Guild Wars 2

It’s from the Guild Wars Nightfall soundtrack, since I recall hearing it during some battles in that game but I am not sure of the title.

Two more of my thief, Miranda Kerry.

They are tradeable.

This would be so nice. Do want.

Low supply + high demand = what you see here.

I am aware that some things are split. However, this bifurcation could both be made clearer and better explained in some instances. For one, indicating a PVP split with a (PVP) like in GW1 would be very helpful.

When balancing skills for PVP (which seems to be the primary reasons skill changes are being made, e.g. Pistol Whip, Mesmer phantasms and cooldowns) wouldn’t it be more appropriate to just change how those skills behave in PVP? Nobody has been running a gimmicky all thief/pistol whip build in PVE groups or dungeons, therefore it’s a non-issue in PVE and undeserving of a 15% damage decrease that actually gives the S/P auto-attack higher DPS (this was tested).

There are some revealing outfits for men (mostly light and heavy armor, not sure about medium). See them here: http://dulfy.net/2012/08/11/skimpy-armors-in-gw2a-list/#3

The overall design philosophy for armors in GW2 was to maintain a balance between realism and fantasy. I think they’ve done alright, but more options wouldn’t hurt.

I do remember seeing a cloth outfit in which a man was practically bare chested.

GW1 had it. Not sure why GW2 doesn’t.

The 3rd one is a rather expensive outfit. The top is T3 human cultural medium, bottom and shoes are Vigil/Order of Whispers. Gloves and shoulders are duelist. For all practical purposes, it is endgame.

Light armor probably has the most revealing options out of all.

http://imageshack.us/a/img191/1294/gw22012102210380431.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img687/4379/gw22012102210372124.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img547/7708/gw22012102210504558.png

I’m not dismissing your points. I believe the ideas are worth considering for some other title. However, I believe you are vastly underestimating the amount of work required to bring your idea to fruition. Splitting skills and balancing for PVE/PVP is easier than redesigning the PVE experience.

The consequences of your suggestion are hypotheticals. Bot effectiveness might be reduced, but the way I see it bots will just adapt to using more balanced builds and slightly more sophisticated coding instead of just spamming ranger/bear (as we currently see). TERA Online, by use of a manual targeting system, was expected to have fewer bots, but people adapted by using software that was like an aimbot. Bots are designed by humans, and humans are very adaptable.

PVE might be more fun for some people, but I know that there are many people who would get equally frustrated by enemies that emulate player tactics and skills. So whether or not that is more fun is still uncertain. It’s something that needs to be tested extensively, with a large amount of feedback gathered on it to refine it before it can be rolled out.

The need to balance one set of skills for the entire game might be a bit more possible, but I still think there would be specific PVP related balance issues that might not translate in PVE because there are fundamental differences between the two playstyles, even if you make PVE emulate PVP.

Splitting skills only needs to be done when a particular ability is imbalanced in PVP or underperforming in PVE. Most skills are adequate with a few exceptions. Your suggestion would require redesigning (adding more skills, changing health, dps, adding new AI to enable them to kite etc) almost every monster in every zone and instance.

It’s a lot of work Arenanet is not willing to make. I say the consequence is uncertain, uncertain in the sense that its effect on player enjoyment is unknown. High level concepts like making PVE more like PVP have to start from the ground up, during game development. They can’t be implemented after the fact.

I’d be wary of saying anything like this, as in my experience, it tends to rile up a lot of feminists and lead to a flamewar.

That said, it’s possible to create “sexy” looking medium armor but the choices are a bit limited. Here are a few pictures of my thief with a look you might like.

http://imageshack.us/a/img7/9090/gw22012102209225841.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img405/7360/gw22012102209223634.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img255/5924/gw22012102209220988.png

Nurvus, the level of work you are suggesting is not something Arenanet is going to put into this game. They are not going to make a radical change with an uncertain consequence. It’s an idea that would have to be part of the design process at the very beginning, so a future game might implement this idea. The idea itself, of making enemy NPCs more engaging, is not bad but it’s unlikely to happen.

WvW is coordinated (perhaps minimally, but nonetheless). The fact that players even mass up to launch attacks on outposts and keeps is some level of coordination, as it indicates purpose. Should enemy NPCs mass up when they spawn and hunt down players, eventually attacking outposts when they reach a large enough size? Nobody is passive in PVP.

In addition, enemies would have to attack substantially faster (give them DPS equal to players of the same level). For this, rewards for killing them would have to increase a lot since they’d be much harder to kill.

You can do that for an individual enemy and it might work, but how will you coordinate a mob of those enemies? Also, what will these enemies be doing in their downtime not fighting players? Will they just be standing around? Nobody stands around in PVP, they are always moving and doing something. To that end, if you want to make PVE more like PVP it is necessary to implement a broader level strategic AI that coordinates enemy movement.

Try to please everyone, and you will please no-one.

I’m all for getting rid of filters entirely. Screw polite sensibilities.

Anyway, nurvus, to make PVE and PVP more similar would require a fundamental redesign of the game. First, it would probably mean completely eliminating all kinds of high HP, high damage bosses in dungeons and world events. Those simply don’t exist in this game’s PVP. Second, it would require substantially improving the AI and tactics of enemies. On a programming level, this would certainly be revolutionary but it would also be incredibly difficult. You would have to replicate the strategic thinking of a human and implement some sort of broad level AI to coordinate attacks, like in an RTS, but you’d also have to write some tactical level AI that makes an individual enemy as challenging to fight as a human being. I don’t think that has ever been done before in an MMO.

What you’re suggesting is not a bad idea for another game to try, it’s that it’s not for Guild Wars 2 and it’s too late to try implementing it. It’s like taking a concept from an FPS or fighter game and transplanting it into a massive, online context. Imagine having enemies with the skill and reflexes of the most advanced Unreal Tournament bots, being guided by the strategic coordination of the most advanced StarCraft AI, in an MMO context. The idea is no doubt fascinating but I do not think it will be realized within the next few years. Give it another decade or two for technology to catch up to that vision.

PVE and PVP require fundamentally different playstyles though. Running a dungeon or a DE where you get zerged by mobs is not comparable to any sort of PVP situation. Furthermore, some skills and effects that may be strong in PVE may not be worth much in PVP and vice versa. Mesmers are considered a dominant class in PVP but compared to an engineer or warrior they have far more difficulty dealing large, sustained AoE damage in PVE. I have a mesmer and I am certainly capable of dealing large damage with shatters, but an engineer with the grenade kit can just spam 1 and do the same or better damage. That is all, of course, in PVE. I haven’t heard anyone calling the grenade kit overpowered in a PVP context.

You seem to be acting under the assumption that OP skill in PVP = OP skill in PVE. This cannot be farther from the truth. An OP skill in PVP is an OP skill in PVP and has absolutely no relation to PVE.

For instance, look at the current complaining surrounding Thieves. Heartseeker, then Pistol Whip got nerfed, but all of the complaining was occurring in the context of a PVP environment. Neither of these skills really needed that kind of nerf in PVE, in which they just got weaker for no apparent reason. Heartseeker spam in PVE is just silly. You could do more damage to more targets by pulling a group of 3 with sword/pistol and black powder tanking them. If you try it in a dungeon, it will not only do little damage against a boss, it will probably get you killed as well. Haste+pistol whip burst damage is less useful in PVE where you generally want sustained damage. That build requires slotting 2 of your utilities as Haste and Devourer venom, and there are much more useful skills and builds for general, open world PVE.

In fact, I’d say that Haste for thieves is a pretty worthless skill in PVE outside of a few, VERY specific instances. In PVE, you are generally better off leaving quickness to being proc’d on a sigil or your tier 2 critical strikes trait than using it on a utility slot for which there are better alternatives.

Currently, people are complaining about Assassin’s signet+backstab, which is probably going to get nerfed. Again, nobody uses backstab builds in PVE because the amount of downtime between setting up your backstab spike damage with AS is just too long to be practical. It’s meaningless to nearly 1 shot a trash mob and have to wait 36 seconds for AS and your venoms to recharge when you could pull a group of 3 with a sword/pistol, black powder the area, and hit all 3 at once. But black powder tanking is a strategy that does not work in PVP unless your opponent is absolutely stupid and doesn’t move.

All of the Ravaging Pirate level 40 rares are selling for obscene amounts – higher than level 80 rares in fact.

There are a lot of realistic armor options. Most of the starter heavy armor is consistent with what has been used historically. http://i.imgur.com/cdzGI.jpg

The issue however, is that you could buy the rune and a cheaper, same looking equivalent and it would cost less. Maybe the item has some special property we don’t know.

I do not understand why anyone would place such a high a value on this item though, considering that there are much cheaper substitutes.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/1789

I just sold one of these for 69s on the TP (62 after taxes). Is there a reason this item is selling for so much? It’s just a random midlevel rare that has many cheaper duplicates of the same skin.

My Thief does quite well in Orr events. Shortbow cluster bomb spam is very damaging and you won’t run out of initiative too quickly if you build yourself right.

To some people, the 1.50 now is worth more than the 2 later.

If you log or zone out, you’re in trouble, but if you leave the vendor but come back in the same session you should be OK.

Would it be possible to get a party of 5 thieves and have them all time Shadow Refuge properly such that the entire party and Magg is permanently stealthed during the part where he sets up the bomb?

It works on all bosses in dungeons, so yes it can bypass those.

I’ve been testing this skill out in dungeons. Combined with other venoms (immobilize, chill, weakness), it is very helpful at controlling or disabling enemy units. More importantly, I wanted to discuss its effects.

The recent change to Basilisk Venom was definitely a buff as far as PvE usage is concerned (as far as I know, no bosses break stun). However, to make the most use of it, in PvE or PvP, you have to time every attack properly, because the effect, unlike certain conditions, will not stack for duration. It simply gets overwritten. Example: If 5 targets attack at the exact same time with Basilisk Venom, the enemy will not be turned into stone for 7.5 seconds – the enemy will be turned into stone for 1.5 seconds.

If you spaced the attacks out, then you would get the maximum duration, which is potentially 15 seconds. This has been noted in the past: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/PvE-Healing-Support-Thief

Getting that 15 seconds, however, would require massive coordination.

jaif.3518:

Anything overpowered in PvP is overpowered in PvE. This conversation is just another version of “let me keep my IWIN button”.

-Jeff

That is so far from the truth. Confusion, which is very powerful in PVP, is a rather weak source of damage in PVE (unless you can stack it with the bugged Mesmer trident) because monsters attack much slower than players. Feedback, another Mesmer skill, is quite strong in WvW when you can slap it on a party of ranged players and watch them kill themselbes, but is not nearly as powerful in PVE, except as a source of temporary damaged mitigation, because you do not encounter that many throngs of enemies that rapidly spam ranged attacks.

Are you an art student?

tolunart.2095:

Legitimate companies do not provide services which directly interfere with and violate the TOS of another legitimate company. I’ve read your posts on the subject and while I won’t throw around any accusations without proof, I can say that I have no interest whatsoever in what you have to say on the subject.

Paladin is right about some things. First, some terms of service and EULA’s do not necessarily hold legal weight in the eyes of the court. See http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20080831104451947, which details [i]McKee (Michael) v. AT&T Corp.[/it]. The court ruled that “Courts, not arbitrators, decide the validity of arbitration agreements.” More cases can be seen at, http://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Contracts:_Click_Wrap_Licenses. Whether or not a EULA is legally enforceable depends on a number of things, such as the content of the EULA itself and which court your case is being heard in.

roflmao

That’s just hilarious.

There are mathematical and computing techniques that can assist with the detection of bots or RMT transactions but I do not know if ArenaNet has staff with the technical expertise to implement them. Their programmers are already quite busy with working on game content. ArenaNet has hired a team of data specialists to help but it will require more than that.

I suggest reading “Detecting Real Money Traders in MMORPG by Using Trading Network” by Fujita et al. (2011) and “Identifying MMORPG Bots: A Traf?c Analysis” by Chen et al. (2009).

The best way to address the issue of RMT in this game is to have the price of gems determined by the market.

That said, gold farming operations/sweatshops do exist, and hacking accounts, while it is a source of money for many RMT sites, is not the only source, nor is it the source for distributors that place a high value on customer security.

Alright then, what are the best strategies to farm pve mobs/events as a mesmer, because large AoE damage (we’re talking Cluster bomb levels) just seems impossible for me to achieve.

My 1 attack on my thief does more damage than Illusionary Duelist.

Since Mesmers lack direct damage in PVE, I think it would be neat if these skills were split and allowed you to do the following:

Chaos Armor:

Once the armor has been activated, it can be detonated/shattered to do the following:
- Spread all your boons to nearby allies
- Spread conditions to nearby foes
- Deal high damage to nearby foes (something high enough to be noticeable in PVE and worthy of a 24-30 second cooldown, perhaps 3-4k on average, more if you glass cannon build)

Chaos Storm

Once the field has been activated, it can be manually imploded to do the following:
- Strip all boons from the targeted foes
- Strip all conditions from targeted allies
- Deal high damage to foes in the area of effect, slightly higher than Chaos Armor’s

What do you think?

Not wasted, it’s going to fixed eventually.

Like this: Mass Effect 2 – Shadow Broker Confrontation

Yes, A LOT more work and effort is required to pull this off. Cinematics like this need to be storyboarded. Special software may also be required for facial animations. However, the benefits are substantial, and I will list them:

1. The voice acting will both seem and be better if the actors understand the physical circumstances of their lines and what action their character is performing.

2. The immersion is superior. Nothing breaks immersion like watching your best buddy (in game) saying they are dying or are about to sacrifice themselves while they are just standing placidly.

3. They just look better. It is more visually exciting to see a character struck down by an arrow but stoically refusing assistance than to see the same occur with two static characters against a background, with one of them saying “Leave me.”

What do you think?

I think that may be from the Guild Wars Nightfall soundtrack. I’ll do a check.

I know that Confusion functions differently in PVP than in PVE, but straight up nerfing a skill because it is too strong in PVP doesn’t translate well into being good for PVE. I don’t think the Pistol Whip nerf or any of the Mesmer nerfs should apply to PVE because nobody is having problems with them in a PVE context.

Is there any good reason for them to be opaque about different skill properties in PvE or PvP?

While I can understand ArenaNet’s interest in keeping a singular set of skills for the sake of simplicity, I think it would be a good idea to have some skills function differently in PVP than in PVE. Right now, Mesmers took a hit to their Phantasms and Chaos Storm. Mesmers already have difficulty in certain types of PVE events, and while these changes may have been warranted for PVP (I personally would not know) they are falling even further behind in their direct damage capability, which is essentially all that is measured by numerous types of dynamic events that require killing large amounts of enemies.

The way elite skills are designed right now makes them feel more like ultimate abilities from a game like WarCraft 3, rather than elite skills from GW1. I’m not necessarily opposed to this, but I would hope that future additions include skills that might have shorter cooldowns and more varied uses.

For instance, a skill for the Ranger like Escape could exist in GW2 and have a similar functionality compared to GW1 without being overpowered. Something to the effect of: Break stun and gain swiftness, protection, and aegis for 7 seconds. 12-15 second cooldown.

Is it possible to replicate this in PvE?

Here’s my idea. Sort of like Calculated Risk from Guild Wars 1.

Suicidal Haste
Elite manipulation skill. Cost: 10 skill points. Range: 900

For 5 seconds, give your enemy quickness. Applies 25 stacks of confusion and 25 stacks of might to the target. Duration: 5 seconds. Cooldown: 90 seconds

The idea for using this skill, in PvE, would be to use it against a boss and then steal the 25 stacks of might and share it with the rest of your team. In PvP, you would have to cover it with other conditions first. A good player would wait out the confusion but a careless one might end up killing themselves with it.

The bombardment target marker offered by Tactician Lystratia is presumably supposed to give a grenade kit similar to the one she offers at the Champion Risen Giant event. However, when consumed, it gives the player a rifle instead of said kit.

So, can we just agree that future additions to the game can add:

1. More utility skills
2. More elite skills
3. Possibly additional traits
4. New weapons
5. Possibly different weapon skillsets

You should wait until they release character appearance change tickets. Inventory space upgrades are unique to each character.