Guild Wars 2

Maladon.5760:

frans.8092:

You can switch, you know, in between combat.

S/D or D/D in set 1, then D or S in set 2 which is easily exchanged with the short-bow. Para sigil in the sword, the rest gets whatever you like.

Why not just go D/D in set 1 and Shortbow in set 2? If you want to switch it up just swap mainhand dagger for the sword. It’s easier to only swap the mainhand weapon back and forth than re-equip two weapons for set 2.

Because you can’t do that while in combat and the switch from S/D to D/D is usually more natural then between shortbow and either S/D or D/D. Shortbow is a ranged AoE weapon, D/D and S/D are primarily single target melee sets and you use them in different situations.

Bottom line, Shortbow is one of the best weapons in the game. Leave it in your backpack to your detriment.

While it is good in some situations it is not in many others, which doesn’t warrant it a permanent spot.

You can switch, you know, in between combat.

S/D or D/D in set 1, then D or S in set 2 which is easily exchanged with the short-bow. Para sigil in the sword, the rest gets whatever you like.

Maybe it’s similar to the issue with dwarfs and dwarves?

randomfightfan.4091:

….
Even though enemies will continue to search for you even though you are invisible, they won’t target you so stealth resing and fleeing are still extremely viable options….

There appears to be something off with that as they do continue to hit after entering stealth and more so then they used to do. It’s not normal for sword attacks do keep on hitting after entering stealth and I am certain this happens now where it didn’t before.

Okamakiri.8746:

I’ve noticed a huge change. Once I get threat on a boss, I can’t do anything anymore to shake it off.

Abuse it. Knowing where the threat is, and who is going to be targeted is a great advantage to a team.

spacewhales.4289:

seems like when ever a i level a guy i fall behind on armor. Like my armor is for a level 25 or 20 when i am 30 or 35. Is the best way to get this stuff is just to craft it all? or buy it?
any and all input is great

Don’t bother with it too much and equip what you find and is better then your current. Nothing wrong with being 10 levels behind with gear.

You can craft if you want and have the materials, but I wouldn’t spend too much coin on it.

Winfernal.9208:

Should it be implented? Or not? Give us your opinion!

Proper communication is better. A gear-inspect can not replace a chat where you discuss what you expect and what you think you can deliver. If you can not trust someone to be upfront about this, they can not be trusted to deliver what you expect from them when the time comes. If they can live up to your expectations, you don’t need the inspect-tool.

You can not replace communication and trust by a mechanical instrument.

It has advantages, this afternoon I could solo the wasp soldier and most of the queen before assistance arrived. You can now stealth and get out of the way a bit and heal up without them resetting. Well, all the allied NPC’s around helped a bit as well. A while later I was going through some ogre camp and noticed a flock of them and their pets following me around, neatly bunched up, perfect targets for AoE.

Rolyate.6753:

It’s very much the default setup for anything difficult. Shortbow has so much utility, I’d never run without it. Pistol offhand is similar in its utility and therefore is another common option.

It’s not vital, but it is an option to overcome this change.

It’s pretty silly to equip /P and Shortbow so you can Cluster Bomb your Black Powder to create enough stealth to get away. You can not exchange weapons while in-combat so your stuck with them. And while neither of them are really bad, I wouldn’t want to be stuck with them.

The change seems to make it easier to backstab mobs, once you C&D them they’re just standing still it seems. Does make it harder to fight them in groups it seems. I also have the impression that some melee attacks now behave more like channeling skills.

How would you do that? That is two weapon sets occupied, you aren’t seriously suggesting using those two, SB and /P, in dungeons, by default?

Return skills having more range then the initial makes sense, as you’d frequently move around while combat. But, I’d rather see the return range limited to, say, 1600 or 2400. As it is now, the long return range is more of a con then a pre in many situations.

The initiative gain occurs when stealth is applied, if C&D doesn’t stealth you, you don’t get the initiative.

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

Derk.3189:

They said they won’t add any new tiers of gear, this year.

Found it.

Colin Johanson:

Our reward systems need to be exciting and include things you want to earn over time, but we don’t want to force our players on endless gear treadmills for new tiers of gear we add every six months.

You won’t see another tier between ascended and legendary in 2013, for example. Our goal will be to use our existing reward systems and build new ones that are fun and exciting that step away from the stale gear grind reward systems you see elsewhere.

I don’t see the implication that they’re adding more in the future. They just used the example that no more are coming this year and said they don’t want to force players onto endless gear treadmills. They used the time examples to indicate the difference that Guild Wars 2 has with other MMO’s of similar design.

Just ‘reward system’ says enough, Guildwars 2 no longer is a game were playing is a reward in itself.

Ursan.7846:

Yes, you could get max armor very easily, but to reach true max stats, you had to get Insignias and Runes for your armor. Some of the best Insignias/Runes were quite pricy (Superior Vigor was like what, 30 plat?). And on top of that you had your heroes, who all could be equipped with Insignias/Runes. Fully upgrading all your hero’s armor took AGES.

There was 9 (nine) HP points difference between a major and a superior vigor, that is almost 2%, or the bonus from killing a single boss. You didnt need to equip heroes, yoú had henchmen, who came fully equipped. But I don’t consider Exotics to be ‘vertical progression’, you will not have them complete at the end of the campaign but you’d be well on your way and they can be obtained by regular play, or at least the gold yo uget from that.

Gw1 had zero vertical progression in PvP. All formats.

Then you had the title tracks. As a Paragon, I had to grind to max out my Sunspear and Kurzick titles to achieve maximum effectiveness.

Not true. The PvE skills maxed out at rank 5, I think, out of 10. Rank 5 was more then obtained before completing the campaign. Kurzick and Luxon titles were harder, a lot harder. And yes, the were a from of vertical progression, even if their effect was limited to PvE.

There were also many other title tracks like Lightbringer, Ebon Vanguard, etc. that increased damage of certain skills. Those are vertical progression. Of titles, not gear.

You could equip max three of them, the number of titles available didn’t really matter, except to ensure that there were some good ones available when finishing a EotN.

GW2 and GW1 has very similar philosophies in terms of vertical progression.

Quite the opposite, you had max gear by the end of the first campaign, originally you didn’t have insignia’s and when they were introduced, insignia + armor were cheaper then the equivalent piece costed before. The original campaign(s) didn’t have PvE skills either. Well, except for Signet of Capture

You can get near-max stats relatively easily (Max level armor in GW1, Exotics in GW2) but after that, it’s a grind to get very minimal gains (4 ranks of Kurzick for one extra second on Save Yourselves, 10 fractal runs just for one Ascended ring).

No, one ascended piece is a 30 day grind, even if it’s just half an hour to an hour per day, the problem is it’s repetitive and That investment of time would have given you rank 6-8 in either Kurzick or Luxon by playing the relatively relaxed pvp formats of Jade Quarry, Fort Aspenwood or Alliance Battles. Plus a boatload of faction to unlock skills for your heroes. You could also replay early missions of the campaigns in Hard Mode for an Young Heros handbook, which was quite fun.

Now, you can still disagree on whether the game should have vertical progression or not. That is your opinion, and I respect it. Just please don’t bring up GW1 as an example of a “purely horizontal progression” game. Because it isn’t.

Prophecies had none at all, actually it took them two years before they introduced the PvE skills that could be qualified as ‘vertical progression’. It took Guildwars2 3 months.

Ursan.7846:

You seem to have missed my title track portion of the post. I was pretty much forced to run ABs/Jade Quarry to increase my effectiveness of Save Yourselves. Gear wasn’t the only way to increase your character’s effectiveness.

Weird, SY! was quite effective even at rank 4-6

Yes, but you could make them even more effective through insignias and runes. That is the definition of vertical progression. GW1 had it.

Yeh, well, blue items were more effective then whites. That is not the issue, these upgrades were available right after pre-searing.

Columba.9730:

From a practical standpoint, thieves are immune in stealth unless someone gets lucky with a random aoe.

From a practical standpoint, mob-ai does know how to hit thieves in stealth. I guess they are just smarter then you when it comes to fighting thieves.

My pleasure, I can’t get enough of looking at things I can’t afford.
I’ll give a view from the other side because the material of the, ehm, thing that carries all the knives, is rather different.

Calfskin (upper) and dark olive (lower)

From preview, I only have the coat. Calfskin (upper) and Dark Olive (lower).
Other angles or colour combinations?

It’s a buff really, you now have a target to C&D on while making your get-away. No need to equip Shadow Refuge anymore, safer too, without the house mark. The ranger might be annoyed that his pet is having a will of its own but they can always complain on the forum. The ranger forum. Or would they still come here, “Thiefs steal our pets, this has to stop” ….

mdapol.8530:

frans.8092:

mdapol.8530:

Can I just add to this suggestion, start charging us a subscription fee to pay for these server upgrades.

I payed for decent and playable performance with the original purchase. If they can’t keep up their end of the bargain they should refund.

I don’t believe that was mentioned in the user agreement you agreed to. Good luck with your lawsuit.

Lawsuit? It’s not relevant if they mention it, there’s ‘reasonable expectations’. Don’t try to be smart when you are without clue.

mdapol.8530:

Can I just add to this suggestion, start charging us a subscription fee to pay for these server upgrades.

I payed for decent and playable performance with the original purchase. If they can’t keep up their end of the bargain they should refund.

Now it’s lagging in Blazeridge steppes, not as bad looking with rubberbanding and random teleports as before but unplayable, I really need timely feedback about C&D hitting or not.

Just did Claw of Jormag op Piken Square.

Worst lag in the history of gaming. I have never, ever had such a bad experience. I suggest to upgrade the servers to prevent this from happening again. Might also help with the ‘culling’ thing.

PetricaKerempuh.7958:

let me craft it as jeweler.

This!

What use will there be for crafting if best-in-slot gear and items can not be crafted?

RageQuit.5687:

Why is that a “must”? Who is forcing their hand? I never saw a post from anet stating this is mandatory. Where is this mentality coming from.

I don’t have to log in, or buy upcoming products either.

Pure Heart.1456:

How did they create any gems in the first place?
How many gems were created in the first place?
How do you know Anet aren’t creating gems out of thin air?

They won’t, ultimately gems are bought with real money and they’re not likely to ‘print’ them as that would reduce their income. The more gold needed to pay for gems, the more likely people are to buy them with real money, or trade the gems they bought for real money for gold to buy stuff in game.

I thought the rising of prices for legendary-type items was becsue people started to do the math on what they’d actually cost them. Just like other crafting, it’s easily undervalued.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Color does not define what gender you are. Those days are way behind us. Females appreciate blue just as men appreciate pink. …

Actually, you are quite wrong about this, the pink for girls thinking is far, far more prevalent then it was when I was young.

Rovus.5428:

Hey now, pink is the manliest of colours.

It is not that long ago that this was mostly true, at least for boys, you see, pink is a type of red and red stands for aggression, which was (is?) a ‘manly trait’

Refeuh.8493:

Is it really that hard to understand that dailies are not a goal on their own, …

The problem is that the laurels tie them to a whole new tier of best-in-slot gear. Ascended gear should go, or be as obtainable as exotics. As the game is developing now there’ll be a full set of ascended gear, most likely followed by a new tier of best-in-slot gear. The overall +10-15% better stats of ascended gear is significant for the more competitive area’s of the game, like Wvw.

You log in, you play the game (dungeons, PvE, fractals, WvW, etc. whatever you like), and as you play the game, you get the daily reward (or you get close to and just need to finish with a 2mn “gather some resources” run around)

No you don’t, you don’t get anywhere close by just roaming or exploring, let alone by doing only dungeons, or Wvw.

As long as you log in regularly and play the game for at least 30-60mn, you get a reward. For free. That’s all there is to it.

Which is a grind in itself. I don’t want to log in everyday to do some job and then log off. Like a job, but worse as it’s neither as challenging nor as rewarding as a real life job.

If you see dailies as an endless list of boring chores, i.e. your only way to ascended gear and something you have to painfully go through, or even a waste of time, you’re not playing the game the way it’s been designed.

How was it designed then? Does it’s design not include Ascended gear, does it’s design not include competitive area’s? Does it’s design not include a tiered gear treadmill and does it’s design allow you to not partake in that treadmill and still be able to participate in all content? One year from now?

Omaris Mortuus Est.2738:

So a thief can still permastealth in a keep using this……. :/

No, I think it means you can’t stack stealth any more, you have to wait until your current stealth wears off. I assume the revealed debuff is applied when you hit a wall while in stealth.

Vayne.8563:

I’d love to see an MMO that’s more of an RPG, which is what Anet was aiming for…but at each turn, they’ve met with resistance from the fan base.

Certainly not the GW1 fanbase? GW1 was more the MMO that’s more of an RPG then GW2. If they’d mixed GW2 open world events and hearts with GW1’s (instanced) missions with their diverse challenges it would have been better overall.

OmniPrime.9453:

Being in my mid 30’s I remember the days of playing video games because I just enjoyed playing whatever game it was I was playing at the time. It had nothing to do with any kind of ingame rewards, stats, online “friends”, or playing a game just so I can find everything I didn’t like about it and kitten to other people about said game.

Being mid-thirties you’ll know about and appreciate the new title that’s about to be released within a week. You know, where simply finding the secrets, even finding the path to get there was all the reward wanted.

Aeolus.3615:

so……ascended gear is the equivalent of fow armor.

No, Fow armour was strictly for the looks, it did not have better stats. Ascended has better stats then exotic.

Why would you want to craft? BIS is going to be all ascended and those can’t be crafted in the regular way.

Syktek.7912:

Ascended items: Things that give you barely any bonus unless used in mass; designed to help you in FotM and other PvE areas; no boost to WvW performance as a 3-5% boost to performance in some stats is null.

It is, currently, about 8-15% per stat, depending on trinket and stat. While +10% on a part of the equipment is a lot less relative to the entire set, it is obvious from dev-posts that more (all) gear will eventually be available as Ascended, making it Best-In-Slot.

If you think 10% isn’t much consider this. In a chess game each player has 16 pieces, with pawns the least powerfull, yet any chess player would consider a match where one of the players is without their (say) king’s pawn (that is 1 in 16 pieces) as highly favourable for the party that can play with all pawns.

Arrow Storm.4618:

woah there i think you have me mistaken for someone who has troves of money for runes of divinity lol

I didn’t follow the build, but if you’re putting any Critical stuff in your build you might as well start with upgrading your armor with Ruby Orbs. They have a pretty good yield of +crit damage. Orbs in general are a good alternative to runes.

We’re now quoting all over the forum? Dan, Columba’s post is in ‘Goodbye Pistol Whip’

Well, P/V/T for power?
Power is the major attribute to pick if you want straight up damage.

Kasama.8941:

I think this was a much needed fix. More Thieves need to learn how to use movement more, instead of run and hide tactics.

We’re talking PvE mobs here, not Wvw. PvE mobs already were doing a lot better then Wvw zerglings against thieves.

But I really wouldn’t mind seeing something like that ranger trait for a permanent +50% endurance regeneration. Beats the 15% refund by a mile.

defi.4127:

… gives players more incentive to try alternatives to stealth heal and shadow refuge which were simply a must have in PvE.

Alternatives? We got protection now? I missed that, where is it?

Pentalic.5409:

It’s a good implementation without completely destroying Thief PvE.

Implementation of what? What was the reason for this? Beyond the cove the mobs resetting on stealth could be counted on one hand.
Whatever, if the thief stays on top of the queue when stealthing, this means mobs stop doing anything?

offence.4726:

It pretty much broke CnD on animals atleast in WvW .

You mean they’ll follow you and make an easy target. P/D is going to enjoy this change.

Sebrent.3625:

As to Crits, it’s not uncommon to see a Thief with 30 in Critical Strikes have 100% crit chance out of stealth (i.e. 100% crit chance on backstab) along with 20+ in Shadow Arts.

Shadow Arts don’t change it. The trait isn’t that good, one guaranteed crit? If they spec DPS they’d likely have 40-50% without buffs, so effectively the trait only has effect every other hit. Might work with low precision high crit damage gear?

Evasion alone doesn’t cut it in it’s current incarnation as a replacement, the 15% refund trait is poor compared to the 50% regenration traits of other classes and thief has little access to vigor.

Your weapons want Power, make that the primary to look for. Beyond that, mix in Vitality and Toughness for survival and/or Precision and Critical Damage to deliver pain. You could for instance use your karma for Power/Vitality/Toughness karma gear, gold for berserker trinkets and weapons.

Ruby jewels and Orbs can change otherwise defensive gear to be a bit more aggressive, the +crit damage bonus is relatively high compared to the flat stat bonuses they offer.

Capture it (fraps, camcorder) and see where I went wrong
Ask for advice, from guild, forum and the thieves themselves.
Play one and learn it’s strengths and weaknesses.
Go to bed, get some rest and sleep to fight another day.

Despina.6970:

… Perhaps you can explain me one thing: Why are there always 50% or more thieves in every spvp match?

You just have to love how people still try to use arguments based around statistical facts they made up while typing.

Despina.6970:

Why not? I thought the aim of good class design should be balance overall. So in your opinion its ok for new players to be killed in 1 sec. Lets see how long this game will survive without new players.

Do they change chess’ rules to accommodate new players? No, new players practice the rules, then they play, they loose games, learn from their mistakes and get better. If you want to help new players, be their mentor rather then give them another game.

Sorrow.6243:

Fomby.4295:

GUYS, if you complete enough of your story. Around lvl 60 I think.

You can buy any of the armors from any of the orders….

is this true?

No.

I’ve tried the trait and didn’t like that I got quickness semi-randomly. If you have enough points in Critical Strikes I suggest trying the trait to see if it works for you.

Raine.1394:

… The whispers pistol is totally cool. What thief wouldn’t want a silencer on their weapon, eh?

It’s so big. I like the idea with the silencer, but it’s big, a size shiverspeak handcannon would be nice.

Anyone want an apple?

Harriman.3675:

.. The truth is that WwW just doesn’t cut it. And chances are that one would encounter a zerg rather than a duel style one on one. …

If you put it that way it sounds like you haven’t been in Wvw at all. Try roaming, raid supply camps and dolyaks. Do your dailies in Wvw

I estimate P/D has better returns with focus on condition damage (becasue of sneak attack) but if you want to use other sets besides P/D (and SB) going power/crit looks like a good alternative. With normal levels of crit chance Sneak Attack is almost guaranteed to have at least one crit in it’s 5 shots. Choices in condition damage gear are also rather poor.

JesseBensen.4817:

…. heres the thing I feel you are missing, for a lot of people who used certain builds …

There was no reason to not customize them. Weapons were cheap to get and cheap to sell. Except for really rare and unique weapons and skins (like q8 max weapons) there was virtually no market for weapons.

But anyway, market price is governed by supply, demand and perceived value.

Customizing a weapon takes it from the market and thus reduces supply on the player market, but since it would have no effect on the supply from NPC’s, there would be no effect on market prices. Ultimately it is the NPC weapon-smiths that determine the prices of everyday max weapons.

For rare skins, not available from smiths, customizing reduces supply and thus increases price. Not customizing increase the supply and thereby reduce prices.

GW2 soulbinding reduces supply and prices will be higher then when there was no soulbinding. On the other hand, skins remain usable even when changing stats, reducing demand for rare skins and thereby reducing price.

draxynnic.3719:

…centaurs. There’s some evidence that this may change – there’s a centaur in Lion’s Arch who saw the writing on the wall with the charr-human treaty, …

There is centaur in Kessex Hill, I think in Kessex Haven, that has a conversation indicating a cease fire or something like that.

JesseBensen.4817:

Frans, did you read the entire thing? if you look just below my original post you will see I already stated that

And did you read my entire post. No, yo didn’t. What’s is the point of starting a discussion if you are not interested in the reactions? Are you just looking for confirmation?

Nobody in their right mind would not customize the weapons they actually used, 20% is just too much to let go, especially since max weapons were so easily obtained that the player market for them was non-existant.

Who in their right minds would pay more for a weapon on the player market then for one obtainable from a merchant and then wind up with an inferior weapon because they wouldn’t customize it? Would they not use it and buy an additional weapon to customize so that the might later sell the weapon again, with a loss?

There was a market for upgrades, but if you care enough about your weapon to want a +30 HP over a +29HP handle then you’d certainly want the +20% damage …