Guild Wars 2

The extra 47 armor is definitely nothing to sneeze at. I stick by my original statement of:

“…spend time selling Bolts of Damask for a few months until the hype dies down, then use your insane profits to restock your mats and make your armor set.”

Since your gear selection doesn’t impact your ability to dodge (which is the single greatest defense mechanism), there is little penalty for going all zerk. If the dodge mechanic were changed in a meaningful way, it could essentially balance out gears (in that gear selection has an impact on your survivability in addition to your DPS).

Examples (any/or)

• Lower vigor regeneration rates (so fewer dodges)
• Dodge doesn’t negate damage but instead reduces it by X% based upon toughness
• Vigor regeneration tied to a defensive stat like Vitality

This makes dodge effectiveness based upon stats which now has an impact if you stat for damage over defense.

Ascended celestial pieces are literally +1 pt to stats except the chest which is +2 to stats (no joke). The +crit dmg is unchanged from exotic to ascended.

I would spend time selling Bolts of Damask for a few months until the hype dies down, then use your insane profits to restock your mats and make your armor set.

I made the mistake of dropping 30 laurels for the wupwup recipes only to realize the pieces are not really worth it — seriously +7 to all stats with a full ascended celestial set over a full exotic celestial set.

EDIT: You can slot an infusion so you get +30 additional stat points total (to divide among vit or toughness in units of 5).

Helcor.9527:

I think there’s a very simple explanation for thieves and the frustration. If you cant see it, you don’t know if your hitting it. This will go on forever. If you see one and either die or a groups is aoe’ing and wildly swinging to hit something just think of it as comic relief. Theres no point at getting upset at a ridiculous mechanic like stealth. This will not change. Its a staple to MMOs. GUILD WARS 2 IS NO DIFFERENT THAN ANY OTHER MMO WITH THIS MECHANIC.

Actually GW2 is completely different from other MMOs. In GW2 it’s not stealth, it’s invisibility. The mechanic is very different. Other MMOs generally design it as stealth which means it’s unusable once you enter combat. You may get a long c/d “oh kitten” skill which pops you back into stealth, but that’s to run away, not continue combat.

GW2’s implementation is meant to be innovative but actually it’s just horribly annoying. Nobody should disagree that invisibility is an inherently tough mechanic to play against (similar with clones). You can be a bad thief and still gain the full advantage of stealth (similar to a bad mesmer getting the full advantage of clones).

Anyway, it’s not going to change — and since ANet has said it’s not balanced around 1v1, getting stuck in solo fights in WvW will always end poorly for some profession matchups.

Engi’s might be able to execute a stealth via combo’s. Not sure on that tho.

Stealth trap is pretty entertaining, assuming you saved 10 supply and didn’t use it to help out the team. Some thieves continue to sit in shadow refuge going “wha?!?!?” while you beat them down.

It shows how broken the thief is. They are extremely fragile and need the invisibility to be effective. I think the invisibility is a horrible mechanic in competitive play. So the discussion should really be more of “redesign the thief profession” instead of “nerf stealth”.

I don’t think we’ll see that happen… ever. It’s one of those design mistakes that cannot be fixed without huge repercussions.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

You didn’t kill a champion – you zerged a champion unless you were playing in very off hours. It kills me how people think they need a reward for pressing 1 and watching netflix.

Is that the Player’s fault or the game’s design?

Your level of insensitivity is rather high as he may have raced to the event to get into it and lost out due to the zerg (no fault of his own other than being in the wrong spot at the wrong time).

The game sends mixed messages with the inconsistency between loot threshold, XP threshold, and event threshold. Personally I cannot get credit for the Dragon Shaman’s guards in the Maw event. I tag them and tag them hard — enough to get XP and loot drops, but never enough to get the event medal.

I think you are confusing “breaking a mechanic” with “changing a mechanic”. The game mechanics are arbitrary. The current set of mechanics is the “norm” only because it’s exactly that… the current set of mechanics.

If ANet introduces a new piece of siege, or a new WvW rank ability that changes range on siege — did they just break WvW? No, they simply changed the current mechanics and possibly introduced a new meta.

You can nit-pick my arbitrary list of effects, but I mentioned more than once now that those were just sample effects (did I mention I created them in 30 seconds?).

The point is the effects create periods of new meta and new strategies to cope with that meta. I found the concept incredibly enjoyable in Path of Exile. It has the potential to get very creative and as a result generate very creative responses by the Players in WvW.

I think it’s limited only by the scope of our collective imagination.

So there’s no strategy changes if siege range is suddenly halved for 2 hours?

If strategic content has been “facerolled into oblivion” then doesn’t this idea make it better by changing the meta and forcing strat changes for a short duration?

The only thing random here is what effects will be in play for the following week (just like the servers you are matched against is random).

Maybe you should start a topic on how to improve WvW strategy since you seem to know exactly what’s wrong. Ideas are worth more than complaints.

urieldhynne.2743:

Is not a change of rules or mechanics to force an “adaptive gameplay” see your list. Is only for fun, double the range, players cannot damage, more movement speed, stealth leaving combat. Is like playing a game with cheatcodes… And some options bring a serious balance issues. Like ranges and boons function.

Ruins is an adaptive additions, for good or for bad, but is it. Like was orbs (bad idea, but is an adaptive mechanic) Something like that maybe can be implement in certain hour or day, but need to be a mechanic inside the game mechanic, not a “NEGATE a current mechanic” If you negate or avoid a current mechanic is like a “free pass to troll day, do what you want without rules”

I think you are blowing the concept out of proportion. Nowhere is it a “do what you want without rules”… and definitely not “free pass to troll day”.

Keep in mind the list was simple off-the-cuff effects that I generated in all of 30 seconds (as I mentioned in the original post). They are just brain food.

You can see how clever effects would require different strategies to succeed correct? This isn’t too much of a stretch imagination-wise.

It’s a neat idea on how to change the meta for very brief periods of time in WvW.

I find myself becoming deeply critical of GW2 and what ANet says vs. what ANet does. However I think it’s important to keep things in perspective. Everything ANet has delivered since the game’s introduction has been monetarily “free” to the Player base.

I bought the box and so far the promise of “buy once, play forever” has been completely upheld.

In short, if we get anything above what we received at launch, it’s a bonus. I know it’s difficult to watch GW2 evolve into something different than our wildest dreams… but it only costs us the time we sink into it.

@zamalek: EXACTLY — there’s little value in hiding an expansion at this point if it’s coming in 2014. Imagine the marketing boon that is an expansion announcement along with supporting media. Giant ancient dragon ftw!

They announced GW2 itself years before release (not months, not one year, not two years… many years).

And “big projects” might not be what the community thinks it is. Given the size of the LS updates, a “big project” could be a single new zone (which wouldn’t be bad at all, everyone would love it, but it’s not the equivalent of an expansion and all the hype that goes with it).

Straegen.2938:

People who say a thief or mesmer is easy mode have likely never played one in the current WvW atmosphere. The warrior and guardian are MUCH easier to play. Playing a thief is great for hitting inexperienced or wounded players. As soon as a group comes along or a decently skilled player, mistakes in those fights often lead to a quick death.

Decent mobility in previously slow classes (Traveler runes), heavy condition builds and AoE dominant group builds make playing a thief or mesmer of any sort a glassy affair that requires skill to play well.

Not really on topic — although I disagree on my Memser which is mostly easy-mode in WvW with stealth, blink, and clones. All difficult mechanics to fight against.

The problem with these stomp loop-holes (especially stealth) is it prevents the use of many downed skills. Example: A mesmer cannot pop the downed Phantasm on you if you’re in stealth because it’s impossible to get a target.

I agree with the OP however I find stealth stomping even more ridiculous. Stomping is really an attack, it should not be allowed from stealth. This applies to thieves and mesmers. In addition there’s a mesmer staff trick where you can teleport away after starting the stop and then blink back into range to finish the stomp — equally as stupid.

urieldhynne.2743:

The community is trying to make WvW competitive. And you ask for a troll hour? Is like ask for “no rules” in a official sport match of any kind, only for fun.

Ask for it in a private spvp match, where you can setup any rule in a close/private arena.

You idea about having it as an option in private PvP matches is a good one.

The idea was not to eliminate competitiveness, but instead force periods of alternate strategy. Not using siege for example, or making walls invincible, forces different game play tactics. It’s quite interesting from that perspective.

If you think about it a bit, there are some very interesting possibilities.

The constraints of “fixed times throughout the week” means these are not unexpected events. In addition, the effects can be published prior to reset for the upcoming week. This allows servers to plan for the those effects.

oZii.2864:

Tom.8029:

Yeah. I wish they gave back the +2%.

Yea I agree but all the other professions have 1% I would love it if they went back to 2% and moved it to 25 arcana.

Actually move it to one of the DPS lines as there’s already good incentive to invest in Water and Arcana. Many players wouldn’t like that because they get this trait for free as they already spec deep into aracana and water.

@Vol: I have to disagree with your statement that there’s “nothing wrong with deception”. Honestly there should be no place for that. In a way it’s gaming the system.

It also impacts the summaries on the TP UI in the game (highest demand items, etc).

This specific example of 1 million+ buy orders supports a mild form a regulation. Bounds are required in every system.

I think you should limit this discussion of body blocking as follows:

1. Blocking only works between players and hostile mobs in PvE (zones, dungeons, etc). No body collision for players in these areas. No collision with friendly/neutral mobs.

2. Block works between opposing players in PvP/WvW (including obs. sanctum which is a competitive zone). No block between allied players.

If you view body blocking with these restrictions then it becomes a more desirable feature. It can be used for strategy in both WvW, PvP, and PvE (tank blocking anyone?). Griefing is eliminated in PvE, and is not really existent in WvW because you can simply kill your foe or waypoint.

Meglobob.8620:

Almost certain:-

- Cooking and Jeweler at 500
- Edge of the Mist Map
- Account Wide WXP
- Fractal Leaderboard
- Season 2 WvW
- Large ‘balancing patch’ lots of trait/skill changes designed to mix up the meta.
- Changes to rewards, perhaps new rewards.
- A new PvP gametype other than conquest.
- PvP replacement for glory, new reward system effectively.

Wishful thinking (NOT going to happen):-
- Precusor Crafting.
- New Legendary Weapons and Armour.
- New Naval Combat mechanics in WvW.
- PvE locker.
- New class weapons.
- Trait templates.
- TP optimized.

This is the closet post to what I’m expecting. Which is why I was so surprised when many players started screaming it’s an expansion. I like your wishful thinking list as well, but agree it’s not going to happen (except maybe Precursor crafting — that’s the most probable on the “not probable” list).

Wow I didn’t realize this was going on, but it’s rather nefarious imho. I think the API makes this kind of stuff possible to a large degree (but it’s not the only reason).

Do you think the fanboys and koolaid drinkers would actually classify this as a form of manipulation in the GW2 market?

It’s been nearly a month now and I haven’t heard boo-hoo about diamond skin. I also don’t know any ele’s actually running with it at this point in WvW (although that’s the only place where I found it useful).

So what’s the verdict on this trait now that we’ve had it for a month?

Inspired by Path of Exile… at fixed times throughout the week, all of WvW would be under the effect of an “odd storm”. The storm would create one world-wide effect for a fixed duration (maybe 4 hours for example).

Some possible effects (only one effect is active for the duration of the storm):

1. Siege no longer functions
2. Skill ranges are doubled (or halved)
3. Supply is unavailable except through dolyaks
4. Walls become invincible (but not gates)
5. Players cannot do damage (only siege can be used to damage anything)
6. Siege ranges are doubled (or halved)
7. Boons don’t function
8. Base movement speed is +50% (no swiftness effects)
9. Everyone is under the effects of stealth after leaving combat for 30 seconds

Anyway the list is endless and I made the ones above in about 30 seconds (so don’t fret if they are too crazy, it’s the idea of effects in general that I’m suggesting).

Feel free to suggest your own effects in addition to discussing this idea.

She’s one of Caithe’s lovers…

It would make zerg-on-zerg collisions very interesting.

Also adds an element of strategy — like block off a downed ally or foe to allow/prevent revive.

There’s a lot of information in this topic and I get worried when I hear about “summary topics”. I’d rather ANet create summaries from this original topic so good ideas don’t get filtered out in someone else’s summary before it even reaches ANet’s hands. It’s a bit irrational on my end, but I’ve seen worse happen.

I feel bad for ANet in a way because they’re a victim of their own success. They have a history of excellence with GW1 and we fans are rabid about the franchise. So much so that we build up massive hype with anything they say. In addition, there’s so many things to do in GW2 that everyone has their own idea of what’s “great”. So when deliveries do occur it’s a let-down from super-high expectations as you can’t make everyone happy.

I’m hoping for a good GW2 year so I don’t shelve it when the next good thing comes to town.

So there’s a lot of hype flying around about the big feature patch after LS season one (reference http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-14-you-thought-that-was-it-for-guild-wars-2).

I read the article different than most people apparently as I view features as game mechanics (not content).

So what new features are you expecting in this giant March patch?

Galen Grey.4709:

Thing is keep in mind unlike other MMOs content doesnt expire in Gw2. Not just that but a lot of stuff is more fun when tackled in a group. That creates a few problems here as well. When your content doesnt expire (IE no matter what level you can still decide to go hang out in a low level zone) you have to be careful about fracturing the community. If they decide to go the paid expansion route they’ll be fracturing the community. Those who decide not to buy the expansion and players can do that easier then in other games because they’ll still have content to play and continue progressing will not be part of the player pool that can play in the expansion content.

You lost me because virtually all of the LS expired. You cannot go back and “relive” those events (as I said earlier, it’s like skipping chapters in a book if you missed it). Most MMOs have new content that never expires. You play it when you want. Granted it becomes a ghost town eventually but that’s because everyone has played it. In addition, new players can still enjoy the story that was engineered years ago.

I found the interviewer difficult because he mixes his own thoughts into the ANet comments interchangeably as if ANet said both — see how he slipped the “And the other thing, people ignore” onto the end of this paragraph:

“It’s very distracting to players,” observed Johanson. “It’s almost a muddled message, where we put these releases out and we want them to be excited about the story, to follow the story, and we also want them to be excited about the features that are coming with it. And either one or the other tends to be the thing that people cling onto.” And the other thing, people ignore.

I found this paragraph very difficult to swallow. I’ve never “clung” onto the features. Changes to game mechanics are not something that people come back and “actively” play. They simply become a part of the total experience… the “norm” that is GW2.

The reason LS is distracting to players it that it’s a big story spread out over a long duration. If you miss a step, it’s like you skipped a chapter in a book. On top of that, it’s like reading a small chapter every two weeks.

It’s true that when delivered as a single “expansion”, Players will blow through it in a matter of days. However they see the full story and experience the full story in that time frame. If you take a story that you can complete in days and spread it out over 14 months (their metric, not mine) then it’s too hard to comprehend by the end.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

juno.1840:

I’ll up it a bit more — if it was an expansion, why not just call it such? ANet went so far as to explain what’s going to happen in Q1/Q2 2014, yet they didn’t use the word “expansion”.

Probably avoiding the use of any type of ‘typical’ terminology because people make assumptions and then convince themselves that those assumptions where in fact promises. All in the hopes of avoiding the kitten storm that their player base tends to kick up (pretty regularly).

I think this whole thread is based on a huuuuge assumption ;p

I’ll up it a bit more — if it was an expansion, why not just call it such? ANet went so far as to explain what’s going to happen in Q1/Q2 2014, yet they didn’t use the word “expansion”.

Vol.7601:

tldr: expansion in summer

I’m honestly baffled at how you equated that to expansion.

“We’re going to provide that experience and have this huge feature build that has a whole lot of gameplay-changing elements, a lot of quality of life improvements, a lot of features bundled together into one big patch. And that’ll come some time not too far after Season One completes.”

I think you’re extrapolating the definition of “feature” a bit too far given what’s described. Example: Making WvW rank points account bound is a “feature”. If you combine 100 of those, it’s still not an expansion — it’s just a lot of changes to game mechanics (and probably good changes, but that’s not the point).

I read that LS wasn’t going away, just being separated from game mechanics (i.e. features).

Here’s a combination of temple armor and AC armor that I like a lot.

you could raise the level to 90 and open up a “super grand master tier” in the traits with only one trait to pick when you get there (of course it’s really not “picking” then is it). You could skip the 5pt minor when getting the 40 pts in for the super grand master trait. This opens up more build combinations (maybe).

However with the current gear grind, ANet has boxed themselves into the level 80 cap pretty solidly. I don’t see more levels ever — maybe with an expansion to combine a lot of sweets with the sour of new gear. As far as we know that’s not on the roadmap.

I’m comfortable with no new levels though as it introduces a lot of risk into a game close to coming out of its growing pains.

guanlongwucaii.3162:

staff ele is one of the highest DPS dungeon builds out there; compared to it warrior DPS is nothing.

I can’t agree or disagree as I honestly don’t know any better from a DPS comparison standpoint.

However mobs aren’t smart enough to run out of AoEs which makes the weapon even more awesome in PvE. I remember when GW1 implemented some mob smarts and ruined fire-storm for example. I wonder how GW2 would play with that type of logic.

That’s where Water 4 really shines — it’s not avoided with stability nor stun break.

Also use of a stun break is a small victory as now it’s on cooldown for the rock barrier which I just put down in front of the static field

I think the CC is one of our true strengths as a staff ele. I killed a guard “solo” yesterday by CCing him in the NPCs outside of Hill south gate (not solo as the NPCs killed lol). Granted he was a bad guardian and really wasn’t interested in fighting (but getting away instead), but those CC’s ruined travels.

I’ve also had some epic moments with a zerg-stopping static field. That was probably a bad zerg, but so many bags that fight.

Overall I’m super pleased with staff — my only desire is some single-target umph so I’m not so helpless solo with most of my damage being avoidable simply by strafing

Throughout these forums the term “efficiency” has been used to describe the margin between buy and sell orders. TP flippers live in the inefficiency of the market.

Nobody is asking for more time-efficient tools to place buy and sell orders (except maybe increasing the max quantity above 250).

The automated tools available right now ruin the TP experience imho. If I was a ardent flipper then maybe I would disagree and feel the tools are a necessity.

They do have crafted artificer items which do the same as a portal — so what you are asking for is available (if you work towards it).

In addition, it’s one of the few things that makes mesmers “in demand”. Other than veil and portal there’s not much need for a WvW zerg mesmer.

The exotic Celestial is nearly identical to the ascended exotic. All the +crit attributes are identical and the stats are only +1 pt higher except for chest which is +2 pt higher. Seriously.

I made the mistake of buying all my wupwup recipes (30 laurels) and then learning that the stats were so close it didn’t matter. I crafted all exotic celestial and called it done.

I think the wupwup weps and trinkets are a better time investment (although i’m not sure on the trinkets tbh). Keep in mind you can also make a charged quartz crystal thingy with your jewelcrafter that gives +11 to all stats and slot that in your back item (if it’s an exotic back item).

Actually I run mostly in WvW (currently rank 75). I enjoy the staff a lot, especially all the CCs we have (air 3, 5 — water 4 — earth 4, 5). Those CCs are critical.

Add to that our two water fields (that we can self-blast three times with skill and a bit of luck).

Finally the wall control with our ground-targeted AoEs… we are just epic.

In WvW I’m very weak when solo — so I never run solo. However there are times when trying to catch up to the zerg and such that I am solo. In that case I just run which is usually successful given our CC and utilities.

I think a great improvement would be to make a few skills faster (air blind 2) and raise the single target DPS a bit (earth 1). I love earth 1 for the weakness and vulnerability. However the DPS is lower than any of the other auto attacks (except maybe water 1). I find that strange as earth 1 is a single target and fire/air 1 are AoE or multi-target (respectively).

I would love a faster cast on one of the staff auto-attacks but I can’t see that happening really. It would be very cool to have Air 1 be beam that chains instantly (think of Mesmer GS auto but with arc lightning). The skill could have a longer aftercast to make up for the lack of projectile travel time.

Anyway, just dreaming as the weapon is already very good.

Leamas.5803:

Personally, I don’t think precursors should be “easy” to get, but I do wish they weren’t so heavily reliant on RNG. As one who typically has an unlucky account, I simply refuse to throw any money in to the forge. I do throw things in that I loot from chest/mobs, but it can be several week before I get 4xlevel 80 rares of anything. I’ll also sometimes craft rare staves and throw those in, but I’ll never use money, to buy rares to flush.

If you do world events (see gw2stuff.com) then you can get anywhere from 4 to 20 rares a night. Not all will be weps of course, but all tend to be in the level range to work in the forge for precursor crafting (74-80).

In addition I separate the rares into groups based upon necessity. For example, I group Greatswords and Staves into their own piles (to increase the chance of Dawn, Dusk, and The Legend). The other rares I just throw into the forge in any combination which gives me a chance at any precursor (including the aforementioned Dawn, Dusk, and The Legend).

timmyf.1490:

Sorry for confusing you, Juno. I usually try not to quote huge blocks of text because it contributes to page bloat (and sometimes because I’m on my iPad and editing the quote can be time-consuming), but I see now that it makes it really hard for people to follow the conversation. I’ll be more careful in the future.

I’m the one who should apologize as I didn’t read the previous posts diligently enough. Sorry about the hard time on your response — I agree that there should not be build gating of any kind other than skill based gating (example: can’t beat an encounter because a build didn’t bring condition removal).

I learned yesterday that Dragon’s Tooth works without line-of-site. A scepter ele was sitting at the base of a wall at Wurm gate in Bay and was successfully landing DT on an AC that was definitely out of site. Considering his position (hugging the wall), everything would have been out of site, including someone standing right near the lip.

Seems like a bug to me.

I have to say this is the most enjoyable profession/weapon combination I’ve played in GW2. It’s not perfect but it’s so much fun. The amount of versatility is amazing.

The only weaknesses I find is the lack of quick single-target damage: every skill has a slow cast time, reduced projectile speed, or lower single target DPS to compensate for the AoE damage effect.

This is a minor complaint compared with all the awesomeness the staff brings. Love it!

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

juno.1840:

timmyf.1490:

I was maybe not clear: if your build means you die a lot, that’s fine.

But you should not have access to SECRET ROOM A because you chose Rabid gear or Jewelcrafting.

Your build should affect your performance and play style, not your options.

I’m not aware of any situation in GW2 where your access is prevented based upon build decisions. Can you provide a specific example? Otherwise you are ranting about nothing.

He’s not ranting about nothing, he’s replying to some ideas about “maybe there can be side paths which open up or let people through if you have X criteria not based on combat”.

Thanks because I was horribly confused.

Vigorato.7951:

I find your example interesting Juno because in an efficient market you would expect exactly that to happen – prices to rapidly move so that the margin shrinks down close to zero. In that respect, flippers do increase market efficiency.

Great response — I went back and looked at my example from your perspective, and yes I have to agree! I still found the experience frustrating, but I can’t argue on the efficiency point.

A buy order fee would restrict what happened in my example, thereby preserving the inefficiency (or margin between buy and sell orders). I will have to scratch that off of my list of desired TP enhancements.

I’m still for time duration limits on sell orders (unless I can get an insightful counter point like Vigorato’s — something more than “prevents investments, figure the rest out on your own…”).

timmyf.1490:

I was maybe not clear: if your build means you die a lot, that’s fine.

But you should not have access to SECRET ROOM A because you chose Rabid gear or Jewelcrafting.

Your build should affect your performance and play style, not your options.

I’m not aware of any situation in GW2 where your access is prevented based upon build decisions. Can you provide a specific example? Otherwise you are ranting about nothing.

LittleLepton.8915:

juno.1840:

Legendaries should be hard to get… precursors should not.

However, it turns out that the precursor is the only part that is truly difficult. The rest of the effort is relatively easy in comparison. So with the current situation, ANet doesn’t have much flexibility in making precursors easier to obtain.

I’m just curious, what is hard to get, as a part of a legendary, if it isn’t the precursor?

Exactly what I said (you did read the 2nd paragraph right?).

Legendaries should be hard to get… precursors should not.

However, it turns out that the precursor is the only part that is truly difficult. The rest of the effort is relatively easy in comparison. So with the current situation, ANet doesn’t have much flexibility in making precursors easier to obtain.