does show group contribution levels when you stop and then the boss’ regen overtakes everyone else’s dps.

Spoj The Second.7680:

You seemed to take offense to desades comment so i replied in the same manner as you replied to him. Theres no sarcasm. If anything your comment is really childish and unnecessary which is why i decided to reply to highlight that.

And your need to respond to that is any less childish and unnecessary….because your quip had any additional value? I guess you are here to fly to your buddy’s defense huh? That’s some grade school childishness there.

Spoj The Second.7680:

ODB.6891:

deSade.9437:

ODB.6891:

deSade.9437:

ODB.6891:

Scenario:

No one runs fractals anymore because the rewards are garbage.

Response (bait and switch):

Inform player base that you have increased rewards.
Increase rewards for one day.
Lower rewards below previous level afterwards.
Profit from the players’ delusions that rewards have increased.

What profit?

Renewed interest in the game/content. Not sure how that was hard to figure out. Players who actually think the game is worth playing/rewarding, will be more likely to invest in the game (play it and possibly make gem purchases).

Sure, because they’re not totally going to leave after a few days or so when they see the droprates are still terrible, as many of my old guildmates did.
It’s all a conspiracy for keeping us interested in the game! Bait and switch! Broken promises! Anet evil! It can’t be rng couple with terribly low droprates, it must be the aliens taking control of them!
/sigh

Aside from your drama queen skit there…what part of what was said is not actually true? Was there not a promise of improved drop rates? Is the common experience not the actual opposite of that promise? Of course there are terribly low drop rates and terrible rng…that is exactly what everyone and myself has been saying. Of course its a conspiracy to keep people interested…isn’t that the entire profit model of this and every game of this type with an in game store? Your entire response is nothing but drama, hyperbole, and a repeat of common sense. Not even sure why you responded when you haven’t actually disagreed with anything…

Not sure why you are even commenting.

Because of the completely unnecessary and somewhat childish sarcasm of this entire string of replies…including this one…as there is no pertinent content in any of the replies…including my own at this point.

deSade.9437:

ODB.6891:

deSade.9437:

ODB.6891:

Scenario:

No one runs fractals anymore because the rewards are garbage.

Response (bait and switch):

Inform player base that you have increased rewards.
Increase rewards for one day.
Lower rewards below previous level afterwards.
Profit from the players’ delusions that rewards have increased.

What profit?

Renewed interest in the game/content. Not sure how that was hard to figure out. Players who actually think the game is worth playing/rewarding, will be more likely to invest in the game (play it and possibly make gem purchases).

Sure, because they’re not totally going to leave after a few days or so when they see the droprates are still terrible, as many of my old guildmates did.
It’s all a conspiracy for keeping us interested in the game! Bait and switch! Broken promises! Anet evil! It can’t be rng couple with terribly low droprates, it must be the aliens taking control of them!
/sigh

Aside from your drama queen skit there…what part of what was said is not actually true? Was there not a promise of improved drop rates? Is the common experience not the actual opposite of that promise? Of course there are terribly low drop rates and terrible rng…that is exactly what everyone and myself has been saying. Of course its a conspiracy to keep people interested…isn’t that the entire profit model of this and every game of this type with an in game store? Your entire response is nothing but drama, hyperbole, and a repeat of common sense. Not even sure why you responded when you haven’t actually disagreed with anything…

Zepidel.5349:

If go- guys could just get ascended armor from doing dungeons then how the heck is anet gonna make money off crafting boosters and gem to gold conversions for crafting mats?

You guys are really entitled

I’m hoping, for your sake, that that was sarcasm lol. Anyway, why advertise ascended armor drops from fractals (not dungeons) if not intended to actually let that reward actually happen. Otherwise, it was just dishonest of them to do so…much less to then follow it up with advertisement that the drop rate had been “improved”.

deSade.9437:

ODB.6891:

Scenario:

No one runs fractals anymore because the rewards are garbage.

Response (bait and switch):

Inform player base that you have increased rewards.
Increase rewards for one day.
Lower rewards below previous level afterwards.
Profit from the players’ delusions that rewards have increased.

What profit?

Renewed interest in the game/content. Not sure how that was hard to figure out. Players who actually think the game is worth playing/rewarding, will be more likely to invest in the game (play it and possibly make gem purchases).

While I appreciate the effort at providing new GM trait options, I can’t help but question if it was worth it. This is in response to the extremely poor reception so far of these new traits upon comparison to existing GM traits in the same slots. The overwhelming consensus seems to be that few, if any, are going to take any of these new GM traits. I know we haven’t seen the full extent of the upcoming feature patch, but I’m having a tough time seeing how anything can change the lack of desire for these new GMs. Maybe they are fantastic in wvw or pvp and I’m just not seeing it, but it seems like time would have been more effectively spent bug fixing or updating poorly laid out trait lines (zeal!!!)

Karl McLain.5604:

mrauls.6519:

Does this new Valor grandmaster trait apply to the Guardian blocking as well?

Short answer: Communal Defenses will not grant aegis to the guardian that is blocking.

I have to admit I am disappointed with the answer, but I’m sure everyone here appreciates the speedy response. Thank you.

This is still easily the best of all the new guardian GM traits due to the synergy with other guardians with the same trait. Too bad it can’t compete with existing GM traits in the same slot.

Julie Yann.5379:

Tim.6450:

Seriously a trait in a build that can give your allies potentially 25 stacks of might permanently and you are complaining?!

The thing is that you have to invest 30 points into our most awful trait line in order to get it and you get no personal benefit out of it. Although I could see it work well with empower allies if your party does not have a Guardian or Ele.

Guardian communal defense says hello (in the most selfish trait line at the 30 point mark and makes you sacrifice monk’s focus/AH to get it) and it doesn’t benefit the guardian. Two of our other new GM traits are about condition damage on a class with one damaging condition and not enough cover conditions to ever make a condition build viable…and these two condition GM traits have to both be taken at the same time to work properly…face palm. Then you have a 300 vitality GM at the end of the vitality trait line…that you would have to choose instead of pure of voice…never going to happen. Final one is at the end of virtues…that directly conflicts with the design of virtues…it only works if you never actually use virtue of resolve…which is the entire purpose of traiting into virtues…to actually use them.

The short of this is…they did a terribad job with these new GM traits. Wrong trait lines, flawed logic, etc.

I’ll also agree with everyone else here…which I’m sure you already know, warriors are the top of the food chain and 100% do not need buffs. It would be ridiculous for them to add more on top of what warriors already have.

BobbyT.7192:

mrauls.6519:

No… just because someone’s base toughness is higher doesn’t mean they’re necessarily going to have a higher toughness amount fully geared… It all depends on the player… Just no to this idea

Some one who has naturally high base health and armour is going to hit a lot harder then a person that needs to spec to get to that level.

Apples/Oranges. Even if higher base health/armor characters hit harder by default, which I doubt is true (thief as one counter example that comes to mind), what on earth does that have to do with taking THE core game survival mechanic away to any degree?!? Offense =/= defense.

I’m just going to go out on a limb here and assume this is about pvp and wanting to stand face to face and just roll heavy armor classes without them being able to dodge (just like you can dodge)?

Yeah…just like mrauls said, just because base toughness is higher, does not mean that character is going to gear for toughness at all. There is also no guarantee that a character will gear for power primarily either…although it is much more likely. Bad idea all around no matter how you look at it. The game is also not just about pvp and wanting your opponent to stand still while you kill them…no matter what kind of armor they wear.