Guild Wars 2

I’m just glad they did something interesting with the difficulty.

So here’s the contest entry from POPE and I, hot of the editing floor.

This video contains no scarlet, toxic alliance, or spores. In stead it contains Quaggans. Some of them are wearing clothes.

I hope you guys enjoy it!

I love this. So much. Amazing!

• Button Mashing Using a skill places a random different skill on cooldown. Thief skills consume a random amount of initiative.

• Skill lock: You can not change skills.

• Weapon lock: You can not swap weapons. Elementalists must select a single attunement. Engineers may choose a single kit.

• Down, but not out: Enemies have half as much HP, but revive themselves after 40 seconds.

• Scatter!: All enemy attacks have a 20% chance to cast fear. 10 second internal cooldown.

• Canthan Plague: All enemies explode when killed, leaving a persistant pool of poison.

• Vessel of Agony: One player is selected at random as the Vessel. Stepping within 500 units of this player (visible red circle) will add stacks of agony to any friendly players. When the vessel dies, another plaer is made the vessel. The vessel changes at random every 30-60 seconds, and each time the entire party leaves combat.

• Vessel of Fear: As Agony, but with 5 secs of fear for approaching the vessel.

• Vessel of Weakness: See above, but with 20 seconds of weakness.

• All Together Now: You gain stacks of agony when not within 500 units of another friendly player.

• You Can’t Touch This: Approaching downed allies while in combat will launch the player.

• Number One Stunner: The player with the most HP, calculated as a percentage of total HP, is stunned every 20 seconds. If multiply players are tied for most HP, the stunned target is chosen at random.

• Mistlock Instability: All abilities that grant conditions or boons grant random conditions or boons.

• Combo Breaker: Performing a combo finisher deals 10% of your maximum HP as agony damage.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Look man, I’m not trying to get our levels to stay the same. I’m trying to have a good discussion. You’re the one who is devaluing hard work by saying its meaningless. I want titles and town clothes, and I’ve said it a million times. I’m here giving actual solutions, you’re just trying to make people feel bad.

I’m not here trying to make anyone feel bad. I started with a very simple bullet pointed post, and was attacked for it. I’m defending my opinion.

That “hard work” isn’t meaningless, but it shouldn’t be given more importance just because levels get reset.

I can see titles or cosmetic things being fair, but I don’t think they’re right. That’s simply attaching extra reward to a system that had no intrinsic reward to begin with, after you’ve already removed the ability to gain said reward.

That doesn’t seem right to me.

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

PopeUrban.2578:

I don’t understand why this is so hard to swallow.

And this here is exactly why this is such a problem. Thanks for illustrating it clear as day.

I can’t understand why it is so hard to swallow for the 1% if I’m part of the 99%… this is somthing a lot of ppl said in history because they were part of the 99%

So, let me get this straight. You feel that because you think you are part of some mythical 1% your opinion is more valid?

Titles and town clothes? Sure. I’m all for that. Cosmetic rewards for a cosmetic achievement number.

Allowing you to skip several levels of instabilities? No. That’s just plain wrong.

Also, way to quote out of context Lilith. Do you have anything else to add to the discussion or are you just here to be flippant and clever? I don’t understand it. I don’t understand that the people most invested in fractals are the least interested in new challenges and new ways to prove themselves. I don’t understand how having the meaning of a single number changed somehow undoes any of that effort. I don’t understand how being reset to 30 because everything after 30 is different now is somehow nerfing progress.

You earned the right to get to the next fractal rank. You went there. You did it again, and again. That is the only thing that number has ever been good for. You earned your right to play whatever elite difficulty you are currently at. You still haven’t earned the right to make 31+ under the new system. No one has.

Manuhell.2759:

I wonder what would happen if Kiel was removed and we had a new council member. One that got that place due to actual merit. One who protected Lion’s Arch and the whole world from the menace of Zhaitan.

Yes, i’m talking about Trahearne.

Oh, the rage that would ensue.

Extra Extra! Salad Scoops Council Captain! Trahearne Trumps Kiel in Killer Coup!

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

PopeUrban.2578:

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

PopeUrban.2578:

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

khani.4786:

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

khani.4786:

JMar.3254:

So, what’s your personal level, 10? 1? 15?

My personal level is 39 and I’ve done up to 48s with some friends.

so you haven never played highscale fractals … because 10-30 lowscale 30-60 midlescale and 60-80 highscale:)

No, because I don’t enjoy beating my face against a brick wall. My experience in the 48s was liken to trying to kill a semi-truck with my bare hands. Lots of health, stupid amounts of damage and having to time everything just right and it takes forever. I have much more fun personally doing a variety of content with my guildmates. YMMV.

If you enjoy beating up huge bags of health then good for you. I’m sorry you’re losing your levels, but I am personally very excited to see what gambits/instabilities we have to work through in order to finish the levels. I prefer more puzzle type content with mechanics so that I need to think and figure out what we have to do in order to get to the end. That is my personal playstyle and it does not mean that everyone should like the same thing. I respect that others enjoy doing things differently, but honestly above 50 was “broken”. If you had to use revive orbs to make it past the agony it is clear (to me) that going up that high was not yet intended.

A developer has said in another thread that they do plan on developing even more variables and different sets of difficulties for 50+. I see this patch as a fix to dealing with repetitive grinding against large healthbags for little reward (besides personal accomplishment).

you didn’t have to use orb revive you could do it with perfect Timing of Guardian books ele rez and necro deathshroud. So you can’t know is’s unintended you could use this in the 70’s as well so you can get to 80 with this technic I know it works. sooo yeah and I used rez orbs we didn’t have a necro to do it we had thief, ingi , ele double guard it woulnd’t have been enough heal.

If you needed specific class abilities or gemstore consumables, it was unintended. GW2 content is designed in a manner that there aren’t required classes, and gemstore items are optional and never required.

So speedrun aren’t intended because they Need certain calsses to be that fast so we should delete all they’re Gold. this is your logic REALLY?

Speedruns aren’t intended and should be fixed, yes. There are SEVERAL dev posts detailing exactly this, and several patches that have nerfed speedrunning for this exact reason.

No, nobody’s going to delete the gold earned from them any more than anyone deleted the gold and items earned from 31+ fractals.

nope but they should give me back the Gold used to get that high and the Progress in cof runs is Gold and maybe dungeon tokkens the Progress in fractals was Level scale so they’re took my Progress away but they won’t touch the Progress from speedrunners for what reason?

Nobody is taking your earnings from you any more than they took earning from speed runners.

You’re being set to 30 because all fractals beyond 30 are a completely different scaling design, and you haven’t completed those yet, thus allowing you to keep that difficulty level would be allowing you to skip content and get to new scale 50 without actually playing the new scales 30-49 and earning the right to be there.

I don’t understand why this is so hard to swallow.

Fractals are about earning the right to get to the next difficulty. Getting reset to 30 is because the difficulty is completely different. In short, you haven’t earned scale 50 under the new system, nobody has.

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

PopeUrban.2578:

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

khani.4786:

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

khani.4786:

JMar.3254:

So, what’s your personal level, 10? 1? 15?

My personal level is 39 and I’ve done up to 48s with some friends.

so you haven never played highscale fractals … because 10-30 lowscale 30-60 midlescale and 60-80 highscale:)

No, because I don’t enjoy beating my face against a brick wall. My experience in the 48s was liken to trying to kill a semi-truck with my bare hands. Lots of health, stupid amounts of damage and having to time everything just right and it takes forever. I have much more fun personally doing a variety of content with my guildmates. YMMV.

If you enjoy beating up huge bags of health then good for you. I’m sorry you’re losing your levels, but I am personally very excited to see what gambits/instabilities we have to work through in order to finish the levels. I prefer more puzzle type content with mechanics so that I need to think and figure out what we have to do in order to get to the end. That is my personal playstyle and it does not mean that everyone should like the same thing. I respect that others enjoy doing things differently, but honestly above 50 was “broken”. If you had to use revive orbs to make it past the agony it is clear (to me) that going up that high was not yet intended.

A developer has said in another thread that they do plan on developing even more variables and different sets of difficulties for 50+. I see this patch as a fix to dealing with repetitive grinding against large healthbags for little reward (besides personal accomplishment).

you didn’t have to use orb revive you could do it with perfect Timing of Guardian books ele rez and necro deathshroud. So you can’t know is’s unintended you could use this in the 70’s as well so you can get to 80 with this technic I know it works. sooo yeah and I used rez orbs we didn’t have a necro to do it we had thief, ingi , ele double guard it woulnd’t have been enough heal.

If you needed specific class abilities or gemstore consumables, it was unintended. GW2 content is designed in a manner that there aren’t required classes, and gemstore items are optional and never required.

So speedrun aren’t intended because they Need certain calsses to be that fast so we should delete all they’re Gold. this is your logic REALLY?

Speedruns aren’t intended and should be fixed, yes. There are SEVERAL dev posts detailing exactly this, and several patches that have nerfed speedrunning for this exact reason.

No, nobody’s going to delete the gold earned from them any more than anyone deleted the gold and items earned from 31+ fractals.

I voted with my gut, and my gut told me gnashblade is only looking out for one guy: gnashblade.

I’d like to see more elections later, but let the decsions in the future be more ephemeral so players are more inclined to vote with their gut (and vote once!) than with their wallet, desire to see a specific fractal, etc.

I would have liked to see an election in which players decided who to vote for based specifically on who they though would actually be the best choice for LA.

I understand that’s not how politics works but… isn’t this a fantasy game?

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

khani.4786:

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

khani.4786:

JMar.3254:

So, what’s your personal level, 10? 1? 15?

My personal level is 39 and I’ve done up to 48s with some friends.

so you haven never played highscale fractals … because 10-30 lowscale 30-60 midlescale and 60-80 highscale:)

No, because I don’t enjoy beating my face against a brick wall. My experience in the 48s was liken to trying to kill a semi-truck with my bare hands. Lots of health, stupid amounts of damage and having to time everything just right and it takes forever. I have much more fun personally doing a variety of content with my guildmates. YMMV.

If you enjoy beating up huge bags of health then good for you. I’m sorry you’re losing your levels, but I am personally very excited to see what gambits/instabilities we have to work through in order to finish the levels. I prefer more puzzle type content with mechanics so that I need to think and figure out what we have to do in order to get to the end. That is my personal playstyle and it does not mean that everyone should like the same thing. I respect that others enjoy doing things differently, but honestly above 50 was “broken”. If you had to use revive orbs to make it past the agony it is clear (to me) that going up that high was not yet intended.

A developer has said in another thread that they do plan on developing even more variables and different sets of difficulties for 50+. I see this patch as a fix to dealing with repetitive grinding against large healthbags for little reward (besides personal accomplishment).

you didn’t have to use orb revive you could do it with perfect Timing of Guardian books ele rez and necro deathshroud. So you can’t know is’s unintended you could use this in the 70’s as well so you can get to 80 with this technic I know it works. sooo yeah and I used rez orbs we didn’t have a necro to do it we had thief, ingi , ele double guard it woulnd’t have been enough heal.

If you needed specific class abilities or gemstore consumables, it was unintended. GW2 content is designed in a manner that there aren’t required classes, and gemstore items are optional and never required.

JMar.3254:

PopeUrban.2578:

JMar.3254:

PopeUrban.2578:

I’ll switch the phrase “value” with a more technically correct “buying power”

Fractal levels have never had buying power of any sort. Does that make more sense?

Equity

I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

“eq·ui·ty
[ek-wi-tee]
noun, plural eq·ui·ties.
1.
the quality of being fair or impartial; fairness; impartiality: the equity of Solomon. Synonyms: disinterest, equitableness, impartiality, fair-mindedness, fairness, justness, evenhandedness, objectivity; justice, probity. Antonyms: bias, discrimination, inequity, injustice, partiality, partisanship, prejudice, unfairness, unreasonableness; injustice.

5. Informal. ownership, especially when considered as the right to share in future profits or appreciation in value. "

Yup

Now, kindly explain to me how that applies to your point. I see taking levels down to 30 as a fair and impartial decision that ensures nobody gets to skip the new mistlock instability system.

The sense of ownership would be a valid argument, except that what 31+ difficulty scale actually means is completely changed. If you’ve made it to 50+ in the current system or haven’t, you still haven’t earned the right to have FL50 under the new one. That is the only intrinsic value that number has, earning the right to be there.

If you’re just upset that you’re losing an arbitrary number, and you felt you owned that number then yeah, absolutely right, you did. And you will STILL own that number after the new system. Take a screenshot, post it, tada. Same exact effect. The bragging rights of “I made 82 when fractals were hard” will still be there, what won’t be there is you skipping 20 levels of instabilities that other people would need to actually earn.

JMar.3254:

PopeUrban.2578:

I’ll switch the phrase “value” with a more technically correct “buying power”

Fractal levels have never had buying power of any sort. Does that make more sense?

Equity

I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

JMar.3254:

PopeUrban.2578:

The hole in your argument is that gold, under the fantastic new platinum system, still has value, and furthermore had intrinsic value before the burglar.. uh.. burgled it all?

Fractal levels never had intrinsic value beyond the rewards. You couldn’t trade them or hoard them or spend them.

Your example is a classic straw man.

My levels had value to me. Just because you either didn’t have the levels (which I’m guessing) or didn’t add value to them, doesn’t mean I don’t value them.

In his example, gold only holds value to buy the beginning platinum you need, so it still holds true.

if everything is platinum only, then gold doesn’t hold value anymore.

I’ll switch the phrase “value” with a more technically correct “buying power”

Fractal levels have never had buying power of any sort. Does that make more sense?

JMar.3254:

PopeUrban.2578:

Get over it. Your rewards have already been acquired in terms of what the system you earned those numbers under offered. You’ve lost a number that will be functionally void at the exact moment you lose it.

So if they replace a PvP map, you’re okay with them resetting all glory and ranks to 0?

When they removed the TA up path, they did not reset all dungeon master or tokens.

When they removed MF, they did not completely delete all MF (with the exception of celestial)

When they redesigned AC, they did not reset dungeon master title, tokens, and levels earned there.

Removing content is no excuse to delete progression.

What is your fractals personal level?

1 A single map? No, that would be stupid. If they completely gutted the entire glory system and replaced it with something else, and allowed people to keep all of the loot/materials gained in the old glory system, and told them about it in advance? Yeah. I’d be fine with that.

2 Tokens are used to affect material rewards, as are achievement points. Resetting either would actually revert progress. Reverting fractal levels does not.

3 The MF example, again, was an actual mechanical number that had an effect on the world. Removing MF WAS an equity issue. Resetting fractal levels is not.

4 As for AC, see point 2

5 I’ll say this again. Fractal difficulty scale in the current system is not progression in the new system. Just like having completed TA F/U doesn’t give you completion achievements for the aetherpath.

6 Looking for a way to discount the points raised without actually coming up with valid arguments doesn’t do a great job at proving your point. I applaud the effort though. Real smart thinking.

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

PopeUrban.2578:

• Progress in the old fractal scaling system is not indicitive of progress in the new 30+ mistlock system.

• Asking to keep 30+ fractal levels would be, in effect, gaining fractal levels you didn’t earn.

• All you have lost is a meaningless number, which is visible only to you (and possibly your group) Your AR is intact as is every reward you ever gained from fractals with the exception of the difficulty scaling number.

• Implementing a special snowflake reward as such is a terrible idea, and a slippery slope. Giving special “legacy” awards to high level fractal runners opens up a whole can of worms regarding changed content “reimbursement”

Update news: Skritt burglars arriving! They have a complete new currency the platinum from now on every item will be sold for platinum not for Gold!!therefor your Gold will be reseted to 30 Gold wich is the cost you Need to buy your new platinumtradingpostlicence. Reason is we want all Players to start on even ground!

• Asking to keep/convert your old Gold would be, in effect, gaining Money you didn’t earn.

• All you have lost is a meaningless number, which is visible only to you (and not even your group) Your gear is intact as is every reward you ever gained from your Gold with the exception of the total number aquired.

• Implementing a special snowflake reward as such is a terrible idea, and a slippery slope. Giving special “legacy” awards to farmers/Flippers and Tradingpostbotrunners opens up a whole can of worms regarding changed content "reimbursement

I in this case I could understand your Argument:)

The hole in your argument is that gold, under the fantastic new platinum system, still has value, and furthermore had intrinsic value before the burglar.. uh.. burgled it all?

Fractal levels never had intrinsic value beyond the rewards. You couldn’t trade them or hoard them or spend them.

Your example is a classic straw man.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

@pope
It’s really sad that you just can’t grasp that the number is actually not meaningless. I think you should read up on mmo equity and then come back.

In addition, please stay on topic of the thread.

I am absolutely on the topic of the thread.

The number is in fact, as of the change to the new mistlock instability mechanic, meaningless.

It is an indicator of progress in an old system where progress mean nothing aside from a marginally better chance at the same loot. The only thing that number effects (the loot) hasn’t been stolen from anyone in any way.

The fact is, fractals are being fixed. People who have worked out a few class-based exploits to get around the broken 48+ scaling are mad that they’ll lose bragging rights, because that’s all this number is. Bragging rights.

It’s like complaining about speedrun routes in various dungeons being fixed lengthening your run time. It’s a number that has no function other than to wave at other people and go “look how cool I am!”

You can still do that. Take a screenshot, right now, and post it in a thread, which will timestamp it. Then, every time you want to prove how good you are at rolling a handful of builds that can mitigate the balance lunacy that was high level fractals you simply need to direct others to that post.

There. Same exact effect that your fractal level has now, and you’re not being unfairly slingshotted past several levels of mistlock instabilities.

This isn’t an equity issue. You haven’t had anything of value removed that would merit compensation. This isn’t like kicking you back 20 character levels or removing 5% of your damage (a thing that happens to people all the time and doesn’t get compensated)

Get over it. Your rewards have already been acquired in terms of what the system you earned those numbers under offered. You’ve lost a number that will be functionally void at the exact moment you lose it.

• Progress in the old fractal scaling system is not indicitive of progress in the new 30+ mistlock system.

• Asking to keep 30+ fractal levels would be, in effect, gaining fractal levels you didn’t earn.

• All you have lost is a meaningless number, which is visible only to you (and possibly your group) Your AR is intact as is every reward you ever gained from fractals with the exception of the difficulty scaling number.

• Implementing a special snowflake reward as such is a terrible idea, and a slippery slope. Giving special “legacy” awards to high level fractal runners opens up a whole can of worms regarding changed content “reimbursement”

When new people ask me “what thief build should I roll?” I always point them to P/D

P/D is a good beginner thief build (and the build I started with) because it has a very straightforward attack rotation, doesn’t worry a whole lot about initiative starvation, and succeeds or fails based on the positioning and timing of a single skill (CnD)

P/D is pretty bunkery and does a great job of distilling what’s important about playing thief down to the basics. It’s a one trick pony, but it’s a one trick pony that will teach you the importance of skill timing and managing adrenaline, which are the two defining attributes that good theif players have, and bad ones don’t.

Most people, once they get the hang of P/D graduate to something a little harder to play after they’ve used P/D to learn to count revealed timers in their own head, played around with some combo effects, and been forced to kick their own skill level up a bit by having had some tough PvP or boss fights with it. After a while, P/D starts to feel “simple” and that’s about the point where you’ve become aware enough of the core strengths and weaknesses of the build that you will be comfortable taking a few lumps while learning another build, because you’ve learned what makes thieves tick, without having to learn the intircate nature of a lot of other stuff at the same time.

Walk down the ramp rather than running. you can set a toggle for walk/run in options

Imagi.4561:

The only thing that irritates me about Braham and Rox is that I have no idea who they are—I never participated in any of the previous content where they had a role—yet they are forced on me in the Nightmare chambers without much explanation or background.

Well, TBH, if you haven’t met them before that wouldn’t preclude them from being at the site of the new threat. They respond to new dungeons and junk becuse they’re essentially initerant adventurers like the player, and just as you run in to players you’ll run in to them as well. The whole point of them being around in the nightmare chambers is that they just “show up” in the same way that players “show up” in the open world. we’re just stumbling upon the characters in the chambers. That’s also why the dialoague between, say, Marjory and Rox is so unfamiliar, they’ve just happenned to bump in to one another while attempning to deal with the tower situation.

Their dialogue speaks in a familiar amnner to my character who does know them, Rox has some lines about hallucinating rytlock and Braham has a few about hallucinating his mother, rather than either of them introducing themselves.

I posted about this in the feedback thread, and I feel like Richochet and Improvisation should switch places, as improv is a steal-centric master trait, and ricochet is a damage-centric trait. As a side benefit it lets me keep a trait I really like afterthe acrobatics reshuffling on the 10th XD

The intended use of downed 3 is to sneak attack with downed 1, which makes it a much stronger attack and adds poison. 2 is a tele that will routinely save you from aoes or traps that may have downed you.

Achievements
Looks like we’re getting fruits of feedback in terms of achievements. I like the inclusion of the “secret goggles” and that the achievements are very natural rewards for playing the content which require a little repetition, but not an inordinate amount of farming. This is a good balance for where to place the achievements in the future, they’re a nice bonus that gives a little direction, but the whole patch does not devolve in to framing for them.

Rewards
Really well done this time! The keys have multiple means of acquisition, and the contents of the chest, even with a bad roll always include a sizable quantity of dragonite and a rare. That puts every opening almost on par with a world boss fight. The drop rate of all the event-related materials seems on par with the rewards, and the unique skins and mini rewards are attractive and unique.

Gameplay
The “open dungeon” feel of the tower, and the way the doors shuffle around, the ever-changing target from person to person for which doors/keys they need all add a much-needed zergbreaking element to this event. This is a great experience as you make your way up the tower the first time, and make your way around the various floors as you hunt for doors for your keys. I especially like the way the roadblock events tend to regroup players and serve as player interaction hotspots. I feel that this is a nice template for future “ultimate base of evil” content, however the mechanics of the doors should be altered so that rerolling overflows or guesting isn’t quite as required to find more content.

Story
The recap cutscene was very nice, but the whole of the story wasn’t served in any way. Lots of cool dialogue, nice callbacks, and a host of other things make this feel like a seminal recap episode, but it lacks that all-important teaser for the final battle that is sure to come. While this reminded us where we have been, it still did nothing to explain why, or where we are going.

Favorite Element
The Nightmare Chambers. I really enjoy hunting down chambers, fighting through floors to get to them, interacting with the various events/mobs in the way, and all of the random elements in the chambers themselves. I like the way the keys are structures to vary my objectives.

Least Favorite Element
Also the Nightmare Chambers. Some are five feet from a travel golem, some require a bit of a trek, and I find myself more often than not rerolling overflows or guesting to find a map with another chamber on my floor. I would suggest in the future for content of this sort increasing the number of doors such that there’s always at least one per required area (floor) avaliable, and that the opening/closing of them be relative to individual characters, and reroll whenever one is completed. In addition, I would suggest removing instance portals that are too easy to get to, as half of the gameplay of these components is the struggle through uncertain parts of the map to reach them.

In the interest of easily readable feedback, and the lack of an offical sticky for this, I’ve decided to create one. I’m creating a simple format here, and I request that people use said format!

1. Use the headings
2. Keep feedback to a small paragraph per heading
3. Remain civil and attempt to be constructive
4. Please avoid derailing the thread.
5. Please format your headings in bold buy surrounding them in *s to keep the thread clean and readable.

The heading are:
Achievements
Rewards
Gameplay
Story
Favorite Element
Least Favorite Element

I’ll post my own as an example.

I would also like a miniature suspicious bush.

Valenthor.4052:

A Massive Headache.1879:

This thread seems to be largely about entitled whining. They can’t add new traits when they still need to rework the ones that are currently in for starters, and the things that won’t be in by the end of the year they’ve already talked about. Some of the items on the list, like pvp legendaries, I don’t believe were ever even given an actual deadline. and Wintersday has always been december into january content. and there’s been no talk of fractals so I’m sure that’s still at least on track.

I don’t see it as “entitled whining”, I see it as valid criticism on how Anet is going about adding content. A lot of these game changing and exciting features are taking longer because Anet has decided to put all their eggs in the living story basket. And I think most can agree it has mixed results at best. Sure it keeps a lot of players playing to some degree, but for how long? There really hasn’t been a whole lot in exciting changes this last year that wow me, just more and more LS content. And with no expansion on the horizon, it has me worried on what is going to keep me logging in. LS is really wearing me down. Most of it is just mediocre with a few flashes of brilliance and the occasional flat out “disasters”. Less focus on LS and more focus on those features above would make this game better and that is something I firmly believe and hope to see.

If I had to choose to have all of the above listed in two weeks at the expense of having no LS updates for the remainder of the year, I would choose to delay in favor of the LS as well.

Mine isn’t a popular (forum-warrior) opinion, but I like the living story’s 2 week cadence. Themepark MMOs are very fire-and-forget affairs that thrive on one thing and one thing only: new content. The current 2 week cycle keeps up with (and at times exceeds) the pace at which I consume content, and that keeps me from getting bored.

If it’s necessary to have slightly smaller feature teams in order to make that happen, so be it. I don’t need anything on the list as much as i need to have things to do when I log in.

I think that’s the point people are missing with the LS. Without it you’d be complaining that there’s nothing to do but farm the same spot for months. Before the LS Penn/Shelter farms were literally the entire endgame. You logged in and you farmed, or you just plain didn’t log in. I myself just plain didn’t log in because I got bored of farming after… well… probably after about three weeks of doing it.

The game is in good enough shape that i don’t feel it’s out of line to wait a little for some minor QoL fixes, provided that I’m entertained (for free) in the mean time. That’s why I bought the game. To be entertained.

I’m not convinced of the longevity of the specifics of plot, but I agree on two core points of all this:

1. Dragons need to be something that matters all the time The sense of dread, mystery, investigation, and overall central themes Zhaitan inspires during the personal story is a good benchmark. You don’t fight Zhaitan for the entire story, but the story is always ALWAYS about fighting zhaitan, even when it isn’t.

2. We need to lose. Think of it this way, Star Wars was a good movie, but it wouldn’t have been a great trilogy if the empire just packed up an went home at the end of the first one. It only became a great trilogy because of Empire, in which the heroes spend pretty much the whole movie losing, which is then handled in Jedi where they succeed against all odds/clutch victory from the jaws of defeat.

The thing is, in the LS we haven’t ever really BEEN defeated. We just win, and win, and win. The closest the enemy ever gets to winning is running away after we have thwarted their master plot… so we’ve still won, they’re just free to hatch a new plan.

ricky markham.8173:

Lil Puppy.5216:

Well at least Cragstead serves alcohol.

does it i didnt know that have to check it out

for karma even

Honestly, the should just use the same exact storybook system that the bonus mission pack used in GW1.

For added coolness, make sure those books are in logical/different places in the world per mission (e.g. the Rox/Braham ones in their instances, Southsun ones from the bartender there, etc.) and that the “nameless adventurer” you play as in those missions is your build and gear, but in the flashback is substantially altered appearance wise.

You could really just stick to the instances for these, and skip the open world stuff as those things aren’t ever all that expository, and in the instance they are, again, you’re using the storybook model so just blurb a paragraph about “Then some people helped the refugees by hitting signs” or whatever. Give players a hefty dose of karma and XP for completion (these are two things new players need lots of, and two things that are useful to everyone)

Finally, add an achievement track (because people love them!) like the goggles for the storybooks. Rank it by years completed and expand it every time a LS update goins dark.

For extra EXTRA coolness, have the books added to a library… wait for it… in the player’s home instance So that the “well read” can take budding young adventurars and teach them about history if they like.

An end to the introduction of new factions and characters. We have some real winner hero-buddies now, (Rox, Braham, Kasmeer, Marjory, and random DE cameos) no need to add more. I’d like to spend more time with/get to know the ones we already have.

No more new factions. Seriously, it’s enough. I’d like to see The current alliances divorce themselves from Scarlet (after we kill her in the conclusion I guess) and start ideological feuds within their own organizations.

I’d like the see the aetherblades expanded as an enemy in their own right, hopefully with the opportunity for kitten pirating adventure for the PCs because someone blew up all the pact airships or something.

I’d like to see the various other enemy groups actually do something villanous, and their ranks expanded (like the oratuss could have just been a new Krait unit)

Minor race focused arcs? What if there were larger versions of things like those found in the personal story, where we get to know a group of quaggan, skritt, etc. because they are somehow relevant to something we need?

Minor race focus NPCs? Certain races are off limits to the plyer for obvious reasons. That doesn’t mean they can’t have their own heroes with custom models, actual facial animation, costumes, and important personality. A whole arc focused around a certain skritt burglur, or expansion of the jotun’s mysterious past, etc.

Core lore! Where are the human “gods” What’s up with the dragons? Why hasn’t Joko invaded yet? What’s going on in the ocean? Are the Mursaat really gone? etc. etc.

Dude, then quit.

It’s called game development, you get two basic choices:

Content that takes longer than expected

-OR-

Content that is less feature-complete than desired.

Having worked in software (including some game dev projects) for over ten years now, I can assure you, one of these two options is inevitable in any instance there is a real or percieved deadline.

If this bothers you, I suggest you stop playing MMOs entirely, as there is only ever one solution to " get more done faster “which is get more money, hire more staff” a the GW2 financial model is already established. Thus, unless something highly unlikely happens, like everyone buying 100 bucks in gems for no reason, I would expect content patches every 2 weeks and new/upgraded features to release when they’re finished.

Whether that’s something you can put up with is up to you.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Stuff

On Shiro: Don’t get me started. Shiro’s entire concept, plotline, etc. was symptomatic of lazy writing looking for a way to engineer a fallen hero. It wouldn’t suprise me at all if Shiro’s “dark master” was another made up on the fly denizen of the apperantly separate afterlife from which the spiritual wardens hail.

On tombs: Tombs was corrupted shortly before the release of factions, when Nightfall was already under development as factions had already gone gold They needed to do something with the place as they were moving pvp to the battle isles, they saw a quick and dirty way to spruce the place up while legitimizing the upcoming plot, they went with it.

On Shiro: Shiro “Chasing dark forces” and the “Has further reaching consequences” bits of that plotline are standar trope invocation which now make sense in context only because they were intentional blanks left to be filled in later. Grub and Soesbee have stated openly that Anet’s writers will often purposely NOT write something in the manner so that it doesn’t conflict with some plot they may come up with later. This is exactly why Abby was able to fill in the blanks. Because those blanks were intentionally designed as blanks.

A great example of this is Doern’s questionable origin. There are some ideas in place at Anet right now about what to do with that, but everything avaliable to the end user is intentionally vague in order to allow them to shoehorn it in when it seems appropriate.

In addition, Anet routinely repurposes content when it is decided that a narrative shifts. This is best seen with the repurposing of Utopia assets in EOTN, and the long reaching effects of those assets (originally human) have come to define the cultural aesthetic of the Asura, and the look and feel of coastal areas like sparkfly, as those assets were originally intended for a completely different continent.

Abby was shoehorned in to two plots as fast as they came up with him because in once case they purposely left a questionable blank he made sense in and in the other case because people would complain if they didn’t fanservice two campaigns with the same shtick.

All of this doesn’t change the fact that monolithic evil is lazy writing, and tying everything up with a bow, regardless of how that bow was tied, makes for far less interesting stories, villains, and content.

Kiayin.3427:

PopeUrban.2578:

Jeff.4680:

PopeUrban.2578:

No.

Abbaddon was the Scarlet of GW1 lore.

Everything made sense, and then all of a sudden “Abbaddon was behind all of everything since the beginning! We just never told you because we made it up just now and retconned it to make him seem more important.”

Don’t you ever, ever, compare Scarlet to godly lore such as Abaddon again. EVER…
However, I do see your point to a degree, especially with the fortune teller being a demon. But in actuality, it made sense. Without this being true, she was just a crazy lady with no apparent motives to cause chaos. Hmmm kinda sounds like another character we know…

I think everything being tied to Abaddon fit quite superbly. He was mentioned in the first game, and at the end of Nightfall it was almost like he was there the entire time. Right infront of our faces, he was playing us, where the veil to the mist was thin, from the very beginning. Was Abaddon the bad guy, or was it us the players?

Not to mention that Nightfall was by far the best writing Arena Net has produced thus far.

Nightfall was a very well written campaign, and my favorite of the three (and factions was an abortion of a plot saved only by the well designed continent/gameplay/background lore it was set in)

That doesn’t change the fact that the heavy-handedness of retconning him in to two other completely unrelated plots watered down the narrative and made a mockery of the villains in said narrative.

Making evil monolithic makes it less believable, and a lot less interesting. That’s WHY nightfall was so much fun. Joko’s subplot made it that much more belivable. If that plot were written today, we’d just encounter Joko as a midboss, kill him, kill the mama worm, and ride all over the wastes in helicopters. He’d never grow as a character, and he’d be just a footnote in Tyrian history.

Also, enlighten me to where Abby was mentioned in prophecies. I played GW1 from just before release onward and recall no mention of abby until they changed the HoH to have it taken over (As nightfall was being released, as part of the retconning) and turned in to a new dungeon when they were moving all the PvP to the shiny new battle isles.

If Abby was present in the game prior to nightfall I’d love to see that as it would add just a smidge of legitimacy to him.

It really is a bit of a stretch, but you do fight the Lich after breaking the seals of the Door of Komalie in Abaddon’s Mouth.. :P And since there are places such as “the Heart of Abaddon” later on in Nightfall, you could literally take Abaddon’s Mouth as a place where Abaddon is able to somehow influence/overflow into Tyria.

Wild guess time! The sylvari are a reflection of Kormir’s fight and the dream is a reflection of Kormir’s knowledge. Abaddon’s the one corrupting it, the Nightmare Court is trying to bring about their own version of the nightfallen lands. Scarlet, as knowledge driven as she was, fell for Abaddon’s promises as well!

Meh XD;.

I’ll give you that one, but the question here is whether abby as a god was planned at that stage, or whether they had a name of a place and went “well lets call him that”

I’m inclined, based on the lore-vaccum and “erased from history” shtick (a common one used when retconning) surrounding #6 To believe the latter, otherwise I would have really expected to see the lich say one thing or another about working for abby-as-god

The retconning present in GW2 at the Vizier’s tower indicates that the guy was obviously aware of abby, and was purposefully his minion, however nothing he says or does (especially during his big evil mastermind speech) indicates this.

Smells like retconning to me

In the spirit of contests, video editing, and generally using footage I had to cut from the video we are working on, I present to you a 15 second teaser for POPE’s upcoming entry in to the rock the nightmare contest.

Enjoy!

A Massive Headache.1879:

I could have sworn there was an official statement from anet that all the fractals take place in the past. As for factions, yes I liked the asian theme, but I don’t care for anime. we were essentially chosen because we were the heroes of tyria. There was more depth in shiro than a majority of npcs in nightfall, and it may have been a lot of flashbacks but that makes for a more entertaining game than reading the wall of text from an npc. I kind of feel like the writing style of nightfall is spilling over into these living stories and it’s atrocious

You’re welcome to your opinions about the Factions storyline, but I’ll maintain mine.

The mists are, essentially the formless aether that makes up all things. They are reactive and semi-sentient. Fractals are “echoes” of events, places or ideas, the same way that GW2’s mists pvp maps are echoes. These Echoes are often distorted or even only barely inspired by actual events. The best example of this is the solid ocean fractal, an echo of the Jade sea only barely conforming to the laws of our reality.

A better way to understand it is that fractals are like small volcanic islands, wheras tyria proper is a continent. The islands tend to form around continents because their structure makes it so much easier, but it is possible, and even likely that they can form in much more out of the way places.

The harpy fractal is a puzzling examply of the protean nature of the mists. is it an echo of a real place, left to fester for ages? It is an echo of the future of a place we know? Is it a twisted version of some place in the present simple inhabited by a traveller that got lost?

In addition, the Mists as a whole are responsible for the formation of all realities in the GW lorescape. Tyria itself was once just a tiny island in the mists, and out among and beyond the mists lie a potentially infinite collection of other realms just as intriciate and large. The human gods initially hail from one such realm (or were formed from the mists themselves, this is unclear) and it’s been said that they “brought” humans to tyria from another place.

Zappix.7928:

Didn’t the Krait in the first game have some statues to the Margonites in the desert sort of near the Arid sea? I could be wrong they’re probably not Krait but they made a Hisssing noise when you ran past them?

They had all kinds of statues built around there and there was a link to Nightfall?

There were no krait in the first game until the EOTN expansion, in which they, like many things (Asura, Norn, Elder Dragons, etc.) , were added scpecifically because they were going to be in GW2.

You’re thinking of the Forgotten, which are a whole different race. Originally they were very scarce, having been said to have pre-dated humanity in tyria. You got an important 15 Sp quest from one IIRC. In Nightfall they decided they should be the wardens of Abby’s prison. In Nightfall, once you wnet to the Realm or Torment, they were all over, as the gods had left it to them to maintain his prison.

A Massive Headache.1879:

I still don’t understand why everyone disliked factions story so much, to me, I loved factions and I thought nightfalls story was awful, in terms of characters and actions, and it retconned so much. My favorite part of nightfall was Palawa Joko, because he was the one character actually fleshed out and made interesting, and the desert had neat mechanics.

I find people that like the Faction’s storyline really just like Asian themed anything. The same sort of people that fall over themselves for Anime, no matter how bad it really is, just because it’s anime.

Yes, its a beautiful asian inspired continent… but the cutscenes were B-movie kungkittenfilms, and the overall plot was long strings of nothing happenning broken up by flashbacks about a guy who murdered someone a long time ago… for no apperant reason at all (until they decided it was abby… because everything is abby)

As a story, it was poorly written, the dialogue was bad, the villain was bland and ineffective, the whole thing was predicated on a series of flashbacks, and there were so many Deus Ex machina moments that it was entirely unbelivable. I mean it STARTS with you getting killed and then mirculously chosen to be not-dead by some wardens of a spirit world… that outside of that plotline do not and never have existed. From there you chase a guy across a map, getting nowhere, meanwhile nothing happens. Then you take a side trip to hang out with Kurzicks/Luxons and that whole section is okay… and then you’re back to the business of being repeatedly told how awesome some guy is while he actually does nothing awesome.

And then there’s a dragon that gives you superpowers, and then you kill him.

The end.

A Massive Headache.1879:

Just so we’re all clear, you all know fractals take place in the past, right? We could have a fractal dedicated to glint if they wanted, in fact if it was a copy and paste of the mission where we fight glint in prophecies, I’d be ok with that. But back to topic; it seems far more likely that the dragons are why the gods are absent, and this having 6 eyes being pure coincidence. I really hope it is at least, scarlet borrowing credibility from abaddon would just bring down abaddon, not make scarlet more interesting or anything like that.

Fractals take place in the mists, inspired or influenced by events that happened, might have happened, or could have happened, could happen one day, or could be completely random.

In the Mists a fractal or entire plane of existance as big as tyria or larger could exist where there were never any dragons, or the Charr never destroyed ascalon, or the world is ruled by intelligent beavers with assault rifles.

Fractals, and anywhere not on tyria and thus across the mists is literally “the multiverse”

Increasing base init regen is, IMO the best way to deal with the problem. Having init return on hit traits is just poor thief design. Init is not combo points, and shouldn’t reinforce being played as such. Making sure we have enough initiative to compete with CDR traits from other classes here, no matter our spec, is the issue here.

When you’re bemoaning less possible init, keep in mind that you’re operating on the symptom of a problem. Certain builds being effectively required to take every init gain in the book just to function is the problem. For something as fundamental as initiative, it shouldn’t just plain suck out of the box. Just like steal shouldn’t just plain suck out of the box.

As thieves, our core mechanics have been laughable for a long time, but managable as they are propped up by a handful of good traits. The further we get away from having to utilize traits just so our main mechanics function at an acceptable level, and the closer we get to picking traits because they add something meaningful on top of those mechanics, the better.

That’s how the core traits for other class mechanics work, and IMO it’s good that we are getting more init, and here’s hoping we’ll see a slight overall buff to steal in the future as well.

Jeff.4680:

PopeUrban.2578:

No.

Abbaddon was the Scarlet of GW1 lore.

Everything made sense, and then all of a sudden “Abbaddon was behind all of everything since the beginning! We just never told you because we made it up just now and retconned it to make him seem more important.”

Don’t you ever, ever, compare Scarlet to godly lore such as Abaddon again. EVER…
However, I do see your point to a degree, especially with the fortune teller being a demon. But in actuality, it made sense. Without this being true, she was just a crazy lady with no apparent motives to cause chaos. Hmmm kinda sounds like another character we know…

I think everything being tied to Abaddon fit quite superbly. He was mentioned in the first game, and at the end of Nightfall it was almost like he was there the entire time. Right infront of our faces, he was playing us, where the veil to the mist was thin, from the very beginning. Was Abaddon the bad guy, or was it us the players?

Not to mention that Nightfall was by far the best writing Arena Net has produced thus far.

Nightfall was a very well written campaign, and my favorite of the three (and factions was an abortion of a plot saved only by the well designed continent/gameplay/background lore it was set in)

That doesn’t change the fact that the heavy-handedness of retconning him in to two other completely unrelated plots watered down the narrative and made a mockery of the villains in said narrative.

Making evil monolithic makes it less believable, and a lot less interesting. That’s WHY nightfall was so much fun. Joko’s subplot made it that much more belivable. If that plot were written today, we’d just encounter Joko as a midboss, kill him, kill the mama worm, and ride all over the wastes in helicopters. He’d never grow as a character, and he’d be just a footnote in Tyrian history.

Also, enlighten me to where Abby was mentioned in prophecies. I played GW1 from just before release onward and recall no mention of abby until they changed the HoH to have it taken over (As nightfall was being released, as part of the retconning) and turned in to a new dungeon when they were moving all the PvP to the shiny new battle isles.

If Abby was present in the game prior to nightfall I’d love to see that as it would add just a smidge of legitimacy to him.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xae Isareth.1364:

I think where the failure is lies in the rewards. You don’t get nowhere near enough rewards for doing DEs compared to other things, because karma is not very useful. Also, doing something extremely short and simple like killing a champion gives the same if not more rewards than a long DE like escorting someone, so no one does the escorts.

We agree, this is something we’ve been discussing a lot lately and working on some various answers for, but I’m curious:

What rewards would you like to see from rewards? Would they be different when you’re leveling up than when you’re level 80? What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

Some of the fun challenges we are currently solving, but it’s great to hear peoples thoughts on this subject as well.

What worked really well in GW1:

Unique cosmetic rewards for unique content.

Currently you draw from the same skin pool for all the champ boxes, and the vast majority of all world loot, with only a handful of commonm skins being region specific. Contrast that with GW1’s boss uniques and many unique skins that were region or zone-specific drops.

In addition, rewards need to be somewhat content TYPE unique. karma is a semi-unique resource, and while leveling the act of unlocking and finding new merchants for it is a lot of fun. What if we used a sort of long-term “reputation” system to unlock karma vendors for unique rewards? Think of this as hearts on a much grander scale. Each event grouping is given to certain individuals or groups of NPCs. Doing events will, naturally, improve your reputation with NPC factions realted to that event. So, say Orr zones would give a lot of pact rep, while queensdale might give Krytan rep, etc.

Tie these reputation standing to reward unlocks, and even the ability to buy karma-based titles or single use “Important mission orders” Which would allow an influential player to function AS an event starter.

Imagine a situation in which you’ve been fighting for the pact for a while, gaining pact faction, and you’ve been given the opportunity to deliver an important message from fort trinity to camp penitent. This starts by telling an NPC, once you’ve reached the appropriate faction standing that you’d be interested in “special assignments”

When the map decides it’s time for a meta, it’ll look through its DB for all players with the “pact special special assignment” flag that are online. It will mail one of them ingame with a short brief and a pickup location. If the player doesn’t respond for a while it’ll choose a new player and mail the original player with something like “hey don’t worry about it, we didn’t hear from you so we sent someone else.”

When you pick up the package, you become a meta event. The risen populate around you, build catapults, walls, whatever. If you fall or log off, someone else can pick up the mission by grabbing the dropped package. Success gives everyone involved substantial meta-level rewards, failure is simply allowing the package to be dropped and not picked up within X time. If you’ve managed to carry the mission from start to finish, you gain a unique title and an achievement. If you manage to finish the mission without being the main guy you ALSO get a unique title/achievement, just not the same one.

This is a “relay marathon” type of player based meta, but you could easily do things like having the key player drive a war machine (like that awesome golem from the LS) operate a cannon, solve a puzzle, or any number of other activites. This entices people to really get out there and do some DEs for a shot at being the guy, and makes DEs entertaining as you have the ability to look after the fate of another player, or even be the heroic clutch guy that saved the mission when the main guy went down.
This adds some “long haul” to the event system without creating a farm.

In addition, the more mundane functions of a faction point system make karma more valuable, and you can treat karma gains like EOTN faction titles. The higher your faction in specific areas, the better your karma intake/better rewards on offer.

In addition, you could use the “called upon” system in conjunction with a player’s race or order to further filter and diversify these types of events. For instance, if a Charr with high iron legion standings, maybe you’re called upon by the the Legion itself for a mission that they wouldn’t dare give to a non-charr.

Frenk.5917:

• Dancing dagger: it’s a good skill, but it doesn’t worth 3 initiative, even if you think it’s a low initiative cost. Why? Because it’s a 5 second cripple with no damage at all and that can be cleared very easily. Forget about the fact that it can bounce to up to 4 targets, thieves usually don’t engage in such fights and they also have much better gap closer than that, both in SPVP and in WvWvW. In my opinion you can make this an immobilize that can not bounce more than 3 times and that, of course, last less than 5.5 seconds. You can also remove the damage, it’s irrilevant as it is now.

Problem with this:

Dagger skills are all about situational benefits.

1- Auto, works well with other skills as a cover condition or to simply mitigate target’s healing. Conditional stealth attack for massive damage.

2- Conditional finishing damage – Good for mobility and low HP single targets. Bad as an opener or defensive tool.

3- Multiple targets/evade (evasion could stand a buff) Bad at direct damage, good at conditions and defensive play.

4- Multiple target cripple, 100% projectile finisher X4, Bad at damage and single targets, good at defensive play and steal/group combo interactions.

5- Stealth! Good for both offense and defense, but hosts lots of adrenaline.

Dagger 4, like our other 4 slot skills, isn’t a gap closer. It’s a defensive skill with strong combo interaction. I use it frequenltly to pump out lifetap heals, confusion, cripple and other points of opportunity where my other tools are a bad move (being overwhelemd by targets) It works best as a disengage/breather skill. You have plenty of other gap closers avaliable in the other 4 skills of your weapons, as well as a dedicated class ability and several utilities.

Try looking at it through the lens of a skill, like headshot, or poison arrow, that has a very narrow and specific use that it’s very good at. On other classes these skills aren’t a good idea, but thieves have these sorts of skills because of our init mechanic. because we don’t rely on cooldowns, Our skills are generally much more narrow and specific in their uses, and dancing dagger is no different.

Personally, I’ve saved my own life countless times by using it through a failed shadow refuge to save my own life.

Dekk.3459:

@popeurban the other pistol traits are in CS… I dont see how ricochet fits better in DA.

The point is that it fits better in deadly arts (an offensive line) than trickery (a class mechanics line) and synergizes better with its partner traits (venoms), wheras trickery, being a steal/initiative line, should probably always look pretty build-neutral.

in addition, DA holds combined training, which is a trait that doesn’t really see play on any other set, but P/P builds spec pretty frequently.

JonPeters.5630:

This is great feedback. One thing I will tell you is that now your build has 33% more initiative than it used to. This will gain you back that lost survivability and then some IMO.

Jon

I work in software so I have “KISS in your commit comments or I will murder you” stamped on my brain.

I don’t think that anything in the proposed update is build destroying (except for certain D/P playstyles that shall not be named) and It’s going to more than compensate for whatever edits I choose to do.

Thing is… Traits like improv are in my opinion what all traits should be. it does a fun, interesting, gameplay altering thing.

Sure, slightly bigger numbers, or a few boons when condition X is met are useful, but they’re not nearly as awesome as, say, the first time you use a dodge-trait on a class, or the first time you reflect with a shield warrior, or when you realize you can now get rid of a utility because you’ve traited around what you needed it for.

That’s kinda what I’m lamenting. Not the removal of effectiveness. it still tanks and stabs stuff and never lets up and is fun. It’ll probably be more effective moment to moment, too, but it’ll have to give up either laying down double shadow refuges or using steal as an interrupt, and those little moments are what make build builds really. The collection of special things that you can do that they other guys around you can’t.

That’s important, the act of just “being special”

Otherwise we’d all roll the same three builds and one class.

Honestly, the entire design of crit chance/crit damage hinders rather than helps the overall design of GW2.

In other systems, critical hit chances are a bubble stat, good as an extra DPS dump the same way vit/toughness work hand in hand to be defensive dumps without being completely and utterly “take this much of this one or you are just plain wasting the one you took”

Our critical strikes line, and the general necessity to dump in to 3 offensives because its just plain better than dumping in to defensive, support and condi stats isn’t ever going to be “fixed” without a gamewide overhaul of the way critical chance and damage are calculated to bring them in line value-wise with taking other stats.

Prec/crit damage simply cost too much because you must take both if you’re taking either. No other stat is this dependant. I’ll use condi damage/duration. Both valuable stats for their purpose, but also both fully useful stats without the other. Precision is largely a useless stat without also investing in a nearly equal amount of crit damage and vice versa.

The fact that we have a trait line that grants both at once is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because we can get a lot of damage out of a lower trait investment, but it’s a curse because what comes out of that line is these two siamese twin stats, and thus it’s wholly stupid to NOT take it if you want to do what passes for “good” damage in this game.

That’s the problem really. Not a minor hit to init regen for specs that already outperformed other specs by a massive margin and will continue to do so.

A start would be rebalancing all “on crit” gear and effects in the game to be “on hit” procs and adjusting their chances to reflect this. Critting is its own reward, is already above and beyond in damage, and there’s no reason to further reinforce it as a necessary build choice by making it a necessary catalyst for virtually every proc in the game.

So I run D/D “zergbunker” Trickery specced thief as such:

20/0/0/20/30

This is not a crit spec, it’s not a FOTM spec, and it is a spec that revolves around steal moreso than most. It was enabled by some great updates to Trickery and is being fundamentally made less fun by the proposed trait updates.

Now, The reason why I run it is that the ~20s stealth makes improvisation actually useful, and lotus poison is a nice condition cover from the auto for basically free.

With 20 in acro I’m using assassin’s reward as backup for the composite overall healing from mug and signet of malice. It’s a fun build that’s a hybrid of evasion and self healing, requiring an active defense and a really aggressive playstyle not possible on other thief builds.

I think this merits saying as if the focus is build diversity, I run a pretty uncommon build, which is being kinda gutted of utilities in favor of (In my Opinion) much less interesting bigger damage and healing numbers.

These changes are doing the following to my build:

Increasing overall healing, but only IF I drop either improvisation (and lotus poison) or lead attacks/sleight of hand.

THE problem is, these two traits are only really in the build in order to support one another. Is there any chance we can move/adjust improvisation (which is highly underused/undervalued, and thus should be a candidate for a buff in this patch) to allow it?

TBH it would make more sense as a master trait in trickery anyway, and richochet would make more sense in deadly arts.

How about swapping the position of ricochet and improvisation, moving a pistol DPS trait to the DPS line and a steal focused trait to the steal line? I’d be able to keep the utilities in place, but still have to give up 10 points in deadly, thus losing lotus poison and bountiful theft, which seems like a fair trade for fluid strikes and the ability to run hard to catch and assassin’s reward.

This would also benefit P/P and venomshare builds.

P/P would be able to run lighter on trickery and get more utility out of deadly arts, making the p/p without venom share overall a better spec due to the 5 extra optional points in critical trikes or a defensive line, which synergize much better with p/p. In addition they’d have an overall better base of optional initiative traits to fuel themselves, and P/P builds would just be overall tighter with less “chaff” trait points to get to the good stuff.

This would also have a potential slight benefit on venomshare builds, allowing them the option of running improv and the other venom traits for possible proc recharges.

No.

Abbaddon was the Scarlet of GW1 lore.

Everything made sense, and then all of a sudden “Abbaddon was behind all of everything since the beginning! We just never told you because we made it up just now and retconned it to make him seem more important.”

At least in the context of his own campaign he made sense…

Also, Mithran is correct. In lore, the mists are the fluid essence of reality, from which all other realities are formed. The forming of new realities works like the formation of a star, the coalesce around a single source of power or a radiant event. They form the essence of all things in the GW universe.

Wheras in reality we’re all made of stardust, in Guild Wars we’re all essentially made of the Mists.

TBH the hulk hands are pretty cool.

If they matched my outfit I’d grab them.

If this IS a scaling bug, anet should consider some “big honkin’ glove” pieces to match all the “big honkin’ boots” pieces.

Make ‘em metal/leather with separate dye channels for armor plate, leather backing, and trim (like the SE gloves) and I’ll even kick in an extra 50 gems in gold to get the gloves and five keys as charity.

Linked account?

The final boss is randomly selected from the party’s GW1 characters. Doppleganger on steroids.