Guild Wars 2

colesy.8490:

Actually, divinity runes are bad. They’re only for players who don’t know what stat they want, and they’re expensive because of that casual demand and the fact that they are impossible to craft, every single one on the trading post was looted and salvaged.

If you want to be as optimal as possible you either shell out the gold for scholar runes or you take the very budget friendly option of ruby orbs (and they’re not even bad, scholar runes only work in organised groups or if you can keep yourself above 90% HP).

That’s your opinion. For elementalists, all-stats items are a very viable option, especially for World vs. World.

And boon duration runes are MUCH better than scholar runes or orbs…

Vol.5241:

progression type players have self-esteem and psychological problems? the kitten?

Maybe they like dedicating time and effort into a game and be rewarded with trinkets and trophies that they and others can appreciate? Isn’t that the whole point of an MMO?

It’s a sad situation that you actually believe your notion.

No, it’s sad that you think you need better stats as a reward for playing a lot. Guild Wars 1 never had that, and people were fine with that. The difference between your standard hack-‘n-grind MMO and Guild Wars is that if you want to be the better player, you have to have skill. Everyone gets the same tools, but how you use those tools defines the better player. Which, in my opinion is much preferable to being roflstomped just because you didn’t grind your new Gladiator set fast enough.

Guild Wars 2 is like chess: just because you get the same tools doesn’t mean each chess player is equal. But Kasparov doesn’t get 5 extra queens just because he played much more often.

To be honest, I don’t know. I feel like it does, but then most fights that could be affected by chill seem to get perma chill in one form or another. So I’m not 100% sure.

Noobkaka.5067:

Yeah Kokiman, I don’t know how he can get nausea from 3rd person.

I can. Was fighting that centaur boss in the Pavillion and the screen kept shaking so much I got dizzy looking at it. Don’t get that often, but this time I did. Also, I see no reason why he would not be able to get sick.

The Minstrel doesn’t always show the music notes when drawn (sometimes it has an effect, sometimes it doesn’t).

The elementalist’s starter headgear, Stone Eye, disappears sometimes (most noticable after using a waypoint).

I can confirm that (some) champions spawn again. Just fought one about 30 minutes ago.

The elementalist’s stone eye starter head item disappears (becomes invisible) after a while, sometimes also after using a waypoint.

Anyone else experiencing a similar bug?

The funny thing is that most people swear by using words for activities they often like doing a lot.

So when you think about it, using a certain term to diss off a player means you actually want to make love to that player.

Which, in a way, creeps me out, really…

Dedlaw.9130:

Since legendaries could be bought, the standard impression they give is not “Wow that guy is awesome!”, it’s “Wow, that guy is rich!”

Don’t you mean “Wow, that guy was rich!”? ;-)

Dub.1273:

The GS literally offers NOTHING. Anyone who uses it in Dungeons or even assumes it’s a good choice is a bad player.

You just invalidated your own argument by stating that everyone who disagrees is an idiot. It shows that you lack the ability to think beyond your own views and as such, have a really poor concept of how the game actually works.

I’m impressed by the amount of effort people go through to get legendaries. And if they make a cool looking character to carry them, that’s impressive.

But gameplaywise, I must regretfully say, they don’t always impress me. One of my guildies for example, spends so much time farming events to complete his legendary that his general skills have greatly suffered, to the point that he needed help downing a veteran guarding a skill point.

Suffice it to say, all that farming and auto-attacking doesn’t hone your player skills. Which is a shame, really.

That voice thing actually makes it interesting…

The was a time when the RP stood for role-playing and people enjoyed the story behind the game.

These days, I wonder if it means Raid&Plunder…

I agree with the watchknight posing thing. It seems too obvious for it not to be true.

TehPwnerer.7215:

I play a Charr. Friends of mine play Norns, Sylvari, Asura, some human. Why though, are we being forced to care about a human Queen for a month?

I play a human and I’m happy that I finally have a good reason to go back to best looking capital city in the game.

I guess I’m just a little irritated to see every new event demand me give a darn about humans and nothing else.

You must have a very poor memory, because as I recall, the previous events were all about protecting Charr and Norn, had a Sylvari Antagonist, or had Lion’s Arch (which isn’t a human city anymore) Pirates working together with Asura. This is the first Living Story that actually has anything to do with humans. And you complain instantly?

This is why humans dislike Charr.

If they’re more like Seiran (who seems to be designed back when Anet still considered Sylvari to be kinda outthere, instead of green supermen), then by all means add them. She’s the only Sylvari I actually like.

After what Trahearne did to MY story, I’m pretty sure I don’t wanna see another salad thug in the spotlight again.

Trahearne has the personality of a pot plant. I dunno about you but to me that seems like it’s spot on.

Another reason to dislike the ‘industry’. We can’t support our game for free because some union decides we can’t? What utter tripe…

Bovinity.8610:

How people can play this game for this long and NOT realize that PvE is basically balanced around one-shot mechanics is beyond me. I don’t see how people are still so shocked by it.

They’re not shocked. They’re asking for it to be fixed.

Was thinking of making this very post, though obviously worded a little differently.

One-shot kills should be removed because:
-It’s vulnerable to lag and camera issues.
-It makes defensive stats completely pointless.
-It makes long fights extremely frustrating (You missed one dodge during 15 minutes of fighting? Tough luck, start over from the beginning!)
-It’s not fun.

One-shotting could be replaced by 90%-shotting, giving the players a fighting chance if they ever have lag, or just misclicked, or whatever. Also, it would make non-berserker gear worth something again. And it would still reward players that can dodge well.

ArenaNet’s obviously a professional gaming company. They should know why to leave one-shot kills to the minigames, and out of the main game.

Given the artificial difficulty involved, you beat cheapness with cheapness…that’s a fair victory.

Beating a foot soldier by using a tank is unfair, but fighting a tank with another tank seems fair right?

I can accept if I can’t beat something because I’m not good enough. However, I draw the line when that difficulty comes solely in 2 versions: oneshot-kill and permastun.

Remove those things from play and I won’t complain if I can’t beat stuff.

But please ArenaNet, for all gamers sake, fire the guy who thinks that’s the ultimate form of game design.

My personal advice would be to not focus on support, but rather let it be an equal part of your build. However, if you really want to focus on it, you could try something like Rune of Altruism in combination with other boons. Also, if you use a staff, you can make use of the combo fields to buff your allies.

For what it’s worth, it’s admirable you took the time to write out these thoughts. Even if few people are gonna read the whole thing, it does show you have a great passion for the game.

The downsides of one-shots is that it makes all defensive gear feel so worthless…personally, I think games should be without.

xbaunx.6438:

Arheundel.6451:

Nice attempt..now I know that you never played ele

Actually, he’s been supporting/discussing staff for a while. I know because I post threads on staff and he usually provides input. If you want to rally players to your cause, which is the only way you’ll ever get ANet to notice you, don’t insult their experience without addressing your difference in opinion.

I don’t think staff is good enough in 1v1. In my opinion, faster casting/projectile speed of our auto attacks would be a fantastic place for them to start.

Thanks for that Xbaunx. I appreciate it.

However, I do understand where Arheundel is coming from because I’ve been there too. In the first few months, I was an avid supporter for staff buffs. Everything was too weak, it should be single element, etc. I got furious whenever someone else suggested I was just playing it wrong. And then I learned how to combo, how to swap, dodge and how to gear. And suddenly all pieces fell into place and it all made sense.

It’s virtually impossible to have this discussion without the ‘you suck I rule’. And it’s true the staff could probably do with a few more tweaks. But when you balance it, you have to balance it based on how it works in this game, not how it works in other games. Take into account the combo fields, the AoE and the range, and then make your suggestions. But don’t call it out as being worthless just because you can’t duel with it as well as D/D. It was never designed for that.

So do I feel staff is optimal for 1v1? No, the other sets are better for duelling. Do I think staff eles can put up a decent fight in 1v1? Yes, they can but it takes a lot of practice.

Glyph of Elemental Power makes all those staff AoE skills cause cripple/chill, making it much easier to land subsequent hits.

Also, cast a Healing Rain, dodge into it while switching to Earth and give the folks in it healing, regeneration, condition removal and (if using Elemental Attunement), protection.

The staff is actually in a pretty good place right now (yes, even for PvP). The main issue is that most people don’t use it to its fullest and then complain that it’s too weak.

Some things to keep in mind:
-The staff is not a support weapon, and not a damage weapon: it’s a mix of both.
-The staff is not a ranged weapon: like the engineer’s rifle, it has multiple roles at multiple ranges.
-Combo’s are not optional, but essential.

The key is to properly support the weapon’s skills with your traits and utility skills. Skills like Glyph of Elemental Power help make sure you actually hit stuff, while skills like Arcane Blast greatly enhance the effects of your healing skills.

But the most important thing to remember is that due to the nature of combo fields, the staff cannot be perfectly balanced for 1v1 duels. Because they become exponentially more powerful as fights get larger, the skills have to be made relatively weaker for 1v1 to make them balanced.

It would also be nice if guild parties would earn influence in Fractals.

The elemental has better duration, lower recharge (if the elemental gets destroyed prematurely the total recharge is lowered too), lower casting time and can be cast while moving. Also, you can pick which one you need based on the situation and you can use a trait to lower the recharge even more.

To be fair, they could buff the golems quite a bit and the glyph would still be better.

One of the main issues with Guild Wars 1 was the huge number of potential skill combinations. While I understand the need for more options, I’m worried that the ‘deadline’ for the release of new traits every time period will cause similar problems.

The current WvW system is a pretty good way to expand player optionss in a controlled manner and I’m hoping something similar will be done for PvE and sPvP.

Nick Logan.6358:

Found out Fluff Dye looks very similiar to the new radiant armor piece.

NICE!

I figured the reduced waypoint costs would be enough to make Kiel win…guess I was wrong.

And for the record, as an NPC main character, she’s MUCH MUCH MUCH better than treebeard. Though I still wish Lord Faren would come back more often. ;-)

Aye, thanks for the kite! The guild one is even more awesome!

inazuma.7021:

Are you serious, Anet? I thought a guild skin for our kites would be a gold piece or two… but 15? Really?

It looks more awesome than my legendary (The Minstrel) that I spent 100 times as much gold on.

So I disagree with you, it’s perfectly priced.

Thanks for the free kite, love it a lot! Instantly upgraded it to a guild kite and it looks awesome!

One thing I’d like to ask though, is if it’s possible to mirror the kite. If I pull it behind me now, my guild’s logo is upside down. If that were to be changed, the kite would be even cooler than it is now!

EDIT: Nevermind, just noticed it depends on the direction you run. Boy do I have egg on my face…

stale.9785:

Staff is still our weakest weapon.

I strongly disagree. The staff was very potent and the fixes solved a few of the quality-of-life issues. It’s a very good weapon now. But like before, you really need to get a good feel for how to use it. It’s not an easy weapon to get maximum effectiveness out off, but when you do master it, it rocks.

A while back I calculated the dps for PVT and Celestial gear, and they wound up pretty much equal. High power is a lot more effective than crits and conditions, but all combined the dps is pretty much the same. Even though celestial has a higher total stats, its not more powerful. I’m strongly suspecting that the same goes for the overall defense. The main thing you gain is the magic find. The rest is more or less balanced.

Celestial will not outdps berserker, not outtank clerics.

Oh, and while you’re at it, it’d be great that when I log into the site, I don’t have to login again when I click ‘post new message’. Connect the forum login to the rest of the site please. Thank you.

It’s awesome, very tricky and a lot of cool new challenges.

You know what would make it even more fun?

-fix the bug that causes you to not jump your maximum distance roughly 1 out of 10 jumps for no reason.
-fix the bug that makes the spinners launch effect and visuals misalign.
-fix the freaking annoying overflow pop-up screen when you go to Lion’s Arch and try to tell your friends that the frustration from the bugs caused you to log out for the day. Not being able to logout due to the map and the popup window both disallowing the other to be closed does not lessen frustration.

You can still do well with a staff if you’re a good player. But you’ll have to be pretty good, and would probably do better with another profession. But if you’re good, it’s possible to do well with staff, even 1v1.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Glyphs are in a worse place than conjures, IMO. They don’t really synergize and their utility is just so easily outclassed unless you’re going for something very specific.

I’m not sure I agree there. For my staff build, I found glyphs to compliment my shortcomings rather well. The elemental summons add some much needed dps, and glyph of elemental power adds a chunk of snaring that makes it easier to land my other spells. The best thing about them is that you can have them do something different based on your needs, rather than be stuck with a single skill. That being said, I am still running Armor of Earth and Earth trait 3 just to have a fighting chance against stuns.

Stunbreakers wouldn’t feel so mandatory if there weren’t so many instagib stuns. The reef drake for example…you just need something in case it pulls you into it’s damage field. Just like how one condition doesn’t mean the end of the world…or one hit from a weapon. But one stun can mean a trip to the nearest waypoint…

stale.9785:

+1 for the original post – and impressed. This is the first time you’ve admitted to there being room for improvement.

Hehe, touché.

But to be fair, I do agree that some changes would be welcome. However, I feel that they should be implemented in such a way that preserves the current playstyle on the staff. I like the staff a lot and I feel that most skills are powerful enough. It’s mostly the practical implementation of the staff that needs a little polish, imho.

Combo fields for example are a lot of fun and I’d rather keep fields like Frozen Ground the way they are now, rather than doubling the effect and removing the combo part.

The targetting bugs are annoying yes, but as for the controls…well, I use my mouse for most of my skill usage and I have little issues apart from taregtting. Dodging is easy thanks to double tap though.

The first traits and skills I would go for are Elemental Attunment (Arcana 5), Quick Glyphs (Air 3), Glyph of Lesser Elementals and, when you can get it, Glyph of Elementals. They should give you a good start to work with, especially the earth elementals. They make great tanks and thanks to Quick Glyphs, you can have them active most of the time.

Conner.4702:

You kicked the instance owner out of the group, regardless if he was offline or not, you did this to yourself.

For one thing, I wasn’t the one who kicked him. And second, we only realized he was the party leader when we all found ourselves back in Lion’s Arch. Thirdly, why should the person who started the instance get ‘extra protection’? And finally, he was OFFLINE FOR 30 MINUTES!

Kreslin.6832:

Staff is worthless in solo pve?

No it’s not, but dagger is faster (and maybe a bit easier). You can use just about any weapon in PvE and do well with it. Including staff.

Chaosky.5276:

They offer healing. Versatility isn’t unique to elementalists.

Nope, but they’re better at it than most other professions.

Getting permanent fury from attunement swapping is a bit more tricky though. You main concern however seems to be the way boons are implemented on signets, rather than wheter they give boons or not. For me, the passive buffs combined with the boons on fire aura, not to mention the fire auras themselves, work well enough. If anything, don’t you think it would be a little boring if cantrips, signets and glyphs all worked the same way?