Guild Wars 2

things that stand out for me as issues on ranger:

• sword #1 root absolutely needs to be fixed, even if it means losing or changing the leap.
• IMO sword #2 would be a lot better if it leapt forwards then backwards.
• traps really ought to be 900 range (needed for ranger to be worth WVWing with)
• entangle ought to be a trap (elite trap)
• pets should move faster by default (or have increased attack range or both)
• pet F2s should generally cast faster
• sword #5 (whirling defense) should permit movement

1) nerf warrior (sustain/mobility)
2) buff ranger (pets/AOE/trap range)
3) buff Ele (mobility)

BlackBeard.2873:

The only thing that needs to be changed about dragon’s tooth is the no-damage bug when you are cc’d after the cast and before it lands. A slightly shorter cast-time wouldn’t hurt.

For those unaware, DT is meant to be used situationally as a zoning tools to:
1. Pressure players away from an area, like dps-ing you, standing on-point, or trying to res (it is heavy anti-res pressure).
2. Bait out a dodge-roll if the person is slow and doesn’t just walk out of range.

That’s what shatterstone should be for.

A skill that is designed to miss most of the time is a badly designed skill, simple as that.

I wouldn’t disagree with that assessment. People weren’t great at fighting D/D’s but more importantly, they didn’t have the condi and boon removal they do now.

Add in the mobility (RTL and flash) and healing (SoR, CW) nerfs and D/D took a massive hit as a WVW roaming class while eg: warrs turned into the speedy gonzales abrams tanks with CC/melee dmg/ranged dmg/condi removal out the kitten like they are now.

My rabid/condi S/Sh+LB is basically an unstoppable killing machine when roaming and IMO is stronger and more mobile than my D/D ever was.

DT should always have been ground-targeted. Phoenix a homing projectile.

Viking Jorun.5413:

He’s clearly delusional.

It’s cute some of you guys still think of Ele as an apex predator, but it’s not. I played a roaming D/D exclusively in its glory day but now I have little-no trouble with them on any of my other classes – the rotation is very predictable, the moves are all very telegraphed, and worst of all, they’re slow and very weak vs CC.

The only thing I’d agree with is that the AOE is a little too large and the stun and aftercast a little too long.

P Fun Daddy.1208:

Am I the only one who likes them as they are now

Looks like it.

For me they are far too clunky to ever be worth slotting.

• Traps are vectors for condition damage, having all their traits in the precision/crit dmg line makes no sense
• IMO should be 900 range when traited. 600 range might be fine for sPVP but it is a serious limitation for WVW.
• Would make a lot of sense if Entangle were a trap

F2’s are defiinitely too slow across the board. Leaps are particularly slow and miss far too frequently to be generally useful in a PVP environment.

I’d go further and suggest the best change for pets would be:

• pets move faster by default (ie: make http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agility_Training baseline)
• reduce pet F2 cast times to be closer to a mean of ~0.25sec instead of ~1sec.

A large part of the general uselessness of pets is they suck at applying damage/F2s vs players.

pmnt.4067:

The first thing would be deleting the damage component of Lightning Flash and making it a stun breaker again. That would be a buff to elementalists while also reducing the damage of that combo.

Agree, the lightning flash change was a net step backwards.

Let’s face it though, changes to cantrips are the least of Ele’s worries. Glyphs, signets, and conjures all need attention a lot more than cantrips. From the PVP/WVW perspective of course.

Moreover, I’d rather see the skill floor for Ele raised, even if it comes at the cost of lowering the ceiling. The std deviation of Ele performance is larger than any other class (IMO), which is always going to mean it is impossible to balance well.

Case in point – the series of sledgehammer nerfs that took Ele from “best” PVP class to “worst” PVP class in the space of a few months.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Just wanted to pop in and say that the changes listed are not all of the changes coming. Unfortunately, we can’t share everything we’re changing due to the nature of some of the changes.

I think you guys are doing yourselves a disservice by not sharing/previewing this stuff – a fully engaged community is a happy community and early customer feedback is almost always a good thing – even if (especially if) a feature is highly likely to change.

azuzephyr.7280:

Harbinger.8637:

scerevisiae.1972:

Harbinger.8637:

However they are a small group with limited amount of resources. So it takes time to fix all the issues we are currently seeing at the moment.

But that’s the real question: why is there a lack of resources? why is class balancing such a low priority?

Lack of players = lack of resources. Majority of their money comes from PvE, after that it’s WvW.

But there isn’t even class balance for pve. In fact I’d say it’s even worse, anything other than a zerk warrior just doesn’t exist. I just get the impression that they either don’t get that people are hating the state of balance or they are under some delusion that balance is fine as it is.

Exactly. PVE class balance is not even considered. WVW class balance is not considered either. There are serious intra-class balance issues that date back to beta that haven’t even been touched yet, eg: Ele signets, glyphs.

new gamemode, the GW2 version of conquest is not at all engaging.

would be great if you could also remove downed state from PVP or at least make it optional.

Harbinger.8637:

However they are a small group with limited amount of resources. So it takes time to fix all the issues we are currently seeing at the moment.

But that’s the real question: why is there a lack of resources? why is class balancing such a low priority?

lots of amusing responses here…

the reason to not bother switching attunements in PVE is because PVE is so mind-numbingly easy it’s not worth the effort most of the time.

This is not to say you shouldn’t drop a water and blast it when it’s needed but the rest of the time you might as well just autoattack in fire.

It is concerning that requests for change from the player community for Eles have all been more or less aligned along the same basic axes (innate lack of defence, reliance on water/arcane, weakness of signets, glyphs, conjures, focus skills) for more than a year now but have not been addressed in any meaningful way.

Yamsandjams.3267:

As an alternative, if there was some sort of system in place whereby you could only extend the targeting circle to the maximum possible range, that would possibly also accomplish what the OP desires. That would still allow you to see where you’ve targeted instead of trying to interpret the actual targeted location based on an “out of range” location.

This is a good compromise, but IMO both behaviours should be supported with a UI toggle for clamping the range of the cast instead of clamping the range of the targeting reticle.

4/10, too obvious.

Ele:

• Surely dagger water #3 would be better as an ice field instead of a blast finisher if sustain is the goal?
• Still think a solo version of Elemental Attunement should be baseline with a trait for the AOE version and the water 15 as the water attunement bonus.
• Focus still needs love.

Necro:

• Burning on DS #1 is a bad idea, doesn’t fit. Others have already posted why. The only decent alternative for burning is as a chain skill of axe #1.

Ranger:

• needs more help
• I like more fields on traps, but the best improvement for traps would be 900 range.
• Pet #2’s should probably cast a lot quicker. At least 1 pet should have a #2 blast finisher.
• Sword #1 really needs to be fixed.

signed.

I often feel like i’m fighting the UI more than the game. It’s one of the worst UIs of any game. Other things I hate:

• not being able to rearrange the UI
• the small size and placement of boons/conditions
• having to look at opposite extremes of the screen to see my vs my enemy’s health (obvious UEX/design fail)
• the personal story BS obscuring a large chunk of the screen
• modal windows that block windows below them instead of coming to front
• the many pointless dialogue windows that require manual closing
• search filters in the auction house that don’t work (>12months after release)
  i could go on…

it’s still noticeably weaker than whatever/30 water/30 arcane because the signets (+prot) don’t provide the same level of defence as cantrips.

I’m annoyed they’re only focusing on D/?.

I think they should have lifted the base defensive performance of Ele and then if necessary trimmed stuff back.

The fundamental problem with Ele (IMO) is the lack of an innate defence mechanic comparable to stealth/shadowsteps/clones/aegis.

In theory, it’s healing, but for decent healing sustain you basically require 15+ water/30 arcane.

IMO, Ele should get (a solo version of) Elemental Attunement as baseline, with a trait for the AOE version, and with 15 water heal and soothing mist swapped. It’s really the only thing that will stop pushing Ele into the water/arcane corner.

glass cannonish staff + signet of earth for the immob. use earth #4/#5 when SoE is down.

don’t bother switching attunements in PVE, it’s not worth the effort — you’ll just end up killing stuff way slower.

just stay in fire and nuke.

Proof.3047:

LightningBlaze.4913:

Don’t let any of those 1vx videos misguide you. Against 2 or more good players by yourself it is impossible to win no matter what build you use.

No.

Elementalists are in a decent state right now. Not the best roamers, but definitely not the worst. I’ve gone 1v2/1v3 and have been victorious. And with the next major patch, I am quite excited.

Video or it’s not true.

IMO Eles are the worst roamers. Biggest issue is (lack of) mobility/escape.

Turtle Dragon.9241:

• Story Mode Requirement
• Contested Waypoint and Locked Dungeons
• Soulbound Equipment
• Characterbound Dyes
• Unique

IMO these are pretty on the money, though I’d add downed state/rally to the list of things that are a net detriment to the game.

I think contested waypoints/locked dungeons should be kept in though, but have far harder events with much longer closed/open times.

ya, except warrior, which is great at everything.

damage should break channelled rez and respawn should be forced after 60sec.

Good:

• unpredictable, open field combat (emergent gameplay)
• wide variety of opportunities, challenges & experiences
• accessibility, being able to level in WVW

Bad:

• downed state/rallying (heavily favours blobbing > strategy/skill)
• AOE cap of 5 (heavily favours blobbing > strategy/skill)
• lack of WVW-specific balance attention (large disparities in movement speed/abilities, availability of AOE, CC, and stability across classes)

G > W > N > E > T = M > Eng > R

Thief should be higher – spammable AOE poison, spammable AOE weakness, spammable blast finisher, frequent blinds, boon strips, & caster killing machine even when tanky.

Zaxares.5419:

I do agree however that Ascended gear should be the LAST tier introduced.

100x this.

The only logical things to do is increases all celestial stats to compensate for the “lost” ferocity, to make ferocity the primary stat, or to add some boon/condition duration%.

Agree pets are pretty bad.

I’d start by making F2 skills a lot better, most of them are >1sec cast and very short range.

IMO they should be mostly in the 0 – 0.25sec range, with 600 as the minimum range.

I’d also like to see the range of F2 skills expanded, eg: a smoke field, more venom-granting pets, AOE dmg pets.

IMO a solo version of Elemental Attunement should be baseline, with 15 pt water and soothing mist switched, then a trait added that restores the AOE version.

I don’t have a problem with healing as the core Ele defence mechanic, but it has to be accessible — that is you shouldn’t have to devote 15+ water for the heal and 20+ arcane for the protection in every build.

I think Ele needs build options that don’t involve cantrips and high water/arcane that don’t melt under pressure like warm butter.

LelouchViBritannia.3607:

ITT devs trying to wiggle their way out by arguing semantics.

ITT a bunch of whiny kids with entitlement issues.

That said, they are gd slow when it comes to balancing.

I can’t believe they are pushing Ele even more into the water line…

Blast on dagger water #3 is good, a good start to making focus usable in WVW would be to give focus a lightning or ice field.

BlackBeard.2873:

MOST OF ALL: A greater split between amulet/jewel. Something like 60/40 or even 50/50. As an ele, there are a few builds I can’t make b/c I will be unable to get a mix of toughness/vit that is acceptable, so I usually end up going full-glass. More ways to build balanced would be great.

This. There’s enough stat combos already – the problem is the stat weighting of amulet to jewel is too high. Jewels should have a higher proportion of stats.

Alternatively, reworking the system for amulet + 2 jewels would also give a lot more freedom, but I presume rebalancing the amulet:jewel stat weighting would be much easier.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

this is working as intended.
warriors are meant to be fast.
what is the problem?

do you remember that warriors have no direct access to:
- stealth
- illusions
- death shroud
- pets
- minions
- protection, aegis

warriors are balanced and not overpowered, it has been more than a year since launch, please accept that already.

Invulnerability > all of those.

Surely it should be obvious that the class with the highest base armour and highest base HP should not also have the highest landspeed.

Compare this to Ele for example: lowest base armour, lowest base HP, 3rd worst landspeed, nerfed all the way down from best. Hardly equitable.

ps: I play a warrior and even I think the landspeed advantage is silly.

a healing-anchored trinity would be bad, but IMO there is a lot of scope for (re-)introducing more prot-like skills/mechanics from GW1, as well as a few more “heal projectile”-like abilities similar to guardian staff #2.

I think the problem is the general lack of diminishing returns across the board on stats. eg: +100 power at 1000 power should be worth more in terms of %dmg increase than +100 power at 2200 power.

if you need to turn AAs off for only 1 weapon in the entire game, then that weapon is broken, simple as that.

which is why Anet are changing it.

you don’t invite rangers because of 1 broken weapon? that’s one of the dumbest things i’ve read on this forum yet.

First impressions with ranger have been pretty positive, though thus far the only utilities I like are survival skills and traps. Why do survival skills have only a single trait?

My core question though is why traps have only 600 range? They’re no stronger than wells (900 range), marks (1200 range) or any of several ranged AOEs in the 900-1200 range, so why are they only 600? It’s a major limitation for a WVW player.

you shouldn’t have to turn AAs off just to make a weapon usable.

I too would like to use sword + O/H but the silly loss-of-control-during-AA thing drives me nuts, so I use the GS instead.

Am glad they are changing sword #1. Losing control of your char while autoattacking feels very broken. IT may be network lag but sometimes my char would leap away from my target in a random direction and i’d have to turn and re-approach them. Altogether very clunky.

I think the weapon would be more versatile if the #2 leapt forward then backward instead of the other way around.

Downed state/rallying is a PVE and PVP noob feature that doesn’t belong in a competitive PVP game. It should be disabled in PVP zones.

I think the low-access, long-duration stealth of other games has worked out much better than the frequent-access, short-duration model used in this game.

Just need to raise the aoe cap from 5 to 8.

If a 10yo game like daoc could manage with no aoe cap, I’m quite sure it’s possible with today’s hardware, unless their tech and/or design is terrible.

I wouldn’t mind if GW2 PVP never lifts itself from dismal failure as a PVP game because it will mean that there’s far less chance of downed state/rallying ruining future would-be PVP games.