Guild Wars 2

phys.7689:

how about you give npcs access to stun breaks and stability, as well have some of them have special behaviors/effects that they use when being CC spammed.
Then you have actual play and counterplay, without arbitrary counting of CCs, which lets be honest 99% of the time is just people totally ignoring CC and using skills based on dps, utility and avoidance.

A glimpse into the future: “CC is useless because bosses have stability and can stun break all my stuns.”

Xae Isareth.1364:

I don’t really see how the trinity can solve anything. In fact, the trinity will just remove the possible potential for any if it to be solved.

By linearising roles, it won’t be the players finding zerking to be the best way to tackle everything (although I still don’t agree with that), it would be the game itself forcing everyone down a particular route.

Support = Healing and that’s what we need. More and better healing.

Draknar.5748:

I guess when you start playing a different MMO?

Yes, but I want to do that in this game. Trinity is the answer that can save gw2.

I don’t know how anyone could ever be happy when devs buff boring build that needs to be carried.

Carighan.6758:

sPvP isn’t “proper” PvP. It’s a minority game mode which happens to be at odds – mechanically – with much of the rest of the game. If you expect balance in smallscale PvP in a genre inherently unsuited to it (meaning RPGs), then don’t expect anything but disappointment.

It can still be a very fun time filler, and easily be the main attraction, but expecting balance is the part where I have to raise an eyebrow. You’re basically expecting the impossible. You cannot have combat balance in RPGs if the number of combatants per side is smaller than the total number of effective classes (effective classes, not classes).

It is proper in the eyes of devs. Besides, gw1 gvg, fa, jq was 8v8 with 10 classes after 2 “expansions”, ha was 6v6 for some time and ta, ra, ab, codex and kinda hb were all 4v4.
The balance will never be met but do I still expect the impossible if I expect devs to balance by observing pvp instead of wvw?

How many balance changes were done because of wvw and how many because of pvp? I’m pretty sure the vast majority of changes were because of pvp?

Belenwyn.8674:

The goal should be that none of the builds will be the fastest way in the majority of the dungeons or other events.

Care to elaborate on that? Why would I ever wanted to play risky if I can wear cleric’s gear and facetank every boss with dodge key disabled watching TV at the same time. Isn’t that comparable to botting?

Who would ever wear more risky gear set if the reward is the same?

Take those builds to proper pvp and tell us again how op they were.

When chill affects weapon swap of eles it’s okay but when it could affect initiative it’s a big nerf.

Fighting against a thief as an ele is pretty one sided match. He can chill you for 10s every 28 seconds and make your weapon swap cooldown increased but your chill is somehow too strong to affect his weapon skills cooldowns.

Let’s not even start how immobilize is basically useless against thieves cause of their numerous weapon skill evades and teleports.

Eles have so many condition removals and that’s why they’re being commonly used in this condition&cc spam meta, right?

Astralporing.1957:

Perhaps because zerkers aren’t that much of a problem in WvW. They have their uses in skirmishing, but are way less useful in group fights than PVT and other survival/sustain sets.

I’ve also added a remark about possible future progression that applies to wvw as well. Ferocity might not have been made up for wvw but it applies there as much as in pve.

RemiRome.8495:

and remember kids. you are not allowed to move at lupi because bubble!

If only that was true.

Riss.1536:

You are the one who are overrating the power of CC. If you’re think that’s useful to waste dps by removing stacks of whatever and do one little interrupt every 30 sec, then yeah I’ll have nothing more to say.

I’m pretty sure guilds like DnT and rT are overrating CCs.

Tzarakiel.7490:

How about just giving bosses a few seconds of stability after they have been hit by a control skill.

People will still moan that you cannot lock bosses down cause cc should be powerful, like in pvp where it’s prevalent and everyone complains about cc spam. If pvp-ers have it, let pve-ers have it as well.

Why everyone complains? The feature pack will bring ele healers into viable territory and we already have decent tanks. Trinity gameplay is so close I’m already getting excited just by thinking about it!

True, anet needs to “shave” arcane power a bit.

Axelwarrior.9084:

Hey, may I ask a question?

If you want to maximize damage, wouldn’t D/D be more suitable than D/F? Though Focus is better for survivability, Dagger OH has Fire Grab, Churning Earth and the same amount of Fire fields blast finishers.

Short answer: no.
Long answer: don’t use d/d unless you’re going yolo-mode.

Kyon.9735:

It’s not a nerf. It’s a fix. They’ll be nerfing FGS on wall sometime “soon” too.

They also might (conversation with Powerr) fix whirlwind attack into walls and every other skill like burning speed, burning retreat, norn elite, etc.

After fgs #3 and #4 fix this elite becomes usable strictly for skipping and ele once again has no decent elite.

Phadde.7362:

Elementalists have very good defensive utilities. They have poor basic defense (@Warr).
If you’re good enough at the Elementalist (nothing extreme or anything alike), you’ll find that you’re very, very hard to kill – even in full Zerker (I’ve always played with E.A. though)

Ele’s defensive utilities are strictly personal one (lacks team support) and if you increase your poor basic defense you’re no longer needed cause you are basically running a bad build.

Zoid.2568:

That’s not 7 seconds because the video is faster. Like 3x or 4×. So it’s more than 20 seconds. Still, this video has nothing to do with Elementalist survability, only the synergy between 5 Elementalists.

What makes you think that video is faster? And there are 3 elementalists with no synergy. That word means different thing than you think.

blakdoxa.7520:

Great. So just how much did you invest into healing power? How much damage did you have to give up in order to just sit in water element for the duration of battles?

I can already tell X/X/X/10/30 from your build.

Isn’t that the idea of the trinity? You specialise in one of the roles, here healing. Healers don’t do damage, they push red bars up.

Nikaido.3457:

If you want a game where killing trash is rewarding, uninstall. Heck, if you want a game that has any sort of fun loot mechanism where you can get drops you can actually use on your character from time to time, this isn’t it either. This game is about farming gold, buying mat, playing TP. This isn’t the game where doing dungeons will get you gear drops you can actually use, or might want to trade with the rest of the party. 99% loot is complete salvage loot. And the few things that aren’t complete salvage loot can’t be traded (fractal skins, ascended boxes, some of the fractal exotics too) and have horrible rng with almost no expectation of getting something that can be used. GW2 is one of the worst skinner box I met. It’s just not working.

Since the highest rewards from doing dungeons come from gold and token, anything that can be skipped should in fact be skipped.

Since patch 2.x even Diablo 3 has a better loot mechanism than gw2, and it was completely broken at release. That says a lot about GW2 and loot.

There is nothing that can fix the issue sort of a gigantic game wide overhaul because let’s say if they made it impossible to skip trash in any of the dungeons, people would just stop running them altogether. Or even stop playing the game for many cases. Because that would introduce a stick, while missing the carrot. This game doesn’t have a lot to look forward to, most of it is just a gold grind economy with end game 100% based on crafting.

This game is princesses’ simulator.

From another topic:

My new elementalist build will be able to pull out those numbers:

• geyser healing for about 5,500
• water blast finishers healing for about 2,500
• evasive arcana healing for about 4,300
• regen healing for almost 500/s
• soothing mist healing for about 240/s
• water blast healing for about 800/s

That’s almost 2,500 health per second without any blast finishers.

Those numbers are insane and healers finally found their niche. All because of overwhelming feedback from the community.

Ansau.7326:

From my experience, as the guild/zerg/blob gets better, the fewer solider and more berserker you see…

Also, as always, ferocity is meant only for PvE, but it also will affect WvW, and here will hurt incredibly. For roaming, forget about going with power builds. For zerguing, it’ll promote bigger blobs, as the coordinated spike from smaller guilds will have less impact.

How did you arrive at the conclusion that ferocity change is meant only for pve? Isn’t wvw a hybrid of pve/pvp? For me it means ferocity change was meant for both pve and wvw since possible future vertical progression will affect both of those modes, unlike pvp.

Nike.2631:

Which would be the goal EXACTLY.

Healers/Support gets new tools and significant buffs. Power-based damage dealers get slowed down enough that healers might actually be able to contribute.

There is a larger pattern and it’s really not that hard to deduce.

The game is entirely dominated by “Lone Wolves” who can accomplish all major goals without any Support or Control characters. Its one dimensional mono-role gameplay, and they are going to keep chipping away at it until Lone Wolves actually have to look outside themselves for help and become Pack Wolves.

Precisely. My new elementalist build will be able to pull out those numbers:

• geyser healing for about 5,500
• water blast finishers healing for about 2,500
• evasive arcana healing for about 4,300
• regen healing for almost 500/s
• soothing mist healing for about 240/s
• water blast healing for about 800/s

That’s almost 2,500 health per second without any blast finishers.

Those numbers are insane and healers finally found their niche. All because of overwhelming feedback from the community.

The fact that most of the new traits are utility-driven, even if apparently useless in current pve, pleases me. Traits should always be about utility, not +10% dmg. It severely limits the gameplay options. Plus, the ability to retrait before every boss fight is just marvelous.

Lue.6538:

My point is that it is not the game that is to be blamed for the lack of diversity but rather the players, when the only builds being accepted by the kitten s end up being berserker builds then that is all you get to see. Theres also a significant exaggeration in terms of how hard most mobs hit in these discussions..
I suppose exaggeration is alright tho as long as it further solidify the zerker builds position as the primary part of any decent blob.

Same stuff happened with gw1, either you brought proper builds or you got kicked.

Moreover, any decent blob is running soldier’s cause berserker’s are just rally bots and they can’t even tank last mobs from ls – the assault knights.

Lue.6538:

Let them kick then.
berserk gear needed a change to break up this horribly boring PvE and even tho there will still be zealous elfs who refuse to accept that other things than pure zerker works they’ll end up being a minority.

Everything works so I’m not sure what your point is.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Toughness/Condi duration/Vit

Not sure if that exists tho.

I can create cc builds and support builds that don’t heal without an armour and trinkets, just weapons!

Harper.4173:

This is not that game.

But it’s fun and should be implemented.

Ele should stay in the back and cast infuse health on his allies than heal himself back. Truly supportive character.

Support builds don’t need survivability because they stay in the back.

Zoid.2568:

Who cares if it’s 10% or 20% or 30%. As long as berserker is getting nerfed so other builds are more wanted. Like support, CC builds and tankish builds.

Which gear would you recommend for cc builds or support builds that don’t heal?

Ensign.2189:

Am I the only one that finds it funny that splashing a couple pieces of Assassin’s gear into an otherwise full Berserker loadout is being held up as ‘build diversity’?

Yes, you are, because right now full berserker’s gear is an answer.

When will I be able to properly heal my partymates? I want to select someone and cast infuse healing then heal myself back up.

Zyphent.2967:

deSade.9437:

Surprised that their precious anti-zerk crowd got a response? I am not.
Nothing will change, it’s just a matter of them feeling more special and useful.

Or, y’know, making the game more interesting and less “I could watch TV and play this at the same time”.

I don’t know about you but when I play my casual healing shouts warriors I do watch TV.

justjon.3189:

Correct but then when you add in the changes to sigils and such that do random %5 and such are being buffed to %50 this increases more of the numbers and buffs available at a given time evening out this “nerf” everyone is raging about. The issue is everyones just pulling 1 part out and yelling about balance of an entire game.

You’re right but that randomness doesn’t come from critical damage or ferocity. It comes strictly from precision (to get a critical hit) and weapon damage (ex hammer 985-1,111). If weapon damage was just a number instead of a range, the only randomness would be if crit happens or not and crits would be completely determined (stable).

None of those factors are being changed.

Is this a possibility for my spiritual searing druid build to shine? Can’t wait then!

justjon.3189:

Stable numbers… I worded it wrong. Fixed it while you were posting lol.

For me numerical stability is completely different concept that you bring up here but if by stable numbers you mean that the lowest and highest possible damage numbers you can inflict while criting will be closer to each others then you’re correct but keep in mind that it will still be the same if you take proportions or percentages instead of absolute values.

justjon.3189:

They are both percentage base chances. Precision is how often you may do it while Critical Chance is the chance for a higher number. It’s actually not as stable as people think thats why even if you watch people who play zerkers on youtube they get excited when they see a big number. Ferocity is just going to make it a more stable chance but lower it.

How will ferocity make it more a stable chance?

I googled and found no differences. Do you disagree with google?

Drakent.9605:

No what you are showing me is a well organize group who are able to keep perma protection and regen and toss some 2k healing every 3 sec , proving that zerker build or dps is not the only way to go

not the same that saying I can do this with my warrior cleric b/c that is false

So when a random berserker’s team complete a dungeon it’s called cheating but when a random cleric’s team does the same it’s called “well organization”. I guess that’s what you call different perspective.

They’re able to keep those buffs because they are spammable, there’s no coordination there, buffs stack in duration.

Inimicus.7162:

Lupi is easy mode compared to the trash in there

I tried and it doesn’t matter cause you’re immortal anyway.

Besides, you can skip trash, lupi not.

Inimicus.7162:

Good luck to ya

You can invul the spike damage, but the sustained from elite mobs can be realy harsh. And remember, TA was just one experience, to be true, you would need it to stand up to arah trash

You don’t need luck, just skill. Those 5 extremely skillful players showed it. Arah trash? How about the boss of Arah?

http://youtu.be/b2VhmwLwvrM

Sorin.4310:

Considering zerker gear is still BiS for fastest runs, I’d say no. I don’t get what someone would switch to? They are making zerker gear slightly worse, why would anyone want to switch to something even lower?

Because now I want to heal people with my elementalist considering all those new sweet traits. I can’t afford cleric’s armour.

I’m extremely experienced with running my clerics healing shout with mace/shield+hammer warrior and I can confirm how easy that is. I don’t even have to dodge! In fact, I unbound a dodge because I don’t need to role play an acrobat in heavy armour, that’s just illogical.

Drakent.9605:

Secondly I have play a zerker build as ranger,guardian,necro , and enge and is why by experience I know how easy and mind numbing the play style is and I also know its weakness which as a zerker you on a timer and if you don’t down the boss fast you in trouble which is the reason classes that aren’t build for fast dps are shun out of the group

What troubles? I’m immortal.

That would be awesome! Or destroying walls with earthshaker!

I like those changes. As a fully casual player I will now be able pay less attention when running my healer elementalist thanks to more healing efficiency. Water autoattack with staff can now heal for about 1100 hp. Lovely!

SonOfJacob.7396:

Here’s an honest question (seriously, not joking): is it possible to actually play a “holy trinity” in this game? I mean, warrior full toughness/vitality specs, elementalist full dps specs, and guardian full healing specs.

Would that not work?

You can do better than that! You can get tanks+healers+dps with one character.

http://youtu.be/b2VhmwLwvrM

So guys, after watching the stream I can concur that we, healers at heart, are getting a lot of love. Exciting!

Lishtenbird.2814:

The title is my impression from the new traits revealed during the Ready Up 8.

A lot of newer traits focus heavily on “survivability”, and with survivability being next to non-existent problem in PvE, this basically feels like “everyone go buy berseker’s and then make your build with traits”. Examples:

• mesmer’s “3 seconds of distortion upon killing an enemy, no cooldown”
• thief’s healing from attacks
• necromancer’s healing in death shroud
• ele’s anti-crit earth trait
• engi’s booned turrets and mines-on-hit
• guardian’s +3k HP trait
• warrior, on the other hand, gets more DPS buffs which combined with innate survivability lead to faster bursts

What’s your impression?

P.S. Stream notes available at dulfy.net

Wouldn’t that wonderful? You wouldn’t have to worry about meta changes or buying/crafting wrong equipment. Balance change? Just retrait which will be now even easier.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Until your messages get suppressed.

Never happened to me.

Everything okay but in pvp condition spam and cc spam are too prevalent and there are no changes to facilitate that.

maxinion.8396:

http://i.imgur.com/bxrTEvW.jpg (from dulfy)

Holy crap. They’re fixing the FGS 4 + blink— but they’re not fixing FGS 4 against the wall.

Seems like we have an official ruling on this one. Goodbye thief on speedruns.

Spinning against walls is in their backlog as well.