Guild Wars 2

The one that really grinds my OCD is that the Glyphs of Empowerment and The Tides have their icons swapped when you enter Celestial Avatar form.

Allison The Strange.4519:

Almost every ranger weapon has some kind of evade or block (GS, sw, dag, sb, spear, staff)… In all honestly the only one I can think of that doesn’t is ax/torch and maybe harpoon but I think the #5 is an evade or atleast a leap backwards…

If bunny thumper was even to become a thing it would have to be LOTS like warrior by giving you access to lots of CC if the weapon or utilities aren’t going to give block/evade options… So it’d basically turn into a warrior hammer copy/paste…

What if hammer was more hybrid with counters/blocks/cc/buffs than just pure cc?

Crinn.7864:

Razor.9872:

What would you say happens when you fill your build with condi-clears? Does it essentially make you unkillable through condi’s, or do they still get through?

Depends on class.
A power rev could take every possible cleanse and still get screwed.
A ele could take every possible cleanse and would never die to a condi class.

Also when you mean “do they still get through” do you mean “a condi managed to appear” or do you mean “got overloaded and died from condi.” The former is unavoidable, the latter is completely avoidable.

I meant the later.

Supreme.3164:

Razor.9872:

What would you say happens when you fill your build with condi-clears? Does it essentially make you unkillable through condi’s, or do they still get through?

Your overall dmg reaches bottom level as on some classes, condi clears are tied to a specific traitline devoid of any dmg modifier, this push one side constantly on the defensive without much chance for retaliation .

In a more balanced situation, a power build that faces a condi one, would have windows of opportunities to strike and put some pressure back. In a balanced situation the condi build would rely on innate sustain and time to whittle down the power spec, this one will use the superior dmg to kill the condi build before the time is up.

Atm we don’t have a balanced situation because while the power build sacrifice sustain for dmg, the condi build not only maintain the sustain but also possess a dmg level comparable ( if not superior ) to the power spec and can be applied more easily and more often.

Basically condition specs were yes supposed to have more sustain than power spec, but that extra sustain was supposed to come at the expense of frontload dmg.

If all power builds that sacrifice defense for more bursty dps were designed to kill the sustain of condi builds, how do you see condi builds still being relevant in a team?

I may have worded this wrong…
(Just gathering ideas)

What would you say happens when you fill your build with condi-clears? Does it essentially make you unkillable through condi’s, or do they still get through?

Azukas.1426:

Razor.9872:

Pyriall.1683:

Razor.9872:

I’d rather have a bad, nice player. Even if they are poor in performance at first, they are a joy to work with and can always be improved.

From my experience, it is easier to turn a bad/nice player into a good/nice player than it is to turn a good/toxic player into a good/nice player.

And ultimately, we want good/nice players in the community.

No it’s not. The only thing it takes to turn a toxic good player into a nice good player is do what you’re supposed to do and win. You won’t hear anything from them.

Winning does not turn them into a nice player, it just makes them move on. In essence, they remain toxic, but satisfied. If losing is all it takes to “flip the switch,” then that is a very volatile player (risky to run with). Games are not about winning all the time; games are built to incorporate failure as a motivator/obstacle. In my opinion, players who can remain optimistic in the face of adversity/challenge are closer to being “optimal.” Sure, it takes time get them to reach that state, but such is the nature of delayed gratification.

Losing because you get paired with players who can’t properly rotate or not die in 3 seconds 1v1 isn’t a motivator/obstacle. It’s a kittening road block you can’t avoid.

You miss-interpreted me. I did not say being paired with “bad” players was a motivator for you. Rather, I was trying to express the position of the need-to-improve player as having their current ability to be improvable. From their perspective, having the potential to be better is their motivator/obstacle.

Sure, you are bound to be matched with “bad” players. Statistically it is improbable one would not. But it is how you deal with it that defines this community. In another player’s eyes, if they saw you as “noobish” or playing “poorly,” would you rather have them degrade you, rage-quit, and/or act negatively? Or, would you rather they suggest what you could do to improve and explain why doing so is an improvement. This is a matter of relativity and understanding. It is about being the player you would like the game’s community to be as well.

When used in kylo, it is effectively a -2 on the enemy team for a small time period. Even if you fail to kill or interrupt, the fight on-point becomes that much deadlier for the enemy. By the time the druid and the rez’d player make it back on-point, chances are they are walking in out-numbered or out-powered due to their on-point guy being either downed or close to death.

To compare, it is like having 2 of your team fight the beast in forest while the rest attempt to take mid. By the time the beast-killers make it there, the point is already in the process of being lost with little hope to recover.

Azukas.1426:

Ok I’ve read through this thread and I will say you need to define toxic.

A toxic player from the start who just flames and acts like an kitten generally isn’t good. A good player who communicates pregame and throughout game, but then turns to “toxicity” due to extremely bad teammates is acceptable.

Good players are good players no matter what comes out of their mouth. I will take good players over incompetent players ANY GAME OF THE WEEK. Here’s a scenario of a thief I’ve had the pleasure/displeasure of playing with:

I’ve had this same thief on my team multiple times. Each game he/she says hello and then communicates a plan on opening and rest of game. Every game I can say with certainty that this player is doing what they are supposed to do and is a very good player.

Now I will say when our team has players who all know how to play they are basically quiet. Now when there are some serious bone headed decisions being made (aka leaving home open to a decap by a necro) this player will TELL you in no uncertain circumstances to knock it off (These messages aren’t for the faint of heart tbh). Now after every win regardless of how bad you did you get a whisper afterwards of GG and good things.

Now I had a the displeasure of being on this fella’s team when the team was full of BAD players. I mean started off the same he/she said hello, chatted a pregame plan, and then continued to talk during the match. When our team lost a team fight at mid w/in 30 seconds and ended up feeding mid 1 by 1 it started. Literally we were told to stop sucking…..after the blow out loss (I knew I made tons of mistakes and the other 3 players were especially bad) we got a personalized whisper from that player telling us to uninstall the game. LOL

Now I would still have that player on my team every game over ANY 3 of the other players in the last game. I’ve had that player yell at me for doing bone headed mistakes and literally CARRY the game to a win.

So yes give me toxic over incompetent ANY day of the week, because usually this toxic ppl speak of is competitiveness of good players.

<edit>

Forgot to add I had another mesmer on my team who was nothing but toxikittenerally started off with bad mouthing the entire team etc etc etc. Needless to say he wasn’t good in the least, and we lost.

I’ve also had a player start off toxic as well, but turned out to be a great player. That player while a PIA was able to rotate and do his/her job. I’ll take them over incompetence as well.

I agree that the technicalities of “toxic” and “bad/good” should be clearly defined before we move forward discussing this.

For me, toxic means quick to anger, communicating in a negative/demeaning/unconstructive fashion, and incapable of self-adjustment.

As for bad/good, I am unsure whether being “bad” means just being unknowledgeful and/or slow to react, or if it means being incapable of improvement or taking advice.

Pyriall.1683:

Razor.9872:

I’d rather have a bad, nice player. Even if they are poor in performance at first, they are a joy to work with and can always be improved.

From my experience, it is easier to turn a bad/nice player into a good/nice player than it is to turn a good/toxic player into a good/nice player.

And ultimately, we want good/nice players in the community.

No it’s not. The only thing it takes to turn a toxic good player into a nice good player is do what you’re supposed to do and win. You won’t hear anything from them.

Winning does not turn them into a nice player, it just makes them move on. In essence, they remain toxic, but satisfied. If losing is all it takes to “flip the switch,” then that is a very volatile player (risky to run with). Games are not about winning all the time; games are built to incorporate failure as a motivator/obstacle. In my opinion, players who can remain optimistic in the face of adversity/challenge are closer to being “optimal.” Sure, it takes time get them to reach that state, but such is the nature of delayed gratification.

I’d rather have a bad, nice player. Even if they are poor in performance at first, they are a joy to work with and can always be improved.

From my experience, it is easier to turn a bad/nice player into a good/nice player than it is to turn a good/toxic player into a good/nice player.

And ultimately, we want good/nice players in the community.

Thief can steal the might other professions generate…

Sartharina.3542:

Ooh! I like this idea! And we could call it the Berzerker’s Sigil. Then, I can run around with my Berzerker’s Berzerker Torch of the Berzerker on my Berzerker.

That’s so meta

Believe it or not, I’ve actually made it halfway through diamond using a trap ranger build.

In all honesty, it has next to no CC counters, very little condi clear, and is horrendously slow — but no one expects it and the condi burst is so crazy that it tends to kill before it is killed.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Actually…
… Longbow has the potential to be the power weapon of choice. The problem is the Range “limitation”. In order to maximize it’s benefits you have to be 1200 range away from your target. Which is frankly a lot and usually means you are away from your pals and buffs they provide.

The only skill on the longbow that has that range requirement is the auto attack. Unless you plan to camp the longbow, it works perfectly fine as a burst weapon in a dps rotation. Rangers are meant to swap weapons a lot.

kurfu.5623:

I’m not afraid of them at all. I did plenty of raiding in WoW, and simply no longer want to deal with the BS drama, elitist culture, and general toxicity that inevitably surrounds raiding.

It’s all about finding the right people
Personally, I have experienced very little of that toxicity; most of the people I have raided with have been friendly. The worse I experience are people who leave after a second wipe.

Ardid.7203:

Just one thing? -> Reaper.
More than one? -> Beutiful, Complex and Vertical Maps, Gliding, Saurians, Fix-R-Upper, Chak, Ibli and Tizlak, Tarir, Shashoo and Baroosh events, Guild Halls, Rata Novus, the new Jumping Puzzles, Gerent fighting animations, Sabby’s Scorcher and Boomstick, Trahearne Dying… just to name a few.

Lol, “Trahearne Dying.”

Priceless.

I think this issue may be alleviated somewhat when/if a raid LFG is implemented. Besides that, it’s about knowing the “format” for advertising yourself and knowing what people like.

I happened to join the Immortal Raiders [raid] as they act as a secondary LFG. It’s been working well for me so far (when it comes to finding a group).

Beating the raids, though…

That’s another story :P

Simple…yet effective. +1

When I think back to to the launch of GW2, and compare that to now, it serves as a real confidence booster. Back then, class balance was absurd, culling was prominent, botters were frequent, bugs were unavoidable, and the community was segmented through servers (mega-servers didn’t exist then — not even server guesting was a thing).

There was
No account wardrobe.
No account wallet
No account mini’s
No fractals of the mists
No edge of the mists
No pvp reward tracks
No API keys
No vistas
No collections
No PvP leagues
No spectating
No guild halls
No XMP

Dyes were character bound
Stats were tied to trait lines
A very limited pool of available skins
A very limited pool of gem-store items
Limited functionality with commander tags
Dungeon tokens took up bank space
The trading post UI was clunky
Achievement points were useless
Less world events
Less PvP maps

And much more.

Sure, you could say “But A-net has had 3 years to do that stuff — and that’s all they’ve come up with!” But who wants to think with a mindset like that? Whether it’s true or not, I am thankful for what they have worked to provide my friends and I, and I’m looking forward for what’s to come.

Spirits guide you <3

I like how Ranger isn’t listed in the patch notes. That’s my favorite joke xD

Andraus.3874:

You could just get the chat code for 60ish to prevent this from happening again. But yes obviously this is a bad test of skill.

I feel so dirty when I do this. But I guess as long as I stick with bosses I know I’ve got down, It shouldn’t matter too much.

Dash.8027:

IM NOT LOGGING OUT UNTIL I HAVE ALL THE THINGS.

;_;

PS: My full size charr is my SAB Tribulation mode character. RIP.

I’ll see you in kitty hell.

KestrelGirl.9267:

The community! Well, the part of it that’s in-game and not QQing here or on Reddit.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is one of the few MMO’s I can send someone mats to help craft me something (thank you timegate) and not have to worry so much that they will just take them and leave.

I do both equally

I love introducing new players to jumping puzzles.

Probably because this pleases both the
“I’d love to teach you the game!”
And
“Muhahahaha! Revell in my past pain and rage! >:3”
Sides of me

Siobhan.5273:

Razor.9872:

Just do what I do:

Don’t expect anything.
When the thing does come, be pleasantly surprised.
Find out how to have as much fun with it as possible.

Right, we can all feel like we’re “unwrapping” content we should be getting with the expansion we’ve paid for. : – \

I never expect anything from a product I’ve purchased.. and when I get it.. it feels amazing.

Now you’re getting it! If you can keep up that mindset, you’ll be hardpress to feel any negativity or disappointment.

Hakuna Matata

It’s a wonderful thing!

~It means no worries, for the rest of your days~

~It’s a problem free ~ philosophy~

Hakuna Matata!

<3

Celtic Lady.3729:

Razor.9872:

I personally just see it as an emotional response to a tough call MO may have had to make.

This seems a tad condescending. I don’t see people wanting to receive what they paid for as purely “emotional.” I see wanting what you paid for as being fairly reasonable.

I didn’t mean for it to be condescending. If it is, I apologize.

From my perspective: Whether their position (input) is reasonable or not — the response (or output) is bloated emotionally.

I hope I’m making sense.

(takes shelter in a trench with you, yelling over the gunfire)

Well, it is hard to explain the whole situation in just a few words. Honestly, it’s a bunch of little things that have built up over time. But to try to “in a nutshell” this whole thing as it currently is:

One of the selling points (or at least “percieved” selling points) of the HoT expansion was a whole new set of legendary weapons. A-net stated shortly before the ex-pack launch that they didn’t have the weapons ready in time for the expansion (this is likely due to how much work the precursor scavenger hunts take to produce). Anyway, they said they would be rolling out with them over the course of the next several months.

However, in a blogpost recently, the A-net CEO Mike O’Brian (MO for short) stated that they believe it to be best if they allocate their legendary-making team of 6 people into production of more-used-by-the-playerbase-all-around-contenty-content instead. So these new weapons are put on hold “indefinitely” until MO decides he has the resources to pick them back up again.

Many are disappointed by what HoT came with to begin with.
Many feel cheated of their dollar.
Some want some form of compensation from A-net
Some claim to be “done.”

I personally just see it as an emotional response to a tough call MO may have had to make.

I say don’t let this crap get to you. Just enjoy the game. Good luck.

(Charges out of the trenc — gets shot in the head)

BLANE.8346:

With the endless supply of weapon skins coming out of the gemstore is it really that difficult to add new legendaries?

Hopefully there’s a good trade off for this

It is quite possible they already have the skins ready or close to ready for many of the legendaries. The issue is more likely in relation to the precursor scavenger hunt.

Dark Marrek.3180:

Wonder if this is part of the “real” reason Colin Johanson left ???

Improbable. But even if it was, so it goes.

CETheLucid.3964:

Celtic Lady.3729:

CETheLucid.3964:

How many more were you expecting?

Just the 16 that they promised us.

Alright.

“Man, why isn’t Anet ever transparent with us?! If they would just tell us what they’re doing people won’t get so mad about things chang—lolnvmlegendariesrsrsbsnss BURN THE WITCHES”

Lol

And now, a Haiku on my Ranger:

I love my Ranger —
Going Druid is so strong
My nature ninja.

<3

Ramoth.9064:

I love how well the developers keep to their promises.

You reek of sarcasm. It stinks.

Behellagh.1468:

These are the same people who were leaving when Ascended tier were announced in November 2012 and every other time there was something to ticked them off.

And who knows, maybe they did leave in 2012 but the nature of a B2P MMO is they have forum access forever so they could simply come back here to make more noise.

Exactly.
I have no worries right now. Sure, there are a lot of issues (there always are) but I live by:

and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB5ceAruYrI

Just go with the flow, dude. Ride the wind.

MAKE IT RAIN! xD

I’ll take a slice of the leavers, please.

Just do what I do:

Don’t expect anything.
When the thing does come, be pleasantly surprised.
Find out how to have as much fun with it as possible.

evilunderling.9265:

Spira.4578:

They also have 70 devs working on the next expansion. don’t forget that.

Ah, here’s the other thing we appear to disagree on. It is not reasonable to ask them to take from those 70 devs. Either trust in them to make this right, or don’t, but armchair game directing helps nobody.

Don’t ask them to stop developing the next expac. Ask them to consider releasing it free of charge to HoT purchasers. That ensures that it isn’t a cash grab or a milking attempt without any risk of making things even worse further down the line, and it is the accepted game industry protocol for making things right after a serious failure.

Although I guess really they should be doing it without anyone needing to ask so that we don’t end up looking like we’re trying to milk them.

I hope their business model could support that. Do you think they need the sales from ex-pack purchases to fuel the previous development?

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Razor.9872:

This thread is going in circles.

GW2 has taught me to avoid circles.

When mouths are open, ears tend to shut.

On a side note, according to the Dev Tracker none of the devs have talked today in the forums. Whether or not they’re waiting for the fires to die down, or their having some proactive meetings is anyone’s guess.

~EW

These mouths look like Gorseval’s

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Heibi.4251:

Here are some of the ideas and suggestions that have been lost in all the screaming and yelling:
1. Make the HoT precursors drop from mobs in the HoT areas like the old versions did in Tyria. RNG baby. – Creating the legendary adventure is one of the primary things delaying them. Everything must work and be there.

2. Create Skin Recipes for the new legendaries. Sell them at vendors in the HoT area for a large sum in the zone currency. Then make and old legendary and skin it.

3. Unlock Legendary Armor from the Raid and make them obtainable outside of raids. That’s 18 legendaries available to make. See #1 for how to get them. Though they still have to create the legendary armor. Also make the recipe simple, like old legendaries. No adventure involved, except for dungeons and such.

4. Hire 6 new people so that you don’t have to scrap the project. Borrow against a bankable asset if you have to.

5 : put one precursor as reward of entering legendary division during a PvP season (ofc still non-tradable). Legendary people deserve legendary weapons.

I’ll keep updating as I find/see them.

Like them all, and yes it got lost in the rabble from all these corporate lawyers discussing their strategy to sue Anet over this mess LOL!

One I’d like to add is a possible suggestion would be to put one in a cairn somewhere in Tyria and slowly release photos of clues as to where it would be located.

You are a forum warrior, Heibi.

This thread is going in circles.

GW2 has taught me to avoid circles.

Sird.4536:

I want the Abbadon fractal.

Others that might be interesting, Saul invading the Charr camp (same mission from gw1 bonus pack) might be a good lore recap especially with how the story in the raid is playing out.

Battle of Divinity Reach. During the asura story you fight an asura from another reality who mentions a battle or fall of Divinitys Reach.

Golem uprising in Rata Sum. In RS npcs discuss what would happen in the golems lost control.

#TeamGnashblade

RoseofGilead.8907:

Yes, the dye system is seriously great (especially since unlocked dyes went account bound).

You have no idea how much of a color freak I am…

I maaaay have spent thousands of gold on dyes…

Probably have all of them…

(don’t judge me)

lol

Leo G.4501:

The races.

I eagerly await to eventually play a kodan or tengu.

Omg, you have no idea how badly I want to make a Quetzal Tengu Warrior.

I don’t think any of us could accurately answer that question unless we were or had worked at A-net ourselves.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Really wish they’d fix WvW.

I hope it isn’t too late…

I don’t believe in “too late”

eleshazar.6902:

Razor.9872:

This is not directly a thread to discuss the legendary weapon issue. Rather, this is a thread to discuss the broader topic of dev-to-player communication.

For quite some time, we the community have been heckling A-net on their inability to communicate their plans and intentions. We often grew frustrated when we saw so little dev comments in the forums. We asked ourselves “do they even care?” or “The heck is A-net doing?!” We spent so long “in the dark” that when an A-net employee would finally arrive to provide us with details, we would lap it up like a thirsty dog. This lead to the community begging for more communication from A-net so as to know their plans and pathway. This is, understandably, a very difficult thing for them to do because of the lucid nature of game development. Take, for example, this ancient image of what the Tequatl fight was originally planned to look like [see attached] shortly before release.

While I wouldn’t say A-net has exactly completely opened up on their ideas yet, I believe they have taken a step in the right direction by announcing their plans for Legendary weapons. Now, whether or not the plans for said weapons are good/bad is up for another discussion. What I want to ask today is:

What is a good way for A-net to continue to improve being open to the community, but not drop expectations, raise false hopes, or cause unrest through controversial in-the-works decisions?

I agree that communication and transparency is a good thing, and out of all of this, I will applaud them for being open with us about this. The problem with why people are so angry, however, is past the communication side. This isn’t similar to changing Teq because this is something that has been promised to us since 2013. It was supposed to be finished by end of 2013, didn’t happen. Heard nothing about it in 2014. In 2015 we were told it would be coming, but behind the pay wall of HoT. Now we are being told it isn’t coming. THAT’S the problem at hand here. You can’t market something as part of a product and then after people pay for it say, “Naw, it’s too much work.” It’s one thing to change a random development thing that was never promised as part of a product, another thing entirely to sell something as part of a product, and then pull it after people pay.

I would like to clarify: I used the Tequatl example to show how drastically things can change within the industry’s production processes.

Donari.5237:

There are always going to be over expectant false hopers full of unrest. Nature of the beast. How can they mitigate that, or pull the rug out from under it?

Hmm. I don’t frequent the ESO forums but when I do I see a ton of dev communication about what’s coming in the next few months, what they’re working on, Q&A threads that then get picked up in their Friday live stream, etc. They aren’t afraid to be human and admit to typos and overwork, they do scrap systems that aren’t working as they want, but they keep on telling the players what they’re working on and whether it’ll be done on time or delayed.

Sure there are negative threads there (maybe more than I notice as I only dip my toes in when looking for updates). Sure there are cries of incompetence or stupidity. And no they don’t reveal everything in its early stages. Yet overall there is a real sense of ongoing hard work coming out of Zenimax and a lot of hard info for players to discuss.

Now, some of that is because they have a PTR so they do release things for testing before they release them live, so it’s less vital for them to keep it under their hat until the last moment. Even so I think Zenimax does an excellent communication job and maybe the parts of what they do that would work for ArenaNet would be worth studying.

Sounds interesting. I’ll have to browse those forums myself. Maybe I can distill advance to A-net in easier-to-define terms.

Celtic Lady.3729:

How about they start by having everything that is included in an expansion actually available upon purchase rather than a year or more down the road? IMO, that would be a really good place to start.

I don’t believe this will ever happen, though.

So, before HoT was announced, would you have been willing to wait an extra year or so for them to finish developing its content?

Or

Would you have rather A-net not included legendary weapons as a selling point?

This is not directly a thread to discuss the legendary weapon issue. Rather, this is a thread to discuss the broader topic of dev-to-player communication.

For quite some time, we the community have been heckling A-net on their inability to communicate their plans and intentions. We often grew frustrated when we saw so little dev comments in the forums. We asked ourselves “do they even care?” or “The heck is A-net doing?!” We spent so long “in the dark” that when an A-net employee would finally arrive to provide us with details, we would lap it up like a thirsty dog. This lead to the community begging for more communication from A-net so as to know their plans and pathway. This is, understandably, a very difficult thing for them to do because of the lucid nature of game development. Take, for example, this ancient image of what the Tequatl fight was originally planned to look like [see attached] shortly before release.

While I wouldn’t say A-net has exactly completely opened up on their ideas yet, I believe they have taken a step in the right direction by announcing their plans for Legendary weapons. Now, whether or not the plans for said weapons are good/bad is up for another discussion. What I want to ask today is:

What is a good way for A-net to continue to improve being open to the community, but not drop expectations, raise false hopes, or cause unrest through controversial in-the-works decisions?