Guild Wars 2

Just solo the kitten thing… The boss is pathetic. Or at most ask one friend to tag along.

Aedelric.1287:

You did not even try to keep it short ProxyDamage, do not lie.

Sad part? I really did….

Aedelric.1287:

The Orr effect, being tossed around by enemy skills, this one is especially fear heavy, such tactics is not fun. Yes it is counter-able, but it forces player to play a handful of builds rather than what they want.

Just a note here: I don’t mind that it forces you to change build a bit. Especially if it forces you away from “Full damage no defense” spec. I like it when a challenge pushes a bit for a more specific build. I ran this tower with one friend in my “safe” warrior build (my defensive PvP build, but with full berserker gear), and while that’s hardly the most efficient, I thought Cleansing Ire was very important. I like that. I like that I finally took out my hammer for PvE for more than “because I like the look of Entropy”. Because I could actually stun and knock things around, which is very useful when you’re trying to run past 2 or 3 elites piled together.

My issue is that even with stability it’s gonna run out eventually, and it’s a pain to get knocked around too much. Fear > Stun Break > knockdown > stun break > knockback off a rafter gets old.

That said, in my view it was just a little excessive and only in some areas. I like that mobs have CC too, force you to stun break/stability. Maybe this is more of an issue of too many mobs piling up in some small areas more so than the CC they use specifically?

Gillian.1859:

I think there’s just way too much going on. The poisons, the constantt CC by enemies, the mines, the turrets… It’s fine for those who constantly want to zerg around with a large group, but if you are stuck in one of those remote overflow and you dont have a choice but to solo the paths, at least downscale the difficulty according to the population in the map.

I think “scaling” is the key here. I know it’s not the easiest thing in the world, but I think the tower would be greatly improved by better scaling. Down and upscaling in different areas. Some areas feel a little too easy to solo, while others feel a little too hard to solo…

When you reflect something the projectile becomes based on your stats, not the original source’s. So I think this points to a different issue – the Hybrid’s offense stats are too low.

2/2

See, you have two problems here. First is that, so far, Scarlet is just poorly written as a villain. At least based on what we have so far. As a rule of thumb any villain that’s aiming to be “evil”, is just a lame kitten uni-dimensional cartoon villain. There is no such a thing as “evil”. A good villain is never someone that is “being evil”. It’s someone that’s acting with a specific goal. Usually motivated by very understandable, if disagreeable, logic. The best villains are usually the ones that honestly believe they’re doing good.

Just look at that final cutscene in this update… Very pretty visually, but oh dear god it could not make Scarlet look any more like a generic villainous kitten ant du jour if it tried.. “I’ll get you next time gadget! Grrrr!”

Which brings us to the second problem: The living story is progressing way too slowly as far as narrative goes. Each update only happens every 2 weeks, and the amount of story development tends to be slim to none. It’s like trying to read a book three pages at a time every two weeks. It doesn’t work. Again, look at this update… what have we learned? That Scarlet is lying to the Krait (shock and awe, a villain is lying, I know) and that she was behind Flame and Frost too (… Yeah, that was really difficult to put together given recent events…). That’s it. I still don’t know who Scarlet is or why I’m supposed to care. It’s like the Star Wars prequels… 3 minutes of poor story for 2 hours of movie.

Overall, really good in the gameplay department, definitely going in the right direction. Rewards are not there yet, and could use a tweak here and there, but overall positive. Story is… barely there. Scarlet is still a lame kitten boring Saturday morning cartoon villain that needs to be unceremoniously put down so a better antagonist can step up to the stage.

As a side note: Blatant bending of even the in-game world’s laws of physics much? Correct me if I’m wrong, but the tower is about 2 or 3 times bigger inside than it is outside and all…. Vertically and horizontally. Whatever. Magic. It’s nice enough inside that I don’t mind ignoring that. Just a funny note.

Cheers.

Since ANet seems keen on feedback these days, my personal review of this patch. I’ll try to keep it short. [Edit: I failed…]

Overall impression: Positively surprised.

Honestly was expecting this to be another boring instance dungeon you do once or twice for the reward and then never touch again (coughcoughtwilightarborcoughcough), or an uninspired farm zone, but I was wrong.

The nightmare tower actually brings some new and interesting enemies, different, more interesting, encounters than “tank n’ spank”, and a very different level design with the “tower” structure (which, personally, I love). I love the “verticality” of it too, and that there are all the mini-instances spread around that you can do outside of following the path. All too often is the vertical element forgotten in level design these days. Good stuff.

I love that there are enemies that move around instead of simply running at you and hoping you die before they do – An improvement I’ve noticed with the new Toxic alliance mobs. I really like the encounter with the megalaser that keeps you moving around – the laser feels like the right amount of delay between “not fast enough to dodge while in combat” and “too slow”. I love the variety in enemies. The different bosses spread around, especially that some hit hard, others load you with conditions, and others are just swarms of small critters. I love, loooove, that you’re using less champions and more elites (which are not immune to CC/don’t have defiant). It’s hardly perfect yet, but oh so many steps forward. You’re definitely in the right direction there.

On a “new items” side of things, I appreciate that the new items are being sold directly and not through one of those asinine “RNG box” systems.

On the downside, enemies in the tower, in some areas, can be rather abusive of hard CC. It’s the old Orr problem – it’s not that it’s difficult, per say, it’s that it’s incredibly annoying to be tossed around all day. Still, it’s mostly on the third level, and it’s not that excessive, so it’s hardly a rampant problem.

Additionally, while the instances can be soloed, getting to the instances does seem to rely on having at least one more person due to the champion “gates” (and one or two harder parts to rush through or kill solo in the third level). All fine and dandy on release day when everyone’s rushing it, but in a week or so this might be an issue if you weren’t around at the start and just wanna get to the next level, but have a champion or two blocking your way.

Conversely, getting to the top of the tower is several orders of magnitude harder than beating the instance. Particular mention to the final boss which, despite being visually fantastic, is about as menacing as a kitten’s fart… Is it possible the hybrid is bugged? I swear the poor sod does, literally, no damage with half of his attacks…. It just makes the whole experience rather inconsistent.

Another downside are the rewards side of things. The rewards simply don’t match the time and effort it takes to get to the top. Additionally more different keys to collect are a pain in the kitten (and in the inventory). It’s not a huge deal, but did expect a bit better in that area, given that you, Arena Net, have made a big deal out of having identified that lack of appropriate reward was an issue in your game.

Unfortunately that leaves us with only the lowest point of the Nightmare Tower… The story.

And, hey hey, it’s Scarlet again! Does anyone honestly give a kitten about Scarlet anymore? She’s been a Saturday morning cartoon villain from the start, and every update just piles up on it. Uuuuuuuuuh, she did Flame and Frost! Uuuhh! Oh who gives a kitten? How many months has it been now? And all we found out is that she did it. Not even why… nothing. I honestly would have forgotten why I was supposed to care, except there’s really nothing to forget is there? Everytime she talks she comes across as a “I’m doing bad things cause I’m evil!!!” cartoon villain. She’s like a 12 year old’s version of a villain. She’s “dark” and “nightmary”! And she’s EVIL! And talks about EVIIL things all the time! And, and, and..she laughs a lot too! Eviiiiiil laugh!!!!….

1/2

digiowl.9620:

I got a suspicion that it is bugged. The attack pattern was pretty much that of a damoss, yet i never noticed the “serpent strike” doing as much damage as i would expect from a L80 champion.

Same… I get the feeling that “flailing” attack isn’t actually doing the damage it’s supposed to… Partially because it’s not doing ANY damage right now.

…. Serious?

Personally thought that while graphically pretty, it was completely void and pointless. Complete “style over substance”. Was just Scarlet being her usual Saturday morning cartoon villain “I’LL GET YOU NEXT TIME GADGET!!”.

I loved the tower itself, but Scarlet is such a hopeless waste of a character at this point. I would have forgotten why I cared at this point, except there’s nothing to forget…

Druss.6917:

This is the kind of meaningful changes to the world we’ve been looking for.

…uh….how? This is the same temporary issue as usual… It’s just a different form of temporary. Instead of lasting 2 weeks, it lasts until it’s burned down. Same thing…

szygum.2607:

Read patch notes again. Time restriction is reffered to Tower of Nightmares not Nightmares Within update.

…And the Nightmare Within content happens where…?

Actually, “necromancy” was considered magic that involved the deceased, including spirits. The requirement of “corpses” was only a thing in certain videogames as a gameplay gimmick/limitation. Also sometimes used to refer to general black/dark magic.

The things the Necromancers of GW2 summon are all dead. They’re either spirits or reanimated flesh/bones. Therefore, by definition, necromancy. Additionally, all of the Necro’s magic is thematically dark/black magic and, once again, perfectly coherent with the definition of a necromancer.

If you wanted to be pedantic, on the other hand:

Why do classes even have names? Ranger? Guardian? They’re all psychopathic mercenaries anyways. Their solution to everything is “kill the enemy of whomever is paying me today… And if that doesn’t work, kill their family, wreck their house and burn their land”.

And why “Guild Wars”? There’s only 1 “official” guild in the story, Destiny’s Edge, and it’s actually not relevant at all… To anything…

tl;dr: If you’re going to be pedantic at least be right. Otherwise you just look stupid.

Well…This sucks… Most of these are terrible…

Keeping it short and simple, just gonna highlight some of the more important ones:

Necro:

- “Mark of Blood. Removed 1 bleed in PvP only.” Really? Mark of Blood was already massively underwhelming. It’s just something you use while using the rest of your marks before you switch weapons. That has ALWAYS been the problem of Necro’s staff. It’s also the reason that, no matter how much you want, Greater Marks is mandatory. Because marks are exclusive to the STAFF, and staff is exclusively marks.

- “Signet of Spite: Removed one bleed.” – Nicest way I can put this is “Who gives a kitten?”. The bleeds on this are pathetic, they’re just cover conditions for the rest…

- “Death 5 – Reanimator. Decreased cooldown from 30s to 15s.” – No. Wrong! This trait needs to disappear from the minor trait and switched for something else… Or you need to move staff traits, and other traits not exclusive to minion master, away from this horrid tree.

Ranger:
- “Long Range Shot. Increased the damage at 500 range by 20%.” and “Long Range Shot. Increased the damage at 500-1000 range by 15%.” – Yay, only….what? 15 skills left to go?

- “Wilderness 5 Natural Vigor. Reduced the increased endurance regeneration from 50% to 25%.” – lol…. because… kitten ranger… I guess… Nevermind the classes that have perma-vigor (coughcoughmesmerguardianengineercoughcough).

- “Nature Magic XI – Spirits Unbound. Moved to Master Tier.” – This doesn’t need to be lowered in tiers, it needs to be kittening BASELINE for god’s sake… It’s a functionality issue. Spirits are useless without it.

Warrior:

- (general) gg. You still haven’t nerfed what you should (passive play), and instead nerfed what you shouldn’t (everything else). GG. 0/20/20/0/30 instead of 0/10/30/0/30.
- “Tactics 25 – Reviver’s Might. Now applies 3 stacks of Might instead of 1.” – Who cares… Still a useless waste of a trait. The activation condition is too situational. Ditch it. Rework it entirely.

There’s more, and I didn’t pay a lot of attention to some (engineer and ele for example), but yeah…. completely disappointment. There are some good changes here and there, but nothing is being done to address core, fundamental class problems.

The problem with Warrior is the kittening passive play of healing signet.

The problem with Ranger is that they’re ball and chained to a disfunctional mechanic – the pet.

The longbow still requires 3 MASTER traits to be at full power, meaning a 50 trait point investment, one of which (1500 range) should be BASELINE.

A lot of things that should be baseline because they’re fundamental to certain weapons or skills are still traits you gotta invest in, just to have that weapon/skill set work – Ranger spirit’s moving with you, Necro’s greater marks, Ranger’s 1500 range on longbow…

Several trait trees, some more than others, are still plagued by disfunctional and useless minor traits – trait you can’t opt out of in favor of more useful ones. Warrior’s Tactic’s tree, Ranger’s Marksmanship tree, Necromancer’s Death Magic tree… Traits that are extremely circumstantial and of practically no impact, or extremely build dependent and useless (or detrimental) for mostly everyone else…

Guardian still has issues effectively running after or away from people, or keeping people from running away… More so now with the horrid change to Symbol of Swiftness…

Start by fixing the core problems with classes… The stuff that’s broken… Then worry about tweaking minor stuff…

Ray.2640:

ProxyDamage.9826:

When I have 25k health, a 5k heal means kitten all. Tear drop in the ocean.

ProxyDamage.9826:

Nerf the passive of HS, a lot, buff all the actives of all the Warrior’s heals a lot (hell, I’d tell you to start testing by doubling them).

Please explain this.

You want us to have more healing because we have more base HP?

Alright, it’s simple really.

There are many different ways to be “tanky” in a game, but I guess we can group them in two major areas. You can either avoid or mitigate the damage you take, meaning you take little damage, or you can take the full damage, but have much stronger healing/regen instead.

Take Guardians for example. Guardians have a very small health pool. Anywhere between two thirds to half of a Warrior’s, depending on build. However, what they do have, is a lot of damage mitigation. They have great access to protection, better condition removal, they have active and passive Aegis, perma-vigor, a secondary passive and active heal that is completely isolated from their main heal, blocks, blinds, invulnerability, etc… The idea here is that any reasonable damage to Guardians is difficult, therefore they have a small health pool, because they can multiply it with their damage mitigation.

Warrior, on the other hand, does not. They only have 30% vigor if they sacrifice a utility skill slot and only when it’s not in cooldown (compared to Guardian’s nearly 100% upkeep), no protection, they have a couple of blocks, and at best the very punctual “Endure Pain”. Warrior takes the full brunt of any attack to the chin, which is why they have a bigger health pool, because they take more damage.

And therein lies the problem with Warrior’s heals. While a Guardian’s heal is naturally multiplied in effectiveness through their damage mitigation, a Warrior’s is not. For the Warrior to have sustain they need to heal more, because all of the points of “damage” they’re recovering are unmitigated as well.

To give a simple example (ignore the numeric values, it’s just for the sake of the example):

Imagine a Guardian takes half the damage the Warrior takes in the same situation.

Now, that Guardian has 14k health, and heals 8k with his health, and the Warrior has 20k health and a 12k heal.

Since the Guardian is taking half damage, this means he has 28k effective health and a 16k effective heal. But the Warrior is still taking 100% of the damage, meaning his effective health IS 20k and 12k healing.

Now, you don’t necessarily wanna give Warriors even more health, so, instead, what you need to do is given them stronger healing. Which is why the problem with HS is not that the amount it heals, but the fact that it’s passive and permanent and therefore does not allow counterplay – see rest of OP.

Hope that made any sense.

SpecterMAT.7306:

Stuff

I thought I recognized your name, so I read some of your “back posts”. You have no idea what you’re talking about so I’m simply going to ignore you.

And before you say “I know how to play”, you don’t. Promise.

(…without destroying everything else)

Unlike my typical posts, I’m gonna keep this (relatively) short and simple.

We all know Warriors are currently a bit overpowered. We all know they need adjustment. What I’m hoping is to lead those adjustments in the right direction instead of “whack-a-mole-nerf-hammer” territory (see ranger).

And I’ll start doing that by saying that there’s currently only one real problem with warrior: Healing Signet.

Skull crack builds, hammer builds, condition builds… The linchpin of any warrior build that is currently PvP/WvW viable is the same. HS.

Now allow me to follow up by saying that no, it’s not the amount it heals. In fact, when it comes to amount, HS is actually the only Warrior heal that’s anywhere close to where it should be. Warrior is a class with little to no damage mitigation. They have no vigor, no protection, and while they’re much better now than they were a while ago they’re still hardly the masters of condition removal or boon use…They face tank with their massive health pool, so they need their heals to replenish that same health pool, otherwise they have no sustain.

When I have 25k health, a 5k heal means kitten all. Tear drop in the ocean.

“So, if it’s not the amount of healing HS does, what’s wrong with it?” You ask. Simple, the fact that there is no counter play, because Healing Signet is a permanent passive. You can’t interrupt it, you can’t deny it, and even poison has limited utility since it’s only an issue of a temporary performance dip before it’s cleansed – instead of risking cutting 33% of your entire heal… It’s just 33% of a very small part of it.

And this points to one of the biggest design issues with Signets (in general) in Guild Wars 2: The passive should never be the main use of a skill. The passive should only be a bonus.

The funny part is that you have, side by side, examples of signets done very right and very wrong:

Good
Dolyak Signet : This skill is one of the best examples of a good signet design. It offers clear pros and cons when compared to the non-signet alternative (Balanced Stance). It offers 180 passive toughness when not in use for the cost of extra swiftness when used and more cooldown (8 seconds if you also “pay” an extra trait, 20 without it). It offers you a slightly weaker active in exchange for the bonus passive, but you’re never going to carry this for the passive alone. It’s just a bonus.

Bad
Healing Signet: Very bad. The only reason to take this is the passive. The active is pathetic.

Good
Signet of Resolve: Compared to the other good Guardian heal (Shelter) it offers a stronger heal on a longer cooldown that passively cleans a condition (2 if traited) every 10 seconds, vs. a 2 second block while healing. Stronger, less frequent, heal and a bit more condition removal, or weaker, more frequent, heal that gives you additional damage avoidance. Valid choices.

Signet of Undeath: You take this for the team mate revival. The life force generation is just a nice bonus.

Bad
Signet of Malice/Signet of Restoration: Active is balls. Passive is the only reason to pick these.

Ranger Signets: Pretty much all of them are picked for their passive, with actives being secondary, often completely ignored.

Seeing a pattern? Passives should never be the primary component of any skill. They should be extras, secondary bonuses to the active effect.

So, you want to balance the warrior? Nerf the passive of HS, a lot, buff all the actives of all the Warrior’s heals a lot (hell, I’d tell you to start testing by doubling them). That’s it. You don’t need to touch unsuspecting foe, or skull crack, or condition builds, or anything. You fix the active vs. passive healing issue and everything else will even out. Because suddenly counter play is possible. Suddenly a Warrior can’t heal while attacking. They can’t heal while being stunnned/knocked down. Their heals can be interrupted or poisoned. The Healing Signet can still exist, but the main use of it has to be the active heal, with the passive being a simple benefit to make up for a slightly lower heal per activation.

…And then you can focus on fixing what’s broken, such as useless or dysfunctional trait trees and skills.

Cheers.

Justdeifyme.9387:

what is a raport

I think he wishes to establish a relationship of mutual trust and emotional affinity

Yes, OP, you can. You just send them a message, and open your heart to them!

Thanks everyone for the posts. I’m genuinely surprised by the amount of people who read through that.

I’m just adding one thing: A lot of people say “Ascended doesn’t matter” and I’d like to argue that.

The differential between a full exotic and full ascended gear character right now (2 handed weapon) is + 50-55 damage, + 60 Main stat, +32 secondary stat, and either +32 tertiary stat or +8% crit damage. That totals +50-55 damage and either 124 stat points or +92 stat points and 8% crit damage. That’s not nothing .

Sure, it’s not the world, but it is a difference, especially with crit damage (as its not a linearly distributed stat). It is noticeable in closer matches between players of similar calibers. Very. It is very noticeable while min-maxing.

In a PvP setting 10 points can decide a fight. 100+? +50 weapon damage and 8% crit dmg? That’s a lot.

Add to that how some combinations don’t have exotic stat jewels and that difference is even bigger…

Sorry, if you’re into WvW it matters a lot.

• Dailies/monthlies could have been something amazing, a “bonus” for logging in every day, if only they weren’t the only way of acquiring laurels.

• Ascended could have been a long term goal everyone would work for, due to the sheer convenience of it, but nobody felt forced to do, if instead of being statistically superior they were simply offered something else: the ability to switch stats “on demand” when outside of battle.

• Additionally, by having agony resistance, they could be used as a means of soft vertical progression in the PvE side of things, without affecting WvW. Parts of the open world could have enemies with agony. Optional (keyword) new places where agony was present and, while not mandatory, agony resistance would prove very useful.
• You could even add other forms of agony other than the “poison on steroids” it is. Further “agony” conditions in those places that would be several diminished by agony resistance.
• Fractals could still be fractals, the “hard vertical gated” content for the vertical progression fans.
• Furthermore, it would stop the ridiculous stat inflation WvW is already subject to…

• You could have had an end game focused on building a wardrobe. With increasingly difficult to acquire skins behind difficult bosses, and a PvE focused around the incredibly solid dynamic fighting system you created.

• Legendaries could have been tests of game knowledge and skill, requiring the player to best different areas of the game, instead of grinding to amass a gigantic laundry list of “ingredients” to cobble together.

• You could have had a solid WvW experience… Something so very few games have ever managed on an similar scale… Instead of the increasingly trashy “grind and blob ’round the clock” mess it’s becoming

You could have done so many things… You should have, actually, given your promises… But you didn’t. You still can change most of it, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’ve mentioned before that GW2 felt schizophrenic, regarding something else at the time. I fear that particular disease has spread. Currently the game feels… Lost. Without direction. Like it’s trying to be everything, and do everything on a surface level, with no real idea where it’s going from there. Like a kid in a playground that is trying so hard to belong to every group that ends up never being a part of any. “We don’t want grind! Just grind! Ok a little bit! But not too much! Grind this much exactly! But do it everyday. We’re all about the PvE… PvP, I mean. E-SPORTS! HERE IS ANOTHER STORY OF SOMETHING WHO CARES WHAT! PLEASE LOVE ME!”

ACT IV: Eulogy

Almost a year ago I saw something. I saw a lot of potential. I saw the game I’ve been waiting for since I was 15. Unfortunately that’s not the game I’m playing anymore. GW2 today isn’t that game. In fact, I don’t think it knows what game it is either. It reminds me of the Jarhead fiasco – A great movie in its own right, that faced incredibly harsh criticism mostly because it was marketed as something it was very clearly not (i.e.: an action movie). GW2 set itself up for a specific audience. It waved the flag, set the speech, and took all the nice pictures kissing babies and such… Now it’s turning around, saying it’s something else, but not really, but, but, but… Make up your minds ANet. Choose a direction and embrace it.

Don’t look at this as an “I quit!” post. I didn’t, not yet. I’m hanging around (with rapidly fading enthusiasm, I admit) to see what happens for now. When it gets too much for me I’ll quit then. I’m hoping that, somehow, GW2 can still become that game I was waiting for. Either ways, the game needs to decide what it wants to be.

Around 17 thousand characters later, 8 standard pages, I’m done (man the posting system is gonna have a fit with this one…). Thanks for reading, honestly. If anyone at ANet reads this, my sincerest thank you and best of luck whichever path you choose.

PS: Give yourselves some sort of achievement for reading all of this, jesus christ…

4/x

• For a game with such a focus on aesthetics and cosmetics as end game it is still egregiously impractical and expensive to just switch looks (no wardrobe system for example). Every time I want a new look I’m expected to not only acquire said look, but to either farm an entire new armor set to place it on, or erase the old look I acquired on top of being forced to acquire a “premium-shop-only” item – Transmutation crystals. It’s simply not a viable system for a game that wanted its end-game to revolve around these cosmetics.
• The “Pact” storyline is still a depressing excuse for… anything really. Particularly “Victory or Death” which is still the single worst “final boss fight/dungeon” I’ve ever seen in a game.
• sPvP is still a completely separate entity that segregates PvE/WvW progress from itself. Of course level and gear stats need to be separate due to the nature of PvP, but what about the rest? Why different currencies? Why can’t I keep my PvE aspect in PvP or vice versa? Why is progression in PvP so… asinine? Feels like the entire progression in that mode was a rushed afterthought that has never been addressed. Even dailies/monthly (which, ironically, you have no real reason to do if you’re strictly a PvP player) are stuck in the uninspired linear “do these 4 every day forever” mess of 6 months ago for the rest of the game…
• PvP is still stuck to that one game mode, with classics like CTF, KotH or good’ol team deathmatch still ruefully neglected.
• The dungeon system is still a mess, with a full set of gear requiring me to grind a dungeon to utter exhaustion (timed gated grind, of course), after which I never wanna see that dungeon again.
• WvW still lacks proper structure and organization, such as proper commander support, being filled with more and more game breaking trash such as leveling grind with gamebreaking “traits”, and now the horrid bloodlust buff (the new redesign of the middle of the borderlands is great, mind you, it’s just the bloodlust that sucks horribly).
• Most PvE encounters are still uninspired and linear, with the AI behavior being somewhere along the lines of “run at enemies and attack till they die”.
• For all the temporary content, the permanent additions are still rather lacking, with the downside that anyone unfortunate enough to join in or comeback now will naturally feel confused and utterly uninvested in the current events.
• Some balance issues with broken or useless traits/skills (classes? hinthintrangerhinthint) have yet to be addressed one year later…

… etc.

And unfortunately, this seems like the way it’s going to be… ANet have made their new strategy clear. They’ve thrown their manifesto out the window. You can safely disregard everything they’ve said before (and take anything they say now with mountainous piles of salt, cause you know it’s only sticking as long as it is convenient). Vertical progression, grind, temporary chores and time gating are the new kitten, and it’s here to stay. The rest is secondary. We’ve come a long way in a year…

“Still you are blessed, compared with me!
The present only touches you:
But oh! I backward cast my eye,
On prospects dreary!
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear!”

ACT III: Could have, should have, didn’t.

You know what the saddest part of all of this was? It was all so…predictable. So avoidable. It’s easy to see why it happened, but it was so easy to avoid…

The game shipped out incomplete, unfinished and rushed out the door. This is a fact the developers themselves have admitted to several times now – as if one needed anything other than observation. Hell, most of Orr didn’t even work on release (arguably a lot of it still doesn’t, glitching and stalling frequently). Seeing as you can’t start building a roof without the foundations being finished, naturally, the late game was the most unfinished. In a game where reaching end game was relatively simple, a lot of complaints followed swiftly regarding the poor state of the end-game (see above). ANet (and NCSoft?) started feeling the pressure and took the path of least resistance – add more grind. Add something shiny for people to look at, and make it stronger so they’re forced to go for it. Add some tight time gating and voilá, instant end-game that’ll tie off your population for a few months! And I can’t even begin to talk about the mess PvP became trying to be League of Legends despite being a completely different game (and how that affected WvW…).

Pity. A real pity.

3/x

Everything was in place. I got the game, and for a while, it was good. My friend was right, getting to lvl 80 and BIS gear (exotic at the time) was trivial. Sure, the game wasn’t perfect, it had a lot of flaws even, but the core was solid enough to keep me playing. I made a lvl 80 of each class. Tried all races. Even got some classes multiple sets of gear. The combat was good, and I felt free to play however I wanted. Sure, the end-game was lacking, particularly the PvE side of it, with incredibly boring and uninteresting “tank n’ spank” encounters being the norm. The entire later portion of the game, particularly, was so obviously rushed out the door… But that was OK. The game promised on-going development, and it was showing signs of keeping to it, so no big deal. I can wait as long as the game stays enjoyable. Dynamic combat and little to no grind? This game was aimed at me!

And for a while, it was good.

ACT II: The best laid plans of mice and men…

“But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!”

Change was coming. It began with Fractals of the Mists. A whole new dungeon, directed at the vertical progression crowd! Nothing wrong with that by itself. After all there’s nothing wrong with having parts of your game dedicated to different types of players. Sure, it may not be my thing, but so what? Let’em have it if they want it. Slightly less acceptable was what they came bundled with: Ascended rings and backpacks. In retrospect, it should have been an obvious omen. A symptom of that disease I loathed. But alas, I chose to give the ANet team the benefit of the doubt. Sure, it was a bad antecedent, but right then and there it was just a couple of rings and a backpack… Not that big a deal. After all, their entire game up to that point had been built and sold on a concept that was diametrically opposite to the idea of vertical progression. That was what they used to sell their game. That was the audience they had called for, and the one that had answered.

Fast forward 10 months, and it’s easy to see I was wrong. Oh, how hopelessly optimistic, how drowned in hope and denial, my “gambit” now seems. More ascended gear followed, with more promised to come. All of it with superior stats. All of it hard of acquisition, all of it heavily time gated. Nice and slowly the game covered itself with a viscous layer of the very material it once denounced! In my mind I can’t shake off the image of campaigning politicians. The game that was once proud of letting you play how you wanted is now burying you with chores. Dailies, monthlies, temporary content, time gating and other artificial limitations piled on top of more gear and leveling (WvW) grind… Chores you must do TODAY OR NEVER AGAIN!!, every day, the way they want you to or not at all.

Hey ANet, I have a secret tip for you: Chores aren’t usually associated with fun. It used to be that I could play the game the way I wanted, when I wanted. No time to play today? No problem. Maybe I’ll play double tomorrow. Or maybe this week isn’t good, I’ll play extra next week when I can. Not anymore. Now ANet had taken upon itself to ration out my playtime for me. “Log in, do your daily/monthly, do your ascended crafting – all of it. Do you want any Celestial stuff in the near future? Do that too then. And don’t forget dungeon runs, fractals, bosses, and whatever else you give a kitten about in this game. Once per day! And no you can’t do extra tomorrow! It’s our way or the hard way!”. Augh. Honestly, does anyone in your offices think this is fun? With every update there’s more and more crap that’s piling up on the treadmill list…

That said please, PLEASE, don’t get me wrong or intentionally try to misinterpret my words. I’m not against additional content. I’m against additional, forced, treadmill content. As I said before, I’m not against Fractals and ascended being directed at the vertical progression nuts… Let’em have it if it floats their boat. I’m against it sipping into the rest of the game. I’m not against dailies and laurels. I’m against them being the only way to acquire laurels, and them being time gated. I’m not against living story updates. I’m against timed updates that you need to do now to collect the reward/achievements or never again (unless you’re lucky). I’m against focusing on throwing more arbitrary temporary stuff at us instead of fixing the core flaws the game shipped with. Which leads us to a final grievance…

…Most of the flaws the game shipped with are still there. A year of temporary content later and most of the core problems are the same. If anything, they’re actually aggravated by all the additional forced grind and vertical progression.

2/x

Prologue:

To anyone that knows and appreciates my “mile long” posts, this is probably the second last post of this kind I’ll do for a while, if ever, with the final one being reserved for the state of the Ranger, the first class I’ve ever played. In short, it feels ultimately pointless, like shouting at the void, with the sole reason for my persistence being some sense of absolution. “I tried my best”, I tell myself. Ultimately I’m just a random guy on a forum and most of my effort seems to be going to waste, so “meh”. Thank you, all 2 of you (including myself and my ego) that care.

So, without further to do: Yes, it will be long. No, there is no tl;dr. Grab a chair.

ACT I: What was advertised

My, my. It’s been around a year now, hasn’kitten Quite a lot has changed. I remember when I bought into this game. I had been interested in it for a while when a friend, which had been here since the beta weekends, offered me the free trial that came with the first Southsun update. I found myself surprisingly interested.

At first I was cautious. I went through the MMO phase when I was around 15-17. I’ve grown out of it. If you like it more power to you, but as far as I’m concerned most MMOs I’ve ever seen or heard of were the same pointless waste of time – vertical progression and grind. Uninteresting “locked in” combat and gameplay, a “world” peppered by useless cardboard cut out figures that offer you the same 2 or 3 variations of fetch quests or head hunting missions (“Am I finding or killing how much of what this time…?”), and a core surrounding repeating the exact same kittening thing from start to the day you quit, only to see arbitrary numbers pop up that define how powerful you are, all while playing in a world full of players you hate as their mere presence hinders your progress. Basic linear gameplay and aggressive vertical progression assured that the majority of what mattered in any encounter was not your knowledge of the game mechanics, not how much you’ve learned and could apply, but how much time I had sunk into the game. A kitten slap contest between two creatures to see which was wearing the heavier gloves. I abhorred them. I tried as many as I could hoping to find that mythical creature, that MMO that had actually good gameplay and no grind. Eventually I gave up. I simply assumed that it couldn’t be done, as nobody interested in making those kind of games possessed either the knowledge, insight or interest to make such a beast.

When I saw Guild Wars 2 I saw hope. Here was an MMO with what seemed like a solid combat system (“action based combat” they call it, apparently). Sure, it’s not perfect. There are a lot of “lock ons” and similar crap, but an immense improvement over anything I’d seen before. There was movement. There was aiming (to some degree at least). There was a system that actual rewarded people for what we in the fighting game community call “footsies” (look it up), at least after a fashion. It was remarkable. Furthermore GW2 proposed something else, something I’ve longed for but had never seen done – It proposed to make you actually want to play with other people in the world you’re in. HOLY kitten!? For real?! An MMO where I am happy to see other players? Instead of looking for any way to demotivate them from permeating the same area as me, lest they end up robbing me of my loot and exp? Surreal.

But there was one more thing. The combat was the core. Even if everything else was in place, I wouldn’t have joined this game if its fighting consisted of the “same ol’ stand in place and trade abilities” combat I detested. The change to the loot, exp and reward system (“everyone is a friend”) was a massive motivator. But the final piece of the puzzle was yet to be decided. One thing was still left, without which I wouldn’t have considered my purchase: What about the grind? What about vertical progression? At the time, a friend assured me getting to max level and BIS gear was relatively simple, trivial even, if cosmetic was not to be a concern. But I did my own homework. I studied the game’s prices and gear availability during the free trial. I looked up developer interviews and the so called “manifesto”. All pointed to the same thing: End game in GW2 was to revolve around horizontal progression, not vertical. “We don’t make grindy games” was a phrase that was thrown around often and proud.

1/x

xephire.8324:

The manifesto is just an statement of intent it can be changed and nobody cares

Well, we know for a fact they don’t!

“We don’t make grindy games”

8, one of each class, fully geared. Any more feels like redundancy.

Lexandro.1456:

And yet he is still wrong because

1. There are nearly double the number of English servers to german servers in the game

There are no English servers. There are international servers. The only “national” servers you have are French, Spanish and German, because of legal issues.

Lexandro.1456:

1. German speakers are outnumbered massively by French/Spanish/English speakers combined,

Source? Or is this number as pulled out of your kitten as anyone else’s?

Lexandro.1456:

He is wrong in his assumption. It is based on anecdotal evidence, which is proven false with actual RL information.

The irony being, you’re not even providing anecdotal evidence. You’re not providing any evidence, so, honestly, you’re both in the same boat of failure.

Alternatively: Ignore those kittening posts.

How would you feel if someone came to the forums asking people to type their LFG in german because they like it better? How much of an entitled kitten would you consider them? How much of a whiny, non-issue, a complaint?

Yes, English is my favorite language too. No, that doesn’t mean it should be everyone else’s.

Get over yourselves and deal with it. Jeez…

“Great” and “Bad”, depending on what you want.

If all you want is to finish content at all, then great. You can finish just about anything with any class, even completely naked in some cases.

If you want to be efficient, then the balance is rather crap. You have Warrior, Guardian and Mesmer, with the odd dash of thief here and there, and that’s basically all. Any other class tends to under perform in comparison (especially rangers that keep getting kittened in the kitten because ANet is being stubborn about their design). As such most good parties will consist of 2-4 Warriors, and 1 Guardian, Mesmer, Thief (depends on content, more often than not it’s 4 Wars and 1 Mes).

Yep, definitely coping GW2! It’s not like the “fake vandalization of property” ad thing has ever been done to death long before Scarlet (the most boring Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain I’ve seen since… well, since I watched saturday morning cartoons really) was ever even thought of.

Yep, plagiarism. Btw, Riot is totally ripping ANet off dude! They have FORUMS AND A WEBSITE TOO!!!!11one

…

…sigh…

This is one of those tiring issues that has been explained to death, then back, then back to death again, then once more to life, and then one more time to putrid death for good measure.

Technical limitation. Since you can join any amount of guilds, and guild status are tracked per-character, they simply can not guarantee that you’ll log from and to the same guild.

While I personally agree that guild-status makes far more sense in a “per-account” basis, that is a different issue entirely. If you happen to be a technical wiz that knows how to fix their existing problem feel free to send the support team a ticket with the answer, I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.

So what you’re saying is that killing Teq isn’t the challenge, getting people to work together and learn how to defeat him is?

I’m perfectly aware that you’re very likely to never see the irony in it, but I won’t spoil it for you nonetheless. Maybe someday you’ll understand eh?

Teq’s fine.

Aorin.9168:

If you get home and your lot/driveway is filled with “visitor”/guests cars, would you not be kitten ed off that you had no where to park?

Your server is not your private driveway.

For a more realistic comparison I’d love to see you raise a civil complaint that people from other cities are going through your city and causing a bit of a traffic jam/filling up the store you wanna go to so you need to get there earlier!

Cry me a river and kill a Tequatl on it.

Aorin.9168:

Because I am a Blackgate world player, have been since day 1, and wish to play on Blackgate’s Sparkfly Fen map, with other Blackgate players and I feel that my spot should not be occupied by a Crystal Desert guesting player simply leeching off the accomplishments of my fellow Beastgaters.

Accomplishments I’m willing to bet you had little to no hand in at all. So why should you receive any credit for them?

To answer your complaint: Tough kitten. Get on your server’s SF faster. If you’re too slow that’s your problem. “But I want…” But they don’t. Your “I want” is as valid as anyone else’s “I want”, and clearly a lot of other people “want” to be there.

That’s assuming that your “problem” is due to guesting anyways, which you have absolutely 0 credible or even plausible evidence to support. You’re guessing, wildly, with no evidence behind it. Plenty of servers are hitting overflow on TQ event that haven’t killed TQ yet. Are you suggesting this is also caused by guesting?

This thread reminds me of one of those backwater hillbillies that spout racist “THEY TAKIN’ OUR JOBS!” bullkitten as a way to justify their own failures. “I could get one o’them jobs but them immigrants comin’ here steals them all!”.

…Of all the stupid complaints…

Interest project. Count me in, although I don’t know if I’ll be on on time for this one.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

5 people can rez you from fully dead in 15 seconds. it takes 1 minute to walk back. Until people learn to rez EVERYONE we probably won’t win the fight.

5 people sitting there for 15 seconds are a bigger waste than 1 person running back for 1 minute.

Downed get rezed, defeated need to stop being lazy and get the kitten on with running back. Wish Teq’s acid caused dead player’s gear to break over time so they’d stop whining and get a move on.

gaspara.4079:

Actually this is the definition of a hard counter towards stealth, though not a hard counter towards thieves. (There is a difference) This ability completely invalidates stealth for it duration and removes an benefits that stealth gives the affected. That is the very definition of a hard counter. That part that needs to be considered here is how large of a counter to thieves is a hard counter to stealth. If its a large counter which currently I think it is, then the class or stealth mechanic needs to be reworked.

My opinion remains that the change they should make is that when “in combat” stealth provides only the pseudo-invisibility that the thief npcs have throughout the world. Where they are basically a translucent shadow, very hard to see standing still but definitely noticeable to those looking carefully when moving. They would not be target able but would be hittable by any aoe or projectile. This would make it so they can still get the benefits of stealth other than the escapability of complete invisibility. This would also not pigeonhole the ability to deal with stealth.

Kaon.7192:

We’ll have to disagree about the semantics of the hard/soft counter terms at use here, but arguing semantics is usually a waste of time.

Revealed completely disables the Stealth mechanic while it’s active. Revealed disables the invisibility effect, but also all Stealth-related utility effects that the Thief traited for, as well as Stealth attacks that are paramount to offense for many Thief builds.

What I’m suggesting is a new mechanic that disables only the invisibility portion of the Stealth mechanic (and the targeting issues that come with it). This allows for counter-play to invisibility without completely crippling everything else tied to the Stealth mechanic.

Stability completely disables control effects, condition clear completely disables conditions, blocks completely disables any blockable attack (most in the game), etc.

You do not understand what a hard counter is. If this is your definition of a hard counter I’m pretty fine with it, and you should be too since it’s perfectly in-line with the rest of the mechanics in the game. If you aren’t fine then there are a lot more mechanics which suffer from the same problem which you should start complaining equally about.

Here’s what you’re forgetting: Revealed isn’t a hard counter. It’s a counter. It’s temporary. It lasts a few seconds and then ends. The ability of other classes to apply revealed temporarily doesn’t hard counter stealth any more than blocks and dodges hard counter damage, or condition clear hard counters conditions, etc.

Your frustration aside, you don’t know what a hard counter is. A hard counter is something that, when faced with it, you have little to no way of winning unless the enemy messes up extremely bad. A hard counter would be if a build could permanently keep the revealed debuff on you. This is not a hard counter, this is just a counter. A counter to a mechanic that, for the most part and for most classes, still has no other counter*. And no, spamming AoE attacking and hoping you guessed right and/or that the thief was stupid, is not an adequate counter.

Deal with it.

*Class balance aside, the mechanic itself has no counter. IMO this results in the currently broken state of the Thief where they suck at most things, but can’t be buffed in other places because of how powerful their stealth is.

Denial Of Service.5732:

still gives me goosebumps after so many years.

Final Fantasy VIII intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q09quI356sQ

Sidenote: I like gw2 soundtrack but in my second toon i mostly played Arcana in my PS (after lvl50 story)

All of my yes! FFVIII still holds up as one of the best intro sequences ever for me, despite the rather outdated CGI. Some intros/trailers were just immortal, like GTAIII’s 10th Anniversary Trailer

That said: The Seraph, The Raven Speaks, Wintersday Theme…. I’m pretty sure this game does not lack iconic music. If anything game developers these days have a much bigger appreciation for the value of good music than ever before.

I’d say this is a case of rose tinted nostalgia glasses. I’m pretty sure the reason you remember those musics is more about them having been such an important part of your childhood than them being amazing pieces, their respectful merits aside.

The music from Super Mario Bros. is hardly the most interesting composition on the planet, but everyone and their dog knows it because…. who doesn’t know Super Mario?

Hamster

(get it?)

No, it would get pretty stupid from a gameplay perspective.

You have two sets, which are meant to compliment each other. Or you may choose to have a strong synergy at the cost of evident flaws (such as two melee sets at the cost of ranged, for example). More weapon sets would make weapon choice trivial. More isn’t always better.

Out of combat gear and trait swapping, on the other hand, should totally be a thing.

Kaern.2538:

YOU CANT DO ANYTHING AND DIE. (grenth area and others)

I was with you up to this, then it got stupid.

You can do lots of things: stability, stun breakers, dodging, etc.

What you can and should say is that, while “fun” is relative, chain CC and HP sponges are two mechanics that, by themselves, are generally uninteresting, combined are, to some – myself included, a boring and uninteresting pain in the kitten .

Also vets are mostly a non-issue since they’re easy. I’d say the biggest issue are elites, since they’re almost as much trouble as champions but without all the juicy loot.

Most of the changes seem quite good…

…Except for rangers. Rangers are still a pile of dysfunctional crap. And so they’ll remain until ANet stops being stubborn and starts addressing the core problems in the class (horrible “mine field” trait trees, being ball and chained to dumbkitten AI, being inherently nerfed for having a class mechanic, F2 skills that equivalent to gambling since half the times they decide to not work at all and when they do they take the better part of a life time, etc).

Olba.5376:

@OP: Did you forget to consider that maybe Ascended weapons aren’t something that they intended for you to have on every single slot? Kinda like how you’re not expected to have 1-4 Legendaries on your character?

No, and neither has anyone with a brain for the simple reason that ascended items are statistically superior to exotic. A character with full ascended is objectively stronger than a character with full exotics of the same stats.

If they weren’t I’m fairly certain most of us wouldn’t be complaining.

Lopez.7369:

Is this intentional?

Yep. They abandoned their own ideals long ago. Grind is the new thing, apparently…

Personally I’m finding myself spending less and less time in the game as more and more chores pile up. Thankfully KoFXIII and Skullgirls hit the PC recently. I’m quite liking those.

“Owari ni shiyo ze!”

Nilkemia.8507:

Risen Thralls kill the most people? Really?

Source please.

https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/1c2c9GW2_Anniv_Infographic-590x3215.jpg

The only times I have issues with these guys is when I’m trying to fight them in tight spaces, on my norn (my “SAB main”, in retrospect, for some unfathomably idiotic reason…) and the camera suddenly decides that seeing what I’m doing is overrated, instead, let us consider this wall or my character’s innards! Far more important for the task at hand I suppose….

Other than that, no, just think for a second… They have a pattern.

I think some are nice (pistol for example), some are meh, some are junk. Overall, meh. Most are underwhelming.

Happyfool.8951:

TehPwnerer.7215:

Are you serious? They’re so plain and ugly… For the (now) strongest weapons in the game they sure don’t look like it. They look like they’d be skins for level 10 or level 20 weapons.

he likes it, who are you to tell him otherwise?

And he doesn’t. Who are you to tell him otherwise?

…See the obvious flaw in your logic?

Lord Titan.3791:

Granted yes there is stability, teleports, evade, ect;

And kiting, and dodging (several classes with perma-vigor for example), and… and…

There are several counters, learn to use them.

voidwater.2064:

Darkwave.8341:

Lastly since my crit chance is at about 70% (I’m gathering some equipment) shield sinergyze well with Axe burst if you take the trait that grant you 50% crit chance when hit stun enemies.

I feel that trait is more suited for PVP. But if you were to use it in PVE, you’d be better off using mace offhand.

The shield only has a 1s stun on a single target, mace has 2s wave knockdown. Not only that, the mace attack can hit twice, it’s much better.

Just to clarify that Unsuspecting Foe does not work with knockdowns, only stuns.

Not that it matters in PvE, just a note. Unsuspecting foe is valuable in PvP, but in PvE there’s no point stunning trash monsters (just mow them down in droves with HB), and monsters that can benefit from the crit chance bonus are mostly champions, which have defiant and make stunning unreliable.

PvE is essentially about brute forcing, and you already have the ultimate brute force tool for PvE: GS. So I’d recommend something that fills the gap the GS has – range. Thus, longbow.

corruption.7425:

full zerk gears

There’s your problem.

The mace/shield bunker warriors destroy berserkers at close range. That’s their thing. Either avoid them or range them down. Scepter/focus is quite useful, as it gives you blocks, an extra blind from focus and the immobilize from scepter, which is crazy useful if they aren’t running mobile strikes.

I’d do GS and longbow. Sometimes you need the range and AoE.

Red Falcon.8257:

colesy.8490:

Or you could use whirlwind or your dodge key.

Sounds like someone needs to be introduced to the endurace bar and cooldown mechanics.

Looks like someone needs to be introduced to PvE. Learn to use your dodges/WWs when you need them instead of burning them senselessly.

I love the shield visually and style wise. In PvP it’s one of your best weapons. In PvE it’s a waste.

Antiriad.7160:

So what are the possible steps we can take to make Arenanet fix ascended gear?
I would donate money for that cause, too. (The money I would have paid Arenanet in their gem store, IF they hadn’t introduced Ascended gear – after that, in last year, I decided to never again give them any money.)

The way I see it you only have the following options:

- My original suggestion
- Lowering ascended stats to exotic

Paponzi.1637:

It’s just another goal. 55 more damage and 9 more primary stat points will not make the difference in a dungeon or in WvW .

Incorrect. When you add all the stats of all ascended items it becomes quite a lot.

I’ve survived events by 10 health. I’ve seen people walk away victorious from a fight with 1 hp. I can’t even begin to count the times either myself or someone I was fighting survived with under 100 health just in time to heal and get back in the fight.

Ascended offers an objective advantage. Not a big one, but one that’s significant nonetheless. Enough that any competent player can understand it, unfortunately, matters.

Man, I love vertical progression treadmills! It’s just so fun to grind to get to the exact same place you were!

Said no one of any intelligence ever.

I genuinely wonder who the kitten at ANet thought this was a good idea… as is conditions already dominate the current meta, as they rely on a single stat for max damage (Condition damage) and ignore armour while power requires 3 stats (power/prec/crit dmg) and can be mitigated by armour.

The end result is that for PvP condition damage builds are almost always the way, as you get good dmg output while being tanky.

This set particularly is overkill. Not only does it carry full offence for conditions, but also full defence, similar to Soldier’s.