Guild Wars 2

I returned after awhile and find the NPE god awful.

“The cow goes moo..oh and you dance infront of it.”

For crying out loud, stop “fixing” stuff that ain’t broken. Making early game easier is about showing a player what he can do with stuff he encounters, not outright locking it in his face, “cause the poor thing may get confused”. If the game treats you like a kitten you have every right to give it the middle finger.

What you do in such cases is provide a nice optional, but easy to access tutorial when you encounter a new thing in the world. What you did is horrid! Examples:

1. Weapon skills unlockable with levels – what? That’s artificially slowing my progress down. And what about having a full set of skills on the weapons i didn’t use till now? The old system was great because it went along with my choice! You wanna learn the sword, no problem, equip a sword go and kill stuff. But that doesn’t mean you’ll be master of hammer from the get go. It respected my choice and in a non annoying way made me learn my weapon before i could go wild with it!

2. The simplified quests at queensdale farm. What. the. hell. I dance for cows instead of feeding them? I get plants back intos b shape by giving them…a massage?! When bandit set fire to hay i magically pop a water bucket by pressing F?
The orignal versions were great because they followed LOGIC and taught you there are objects around you can and should use. Water the plants? Well hey, there’s a bucket of water right next to the well! It’s like magic! Let’s grab it and water them crops or put out the fires!

I can remember when with a friend we were doing an event in queensdale that involved repairing the water pipes while bandits tried to stop us. It was not progressing at all. Moments later i discovered why. The worker fixing the pipe was K.O’d! It was one of the best moments in the game. I laughed my rear off at my kittened thinking, ressed the guy and got it done. When a game makes you realize you’re losing because you’re not applying logic, then that is a GREAT game and an example to follow, and not something to sweep under the rug!

Guild Wars 2 is Guild Wars 2. So stop trying to make it look like something else! When i go to a mexican restaurant i go to eat….mexican spicy food! Not chinese, not toned-down slightly spicy food. Stop gutting the game experience and be proud of your own creation, kitten!

The carapace armor from doing the main storyline and those epic ascended trinkets from completing the achievements are awesome!

I’m very pleased to see such meaningful rewards in recent living story, idea of getting my ascended sinister amulet and ring via taking on a challenge and not counting on RNG or waiting around till laurels fill up enough is awesome and a step in the right direction. I won’t say you do everything right in recent times, but this change is definetely a step forward!

I have lost my account due to W7 going black screen of death on me. Send a ticket to support to get it back and got my account back in 2 days:) Nice to see such quality service still running 2 years from launch, thank you guys:) (and GM Fluffy especially)

leatherworker to make your own armors. As for weapons that depends. If you’re more the dagger and sword type, then weaponsmith. If shortbow and pistols are more often your pick then huntsman.

Feedback is good. And a good dev knows he needs the smarts and backbone to admit right to valid critique, while ignoring ridiculous claims that can also appear en masse.

New profession or two.
New dungeon!
Mordremoth fight (or his champion) with unique Mordremoth themed weapons and armors dropping. I expect green & dark floral + dragon themed set, but serious looking one (not those 3 year old kiddies favourite verdant skins).
Some new zones!
Them legendary armor pieces!

Well i recall some people asking for traits to be obtainable by questing like in gw1. So while i don’t like the change (especially the one trait point every 6 levels one) i can’t pin the tail on a-net for this one after recalling that part.

I read on reddit that chinese game market is nearly idependent from western publishers and a lot of scummy practices take place there to nickel and dime their players. In short kittenty publisher can ruin even the best game, and in china kittenty is the standard when it comes to that.

Good thread title and final words, but poorly articulated middle. With megaservers and level scaling this is the last game to have “nobody at lower level maps” problem. That’s part of why gw2 could get away with last two years lacking new professions and serious expansions of PvE maps.

But that said it’s been two years and while dry top and silverwastes are nice, this is too slow. I mean look at FFXIV and their content updates. That’s how you get the job done.

I don’t know about achievements, but the since the changes in trait acquisition mechanics making a new character for serious play become a scary business…

Arah, here i come!

I believe there’s no need to articulate the issue. So i’ll get straight to solution. Guild Wars’s 2 biggest crime in terms of PvE is that while it has a great character skill build system (numerous stat combos on gear, varied skills and traits), it lacks proper PvE incentive to try anything else then “kill them fast”.

Proper enemy mechanics and unique attack and defense patterns on them are in order. The superbosses like teq (immune to crits) or jungle wurm (high resistance to physical attacks but not conditions) are a start. But more is needed. Here are few of my ideas for new monster mechanics.

1. Aoe damage/shielding zone around a monster – the enemy is enveloped with a protective field that damages anyone inside it while also gradually lowers damage of any attack flying into it. The closer to the center (which is monster itself) the greater the damage, but lower defense value.

Any melee attacker will have to get up close and swallow constant, pulsing damage at it’s max. Here’s where having higher hp, higher armor and protection/regen comes into play. Glass cannons could not hope to endure such condition for long without proper healing in place.

Range attackers will have to face either sniping at range, but watching their damage dwindle as their shots move through the whole area of field facing it’s fulll defensive power, or moving closer, taking some damage, but having their own reduced by less.

Condition appliers would be in best situation, since the physical part of attack might be reduced by the field, but conditions are not, and can be applied from afar.

2. Enemies armed with nasty bouncing projectiles that do splash damage on hit, but have limited range of bounce. Stacking parties get to eat all of it, spread out parties wouldn’t be hurt too much.

3. High risk moments for physical attackers – for example that retalliation of mordrem wolves. But it can be pushed even further, for example moments when a beast will reflect 1/2 damage it receives back to attacker.

4. monster frenzy mechanic – noticing players hp drop low monster might enrage itself gaining boost to it’s speed, damage and using more lethal attacks. Obviously glass cannons who forgot their defense will be #1 fodder for such beasts.

5. Monster adaptation to attack. You attack monster with powerful physical attacks – it goes into physicall defense mode reducing damage heavily, while becoming susceptible to conditions. If you go with conditions, it’ll start clensing them off, but that will block it’s physical defense mode. Either one or the other. Obviously, condition damage would have to reach proper level of damage per second for the beast to choose condi clense instead of turtling from regular attacks.

6. Intimidating defense. If party defends well and a monster can’t lower any of it’s member’s hp below certain percentage it can become afraid and more susceptible to damage at least for a while. Of course that mechanic require that given beats has proper array of attacks that will thorougly test party’s defenses.

Well it ain’t perfect, but you get the general idea. Make those wild, rabid, carnivourous (or herbivourous in sylvari’s case!) beasts give those glass cannons a run for their money!

Also condition builds need condition duration which might inpact choice of weapon and runes/sigils. Least the PvE ones.

How about instead of talking which clipping to fix first, someone finally starts walking the walk and fixes it. That someone being A-net, much as i love them for this game.

did you try cc’ing the necro? cause that’s their weak point.

My necro again, after getting his shinies from teq, and in temple armor (not original, i know, but blame it’s awesome texture quality for that choice!)

#2. (some text to rack up char count to 15).

And you offer solution that instead of 2 people kicking whole party gives that power to one! Well doesn’t that just beat all!

@LanfearShadowflame.3189

Doesn’t the wallet do that for me already? Tokens, gold and shards are account -bound are they not? Doesn’t matter which one you use, they land in the same pocket in the end.

Also character swapping is cheesy (if only for making others wait for it) and i wouldn’t mind if it got cut down. If i wanted to level my low level, i simply did a run on it whole way through. Many of my 35 – 80 levels were made that way for my thief and ranger.

Duke Nukem.6783:

then your missing the point of the entire problem which is to prevent undeserved kicks not just say “well you got enough anyways so shut up and stop complaining” your solution has NOTHING to do with the problem

It has everything to do with the problem. Currently the system encourages scammers by promising a full payout for joining the end boss only, at cost of nothing for those who worked their butt off through full dungeon to get there only to get kicked by two jerks.

Kicking under majority vote is part of my solution. And dividing loot payout is another, that ensures people get rewarded for the progress they made so far, rather then see the finger after nearly whole, sometimes ardous run.

Thus the detrimental reward system attached to chests. It’ll be full reward the first time, then running same boss over and over will give nothing meaningful token wise. Just like the current system. But split into chunks so there are not huge payoffs for joining right before end boss, and huge loss for being kicked before end boss.

My solution is pure justice – you did half of dungeon, then half of rewards (or roughly that number) are yours.

If you did whole, all rewards are yours.
Heck we could throw in small bonus reward at end (equal to one chest), but only if a member did fulll dungeon from start till finish. None of that for mid-joiners or kicked ones.
That is ofc with kicking system getting fixed in mind.

I’m not saying to limit the rewards. I’m saying to split them across the chests in dungeon with end result being exactly same, but paid out in chunks as you progress through the dungeon. I’ll edit first post to make it clearer.

As long as the 2 randoms can kick whole run i will agree with Duke on this one.

Leader system was the only counter-action.

If first problem is solved, that’s another issue. But right now it’s not…

Being a ranger that likes to employ different strategies vs bosses then “stack&whack” i’m the last guy to raise my hand against unkickable leaders.

But i know that there’s me, and there are ragequitters that send everyone packing cause they couldn’t take a wipe or two and were first to enter the dungeon.

Still majority of the problem is that reward is at end and how badly you get screwed when you’re kicked/leader disbands before that point is reached.

Problems:
1. Two buddies/guildies/jerks kick others “because”.
2. Dungeon owner rage quits, all goes to pot.
3. Party remainds more of an airport – ppl fly in and out before you know it.

Solution
1.Rather then paying out the dungeon reward at end, split it among dungeon chests that appear after you’ve beaten certain dungeon bosses.

Each such chest is subject to “daily clear” detrimental rewards system – full reward on first loot, much smaller for next, untill next day.

2. Majority vote on kicking.
3. Ownerless dungeons, which you’re already implementing. But only when first two fixes are present!

Result
You get rewarded as you progress, if you get booted at 60% of dungeon completion, you already have at least 40% of rewards in your pocket if not full 60% (getting to chest before they kick you). Kicking lfg members before end boss to sneak guildies in won’t ring anyone’s bell, with measely 20% reward from this scam.

Ragequit leaders won’t crush the dungeon, “airport” parties will not see their final members get full reward, while all the previous got near zilch.

You can thank me later :>

FIne, but they should update the vote mechanic as well. And i was such an individual that saw the run through. Because they could not kick me i kept my run opened to newbies and made sure it finished, rather then having a mass ragequit cause it wasn’t done in 15 mins flat.

Such a commander it also good for guys going “stack it”. They tried that 2 times vs howling king. After i suggested beating it the normal way things got done. I can only guess being leader made them listen rather then kick me seeing how adamant they were on stacking…

Well, way to go A-net! [/sarcasm]

Everyone is complaining about 2 guys being able to kick whole party (abuse of pugs from two same-guild jerks), and basically only solution to the problem (be instance owner) gets murdered while the main problem remains intact.

You fixed the gun from getting jammed, but still left it in hands of a psycho. That’s gonna be fun…

As i suggested earlier, ability to activate and deactivate traps manually is what would ring my bell. After placing a trap it works as it does now, unless you:
1. press it’s button again, to deactivate.
2. another press to detonate it (activate).

Two reasons for such mechnic:
- combo field activation without hoping that something walks into the trap
- manual trap control for better effect example: when few mobs walk into it and not one lone stray wonders into it.

While i agree with “opening strike should be way more then what it is” i must point out you got your timers wrong.

You just have 20% condi duration on your character apparently and thus 6 and 12s on them rather then 5 and 10 which is the default for OS and Whirling Defense vulni stacks.

I run double axes for anything zergy. Very practical when mobs aren’t stacked or you need some mobbing with range and mobility. Offhand axe is great for reflect and that short cd pull:)

devourer for reason named above. They also tend to flee red circles with devourer retreat from time to time.

Other then that there are the “buff me pets” which are useful, but need a swapout if they get too close and are mauled viciously.

Drakes also play a role, but mostly it was because i wanted a blast finisher on 4 legs, and it happened to get involved with far-away boss.

If you can reliably flank to keep those bleeds coming the shortbow is a great weapon for 1v1. Don’t forgot that the bleed is a vital part of it’s auto damage and it grows real fast with shortbow’s aa speed. Pure berserker won’t unleash it’s true power A power+condi hybrid will. Those bleeds might seem laughable compared to raw power of berserker’s build crits, but with condi duration (which isn’t hard with right food) you can easily double bleed damage simply on it lasting twice as long, and that’s nearly at no sacrifice to power damage itself. Then you can build for more condi damage, which just like power gets affected by might stacks, and see where that takes you.

Stronger then sword? Probs not. Close to sword? yes. With far greater range and much needed mobility.

My first thief was a norn, and it was horrible. Last thing you want is to see your hunter of the wild, slayer of issomir die every 3 steps to regular mobs (didn’t know how to play thief back then).

Much later i decided i want a ranger, and since i didn’t have a norn and wanted one, that was a perfect choice – durable, hard to kill job that fits norn lore and won’t make me a laughing stock at the next moot;) Things went very well from there on;)

I would respectfully disagree with Fluffball’s last sentence. Axe being hybrid condi/raw damage weapon is the perfect candidate for might, which boosts both power and condition damage.

It’s aa will become more competitive with sword in mobbing situations because of the easy might that sword lacks (as long as you spam), which will boost not only raw damage from aa, but also any conditions you applied (splitblade, traps, sharpening stone etc).

I would say it’s a very well thought out buff that makes mainhand axe a viable option to use in mobby situations.

I’m baffled with that “Axe vs 1 is 1/3 damage” argument.
I mean sword vs 1 and not 3…is also 1/3 damage;p

Axe’s special trait with aa is that it pumps it’s fulll damage with 2 mobs thanks to bouncing.

That aside axe is indeed poor choice if you want 1v1 damage. Control wise it’s still great (winter’s bite).
Still i would recommend shortbow over 1h sword for 1v1 if you’re the axe type. These two synergize very well – both are close to semi-ranged weapons, both are raw+condi damage hybrid weapons, both allow for unrestricted movement during combat and don’t lose any power due to being too close (lb) or too far (sw+gs). If you’re a condi+raw damage hybrid then flanked shortbow aa should deliver damage that is not that much behind zerker sword aa without the risks (rooting aa).

Ofc i won’t say sword sucks. It’s raw damage talks and is definitely simpler to build for and dish out. Just saying that if 1v1 sword seems like deathwish to you (dodging problem) then give shortbow a ponder:)

Well here’s the thing – the LS plays out greatly to my personal story, because i’m a sylvari character for LS. I meet a boss that appeared in my dream, it’s my wyld hunt to beat it, pale tree is closely related to my character.

But how does it look like story-wise for less leafy players? Do they get some sorta unique comment or motivation to kick the enemies or it’s just “well i’m not sylvari, but i’m here, and it’s this or getting bored so…”?

Each weapon in fact can be min-max, depending on situation. How will sword work against spread out mobs that are each interested in different target? Happy cleaving one mob at a time when axe can pick off 2-3 each cast.

Ofc when stacked and not too lethal in melee sword primes axe’s raw damage.
When bossing what do you want? Do most damage face to face with sword?

Or sacrificing your own damage for log weakness on boss and some chill with axe’s winter’s bite?
Again min-max depends on situation and your own goals here.

So my message to fellow rangers is that each weapon is a tool that works wonders in right situation, so don’t let “meta” rob you off a pair of sweet sharp axes;)

Well i tend to do the unthinkable….like:

1. having axe/axe set and sword/wh set! Can you belive it? you can have both!
2. Not running frost/spotter. My build has nothing to do with nature magic so frost is out. Better lay down some traps. As for spotter when possible i use it, but sometimes i do pull out that bow and trait it with piercing arrows for ensured hit in a zerg, and the spotter gets to sit on a bench.

The moral of this topic is: don’t blindly follow meta-sheep, understand why meta is meta but also how all those other weapons, skills and traits can produce amazing results in certain situations:) like axes in ac:)

Well being a free ranger that likes experiments i discovered the shunned mainhand axe is a pretty kitten good deal, at least for running AC dungeon.

Unlike the sword/warhorn meta, the axe/axe set let me clear a lot of trash (mini spiders, gravelings) at range with full control over the situation and much less conditions and blows landing on me.

The allegedly horrid axe auto damage proved to be surprisingly good (nearly 1h sword auto, albeit slower), and the ability to stay at range, freely move while attacking and not worrying about grouping trash together thanks to bouncing proved well worth the cost.

Another story are bosses. I don’t enjoy meleeing spider queen with big red toxic circle under her, and that’s what happens when you don’t range her at all. Axe provided the needed range when that happened, split blade evening the damage loss a bit compared to sword. Plus that chill and weakness from winter’s bite didn’t hurt either.
Sword when opening arrives, axe when it’s a fools errand to melee.
Why not bow? cause she won’t sit calmly waiting for me to clear the trash and then switch weapon set. So either bow or axe/axe from the start.

Similar story with ghost eater. Everyone wants a “pro melee stack” on it, only thing is it spewed it’s aoe right under itself. And being a ranged attacker it wasn’t planning on moving itself anytime soon. Nor was my sword planning on suddenly extending it’s reach. Again axe got the job done. Now why axe and not bows? Cause with bows you can’t use offhand axe.
And whirling defense does a nasty number if it casts it’s wave of projectiles into it. Speaking of which it also does veeery good aoe damage if you’re a damage oriented build.

Path of scars is another reason – interrupting and bringing in those annoying ascalonian necromancers for little face-to-axe was awesome as well. Sword with warhorn don’t give any cc at all.

So in short axes are good;) I’m not saying they’re top meta weapon, but you’ll do yourself a huge favour by making sure you got two nice, shiny axes in your inventory for that inner psychopath of yours;)

There’s no such thing as a too small asura. You’re just using the wrong golem.

I soloed it as a necro though first try was a wipe.

Advice for necros:

The primary deal with this fight is gettting rid of menders before they reach the statue. Fear works wonders here. Life blasting their rear doesn’t hurt either. Also flesh golem is the bomb against the statue itself. By that i mean CHAAAAARGEEEE IT!

When it goes invincible kill some ghosts, and it’ll be vulnerable again.

Well firstly how would the elite pet relate to normal pet? both out at same time? replacing normal one?

As far as i can tell elite pet would have serveral large issues gameplay wise:

1. Another huge hp soaker ally for ranger, while eles and guards run around in all their squishiness of 10k base hp.

2. Damage balancing. Can’t be too weak, cause it’s elite. Can’t be too strong, cause it would kill other elites. And can’t nerf normal pets, if both elite and normal are out, cause it’ll kill non elite pet builds.

3. Issues managing that little zoo to keep it out of big bad red circles if both elite and regular pets are out, or not killing purpose of normal pets if it’s either one or another.

4. And how would one command the elite pet if it can be out with regular one, and whole profession bar (f1-f4) is occupied with normal pet interface?

Well the underestimated shout (“Search and resque!”) is in fact the most powerful party skill ingame. It prevents countless deaths. Here’s how it works:

Imagine your cute, genius big eared asura guardian got downed. You’re there ready to die, when a friend ranger sends her big, smelly, drooling, flea infested bear to ….have it’s way with you.
There you lay helpless, begging for swift death only to watch how that big pedo bear is “reviving you”, taking it’s time doing it too….

NEVER did i die again when in a party with a ranger. EVER. This skill saves lives (though scars for life!)

axe might is too short to seriously build around. With 3 sec might it’s 9 stacks at best that start dissapearing the moment you stop throwing that axe. In vid it was 12, but he admitted he had +boon duration. Even then it’s dropping the second you swap to second weapon at an alarming rate.

And another issue is that for stacking mights on axe you need multiple mobs, while rapid fire is single target. going single target when mobbed is not the best idea under the sun.

Strider’s defense …why are they keeping it alive? It looks horrid. What kinda ranger woud stand and spam melee while being under ranged fire couting that this will save him (1/5 of a chance)?

What this should be imho is a projectile shield like with whirling defense, for example:

Strider’s Defense.
Your Sword, Greatsword and Spear autoattacks reflect projectiles while under effect of quickness.

As long as you’re in auto attack & quickness, shield is up. When using something else then auto, or quickness expired, back to normal mode.

Agreed on plague blast being vastly superior. I’m pretty sure that in practice life blast is longer then 1s between casts (probs server connection lag or something). Also land version of ds has no condi removal from necro which is pretty lame considering it blocks our utilities and elite.

Another issue is that on way too many occasions i see my life blast getting errorously obstructed when trying to hit a structure when there’s nothing there except structure itself (burrows, teq fingers). Even when it’s traited to pierce! This should be fixed ages ago!

Zhaitan is beaten but not dead. Else we’d not have a single risen in orr in open world map.

As Zojja said: “if we disqualified every potetially lethal entry, the snaff competition would be a very lonely one”. In short small sacrifices (such as tyria) are acceptable in the name of science!

If you see an area covered in green glowing gas, there’s a big chance you should avoid entering it. That or the cheap burito you ate today was cheap for a reason…