Guild Wars 2

It’s gone. I’m using the 64-bit client.

The loading screens still have their borders but those are just part of the image.

It did feel a bit weird that no new hair nor faces were released along with the expansion.

Cin.9386:

He will bring balance to the magic.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Engies only get medium armor.

And no weapon swap.

Kits don’t really confuse the issue, either.

At 1:50 in Dulfy’s video showing each of the skins you can see the bow strings are clearly animated.

This is worse than the warfarter.

Anet pls.

Pls.

In busy highly populated situations, probably not, but solo exploration or small group play yes.

In GW1 you could dismiss a boon from your character. Something like how that worked?

Not sure what I expected.

Whether this is a player distribution issue or a general population one isn’t clear but either way this is easily one of the biggest complaints I have about HoT.

There’s no indication given in game, so of course you can choose to believe one or the other (or another reason if you can think of one) for the stance, but your argument isn’t compelling.

The stance and the attack pattern look like Nebenhut underhand form, a genuine archaic sword school.

As cool as that stance looks, the current “hammer” form is much closer to the Aikido form that the moveset seems mostly inspired from.

Happy for the 64-bit client, suspiciously fortuitous in timing as it is.

But I hunger… for more!

DX11/12 desire intensifies

Eventually your character will put away the weapon even if you use the draw/holster toggle.

rhapsody.3615:

Same with blink or lightning flash…. I have my ground target at max range, flat land ahead, it’s green (good to go!) and… Nope, try again. Either the range indicator is off or they are being extremely picky about what you can blink over. This is happening all over the place in PvE.

Slightly different issue for me: the green target for placing skills remains green out of range a lot of times, so I keep getting “Out of range!” messages. The target will turn red after one fail, but it comes back frequently.

Necro does play better with others nowadays than it used to, that’s true. The condicap changes helped also. The minion/pet changes that came with HoT have been a big deal too.

Prior to these things being improved many people seized on Necro’s weakness in these categories as being profession breaking – they were as right as they were wrong.

Frequently brought up is how “selfish” necro is. Compared to many professions, yes, even now this is probably quite true (but not as true as it used to be). They’re missing the point anyway. The necro has always been more concerned with debuffing than buffing. Plenty of professions can buff your team, only some can debuff well, and in my opinion the necro is right up there on that front.

The value from debuffing is perhaps harder to quantify and, since players look at their damage numbers and HP, difficult to intuit how effective it is. Particularly in HoT with its renewed focus on group events and dangerous mobs, coupled with progressive changes to broken core mechanics (condicap, pets/minions) there’s no reason not to give the necro/reaper a fair shot.

symke.3105:

What, exactly was so bad about dungeons that they decided on such drastic actions of disbanding the team responsible for them, stopping all work on them and in the end giving us the finger?
Was gold farming the only reason?

There’s a bunch of reasons why, besides scaling back post-launch on GW2.

• Players trivialised dungeons with various tactics, highlighting weak points intrinsic to almost all dungeon design
• ANet would not commit to re-designing dungeons to deal with this, or include a hard mode. Instead they:
• Launched fractals, which are built with lessons learned from dungeons and were supposed to be better supported (but haven’t seen anywhere near the focus they need). Fractals are a “screw it, let’s start again” approach to dungeons/instanced co-op PvE play.

Was it only 18 months or so ago (perhaps less) that dungeon rewards were improved? They used to have rewards much like they are now. ANet believed this was insufficient, despite their problems.

Almost every time I aim a targeted skill the marker doesn’t respect the range on the skill. The marker remains green despite being out of range. When I attempt to use the skill on a location out of range, it changes to red and I get the “Out of range!” message on screen.

OanSur.4590:

dace.8019:

All I see is OP complaining about good customer service.

No statement on repair progress, pointless maintance with no purpose on technical site, no suggestion about anything in my system that would maybe correct the problem (send all crash reports from my files and specific configuration), and got only “if you are not happy go get your money and get lost”

If you sir are calling this good customer service then no wonder they are not willing to fix the issue. If you dont care why should they ?

If you think they’re doing nothing and don’t care then I really can’t see any reason in even trying to address the outright fallacy of your opinions on game development/ANet.

The justification given was that the gold reward outweighed the time investment. Yet, in even low level fractals, I believe that I am making comparable (or more, in my opinion) gold in the same time frame in content that is, to my mind, very similar (and in many cases easier).

Seems like it’s more a move to push people away from dungeons (which aren’t well supported going forward, or since launch, by ANet) into Fractals and forthcoming Raids, which ANet is focussing on.

I would be fine with that if ANet had supported Fractals better – and made more of them.

All I see is OP complaining about good customer service.

Zabrios.6079:

dace.8019:

Exos.3472:

And I cried… and cried… (20k dps)

Don’t fear the Reaper.

Yep, it pretty much went on like that for the last 50%.

Which runes are you using?

Eagle for extra crit and to complement Gravedigger.

(two people PM’d so I’ll just put it here: was a normal pug run with no special setup or anything and yes, the boss is the golem with the pylons in CoE).

Exos.3472:

And I cried… and cried… (20k dps)

Don’t fear the Reaper.

Yep, it pretty much went on like that for the last 50%.

Could be server/network related.

Maybe record videos and find out if what you both see matches?

OPs experience and mine differ greatly.

I personally pick up every downed person I can within reason, am picked up when downed by players, and witness others being rezzed too. Even dead players are being rezzed frequently in combat and always outside of it.

Kreejaffa.3682:

That is actually a matter of opinion. My guildmates and I are having a blast exploring, finding all the nooks and crevices they have hidden, and leveling up our masteries doing the event chains. The commentary on a lot of them is well done and amusing.

I’m with this guy. 2 days in and I’ve not had this much fun in GW2 since it launched.

Oh yeah, it’s just Hero Challenges now. My bad.

Grind XP and do Hero Challenges.

Edit for accuracy

Soryuju.8164:

What game mode are you playing? If you’re talking about PvE, then I can see how you wouldn’t get much mileage out of Staff 5 in general situations, but it’s an extremely powerful area-denial tool in PvP and WvW.

Just to say I’ve found a surprising amount of uses for LoW in PvE (particularly in Dungeons). Placing it right in front of you so that an enemy keeps trying to close range but is still within your melee range isn’t too far off of 5s invulnerability for the party.

Sidenti.6035:

I am sick and tired of people making avoidable mistakes

Your posts here are avoidable mistakes.

In Edge of the Mists, killing a Charr ele in a random 1v1, we end up on one of the long bridges. As soon as he is downed he goes straight into Mist Form and goes straight for the suicide by jumping over the side of the bridge. The moment he clears the edge, his Mist Form expires, returning him to his downed state for a brief moment.

In that split second, his character yells “Air!” as he disappears into, well, the air.

quaniesan.8497:

Interesting, I could have sworn there was a derv post addressing why the projectile speed being painfully slow, in which he justifies by saying the AA got the highest DPS in the game (higher attack speed?), albeit he did not give any statistic to back that claim. Not that I agree.

I remember that post too. He may have specified ranged dps.

GW1 was Rock, Paper Scissors approach to build design and deserves to be left behind.

Is that a stowed focus or are you just happy to see me?

Tobias Steele.2071:

Terrible idea for trash mobs. May be some merit in using them on champs/legendary bosses.

Agreed – nothing else to add

Manasa Devi.7958:

pompous way to express dissatisfaction while impotently accepting the situation anyway.

Sums up your complaints about posters wordings too.

On topic: The timescales for balance updates (such as for Conditions in particular) have been excessive and disappointing. Some are defending ANet due to the recent wave of balance updates (which are very welcome, generally) but let’s not forget that the expansion is just around the corner and every profession has been under the microscope. I believe ANet have been more pro-active on the balance front lately mainly because of Elite Specs and the expansion (and maybe the free to play launch) and not ANet taking a firmer grip on the reins.

If ANet can keep it up I’ll be surprised but grateful. The OP is saying things that have been said many times before and I agree with the sentiment. My expectations are that post HoT we will see extensive patching across the board, including balance updates, but that in 6 months time it tails off again, eventually diminishing in frequency to 6-month cycles with glaring issues remaining unresolved for years – eg. what we’ve observed from GW2 launch to now.

I realise the OP is buying now but it might be worth holding some cash back for ~6 months time when nvidia’s new Pascal GPUs launch.

If nvidia are to be believed they’ll be worth waiting for and might age existing GPUs faster than current trends. Should you do that, I’d recommend getting something like a GTX 970 for the interrim, or even a 960 so you have more cash available for upgrading later if that’s a concern.

Agreed; it’s why I’ve said “attempting to deliver” as I am somewhat (though not completely!) sceptical that ANet will pull it off, at least to the extent that they apparently envision.

It’s worth mentioning that I don’t expect (nor hope) that the letter of this suggestion be taken for literal implementation. That it would be a compelling thought experiment that might turn out to have application, or (more likely) have component pieces that could be repurposed for another project towards a similiar end, is about the extent of it.

VaLee.5102:

There will be no trinity, being it soft or hard, or any kind of specialised roles in a group as long as the content is not asking for it.

Which has now been confirmed as something ANet are attempting to deliver (in HoT).

VaLee.5102:

Why should I do an encounter in 2mins when I can finish it in 1min?
Why should I bring a healing/support character when we can manage without one?

Exactly; assuming my solution could be implemented, you wouldn’t need to make that choice. You’d have the DPS of a zerker (from equipment) with the bonus of an extra optional soft role via equipment (and your build). You can focus on being damage orientated and just pick up damaging traits/utilities/weapon skills. Essentially it means if you did decide to dish out lots of heals you wouldn’t utterly kitten your damage, however you would reduce it a bit. HoT has promised us a need for healing, and other roles, at least in some portions of its content: this proposal means that those roles could be filled without giving up all (or in many cases any) damage.

Of course, the existing GW2 base game doesn’t require this in any shape or form, however a rebalance across the board (with some fine tuning) by increasing the damage of all mobs and reducing their idle time between attacks (at least for those with excessive idle intervals of 3+ seconds) might be capable of delivering this on its own.

Coulter.2315:

I’m not sure your change will actually help the situation unless you add Condi Duration, Boon Duration (these both can be made Condi/Boon Specific), possibly Energy Regen, Profession Mechanic Regen (these are just examples fromt he top of my head) as gear stats. New stats will be required to add back depth.

I thought of that (under the Pros section):

dace

Allows more new attribute qualities again. (eg. Boon duration, Condition duration, etc.)

The idea of a zerk baseline affords a return of old attributes and brand new ones (control duration? and for the new roles, something like Taunt duration?) allows for a soft inclusion of classic trinity instead of a full-on profession defining mechanism, which actually on the surface of it seems to be aligned with ANets intentions.

Coulter.2315:

I assume you’d have to remove every stat combination that included Power, Prec or Fero too?

Eg. Would you be able to select Assassin’s, Sinister, Cavalier, Soldier’s, Celestial etc gear

dace

Remove Power, Precision and Ferocity from every stat combination on these items.

You are right on the quality of the (existing) content. Dodging has always been the crutch upon which every zerker leans. Which is why I haven’t posted this before. From what I’ve seen of HoT (Druid, Revenant ((Ventari)), the first zone of HoT, Raids having a need for roles) ANet are taking content steps to address the balance. I’m not sure it’ll be enough which is why I think, on the back of the xpac, the game is in a good position for a fundamental revision of one of its core aspects.

One way to keep this relevant in older (existing) content is the increased damage from mobs and probably a reduced delay in their attack sequences (at least for those who only attack once every 3 seconds).

This problem keeps coming back. In the Druid reveal, an ArenaNet dev described the abundancy of the Berserker game to be “not super healthy for the game”. Coupled with Druid’s focus on healing the Berserker argument returns.

The Zerker Question

• “When one stat combo is undeniably the fastest, most efficient means to complete your content goals, why choose anything else?”

The debate generally revolves around a core problem: TTK (time to kill). Everything else (control, support, healing, ((de))buffing, etc.) becomes a secondary concern to a zerk build. Most zerker builds will accomodate the minimum necessary support skills & traits into their build to help them and their group nuke down whatever it is they’re nuking as fast and as efficiently as possible. This is a proven strategy with a high success yield. Personally, I’ve tried a lot of stat combos and role attempts, and always come back to the efficiency of the zerk model.

The Proposal

Normalise Berserker attributes across all equipment by making it baseline. Make the Berserker stat combination baseline on Weapons, Armour, Backpieces and Jewellery. Remove Power, Precision and Ferocity from every stat combination on these items.

This means speccing into full power/precision/ferocity is still a matter of traits (and food & nourishment) but allows for wider access to the subroles found within traits and skills, increasing diversity. Essentially I’m advocating the logical conclusion of ANets unholy trinity. Everyone is DPS and something else.

It might make more sense to make this a purely PvE change as I’m not sure it would have a positive impact on WvW or PvP. Anyone with a lot of experience in those game modes can correct me there.

The Pros

• Anyone who wishes to focus on their damage can still achieve strong results via selecting +damage/crit/etc. traits and damaging/damage-buffing utilities and, of course, weapon.

• Other roles now compliment the central DPS pillar of the profession, rather than sacrificing it.

• The many zerk players won’t be left out in the cold when “challenging” content looks to push players further into role niches.

• Allows more new attribute qualities again. (eg. Boon duration, Condition duration, etc.)

The Cons

• I would guess ANet would want to rebalance some traits/skills in lieu of these changes and that is probably the biggest obstacle to this change.

• Mobs across the board should have their damage increased.

• Power creep. (pun unintended)

• Everyone going ZerkSoldier would just continue the problem under another name and I’m not sure how to address that. Suggestions welcome.

• Rebalancing of the leftover stats on some stat combinations, others need to be merged/deleted. Allowing players to choose their new stat combinations on their items might seem problematic to ANet and confusing to newer players.

tl;dr Making everyone a zerker plus whatever stat combo completely nullifies the zerk debate and allows us more freedom in diversifying our builds.

Bryzy.2719:

I’m hoping for something similar, like the “aspect of the pet” proposal that Allie Murdock was leading the CDI for ages ago. Basically a concept surrounding you stowing your pet and you receiving a passive buff/boon while that pet is stowed. Just not sure how well it will work seeing as that on its own would suck, and the fact that Anet will almost certainly not be granting us perma-stow.

A trait I’ve wanted for a long time and that to my mind is simple to balance and implement and that gets around perma stowing is a unique buff for when your pet is slain.

Bryzy.2719:

What am I doing with my life?

Doing all that you can to distract yourself from the emptiness of existence and the abyss of an entropic eternity consuming the works and hopes of any living being that has ever, or will ever exist?

I’m kind of hoping Ranger gets a kind of pet-meld mechanic, removing the pet but buffing the ranger… as unlikely as that is.

HAZAK.3706:

Ty.

I hope DH wont be too present in the meta, I’d hate to play my guardian as a hunter.

Currently, DH looks like it won’t be anywhere near the meta for anything, anyway.

10 minutes into my first event, I was bored. Running around trying to tag stuff during it’s half-second life, endlessly. Terrible. Even if the token rewards were any good (already got them all, so nope) I just could not bring myself to do this again, let alone the tens/hundreds more times that I might need to.

I hadn’t heard it until last night.

It.
Is.
Hilarious!

Really puts the wind in woodwind.

I thought you needed to have started the event to get Grawnk in the instance during Wintersday. Then you could finish it after Wintersday elapsed. If you didn’t start it during Wintersday, there’s no Grawnk, and no way to start it.

Misguided.5139:

They have given no indication I am aware of that they are dissatisfied with the current situation.

Right after the patch there was a Dev post stating conditions seem too strong. Since bleeding was actually nerfed, and not looking at zerg DoT stacks, burning is the likely culprit.

edit: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Things-we-know/first