Guild Wars 2

What alarms me is that there are people posting that the three orders should go their own way again and not be part of the pact. Surely the point of the battle against zhaitan was that this just wouldn’t work, they even apparently hated one another and that would likely resume, rendering them all useless.

Lets see a section of the living story, for example, where the Master of Whispers sends their order member to go assassinate some vigil commander who looked at them funny and then see how people like it.

Doubly so when the next dragon threatens some village and the vigil don’t turn up to protect them because that player wiped out their command staff.

As to the priory players, well, they just get to spend all day reading books and arguing about what course of action to take.

Its disappointing that classes such as thief and warrior can be allowed to get so bad that this takes place.

Buff is not a dirty word, but the way things are, you would think it was.

Stand The Wall.6987:

It would be pretty sweet but loot bags might get nerfed as a result. Cant have all these monies running rampant into players pockets, now.

I don’t think I would mind that – I mean, I have enough blues and greens to salvage already, so they could actually remove the loot bags completely and I don’t think I would notice.

The rewards as they stand are just that bad. Meanwhile, I can do a fractal in ten minutes and come out with at least a gold in rewards and often more.

I think these changes are a positive step and am hopeful that much larger steps will follow – especially around rewards and mastery xp.

From the update notes, it seems this is now fixed.

I`d like to say thankyou to the Arenanet staff who have been working to tackle this bug, as it seems to have been a tricky one to deal with and was having a big effect on gameplay.

I`d be interested if we could be told some details of why this happened – if anything is safe to share with us – as sometimes dev’s do comment on what the nature of a bug was and why it proved tricky to pin down. I ask just out of curiosity and because it seemed to be quite a surprise issue that had a lot of us puzzled.

Many thanks again for clearing this up though, it has been the first issue in ages that actually made me stop logging in for a while, so I am really glad it is gone.

Malediktus.9250:

I Forgot.1684:

I invest in Black Lion skins. If they do this, then I will lose thousands of gold. There are many people who also invest in Black Lion skins. I don’t think it would be a good idea to cause many people to lose gold just so other people can make more gold.

To better express my point, let’s say I spend $100 on gems which I then use to purchase Black Lion keys. I use those keys to open chests, and I get several tickets. I then spend those tickets on several skins that I keep in my bank, in hopes that they will go up in value, as most Black Lion skins do. After a little while, you come along and suggests that the items, for which I paid real money, should be available to you by other means, so that you will have an enhanced game experience. Now let’s assume that you have never purchased any gems. Your idea effectively enhances the game for people who have potentially spent less to enjoy the game, while simultaneously causes others, who have most likely spent more to enjoy the game, to suffer a loss.

Black Lion skins should hold their value, or people will be more hesitant to buy them, and as a result, people will be more hesitant to buy keys.

Investing is always a risk. I got 25 black lion sets complete, so my suggestion has the potential to devalue my achievements, but I still think there needs to be a rotation.

I wouldn’t worry too much about those – even if the skins appeared in fractal boxes, I don’t think many people would manage to complete a single one of those “collect all X” achievements. Even one would still cost a fortune…..and be largely pointless.

DoctorDing.5890:

It’s a bug. They know about it. I imagine they’ll fix it fairly quickly.

I was surprised to return from work today to find it still not fixed. Its a horrible bug, especially as it messes with sliders and those are next to impossible to return to their exact setting. Makes gameplay very uncomfortable as the muscle memory has to relearn slight alterations to movement.

Then when you log, its all messed up once again – needs a priority fix.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Don’t even begin to try to get this removed

I will suplex anyone that removes my clock winding noises.

Agreed – I find the fact they have such a sound to be a nice extra. Though I was disappointed the rifle didn’t have a special firing noise.

Could we have some details on where this data is stored – is it client side or server side?

This bug just got me and its terribly disorienting. Play feels all wrong even after I make the changes, its impossible to know what settings are off.

Is there any chance that it can be restored to how it was or is that information now lost for ever?

These are absolutely lovely. Moving parts, glowing and with a magitech feel, yet elegant enough to match ornate, standard armour themes. I am genuinely impressed and think that if the legendary axe looked like the axe from this set…it would be improved.

Supreme.3164:

Warriors will deserve heal burst/boons when they lose 8k from their base HP

But wait inb4 people jump at my throat saying “HP means nothing”..I say excellent, np then reducing war base HP by 8k, but you can keep the armor bonus as a ‘gift’

Also some more thing to add before asking for heal burst on war:

-Reduce base healing of Healing Signet so “that you must have now healing power”
-Reduce base damage of skills ( so that you can’t walk around with soldier amulet dealing zerker damage)

I mean…thieves and warriors want sustain..that’s cool but be ready to give up a big chunk of your damage if you want sustain; if you think that sustain in GW2 comes like a christmas gift..think again

Warriors are at a state where no such balancing nerf is needed. They really are that far below the other classes and as to their damage, I`m seeing other classes pulling out very similar numbers with much less effort and often with more reliable landing of hits.

I would have thought that the complete lack of berserkers in that pvp tournament would have resulted in at least some changes by now.

Warrior is junk, its elite is even more junk (they did actually have some warriors, but no berserkers).

I`m still staggered by how druids and rangers can be nerfed within a 24 hour period of something appearing and yet it takes an entire month to even make this slight adjustment to classes that are no only rampaging across game modes, but that are also making “esports” into a boredom fest that is only won with timeouts and not with kills.

The balance priorities here are beyond me – whole classes are non functional to the point where if you pick a warrior, or possibly thief in an spvp ranked game, people on the team will call you out for ruining their chances – and they are right. Why is that not addressed or acknowledged?

We need mastery xp, money for ascended armour and stuff to salvage (for ectos and dark energy).

None of these things can be obtained in WvW, so people must play elsewhere for them….and that’s not even mentioning the many other issues, like lack of fun, class imbalances, terrible maps, lack of gliders and all the rest.

Its the old issue of certain dungeon paths being longer and unrewarding. Thus, everyone ran citadel of flame path 1 over and over, much as is happening with Mossman and molten duo here.

Longer fractals need significantly larger rewards to compensate for extra time taken.

ferdi.1452:

Precursor crafting is fun until you get to the actual crafting part.

These were my findings. Instead of being “collect and do many things”, its “collect and do many things….then pay out a massive amount on the trade post”.

Seeing as it has that, you may as well just go to the trade post and cut out all the other nonsense.

Havokak.3450:

I agree with Abissal, reaper is good condi damage especially with the carrion frostfire build. Great condi damage, however, I would suggest that for PvP. You had mentioned it in your question in the list of classes. But for PvE, I would definitely recommend a condi kit engi. Currently the condi engi is the highest DPS in the game. It requires a lot of practice because in all you will have about 30 abilities at your disposal. But I would highly suggest leveling one to 80 to try it out in a dungeon or fractal.

I`m with Havok on this one – Engineer is what you should be aiming to play if pvp and conditions are your thing.

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

What?! The issue here is power creep. We need a lot of nerfs, not buffs…

I feel the issue is caused by nerfs in the first place. Look at the mess that warrior now is, based on the adrenaline nerf and countless others. Druid nerfed numerous times.

Often the classes that are out of control are those whose natural counters have been nerfed. So what we need to do is buff those up so that the balance is restored.

Cyrotek.7019:

Wasn’t it pretty obvious that dragons stand could not have been after the main story?

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

We made it brain death, after all.

Well, people spoke to Laranthir in dragons stand and he was specifically speaking about it being that way. The player character asks him why the fight is still going on and laranthir says “you may have killed the dragon, but parts of its mindless hunger remain”. Or something similar.

That never really sat well with me.

I saw this picture and was reminded of the Hylek preachers of Zintl in Verdant Brink.

“Amayali has failed you, turn away from her and find your place in the Sun!”

Just look at the esports and pro-leagues for details of how bad the situation is.

Of course, some people will feel they are doing ok with their warriors, but that is due to luck, skill or lack therof on their opponents. It’s possible to kill a man by hitting him with a rock, but that doesn’t make a rock into a weapon used by anyone serious about fighting.

All I can say is that I hope this gets some much needed buffs for classes like warrior/beserker or base ranger and condi necro.

Nerfs seem to come very quickly, but what we desperately need is buffs and not the sort that is given and then immediately removed by some “balancing nerf” elsewhere.

I`d like to see those lower classes elevated so that they become a meaningful choice, rather than simply see every class crushed down to their level of badness.

There was some discussion about when the final part of the HOT story took place, with some in game conversation during the mouth of mordremoth fight indicating that the story had already taken place.

I`ve been doing the story for the third time now and it looks like there is some adjustment and alteration going on to reset this. During the hearts and minds story, where we climb rotating section, the mouth is now plainly visible and its status is that which we see after the dragons stand meta is completed.

This would mean that its now official that the story conclusion comes at the end of all the metas of the heart of thorns map including dragons stand and that seems new.

I have also noticed some revoicing, especially where the exalted used to have normal voices, they now have their spooky ethereal ones. Are there any other story touch ups like this that have gone on?

It’s frustrating that there are notes about the raid content there…when I have spent hours doing that very same content – I really don’t need it on my screen after that.

What I would like to see is better use of the raid timers.

So, everyone fights the same vale guardian, say, but the rewards are based on how long it takes you to complete the encounter. This means that the content scales to all levels of skill and those who do the encounter particularly well are suitably rewarded.

We’ve all seen “toxic” chat before, during and after raids, so I am not going to speak about that here. Instead, what I am interested in raising is the issue of unspoken toxicity of the sort that can damage a player’s willingness to raid and, perhaps, to even play the game or to value themselves as people at all.

By that I mean the loathing and unhappiness we direct at ourselves after failure.

I spent some time after a 3 hour Vale Guardian run, in which progress had been made and skills sharpened, saying some encouraging words to one of our Tank players, who was clearly feeling very down and blaming themselves for a large proportion of the wipes and fails. They left and were replaced half way through the 3 hour period, in which everyone was learning, making mistakes and all that other good raid stuff as we learned the boss and worked out what build changes etc would be needed the next time.

What worried me was that nobody else seemed to notice how upset this player was and that the damage done by not saying a few comforting words could have put that player off raids for life. I`m making my post here to remind guilds that are new to this sort of content that they need to invest serious time and effort into protecting the mental health and happiness of their members during raids, especially those who are given jobs that make them stand out, like tanking on the vale guardian fight.

Healers, tanks and other crucial players in raids are frequently blamed for fails and wipes, often with good cause, but that is seldom balanced by recognition and praise. When the raid succeeds, everyone takes credit, but when it fails, it often seems one or two people are going to feel bad about it. You`ll know which roles are this important in that the raid won’t start until they are filled.

So, for guild officers or just players concerned about their colleagues – please take a moment to consider the feelings of those who may not be speaking up but that may still be in a lot of distress after raiding begins to wear on them. Similarly, make a point of celebrating one or two players by name for their efforts during a raid, including dps and other roles.

Your guild can measure its strength not by how many people took part in the meat grinder that is a “learn the boss” session, but by how many of those people are prepared to come back again the next day after having failed so many times. It is about endurance and the way to boost that in a guild is by showing some consideration and understanding of what failure or lack of praise can do to a player.

Kind words go a long way, especially to the quiet ones who suffer in silence.

Choppy.4183:

Hey chronometria, it’s not your fault….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtkST5-ZFHw

Yup, that’s how I am left feeling really. I`m left looking along the trait lines of my reaper trying to work out the thing that’s missing on the berserker and I guess the only one I can put my finger on is the crit boosts. Reaper seems to have been made with traits that make up for the missing parts, whereas on the warrior I am feeling I have to cover all the bases and there just isn’t enough to go around.

It’s like lord of the rings and “too little butter spread over too much bread”.

Well, I invested some quality time into tinkering with a warrior I had, to see if I could it to an acceptable state as a berserker. I tried out different armour and countless combinations of trait trees, but always came up with the same stumbling blocks, which were….

1. Too fragile, or having to make major dps tradeoffs for meagre cleanses and healing.
2. Took too long to get into berserk mode and often the fight was effectively over.
3. Too many knockbacks and too much time between swings.
4. On going for conditions, finding traitlines sub optimal or things in wrong trees.

None of the other classes I have had made me struggle in this way. Even druid was something I could slot into my ranger to get noticeable improvements and that was on a dps spec (I got mobility and some control, as well as occasional heals in that case).

I just cant make it work and at best I can make a poor version of my reaper, which very much took the playstyle I used to have on my warrior – ie wade into the battle and do lots of cleaves while being highly durable.

Shrugs – I just don’t have any answers.

That’s actually the damage it does – it just does a lot of it.

EvE online’s dev team is notorious for chasing the next big thing – currently virtual reality – and it never does them any good. GW2 seems to have the same issue with Esports and it worries me how much prize money is being thrown out there when it could instead be put into development of the game itself.

I think that the standard of the black lions skins is getting lower. Since heart of thorns we have been seeing a lot of weapon and armour skins that are basically the level of lootable skins, like those bizarre improvised ones. Similarly the plasma weapon set really didn’t work and could have been much improved (eg the greatsword isn’t hollow in its icon and is implied to be like the shield).

Fewer and better is a good idea, otherwise we get the situation we have now where the wintersday weapons are two tickets and yet can still be bought for less on the trading house because so few people wanted them the first time…..an entire year ago.

I honestly don’t know what I am looking at when I see that armour. It’s just a mess.

By contrast, had they released a slinky BDSM tight outfit to match those new weapons in the black lion, they would likely be rolling in money.

From recent patch notes…

Fixed a bug that allowed contestable keep waypoints to be available for a few seconds in between repel events.

Am I reading this right in the notes that, when a keep is under attack, there will no longer be a time when we can teleport in? The only option will be to enter the besieged area from the outside?

If so, that’s a huge game changer.

All that effort to put these in and we will simply throw them away.

My great depression is the horrible price of ascended armour at the moment.

FogLeg.9354:

Imagine fights between the players with gliders and players without. Just is not fair. The ones without would call it pay-to-win game mode.

Considering that such players have no access to elite specs at all, the gliders seem pretty minor as an issue.

I don’t understand why arenanet chose to maintain the monstrous price level of precursors. It doesn’t do the “economy” any good and only serves to promote making a few people staggeringly rich based on getting lucky drops.

When I specced reaper, tossed away my condition stuff and went power based – being able to get rid of corruptions was a real joy. I used to use plague form a lot and it still bothers me that it has a downside.

The only improvement corruptions need is that the downside is removed. Other classes get much better things with no downside and the perception that necros really like self inflicted conditions is just as wrong as ever.

Do note though that when you go to wvw or pvp for the first time, your weapon will be put into your inventory, as you have to reassign the reaper trait.

I had a mentor once that liked apples.

Tybalt – we shall not forget you.

Would have been a lot better if it was themed around planets, stars and all that druid type stuff – druids have nothing to do with animals whatsoever.

It is uncontrolled and time gated to ten second intervals – it’s also a top tier trait.

It’s people are worrying about that aspect of the dragonhunter, then I`m surprised.

Etien.4601:

These 2 nozzles are engines amirite?

Yes, they are a jetpack of sorts – Scarlet’s clockwork champions actually used them to hover about when they were idling and for jumping purposes during the times we fought them.

I don’t think they would be good for much more than the limited slow fall that gliders are usually capable of, so they would be a good fit. I presume their bladed arms were more used for balance than for aerodynamic guidance.

They must be quite into it, as there is one on another map who invites musicians to a jam session and who will play along with them.

I really love the musical itzel in teku nuhoc. He seems to play a variety of soothing tunes and I find that sitting by him is a great place to chill out and fiddle with auction stuff or chat to guildies.

It’s nice to have these sorts of npc’s in the game, especially as teku nuhoc is a bit barren – ever noticed that nuhoc don’t have anywhere to sleep or anything to sleep on?

Please leave the bristleback as it is. The only change it needs is the ability to cope with slopes on its burst attack. Otherwise, it is just right.

ArchonWing.9480:

Well, of all the things to waste time on…. really now.

Colin himself mentioned the issue of rewards and WvW and gathering nodes are a form of income for those in wvw or mean they spend less on their crafting. Even though this seems insignificant….when your cake has only one slice left, removing the cherry on top really hurts.

Dragon Stand crashes seem a lot less/ gone!

This 64 bit thing is a godsend.

stuffystuffs.8360:

runeblade.7514:

I feel sad about Faolain more than Trahearne.

The moment when Faolain talked about Nightmare Court wanting freedom, I wanted her to be an ally so we can learn more about the Nightmare Court.

I agree. I think tying the NC into the storyline more (in an uneasy alliance of some sort) would have been pretty interesting.

Plus, Faolain attacking Eir seemed really out of character for her. It was just so colossally stupid. Eir was no threat to her and the immediate danger (the huge kitten vinetooth) was still chasing after both of them…why the heck would she pick a fight with the much larger norn woman who has eight of her friends nearby? That’s just suicide. Faolain’s cunning and manipulative but not stupid evil. She’s the one we see who often hides behind her NC cronies and illusions instead of ever putting her own neck on the line.

I can see why Faolain did that and it had some logic to it – they were being chased by a giant mordrem and the best way to avoid being eaten was to wound someone and leave them behind for it to snack on. Unfortunately, she miscalculated where it was.

Just had this happen to me and as I was standing on the islands of the new, empty map, I saw people just appearing all over them as they crashed too.

We worked for over an hour to get to that point and it is beyond frustrating. There must be a grace period put in for disconnects, especially as, for once, it wasn’t my internet freaking out, but a game crash.

I was telling my guild in teamspeak how impressed I was with the event and then….I wasn’t feeling so keen anymore as I was kicked out of it, with no chance to see it through. That isn’t acceptable in a game that relies on non instanced, major events like the dragon stand maw fight.