Guild Wars 2

That’s because you are playing content designed for instances without proper tools to find/manage those instances.

We can twist it as much as we like, the PvE content of HoT is just not well-designed because they are awful for replayability. Sure, they are all big meta event maps with “lots of things to do”… but let’s take a closer look.
Dragon’s Stand requires you to spend a lot of time in there smashing buttons continuously so as to not lose participation.
Tangled Depths is a nice map, but if you go in a few minutes before the Gerent, you can still get more than enough participation just by doing the Gerent events so you don’t actually have any incentive to do the events leading up to it.
Auric Basin. Really great-looking altogether but again, go in a few minutes before the vines pop up, get some participation going, do the vine event and grab the chests.
Verdant Brink has this awesome day-night cycle, lots of verticality, tons of events but… all you want to go there is to go “Gordon Freeman” on the airship cargos.

These maps may be a farmer’s paradise, but 4 maps get boring really fast especially without anything else to do.
Alas the OP is also right about the fact that everything is still a work in progress, a lot of things are still not accessible.
It’s really not about whether anyone is getting their money’s worth, it’s about customer satisfaction and Anet is doing an abysmal job at that.

Ben K.7329:

Depends on how often you’re looking to break it, I suppose. Scrapper should be able to keep the stun rate high. Chronomancer probably has the fastest CC burst because it can dual-cast Signet of Humility + Domination + other stuns for a combined 30-40s worth of hard CC, but they’re on 90-180 second cooldowns.

Well, at least you tried to explain. Not like people will listen though

It’s weird but now we have raids (and dungeons are dead) because of people crying about how PvE is all about the highest dps, gear other than full zerker (highest dps stats) not viable and that everything dies so quickly.

Now if raids were the solution to that problem (whether it was a problem or not) then why is this answer still highest dps gear/builds? And why is this ok now and why was this not ok when it was about dungeons?

In dungeons it was all the evil elitists forcing you to play their way to have a fast dungeon run, in raids it’s the game itself forcing you.

I’m not saying it’s good or bad and i don’t really care either way but that’s ironic.

Jahroots.6791:

kolompi.1287:

And you don’t see the problem with that? The point is (whether in a pug or any other group) to beat the encounter. There should be no safety nets.

Nope. I play for (1) loot and (2) camaraderie. To be perfectly honest, the wisp run is about as much excitement as I need from that entire instance.

You can get better loot and camaraderie in a chest farming session in SW.

Eurantien.4632:

Without these pets druid would never kill anything unfortunately.

That is exactly the problem. You shouldn’t be able to kill anything while being as tanky as a druid.

Malediktus.9250:

fishball.7204:

Not this again. Please.

Timers are there so you can’t run 10 nomads hammer guardians and tank your way through every fight.

This. Timers are a must have or people could find a way cheese the bosses or to solo this 10 man content.

Maybe, just maybe, read the OP before posting a reply.

Valkyriez.6578:

I wouldn’t listen to the PvP forums as a dev either. Players rarely if ever agree on good balance and 99% of the threads and replies is garbage “balance sucks” and that’s about it. There’s nothing constructive in there at all.

That might be because Anet cannot balance the game.

Silverkey.2078:

There are a lot of negativity in the mesmer community…

OP left before the specialization patch. I did not play much by then, but my understanding of it is:

• bad DPS in PvE, and useful mostly for reflects (if needed)
• bad spot in PvP (eaten by thieves)
• good condi roaming in WvW, bad in big fights

Then we got specialization patch (23 june) which mostly improved on PvP making us strong, then nerfed to “viable”.

Then we got chronomancer.

• Chronomancer is a strong buff to any PvE party thanks to alacrity and quickness. Actually one chrono was pretty much mandatory because of the huge support it brought despite its own low DPS.
• Chronomancer was an upgrade on power shatter, but everyone else got more upgraded than this build, so the build died. On the other hand, chronobunker appeared, and it was too strong. So strong that all teams ran 2 (and 2 condi/power revenants, 1 scrapper or druid).
• Chronomancer made the class viable even in WvW group fights, again thanks to alacrity/quickness, AOE well damage, resistance, etc…. Note that WvW as a game mode is not in its best state currently (but a-net is working on it).

but because chronomancer was (objectively) too strong in all game modes, it was nerfed. And because a-net is not always the most subtle with nerfs, we got nerfed more than needed. So we are still good in PvE, but the situation is difficult in PvP. Power shatter is still a suicide mission, chronobunker still somewhat works, condi got very slightly buffed, but still not really amazing in PvP.

So let me get this straight. Chronomancer was too strong objectively in all game modes? It was too strong in PvP, that’s it. It was only strong with one single gimmick bunker build for PvP which no mesmer ever asked for but made perfect sense seeing how Anet gave us the wells as new skills.

And then people who have no clue how dps rotations and mechanics work (like Karl for example) come and say how it must be nerfed.

I wish people who balance this game and comment on class balance would actually be playing it or just stay put.

Buff? Why would you want a buff? We have just been balanced to not be OP.

Gnashblade uses it for his DNA splicing and cloning research. Otherwise he would not be able to be in 2-3 spots in the same city.

You want to make your level 40 farming more efficient eh?

Carighan.6758:

I think one problem with Mesmer balance is how a lot of our very basic systems don’t work well. They work ok-ish, but they’re nothing long-term-usable, and hence balancing them is a nightmare.

Examples:

• Shatter as a class-bar-mechanic.
• Clones vs Phantasms in general.
• Phantasms as attack-types in particular.
• Clones as bomber pets (compare Animist in DAoC who was built around this concept instead of the whole thing feeling bolted on later).
• “Messing with time” as a general concept for Chronomancer.

There’s just – IMO – some very basic reworks necessary. Sure, lots of classes could use them but even ignoring my personal bias, I would start with Mesmer (second would be Warrior, actually ). What could be done:

1. Take a good, hard, long look at the Shatter bar. As a conceptual idea it makes no sense. It’s not even context-free, plus we don’t all want to use it. It’s not integral to being a mesmer. So either replace it (what I’d do), or retool the entire class top to bottom to be a ‘proper’ pet bomber, even in specs focusing little on shatter.
2. Retool Chronomancer to gave one really really strong element (either Continuum Shift or Alacrity), buff the hell out of that, then bolt a downside to it which makes this manageable. Embrace the theoretical power of “can mess with time” in fantasy settings.
3. Rethink Phantasms entirely. If Shatter is replaced as a class mechanic, this is a given anyhow. My favorite solution moves clone generation onto the F1-F4 bars, current clone skills become shatter skills destroying 1 clone for some effect, current phantasm skills temporarily empower 1 clone to deal actual damage. Effective the two are very similar however Phantasm skills don’t destroy the clone, Shatter skills do.

Then from there, build strong concepts for the trait lines so that each of them has a very defined idea behind it. Re-tool weapons to focus them on one concept of combat each, then sort skills a-new and re-do the actual traits.

Yes, that’s a full rework. But I really can’t see Mesmer work out without that. The concept is just all over the place, at a very basic level.

I really hope none of this ever happens. Sure, Anet has no clue what they want this class to be but most of the above sounds like a terrible idea.

We could add them as craftable scribe recipes.

One kitten would require 5 clumps of fur, a glass of buttermilk and some candy corn.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

If you had googled it, you would have found there have been numerous threads already on this.

Here is what ANet has said.

Source (page 18).

Curtis Johnson
(Snip) …there are some fundamental incompatible things between weight classes. (part of how we set up every armor to allow many dye channels and styles per piece).. There really is no way at this point over six years since we started development to make absolutely everything work together.(Snip)

That sounds like “we know it should be possible but we simply don’t want to do it because we designed it too restrictive in the first place”.

Malediktus.9250:

I hope you dont nerf the value of resonating slivers. It would reduce the incentive to do guild missions if I could just buy them for cheap.

Also will there be a compensation for people who got Scribe 400 before the rework? Like “Master Scribe” title or something similar?

No. You’ve decided to level scribing. Why would there be any compensation?

Jahroots.6791:

savacli.8172:

I’m sorry, but if you’re having problems with downing/dying players at scale 21 you clearly aren’t ready for anything beyond that or aren’t bringing the right team/gear.

I’m pugging, and this is the point of my post – We play it safe because we don’t know the build or ability of the rest of the party.

‘Everyone hop on this thing!’ is essentially foolproof.

And you don’t see the problem with that? The point is (whether in a pug or any other group) to beat the encounter. There should be no safety nets. Otherwise they could just add an NPC to the fractals lobby that gives you a “Bag of Mossman’s Loot” for every Mossman level once per day. Asking for confirmation of course… You can buy this only once per day per account, are you sure you want to buy it now? REALLY SURE?

Sure, but to balance it, they’ll change alacrity to a boon and give it to scrapper and revenant.

ProtoGunner.4953:

We do him normally on lvl77, but really, it just takes too long. It’s not hard, just tedious. I understand if players are looking for a convenient way to kill him. Lower his HP and introduce some new interesting mechanics.

It does not take any longer if your party does not run around like headless chicken.

Yes. Many people have left since the release of HoT.
It was only natural that not everyone was going to be satisfied with the expansion.
There were some questionable major changes in every game mode that would drive off people (desert borderlands or hours-long meta event chains for example). And mindless grinding for xp, map currencies for skins, collections is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Additionally there are those who left – or almost left – because of all the patches that came since HoT.

Granted, for now you don’t notice this because there has been a healthy influx of new players and thanks to the megaservers, the maps always feel full.

Apparently to prevent intolerable performance drops when too many decorations are placed too close together.

Performance drops in a guild hall where it does not matter are intolerable but it’s ok that many are playing a slideshow in WvW or at world events.

Thanks. I’ve been thinking of giving it a try but with my archaic internet connection i wanted to have some opinions.

Carighan.6758:

Pepsi.8907:

So because others have it worse, it should make what we got alright and we should lower our expectations of the game?
What a kitten logic

No, that’s not what I said at all.

But you demonstrate the problem really well, if unwittingly. People have issues distinguishing more than a binary state of content. Either you’re happy, or WTFANET"§$“§$XC”!X. There’s no in-between.

Yet actually, there’s a lot of granularity to issues in games, or even a lack of issues. If all we do is always yell at the top of our lungs – which we (as in, “we” the players) do – then ANet won’t actually know when something they did is worse than something else, as there’s no way to tell this apart.
Plus, as with most things, they get used to the effect. “Ignore the forums, people will cry anyhow” is a common thing said about games and especially about MMOs, after all.

So yes, changes are bad. But they’re not bad enough to warrant the overdramatization of “gg, delete mesmer” or “mesmer RIP 2016” and so on. That’s pretty pointless, and only serves to … actually, doesn’t really do anything.

Or maybe people are just tired of seeing Anet being clueless about everything related to this profession? Or just being clueless in general.

Btw overdramatization: Anet should start making baby bottles instead, maybe they could balance that.

shejesa.3712:

Mitch.4781:

Why is this a thing? Patch this crap pls.. It’s just annoying and totally unecessary. More peopel die trying to jump up on the pole than by simply fighting him normally. Honestly, it really is an easy fight.

You must be new here…
Mossman was stacked on rock, then tree, then this funny net thingie close to his hut, then water, we moved to the rock, then we were stacking him underwater, but outside skelk’s aggro… then we had pole dancing and again, tree. And did I mention stacking on another pole somewhere in between?

I think we should start taking gambits, when anet will just give up. Or make this fight like AC1 tutorial, big while flat place. No corners, no walls… That would be ok. Unless someone would find invisible wall XD

The question is why “we” are stacking in these weird spots for a fight that is quick and easy when done properly so no need for such gimmicks. And all the reasons above – boring, annoying, too much hp, too much damage, etc. – are not real reasons for the safespotting.

The point was not to fix this one exploit with the roof/pole, but to make it impossible to safespot the guy. Would be nice if a random intern at Anet would find all these spots and remove them.

Vayne.8563:

OP, this type of response is EXACTLY the reason why Anet is reluctant to share stuff with us. Instead of saying you don’t feel that you go enough you have to use words like misled as if it was something done deliberately to you.

All this type of post is going to accomplish is for Anet to tell us less in the future. It’s not helpful or constructive.

It’s better if they don’t tell us anything. They have been inconsistent, they’ve put flat out lies in official patch notes. So don’t believe a single word they say or write, anywhere, ever.

This nerf that you are talking about is pretty much an alibi nerf. Anet can say they did something to balance revenant but at the same time they did not hit the class that is supposed to sell HoT that much that it would hurt.

penelopehannibal.8947:

/em facepalms at Coconuarmy.

You see, they didn’t give us animations, because there are only so many they can give us. Some people want /guitar, some people want /flex and so on. If they pandered to everyone, they wouldn’t have as much time creating new content!

But instead, they let us have custom emotes. Ideal for Roleplayers and great at expressing almost anything out-of-character too!

Except, we are not doing those custom emotes. As it is the game is in dire need of more actual emotes. It’s a small thing but it can mean a lot.

Pride.1734:

All the overdramatisation.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Winter-s-Presence-and-the-Community/5861076

We all seem to be prone to it if we are passionate about something.

Are you not entertained?!?

Taxidriver.2043:

I called my firework effect, this is what it looks like when u stack 4 effects together, Winters Presence + Bee + Chak egg sac + ghostly infusion

You look like a graphical glitch.

DeWolfe.2174:

StinVec.3621:

RoseofGilead.8907:

DeWolfe.2174:

I have zero concern about this. In fact, I think they made the right call having it “Staffs”. What irritates the bleep out of me is the pronunciation of Wyvern. Who the bleep screwed that up??

I never listened to the npcs in-game saying it. How do they pronounce it?

Pretty sure they say “Whiv-urn” instead of “Why-vern”.

Almost like someone with a speech impediment (like Barry Kripke on Big Bang) saying “river”…with an ‘n’ on the end (wivver-n).

Exactly this, they pronounce it wiv-vern. I’ve never heard anyone pronounce it that way in my entire life. It’s always been Why-vern. Heck, you can click the lil speaker icon on any dictionary website and it’s Why-vern. Google “Wyvern pronunciation” and the top ones all say “why-vern”.

Right when they announced HoT and Colin said “wiv-vern”, players corrected him on here and Reddit. They had plenty of time to fix it even. Just boils my blood it does.

:)

It’s exactly the other way around. They write staves incorrectly but pronounce wyvern correctly. There.

The World would be a fluffier place if more words would change to kitten.

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

If you want a real good laugh, take a look at the recipe for the Tyrian Globe (requires GIFT OF EXPLORATION) and then look at what you get for it. That is some hilarious trolling Anet, grats.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3u17lg/built_tyrian_globe_much_crying_involved/

Thanks but my globe looks really amazing.

You’re completely ignoring the point where the game lacks the infrastructure for joining certain instances. No, taxiing and “jumping” are not proper tools, it’s something we came up with out of necessity.

Also, while i can sympathize with your feelings about your community being gone, the reality is that most people don’t want to have to find a TS community or some other organized group, they just want to do an open world event. Even after the nerf the event can still fail actually, since some lanes have mechanics that people who haven’t been there before simply fail to follow.

The Gerent was not balanced properly for an open world event. Triple trouble is also guilty of this.

Bottom line is, we need better map instancing tools then these events can be more difficult. Until then these events should be balanced to be possible with whoever is on the map.

Ryn.6459:

Dont join 56-67-77 groups. Or do your own LFG.

These groups are not playing the game/fractals. They just want the reward. At least this is why I do it (used to be mad with uw mossman long ago). Nowadays I just log in, do 56-67-77, log out and then I play witcher 3. Fractals are not fun anymore, so I dont bother anymore.

Thanks, it was our group, 3 guildies + 2 pugs.

I’m still wondering how Anet imagined chronomancer. They gave the class a shield and a bunch of wells that are by design static.

Did really nobody see that this would result in strong buffs for on-point fights in PvP?
If Anet saw its potential and went through with it anyway, it must have been okay for them that chronomancers went bunker.
If they didn’t realize something like this would happen, then let me ask why they didn’t?
And if we’ll get our wells and alacrity nerfed, can we like… just replace all the stupid wells with some other kind of skills that are useful? GW1 mesmers had stances for example.

Bottom line is: Chronomancer made sense and worked fine and now you are changing parts of it and it won’t work as a whole anymore.

Riz.8925:

Lol. You guys are such cry-babies. According to your logic, its okay that you guys can live through 3v1 indefinitely. And now that you are slightly being nerfed you cry hard…bahahahahaha. Come. Be a thief and see what its like to have every class counter you lol.

Riz, most of the people here have been playing mesmer since 2012 and they know very well what it’s like to be countered.

Of course the system is terrible. It was crystal clear this would be bad from the moment they released their ideas for the “new and improved” fractals.

If people enjoy sitting on Mossman’s pole they can do it but if i ask them nicely to not do it and they do it anyway… i’ll sit by the fire during the fight.

The limits have to be removed or increased. The global for the entire hall as well as the “so many in one area”.

When talking about break bars and imbalance, you should also consider slick shoes.

Axialbloom.8109:

Galandil.9641:

Archon.6480:

I don’t know, but I can hear Gravity Well pounding away in my sleep. Bang, bang, bang… over and over again. Face two mesmers on point and it is: bang, bang, bang… bang, bang, bang… bang, bang, bang… bang bang bang… You’ll be bopping up and down for 30s like a rag doll.

The interlude after the 4 Gravity Wells is a nice Dragon’s Maw sometimes.

Pull, float, pull, float, pullpullpull.

Is this Pinball Wars 2?

Painfully accurate. The CC in GW2 is absolutely bonkers.

Funny because people with 2 or more braincells found out that they should not just stand in the wells. As for the reset of the elite, woo hoo, elite… If it’s gravity well, you have pulsing stability, if it’s moa, random dodge, blind, etc. it. Time warp? Hah.

You do understand that it’s not just some random inventory slot? It’s the functionality you pay for. Just like the different permanent harvesting tools are for function and show, but are in fact overpriced.

Is it expensive? Yes sure, but make a decision and if you don’t want to get it, don’t get it. You can still play just like before, without shared inventory slots.

Oddly enough, dungeons were fun and a testament to that is that some people still do them even after Anet’s hard work of over 3 years to kill them off.

The really weird thing about this is the fact that they’ve been trying to kill them in the first place. Which game company tries to remove content or discourage people to do content? I guess this is what’s left of all the innovating.

How easily dungeons could have been expanded upon (the community gave so many pointers).

I do like the fact that you guys still argue about dungeons being fun, toxic, not challenging, braindead spam 1, etc…

Maybe Anet will see that it still has a pulse and hit it on the head once more.

Guild hall decorating is probably the most honest fun you can have in the game right now.

Dragon’s Stand is fine (if a bit too long) but there are a few major flaws.

The biggest would be the after-party pod run where you just run around opening as many pods as you can. That part must have been designed by some unmitigated genius.

The general consensus seems to be: the content is not quite enough and not quite well done (not done yet, coming at a later date, etc.) but we can glide and gliding is fun so it’s all right.

Gliding is a tool to get to places, it’s not the expansion.

If i could give just one small advice. If you “fix” a bug in relation to something, test that something before you send it live.

It may take a bit of time and you know, you would have to actually log in and play the game for a while. In the long run it has been proven to pay off to test things before releasing them.

Thank You.

But… were you on one of your alts at the time when they invited you?