Guild Wars 2

Pixelninja.6971:

What did you expect? A complete Arah-set plus 3 Weapons for playing two days sPVP?
I even find the 3 Arah-weapons are to easy to get tru pvp in comparion to playing the Arah-dungeon.

This depends on the dungeon, though, I think; Arah is one of the tougher armor sets to get. By comparison, CoF gear is trivially easy to get, and it would probably be easier to just run CoF1+2 than rely on the track for the gear.

Something I’ve wondered: Will we see tracks which are longer/shorter than the ones currently implemented? If the dungeon tracks were possibly 60 rewards long, with weapons at 15/30/45 and the (full set of) armor chest at the end, that might be better.

Serious problem with this; makes it impossible to gain progress beyond a point on ‘goofing around’ spec.

Nobody wants me to bring PP thief into solo queue, and for a good reason.

Hopefully there’ll be a more elegant solution than this implemented sometime soon.

Considering the tokens you can get in the line, you should only end up needing to do the row 3 times- Buy chest/legs/shoulders with the boxes, buy gloves/boots/helm with the tokens.

If this is intended, then it’s still really questionable. You can get greatswords which cost 390 with the boxes, but armor pieces can only cost 330.

Hopefully something happens. Not sure how it’ll go, but I’m hoping that people will get reimbursed their chests.

Swagg.9236:

Yes, but then that’s you just accepting a clumsy mechanic. Why just take it when there is a clear solution to the problem?

Is it really that clumsy?

If I have someone targeted, that means I want to attack them. The game will send my leap skills at them.

If I don’t have someone targeted, that means I want to leap forward. The game will send my leap skills forward.

Not hard. I just need to get used to it. I’d have more trouble telling the game to do what I want with instant-CD chain abilities because of accidental double taps.

What do people think of Traveler’s runes as a replacement for Lyssa? I don’t know if it’s just because I’m so used to keeping Siggy of the Locust active in WvW, but they feel quite nice to use as MM in spvp.

Phadde.7362:

I think ANet pushed ESport too much from the start; An MMO needs to come to that point naturally from a solid foundation, which we’re still very much lacking.

Just my 2 cents though.

Definitely. Good game first, and if esports happens, esports happens.

Swagg.9236:

Just imagine if you could skip that step and just use [Swoop] because you knew where you wanted to go.

I could alternatively just learn to detarget when I leave an engagement. That way swoop’s adjustments mid-attack will still happen.

you can already turn off autotargeting

i need to get used to swoop tho, i keep targeting random people and forgetting to detarget them and i jump off a million miles into the past

@9:00 “I am actually playing the game! It’s not playing itself for me!” calm down dude it’s just a leap skill

also gj on the sneaky heartseeker nerf

Why change Guardians? They’re already really strong, but they’re not often complained about as being OP or anything.

Yeah, sure, they might not have that many builds- But the ones they do have are pretty fantastic. Elementalists didn’t have any meta builds before the patch (and I don’t even know if they do now).

Rym.1469:

They were cute, walking achievement, proof that you’ve just killed someone

Surprisingly useful clutter, but that doesn’t mean I’m not glad to see them go exclusively to Death Nova.

Trying out Fetid Consumption+Death Nova. I think losing 25% minion damage is survivable when it lets you be that much more brainless about conditions.

Still playing Fetid Consumption, though I’m considering swapping out of Training of the Master for Death Nova.

Wondering what runes I should replace Lyssa with. No more stability for me.

Also, minions seem even stupider than usual. Did minion movement speed get changed in the last patch, because they can’t keep up with me at all.

Looking at today’s dailies and they seem barely doable, if a bit of a pain.

Would really be nice if the number of dailies were pushed up to 15 rather than 10. PvEers lose out, too, with losing about 5 total dailies, including the assured Daily Gatherer.

butch.8136:

I hope Anet can filter out the pve-goes pvp feedback. The limit on hotjoin is good, it might be some incentive to try out arena’s for once.

What are the possible results?

- Lots of people go from hotjoin to solo queue. become good at the game and the population is improved.
- Lots of people go from hotjoin to solo queue. They don’t become good and they get frustrated and leave, either permanently from solo queue or in the middle of games, exacerbating an already existing problem.
- People join solo queue and purposely throw their matches to get rewards quicker.
- People don’t make the transition from hotjoin to solo queue, either due to a lack of information or a lack of interest.

One good outcome, one ‘okay’ outcome (nothing changes), two bad outcomes. Obviously this is not an exhaustive analysis and I’m just looking at the extremes, but generally speaking, I don’t think any good can come from imposing a limitation that wasn’t previously there (you could previously farm hotjoins for all the glory you wanted). Incentives to do solo queue are definitely a good thing, but forcing people who are better suited to Hotjoin into Solo Queue is definitely a bad thing.

Boxes which contain actual loot items (randomly generated armor and weapons) are generated based on the level of the opening character. For the Arah track, these are the 5/15/25/35 boxes, and all the boxes between.

Arah Weapon Chests, Arah Armor Box and Arah Token Box are not affected by character level, as they always produce specific items of your choice.

Quick unsolicited hint; it can be worthwhile to open your boxes on alts in the 50-65 range, because their salvage will be much more valuable than level 80 salvage.

Look at the Kryta track end box; it looks like the regional tracks will all provide those rewards as well.

ArrDee.2573:

why would you solo queue anyway? that disgusting map called skyhammer is in solo queue.

Skyhammilarity aside, it’s important because it’s an intermediary step for players between Hotjoin and Team Queue.

This dynamic pushes people who are suited for Hotjoin into Solo Queue. It could be a modestly effective population boost, at best- At worst, it’ll make it very difficult for people to get interested in solo queue or learn the skills they need to make it in team queue.

It also means I have to bring my goofing around builds, like PP thief, into games where they’re really not welcome.

Yeah, really getting the feeling that this will exacerbate the existing problem of people dropping out in solo queue by adding AFKers/halfassers to the list.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

oooo i see! thanks Sarrs for sharing this with us!
eh btw how did your skyham solo arena match turn out? heheheh.

eh, so if we hit the daily hotjoin (custom arena) limit each day, we still can finish it within a week?

They had two engis, we had none. I think we all know how that dance goes.

And yes, you will be able to finish it; I don’t see why choking it like this is even a thing, though, seeing as you can just unlock the track permanently by completing the dungeon. For other tracks, it’ll just be completely pointless.

I’m guessing that the limit is 10 segments in hotjoin a day, not a limit after which you need to be doing arena. If it is that limit, then that’s even worse. I somewhat get the feeling that it’s going to end up in degenerate behaviour in solo queue, up to and including people afking.

Also, in case ANet is reading; You know what would be super neat? telling us these things in the patch notes.

Why can’t they have brought over all the pvp dailies and kept all the pve ones?

Twenty dailies, why not.

Yeah, it looks like I can still progress in solo queue. I guess it’s just a hotjoin limit.

Still, though- Can’t say I’m a fan of being forced into tournies to actually get more than 10 tiers a day. Forced into meta builds to get anywhere at all; no thanks.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

have you guys tried out solo / team arena and encountered the same issue?

i read that some mentioned that it could have some daily limit for custom arenas.

hopefully justin can come and explain it to us.

Going to test now. I seem to be ‘capped’ and have only played HJ so far.

update: oh boy, it’s skyhammer!

Some people are stuck at 10, some people are stuck at 11, some people are stuck at 12 (I’m at 11 myself). Maybe the people with more than 10 got games in before the daily turnover, I suppose.

I still think that a daily limit is a pretty horrendous idea. If people want to farm spvp… So what? What’s wrong with that?

Manuhell.2759:

Also, your kits would be balanced upon being fully traited with their grandmaster traits and be subpar as a baseline (see: grenades). At least, that’s how it works for engineers. I’m not sure why someone else would want such a similar treatment, but if you want to trade, heh, go on.

Isn’t grenadier the only grandmaster kit trait?

Is the toolkit subpar baseline?
Is the bomb kit subpar baseline?

It looks to me like grenades are the exception, not the rule.

They will not. You’ll have two greatswords, each of which has one sigil in it.

If you don’t need your second greatsword, you don’t need to upgrade extract it- use a black lion kit to salvage with 100% extraction rate.

phaeris.7604:

Lol, high skill classes…thief and warrior.

Maybe he’s playing not-SP or not-Hambow.

I don’t think it’s necessary.

The skill being ‘easily avoidable’ is arguable. It’s got an obvious animation, so it’s easy to dodge… But if someone goes out of their way to dodge enough to avoid all of the life drain, that’s really, really good.

The skill’s long cast time doesn’t make much sense as a complaint. It’s a weapon skill, not a heal skill; it’s not intended to replace your 6-slot heal. Even then, it does put out pretty solid healing; with Vampirism and Bloodthirst, it can give you something like 4k worth of healing per cast.

It’s been brought up before; what is “the same way” as Life Transfer? The only difference is that one is single target and one is AOE; they are otherwise almost identical. If it were an AOE skill, that’d be some pretty insane healing, which would need it to be scaled down… And then the skill would be useless when draining from a single target, a bit like how Locust Signet’s active effect isn’t really very useful in a 1v1 fight atm.

Power necros have bigger problems than Life Siphon.

Aberrant.6749:

Go try playing an eng without a kit, then come back and tell me the main weapon skills are “pretty good” -.- You’ll quickly see that eng need kits to be viable.

Brb gonna spvp as PP FT Elixirgun.

Seriously though, the suggestion that engineers need to be completely turned on their head before you can compare them to other classes is kinda insane.

glaphen.5230:

See you fell for my trap and gave me what I was expecting, no condition build uses even 5 points in Tools? You mean exactly like no condition Warrior uses 15 points in Strength. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Inertial_Converter resets the cooldown of http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Toss_Elixir_R and even Med Kit tool belt heal. What your poor condition build chooses not to use it? So you won’t mind if they nerf them right, its not part of a meta build right? But its such a good trait!

Aha! You activated my trap card!

Manuhell.2759:

If you want to compare engineers to the other classes, start giving the engineer the same baseline of the other classes – a second weapon slot and a non-dps nerfed main weapon. Then we can talk about it.

Aren’t the main weapons on Engi actually pretty good? The 1 is kinda sorta rubbish for Pistol, but the other 4 pistol skills are all pretty fantastic. Rifle skills are also fantastic and as I understand they’re really important for decap which is apparently popular right now.

Wethospu.6437:

Other classes have stuff like http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vigorous_Precision which even require much smaller investment and are much simpler to use.

The trait which is getting nerfed by half next patch because there’s too much dodging going on?

You know how sometimes, in the middle of a cinematic, NPCs will register that they’re leaving combat and use one of their leaving combat quotes?

I was running through the PS for a second time, and got up to the Source. We had our big grand battle with the Eye, then the swarm of Risen, and then the cinematic started where Trahearne shoves his sword into the ground. All the roots and vines start spawning, everything’s all getting cleansed, and the camera zooms right in on Trahearne and fades to white. And then…

“Moving on.”

It is the greatest video game moment I have ever had. I will cherish it forever.

Well…

Assuming you swap weapons to use two burst skill CDs, and hit every burst CD (it doesn’t say anything about actually needing Adrenaline), this trait as it stands would give +100% permanent endurance regen. That’s pretty huge. Even if you only use a burst skill every 10 seconds, that’s still a permanent half-vigor.

So basically it’s Aegis except less useful.

Sadly, they wouldn’t. There would be nothing to gain and everything to lose. Hobbyists are sadly not a large enough community to really gain much from extending a hand to.

If they were to release features to let the community build their own things, personally, I think it would be interesting to see them allow people to change the numbers on individual skills in custom arenas. The sPvP community can manage balance on their own, that way. It might be a bit of a shift, but other games have done it; smogon university being the biggest example I can think of.

Stats already kinda do have diminishing returns. You’ll get to a situation where a point of power is worth less than a point of precision, which is worth less than a point of critical damage/ferocity. Same with defensive stats.

The change also won’t actually change any behavior.

Does the decoy trait interrupt your heal?

I don’t mind the decoy skill interrupting your heal; Decoy’s a strong ability, and if it’s that big of a deal, decoy and then heal. But if the trait interrupts your heal that’s kind of silly.

Zomaarwat.3912:

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-dool

yoo ge oooooh

Guhracie.3419:

Sarrs.4831:

I imagine “low pop map” is selected by a bunch of criteria, like
actual population
does it have a boss event
if so, which class of boss is it

The key word in your post is imagine. It would be nice to have confirmation of which maps will be part of the megaserver.

Yeah definitely.

Yep, and I’m 99% sure that the timer is set when the minion is spawned, so if you summon a Blood Fiend, the first condition transfer will happen 10 seconds after the summon.

I imagine “low pop map” is selected by a bunch of criteria, like
actual population
does it have a boss event
if so, which class of boss is it

Evalia.7103:

Of course it’s not possible to go wrong with Soldier’s.
The question arises when you want to make yourself as strong as even doable. Around at the same time you realize, that it’s probably not soldier’s…

Then you mix in your PvE set pieces!

Decrypter.1785:

what about stats tho ?

Stats will still only be swappable on legendaries and not ascended gear.

My thoughts on the coming ascended account-bound change- Don’t make ascended Celestial. Make Ascended Zerk’s for PvE. For WvW, it can be a bit trickier to pick a set, but I don’t think it’s possible to go wrong with Ascended Soldier’s.

Nage.1520:

Guild Wars 1, as successful as it was, remained a niche game because it was too hard for a lot of people. They couldn’t figure it out. They couldn’t make a build to save their lives.

Anet intentionally changed that system so that people wouldn’t have bad builds. That was the point of linking skills to weapons.

If you make it hard enough for guys like me to enjoy, you’ll end up with less people playing, which isn’t the best business model to fund an ambitious project like Guild Wars 2.

I’d personally welcome more build diversity and a lot of other people would as well. And I think in time that will come.

But going the Guild Wars 1 route is probably a mistake.

The very fact you’re aware that you need to have a build to play the game properly probably excludes you from the population you’re talking about.

Still, though, you’re quite right.

Directly @ OP; realise that huge, sweeping changes can both revive a game and murderously butcher it into death.

Also, MMOs are marathons, not sprints. Big Daddy WoW took something like 3 years and 2 months before it got to 10 million subscribers. The world (of guild wars) isn’t going to end just because growth slowed down a little.

This does suck, but you have had two legendaries for however long you had them. If you only made your second in like, the month or so before the wardrobe was announced, fair enough if you’re upset; but anywhere before then? You’ve been flashy and double-legendaried for quite a while. Do you really want to cripple a brand new game system, or in the case of refunds, cause significant economic upset just for the .1%?

The Primary.6371:

Gw2 gvg can still work without dedicated healers, all you need is strong team support mixed into two or three players setup. Will also require everyone watching each other and the enemy aswell, which should always happen.

I kinda think at the moment that the best thing that can happen to GW2 is getting more game modes in, and a lot of them.

Conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest with bosses, conquest with a flag, conquest on toast with a glass of conquest, augh.

Need something different than the 5v5 conquest model because at the moment it seems incredibly hard to actually fit a dedicated support into your team.

Well, yeah. If you have glory, you can buy it from the second tab at the Rabbit vendor (or any chest vendor, but rabbit’s the closest). Other than that, you’re pretty much stuck to salvaging your existing sword collection.

Bhawb.7408:

Transfusion is an amazing trait for supporting, Ritual of Life is strong, Fetid Consumption, Mark of Evasion, there are a number of good traits in the tree. The issue isn’t the traits alone, its that the full playstyle that the traits would support doesn’t exist. In the case of life siphoning this is because blood magic is the only tree that gives synergy (whereas any other build would have synergy from at least every major trait), or because support isn’t worth it.

It doesn’t really even give that much support, does it? It just gives survivability, and not even that much survivability.

If it actually scaled with something (coughhealingpower) that might be nice but I’m not gonna get my hopes up.

I like mark of blood on roll, but then again, I just get it while I’m on my way to Vampiric Master.

Sorry Mark of Evasion. It’s not you, it’s me!

The game is balanced around group fights, not dools.

(i’m not serious i just wanted to get in on the joke while it’s still here)

Why not 30/30/10/0/0? Get some blind on burn, burn on crit, arcane skills for max crit, weakness on interrupt. It’ll be fun, promise!