Guild Wars 2

The NPCs all share the same AI. There’s no AI difference between Rytlock, Rox, or Magg (CoF) aside from the skills that they use. For story mode dungeons we do beef up the NPCs a bit with their skills since it is supposed to be an easier experience meant to tell a story while providing at least a non trivial encounter for a group of 5 players in a PuG. We are always working on our AI to make them better though.

Easier content appeals to a wider audience. When we released GW2, we got similar feedback about our story dungeons that the MF dungeon is getting now. Nearly everyone could do them, it was easy for a PuG, and people really enjoyed them.

Of course when they stepped into explorable that was a different experience, since we built our explorable dungeons to directly challenge a coordinated 5 man group. Harder content has a less broad appeal initially due to its requirement of player knowledge, skills, gear, etc etc, it is just fundamentally harder and more work. Some people like that, some people don’t, and in MMOs players tend to follow “The path of least resistance” so encouraging them to play the more difficult content has to be matched with higher rewards.

There are always lessons to be learned though. Dungeons are by no means perfect, and getting to see what other teams build always strengthens your design in the end. MF has a great end boss and an interesting army, and lessons can be learned from some of the different things they did. I’d love an explorable version of their dungeon as well

It’s a good story mode dungeon. I’ve pugged it once and played with guildies, and I had a good time of it. I’m glad to hear the MF dungeon is getting some love – the folks who worked on it put a lot of effort into it, and there’s some really neat stuff in there for players to enjoy

I don’t play Ele, but just from watching you seem like a pro of it. Your dodge rolls, attunement swapping, and utility usage all seemed very legit and well done. Great job!

stickying this thread since you guys beat me to it.

In the case that AC was made harder, that’s a matter of opinion. Having personally reduced numbers like HP and damage, and modifying the skills used to not do more devastating things, I know for certain that it is numerically easier than it was before, and more forgiving to mistakes.
However we increased team based difficulty. We designed things to require players to coordinate and work together more than before, since that is our original goal: To create challenging content build for 5 coordinated players. This is why we’re not allowing it to scale like the rest of the game does. It’s set and built for 5, so it doesn’t need scaling.

I’m not aware of any plans to have a public test server.

We do have an Alpha program where players are invited to test things before they go live.

Fiontar.4695:

I hope the other things you’ve been working on aren’t more “fun” improvements to dungeons and world PvE mobs. So far, you’ve proven the existence of “anti-fun” as a real property and your pursuit of it has been disconcerting! (It’s probably not a good sign to have some fans breath a sigh of relief to learn that the new dungeon was not created by the Dungeon Team…) ;P

What someone defines as fun is often different from what another person calls fun. I’m sorry our dungeon work has not appealed to you and others, but there is an audience for what we do. My hope is that in the future, we can build something that appeals to you and other folks currently not on board with our dungeon content, while still staying true to the people who have enjoyed our content thus far. Bridging that gap is not an easy process, but I am confident that such things are not impossible feats

This was not built by the dungeon team, but instead by the living world team. William and I are currently working on other content in the game, which is why there weren’t any significant changes to the core dungeons this last patch.
We’ve been playing and giving feedback on the new dungeon though. It’s a different flavor from our normal dungeons, but still tasty they are trying some interesting things we will be keeping an eye on.

I never said ranger was better at insert thing here than class insert class here, which people here seem to be under the impression of. I’ve never claimed that ranger was top tier, and have repeatedly been saying rangers need help here on the forum, so I don’t seem to understand where people are getting the impression that I think Ranger is fine.
I also openly admit I’m not the best PvP guy, or WvW guy… but I do tend to hold my own when I go in and play in those areas, and I don’t feel like I’m sankittenging my team by being a ranger. Maybe I just don’t operate at the levels/tiers you all do, but I certainly try in the levels/tiers I am in, and I tend to have moderate success.

I’ll try to get better in those areas and advance before I go speaking about rangers in the future.

Ranger toolbox isn’t just utilities, folks, it’s your 1-5. And between LR and QZ, there’s a TON of utility power in just those two alone, leaving a third open for whatever you feel you may need in the fight and to better define your play style. Shortbow is full of utility and also does really good sustained DPS, so I stand by my statement of rangers having an expansive tool box.
As for Ranger DPS not matching thief burst… yeah, that’s pretty obvious – I don’t think I’m rocking some boat by saying that. I accept that trade-off of lacking burst potential for having a better toolbox of things I can do to survive while outputting consistent DPS. I can see the longbow as maybe being a bit spiky, but nowhere near what a D/D can do. Maybe a trap ranger can get a bit bursty if they hit all 3 traps at once on a glass cannon, but Ranger to me isn’t a burst class – it’s a sustain and survive class.

You can’t really avoid a ranger’s sustained damage, but you can mitigate nearly all of a thief’s burst with really fast reaction and smart play.

@Misterdevious
I once got my jaguar to hit a warrior using a rifle for a super awesome crit around 12k on a single attack when all roided up from signet and shout, and getting a lucky crit. There’s potential, but it involves luck I can’t depend on, whereas a D/D thief can depend on his skill.

Also, despite my best efforts, I could not write a post that didn’t come across as defensive lol. I’m still a ranger through and through
I’m more upset that nobody said anything whatsoever about my “swooping” into the thread… I thought that was golden.

Bailey.6892:

Honestly I don’t understand why it cant be done in one patch. Plenty of time to get it done, the issue has been their since release so plenty of time to have known about it. If things go wrong and it makes an aspect op hot fix it. Really no reason that it should take more than one patch.

And when can we expect this patch and the details?

Mainly because there are other classes who also need balance, and these things need to be planned, built, tested, and analyzed. It’s not just a large workload, but also in a step-by-step process that has game-wide consequences that must be considered during all phases of development. Mix that with all the other classes and their changes, and it’s a pretty big task that has to be ready for the next patch.

Edit:
I’ve gotten in some trouble before about giving hints and releasing info early… so I’m going to leave that up to the people in charge if they want to do those things :x

Semil.8279:

Now Robert is going to quit ANet and change his name, maybe move to Bangladesh or Mongolia.

Being that my namesake is Czech, I think I’d give them a shot first

While I wish we could make pets super awesome ASAP, this patch will be a good step in the right direction. Will it solve all the problems? No, but it’s going to put rangers and their pets in a much better place.
I realize you all may have heard this song and dance before, and it’s okay to be doubtful about the upcoming patch – folks have been burned before, and its just going to take experiencing the changes and playing them to soften that. As a ranger player I am excited about the changes, and I hope once you all get a chance to play what the balance team has worked on, you’ll be happier too

Volrath.1473:

let me brake it down for you (and i do not play BS spec)

Basilisk Venom (Elite Skill) > Assassin’s Signet > Cloak and Dagger > Steal > move behind the target > Backstab

By now if you cant avoid a backstab on a 1v1 you are doing it wrong man.
When I’m caught off guard and unprepared is one thing but if I see him coming, no way he will be able to backstab me even once during the fight.

Pretty much this. There’s a lot of play in that build/combo, and so long as you keep your wits about you, you should be okay. There’s also some really interesting feints that can happen withb that build, where at the moment of cloaking, if you let them blow their invulns and dodge rolls early, you can take advantage of it. Everyone expects the damage to come ASAP, but if you delay it even a couple seconds players will blow their skills by over-reacting to it.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

So why is this not ok but thief burst is?

Because there is play in thief burst. There is play there, and that spike isn’t a single attack that’s 150% your max HP in damage. Thieves need to execute a series of skills in a row, in which at any time the victim has the potential to mitigate or have some sort of play to save themselves or stop the thief. You just don’t see that with the 100nades stuff, or its a window so narrow that we as devs weren’t happy with the play from both sides of the equation as attacker/defender.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Robert Hrouda.1327:

I consider things like “hundred nades bug” to be OP, where a single attack dos 26k damage in an AOE.

/sigh that photoshopped picture keeps on making the rounds doesn’t it?

There was actually a super awesome video of it in WvW, where I watched a single engi take out a group of guardians and warriors by jumping into the middle of them, lol. I looked for the video, but this is all I could find. I feel it’s good enough to represent it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXAliTpRwk

Hey folks, I figured I would swoop in and drop a reply.

I remember playing my ranger in PvP and getting “2-spammed” by a D/D thief and dying in about 3-5 seconds. I had no idea how to stop them, and they seemed intent on finding my heart. I couldn’t even hit the bugger since he blinded me and pulled a stun off. I remember thinking to myself “Man, my ranger couldn’t do 19k damage in five seconds. Thief OP!” Until I actually went and made such a thief out of spite. I’ll admit right now I am not much a thief player… Only about level 30 in PvE, and about 10 games played as thief in SPvP – but in those few games I would just dominate people. Load up the +% damage traits, stealth, and then it’s just a matter of a few button presses. But in playing that thief, I learned how to counter that thief. Bring a stun breaker, a condi removal, some CC, and know how/when to dodge roll. It doesn’t work all the time, especially if my stunbreaker is on CD from a previous fight (Pistol Whip is rough!), but if a thief gets the jump on me I have about 2 seconds to react, and then I make the thief pay.
I consider things like “hundred nades bug” to be OP, where a single attack dos 26k damage in an AOE. Sacrificing so much versatility/defense to be a glass cannon spiker is not OP, it’s a build. That build is just really really good at spiking, and it overpowers almost any other build the thief can bring to deal damage. There are a few builds you don’t see often with thieves that are pretty good, because players weigh efficiency in murdering something quickly to be greater than surviving a drawn out encounter, so they’ll bring the most efficient build to accomplish that… which in my experience has been the D/D heart seeker. There’s some neat shadow-step steal/pistolwhip/quickness/unload type builds out there, but that D/D thief overpowers and obscures the potential for other builds to rise up. In my eyes they could use some more versatility… I know that when I play my ranger I can many different things at once – I have a large tool box of sometimes very useful tools, and that makes me harder to bring down since I am not so easily countered.

Well this is longer than I was thinking it would be, and now I have subjected the thief forum to my punctuation, so I better stop. Also I’ll admit to being little on edge in this forum… I’m a ranger in the middle of a thieves den!

VitalSuit.1980:

Thieves as well? I hope this is only for pve and not pvp because thieves are the last thing that needs a buff.

Most thieves don’t make it out of the lower tiers because you can mitigate them very easily. As a ranger I shut thieves down all the time who don’t use venoms, especially if you have something like healing spring and Lightning reflexes. One fixes stun, one fixes immob/cripple, and then it’s just dodge rolls at the right moment and CC to shut them down. Also bring wolf for f2 and stay nearby when thieves start doing their stealthy bit, and then be ready to watch them flee in terror.
That of course means their build options are highly limited, and when that happens people can hard counter you more easily.

The changes for rangers coming in this next patch are a step in the right direction for them. I am not part of that team so I won’t be announcing any of the changes unless told otherwise.

Kojiden.8405:

Robert Hrouda.1327:

my main is a female charr
https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/51926/Kodin_1.PNG

I didn’t know you employ hyenas at Arenanet!

Sir Chompers is an invaluable asset to the Dev team – he keeps the office kitchen floors clean by scavenging things that get dropped, and chases off those pesky zebra who try to snack on our cereal bins.

Hey folks, this should be a talk about spirits and boons, not about Anet communication. If you feel strongly about it, please start a new thread concerning it. Otherwise please stay on topic. I’ll have a forum mod come in here and try to clean this place up a bit – maybe start a new thread or something where the discussion can be moved there.

Rising Dusk.2408:

When you can’t solve a problem, work around it! Simply have her script periodically have her move toward the WP and initiate the trap placing sequence if a player is in range of it. That way, if it fails the first time, it will initiate again in a few seconds after.

I reduced the occurrences of it happening by this very technique. She has a special script segment that activates and does something similar to what you described, and the occurrences lowered as a result… but… sometimes it still happens, lol.

I wouldn’t call it laziness, but I certainly wish we could figure this one out. Truth be told I’ve spent days trying to dissect her script and fix this very problem, but there’s not a 100% repro for it, even with the ooze mobs being completely removed or killed it still happens from time to time.

I’ll get it one day though!

haviz.1340:

But this is a bit offtopic called "I wonder what’s going to solo him next”.

Yes, let’s all stay focused on congratulating. I have a way of derailing topics like nobody else

congrats again!

Hey, cool list. I’ll be sure to put this in front of the balance team so they can take a look at it!

Sure revamping some bosses would be neat.

…but whats this about removing the boulders trap?

Zogyark.4597:

now your turn to solo it with your ranger ;p

Stuck on phase 3, having a really hard time escaping the bubble when it gets me. I’ll get there soon though!

Great job – When you got trapped in that bubble near the end, I thought he may have had you – good on you for keeping your cool and showing well rounded player skills. You did great dodging and positioning, and your use of death shroud was (to me) very well done.
I don’t play a necro so I can’t say for certain if anything seemed broken, but to me it looked legit, and it was a fine exhibition of skill. Fantastic!

This is a great thread! Glad to see the discussions being had.

I’m noticing a lot of people wondering and estimating the size of attacks, durations, and things like that… I will talk with our balance team to see how they feel about adding more detailed skill facts to the spirits.
We’re aware that spirits need more than just skill facts – we’re working on resolving that as well.

my main is a female charr
https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/51926/Kodin_1.PNG

Ursan is essentially correct. Players will always want their class to be stronger – but devs have to temper that with overall balance on many different levels. Sometimes a simple number fix will suffice, but sometimes there is more to it.

We see the problems and read the threads. We all play the game and experience it like you all do. Prioritizing what gets fixed, when, and how isn’t a simple task, but we are making headway.

I’m still here and lurking about (as is the balance team), gathering information to bring to meetings. For the first couple days after a patch, people are still figuring things out and getting used to changes. We didn’t kill rangers (I was doing some PvP last night, and have done a couple dungeon runs). It’s just that there’s a predictable reaction to when we change something, that we have killed classes and destroyed builds, and there’s nothing I can say or do to help in those situations. Sometimes you have to sit back and let the community sort themselves out… people depend on something (quickness) and then when that gets changed, there’s an initial period of confusion, but its always followed by “look what I can do” because people are being forced to try new things, and they do a bit of experimenting they may have not have done before.
Sure things need more attention. LB, pets, spirits.. they all need some love on our part, and they will get it. I may not be the best PvP’r out there, but I was first/second place on my team in the three games I played as a ranger (deer rank!), and I was still effective against other classes. the new quickness speed will take some getting used to, but it by no means destroyed rangers.

But me going into every thread about someone claiming bad things and giving expressions isn’t going to help (there are also a lot of those threads that I just wouldn’t be able to keep track of due to time constraints). So I sit back, watch, take notes for meetings, and try to find a good time to post to help guide the conversation.

While it isn’t mentioned in the Ranger info area specifically, we also added owner Agony Resistance to pets.

Patch info here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-March-26-2013/first#post1700276

Discuss!

Pretty cool writeup. I’ll have to give this a shot. I’ve made a similar pet focused build with a few variations from what you’ve described, but this sounds like it should be pretty fun.

Riss.1536:

I’m just sad that currently AC isn’t part of my guildies activities anymore, now they prefer just doing the world bosses, no risks decent rewards. If your goal was to make the dungeons deserted, then ignore my post.

Well, it wasn’t me who made the loot changes or make the decisions concerning loot, so it’s certainly not my intention to see dungeons deserted in such a way. We are aware of the reward discrepancy between dungeon and open world boss loots, and we’re trying to resolve things. As you may have noticed though, the new open world chests caused a problem with our economy that we are trying to fix, so bringing dungeon chests up to that level would only further hurt the economy.
We are looking into that issue though.

neverborne.4736:

Large scale WvW… It really doesn’t matter. I have to eye roll a little bit when you say proper pet management is the key. Yeah you might get lucky and send your pet in at just the right moment to get a reef drakes skill off once. If you’re even luckier it might be facing towards some enemies at that moment, but it will die right after and you will be left at 60% effectiveness and a long cool down before you can swap him out.

Large scale WvW our pet’s are utter fail. No amount of lipstick is going to make this pig look good.

Haha, well in my experience when the zerg clashes it only lasts about 10-15 seconds before a clear victor is found and you’re either running for your life at that point or stepping over the bodies of your enemy. I tend to use ranged weapons in WvW so I hold my pet for the first 5 seconds of the Zerg clash, which gives the AOEs a moment to end and be in CD.
However I don’t even know of any player classes (even guardian) that can handle the zerg for more than a few seconds on the front line, so I don’t really fault pets too hard for dying in the zerg clash.

EDIT: Removing commas… Man I have a weird thing with using commas inappropriately.

but…. but I would never whip Cuddles the Black Widow, or Sir Chompers the Hyena… or even Citizen Snips the Devourer.

These are just my personal choices for what to bring. I’m eager to see what you all bring, and why you do it.

EDIT:
Totally forgot about my underwater pets! In general I swim with the shark, and my rainbow jellyfish.

Hey folks,

Ever since popping onto the forums here, I’ve gotten a lot of PM’s about what pets I use, and when\where I use them. By no means I am going to claim any of these are the best choices, so I’m also making this thread to see what you all bring and where you bring them. I’ll set up a template that you can choose to follow or ignore also please feel free to add to the list of places you feel pet selection is key.

Open World
Running around Solo: I love my Hyena and Jungle spider (Black widow) combo. The Hyena is my main due almost purely to its ability to summon a buddy for a bit and CC. Even though it does less damage than other wolves, you get 2 cripples, and up to 4 seconds of knockdown between the both of them. That should give me all the time I need to handle whatever is trying to eat my face. I take the Jungle spider for a similar reason: Stuns and immob. Plus I own a tarantula and have always liked spiders. Plus I earned that black widow, so I’m gonna flaunt it.
In the zerg: Ranged pets only. Spiders or devourers. No sense in letting your pet run into the cluster and get lost – keep them at your side spitting and throwing barbs, and you’ll be fine. No hassle, no drop in DPS, just smooth sailing. Note: If you go melee ikittenerg, dodge roll back first, then swap to a ranged pet, then run back into melee. This means your ranged pet will stand to the side and shoot instead of being right next to you and shooting. This rule applies in almost every situation for melee rangers swapping to a ranged pet.

WvWvW
Solo (hunting runners/supply lines): The most dangerous game! Hyenas are great due to their CC, and Jungle Stalker/Jaguar can bring the pain. I’m looking to either disable and kill quickly in these situations.
In the zerg: Managing your pet is the most important thing here. Know when to make them heel, and know when to send them into battle. I like tanky pets here, and nothing hurts more people when the zerg finally clashes than a Reef Drake’s confusion or a River Drake’s bouncing lightning breath. They can take a few hits, but knowing when to have them use a skill and when to retreat is just as important as knowing when you yourself need to retreat. Of course a wolf howl is great in this situation too, but I feel like the wolf dies too fast when the heat gets turned on.
Defending a door: Similar rules apply to this as does the zerg. Keep your pet at your side, and if you feel the need to jump off a tower to dive into the fray, swap your pet the moment you land on the ground to have it at your side and actually in the fight. Your pet can’t jump off walls with you, so swapping it when you’re off the wall means your companion will be there to do what help it can.

PvP
I find PvP moves a bit too fast to find pets for certain situations, because it is really hard to plan for an encounter and be right. I have a few favorites I tend to bring, but really this is also build dependent. I tend to bring one tanky pet, and one utility pet to PvP, with the utility pet fitting a niche.
Tanky: Brown Bear is a great choice, especially with empathic bond and the shout “Protect me”
Utility: Raven is fun: blind, vuln, and swiftness.
Utility:Wolf: Terrifying Howl – because it can save your life. I’ll stress the word can.
Utility: Reef Drake: People often ask me why I bring this into matches, and I feel it’s a good tanky pet with a confusion, and a blowout. I don’t often use him, but when I’m facing a bunch of thieves, this guy can really be helpful, even with “Protect me” for when you’re getting heart-spammed

Dungeons
It’s hard to say what I bring the most here, because that’s not really up to me. Look at your group and make a judgement call. Try to find something that works with your team composition. Be mindful of pets that have finishers, and pets that create AOE fields.
At a boss: Generally 2x Devourers. Since bosses hit like a truck, tanky pets who stand in front of a boss aren’t always favorable. I bring a pet I know won’t run into the fray and get randomly killed. Devourers are tough enough to take a hit, so I prefer them over spiders. However if you are confident that your team comp can handle the aggro while you can manage evasion and your pet, then I would recommend 1 spider and 1 devourer. If the boss has a healing mechanic, I like to bring forest spider and Whiptail Devourer. Otherwise I’ll bring along a Lakittenail Devourer and Jungle Spider (Black Widow).
In general: Find what your team needs and do that. Sometimes a Fern Wolf Howl in combination with a well placed healing spring provides up-front glass cannon DPS with all the healing they can handle. Jungle Stalker’s Mighty roar is a great booster. Blue Moas provide both protection and healing so you really can’t go wrong there, and Red Moas give consistent and good fury along with healing.

I tend to use devourers frequently due to their better defenses and the retreat skill specifically. Sometimes they use it oddly, but more often than not they use it only when an enemy has closed distance and is hitting them, in which case they retreat and I am happier because of it since they can drop aggro and manage themselves a bit more.

please keep this thread focused on the topic, not about fractals.

Great job, and with no food buffs either! Next up: Lupicus…. although you may need to get a few levels first.
Just some really good Engi play. Way to kit swap and utilize movement!

Thanks for the feedback, Strifey, but let’s try to keep this thread on topic. We’re well aware of people’s feelings towards the Maw chest and RNG with it, and we are monitoring it closely.

that sounds pretty neat.

There’s a joke somewhere in there about Hunger Games and camouflaging as a rock, but its too early in the morning to try that hard…

FrouFrou.4958:

Robert has left the ranger forums.

Nope, still loitering. I split my time between this and the dungeon forum. I am watching the feedback in this thread though

Mondays and Tuesdays are just busier days for me due to more meetings, and I get reclusive on weekends.

interview and all that sort of stuff has to go through our community team. There’s no way I can personally commit to any of that stuff since it’s a public relations thing.

I try to browse as many threads as I can, and certainly bigger ones more quickly grab my attention, but I’m not a forum mod or something like that – I’m a developer dev – I spend my day building stuff, so I can’t post in every thread or even as many as I’m sure you all would like me to. I do what I can, and I’m sorry it isn’t more.

As for FoTM, there isn’t much I can say about it. Yes we have plans to keep doing stuff for it like new fractals, and more agony resistance will be released in time… aside from that there’s really not much to say. FoTM is in a good place, and ever since we resolved the reconnect issues with it, there hasn’t been many complaints aside from that players can’t get to high scales as easily anymore, which is something we intended in the first place but that players found exploits around.

OPs question is about bots running CM and killing the golem. We’ll investigate to see if something is going on, but for the sake of this thread becoming about reading the OP’s statement, I’m just going to lock it and hope everyone has a nice day.