Guild Wars 2

Thaddeus.4891:

2) There is a concept in video game of point of exit. You should design point of exit in your game adapted to your target audience and let’s face it. Open World is for casual mostly. They are fun for hardcore as they farm them for reward, but they should be designed for casual. And for the new maps, there is also the entry point. Again, linked to the length of the timer. Most map have an entry and an exit point of 2 hours. Want to join a DS 1 hours after it started? Good luck. Either the map isn’t far enough to succeed or it’s probably full already. You have an entry point of roughly 30min when the maps start. Be there or good luck. So now, you need 2 hours for the map, but more 3 hours since you need to wait 1 hour before doing the content you wanted. SW did that very well. You can start the map at any moment. Hop on a map and taxi ppl in and voila you are good to go.

Yes and more yes.
I lapsed on calling it out, but exit points are vital to humane design. ANet’s urge to keep players on a map for 1-2 hours is brutal to those who don’t have time for it.

On top of the concept of exit points, there is also a time-to-meaningful-play ratio that needs to be satisfied for player retention. Fractal design is great for this now. Hop in, do one chunk get a reward, then decide to do another or move on.
Hours-long map metas don’t let you do that, punish you for taking a break, and don’t offer a meaningful play experience unless you sneak in at the right time to kill the boss or wait the entire time for an organized map to run the meta for an hour or two.

Ayrilana.1396:

This is for those that dislike the events on timers. I’m not trying to make an argument for or against at this point but get some insight as to why it specifically bothers you.

What is it about the timers that you do not like?
What is it that you cannot do but want to do?

Fair questions. (Omitted the last as it’s not specifically relevant to me and is not a function of timers as it would be to flowing populations like Silverwastes.)

I do like consistency for events that would otherwise not be available without it. While that put world bosses on farm, I know when and where I can find them if I need them. It wasn’t fun having to find them after Ascended gear started but Megaserver wasn’t in place, since they could spawn at random.

So it’s not such a horrible sin to do entire maps like that for HoT.

Where it becomes a problem is when the meta events block exploration and character advancement. Canopy exploration is only available 20 minutes of a two hour rotation. Less than a 17% availability. That’s pretty horrible for being respectful of a player’s time.

Trying to use the guild hall to get into Magus Falls, I swear I have a 50% chance to run into that stupid ball of light blocking me from getting into Tarir. My options at that point are to wait over 20 minutes for the event to end (in failure) or waypoint out, unless the character is fresh to the area, at which point …I switch characters because I’m already put off.

The hero challenge buried under Tarir? Bad, bad. Having to rely on the zerg to break in there isn’t a way to enjoy the game. But that’s also hitched to the timer.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Thanks for the FYI’s. I didn’t realize that I’d have to go to Tangled Depths to unlock a mastery that would help with a boss in VB. Oh, well.

More of ANet’s highly questionable design flaws. :\

They tried to be very Metroidvania about how the masteries work. Explore, find inaccessible area, get new mastery, go back to area and move forward.

Works for Metroidvanias. Not so much for MMOs.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I just got HoT in late December. My warrior was only 5 HC’s from maxing out Berserker, so I figured I’d grab a few. It’s night in VB. The path to the HC that’s on the southern edge of the map near the salvage pit is infested with Mordrem and Shrooms. I try running through, and of course am CC’d and die. I return, this time with Dolyak Signet backed up by Balanced Stance. 15 stacks of CC in total. Not quite enough, but the one CC just before I got out of range was not enough to get me killed. How many professions can get 15 Stab, though?

Yes, yes, I get that it’s night and I’m “supposed” to be defending Rally Points, or venturing forth with a group. Well, I tried several times that day to log in when it wasn’t night. Funny, three out of three, night. So, I was impatient.

I go back and forth with the whole CC thing on mobs. I think some CC is fine. I think the biggest problems happen when a player is focused by mob groups meant for several players. When that happens, no amount of Stab, stun break, dodge, block, etc. is enough. The thing is, that can happen even when there are other players around. So, I can see the issues.

CC is kind of necessary in the PvE game design. If there is no reason to use the avoidance and CC counter mechanics, people will not use them. At that point, the only real threat comes from missing a block/dodge on a massive hit. Do we want more of that, instead?

My warrior’s heart aches for you. If I’m dissatisfied with HoT, it’s because I tried to main it on a Warrior first. So many mobs in the new content seem designed to tick off Warrior more than any other class.

I don’t tend to find it hard to evade enemy groups, though. Some of it comes in from being more support oriented and using warhorn to get around. Between the Swiftness boost and condi clears, I don’t tend to get stuck. Shake It Off also helps and seldom comes off my toolbar.

The rest comes from experience. You’ll learn to anticipate mob locations and wiggle your camera around a bit more to keep from getting blindsided. The mob density is higher than in core Tyria, so being more aware of enemy positions will be vital to getting around. (My poor Ctrl-pinky… Can haz toggle plz?)

Tspatula.9086:

But the actual spawning mechanisms don’t really account for overlapping encounter types, or multiple spawns of vets or elites.

This.
I don’t mind most “difficult” enemies that HoT has. I didn’t mind Orr’s population density. What I mind is HoT’s difficulty combined with Orr’s population density.

I can’t fight one mob to the full extent without dragging several others into it. Not so bad if the game’s intended to be a “group” endevour, but that would mean ANet designed Magus Falls maps to be “group” content in utter defiance of how players normally group up, when, and why.

With the exception of smokescales and snipers…

Which works fine, until gods help you if an Elite one shows up. Excessive damage and a giant meatwall of HP.

kdaddy.5431:

I honestly feel like people stay with GW2 because the game play is simply a lot of fun. We can all see how awesome a lot of the mechanics and maps are in the game. It’s just the game itself is not fun. I’ve been coming to this slow conclusion and what hit me was what this person on the review said. I probably would of left the game had i not had made friends with people from my guild.

That’s about where I stand. I love my characters. I still love GW2’s combat system and character options. But going into Magus Falls (or Dry Top) is an exercise in time-gated frustration that doesn’t respect me as a player.

When the game unsubtly tells me “you’re not allowed to explore until I say you can,” there’s something terribly wrong, especially when it blocks character/account progression. Hide my rewards behind group metas and big events, but don’t do that to my mastery insights and hero challenges.

IndigoSundown.5419:

As someone who has dabbled repeatedly in WvW, I’m not fully up on all the issues. I can say that the most important factor in my own ambivalence is match-up imbalances. I’ve been on both ends, winning and losing due to gross numbers differences. I remember many times being penned into the starter area in EB because there were 3-6 of us and a group of 20-30 camped on the doorstep. Since that seemed to be a recurring point in the WvW forums in the past, I suspect I’m not alone.

On a former-T1 server, until the collective ghost just gave up. Server was sick of a certain other server’s 24-hour coverage (and allegations of paying for transfers to the top server), and having that coverage be the only thing that matters in WvW.

Two main problems in WvW, for me.
1) All the gibbityflabbering walking. It’s so boring to get anywhere and join a fight.
2) It’s too easy to keep land after it’s been claimed, because nothing challenges for it except other players.

1. would at least help even out server size disparities. If a strike team of 3-4 could set off an event that would force 8-10 to show up and defend, it promotes activity on both sides and allows a comeback mechanic for smaller, well-played groups.

(Then again, I haven’t stepped into WvW since I started doing PvP dailies so.. :P)

Tigaseye.2047:

I don’t mind, as long as it’s a choice and they don’t make items, that are sold separately, artificially expensive.

The problems, obviously, arise when you can’t get something, without buying a whole bundle of stuff you don’t want.

Exactly this.

Bundle desirable, useful things, while keeping the parts of that bundle available.
If the bundle is desirable to the users, they won’t need to be tricked or cajoled into buying it.

The CC is pretty excessive, and I’ve noted it even in core Tyria in some locations. 5-second knockdowns, chain dazes, chain blinds, etc in core, and then you come to Magus Falls where several mobs have 4000-range dash-knockdowns.

This wouldn’t be a problem, normally, but it happens with every attack. Every 3 seconds or so, another disabling attack, and almost always with a break bar, so no counter-CC. If it were PvP, players would be up a kittening wall about game balance.

This also devalues Stability as a boon, because the uptime on it isn’t designed to last long enough, and the cooldowns are excessive on most classes. Add the fact that charging attacks hit several times on their path, and a stack of Stability is crushed in one pass.

That said, I’ve come to live with most of HoT’s critters. Snipers no longer bother me, as long as I’m attentive. Most other mobs are reasonable.
It’s the friggin’ dinosaurs that irk the crap out of me. Charging dinos and rolly-rolly arrowheads are stupidly simplistic, irritatingly boring, and a wad of fake difficulty.
Anti-range frogs are so close to being a great encounter, except the part that makes them interesting is cheesy as kitten. I’d rather they have an actual stamina bar to have to dodge like players do, so Weakness becomes a soft counter to their dodges. Instead, they just sit there at range doing damage with no consequence or cost. Bad design.

But I’ve digressed. Anyway, yes CC is excessive, at points. Some of it is battle awareness, some of it is lazy, inappropriate game design.

I’m hoping for a good round of buffs after the pathetic and repeated nerfs. Better trait synergy and a good, hard slap to the one who designed Mace/Hammer traits.

Adding Berserker doesn’t make the core class any better, and that’s where the focus of the buffs needs to be.

The way Masteries were designed for Hot really just sticks my craw.

To get the points, I need to explore.
Sounds great on paper!

…But to explore, I need the points.
Well, kitten.

I made it to a mastery insight in Tangled Depths, and got made dead by the poison field there. Thing is, the poison fields and its mastery serve no purpose besides being a poorly design roadblock. I was fine with gliding, wallows, and mushrooms, since they offer actual mobility and purpose. Poison mastery is nothing, absolutely nothing, but a roadblock to fluff up the Itzel path.

The same thing happens with Adventures. To get the mastery points on Silver and Gold, you absolutely need a mastery to even participate. Advancing gliding to cover absurd distances in Flying Circus, Speed Mushrooms to finish Fungus Among Us… It’s flippin’ stupid.

Part of the problem is Matriarch is easiest to get to, being at the center of the map. She’s also fairly easysauce for the zerg.

Frog brothers or any of the other bosses? “Too hard” or to get to them, you have to wiggle to one of the map corners to get in range.

It’d be a nice thought, but it wouldn’t work out for most of core Tyria.

Meanwhile, give me gliding in Dry Top, at least. Because F that place. ><

Seeing the recent glut of meeeh topics on the forums lately, I checked out reddit, just because. Thankfully, it’s not the outlaw-laden land of bannable people I thought it to be. Pleasantly surprised. I generally see a bit less of both “entitled qq babies” and “entitled hardcord kittens” out there.
Downvoting works, apparently.

But, the topics on reddit are actually pretty sparse and there’s no organization among them. I haven’t seen one decent class discussion that wasn’t very specifically about “what best pewpewpvp build”. And while I see the occasional red post there, it’s only proportionally more frequent than the official forums. In general, I don’t see that many dev responses on reddit, not enough to justify saying “zomg why only reddit”.

I’ll be honest, I’ve occasionally gotten more prompt information from the GW2 Facebook account than I have from the forums, and that’s discouraging. The forums ought to be the central location for their communication, with sufficient cross-posts to other social outlets. As it is, their chatter is scattered, and it makes it difficult to be heard by a proper portion of the player base.

PopeUrban.2578:

I just want an item that lets me loop the daggerstorm animation as a glider so I can thiefcopter everywhere.

I giggled.

+1 to the idea, so we can also Guardian greatsword and Warrior axe-spin.

Oh, and our watchwork jetpacks. Zooooom.

And for what? A few gift boxes stuffed with booze and magical snowflakes.

We murder those skritt for a mere taste, a scant chance to sate an otherwise insatiable (10,000) need for butterbeer and spiked cider.

If you zoom in even closer (you perv~), you’ll find there aren’t any hips to put your panties on! The Monk Outfit gives you disembodied legs, while your upper half floats serenely above your thighs.

It was a known issue when the outfit released, and it caused some ungodly clipping (outfits reduce clipping, y’know, especially CHARR FACES ON SNIPER OUTFIT GAWD FIX IT), and when they fixed it, it gave Human/Norn females irresistable badonkadonk hips to cover the weird clipping issues.

It’s not that you’re seeing a black void under the skirt, either, it’s that YOU’RE WEARING BLACK STOP BEING SO EMO PLZKTHX.

I kid, I kid. :P But srsly, embrace the pink.

Odokuro.5049:

LET ME HEAR YOUR BATTLE CRY!!!

FIX MY kitten CLASS!!

/roar

Possibly some bad news here. Aside from the potential of damage being too low, credit may be tied to doing an actual hit. At level 30, he might have been doing only Glancing hits, and those don’t count toward getting XP, though I’m unsure about overall event credit.

I’ve got a great Wintersday gift idea for Braham.

A potted plant wrapped with..

Totally agree!

Also, holographic wing sets from Dragon Bash need to be glider skins too. (And maybe bring back Dragon Bash sometime? Newer players deserve a chance at them.)

Looking at the Physical redesign:
Firstly, the trait. It’s undertuned, but if you’d like to keep it the way it is, I’d recommend adding an adrenaline boost to Physical skills when traited. +3 Adrenaline would be my opening bid. That would help it get to the +30% mark.
If I’m honest, though, ANet has been moving away from the ‘holding adrenaline’ tactic, except for Adrenal Health. Other traits have been more about spending adrenaline on burst, though their effects are more generalized.

On the actual skills themselves:

Throw Bolas – I’d recommend keeping the Immobilize to justify the high cooldown.

Bull’s Charge – Damage boost and a good shaving of cooldown time is a good start. Not sure if it overcomes the opportunity cost of banner/stance utilities.

Kick – Debating a trade off between stun break or slightly shorter cooldown time. Hm. Either way, I do like kicking things so…

As an aside, your inclusion of a stun break here makes me wonder if Peak Performance could add some benefit besides the damage boost. Stun breaks? 1 sec of Resistance? Actually, Resistance activation would be worthy. It would give Resistance to Warrior, if briefly, and help the skills trigger by ignoring movement impairment and Blind.

Stomp – Looking good.

Actually, Revenant requires Herald or Shiro to really get any speed use. Herald takes forever if you don’t dive into Magus Falls to build up hero points. Shiro’s superspeed only lasts a few seconds. Both are effective in combat, so that’s not a problem.

Warrior’s trade off is you’re not going to get a longbow/torch Berserker and still be able to hustle. You’d have to take Quick Breathing and use Warhorn. …If ANet hadn’t completely violated Warrior boon duration traits, you could’ve gotten 100% uptime on Swiftness. As it is, if you can get about 20-25% boon duration, you still can.

Okay, the part or two I left off, because it was getting on closing time:

Stab should be comparable weapon damage to a basic attack. Attack power, attack speed, something to make up for it.

Inspire as I see it useful wouldn’t lean on short durations, but it also shouldn’t tread on unique banner territory. Swiftness and Stability, definitely.
Swiftness 10 sec, Stability (2) 5 seconds
Combo Finisher: Blast

Into the Fray looks good overall. Adds taunt, which is something Warrior needs, Leap finisher, should be a relatively small radius, though. 300? Should still ignore movement impairment.

Plant Standard. Again, +1 for AoE Daze. Radius is moderate, which is good.
As a note, I’d been thinking of a benefit tradeoff between carrying and planting. If Banners are going to be immobile like spirits, but mobile when held, the benefit to planting should be greater than the carried banner. Wider range, boon stack, something.

Banner 2 should be a solid skill for reinforcing the chosen banner’s role, so it moves beyond just being a buff item.
Defense: Minor damage, 1 second Daze, Grants Protection (3 seconds) to allies in range 300.
Discipline: Grant Fury (10s) and Quickness (2sec)
Strength: Moderate damage strike, inflicts Vulnerability (5 stacks, 10s). Grants Might (3 stacks, 10s) to allies.
Tactics: Heals allies and grants a buff that increases the effect of Regen. Finisher: Blast
Battle Standard: Damage and Knock down (1sec) enemies and grant Stability (2 stacks, 5 seconds) to allies. Finisher: Whirl.

Still in the concept phase, but that’s what I’m thinking for Banner-as-weapon.

Glad to see some balance going on in group events.

Now if we could do something about Auric Basin populations.. >.>

Strength

Peak Performance: Still depressingly the same. :P I assume it’s unchanged because you’re sorting a ton of wonderful ideas and need to settle on just one of them.

Reckless Abandon: Certainly much better to manage than a dodgeroll.

Not sure how I feel about Building Momentum: The two limiters on Burst are the Burst cooldown and adrenaline. This as a minor trait provides a huge benefit that deserves to be a Grandmaster selection. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great talent, but it should have more opportunity cost than picking the trait line. And it will get taken, because Strength (and Greatsword).

Great Fortitude could use a tweak. In addition to Vitality, give a bonus to Healing Power. Not that Healing Power is worth much, which just makes it easy to ask for.

Arms

Glad you expanded Unsuspecting Foe to Disabled, instead of just Stunned. But still, ugh, that trait. I’d vote this one off the island if anything better showed up.

Tactics

Still rethinking Leadership. Priority Target increase damage by allies against targets you strike. Something small, like 3%, duration 3 seconds, ICD 3 seconds, non stacking.

Defense

Mace aside, seems fine.

Discipline
…Oh, there’s an entire Banner section at the bottom. I’ll go read that. o_O

I’m not sure how I feel about the Banner proposal, but I definitely agree that their held form needs a huge update. Get them on par with Elementalist weapons, and you might see some warriors as mobile buff machines akin to a weird Ele-Rev weaponherald hybrid.
Which would be pretty swank.

Stab needs to either hit faster or hit much harder to be a decent enough auto-attack.

Skill 2 should still vary by banner. Will note that in a bit, maybe, but the idea is to still keep the banners in theme.

Inspire as Swiftness is still actually desirable for stuff like WvW. Swiftness and Stability would be even better. I’d be careful about adding too many buffs to a single skill, though.

Into the Fray: I’m wary about another leap/closer that ANet can screw up, but I do love the Taunt/Combo play. Make it so it still ignores movement impairment, and you end up with a weird junk plate of utility.

Plant Standard: I like the Daze.

If you think Trahearne is actually dead, we might still be in for a surprise.

What if the one we killed was a copy? What about the broken Caladbolg? The Mordremoth fight was too short, too easy, so I’m suspicious. And maybe Lil T-herne’s still alive.

Granted, I get get the mad jollies from splitting him in two. :P

Y’know, I’d considered getting GW1.

Thanks for warning me off it, Yarrmor & MrN!

(I’m too busy for more than GW2 and WoW anyway. So it’s not a hard non-sell. :P)

And maybe lower the achievement amount. I mean, geez. 2500?
10,000?

Who does these things? -_-#

You can buy them from a central vendor in DivRe. I forget if they’re karma, cash, or both.

After the speed normalization, I’m not sure movement skills help all that much. If so, making use of Fast Hands and Greatsword is still useful.

Otherwise, yeah, Warhorn with trait, elite Signet with trait, will get you 100% uptime on Swiftness.

Warhorn was the whole reason I originally fell into my old Tactics build, back when the trait line gave +30% boon duration. Still kittened they removed it during the trait revamp. -_-#

[Discipline] Blind Fighting – When Blinded, convert Blind and become immune to Blind for 3 seconds. (10 second cooldown)

[Weapon] Change to Sundering Mace – Dump the Vuln on Disable. Add: Critical hits with Mace attacks remove a boon, prioritizing Protection. (5 second cooldown)
Justification: Mace currently shares too much with Hammer. Vulnerability is too easy to stack already. Mace is slow and does not benefit much from a 5% damage boost. This would give Mace a larger identity as a boon stripping weapon in addition to defensive, counter-based play.

[Weapon] Merciless Hammer becomes Unyielding Hammer – Dump the Disable damage bonus. Add: Non-basic attacks with Hammer add Stability. (1 sec, 1 stack)
Justification: No one has a pocket thief sitting around Head-Shot-dazing targets to justify this damage bonus. Hammer skills are slow and don’t even benefit from its own trait. Looking at Juggernaut, it’s a single trait that cranks out Stability constantly, along with Might stacks. Hammer deserves at least the Stability to make up for its slow attack speed.

[Tactics or Arms or Base Class] Accelerated Plans – Weapon swaps and Burst skills reduce all other cooldowns by 1 second.
Justification: Without a tremendous slashing across the board, Warrior cooldowns are too long for what little utility most of the skills offer. If we’re going to have junk skills, at least let us spam them. Introducing a weapon-swap skill enhances Fast Hands as an option and encourages Warriors to use their mechanics.

[Grandmaster Arms or Discipline] Weapon Devotee – After 10 seconds of wielding a weapon in combat, gain bonus attributes (+40 to all attributes). Interval: 5 seconds. Stacks 5 times. Stacks dispel on weapon swap. [Alternatively, give a random 5-second boon (Might x3, Fury, Protection, Aegis, Quickness) every 5 seconds.]
Justification: A more conceptual piece, some warriors (and players) prefer to stick to one weapon, focusing on the mastery of that weapon. The risk/reward is giving up on strategic weapon swaps while maintaining a significant bonus. Mirrors Juggernaut, actually. The attribute stacking version ticks to full after almost a half-minute of combat, so it encourages the warrior to stay engaged.

Ayrilana.1396:

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Considering the source, I don’t think this is much of a compliment. lol

If they highly criticized the expansion would you still hold the same opinion of them?

It certainly would seem less biased if they did.

I mean, ESO for “top MMO”? Yeeaahh.. someone’s either gotten paid or is trolling awful ruddy hard.

So they’re now biased because their opinion disagrees with another?

I’m just under the impression that a one of anything that favors the expansion is held less credible simply because they going against the opinion from a segment of the player population. It’s not a really a new thing as you see it out in the real world too.

/shrug

It really is one doof’s opinion, so he’s free to exalt what he feels is “the top,” but we need to be honest about what’s out there. While HoT offered a lot of character options and some gameplay content (with the promise of more), it fractured the player base instead of rousing it.

Adventures are a flop.
Time gating is a flop.
Of the 4 maps released, most of the content is hidden or unreachable, burying one of the things that was awesome about GW2: exploration.
Some mobs are overtuned to the point of being obnoxious.

The actual expansion content is the least desirable thing about it. Not exactly something I’d vote as “best of the year.” I hadn’t checked on the recent buzz about Heavensward, but at release, it was well acclaimed. Within two weeks, HoT had successfully cleaved into its player base.

As for ESO as MMO of the year, well.. voting for that steaming pile indicates judgment impairment. But eh, who knows, maybe they managed to pull a reformation the way FFXIV did and actually made it good.

Mashedwarf.8235:

There are too many good ideas in this thread to let it get lost in the forum ether… /bump!

We definitely need more ideas. I don’t know how confident I am in me doing it, but mirroring the Warrior Redone thread, if we’re going to have our ideas taken seriously, we ought to compile a (re)design document.

Outline our ideas, justify changes, and keep them consistent within the class mechanics, and we have a good chance of getting our requests, or at least some of them, rolled into a balance patch.

DaShi.1368:

Anet drops the ball again. Who’s surprised?

But which is the bigger surprise?

• The achievement/action is bugged.
• The event goal puts you at odds with the achievement.

If you’re not right on top of a Skritt, you’re going to hit someone else in the head. Because zerg. (At least I got my “snowball 3 players” achievement easily!)

There isn’t enough post-kick delay to stop someone from just kicking and re-engaging to kick again, giving no one else a chance to do anything.

Ayrilana.1396:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Considering the source, I don’t think this is much of a compliment. lol

If they highly criticized the expansion would you still hold the same opinion of them?

It certainly would seem less biased if they did.

I mean, ESO for “top MMO”? Yeeaahh.. someone’s either gotten paid or is trolling awful ruddy hard.

I’ll be getting at least one of these. Glad I held onto my tickets!

Legit question: First MMO?

Seasonal events are almost always the same every year, sometimes without any variation at all.

The 10k drinks is definitely bad design.
And so is the 2500 candy canes. Those don’t even have a Consume All option.

ANet, can you math? Seriously?

From what I can tell across other traits and boosts, ANet doesn’t let them stack.

o-O
…and to all a good night!
Wow.

Swagger.1459:

Y’all make me want to kick snowmen… err snowpeople (gotta be pc right?)…

I think you mean..

InFRIDGEnous peoples.

(•_•)
( •_•)>[]-[]
([]_[])

Peak Performance: Physical skills need a real bonus. Progressive damage on really weak skills doesn’t do much. Perhaps add in granting a second of quickness before activation? That way, our interrupts are more likely to hit and Bolas and Bull’s Charge can travel distance better.

Strength of Purpose: <3
Might need a decent cooldown, and it combos way too well with Forceful/Phalanx/Purpose, but I love the idea of giving Warriors consistent access to Stability.

Arms: Overall, decent tweaks. A good blend of crit and condi.

Quick Breathing: Honestly, should return that to convert conditions as it used to be, or remove 2 conditions.

Tactics/Revival traits; Small thing, but maybe shift Determined Revival to Master, and actually keep Reviver’s Might. It would combo with Strength of Purpose and be rather helpful in escaping clinch scenarios.
Leadership also needs a different trigger. I like the theme, but the gameplay of it is inconsistent.

Inspiring Presence: When pitching this idea as a bundled document, be sure that bonus Healing Power is 30+. Even at full stacks, a measley 250 HealPow borders on worthless.

Powerful Synergy: Yes! This needs to happen.

Defensive Fighter: Treading on Guardian territory, but I like it. Could also, easily, have Protection on weapon swap (2sec), no cooldown.

Sundering Mace: A Vulnerability tap for 5% bonus damage isn’t worth taking Sundering Mace. Mace skills are slow and won’t get much benefit from this. It also has zero synergy. Look at Greatsword or the proposed Axe and tell me you’d take Sundering Mace or Maces at all. >.>
Thinking instead add on “Disabling hits (stun, daze, etc) with Mace skills remove Protection or another boon.” Basically, Boon removal with priority to Protection. Suddenly, bam, Mace has an extra identity as Boon stripper.

Powerful Presence: F. Yes.

Last Stand: Love the Balanced Stance proc, hate the position. Competing with Warrior’s Sprint is going to put off a lot of PvP/WvW peeps that use the speed boost to either get around or harass opponents.

Inspiring Battle Standard: Curious if this is a call to carry Banners around and Stab people. I’d be all for it, actually. If Banners were semi-viable “weapons,” it’d be worth being a mobile buff unit. Granted, held-banner skills would need huge improvements.

Merciless Hammer: What I said for Sundering Mace goes double for a slower weapon dependent on its own stuns. It can’t use its own ability, has zero synergy, and doesn’t come close to competing with Heightened Focus. I’d be quite happy with:
“Non basic Hammer skills grant Stability (1 stack, 1 sec) when activated.”
or
“Status durations on Hammer skills are increased by 50%.”

Saw many +1s in your document though. Hopefully the submission of a full, organized proposal will get more attention than stray rantings on the boards!

Congrats, I guess?

I doubt Heavensward would have legit lost if the writer hadn’t been a paid shill or something.
/shrug

HoT is still a promise of development, not a solid expansion. Many of us are still holding to see what shakes out in balance passes and Living Story releases.

AysonCurrax.3254:

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the Balance Team:

As mentioned in our “Road Ahead for 2015” blog, our strategy for adjusting the meta-game in Guild Wars 2 after the release of Heart of Thorns focuses on releasing balance updates on a set cycle – each and every quarter. We began this cadence with the release of HoT in October which undoubtedly changed the way that the game is played across all game modes. In the weeks following the launch of HoT we made a number of tweaks to elite specializations as we began to notice trends that did not align with our design goals.

Today we stand about a month and a half since Heart of Thorns was released, and once again we feel it is necessary to make some adjustments for the overall health of the game. This week we will be making a few changes to address some emergent gameplay that has cropped up across multiple game modes:

General

• Runes of Durability: Fixed a bug that granted this rune set more boon duration than indicated.
• Temple of the Silent Storm: Players will no longer be able to interact with Meditations while under the effect of Blur.

Mesmer

• Echo of Memory: Block duration reduced from 2.25 to 1.5

Revenant

• Demonic Defiance: This trait now has a 5 second internal cooldown.
• Radiant Revival: This trait’s functionality has been altered to provide Infused Light for the revenant, instead of the downed target. This trait now grants the revenant 10% bonus revival speed.
• Coalescence of Ruin: This ability will no longer hit over the maximum number of targets (5). The cascade will additionally cease its progression if it hits the maximum number of targets.

As a note, not all of the changes listed above will be in the first build on December 15, but instead in a hotfix that will happen shortly afterwards.

Balance itself is an iterative process and our work will be ongoing. We’re taking a hard look at the ways players are experiencing content across the game (raids, fractals, open world, PvP, and WvW) and we’ll be making adjustments accordingly.

Our next major balance update will be released at the end of January, and after the new year we plan on sharing the high-level details of those changes, giving you an opportunity to provide feedback to our design team.

So, are we just going to ignore the fact that you, Arenanet, clearly stated, that there wont be any balance updates while there is an ongoing PvP Season? Why set rules, if you arent going to stick with it?

More importantly, if they’re going to break those rules, who much Soon™er rather than later can I expect Warrior updates?

Oh mercy, if you’d asked that question before the dunegon nerf qq, you’d get all kinds of elitist responses about “it’s the only way to ensure good groups” even though the correlation between AP and “player skill” (whatever that’s supposed to mean) is stupidly low.

But, now that speedrun content is dead(ish), so.. I guess they moved that on to Fractal LFGs. I’ve no idea, because my guild doesn’t pull that crap. :P

Astra Lux.2846:

that Dreamer outfit in the gem shop was pretty neat, tbh.

I’d like the Dreamer outfit a lot more if not for the creepy face mask on the crotch. :P

xbutcherx.3861:

Warrior and thieves are still in rememberland?

…apparently not.

While I appreciate Gaile forwarding the news, it’s about as welcome as telling me my dog’s going to die because the doctor won’t see her for a month.
[/drama]

…Seriously? January?
Can PvE get the balance patches early? Because I’m sick of PvP and WvW leagues getting in the way of balancing. With the exaggerated, unnecessary e-sports push, y’all don’t leave any time to actually inject a balance patch.

Linky.9178:

I think theres already a game with very similar mechanics that you guys are suggesting.

/coughWoWcough It’s big on “stances” to delineate role shifts.

But not really. I think what the originator is suggesting is that Stances could become Burst options instead of just “use weapon for allegedly massive damage” attacks.

The idea definitely has merit. By shifting sustain/defenses to the Adrenaline bar, it greatly increases Warrior’s design space:

• The Adrenaline Stances can have much lower cooldowns and effects, possibly with somewhat shorter effect durations, since it comes at the cost of Burst attacks.
• Not having to bind Stances to utility slots increases Warrior options.
• The vacated Stances open up space for an entirely new utility set or new utility trigger stances to give Warrior other self-buffs and effects it’s been needing.

I find it more amusing that WoW is learning from GW2, in some ways. This last expansion, it focused on quite a few quality of life improvements, like the reagent bank, sorting bags, etc.

Of course, if there’s a QoL element GW2 could learn from WoW…
it'd be mounts!
/smokebombandflee