Guild Wars 2

Because all of the fancy silverwear was thrown at PvE, the real cash cow of the game.

5v5 hotjoin sucks because people are constantly leaving matches and they don’t get replaced quick enough. You tend to see lots of 4v5, 3v5, 3v4. When a player leaves an 8v8, there is no noticeable difference. When a player leaves a 5v5, it’s a huge difference.

I agree that hotjoin should be 5v5 to foster a better learning environment and help prepare players for tournament mode, as well as discourage them from developing bad habits. However, leavers are not replaced fast enough. Perhaps a more intelligent “Play Now” matchmaking system could alleviate this issue.

Infrastructure question:

We have seen a lot of success with free-to-play games lately. League of Legends is the largest and most successful e-sport game right now, for example. This is due to the game being more accessible to the casual gaming population. Even though it’s free-to-play, wherever there is a crowd, there is money.

What if the Heart of the Mists was made into an online downloadable free-to-play segment of the game? In order to leave the Mists, you must purchase the game. Do you see potential in this as a marketing strategy for GW2?

Balance question:

Are you aware that slows in this game not only affect regular movement, but also reduce the range of moving abilities by -50%? This makes slows much more potent than they should be. Thief’s heartseeker is affected, Warrior’s Rush, Bull’s Charge, Whirlwind, Eviscerate, etc are all affected. At the same time, some class’s moving abilities are immune to slows, like Elementalist’s Ride the Ligntning. What are the devs’ thought process behind this mechanic?

Warrior:

I noticed that a lot of effort has been put into beefing up banners. Are you aware that the #2 healing skill from Banner of Tactics heals for only 500 HP? The skill description says it should heal for almost 4k HP, but in actuality it only heals a measly 500 HP. Intended? Also, there were no changes to the Battle Standard elite. Thoughts on that?

Swiftness does not increase the range of movement abilities, by the way. It only speeds up the animations, but the travel range remains the same.

Caffynated.5713:

Attacks that are affected by chill/cripple are also affected by swiftness. It’s a trade off, and I wouldn’t want to give up the increased mobility the 90%+ of the time that I’m not chilled or cripple.

As for RTL, it’s completely different from normal charges. It can’t be canceled early, so getting immobilized or hung up on terrain is an unbreakable self stun, range isn’t increased by swiftness and eles are completely locked out of all of their abilities while in the RTL transformation.

Not many classes have moving abilities that can be canceled mid animation. Warriors cannot cancel their Rush or Bull’s Charge or Whirlwind mid-animation, so they are affected just as hard by well-timed immobilizes. Yet they have the double penalty of also having their movement skill ranges reduced by a whopping -50% by slows. What is the rationale behind this?

Thief’s heartseeker is affected. Warrior’s Rush, Bull’s Charge, Whirlwind, etc are affected. -50% range on moving skills from slows is a real game mechanic that ArenaNet is not acknowledging or making clear enough.

This is what I imagine ArenaNet’s thought process to be:

“Oh we wanted Eles to be better than Warriors at gap-closing as well as escaping, because…yeah.”

In every major game in existence, slowing skills only affect normal movement itself, not skills that displace the player. In League of Legends, for example, when a Nasus withers a Riven, yeah she’ll move slower, but the range of her hops are unaffected and she can still use her skills to their max extent.

This is the dilemma with melee vs range in this game. Slows are hyper effective in GW2 because not only do they reduce movement speed, but they actually cut the range of movement abilities in half. It’s a real game mechanic. ArenaNet really should just change the skill descriptions of all cripples and chills to include “oh by the way, this skill cuts the range of movement abilities by 50%, too”.

And why is it that some movement skills are immune to the range-reducing effect of slows, like the Elementalist’s Ride the Lightning? Yet others like the Warrior’s Rush is totally susceptible to range reduction? What is ArenaNet’s rationale behind those decisions?

Thoughts?

I don’t know what you were expecting. High rated people are surrounded by the halo of God? Kill players with a sneeze? And bullet proof?

Please ArenaNet don’t troll. Please don’t discuss how you’re looking into toning down Eles, and then next patch, come out with huge nerfs to Warriors, Thieves, unusual changes to Engineers that pigeon-hole them further, unusual “buffs” to Mesmers even though it wasn’t necessary, and finally a few random buffs to Eles.

That was one awkward patch. Especially after having finished that State of the Game discussion about being more transparent to the community.

Vicarious.3047:

zone.1073:

Other than that, warriors are completely A-OK at the moment.

So basically other then everything important for an sPvP warrior they’re fine?

Gotcha lol

Well yes, but remember that Warriors are godly essential in PvE because they don’t insta-die in PvE. When they can stay alive, they can offer so much to the team. So, the class’s potential is there. Just needs a few tweaks in PvP and Warriors are good to go. The arms and legs are in good condition; it’s just the cartilage in the elbow and kneecap joints that need some fixing up.

I think warriors are fine. They just need a bit more sustain so they don’t insta-explode (2k HP heal when spending Adrenaline or something), maybe some more condi removal options, or more specifically a better way to remove slows like cripples and chills, and a viable way to spec into the tank traits without becoming absolutely useless; maybe an improved version of the trait that converts toughness into damage.

Other than that, warriors are completely A-OK at the moment.

Valkyriez.6578:

How is 1 extra second to channel a skill every minute destroying a class completely?

^And this sums up the majority of the balance team at ArenaNet:

Ignorance.

I bet that is exactly what the ArenaNet devs ask themselves. They’re scratching their heads wondering what’s wrong. “Why is the PvP community bleeding out? Why has the competitive scene atrophied and died off?” Gee I wonder. Maybe your team needs to be more educated about PvP mechanics and have a better approach at handling PvP balance.

I wish ArenaNet reworked their classes the way League of Legends does it, like how they completely remade Karma recently. Totally transformed her abilities, looks, playstyle, and balance all in one clean, neat package.

http://youtu.be/lWIj3IRz8DI

Instead, ArenaNet drags slowly through balance. They make awful decisions and then slowly fix them back up, with the ultimate goal in the future to achieve really good balance…some day.

Jonathan Sharp says over and over again, “We don’t want to do whack-a-mole balance.” But we already know what they’re about to do. They’ve completely torn the Warrior class apart. And right now, they are going to work on fixing them back up, three months from now. How is this not the very definition of whack-a-mole balance.

Nerfing Quickness does NOT = removal of burst. No.

Classes who were not reliant on quickness are still capable of high burst damage, of course. It’s the Warrior class that was royally screwed over by this change, because their burst was completely reliant on Quickness, and now even that is gone.

milo.6942:

they have one, it deals kittenty damage at the end

It’s actually not bad. The dodge roll crits for 2k.

Notice how I don’t even need to use Hundred Blades to kill this player in the video.

Discussion: The fact that slows cut all of the Warrior’s movement ability ranges by HALF (-50% range decrease!) means that cripples and chills are too hyper effective versus Warriors. Because slows are so easily accessible for every class (practically every weapon has a slow built in), and because Warrior’s movement skills have naturally long recharge times, Warriors should be given more options for cleansing slows. Warriors are still susceptible to being killed by condition damage, but they should not be totally impaired by them.
_______________________________________________

Mobile Strikes: Movement skills cleanse movement impairments (cripples, chills, in addition to immobilizes).

New trait: Spending Adrenaline heals the Warrior for 2.5k HP.

New trait: Spending Adrenaline cleanses 1 condition.

Healing Signet active: Heals the Warrior and cleanses all movement impairments.

New healing skill or elite = Into the Fray: Heals the Warrior and readies them for an epic encounter; heal scales based on the amount of enemies nearby up to a maximum of 5 (the more enemies = more danger = larger heal. Less enemies = less heal).

New Banner Skill = Stow Banner: Carry the banner on the player’s back, enabling the player to use all normal weapon skills while retaining the banner’s passives. Toggle again to gain access to the banner skills.

I like how the State of the Game GW2Guru discussions don’t even cover gigantic PvP changes like -50% quickness attack speed reduction. You would think a dev might have mentioned it at least.

Discussion: The fact that slows cut all of the Warrior’s movement ability ranges by HALF (-50% range decrease!) means that cripples and chills are too hyper effective versus Warriors. Because slows are so easily accessible for every class (practically every weapon has a slow built in), and because Warrior’s movement skills have naturally long recharge times, Warriors should be given more options for cleansing slows. Warriors are still susceptible to being killed by condition damage, but they should not be totally impaired by them.
_______________________________________________

Mobile Strikes: Movement skills cleanse movement impairments (cripples, chills, in addition to immobilizes).

New trait: Spending Adrenaline heals the Warrior for 2.5k HP.

New trait: Spending Adrenaline cleanses 1 condition.

Healing Signet active: Heals the Warrior and cleanses all movement impairments.

New healing skill or elite = Into the Fray: Heals the Warrior and readies them for an epic encounter; heal scales based on the amount of enemies nearby up to a maximum of 5 (the more enemies = more danger = larger heal. Less enemies = less heal).

New Banner Skill = Stow Banner: Carry the banner on the player’s back, enabling the player to use all normal weapon skills while retaining the banner’s passives. Toggle again to gain access to the banner skills.

The saddest thing is that the devs are still probably wondering, “What’s wrong with Warriors?”

I imagine a day of internal testing goes like this:

Jon Sharp: “Dude why is the forum always complaining about UP Wars? They are balanced.”

Karl: “They are so balanced!”

Jon: “Look I’ll even show ya. Come meet me in PvP.” -logs onto warrior-

Karl: “k let’s spar.” -logs on ele-

-ele stands there. Warrior kills.-

Jon: “See? Wtf. There’s nothing wrong with Warriors. They do so much damage and never die.”

Karl: “You are SO right.”

Jon: “Phew…what a grueling day of PvP balance in the office. k let’s do food. I feel like tacos.”

manveruppd.7601:

On the other hand, it could also hurt them, as every MMO that goes f2p is basically putting out an announcement that “well, we tried, but not enough people thought we were worth paying for…”

The thing about Guild Wars 2 is that it is three games rolled into one. If PvP was opened up to be free to play, it would not affect the other two areas of the game.

Making PvP free to play would not be equivalent to a white flag surrender. Instead, it would be a progressive business strategy of becoming more like League of Legends: appealing to the most casual of the casual gamers, and reaping in the profits and popularity as a result. Wherever there is a crowd, there is money.

Make Heart of the Mists free to play (like League of Legends). In order for players to exit the lobby and enter PvE or WvW, they must purchase the game.

Expand the gem store with custom outfits and skins for PvP. Add in purchasable graphic effects to weapon attacks, purchasable taunts, purchasable emotes, customized finishers. Add in premium glory boosters that give even faster accelerations than the free versions. Etc.

There are so many ways to make profit from PvP. The first and most important step is to make PvP even more accessible, though.

The state of GW2 is paradoxical. The game appears to have all of the tools necessary to become a huge game with millions of active players; beautiful graphics, interesting gameplay mechanics, passionate game developers, and a payment system that caters to casuals (No monthly subs; one time purchase for full access). GW2 SHOULD thrive, yes?

So, why isn’t it thriving? Why is the PvP community so stagnant. Why has the competitive scene atrophied and died off?

2 big changes coming up for warriors:

1) Banners will give more stats, plus possible bug fixes with Banner of Tactics.

2) Warriors will gain access to a trait that increases their damage on targets with more boons.

Banner of Tactics is important if the heal skill on it gets fixed, because it can potentially become a 4k AoE heal on a 10 second recharge if it is fixed. Finally some decent team support can be offered by warriors if that is the case. You thought Eles had good AoE heals with Cleansing Wave? Imagine a 4k heal every 10 seconds, and the recharge is character-specific, so multiple allies can constantly pick up the banner and throw out a burst heal. Cool beans.

If Warriors can get decent damage without having to build glassy, then that opens up the possibilities of building very tanky with team support, while also having good damage vs targets with boons. If we are allowed to, Warriors can be very tanky if we could build into our tank specs (it’s not viable right now because our tank specs offer no damage or team support = useless). A boon punishment trait could be the alternate source of damage that could open up viability in our tank specs.

So, fingers crossed.

I admire your passion for the game, and you do have some good points about why people should feel frustrated.

The good thing is that this game is free to play after buying. So, people can “quit” or leave the game to have fun and play something else like League of Legends, come back in a year, and this game will still be around – hopefully in a much more improved state by then. PvPers especially do not have to worry or feel guilty about quitting, because ArenaNet makes no money off of PvPers; their profits will be unchanged if you quit, so they’re not concerned at all if you quit, and there’s no reason for them to try and give you incentive to keep playing.

This is why so many PvPers have silently quit. We’re all trickling out because there is no incentive for PvPers to PvP.

Good job to Nero and Xeph for challenging the devs a bit and asking some critical questions.

I was unimpressed by a lot of the class balance discussion though. Karl is supposed to be the supreme, specialized expert of his field (which is balance), and yet he gave the most vague answers in the world. He did reveal some big changes like Thieves getting the Revealed debuff after coming out of stealth no matter what, and the beam skills becoming massive AoE, etc. But there were a lot of hazy answers, which is unfortunate because the balance segment of the video was the longest part, and one of the most anticipated parts from the community.

Good job to Nero and Xeph for challenging the devs a bit and asking critical questions.

1. Invulnerability stomping (mist form, etc). Intended or not? Why does invuln make you unable to cap a point or channel a commune buff, but you can invuln to stomp?

2. Ride the Lightning vs any other forward-dash in the game (Warrior’s Rush, etc). Intended to be immune to slows or not? Why aren’t similar skills on other classes immune to slows?
————2A) Should Warriors have more access to slow-cleansing (cripple, chill)?

3. Asura particle effects and animations. In PvP, size matters. Difficult to see condition particles like the purple chains from immobilize on Asuras, or the swirling stun particle on Asuras. Anything being done about making condition effects more visible on Asuras?

Please, please, PLEASE be assertive when chatting with the devs. They tend to ramble and go off-topic. Interrupt them. Be rude. Ask your questions, and make sure they answer them. It’s okay to be assertive. The devs even let you guys know “Tell us to shut up” if you have to. They’re getting paid for every minute they’re talking to you anyways, so don’t give a c rap. Cut them off mid-sentence and steer them back on track.

Be a good “journalist” by challenging the devs. Force them to think deeply on your questions and give genuine answers. Don’t let them go into what I call, the automation mode where they spit out a pre-recorded answer with no thought behind it. Don’t be friendly with them. Be decisive and assertive with them.

Rename Elementalist class to “Warrior” and rename the current Warrior class to “Under Construction.”

If you want to solo queue successfully, just play for 10 hours. Lose at least 50 of your matches in a row.

Then your hidden rating will plummet so low that you will get stuffed with bad players, and don’t have to worry about good premades.

Fun fun for everyone.

silentnight warrior.2714:

Never tested this but someone wrote here that the warrior has a banner that heals like crazy. Can someone point me the banner that heals for 4k-5k every 10 seconds? I would like to take it to WvWvW. Thanks

They were referring to Banner of Tactics, probably. Description is bugged: Says it heals for ~4k on a 10 second cooldown. It actually heals for closer to ~500. Pathetic.

Rating is important because it is, itself, a reward for PvPing. There is value in PvPing due to a visible rating.

Lordrosicky.5813:

And what about new players trying to break into the system?

Nobody will play with them or it will hurt their rating.

They play with each other [har har].

Seriously though. It’s easy for beginners to make new friends in hot join. They befriend each other. They join or create guilds, and that’s how their first team experiences are formed.

Are people finally starting to discover that immobilize is good with Warrior?

The lines are already blurring, though. As ArenaNet releases more interesting and creative cosmetic gear, it may detract from the clarity anyways.

Even now, there are cloth armor skins that have gigantic shoulder epaulettes that you’d expect would only be seen on heavy armors. Likewise, female heavy armor users have leggings that look like big, flowing dresses that you’d think only clothies would be wearing. Then you have Asuras, where it doesn’t matter what they’re wearing – you still have to depend on looking at their class icons and abilities being used to know what class they are.

Homogenization is already occurring.

Med.6150:

Not to take away from your victory, but there’s no way you can tell me that Mist Form was smart with a straight face. You immobilized him and then did a dodge roll backwards. Is that how you usually set up your burst? By immobilizing and dodge rolling away?

Why would he Mist Form with that large a gap between you and him and the fact that you dodged away, widening the gap.

Let’s call a bad decision what it is, please.

You’re underestimating the amount of gap-closing and damage a Warrior is capable of doing within 5 seconds on a stationary target. Any Ele who would have saved Mist Form for a Bull’s Charge knockdown would have died in that situation. That’s how I kill Eles; they think “Oh it’s just an immobilize, I’ll just hang onto Mist Form. Oh I’m getting my face destroyed, but it’s okay the immobilize ends in 5…4…3…okay I’m in downed state, what just happened.”

When fighting against Eles, it’s helpful to have experience maining an Ele myself. That’s how you learn how to deal with them. However, that is no excuse for cheesy mechanics. Balance is still necessary.

Match vs Gasmask’s team (2 rangers, 2 Eles PZ style). You can see how I handle against these Eles in this match too. Just watch their HP bars in the top left throughout the match.

Shananigans.8412:

Try running an ele without at least 20 in water and 20 in arcana, i dare you.

You die if anyone looks at you. Buff overall survability (ie base health or toughness increase, nerf 1.0 ratio to .75 or .50 on heals (increase base by 10%—lets dmg eles sustain a tiny bit) nerf RTL to a 20 second cool down. Problem solved

Change warrior movement skills to not be effected by conditions, gg.

^ This. There should be a middle ground somewhere between the way Eles and Warriors are balanced. Warriors have great base stats, so their weapon and utility skills suck. Eles have low base HP and innate toughness, but their abilities make up for the natural weaknesses ten-fold.

Devs need to find that middle ground, which is not that far away, and gg. Balanced.

Asomal.6453:

Not to take credits from you or call the elemen a bad player. You did outplay him, good job. However, I think if he didn’t panic at the begining, using Mist Form against Blade Trail, he’d have won.

If you noticed, he was immobilized at the beginning. My immobilize lasts 5 seconds, and I would have killed him in that duration if he didn’t Mist Form. So, I basically forced him into a bad situation, and forced him to Mist Form. [Hands rubbing together like an evil genius ensues]

Playing an Ele helps to learn the counters to the class, but that is still no excuse for cheesy mechanics that need to be fixed.

Gallrvaghn.4921:

I have nothing to say anymore. Please continue on with your ele bashing since it seems that you have NO CHANCE of beating an ele or even just trying to keep distance from an ele is so far-fetched, I feel very sorry for you.

My personal performance in-game has nothing to do with the points I am making tonight on the forum about balance. Mark of a poor debater: when they try to tug at your heart strings in order to avoid the real subject here, which is about ele balancing.

In actuality, I personally know how to handle Eles quite well with Warrior, because I play an Ele myself. Debate 101: Don’t get personal about it, because it just makes you look silly.

My team vs Team Paradigm EU – I’m dueling with one of the best Ele players in the game:

Arheundel.6451:

Because it seems to me that not matter what, an ele is not supposed to win ever in a 1vs1, are we maybe supposed to simply roll on our stomach and die everytime somebody come our way?

An Ele can still be good without the cheesy mechanics. Does such a powerful defensive cooldown like Frost Aura or Shocking Aura deserve to have an instant cast time to be effective? Does Ride the Lightning have to be impervious to slows in order to be a good gap-closer or gap-creator (considering the amount of condi removal Eles have)? Does the Ele need such powerful healing on a 10 second cooldown from Evasive Arcana?

Eles can be great and balanced. They don’t have to depend on cheesy mechanics to do well. They are almost at an optimal place right now in terms of balance – they just need a few nudges here and there to clear away the cheese.

Gallrvaghn.4921:

I have nothing to say anymore. Please continue on with your ele bashing since it seems that you have NO CHANCE of beating an ele or even just trying to keep distance from an ele.

I actually play an Ele competitively in paids, but nice try. Good effort.

Gallrvaghn.4921:

Uh, attack ele at RANGE my dear?? Aura procs on MELEE. Just so you know.

I hope you’re just ignorant and not trying to troll. Ranged attacks also activate the procs from an Ele’s chill and shocking auras if the Ele is hit within melee range (with “Ranged” attacks. Wrap your mind around that). When you’re fighting an Ele, where is the Ele at, usually? That’s right: In your face.

It is within the Ele’s best interests to get up into someone’s face and maintain melee distance with their foe in order to maximize damage and effectiveness. So, you’re in the middle of a fight with an Ele and surprise surprise, out comes the Shocking and Chill Auras, and there is nothing that can be done about it before it’s too late. You poke the Ele a few times accidentally after the instant cast auras come out, and great, now you have a 40+ second chill condi on yourself. Lacking condi removal at the time? Too bad.

Their mobility is unparalleled because Ride the Lightning is unaffected by slows. An Ele can be crippled, or chilled, or both, and zip away with RtL at full speed and at maximum distance. Even if you think you’re smart and try to immobilize them, it’s not like Eles are condi-cleansing-deprived like Warriors are – Nope, they have the means to cleanse immobilizes quite easily. No matter what you do to the Ele, if the Ele wants to GTFO, he will indeed GTFO with great success.

Some of the strongest defensive cooldowns in the game (Ele’s shocking and chill auras) are instant cast. Where is the opportunity cost in that? You would think that such powerful abilities would provide some room for counter-gameplay; Nope.

Ele’s damage is extraordinarily efficient and powerful because some of their hardest-hitting abilities also come with a 100% critical hit chance built into them. So, Eles don’t need to build crit chance and be glassy like everyone else to do damage. Eles can skip the Berserker’s Amulet, have defensive traits and armors, and still rock out the big damages due to their ability mechanics.

When you bump into an enemy Ele and begin fighting, you’re not fighting against a 14k HP target. That Ele is more like a 40k+ HP target if you count their effective healing over time, and the way their skills work to facilitate such large healing.

So, the argument of “Oh Eles are squishy, delicate little creatures…we must not nerf them” is invalid. Because of the way Eles are designed, they are actually one of the tankiest, beefiest classes out there in PvP.

Frees and paids, no there is no seeding.

In the upcoming monthly tournaments, there will be a Qualifying Point requirement for teams to sign up. This will naturally help filter out inexperienced or unskilled teams. Depending on how strict the QP requirement will be, only the most competitive teams will have the opportunity to sign up.

Upcoming seasonal tournaments will have requirements too (minimum amount of monthly tournament wins, etc). This will also help filter out teams and ensure that the cream of the crop is competing in final rounds.

Give us a settings option to change our view of Asuras, so that Asuras have the same model and size as humans and sylvari, but with an Asuran head. Done deal.

The player controlling the Asura will still see themselves normal and tiny. But people who see the Asura have the option to tick “Normalize Enemy Character Models” in settings.

The only issue I have with Asuras is seeing particle effects on the Asura, like when immobilizing. An immobilized target should have very visible purple chains glowing around the body. On an Asura, the purple chains are almost invisible and non-existent, and the only way you can visually notice that the Asura target is immobilized is by selecting the Asura, looking at the top of the screen and confirming that the immobilize condition icon is there.

Same with stuns. The swirling white spiral animation is supposed to clearly indicate, visually, that a target is stunned. On Asuras, the animation is harder to see.

kostbabis.8791:

Also the same question can be reversed.Why players should be able to either both cap points /stomp invulnerable or neither cap/stomp invulnerable.

You already know my response to that. It’s like asking, “Why can’t 2 + 2 = 39? Why does it always have to be 2 + 2 = 4???”

Mechanics need to be consistent.

You mean to make GW2 like League of Legends: Only 1 player may control specific champions – no duplicates.

That would work if there were over 100 different classes like how there are on League of Legends. That would be pretty sick if that was the case for GW2, but sadly not.