Guild Wars 2

Why would you karma farm… to begin with?

MaLeVoLenT.8129:

I see Arenet is up to their forum posting deleting methods again.

I’d delete half of this thread if I had the ability to do it. :P

Actually, I’d delete everything but Cuddles’ posts, then it will look like she’s just talking to herself and crazy.

MaLeVoLenT.8129:

>.< I know

In 150 or so total ranks across all the toons, I have at least two ascended and four so exotics. Lots of rares.

Then again… I’m also the guy who nets 10+ dyes a day.

MaLeVoLenT.8129:

SoR’s rating is still higher than JQs even after this lost. Unless I’m misreading Mos.

That is correct, SoR will still be Rank 2. The thing is, that the gap between 2/3 and 4/below is a little closer now (unless JQ eventually pulls ahead by so much as to start gaining rating off of TC). So the likeliness of the usual triumvirate is a little less likely, but only a little.

If they tighten the spread on the RNG soon, which they probably will because the middle tiers have more or less finished sorting in NA (though EU still needs work).

I’m going to take a step to the side of all of the name-calling and whatever else is going on, to ask a few questions of DB and maybe offer some constructive criticism.

DB, you guys have some serious numbers (honestly, I think your NA is comparable to anyone else (short of SoR), you just don’t have a strong tick in EU/SEA) and serious guts, and your small crews are fun to fight against when we run into each other. But I have to ask, what do the larger zerg groups wear/trait? This is something we’ve been noticing in the large encounters, but many of your front liners will simply melt under even the slightest amount of focus fire. On reset, especially, it was really apparent when similar forces would collide but DBs front lines would be downed almost instantly. I don’t know if its the gear or the traits, or are you not dodging through the initial blasts, but something has been odd and its struck a lot of our guys on TS as rather peculiar. (I’m especially baffled because our havoc HB crew will run into your small squads regularly, and they are much tankier than their zerg counterparts.)

One other thing, and this isn’t so much a question but something I’ve noticed: try not to stack up for might when we’ve clearly seen you, and are charging (unless its in the middle of a long engagement). I can remember several times where we saw your large force just ball up for us and eat our AoE/CC bomb. In general, if you see us then we’ve probably seen you, and the best way to get positioned for might stacking is to pull away and try to either lead us to more favorable positions (choke or corner) or cause us to fracture.

A few other things I’ve noticed, in no particular order:

• Mesmer portals placed in front of us, rather than on top of us.
• Flanking in plain sight.
• Giving up a choke to chase.

Otherwise, I really enjoy fighting you guys and I want to see you get better!

JETWING.2759:

This skill could have his cd increased to 15 or 20 seconds.

The ranger isn’t getting any sort of damage buff off of his stealth. Its entirely for repositioning and target dropping, which is something the longbow could actually greatly use to allow to maintain distance. I don’t know how much of a nerf the skill needs (when traited) when the ranger isn’t just going to sit in stealth for its full duration (25% uptime) unless we wants to accomplish nothing at all.

Can’t cap.
Can’t deal damage.

Fungalfoot.7213:

Give a class something they don’t really need. In this case burning.

Use said gift as a justification to nerf the class’ core mechanics into oblivion.

BALANCE!

What is this mythical event of which you speak?

butch.8136:

You didn’t expect it today, did you? They would have announced that. Anyway, they’ll be giving it to us right before or right after the Pax tourny. (My guess)

Before, great promotion at PAX.

MaLeVoLenT.8129:

rank 276 havent even gotten 1 exotic or ascended

kitten , your luck is crap Omen.

I hear that in the next patch Banish, if it manages to knock someone off a cliff, grants 200 seconds of invisibility.

Manijin.3428:

Really, are there any competitive teams that rely on a strategy like this that succeed with relative frequency?

No, but you may want to actually look up sumo’s posting history and just learn to ignore his sensationalism. I heard he was applying for a job at Fox News and needed to boost his portfolio.

MasterYoda.8563:

For one I’m not a 14 year old kid, nice try, you fail at insults, stay classy BG and thanks for all the loot bags.

Your reading comprehension seems to be lacking. Read his statement again.

Ferik.3127:

Just because there are no games like GW2 out there at the moment doesn’t mean you can “take your time”

It would seem someone doesn’t understand how the real world works, actually there’s a few of you in here who seem to be doctorate wielding game programmers with nothing better to do than tell us all about how easy something is to do.

Direwind.8409:

the WvW zones are too small meaning smaller groups get owned by zergs, the servers are too slow meaning you cant do a kitten thing while fighting a zerg or being part of one.

Our havoc group of 5 [HB] didn’t seem to have a problem not getting owned by zergs, though [TW] did give us a few chases and scares for our lives, and we managed to flip four towers before we were done.

So…? Were we playing a different game?

Niim.9260:

Can you tell us when we are going to get something useful for non-siege users? All your WXP abilities are for siege, those that are not are outright useless except the 115 point rewards.

So then they aren’t useless.

Zikory.6871:

So in retrospect Waha is the true #1 NA server eh?

Waha has been the kingmaker of T1 for more than half a year, and he is certainly one of the most feared/known names in this game when it comes to WvW.

Names to run away from really fast:
Waha
Smokee
Indo
Sarcx
The Captain & Eclair (back when they played)

DevonCarver.5370:

I agree on all counts, but I hope you’ll concede we are no longer early in development. Making those changes nigh impossible to make at this juncture. If you happen to have a time machine handy…

I actually happen to have one, but its for personal use and you can’t have it.

… The me from the future just told me I should reconsider telling anyone about my time machine but who’s he to tell me what to do? Its not like he can see the future!

Atrophied.8725:

Easy solution: 1AP for every yak escorted. Hardcore WvW folks should then get a few thousand points, and those pve people who would come in for easy AP would actually be helping the server. :p

We really don’t want 50 yak escorting bot trains again, do we?

Simonoly.4352:

Alpha golem rushes are cheese but fine, however Omega golem rushes are out of control at the moment. You don’t even really need to bother with portals as they move pretty quickly relative to Alphas (although my Mesmer is most pleased by that part). It’s hilarious just how easily you can plough through a T3 keep with a bunch of Omegas and the abundance of golem blueprints facilitates this craziness. Eventually I imagine most people will be fatigued by Omega Golem rushes but until then, WvW will continue to resemble a much less metallic version of Cybertron.

Wall of Reflection = Omegas shooting themselves.
Feedback = " "
Daggerstorm = " "
Whirling Defense/I-Defender = " "
Shield of Absorption = No missiles contact the game.
Swirling Winds = " "

They are certainly over the top, but if you can coordinate the above, at all, then they are actually far less of a threat than Alphas.

IRSyKo.5843:

Lol you think serious PvP guilds are gonna stick around for “years and years”

This has already gotten old after the 9 months or whatever it has been.

To be fair, this statement has been repeated every month for the last nine months.

IRSyKo.5843:

As soon as a better game comes out you will see any serious PvP players/guilds leaving.

And as soon as Godot arrives Vladimir and Estragon will be wealthy and happy!

I hold no great optimism of The Elder Scroll: On Delay.
Nor do I hold the same enthusiasm as other fans of DAoC for Mark Jacobs’ next project after the crap he rolled out in the last one.

Hammers on Skyhammer.

That is all. If you haven’t tried it, do so.

This explains somethings I’ve been noticing…

Guardians, in solo or small group play, will never have the survivability of thieves/elementalists because they don’t have similar mobility. They are one of the slowest classes in the game, have one leap skill, and all of their teleports require targets.

They can survive being focused and they have a much stronger staying power, so they have that form of heavy duty veracity, but they won’t do much when being chased around because they can’t drop combat very easily if at all.

Kasama.8941:

There could be other limits. Like a cap on how many golems can damage a gate. Or remove the ability for golems to teleport, thereby giving opponents are better chance of killing them before they reach a gate (although placing portals for golems are fun teamwork).

Two guardians make Omegas worthless. Does that count?

GuardianOMS.8067:

“We’re working on it” is the response we get to just about every WvW issue that has been in since launch. I don’t expect results, and I don’t expect to rush them. But what I want to hear is, “Don’t worry, Mike brought in cake for the office and everyone is having a fantastic day, thanks for asking!”

Then I am admittedly confused. O_o

lordkrall.7241:

I would say the reason the range was not changed was because of what happened last time the changed range of certain siege.

But those skills function entirely differently. Trebs, catapults, and mortars all have a bar-charge mechanic for firing. You’ll quickly notice that Mortars (increased blast) and catapults (increased blast) both got “increased range” through a similar change. Arrow carts, balista, oil, all have either targeting reticles or are target based skills, and all received range increases (as well as blast radius increases).

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see increased range on any of them (trebbing hills from bay plox!) but it does seem peculiar that these bar-charge mechanics are the only thing that never gets modulated even if they would seem like prime candidates. This seems like a mechanical limitation in the programing rather than a willing choice (and Devon seems to imply just that).

PS: Please don’t increase blast radius on trebs, otherwise the trebs from garri to Bay will become a real nightmare with no counter short of either taking garrison or trebbing them down from right next to garrison.

VOLKON.1290:

I think, if I recall, we capped out around 50 one time.

Now that was a golem rush for the ages.

OK… more of a walk than a rush, but you get the point.

I was always under the impression that it was 60 to cap. This is from way, way back in the day when we were tinkering with siege values to figure out caps, and I remember the number 60 floating around for golems. Of course charging with 60 golems is tantamount to suicide because you have no one left to actually fight.

GuardianOMS.8067:

Oh look, shouting worked. My bad.

Oh look, “We’re working on it.”

What? This is about the third time they’ve responded to this? What are they supposed to say other than “We’re working on it.” when they are working on it and it isn’t finished?

DevonCarver.5370:

Changes to turn speed sound great, but we are unable to do them with the system as currently set up. That’s why you won’t see any changes of that sort for the foreseeable future.

Judging by the design, I assume this is also why the range was not changed but the blast radius was (a work-around of sorts)? They seem to work on similar mechanics, on a bar charge mechanic which is largely unique to siege (and perhaps a bit of a relic of older design that now needs to be re-vamped).

CuddleStrike.8215:

Not to like…. bicker… But just because they talk doesn’t mean they co ordinate. Like I’m friends with many maaaaaany people cross server… Doesn’t mean I PM my commander friends saying “HEY LETS GO DO THIS FOR THE LOLS”

People cannot just be friends. Everything is ulterior motives and plots!

… This is what Clue! taught me as a child.

pot.6805:

I know you are, but what am I?

I know I am, but what are you?

Liquid.9672:

This is a big part of the problem IMO. The game rewards behavior that could be viewed as griefing in certain circumstances.

And thus, 50 man yak escorting crews saw the end of Yak’s rewarding experience.

Sharpie.6759:

Figured out a glitch to get into jerrifers yesterday, really easily replicatable. Nothing difficult. Wondering how to report to developers for easy fix? This tower is actually important tower in EBG and I think this needs to be fixed ASAP.

Another option, with screen caps et all, is to directly send a PM to Devon such that it gets to the person who actually needs to read it.

Assassin X.8573:

While im not 100% certain of this statement I’m about to make, my experience with Anet since 2005 leads me to believe that: the original amazing team of balancing developers they had in gw1 are not the same ones that work on balancing gw2. In GW 1 nerfs and balances and readjustments came out almost instantly when something was found to be OP/ nerf-worthy. In gw2 (granted its a different and larger game) the turn around on these such things is still unacceptable.

You mean Izzy… the man who constantly over-ruled ideas of balance from Ensign and co? That balance team? GW1 never got ~better~ in balance, it was just a matter of how much worse did it get with each subsequent roll out of stupidly overpowered skills (a matter of degrees, really). Factions, those hexes… ahh the memories.

These certainly aren’t the devs you’re looking for and the ones you are looking for, never existed.

zerospin.8604:

Time spent on the forums and reading our suggestions and fixes > any time you may spend on working on ideas the players who actually play – don’t want.

Forums are a great relay for bugs and exploits, these things are factual events and oft hard to dispute… they are however a terrible relay for “good idea to make the game better” for any which idea there are usually as many detractors and supporters because its not about “our” suggestions as if were some collective skritt overmind, its about “my” suggestions or “I like this one” suggestions.

WarHawk.1892:

It’s too bad. Good 5-man teams/organised roamers if willing can back-cap a lot of camps even towers in some cases for the commander simply adding to the server’s success and weakening the enemies.

A good 5-man, with +15 and some s.catapults or s.rams, can do hundreds of supply damage very quickly. Either they break down your wall, if you ignore them or divert resources elsewhere (like an offensive), or you spend time sending people to hunt them (or you hunt them with your zerg) and repairing, using up supplies.

Personally, I prefer catapults. They are so sneaky…!

Many traits, which in theory are fine traits, just don’t have anything with which to gel well. There is a strong limit, because of the 60 total traits, on exactly how many usable combinations can be made to fill out build archetypes. Ultimately, you end up having a number of traits that all work well together under a certain achetype, filling it out nicely, but due to the limiting number you cannot possibly have every class fill out every archetype well.

Adding skills/traits at a slow pace won’t exactly break the game.

Slomo.1029:

Just suprisees like the really, really usefull traps.

Supply traps are incredibly useful.

mjharrison.3209:

The clear difference between this game and DAOC was that in DAOC, a single 8-man group could drop a 30+ zerg using a skillful combo of CC and AOE. It’s not possible in this game except with focused siege, which is nowhere near as fun as open-field. So imo, raising the aoe cap would surely be a good thing to try.

Several guilds on Blackgate do that (usually not 8, that’s a rather strange number, but 20vs40+ certainly isn’t uncommon) fairly regularly by exploiting terrain/choke advantages. Some guilds run even smaller, tighter groups and still take on larger forces by playing smart.

Just because you can’t run into a zerg and instagib everyone who’s also stuck in stacked stuns, doesn’t mean it can’t be done. You’d also make retaliation even more overpowered. Why is that more skillful than the aforementioned use of terrain and being situationally aware?

Mif.3471:

So even more encouragement for people to zerg from tower to tower and never defend anything…

Karma training towers is still slower than zerg busting in terms of WXP/XP/Gold/Karma accrual, especially if you are zerg busting in defense of towers/objectives you own and tick even just once on the defenders event (in the time it takes to flip two towers, just by logistics of having to traverse the distance, kill the gate, and then cap the circle, you’ll get two ticks of defenders which is worth a tower + everything you earned defending said tower). The problem will be that defending won’t get you a fancy chest but you still get a lot of bags defending. Just karma training undefended towers will get you all of a single chest with some materials in it… cool?

That said, there probably should be more done to make just karma training a bit less… easy? Let’s go with that word. Scaling the lord is probably the best solution as it gives some appeal to smaller squads.

gennyt.3428:

/giggle

But they said that WvWvW was supposed to be the opposite of that, what with the terribly lopsided populations and night capping and all

That has nothing to do with the balance of the actual map design.

Snowreap.5174:

yeah, I meant tower cap credit. it was one of the achievements on last night’s list of dailies. I ended up going to another tower later in the evening to pick up that one.

-ken

You have to get the credit within the “Assault the Tower/Keep/Batman” event range.

Balance.

That’s it.

Johje Holan.4607:

“for any player that qualifies for a reward from the boss”

You have to tag it, in WvW tagging anything is like two hits.

LilMcGinley.3890:

LFG FLIP TOWERS

At least make the rewards scale with player or how upgraded the structure is.. flipping paper towers shouldn’t have the same reward as flipping T3 hills.

I’d second this if only to avoid tower trading, or just make the Tower Lord an Elite rather than Champion. Its not like she’s actually threatening…

AndrewSX.3794:

Try getting 40+ people trough EB queques in prime time.

Zikory.6871:

EB will normally always have a queue or close to a queue since its a prime map to play. That is what makes it hard to get a full team in. That and I would only guess with the amount of camping in the JP it would be hard to not get greifed in there. Thats just a guess though.

If they gave it its own access option through the WvW menu, would that make it better?

Zikory.6871:

IMO while expanding the World make one of the new zones a open PvP zone. That would give a different aspect to PvE in that zone and it would give a place for GvG out side of WvW.

Whats wrong with Obsidian Sanctum for GvG? The staging area is perfect for GvGs! You can even have spectators at the spawns, safely watching.

Or is it too small an area?

Cactus.2710:

If the dev didn’t really say anything it didn’t answer anything.

Not really? He says its being worked on in some capacity he just can’t say when it will be ready for release. He specifically speaks about polish as in the map probably exists in some semi-finished state (we already know it does).

The rough version of it (cheeseburgers and all) has been in the .dat files for two or three months now. Three colors, three starting points, a gate, a tower, and a keep, gee I wonder what that could be…

… Must be a new sPvP map, I hear they’re going to be releasing 1v1v1 with keeps and towers, and siege on a map the size of EBG.

Deniara Devious.3948:

There is already a siege bunker. But even with full WXP ranks in that trait line you only get 5% damage reduction from siege, while many siege weapon traits give 25% damage increase. Talk about badly designed and imbalanced traits.

Siege Might and Siege Bunker are universal, that’s why they provide less of a bonus. To actually deal 25%+ more damage by every single siege in the game, you’d need to spec into every single siege in the game, Siege Bunker/Might is flat and covers everything.

I don’t think the issue is alphas. Alphas are fairly manageable because they still have to hit doors which can be defended from multiple venues.

The problem is omegas can engage as they see fit and avoid fire by simply strafing out of where shots normally kitten and into corners that cannot be hit by cannons/mortars/trebs. Remove their range capabilities, and their abilities to hit walls, and we’re good to go I’d wager.

VOLKON.1290:

Trebuchet Mastery should be coming soon I’d think.

Seems like it, though I’m curious why they gave catapults increased damage to siege. I don’t often see them used to take out siege (that’s trebs) I see them taking down walls and its rather surprising that they don’t seem to have gained increased ability to do such which seems to be a balance choice. This makes me wonder what we’re going to see on trebs, most likely not increased range.

I’ve quite enjoyed the last addition with the build/repair masteries as they really quicken up supply chains, and the increased blast on Mortar is pretty silly as you can now cover previous blind-spots.