Guild Wars 2

JaBlam.7196:

No they are not. earning tiers of gear up to a set that is best in slot, and having that whole list of gear replaced every 4-6 are two totally different things.

So basically what you’re saying is you start off with white gear and green runes / sigils, and you have to unlock the tiers in order?

JaBlam.7196:

If someone is not looking to collect then why not play an action/adventure game?

I personally play MMO’s so I can play with my friends and explore, and yes, I do enjoy a certain amount of theorycrafting. However, that’s more on the ‘how should I build my traits / skills?’ rather than the stat side of things.

My motivations to play games aren’t to collect shinies. Mostly, I only do so if certain content is gated by such requirements.

JaBlam.7196:

You need to read what people are saying more closely. I already stated that it’s not a matter of an infinite gear treadmill. You need to ear a set of gear to be relevant in dungeons don’t you? And you played those a bunch in order to get that gear? (unless you cheaply bought it). Yes, pve gear can be maxed out, but you still have to earn your way to that point.

I was quoting Sir Tripsalot, who mentioned about not letting the gear tiers go any higher.

JaBlam.7196:

All I’m saying is make people earn each of the various sets available for free in the mists. Don’t add more gear every 6 months, just make people start somewhere.

I for one know that “balancing gear” and getting rid of tiered gear is just for the whiners out there. why? because I ENJOY games where I have to work my way up. OH NO, its actually CHALLENGING….???? Not because you can easily beat lower leveled characters, but because it’s satisfyingly to beat someone who has more gear than you do. In WvW people are not balanced at all. Yet more people are playing that.

That’s still a fallacy. Just because more people are playing WvW, it doesn’t mean they’re playing WvW because it’s ‘unbalanced’.

And not really. Leveling up, me and my friends done all dungeons (aside from Arah, which we haven’t done yet) at level appropriate, in a mish-mash of gear (greens, blues and yellows) which we bought. I didn’t feel any sense of achievement in getting that gear; the sense of achievement was gained from completing the content. Just like I had no sense of achievement when I finally maxed my gear out.

I personally don’t see the point in having tiers of gear in SPvP. If you have to start off out at the bottom anyway, you’re going to be up against people who are similarly geared, due to how the match-up system works.

JaBlam.7196:

So again I vote for a new set of 10vs10 battlegrounds, using wvw gear.

The jumping puzzle in WvW will have an area where you can have team fights in your PvE gear.

JaBlam.7196:

Because there’s nothing good to gain from GW2 Battlegrounds. (the Mists) Sure, cosmetic upgrades are a nice BONUS… but that’s just not enough.

I’m not saying re-introduce the gear treadmill, I just saying implement some earn-able tiered gear. I’m not even saying that the best earn-able gear needs to be any better than the best currently available. Just make people earn it. They will love you for it.

These statements are at odds at each other, unless you mean lock all of the sigils and runes behind a Glory cost.

JaBlam.7196:

RPG’s attract a certain type of player. Those who love loot. Those who like building a character into something better, and using that to their advantage. This barely exists in The Mists. I understand wanting to make things fair, but this isn’t supposed to be COD… actually I think there’s more to earn in COD pvp right now…

I can’t say I fully agree with this.

Sure, a lot of players may play it for the loot, but a lot of players play RPG’s for the story and immersive worlds, and couldn’t give two shakes about getting better and better loot. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that Battlegrounds don’t cater to RPG play; you can’t really role-play while in battlegrounds. Rather, they’re like MOBA in the sense that they’re limited in numbers.

JaBlam.7196:

If you don’t already agree with what I’ve said, ask yourself: Why is it that in wow, people avoided large team battles like the plague, while in GW2 far more people play wvwvw? It’s simple. Working hard for a bunch of gear makes an mmo. Otherwise it’s just an arcade game…

Could be a number of other reasons as well:

• People have gotten bored of one game mode in SPvP, whereas WvW has had an addition made.
• WvW could be more people’s preferred choice.
• WvW currently has a league going on.

I for one prefer WvW over SPvP, and it has nothing to do with gear. I couldn’t care less about gear. I’m perfectly happy in my Exotics. I prefer it simply because I’m not limited in how many friends I play with at one time.

Sir Tripsalot.1803:

They would never allow Anet to even consider a progression system going higher than the one there is now. However, that just brings us back to the original problem: the lack of progression.

Except vertical progression where numbers just get bigger is probbaly the shallowest form of progression:

• Bigger numbers =/= more options.
• It’s an illusion of sorts. If your damage goes up by 10, and the enemy’s health goes up by 10, have you really made any progress?

Horizontal progression, where the player gets more options to build the character how they want, and it isn’t necessarily more powerful, is the sort of progression they should be chasing after.

In Beta, the enemies used to move out of and avoid AoE (as in, they’d skirt around it, not run right through it). Not sure what happened.

The aesthetics look similar to the Legionnaire weapons.

Although it could also be a weapon designed specifically for Forgal.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

hmmm okay.

what if there is a option to show them as english words instead of roman numerals.

an option.

i.e. the pop up window shows a list of traits in their english words names.
or whatever language the client is in.

perhaps the roman numerals will finally be replaced with icons once they stop removing and merging traits.

i asked for stats swapping function since 2006 and this function appeared in 2013.
i can wait.

You seem to got this thing stuck in your head that they intend to change the Roman numerals to icons.

Removing, merging and changing traits will never stop happening as long as they keep adding traits, skills, weapons ect. Balance isn’t something that just stops (unless the game is shutting down / going into maintenance mode).

Also, unless they totally revamp the UI, the writing would be incredibly small, considering some of the trait names (eg, Inspiring Battle Standard, Thrill of the Kill, Destruction of the Empowered). Then you got the fact that Minor Trait icons are smaller (although they necessarily don’t need changing, but then you’re breaking the consistency of the UI).

Galtrix.7369:

For the people saying, “Well you don’t have to use the waypoints”, I do have to use them. Is my party for CoF going to wait half an hour for me to walk all the way there? I’d get kicked in the first 5 minutes if I tried that.

In a party, fair enough, but there’s nothing stopping you if you’re on your own.

What if you joined / created a like-minded guild?

Vayne.8563:

TheDaiBish.9735:

I can’t say that I agree that the Roman numerals give an impression of unpolishedness (although the buff on the buff bar, such as Empower Allies, could use an icon, even if it’s just the icon for the stat it boosts).

In terms of usability and friendliness, it’s going to change from player to player. I find the numerals much preferable personally, since I only use them for recording builds, thus I’d much rather write ‘IV’ than a) describe the icon or b) mouse over to find the trait.

Write? You still write? People still write? Holy crap!

I think I’ve forgotten how to use a pen! LOL

Pen? Psh, I use a quill and ink :P

Yeah, I tend to write a lot when number-crunching / getting ideas down / drafting code.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

alphabetical names of traits and graphical icons are much, much more user friendly, easier to remember.

insisting that roman numerals is better is just plain backwards.

Like I said, it’s dependent on the person.

You might prefer pictorial representations, I prefer numerical representation.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the art of the skill icons. I just prefer working with numbers, and not abstract.

I can’t say that I agree that the Roman numerals give an impression of unpolishedness (although the buff on the buff bar, such as Empower Allies, could use an icon, even if it’s just the icon for the stat it boosts).

In terms of usability and friendliness, it’s going to change from player to player. I find the numerals much preferable personally, since I only use them for recording builds, thus I’d much rather write ‘IV’ than a) describe the icon or b) mouse over to find the trait.

Gieniusz Krab.8259:

So… Random bosses????? Sorry man, it’s bad idea.

How so?

I quite like the idea of a dungeon with randomised elements:

• Patrolling mobs
• Mob group composition (i.e. 1st run – Warrior, Ranger, Mesmer; 2nd run – Guardian, Thief, Necromancer)
• Patrolling bosses and randomised boss locations
• Different end goals other than kill the big baddy

Except it should be called the Minstrel

• WvW / PvP / PvE are simply too broad topics; a PvE player could be someone who likes dungeon and hates the open world. Not to mention you have all of the other little topics, such as Character Progression, Crafting, the Economy ect.
• Could potentially lead to an imbalance. For example, the SPvP population is lower than the PvE population. While the SPvP will be more focused on things, PvE will get more input.
• What if a player plays 2 or more game-modes equally? Or what if a player has feedback for a particular game-mode concerning issues that made them stop playing that particular content?
• I personally don’t think that players should actually dictate what will be in the next patch, since we don’t actually know what tools are available to Anet. Patience is another factor. Thus, devs should look at the most workable ideas first that could be pumped out relatively quickly (no additional tools needed developing ect), while a small team problem-solve on some of the bigger ideas / issues.
• In terms of bug-fixing, you’ll never get rid of 100% of bugs, and introducing new code can always affect something that was fine before (look at the falling Chaos Storm bug). Not to mention you simply can’t expect the content creators to stop what they’re doing while bugs get fixed, since they’re getting paid to work.
• As for balance, you’ll never get the player base to agree on what is balanced and what isn’t. I dubbed it the Grass Is Greener Syndrome; your class will always feel underpowered. Sometimes this is legitimate, sometimes it isn’t.

They could have easily collected data in the form of a clickable poll:

1) Divide it into sections (PvE / WvW / PvP / Game Mechanics / Polish ect).
2) Give players the chance to choose 3 out of, say, 5 topics OR have 5 topics, and get players to number in what they consider to be the most important. These topics are initially decided by what the devs feel could be expanded on the most.
3) Collate the data, and then have a discussions on them 5 topics in order of perceived importance.
4) At the end of each discussion, release a blog post outlining the main concerns for each of them areas, and what Anet could potentially do to help these areas of concern. Maybe pop in some exceptional suggestions by players. After the first blog post, devs write any progress / complications they’ve made on issues from the previous blog post.

WvW

Maps

• Will we be seeing more maps in the future? Maybe have a bank of maps that get selected from at random at the beginning of each map? Probably reaching out here a bit, but what about procedurally generated, destructible maps? The destruction wouldn’t matter so much, since there’ll be a new map the next match anyway
• The possibility of giving players tools to create WvW maps? Exploiting could be combated by only allowing players to create the map; devs would do the placing of the structures or point locations (in reference to my next point), and the beginning of each match would have the world map completely misted over

Sandbox

• Possibly removing a lot of the pre-constructed elements in favour of player-created constructions (keeps, towers ect)?

PvE

AI

• Is there any way you could improve AI so that mobs act more like players and mobs work together? (Possible suggestion: Give mobs the exact same tools players have (utilities, traits, combo fields and finishers ect)

Open World Fights

• Improving the scaling? (Suggestion: would it be possible to tie the scaling to the mechanics for each of these fights, instead of just damage and health? For example, with 18 players, Shatterer has 6 healing Crystals, with 24 he’ll have 9 crystals. I feel this could allow revamped fights like Tequatl to not require as many players, but still become challenging when there are more players)
• More revamps like Tequatl? (I may be in the minority with this, but these types of fights that require some form of organisation and communication are good for the community)

Instanced content

• Possible to make instanced content less linear and predictable? (patrolling mobs and bosses, a more open layout [something akin to a mini open-world map] end goals other than beat the big baddy, puzzle solving ect)

New skills and traits

• How will these be unlocked? (Hunting them out vs just gaining skill points and unlocking them)

Community

Player Generated Content

• Player competitions a la GW1? (Armour, Weapons ect)
• Map building tools (for WvW, mini-dungeons ect)

Polish and Friendly UX

• More comprehensive search function in the TP? (Armour type, for example)
• Adjustable UI?
• Dual Trait setups, savable templates ect

lordkrall.7241:

How can you NOT know what is abuse and/or personal attacks?

“I find this release bad because of this, this and this” = Alright

“I find this release bad because ArenaNet’s devs are useless and don’t have a clue about what they are doing” = Personal attacks.

He didn’t say he didn’t know the difference.

He’s saying ultimately it’s not up to him to decide. Yes, you have the black and the white, but the grey areas in between could go either way.

I think the best advice is to criticise the content, not the developer.

Skan.5301:

So, basically, negative criticism isn’t allowed anymore? Because when you get down to it, NC is a jab at the people who made it, who are part of the ANet staff. And since the post is very broad in it’s description, this could very well fall under it. Even if the poster didn’t mean for it to be that way, any moderator could take it as such and dish out undeserving punishment.

Not to mention the end part makes it seem like it’s a no rules barred dictator style moderation in effect here.

You see negative criticism as a personal jab. I personally see it as an opportunity to improve. Since that article by Raph seems to be pretty popular at the moment:

You are not your work.

Above all, don’t forget this. Oh, be personally invested, of course. Your art will be poorer if you are not. But every little ship we launch is just our imperfect crafting of the moment. And we move on. We create again, and again. Each can only ever express a fragment, a tiny fraction of ourselves. And if you are trying to always improve in your craft and your art, then every old fragment, everything out there in the world already, that’s old news. You are on the next thing. Your next work, that’s who you are. Not the work that exists, but the work that does not yet.

So if someone savages it, who cares? That was yesterday. It’s not who you are now.

Hold on to that, because a lot of people can’t separate the work from the artist. Including a lot of artists.

It’s entirely possible to give negative criticism without saying things like ‘Anet don’t know what they’re doing’.

For example:

“I feel that dungeons at the moment feel like a grind because they’re just re-skinned versions of the same thing; go in, beat the big boss.

Dungeons could be improved greatly if:

• They had a more open layout – something akin to an open world map.
• Mobs had packs and roamed – purposely introduce disadvantageous places for people to fight, so players pay attention to location.
• Introduce a variety of goals other than ‘beat the big baddy’; acquire intel / artifacts, maybe have a dungeon that doesn’t focus on combat so much as exploration and puzzle solving."

Criticism without attacking.

I can imagine your character there, shaking his / her walking stick, muttering ‘kids these days…’

xephire.8324:

TheDaiBish.9735:

xephire.8324:

TheDaiBish.9735:

xephire.8324:

TheDaiBish.9735:

xephire.8324:

So rangers should be renamed as summoners now.

If you’re replying to the guy above you, I don’t know what to say…

You just replied my post.

I was referring to you mentioning Rangers when the guy above was mentioning Minion Masters.

Well you just said something.

I can’t tell if you’re trolling me, or you genuinly don’t understand what I’m saying.

Well let me clarify,what i meant with ranger is classes that generally use range attacks like necromancers.Sorry if i misled you.

Ahh.

I got confused because the one mentioned a Minion Master build, and then you went on to mention Rangers.

xephire.8324:

TheDaiBish.9735:

xephire.8324:

TheDaiBish.9735:

xephire.8324:

So rangers should be renamed as summoners now.

If you’re replying to the guy above you, I don’t know what to say…

You just replied my post.

I was referring to you mentioning Rangers when the guy above was mentioning Minion Masters.

Well you just said something.

I can’t tell if you’re trolling me, or you genuinly don’t understand what I’m saying.

xephire.8324:

TheDaiBish.9735:

xephire.8324:

So rangers should be renamed as summoners now.

If you’re replying to the guy above you, I don’t know what to say…

You just replied my post.

I was referring to you mentioning Rangers when the guy above was mentioning Minion Masters.

xephire.8324:

So rangers should be renamed as summoners now.

If you’re replying to the guy above you, I don’t know what to say…

Boomstin.3460:

Free stuff = good patch

fail

Reading comprehension.

He / she said thanks for the free stuff and a good patch, not the patch is good because of the free stuff.

Wolfheart.1938:

P.s. all MMOs’ stories will never be centered solely on player character for the simple reason that there are millions of them. See GW1 stories, or GW2 salad campaign

IMO, they should have stopped the Personal Story after joining an Order, since that’s when the transition from personal story to overarching story takes place.

I dunno.

From what I read of the Collaborative Dev thread, they seem to want to focus on discussing one issue at a time.

IMO, this would be a better way of approaching it. Instead of being bombarded with hundreds of different complaints / suggestions to do with things totally unrelated, they can focus on one topic at a time and, if possible, provide more in-depth answers on that topic, instead of trying to spread themselves out over multiple topics (and as we can see, “It’s something we’ll look into” and the like isn’t an adequate answer for a lot of forum people).

At the end of the day, when devs are in work, they’re being paid to work on the game. If they have to try and answer and reply to multiple topics to keep everyone happy, then they have less time to do what they’r being paid to do.

However, what the forum mods and community team could do is monitor which threads are generating a lot of discussion, and then pass them over to the devs to do a focused discussion on.

Firstly, your English is outstanding, so you don’t need to worry there

Secondly, there’s a difference between ‘complexity’ and ‘depth’. Complexity is how many parts there are to that system, while Depth is how much you can get out of an individual part and how you arrange them. Complexity doesn’t necessarily add depth either; it kind of tags along as you add depth.

As well as this, the human brain can only process so many calculations per second. In a slower game such as GW and WoW, you have the time to think out your next move. Since GW2 is more based on twitch and reaction, is generally faster paced, and effects (such as Stuns) are generally shorter, you can’t have the same amount required thought processes per second.

However, that’s just semantics.

All in all, I agree.

In GW1, there were many skills that had additional effects based on what affects were on the target. For example, Elementalist’s had an Elite called Shatterstone, which applied a Water Hex for 3 seconds. From that, you could follow up with:

• Glowing Ice – As well as dealing damage, it restored X amount of Energy.
• Teinai’s Crystals – Would deal extra damage and apply Cracked Armour. Following the Cracked Armour application, you could follow up with any number of skills that utilized the Cracked Armour Effect. For example, Teinai’s Prison would apply a Health Degen effect, while Shock Arrow would return Energy.

Of course, there were longer lasting Water Hexes, such as Rust.

However, that seems to have been taken out in favour of Traits.

For example, the Warrior trait Distracting Strikes, which applies Confusion on interrupt. In GW1, that effect would have been tied into the skill usage.

Mine is Anyta Landy:

• Anyta from Anita Blake of the Vampire Hunter series (she’s a Necromancer).
• Landy from the author of Skulduggery Pleasant, Derek Landy (the main character, Skulduggery Pleasant, is an undead Mage inhabiting a skeleton).

1. Spectral Skill cooldown trait is pointless, since you have no spectral skills on your bar.
2. For conditionmancer, Epidemic is pretty much the best skill in your kitten nal for dealing with groups. However, conditions in the open world either a) don’t get enough up-timesince other people will be joining in group events, or b) take longer to kill the enemy than a power build. However, it’s your choice if you don’t mind the slightly slower kill speed.
3. From what I’ve heard, MM is good until level 30.
4. Not many enemies block while moving in PvE, meaning you could lay the marks down, then pull the enemy onto the stacked marks, meaning you can leave that trait out.

All in all, for a MM build, I’d say:

Level 11 – 39

Weapons: Axe + Focus / Staff (Lay down marks, then use Reaper’s Touch to pull. Stacks Vulnerability, increasing damage of Minions further, as well as the damage of the Marks)

Skills: Blood Fiend, Bone Fiend and Shadow Fiend at level 10. Flesh Golem at level 30.

10 in Death Magic first (Minion Master trait)
10 in Spite (Spiteful Talisman)

Level 40 – 59

20 in Spite ( Spiteful Talisman and Training of the Master)
20 in Death Magic (Minion Master)
The rest in Blood Magic (Mark of Evasion)

Then, for Conditionmancer:

60 – 80

Weapons: Scepter + Dagger / Staff

Skills: Consume Conditions, Epidemic, Plague Signet / Signet of the Locust, Blood is Power, Plague (The self conditions should either be sent to the enemy or used to boost Consume Conditions)

30 points in Curses first (Hemophilia, Master of Corruption, Lingering Curse)
10 in Blood Magic (Dagger Mastery)
20 points in Spite (Signet Mastery, Spiteful Marks)
10 in Death Magic (Staff Mastery)

Notes

• Make sure to use Death Shroud, since that gives you access to the Torment condition.

I like the idea of crafting skins.

I don’t think they should be dungeon skins though (unless you need that 200 token thing to craft a piece; it still shows you’ve done the dungeon then).

As well as crafting skins, what about being able to re-stat and item?

Item + Inscription + Dark Matter + Some Dust = Restatted item to that Inscription’s Stats (material requirements just an example)

Firstly, your Zerg build will be different to your Roaming build.

In zergs, you don’t have to worry as much about Swiftness (there’s always some being thrown about). However, what you should bring is group utility (banners, shouts, blast finishers for Might stacking ect) and a weapon that can hit a lot of enemies at once (Greatsword, Axe Offhand, Longbow) while dealing respectable damage.

In roaming, you’re going to want to take a stub-breaker or two (Endure Pain, Balanced Stance, Frenzy, SIO!, Stomp, Dolyak Signet) for the 1v1 encounters. As well as this, try to bring some CC (Immobilise, KnockDown, Stun) to set up for Eviscerate. Swiftness is also handy.

Taking these into consideration, you’ll also want a Trait setup that allows you to switch between the builds if you decide you want to do one or the other and not port back into town to reset them.

Second, what do you want to do? More steady damage with survivability? Crits for big numbers? This will determine your trait and gear setup (weapon choice, runes, sigils ect).

How about instead of removing it, add skills that cause some sort of Frozen Ground effect from GW1?

Dead can’t revive, Downed revive at a reduced rate and can’t activate skill 4.

Rama.6439:

NEGATIVE FEEDBACK ON THE FORUMS IS NOT ALOUD!

Handling of Ascended Weapons was atrocious

Anet totally forgot GW1 fans?

Is this game fixable?

Things I don’t like in GW2

Bosses got harder, loot is still meh

Despite promise, still no carrion ascended

Please don’t make us craft Ascended armour

Ascended Armour impressions

Condition Catastrophe

The only time I’ve seen threads (both positive and negative) get shut down is when they’re whining threads, are discussing another game, or have devolved into a ’I’m right you’re wrong’ match.

Shelledfade.6435:

Yaki.9563:

Shelledfade.6435:

it would have made more sense to make 10-man dungeons with more difficult content.

It’s hard to respect your opinion when you think that just having more people makes a dungeon/raid harder.

There’s only so much you can do when the game has no trinity. Making things require more coordination with more people is the only thing they can do to increase difficulty, otherwise its all the same, dodge when you’re supposed to dodge. Rinse and repeat.

Honestly the only way I see them making things more difficult is to release content that is more of the same just longer, or requires more coordination to complete. You can only do so much when there is no trinity (heal/tank).

The Trinity and raiding itself is more a logistical exercise of getting a group together and getting them all on the same page when it comes to fights. There’s nothing inherently difficult about the content other than making sure you dance the right steps. Pretty much like every PvE content out there.

You have no less ability to make interesting fights and fights with a variety of mechanics with no Trinity than you do with the Trinity.

With no rigid role structure such as this, role mechanics can be built into the fight itself instead of needing certain classes. For example;

• Players need to keep the boss in a certain AoE zones in order to be able to damage him. Any class with pulls, knockbacks, immobilizes are useful here. A thief can do this with Scorpion Wire / Basilisk Venom, an Engi can bring a net turret / glue shot ect ect.

• Boss creates structures that create progressively bigger AoE’s. While 2 players destroy these, the other 3 have to keep the boss busy. Maybe when these AoE’kitten the boss, it stacks Might and Fury, meaning Boon Stripping as well as Damage Mitigation will be useful.

DanH.5879:

is there a TL DR version ?

Devs are going to be holding discussions about issues the community feels need fixing / improving. I.E., Condition cap in PvE, Ascended Gear, RNG

Erick Alastor.3917:

TheDaiBish.9735:

snip

I like the idea of RP the thing, but at the same time I believe that it would be better if taken in a classic manner, mainly because players need to understand clearly what they are facing.
Metaphors, roundabout expression, all these things can be quite misleading, even in a traditional form a survey can be misleading, so I’m for a standard format.
But I lolled

Yeah. I just had the urge for a bit of creativity lol.

Convenience should also be taken into consideration, since players are more likely to be inclined to fill a survey out if they don’t have to go out of their way to do it.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Safari.3021:

In game Polls:

Barmen.

You talk to a barman in a tavern, they chat yto you, ask you questions, you give your responses.

Anet get their poll.
Player recieves tankard of ale for their time.

Encourage participation by making “visit tavern for a drink” a daily achievement when a poll is needed

haha this makes ingame polls actually immersive, nice idea Only problem I can think of: how do you make the connection between the things you want to ask about (a specific event etc.) and the dialogue?

NPC: “Grab a seat, I’ll pull up a drink for you. Heard news at the Splintered Coast is pretty bad. One of the Dragon’s lieutenants seems to be getting stronger”

Player: “Yep, you wouldn’t catch me there” [didn’t participate] / “I was actually there in the fight” [participated].

NPC [if participated]: “Really?! I bet it was a close fight.”

Player: “Psh. A walk in the park for someone like me” [easy] / “Well, it was a sight more difficult than the usual fights I get into” [medium] / “You have no idea. Bodies. Bodies everywhere” [hard].

NPC: “Really…Fancy talking about it?”

Player: “Sure” [brings up a text box] / “Not really, it’d probably bore you” [if answer was easy] / “I’m trying to forget it, why do you think I’m here?” [hard]

NPC: “Truly a thrilling tale” [text box filled] / “No problem, I understand” [text box not filled]

NPC: “Here you go. This drink is on the house.”

Or something along those lines.

I personally haven’t got anything against instanced raiding as content.

I’d much rather see the big world bosses and existing dungeons get revamps and additions like Tequatl (which is very much a raid, just not instanced) though, along with things like:

• Improved AI (mobs work together, given the same tools as players ect)
• More dynamics (boss moves around, patrols of enemies, different objectives other than ‘kill the big baddie’ ect)

before they bring in another set of content that they have to fix / keep adding to.

However, I don’t think BiS should be exclusive to raids. Exclusive skins / titles / crafting recipes and associated mats, sure, but remember, PvE gear also affects WvW, and not all WvWers like to PvE.

Maybe a progression that’s exclusive to that raid? I.E Reduced damage from Evil McBadguy and his minions. It’s progression exclusive to that raid, and doesn’t affect other game modes.

As for segregation, I think their referring to the number of players playing together. If you have an open world, why shuffle people into small hubs with only [insert number here] other people? Open world raiding brings people together.

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

TL:DR – Turn Living World content into Sandbox content

This would be great.

And don’t just limit it to PvE; WvW would benefit greatly from sandbox features greatly, IMO.

Timze.7980:

Making in-game polls would definitely make me feel better as knowing that they would do things that majority of players wants them to do.
You could ask in polls something about the future of the game:
How you would like the game to go on?
– Continue with living story.
– Polish the core game (PvE)
– Polish the core game (PvP/WvW)
– …

Anyway, definitely add in-game polls. (daily/weekly/monthly polls)

To define it into reachable goals and a less ambiguous answer (for example, there are many parts to PvE), devs from each game mode could take a look at what fixes / improvements could be made that would be relatively quick and simple to do, and include them as the poll options.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

When anet stated during Eurogamer there wouldn’t be anymore zones, a part of me died.

Any more zones full stop, or any more zones this year?

SilverWF.4789:

This is about PVE again, not PvP

I thought it was about WvW?

More Maps

Create a bank of maps, in which 3 Borderland maps are chosen at random at the beginning of each match, and also blank out the World Map (except your base, of course), only unlocking sections of it as you roam in a radius around you (kind of like GW1).

This creates variety, as well as increases the importance of roaming (to explore as much as the map as possible in as little time as possible).

So, for example, one borderland might be a series of narrow cliffs and valleys, while another might be flat plains with an underground network of tunnels and caverns.

Maybe create a Mastery where if someone specialises in roaming, for example:

Scouting Mastery

• Rank 1 – Increases the amount of map that is unlocked around you by x / y / z.
• Rank 2 – Produce 2 maps to send to people to uncover more of their map (x / y / z minute cooldown)
• Rank 3 – Stealth for up to a minute, as long as you stay still (x / y / z cooldown)

Players as Builders

Replace the current system to have areas that give points, depending on their size and give players the freedom to build their own structures (shape, size ect), not only at these points, but at others where players might feel it would give an advantage.

These building components would require two different resources – stone and wood. Maybe have certain supply camps that produce these resources when taken.

Imagi.4561:

Since the discussion has moved to UI and customer feedback, I’d like to bring up a related suggestion: reinstating the in-game bug report function, which we had during betas.

The current method of bug reporting—by going to either the various forum threads or through the official, separate support network—is rather circuitous, and reinstating the in-game function would give ArenaNet more qualitative and quantitative information on errors.

You can bug report ingame.

Go to the main menu, and go to Support. There’s an option for bug reporting there.

I run a Hybrid Power / Condition Necro, with more of a focus on direct damage.

That way, when full stacks of condition have been reached, I can spread them around, and switch to my damaging weapon-set to my damage doesn’t suffer as much as if I went full Condition.

This build has the best potential when you’re in an organised group, and you’re the only one stacking conditions. However, thanks to the focus on DD, you aren’t as limited in unorganized play either, such as world bosses.

Link to the Build is here

Notes on Trait Selection

• Usually, I’d go for Dhuumfire. With the 70% Condition Duration, Burning stays applied for around 7 seconds, meaning usually you’ll only have around 3 seconds of Burning downtime. However, this should be swapped out for Close to Death for those immune to Burning (such as Destroyers), for obvious reasons, and maybe single target fights, since the Burning is more useful when you can spread it around, and given the health-pools of bosses, 20% damage increase constant will help the fight go a little faster.
• Reaper’s Might and Unyielding Blast ensure damage upkeep while in DS. Not to mention that Might won’t go to waste when you exit DS. However, if you don’t want to use these traits for whatever reason, I’d recommend Spiteful Talisman (more frequent Focus attacks) and putting the 10 in Blood for Dagger Mastery (more frequent blind and condition removal; more useful in builds that lean more towards Conditions that don’t make use of the Crit Damage).

Notes on Skill Selection

• In single-target fights, Epidemic can be swapped out with Plague Signet, giving you the ability to support team-mates with passive condition removal every 3 seconds, as well as giving you another way of sending conditions to your target, or boosting the power of your heal.

• Corrupt Boon is a utility you could take instead of Well of Suffering if you want to lean more towards the Condition side of things, as this also gives you access to a quick condition spread if timed right (Corrupt Boon > Epidemic).

Notes on Gear

As mentioned, this build leans more towards the Direct Damage side of things. However, a few alterations to gear can help you lean more towards the Conditions:

• Change Rampager gear to Carrion.
• Swap the Runes for 3 x Rune of the Krait and 3 x Rune of the Afflicted. These give you extra Bleeding upkeep, making it easier to stack them.
• Change the Gems to Carrion or Rampager gems (extra crit chance for the Barbed Precision Trait)

Rotation

There isn’t a set rotation as such. However:

• Keep your condition transfer skills and heal until after using BiP and Epidemic.
• This build stacks Vulnerability incredibly easy (Axe Auto, Focus 4, Well of Suffering, condition transfer after Epidemic). As such, wait until 25 stacks, then keep using Axe 2 whenever it is off cooldown and you have a fair amount of bleed stacks on the target.
• Use DS whenever available, since it’s also a good way of stacking Might and Vulnerability, as well as giving access to Torment.

My Necro, Anyta Landy. Her look is unoriginal, sure, but why fix what isn’t broken?

Weapons:

• Maw of the Dammed (Axe) and Adam (Focus)
• Tribal Scepter and Tribal Dagger

Armour

• Norgu’s Armour

Dyes

• Caustic Dye
• Blood Dye
• Jalapeno Dye

Hairstyle from Makeover Kit

TooBz.3065:

I haven’t played an MMO with a trinity before, but tanking doesn’t make sense to me.

Why would creatures focus on the tank instead of the glass DPS or the glass healer. We all know in games it’s better to knock down the number of attackers rather than the toughest guy.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/09/21

It’s a little known secret that the Tank calls the bosses mum very nasty things.

What they do is run up, hit them in the face and yell ‘Oi, Zhaitan, yer mums a beep!’, which causes tunnel vision in the boss.

I have to take issue with your definition of what a ‘role’ is.

To me, a ‘role’ is your purpose in the group, and not class distinction and dependency on certain classes for content.

With this definition, you can have roles without resorting to making specific classes a specific profession, by creating content with ‘roles’ built into the fight itself.

Not only does this not exclude certain classes, but it also allows for a wider variety of ‘role’ mechanics. Depending on what these mechanics are can also potentially incorporate greater teamwork than the Trinity, as well as a more dynamic role system (as in, players roles change in the fight).

So, for example, reworking the CoF Effigy fight, you have 3 main mechanics:

• 5 crystals, each of which apply damage reduction between 50% and 100%, as well as granting the regen effect, depending on how many are active. The reason for the added damage reduction is so that players cannot easily bruteforce the mechanic. Destroying these crystals inflicts a stacking debuff that increases the damage and duration of any Burning applied. Non cleansable. Lets call it Searing Crystal Radiation.
• On occasion, 2 other crystals drop that do progressively bigger AoE waves(so say the first is 200 radius, then 360 ect until eventually you have two overlapping AoE’) every x seconds, that deals damage and causes Burning and, if the AoE hits the boss, grants Might.

In this fight, you have a number of roles:

• Crystal clearing duty – both the damage reduction crystals and the AoE crystals. The stacking debuff means that players have to communicate who’s available for this role.
• Condition removal – Because of the frequency of the Burning condition, and how dangerous it can be to those with the debuff on them. However, simply spamming the condition removal will result in periods where you don’t have it when you’ll need it most. This is more of a fast-paced role that can be dedicated to one person, or spread amongst players.
• Boss Control – to stop the boss going after the ones who are destroying the crystals. Immobilise, Cripple, Chilled ect.
• Boss DPS – Hitting the boss. Simple enough.

Hellissane.3041:

They ragequit and 5/6 of the guys i knew are still out of the game because of the reasons described above. For fixing bugs – i do know how frustrating is, but this is not a matter of want or don’t want to. For successful PvP this is a need. And that was the point of the thread why don’t they cover the “needs” of the game?!?

As for the game not being engaging bad/good thing – well Anet created the game with this idea and its successful. Also no other “good” MMO is made this way so i guess this can be counted as good addition to the game, rather than a bad. Even though its 50:50 for the gaming community – we’re talking about the game itself.

P.S. specific examples for fix? We have no actual idea how things work below – saying a solution for something that is actually a different thing than we immagine it is pointless.

1. That’s anecdotal evidence at best. I’d have said more people have quit over expectations not being metand dissatisfaction over direction.

2. I think the word you’re looking for is ‘invested’.

3. I’m using them examples specificaaly because that’s how it works. Look at Anet’s job description for Game Designer and Tool Developer.

Justdeifyme.9387:

Yeah uhm… I don’t know if you heard about that but… there maaaaaaay be some people that play this game to have fun, not to be the most efficent. Sounds weird to you I know, but it’s true!

Lies! ALL LIES!

I wouldn’t say a game not being engaging is a good thing.

As for bugs, anyone with a working knowledge of programming will know how frustrating ironing bugs out can be.

It’s a lot easier to create content (since they use tools as opposed to programming it) than debugging (since you got to isolate and fix the problem, as well as test to make sure that the fix doesn’t affect any other part of the game).

Levels are simply a representation of your character’s growth. It isn’t meaningless, as such, but

However, what I feel devs need to do is disguise it better; instead of simply having a numerical value that goes up, have some sort of other indication that your level has gone up. I personally can’t think of another way from the top of my head.

Another thing they could do is reward mastery of a particular weapon. As it is now, we unlock weapon skills per kill (the higher your level, the quicker they unlock). Another form of this type of progression could be using skills appropriately.

So, for example, let’s take a Warrior with a Mace. Using Skull Crack to interrupt the enemy x number of times would eventually add the additional effect of using less adrenaline / would add a 2 second Daze after the stun wears off / deal Critical Damage ect. Hell, maybe players could unlock all of these additional effects depending on what they interrupt (say, if target is moving, or target is under the effects of Immobilize ect), and then slot them as they wish.

Another example could be fighting an NPC with a particular weapon, and the NPC has a skill that you can learn off of him. Successfully countering that skill allows you to learn it. So, say an NPC has the skill Finishing Blow (deals Critical Damage if target is on the floor) for Greatsword. A successful counter would be avoiding the knockdown and then attacking him while he’s still in the animation process.

It’s progression that shows effective use of skills, and understanding how to counter said skills.

Azure Prower.8701:

Scarlet shows her true form!

That’s not even her final form!