Guild Wars 2

“The problem with Guild Wars 2”

Cactus.2710:

Marvo Pandaros XXV.7239:

WvW started off good. I remember being in a party of 5 fighting little groups of enemies (5 – 10 players) and it was all about skill and a group being in one mind. Then it turned into useless zergs. Guilds then focused on getting as much players as possible to have bigger zergs. So now most guilds I have been in are useless because no one helps each other and they try to force u to be in their WvW zergs (im in blackgate btw).

Agree. I started out on Devona’s Rest, and even when we had very low populations we had a good mixture of scouts, small teams, and larger groups trying to play strategically for weekly points. After a while some larger guilds transferred in and we learned a lot of new tactics that made WvW really fun in spite of the lag and culling.

snip

I agree aswell. I started on Gandara. At the time it was extremely fun because everyone was still learning stuff and nearly nobody was maxed out so most people took uplevels into WvW. Usually we went with 5 people, cause the party system only allowed 5 and then we did camp capping and it felt engaging and amazing because we were like infiltrating enemy terrain and we could get attacked at any point, which happened often. It was one of the greatest experiences to me.

Then… I think during 2013 most of WvW became blobbing. Maps didn’t see additions. Gameplay didn’t see additions. Guilds got neglected for PvP. Saw a lot of glass cannons still in that period.

From June to now most people started running warriors and guardians usually PVT or PPT. Masteries got introduced which are really just fluff. WXP provided more useless goals. And well… everyone resorted to blobbing because that’s the easiest way.

Generally… the game had a great potential but none of it was brought about in the first year a half. It’s sad, but it’s the truth. I’m still waiting for April releases… then if it isn’t good I’ll be gone to another game probably.

JustTrogdor.7892:

I think guesting should be invite only.

Seriously man… I don’t think even half the servers manages to do Tequatl. Low pop servers never do it, so people guest to others. Go into the map sooner if you don’t want to wait. I understand if you don’t have time, but you can just leave your client afk and keep it active by going into it every 5-10 minutes.

Yoh.8469:

I guess it really depends on how ‘solid’ the body blocking is.
If your a solid unmovable rock, then yeah I can see a whole slew of problems resulting from that.
But what if it were a softer approach, where the area around you is more like a bubble.

Where if two players are pushing up against each other, that can just about overlap, perhaps even clip through each other. But once they stop moving they will gradually push away from each other until they come to a resting position.
So if someone is in your way, you can kind of push them out of the way, to a limited extent.

In addition skills that move you will ignore body blocking, as well would dodging and perhaps even jumping. So blinking or leaping over an opponent or ally trying to prevent you from going up the stairs is easily done.

And it could just straight up be turned off in some areas, such as Towns, Jumping Puzzles, around Vistas, etc.
Or it could be a combat only thing.

I think there is plenty of room between 100% and 0%.

Interesting. Hadn’t thought about that. Blinking/leaping/ could pass around, but if you leap and bump against the box, you should really not pass. I still think it owes more advantages than disadvantages to have body blocking. It shouldn’t be hard to disable it in cities either.

NoTrigger.8396:

Star Ace.5207:

NoTrigger.8396:

kyubi.3620:

All of these post all show the one important point they need to make it twice as harder for full zerker to survive but somewhat worthwhile for someone whos not zerking to do the same. That way player who dodge like gods arent any more punished then before and people who run balanced build wich doesnt rely on pure damage actualy get to be party worthwhile.

oh boy,

can you start thinking before you post?

PLAYERS WHO DODGE LIKE GODS SHOULDNT BE PUNISHED BECAUSE THEY ARE kittenING SKILLED.
and by nerfing berserker you will also nerf the fun of those players.
and no matter what arenanet will do, one thing is for sure.
i will never allow people like you to join my party.

what is going on in your head?
why do you want to nerf playerskill?
what about if you l2p and buff your own playerskill so you will be able to enjoy min/max builds that also provide maximum support at the same time?

you didnt even understand this.
a full berserker build can provide as much support as your tanky hulk build.
because gw2 doesnt have a trinity and everyone can do damage, cc and support at the same time.

concept of guild wars 2
concept of the guild wars 2 combat system.

Nothing is going on with his head; he could ask the same about your intolerance. Play and let play.

That’s the concept of the current speedrun community, not ANet’s own concept, evidently, because they believe this needs addressing. So no, I don’t agree-nor does ANet-with your “concept” for GW2.

(It’s OK to speedrun, however. Just leave others alone for not doing so.)

i dont care how he wants to play.
i let him play the way he wants.
he can go hulk 24/7.

the funny thing is that he wants to nerf MY playstyle. not the other way around.
only because he is not good enough to use my playstyle.
he feels useless with his hulk builds.

thats not a stat or gear issue. its a l2p issue.
but crying on forums is always easier than improving yourself.

This is 100% wrong… what do you know about any player here? I’m sure I would beat you in any duel, so don’t talk about skill. Zerk gear is simply superior for this game’s PvE. It is a matter of gear and stats. It is not a matter of L2P. Didn’t know people could be so unreasonable.

Coltz.5617:

Sirendor.1394:

What we lack, friends, is… THE COMMANDO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR2Esy83MQ0

hm. You never know, http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/8952993_orig.jpg

This is apparently a GW2 art and out of all the other pictures of classes we can relate too. This one I don’t remember seeing… as well as helicopters.. But that’s not the case.

Is that a tengu? I see feathers on the arm. O_O
That must be their big master plan… the tengu have developed themselves into modern beings, their guards at the gate are in disguise to make us think they are still rather primitive… but instead, they have evolved… in a nation of power.

~3 hours here. 1600 hours since headstart. There have been periods I didn’t log in once on a day though, but holidays made up for that by logging many hours on quiet days. xD
Though I tend to leave my client open when I go afk.

Darkstar.6178:

Sirendor.1394:

“Tyria really won’t be the same after it, and what happens at the end will also set up Season Two.”

This sentence does get me a little excited. What is going to change? o_O

We find out Scarlet is Trahearne .

“Laces OUT!!!”

OH NO. Scary thought. Worse than the giant wurm with several heads sitting in the jungle. Worse than a robot thing with heels and narrow female figure.

It’s…

~dramatic music que~

THE TRAHEARNINATOR.

They could test it on low pop servers?

Guess 2nd build is the most used one. And sorry I was trolling just slightly, though warrior is the best PvE zerk dungeon class. Your build should work though. It’s possible to run full glass, by maxing the domination & dueling lines.

Yeah looks like a mesmer. Reroll for warrior. It’s the best class hands down.

RedStar.4218:

Sirendor.1394:

- The dungeon has a fixed time. It ends after the time has passed.

So no afk or wandering around ? That’s not fun. A time based limit is terrible almost every time, it’s a cheap way to increase difficulty.

If they added CC and boon removing/corrupting attacks, pulls and boons to bosses, it would be interesting.

But right now we have bosses with :
-one shot attacks that can be dodged
-one shot attacks that are spammable and way too hard to see between all the effects in this game (Hey Alphard)
-boons that you can’t remove because they get reapplied constantly, but they don’t even really bother you
-way too much health

The bosses in AC are pretty good, unfortunately most players use cheap exploits to beat them (and sometime, it’s not even that effective). Frost and Turmaine (CM bosses) aren’t too bad, but once again, players exploit those fights.

Tazza (SE) is terrible. There’s absolutely nothing interesting. Her attacks are terribly easy to move out, her health is way too high and she doesn’t even drop a chest. The destroyer isn’t really interesting either (to think PuGs used to range it…).

Erm… there’s no “completion” of the dungeon in my version. You just get challenges. Complete as many as you can, get rewarded accordingly. Nobody is forced to run full dps, because full dps won’t help you complete challenges any faster. There isn’t an endboss, just a boss per challenge.

Also, you could set it to different levels.
Novice: slow. [30 minutes]
Intermediate: doable. [20 minutes]
Expert: fast. [15 minutes]

Each mode could give you a bonus boss for completing more than 5 challenges. You could go expert mode and complete 5 in 15 minutes, or go novice mode and complete the same 5 in 30 minutes.

Gambits are something that is possible too, making the reward better if you manage to complete within time limit. Basically it’s the Hard Mode of GW1 returned.

Cush.4063:

Sirendor.1394:

What we lack, friends, is… THE COMMANDO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR2Esy83MQ0

LOL, “Aw heck, that don’t look right. Le’me fix that”

Thank you for that video, made my day

xD I do pity the poor grawl and charr.

~soft music on the background, flowers dancing in the wind… aaahh all is peaceful~
BAM
Commandos in ACTION

Reanne, you should wait until the “Feature update”. Should happen march-april.

@ earlier posters

As I don’t want to look like an unreasonable person: I was merely stating he obvious and defending the point of the body blocking. In theory it is a great idea. In practice… well there’s technical limitations, anti-abuse concerns and generally the rule of “Unwanted Consequences”. It might sound great, until bam one consequence ruins it all.

I do think discussing the topic is good. It’s not because it might not be possible at first sight that it is in fact impossible. We shouldn’t rule it out until it is clear that either it works (with fixes for problems that might occur) or it doesn’t work, because there are more problems than solutions.

@ Conncept
Both mechanics involve creating a system awareness of boxes and their mixing. The second solution seems like it might work and is actually a very nice idea in general if body blocking were to be implemented.

As I see it with your mechanic “Crowded State”.

• You would not be able to pass through enemies.
• You would be able to pass through allies, but would not be able to attack while your “mass” boxes overlap.

The 2nd remark is a bit problematic: what if an ally decides to annoy you and run through you interrupting your attacks? It seems subject to problems. Would be very interesting if you had a fix for this though!

Problems I see with body blocking so far:

• Dead players: they shouldn’t be blocking you. Stomping them should make their collision boxes dissapear.
• Stability: add a “Destabilized State”: for 4 seconds stability buffs on you will no longer take effect. This triggers when using 2 consequent stability shouts within 40 seconds of eachother.
• Allied blocking aka. griefing: allies shouldn’t be able to stack on eachother, but neither should they block eachother off without reason. The fix I see for this: when within 1200 range of an enemy you can’t pass through allies.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

People complained about getting too much content, so Anet slowed things down.

Actually no. People complained that Anet sent in “patch” after “patch” (hardly called a patch), with filler content that didn’t really seem to lead anywhere and that brought little to no reward in exchange for grind. What people want is a bigger gap between content releases, but content that actually is good and will keep us busy, not for 1-3 days, but weeks if not months. If they released an expansion with 1-2 new classes, + several maps, new mechanics to explore, I’d be busy with that a long while.

“Tyria really won’t be the same after it, and what happens at the end will also set up Season Two.”

This sentence does get me a little excited. What is going to change? o_O

Mortifer.2946:

I don’t understand what are your expectations people. Living story content is great, I don’t say it has a strong story, but it is fun! I, for example, loved scarlet invasions and it is sad that almost nobody does them by now. Everyone just farm their way to legendary and forget about all the fun

? What fun? The achievements they want me to grind for a cosmetic backpiece? LOL. Bank is full with backpieces by now.

Vol.7601:

Imagine what would happen in WvW as the tower gate falls and that 40-man zerg tries to rush that tiny little hole.

1.) Invaders get stuck and clog the entrance
2.) Defenders bodyblock the gate nonetheless
3.) People on AC’s make it rain lootbags

You forgot a couple of things. Why would body-blocking suddenly erase crowd control? Those defenders would be forced to pop stability if they wanted to prevent gaps. And even stability has it’s limits.

They could add in something similar to “Revealed State” in stealth. 4 seconds in which you can’t use stability again, to prevent abuse. In those 4 seconds the attackers could throw CC on the defenders and try to break through, but even then the battle would not be won necessarily. If the defenders were good, they would regroup and retreat to another chokepoint.

It would force strategic play from both groups.

Nice suggestion. Would surely see good use.

It is not fine, not for PvE nor for PvP. I have supported the idea of body-blocking before and will again because that is about the only solution to stacking, the bad design that is killing both PvE (dungeons) and WvW.

zacsux.2098:

… simply blocking a player from there objective is a bit unfair.

It’s as fair as it gets because it proves some players use their brains. Imo the fastest thinkers should win fights, because they have strategic insight, aka. skill in battle. Also, nothing guarantees that you’d win if you blocked a keep door from a zerg. Hell, you’d still need to be more than average to win from the zerg.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

GW1 has/had body blocking capabilities – both foe and ally. People hated it…. I can sort of see why they removed it here.

The reason people hated it was because walking in GW1 was automated through clicks and skills made you run to your enemies through the fastest path. In this game you steer your character, so you shouldn’t be bumping into others if you’re anywhere near an experienced gamer.

Besides, don’t you ever bump into people in real life or do you pass through them? xD

Arvid.3829:

NoTrigger.8396:

Arvid.3829:

you will be ‘safer’ in a full zerker team than in anywhere else, as you will need to ‘skillfully time evasion’ for a shorter period of time.

so you are saying not timing or even better, not using evasion at all because you dont have to, is more skillful?

Are you serious? Do you even read?

I’m saying if you don’t need toughness+vitality because you dodge/block/evade everything anyway you will be a lot better off with zerker. How is that not clear?

The guy made a flame thread against tank/heal as a reaction against the incoming measures against berserker. He didn’t think about any of my arguments in his thread either. Just ignore him, he’s a troll.

I don’t record my gameplay. And well as that may be, why are you complaining about tank/heal? Their damage is maybe 1/5th of yours, so by the time they finish a dungeon they’re old and have a beard. There is no tank/heal meta. There is however a zerk meta.

True, but Anet’s system of damage really sucks…

Direct damage:
- Power
- Precision (& Crit chance)
- Crit damage

Condition damage:
- Condition damage
- Condition duration

Both ways have penalties. Direct damage needs to invest in 3 stats. Condition damage on the other damage can be removed, while critical hits can’t be cleansed or anything. Condition damage is also over time and can very easily be nullified by someone with a lot of condition removal, such as mesmers, necros, elementalist and guardians.
That makes condition users very vulnerable.

SlappedYak.7489:

I see a lot of people worried about conditions being too strong, they suck in pve, but in pvp they are king. It’s because pvp and pve are two different games, and really should be treated thus. .

Fact. Now make Anet see the light…

NoTrigger.8396:

Sirendor.1394:

NoTrigger.8396:

you want berserker nerfed because you refuse to accept the fact,
that there are people who are better than you at playing this game,
and therefore can finish dungeons faster.

accept it and get over it.

Worst argument ever. I actually always take my zerk warrior with gs + axe/shield for dungeons. It’s so ridiculously easy to cleave through monsters while still regaining health through healing sig that you barely have to worry about dying at all.

The problem is not that skilled players can clear a dungeon faster than less skilled ones. The problem is that skilled players with full zerk can clear a dungeon faster than skilled players with any other spec.

and here is what you misunderstood:
skilled players dont use other specs.
skilled players dont need to use other specs.
skilled players dont want to use tanky gear because having almost zero room for error is what is fun for them (berserker/assassin gear).

+ warrior is not a good example.
warrior has too much sustain and health.
but that doesnt mean playing other professions full berserker is easy.

Even worse. I dare call myself a skilled player in dungeons, having run most to boredom. Truth, I do run berserker, but am I suddenly less skilled because I decide to run something else? Naah. I’m still a good player and I would probably still be faster than a zerker who doesn’t have skill, because he would most likely get downed or even defeated in certain scenarios. Would I still be as fast as an equally skilled player with zerker? Nope. It’s false to say players who don’t run zerker are less skilled than others though.

It’s true that certain classes do not have the benefits warrior has. Ele zerk is extremely glassy, as is thief. I have run both builds on dungeons, and still find them rather easy, dealing huge amounts of damage while stacking the boss in corner.

My point stands. Zerk, combined with stacking is too easy and not really challenging so long as you are an experienced player.

NoTrigger.8396:

you want berserker nerfed because you refuse to accept the fact,
that there are people who are better than you at playing this game,
and therefore can finish dungeons faster.

accept it and get over it.

Worst argument ever. I actually always take my zerk warrior with gs + axe/shield for dungeons. It’s so ridiculously easy to cleave through monsters while still regaining health through healing sig that you barely have to worry about dying at all.

The problem is not that skilled players can clear a dungeon faster than less skilled ones. The problem is that skilled players with full zerk can clear a dungeon faster than skilled players with any other spec.

NoTrigger.8396:

greater risk of dying – because you lack damage
???
doesnt make sense

Tell that to Anet and their high damage bosses which ignore armour.

Anyone else thought the music horribly out of place? It sounded like it was made to predict the end of the world… and all I see is a stupid wurm and an even more pathetic giant watchknight. O_O

WHAT IS THIS?!

All living story did for me is make the game worse than it was. No kudos.

^The above and more. Even if they bring an expansion at this point and decide to make it free, which is by no means certain, I’m not sure I’ll keep playing. We’ll see what comes.

If the game stays like it is now, it’s more probable I’ll be gone than not. And hell, I’m sure I’m barely alone in this. Either they bring some good content (with fixes of the content we have now) or they close their books.

Seras.5702:

Well I think it’s clear Thief needs more weapons. Out of curiosity, did you factor in Thief’s floating #3 skill that changes with each offhand combination? If so, then they really got boned in the skill choice category.

You can also add to your metric the class mechanic skills that each class inherently gets (F-skills).

Necro: 5 (DS skills)
Engineer: 4 (Toolbelt)
Mesmer: 4 (Shatters)
Guardian: 3 (Virtues)
Ranger: 2 (Pet skill + Swap pets)
Warrior: 1 (Burst)
Thief: 1 (Steal/Use)
Elementalist: 0 (Only swaps attunements)

While they aren’t weapon skills, they are still additional skills that each class gets compared to others. Ele having 60 skills but no class skills is fine, meanwhile Thieves having 18 skills and only 1 extra class mechanic skill doesn’t boost their total number much.

Hi Selas

Thieves do indeed have a different #3, but because it’s basically the same weapon, with 1 different skill I didn’t count them in. If you count the extra combos thieves have ~20.
I have indeed thought about the class abilities, but because every class has it’s own mechanic and works a different way it seemed rather odd to add it to the metric. Engineer’s F1-F4 are based on heal and utility. Mesmer’s and Guardian’s F1-F3 skills are always the same ones regardess of utility/weapon. Warrior has F1 bound to weapons and so on.

Yoh.8469:

Sirendor.1394:

zamalek.2154:

Sirendor.1394:

Subclasses are bound to fail if they don’t fix their unholy trinity of Dps, Control, Mitigate and add a bigger need for Support, Utility and Tank.

This arises because of the fact that you can “kill or be killed.” You don’t need Support, Utility and Tanks in the group if the group can rush in and kill the boss in 6 seconds – before the boss can put out any meaningful damage.

The original intent (as far as I have read) was to avoid damage in the first place; instead of soaking it up (Tank) or undoing it (Healer). I agree with ANet as far as this goes – Healer/Tank/DPS leads to braindead gameplay that is more like The Typing of the Dead than a challenging fight.

Unfortunately the current design leads to the braindead stacking behavior we see (as well as zerker) and this means that the design needs to be tweaked. Players will always find the path of least resistance.

So while I agree with you about the current problem; I also agree with ANet because they were trying to fix another problem. Here is an idea that is within the parameters of what ANet were originally trying to do by eliminating the [brain dead] trinity:

Drop a whole bunch of new boons, support conditions and statuses; that are very useful and are exclusive to the support/utility classes (when built in a support/utility way). E.g. Apply a shield to nearby allies – the can absorb Healing Power * 3 hit points and explodes for Toughness * 3 damage when destroyed.

Edit: Completely off topic: another thing you could do to encourage diverse builds is to introduce a panic mechanic – similar to enraged; but instead it activates if the boss loses HP too fast. A super-reflective shield for 1-2s (100% reflected back to the source, no cast time)? Another panic attack could be one that deals more damage the closer you are to the other players. Maybe have a pool of 15 or so that every boss has access to?

You are right of course, but judging from what we’ve seen so far from Anet, I doubt a complete overhaul of the combat and the PvE is going to happen. The trinity wasn’t perfect, but at least it held roles. This doesn’t hold any roles at the moment.

To me, what they should have done is made every class a distinct role and make it so each class has a set of abilities, instead of simple combat options. For example in a dungeon there’s a door you can’t seem to pass? Your engineer mate can create a bomb at his own cost (it shouldn’t be easy, but challenging) and the team mates have to gather the items he needs for the bomb throughout the dungeon.

The thing we need to get rid of first is the stacking. It should never be easy to complete a dungeon, but challenging. It shouldn’t require: stack in this corner and tap all your skills. I agree that combat has to be active, hence the active damage mitigation, but it should leave space for support classes. And support should be necessary in a dungeon in order to survive.

Right now the best defense is offense. It shouldn’t be like that.

That is a point, stacking I mean.
Body blocking is really odd in this game, and it seems to cause more problem then it solves. Namely that there is a sever lack of it.

And what’s really interesting is that it seems be something that can be turned on or off at a whim. Try this, go up to a natural mob and run through it a couple of times.
No body blocking for naturals or allies, but as soon as you attack it, boom body blocking is in full swing.

So the question I’d like to ask, is why isn’t it on all the time? (or only while in combat)
So that your body blocked by allies as well as enemies. Not only would this prevent stacking in dungeons, requiring people to actually fight for once, but in WvW it would help out immensely.

-
Half the problem with WvW is that you can have 20 million idiots standing right on top of each other, in zerkers gear no less, and just face roll the keyboard to victory.
No tactics, no strategy.

But if space was actually importent, maybe, just maybe mass combat would evolve to be something other then a mindless cluster-f!

Body blocking does indeed exist, but it’s an option at the moment (toggled on or off in general settings menu). It should be on always, not only for enemies but also body-blocking allies, so you can’t do 30v1. It’s a shame that what you describe is possible at the moment. I’m not sure how AoE, ground targetting and ranged projectiles would work in that case though. It would require a complete overhaul of the current system, most probably something that Anet will not or can not do.

OldSomalia.6180:

Then why make the thread. Just go

Comments like this are what break the game.

Show some empathy, man. I have played since headstart and struggled to keep on playing several times. I decided to do it each time, but not for the game, but for my friends. Tbh, they’re all that keeps me in the game, the bunch of people I came to admire and like.

It’s not that this game is bad, far from it. It’s that they didn’t really deliver what some players (mostly us GW1 vets) expected, and that was an experience that didn’t feel cold but interesting and warm, always open and rich with different flavours.

Guild Wars 2’s universe has added too many elements that make it feel hostile. I for one would welcome a new start paired with the opening up of Elona or Cantha, because right now this game isn’t a game, but a show mostly of parading around in Lion’s Arch after farming months for an overly priced weapon or armour set. I shun the place.

The game should be about playing it, not about grinding your days away in a dungeon and then sitting in LA like a zombie.

I’m going to add a new idea…

“Dungeons – Tribulation Mode”
- Mobs use 5 weapon skills + 1 heal + 3 utilities.
- Bosses use 5 weapon skills + 1 heal + 3 utilities + 1 elite.
- Each boss uses a different and class-specific NEW elite.
- Bosses spawn by class-specific challenges.
- Players that die can not be rezzed. Armour is not damaged by dying.
- Every class gets a new ability that is required for the specific challenges that are different per dungeon and per path. For example: Rangers get a grapple-hook and a trial of survival. Thieves get lockpicks and theft missions. Engineers get a siege kit and need to discover a dungeon-specific weapon for a challenge. Guardians get a sanctify ability, needing to cleanse sources of evil. Necromancers need to tame a demon.
- If your group wipes, you can restart, but the challenges you succeeded are kept count of.
- The dungeon has a fixed time. It ends after the time has passed.
- You get a score per player based on:

• Amount of damage taken
• Amount of damage done
• Amount of healing done
• Amount of challenges completed
• Tries to complete a challenge
• Amount of combos
• …

- Rewards are not player-respective. It isn’t because you are not the top player of the dungeon that you get less reward. Each aspect gets rewarded to everyone.
- You can improve your abilities with completion points. These will add cosmetic effects to your abilities. You can also choose to use completion points for unlocking other class abilities.
- The more different classes you bring, the more different challenges you get. This breaks down the Warrior > All meta. If you go 3 warrs, 2 guards, you get only 2 challenges: a Warrior challenge and a Guardian one.

Low level zones aren’t visited except for queensdale champ farm, where you don’t even require high damage.

What we lack, friends, is… THE COMMANDO

zamalek.2154:

Sirendor.1394:

Subclasses are bound to fail if they don’t fix their unholy trinity of Dps, Control, Mitigate and add a bigger need for Support, Utility and Tank.

This arises because of the fact that you can “kill or be killed.” You don’t need Support, Utility and Tanks in the group if the group can rush in and kill the boss in 6 seconds – before the boss can put out any meaningful damage.

The original intent (as far as I have read) was to avoid damage in the first place; instead of soaking it up (Tank) or undoing it (Healer). I agree with ANet as far as this goes – Healer/Tank/DPS leads to braindead gameplay that is more like The Typing of the Dead than a challenging fight.

Unfortunately the current design leads to the braindead stacking behavior we see (as well as zerker) and this means that the design needs to be tweaked. Players will always find the path of least resistance.

So while I agree with you about the current problem; I also agree with ANet because they were trying to fix another problem. Here is an idea that is within the parameters of what ANet were originally trying to do by eliminating the [brain dead] trinity:

Drop a whole bunch of new boons, support conditions and statuses; that are very useful and are exclusive to the support/utility classes (when built in a support/utility way). E.g. Apply a shield to nearby allies – the can absorb Healing Power * 3 hit points and explodes for Toughness * 3 damage when destroyed.

Edit: Completely off topic: another thing you could do to encourage diverse builds is to introduce a panic mechanic – similar to enraged; but instead it activates if the boss loses HP too fast. A super-reflective shield for 1-2s (100% reflected back to the source, no cast time)? Another panic attack could be one that deals more damage the closer you are to the other players. Maybe have a pool of 15 or so that every boss has access to?

You are right of course, but judging from what we’ve seen so far from Anet, I doubt a complete overhaul of the combat and the PvE is going to happen. The trinity wasn’t perfect, but at least it held roles. This doesn’t hold any roles at the moment.

To me, what they should have done is made every class a distinct role and make it so each class has a set of abilities, instead of simple combat options. For example in a dungeon there’s a door you can’t seem to pass? Your engineer mate can create a bomb at his own cost (it shouldn’t be easy, but challenging) and the team mates have to gather the items he needs for the bomb throughout the dungeon.

The thing we need to get rid of first is the stacking. It should never be easy to complete a dungeon, but challenging. It shouldn’t require: stack in this corner and tap all your skills. I agree that combat has to be active, hence the active damage mitigation, but it should leave space for support classes. And support should be necessary in a dungeon in order to survive.

Right now the best defense is offense. It shouldn’t be like that.

Ameepa.6793:

Hi. Has anyone seen John Connor or his mother Sarah? I am trying to find them. It is a matter of life and death. My future depends on finding them.

Minotaur spirit blesses you with a virtual cup of tea.

As for fun… depends. I shy away from any farming location though, guaranteed no fun there.

Not to mention… FUN? We’re in a state of war, my good sir OP.

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

i want a new heavy profession too.
but i can’t think of any new profession names anymore.
the 8 professions seems to have covered it all.

warrior (high health, heavy armor)
guardian (low health, heavy armor)
??? (medium health? heavy armor)

ranger (medium health, medium armor)
engineer (medium health, medium armor)
thief (low health, medium armor)

mesmer (medium health, light armor)
elementalist (low health, light armor)
necromancer (high health, light armor)

The name your looking for is MONK.

Lol I agree. Bringing monk back will save this game. I loved it, still do.

Hey there I’ve made my own post (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Existing-weapons-on-classes/first#post3493083) about adding existing weapons to classes we have now:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Honestly, I think it should be more like:
Warrior

They already have the largest weapon selection, so they require fewer new options than everyone else. Give them a torch and call it a day.

I would actually say: give them a staff for melee.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Guardian

Guardians lack a condition weapon. Give them a bleed-stacking MH Axe (melee). Also add in Warhorn and one or more true ranged 2h weapons (shortbow, longbow, and/or rifle). Dagger could also make for a nice mid-ranged throwing weapon.

I agree with a warhorn, maybe with some healing options, regeneration… Would also give them a sword off-hand and maybe a longbow (blue fire themed), so they finally have a reliable range weapon.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Ranger

Most ranger weapons do need an overhaul for PvE/WvW. They’re amazing in more solo-oriented activities (sPvP/tPvP and solo PvE) but profoundly lacking in group or large scale scenarios. They need more support capabilities.

Consider Rifle, MH/OH Pistol, MH Dagger, OH Sword, and (Druidic Support) Staff for new weapons.

Things I wouldn’t add from your list: Rifle (basically already have that in the form of a longbow), offhand pistol. Things I would add: MH pistol, OH sword and a staff like you pictured it. On top, a focus with druidic/nature magic.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Thief

Thieves are lacking in terms of a single-target ranged burst weapon. Rifle would fill this void nicely.

Pushing the magical (shadow arts) part of the Thief forward would also be nice: Staff, Scepter, and Focus could all work as utility, support, and/or manipulation weapons.

I agree adding a Rifle. But I also see a place for Axe MH as an executioner’s weapon. Sword offhand would be cool too. Your idea for shadow arts sounds cool, but I don’t really know what it would mean. Shadow arts in GW1 (Assassin) were not really magic-themed, more like occult arts.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Engineer

Hammer is an obvious choice for damage and control. Mace and Torch are also obvious choices. But really – Engineers could plausibly tweak any weapon to meet their needs.

Hammer. Mace MH/OH. I also see Axe OH. :P

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Elementalist

Elementalist could benefit from simply having more weapons available. Anything will do, but MH/OH Sword (single target melee burst and mobility), Torch (OH conditions and control), and some form of bow or rifle (2h ranged single target burst) would probably be the most effective additions.

MH/OH Sword, count me in! Torch is something I didn’t think about, but I think it fits. And my idea is a longbow/shortbow with magical projectiles based on the attunement.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Necromancer

Necromancers need a mobility option as well as strong non-condition builds. I suggest GS (mobility, single target burst), OH Axe, Rifle (Mobility, cooldown-based non-condition burst), and OH Torch (for the condition lovers).

My necro suggestions were a little different. When I picture the necro, I see it as a tendril of Death in this world, a taker of life. Greatsword, Sword MH and Pistol MH all fit this dark theme. Rifle seems a little odd to me though. Axe OH/ Torch OH are possible.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Mesmer

Mesmer weapons are pretty strong overall. I say that they should prioritize new offhands and two-handed weapons to create new and interesting phantasms. Warhorn, Shield, Rifle, SB and/or LB, and, of course, MH Pistol would all be welcome.

I prioritized MH pistol and Longbow/shortbow, both with illusionary effects. I don’t really see Shield, Rifle on a mesmer. Warhorn maybe.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

New Weapon Types

I’d like to see:

Greataxe (Land) – Warrior, Guardian, Ranger, Necromancer

Polearm (Land) – Everyone

Orb (“Two-handed focus”) (Land) – Guardian, Mesmer, Necromancer, Elementalist, Engineer, Thief

Whip/Chain (MH/OH) (Land) – Everyone

Crossbow (Land) – Everyone

Javelin (Land) – Everyone

[/quote]

I think adding new weapon types are something which will have to wait a while longer. They take a lot more work than letting players use existing ones, because making new types of weapons, would require them to make new weapon skins aswell.

No more replies? sniff

Can I ask you… are you serious? Tank/heal are actually more challenging than zerk by far because you don’t have the damage to take down an enemy and you have greater risk of actually dying because you lack damage.

4-letter word: L.A.M.E.

Ahlen.7591:

haviz.1340:

Finnway.2183:

Right now every class in PvE specs for DPS and support and the only valid stat combo is Berserkers.

That’s not the system I expected based on advertisements* and it’s not the way I believe ArenaNet intended it. The game is skill based and hence Berserker will always be the most effective combo, but I do not think they intended running Berserker to be as easy as it is now courtesy of stacking. This ultimately kills build diversity because there is currently a low skill-cap needed to run Berserker so that any average Joe can use it instead of only the top 15% of players.

I’m not asking them to kill Berserkers. I run Berserkers. I understand it is the most effective stat combo and the builds you and your co-members of DnT put out are fantastic. But the low-skill cap needed to use it right now will ultimately kill the PvE side game.

*sources: http://youtu.be/aDyKPXjA9eU?t=1m7s

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/valid
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/optimal

I would have thought you had been told that already.

Gear is only the part of the build diversity. Instead of fixing something that’s not broken anet should improve less used traits, weapons, utilities and revamp few mechanics like reflects, unshakeable and facetanking by pvt elitists because they are very toxic community.

Skill cap isn’t lower when you run berserker’s instead of suboptimal yet still valid gears. The game has innate extremely low skill cap.

I definitely agree with anet improving traits.

Fully half of the traits on my Warrior and on my Engi are completely and utterly useless. For every single build.

There are so many flaws in this game’s combat:
1- Stats bound to traits… come on let us choose traits and stats apart…
2- Stats bound to armour and weapons: goodbye variety
3- No interchangeable weapon skills.
4- Mage classes have long range attack, but at the cost of armour, health and damage, but the game has huge gap closers making long range nearly useless, because you’ll get cut to pieces by a cookiecutter warrior.
5- Health & armour are inequal between classes… without any good reason and with real benefits for the heavy armour classes: warrior/guardian are the most played classes for both PvE as PvP.
6- DPS is the only way to go, though toughness/vit are the secundary stats for everyone who doesn’t run full dps glass cannon.

This creates the situation that people run:

• In PvE: PPr% [Berserker] and in a lesser degree CdPV [Carrion]
• In PvP: PVT [Soldier] or CdVT [Dire], though there are “support” classes such as engi, guardian, ele that do run HPT [Cleric], but they are incredibly weak against any of the aforementioned.

7- PvE bosses require no tactics, making them health bags you want to empty as fast as possible. Defiant and Unshakeable are a part of this. Condi is also less effective.
8- Damage mitigation in the game is passive, making armour redundant above a certain level.
I noticed that if I try to go anywhere above 3,2k armour and 1,4k healing power, the damage on my non-healer who still has easily 2,5k armour is 300% (read 3 times) higher, while my healer has around 20% (read 1/5 times) damage reduction compared to the non-healer.

I could go on rambling like this for hours I guess, but I think the above list takes into account some of the biggest flaws in the combat.

Paulytnz.7619:

Sirendor.1394:

Mhmmm I personally tired of necro rather fast. It doesn’t look extremely cool, doesn’t have a lot of viable weapons (only staff really) and most utilities are a bit lame. Elementalist has a huge range of skills for weapons, due to having 4 attunements, which makes playing them a lot more fun, because it has so many shiny effects and so much variation. I prefer dagger/dagger, but I guess staff has it’s pros too.

O.O

My berserker PVE Necro wants to have a word with you! Lol the utilities are awesome, just use wells (healing as well) and have the trait where they siphon HP from the enemy and you smack them down fast. Axe works well for groups too surprisingly.

Ele is just spam skill 2 while avoiding getting hit, too much effort! :P

Where did I say necro isn’t easy to kill mobs? :P I just don’t really like the theme, too much darkness, not enough colours. That’s why I painted my necro.

I got kicked in dungeons a couple of times because I used to play engineer as main. Now I only ever use warrior, guardian or mesmer and don’t get any trouble anymore. It’s discrimination, but the fault is not with the players, but with the game design.

Swords on necromancer (!!!!). Would look so cool :P

Reserved for further posting.

Classes with least weapons:
- Engineer: 3
- Thief: 4
- Elementalist: 4
- Necromancer: 6
- Mesmer: 7
- Ranger: 8
- Guardian: 9
- Warrior: 9

Classes with least number of combinations:
- Engineer: 3
- Elementalist: 5
- Thief: 10
- Mesmer: 10
- Necromancer: 10
- Ranger: 11
- Guardian: 12
- Warrior: 19

Classes with least weapons skills:
- Thief: 18
- Necromancer: 20
- Mesmer: 24
- Ranger: 29
- Guardian: 30
- Engineer: 37
- Warrior: 39
- Elementalist: 60

Least used weapons:
- Rifle: 2 uses TH
- Longbow: 2 uses TH
- Hammer: 2 uses TH
- Shortbow: 2 uses TH
- Mace: 2 MH, 1 OH
- Torch: 3 uses OH
- Shield: 3 uses OH
- Warhorn: 3 uses OH
- Focus: 4 uses OH
- Staff: 4 uses TH
- Greatsword: 4 uses TH
- Pistol: 2 MH, 3 OH
- Axe: 3 MH, 2 OH
- Dagger: 3 MH, 4 OH
- Sword: 5 MH, 2 OH

Personal additions to existing classes:

• Elementalist: Sword MH, Greatsword, Shortbow
• Engineer: Mace MH, Axe OH, Hammer (tinker themed)
• Guardian: Sword OH, Warhorn OH (blessing themed)
• Mesmer: Pistol MH, Longbow (illusion themed)
• Necromancer: Sword MH, Pistol MH (dark themed)
• Ranger: Sword OH, Pistol MH, Focus OH, Staff (nature themed)
• Thief: Sword OH, Rifle, Axe MH
• Warrior: Staff