Guild Wars 2

Frostfang.5109:

…. also want a bunch of new faces, Hairs and Racial features just like humans got. Can we please have that??

Last time Charr got that, they got boils and diseases for faces. :\
Very glad for the Human face/hair updates, though.

Arnox.5128:

Why can’t you just pop your glider and fly eternally with the mantaray mount? I think we tossed realism out the window the minute we started moving rocks around with our minds and began battling talking cats.

Immersion does not necessarily equal realism. A lot of it equals consistency in the world actually. And Travel Mode would actually be even more consistent with the game world than mounts, giving more focus to the characters themselves as per past games. Furthermore, when in the mode, you would have to summon up the energy to propel yourself that far and across obstacles would naturally require lots of concentration. And you can’t have it on in cities because the guards don’t want you getting to places you shouldn’t be. Hence, the lore reasons why you can’t just be in Travel Mode and still attack and why it can’t be used in cities.

That’s not really consistent, though. Nevermind that “where were you hiding that glider” question which inherently strains on immersion, if only because it’s a core mechanic. Or the lack of most of our other Season 3 masteries on the maps, though that’s more rooted in tool usage.
Because in GW2Land, special tricks often require tools. So is the proposal for travel to include the special tools we have to use to travel? Some bundle we pick up. Or perhaps summon? And then ride on?
Logically, mounts actually make more sense, as they are our traveling “toolkit”. I suppose, if we were to wish for a less ostentatious approach, we could receive a gift of crystals from the Zephyrites and use masteries to make those crystals better, which would be pretty cool, to be honest, and way less cluttery than actual mounts.

Hevoskuuri.3891:

Oh, how I love these forums. Literally everything gets shot down far before it’s even patched into the game, and every single release gets more negative feedback than positive. In the middle of this deep, toxic cesspool I must wonder: why do these people who seem to dislike everything Anet pushes out even bother playing the game?

The mounts will be implemented, like it or not. Complaining about it won’t make them go away, so why complain?

Quote from my signature:
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632

It’s the same question I ask myself, Hev. Some people are so negative about the game, they feel the need to complain and dissuade others from their enjoyment, because somewhere, deep down, the love they had was twisted into a venomous hatred.
It’s sad, really.

To be honest, I hope they decide to fill some of those skill-type gaps. That would force the skill lines to get re-valued and push a reassignment of skill points. I’ve got some characters that have wasted points in their HoT masteries, and I wouldn’t mind reclaiming them for the expansion.

I mean, it’s no big deal, just something I’d go “oh cool” about and jump right in.

If I can Yoshi-bounce off my Springer to go into glider mode, that’d be kittening shweeeet.

Schewe.1673:

Ashen.2907:

Riding one of the big cats around, riding crop and spurs equipped to keep it in line…

Catnip on a fishing pole should suffice. Just make sure it’s always out of reach…

But if you do that, they’ll stop to be build a siege engine so they can claim it.

It’s better to ride a Norn. They might as well have some plot relevance.

Leo G.4501:

Rauderi.8706:

xikira.3264:

Hybarf Tics.2048:

xikira.3264:

Hybarf Tics.2048:

All ideas are welcome but seriously and obviously too late, the game is already coming out September 22nd. The only option for the anti mount crowd is to take a hike, I mean walk, until you need to cross a valley or reach a high plateau, then pray for a mount to pass by and give you a lift.

I actually don’t mind walking and I would choose walking over a mount. The problem is they are forcing you to use the mount to access many areas of the mount and story. So we do not get the option to “Take a hike” other wise I would gladly walk even if it took me 30 min or so out of the way.

Are you telling me you’re whining simply because you have to mount and dismount for a few seconds on each map. You do realize that 95% of the time you can be on foot and be swallowed whole by a 3 headed Hydra.

I don’t think mounts belong in the game they ruin the immersion. Guild wars was one of the few games that didn’t sell out to mounts. They said in the past they would not use mounts and yet here we are.

You keep mentioning immersion, but I’m not sure you’re taking the time to make sense of what immersion means.

Mounts appearing out of nowhere or disappearing into the ether would break immersion, yeah, if that wasn’t explained metaphysically. I could actually see the Jackal showing up in a coalescing cloud of dust. I could see the Springer dropping out of the sky after being called. I haven’t seen the visuals, so I couldn’t tell, but I’m keeping an open mind about it.

As for what OP is suggesting, I feel like that could be immersion-breaking. Granting the PC the powers of the mount without the mount itself puts a huge burden of disbelief (or “magic” or “rule of cool”) into justifying why the character can suddenly Superman-leap tall cliffs in a single bound or teleport across chasms. Or.. well.. fly without a glider. Like, seriously, if I can glide over deserts without hitting the sand, why can’t I just pop my glider and fly eternally? It stops making sense.

So my hope is that mounts will be executed in a way that feels more natural than “whistle, mount noise, suddenly-riding,” and I’ll hope they’re not rideable in capital cities, but it’s not going to bust my immersion if they’re done well.

I’ll also be frank. I want a mechanic where you cross a line, you are launched off your mount and you’re prone for like 10 seconds before you can get back up. Said lines should be placed at the entrances of buildings/establishments meant for social/economical interaction.

If said mechanic were established, people without mounts would appreciate not having mounts in certain locations and people with mounts will eventually learn not to use mounts in specific locations. Preserve this feature for crowded cities and around specific locations where players mass around a central location (vendors, vendor hubs, crafting areas, banks, BL npcs, maps portals, etc).

I’d be a fan of mounts being trained to be afraid of “strangers” (ie, anything with an interaction button). They’d just naturally shy away from heart vendors, etc.

Wouldn’t mind spawnable items having a limitation of being at least 300 range away from other interactable items, too.

xikira.3264:

Hybarf Tics.2048:

xikira.3264:

Hybarf Tics.2048:

All ideas are welcome but seriously and obviously too late, the game is already coming out September 22nd. The only option for the anti mount crowd is to take a hike, I mean walk, until you need to cross a valley or reach a high plateau, then pray for a mount to pass by and give you a lift.

I actually don’t mind walking and I would choose walking over a mount. The problem is they are forcing you to use the mount to access many areas of the mount and story. So we do not get the option to “Take a hike” other wise I would gladly walk even if it took me 30 min or so out of the way.

Are you telling me you’re whining simply because you have to mount and dismount for a few seconds on each map. You do realize that 95% of the time you can be on foot and be swallowed whole by a 3 headed Hydra.

I don’t think mounts belong in the game they ruin the immersion. Guild wars was one of the few games that didn’t sell out to mounts. They said in the past they would not use mounts and yet here we are.

You keep mentioning immersion, but I’m not sure you’re taking the time to make sense of what immersion means.

Mounts appearing out of nowhere or disappearing into the ether would break immersion, yeah, if that wasn’t explained metaphysically. I could actually see the Jackal showing up in a coalescing cloud of dust. I could see the Springer dropping out of the sky after being called. I haven’t seen the visuals, so I couldn’t tell, but I’m keeping an open mind about it.

As for what OP is suggesting, I feel like that could be immersion-breaking. Granting the PC the powers of the mount without the mount itself puts a huge burden of disbelief (or “magic” or “rule of cool”) into justifying why the character can suddenly Superman-leap tall cliffs in a single bound or teleport across chasms. Or.. well.. fly without a glider. Like, seriously, if I can glide over deserts without hitting the sand, why can’t I just pop my glider and fly eternally? It stops making sense.

So my hope is that mounts will be executed in a way that feels more natural than “whistle, mount noise, suddenly-riding,” and I’ll hope they’re not rideable in capital cities, but it’s not going to bust my immersion if they’re done well.

Waiting for the mechano-versions of the mounts to show up in the gem store. …I’d gladly pay to reskin the Skimmer. >.> Maybe get a nice hoverboard instead? We already have the broom animation we can use.

Rylen.2147:

Why don’t we try things before automatically assuming that we hate them?

And also maybe, I dunno, let people like things? (It’s something I’m working on these days. :P) Not every facet of a game needs to cater specifically to every user ever.

I loathed Adventures as choppy, trash-tier content. Others like it. Cool for them, and I’ll wish for their happiness by wishing for those Adventures to be better tuned instead of insisting on their removal.

I loathe WvW. It’s boring and frustrating. If I could pay someone else 100g to farm a Gift of Battle, it’d be the best for both me and the seller. Maybe even have a “Draft Dodger” achievement for buying one. I’unno. But that doesn’t exist, so I suck it up and go to WvW for what I need.

If one doesn’t like mounts, that’s what you do. You endure, and the hope is it’ll suck just not enough, and maybe you’ll actually like it. (But really though, no mounts in cities…)

Does want. Can’t has. Sad.

I even have names picked out. Though, that reminds me, here’s to hoping there’s a character slot sale between now and the expansion, so I can register some characters.

nottsgman.8206:

doubtful. it isn’t even included for free with the purchase of the expansion

I noticed that. I thought they were going to bundle all previous expansions with the current one as a part of the purchase price. . .

Necrum Davengers.3519:

Obtena.7952:

Necrum Davengers.3519:

So this new expansion is about new maps, mounts and elite specialization.
What about:
Dungeons
WvW
Fractal
PvP
These things are not important Arena? I’ m sorry but after the HOT expansion, you continue going down to the hill.

Gee … just like the last expansion. Why would you think otherwise? No offense but those things you list are simply second rate filler content. Any expansion based on those tidbits of content would be a failure.

I mean, lets throw it back at you .. how would you conceptualize an expansion based on any of those things? It doesn’t make sense. Those elements get ongoing changes; they aren’t ‘expansion’ worthy.

“Any expansion based on those tidbits of content would be a failure”
Go thell that on Wow and Final Fantasy XIV wich are more popular than Guild Wars 2.

Thinking WoW or XIV are based on dungeons and PvP. Cute.

Those are all about the raids. And in XIV’s case, excessive amounts of gambling.
PvP was always an afterthought for those games (WoW did not start with it, and XIV scuttled it into small arenas.) And WoW’s PvP balance has always been terrible, which shows how little they care about it.

Ray Koopa.2354:

Of course, you always hear “X doesn’t listen” when they couldn’t listen (due to whatever reasons) once, but if they do, nobody says “Thank you” afterwards.

Except you which is why I love this thread.

I see a few thank-you threads from time to time. I think there’s one on the front page, or close to it.

It’s just nice to see that some things we say do make it into the game, eventually. Patience, virtue, yaddayadda.

Linsey being a total workhorse on inventory.
Weavers with Sword.
Deadeye with Rifle.

…okay so those are my only recent examples, but it turns out that the devs are listening.
It just takes a while to make some things happen. I know we’d like more communication coming our way, but at least we can talk among ourselves while we know ANet has a glass to the door.

PvP could use updates, but after Stronghold, all the devs got was “SKREEE WE HATES IT!!”
Something other than Capture the Point would breathe some life into the meta, though.

And WvW updates? Ha! “SKREE WE HATES THE DESERT! WE HATES! NO PVE IN OUR WVW!” To add any mechanic that might rebalance population coverage difference or give something other than a single zerg is met with utter contempt.

The focus is going to be on new explorable maps (Living World) and raids. We might get lucky with a fractal or three. Maybe. Even then, I expect another Fractal revamp when the number of fractals caps at 25…

Wondrouswall.7169:

Color me impressed with the announcement. I tuned in cynical and skeptical, and by the end, was pleasantly surprised.

It was a simple and straight-forward announcement. Each point told what we needed to know and provided enough details without being cryptic. No over-hyping – just “This is what we have been working on. Let us show you.”

It could have included something for PvP and WvW, but good stuff, overall. Different price packages are also a plus. I’m stoked for Path of Fire now. Just hope they don’t do anything that fans out the flames.

I find myself still skeptical. Lore gets trotted out and then killed, profession balance has been spotty, encounters have been tuned to cheap frustration tactics, and I find myself barely “cautiously optimistic” about the expansion.

I did hear a lot of compelling ideas.

But ANet has a bad habit of Good Idea; Lousy Execution.

My biggest complaints are the absurd aggro range of the ice elementals, the way the storms directly approach players, and getting “frozen.”

If I had to nail it down to a single beef with the entire zone, it’s the Frozen transformation. It’s not a condition, not a stun, so stunbreaks won’t work. The transformation makes you lose your torch, because it replaces your bundle/kit. Which reminds me that the Koda’s Flame mechanic is kinda shoddily executed.
The nigh-constant chill is equally irritating, but at least I can cleanse it.

Zok.4956:

ErickDntn.1847:

Anise couldn’t tell us their mission due to the oath

The Oath of Confidence was created by the head of the Shining Blade, the Master Exemplar (Livia, presumed dead, but only retired). The current Master Exemplar and head of the Shining Blade is Anise. So she could have changed the rules of the Shining Blade to make an exception for our Hero (the player character).

With this oath the player-character binds himself to a nationalist Krytan cult-like royal guard that is also a secret organisation. It felt wrong, as if the player character is an idiot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot_plot

I appreciate you bringing up the actual term for it. Do we need to update the TVTropes entries too?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidityIsTheOnlyOption

So, you’re having a mad because the price Sunrise moderated to something more reasonable? …k.

I’m doing fairly well for myself in this market. I can sell off excess materials for well above vendor value, the rares I don’t salvage go for 25s or more, and I’ve found at least a few precursors to be affordable. Heck, I bought The Colossus on a whim before the release of the new legendary, just in case. I could never have done that before.

Ashantara.8731:

Storage Space for Tenebrous/Shimmering Crystals

I had to delete at least 20 stacks of those by now because they were clogging my storage space. I suggest you add slots in the material storage for them… please.

They have storage now.
They’re still going to clog your inventory, unless you make guild gear.

Xenon.4537:

What kind of woman is stupid enough to invite a stranger from the internet to her house in the middle of the night after 2 days of texting?

A thirsty one. o_O

I just can’t believe that the Commander was so, so desperate for some not-so-significant scrap of information that he couldn’t think to put his leverage onto someone else to look. Former Pact Leader could at least go to Soulkeeper and nudge some Whispers ties into finding out.
There was an opportunity to have a branching path mission to find that information out:
•Whispers way – Sneak around and find out what Livia’s up to.
•Priory way – Undergo the initiation to the Shining Blade, while wearing a magic talisman transfers the death effect to it.
•Vigil way – Don’t bother with sneaky intel and smash something else, barging in where Livia’s supposed to be and catch her in the act.

Instead, we got rocks dropped on our heads and more OP mesmer nonsense, so we can casually accept both a blood oath and vengeful genocide.

Lite Ning Strike.5203:

I would like to see them take a page from the GW1 game version and allow duel classes. Mesmer/Ranger, Guardian/Necro etc….

That is, theoretically, part of what Elite Specs are supposed to replicate, under more controlled circumstances. The elite gives the profession an additional mechanic and a skill type they couldn’t use before. (Though Rage is just Physical with more power attached. C’mon, ANet…)

I’d certainly like to see these get updates, especially for healing and elites to round out a few things.

No. We get Elites.

Won’t even get Tengu. #sad

Right? I like that map.

When I can get in. :\

+1 for this JP. It was a mini adventure to itself. Clear enough to be visible, absolutely fantastic checkpoint system, and a moody thing looming in the distance, daring to be climbed.

Celldrax.2849:

I liked it. Though I utterly loathe the immediate section after checkpoint 2.

If there’s one thing that infuriates me about some jumping puzzles, it’s the sometimes finicky terrain that makes things much more frustrating than they really need to be.

And yet, in spite of the praise, I have to agree to this. I’ll admit to getting mesmer’d through a chunk or two because the terrain is, as usual, bizarre one which pixels it considers go or no-go.

Ele + Shortbow = Spellflight.
But that’s all I can say. Very hush hush.

Arnox.5128:

Rauderi.8706:

We have plenty of skills and traits that don’t even get used. They should be making those good enough to justify taking them.

But that’s an issue of balance. Not of new content.

But what good is it to add new skills when the old ones aren’t balanced? Things would teeter out of control, and it’s very likely that any new skills you add will be OP briefly then get nerfed into oblivion so that the old-but-popular skills stay on top again.

Xstein.2187:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

some of you may not notice that you can unlock more wp….just have to buy it. I have no idea who come up with the idea but its not player friendly at all

How isn’t it player friendly?

1) it only takes 40 orrian pearls. You can get those in a day or two of playing. If you buy the orrian pearl node you get 9 with each daily harvest.
2) after unlock you can bring any alt to that map and have access. You no longer have to run to each one with each char.

You know what takes less time than gathering 40 orrin pearls? Walking over the freakin way points. To me the new system feels like you went to a restaurant to buy a sandwich. You then go the next day to buy the sandwich and they raised the price. Is the sandwich still affordable? Of coarse. However, that is not why people will be upset about the increased prices. What you could traditionally get for free by walking over it, you now have to buy. If they want to add a way for alts to unlock way points, then they should add it as a purchase in addition to traditional way points, but most definitely not to replace it.

Oh, I love analogies!

See, for me, I did a bunch of work for a day, went to the sandwich shop on the corner, and bought a sandwich.
Then, I gave the clerk a fistful of dollars to have orders sent to their three other locations in the city. The sandwich shop was so taken aback at my loyalty that they decided to give me (and everyone in my company) free sandwiches at all their locations.
What an awesome deal! My coworkers and I are going to that sandwich shop every day now! I mean, it’s a shame they stopped giving out free samples, but now I’m a part of Sandwich Club™ and I’m lov-.. er, really like it!

Fun game, lemme try!

Guardian: Ironically Squishy
Warrior: Greatsword
Revenant: Shiro
Ranger: Poor pet management
Thief: Tryhard, or Cheap.
Engineer: Complicated
Elementalist: Versatile
Necromancer: Shroud HP
Mesmer: Overplayed (especially in story)

Ew no. I loathed Livia from the moment I met her (in GW2). I could never ship someone so uselessly sarcastic.

Unless it’s two uselessly sarcastic people. Livnach? Canivia?
They would snipe and snide at each other until the inevitable tension breaks into a hot sweaty/dewy roll on the grass that would put Kasjory’s lovey chitchat to shame.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Provisioner_Token

Probably for https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gift_of_Craftsmanship
or the Bloodbound weapon skins.

IndigoSundown.5419:

With regard to interesting and immersive MMO game-play, the daily task which puts many scores of people onto low-level maps where they spam AoE where mobs are going to spawn is the most asinine design choice I’ve ever seen.

Agreed. This worked better before when it was Regional events instead of a specific zone.
It’s not as bad on maps with decent meta events (Harathi, HoT maps, Orr), but in starting maps that just aren’t busy, or the nearly-dead 15-30ish zones? Horrible.

jasonorme.5014:

Also sick of repeating this mission when I fail.
The same reason I haven’t got a few of the LS achievements. I just can’t face sitting through 10 minutes of dialogue only to fail and have to do it all over again.

While I can understand that there are questionable coding issues involved…

How has this not been resolved?? By now, we should have Retry Motes in every Living World episode, and scroll it back to Season 2.

Pearls are pretty easy to get on the map. I bought all the shrine waypoints by my second evening of exploration. And I’m still sitting on 40+ of them now, after buying them all.

To address the hyperbole… For the time commitment involved, I’d estimate each shrine “costs” no more than 20 silver. So it’s more the equivalent of “would you like to pay 80 silver to unlock all the waypoints on this map for your whole account? What a bargain!” Because it is.

You want to be mad and spit expletives about it, but you can buy these extra shrine waypoints and not even be near them. You could run along the shore and in some safe areas, gather a bunch of pearls, then buy all the shrines. Not hard at all.

Remember all those requests for “account bound waypoints” that would show up from time to time?

Well here they are! Spend a little currency, and it’s unlocked for every character, at no additional cost.

It’s not even worth whining about, because it’s an amazing deal. I’m curious if this is a litmus test for the expansion.

I’ve done my fair share of complaining about Season 3 and Episode 6, so I wanted to trim that out for a moment and focus on the good.

The Good Stuff

Dirges – Didn’t quite work out that great in Siren’s Landing, but I like the mechanic. Possibly something for a future raid or fractal?

Living World Portal Tome – I got my shared inventory slots back! (Small issue? Bitterfrost portal seems to take me to the wrong place.)

Jumping Puzzle – The JP itself was an amusing venture, probably just the right amount of funstration. And that checkpoint system! Yus.

Waypoints – Once we get past the “wah, I have to buy waypoints with pearls” shock, I have to say Thank You. Waypoints that are account bound and free to use? Fantastic.

I ended up with 34 burn stacks after I caught the attention of two of them. Still survived.

I managed to take them down by stunlocking them for a good portion of the fight. Also, if you can attune to the fountainhead, the knockback makes any singular creature in the area easy. They hurt, but they’re not so bad on their own.

It’s when they seem to attract a pack of mercenaries or exist near those garlgblargkitteningkittenit Orrian eye stalks that I get particularly annoyed.

Arnox.5128:

We don’t need another profession, d###it. We need more skills.

No, I’m not gonna shut up about this.

We have plenty of skills and traits that don’t even get used. They should be making those good enough to justify taking them.

As for a rune-scriber/etc, that would easily be done through an elite spec. That’s how GW2 is set to develop its new roles, building on the base mechanics of another class.

Not to be ungrateful, but is anyone else having an issue with the Bitterfrost Frontier scroll dumping you at the entrance instead of the middle waypoint?

Between HoT and the continued behavior in LS3 . . I just don’t know if I can expect a good experience with the upcoming expansion.

Charrbeque.8729:

I wish they would have just reused the oakheart’s essence. Killing a ley-line creature to pick up its organ can give you up to 5 “weapon” skills, but you only get a single use of any skill before you lose it. Meaning, if you are using the skill to jump and miss your landing, you have to find another creature to get the ability again. And for really tricky jumps, it can take a lot of dead monsters before you finally make it.

This new “jump” mechanic from the ley-line creatures in the new map is basically just a copy-paste of the wind aspect found in the Sanctum Sprint activity and all over Dry Top, except you only get 1 use instead of 10 uses with a time limit.

It’s super annoying to use in Siren’s Landing. (and people hated having to use it in Dry Top)

I’ve had that jump glitch on me several times, and since the mob exists for other people to use for a long while, it doesn’t respawn quickly, at all. Incredibly frustrating.

Yes and no. They do their AMAs there, and some of the devs make the occasional comment. As a community space, the official forums are less transient and less sh—posting. We can actually have serious conversations here without the topic hiding itself within a day or two.

I have to wonder if OP is referring to the ley-infused critters you kill for a single boosted jump. If so…

GARGLBLAGKITTENBULLKITTEN those stupid things. I appreciate their existence, but the jump works myabe 20-30% of the time, and they don’t respawn nearly fast enough to make that mechanic tolerable.

Quick blurb on the jumping puzzle.

Not a fan of many of the pixel jumps involved. Kinda unfair to Charr/Norn, as usual.

HOLY KITTEN CAN WE GET THAT CHECKPOINT SYSTEM IN ALL THE LONG JUMPING PUZZLES. It’s greatly appreciated for “fail faster” stuff like this. Great thanks to the team for putting that in.

Dakurus Sunfire.9157:

Zaraki.5784:

That, THAT. As a Norn Warrior and Pact Commander I felt my honor smashed by letting pass that insult.

I think it’s been made blatantly clear that the agency of NPCs is more important than that of players in Living World. You simply exist to be a passive observer in the events you’re witnessing, destined to never get any credit for all the leg work you do, preordained to be disrespected by every NPC you meet and cursed to never actually have an impact on the outcome.

A simple illusion of choice would’ve been fine:

Charm – Some witty remark that disarms the clucking priest. Anise approves.
Dignity – “Just ignore him, Countess.” Anise approves. Clucking continues as the conversation strays away.
Ferocity – “Want me to pound him into ground hash?” Anise frowns. “Not today, pet. I don’t want to be responsible for the mess.” Conversation continues in private.

That’s all it would take to feel a little agency there. Same results, slightly different lines.

Ayrilana.1396:

The problem with the above is that it excludes some classes. Now, if there was a reliable way to avoid the debuff, as dodging doesn’t appear to be working, then there wouldn’t be an issue.

That’s the critical issue.

I’ve heard rumors that minions might be able to take the hit, but then they run up the defense stacks too much. Without being able to dodge the claw, eventually, the buff the shadow gets makes all damage null anyway (4% incoming damage mitigation per stack).

The overall design isn’t the failure. I knew everything I needed to do for passing both the general event and the achievement, but there was something in the execution that got mucked up (the claw, obviously) which soured the experience.

Dashingsteel.3410:

Be very wary of pre-ordering. I learned my lesson.

After the choppy handling of the story in Season 3, you’d think I’d’ve learned my lesson too.

I have not. I will still cross my fingers and hope that the upcoming story is more coherent, the elites are desirable, and the new battles to come are thoughtful instead of annoying, CC-laden garbage. :\

Raven.4132:

Also, if you die you have ample opportunity to change your build.

Taking damage was not my problem. Even at 25 stacks, shadow Warrior can’t hit for beans over my Signet. :P
Death was not an option.

Personally, I like the puzzles a lot more than just whittling boss health down. Pressing 1 and watching a health bar go down while occasionally dodging attacks is extremely boring. If the boss works the same as any other mob, just with a lot more health, what’s the point of even having a boss fight?
Heart of Thorns set a precedent that not everything was going to be core Tyria faceroll anymore.
This way there is some satisfaction to be had in figuring out the fight or puzzle.

It wasn’t even that hard a fight. In theory. I appreciated the mechanics and understood them as soon as the tooltips showed up.
But I didn’t have any blocks or ways to reflect, no access to Aegis, etc. And again, I couldn’t die to reset. I could’ve walked away from the computer for the span of my 140 sec cooldowns, and it still wouldn’t have helped.

So, if I step back and don’t think about the achievement, I’m actually pretty mellow about the Doubt fight. The fact that I got screwed over by sloppy execution (and if I go for it, will have to sit through so much story again…) is what gets me mad.