Guild Wars 2

Treebeard The Swift.9620:

Or add other ways to attain things – what if 10k achieve points gave you an instant account bound legendary of your choice? thats a year+ worth of gaming to hit that ap level, if you’ve been unlucky in the precursor drop/forge stakes or doing the wrong things to generate cash but having a ton of fun that would be a great reward. Also its account based so its a one-time deal.

I like this I would also welcome a chance at new exotics from this method, not a whole year for exotics but a system that allows you to buy exotics from achieve points along the way that doesn’t require grinding. That would be welcome.

Ogcali.6108:

This game is easy to make money in, just ask someone with a decent amount of gold to give you some tips.

You mean all those people who started out with not one but multiple precursors from the island event who helped manipulate the economy? Oh and who magically kept form getting the bug that made it so that they actually continued to get rares and exotics before the magic find changes despite DR and RNG manipulations? okay…

Malediktus.9250:

Anet should have nerfed it 80% instead of 8%

Now that’s laughable. Where’s the nerf to warriors that Engineers have seen for over a year now? You know to grenades and condition damage that our class relies so heavily upon, and to healing skills, and to the rifle…really?

Considering that their actions drastically and negatively affected the TP for months now using things like DR and a manipulated RNG (we’ve seen it time and time again in multiple titles and it’s actually the reason for D3 removing theirs because they lost so many players due to meddling with their RMTAH via the loot ratios for rares/legendaries/material drops, same model different game skin) it’s a good bet that they won’t refund gold most especially.

I think if you purchased a karma set tho there might be a chance of them returning karma enough for a new set to you.

As far as crafted sets go however I doubt it.

I’d say that it’s because warriors can still solo Arah, just saw a new video the other day but since it has the players name clearly visible in the video I can’t post it here.

I’m pretty sure they keep those values when entering WvW.

aladore.3945:

Devs,

Maybe you should focus on making an in-depth, in-game manual explaining how your combat system and it’s respective values synchronize? I mean, being developers shouldn’t you guys document your software? (Maybe that’s a little too old school, who knows?)

At any rate, ask yourselves the following question (or perhaps pass it off to upper management);

“What’s the point of introducing something new when everything old is still vague and poorly defined?”

I think your final quote pretty much asks a very important question about combat in general. There’s another old saying that I’d like to use concerning combat simply because combat will still remain broken even with these trait changes coming down the bend.

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig” referring of course to the problems inherent in their current incarnation of combat where CC/Healing/Condition damage roles are all still very much useless in PVE.

And until they fix combat bringing up the usefulness of those roles by affecting their actual values and removing long time nerfs, they will still have the same issues, fancy new traits or not.

Part of the issue is CC/condition damage being totally useless in the higher levels. It’s a global combat problem rather than a problem with scaling. When the mobs are given broad abilities that both CC/condition down the players but the players cannot do the same there’s a bigger issue here.

It’s not limited to this title I can assure you. I’m playing another title right now that does this, certain skills work perfectly and sometimes even devastatingly in the hands of mobs but in the players of that particular class they don’t work well at all even when certain traits are maxed to improve performance of those skills.

The cost should absolutely be low because people often forget that some of us had a very difficult time with their DR/lopsided loot problem which precludes anyone making a significant amount of gold in the game. For some spending money on gems is just out of the question.

The cost for grandmaster should absolutely remain low for grandmaster due to this ongoing problem (ongoing until DR is 100% removed.)

Ammo Roulette: Pistols and Rifles sometimes fire an extra shot. These shots are affected by traits that add effects to rifle and pistol skills.

I would love to see something like this, it would help the Engineer class offset the imbalance we find between the Warrior rifle and the Engineer rifle damage output.

Would totally love this actually. In a game without mounts it’s really really tiresome to be running everywhere. It really does get old. We need a system where it’s easier to move around that works better than a teleport system that can be contested and cut off players from events.

Seriously I see 0 problems with having this.

I’ve resorted to spending gold on one of the few seals that actually gives a faster run speed on my engineer because I was using a build that doesn’t use kits to get around and therefore did not get the trait for a faster run speed when switching kits (which is annoying actually because you’re constantly pushing a button to run faster). I would love the speed boost to be universal.

Part of it is actually due to the problems inherent in the class and some of the nerfs it’s suffered over the time the game’s been out that were never fixed in PVE so you do have to take those considerations into account. It’s not that it’s a bit more difficult to play with certain things (like using 3 buttons to do an AOE heal for example compared to a guardian’s 1 button spam) but more so that certain traits and skills just aren’t on par when compared to other classes. I speak of course only about PVE.

So after doing a bit more reading I’ve learned this will make engis for viable for groups that are fighting bosses that do alot of ranged attacks.

My concerns over how long the turrets last after the 4 seconds up however have not changed.

nGumball.1283:

Beldin.5498:

mtpelion.4562:

Beldin.5498:

mtpelion.4562:

Two things about low level characters:

1. You are sub-30 for about 4 hours unless you are intentionally avoiding things that give XP.

So new players should just buy gold for gems so that they can craft to 30 before starting to actually play the game ?

No, new players should play the game normally and be level 30 in around 4 hours by doing events/renown hearts.

Early leveling is incredibly fast.

How in the world do you make 30 levels with exploring and hearts in 4 hours ? You must confuse 30 with 3 somehow, since this is simply impossible. Doing 2 level in an hour is already really fast .. normal is something like 1 level per hour.

If a person don’t understand the mechanics of the game to the point he/she will only play with hearts, they won’t understand traits before 30.

Have to agree here I spent ALOT of money trying to figure them out in the beginning because I didn’t see the whole picture yet and at the time the online calculators were terrible they didn’t even keep up with trait tooltips.

It might make it a bit easier for people. If they are actually balancing the mobs in the lower zones (pre 30) to make up for the fact that people won’t have traits that’s awesome too because it means they won’t experience the problems I had as an engineer. At a certain point of the game, despite gear, it was like the mobs had entirely too many hitpoints or something or my skills suddenly weren’t doing proper damage when I leveled. They’ve not fixed this aspect because I continue to read player comments where they suddenly stop playing their engineer half way because this kind of thing is happening.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Hybarf Tics.2048:

~~~snip ~~~

My server’s full of people at all hours. Perhaps you mistook your server’s players transferring out as a sign they quit?

I’m pretty sure you know that the exact numbers aren’t revealed per server and there’s alot of guesting going on.

While I doubt people leave because of the silence it has been a problem since post launch. We need more communication not less on when where why etc. It’s happened in every game I’ve played, they’ve had to hire a community group to handle announcements and keep the players informed. When these other titles have done just that (these people communicate directly with the devs btw) the community calms down because they know what to expect.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Fluffball.8307:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

I’m glad you are excited, and we are too. This is just the first taste of stuff coming in the build. There will be many more blogs. =)

Everything looks amazing, I’m super excited for all this stuff to go live.

Out of curiosity, would you like to say anything about the ranger GM trait? It seems very underwhelming, especially considering the traits it’s competing against.

Karl and I will be doing a Ready Up livestream tomorrow going over all of the new traits. =)

I like the new system and I am interested in learning more of the traits to find out what’s ultimately available. I love what you are doing with some of them which will definitely help with problems some classes have experienced such as the Ranger Long Bow speed issues as well as healing problems for Thiefs.

I, however, have 1 concern regarding pets (specifically turrets but it’s a global issue). The shield thing is a good idea because it will make turret engineers viable for boss fights who use ranged attacks, however, I have to wonder will anything else be done to ensure that the turrets will have a proper viability. We’ve seen the steps of increasing health multiple times, increasing their defense ratings, but has that helped at all? I’m still seeing reports of turrets being instakilled by AOEs to this day in the forums. Until the weakness of all pets (including turrets) is addressed I can totally see turret shields going down after 4 seconds then instantly being destroyed in one hit with an extended cooldown time making the engineer useless for a long duration until they are back up again in PVE.

So here’s the problem. Turrets have never had a problem with projectiles. Never. AOE’s however have been a huge issue for all pets. This is exactly what I was afraid of. Apparently no one at Anet plays the engineer so they haven’t gotten the message yet. Turrets need a certain immunity to AOE damage output. A 4 second shield to prevent projectiles from hitting them is just about as useful as 3 tiny dropplets of glue from a kit switch.

I sincerely hope they are doing more in this tree to improve turrets before reaching the grand master in trait they have just proposed because turrets will remain useless as they always have been until this change is made.

I am however happy they are working on the trait lines and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of these improvements before making final judgement.

Aeolus.3615:

On trinity games players cant find groups if not healer dps or tank, here on gw2 a player cant find group if not zerker,or dont know how to exploit dungeons…

Both are bad systems.

Exactly my point. Trinity Lite is far superior, you’re expected to play a role, you’re expected to help, there are systems of damage like DoTs available, and CC actually works, the system allows for people to put groups of well organized teams together but ultimately it’s not necessary.

Trinity Lite FTW.

This game has needed a LOTRO style wardrobe since the beginning, and they do need lots more clothes it’s really limited compared to other titles. People used to make the excuse that it was limited only because it was a new game, well we’re coming up on 2 year mark here folks, they said they were hiring, surely they have some graphics folks down there in the dungeon somewhere who can churn out some clothing from time to time or armor redux that don’t look like what’s already in the game, but with fire.

Boysenberry.1869:

Well…let’s see…Lion’s Arch was attacked by crazy lettuce.

As far as I know (I rarely bother with it) the Mystic Toilet still involves flushing all your hard-earned gold down the drain.

No new (permanent) zones have been added. The only new activities have been the two week living story features that come and then poof, gone.

Ascended gear expanded from jewelry to weapons and armor too. Crafting levels went up to 500 on most disciplines to allow Ascended crafting.

WvW had some work done on it. A new Edge of the Mists map was added for players to beat each other up on while they wait for a spot on a borderland. Borderland maps were also modified a bit.

The same dungeons pretty much (one new path in Twilight Arbor). Maybe a couple more Fractals tossed in. Most new fancy skins introduced have been Gem Store only.

You forgot to mention that the ascended requires an enormous grind especially for gold for materials that are still too RNG – esque to obtain the normal way and that’s if they had enough mats to begin with to get over the 475 hump to reach 500.

CC, Condition damage, and Healing builds all need a huge boost and a huge rework. Also, they could actually make some builds to allow some to be more defensive without breaking their system. The game was actually well balanced at launch and then they made some major errors in an effort to keep esports going at the cost of PVE that they’ve never recovered from.

As far as trinity is concerned they could easily turn this game into Trinity Lite which would allow for people to make trinity threat control groups without breaking it. It wouldn’t take much but a few tweaks.

ESO isn’t anything like WoW LOL it’s not using a quest system for the purpose of advancement they just added some to make it more interesting for the people coming from themeparks who expect it.

Wildstar is also not WoW 2.0 it’s actually innovative which is what I expected from GW2 when I heard of all of the projects and the prelaunch designs (you know the ones that were dropped after launch) were going to make this game into. Sure it has animated toons ooh aaah doesn’t make it a WoW clone sorry.

And finally, I don’t know what they are going to do, they need to step it up in the updating and fixing departments that’s for sure because it’s going on 2 years now and the same basic combat problems are here, the same issues with the content and ui are here, and the problems with PVE balance are still here. Nothings changed from what I can see. Sure some of these titles might be in a different pay class but that doesn’t mean they won’t pull away from this game when they launch, casual or not.

Trust me there’s far far too much RNG in the game as it is. Rare loot isn’t the problem the problem is certain types of loots being so rare some people never get anything. It’s the D3 problem all over again. I would have thought that they’d have found a better solution than becoming gold sellers for money but it hasn’t happened yet. Waiting on the day when they’ll realize that severe RNG and DR restrictions don’t help the game in the long run.

Nivessa.4258:

Seven out of eight of the classes have some form of pets, thief elite, necro minions, mesmer clones, guardian spirit weapons, ranger pets, etc. As a mostly Mesmer only player, I’d like to suggest a “fix” for all these pets in the game. Right now as it is, the pets get wiped out by aoes, mesmer clones and phants are a huge problem with that, due to being half of the classes damage, and I can feel for the other pet classes too with this issue. My suggestion would be to reduce the damage that pets take from aoe damage… maybe by 25% or so? If that’s too low or high then change the value, but the pets don’t move out of aoe attacks, and often just die too quickly to be of use. This would greatly help all these classes when it comes to all the zerg content/dungeons/wvw and make them feel more useful.

Thanks for reading!

~Niv

Actually in order for pets to remain useful, they’ll need to reduce AOE damage by 90% and make certain pets not autotargetable by skills like the #1 skill. This would completely revolutionize the pet skills and make certain pets useful again. Until they do that, no amount of armor or extra hitpoints will make the difference. Keep in mind this has been rehashed multiple times by multiple mmo’s out there for years now and the solution is obvious because everything they’ve tried thus far has already been done multiple times before.

EscataFlayer.8470:

3 tiers of groups.

Tank
Dps
Healer

I love the fact they made each glass so variant that they have abilities to do each, but I don’t like the fact that there is no set goals in a group. It’s just build your dps, build your own survival, give some support, face roll a dungeon. Even in gw1 if you set enemies up, they still followed a set target. Here it changes to attack person doing highest dps, or highest toughness. But bounces around between them. I loved the three tier group make up because it made having a group seem more realistic in that they relied on each other. This is heartbreaking that it is not implemented in the game. I want my groups back to needing me to be my godly monk build :/ instead I run around and just kill targets no matter the class.

Does anyone else feel this way?

I do I love games that have eliminated the requirement that you absolutely must have this to function anywhere in the world but at the same time made it available still so that if you wish to make groups like this than you can. I call it Trinity Lite because you don’t HAVE to have them to function which eliminates the problems of not having enough tanks/healers but also keeps the ability of people to form groups like this so that balance and harmony becomes the gameplay experience.

The problems in this title however aren’t limited to the lack of trinity, what they’ve done here is destroyed even the basic usefulness of their OWN trinity that they touted as the replacement. Now the only effective method in PVE because of the nerfs and the problems those nerfs cause, is burst zerker.

If they took steps to restore CC/Condition dps to PVE and actually allowed the builds in traits to give players a tank/healer option that made the difference (thus dramatically improving healing numbers in grandmaster blocks) it would restore combat diversity to PVE and improve the game overall. There have been many many suggestions on how to do this effectively even by well-known gaming personalities all of which have gone ignored for months.

The whole blaming game people experienced in WoW btw actually doesn’t happen in games with trinity lite because everyone is still pretty much in charge of their own survival and the healing/tanking is an added bonus to help control bosses and crowds.

In the beginning, Engineers were the go-to class for conditions/healing/CC We could build a well rounded build or a specialized build and it didn’t matter. Over time however things changed that totally destroyed these roles, and the engineer being so specialized felt the biggest brunt of it. Instead of improving the burst damage the devs chose for whatever reason to leave out key bonuses that we originally thought were to be in key patches to improve the engineer’s burst output to solve the problem of grouping.

So let’s review:

1. condition damage in PVE has never recovered from the early series of nerfs that started in Sept 2012 in their efforts to balance PVP before their balance team learned to separate the PVE PVP numbers/behaviors.
2. CC was totally nerfed to oblivion with skills that made the mob not resistant but immune entirely to their effects.
3. healing has never had it’s day in this title and should have been more than a side note imo.

Basically all of the things that engineers excel at in any build are taken away and we’re left with the leftovers of combat. Right after the final nail in our coffin we began to see people telling engineers that they’d prefer a different class. We also started seeing people being booted from groups with the LFG tool when that began for the same reasons.

The builds people offer above this will most likely show you ways of extending your debuffs and dots however there’s a problem with their theories. They forget that all of the other classes are all doing the same things with their skills even in burst builds so you can’t personally stack anything because most of your damage will be nullified by other people in the party who are playing burst builds no doubt but who’s skills will both be doing debuffing and doting everything you are. It’s a flaw in the overall design of the games combat and it won’t be fixed easily. Meanwhile engineers will remain on the back burner for many a month until they find a solution.

E Tan.7385:

why all berserker warrior ( and other class ) because saddly the pve is only mob with huge pve pool and poor fight strat. ( dodge… )

So, to avoid turn many things ( 95% of the game ) boring, its better to kill stuff fast. so -> berserker.

The game have a poor management of crow control skill, many conditions are not efficient enough to disable ( like in GW1 where interrupt / control curse and condi was excelent ) so, only solution left -> pur DPS.

As long as Anet wont rework MANY aspect of their game gameplay it will NEVER change, whatever the % crit damage nerf with the ferocity.

I don’t think Ferocity will change anything either. There’s still the weakness of condition damage, the lack of any usefulness in CC, and healing is a total joke so until they improve the rest of those mechanics especially in boss/champion fights the rest will simply be a memory of a time where there was balanced PVE combat and more than 1 role.

rabidsmiles.5926:

FLiP.7680:

xsquared.1926:

I prefer playing other classes.

Omg i laugh so kitten the necromancer gif !

+1 I am still laughing at the necro one

I tried playing warrior and was bored of it by level 10. Maybe I just enjoy the pain but I like ranger and necro. I like the playstyles of the casters and the medium armor users. Heavies don’t interest me in the least…sad because they are the most wanted right now /sigh

I think the Engineer is close but they needed to include a water reservoir exploding in that photo to be a bit more accurate. Those two skills seem to be the only ones really worth it in that class.

1. a simple toggle to turn off engineer backpacks.
2. a currency system that allows for the direct purchase of T6 materials from city vendors including all of the stones. (Karma, Laurels, just no more RNG)
3. restriction of ascended armors and weapons to the fractals because that’s ultimately what this set was designed for. (no more open world/WVW)
4. no more dungeons for LS event endings.
5. monthly metas/DEs that are permanently added to the world in fluctuating zone locations to improve world participation.
6. monthly new armor addition to the rewards in game.
7. conversion of racial armor vendors from gold to karma.
8. addition of minigames with props outfits and special equipment (like Fishing, Farming, mini catching)
9. conversion of PVP armor skins to PVE vendors for karma.
10. more diversity in all classes (new weapons, new skills)
11. account bound dyes
12. buttons on the front ui for consumables, minis, spec switching.
13. dual spec in PVE and the ability to switch between 2 armor sets/specs with a command or button on ui.
14. a PTR to test each new balance patch to ensure QC.
15. the ability to search specific armor types in the TP
16. add certain consumables to the skill bar so they can be used in place of skills (like traps)
17. Everything that Orpheal listed xD

I think people are missing the point here, we’re talking about not having to play PVP in order to wear the armors from PVP thus expanding the number of options for PVE players. Some armors on the medium side were actually originally listed as PVE armors and then suddenly switched.

Nage.1520:

Yargesh.4965:

This is the first release that has been in my opinion bad. That they can’t seem to find their footing on this one is frustrating true. I am sure that they will go over this to find out why.
I have still really enjoyed the vast majority of the releases and found them to be until now really minimally bugged.

This is the worst by far, but it’s not the first severely bugged living story patch either. Often it’s just stability, crashes and a few bugged achievements, but as time goes on, I find my frustration level going up.

I don’t remember any LS patch that didn’t come with 3-4 updates on the following day.

That’s been my experience too. One of the major reasons I uninstalled a while back was due to this issue and I told them then like I will not PTR PTR PTR. There’s a reason why every major MMO out there uses this method, because it works.

Also, after this thread is gone I highly suspect it won’t be the last one on this subject. This tends to pop back up over and over, no one’s getting the message.

I do like the comments on the Asia market tho. I thought that was prudent. Makes me wonder if the CDI will go thru now or if it’s a delay.

Wonders if there are a few hundred variations on Legolas!…

JTGuevara.9018:

Let me just say I like this game. ArenaNet did a great job with this, thank you.
However, how can we truly, meaningfully improve this game? To make it grow?

The living story was an attempt to give us a new experience but it fell short. This game needs something new for pve & living story is not it.

I agree. I’m waiting on a CDI about content. They did one on personal progression, the one they are doing now in the forums is on fractals of which I don’t like and won’t participate in since it wasn’t the reason I bought the game (quite the opposite) so I’m waiting on the CDI about content in the open world PVE hopefully that one is next because I have alot to say about it.

OmaiGodman.2098:

PVP seems to have most of the cool armors I hope eventually they’ll also come to PvE.

Yep add it to the long list of armors that PVE players and RPers can’t access.

Raine.1394:

I’ve been playing WoW again. I find it far less grindy. I’m currently doing battlegrounds working on a PvP set. The grind will be over shortly…unlike the grind in GW2.

I dunno I left because they planned on going backwards with their design in WoD apparently they thought MoP wasn’t grindy enough even with the Timeless Isle points for returning players. When I learned they decided against upgradeable armor/weapons in WoD I unsubbed.

OP I’m waiting on the changes Chris proposed at the end of the first CDI thread.

cranos.5913:

Dual.8953:

cranos.5913:

Dual.8953:

they load up the LFG and see it full of “ZerkWarr” party requests. Pretty much nothing but them. This is usually enough to make them shy away, for fear of being mocked and judged for their “inferior” build. That’s at least my experience as an MMO green horn. I’d probably still be like that if hadn’t met a nice guild recruiter.

Again, just had a look at the LFG tool. COF p1 I see 10 party requests come and go and 2 of them were zerker. The idea there are only zerker parties in LFG is ridiculous. The vast majority of it are casual to average players that don’t care about gear or speed.

Maybe true, but it’s not everyone’s perception. This idea that Zerkers have taken over dungeons and kicked everyone else out will remain until either the devs destroy the PvE meta to the point that it really doesn’t matter what you run, or they release a metric in game showing everyone who plays that Meta dungeon runs are the minority.

Personally, I’d be happy if they added a hard mode where the enemies were more then huge damage sinks.

Those people haven’t tried pugging. I did it since the start and I had all kinds of gear. Never ever had any problems for over a year. LFG now looks exactly the same as when it came out as well.

Also, have you ever played other MMOs? There’s always a meta, a best gear/build. Now if it got changed up it could be different from zerker, which I assume will happen at some point, but then another gear will be best and the “elitists” will want only that. Then I guess all casuals will start hating that gear set.

GW2 is already incredibly forgiving when it comes to gear and builds, allowing everyone to play everything. I don’t get what more you can ask for.

That meta actually doesn’t exist in games with a wider diversity in builds. There are those who try to keep that meta alive in games with a much better system of personalization however in those games upon closer inspection you can pretty much choose anything you want to do and still remain min/maxed while enjoying skills that are more to your playstyle. I agree many games aren’t diverse enough to do that with but let’s not discount those are are diverse enough. Also, let’s not forget the nerfs, completely unnecessary trait changes in PVE, and lack of certain weapon types in this title that add to the problem.

Let me just say that just because there are a few casuals still here doesn’t negate the overall problems in the game nor does it automatically make false that there are essential issues that has driven away roughly the bulk of the casual crowd. This company’s game appealed to the casual crowd prelaunch which accounted for a very large bulk of their initial sales, why shouldn’t a more casual design be in the works. I agree about the CDI thing, I’m hoping that Chris’s statement at the end of the first CDI thread about what’s upcoming is accurate because that would restore the experience for me to closer to what the pre-launch interview promised.

Hannelore.8153:

Peetee.9406:

Here’s the problem,

All the speed runners, min/maxers, and zerker heavy onlys have chased the casual player base away from the dungeons.

ANet looks at their metrics and sees no one in the dungeons. They see that the TA:Aetherblade update was unsuccessful. Most players like myself did it once and will never do it again or simply passed on it. Meanwhile they look at Lion’s Arch and there’s 10k people doing it. You have an update that interests 10000 people at any given moment or one that interests maybe 50 people in total a day. Its not a very hard decision as to what’s better for business.

Not pointing the finger at you or anyone in particular but its the price that gets paid for being an kitten. Hardcore WvW guilds push players away, ANet stops doing WvW updates. sPvP players rip on people that play ele in tournies and rage quit on skyham, ANet stops doing PvP updates. In this case, the same is true for dungeons.

If I could vote this up ten times i would. People didn’t want casuals playing this game, and have gone out of their way to ensure it, then wonder why they only get updates to the parts of the game that causals still play.

Here’s a hint – 99% of players are casuals, and Anet is a game company that needs money. Unfortunately they can’t make that money off of a minority.

I actually saw a topic in general discussion asking for gear check functionality on LFG.

Yep we warned them. Tho there’s still a problem. As a filthy casual, I can attest to not being interested in poorly balanced PVE combat. Casuals love being as unique as possible, we love diversity, and we love PVE combat that doesn’t require minmaxing burst zerker damage, we like using our brains, trapping opponents combat that isn’t defensive but that can be very subtle. When I first started playing I took delight in throwing down turrets on my engineer, dropping some mines, and aggroing a mob or group of mobs to blow them to kingdom come when they stepped over the trap I had laid for them. I was able to actually do similar things on my Ranger as well. I remember actually being able to CC multiple mobs or champions. Those were the days when skills actually mattered.

When you remove this type of combat from the PVE experience, it becomes boring exceedingly so, because everyone eventually does what they are doing now, choosing cookie cutter builds, using only certain skills because they are effective and haven’t been nerfed, and that’s assuming they are still playing.

They can add content all they want but until they fix these basic problems, like PVE combat balance, they won’t be getting many of their casuals back. PVE balance is essential (for example for engineers) starting with the restoration of all of the other kit refinements that were removed and the damage reduction we suffered in PVE it won’t solve the underlying problems they created when trying to “balance” PVP without taking into consideration the impact it would have on PVE.

Rewards are also a big factor for casuals and when you don’t have a good reward system (like using things like DR or way too much RNG even for crafting) you scare casuals away and the only casual crowd left is RPers.

Yamsandjams.3267:

coglin.1867:

I disagree with your “fun to play against” portion of the comment. In no way should “fun to play against” be part of the balance thought process in my opinion.

Actually, ANet has specifically stated that they use that perspective in their balancing decisions, and I feel it is actually important.

…

The same argument can be applied to the engineer’s kit refinement changes (i.e. 100nades builds, double super elixirs), although they perhaps went a little bit overboard on that since kit refinement has virtually vanished from all forms of play.

Couldn’t agree with you more. It was 1 skill that was out of balance but they changed 5, and in no way does the 4 second shield of medkit makeup for all of the other useful skills this trait provided.

It’s the same kind of mentality with the pets altho on the opposite end of the spectrum. They don’t go far enough because they’re afraid (rather ignorantly if I may say so considering this has been done before and worked) that pets will somehow become more powerful. They won’t mind you but there’s that fear.

Meanwhile pets (and kits) will continue to be ignored as a viable play option because the system remains broken due to a fear that’s not based on history (because game development history actually provides options for improving pets with systems already tried while this game was in it’s early development stages). This isn’t a new problem and it’s certainly not different, I find people would like us all to think that defense hots dots immunities etc are all somehow “new” ideas like no other mmo combat routine ever existed before this game and somehow since this game has no trinity those concepts are completely different when they aren’t they are basically the same problem rehashed.

CHIPS.6018:

In GW1 it takes me 2 minutes to switch my build.
In GW2 it takes me 3 months to switch my build (from one ascended gear to another set).

And this is just one character. We can also talk about alt-characters. They all need one ascended set. And then if we want to try something else and switch its build… >_>

Surely most people sees a huge problem with this design.

I think this should have been titled, this system isn’t diverse enough for alts, rather than the title it has because all one has to do in order to see it’s vertical is to see the progression/power creep from rare, exotic, ascended.

Now as far as switching I completely agree, it’s completely useless to have so many sets with certain stats especially with the requirements to grind one set out with fixed stats. I agree OP we need a better system.

It would be nice if it were a respec cost like the traits system where you choose the stat-sets you need.

Thobek.1730:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

You’re wrong.

Unlike WoW where you NEED to grind the gear to complete the next tier of content, in GW2 you don’t.

There is gear to get only if you like the look of it. Some of it gives you a very minor boost in stats but doesn’t allow you to see or play any content someone with only rares can experience.

So long as WvW exists there is a need because the higher stats no matter how high (which is irrelevant btw) create an unfair advantage and until that changes, until ascended gear can only be used in Fractals there will be a need to grind.

This is fascinating to me because here we have yet another person validating what some of us have been saying all along about the grind system added for anything and how it’s truly not an alternative to standard mmo play. (the only thing missing is raids and it would literally be a WoW clone under the hood)

I find it equally interesting that they put in post launch all of the things they said this game would never be but at the same time they haven’t used that same mmo history to fix the simplest, easiest problems this game faces when it comes to abuses of loot, pet based class builds, role balance in combat, and cosmetic problems like the backpacks on engineers. There’s a reason people like me are astonished and that’s because they haven’t used these simple yet effective examples to improve the game, while simultaneously using the bad systems that harm players with the excuse of bots like DR.

Their first CDI post ended with some very good ideas on improving the classes with new weapons and skills and I truly hope for their sake that this is the path they go down however, like the previous patch demonstrated (specifically with engineer turrets) the game will not be fixed by putting bandaids on certain areas of the game while the overall system is flawed at the core (which is Turrets/summons needing an AOE damage immunity of 90% and needing automatic target immunity which means players and AI all have to directly click on the turret to target it, no more autotargeting from skills) and this is just one of many many problems that were already cured by other titles long ago.

We’ve waiting a very long time for the game we were promised prelaunch to come out isn’t it time we see at least some of the things we were told would be in this game that was to make it an alternative to the other humdrum games out there?

I have a better fix, allow us to bind these attacks to the left or right mouse clicks.

I play another title that does alot of ground targeting (not as much as this but there is alot) and having it as a mouse click rather than using a keyboard key helps out tremendously on keeping the hands healthy and problem free while running around the world blowing up things. I just think if they did this for the #1 attack at the very least it would make things so much easier.

Is it still not affected by skills that affect pistols from the engineer trait tree or did they fix that finally?

Minos.5168:

Here’s my predictions:

Initially:
Infinite Fishing Pole in the Gem Store for 1000 gems.
Fishing pole at vendor with 10% chance to break on use for 10s.

2 months later:
Infinite Fishing Pole with Watchwork Lure for 1200 gems. 20% chance to generate coral, clams, seaweed, or watchwork sprockets.

Accurate prediction if ever I saw one LOL

I do agree with OP however fishing and minigames like fishing (like capturing minis for example) would have been a great addition to this game title. I just don’t think they are as invested in this as they claimed to be prelaunch. (invested in the fun factor)

Archmortal.1027:

tigirius.9014:

I’m also not impressed that they haven’t fixed basic problems that other game titles hashed out years ago in PVE

This is a sentiment I’ve seen a lot since the game launched, and it’s a sentiment that needs to be reminded that those other game titles had a lot more time under their belt than GW2 did, and does now.

Although in another year I’ll go ahead and start agreeing with you.

And that’s an excuse I’ve heard alot from people over time but even things we thought would be fixed by the 1 year mark are still problems today. It can’t be that hard to implement these things when other games have had the exact same problems under the hood and their solutions worked perfectly fine for years now.

Personally I’m waiting on the CDI proposed changes to advancement/progression in the first CDI post in these forums before I get serious. I’m also not impressed that they haven’t fixed basic problems that other game titles hashed out years ago in PVE that would greatly improve diversity and make pet heavy specs viable again as well as restoring the problems that come from having only 1 mode of combat (Burst Zerker DPS) so they can finally at long last have an actually diverse build system where CC, Healing, and Condition damage are right up there in usefulness of Zerker. It’s really not that difficult when history has done most of the work for you on what to do in many of these issues.

I’m also waiting on a toggle for engineer backpacks so that we can actually USE these backpacks from LS events in the first place.

runeblade.7514:

tigirius.9014:

These turret fixes will be useless if they haven’t addressed the tendency for them to be insta-destroyed in large groups by the constant use of AOE’s.

In order to fix that problem all pets/summons need a global 90% immunity to AOE damage and the ability to not be autotargeted by single target skills.

They’ll continue to be unwise choices until they are given proper defense.

In large zerg WvW, there is no way that it will need to be fixed.

If you mean sPvP, just spread your turrets out. I spread my turrets to encircle the objective points so that the enemy will aoe me and not the turrets.

I mean PVE in which even when spread out wide swings still cause turrets to die almost instantly even with Veterans and no amount of extra hitpoints will fix that.

Retsuko.2035:

Fun idea, but anet keeps saying they won’t do what other mmo’s have already done. And fishing with a rod for fish is already done

Funny that they say that but they are doing it anyway by rehashing the very experiments that have already been worked through years ago by many a company under the hood.

Wonder what could possibly harm the playerbase by listening to us about things like fishing. They could have minigames, cosmetics expand it into housing and props, they could even have fishing poles and yes they could make money off this too.

I think a simpler approach is in order honestly like giving boons to the use of gadgets, restoring many of the functions of kit refinement that were unnecessarily changed out of the blue just to nerf that 1 heal (like caltrops when switching to toolkit), and increasing the damage bonuses or even giving gadgets damage themselves (for those items that don’t normally have any damage on them) instead of some terribly tiny hardly beneficial debuff.

I also think that it’s high time that Anet listens to history and fixes things like pets/summons so that they aren’t instakilled by every mob when summoned by giving them a 90% AOE immunity and preventing them from being auto-targeted by players or mobs when using skills that auto-target (like #1 skills).

I also think tho that moving around certain traits is the answer that part is very true they have traits that are hardly worth it in the grand master section and traits that use up a 5 point selection that should easily be a tiny trait selection (like 50% faster stamina regen).

Dabrixmgp.4758:

Anyone else really hate when their character says their line for getting really good loot only to find out it was not actually an item? I get all excited when opening bags from events and hear that only to find out it was some stupid crafting material I will never use. I be all like “Sweet an exotic!” Nope just more worthless Bloodstone dust let me add it to the 15 other stacks I have collecting dust on an Alt. Its like Christmas morning. Get all excited then BAM! dreams dashed.

Yep I do. Sadly like most posters I have gotten used to it and don’t even check anymore because I know that it’s nothing special.