Guild Wars 2

Okay, map has two problems IMO. I’ll go over the features of the map first, then suggest changes.

1. Instagib fall platforms. There are a few sets of them.

1. The ones around the Skyhammer.
2. The ones around A and C.
3. The ones in the ‘underways’.
4. The ones underneath B.

2. The Skyhammer. There are two comparisons to make here; the Trebuchet on Khylo and the Cannon on Capricorn. The Skyhammer is just plain more powerful than both of them.

1. Comparing it to the Trebuchet. The Trebuchet has a few points that make it a more interesting feature of the map.
a. It uses siege controls. You need to turn it around and you have to charge its fire. This gives it a higher skill cap; you not only need to know where to shoot but you also need to charge properly and aim properly. There is an element of execution to the operation of the trebuchet that does not exist with the Skyhammer.
b. It uses a projectile. This gives it two things; variable travel time, and interaction with projectiles.
c. It can be dodged/blocked/etc. Pretty straightforward.
2. Capricorn cannon:
1. Targets in the same way as the skyhammer.
2. Projectile. Most notably, bad shots will be blocked by features of the map. You cannot hit everything. This (should) fill roughly the same role as the underways and the hideout at B. It also means that you can destroy and reflect the cannon shots with certain skills.
3. Requires ammo. This is the biggy; if you’re using the cannon, you can only use it for so many shots before you need to pull off.
4. You can’t threaten every point.

It’s more valid to compare the Skyhammer to the Capricorn Cannon, IMO, because of how targeting works as well as the distance from the Hammer/Cannon to the points.

Thus;

1. Bring Skyhammer more in line with other maps’ weapons.
2. Reduce lethality of platforms around Skyhammer and A+B.
3. Make the underway a more relevant feature of the map.

1a. Make the Skyhammer interact normally with blocks/dodges/etc. There is no reason a more effective trebuchet should be even more effective.
b. Reduce the size. Skyhammer AOE is larger than all the other map weapons.

2a. The set of platforms around the Skyhammer should have catchers underneath them to catch people who fall into them. Have them provide an easy path to A and C, depending on which side the player falls on, and a moderate path back to the central pit. Maybe lower the skyhammer platform to accomodate this.
b. The platforms at A and C should also have a catcher, which leads them to the underway entrance near the alternate spawn gate.
c+d. The platforms in the underway and underneath B should not be changed. This is what the underway is for; it’s a choice between fatal platform falls and the Skyhammer.

3a. Close the vertical entrances into the underway- the holes directly above the platforms in them. This makes them a safe haven from the Skyhammer.
b. The underway goes all the way around to point B from each side. You can go from the tunnel entrances near A and C without going above ground.

3 isn’t necessary. I think 1 and 2 are. Full-on ringouts from A+C are fine as they’re more difficult to achieve than platform kills. Ringouts from the Skyhammer are kinda eh, but putting catchers with paths out there will reduce the risk.

Maybe when necros can reliably cycle through their entire life force bar several times in a single fight this will be a reasonable comparison.

Roe.3679:

This is fun. Maybe next time we could make engineers and elementalists into the same class on next week’s episode of coffee at the QQ cafe.

I don’t believe there’s a significant problem with the trait, and the upcoming adrenaline changes should go a long way to punish poor hammer play.

It’s a shame you can’t choose what to do here. Should’ve been all like “I can’t see any difference between you and the Inquest” and go ahead and splatter them on the walls.

This track actually looks pretty dang meaty. Good stuff, Anet!

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

since warrior’s adrenaline will be unjustly nerfed soon, is only fair to buff other things.

to be honest, the “buff” to rampage is not enough.

more buffs are required.

Justice is a point of view, Anakin!

Harper.4173:

This isn’t really proper reasoning considering its status as ’ the only elite that anyone ever uses" is not because it’s that overwhelmingly good but because it’s the only one that’s not situational – the other two alternatives are very situational and no matter how much they’re buffed they’re still skills you’re only going to want in a handful of limited situations.

Well, that’s not true. If they buffed Rampage to instantly down anyone it touches, you’d definitely start using it. Conversely, if they made Signet of Rage do literally nothing, you’d start using the other two.

Maybe a little. Not a lot, but a little.

It seems like the problem is mostly based in how much it benefits from boons.

This is a ‘shave’ change, and it’s more or less directed at Sig of Rage being the only elite than anyone ever uses.

Darkobra.6439:

My prediction is your disappointment.

A wonderful birthday gift, to be sure.

I’m not gonna get my hopes up, but a second feature pack announcement would be pretty cool.

@timegating being casual or hardcore;
Casuals can’t log in every day and they don’t necessarily care to. Saying “okay i’m going to log in every day for 3 months to make silk weaving thread and this means i will be able to sell off 90 bolts of damask and make a zillion gold”; does that sound like a hardcore or a casual thing to do?
A casual goes “you know what, i feel like doing some pvp/pve/wvw/rp on gw2! i am going to do that”. They don’t have structured plans, they just get in and they do stuff.

I have to play devil’s advocate and agree with Hugh here. If you’re reading this, you’re better informed than 95% of the playerbase- it’s not reasonable to make changes as though we’re 100% of the playerbase.

I have no problems with warrior mobility at the moment. If they’re running away then the point is yours!

More seriously, greatsword is a pretty big opportunity cost.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I understand that different classes require different balancing standards, but it does seem odd that you just get to keep that LF forever until you die/leave the area.

You keep your LF when you die.

BrunoBRS.5178:

(you won’t run HP gear as a thief and you know it)

i do what i want mang
yolo queue for lyf

More seriously, Shaman’s is a functional alternative to Dire gear. I don’t think people will go full HP but they might consider it for a condi-oriented build (is condi/vit/healpower a spread?), because yeah it’s basically Dire except you give up the toughness for the healing power. It seems to be decent in WvW so it might have a place in sPvP; a very awkward, weird place which doesn’t fit any of the standing thief metas, but a place.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Spiteful Marks needs a total overhaul. As long as it’s % damage bonus to marks, it will never be good because the damage on all of them (but Putrid Mark) is so low.

Either that or it’s marks that need an overhaul.

Let’s go to make pretend land; what if we had a weapon with Mark skills which all had very solid direct damage? Then it’s an interesting option.

Coming out of make pretend land, merging it with Soul Marks would be cool.

Reduce the initiative cost of Unload by 1.

With an appropriate initiative-slaved build, (current) Unload spam would be initiative neutral. New Unload spam would not be initiative neutral, but it wouldn’t matter because it’d wreck face for long enough to matter.

I think you’re understating how powerful Leeching Venoms is, especially if it’s drawing healing power from the thief.

I’m actually not sure whether Leeching Venoms runs off the thief’s Healing Power or the target’s Healing Power; the wiki and the skill bar (at least, dulfy’s writeup) have conflicting information.

BrunoBRS.5178:

longbow has a long range soft CC AoE. longbow has an insanely strong knockback. longbow has stealth.

longbow has plenty of defenses.

We should be comparing it to their other weapons rather than making absolute statements. Does longbow have a good number of defenses compared to:
Shortbow?
Greatsword?
Sword/x?
Axe/x? (this one is the turkey)

Personally I’m inclined to say no but I haven’t done the legwork.

BrunoBRS.5178:

longbow also hits fairly harder than P/P, because longbow is purely a power weapon, whereas P/P is a condi mainhand with a utility offhand and a power dual attack.

Offhand’s purpose is irrelevant considering initiative is a thing. The main ‘hole’ in P/P is the 1’s split between condi and power, which is a real thing, but if you’re forced to use the 1 then you’re using the weapon wrong and/or you can switch to a sword and autoswing for a while while you get Initiative back.

Rangers do spend more to bring their longbow up to its peak. An LB ranger will be spending, what, 10 trait points to get all their LB goodies, including two masters and a grandmaster. A thief will be spending 6, for an adept and a master. With that in mind I don’t think it’s unfair that

BrunoBRS.5178:

honestly, 150 range will not improve P/P nearly enough to be viable. is it a nice change? sure, we finally get over 900 range again, but it’s such a small improvement it might as well not be there.

Let’s get hypothetical;
Would 1200 range PP be viable?
Would 1500 range PP be viable?

BrunoBRS.5178:

• ricochet: it… still is kind of a lame trait to bring. added range adds nothing to pistol, which is mainly a skirmishing weapon that benefits from staying within 600 range. the odd bounce happening more often doesn’t make up for thief’s severe lack of AoE damage, condition or power-based. i’d honestly prefer if pistol shots instead had a chance of being AoE on target (think staff ele fireball). give it an average radius (150? 200?), keep the chance aspect (but keep it high enough that it’s reliable), and then call it explosive shots or whatever.

I disagree.

PP is hugely dependent on positioning. Your comparison to Longbow changes earlier is an apt one, because the two weapons can play very similarly; exploit the terrain to give yourself an unfair advantage while putting a lot of damage down-range before the enemy can close that advantage. You have no defenses in the weapon (you don’t have any dodges or blocks, just like longbow), so you need to make up that deficit with the environment. Adding 150 to the range of your bullet hoses is a big deal.

You could make a case that Ricochet’s placement in the tree is kind of odd because it competes with Bountiful Theft but Steal is an odd thing for PP anyway so

I think venom builds, particularly venomshare, are going to be very very solid next build, and I really think it’s a good idea to wait and see how this set of balances pan out before making any changes.

There is one exception, though, and that’s Ice Drake Venom- It’s just kinda crap. It might need something to bring it up to par.

i will destroy you, page bug! face my wrath!

BurrTheKing.8571:

I don’t know what needs to be done, but I do think that it does seem a bit unfair that Necros suffer no decay whatsoever.

I don’t think comparing a necro at 0 LF and a warrior at 0 adrenaline is a fair comparison. In particular, that warrior could have naturally ended that fight at 0 adrenaline, because he’s already cycled out several F1s. The necro could have been exceedingly frugal with their LF, because they’re thinking “i need to save my LF so i have a chance in the next fight, when more than one person tries to attack me”.

The skills are fundamentally different, how the resources work are fundamentally different, what you do to generate the resources is fundamentally different… And while there might be some merit to making Life Force decay (more than it already does), I think it would both require a lot of balancing to make work, and require a potentially unhealthy amount of homogenization.

It got mentioned before:
I would actually be a-okay with a Trahearne mini.

But only if it talks.

Moving on.

BurrTheKing.8571:

It just dawned on me that it might be interesting running Runes of the Warrior with Brawler’s Recovery if it doesn’t have an ICD. The other rune bonuses are kinda “eh” but I could see a GS/Rifle build using mostly offensive traits being able to put out damage while having enough sustain between Zerker Stance and Brawler’s Recovery to stave off conditions and kill them before they kill you. It’ll also make GS’s normally crappy AA kind of useful for keeping the bonus damage on the new Rifle AA up.

I’m thinking something like this.

You have both CD reductions so constantly swapping is good for both keeping up pressure and for condi removal. It might be better to just have Hoelbrak but that being said with the other rune buffs you’ll hit hard (Swapping with Sigil of Intel on Rifle + Volly and the situational KS) and have a large health pool. Now, the build would be REALLY good if they buffed Mending because THEN you could take Restorative Strength with it and basically have a full cleanse. It would reduce reliance on Longbow.

Looking forward to potentially not being so dependent on putting at least 4 into defense on every build. I could even see messing with Skullcracker and trying something like"this":http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAR5ejMdU2ZVImhwJaAmgCZHkCHjgAQdV85DPA-TpBCwAAOIAP3fQzFAgyDAQwRAIcZAA (although I’ll probably drop Cull for Reflect) since Pulverize might actually consistently connect now and Weakness is a strong condition.

Hopefully this patch will make the class have a higher skill ceiling in addition to more variety.

I was thinking of doing the same thing with a couple of axe sets.

Something I wonder about; think there’ll be changes to Well of Darkness and Blinding Plague?

Why not just add it to the gem store. Paying 100g for a look is better than paying 500g.

fellyn.5083:

No other class has such harsh penalties attached to the use of their class mechanic.

“Penalties” implies that you suffer beyond the basic interaction between adrenaline and your finisher skills. Which you’re not. You spend adrenaline, you use a move. Straightforward transaction. Enemy dodges it… Why would you expect a refund? The implicit message here is that successfully using an adrenaline skill punishes you, which is kind of insane

There’s a very short list of moves which actually penalise you when you use them. They’re the Corruption skills and Overcharged Shot. They have drawbacks because they have powerful effects.

fellyn.5083:

The worst part is that it’s easier to reply a condition and/or dodge than it is to build another full bar of adrenaline, especially in pvp.

Depends on what you’re doing. Sure, you might get starved if you have no adrenaline generating traits and can’t attack… But, y’know, you may want to get some of those. Or become able to attack. They’re both solid options

If you’re really that bothered by dodging, slot an immobilise/control skill. Bola’s. Bull’s Charge. Stomp. “Fear Me!”. Leg Specialist. Warriors have plenty of buttons which they can use to ensure their Adrenaline moves hit.

Good changes, IMO.

The one thing I may have expected on top of it would be for LB F1 to receive a similar treatment to Choking Gas; have one initial tick (for the purposes of Cleansing Ire), but overall I’m fairly happy. Interesting that a dodged adrenaline ability is now so punishing; we might see people running things to try to do a better job of insuring them. We might even see bolas :O

Also, with new Brawler’s Recovery, I think that might actually pose a viable alternative to Cleansing Ire. Could possibly move to a style that thieves have with their two identical weapon sets. Maybe something like AM/AS with Warrior runes, Brawler’s Recovery, grab some other goodies. Could be fun.

Necros already have defensive weapons; staff and daggers.

If the problem is that leech is bad, then address leech.

Good watch. Thanks for uploading it to youtube.

Like the point about LoL’s balance and I wonder whether it’s a big part of ANet’s balance philosophy. If you can just have so many ‘good’ builds, the ‘excellent’ builds are less so. I’m not leet esports tho so

Can we just get like.

Landspear?

It’s a better weapon than any of our current land ones for PvE content. It has a cleave, whirl and PBAOE ticks, it has an aoe pull, it has a charge. It’s amaaaaazing.

Also combine these traits

Ritual Mastery+Vampiric Rituals
Quickening Thirst+Dagger Mastery

Mark Katzbach.9084:

We decided to prerecord these segments because it allows us to cut down each profession from over 15 minutes to about 5 while still allowing us to show off the changes without making you wait for Karl to make build changes on the fly.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Actually, we split the balance update into multiple episodes because a single, 80 minute balance show was exhausting for both the team and the viewers.

Hmmm.

Is the other 40 minutes “we are removing skyhammer from solo queue” played repeatedly, or is it one recording elongated over that time?

Evan Lesh.3295:

I Promise

meaningful capitalisation!

Maybe in a couple years.

Would be interesting but very difficult to do the legwork.

Also would be interesting for the builds which don’t have a legendary to support them (and arguably aren’t viable because of it). A signet ele could have all the signets for example, same with a signet necro.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

okay, how about this instead?

if the teams are not even
1 v 2
2 v 3
3 v 4
4 v 5

on the team with more players, the first player to die, can only respawn when another player on their team has died.

this will make the teams even.

ah, i think someone suggested this before? no?
if not i shall go and make a new topic about it.

really complicated
we should just look for something that is very straightforward without changing how the game works

Two items in the pack which have value; hair kit and top hat.

Trans charges have some value but there are too few of them to make up any real value.

Metabolic primers and utility primers are economically defunct. It’s already cheaper to just buy more food/utility items.

Color swatch is useless. Color swatches will remain useless until we get to grey swatches.

IMHO you should be able to turn while immobilized. Few reasons

1. Reduces the stun factor. You can turn around and avoid certain effects like backstabs and flanking and stuff.
2. Desync will put Entangling Roots behind you, making them unattackable if your latency is too high

I would not suggest using Traveler’s runes because the 6pter is redundant. You have great access to Swiftness and you have Signet of Air if you absolutely must have permanent 25% movement speed.

So basically just cheaper ascended back items?

I’m somewhat skeptical because you can already get very straightforward ascended items using several recipes. While they’re expensive, they’re not too difficult to get.

Except for costing like, 160g. But yeah maybe just adjust that pattern to instead use 50 t6 materials rather than 250.

I don’t really like the idea of mounts because even if you can’t move as quickly as before, you’re not moving incredibly slowly if you’re going to most destinations.

I think there are two big problems with PvP as it stands.

1. Narrow scope, particularly with game modes. Compare it to a traditional FPS, for example, because I am very lazy and I couldn’t be bothered going deeper into the comparison. Let’s go with… Say, Halo 2, because everyone on the planet agrees that that is the best game ever.

Halo 2: Bomb, CTF, Domination, King of the Hill, TDM, Oddball
GW2: Domination

That seems to be a problem. And yeah, developer resources are split across several game modes, and they have to also take care of class roles/balance as well, but I think it’s a big part of it.

2. Hotjoin is completely degenerate. How do you win at solo queue? Know when to force an autobalance and join the winning team, or volunteer when autobalance happens, and you will win every game.

Yeah, it sucks to get undercut, but it’s a lot worse when you get undercut by 10% and the demand moves far slower than supply, and a trend starts at the new, significantly lower price. They’re both undercutting you, and reducing the value of your items.

40 instances of the word “fix”.
3 instances of the word “adjust”.
6 instances of the word “disable”.

only one way we’re gon trim dese posts

That there are no features being developed that the WvW team feels confident about releasing after this long since the last big update (EOTM), then that’s… Somewhat worrying.

Bones must be thrown!

Prysin.8542:

If you run Venomous Aura they get ridiculous, but on their own, their fairly good. just gotta manage the cooldowns and use them sequentially, not burst (unless paired with trap ranger or marks necro, then spamming all at once is good)

How does it compare to PD Venomshare?

New sPvP modes
New sPvP maps
New WvW maps
Finish the megaserver implementation (removing guild chapters, add moving between them with less effort)
Build templates

New weapon:class combos
New utility skills
New traits

Really, the two main pvp avenues really need refreshers; something to really change up the dynamics and make people excited to come back. A map pack and new game modes are a big part of that. Adding new skillsets which open up new ways to play revitalise the game as a whole.

Prysin.8542:

P/P Venom Thief (it just demolishes anything really)

I’ve gotta see this.

why not just RP it

i mean i could ask for a pizza party feature on the forums

or i could just rp it