Guild Wars 2

I actually want this NPC back for some of the basic skins… I bet there are other places to get them, but I need to get rid of these tokens xD

There’s gotta be a list of the Mad King jokes somewhere.

If you remember during halloween, he was walking around LA telling “racist” jokes about the races in GW2.

Journey is not a PC game, it’s a PS3 exclusive. PC GOTY is what we care about, since we’re playing on PC.

And GW2 = that game.

Oh wait, you’re just a troll.

You were apparently bored of the game 3 months ago, Fernling, yet you’re still here doomsaying. I see you and nofo have something in common. It’s obvious you’re a fanboy for some other game and are coming here to stir up a fuss.

Well sorry to break it to you, but GW2 is an excellent game with the most GOTY awards for 2012, and is doing very well and making record amounts of money. Just the way it goes.

I guess spreading misinformation and lies spices things up in your otherwise boring life xD

Fernling.1729:

xiv.7136:

nofo.8469:

xiv.7136:

a) GW2 won nearly all the GOTY awards for 2012, including all the major publications:

- IGN
- G4
- PCGamer
- Gamespot
- etc
as well as minor ones like Time, Zam, etc (lol)

b) Blizzard has already downsized and is continuing to downsize, and Vivendi is even looking to sell it off

c) The playerbase of GW2 has increased, we were there and actually saw the server capacity go up in both regions all at the same time in December

d) Stop spreading misinformation. If you don’t want to play the game fine, spending so much time trying to make everyone else believe it’s dying when it’s actually growing is just weird xD

From what I can see:

1) IGN was journey, G4 was borderlands 2, PCGamer was mass effect 3. Gamespot was journey.

2) Not relevant.

3) You are beyond hope if you think there are more than 2 million active players.

4)Next?

Everything you wrote above is a lie, pretty much

http://uk.gamespot.com/shows/best-of-2012-videos/?event=pc_winner20121217

Gamespot video, winner 2012 = GW2

IGN 2012 game of the year = GW2

Best PC Game: http://www.ign.com/wikis/best-of-2012/Best_PC_Game

Best PC MMO game: http://www.ign.com/wikis/best-of-2012/Best_PC_MMO_Game

I’d link the rest but I can’t be bothered really.

Stop spreading your bull and go play whatever game you want to.

IGN GOTY goes to Journey.

Gamespot rated GW2 like #8 game of the year.

G4 goes to Borderlands 2.

It won a couple best mmos, but really not a win considering the new mmos in 2012.

I just linked the pages from IGN and gamespot

Gamespot GOTY = GW2

http://uk.gamespot.com/best-of-2012/platform-awards/index.html?page=1

The Winner

GUILD WARS 2
“Guild Wars 2’s exploration value and creative restructuring of old concepts deserve praise—but so, too, does the moment-to-moment gameplay.” – Kevin VanOrd

How is this difficult?

Fernling.1729:

Lol, I was thinking he was full of it. I knew for sure it wasn’t IGN goty, and was pretty sure about the rest.

check my links

nofo is a liar, pure and simple

the fact that you were so keen to believe him is interesting

nofo.8469:

xiv.7136:

a) GW2 won nearly all the GOTY awards for 2012, including all the major publications:

- IGN
- G4
- PCGamer
- Gamespot
- etc
as well as minor ones like Time, Zam, etc (lol)

b) Blizzard has already downsized and is continuing to downsize, and Vivendi is even looking to sell it off

c) The playerbase of GW2 has increased, we were there and actually saw the server capacity go up in both regions all at the same time in December

d) Stop spreading misinformation. If you don’t want to play the game fine, spending so much time trying to make everyone else believe it’s dying when it’s actually growing is just weird xD

From what I can see:

1) IGN was journey, G4 was borderlands 2, PCGamer was mass effect 3. Gamespot was journey.

2) Not relevant.

3) You are beyond hope if you think there are more than 2 million active players.

4)Next?

nofo, everything you wrote above is a lie

http://uk.gamespot.com/shows/best-of-2012-videos/?event=pc_winner20121217

Gamespot video, winner 2012 = GW2

IGN 2012 game of the year = GW2

Best PC Game: http://www.ign.com/wikis/best-of-2012/Best_PC_Game

Best PC MMO game: http://www.ign.com/wikis/best-of-2012/Best_PC_MMO_Game

I’d link the rest but I can’t be bothered really.

Stop spreading your bull and go play whatever game you want to.

a) GW2 won nearly all the GOTY awards for 2012, including all the major publications:

- IGN
- G4
- PCGamer
- Gamespot
- Massively
- etc
as well as minor ones like Time, Zam, etc (lol)

b) Blizzard has already downsized and is continuing to downsize, and Vivendi is even looking to sell it off

c) The playerbase of GW2 has increased, we were there and actually saw the server capacity go up in both regions all at the same time in December

d) Stop spreading misinformation. If you don’t want to play the game fine, spending so much time trying to make everyone else believe it’s dying when it’s actually growing is just weird xD

We recently visited NCsoft and came away confident that 4Q OP is likely to reach a record high of more than W100bn. Based on our conversation with the management, we estimate Guild Wars 2 sales at W118bn in 4Q (vs. W46bn in 3Q)

Yes, in case you were wondering.

That is a huge success.

-Edit: And… it’s releasing in China pretty soon.

Drew.1865:

If the game had a sub which would help with the bot issue, proper testing of content before release (insert snowflake here), no diminishing returns, a dungeon finder, wvw without culling,no rng gambling, ridiculous banning and forum moderation (closing critical threads) then I would agree.

Subs don’t help with bots.

WoW has a sub and is full of bots, much more than GW2 has.

In WoW there are bots in sPVP battlegrounds, making your team lose. There are exploiters all over the arena ladders. Subs don’t do a thing about any of that.

I agree with dungeon finders (gw2lfg.com) and no culling, hate culling xD

The game is doing very well:

- Most of the 2012 Game of the Year awards

- Other MMOs including WoW are in decline (check Vivendi’s numbers and the fact that 1/3rd of WoW servers are dead and need to be merged, but won’t)

- ArenaNet is still hiring more people while everyone else is laying people off

- Servers were actually increased in capacity in end December due to complains about them being too full, they all went from Full to High so more people could make chars

- The game is earning truckloads of money for ArenaNet, there was a research report from just a week ago from a brokerage firm saying that Q1 2013 was going to be huge on the back of growing GW2 sales

These are the facts.

Why am I not surprised it’s Zeldain and Kakeru spouting this bull about the game being in trouble again, like every day.

Guys, get over it, GW2 is already a huge success. The population is high, the game is popular, it’s the best MMO out there and it’s still growing.

But please, feel free to continue doomsaying since it keeps you here and enjoying yourself xD

Kakeru.2873:

xiv.7136:

I have fun every day in GW2.

There will be no new MMO that will beat it, quite simply.

Putting hopes on TESO is a major mistake guys, it’s exactly like SWTOR – an untested team with no experience cashing in on a major franchise (morrowind to skyrim).

And this folks is the definition of a fanboy. One who equates to thinking.

Game X > Game Y > Game Z rather than Game X + Game Y + Game Z. People like you are the reason that the gaming industry is changing for the bad, your shortsighted fanboy eyes, ruin every game that isn’t the one your pledge your alligence to.

There are amazing MMOS coming out in the future.

Black Desert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNtB5DoJ6OI
ArcheAge http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Jjg-TLBTZXg#t=165s
Elder Scrolls Online http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlEipFtHw7o
Wild Star

Really? Those are really minor games with the exception of TESO. You’re talking about games like Tera or TSW there. I’ve played nearly every major MMO that has come out in the last decade, and I can tell you it’s very clear when big things happen.

When WoW came out, that was a big deal. It was so much better than EQ – and yet EQ had its fanboys who defended it to the hilt. The same happened with GW2, it’s a huge leap forward compared to old MMOs, not because everything it does is new but because it ties in all those ideas into a great package, just like WoW did.

Anyway – Elder Scrolls. TESO says you can steal objects in the game world. See crafting mats you need? You can steal it?

Really? Think about that for a moment, an entire server of people able to steal things. There will be nothing on any table in Tamriel within 20 minutes of the servers being switched on.

It’s stuff like that which I find alarming about TESO. It’s being developed by Zenimax (very EA-like company) and not Bethesda (geniuses behind Skyrim etc), and they are marketing it with the same obvious bull that EA used for SWTOR.

GW2 has stayed within reasonable limits. It doesn’t do tank/healer/dps trinity, and has replaced it with a more organic tanky/glass/support type structure. It has dynamic events that allow the game world to “change” but not in impossible ways like TESO would have you believe.

Just be careful about hype. We know what bad hype is: SWTOR, Diablo 3, etc. Compared to those, GW2 has managed to keep a structured MMO game with a great metagame, while also making a lot of cool innovations that actually work within the game.

TESO is full of pipe dreams, and literally no reality to them at all.

I think I’m on 700 hours total and still loving it.

Lots I haven’t done, mostly because hanging around doing world PVP in wvw just makes the hours pass without me noticing xD

I have fun every day in GW2. It’s just the best gameplay, graphics and sound there is in a MMO, and with no need to grind endlessly and give up your life to a raid schedule to be viable.

There will be no new MMO that will beat it, quite simply. There’s nothing coming in the pipeline, and the other MMOs are old, ugly and boring.

Putting hopes on TESO is a major mistake guys, it’s exactly like SWTOR – an untested team with no experience cashing in on a major franchise (morrowind to skyrim).

GW2 is still is by far the best MMO on the market. And growing from a solid base.

Elder Scrolls online is going to be a disaster, it’s not the same team that made Morrowind/Skyrim/etc, it’s a new team of randoms, just like they did with SWTOR (it wasn’t Bioware people, it was randoms brought in by EA).

Another bot genocide? xD

Sekin.7803:

12 players vs 1 thief and the thief win by killing all 12… wvw always have one server hugely outman the other 2… stuff like that. Doesn’t make sense… well I do not care now.

12 v 1 thief and thief wins?

Please

Anyway, you’ll be back… maybe as a thief xD

And yet getting a mesmer to portal the kitten golems in WvW is like pulling teeth xD

Actually now that prime time is in full swing, it’s obvious the game is growing. Everything is zerged and there’s overflow/queues.

Not only have there not been server merges, but server capacity has actually been increased since launch

ArenaNet is not only not firing, they are still hiring even more staff. And the only thing they’re hiring them for is GW2.

This game is already huge, and is on the way up.

Oglaf.1074:

I find the screenshot posted in this thread of the half-naked elf dude to be the most threatening armour I’ve seen in years.

ahaha

There’s plenty of complaining on the WoW forums (and every MMO forum).

If anything it’s worse on WoW forums as it’s the same crowd as Diablo 3 – blizzard die-hards, mostly kids and immature adults stuck in gear-ego rat race who just reply with “lolol l2p nub qt” – whereas here we actually have most people with proper grammar and actual words.

I see lots of sPVP servers up. Just did a few games and it’s really fun. Newbies think warriors and thieves are the OP ones, when all they are good for is noob-killing. It’s the bunker guardians and elementalists that are actually a little on the OP side, but PVP balance wise, GW2 puts all other MMOs to shame.

The PVE side is full of people, even Orr is full these days for some incomprehensible reason. And WvW is kicking as usual.

I’m in LA overflow right now.

This game is doing very well by any indications, and it has sold a ton already.

It’s the other MMOs that are in trouble I think. I hear WoW has lost a lot of subs since MOP already, and SWTOR hasn’t been helped by F2P. Rift, Tera, TSW etc just never really went anywhere.

cNcHellShadow.7691:

xiv.7136:

It’s kind of interesting.

Just like real life.

If anything, more people should play GW2, understand its economy – and perhaps gain wisdom about real life they would not otherwise have.

Eh, no…A fantasy game where the end goal is to end a dragon’s life should NOT emulate real life. People play games to enjoy a “seperate” life. If you want the life simulator, play the Sims, or games similar to that. It should never be a job or a chore to achieve anything in a video game. And please do not confuse job/chore with challenge, as challenge is fine…as long as it doesn’t require you to make real life a second to the priority of obtaining an item in any game.

Here’s what’s really going to blow your mind.

Even in a high fantasy setting, people who aren’t fighting dragons or fighting wars against the undead will trade. Trading is an activity as old as human history. And where there are traders, there are market manipulators.

Even during famines, during plagues, during wars, even during dragon and undead invasions – the market remains.

And that’s a very real lesson for real life

It’s kind of interesting.

Just like real life.

If anything, more people should play GW2, understand its economy – and perhaps gain wisdom about real life they would not otherwise have.

1. Add people’s actual names rather than “X invader”

2. Nameplates disappear on downed / death

3. Evaluate downed state in WvW, perhaps change downed state so that people can be ressed by others, but all their downed abilities do not work

bonus: Portal to 10 total uses

It has most of the 2012 game of the year awards, is incredibly popular and is really a great game.

Just play it – the game’s quality speaks for itself.

It is by far the best MMO, with the best class balance, and shows how ugly and boring old MMOs like WoW are.

Seriously, I would love a tick option to double or even triple the boon/condition size on myself, target and even party frames.

The boons/conditions are so crazy important that I don’t mind giving up screen real estate to see them better, in fact I would love to do so.

Grats on MMO of the Year!

Another well deserved award, GW2 has most of the GOTY awards for 2012.

The flamers are just hilarious at this point when everyone is loving GW2 except for a few kids and immature adults stuck in boring, ugly pandaland

Tournament PVP features should be the priority.

PVEers have already been given fractals and all the event stuff which was an absolute truckload of content and stuff to do.

It’s PVPers’ turn!

You only really realise how big a deal the dodge system is when you go play a MMO without dodge.

Try playing another MMO and fighting mobs/players, you will keep trying to dodge the telegraphed, obviously avoidable attacks.

It’s so second nature from GW2 that the combat of those old MMOs just plays like clunky, undynamic garbage.

It’s like the first time you jump in a game – after that, going back to a game where your character has his/her feet glued to the floor and cannot jump just feels old and clunky.

Naoko.7096:

Nekroseth.5186:

Forums are currently 80% of negative impression players, or players that find immerse ammounts of things they could or would improve, and make suggestions.

But in game, you barely find anyone, who has negative impressions or opinions of the game.
Why is that?

I tell you, because the problems player feed to forums are so bad, it forced them out of game, and are waiting, and more likely hoping they get fixed, or implemented (as it as actually even promised).
The only reson they post at all is the hope this can get better.

I can not understand those, that say something like " no dont do it its bad and it is good as it is, thy arena net"
You bought the game, enjoy it, but dont destroy it for others, by stopping the imrpovement and suggestion that could or would improve the gameplay for others.
ADDING can rearely destroy games. But refusing to add, now that DOES.

That’s worrying. If there’s no one talking about the game online, it’s basically meaning that the map is empty or social element is not there. In mmorpgs I’ve been to, no matter how much the negative talkers comment in-game, they still log in and playing it.

I believe another factor is because there’s no world chat in GW2. It seems to be the only mmorpg that doesn’t have a world chat option. The world would be more livelier if there’s a world chat. This contributes to social interaction in-game and lessen it to look like a single player console game. The game needs to look more like a mmorpg.

tbh trolling map chat is one the main things I do while leveling.

Just start a conversation there’s always someone leveling somewhere in the area who will give as good as he/she takes.

Honestly, it’s not the whole forum.

It’s just a few people, and always the same ones.

People like Bojangles, Gehenna, Nayru, Powercat or something, etc who post negative stuff every day, you can see them starting negative threads or posting in every thread, often repeatedly to keep the thread going.

(why am I not surprised to see them in this thread already)

Many who complain do so out of love for the game and a desire to see improvements where they think the improvements are needed. It’s just a different, more emo form of fanboyism when you think about it.

It’s fine, let them do it. Complaints can lead to good additions to the game.

The game’s incredibly high quality speaks for itself

gkrit.9416:

I actually understand those who oppose my post. Everyone here has a valid opinion regarding this topic.

I just think there have been too many lines that have been blurred. I too was all for the “no trinity” model… sounds nice when you hear about it but i think its a slightly “confused” model.

Just read up on regen, protection, and how the classes work.

You’re confused because you’re just lacking knowledge of the meta, like people who show up in old games and don’t know what “aggro” means.

Fuz.5621:

gkrit.9416:

It seems that in the attempt of removing the “Holy Trinity” from the game, defining your character has become quite a problematic aspect of the game as there are quite a number of limitations one cannot overcome depending on which profession they choose.

We are told any character/profession can fulfill any role in the game. This is true to some extent… but if this was the case, why is it that some professions have a lower health pool compared to others?
This is one step in an attempt to restrict what a certain profession should do.

For example… What if I wanted to tank as an elementalist? The low health pool coupled with the stats of light armor would not even compare to that of a warrior.
This suggests that the devs still want professions to play out in a particular way.
So in the end, you wouldn’t choose to tank but instead do what an elementalist does best… Cast spells and not the the focus of enemy attacks.

There are also other factors you can bring into the equation such as skill functions and traits. However, the trait system has its own set of restrictions also making it difficult to define your character.

So, if you choose to have professions in an MMO, you can’t really avoid having a “Holy Trinity Model”.

I am against the trinity as a concept (it’s an old, stale and outdated mechanic with too many flaws), but you are right to some extent.

Will anyone do a fractals run at 30+ without one or two guardians? Thought so.

Sure. A good elementalist can do more than a guardian in fractal 30+

Guardians are great in high fractals but not at all necessary.

ProphetSword.5427:

Following up on what MaRko is saying above me, I think that the OP is overlooking an important factor. The classes are the way that they are not because they are based on the trinity, but because they are based upon classic RPG archetypes that have been around for decades.

Spellcasters, for example, have always been portrayed as weak individuals who have forgone training in the heavy armors so that they could focus on casting effectively. Heavy armor inhibits their ability to shape magic, so they don’t bother with it. Years of studying books make them weaker than the warrior types.

There’s also the middle ground, where rangers and thieves roam. They also ditch the heavy armor so that they are fast on their feet and can utilize stealth (heavy armor makes you way less stealthy). They are more hardy than the spellcasters.

Warrior types are bred for action. They train in the use of heavy armors and shields and keep their bodies in top physical condition, giving them more overall health. They hit hard and they die hard.

Now, I’m sure you know all this already. But, the point I’m trying to make is that these archetypes existed long before the Holy Trinity. But, they are not the Holy Trinity because in those old games, you did not need to have a certain party makeup to be successful.

I’m running two different tabletop campaigns at the moment that defy the Holy Trinity and the parties are successful.

In one, I have three spellcasters (a cleric, a druid and a mage). They have no “tanks” to protect them or any heavy armor, and yet, they do quite well despite only being 3rd level. In another, I have two thieves, who have no healing support, spellcasting, or tanking abilities. They also do quite well.

Guild Wars 2 is the same way. It does not have, nor does it require the Holy Trinity, but it preserves the archetypes in order to have the classic RPG feel that we are all familiar with. Success with these archetypes is up to you, but it should not require you to have a certain party makeup just to clear an area out.

Good post, different way of thinking about it, kudos for making perfect sense.

cesmode.4257:

I want to also add that while we are talking about “fight mechanics”, arenanet needs to get more creative and not just add tons of HP and one-shot abilities. Taking 5-10 minutes to kill a dungeon boss wouldn’t be all that bad if the mechanics were a bit more interesting than “stay out of red circles, and kite the boss”.

I know that this has been brought up many times in many threads, and I hope they have a team of people working on it.

You must not have done any 80 dungeons.

Fractals are full of crazy and complex mechanics.

Even CoF has a lot of mechanics for several bosses. And don’t get started on Arah.

gkrit.9416:

Here’s another example…

Warrior vs. Elementalist
Both use DPS builds.
Who will win? (take out player skill factor)
Answer… Warrior.
Reason… Double Health pool.

Now, post battle, that would be enough reason to force someone (playing as an elementalist) into playing a role where you sit in the backline rather than the frontline only because at this point in time it is what an elementalist does best as they cannot afford to be taking the focus of enemy fire.

Every class has the option of upping their stats (precision, power, vit etc) to help them build toward a certain playstyle. If someone wants to tank… they will invest in vit/tough (this would automatically make them more superior in this regard) and if someone wants to dps… they will invest in prec/power (this would automatically make them more effective at dealing damage as opposed to a tank build).

So the questions still stand:

What is the reason behind having a lower health pool for some classes?
Is it because they are ranged? If so, then why can elementalists use daggers for close quarter combat?
Or is it just because the devs have decided one profession should be able to take more damage than another (without the need to spec in it specifically) to encourage a more rambo/tank playstyle?

You don’t really understand the metagame at all.

Elementalists have lower health pools because they have multiple ways of regaining their health, via water abilities/combos and regen (similar to guardians), as well as multiple immunities. Other classes with low health pool like thieves have evades and stealth.

Warrior has high health pool because he has no access to regen, and few evades, no stealth, etc.

It all makes perfect sense, and it is remarkably balanced.

And yes, warriors can be totally fragile glass cannons and elementalists can be amazingly durable tanks.

You just don’t understand how the game works and are still stuck in old ways thinking that heavy armor = tank.

No one is out there standing in front of bosses eating the hits through heavy armor while being spam healed by some clothie in the back. That is the old way. We’re not in Pac-Man days any more.

gkrit.9416:

For example… What if I wanted to tank as an elementalist? The low health pool coupled with the stats of light armor would not even compare to that of a warrior.
This suggests that the devs still want professions to play out in a particular way.
So in the end, you wouldn’t choose to tank but instead do what an elementalist does best… Cast spells and not the the focus of enemy attacks.

Ironically the elementalist is one of the strongest tanks in the game, second only to guardian really.

So you kind of made the opposite point from what you wanted to make.

DPS meters, whatever. If you really want em, fine, you could stare at the combat log and/or videos to work that stuff out anyway.

Aggro meters will not work because there is no single number that represents a mob’s aggro like in old games like WoW or EQ. The AI in GW2 is much more complex than that and it works differently for different mobs/bosses too.

25 man raiding in WoW is already dead.

People are talking about 10-man raiding.

I think putting 10-man dungeons in GW2 is fine. Same gear as 5-mans, add some difficulty and mechanics and voila.

Hell, if you want to shortcut, just make 10-man explorables of the current dungeons and the fractals to start off with, and see how that goes down with the players.

I think putting protection and regeneration on the same classes is why we see bunkers ending up too strong (in the case of guardian/ele) – perhaps split them up, or perhaps change protection from a straight 33% damage prevention to something like +500 toughness, to allow these classes to build more offensively and end up in a more balanced state.

Equally it’s possible that crit damage % scales too high, and should perhaps be hard capped around the 60 crit damage mark, reducing the instances of over-scaling burst.

Thanks for the really nice and direct communication

Really refreshing to see a developer team that is this transparent about what they want to do and how they are rolling it out

We expect a lot of PVP additions now btw, the PVEers have had a lot already in the november and december updates xD

Stop.

Stop standing still spamming 1. Use stun break in your utilities. Use blind/daze/etc from your weapon skills. Use dodge. You can simply walk circle strafe mobs to avoid their knockdowns, I do it all the time.

Stop blaming the game for the fact that you are a terribad 5-signet type player who doesn’t use all your abilities and doesn’t know how to dodge or move out of the way of telescoped 2-second long melee attacks.

The mobs in this game are not just immobile 1-pressing sprites waiting to be farmed, PVE is more fun for having mobs be actually quite vicious especially in numbers.

Virgil Kemp.7056:

I think the resolve bar in SWTOR was about literally the only thing the game did right.

Nah that thing was broken from the start since you could chain interrupt without resolve issues. Right now in swtor you can be stunned for 40+ seconds with grenades and bugged sorc bubble stun, and resolve doesn’t even increase.

The whole meta of that game is broken beyond belief, if you want to go play it and see for yourself xD

urinfamousr.7631:

Phuriocity.9218:

urinfamousr.7631:

Poplolita.2638:

Dear god… what is this…

r people so stupid they cant understand poor mechanics when they see them? kittenhe educational system

I think the fact that this person has made a reference to the educational system failing about anyone other than himself is one of the funniest things I’ve read on this forum.

u make no sense

The educational system definitely failed you man.

The CC’s in this game are extremely short and all entirely avoidable – and even breakable.

In the current meta, there is no need to have CC immunity / stun break built in to every class passively, that’s what utilities, traits and abilities are for.

It’s active CC-prevention and CC-breaking, and it adds to the skill cap.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Whether is a slider, dropdown, toggle, they’re all about the same amount of additional dev time, but sometimes problems like this have a history. Why didn’t we do this before? Has anyone ever tried zero inertia? Maybe it actually doesn’t work well in GW2. While it’s entirely in my power to take some extra time some evening and implement the feature, it’s also possible that there were some darn good reasons for not doing it before that I don’t know about. That’s why it’s so important to go through the proper channels, get it signed off on, etc. So the process is also what takes up resources we would rather be spending on more important things.

OK gotcha on this, thanks for being clear about the internal processes. For all us working folk, this makes a lot of sense.

Well if you do have time one evening, could always give it a go and see if someone signs off on the finished product after seeing it in action xD

a) Eles are fantastic, and though there are some perhaps too strong elements to them, the overall package is just on the borderline given their skill cap

b) Guardians are perhaps too easy to bunker with effectively, adding to the skill cap while perhaps toning down some of the more egregious elements might help

c) Necros could do with more build variety for sure, and I expect they will be buffed/fixed; I don’t think thief is as limited as they do actually have multiple dd and one great condition spec all viable.

d) One of the main questions is the overall bunker vs GC meta, exacerbated by the point defender nature of the gameplay – how can Arenanet add more viable/working builds that move away from this duality.

Could GW2 be more balanced?

Yes, definitely, a lot more – some things are still out of whack.

But the balancing continues and unlike the see-saw merry-go-round of FOTM balance that WoW is, we’re seeing good evolution towards an overall more balanced meta.

GW2 is already more balanced than WoW has ever been, and that includes TBC s3 and WOTLK s6 – but well comparing them current state to current state, MOP is just a disaster PVP-balance wise (worse than cata), so it’s quite unfair as GW2 is far, far more balanced right now.

Thanks for your clear and transparent response on this. It’s great to see you guys talk to us directly in the forum, and we hope you take the time to do more of that.

I do still think that zero inertia is an option worth exploring, not as a slider but perhaps as a tickable toggle option – so you would only have to program in 2 states, the current in-game camera state, and the zero inertia state.

I think that would satisfy everyone if it is doable.

Coldtart.4785:

I’m going to pick on WoW some more here (bias ftw). In any encounter in pve there is always a specific method to win. That method is usually only able to be discovered by trial and error, because in a purely statistics based system there is no way to create true difficulty. Futhermore, when you know the method, the game is almost literally telling you what button to press next to win. In other words, the game wants you to beat it, if you do what it’s telling you, you will beat it.

Also, one of my WoW playing friends bots herioc raids as a healer and tops heals with a lower ilvl than the other healers. If a bot can do it you cannot tell me that it takes skill.

This is correct.

It’s what I meant by “Simon Says” mechanics.

There is really no skill difference between a top 20 world raider and a top 500. The main difference is time spent learning the dance by trial and error, and the theorycrafting of the raid tactics officers during world first races.

The whole notion of trinity system implies 3 things:

- aggro is managed on a predictable basis
- healing throughput matches the requirements of the fight
- damage is high enough to beat soft/hard enrage mechanics

That is it. That’s all the trinity is.

These things were required in the past but those mechanics are old and we’re moving past that. The same way we moved from Ultima combat to EQ combat.

Both have their opinions and both are biased.

Play the game.

GW2 doesn’t even need big favourable reviews or game of the year awards or all the stuff it has – the game speaks for itself.