Guild Wars 2

i will post part of a thread i have as this is being watched.
please…PLEASE… instance raids. the idea that you have to have a commander tag to form some elitest super tuned raid team is just not very fun. anyone should be able to do a raid without spending hundreds of gold on a tag and if raids and dungeons functioned on a instancing system(not sure i’m using that right) i.e. raid teams formed the same way pvp teams do. click on a raid menu icon. click on the raid you want to do and bang. you are in que for that raid. then alot of the “zerker only meta group” harrasment would cease to be a part of this content. this was acknowledged by anet a while ago as a “known problem with dungeons” in that article (if i am remembering this right as the article was taken down) anet said “when one rune/build becomes the only acceptable build/rune. that is unacceptable” and anet said they had a goal of “every player/class/build accepted to every group every time.” this would put raid content a step closer to that goal. am i remembering this right and does this seem reasonable step towards that goal?

Donari.5237:

Warlock.7136:

I am aware of the quote command but it quotes the whole thing and when i try and cut out parts it cuts out everything and leaves a code command and no text on the forum.

I can help you with this part, anyway, though I am too brain dead from my day to coherently address your central concerns.

You click the little backwards arrow on the bottom right of the post you want to quote. That puts up the whole thing, with quote code in brackets at each end, including embedded quotes. Trim out everything you want to remove (as I just did to your post), making sure that any embedded quote brackets have a start and end set. Do not delete any of the brackets in the text you are keeping. Then type your comments after the final bracket. Voila!

when i did exactly what your saying and previewed my post it was a bunch of html script with no typed text either from me or the person i quoted.

From Bellatrixa.3546 “One thing I’m curious about OP is if you’ve tried to build up your guild with other players who are like-minded. You’re not the only person I’ve seen post complaining about guild drama/rep requirements/time requirements and the like, and as you say you’re not a casual player, it sounds as if you have time to develop a guild past just you and your wife. Not wanting to sound rude, but it sounds as if you have a very insular life in game if it’s just the two of you. I’ve met many married couples over the years and although they might do the majority of content together, they’ve still been happy to group up with and talk to other people in a guild.”

Warlock.7136: on building up my guild. i have no interest in this. the point of the twin flames is that it is us and thus drama free. no details necessary but i get enough drama from rl, i don’t need it in the thing i do to unstress. on grouping: (post deleted for being too stubbornly unhelpful) the hopeful helpful part i wish i had some of the experiences you speak of in fractals. but i consider fractal content off limits because it is where i find the highest concentration of “do it my way and on the first time” the idea of entertainment seems lost on these groups as shaving mins off your run time is seen as superior to any other goal. this was reinforced by the recent game time i played doing other dungeons for achievements. the lofty goal = doing each dungeon path successfuly once each. it was a total nose dive. i only managed it in the end by shutting up no matter what was said and riding several groups till they either completed the content(one path took 4hrs in one session) or disintegrated around me. it was horrible and if i wasn’t so set on eventually having a full hellfire armor set, i wouldn’t have even tried because i know dungeons concentrate these interactions down.

From Bellatrixa.3546:Thing is, Guild Wars is a multiplayer game. Heroes turned GW1 into more of a solo playing game but quite honestly, I know only a handful of people who could complete DoA/Underworld HM with heroes and certainly not without cons up the jacksie. To experience all the content at its fullest, you needed to party up at some point. I love doing my own thing in PvE but I recognise that sometimes you’re going to need to get together with others to do the content. That’s why I’ve stuck with my NA-based guild from GW1 – they’re people who I know and trust not to be kittenwipes if I don’t understand something right away or need to learn something. Most of them have played from launch if not soon after, and the members who I hadn’t met prior to GW2 have fitted into the guild’s way of life just fine.

Warlock.7136: only thing i can say is i had two pleasant experiences in gw1 for uw/fow runs. me+my heroes+my wife+her heroes=duoed. awesome time. heroes were the best thing gw ever came up with and i was saddened that gw2 didn’t continue to offer this highly desirable option. the second pleasant experience was advirtising “Friar LFG FoW full run” to which players asked “lol friar whats that about?” my response"my character is a monk who will be so drunk the whole run that the screen is incoherant. luckily i can follow and heal just fine under these circumstances" drunk fow runs as a healer are hilarious and much fun.

Bellatrixa.3546: The only problem I’m seeing is that you’re stubbornly refusing to listen to any constructive criticism in this thread and simply making excuses when people are giving you sound ideas for how to improve your game experience. The thing is, the game doesn’t revolve around one person. It could be that this is no longer the ‘right’ game for you if you have as many issues as you say you do. Games evolve over time, nothing stays static.

Warlock.7136 if gw2 was not the best game out there i would be playing what was.
my original post in this thread said there were a few problems/opinions i wished to share, which i have not seen any solutions to.
1. the tos doesn’t have a strict enough social violations section
2. the raid/guild mission/dungeon formats should be instanced so that gear/build/class aren’t choices players are being punished for. by assembling teams with the same technique that pvp matches do alot of social violation/unpleasant harrasment could be bypassed.
3. guild alliances would be a nice addition as this would allow you to play with other players while retaining the answering to no one but yourself playstyle.

oh and 4.(the new one) heroes rule why are we not funding the gw2 asuran research intp these advanced golem types.

I agree with alot of this. i too feel that if the average mob’s damage was raised to a level where they 1 shot the pure dps glass cannon, that would put pressure on builds to not just go with the highest pure damage possible. the raids should have their own icon that you click and bang your in raid que. raid groups should form like pvp teams.

i guess that is good to know i will open a tech support ticket with the forums section on this.

Seera.5916:

Warlock.7136:

“No one has insulted you in this thread.”

“MMOs are not designed for outliers, and social misfits. Nor should they be. They’re meant to be group content. There is plenty of things for solos to do, but the further along you get the more the focus has to be on group content.”

This is just absurd. Throwback is not a bad thing. It isn’t Mario, and SAB is completely subjective. To me it was the single greatest thing to be added to the game, and it doesn’t even provide a single bit of progression in any aspect of the game. The jumping mushrooms in HoT are just how they felt like presenting the mechanic. There are any number of other things they could have done, and every one of them could be pointed to something else to say, oh that’s where it came from. It’s entirely your opinion and not worth much.

I agree. Games based around giving up large quantities of your time to advance in a computer generated world where you have no face to face interaction with anyone else, are so not designed for social misfits.

so i imagined these posts yes?

Please quote as the loss of the text around it removes context and context is everything. I can’t tell where your post starts and ends since you’re not even quoting.

as stated before when i cut out sections of another players post to show that i am quoting a partial quote and not their whole post it doesn’t post any text except the (/quote} etc coding i cut and paste because it is the only way to do a partial post quote.

another attempt to be calm an productive. I have posted my own lf leader and group dungeon posts. also lfg nonmeta. these posts are simply not responded to. also i do not use toxic to describe “doesn’t agree with me” i use it as a statement of “causing a derogatory effect on the overall gameplay experience” this is what that slang term means. a players behavior is toxic when it is rude or derogatory or causes unnecessary stress on the group/thread. on the casual guild idea. i am in a guild, i represent that guild because as in real life i represent my wife and my wife represents me. we started the twin flames guild in gw1 when we ran into this exact thing there and we carried it forward to gw2. there will be no guild (i know i’ve tried repeatedly) that will respond to “lf a guild that has no representation requirements/play requirements/playtime requirements/socializing” (if i could do a guild alliance i would, this is how we did things in gw1. that way we retained command of our characters while being able to choose or choose not to socialize with other guilds on a interaction by interaction basis.) and the ones that promise they do. don’t and quickly start in with “you should really be playing…at x time” “also please trigger that you represent us” and the ever popular “for this run could you switch to x class and run x build” I am not a casual player i often play several hours a day every day or at worst most every day. i did not post this previously as i feel it isn’t productive. if a player disagrees with me you are free to say so and an opinion is equally valuable no matter who it comes from. it is however not productive to say things like “this is ridiculous/absurd/antisocial” etc. they are adjectives meant to add an insulting and patronizing tone. you can say “i dissagree with what you said when you said x because imo it’s actually x or in my experience is x”
without using these nonproductive words. my opinion is not thread law. my opinion is not the only one that matters. in fact i opened this thread to gather other opinions on how this problem could be fixed.

“No one has insulted you in this thread.”

“MMOs are not designed for outliers, and social misfits. Nor should they be. They’re meant to be group content. There is plenty of things for solos to do, but the further along you get the more the focus has to be on group content.”

This is just absurd. Throwback is not a bad thing. It isn’t Mario, and SAB is completely subjective. To me it was the single greatest thing to be added to the game, and it doesn’t even provide a single bit of progression in any aspect of the game. The jumping mushrooms in HoT are just how they felt like presenting the mechanic. There are any number of other things they could have done, and every one of them could be pointed to something else to say, oh that’s where it came from. It’s entirely your opinion and not worth much.

I agree. Games based around giving up large quantities of your time to advance in a computer generated world where you have no face to face interaction with anyone else, are so not designed for social misfits.

so i imagined these posts yes?

Linken.6345:

Your thinking of divinity 2 a totaly other game

http://www.divinityoriginalsin.com/

Andr if gw2 is a content-massive, massively online single-player-like rpg.

Then so is any mmorpg out there like wow, rift, swtor etc

I completed 100% map by myself i grouped for last personal story mission only. by myself i have assembled 17k+ achievement points. sense then i went through the horrible process of getting each dungeon path completed once. which reinforced the toxicity of group play. i expected the same from HoT soloable except for maybe the last “mission”. raids could have been handled better with a similar design to dc universe. that is their own icon at the top. click the raid you want and bang your in a group and doing the raid. i have no problem being in a group that allows me to play my way while taking the group leaders content based instructions silently. i do have a problem with being told how to play/what i must play. it is the same reason i am not in a large guild. i don’t want demands of when i play/how i play/and what to play. these are what i mean when i say “the less i deal with other players the more i enjoy my playtime” like this forum conversation thread that i came to out of years of frustration, set down the same social rules and level of respect that i wanted only to be told “play another game you….(insult deleted).”

I feel like players are focusing too heavily on the tiny details of my original post and not the idea i wanted adressed here. the verbal harrasment section of the gw2 ToS is inadequate. i should not be forced to play zerk just because it’s “what everyone plays and what is expected” i am not what is expected both in person and in character and i deserve to be allowed to play how i want to play within the group content. being kicked from a group because you are not the glass cannon meta should not happen and should count as a form of harrasment that is causing players to be excluded from content. to quote another anet statement “When any one build/set of equipment becomes the only acceptable set/build, that is in and of itself unacceptable” which i agree with, but with no way to enforce this it becomes less then it should be. also i disagree that gw2 is “the friendliest community out there” world of tanks in it’s first year was an actual friendly community. how did they do it? it’s simple they had a “social zero tolerance policy” that is to say your first insultive or rude behavior got you a permaban. this scared everyone into playing nice for fear of a permaban on first unacceptable behavior. eventually they caved and removed the zero tolerance policy in favor of higher player pop and thus more money. with the removal of that policy the community tanked(minimum pun intended) and became just as toxic as any other online game. if the gw2 community stands for a higher quality of community, then prove it. every group i have ever been in has fallen apart/insulted one another and in general been a toxic experience and nothing is done. because players fear a false report ban with thoughts about “well was that really what the tos describes as a social violation?” or is not a direct insult but a kick based on not being meta. which is just as unappealing imo. build variety should be encouraged playstyles differing should not matter if the goal is “every player/class/build accepted to every party, every time” I have even tested saying nothing but yes/no/ok/i understand the instructions etc as my only party text. same result a completely toxic play experience.

Linken.6345:

Warlock.7136:

“As for “no high quality massive single player RPGs”, have you not heard about Dragon Age, or The Witcher? The latest ones can easily consume 100+ hours, each.”

this is a great example of what i mean. played latest dragon age for 2 days and returned it. played some of the latest witcher on a friends comp. hated it even though i loved the original. like i said gw2 dwarfs both of these games in several ways, too many to list.
combat/lore/world depth/character depth/new content/build variety.

as for “If you have any idea about where to find this content-massive, massively online single-player-like rpg, let me know It s long years I wait for it”
they are called gw1 and gw2 core game.

Have you tried pillars of eternity, wasteland 2 and divinity orignial sin 1 ( 2 just got kickstarted )

Also for arpg you could try diablo 3 or path of exile.

I am aware of the quote command but it quotes the whole thing and when i try and cut out parts it cuts out everything and leaves a code command and no text on the forum. i have a ps4. i have played divinity this is a fps and not an rpg and its not even a good fps.i’ve seen some of those titles but i didn’t like the look of them so i didn’t spend the money. d3 killed my favorite game series and was a horrible debacle imo.

“As for “no high quality massive single player RPGs”, have you not heard about Dragon Age, or The Witcher? The latest ones can easily consume 100+ hours, each.”

this is a great example of what i mean. played latest dragon age for 2 days and returned it. played some of the latest witcher on a friends comp. hated it even though i loved the original. like i said gw2 dwarfs both of these games in several ways, too many to list.
combat/lore/world depth/character depth/new content/build variety.

as for “If you have any idea about where to find this content-massive, massively online single-player-like rpg, let me know It s long years I wait for it”
they are called gw1 and gw2 core game.

“This is just absurd. Throwback is not a bad thing. It isn’t Mario, and SAB is completely subjective. To me it was the single greatest thing to be added to the game, and it doesn’t even provide a single bit of progression in any aspect of the game. The jumping mushrooms in HoT are just how they felt like presenting the mechanic. There are any number of other things they could have done, and every one of them could be pointed to something else to say, oh that’s where it came from. It’s entirely your opinion and not worth much.”

My opinion is just as valid and worth just as much as anyone else’s. my opinion is not “absurd” again with the name calling. i am glad that you find a nostalgia in 8 bit graphics and super mario gameplay.(jumping on trampolines and using simple graphics and combat actions) i would have said zelda but super mario was a better fit with all the jumping and side scrolling.) in reality it was a cross breed. super mario level design and movement with zelda combat. I want complex combat and content, i want a constantly evolving game that grows with the technology available. as i said and you left out, it was “just my opinion”. if you enjoyed it great. and yes imo 8bit graphics on a modern game don’t belong.

" 2. all of the content I have seen so far is intended for groups of 3 players and more.

I’m unclear what you’re getting at here. There are only three kinds of content with HoT. Personal Story, which is soloable. Open World which some of is actually soloable and you could definitely do with two people, but since it’s open there are going to be enough people to complete it. Raids, which really are what they need to be, and if you can’t participate in them, then that’s how it is. I don’t get to Raid, cause I’m just me and I don’t care enough to join a guild."

I am referring to the twitch statement by the dev team member responsible for guild halls. that “will require a team of at least 3 to complete” this makes the kind of married/best friend 2 person guilds out there that enjoy their “drama free sense creation” status by requiring 3 players to complete the content necessary to get the mats to build and evolve the guild hall. also raids should have as i stated their own icon at the top of the screen where you click “join x raid” and you are put into a group(thus bypassing the unnecessary elitistism)

“MMOs are not designed for outliers, and social misfits. Nor should they be. They’re meant to be group content. There is plenty of things for solos to do, but the further along you get the more the focus has to be on group content.”

as stated i am ok with group content. as long as i am able to
1.get into any party forming for the content. i refer you back to anet’s stated goal “every player/every class/every build accepted to every group, every time”
2. no gear check.
3. no build check
4. not dealing with rude behavoir.(which i have dealt with in every group i have played in in gw2)

I am not a “social misfit” simply because i prefer to not be insulted just to complete content. this is exactly the kind of verbal insulting i stated in the initial post as not being conducive to a positive play(or posting) experience. you could have made your point without insulting or labeling.

why have a healer? because not everyone is happy with playing a meta that encourages high dmg output by every player with no dmg absorb to counter the high dmg output that every player is running. anet has said in HoT that you will “have to dust off that toughness gear and take some serious hits” their hope i believe is to raise average mob dmg to the point where you get 1 shotted if you are running pure glass cannon. it offers a different playstyle. a defensive playstyle and that is good. tanking has been stated as a necessity to raids, and i can only hope this is true.

so before I begin talking about my beta experiences lets set some ground rules. if you don’t have anything constructive to say, say nothing. example. “I think that this content was fun for me/the content could be changed in this way to make it better” is constructive dialog and “ok what do you expect? I think you are…” these are not constructive. moving on.

the negative impacts of my beta experiences on my opinion of HoT were as follows.

1. I didn’t really like Revenant. why? a lack of customizable utility skills allows for minimal variance between revenants. build variety should be treasured. if a class is added that class should follow the general guide lines of the other classes including their own selectable individual utility skills. the replacement of utility skills with locked spirit skills hurts the classes playability.

2. all of the content I have seen so far is intended for groups of 3 players and more. why I see this as bad. there are several players out there that want solo content/duo content.
I believe there to be many guilds out there that are husband and wife(like mine) or a couple of friends that play together only. I have been playing gw sense initial na release of gw1. I have enjoyed years of gameplay both in gw1 and gw2 with my wife. I have very little interest in dealing with elitists who want you to play their way only/feel they should have some sort of supervisory powers over you and your playtime/play style.
I have said before “the less I deal with other players the more I enjoy my playtime.” this has been proven to me repeatedly and for over 20 years of gaming. every time I hear a player say “oh but it isn’t like that” and I try and deal with those players it all eventually turns into the same aggravating overly dramatic negative playtime. this has been tested on 50+ games hundreds of times. (raids take a commander tag which one must purchase for hundreds of gold./guild missions and guild halls will only be able to be built/done with guilds working at 3 players+ at a time.) is it so wrong to want to play the game content silently and in my own way that I enjoy? raids should have been part of the lfg tool or their own icon/interface where players can select a raid and get matched to a party to do the raid.

3. the super Mario brothers syndrome. imo SaB was the worst content ever made for gw2. why? because of the low quality throwback graphics/SMB style play. I want new content shown to me in new ways. from my new expansion to my cutting edge game.
I was seriously discouraged to find out that the trampoline mushrooms(and they are even mushrooms) from the super Mario brothers series(that hasn’t entertained me sense I was 8 ) was apparently going to be a major part of the HoT maps(as they made up a large portion of the beta map/mastery system)

when I mention these things in game(only after being asked direct questions) I am told the same thing “why do you play mmos” the answer? because I enjoy the playtime I get with my wife and my friends(before they all quit gw2 rather then spend hundreds of gold regearing their mains after last feature pack: my friends that is). there are no high quality massive single player rpgs anymore as mmos have replaced them. while I understand the need for group content I feel that less social players who simply want to silently play their game are excluded when you require player counts. until anet either establishes a banned on first social violation(thus scaring everyone into playing nice) or gear inspects/build inspects being declared as forms of player harassment this will continue. I originally thought anet agreed that “every player and every build should be accepted every time” was their stated goal(and a good goal). but a lack of follow through on the zerk only toxicity has shown otherwise. it should be noted that I am willing and capable of enjoying group play by taking instructions that are content only related (what to do at a particular boss etc) without being told what I must run/equip.
I do not enjoy my average interaction with other players and so I find following in silence is the best course for me and groups.

I’m done with this post I had more to say but I see I am expressing it through a frustrated perspective which solves nothing. I can only hope I am judging the expansion on an incomplete system. otherwise I am discouraged that I spent 200$(two copies of ultimate. one for me and one for my wife) on content I can never play.

will update later with text if the screenshot doesn’t post. what traits do i grab for this in wvw?

tried it with arcane blast. good enough. ty for your help.

also a correction on a previous statement i used incorrect terminology when i said 3 ticks of arc lightning what i meant to say was 3 animations(which i assume was stages 1/2/3 being done once) per kill.

another question. I am currently running scepter/focus. should i be running Scepter/Dagger?

ok some thoughts and questions on what you showed me. when i say “i use” btw it’s just information to be considered not an assumption mine is better.

Air: we match on this perfectly so air line is optimized.
Water: Soothing Ice(we both use) You Use:Cleansing Wave: Relies on reatunment to trigger(which will happen rarely and only close to death) I use:Soothing Disruption,(Why?) for cantrip support.(2 of three utility slots) You Use:Cleansing Water:“Remove a condition when granting regen to yourself/others. I Use:Soothing power(Why?) To boost the regen that is the only reason i am attuning to water currently.(a question: I have a cantrip to remove conditions, will i really need that much cnd removal when a sneeze that hits too close just killed my character? vs Reduction in time to max hp and thus another burn phase so to speak.)
Arcane(I use Fire): you use:Arcane precision (this seems like a reasonable defensive trait.) I use:Burning precision(Why?) this causes the bolt to burn and burn longer adding cnd damage to the build.You use:Elemental Contingency(my thought: fury might be nice. would take me to 86% crit chance while active) I use:Power overwhelming (Why?)for cnd damage boost for burn.(my question which is better for dps”5 seconds of 86% crit chance" or a stable 10% increase to cnd stat based on power?) you use:Elemental surge(is this worth it if my only arcane skill that i would use Arcane Shield is used as my only arcane skill when it would mean taking out Signet of Fire and the static +180 precision bonus from it.)

i will look into what you have posted here. i suspected something in my damage stacking wasn't functioning right. traits written down for playtesting using bolt to the heart traits you listed. ty also for acknowledging that this build was destroyed in the patch and wasn't recoverable. the forums seem to think that this hasn't happened to anything in the patch but i have 20+ characters whose builds went from fun to not functioning in this patch literally every build i used isn't capable of being used as i very rarely used a grandmaster trait before and now i'm restricted down to 3 trait lines all of which MUST be maxed.

Treeoflife.4031:

FrownyClown.8402:

so you run scepter without fresh air and you camp air most of the fight? You should fix that problem too.

^^^

Fresh air on scepter is hugh burst if you are not using it i would not use scepter personally. Like FrownyClown said you need to swap out of air to proc fresh air and should never camp any attunement. So start in air. unload burst. If it goes well and they are on the defense i’d go Fire next to try and finish em off. If initial burst doesnt go well i’d go water to proc soothing mist and small heal to stay above 90% health. or go earth and pop stone barrier or invuln and heal. while in water tho i hear soothing mist is actually pretty good. Around 700/tick with decent heal power (which with zealot you should have). Always try to swap back to Air as soon as it is refreshed. Others might be able to help more or offer better advice…

^this post. this post is what i was talking about. ^this is using a different build by including instructions like “should never camp any atunement” and “fix this problem too” how i play my build is up to me and the fun i get out of it and is not a problem to be fixed. prepatch this character killed players in 3 seconds on average. or three ticks of arc lightning which ever. now i have to use like 5-10 ticks on average. which i find wierd, sense supposedly both regular damage and condition damage were buffed. i am looking for mathmatical help with the build. play style suggestions or adding things like "then shift to fire so you can kill them using lameo looking fire skills rather then the arc lightning(which was the entire reason you made this character). are less then helpful. better suggestions would sound like “ok so to optimize use of the arc lightning and cantrips of the build for dps we would trait it like this…”

most of these posts were what i expected. "do it our way or your a garbage build" i have 5 eles. THIS ele is a build centered around arc lightning and shifts only to water in emergencies. instead of turning my build into a differnt build maybe as the forum topic said you could help me fix this one. as i have said before in many forums this update screwed up 20+ characters. so if no one wants to help me make a build around arc lightning with the new system then please don't. if however you believe you can help me in the way i was asking. then i would love to hear it and will take the advice to heart. everyone constantly tells me that the new system can use any build that was previously in it. but everytime i ask for someone to help me recreate a build i had. they immediately start with. "so lets scrap the whole thing,then you can run my build instead of yours" Arc lightning.water/air elements used any traits or trait lines or stats i am willing to use so long as they center on this character being an ARC LIGHTNING build. I have 4 other eles with other weapons/elements to also think of. This is one of my air eles. i have a staff ele for when i feel like playing an ele who shifts his element around. this one is built to do damage with arc lightning or to regen/heal enough to switch BACK into air/arc lightning. it's a character for shooting things with a trained laser. also a mild-mid amount of healing is just fine. i don't take much damage as with these stats i get 1 shotted. the idea is to kill the opposing player with arc lightning and if you start to take damage dodge back into the meat shield that is the zerg. regen then move forward and start blasting again.

the build description was given. but i will reexplain here.

In WVW you are part of the zerg. when facing an enemy zerg you charge in frontline. you take damage. you deal most of your damage by spiked armor.(yes i am spiking players reguarly this way) when something in the frontline gives(aka a player dies) you attach to the player(begin rezzing) and one of two things happen. enemy zerg focuses on you increasing the number of ret strikes going out and decreasing damage to the rest of the zerg or you rez the player and move to next rez. thus maintaining the high dps but fragile characters in your zerg. when defending a keep etc you may also attach to the keep lord etc. when nothing is dead around you you “facetank” as you put it using the hammer for control/mild AoE damage. it was designed as a build to help reduce player stress(others not mine) from dying repeatedly to the meta of high damage low damage absorb(zerk). often my wife is by my side and she plays a sword sword condition war. so sometimes she is my damage and sometimes other players are. but i do spike ALOT more players then one would expect by retal.
At least i used to before tanking ten players and still getting 1.5k crits was possible. man i miss the passive signet pre bonus.

ASP.8093:

Warlock.7136:

want to try and fix it?

Enh, I’ll take a shot.

What did you try?

From your description, it’s not exactly clear what your old build was, besides Spiked Armor for retal. (You list “power and precision boosts from traits/trait lines” but my only barometer on what your traits were was the ones you don’t flag as “useless.”)

You complained about dying faster due to the damage bumps a few classes go. Did you consider Last Stand + Defy Pain? That gives you two useful “virtual” skills without having to spend slots of your skill bar. Automatic-triggering limited-duration damage immunity is a pretty good way to facetank more damage from bursty zerkers.

Moreover, you picked an entire trait line of useful buffs for swapping weapons and labeled them all “useless” because… you don’t intend to swap weapons? (There’s no role in your build for a weapon like mace, warhorn, longbow, or shield?) Just for Merciless Hammer? Maybe you should swap weapons more or not take Merciless Hammer? Nothing about the build you described demands 20% CD reduction on hammer skills or parking hammer full-time.

the only time i swap weapons on my tank is when range becomes a must,at that time i switch to rifle. yes imo weapon swapping traits on a hammer tank are useless. also about the precision thing. it is my understanding that what determines if you hit a toughness character is precision it is your crit% and your to hit roll. previously i could sit signets on the character and gain a passive pre boost. now you must use them for a temporary pre boost/damage boost.

CalamityO.2890:

Warlock.7136:

Cost full gear conversion:100 gold+70 ectos through mystic forge/replacement runes. loss of full infusions on armor as well(nice loss of laurels)

want to try and fix it?

You can change stats on ascended https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ascended-Gear-Anet-please-fix-this/first#post5174104

You can change it to any stats
- 10 spirit chards
- Piece of ascended armour or weapon
- exotic insignia of your choice
- 5 ectos

I did this THIS is what cost the 70 ecto the runes and infusions and NEW gear cost the remainder. now that all stats are in gear gear had to be adjusted to compensate.

one thing about my last post “useless” refers to a trait that had to be taken to get to another one but does not affect the build in any way that can be seen as benefical to that specific build.

I will give one example. this is what happened to my main character who should have been done/complete on his gear as it was all full ascended.

Skills: Hammer/Healing signet/shake it off/Berserker’s stance/Signet of fury/Signet of rage. Stats prepatch:Max toughness/Max Healing Power/High Vitality(32k hp) medium precision/medium Power

Stats After Patch:High toughness/High Healing Power/High vitality/Low Precision/medium Power(this is mostly due to stats being in armor combinations only but the nerf to the passive bonus to pre that signets gave did have an affect.)

Prepatch traits:max healing/vitality line/max toughness line. power and precision boosts from traits/trait lines.

Current Traits:

Defense:Thick Skin/Dogged March/Adrenal Health/Gain power based on toughness/Spiked armor(ret damage)Rousing resilence(least useless grandmaster trait. still pretty aweful though)

Tactics:determined revival/leg specialist(useless randomly chosen as all traits in this choice are useless) reviver’s might/Shake it off/Inspiring presence/Vigorous shouts

Discipline:Versatile Rage(useless) Warrior’s sprint(not useless but i don’t see a better choice) fast hands(useless) Destruction of the empowered(useless) Versatile Power(useless) Merciless hammer(only trait needed from this line)

gear:nomad backed by dolyak runes. food:mango pies.

How it works/worked: You attach to a player that has gone down. you deal ret damage while doing this to insure spiking players from ret damage attach to the keep lord/key npc or a particuarly annoying zerker. I.E> make a nuisance of yourself. you out heal/out tank the damage removing it from your zerg. you get thanked for the rez. player friendliness towards you improves.

the basic math of it:Prepatch=toughness reduces all damage to double digit/healing rate regens triple digit per tick.ret damage goes out killing zerker meta with it’s own high damage low damage absorb flaw. Effective up to 8-10 enemies. After Patch:toughness reduces all damage to 4 digit/healing rate is 3 digit. effective up to 4 players.
Cost full gear conversion:100 gold+70 ectos through mystic forge/replacement runes. loss of full infusions on armor as well(nice loss of laurels)

want to try and fix it?

i could spam this thread with examples of fun builds i played before that had their use and are now unduplicatable. the optimal build is not always the fun one as i have said before. meta is the gaming lobotomy. you drool on yourself and play the meta and it’s all “optimal mathmatic effeciency”. or you break from what everyone else is doing and play something that you find enjoyable. that is no longer possible. I am CERTAIN that that aweful metabattle build numbing site will soon have all 495(a number i have heard repeatedly on forums but not one i have checked) builds listed. gg. only not really when before we had thousands of builds possible. this is an obvious attempt by the dev team to limit the number of builds that need to be balanced.

I am trying to restore one of my fav wvw builds but alas the new min/maxer system has me thwarted. so here is what i was running any help would be appreciated, unless it’s agressive or “deal with it” in attitude.

Air Ele scepter/focus. zealot stats.(not changing gear, hate zerk meta)
Current setup and issues.

air line:Move faster/Atune charge(useless as I almost never change attunement)/Precision+/vulnerable/Bolt to the heart.

fire line=power+ while attuned(useless and loses me massive power bonus i previously had) crit burns/fire shield on atune(useless see above) +condition dmg(mosty useless as an air)more dmg to burn foes

Water Line: (only time i shift from air is to stop death) Regenerate while attuned/regenerate on critted/Heal on attune cantrips cause regen(only trait in this line necessary for build)Healing done to allies+(useless)Soothing power(not great as a grandmaster but ok i guess)

Stats:zealot(which previously was awesome, but now that it is responsible for all your stats is useless as it doesn’t provide any vitality or precision)

Skills in build:scepter/focus/Ether renewal/cleansing fire/mist form/signet of air/tornado(which I’m not happy about changing to as it lost me take root and the invuln time that skill gives)

it is the meta we “rebel” against. the only definition of useable that i am saying is basically any build that doesn’t have a trait line that is just because we had to choose 3. that is to say that at least half the traits in that line are “useable”(affect the builds skills). i have never played meta i never will. if you used partial trait lines or stats not found in the combinations that gear allow, then you will feel the lack of fun in what you have been forced to do to characters you spent alot of time on. If lack of fun is better terminology for you then “play your way” then read it that way instead. key note most efficient isn’t always most fun. it is a game. your supposed to be having fun on it. not stressing over which min/maxer build you have to use now because your 10 builds for that class are no longer playable/duplicatable. When you reduce the mathematical variety of a system you increase how boring it is to use. this reduction isn’t in our minds. read other forum threads our mathimatician players out there did the math. there ARE less builds available to play, ALOT less.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

People can say “play as you want” is taken out of context and doesn’t mean what they think it means but that does not change the FACT that the game has a fraction of the amount of freedom that the game had at launch. You can defend the changes all you want but it is a lie to say that the game has not lost much of its “play you want” feel. Maybe you like less choice and think it will make the game more balanced or just like things easier with less theory crafting but please defend it on its actual merits and not by saying that the change from “play how you want” to “play how arenanet wants” isn’t happening. Because it is happening and you defenders of the change kitten well know it.

Ok sure. Before the change, you could max 2 lines. With the change you can max 3. Some traits where combined, and some where buffed. So you have not really lost anything. They have been added or moved so they balance a line as to not make one line a must have. Although people will start throwing “Meta” around to justify how a build is a must have over others.

I do not see how these changes have stopped anyone from being able to do the content they want. Saying you can’t play the content you want to because of the changes is a lie, and that’s the only “FACT” this thread has to concern it’s self with. Everything else is personal opinion.

Warlock.7136:

serialkicker.5274:

How can people still complain about this? Every proffesion has way more options now to make a good build. If you can’t make yourself a decent build now, then idk what to say to you.

people have run the math. there are literally less build options availible now. this is a simple immutable fact. i feel the pain of the “we lost play your way” crowd. i posted a similar thread about how this update made 20+ characters’ builds(MY builds) unrecreatable. my main a rez engine ret dmg tank for wvw was able to be recovered to 75% of what he was. but it cost me 100g+ and 70 ectos. this was just because of the stat change. would it have been so hard for anet to given us a one time stat change on our gear instead of charging us a ludicrous amount of gold just to deal with this update?
on the trait note 1-2 charcters per class can now play the only useful builds in each class. i had 4 level 80 wars all with differnt fun builds. now all my wars read the same. Max trait line for weapon/max trait line for healing/max trait line for utility.
they have taken the spectrum of build “colors” as it were and replaced it with a black and white min/maxer system. i have been with gw1 sense initial NA release of prophecies. i buy from gem shop to support them including my 20+ character slots that are now useless(thanks for taking my money and then reducing what i bought to garbage) i also buy 2 of every expansion they have made.(one for me and one for my wife) but that too won’t be happening unless we see a rollback update or an announcement of a minimum 5 new trait lines for each class. my wife who has enjoyed playing with me all these years has all but stopped playing because they ruined the one character she played. i think it says something about the direction of the game when they chase off so many original gw players who have supported this company for years(as mentioned above even financially) again i’ve said my piece let your unhelpful hate posts spew forth.

Personal opinion. I’ve not had to change any of my gear. But if you are a slave to other peoples interpretations of “usable” builds that’s your problem and not a reflection of the changes.

serialkicker.5274:

How can people still complain about this? Every proffesion has way more options now to make a good build. If you can’t make yourself a decent build now, then idk what to say to you.

people have run the math. there are literally less build options availible now. this is a simple immutable fact. i feel the pain of the “we lost play your way” crowd. i posted a similar thread about how this update made 20+ characters’ builds(MY builds) unrecreatable. my main a rez engine ret dmg tank for wvw was able to be recovered to 75% of what he was. but it cost me 100g+ and 70 ectos. this was just because of the stat change. would it have been so hard for anet to given us a one time stat change on our gear instead of charging us a ludicrous amount of gold just to deal with this update?
on the trait note 1-2 charcters per class can now play the only useful builds in each class. i had 4 level 80 wars all with differnt fun builds. now all my wars read the same. Max trait line for weapon/max trait line for healing/max trait line for utility.
they have taken the spectrum of build “colors” as it were and replaced it with a black and white min/maxer system. i have been with gw1 sense initial NA release of prophecies. i buy from gem shop to support them including my 20+ character slots that are now useless(thanks for taking my money and then reducing what i bought to garbage) i also buy 2 of every expansion they have made.(one for me and one for my wife) but that too won’t be happening unless we see a rollback update or an announcement of a minimum 5 new trait lines for each class. my wife who has enjoyed playing with me all these years has all but stopped playing because they ruined the one character she played. i think it says something about the direction of the game when they chase off so many original gw players who have supported this company for years(as mentioned above even financially) again i’ve said my piece let your unhelpful hate posts spew forth.

so I have tried talking with other players on this subject but there appears to be this attitude out there of “this is the way it is, shut up and deal” so I will calmly show here why the new system was a deathblow to the creative player population. I have an insane amount of alts(2 of every class+4 eles+4wars), all with varying builds. I enjoyed creating, play testing and finalizing my own builds. I never copied anyone’s, went onto a web site and used theirs. they were my characters with my own builds that I was proud of. One thing they all shared was a great point spread that almost never landed a grandmaster trait. The lines were used for their stat bonuses or a trait here and a trait there to fine tune the build. now all my stats are in my gear and so all my stats must be in the combination that gear produces so no High toughness/healing power/vitality with medium precision and power is possible under the new system as an example. When you take away these fine tuning techniques what you get is a reduction in the variety of builds available. I.e. signet war for example is now basically trash. Not a single build I had was transferrable to the new system. Now all characters are forced into this max trait line/max trait line/max trait line min. maxer format. All the varying shades of color are gone from the system. There is no way to just grab a few traits from this trait line and a few from that. I have been with gw sense the initial north American release of prophecies. I have seen a lot of change over the years and though I have not liked all of it(though I did most of it) I have understood WHY they did it. But this new system of limited builds and all stat control on the gear is the first thing I have not understood. All this update has done is reduce the control the player has on making a build. I fear this is a turn down a path where people will cancel their HoT reservations and just go play something on console. When trying to recreate my builds I became frustrated at not being able to grab this one trait or that one trait from several lines. I feel like I should delete at least half my characters even though they are max level. As with very few characters in a class I can now play all that is available and interesting to play in that class. Old table top gamers had a term for this. They called them “cookie cutter characters” that is to say all wars were repeats of other wars etc. This is what the new system encourages. when every character is forced to max every trait line they have, then every character is basically the same. I’ve said my piece, you may now unleash your hate posts.

ty for your response. yeah as I said in a post above. there was no “harassing or insulting,or bragging” I came across a 50% dead oak. helped the group there that felled him. was told by some members of the train that they had “taken a screenshot and reported me for harassing the train by sniping it” they kept saying anet said this was allowed in some mystery forum post, that they couldn’t provide when asked. so I’m hoping I can get a calm post about this not being true from an anet official. so that the next time it comes up I can gently send people to the forum post about it.

yeah the situation that spawned this question was coming across a 50% dead oak and helping to finish him off. I don’t snipe but I refuse to miss something that’s already going down.

ok. yes I am aware of the tos. “any insultive or harassing behavior” that’s not what this was about. ty for confirming my suspicions. but I fear this won’t end without an official confirmation of this on the forums where everyone can read it.

Ok so I heard something kinda iffy sounding today at best. a couple of people who won’t be named(because that’s not the point of this) said that “if you see someone sniping a champ in the champ train, take a screenshot and report them as this counts as harassing the train.” I don’t believe this to be true. but just to make sure, I would like an official answer on this from anet, so that I can put this to rest once and for all.

it is not the norn things,i called these kamikaze condition bombs in a previous post, and i’m no where near one when it happens and it can’t be teq as I explained that I am out of range of teqs stomp/wave/breathe weapon. aka I am defending turrets not in dmg zerg. I read on a similar thread to this that when another player was having problems with this he was checking his combat log and it was telling him “unknown source of damage hits you for…”

Ihave no log to check not sure if its an unclicked menu option or what. it happens both behind and out front of the turrets. I am outside of his tomp/wave attack range. it also isn’t the mobs that kamikaze and cause condition bomb effects.

so I’m posting here to get some help on what seems to be a great mystery to anyone I have talked with in game. I am a mace/shield guardian(although I scepter my hits to teq.) I am in full exotic armor(clerical backed by dolyak runes) I have an ascended mace(clerical Stats) and an exotic shield(clerical stats). my accessories are toughness/healing power/power based and 2 are exotics 3 are ascended. I am constantly getting 1 hit killed at teq. there is no warning, there is no dodging, there is no red circle when this happens. I am frustrated with spending most of the fight swimming/running back to the fight as I am in heavy armor and thus run slow. it seems unfair to me to contest the close wp by 1 hit kills, thus forcing a 1 minute+ run from the far wp. what can I do to prevent these 1 hit kills from happening? they don’t happen anywhere but here. please only useful information here in this thread, if its not helpful don’t post it.

I support the automated turrets idea. 6 people shouldn’t determine the fight. also if the 1 hit kills(regardless of gear and hp) are going to stay. then uncontest the wp. this will cause waves of dead players returning to the fight and thus balance the 1 hit kills happening all over the place, as well as make up for the “no ones going to rez you” situation. heavy armor without speed boosts make getting from the next closest wp take so much time that it can only be done a few times before the event is over.

all I will say here is two things.
One: I support the creation of challenging boss fights.
Two: The cannoneers and 1 hit kills ruin the entire thing.(cleric stat max gear). either the wp needs to be uncontested so players can respawn or the 1 hit kills need to go. on the note of the cannoneers; 6 people should not determine an events pass/fail. the cannoneers are grabbing cannons and then going afk. this ruins things for everyone.

I agree with you man either his hp or his dmg has to go down to make this possible. i’m in similar gear to you. cleric stats. teq 1 hits me all the time. and the 6 cannoneers go afk and basically autofail the event for everyone.

i’m in support of challenging boss fights, but there is a difference. player success rate should be around 50%+. not less then 1%(I’ve only heard of one server doing it once so far)

i don’t “afk soak” the use of dodges to supplement properly timed blocks/heals makes soaking dmg possible. in the zone i was in we reduced his hp by 2% the whole time. because so many players were dead so often from the 1 hit kills. i am used to seeing players drop around me and a few hang with me. these fights were different everyone went down like they were in no vitality/toughness light armor basic rarity gear.

I got my achievement for jumping the wave. i was dodging(my dodge heals me) Healing(i’m a scepter shield guardian) my dodge was empty from dodging most of the fight and 7-8 times i was 1 hit killed. With my toughness/healing power and 25k hp nothing should 1 hit me. ever.

so it would appear that this thread was taken down.(that or i can’t find it). anyways shorter version of my previous post. my full cleric exo/ascended accesory tank(guardian) went from getting compliments on his ability to take a hit. to dying from every boss from 1 hit strike. 1 hit kills shouldn’t be capable of being done on chars whose stats are designed entirely to soak dmg. i did these bosses everyday. but unless the dmg gets scaled back. I won’t be doing them anymore.

i have never been let down by you guys. all through gw1(sense initial NA release of prophecies) to now. i must say though i was extremely frustrated to find out that ALL pvp in gw2 is capture the point based. i do enough of this in pve and when i grew bored with pve i was hoping for a change up in pvp. i despised alliance battles and jade quarry and guild vs guild in gw1. i stayed playing gw1 years after i had stopped playing the rest of it by playing fort aspenwood and random arena. please add kill based pvp. aka whole team dies on opposing side match ends. or kill the npc to end the match based pvp.(like fort aspenwood used to be). as it sits now i have no interest in pvp that is capture point, rinse and repeat ad infinadum. please understand that i post this to you as a hope for future updates and not to whine about current game(which is just amazing and ground breaking; with this one exception)