Guild Wars 2

IndigoSundown.5419:

Joonks.7501:

Ohoni.6057:

Agreed, there should not be a WvW rank requirement for getting a Legendary. They need to understand that some players don’t want to WvW. And for those WvW players that complain about having to do PvE stuff to earn a Legendary, I fully support you in requesting that they add WvW-only options for getting those elements too.

Getting a Legendary should require participation in all aspects of the game.

Then that would also include sPvP. I could see that if the items actually required legendary accomplishments in all aspects of the game. That they’re crafted, and that they’re available on the TP, removes the lustre, honestly.

If you look at what’s actually required to craft legendary weapons. you’re basically looking at a time sink (unless you use your credit card). Given that the game was (and maybe is) having trouble holding on to players, discouraging WvW-only or PvE-only players from one of the few endgame pursuits may not be best for the game.

Ultimately, though, it’s a gamble ANet is taking. If people get “forced” into a game mode they despise and get converted, this will extend the life of the game for those players. On the flip side, if it were possible to get a legendary without playing in different modes, that might extend the life of the game for those players. ANet is gambling that the former will outnumber the latter — but they’re relying on unreliable criteria to evaluate the gamble.

I’d be all for items that actually conveyed prestige being in the game, and requiring effort and skill to obtain. I do not, however, consider legendary weapons to be such.

I don’t actually have a horse in this race, as I will not be going for one regardless. With a couple of exceptions, they’re hideous.

spvp has a different cosmetic progression and is totally seperated from the rest of the game, this may change in the future, but as of now it wouldnt make sense, since practically nothing you do in spvp has anything to do with what goes on elsewhere and vice versa.

PVE/wvw has same rules, same progression, same costs etc

Neilos Tyrhanos.5427:

phys.7689:

not really true, pretty sure legendary costs less than every single stat combination and uses less inventory/transmutation stones. As well as assurance to be best in slot for ever. whereas ascended should be as well , but they havent guaranteed it yet

You carry around every single stat combination, all in highest tier gear?

You’re the first I’ve met to do so (or even to want to), if so.

Even the difference between Exotic and Ascended isn’t that great. Most teams don’t care.

no i dont, but thats the functionality that legendary actually has. If they eventually release legendary everything, you will be able to totally change your build on the fly.

Point is legendaries are kind of different than just one ascended item in value other than cosmetics. Now dont get me wrong, im not saying its a must have, or that for many it isnt worth pursuing, just saying it actually offers some tangible advantages at a cost thats less than the alternative for the same value

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

Ascalon is a reference to Israel’s Ascalon.

Kryta is a reference to the Krytocracy form of government which Kryta is when under the rule of the White Mantle.

Cantha’s name is a reference to the name Cathay which was once used to refer to China.

Kaineng City is a reference to both the ancient Chinese capital Kaifeng but also the Kowloon Walled City of Hong Kong.

The Jade Sea is likely a reference to the actual Jade Sea in Ethiopia. What’s more the inhabitants of Guild Wars’ Jade Sea the Luxons(who are themselves a reference to the Luxons from Farscape) resemble the Ethiopians in ethnicity despite the paper lanterns of China.

Elona is a reference to a genus of snail(what’s even more interesting is that Guild Wars was not the first to use the snail’s name as a reference but the game Elona also referenced the snail).

The Master of Whispers appears in Game of Thrones.

The point is that any media which wants to rip off of Guild Wars can do so without worrying about names or Copyright to begin with!

Which leads me ask: Are any of you making cartoons and willing to take inspiration from GW1? Ask this because I want to see a cartoon inspired by GW1.

never a good idea to try to make a work whose purpose is to be derivative. Its not only a legal thing, its generally uninspired. That said if you want to take your inspiration from history, go for it.

Curunen.8729:

Substance E.4852:

Godmoney.2048:

I’d pay 800 gems per trait slot. Take my money already just give me GEAR and SPEC templates so I can change everything with a single button push.

This is already horribly likely so please don’t suggest it to further encourage them…

Yeah, take it easy with the money there! ;D

I know we would all be very much interested in such a feature, but let’s not encourage them to milk us even further!

just to offer some perspective here, but if you think about them milking us, the other side of that coin is you milking them. After all everything they develop requires work and money, you got to remember to pay them sometime for some things. So the question is what is an acceptable monetization strategy from your prespective. Where is it ok for them to get their money, and what should be included for free

Neilos Tyrhanos.5427:

Astralporing.1957:

Not since they became the “skip vertical progression” items.

Since when were Legendaries the easier option? You can recreate every practical characteristic with an easier option.

I genuinely don’t believe anybody chooses to embark on a Legendary to skip anything. They’re purely, entirely prestige items, like FoW armour in GW1. And if anybody’s treating them otherwise, that’s the problem of those players, not the item.

not really true, pretty sure legendary costs less than every single stat combination and uses less inventory/transmutation stones. As well as assurance to be best in slot for ever. whereas ascended should be as well , but they havent guaranteed it yet

Astralporing.1957:

Twinny.9304:

*Legendary Weapons are optional

Not since they became the “skip vertical progression” items.

to be honest, i think their implementation of ascended has essentially killed any realistic possibility of gear progression of this type in the future. The time/grind is so large no one would stand for a traditional gear replacement item progression. Its like a month to get 1 stat combinations armor, since that uses up your laurels, another month to get necklace and weapons, even longer if you arent in a guild mission guild.

Future vertical progression will probably have to be charachter growth based and content based if they choose that route in the future.

they mentioned wanting to put something like this in back in beta, it has yet to materialize. I think everyone agrees its a good idea with few downsides, but its apparently on the back burner/forgotten

its only 5% if you cancel and repost your fee, its designed to stop frivolus pricing, and price wars and price manipulation

maddoctor.2738:

phys.7689:

To be honest, its my feeling that anet developer time is at a premium, and they cant develop a lot of things. Unfortunately many good ideas lack the dev time or just have trouble getting the go ahead with so many other things they have to develop on a schedule.

The thing is, some “mods” are working perfectly and don’t need any kind of Developer time, for example since I started using SweetFX, I’ve never looked back, the game looks so awesome now that many other upcoming games look horrible compared to it (unless I put SweetFX on those too), same with the targeting mod. Fully operational mods should be added to their API forum section for further development (by the community), the only time the devs need, is to confirm that the mods are doing what is advertised and not have hidden hacks or something, which shouldn’t be very hard.

In fact, if they promote these addons from their API forum, nobody can make additions to them after they become official and break them or make them unfair. I see a win-win here.

I think the solution is as you say, to try to incorporate mod community into the game more, however i think they are hesitant to do this, due to control and oversight issues. I do believe its probably the best solution.

maddoctor.2738:

There was a “mod” that allowed reticles and proper aiming in the game. You could turn the camera by moving your mouse around instead of by holding the right-mouse button. Of course the one “drawback” is that without an active mouse cursor you cannot click on your skills to activate them, but you must use shortcuts (which you should do anyway) and many people might find it uncomfortable to do so (so it needs to be a toggle)

Some of those using that “mod” (or all?) got banned so there is no point using it anymore or even looking for it. However, what puzzles me is why Anet hasn’t hired the creator to really implement it in-game… (with a toggle option of course)

If a single programmer without access to Anet’s tools could do it, Anet devs can do it, and can do it far better, it’s fast, quick and easy, they just don’t want to.

I think the devs tried something similar early in development, then changed their minds for whatever reason.

I too personally would prefer if they gave/developed this option, i generally dont tab target at all if i can avoid it, problem is some skills wont work without a target, and auto targeting sometimes does crazy things. So generally i use auto target and just adapt. But it would be nice if they did this.

To be honest, its my feeling that anet developer time is at a premium, and they cant develop a lot of things. Unfortunately many good ideas lack the dev time or just have trouble getting the go ahead with so many other things they have to develop on a schedule.

Its something i think they need to alleviate somehow. Up until now it feels like the game is having trouble growing due to resources of development process. For example, It has mentioned that anything UI related will take considerably longer to implement. If that is the case, it basically puts a great many changes like this out of reach, with this type of tech competing with basically everything else in the game for the UI queue.

Depends on what type of tools/art/experience you have. also what you expect to do with the program.

photoshop is a big one
corel painter is good

keep in mind this is if you have a tablet or tablet pc.

in all honesty, imo best thing to use is a pencil and paper, what most cgi excels at is letting you color for free, undo, and use some automated techniques how good the pics really are usually have more to do with the basic work

NornBearPig.9814:

Qaelyn.7612:

Getting destroyed in actual matchups will cause more serious WvW players/guilds to leave the weaker servers, creating further imbalances. And especially in tier 1 there’s a big issue with having only 2 extremely strong servers and no third to match against them.

The absolute death of lower tier servers might help WvW. It’s better to consolidate the WvW community into fewer servers than continue to pretend we can have 17 balanced quality matchups across 51 servers. It certainly hasn’t worked out since the game has launched. Unfortunately Anet will not merge servers unless it absolutely has to because that’s like admitting defeat in the MMO industry.

they cant merge servers because while WvW maybe underpopulated, many of the servers have decent size PVE. they could force a lot more people into one server, but then when you are in overflow all the time, people will complain.

also for many servers the problem isnt peak hours, its offpeak and semi offpeak hours, merging servers would just make these periods have less people able to play, because they all generally play at the same time. 6 people at 6 am, and 3 people at 6 am probably wont make much of a difference.

The truth is, the WvW situation doesnt have any easy answers. I its going to be a few different things that make WvW work.

I dont think having less skills is creating a more balanced game. In fact some of the balance issues probably could be resolved by having more skills/swappable weapon skills. There are many times where they have to have 1 skill do too much, just so the weapon set can actually function in multiple situations/builds.

Hopefully they add some skills soon

pretty sure they made AI stupid on purpose, you see better AI from some specific monsters, and more generally active combat from the npcs in heart of the mists.
I even remember in BWE they nerfed the monsters because people were complaining.

The truth is many people dont want their enemies to have better routines. I would, but i dont think many would. After all people usually avoid the least exploitable fights/content

Dalris Thane.6314:

Name.9625:

Could all of you WvW players please stop requesting us to go in there AGAIN?
We have tried already and know that we don´t like it….
Just imagine how the ordinary WvWer would feel if he would be constantly asked to please go back into PvE, he could possibly enjoy it…

shakes head and walks away in disbelief

As much as I want to blame the WvW people, I don’t think it’s a WvW issue. It’s a people issue.

I’ve had a club sandwich for my restaurant meals, almost every time I’ve gone out. Yet, almost every time, I hear “Try the fish. Try the pasta. Try… Try… Try…” They know I don’t change, but it bothers them, and they won’t leave me alone. Then, once that moment is passed (and I eat my club sandwich), the evening goes back to normal.

But it happens… every… single… time…

Some people cannot stand or fathom people like me that do not want to “try something new” and they can be quite aggressive in “c’mon, try it.” even though it’s none of their business. I don’t know why. Offends them? Bothers them? They like to stir up trouble? Don’t know, ask them.

Bottom line = we will hear “Try the WvW / PvP.” until the end of time. THEY won’t get it that I’ll never play WvW / PvP. And, apparently, some (many?) others agree with me. But “they” will never accept that.

but being that you dont eat anything but club sandwiches, should you be able to get a special restaurant master tailored suit, being that you have not mastered restaurants? I mean you may like the suit, but if you only want to eat club sandwiches, you are not really a master of all restaurants.

legendary has been built as a semi long term achievement that shows you have taken part in all facets of the game, exploration, pve, pvp, and player versus money. (i think it may be too heavy on the player versus money aspect)

Terravos.4059:

its simple, you get better rewards zerging in EoTM then regular WvW, therefor that’s where the zergs have moved.

EoTM still rewards the mindless zerg fest that is GW2.

Its like most of the GW2 developers who played DAOC, played only Albion and sat at the milegate the whole time.

not really bout the rewards far as i can tell, more about new area and fairly even match ups

i think its too early to tell, however eotm may be a cog in a bigger plan.
Now they can promote/make big changes to WvW that may attract a lot more people, without worrying too much about queues.

However that said, aside from lowering the map cap, im not sure what they can do to make WvW more balanced population wise. and that would bring its own problems.

balancing a class based on 1v1 spvp glass cannon roaming meta alone is a bad idea.

JustTrogdor.7892:

I guess I didn’t know that if you equip it you can still use it to make a legendary. Now I feel like an idiot. That is how far detached I am from the whole legendary issue. Had I accidentally equipped my precursor I would have been out a lot of gold because I wouldn’t have been able to sell it. It dropped for me about 30 minutes after I leveled my first L80 and took him to a Scarlet invasion just to check it out. I suppose my luck has been used up for the next 5 years.

well you could still make it, then sell the legendary, it becomes accountbound, however, you ll use up a gift of exploration, battle, obsidian shards, skill points and dungeon tokens, the rest you can buy. You will however get paid for that stuff in gold.

The Holy Advenger.1758:

Ive been a fan of the guild wars series since beta for GW1. And with all of the recent changes i must say gw1 still stands out to be far better. The PvP system alone was worlds better, and yes a split pvp and pve system is best since theyre not the same thing nor require the same style of mechanics… That should be pretty obvious. and now theyre going to be reworking armors, runes, and sigils. This is something that shouldve happened before launch. Not after you have an account full of toons. I have 8 lvl 80s and theyll all need reworked after this. They dont have a gear progression in game per say, but they keep changing and tweaking things to accommodate. And they have yet to do anything for the real players of the game. Not the casuals, or the ones who just log on and get their ap. This is a casual game. Nothing more. if you expect challenge then look else where, they expect people who legitimately (min maxers) to be on the same skill level as someone who plays once every 2 weeks. We need harder dungeons (fractals is a joke) etc. Actually high end pve content. Not saying DoA, UW, and FoW were high end but that is a start.

GW1 has nothing to do with what you are talking about, the GW1 meta changed far more drastically, and often than our current meta, they even added new classes, with a sub job system that alone altered a great many things.

As far as UW DoA FoW, keep in mind all of these was soloable, most with prebuilt autowin hero teams by the end. People had more trouble with these dungeons, until they learned how to exploit them.

now you may have some points in general, but GW1 is a very poor example of the things you are talking about

Ashadow.6874:

This refers to each sigil having a unique CD and being able to proc at the same time without their cool-downs interfering with each other in the upcoming April? patch.

-

I have a VERY interesting point to raise.

With upcoming changes to On Crit and On Swap sigils, each having their own cool-downs. What happens to the two classes who are only allowed 1 weapon set, instead of 2 weapon sets like every other class in the game?

Warrior -> weapon swap -> 4 sigils
Guardian -> weapon swap -> 4 sigils
Thief -> weapon swap -> 4 sigils
Ranger -> weapon swap -> 4 sigils
Necromancer -> weapon swap -> 4 sigils
Mesmer -> weapon swap -> 4 sigils

Elementalist -> no weapon swap -> 2 sigils
Engineer -> no weapon swap -> 2 sigils

Does every other class get to proc 4 sigils (weapon swap) – while the Elementalist and Engineer are only allowed to proc 2 sigils (no weapon swap).

-

Is this going to be limited? Or is it fair that 6 of the 8 classes get to do significantly more damage in both WvW and PvE due to being allowed to swap weapon sets?

Have the ramifications to this even been thought out yet? Can something be done about this BEFORE it becomes a huge problem?

I’m really hoping they thought this through, or else it will be a huge problem.

-

(Imagine double swapping weapon sets to proc 4 on swap sigils, or swapping after a crit to proc 4 on crit sigils at once. The problem with this is that ELEMENTALISTS and ENGINEERS do NOT have a second weapon set to do this. Unlike all other classes in the game.)

you can only proc on swap skills every 10 seconds, you cant double swap, its not about having the weapon equipped, its about being able to swap. There are some advantages, which mostly have to do with variety, and long cool down sigils, but there are only a few of those.
the advantage that engi and ele have though, is if there are any on swap with short cool downs, they will be the 1 of 3 classes that can take advantage of it.

oh you mean out of combat on swap buffs? hmmm

Shinzan.2908:

eleshazar.6902:

Imo you guys are just super entitled. You never bother to think how much WvW players hate doing the mindless task of world exploration. And I can assure you that takes a lot longer than getting a simple r30 in WvW. If you want a legendary you are going to have to get out of your comfort zone a bit. I hated map completion with a passion, but I did it just like you are going to either have to spend your precious laurels or spend some time in WvW. Why you have come under the assumption that getting a legendary should be easy is beyond me…

The difference is that PvE is the main point of GW2 if you don’t like doing RPG stuff you probably shouldn’t be playing a MMORPG. PvP is a side dish that isn’t for ever everyone and should be optional. And my example was supposed to show that forcing people into PvP just gets you people who don’t want to be there and ruin it for those who do.

If anet wants more people in WvW they need to make WvW something more people want to play in, simple as that.

well, they never wanted it to be pve only game, and wvw is more popular than you think.

I think they should make WvW obtained legendary skins for each legendary. blue flame incinerators, purple energy predator(like the old one) etc. Of course people would complain, but wvw could have some sort of flashy items for itself

cortin.9174:

Ironvos.9014:

Maybe your server has horrible people and you don’t interact with people from a guild other than your own, but i can assure you that is not the case for the majority of the people who play wvw on a regular basis.

You are lucky to be playing in one of the few server mach ups where all 3 servers in your match can compete. But if you bother to look at the other server’s match ups, you’ll see some servers are not able to compete, and things simply can’t be too fun for those that get rolled over constantly.

Again you want to punish players based on their server choices? Or rather, punish those who do stick around on a server and not switch servers, because those are the players that get affected the most.

This whole “community” thing is fine and dandy, in an utopian world we would all hold hands, help each other, and sing kumbaya. The reality is much harsher however. Games are supposed to be fun, and when people can’t play competitively in WvW, and have to be forced to running off in a corner taking empty keeps until the blob arrives, then that’s simply not fun. Oh I interact with the server’s community alright, and I still see some guild groups trying, heck I was trying. But it’s sad to see people fall off the face of this earth day after day when they get beat back every single battle due to a larger, more organized zerg.

I saw the server I play on (DB) go from the previous match up where we fielded huge blobs daily & nightly, capable of competing in WvW….to this week’s match up where there are barely any commanders willing to tag up because the server can’t compete with Mag zerg. The whole tactic this past week has been to avoid the Mag blob, which often meant going off to cap empty keeps until the blobs arrive. I didn’t buy this game to cap empty keeps. Nor did spend time playing, gearing up, learning my characters, just to get rolled over by an obviously bigger blob.

When EOTM launched, it was the first time this past week I was able to have fun and play competitively in WvW. Size, unfortunately, does matter. Having commanders willing to lead the charge and run tactics matter a lot in this game. Having WvW guild groups capable of standing up to other server’s WvW guild groups matter.

Anyways, it’s pointless for us to argue. There’s a reason why Anet is testing this, and it’s because they see the problems with many servers and how players are simply punished for their server choices. There’s a reason why Blizzard went with cross-server queues many years ago and never looked back.

Edit: One common theme I see with people who dislike EOTM’s cross-server queue system is that they are playing on a server doing rather well in their weekly match up. So I don’t think those people really see how it is for other servers who aren’t competing well.

the eotm cross server team was an afterthought, not a main thought. Of course if they notice eotm is making people not want to wvw, they will have to think of something for wvw. However i dont think they want to give up on server vs server competition, they will probably look for another way

Vol.7601:

Has anyone considered that EotM could very well be the ‘wvw’ activity we have in GW2 moving forward, rather than the tiered, 3 server match-ups we have now?

Instead of facing the same 3 servers and having one server steamroll another, they would pool all servers and organize them according to color like they do in EotM. At reset, each server will be randomly assigned a color so that every week you would have new allies.

This could solve a lot of issues in terms of coverage or unbalanced play. They could still keep the Borderland/EB maps in addition to EotM, but this time you have three separate color servers fighting one huge match-up instead of several tiers with 3 servers each.

It would be hard to organize and you couldnt make teams. Also cant have team pride because team is always changing.

Jim Hunter.6821:

I absolutely agree the PvEers shouldn’t be forced into WvW for their flashy items. That being said WvW should have it’s own way of getting top gear items without having to PvE or craft. That or just scale ascended and legendary stats down to exotic in WvW.

see it wasnt supposed to be a pve flashy item, it was supposed to be everybodies flashy item. pve flashy items, to this date i think its dungeon armor and teq/wurm skins. I do think they need to add some WvW flashy items though

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I would prefer to see legendaries broken into mode specific variations. No, not to tick anyone off, but because there simply are people that only play a single mode, and that is their right.

PvPers don’t even have access to legendaries in their chosen mode unless they leave it to play WvW and PvE, and they really shouldn’t have to.

WvWers that don’t enjoy the pve aspect of the game should not have to pve to get their ledendary. It should be completely obtainable via their chosen mode.

The same goes for pve players. Some, for any number of reasons, choose not to play wvw or pvp and should not have to.

Now, I understand that it is desirable to encourage cross mode play. Legendaries could still be used for this, by means of allowing cross mode players to obtain the mode specific legendary and then combine them to make something more visually ‘stunning’, similar to how sunrise and twilight are combined to create eternity. Perhaps the combination of any 2 modes would give one look, and the combination of all 3 would give another, while each individual mode should have its own distinct look as well. This would still encourage the cross mode play (since that’s the only way you could get the other look), but does not lock people away from the ‘top’ long term goal simply because they do not necessarily enjoy the other game modes. We all bought the game for different reasons.

Perhaps such a change can not be made to the current legendaries, without causing an uproar, but maybe it could be considered for future ones.

hmm this is a possibility, but realize the only part of a legendary you cant get in WvW is dungeon tokens.

Delvoire.8930:

Mochann.5298:

FrozenStarRo.7240:

Mochann.5298:

I love PVErs, they’re so cute in how scared they are of coming face to face with competition.

I’m sorry. What competition is that? WvW is no different than champ trains. It all comes down to it being mindless zerging. I’ve been in the EotM and all I’ve seen is groups conquering objectives, avoiding each other, losing the objectives (on purpose!) then reconquering them, all along just by fighting the AI, for the loots.

Exactly. And yet, for some reason, PVErs are allergic to WvW like the plague. It’s like they’ll have a heart attack the moment they see a player with red text over their heads.

Some people just don’t want to do PvP. That shouldn’t be forced upon them nor should they be looked at differently because of this.

Most games have PvP sections or servers dedicated to that function. Thus making people who don’t enjoy that aspect of a game to never have to do it. ANET is forcing it upon people though with putting a Living Story aspect in there.

If you never gathered ever in the game and they forced that upon you, would you have a legitimate reason to be upset?

problem is, it was actually meant for people to pvp in order to be legendary, apparently they have reconsidered

Cactus.2710:

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

I don’t care if Kasmeer and Marjory are in love.. i just don’t want to see ANY romantic stuff, we have way too more important things to do instead of look at two people flirt patch after patch after patch.

LOL. Somebody referring to lore as “important things.”

while i think he may be over stating it, the truth is we have very little time in each living story update, And it doesnt seem like their 5 minute scenes are doing much real exposition about things that matter. I think if we had more story content it wouldnt be that big a deal, but we dont get that much. I think they can turn most of the relationship stuff for these charachters into text that we have to pursue, as opposed to a required portion of story instances.

Its fine it exists, but i think they should condense it more, or place it somewhere else in the content.

Phantaram.1265:

I think most people are missing the point of this thread.

Yes the meta is super tanky and within it thieves are just average. Take away the super tanky meta and it will be about thieves. Mesmer and ele, the other mobile power squishy roamers, won’t see the light of day because thieves are so far ahead of them and actually counter the mesmer and ele themselves.

There are layers of broken things in this game. The first one that needs peeled back is the tanky meta, after that there are other things that need peeled back. Thief is one of them.

thief is an evasive class, it has to be. If you nerf their DPS you will then place them super low, because thief is just average in dps in actuality. If you nerf thier survivability, you guarantee them death.

A better solution would be to increase mesmers ability to counter/make people pat for mistakes. (this is defense an offense)
And for ele, well i dont know ele too well.

I dont think nerfing thief really improves the game, its just switching positions of 1 specific pvp role. problem is there is 1 spot available and 3 jobs competing for it, one will always be considered the best, and the other two sub optimal.

also this whole discussion is too focused on the spvp meta. In WvW theives surviability with evasive builds is not OP, in PVE thieves are marginal.

Swagg.9236:

Part 2 of a series dedicated to redesigning and fixing GW2 combat, profession by profession.

RANGER: "SPAM TO WIN!”
Outside of bad pet AI (another topic entirely), one of the worst factors ruining Ranger balance at the moment is how none of their attacks have any real punch to them. Across the board aside from a very select few skill, the Ranger’s offensive repertoire is loaded up with whimpy, throwaway, short cool-down, short cast-time attack skills. Most of the time, it’s very difficult to detail what the Ranger is doing until after the effects have hit you (unless they’re just auto-attacking). This sort of spammy blur of attacks is the kind of offensive paradigm that is unhealthy for GW2 because it undermines active damage mitigation such as dodges and single blocks. Because none of the Ranger attacks really have any “oomph” or are telegraphed particularly well, the Ranger just sort of throws skills at opponents which have to guess at random when they should maybe dodge or block.

By removing RNG passive procs while better defining and adding a little more power to individual ranger attacks, their presence on the battlefield will be less of a spam-bot and more of a mobile attack platform with unique, well-cued and potentially game-changing attacks.

part of the point of the class is to hit you with lots of smaller attacks, not really supposed to be slow powerhouses.

coglin.1867:

Phi Is Sly.1857:

They are running rampant, its getting old a tiresom fighting someone with 3k+ armor 25k+ hp while dealing insane brust spikes with conidtions. You’r trying to nerf berker? look at conidtion damge frist, remove dire set.

style.6173:

You need to understand the ANET methodology.
Users: Condi damage is too high
ANET: Sounds good. Let’s nerf direct damage.

You two appear to have either very little knowledge of conditions, or very little experience with them, or both. Take any given professions condition build in dire gear and then take the same professions power build in soldiers. Compare the damage, and Soldiers out damages dire by a fair bit. The only exception may be necros.

isolatedchimp.2510:

My whole issue with condis is that they kill too fast..

Based on what fact? See above

Every post I see complaining about condition DPS always appears to be completely absolved of fact, and everyone seems to exert their personal opinion as if it was remotely true.

It has already been clearly established that Soldiers gear builds out damage dire gear builds. There are many threads where players have posted damage numbers in a side by side comparison to demonstrate the fact.

Thus based on most of the complaints here, they need to nerf direct damage. That is, assuming your attempting to get the higher damage of the two nerfed. Otherwise, you need to actually be aware of which one of the two actually has more DPS then the other

Most of the complaints here are uneducated jokes. It is a mathematical fact that the 3k armor+25k hp+Direct damage does more DPS then 3k armor+25k hp+Condi damage. Perhaps before some of you spam the forums with a complaint, It might be advisable that you learn some actual facts on the subject rather then base your complaints on unfounded opinions of the times you were killed in WvW.

maybe it it outdamges them if you are hitting a dummy, but in the active, moving dodging, aegis knockdown game we are playing They basically do a lot more dmg than a power build can muster in the same time period versus an active opponent. also the dmg is completely unmitigated.

Aidenwolf.5964:

They’ve stated that they can push out content equivalent to an expansion…. I have seen no evidence of this thus far, so I expect that in this BIG patch.

That would mean:
New class
New race
New map
New armor
New weapons
New legendaries
Housing
Bugs squashed
Precursor crafting
And mounts (lol why not)

for 1 month from now, this is essentially not going to happen.

However, what we could see with this march patch is:

precursor creation
new legendary items
new traits
general balance fix

What the article implies is possible for the long run is:
new zones
new race
new proffesions

Id like to take this time out to say martial artist is the best new class idea possible, I dont think they can create a new heavy with a different playstyle/archetype really, even though they said they would want to do that so there is 3 of each.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Konrad.9587:

Considering that no heterosexual couple has been given the same level of attention, this one indeed feels like a forced agenda – just like another generic minority token originating from the absurds of tokenism policy.

Did you miss the whole Logan and Jennah thing?
For a lot of people homosexuality isn’t an agenda, it’s just life… It’s remarkably insulting to have people thinking that the presence of a gay couple in a game is specifically to try and make some statement – have you ever considered that they could just be trying to include members of their playerbase?

i still cant tell if logan and jennah are a couple btw. I mean i read the first book and saw they were heading that way, but i dont know if it ever happened. And im fine with that, it makes sense that our charachters dont exactly know whats going on there.

well to make it clear, i m not saying the relationship shouldnt exist, or one of them should be killed, i just find it poorly executed, and a bit contrived. I mean of course its fiction everything is contrived, but it screams it to me.

Im fine with them continuing it, its not my cup of tea, but i dont have to like everything in the game. I just hope we ll get less of the sappy supposed to be reaching you emotionally but not really moments. I also hope every charachter doesnt start to get into a sexual relationship with whoever they have the most scenes with, or it least if they do, we dont have to get the emotionally intimate details as part of the required progression of the story.

Perhaps it would be better if most of the marjory/kasmeer tear jerkers and home making stuff was something you pursued on your own rather than a direct part of story line. Part of why it feels odd, is that it is odd, that they show all these personal moments in front of anyone who is around, without any type of asking or anything.

Whens the last time you had a tear filled moment recounting your biggest fears with your signifigant other in front of 2 friends and a business aquaintence. We should be getting normal clues and hints that people would have in a regular conversation. More info should be given only if we somehow become close to these charachters, or we eavesdrop, or the player learns it while our charachters are not around.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

I don’t like Kasmeer either.

Rox and Braham are partners in crime and clearly lack sexual chemistry.

ehh i already seen people pairing them up

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Shinoobi.1259:

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

There has been some foreshadowing of drama already.

Whether the relationship is same-sex or not is really not relevant to… well, anything.

Unfortunately, it is relevant when almost all same sex relationships in entertainment(books, tv, movies) end up terrible. They are commonly short lived and interrupted by death whether it’s murder, suicide, or an affair with someone of the opposite sex.

I am really struggling to think of an example of a hetero relationship in GW2 that didn’t end terribly. (Jennah/Logan is debatable, but doesn’t look like a “happy ending” to me either.) Rox’ boyfriend died, Braham got ditched by Ophelia, his parents reportedly split, and the only other relationship of any kind that I can think of is Snaff/Zojja and we all know what happened there.

However, overall, fair point.

i dont think snaff/zojja had that type of relationship, but i didnt read the second book. My biggest problem with this relationship, other than kasmeer being ehhhh just lame in general, is that it seems like two charachters cant have a close connection without being in a sexual relationship. Why cant two gals get have fun, fight baddies, and work together closely without becoming an item.

perhaps it feels odd because we only get a small time with any charchters, not like most of the interactions ring true anyhow. Perhaps if i liked kasmeer more, it would be better, but almost everything she says grates on me.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Manijin.3428:

Do you remember the first time you beat a video game, only to discover that you’d missed a whole bunch of side quests or bonus content? Did it cheapen the experience for you?

The problem is, the answer to this question is yes. And this is one of the biggest problem with casual vs. hardcore content.

First, I have to say this: difficult does not mean hardcore. What differentiates a casual gamer from a hardcore gamer is time investment. There are games out there that require literally days of grinding to get the necessary stats or items to even attempt content, and then it is really easy. There are games that are difficult, but you can just pick up and play quickly. The confusion comes from hardcore players having more practice, which leads to them generally being better at the game.

Now, with that misconception out of the way… there has always been a very big issue with gated content, whether it be skill based, gear based, or time based: inequality in rewards. Reward not just being shiny trinkets or new gear, but also story based or fun based rewards. Yes, that is right: the reward can be where you have fun with the game. I’ve seen it a lot in older MMOs, that require weeks of grinding and praying to the RNG gods before you can get to the part of the game that is supposed to be fun to play.

GW2 is trying to have it so there is content for everyone, but which content you like to play depending on skill level, time dedication, hardware specs, timezone, and personal preference ultimately leads to which rewards you have access to. By making one thing a “casual” part of the game, and another thing a “hardcore” part of the game, what Areanent is doing is just cutting off the casual players from some of the rewards of the game. The unfortunate part is that hardcore players often demand that casual players be cut off from their “special places”.

Now, this is not a unique problem. Thankfully, game designers figured out how to deal with this issue decades ago: It’s called a difficulty slider. It lets players have a customizable experience without detracting from the content or rewards of the game as a whole.

As for how GW2 could do this, it is quite simple: have two instances of all non-PVP areas of the game: a normal mode, and a hard mode. Normal mode would basically be the game we have now, with a few things made easier. Hard mode would be… harder, but would give some paltry higher reward, like 10% increase on gold or item rarity or something. Enough to entice players, but not enough to make it overpowered.

That way, the game can really be designed to appeal to both categories, but without withholding rewards from one group.

problem with your solution is, anet doesnt want to split the playerbase up. And they have some good reasons not to. But yeah, going from this forum (which is only 1 source of feedback) it may be possible that they will have to start doing this type of thing. Perhaps all they have to do is message harder content better, so that people know that if they dont consider them selves liking difficult, they may not like X content.

Astralporing.1957:

Pray For Kosmos.5849:

5) Lets be honest. The biggest problem with these events is overflows and achievement leechers.

Fun fact. Without leechers you wouldn’t get overflows. You wouldn’t have enough people to do the event either, so maybe the real problem lies elsewhere after all.

you are right here, overflows actually make the whole situation better, not worse. People lose in an overflow and complain, like not being able to play at all is a better solution. They also complain about achievement hunters etc, when its a pretty large playerbase, and they provide a great deal of the people they need for events, and to have a good time in general. For example, people complained about seasons, but like it or not, the participation was through the roof, which meant more fights, more people, more drama.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Josh Foreman.8250:

The other question that I hope is answered in the positive is this: Can the average player skill be raised by challenging content like this? We know that X% of players don’t know about traits. We know Y% never swap out their 7-0 skills to accommodate specific challenges. And there are probably dozens of other systems that go unused by some portion of the player-base. If even 10% of that group hits a challenge like the Marionette and the subsequent tension causes them to look into these systems and they learn a new depth to the game they otherwise never would have, I think that’s a win for everybody. The average skill level rises, and in turn, we devs can make more interesting events that utilize the depth of the systems we have.

I’ve worked as an educator myself, and I can say that this simply doesn’t work. The situation described here is the exception, not the rule. It is unfortunate that I see this method teaching in college all the time, and had been subject to this method myself growing up. I don’t know if there is any direct term for this, but I’ve come to call it Educational Darwinism.

Educational Darwinism is the brilliant idea of not teaching people directly, but simply punishing them for not already knowing what you want them to know.

I hate this method, mostly because it doesn’t teach. Sure, the average grades or the average skill level will go up, but not because people are learning. It is because the people who don’t know get expelled/drop out/quit playing, and thus only the people who already know keep playing. I see it used in college and highschool, since there the growth or achievement of any individual student isn’t of concern.

If people not utilizing game mechanics is a problem, then requiring them to know game mechanics isn’t a solution. Think about it:

*The game isn’t new. If someone wanted to look up builds, traits, dodging, combo fields, etc. they would have already done it.
*There is no indication that they should learn something new. This leads to players just getting frustrated and quitting.
*There is no indication what they should learn. If they come to the conclusion that they are lacking knowledge with no one telling them somehow, they don’t know where to look. This leads to wrong ideas, frustration, and quitting.
*The whole thing feels like punishment, and so the more sensitive or defiant players will quit out of principle against an unfair system.

There are so many ways it can fail, and only one way it can succeed. Alienating the playerbase has more negative side effects than you’d think, especially in an event that requires hundreds of people.

I think you are looking at anet wrong here, they arent exactly the educator, they are the world. Their job is to create a wide world, where people can interact. People havent learned these skills, not because the game didnt teach it, but because you almost never have to use these skill/knowledge to succeed.

Its like how people lose their math skills, not because they never learned it, but because for years, they never had to use any of it. Even if you got an A in math most people wont remember how to analyze a quadratic equation.

However, if the world starts using quadratic equations in everything, all of a sudden 90% of people learn how to deal with its uses, and some will gain/remember a deeper understanding.

Anet has to put more content that encourages coordination in order for people to actually use it, most people simply wont learn or use new things if there is no benefit Once Anet designs in that benefit, people can begin to remember their lessons, use new tools, and teach others.

I mean what is anet really going to teach people that they havent been exposed to here? observe the enemy? follow the instructions in map chat? kill monsters? Everything you need to win these fights is nothing new, Its just that about 20% of people never really have to observe, or listen to people, heck some people do large group events with mapchat off.

morrolan.9608:

Josh Foreman.8250:

Gene Archer.8560:

But players can put in all the hard work they can and still not break through to the next level. People have limits and thresholds.

I recognize this. I don’t expect every player, or even a majority to improve their skills. The hope is that ENOUGH of them will that we will be able to create more creative and nuanced content.

Upon reflection I have to take issue with the idea that these fights require individual skill. They don’t, they require organisation, and enough players in the fight to know what they’re doing and be geared and traited appropriately. And it is a failure of game design that players be forced to guest to other servers to get a win and be waiting in an empty zone for a significant time to be sure of getting a group that can do it.

they require skill and organisation. you can organize as much as you want, ultimately you win or lose by the individual skills when you are fighting a warden. As for wurm, i have not done it enough to comment on it too much

Also note, its possible the skill required is low, to you, but apparently a decent amount of the population still has a bit to refine as far as meeting these challenges. Other wise wouldnt be seeing as much trouble with marionette

Nike.2631:

Psykotik.2691:

This really isn’t even a debate lol.

((Looks at the game, right now, on the Live servers))

You’re right. It’s not. Because it’s not happening now and whether you see it or not, there are strong gameplay reasons its not going to happen, either.

I can sit here and explain the whole width and breadth of those reasons over and over and its never going to penetrate that most powerful of player mantras: “But I want it.” Players ALWAYS want stuff that lets them sidesteps hours, days, and weeks of gameplay getting set up. I want infinite flame rams so I don’t have to stop and pick them up from time to time, but getting what I want isn’t a good thing for the game and I know that and I don’t expect them to change it just because it would improve my experience.

They know you want it. They knew that 5 years ago when it was on a whiteboard to have stat mixes at all. Back when chasing after multiple sets of gear was being built into the game.

the current system is very bad on many levels.

managing stats through inventory, in the long term is a hassle, even with infinite slots, you would still have accidental selling/salvaging, and having to do all types of organization.
Cosmetics, well the addition of ascended revealed that when they create new gear teirs, the mess you up twice, not only do you need new gear, you need a new fine transmutation stone to convert it. If you want one look, across multiple gear sets, you are supposed to get the same look repeatedly? which is even harder to distinguish now when going through inventory to select it?

The balance team often talks of making new builds viable, and giving people options to play different, and swapping gear for the needs of what you are doing that day, but with the cost of Ascended, how feasible is it to try a new gear set? it takes roughly 1.5 months of concentrated grinding to get full ascended, and thats not for casual. A casual probably wont be able to earn the 14 gold a day or spend its equivalent time to make a damask cloth, and thats just 1 of the mats you would need to get everyday to complete it in 1.5 months.

Yes his version is simplistic, and unrealistic, but it is a reality that the aquisition of ascended combined with the gear and cosmetic systems in place are running counter to the overall game design.

IMO
game needs a seperate gear system/inventory (check FFXIV for a system that would fit even better into GW2 than it does in FFXIV

game needs appearance to be unlocks instead of one offs. You can see the failure of the current system with the round about methods they have to go to do things like HOM skins and achievement skins. Not to mention if you ever want to change your gear, but keep the look you earned in battle, you essentially have to destroy the other set it, or store it (14 pieces?) and get the same appearance item again

the path to ascended after the intial, needs to be much shorter. Its unreasonable with the current amount of resources it requires that people should have to do it again and again.

I will say that crafting a precursor (if its like crafting most other things in this game) is pretty boring and grindy. I would hope they come up with a system that focuses on fun tasks, discovery, and adventure, but im pretty sure it will amount to collect 100000 bloodstone dust 100000 dragonite 100000empyreal 1000 skill points 2000 orichalcum, ancient wood, gossamer

I agree they could have some other use, at the very least vendor, no one really likes throwing stuff away.

Escadin.9482:

lordhelmos.7623:

phys.7689:

Xillllix.3485:

lordhelmos.7623:

ENTIRE GAME REVOLVES AROUND MELEE:

All the group buffs in the game are 600m or less on average. There are very few targeted area heals. Players are encouraged simply to stand next to each other and stack heavy boon classes (warrior/guardian) to achieve near godlike status. The gameplay does not promote any kind of strategic positioning. In fact, positioning barely matters at all in Guildwars 2 unless your ranged and out of the “god” temple of your companions. Then you are told you are playing wrong.

This just leads to a boring dynamic that encourages stacking and button mashing with very little strategy or teamplay.

Your 100% right there. There are no targetable healing skills. The stacking will only be worse once they nerf critical damage.

targetted healing from long range is kind of lame, you take little to no risk doing targetted heals.

I heavily disagree with this because its only no risk if the enemy mobs have nothing they can attack the backline with. This is an encounter design flaw.

Enemies should have a variety of attacks that makes it so that people hiding at range need to be aware.

In fact having a proper midline/backline setup promotes MORE teamwork because it becomes even more important for the frontline attackers to use walls/cc/and strategy to keep their supporters in the backline protected.

There are tons of assaults on the mid and back row of a group… just think about all the AoE poison fields, chaos storms and encounters that are designed to drive everyone into melee range.

However I totally agree that stacking melees in a corner is the unbreakable meta for a reason. Another thing that screws any sort of support build is that capped might stacks and some condi cleanse are all the support you need for speedruns and nuking bosses and you don’t need a single at least semi supportspecced class to achieve this due to how selfreliant and selfstustaining everyone is nomatter their build.

Imo the only way to have fun in dungeons is to run them with friends and guildies who agree that having a comfy clear-run (fun) is more important than to be most efficient.

hmm i think for some classes the support specs are very powerful, however this is mostly due to traits, the stat system itself doesnt reward any thing as much as it rewards DPS. no stats for control, no stats for support, stats for tanking do a lot less for tanking skills.
I wouldnt mind this so much, except if they wanted a game where stats didnt determine playstyle much, why have stats at all, would be better to just use a skill/trait system.

lordhelmos.7623:

phys.7689:

Xillllix.3485:

lordhelmos.7623:

ENTIRE GAME REVOLVES AROUND MELEE:

All the group buffs in the game are 600m or less on average. There are very few targeted area heals. Players are encouraged simply to stand next to each other and stack heavy boon classes (warrior/guardian) to achieve near godlike status. The gameplay does not promote any kind of strategic positioning. In fact, positioning barely matters at all in Guildwars 2 unless your ranged and out of the “god” temple of your companions. Then you are told you are playing wrong.

This just leads to a boring dynamic that encourages stacking and button mashing with very little strategy or teamplay.

Your 100% right there. There are no targetable healing skills. The stacking will only be worse once they nerf critical damage.

targetted healing from long range is kind of lame, you take little to no risk doing targetted heals.

I heavily disagree with this because its only no risk if the enemy mobs have nothing they can attack the backline with. This is an encounter design flaw.

Enemies should have a variety of attacks that makes it so that people hiding at range need to be aware.

the idea behind most support in this game is that the group has to work together to make the best use of it. Healers/supporters/helpers have to get close to their targets, and people who need help have to either stay still or get close to the supporter. This requires more teamwork to use effectively, and its why support people often want swiftness even in combat, or the ability to move around the field easily. By making it so you have to get close to the target you want to help, you make it so the healer is taking a risk, by going into the more dangerous area, and then getting out of it. When a supporter is able to hit any allies, from a distance, the allies themselves dont have to be aware of positioning, or whats going on.

As far as i can see, support is way deeper by not having long range targetable support, teamwork required to use it effectively is increased, and risk versus reward for supporter is increased as well.

I will agree that generally encounter design/ai doesnt promote teamwork, but i dont think targeted heals actually makes the game require more teamwork/depth

Meehael.8240:

Listen to me carefully. A precursor is the only item that drops really rarely, and actually the only fuel that drives me to play the game. That feeling of whether will I get one or not. Everything of importance is already craftable. Legendary item is a vanity item. Leave precursors as a random drop, them at least.

Crafting so many items has become really tedious and boring. Sure, I hate it when a 10-year-old gets a precursor on first mystic forge use, and I already used MF for about a 100 times, and zilch. But, that’s the fun of it! Believe me.

Stop whining, and if you want to craft a precursor, you think it’s gonna be free? Just buy one off the Trading Post, because even if precursors would be craftable, mats could be worth ~500g.

Leave something to luck, don’t make another grind fest.

Thank you, ANet.

the only way to beat that grind will be luck, so dont worry about it.

Xillllix.3485:

lordhelmos.7623:

ENTIRE GAME REVOLVES AROUND MELEE:

All the group buffs in the game are 600m or less on average. There are very few targeted area heals. Players are encouraged simply to stand next to each other and stack heavy boon classes (warrior/guardian) to achieve near godlike status. The gameplay does not promote any kind of strategic positioning. In fact, positioning barely matters at all in Guildwars 2 unless your ranged and out of the “god” temple of your companions. Then you are told you are playing wrong.

This just leads to a boring dynamic that encourages stacking and button mashing with very little strategy or teamplay.

Your 100% right there. There are no targetable healing skills. The stacking will only be worse once they nerf critical damage.

targetted healing from long range is kind of lame, you take little to no risk doing targetted heals.

The Spiral King.2483:

Specific roles and instances where multiple people are forced to work together, not just in a “let’s all dps the boss at the same time.” I suppose I am essentially referring to a lack of what is known as the trinity. I know many people don’t like that for some reason, but it added structure and forced people to cooperate. You’re a healer? You’re going to have to accept you can’t perform a certain role, and operate for the team as a whole. You’re a tank? Same thing. I miss that about GW1, and really any RPG that involves a team.

Having everyone do the same thing (DPS in GW2’s case) is just so dull. I understand some people like that, I’m not going to try and change their minds, I just wish it wasn’t so. Sure, you could run a water ele, pure cleric’s build right now. But in basically all content, you’re just slowing things down, you’re not NECESSARY. Like I said in my last post, and in partial agreement with the OP, there’s just not enough mandated teamwork in this game. When I run a dungeon, I feel like we’re running it as five separate entities who happen to be following the same path and objective. I’ve never felt a sense of true teamwork.

Teamwork is not dependency, the trinity creates dependency systems, where you must have X Y Z to succeed. Teamwork sometimes involves dependency, but more often its working together to be more successful.

How beneficial teamwork is in the game is huge, the main difference is they dont auto fail you for lack of teamwork. proper use of team defense, positioning, buffs, and debuffs make worlds of difference. But they also allow you to play kitten seperate entities (not automatically dying if tank fails, or healer fails) It will take longer, probably give more deaths, and be more chaotic, but its possible.

As for stacking, though i dislike it, its incredibly teamwork oriented, generally requiring all players to position carefully, sometimes controlling the mob to get him in a position thats advantageous, with coordinated use of debuffs and support to buff dmg and decrease dmg taken in focused few moments, with people working together to recover any fallen players as fast as possible.

like i said its really an encounter design/AI issue but even you say you dont really want difficulty, just more dependency. I dont see stacking being better if it was stacking because the tank had the monster attacking him, with someone else healing him, and the others hitting the monster from safety. In fact sounds way more boring to me than even stacking normally is.

The Spiral King.2483:

As soon as I saw the thread title I knew I was in for a good read. The lack of teamplay and synergy among classes and skills is really a major issue with this game, and needs to be addressed by adding way more skills, and rebalancing the ones we have. And please, no one better try mentioning those kittenty kitten “combo fields” as an example of teamplay. The y’re the most watered down, brain dead things I can imagine.

what is it that you consider to be teamplay?

its not that GW2 doesnt have use for multiple roles support etc, its that PVE is designed to be hard to fail at.
If enemies moved from AOE, CC burst, use AOE on stacking players and used more heals, you would have to coordinate to succeed.

However you have to ask yourself if players really want this type of play, i think most would call the game cheap, and quit. I mean really consider how many times most people fight the most difficult bosses/paths/enemies
perhaps people just like coordinated but simple/easy like the regular trinity, makes one feel like they’re really smart when they are basically just robots.