Great post! I agree with all of it. If Anet won’t give us toughness and healing, then Tempest needs to change so we can work better with other amulets.
What really bugs me the most about Overloads is that there’s no passive stability aside from Earth. This makes it amazingly easy to interrupt if you aren’t super careful or if the enemy isn’t focusing you, or is just bad! Simply making the Overload stability trait passive (with or without the damage bonus) would be a massive QoL change and a buff that wouldn’t break the game. Just interrupt twice (easily done with two players), and you’ve just countered it! One player can even interrupt that. A Reaper can corrupt as well.
But since they’re moving away from the bunker playstyle, Overloads will need a change. It’ll be too easy to interrupt or even just burn down the Tempest through it.
What if Overloads were given as charges. Let’s say 3 charges. With Fire Attunement, each charge creates its current effect, but only for 2 seconds, and then the post-overload fire field remains for another 2 seconds. With Water, you get 2 pulses over 2 seconds, 2 conditions cleansed and a slightly larger heal when it’s complete. Just like how it is now. You get the idea with the remaining Attunements. This just a simple solution to the long casting time for Overloads.
Edit: Something else came to mind. Overloads are close range focused. So unless you’re in the thick of the fight, you won’t get the most out of it. That again promotes bunker builds. With my charges idea, maybe Overloads can be a ground targeting skill, or be changed to cover a wider area. Whatever is done, it should allow Tempests to Overload at range so that we aren’t forced into defensive traits and stats just to survive at close range. Fire Overload literally requires melee range to do any damage outside of fire bolts, which really don’t count much as a range attack. It certainly doesn’t justify requiring such a close range when we can no longer get the stats that allow us to get that close to the action.
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Of course not. They won’t take our feedback, so why ask for it?
Traps DO hit too hard. And that’s part of why DHs suck. Their traps are easy to use, daze, hit hard and have stupidly low cast times, if any. If you want traps to be good and DHs to be good, they need to rework them to be more skillful, but also better. I suggest making them more utility oriented. One can still be damage focused still (Test of Faith is my pick). Procession of Blades could be a whirl finisher. And with a half second daze, they shouldn’t be instant cast and so easily to chain together.
Make traps more utility focused than damage and increase cast times to 1 second max.
These changes won’t be enough to make DHs good, but it’ll be a start. They could also have a trait that does some damage or healing on interrupt, or maybe crippling applies burning or does some damage whenever it’s applied.
“Spent more time queued than playing”
I like this but can we shorten it up a bit?
Legendary Patience
That’s probably the immob bug. I often get it against revs. But strictly only against thieves? That might be useful info for Anet, if it’s only happening against one profession.
Dragonhunter: More trap nerfs, rather than reworks.
Herald: A small nerf, probably to a sustain mechanic.
Chronomancer: One or two skill nerfs. Random buff to Dueling traitline. Inspiriation traintline nerfed hard.
Tempest: Useless scepter buffs instead of reworks. No nerfs to Tempest.
Berserker: Adrenal Health nerfed to uselessness. No rework to Arc Divider. Other Berserker buffs that don’t help sustain.
Reaper: A few condi nerfs. Boon corrupt taken off scepter AA and added to another weapon. No changes to GS.
Scrapper: One or two sustain nerfs. One nerf to a hammer CD. No nerfs to hammer damage or AoE.
Druid: One or two sustain nerfs, probably through NM traitline. Significant overbuffs to MM traitline, making it and longbow mandatory for Druids.
Daredevil: Useless buffs to Deadly Arts and Acrobatics. No nerfs to Daredevil GM traits. Dagger/dagger 3 nerf.
Any of those will happen. All Revs, Thieves and Mesmers will QQ hard, no matter what happens.
Nerf Elite specs. Something we’ve been asking for since the release of HoT. If you nerf conditions, make sure you nerf power damage with it, as well as passive defences and CCs. And if I see any removed amulets…All hope will be lost.
I don’t understand why anet doesn’t do full mmr resets between seasons.
Because that would make sense.
Started in Emerald. Had a hell of a time trying to get out of it, but once I hit Sapphire, I flew through that, Ruby, and up to t7 Diamond, when I suddenly encountered the infamous Legendary AFKers and others who don’t give a kitten anymore. That’s when my W/L suddenly started dropping and with that, started getting worse and worse game. Eventually I got lucky and hit Legendary but never made it past 2 pips because I’d either play against horrible players or with horrible players, or play against an AFKer or with an AFKer. Getting out of Emerald was a more enjoyable experience than getting to Legendary.
Stats:
- 68% W/L
- Maxed out at 72% till t7 Diamond.
- 158 games
- Played a mix of Scrapper, Reaper, Berserker, and Tempest
- Longest losing streak was either 4 or 5
- Longest winning streak I think was 14
Suggestions:
Continue to work at fixing matchmaking, but actually try suggestions you see on the forums, with careful consideration.
Nerf, nerf, nerf, nerf elite specs already! Increase low CDs, reduce damaging AoE for power and condition attacks, rework skills, move around and rework traits. Refer to the million and one forum posts for details. Don’t you kittening dare remove amulets. Actually, after some widespread nerfs, bring back the amulets, and then balance specs around those instead of balancing (read: removing) amulets around specs.
And for the love of God, fix the kitten immobilize bug
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We payed money for the expansion, and we’re putting out spare time into this game, only to realize that it was wasted because Anet doesn’t seem to give a kitten.
We’re kittened because we are giving our TIME (which is often limited) and sometime money to this game, only to end with the feeling that our time and money isn’t valued.
Some of us try really hard to make the game work and to think of solutions to problems, only to have them ignored for excessive amounts of time or even forever.
We’re kittened because Anet isn’t separating casual gameplay from serious gameplay. They added a Legendary item that anyone can technically get, only to kitten us with horrible teammates at divisions in which they don’t belong. You think we’re going to stop caring about that?
Sure we could stop playing, but then all the time and effort we put into this game was pointless and wasted. I know that’s sometimes the point of games, and if you like wasting your time on a video game, that’s totally fine. Your time is your time. But your time is not my time, and I want to spend my time on a game that’s fun! I want to buy an expansion that’s fun! So why am I not having fun? Because I don’t like playing with players noticeably below my skill level, and I also don’t enjoy playing with players well above mine. And with the current matchmaking and ridiculous powercreep, we are not getting what we want. And in a game about fun, one that we payed for, we should be able to do what we want without interfering with the fun of others. Right now, it seems the only fun that others can have in the game is trolling, AFKing, abusing, and other things that are simply, plain wrong, and are a waste of other’s time.
That’s why I care, and it’s probably why many others care. And if you don’t care about the game, that’s fine. But don’t tell us what means something to us. What I put my time into means more to me than you think.
It’s not going to be July 26th? Isn’t it two weeks before the next season, and isn’t there a month break between seasons?
What Yasi said.
You can also have high damage done, but if you don’t kill things, or apply sufficient pressure, that damage will have been in vain. Also, damage is the only aspect of combat. There’s also healing, cleansing, boon stripping/corruption, the million and one CCs that everyone gets etcs.
There’s a 4th season.
I’m waiting till then because I’m also burned out. Too many terrible players at higher divisions and too many AFKers. Also, I’m sick and freaking tired of the excessive damage and defence provided or enhanced by elite specs. I swear if I see a buff next patch…
Ignore BeepBoop, he’s a troll. Looks like his own mommy didn’t tell him he was special enough.
What the hell is a condi bunker anyway? Condition specs can’t take Mercenary’s anymore. Now they have to take either Carrion, Rabid or Wanderer’s, each of them having only one defensive stat. Vitality is only useful if you have a lot of evades and blocks, like Warriors, Mesmers, Guardians, Revs, maybe even Engis. Toughness means you have no vitality and are then weaker to conditions yourself, plus those amulets don’t have power, so you sacrifice power damage. The only reason they seem like bunkers is because the nature of conditions allow them to play defensively while they tick. With a power build, you can’t use a block while dealing 1-2k dps, but with a condi build, you can because conditions last long and hit hard.
Removing amulets won’t solve any problems. It hasn’t in the past, and won’t in the future. Mercenary’s would’ve been fine if they just nerfed condition damage like it should have been. Conditions will still hit hard if you remove Wanderer’s, just like they still hit hard even after the removal of Mercenary’s.
Amulet’s aren’t the freaking problem! The freaking problem is high damage, long durations and low CDs of conditions. You HAVE to have a condition amulet in the game. If you remove Wanderer’s, everyone will just move to Carrion and Rabid and still do insane damage. If you’re having trouble against someone using Wanderer’s, spec more cleansing. Cleansing completely nullifies the extra 37.33% condition duration. You can remove the condition before the extra duration even becomes relevant.
But you know, I don’t know why I’m even trying to defend Wanderer’s. Anet will just remove it anyway because that’s the laziest “solution”. And then Reapers will just use Rabid instead, with no truly noticeable change against anyone who can cleanse enough.
Don’t you mean “balance” patch?
Just ignore Beep, he’s a troll.
Wut…remove toughness as a stat on amulets? OP, whatever you’re smoking, I don’t want any. I want to keep my logical thinking.
I agree though that there are too many blocking skills in the game that block for long durations. Even after Chronomancer shield nerfs, they’re still amazing. But if damage wasn’t so high, we wouldn’t need those long duration blocks. That and toughness is the only thing keep anyone alive right now against power builds. Without those, power builds would dominate and condition builds would continue to dominate along with them.
Also, Scrappers are still insanely OP. What you’re asking would indirectly buff their damage, as well as Thieves who already do unacceptable damage.
Good idea. No idea why they haven’t done this already just for general game info. It just seems like common sense to add it.
Thief – Thieves become so fragile, they are like mosquitoes now. Anet has to fix this class. Low health, almost no aoes.
Almost no AoEs is a good thing! Way too many professions have too much AoE. If anything, they should be brought down to thief’s level.
And as long as thieves can burst a kitten ton of hp out of kittening nowhere, they need to be squishy. If you want increased defences, they need a damage nerf, or else they’ll become like Scrappers.
Yeah, they do, because they’re still bullkitten. At high end play, they’re not OP, but at low end play, they’re stupid OP. They need a rework to make them better at higher levels, while making them less powerful at lower levels.
I think the main issue with traps is that they do way too much damage. So if they nerf the damage, they’ll need compensation some other way. My suggestion is cut the damage by 25%, give each trap at least a half second cast time or more, and then make them something unique, like it hits evading targets. Or make them give more team utility. Like the buff they give applies to party members near the DH.
Just some ideas off the top of my head:
Purification: Initial heal applies to nearby allies and allies gain regen. The main triggered heal only heals the DH as it does currently.
Test of Faith: Initial damage reduced by 25%. Crossing damage stays as is. Cast time of half second. Allies get protection. Crippling removed and given to Procession of Blades
Procession of Blades: Damage reduced by 25%. Each tick cripples for 1-1.5 seconds. Fury given to allies.
Judge’s Intervention: Reveal increased to 5 seconds (yes, I get that there’s “a lot” of reveal in the game, but really, there freaking isn’t! Learn to survive without stealth all the time!). Swiftness for allies. Vuln duration increased to at least 5 seconds.
Fragments of Faith: This is completely fine. Just give the utility itself a half second cast time, but leave the trait instant cast.
Dragon’s Maw: damaged reduced by at least 25%. Cast time of 1 second. Might given to allies. Slow replaced with a ticking blindness every second. CD increased to 90 seconds.
Obviously these suggestions aren’t exactly good. I’m just trying to get some minds running on better ideas. Traps are too damage focused and not enough utility focused. Give more party utility, nerf the damage and I think you’ll see fewer complaints in lower end pvp but more DHs in higher end pvp.
Wasn’t season one a pure MMR system, but without the MMR reset?
Wasn’t season two a pure pip system with safety nets?
Isn’t season three both without an MMR reset and with safety nets?
I’m probably mistaken. But if not, they did what you suggested, but only forgetting the most important details that actually make it all work.
A thief will take your dodge and raise you another dodge!
No, people don’t play bunkers strictly because of thieves. They’re only part of why. People play bunker because sometimes they have to. It’s their only truly viable spec for top play. Another reason they have to is because the damage going out is stupid high. Thieves are part of that high damage. One more reason is because they can spec bunker while still doing ridiculous damage. Looking at your Scrappers.
If thief damage wasn’t so ridiculously high, there wouldn’t be fewer bunkers because other professions still deal ridiculously high damage, through either power, condition or both. Nerf damage, and you’ll run into season 1. Nerf defence and you’ll run into a high damage meta. Nerf both and you get balance. People won’t do too much damage or have too much defence. That’s balance. Everything being OP isn’t real balance. It’s chaos masked as balance.
My point: damage is too high, and so we need high defence builds. But defence is also too high, and so we need high damage builds. You won’t win without moderation.
Were you partied with the DCed player?
OP…
I know the feeling.
What’s even worse is if you’re trying to keep a teammate alive with heals, peels etc, while your other teammates just run in, use no defences, go down, or just sit at range doing nothing useful while I’m the only one resurrecting. Of course my teammate dies and so does the rest of my team afterward. And best of all, you’ll be blamed for the wipe, even though you’re the only one who was doing something to prevent it. This is Legendary Division by the way. That’s how bad the players in Legendary are…I so hoped games would get better after Ruby, but they literally got worse!
How about those teammates who instantly go back down after being resed? You know, that Reaper or Berserker who runs Viper’s and then charges into 2+ enemies, expecting to live. It’s just…horrible. I always feel like the guy who tries the absolute hardest in games, only to fail anyway.
Combine my factors with yours and you get a blowout game. FUN!!!!
Ok, someone explain to me why being able to switch professions before a game should be off limits. I understand it gives an advantage, but isn’t that a good thing? Should you really not be rewarded for knowing how to play multiple professions?
preventing profession switching would allow ANET to use Profession based MMR and not Account Based MMR. This would take into account how someone can be really good at one class but terrible on another. The incredible wisdom of ANET to make league professional achievements on 3 classes makes for terrible matches where you get a player on your team that may be ruby on his main class but be amber skill level on the other 2 classes. Currently the Match Maker will still think hes a ruby level player and place him on team based on his account MMR. When in reality he knows nothing about that second class.
I see what you mean. But if preventing profession swapping becomes reality, Anet will also have to prevent profession stacking. It’s not fun being a profession that doesn’t stack with itself well and being put onto a team with 1-2 others of the same profession, especially when they really only have 1, maybe 2 builds possible. And then being put against a stacked team of a counter profession. For example, thieves don’t stack particularly well. But we hear all the time about thieves being put together with other thieves, instead of being spread across the two team. And then those thieves are pitted against stacked trapper DHs.
If they don’t change profession stacking, then they’ll need to give more builds for each profession, which involves nerfing their precious elite specs. Removing profession stacking will also increase queue times, but hopefully the increased diversity will bring back more players and help offset the increased queues at least a little.
Imagine ele daily. Every team would have 2-3 eles who can’t swap lol.
I like the idea, but what if they just removed the profession achievements? We know Anet loves taking the lazy route.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Daredevil_-_Dagger/Pistol But learn it well before playing ranked. It’s not as easy you think. It’s not a build that can walk in and start attacking on a point. You can’t take much AoE damage before needing to run out and recharge.
A lot of thieves will sit back and use shortbow attacks or time Headshot for interrupts and get damage that way. When you’re target is low and can be finished off, jump in, kill and get out ASAP. Be ready to use stunbreaks and dodges.
Don’t spam attacks, as tempting it might be. Use shortbow and dodges to get around the map quickly for decaps and +1ing.
This build is weak to condis, so avoid places where condis are being spammed. Shadowstep is best used for mobility and escape. Its condi cleansing comes when you teleport back. But that spot might be still be under attack.
Position can be difficult. Every map has good places to be for easy escaping, or attacking, or just quick travel. Find those spots.
Play cheap and you’ll do well lol.
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Ok, someone explain to me why being able to switch professions before a game should be off limits. I understand it gives an advantage, but isn’t that a good thing? Should you really not be rewarded for knowing how to play multiple professions?
This is an interesting idea. But 5-10 is way too much. I wouldn’t go any more than 3, and even that’s kind of too much.
My own suggestion is a safety pip, or net, reflected by win/loss ratio. If I’m skilled enough to stay above the safety net and if I get to the 3rd pip of a tier and then got horrible off point fighters 4 times in a row, which happens all the time, I don’t want to be punished for it, but I also don’t want those baddies to be caught by the same net. I’d rather be rewarded for my skill and be caught by the net while the off point fights fall back. It’s the safety net for bad players that allows them to advance all the way to Ruby with almost no trouble at all, and then they continue to ruin the experience for players who don’t want them in their games. Likewise, I don’t think bad players want to fight good players outside of a controlled environment. I’m not that great, but I’m also not terrible, and I don’t want to fight bads or ESL players unless I’m at their levels. It’s just not competitive!
What if a safety net is deployed for those who have a high win/loss ratio. Let’s say if you’re winning 60% of your games, you get a safety net. A win loss ratio shows a better indication of skill than win streaks. You could get lucky and ride win streaks, but those are short term. Win/loss is long term and shows overall skill.
How about for Amber, 40% win/loss. Emerald is 50%. Sapphire is 60%. Ruby and up has no net just like it is now. I know there’s a flaw in there somewhere. This is just an idea to get your mind thinking of better ideas.
Now this would only work if they removed the whole favoured team matchmaking thing they have going.
If you want good, competitive games, the bad players need to be separate from the good ones. Hell, the moderately skilled players need to be separate from the rest. I know your population can’t handle so much separation, but it’s the system you have no that’s driving people away. If you separate, the community will grow.
The soccer community would suck if a lower level of soccer was paired up again a World Cup team. Nobody would play the sport ever again. Good soccer teams need to be separate from inferior ones.
Fun? In PvP? Somehow Anet will take the fun out of a mutation system. Like say, favouring one team more than the other. 5 warriors being favoured to win over 5 mesmers would be the most one sided match in history.
Still, I like this idea. Though I hope you want this to be optional to players. They should still be able to play regular games if they want to practice regularly for the league season.
Clearly most of you have never played Pre HoT mesmer. At least you had reliable swiftness. Mesmer’s focus 5 wants to have a word with you.
Quite a lot of effort for a troll… Maybe you’re the troll!
Metabattle will suggest Medic Gyro and Elixir gun. A combo you can do is f1 and EG 4 for a healing blast finisher. You can also use Hammer 3 in the field for 2 leap finisher heals. It’s a powerful combo that makes a difference in your sustain.
Do we really want to encourage more PvE bads to play PvP? I know Anet wants them, but if they just made PvP actually good, then the game will naturally attract more PvPers. But adding rewards that are only obtainable through PvP will attract greedy PvEers.
I bet if Anet made the Legendary wings obtainable through PvE as well as PvP, the experience of leagues would be better.
Although, if there was a PvP only reward that was only useful for PvP, that would be pretty amazing. No idea what that would be though…
I once played between 10pm and 12am EST, and saw the absolute worst players I’ve ever seen in ranked. This was Legendary division… When I was progressing, there were better skilled players in Ruby. RUBY! Games were still blowouts, but at least players fought on point…
If you play during primetime, when the most players are on, you have the best chance of getting skilled players, but you also have the best chance of getting the poorest players. And that’s what kept happening to me. Games were still closer than in the mornings though. But most were still blowouts.
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Mesmer, Rev, Engi are the ones that don’t die easily under pressure due to frequent evades, blocks, escapes, etc. Yes, a good Mesmer is hard to kill. A really good thief is also hard to kill because of escapes. Ranger and Ele will eventually die once all CDs are used. But with a good team that knows how to peel and res, they’re just about immortal. Rev and Engi deal the highest damage of these professions, so I’d put them at top tier. Next would be Mesmer, Ranger, Ele. Warrior also depends on the team they have. With an Ele or Ranger, they require heavy pressure, so I’m placing them lower. The placement of Thief depends on how good they are, who they’re with, and who they’re against. Necro is powerful if you let them freecast and generate shroud. If not, they’re weak against pressure. But if they’re fighting a team that’s weak to condis, they’ll do well. Guard is obviously lowest. Bunker DH is like Ele but inferior in most ways. And Medi Trapper is easily pressured while having easily countered mechanics.
So:
Rev, Engi, Ele, Ranger, Mesmer, Warrior, Necro, Thief, Guard
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Go down less? You must fight some terrible players if you’re not going down at all…A good team can focus you, and if you’re team isn’t good at peeling for you, you’ll go down eventually. This isn’t totally a L2P issue. This skill has always been OP, and it’s part of the powercreep issue. It has a 900 range AND requires at least two interrupts to stop. Another idea is to reduce the hp on it and make it easier to destroy.
I’m not asking for this skill alone to be nerfed. It’s only one skill that’s part of a greater issue of HoT skills being too powerful. Impact Strike just needs a higher CD. (60 seconds. It’s an elite for God’s sake. 40 second or less CD is too good for something that stomps that quickly and CCs TWICE, even if the skill itself is easy to interrupt.) Continuum Split is clunky and annoying to use, yet is also extremely powerful with elite skills. I could go on…
Roll Tempest, use Shocking Aura. He has no interrupts so you can overload air as well for a second shocking aura. In a 1v1, he won’t kill you if you use your cleanses right. On other professions, good luck… you’ll have to time your attacks perfectly. There’s a small gap between each evade. Also, he cleanses condis by evading, so if you get condis on him, stop attacking till they’re gone. Then try again to reapply them. A stun will help you get condis on him. Or if you’re power based, whack him with a super hard attack while you can. In teamfights, they’ll melt between evades eventually.
It’s a wildly cheap spec, but inferior to D/P, or even vault spam.
Also, WHY THE kitten CAN THIEVES DO DAMAGE WHILE EVADING CONSTANTLY? HOW IS THAT GOOD DESIGN?
I noticed a drastic drop in the quality of games when I started getting to upper Diamond. The final tier had afkers, game throwers, terrible players. In Legendary, it was surprisingly even worse! I had three awful games in a row. All three losses, all three blowouts. That killed the season for me. But why should I care? I hit Legendary! I can do whatever the kitten I want with no real consequence apparently. Instead, the consequences are thrown onto those trying to advance. Yay!
I’ve had the same experience as you, OP. I rode win streaks to Legendary with a 70% win/loss, and then started getting consistently poor games. People start not caring or trying as hard. And I’ve noticed that I myself have been playing poorer because I’m seeing others play poorly. It’s not fun to suddenly play worse than before all because I’m surrounded by stupidity. I had a three game losing streak the other day and they were easily the least fun games of the whole season. Since then, I’ve just stopped. I played some hotjoin and actually found more intelligence there (not much more though).
Anet, this seriously sucks. Players should be getting BETTER at the game to advance, so that higher levels are actually filled with skilled players. I don’t want to get carried to Legendary by win streaks by beating less skilled players. And I don’t want to be destroyed because my teammates happen to be worse than those less skilled players on the other team.
To save my MMR from dropping even further, I’m waiting till next season since you won’t reset MMR.
Because that would be cruel.
But really, you raise a good point. It’s not like we don’t have all the other options. We have power, precision, healing, even outgoing healing percentage. I imagine players would keep using bloodlust over cruelty though.
How are you not banned yet?
I want to see lightning, or flames. Or maybe something super black and with black smoke rising off.
I encountered one of those players last night. I made sure he was never in the same game as me ever again. I also reported him but obviously Anet won’t do kitten about that. Introducing division drops from Legendary is a great way to stop this. My suggestion for next season is tier drops from either Emerald or Sapphire and up, and only a division drop from Legendary to Diamond being possible.
Also Anet, seriously, be more strict against game throwers.
That’s exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a bunch!
I’m interested in this as well. Where can I find the streams, or are they on YouTube?
I wasn’t able to watch the entire Pro League final today. Did anyone capture a screenshot of each player’s spec and the team comps?
+1
I haven’t experienced this yet (never even been diamond before this season), but I sure as hell don’t want to. This should be the only situation in which the matchmaking system shouldn’t search for pips past a certain range. That is, only legendary division players are matched with other legendary division players. I understand that this would lead to incredibly long queue times, but eventually they’ll shorten. Do that, or be extremely strict and punishing on players who throw matches at all, with sufficient proof. Other punishments are possible I’m sure too.
That kitten would make me salty too. Thanks for bringing this issue up.
It just helps you not get into games with them. All you need to do is wait….even more than we already do. But yes, I’ve noticed a difference since I started. Got lots of players on the list already. I always wait till most of them are in a game, to reduce my chances of getting them.
I don’t see why not. Why else would they allow us to equip gathering tools in HotM? It’s perfect for balancing games, right? Would get more PvEers into PvP too!