Guild Wars 2

My feedback:

1) Get rid of merciful ambush or make it a major trait — it is a purely PvE trait for deaggro (almost useless in PvP as it’s way too short to confuse or disorient the enemy and any player with a brain will just sit and auto attack the air where the invisible players are)

2) Give us Last Refuge and Instinctual Response back, preferably in place of the new cc/immob reduction traits. These two traits were huge boons to survivability that are sorely missed.

3) Revert Shadow’s Embrace to it’s previous iteration from before the patch.

4) Revert cooldown on Withdraw back to 15 seconds.

5) Consider finally fixing Scorpion Wire so it doesn’t randomly bug out on even ground with half-pulls or ‘obscured’ errors. This actually has nothing to do with the patch, it’s a long standing problem, but since I’m writing my Christmas list here I might as well add it. Even better, why not make it a channeled skill like engi’s magnet. C’mon, throw me a friggin bone here.

Fix these things, and maybe I’ll start playing GW2 again, and I might even consider throwing my money at the gem store again.

YuiRS.8129:

A lack of a response is a response in and of itself.

It’s true. Pretty standard operating procedure for anet — if they don’t want to talk about it, they won’t even acknowledge it. The players be kitten ed. Stupid player peasants. Go play moar PvE and spend munies in the gem store, you plebs.

Yeah, they need to revert a lot of changes, and removing the disastrous changes from SE would be a great start.

Dave.6819:

Anet we need you to give us ALL condis and Gain ini whenever entering stealth (like used to be)!

^this.

Aomine.5012:

Reaven.3958:

So… in other words PvP now suffers because of PvE. That’s fantastic.

Don’t you know burning got this insane overhaul because of PVE too?

Don’t know why Anet REFUSE to separate PVE system from PVP…

In order…
Yes.
No.

ronpierce.2760:

Reaven.3958:

So… in other words PvP now suffers because of PvE. That’s fantastic.

Not really. Some builds now focus on poison damage (or at least has strong ties to it). Generally speaking, having gated damage just felt bad and served no purpose. If you aren’t a heavy poison class and could still maintain 100% uptime just because of duration stacking then good riddance. Poison should be more of an active thing, apply it when you want to prevent healing. Certain classes having near 100% uptime from a sigil and 1 other spell sort of defeated the purpose of the utility anyways.

Overall, was a good change. Now Sigil of Doom just needs its bug fixed.

That was kind of the point… low dps, easy to cleanse, heal reduction coverage. It also served a key function in condi stacking as a shield for shorter stacking damage like bleeds. Bleh. Maybe if they made the poison field duration longer than 2 seconds… idk its pretty bleh.

Lol

yeah its all for those finishers and reward track loots. aint nobody care bout ranks.

So… in other words PvP now suffers because of PvE. That’s fantastic.

So… among the other insanity of the patch, it slipped my attention until now that poison had been changed to stack damage, not duration. I don’t really understand why they made the change here — feels like it was a working system anet went out of it’s way ‘fix’.

Reasons?

You’re coming back at a bad time. The recent updates more-or-less obliterated the viability of thief on any competitive level.

I want last refuge and instinctual response back. DO NOT NEED MERCIFUL AMBUSH ^@*$!

Complete crap. Hate the changes.

Alpha.1308:

did you see the stream where they said the poison was reduced by 1s because “in practice it was just insane” or something like that?

it’s probably because their “in practice” means testing on the golems in spvp lobby
they probably got 35 stacks of poison by spamming it on the stationary golems that don’t attack and thought it was gamebreaking

now by spamming it on the golems you can only get around 20-25 stacks
see? balance

This. Anet at it’s best.

MidoriMarch.8067:

I play d/d thief in wvw.

Now as d/d we are forced to play super burst full zerker build.

now thanks to many unnecessary nerfs, d/d thieves are really hard to play…

i wouldnt complain about practiced tolerence changed to ferocity from vital and -200 armor from the trait bonus remove but that SA trait nerf was really harsh for d/d thieves.

Landing CnD is our only offensive and defensive move as d/d thieves now our cloaked in shadow moved to gm trait no more shadow rejuv + cloaked in shadow together.. and now we cant even remove immobilize blind or cripple.. seriously make me wana quit thief ;(

If it’s any consolation, p/d kinda sucks now, too. Taking a break from GW2 until they figure this out, if ever.

I doubt anet will do anything — they seem to be invested in breaking things that work and ignoring things that don’t. Besides, PvE is king now in GW2, has been for a while, so unless it causes shocks in that community I don’t think they really care. Pretty much done with GW2 until they fix it, if ever. P/D used to be a fun roaming build and grew to be the only thing keeping me coming back to the game. Now I don’t even want to play anymore.

Kinda feel like anet took a system that was working relatively ok, and shot it to hell.

Amonatory.2453:

Honestly, I think this was a terrible change. Sure it helps thieves who could never tell when their steal was on CD, but in all seriousness am I the only one who finds it annoying to have to bind another key after playing the class for so long just so i can use my stolen ability? This is literally the only thing I don’t like about the patch and thieves. Every person that ive talked to has said its an annoyance/nuisance, like id absolutely love for a revert lmao.

I hate having to use another button, but as an avid Hidden Thief user I actually like being able to do a no-target steal for my 3-second stealth without having to clear out my stolen item.

Kadin.2356:

Mug+Hidden Thief combo applies revealed when activated starting from a stealth state

This has always been so. Any skill that inflicts damage while in stealth incurs reveal. It would be great if this were an exception, though.

Yeah, this is really bad. Literally only stealthing every other steal. Completely fatal in many situations.

sadking.9625:

Yes another ranger QQ post.

Why Anet? Why can I not find a decent fight before some no-skill longbow ranger bursts me down from 1500 range on a wall. IT MAKES NO SENSE. There is no movement in their strategy, no thought in their skill usage and no variation in their builds.

It’s a kittening disgrace to a game that used to have fun combat.

This needs to change.

2x dodge is enough to mitigate 90%+ of the rangers core dps cycle. Timing is everything.

If you’re a thief, try running with withdraw. Wait for them to do the first 4k (or so) damage, then use the ability to heal it all back and dodge the rest of their pewpew attack. Ezpz.

Shadow stepping behind cover is also a good idea.

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.

But then you would actually be able to get the achievements, and without OCD compelling you why the hell would you play world vs world anymore?

What a joke. With the lack of repair costs and no other real mechanic to make you ‘fear’ death in the game, the prospect of having to waste time in camp-clearing PvE was the last thing that really kept me feeling some attachment to staying alive in WvW. Now, who cares, let’s blaze420yolo into all the things — death is free!

met.9653:

Well there is no reward in wvw, you just play for fun untill you get bored to death cuz this game mode is stale and with no future.

This is why I’m jumping ship. Getting so bored. Just jumped on the forums to see what kind of hoopla was going on about applied strength/fortitude removal after a friend posted about it on facebook. Moving to Star Citizen — game is in pre-alpha and has more engaging pvp than this. Black Desert is looking pretty good, too.

zzBlurryzz.7492:

You can play a ranger? I’m talking in WvW. Rangers currently are VERY tanky, long range, safe thieves. There is no risk in playing them. They have just as much burst and can easily beat a power build thief in second.

I find myself roaming on my D/D powerbuild thief and often coming across a ranger. Basilisk venom, backstab and nuke down to 20% health or so, only to be pushed away by their longbow and rapid fired to death. 20k damage from one skill that cant miss?

My proposed change is to actually make a change to thieves. Make it so when you stealth, targeted skills on you STOP hitting. Currently if they cast their rapid fire on you and you stealth, every shot of it will still hit you. WHY?!

Please do something, make thieves more useful then sharing venoms.

Lol, rangers are a joke. Especially power rangers. As a thief they’re the ones I pick off first. Predictable, easily evaded pewpew bursts with little follow through and nothing but squish behind it. Only ever a challenge when you run into a zerker pack of them that know how to coordinate bursts to outlast your endurance, at which point it turns into a channeled sniper cheesefest (I’m talking about a group of rangers vs a single thief — assuming equivalent skill level, in equal or close-to-equal numbers rangers lose almost every time against thieves). Especially considering most rangers seem utterly clueless at using their pets. At least the SB condi/condi-trap rangers put up a bit of a fight, though.

Thief > ranger any day of the week.

Oh, and venom share is overrated. Yes, I WENT THERE.

Yeah, this is totally an exploit. Using a transformation tonic to do insane aoe condi burst? Complete and utter shenanigans.

(p.s. this is still being used..)

There is a bug with the pathing on the roof of the Airport in EotM resulting in a ‘No valid path to target." error when one tries to use steal, shadowstep, or infiltrator’s arrow. In a recent attempt to gank a necromancer fear allies off from the roof, in every position around the necromancer, including when stacked directly on top of the target character, I was given the error telling me there was no valid pathing (when there obviously should have been).

Please fix! Very game breaking given this is a commonly traversed area in EotM.

As a side note, a similar bug exists on the north/south section of bridge just west of the Bell in Frostreach territory. Would be great to see this fixed as well.

I could eat clam cakes for the rest of my life and never work again. So cheap!

Yeah, it kind of sucks. I’ve documented it several times in EotM, will probably confirm if the problem is in regular WvW tonight. Not sure which patch it started with, I just noticed it a couple days ago.

If a capture point nearby is flipped while you are in stealth, the flipped NPC will be able to see and attack you despite you being in stealth (as though they still have allied vision of you, despite now being an enemy). Incredibly game breaking for thieves fighting near NPCs of any kind. Please address.

I’ve noticed that when I go underwater I get the same kind of freezing sound I get when in Frostreach Keep in EotM when under the effects of hypothermia… complete with the ice tinkling and snow crunching, as well as the snow-like crystal sparklies all in addition to the normal bubbles and sounds one would expect when under water. I thought perhaps this was just a thing in colder water areas like in the Shiverpeaks, but even temperate and tropical areas like LA and Southsun seem to behave the same way. Does everyone else experience this? Is this working as intended?

Just seemed a bit odd so I thought I’d ask.

Gilosean.3805:

No thanks.

We already have character-bound-hunting with traits. And character bound skills too. I have absolutely no interest in yet another character-bound system that would just mean I have to replay X amount of content to get back to where I started.

This. Having to endlessly regrind old content for each character does not constitute ‘replyability’. If the content is good gameplay and makes you want to do it again for the fun of it….that’s replayability. I think worming these pve masteries like wvw masteries will be great.

I guess nobody finds this to be a thing, then. Too bad.

What troubles me is that this never seems to be a problem for magnet. Maybe its just because its a channeled skill..?

Currently when a commander tags up it shows the color and the name, and that’s it. On my server the common practice has become to tag blue for public zerg, purple for havoc, so on and so forth. However, while my server is heavy into WvW as a tier 1, there are still plenty of people who are either new or casual that don’t know what each color means and get easily confused. It would be great if we could get options for short descriptions to follow a commander’s name when hovered over on the map, and even if the text were to float below the floating commander icon on their character. This would go a long way to alleviate confusion in regular WvW, and towards facilitating multiple tags in EotM without the drama that usually accompanies such an occurance.

The descriptions I would be most interested in seeing would be:
1) Public Group
2) Havoc Team
3) Guild Group
4) Scout

I’m sure there are plenty of additional descriptions that the WvW community would find desirable, and surely PvEers would have input as well. This would hopefully be a small, inexpensive tweak that would greatly improve the quality of game play for new players and help lower the learning curve for WvW participation.

So I’m a bit of a nub on server transfers. A friend of mine got the game and wants to play on JQ with me, but the server is ‘full’. So does one just have to wait for people to transfer out due to a hard cap, or is it a soft cap sort of thing (like in FFXIV and other games where they occasionally turn off transfers for high-volume servers?).

Should he just be checking back each day to see if he can get in? Will there be some kind of alert if it becomes not ‘full’?

Thanks

Astral Projections.7320:

You only need to be on the same server if you want to do WvW together. If you just want to do PvE or PvP, then it can be any server in the same data center (the NA or EU servers).

Yeah, WvW is pretty much why we want to play this game. PvP is great, too, but definitely want to be on the same server for WvW cuz its awesome

Scorpion wire is a really neat skill and a cool concept. Indeed, it can be quite powerful in world v. world when applied correctly… assuming it actually does what it’s supposed to do. It’s even documented on the GW2 Wiki that this skill is bugged, as “In addition to its intended functionality, Scorpion Wire can also simply knock your foe down without pulling, pull you to your foe instead, or a mix of these effects.” I’m a bit dubious on the reverse pull ‘bug’ as I can only recollect that happening when using scorpion wire on a target with stability, so that may be working as intended, but the odd tripping bug is maddening and I’ve found the ability often fails to even connect despite an enemy being in range and not evading (will just go off without a pull but no ‘miss’ alert pops).

Considering scorpion wire takes up a utility slot, it would be wonderful to see it made more reliable, at least. It’s painful to see engineers get an incredible pull like Magnet (that not only works consistently but is even unbloackable AND is a channeled skill, allowing it to yank people through obstructions and stealth) while thieves, who lack any other pull skills (and no knockbacks) are stuck with a pull that has none of these things and doesn’t even work correctly half the time.

Please, please please please Anet, at least take a little time to sit down an reevaluate this skill and it’s functionality for better, more consistent play. The struggle is real.

So, before I go on a QQ rant about how permastealth is OP or some other nonsense, I wanted to put the question out to the thief community to see if there are any thoughts: is permastealth counterable? I’ve been playing relatively hardcore since September, and while I can usually fight a permastealth d/p thief to a draw (or at least get away), I’ve seen the build troll entire parties (and small zergs) in WvW when used by a skilled player. It’s particularly difficult for me given I’m a condition build, since Shadow’s Embrace condi cleanse + constant stealth is ridic, but even in general is there a way to counter this short of simply running over them with a zerg’s worth of CC? Best-guess aoes aren’t really doing the trick. Do I just need to always have stealth disrupters and supply on hand? It seems odd to me I would need to carry around a siege trap to keep up with another build, but I’m kind of at my wit’s end as to what one can do when the enemy is so frequently invisible you can’t even target them.

cyyrix.6105:

Theives will tell you to use your weapon skills/utilities to prevent them from getting into stealth in the first place. Interrupt the stealth procs and burst as much as you can between.

Considering most interrupts (unless ur a build lucky enough to have one on a weapon skill) often have cd’s of 15-30 seconds, while black powder -> heartseeker can be spammed as long as initiative is available (which it always is with these builds that are traited/skilled for initiative regen), this isn’t a very appealing argument. Already attempting to do so as there’s nothing else really available aside from the aoe spam, but yeah… not exactly effective or balanced for the rate at which a thief can stealth.

Geiir.7603:

My best tip? Walk into the black powder and see this poor thief reveal himself as he tries to jump through it again for extended stealth.

This would require standing within a few steps of a thief to actually cover the distance in the split second before the heart seeker, which is difficult if they’re visible and nigh impossible if they are already chaining stealth. Any thief good enough to use d/p effectively either shadow steps or heartseekers away to put distance before shooting off the bp.

Semune.1952:

I came back to the game recently and have been doing a lot of research, apparently every class in the game minus ele and engineer are melee and build completely glass cannon.

You, sir, have been misinformed.

That or you’re strictly talking about PvE, which I neither know nor care about the meta for. As far as PvP and WvW are concerned, there’s a significant diversity in builds depending on what you’re looking for, both in terms of range v. melee and tanky v. dps. ‘Meta’ is often overrated anyway, and so many roflnubs just use copypasta from metabattle that supposed meta builds are often some of the easiest kills.

Semune.1952:

This worries me because it seems like there is very little distinction between the classes aside from buffs.

This could not be farther from the truth. The only case I could think of where this might be true is comparing a gs/ham warrior and gs/ham guardian or something, but even then they’re both fairly distinct. Other than that… no, the experience and play style for each class is quite unique. If you’re finding that’s not the case, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Semune.1952:

Necromancers don’t use pets and don’t attack from ranged

O_o we’re obviously not fighting the same necros. Especially in WvW there’s a lot of necros rolling w/ staff and other relatively long-ranged auto-attack weapons. It’s true that many pets are laughably kitten in any kind of player v. player scenario, but flesh wurm (esp. for point control in sPvP) and flesh golem (some prefer a transformation ult, but it depends on your preference I think) are both quite good.

Semune.1952:

rangers don’t use range

Not true. Especially since the damage buff, pewpew great bow/gs rangers are everywhere. SB condi/trap builds are also fairly common.

Semune.1952:

Guardians and warriors don’t build “bruiser-like” (partially tanky) in order to absorb hits

sPvP bunker guardian is insane in the right hands. Also quite common build for zerg commanders in WvW, albeit medi dps guardian is also fairly prevalent these days. Warriors… are warriors. There’s some diversity, but it’s one of the most faceroll, cookie-cutter classes in the game. Hambow in all the sPvP and nike warriors (gs/ham or gs/sword+something) in WvW. Warriors have such insane regen and enough innate toughness they can usually go almost full zerk and shrug off all the things. That said, if a warrior does decide to go tank, the dps absorb can be pretty impressive, which isn’t a bad thing in WvW.

Semune.1952:

in general classes just wear the same type of gear, completely 100% glass cannon.

You need to look at more builds if that’s your perception.

Semune.1952:

I guess this is the inherent problem with a no-trinity game… but it seems to just make everything feel the same, with the only exception seeming to be mesmer (shatter build) in terms of being “different”.

The irony in this statement is shatter mesmer (imho) is one of the blandest builds in the game. Maybe if it’s condi staff+sword/pistol shatter, that can be interesting for the shear perplexity lulz in WvW, but… eh. You really need to experiment more tho if this is what you’re feeling. If you’re really looking to be a special snowflake, go condi bunker p/d + sb thief with full dire gear and krait or perplexity runes — you stand apart from the endless masses of vanilla d/p backstabbers and it’s a fun build to run.

Semune.1952:

The only thing keeping people from bringing 5 eles to a group is buffs (such as banners)… at least for the most part.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t even true in PvE, and its definitely false in sPvP and WvW.

Semune.1952:

I’m ok with no trinity, it just feels like everyone is doing the same stuff right now.

Addressed this already, but aside from the moronic ‘ALL ZERK PLOX’ dungeon farm speedruns, this simply isn’t true (I mean, you may feel that way, but the fact is that’s not how it is). There will always be builds that are more popular than others because of lower skill requirement or the occasional flavor of the month ‘balance’ update, but especially in WvW you often find yourself running into builds you wouldn’t have expected, sometimes that are terrible but often that turn out to be quite a challenge to fight.

Semune.1952:

I just can’t believe even -ranger- is most effective in melee. I mean, come on.

???? I don’t know if were playing the same game. Maybe you’re forgetting that great bow does more damage the farther you are from your target? If that’s the case and you’ve been fighting with great bow at mid range, I can understand why you’d think that melee is more effective…. but even then I just… can’t… I don’t understand where this is coming from.

Harbinger.8637:

sPvP is about a level playing, giving everyone equal footing. WvW was designed to be inherently unbalance.

Why? I guess it just doesn’t make sense to me why any game mode with players fighting each other would be ok being imbalanced.

Mogar.9216:

Reaven.3958:

I’m curious why we have armor/runes/sigils/etc. that exist in PvE/WvW but not in PvP (stuff like sigil of malice, dire stats, perplexity runes, and so on). I’m guessing the reason is a perception of imbalance? If that’s the case, why do they exist in PvE/WvW? If it’s too imba to put in PvP, why is it allowed at all?

food buffs guard buffs make pve ad wvw not even the same game a pvp.

true, so you’re saying that anet balances based on full guard stacks and ideal food for wvw/pve?

Coulter.2315:

People like being OP in PvE, people want to use their OP stuff from PvE in WvW, people who PvP don’t want that OP stuff here.

This seems like a flawed philosophy.. if nothing else, shouldn’t WvW follow PvP rules then?

I’m curious why we have armor/runes/sigils/etc. that exist in PvE/WvW but not in PvP (stuff like sigil of malice, dire stats, perplexity runes, and so on). I’m guessing the reason is a perception of imbalance? If that’s the case, why do they exist in PvE/WvW? If it’s too imba to put in PvP, why is it allowed at all?

Welp, just thought I’d follow up and say that a) this still happens on an incredibly frequent basis, almost always resulting in death, b) anet hasn’t said anything about it or given the impression they are aware or care about the issue. Furthermore, the related ‘auto-attack triggers randomly in stealth’ issue is also still alive and well.

Please anet, can we at least get a comment. Do you know, do you care? I’d at least like to know if you intend to fix this before I invest any further in this game..

Malcolm Quill, Jade Quarry. It turned out a bit more Assassin’s Creed than I should have liked, but still quite pleased with it. [Whisper’s Secret Hood][Whisper’s Secret Shoulderguards][Mist Walker Coat][Viper’s Armguards][Stalker Pants][Mist Walker Boots][Mathilde’s Revolver][Reaper of Souls][Etched Short Bow][Quiver of a Thousand Arrows] using Abyss, Midnight Fire, and Charred dyes.

A fix on this would be great. Really would just take a change in buffering priority with a simple if-then statement to force Last Refuge (or Instinctual Response) to wait for an ability to finish being used if currently in the animation for it (namely Cloak and Dagger and Heartseeker).

Also, can we plz not trigger auto attack every time we use a skill while in stealth? that would be great.

All condis are cleared LIFO

I just joined IMPS and am loving it. The guild is laid back while not sacrificing in their overall kittenery in WvW, and people seem willing to try anything PvE- or PvP-oriented if you’re willing to be patient and want the company. Small but lots of growth potential and lots of cool people.

10/10 would recommend.

Sorry — I couldn’t help sharing my varied glee and outrage with my buddies in IMPS

Any news on this? Will sneak attack come back? I was a pretty big fan of getting rid of white swords, would be great to see that again!

Baratta.1083:

It is just another win for the bigger servers. The match-up system needs to be fixed. NSP and IOJ have been getting rolled by the blob servers we have been getting for months. When you loose week after week by over 300k it become old real fast.

This is why I transferred to T1.

Yeah, kind of meh on what meta you use at the moment as that’s fleeting (especially with the xpac coming… soon?), but if you want a tight-knit veteran WvW community on T1, check out Impact Players [IMPS] on Jade Quarry. I make no guarantees about transfer help, but if you join and get to know people through TS and the occasional PvE romp while you save your money, it’s not unlikely people will want to help you. Anyway, check it out if it sounds up your alley.

http://theimpactplayers.enjin.com/home