Guild Wars 2

Lux Dominatoris.3941:

@Tigaseye So the only “toxic” (in the lack of a better word) replies are mine and the one I am replying to is perfectly rational, not selfish and represents the good side? C’mon man, when I make a mistake I admit it. But do you truly believe that the bad guys (from replies) are only the hardcore people? The so called casuals are having the utter most perfected and logical arguments and we are the barbarians? There’s a saying in my country, “You laugh at the straw in that person’s eye while not seeing the crowbar in your own.”

I know what I have read from you and yes, I can’t help but draw my own conclusions.

Your entire position goes against everything I believe, but the way you have presented that position is even less socially acceptable, to me, than the position itself.

I’m not anti-raiding.

I “real” raided in WoW previously, so I don’t mind there being harder levels of raids in games.

But, my heart lies in MoP LFR, where I could play with a random selection of people, at any time I felt like it, for as long as a felt like it.

People of all ages, abilities, backgrounds, family/relationship and job situations, experience of the game and so on.

A word that represents my outlook on life is “inclusive”; not exclusive.

So, of course I find a lot of what you say distasteful.

This is a game, it’s not supposed to replicate, in horrible detail, the worst parts of the “haves and have-nots” of real life.

The real life situation in that respect is horribly extreme, ATM and most people want to get away from all that in games.

But, even if your position was equally valid and as many people were on your side of the fence (which they, almost certainly, are not – even though the ones who aren’t will probably say a lot less), as I say, the way you have voiced it is really not acceptable to me, at all.

I understand that you’re from a different culture and that will have affected your outlook, but that doesn’t mean I have to like the way you talk to, or about, people.

Lux Dominatoris.3941:

laokoko.7403:

This is ridiculous. Why are Anet catering to 1% of the population.

Hardcore raiding never works. It was shown less than 1% of the people actaully experienced Sunwell pre-wrath, the percentage of people completing it is like 1 in 10,000.

The percentage of people raiding in LOTR online is so tiny, they actually decide to remove it. And just look at Wildstar, it was shown hardcore raiding is a total failure.

Please, Anet, stop listening to the hardcore people. This was the first game designed for casual players. Now players need to grind “ascended armor” for a prerequisite to raiding. And the painful “attunement” process called grinding your mastery and experience before you can even try it.

This is unacceptable! I was kicked out my WoW guild because I can’t devote 50 hours a week to raid. And when I find out about GW2 I thought I’m finally free of this curse! But no, Anet is turning this game into a hardcore raiding game too!

So this is the representative of the casual community? I don’t know what I expected.

This entitlement agenda has to end. And it will end. More than 90% of the game is casual. Give 1-2% of it to the hardcore crowd and BOOOM! Apocalypse, the end of the game is here, it caters to hardcore crowd elite now and other drama. Why should Anet listen to you, hypocrite, and not to others? Why is your opinion a fact? Because this is how you expose it. Give me concrete numbers for your examples. Links, statements, official responses. How do you know the hardcore community is 1%? Stop the parallels with WoW, even if they would copy paste the raids from there it would still be totally different since this game does not have a hard, forced trinity.

You say you need dozens of hours. Did you play all the raids? Extraordinary! Enlighten me! What about the ones that do have the necessary time and will to dedicate to raids? Why shouldn’t they get some content? After all, except lvl 50 fractals give me one single example of challenging content is this forsaken game? We must lower ourselves in killing Lupi with no armor just for the sake of a challenge. And even there you attack us! Dungeons are meant to be played this way, and the selling of a dungeon is an exploit.

If we do the actual content too fast, casuals complain. If we do it alone, they complain. If we want profit on this hard work, casuals complain. If we get raids, casuals complain. If I want to play berserker casuals complain. All of this while over 90% of the game is pure casual. But we destroy the game. We are the problem. We want our corner. Without you. I have the right, as much as you do, to request this.

You fail to remember that the audience of this game is worldwide and not westerners only. Aka not everyone agrees with “everybody is a winner” ideology. You also forget that your same society IRL caters to a certain <2% , praising them like some sort of deities and even an argument against them will ruin your life and label you as X-phobe.

I have the time, the skill, the will, the friends and the need to play raiding-type content. Why shouldn’t Arena-net provide this to me and cater to you 100% in a game that already caters 90%+ to you. The gate of the content is open, get your friends and go in and do it. It’s permanent content. Nothing stops you from doing it. But of course you know that. You hate that a certain part of the community is gaining attention from Arena-net. You hate us. Our fun, our community, our friendships, our skills, our dedication. You hate that we have time that you do not. And then you have the audacity to come here and post as a victim?

Though luck buddy, I live in a different world than yours. My world will not kill my social life if I critique someone, my world does not brainwash me with “everybody is a winner” scenarios. My world does not equal “all pink”. Among many others I learned that if I want something I must work for it. I want the legendary armor. I will do raids. I enjoy them. You don’t? Good, you don’t do it and do not get the rewards. Fair and square. This is not a place for special snowflakes anymore.

I’ve been supporting Anet since 2005. I know what they can do and call hard. I’ve beaten DoA and I was proud of it. Not even 1% of what the raids are bringing will be as difficult as DoA. I made friends in this game. Friends that I would give anything to meet them in real life. I am part of such a wonderful community. I am proud to consider myself in the same community as Jerus, Wethsopu, Skady, dlonie, Rising Dusk, Brazil and everyone else!

I think we deserve a little spotlight ourselves after 3 years. We are not here to steal or transform the game. We just want our little corner. That’s all. But everything we do is condemned by casuals. In the end, of course, they are the victims and we are the bullies.

This is life for me, like it or not. I fail, I retry, I succeed, I reap the rewards. No buts and ifs. This is me, I am here since 2005 and I, with many others like me, aren’t going anywhere. Anet decided it’s time to honor us. We are here to stay and I will not let you spread misinformation and extremism just to fit your own selfish agenda.

Raids are coming. Do you even praise the sun, bro?

Look what you have done, Anet…

The verbal minority of the GW2 community is now talking exactly like the verbal (make that screaming maniacally!) minority of the WoW community and it’s not even as good a game, if I’m honest.

This is not going to end well.

^ Well, you can probably copyright almost anything, but whether a court would uphold it, is another matter.

Otherwise, for example, a food company could copyright the word “sandwich” and not allow any other business to use it.

That would, obviously, be unreasonable.

Yeah, TBH, considering Rangers are now also Druids (i.e. two completely separate classes, in WoW), I find it unlikely that they would make Warlocks a separate class, when they already have Necros.

It would almost be like making a Hunter class, as well as a Ranger class.

gricks.1897:

uhohhotdog.3598:

Corelion.7460:

WoW that way ->

You really think wow is the only game with warlocks? Or special to wow? I guess we shouldn’t have warriors either.

Well actually, the way you described a warlock class…yes. To my knowledge they have a copyright on it. The only other Warlock class I know of in an MMO is on Bless Online. Some korean MMO.

Pretty sure they can’t copyright “Warlock” as a class name.

Warlock is just the word for a male witch.

It would be like a game trying to copyright Witch, as a class name (i.e. impossible).

As far as class mechanic similarities go: again, I think it would be very hard to copyright certain mechanics, as long as the “copy” was just a fairly similar idea and not a complete replica (in terms of visual effects and numbers and stuff).

Much like, in fashion, all you have to do is make the “copy” have three small differences, from the designer original and you’re, generally, considered to be in the clear.

brently.7946:

This would defeat the purpose of ground target…

Yes, it would, which I think would be a pretty good thing, personally.

I keep hearing about people playing on tablets, let alone on laptops (without mice), so I think the trend in games is definitely away from anything that requires manual clicking.

I know people will disagree with me, but it’s quite funny (if you think about it) how being a “clicker” in games is frowned upon, by many, whilst certain abilities still require it.

Nick Lentz.6982:

alright, the whole guild wars 2 isn’t being “fair to casual players” kitten needs to stop. This game use to be hard, it use to have a challenge. Now it is beyond easy because casuals moan and cry and cry, and get their way. Now you don’t even have to look at your screen to play.
What about the hardcore players? the ones who want hard content? isn’t it hypocritical to kitten about raids being hard content, when in fact you have had 3 years of very easy stuff? It is about time Anet made something for those who want a challenge. Who want to feel like they accomplished something.
YOU chose to not participate in the raids, YOU chose to not play hard stuff. It is not exclusive if YOU can fully access the content, but chose not to.

I hope Anet continues with this mind set, I am glad they finally stopped catering to casuals.

You can say things, you don’t happen to like to hear, need to stop, as much as you like.

They won’t stop until the issue, or perceived issue, stops and/or until the people saying those things leave.

Even then, they won’t necessarily stop, as (unlike the WoW forums) people who are not, currently, playing (or paying) can continue to post, on here, if they like.

This game was, originally, supposed to be for casuals.

That doesn’t mean it can’t have raids, as raids don’t have to automatically be “hardcore” (or all-hardcore).

However, it does mean that a lot of players, who liked the original casual premise, are in danger of being turned-off to the game if they aren’t, also, catered to fairly.

Maybe you don’t care about that, but Anet’s bottom line should.

I’m sorry, but I don’t get the point of this topic?

It just reads like a totally patronising (and more than a little obvious) lecture.

Maybe I’m missing something…?

Threads like this, about “exclusive” content, like raids, are one reason why players leave games.

Ask Blizzard, they should know.

HardRider.2980:

Pockets.3201:

It also tells some players that they can’t play the endgame, so they should find another game to play.

I’m sorry and I honestly don’t mean no offense here… but that is possibly one of the most stupid reasons ever to give.
If you’re not good enough.. You learn, you research, you.. get.. better.
The people who raid or do high level fractals.. they weren’t born good.. they learnt and grew to what they are now.

That’s assuming people can be bothered.

Which is a HUGE assumption.

Most people’s worlds simply don’t revolve around mastering one part of one game.

Even people who are, vaguely, interesting in raiding, often aren’t interested in the hardcore, progression side of it.

Why do you think Blizz introduced LFR in Cata?

They then totally undermined it, in WoD and half their player base left.

It’s not the only issue WoD has, granted, but it’s definitely been a significant contributing factor.

As a developer, you make the casual side of your player base feel undervalued at your own peril.

It’s disgusting and should be banned by Anet.

Even more disgusting, however, is the fact that Anet let a few people bully them into making ranged weapons deal less damage, at close range (they didn’t originally design it that way).

The fact that this is the case is probably, at least part of, the reason some people feel they can charge other people to do dungeons in this game.

BTW, to whom it may concern: I will not be fielding your comments here, or reading your unsolicited PMs, on this subject.

I’ve made my point here, I believe it to be correct, I’m sticking to it and that is that.

Thank you.

SorrowBorn.4357:

I was made guild leader of a guild, after it’s prior leaders had left in disgust

Assuming this is correct and there was no prior arrangement that you would give it back, it’s your guild for as long as you want it to be, then.

They should have thought more carefully about “leaving in disgust” if there was a chance they would change their minds, in future.

Hopefully, this will be a good thing for them, as they will learn lessons about prejudice towards people they don’t know (yet) and burning their bridges.

I’m not happy about it, personally.

Firstly, I will say that I never use stealth for “evil”.

I mainly use it to just avoid being ganked, by groups of level 80 roamers, while in EOTM (and less often, in “real” WvW), while I try to reach the commander.

…and I’m only doing WvW, because I dislike the group PVE in this game.

I’m not a PVPer, by choice – just because that is the only way I can join group content, while not feeling I have to conform to other players’ opinions, constantly, or skip>permastack>melee.

Personally, I would have given other (non heavy armour) classes more stealth; rather than removing stealth from Mesmer.

Then, pretty much everyone (apart from the tankiest) would have a chance to avoid combat, if they wanted to.

I guess I will see how it goes.

As I say, I’m currently only doing EOTM, so it wouldn’t be a huge step to just stop playing altogether, if I find it becomes too unbearable.

ETA: Was thinking about this and I’m tempted to say add a trait which extends stealth by 100% (or maybe more), but makes it impossible for the Mesmer to attack from any type of stealth except veil (as that is more for offensive group use).

That way, those of us who just take it purely for a quality of life type improvement, rather than to gank people, will still be OK.

Zero Day.2594:

Tigaseye.2047:

Sounds like the worst possible combination, to me.

Also heard that it’s very hardcore focussed? :/

I would far prefer a game that combined the looks, casualness, levelling experience, female-friendliness and WvW of GW2, with the combat system (from MoP era), talent trees, dungeons and raids of WoW, including LFD and LFR (again, from the MoP era – NOT WoD).

I don’t want futurism at all – so, ignore Borderlands, except possibly for some humour (if it’s any good – idk?) and storywise, make it more like a combination of WoW/GW2, I guess?

Chuck in some flying, as well, if possible and we’re good to go.

So, pretty much the opposite of Wildstar, I would imagine…?

“Very hardcore focused” – that was way back when, and it got bad rep for it, they changed a lot before f2p release and now at f2p release, so no it’s not that hard core focused.

The leveling is closer to WoW style, there are some aspects from gw2 (like “hearts”)…

But yeah when you said “casualness” – just stick to gw2.

I will (for now…).

I’m not even really a “casual” myself, I guess I’m more middle of the road(?), I just find elitism in others highly distasteful.

So, if all the hardcore elitists will be going to Wildstar, that is all the more reason for me to avoid it (and its tacky-looking artwork).

Agemnon.4608:

Futurism doesn’t have to be bad.

That’s true, actually.

My BF is into Sci-fi, so he would probably enjoy an obviously futuristic setting, for example.

It’s just not really for me, unless it’s set in the future, but not obviously very futuristic; like Dune, or something.

IDK, about the same?

I like the idea of being able to heal, if I feel like it, but I have no idea how well it will work, or how much it will be needed.

Also, while the option to heal is nice, I still want my class to function as a Ranger; not just as a Druid.

Also, personally, I would have incorporated healing into Ranger via a healbow.

So, healing arrows etc., rather than staff stuff.

Would have felt more in tune with the class.

If the pets were more reliable/longer-lived, I would have had them involved with the healing, as well.

I have nothing against staves and they are definitely in tune with Druids; just not so sure they’re in tune with Rangers?

The pets look great (love the tiger!), but it remains to be seen how long they will live and how well they will function.

The Smokescale stealth looks good, except I play ranged, not melee.

So, I doubt it will work for me.

At this point, looks like I will be sticking with Mesmer and/or moving on sooner, or later, entirely.

Loxias.2375:

I think less than 10% of active rangers will have any desire to play healer for more than a day, and that the new spec will be used by people from other classes that want to build a Druid.

The constant destruction and reinvention of the ranger class within an mmo is basically like dark matter. You apparently can’t have a universe without it, but no one could tell you why.

I can tell you why.

Because newer players are drawn to the pet and/or the bow and people who play Hunter, in WoW, are generally very attached to it.

Get rid of Ranger and fewer new players will start playing, or stay playing.

Part of the reason I think this game is less popular than it should be is because Ranger is disappointing and ranged, in general, is sub-par.

Dadnir.5038:

So your answer is that you got to be better than the other players, otherwise you won’t get a spot? What if two players are on an equal level – the ranger will not get the spot because he/she is not good enough?

This is sad but whatever your profession can do you always have to consider the reputation of this profession community. And the ranger community have the reputation to be a selfish player wanting to range everything (staying out of buff range), to have poor controle over it’s pet and to brainlessly knockback foe out of the party range. In the end ranger or Druid, you will alway be judged over these 3 aspects.

In a way, while nobody have sufficiently grasped all the elite specialization, it’s time for the rangers/druids to prove that they can refrain themself from playing brainlessly. It’s a huge task that would need the whole ranger community to make a lot of effort because, let’s be honest, the Druids feature have a lot of potential for selfish gameplay and is arguably better at supporting a group than what other profession have.

Roy said it right in the revenant’s forum : “The druid is a burst healer”. Simply put, after some month of playing the druid, most of us won’t give a * about caring for allies and use the clestial form for personnal sustain/condicleanse. Honestly, it totally replace the pet as a mechanism.

It’s not selfish to want to play ranged.

It should be a viable option.

The problem lies with the poor design of a game that, apparently, promotes choice, but actually gives none, in group PVE environments.

This really needs to change, ASAP.

No amount of elite specs is going to save group PVE, in the longer run, if it doesn’t.

Also, Mesmers can knockback, as well, but in a group containing both classes, everyone blames the Ranger(s) and no one, ever, blames the Mesmer(s).

Not to mention that melee pulls can be equally irritating to ranged players, but no ranged ever dares to complain about them.

Despite this, supposedly, being a tank-free game!

The fundamental game design is a mess.

They really need to take this opportunity to change it, before it’s too late.

Make buffs group-wide, NOT stack-narrow and make ranged and melee do equal damage, for a start…

I don’t even participate in group PVE, in this game, despite having done a lot of PVE and some raiding in WoW.

There is good reason for that.

It does look good and I appreciate the work, too.

It doesn’t look like what I think of as Ranger, exactly, but it does look good (so far) in its own right.

I also like the new pets.

Honestly, as I say, I like the idea of “heavy healing” as an option, in theory and who knows, maybe they will be needed in HoT raids?

The problem is, that (even if they are) the class is still broken/awkward/unfinished-feeling, at least to an extent, as a DPS class.

Most people, who are new to the game, will inevitably see Ranger and either think “Hunter from WoW”, or will be drawn to the pet and/or the bow(s).

So, IMO, getting those things to function properly (and equally, in the case of ranged weaps), plus making the class not so much of a sitting duck in PVP/WvW, should be the priorities.

So, you make sure you put all that right, before saying (or appearing to say); “Scrap DPS Ranger – it’s just not working. Go play Druid healer, or some other DPS class, from now on.”.

Otherwise, people will tend to assume that you’ve just given up on the main identity of the class, entirely and will obviously feel misled/let down.

arnitheking.8427:

seriously you didn’t find any positives in the traitline?..The traits are ridiculously strong for the most part.. are we even talking about the same game? druid mechanic remains to be tested (BWE) but the traits are great. I guess some of them (last minor for example) revolve around healing but most of them are really cool

I think what you’re missing, from a psychological perspective, is that it doesn’t really matter, to someone who doesn’t carry a handbag, or like handbags, how exquisite a particular handbag they are given is.

Especially when they wanted a pair of shoes.

They just didn’t want to be given a handbag, period.

A Druid is simply not a Ranger, to many (most?) people and healing is not what they wanted to do, or chose to do, when picking the class.

So, they basically feel that their preferences have been left out of the equation, when it comes to the new spec for their particular class.

Yes, they have been given a spec, but it is not (in their eyes) a Ranger spec.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Zenos, I’m not going to go round-and-round with you. Time in an instance is important to some, and some it’s not. It’s simple. I said that already. 10 minutes doesn’t matter to you but it does to me. I’m sorry you can’t wrap your mind around that concept that people value things differently. Some of us can and will run the high dps builds in HoT, some can’t and won’t. It is what it is. Birds of a feather will flock together and cut asunder those whom are different. That’s the way it has been and always will be as it is human nature.

Hey, speak for yourself – we’re not all like that.

I simply don’t do group PVE in this game, because of the elitism and because I find the encounters poorly designed and the game, in general, prejudiced against ranged.

Some people, however, are supportive, kind, helpful and free-spirited enough to run with whatever they get, in a random situation.

But, you are correct, SOME people are how you describe, especially in these type of games, for some reason.

I don’t know if it’s the demographic, or just the typical mindset of a certain type of MMO player, or what, but yeah…

So they will find the meta, sooner or later and if they are given free rein to pick and choose, as they are now, they will exclude those who don’t follow it (just as they do now).

Sad, but true.

This is why I think we also need a random group option, for both dungeons and raids, for those of us who just prefer to run with what we get, even if it takes a little longer, or (shock, horror!) even fails, sometimes.

…oh and one more thing:

It’s all very well you only running with people who have already learned the content and run the meta, but the truth is that games like this have a natural turnover.

So, if everyone refuses to run with the newer and/or more individualistic players, they will end up just leaving and that is precisely the way that games like this, eventually, die.

Zero Day.2594:

Drennon.7190:

Thanks for the support bois. I’ve been trying Wildstar and B&S. Wildstar feels dead, but maybe F2P will fix that. I’ve been playing on B&S Taiwan and it feels really active and balanced. China servers are P2W, while Taiwan isn’t. Hopefully the NA cash shop isn’t P2W.

Yeah also waiting on that. Tree of Savior looks nice too.

Plus there’s Overwatch on the horizon….
ESO is still around…

Not going back to WoW though, subs are overrated, plus the game itself is very shallow.

---

Kocoff.7582:

When & where, what do we wear? we should just come naked, with our favorite weapons equipped.

ps: Wildstar looks terrible guys. GW2 is the best there is. Don’t kid yourselves.

Nah, it had a bad start and bad media/word around it. Worth giving a shot come f2p release.

Combat system is also action based….

It’s kinda like if WoW + GW2 + Borderlands had a baby.

Borderlands – for the humor and futuristic theme.
GW2 – for the action combat.
WoW – for the themepark MMORPG. And the cartoony art.

Sounds like the worst possible combination, to me.

Also heard that it’s very hardcore focussed? :/

I would far prefer a game that combined the looks, casualness, levelling experience, female-friendliness and WvW of GW2, with the combat system (from MoP era), talent trees, dungeons and raids of WoW, including LFD and LFR (again, from the MoP era – NOT WoD).

I don’t want futurism at all – so, ignore Borderlands, except possibly for some humour (if it’s any good – idk?) and storywise, make it more like a combination of WoW/GW2, I guess?

Chuck in some flying, as well, if possible and we’re good to go.

So, pretty much the opposite of Wildstar, I would imagine…?

Draeyon.4392:

Tigaseye.2047:

Ltomato.8649:

If you put it on passive or no target, the smokescale probably could be close enough to put the field in reasonable range.

I don’t really have time for that and leaving pets on passive, permanently, doesn’t seem to work, either (they just start attacking, anyway).

I often suffer from skill lag and really bad fps in zergs and by the time I realise I have to stealth, I normally need to do it right now.

Not try to get an unresponsive, slow pet, to return first, before I can use it and even then, only for 6 seconds (with no other options to follow up with).

You can potentially get 3-4 blasts (depending on traits) plus a leap on the smokefield (need to test this of course). Also if you are running longbow, Hunter’s Shot should give you plenty of time to get to the pet for the combo field. I always have my pet on passive during wvw zerg fights, it will be stupid and die on its own if you don’t. Those are my thoughts on it anyway. As you can see I have already jumped on the Smokescale meta pet ship

OK, well I guess I will give it a go.

People normally only whine about Rangers, for some reason.

Rangers often do better damage than, say, Mesmers and Mesmers can also knockback, but have you noticed that the Rangers in a group always get blamed and the Mesmers never do, if a knockback occurs?

Not to mention that, as a ranged player, pull abilities are often annoying, as the mob will often be pulled behind you and yet, how often does a ranged player complain about that?

I’ve, literally, never seen it happen.

Whereas, pretty much every time there is a knockback, there is a “noob rangers” comment.

This is not a trinity game, with a tank, so how come melee randomly pulling things behind ranged is considered OK, but knockbacks aren’t?

Also, how do we tolerate ranged doing less damage, in general?

It’s terrible design and leads to comments like “too many noob ranged”.

If melee players tend to take more damage, you give them a little more passive healing and/or passive toughness and/or passive vitality, that proc with their melee attacks, in accordance with their class’s existing resilience (due to armour type).

In other words, you would give a light armour class more of those defensive procs, with their melee attacks, than you would a medium armour class.

Then, in turn, you would give heavy armour classes the least, but still more than a heavy ranged.

You don’t nerf ranged damage, because then you just reduce it to the sub-optimal choice, in most situations.

Also, you don’t encourage stack-fests, via your design decisions, you discourage them.

Not only is stacking dull, gameplay-wise, but it means that those who do the most damage and/or take the least damage in the stack (i.e. melee) always “win”.

It’s all a bit of a joke, frankly.

Lovely, pretty, atmospheric game, but so many glaring holes in fundamental game design, leading to/exacerbating the prejudices of the players.

…and yes, you’re right.

Once the instances are doable without a healer, we will be right back to square one.

That’s why we need far more than just a healing spec (interesting as that is).

Ltomato.8649:

If you put it on passive or no target, the smokescale probably could be close enough to put the field in reasonable range.

I don’t really have time for that and leaving pets on passive, permanently, doesn’t seem to work, either (they just start attacking, anyway).

I often suffer from skill lag and really bad fps in zergs and by the time I realise I have to stealth, I normally need to do it right now.

Not try to get an unresponsive, slow pet, to return first, before I can use it and even then, only for 6 seconds (with no other options to follow up with).

Rangers have 2 on demand blasts as of Druid, so it would last 6 seconds if you’re solo roaming. If you’re with a group though, you can easily get max stealth stacks off of one smoke field. i.e. thief pistol 5.
EDIT: You could theoretically get 6 more seconds with sword/greatsword leaps, but sword leap takes a while to get to, and greatsword leap is insane to aim now.

Thanks for the info.

Well, forget that, then.

I don’t know the changes to Mesmer, but assuming they still have better stealth, I will have to stick to that.

Also, another concern is that, if you’re on longbow, will your pet even be near enough to give you stealth?

Could be giving stealth to the melee players, just to be targeted yourself.

Ltomato.8649:

@Tigaseye
We’re getting the smokescale pet, which can create a smokefield that we (and allies) can blast for stealth

How long will that stealth effect last?

Because, ATM, it would (sadly) take a lot to get me off my Mesmer, in WvW.

I don’t like being thief-bait.

I think this is an interesting option.

I said, in WoW, that it would be interesting if Hunters could have healing and tanking specs; especially if the pets could be the healers and tanks (with some guidance from the player, obviously).

I liked the idea of my pets being able to heal and tank in raids.

However, as I said on another thread, I would still like to see better options for DPS, as well.

ATM, my main priority would be some decent, untargeted, stealth utilities.

Rangers really should be able to blend into their surroundings, if anyone can, otherwise what is the point, frankly?

It seems like a very interesting option, but I would really like the class to be more effective as a DPS class, as well.

Personally, I think a good start would be to add some decent, untargeted, stealth utilities.

When I told my BF (who doesn’t play GW2) that ranger only has a 3 sec, targeted stealth, he was horrified.

He said “God, you would think that if anyone had stealth, it would be Rangers.”.

Lucyfer.9517:

Those restrictions should be lifted once acount is x months old or once it has like 5000 achivement points. I think it would be quite clear at
this point that the acount is not a gold seller.

Unfortunately, that wouldn’t really work, because gold sellers often hack into mature accounts and then use them to advertise.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

There is no such thing as unintentional design.

No, but there is (obviously) such a thing as design and with it, often, come unintended consequences.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Zaron.1987:

look at Spiritwood Plank after twitch show yesterday and the person who try to buy out all

Just FYI – It’s not against the rules, nor morally wrong to profit off of other players. <3

It’s not against the rules, but I would say it is morally wrong to try to exploit others for profit.

By “exploit”, I mean buying something for a low, or fair, price, from a retail venue, with the sole intention of reselling it at a very high one, on the same (or on a worse) venue.

I know this also happens IRL, sometimes, but I read that as morally wrong, to an extent, too.

How wrong depends on how much the person intends to price gouge and/or the financial circumstances in that person’s life.

I know you, or others, will try to argue with me about this, but I am talking about my gut reaction, here.

My instinct.

So, it’s not something I can, or would want to, change.

Of course, IRL, the moral “wrongness” of it could be balanced, or completely negated, by other issues.

For example, a person could be so poor, that it is far more moral (on balance) that they buy, say, rare and highly desirable luxury goods (that no one actually, really, needs) from a store and then resell them for a large profit, than it would be if they and their kids starved to death, or died from cold, or whatever.

But, in a game, no one faces actual starvation, or other unbearable hardship, so it is rather different.

It, generally, just boils down to greed.

This is not to say I have never bought and resold stuff in games, BTW…

But I still don’t consider it particularly moral.

Raedwulf.3712:

Belzebu – yes, I ran into that in the original Beta & got infracted for it. Anet got a very irate email back. Some utter… kitten on their staff tried to tell me that “snicker” was the word I meant. I forcibly replied that he was bloody ignorant.

Oh, by the way, dam, I assume, passes but don’t put an n on the end of it. That’s what got kittened in my OP. How over sensitive is that?

Anyway, as a result of that infraction, I’ve rarely visited the forum since, let alone posted. Heavy-handed moderation is one thing. Heavy-handed & ignorant moderation I can certainly live without. For those of you still puzzled, the English version of snicker starts with s but the rest of the word is the n-word. It contains the n-word, but has nothing to do with it, from the etymology point of view. I got infracted because, in disbelief, I s p a c e d the word in a reposted version. So the Mod got very short shrift for telling me it wasn’t a real word. Naturally, I never heard anything back….

I can confirm that the UK English version of snicker is what you say.

That moderator should have used Google, before taking any action, quite frankly.

I’m all for moderation, but it needs to be informed.

“Bloody” is considered OK, because it isn’t a swearword in the US.

So, easily offended Brits (and/or concerned British parents) just have to be left offended/concerned, apparently.

To be fair, it’s not really considered a bad swearword in the UK, either, but still.

It’s at least as bad as “dam” (with an n).

Good for them.

StrangerDanger.3496:

I’m sorry, this is sort of disgusting.

They want money that me, as someone who spends on these games they do voice acting, would rather have go to the code monkeys that actually make the game worth playing.

Good voice actors help, however I don’t require a famous and unionized voice actor to enjoy my game.

Give that money to someone trying to get into the industry, ill take the small hit in quality from the cutscene or voice over and live just fine, and still enjoy the game just as much.

They should be lucky that they get get paid for sitting in a room reading a bunch of lines over the course of a few hours. Yes I know real skill plays into it and they should get paid.

But royalties? GTFO….

Id love the gaming industry to say “alright well just hire some lesser quality actors instead, oh and we will give those royalties you wanted to the code monkies who spend 14 hours a day 6 days a week glued to a keyboard” because those guys are the ones that make the game fun to play, not some voice actor.

Everyone should be treated and paid properly and if they’re not, they should group up and do something about it.

That’s just common sense.

It’s not (or shouldn’t be) an either/or situation, with money being taken from one set of workers, to give to another.

These are multi-million dollar companies we’re talking about, here.

Punish you for what, exactly?

Scratcherclaw.2713:

Tigaseye.2047:

Also, light armour has, literally, no plain legging option.

That’s not entirely true. There’s Ascalonian Performer Leggings (At least for male), though those take several dungeon runs or the PvP reward track to get.

They’re not plain.

They have a massive belt, with the bottom half of a bulky, jacket type thing.

This means they really only look OK with the matching jacket (on human female, at least).

There’s also the Profane leggings, for that matter, but then you have to show the top of your char’s thighs (complete with suspender/garter straps).

I mean totally plain leggings, with no skirts, or straps, or flaps, or gaps, or big belts, or bottom halves of jackets, or whatever.

Just simple, plain, leggings.

Palador.2170:

Dashingsteel.3410:

Why does the company limit choices. I don’t see any logical reason for it besides the gimmick.

Actually, a less cluttered gemstore (or other such interface) is more appealing to people that are new to it. We’ve had a nice influx of new F2P players (in theory). Keeping the gemstore undaunting makes it more likely that they’ll make the jump and buy something. The “missing” stuff can be sold to them when it cycles back in, but they’ll never buy it if the clutter of the gemstore just pushes them away.

It’s hardly daunting, is it?

If you look at online clothes stores, they almost invariably have far more stock than the Style section of the gemstore.

In fact, just the Footwear section of most stores would normally have far more options.

…and yet, people somehow seem to cope.

I would like to see more options available at one time, personally.

I suppose I can see why they’re doing what they’re doing, from a business perspective, but I can’t say I like it very much.

Sorry, OP, but I find the idea of elite RPers pretty hilarious.

I can just imagine them getting all shrill and livid and gradually turning purple, behind their screens, as people type too slowly, or get the lore wrong.

Someone should do a show about these people, quite frankly…

Comedy gold.

Ryze Auditore.5927:

Most of the players pick an overly sexualized female character and use the skimpiest armor they can find.

OK, firstly I haven’t noticed this.

I look around, in EOTM (for example) and see a fairly balanced mix of races and genders and a mix of armour/outfit types.

Whereas, in WoW, there was no doubt that there were more male than female chars.

I sometimes wonder whether people are just so used to it being that way and so positive in their own minds that (almost) everyone playing games is male, that even an even gender balance looks overly feminine, to them, in contrast?

You have to realise that there are a lot of female gamers now and that this game, in particular, will tend attract them, as it is relatively conventionally feminine in style.

In fact, bearing that in mind, that is another reason I tend to think they drop the ball, a little, in terms of the complexity and anti-range bias of the game.

As, although I know I can only speak for myself, here, trawling through a lot of overly complex options, while trying to avoid loads of red herrings and enforced meleeing are a big turn-off for me, as a female player.

It’s not that I couldn’t deal with all that, if my life depended on it – it’s just that I don’t want to have to.

So, it’s almost like the look of the game betrays its actual target market (or vice versa), IMO?

Before anyone says anything – I’m not trying to suggest that no women are into the more math-based, complex, melee-only side of games; but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were fewer.

As I just think we tend (with some notable exceptions) to be more free-spirited, when it comes to playing games, in general.

But, I digress…

I do agree with you, however, that the male armour and hairstyles seem quite restrictive.

Re. the latter, there are a lot of very stylised styles and not enough tougher, or more natural, or ethnically inspired styles.

Although, actually, a lot of the female armour is also pretty same-ish – there is no plain female leggings option, for light armour, for example and only one non-trenchcoat one, for medium.

Similarly, human females only really have one loose, natural, wavy hairstyle and that is the layered, shoulder-length one.

So, I think more styles, for both genders, would be good.

Agemnon.4608:

I had a feeling the jungle explorer was going to be temporary. I’d strongly recommend it, you can do so much with it just a simple color change can radically alter the feel and function of the outfit. With enameled generation or maybe sand dye it can be a desert themed outfit while shadow blue (actually distinct from shadow abyss on it too! I personally tested it ) can have yet another theme.

Yeah, wish you could change the colour of the hardware on it (buckles etc.), as well, so it goes with gold weapons.

What I do like about it, is that it is one of the few (or perhaps the only?) outfits/skins that has a kind of baggy top half, as opposed to being figure-hugging and/or or a long coat.

Would be nice it they did some more armour/outfits with that kind of silhouette, but without all the packs and so on.

I like the idea of crossbows.

I want to play ranged-ranged (yeah, I know that’s, currently, worse DPS – don’t get me started…), so that would give more options.

Yeah, I agree.

Also, light armour has, literally, no plain legging option.

They all have some kind of skirt over them. :/

There’s one that just has the bottom half of a longish top type thing, rather than an actual skirt, but it only looks OK with the matching chest, which is very limiting.

Beldin.5498:

But ..but .. there are aetherblade legs for heavy, embroidered pants for light and
krytan vest for medium.

But yeah .. thats it more or less

Embroidered Pants are very baggy and have a half skirt thing at the back (at least, on human female they do, anyway).

There’s Profane Pants, but then you have to show the top of your char’s thighs…

But, they prove plain, close fitting leggings, without a skirt, could easily be done.

Yeah, I totally agree.

I used a lot of kits to get my human female’s face right and now I intend to just copy those settings for each new human female I make.

Also, I tried a different face type once and while it looked good in high def, it looked really weird in low def (the nose had a really wide septum, for some unknown reason and looked more like a pig’s snout!).

Another thing that would be good is a “copy existing character look” option, so you could just duplicate the look of an existing character for new ones.

Would save a lot of time.

Umrae.5124:

I guess this suggestion can also apply to female characters, then again they do have a variety of bras to choose from already, so I dont know why would they choose the ugly yellow one they’re wearing anyway

Would be nice if you could, at least, dye the underwear.

After all, sometimes you have no choice but to show it (i.e. when you go on the beach, or put on diving goggles).

PopeUrban.2578:

Nonsense, I love it. It’s obviously a common saying in human culture. So common a man had it inscribed on his grave

That’s not the point.

The saying itself is fine – I had no problem, for example, with my Ranger saying it, occasionally.

However, if you read what the OP has said, the issue is when you use Signet of Inspiration on Mesmer (as many do).

Then your character is yelling this (and other similarly repetitive phrases) every 10 seconds, all the time.

That’s the same phrases, 6 times a minute, every minute and at no point have you actively done anything to yell them (like you would on Ranger, with warhorn, or whatever).

It becomes extremely wearing, almost immediately.

To the point where I have had to put Dialog Volume on minimum, in sound options.

Which is obviously not ideal, as now I can’t hear any dialog at all.

So, I would say, absolutely leave the phrase in the game, but please modify Signet of Inspiration so the yelled phrases are removed from it.

I think it’s a good thing, as long as the keys will drop from anything we do in the game and considerably more often than they did, up until now.

It will be much better if we can do the parts of the game we prefer and still have an equal chance at getting everything; rather than being forced to farm one kind of content, if we want decent drops/gold.

However, if the “increased” droprate is only marginal and/or if the prices of keys in the gemstore remain high (most of the time) and/or if the chances of getting anything decent from the chests remains low, then it will obviously not be much of an improvement, even for those of us who didn’t farm keys.

As the prices of the skins will (presumably) increase on the TP.

Valento.9852:

mrstealth.6701:

I do feel bad for Anet’s art team in this mess. Because they’re going to put their talents (and they really do have some awesome artists) into making weapons that no one will ever see outside of the preview window. And all the ones they’ve designed to date will fall into the obscurity of obscenely priced reminders of what used to be.

Even if their prices skyrocket, absolutely NO GemStore weapons have prestige. Such a thing can only exist in an online world if either: a) it comes as a reward for being a long time player (veteran), b) it comes as a reward from a very difficult content (not to be confused to heavy farmed content).

So, yeah, no matter how pwetty they are, they’ll fall into obscurity.

Some of us don’t care about “prestige”, though; especially when it comes to weapon skins in a game.

Some of us just care about the way they look.

They are, after all, just skins – so, that is their entire purpose, to many of us.

Simply to look “pwetty”.

From what I’ve read, Black Lion keys are a little over two and a half times the price they should be, in the gemstore, though, if all you want are the tickets.

I think, if they insist on it being a lottery (as opposed to just selling the tickets directly), as that’s supposedly more fun, the least they could do is make the price lower than it would be, if we bought all the items separately.

As, most of the time, we won’t even want/need most of the items we get.

IMO, they should just charge for the price of the tickets that drop from the boxes (on average) and throw in the other stuff for free, as consolation prizes (and, rarely, the big jackpot wins, like permanent kits etc.).

So, assuming a ticket/weapon skin is (or should be) worth about £6.00 (about $9.00), that would be about 600 gems per 20 keys.

As opposed to the (at least) 1680 gems they cost, now.

If they did that, I think they would make a pretty decent number of key sales.

Balance, in WvW, is pretty much non-existent.

Especially as stealth is so useful, in so many situations.

I finally (and very reluctantly) gave up on my Ranger to play Mesmer and I wouldn’t go back, unless Ranger also got some decent (non-targeted) stealth.

I’m not really happy about the situation, but what can you do?

Nate.3927:

7 months ago would be prior to the world population calculation change.

Ah, OK.

So, it’s no longer ever possible?

Tongku.5326:

While in reality, as you see tehre are absolutely countless things these guys could have done, the simplest, fastest and most effective of them is to meet up at spawn after the 1st wipes and adjust some traitlines.

I didn’t watch the vids but, at that point, they have already lost.

Yes, they could adjust their traitlines specifically to cope with conditions, but that would only help them the next time.

Also, I don’t buy this idea of having to run a certain set of traits, just to survive one thing.

There should be minor pros and cons in trait choices and that is it.

Shouldn’t be in a situation where you are forced to run a certain traitline, just for one kind of defence (in this case, condition), or die.

The fact they would have had to do that (according to you) illustrates that the thing you are forcing them to defend against is OP.

smithkt.8062:

Haralin.1473:

This whole Free Account thing will destroy the WvW Population balance massively if the free accounts count into the active WvW Players there will be a lot of manipulation.

Given that the free accounts will require level 60 before they can enter WvW, how many people are going to spend the time to level accounts just for manipulating population calculations?

Tons will, in tier 1.

Tons already did, before the free accounts, but this will just enable even more of that to happen (assuming they can get onto the servers!).

Not that I’m against the free accounts – I’m all for anything that brings new players in.

I’m just against someone being able to bring several chars into the same WvW match, on different sides, simultaneously.

Dr Gonzo.6259:

Yeah honestly I dont believe this will have a negative effect on WvW as some are trying to claim. Let’s be real here; lvling without established toons is a PITA. The number of people who will actually go through this process just to troll will be low, not saying no-one will do it but this idea that everyone is going to bother lvling a second account to 60 just to mess with other servers is BS. Most internet trolls do not have this sort of dedication, if they can troll easily and without consequence sure they will do it, but when they have to put valuable time into something like leveling a free account most CBA.

It’s not just people trolling for laughs.

It’s people, who take WvW very seriously and who often play all 3 servers in a tier, trolling in order to control outcomes and keep their servers permanently in the tier.

Perhaps trolling is the wrong word, in this situation?

So, let’s call it what it is: match fixing.

Caedmon.6798:

Servers can’t handle that.

I tend to think they should reduce the maximum number of people in WvW, anyway.

It’s often laggy to the point of unplayability, as it is.

I realise that would probably cause further issues with queues, but that is an issue that should be looked at anyway, with the currently full tier 1 servers.

I don’t know all the details, but it’s possible they need to somehow allow more servers into the top tier, so there are fewer people trying to join a few already full servers and so there is less strain on the system.

OP, I agree that wvwvw, although a nice idea, doesn’t really work very well.

I’m on JQ and until recently, TC and BG would pretty much constantly gang up on us.

They would almost never fight each other; only us.

JQ may have been, on average, stronger than either of them individually, but we were obviously never going to be as strong as 2 servers playing as 1.

I haven’t done much “real” WvW recently, but when I did some, JQ and BG (which, apparently, are full of people who play for both sides and also, often, for TC) appeared to now be ganging up on YB.

It’s a mess, frankly.

Chaba.5410:

How is 1v1v1 inherently unstable and 2v2 somehow not?

Presumably, 2v2 would be two servers on the same side vs another two servers on the other side?

So, presumably, it would be 1v1 to all intents and purposes?

As each server couldn’t fight the other server on the same side?

Even if it was wvwvwvw, though, it would still probably be less uneven.

As it’s less likely that people would coordinate 3 servers to intentionally gang-up on 1, all the time.

Unless the 3 servers in question were incredibly weak and the 1 was incredibly strong.

Which is, presumably, less likely than the current (fairly typical) situation of 1 being a little stronger than the other 2.

I guess you might still get 2v1 in that situation, but if you did, you would run the risk of the other 2 servers ganging up on you (and their 2 server alliance might well be stronger than yours).

Of course, while people can play as many sides as they like, simultaneously, it’s never going to be anywhere near as fair, or balanced, as it should be, but still.

I’m guessing it’s possible from time to time?

I joined JQ, by complete fluke, about 7 months ago when I first started playing.

I didn’t even know, at the time, that it was a tier 1 server (or even that there were different tiers), or that it was normally full…

I just joined it because of the name.

In a way it was a bad thing for me, as I was new and just stumbled into WvW (having not even done EOTM) on a tier 1 server, on my undergeared Zerker Ranger.

But this proves it is, or was, possible (at least, until fairly recently).

Random.4691:

Tigaseye.2047:

IMO, they should limit the number of realms a household can play WvW on to just one at a time.

So, they can set-up as many accounts as they like, to do PVE (or whatever else) on, but have to commit to just one for WvW.

That way, spying, trolling and permanent AFKing (to take up spots) would become less easy (you would have to “employ” a friend to do it, rather than being able to do it yourself) and people would have less incentive to match fix, as they would no longer be playing several realms at once, so wouldn’t be trying to keep all of them in the top tier (or whatever).

Also, (genuine) new players would still get to experience WvW fully.

This is a terrible idea, my step son plays and I play but were on two different servers. What do suggest in this case, or how about students that often have roommates that play and also aren’t on the same server. There was really no thought put into your suggestion.

Well, is there any reason why you and your step son can’t play on the same server?

Obviously, you would probably need to give people one chance to move server (for free), before you brought the restriction in.

The point is, the fact that people play on multiple servers, simultaneously, removes any integrity from WvW.

People spy, they take up spots intentionally on one realm (resulting in artificial queues) while playing another, they troll…

None of this is good for the game.

Even just making it so people could only play one of their accounts at a time (in WvW) would help a lot.

Even though it wouldn’t solve the entire problem, as some people play one account after another and are still involved in fixing outcomes.

IMO, they should limit the number of realms a household can play WvW on to just one at a time.

So, they can set-up as many accounts as they like, to do PVE (or whatever else) on, but have to commit to just one for WvW.

That way, spying, trolling and permanent AFKing (to take up spots) would become less easy (you would have to “employ” a friend to do it, rather than being able to do it yourself) and people would have less incentive to match fix, as they would no longer be playing several realms at once, so wouldn’t be trying to keep all of them in the top tier (or whatever).

Also, (genuine) new players would still get to experience WvW fully.

Jayne.9251:

Lol you seem to contradict yourself from one paragraph to the other. The one above, you mention you duel. The one below, you seem to indicate that duelling is WRONG and wasting your server’s time! Make up your mind.

I think you’re missing the point.

A reasonable person can do something (like duelling in WvW) themselves, but still acknowledge that that thing they do is not something to be particularly proud of and/or appropriate for the place they are doing it in and/or something you should hate others for interrupting.

It’s not the case that, just because you happen to do something yourself, you must fully support it, or feel it is somehow sacrosanct.

Another example would be smoking – you could be a smoker yourself, but still fully understand that it affects people around you negatively and respect laws that prevent people smoking around other people.

That is not hypocrisy, or contradiction – that is having consideration for others.