Guild Wars 2

Too bad some of the final bosses are bugged (like Eire completely regen’ing her break bar with one second).

The problem is scaling (which in this case Anet failed completely). If you didn’t do the event within the first 2 days the lack of people showing up for the event guarantees failure given the fact Anet coded the mob spawn and health for big zergs. So there are only two solutions:

1) Do “current events” within the first 2 days
or
2) Anet properly scales the event to the number of people participating.

Given Anet’s track record it looks like your only option is #1

The solution is fairly simple if Anet’s servers tracks user accounts on them and which map instance they are in, which if they don’t they can add the map instance queues on the server side (after all they do with with dungeons and fractals – although without the countdown clock).

All they need to do is to maintain a user-queue with a five minute countdown clock per user per map instance on the server. The server simply checks if the user is still logged into that same map instance (let’s say every 10 seconds). If the user waypoints to another map instance or any other instance the user’s account is dropped from that queue and added to the other map instance’s queue. However, if the user had DC’d or logged out then the countdown clock associated with the user’s account begins (decrementing let’s say every 10 seconds) keeping their account tagged to that same map. If the user relogs back in with that five minutes the server then checks the map queues to see which map instance that user was on and promptly returns them to the same map and reset that user’s countdown clock. If the user doesn’t relog into the game by the time the countdown timer expired then they are dropped from the queue and the usual mega-server map instance change occurs. If they do log back in then they get returned to the same map instance and their countdown clock is reset.

This methodology supports the mega-server implementation and is a simple handshake between client and the servers. So Anet, I ask why hasn’t this been done?

Our guild is probably about medium size and we have already max’d our GH. Things that help:
1) Appoint one person as the scribe to make things and all other members pass resources to them.
2) Skip the kinds of upgrades your guild is not interested in (we did WvW last)
3) The higher GH tiers require lots of HoT related resources so keep running those metas.
4) Usually the mine for the ore time gated hitting the next tier.

With chrono and shield defender, phantasmal defender pales in comparison.

If you manage to get in parties or groups, Chrono suggestions above are the absolute best because essentially the Mez is the best group booster. In fractals I always go Chrono.

Also, a good test for your various gear and choices is to go solo against vet karka. I hunt them daily since the shells are always around 10s/apiece. They are awesome combat testers because you have to deal with their myriad of attacks (and evades which drive you crazy). That is essentially how I came up with my signet approach and I found that it gave me uber survivability in HoT. Chrono or straight up power builds will allow you to put down things much faster, but you are more susceptible to going down.

I’ve mostly solo’d HoT relying on my phantasms to do most of the work: Dom/Ill/Insp traited for signets (evades, cleanses) and mimic. Went with GS, S/F as weaps. Sure you are slower than Chrono or other builds to get things down, but you survive well and I was even able to solo some camp events and Gold Champs (before they were nerfed).

Signet traited/skill solo roaming mesmer in HoT is not too bad (it was my first character to complete all the HoT maps). Having that many evades and condi cleanses is pretty handy. Sure you are a weaker DPS’er but I let my phantasms whittle things down (including solo’ing those boss hero points).

No, due to it’s bad implementation.

I don’t mind having content that I (being an old fart) can’t do, but having masteries attached to “mario/sonic like games which some people hate”, was stupid on Anet’s part. Masteries should be driven from MMO PvE/PvP content not dumb JPs and such. JPs and mini-games should be considered optional content that has it’s own rewards.

Oh gee, as a mesmer I could use arcane thievery, but wait, they have no boons…sigh,, another PvP skill wasted in PvE.

Agree with response #2. PvP and PvE skills,traits, CDs, baseline DPS, ICDs, etc. should be totally independent (don’t even have to be the same action). Makes the balancing issue so much easier and fairer given some classes suffer PvE experience based upon “balancing” for PvP.

Second thing I recommend is introduction to tier based rewards in chest and mob drops. e.g. All time gated things can be removed if reward based upon time it took to complete it, or amount of DPS contribution to the downing of a mob or boss. Much fairer to reward based upon contribution than just being in a good group.

Last thing is probably beyond the scope of this game but introduction to more advance combat tactics by bosses. Instead of the simplistic methodology of having a single combination of boss actions, have the boss change their actions based upon the group composition attacking them. The Guardian raid boss illustrates the old-school of just time-gating to insure adequate DPS, but that implementation is just so primitive and been around for 20 years. It’s time developers put some AI into bosses so that they actually change their tactics based upon the composition of the group attacking them. Presently raids don’t provide this adequate variation, that once the mechanics are learned they now essentially become rote.

Tying mastery points to mario/sonic-like mini-games makes no sense in an MMO. All mastery points should be derived from doing “classic” MMO-specific content (quests, bosses, etc.). Mini-games are nothing more than elaborate JPs and should be totally separate optional things for players to do if they need to be in the game.

Anet should make PvP and PvE traits and skills totally independent with different CDs, base damage, etc.). Problem solved!

Oh wait, that makes too much sense.

Per my prior post, Anet should explore the possibility of Tiered rewards not only for raids but for dungeons/fractals as well. Imagine if you solo a dungeon you get 10x the reward instead of the present, or do a fractal in half the time your reward doubles. Think about it Anet, that would entice a lot more people into doing them and also increase the competition among players.

Part of the problem is the fact Anet did not completely unlink PvP from PvE in regards to skills/traits (have completely separate CDs and baseline dps specification, etc.). If they had the balancing of skills and traits would have been so much simpler and balanced mitigating the latest elite specs OP’ness.

The most annoying bug is the dc one when you are in a party and you can’t rejoin your friends because I think the fact Anet implemented this as an instance within a story instance framework and they didn’t bother to pass-along the account id from one instance to the other. Normal stories are a single instance and you can safely rejoin your party in the same story instance.

Shoddy QA Anet.

Jelzouki.4128:

Zenith.7301:

PvP balance, guys. They don’t give a rat’s kitten about PvE in this game.

Reaper shouts and traits are still garbage in PvE, but hey PvP whine so nerf some more.

What the hell are you on about?

Reaper is perfectly fine in PvE.

Tell that to mesmers. I don’t see why Anet just makes PvP traits/skills (CDs, dps baseline, etc.) totally independent from PvE. That way balancing would be much more simpler the commentary about balance would be more direct to which side of the game you prefer.

Go signets with mimic make a fun play. Kite and juke your way to victory.

The raids are not hard. What makes them hard are the time-gates. Eliminate the time gates and have tiered rewards based upon the time it takes to down the bosses.

I’d give the story a B. However, I wish they had a skip option on all cinematics that occur during the story IF you already did it once. Some of the stories are too long when repeating on alts or doing achievements and could be shorten w/o the cinematics.

This is why all PvP traits and skills should be a totally separate independent set from PvE. For us who main-side in the PvE world the nerfs as a result of PvP commentary ruins it.

For Anet’s failed attempts to balance game play they should realize that PvE and PvP fall under two separate requirements and the skills/traits should be completely separated with different CDs, dps baselines, etc.

For survivability in HoT you can’t beat a signet build (4 condi cleanses and 4 evades with mimic). It’s a juke and plink type with less dps, but you stay alive for the long haul (prior to patch was able to solo camp defend in HoT – note it takes awhile :-). I flip back and forth between that and chrono using s/p or shield or pistol or even focus if I want to burn them down faster but it is less survivability. Don’t discount shield avenger as being a big helper. I wear viper using berserker runes.

The scepter buff was very noticeable doing a 50(s) mid level Aetherblade fractal. Scepter is still good for only certain fights. Close in, sword is still king.

The changes are good and I still wish Anet would reduce the well casting time. It seems slow and sort of takes away what you can do with CS (usually you need 3 illusions to fully exploit it). If they reduce the cast time so you can do it with 2 illusions I would be happy).

I’ll add my list of kudos for this patch:
1) The new AOE reticles are so much better than anything I’ve seen in any game. The color coding and centered icon allow me to see more condi(s) and target them easier. Great job Anet.
2) The fractal drop down and pop is so much more informative and eliminates the outside lookup.
a) Like the new cliffside and having the hammer icon over your head is so much more intuitive. (little suggestion – can you add the counter as part of the icon).
3) Love the change in HoT of downgrading the champs into vets (now I don’t have to wait for people and can solo them).
4) Like the LFG changes (and subdivision of the type of grouping in the main objectives)
5) Love the boost to nodes giving ley-line sparks (averaging 3 per node over less than 1 per node is a big help). Hope you think about upping the auric sand drop as well for fulgurite crafting.

My only complaint still stands about the mini-games having too much involvement with mastery points. I still feel regular MMO content should play a bigger role in getting mastery points.

But I do like what you did overall with this patch.

Sent multiple reports hope this gets fixed.

PLEASE Anet do something Auric sand that is locked behind the meta-event Octovine. Having a scarce resource locked behind a meta-event that hardly is being done plain sucks.

You must love the mini-adventures! Just kidding, I think they were an excuse not to include more real MMO PvE content and having nearly half the mastery points tied to them is a shame.

What I don’t like about the HoT is the following:
1) Mini-adventures – have no business in an MMO. The code wasted on them should have been put into more bug fixes and real MMO content. And why are nearly half the masteries tied to these stupid games. Masteries should be related to the MMO content itself not mario like games.
2) Meta-event locking of resources – no one hardly does Octovine anymore, why is this event gating the gathering of Auric sand. Stupid design.
3) Adaptive scaling so HoT event chains can be sole-able or can be done with the present design zerg-fest.
4) All stories cinematics should be skippable. Re-running stories for achievements due to bugs is annoying especially when they are way too long with the cinematic pauses. In my case I’ve re-run Burning Insight three times to get the New Horizon achievement and have done it correctly twice but never get the credit.

And, not really HoT, but an Anet failure never the less.
Mega-server shortcoming – why can’t Anet have the mega-servers maintain a DC queue for up to 5 minutes, so players who get DC’d can log back into the same map. Don’t you love doing dragon stand for nearly an hour then get DC’d on the final fight and lose your chest. Wonderful design Anet.

Story progression needs one BIG improvement and that is the ability to “SKIP” all the cinematic scenes. My two reasons for this improvement is:
1) Stories have been buggy – so far I ran “Buried Insight” 4 times to get the New Horizon achievement and have done everything correctly but still I haven’t got it. This part of the story IS SO FRICKING LONG.
2) Doing story again on different alts – I don’t need to see that same cinematic over and over again. How many of us bother to watch stupid TV reruns.

All well casting times are way TOOOOOOOOO long.

To further balance PvP all well casting times will be doubled.

Sheesh, I did not complain about the difficulty, I complained about the lack of scaling. All events should be scaleable from solo to zerg numbers (which Anet was the first to create). Of course the one thing I wish Anet would do is eliminate the concept of “in combat” waypoints. Waypoints should always be open, and if they are in combat, and you waypoint in a mob infested area you should get ganked (would make the game more fun then just shutting off access with a simplistic binary switch).

The HoT events should be scaleable down to solo play level like those in Tyria (simple as that). If there is a zerg then ramp up the mob numbers and their HPs.

Why are over half the mastery points from stupid mario mini-games. I thought this was an MMORPG. Most if not all mastery points gotten from either doing events or bosses. I could do without the stupid 1980 style games (incl. SAB).

Glad I held off leveling scribing.

They need to scale events in HoT much better. There are a whole lot of people that like to solo through (Tyria had that). I always seem to be in empty HoT maps restricting my options of play which even with the LFG to mitigate this is bad (thank you mega-server). The events should scale from being capable to be solo’d to handling large player groups. I’ve got so many chain events in HoT that are missing like one of the chain that drive me nuts because of the reason above.

Also, why are over half the mastery points buried behind stupid mario like mini-games. I thought this was a MMORPG? Add more event and boss driven mastery points Anet.

Your customers Anet are not pleased!

GW1 districts were the right way to do it. The mega-server is messed up. I also hate the fact there is no DC queue that guarantees you will return to the same map during a meta or world boss fight. The old system was best.

Why can’t the mega servers hold a 5min queue of players that left the map (due to disconnect) that allows them to return back in the same exact map? I’m sure a DC can be distinguished from a jump to another map.

Here’s simply four things Anet did wrong:
1) Lack of scaling – In Tyria you can solo just about everything. HoT requires multiple bodies to get anything of “real” reward done.
2) “real” above emphasized because of the horrible RNG in this game (stupid simplistic static extremely low probabilities without considering number of times looted for to balance and eliminate the never drop syndrome players experience – anyone ever see Claw of Jormag drop?).
3) Lack of Tiered rewards – Eliminate all time-gating in raids and let people take however long it does to bang out a win and base the reward upon the time it takes. This should apply to meta-events, fractals, dungeons, and world bosses as well.
4) Totally separate skills and traits between PvP and PvE (e.g. you have a whole separate trait and skill set that are completely independent of each other), eliminating the fact PvE suffers from nerfs driven by PvP (it is sort of interesting that you never see the reverse happening).

I switch a lot between sword and scepter. For instance I found scepter better for dealing with Vet Karka than sword or when you are going mono on mono in PvE. Sword is a great boon stripper (e.g. raid) and stacking situations.

My only real aggravation is the fact that PvP balance adjustments effect PvE. PvE playing mesmers are effected by the so-called balancing made what appears to be solely based upon PvP results.

Wish Anet would totally separate all traits and skills between PvP and PvE so one doesn’t effect the other.

If new masteries are coming in future patches/expansions I have one that would really be great to add to that list.

Ability to use contested waypoints

Here are things that Anet should do in the April patch but will probably not do it given the lame logic they applied to the legendary weapon take away.
HoT specific:
1) Remove all event gating of mini-games
2) Adjust the level of “some” of the mini-games
3) Apply dynamic scaling to all HoT events so you can solo them (with the exception of the metas).
4) Add more avenues for getting mastery points (too many are behind mini-games that some people hate).
5) Add tier based raiding rewards (lowest tier removes time gate). This gives those not so good a chance to actually learn how to do it better by allowing them to complete the fight no matter how long it takes.
6) Add more waypoints. Some places take way too long to get to.
Overall:
1) Fix the horrible RNG in this game. Apply a normalizing function to adequately address outliers in getting horrible drops. (e.g. People not getting a precursor after 3 years of drops).
2) Restore Dungeon gold rewards.
3) Remove having waypoints being contested.

To be honest, I run a signet mesmer over the chronomancer. With mimic I double boons twice provide cleansing and evades for my party. If you do the calculations, doubling might and other boons actually provides more support than our present chronomancer capabilities (post-nerf). Pre-nerf I ran chromo and enjoyed it, but now signets with dom/ill/insp make more sense.

Bit more info. Actually clicked on the recipe itself on the wrong toon from the chest. I have an artificer on another toon. There should be a check that the discipline is present on the toon when you click on any recipe to insure this problem doesn’t occur.

I just completed the first collection for Raven staff and accidentally clicked the chest of the recipe on the wrong toon. How can I recover this?

I don’t mind the end-zones being hard combat or event wise, but once you have it mapped out it should be easier to traverse (waypoints should never be contested).

Interesting when Anet is confronted by math that disputes their points we don’t hear a peep in response.