Guild Wars 2

Diku, your heart is in the right place, but I think you have been beating this dead horse for so long, it looks like a meat pancake. As much as you try to stimulate debate on the subject, the fact remains that anet has never cared about player opinion, and it silly to think they will start now.

It is a fact that the majority of the vocal wvw players out there are unhappy with the state of wvw. It is also a fact that anet does not appear to give a kitten and will just continue to do whatever they want to do regardless of what their customers want.

The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. You are still at bargaining, while the rest of us have either moved on to depression (keep playing but are enjoying it less) or acceptance (found a new game). I’m kind of halfway between the last 2 stages. I play when there is a critical mass on TS, but haven’t really found a replacement game yet.

The DBL just needs to get smoothed out. Falling off cliffs is not fun. Getting lost in canyons is not fun. Fighting in chokepoints is not fun. If you basically just crushed the map so all the stupid terrain features that prevent people from actually finding and fighting each other were removed, this would be a good, if not excellent map.

Oh yeah, and get rid of the BS pve laser cannon event.

I would like this map a lot more if anet just squished it down so all the cliffs, canyons, and switchbacks were turned into gently rolling dunes. Either that, or let us use our gliders.

Achrya.7892:

Xillllix.3485:

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the Balance Team:

As mentioned in our “Road Ahead for 2015” blog, our strategy for adjusting the meta-game in Guild Wars 2 after the release of Heart of Thorns focuses on releasing balance updates on a set cycle – each and every quarter.

Your strategy isn’t good.

First of all you need to fix broken skills that do 17-20k damage like Coalescence of Ruin or Gun Flame on the week we find out the issues, not 3 months later, because these press 1 button to win skills are ruining the game for everyone in the competitive modes.

Secondly, we don’t want “meta changes” where you are just stuck into playing the same build for 3 months. We want balanced skills so that we can have Build variety as it was promised with the new trait system. The players should be dictating the meta by creative thinking, Anet shouldn’t be dictating it for them and cornering them into meta-builds that they have no choice to run, as it currently is.

Pls do me a favor and send a screenshot of that 17-20k dmg, okay? Seems a bit exaggerated.

It’s not. I can get 18K without being in a party, without having decent food buffs, and without full bloodlust stacks, so 20K is probably doable. Also, the target is probably full zerk, so in other words, totally asking for it. hehe

Invictus.1503:

Osu.6307:

The problem with CoR was it was hitting more than 5 enemies? THAT was the problem? I guess I was too busy killing 2-3 backliners with 18K crits every 2 seconds to realize I hit more than 5 players occasionally.

This is actually a fix for that. After you hit 5 people, it stops. So, now it won’t ever reach those backliners in a zerg or even semi-large fight. I can see this change in WvW being rather big. Unfortunately it also makes the skill much less useful in PvE while it is at it.

Even in big zerg battles, I will only hit 2-3 enemies. CoR is not as wide as it looks, and enemy players don’t clump up THAT much. It is damage that makes CoR OP, not the number of hits.

The problem with CoR was it was hitting more than 5 enemies? THAT was the problem? I guess I was too busy killing 2-3 backliners with 18K crits every 2 seconds to realize I hit more than 5 players occasionally.

ReaverKane.7598:

2) Meta events are sometimes too long, its really hard for me to finish TD and even AB metas during weekdays because i don’t have that long to play. Add to it that if you logout you will most likely lose progression, if you go to guild hall to store crap you’ll lose progression, it becomes a bit frustrating, no banks in the jungle.

At some point anet is going to have to nerf or lower the required participation for HoT meta events. Either that or just come up with a new set of meta events that are smaller, shorter, and happen more frequently. It hasn’t been 2 months and already these events fail for lack of people. This will only get worse over time. If you haven’t killed the gerent in TD yet, odds are you never will.

Makes perfect sense. If you want to progress alts, you go to HoT zones to get your hero points faster, which makes HoT zones more populated, which makes anet feel good about the xpac. Nobody cares about wvw, so why make playing there rewarding in the slightest bit.

If you are going to reward or punish one side or the other for population differences, the reward or punishment cannot give individual players and kind of advantage in movement or combat because it WILL BE EXPLOITED. Think about it. If your server gets the overpopulated debuff, how will that effect roamers who are just looking for 1 v 1’s?

The reward for having superior numbers on a map is you can take objectives. The reward for having inferior numbers on a map is it lets you have superior numbers on another map. If you have inferior numbers on all maps, tough glicko.

ArchonWing.9480:

They really need to talk more (with us) and stop sending in changes piecemeal.

Define “us.” If anet just creates a forum post requesting input from the players, they’ll get 1000 different opinions. If we really want anet to listen to players, we should find some way to “elect” a couple player representatives from each server. Anet’s despotism is not working so maybe they should consider a republic (sure helps me out in Civilization, hehe).

You know you miss the lake.

The most diehard wvw players are loyal to the gamemode, not a particular server. Any anger felt by any particular player that is caused by conversion to a megaserver, will quickly disappear when said player finds he is suddenly surrounded by MANY more friends to play with.

Don’t despair if YB goes away. I’m sure many of your current YB friends will join you on the megaserver and together you can continue to operate arrow carts 24/7.

I keep hearing rumors about a “massive wvw overhaul.” I don’t know about the rest of you, but unless I hear some official news or update from anet soon, I’m done with gw2. Last couple days, I don’t even log in. I just just check TS and if it is empty, I don’t waste my time entering wvw.

akeldama.6709:

Team Color Determination
North America

• Green: 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th, 22nd
• Blue: 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, 20th, 23rd
• Red: 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th, 21st, 24th

Europe

• Green: 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th, 22nd, 25th
• Blue: 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, 20th, 23rd, 26th
• Red: 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 27th

You honestly think they would cram ALL of us into just one wvw instance? I know it’s quiet out there, but sheesh! If anet decides to try to increase populations by putting multiple servers together in an alliance, I think it would be more conservative to start by lumping 2 or 3 together per side, not 8.

It’s more likely they’ll go ESO-style and create 3-4 “campaigns” and let everyone choose which one they want to join. That way the guilds could stay together if every member chooses the same campaign. Also, if they announce a couple weeks before going live, all the guild leadership could reach out to other guild leaders and decide that campaign A will be the open-field battle campaign, and campaign B will be PPT-focused, etc.

From the mind of anet:

Q: We got lots of these new free-to-play subs before HoT, so how do we get them to buy HoT?
A: Make the elite specs so over the top OP that the free accounts will have to pay for HoT if they want to be competitive. Sure, some won’t pay but who needs those freeloaders anyway.

Q: Our main problem in wvw is server population imbalance. How do we push the megaserver from pve to wvw and keep the BLs full?
A: Give wvw a new, complicated BL that no one likes and thoroughly demoralizes the wvw community. Then, when the wvw population has bottomed out (and we raked in some extra cash as all the true diehards transfer to gold league servers) we unveil megaserver for wvw along with a really cool new map that brings everyone back.

Just got off the phone with the anet spvp team and they said CoR is fine. In fact, most revs don’t even run hammer because it is so crappy so they are thinking of buffing the damage on CoR to bring it in line. And since wvw is basically spvp anyway…..

From anet management: CoR will get nerfed when all those free account idiots buy HoT, and not before.

Full zerk hammer rev is just stupid OP right now, especially when you have a decent-sized zerg to protect you. I just laugh when my well-placed CoR lands smack dab in the enemy’s backline and crits multiple players for 16K each. If I see an allied player go down to a CoR, I don’t bother trying to rez because I know I can’t get him up AND get a dodge off in less than 2 seconds.

I’m sure everyone knows this by now, but the biggest protection from CoR is terrain. CoR only hits dependably on PERFECTLY flat terrain. I’m talking laser-leveled rice paddy flat. The slightest incline or decline in terrain in between you and your target, and CoR just kinda disappears.

+1 there is no everything to everyone system for wvw, but this is significantly better than the current state.

I’ll assume you mean factions. Since megaserver for wvw is pretty much inevitable at this point, I’ll bet it will look a lot like ESO’s AvA, but without the A’s. Hehe. ESO works on a faction system like WoW. However, ESO has 3 factions instead of 2. In ESO, you choose a “campaign” that lasts from a week to a month, and get rewards based on how well you did in the campaign. When the megaserver comes to gw2 wvw, guilds will want to play together, so I assume that there will be a sign-up period before the action starts so everyone can make sure they get in the right campaign.

This is all pure conjecture at this point. Honestly, the ESO model of wvw was actually pretty good. If only the rest of the game didn’t so suck SOOOOOO INCREDIBLY BAD.

I did about 2 hours per night pre-HoT, now I’m down to about one hour, twice a week. I’ve spent about 2 hours total in the DBL’s and hate them, so I just pop in EBG and stay if anyone I know is playing. Just checked EBG at 9 PM EST and it is dead. If T3 is this quiet, I can’t imagine what lower tiers are like. What’s shocking is the new HoT maps are getting quiet too. I still have a couple skins I wouldn’t mind getting but even that is impossible when no one is doing the meta events anymore?

God’s honest truth, I actually checked out what pvp is like in WoW today. Yuck. Oh well, time to check out what’s on sale on Steam.

Wryscher.1432:

Oddly enough i have never heard anyone say they left ESO because of the way the RVR teams were set up. The post directly under your says he left because of the imbalance. I left because they managed to make a system with far more lag then GW2. Maybe somewhere there are people who left because of the alliance system they had, and ive just never seem them.

I played ESO and had no problem with the alliance system. I left because you had to grind PVE for about 300 hours to reach max rank (level) so as to not be one-shotted by those who already had. Balance issues and broken mechanics were rampant with ESO. Does anyone remember how a single vampire in bat swarm could kill a zerg? An alliance system might actually work with gw2 if implemented properly.

Anet should also think about a reward system that encourages fights and discourages blobbing. Why is it that every single event reward you get in wvw has to do with an objective? You only get rewards for taking or defending property. Why can’t we have the same thing for fights? Shouldn’t winning a 40 v 40 battle earn you the same rewards as a tower capture at least? Also, mindlessly blobbing and taking every tower and keep on a map with no resistance should earn less experience.

Why not combine a high tier server with a low tier server in a weekly alliance. I envision combining a T1 with a T8, a T2 with a T7, and so forth. Anet has to have the data to determine what matchings would yield the fairest pairings based on average population.

Since Anet loves to give away prize money for spvp tournaments, why don’t they have a wvw map design contest? I sense that there is a lot of dislike for the desert borderlands, and imagine many long-time wvw enthusiasts would jump at the chance to design a wvw map and possibly get paid for it. The only question would be the map’s format. Would contestants have to use map editor software or just make it in minecraft or something simpler.

For anyone struggling with an adventure, check youtube. There are multiple clips of people getting gold for every adventure. Imo, none of the adventures are that difficult, but you do need to do them a couple times to understand the mechanics. Also, since you have to do the adventures to complete a collection, why not get good at them and do them daily for the gold reward. Gold is a guaranteed rare item. Since those reclaimed metal plates are also necessary for the collection, adventures are a great place to farm them and get a nice chunk of XP.

Didn’t quit, but my wvw time has dropped from about 90% to 10%. Now the only action in T3 is on EBG in NA prime time.

FYI to all casual players, if you don’t have all the hero points and masteries you need now, you had better get them done in less than a month. At the current rate, the HoT maps are going to be uninhabited by xmas.

If the only issue you have with the new maps is the difficulty in exploring, join a guild and find an exploring buddy. That, or post in open world lfg that you are doing HP’s in a map and you’ll have a party in no time.

If you really want to protest, just boycott the desert borderlands. If every wvw player stays in EB and refuses to enter a desert BL, I think that would send a powerful message. Of course, to make it successful you really need all the server and guild leaders to agree to stay on EB.

hypehype.9047:

3. one on one pvp in WvW; again same problem with number 2. i see two people fghting and the 1st thing that comes to my mind is , “are they in a dule?” should i help or not?" why am i thinking like this in a wvw map? again there needs to be a pvp server where people can have one on one dules with there gear.

Play how you like. I never know either so I err on the side of caution and help my buddy. The only exception is when I see the 2 duelers have an audience of players from all sides and it is obvious they are all there to duel.

How hard would it be to use some kind of ppt multiplier to determine points during off hours to mitigate night-capping to some extent. For example, when total players in wvw drops below X% of average max participation, then ppt is reduced to X% of full tick. When population levels again (overnight) the ppt drops again to X-20% of full tick. I’m not saying that players that cap during the downtimes should get a lower XP or karma reward, but the ppt should drop to reflect the lower level of competition.

Haven’t we learned anything in the past month? If you want anet to address a problem with their product, a forum posting with AT LEAST 3000 replies is required. Otherwise, it’s just normal, everyday player whining.

MithranArkanere.8957:

“Pillaging Mastery”

• Rank 1, +5 points. Defeated players who give full WXP (60wxp is the current base max from players) also drop 1 additional Badge of Honor and have a chance to drop 1 supply.
• Rank 2. +15 points. Your attacks steal 1 supply from enemies carrying more supply than you. (90s cooldown)
• Rank 3, +30 points. Use enemy siege depots to steal 1 supply. (480s cooldown)
• Rank 4, +50 points. Destroying enemy siege has a small chance to give 1-5 supply, and a very rare chance to drop that siege’s blueprints.
• Rank 5. +100 points. Automatically pick up loot from fallen foes (Requires HoT).

These seem a little OP for the point cost, but the general concept is excellent.

Add the adventures to the list of things that have time issues. These are fun little mini-games. Why can you only do them at a certain time in the meta chain? It is really frustrating. When I have a few minutes to kill or know I won’t be able to commit the full hour to a meta event, I would love to be able to do the adventures.

Hey Dulfy, why don’t you create an Adventures timer to complement your world boss timer?

If they would just add about 3 seconds to the break bar phase, this fight would be a lot better. Vinetooth always runs off to one side of the room right before the CC phase, and by the time I get there it is too late to get all my CC’s off.

Azure Prower.8701:

Do I look like a beta tester?

I crashed hourly before. Since installing the 64 bit client, I haven’t crashed once.

After trying this quest on all my toons, I found I can only get the challenge mote to appear when I play my Charr warrior. Wth!

Kind of hard for me to take pity on anyone complaining about how much work and expense is involved in getting something that is basically just a glorified skin. If legendaries were superior to ascended weapons stat-wise, I would be a different story. Basically, if you craft a legendary, you are voluntarily doing extra work. Don’t flog yourself and then complain to everyone that it hurts.

I am really trying to get the most out of my sinister engi build. What is REALLY FRUSTRATING is that in order to get/unlock sinister rings, I have to get all the achievements in old living story quests which are apparently broken. I’m not sure about about anyone else, but I have not been able to get a single achievement in the Tangled Paths or Point of no Return Living World Season 2 story quests since HoT release. I have fulfilled the requirements, they just don’t unlock for whatever reason.

For that matter, why do trinkets with new stats not get added to the existing inventory of laurel vendors as soon as the new content is released? I really hate these living story quests and am irritated that I have to grind the same quest over and over to get the ring I want. If people like doing these quests, hooray, they get the reward for free. Please walk the talk and don’t force the rest of us to grind gear.

I dare Anet to make bring back the old alpine map for one week. Maybe just one week for one BL, and keep the desert map on the other two BL’s. I’m certain that everyone would flood back for the alpine map. Of course anet will never do that because that would be proof that most people dislike their precious desert BL and some poor developers will get their feelings hurt.

One or two at a time, they are no problem. The problem occurs in the event chains when you get 4-5 appearing out of thin air in a confined space laying down so many of those fire lines that there is no safe place to stand. Some of the events in VB I just stopped doing because unless you have a group of 10 players, you’ll wipe.

Ultimaistanza.4793:

“That is a large part of the issue. Essentially any change to WvW rewards has to be balanced against the idea that players, servers, etc. might collude with one another to just farm rewards.

Players DO collude to farm rewards. Its called EoTM, and YOU created it, Anet.

I can’t get any of the achievements for the Tracking the aspect master quest in the Tangled Paths story quests. The Challenge Mote that activates the champion mode never appears. Successfully killing the vet Mordrem with the flamethrower does not give the Light em up achievement.

While they’re at it, they can give us some new wvw masteries to make up for the ones they took away/shortened. It was like what, 1410 wvw ranks before HoT to have full mastery. Now it’s 945. Should be 1945. What am I supposed to do with all these ranks now?

Duh! This is Anet. They give you a Transcendent chest for taking a camp in wvw. Transcendent? Really? Transcendent means god-like, or beyond human comprehension. The only “transcendent” chest is one that has an ascended box or precursor in it. It would kill the RP experience, but anet should really make the chest descriptions to reflect reality. Imo, most chests should be called pathetic, insufficient, or frustrating.

Most of the new mobs that are dangerous are pretty zerky themselves. Just learn which ones you need to kill and which you can safely ignore.

Kal Spiro.9745:

There are at least three Hero Points and one Mastery Point locked behind this mastery in Verdant Brink alone.

It’s down to 1 MP now, I think. Only the underground MP due east of Jaka Itzel wp requires poison mastery.

I’d really like to see anet add/increase loot and xp per mob and decrease loot from the whole meta event/tier progression crap for the sole reason that I always crash before I get to a point where I can receive it. This is going to get worse over time as the new maps start to empty out. It is hard enough to do some of these meta events with a small group, much less solo them.

GW was not really grindy before HoT, but sadly many of the new pve zones require a lot of grinding if you want new gear. SW was the same way, but it felt a lot less grindy because the zone currency and xp rewards were much better.

While we’re on the subject, anet better nerf or scale the HoT zones’ meta events better. I’m taking my time exploring and the TD meta events keep failing for lack of people.

Ayrilana.1396:

From what I have seen, the events where enemies don’t give XP is on purpose to prevent endless farming. Just look at what happened with the mushroom farm and then the skelk farm.

If Anet makes an event that spawns unlimited enemies until x objective is reached, they should make mobs stop giving xp and loot after a certain point is reached instead of not giving it at all. My biggest problem with giving no loot or xp for event mobs is that half the people just stand around and do nothing inside the blue circle while the other half kills mobs. Also, getting xp in the new zones is not easy. In SW, you had opportunities to help out at multiple towers and escort dolyaks for xp. In the new zones you are pretty much stuck in one meta event train and too bad for you if the game crashes when you are almost finished.