Guild Wars 2

Wow nice job!

I just quit after dying after the bugged cloud checkpoint.

I already spent 5 hours with a friend in this zone, and after holding him back for at least 40 minutes doing the trampolines because I suck at jumping, I finally reached the cloud. Only to find out that we got trolled.

No results after pulling my hair out for 6 hours. I’ve never been this frustrated at a game.

I really like your idea of making F2 a ground targeting skill.

Did you finish the path?

Your problem is an issue of experience not class. There are armies of experienced rangers who have easily beat this boss and every other dungeon.

Lupicus in his second phase focuses one target to consistently shadow step to, regardless of class. I’ve heard reasons such as the target’s toughness or lack thereof, or that the target damaged him first in phase 2—someone feel free to illuminate.

Equip lightning reflexes and protect me to confront Lupicus. The vigor and brief pseudo-invulnerability help a lot to avoid his massive damage. For the last utility, equip the toughness signet, movespeed signet, or search and rescue. For pets, use the fernhound for regen and the pig for healing seed/egg/silliness. Spirit of nature’s rez capacity is also recommended in contrast to other elites as they can’t offer anything in this fight.

New effect on Howler is a tiny ghostly wolf head that lasts for about .75 seconds upon skill use. I have to zoom in to appreciate it; otherwise it looks like a graphical vermiform appendix.

Over the past months, I’ve grown to like the aura from the Howler, especially at night. The footsteps—despite being 10% larger—should still persist longer, and the everlasting moan should still be fixed with a better one or removed.

Combine these two together into F1 and make it function as a switch; delete the passive/active switch completely:

F1 locks your pet onto your current target.

F1 commands your pet back to you.

Make F3 another pet skill that the player can active like F2.

Am I missing something because this seems real obvious.

Good builds indeed require foresight and skill; however, skill involved in creating a build largely contributes to a passive component in the gameplay i.e. increased condition/precision/etc. Even traits are largely of that passive nature. The game promotes the situation where a player/monster is beat by a player/monster more-so because of the build/class and less because of active skill (which there is little of outside of dodge rolling/terrain obstruction/line-of-sight). A slow car is beat by a fast car…because it’s slower. Rather than emulating chess, GW2’s gameplay emulates rock, paper, scissors—and certain class builds can be all three of them.

CoF dungeon groups requiring berserker warriors, high level fractals requiring guardians, PvP games cluttered with spirit rangers and necromancers. People who play these classes can indeed know them very well and therefore use their build to its full effectiveness; however, the fact that there are trends is suggestive of a focus on achievements/cosmetics/wealth/dominance rather than playing the game to get better. I am not blaming anyone for choosing a berserker warrior for CoF because it’s faster to farm gold, or blaming a spirit ranger/necromancer in PvP because they want a higher rank. The goal of these decisions is rarely a victory for successfully completing the dungeon or outsmarting the other team, which I am attributing to a lack of the opportunity for active intuitive skill.

Healix: I haven’t looked into Wildstar except for the trailer, but it seems like that game provides the missing pieces that I want in GW2.

I’m not sure if this discussion belongs here, but I’m posting it here because it’s relevant to almost every gameplay aspect of GW2.

In all of the class forums, there are numerous topics about builds: traits, armor, weapons, etc. What’s the strongest build, what’s an OP build, videos on builds, etc. Definitely, trying out different builds is fun and it’s interesting to try different approaches. But at the same time, the focus on builds brings to light the fact that builds, not skill, more greatly determine playstyle.

Issues that stem from this are the gold sink—how much money you can grind-farm to buy expensive runes/armor; and also overpowered class builds (spirit rangers, glamor mesmers, permastealth thieves, bunker eles, etc.). It’s hard to feel a sense of accomplishment because the gameplay relies too much on passive attributes and button mashing abilites rather than actual skill-based improvement.

Dodge rolling and abilities that provide evasion are definitely positive attributes GW2’s gameplay because they require insight that the player can improve upon. Also terrain obstruction and terrain levels are another positive aspect. Focus less on traits/armor/weapons, and more on active components like these that require a keen sense of one’s surroundings, and the gameplay experience will be less cosmetic/superficial and more rewarding.

lol the three people who replied obviously didn’t bother to watch your video. hey three people who replied: watch the video.

i don’t think there’s really anything to say—you bought a problem to light that needs to be fixed.

It doesn’t make sense that the direct damage from an attack is mitigated through Protect Me, but the secondary condition effect from an attack still magically applies. My pet takes an arrow for me, but somehow I still get cut. Please don’t respond by saying a lot of things in this game don’t make sense.

Now that you bring up the Warrior, I think Endure Pain should prevent oncoming conditions as well. Please read the wiki’s statement on invulnerability: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Invulnerability

EDIT: I am just saying the same thing over again. I just can’t tell whether you agree or not.

It is not working the same as invulnerability, which prevents oncoming conditions. Protect Me is useless against oncoming conditions.

I do not think it’s fair that Protect Me should prevent conditions already applied; I want Protect Me to prevent conditions that are applied AFTER it is activated.

I was surprised that the massive bleeds of an opposing Ranger’s short bow and lynx still affected although I used Protect Me beforehand. Additionally, I’ve tested with a friend using a thief with blind, poison, cripple, bleed, and immobilization; despite using Protect Me, those conditions still affected me.

I think “Protect Me” should prevent all damage including conditions for the intended duration or until the pet dies, the only exceptions being conditions that were applied before using the shout.

This is not the case right now. While dueling with another Ranger and while using the shout, I negated the direct damage from his short bow and lynx, but the bleeds and poisons still went through.

Recently, because of the nerf to Quickening Zephyr, Protect Me has become an integral utility with my build in WvW and in dungeons. I don’t think extending it’s use to preventing conditions is unfair or overpowered.

The sword skills for mesmer and ranger are very similar. Both have a skill that provides evasion. And both have a distance closing skill with an additional activation skill, which is what I want to discuss: the difference in utility between the activation skills are noticeable with the mesmer’s allowing more variety.

Regarding numbers, the mesmer’s distance closing skill, Illusionary Leap, has a 12 second cool-down, and 5 seconds within to activate Swap. Comparing these two numbers, 5/12, yields 0.416.

The ranger’s distance closing skill, Hornet Sting, has a shorter cool-down of 8 seconds. However, because there are only 2.5 seconds within to activate Monarch’s Leap, the comparison between these, 2.5/8, is less that that of the mesmer’s; it is only 0.3125.

The difference between 0.416 and 0.3125 might seem negligible, but actually this means that a mesmer has about one-thirds more comparative time for the activation skill.

I play both classes in WvW, where I find this difference to be especially prominent. When I play the mesmer, the activation Swap of Illusionary Leap has more time and thus allows me to consider its utility. I can use Swap immediately on a target as an immobilization utility. Or, if someone is chasing me, I can delay using Swap and activate it as a position utility.

When I play the ranger, the shorter amount of time given to the activation skill provides only one option: I have to use it almost immediately, and thus I have less time to consider the skill’s utility.

I propose two possible changes to improve Monarch’s Leap:
A) Add a second to activate it: so 3.5 seconds instead of 2.5 seconds. 3.5 seconds would bring the ratio of time for the ranger’s Hornet Sting/Monarch’s Leap closer to that of the mesmer’s Illusionary Leap/Swap: 3.5/8 yields 0.4375.
OR
B) Bring the time given to activate Monarch’s Leap to 5 seconds—the same for the mesmer’s—because the comparison between ratios may not even be so relevant; the issue is a necessity for an acceptable amount of time to consider the ranger’s Monarch’s Leap.

Asides from a couple videos on youtube, there’s little information on Howler. After making it, I like the visuals of the actual horn (though I wouldn’t mind if the white part glowed) and the stats are fine. I also like that this horn seemed to be made as the Ranger’s legendary. But, like the actual ranger class, most aspects about the Howler are either annoying or a letdown.
- the added sound effect from the howler doesn’t sound like wolf howls…it sounds like someone is moaning and trying to give me a headache. During the night, unless I sheath my weapon or use another skill, the moaning loops when I use “Call of the Wild.” This loop effect is irritating and should be removed, as I’m sure it also annoys people around me.
-the aura around my character doesn’t seem fantastic enough to suit the status of a legendary. It’s so obvious that the same 2-3 fog particles are just being duplicated and rotated. So much that it doesn’t look like fog because fog doesn’t duplicate and rotate in little packets. Fog is a mass. Also, why is the color minty? Keep it simple; just make it white.
-The footsteps are hardly noticeable and persist for only 2.5 steps before they disappear. They look like dust trails rather than effects of the horn. Most people don’t even realize I have a legendary until they hear the moaning or notice the puffs of dandruff coming off from my character. The water and water droplet effects from unsheathing the horn are nice because they are sharp, but they need to be more pronounced. Also, I think including these in the footsteps and aura would make the them pop more.

I know the Howler won’t be changed anytime soon, and obviously there are tons of other things in gw2 I want to be changed first. I am just informing anyone who is interested in making Howler know of these effects, because they are indeed irritating and a letdown. If I had a video recording program I would show you; in the meantime here are some pictures. Anyways, forgive me if you hear incessant moaning coming from my character.