Guild Wars 2

Riccardo.7254:

Archeage release is really really soon

Yeah, to be honest, even though I like the game itself I am very suspicious about Trion and their Cash Shop thing. Smells too much like milk the cow while we can.

What I really like about AA, though, is the way classes work and the freedom you have. Reminds me of GW1.

I really prefer the art style of GW2. I really do. But the incredible dumbing down of the game makes me really sad.

No way. The leveling experience is now so incredible boring and tedious. Actually I feel it’s the worst leveling experience I’ve ever had in an MMO.

I guess that for things like adjusting skills or reworking traits you need a real software developer. Someone who can mess around with the code. Whereas for things like tooltips it could be that only a trained content writer is needed. Of course I haven’t seen their code, so I might be wrong. But from my own experience with larger software systems it’s often the case that some things (especially text related stuff) can be changed easily whereas core functionality requires serious software engineering.

I guess that at some point ANet kicked out many of their software engineers because management decided the tooling is ready for producing ongoing content (aka Living Story) and that only a handful of software engineers is all they need in order to maintain GW2. Therefore things like balance updates take forever, because ANet simply lacks the man power in this area.

Content writers/producers are not the same as software engineers.

Stale. Engineer still considered useless in WvW, it’s still blob vs blob, playing against stacked servers is still pointless. Same old same.

Carighan.6758:

Players crave smallscale team PvP, but there are very large specialized games for that which do feature RPG elements (namely, all MOBAs). I don’t see a reason to spend dev-time and dev-creativity on elements which don’t mesh with the rest of a game. Arena in WoW had a similarly destructive effect to overall class design. And while Blizzard overcame it, it is easy to say that it never recovered from it.

I fully agree. After realising that balance in SPvP isn’t going anywhere soon™ I looked around for other games. And I found a new home with Smite from Hi-Rez. Sure, this game has issues, too. But the open communication (twitter, reddit, twitch.tv) and the rate of balance changes makes up for it.

I guess Hi-Rez’s team is probably much smaller than ANet’s team. Yet they perform better. Why? Because of focus. (Which is also applies to LoL and Dota).

I feel ANet has created a beast which they fail to keep under control. WvW, SPvP, dungeons, PvE, living world … this all needs man-power. Maybe it really would help the overall quality of the game if they got rid of SPvP and focused on their strengths – even though it hurts, yes.

Rynn.1324:

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If all the other classes in the game can deal with being weak in one or more areas of game, so can warriors. There should be no one class to rule them all.

ANet thinks different. Go warrior/guardian or gfto.

Thieves are not OP 1vs1. Just are simply a very strong asset for every team. Much more valuable than a mesmer or elementalist.

Yeah, well, this topic isn’t new. Many have said similar things before. Yet, nothing has changed. I mean, it’s not that other professions have their uses, too. But compared to the warrior profession there’s always some kind of disadvantage. Be it low health, low sustain, low DPS, low mobility or whatever.
With the warrior profession you simply get the best and most solid package in the game.

Fortunately, though, there are still some players who refuse to join the global warriorfication

Yeah, it’s really saddening. This game had so much potential. But ANet screwed up big time. Funny how the most cheesy builds are also the most powerful builds. Take the ranger for example. Most rangers I know hate the spirit ranger build. Yet you have to play it because it’s so kitten powerful. Or MM necros. But it’s not just PvP. PvE has all kinds of problems, too. Wanna play a necro in LFG? Good luck with that. Wanna play an engineer in an organized WvW group? Good luck with that.
GW2 is awesome artwork on the outer side. But once you look behind the scene things get very, very ugly.

TChalla.7146:

I disagree. As someone else pointed out, humans are by-and-large goal-driven and not role-driven. In most situations, the reward is the most important thing, regardless of how it’s derived. The roles are not done due to the desire to fill a role. They are done out of necessity to succeed.

Is that so? Is this your own assumption? Or do you have scientific proof for your claim? Please elaborate.

Distaste.4801:

I would pay them money if they postponed the last 3 story arcs for the feature patch. It’s very telling about the state of the game when balance changes are worth way more to a lot of people than the “story” content. How long does it really take to get some tweaking done to some classes? Most of it is just changing some numbers in a database/formula. I’d say they spent time testing to make sure the changes were balanced but just look at the current balance that they’ve “tested”. The worst part is that it will have been 4 months since the last underwhelming balance patch and it will still be a huge letdown. I have yet to hear of anything in the feature patch that warrants it being it’s own patch. Everything from ferocity, sigils/runes, class balance, etc are all things that SHOULD be put in alongside story content. Every other MMO developer can do it, why can’t ArenaNet?

Because for those kind of changes you need software developers. People who actually can write code. Those type of employees are much more expensive than content creators. This is especially a problem in a F2P game where most of the money comes from the item shop (aka gem store). And it is even more a problem in GW2 where PvP doesn’t generate any income worth mentioning.

Realistically? With the low amount of core developer resources they have … not before May or even June.

Or they could simply add bosses with super high armor and low health (which would favor condition damage) instead of giving all bosses super high health (with favors direct damage).

But yeah, a game designed by warriors for warriors. What do you expect? ;-)

Let’s face it. As many have said it’s not about the gear – it’s about stupid AI in and stupid skill layouts of mobs in this game. Because of this it all comes down to burn down the mob as fast as possible while avoiding (dodging) mob attacks at the right moment. No gear change will solve this. Actually it would make things even more worse and pushing the “heavies” meta even more (which would be fine with ANet, though ;-) )

Yet ANet will not change AI or skill layouts. Why? Because it would be too much of an investment. And for what? Would it attract more players to this game? I highly doubt it.

We can complain all we want. It won’t change much. If you’re looking for a more team oriented dungeon experience then don’t expect it from this game.

Thing is, in PvE eles provide great DPS. According to gw2guru they’re DPS is even higher than warriors. So the DPS is there. (But I’d say that scepter 2 needs work in order to be viable in PvP).

Problem is, though, eles have very low HP and armor which makes them super fragile. So ANet needs to reconsider re-buffing survivability of elementalists. Be it higher HP, stronger boons, or whatever.

I guess ANet fears the old meta where eles where very strong bunkers. Then again, guardians and warriors can bunker for the sake of DPS very good, too. Why shouldn’t eles be able to do so?

Anyway, I feel ANet should first focus on survivability. After this we can see what else needs to be done.

Outside of sPvP there’s no reason to not play a warrior if you want to DPS. The warrior might not have the highest DPS, but the warrior is the most solid package by a long, long shot.

If you want to enjoy all parts of the game and don’t want to be a hindrance for your team there are only two choices: warrior (DPS) or guardian (DPS/support).

Other classes might have their niches. But the warrior really excels in all parts of the game.

My guess: ANet will announce the development of GW3. With the transition from GW1 to GW2 they got rid of the holy trinity system. With the transition from GW2 to GW3 they will get rid with the classes. Everyone will be a warrior – lol.

MarzAttakz.9608:

20. Anet to wake up and realise WvW is their strongest asset and devote more time and effort towards it

This. Why ANet still bothers with sPvP is beyond me. It would help the game a lot if they focused on the strengths of the game. Not on a dead experiment.

Still, necros are respected in WvW teams. Good luck if you’re a ranger or engineer though. It’s like gtfo.

Antara.3189:

But generally speaking, you don’t see players striking conversation in towns like you did in GW1.

Oh those memories. Makes me sad

SoPP.7034:

Surprised no one has mentioned the social aspects of WvW.

Admittedly most conversation is around particular topics and specific objectives and the informal grouping is zerging objectives. But if you enjoy it…

It’s there, for what it is and has it’s own community.

Yes, you’re right. On some servers there’s even a server wide TeamSpeak. Lots of fun.
But outside of WvW GW2 feels like a single player game.

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

So basically, stuff like no kill/node stealing and no need to wait for X class is great. It’s an anti-social game in terms of much of its mechanics

For game studios it must be a tough call. If you read comments on the net it seems that most of the MMO playerbase these days hate group play with a big passion. They want to be able to do all on their own and they do not want to rely on anyone else, ever.

So if you want to address this crowd you have to come up with a game like GW2. Sure, it’s a paradise for all the solo-players. But it also results in many drawbacks as you mentioned.

I used to play MMOs to play with other players and make new friends. These days it feels as if I was playing a single player game with some decent AI.

At least there’s some communication in WvW.

I like playing my engineer. Unfortunately, however, he’s useless in PvE for the most part. Guardians are way better supporters and warriors provide superior DPS and group buffs.

The difference between a warrior/guardian and an engineer is so huge – it’s insulting.

Balancing issues are a common issue in MMOs. But no other game feels as stagnant as GW2 when it comes to balancing and PvE. And no, shoving around traits won’t solve the many core issues this game has.

Einlanzer.1627:

The simple fact is if you’re somewhat good at one you’re likely to be somewhat good at the other too. NOBODY would ONLY use a bow or ONLY use a melee weapon – bows and swords are weapons with two different tactical uses. Most people who used one some would use the other to supplement it when needed. I.e. no matter how good an archer you are, you’d virtually never try to use a ranged weapon in a close range skirmish.

Well said. But when it comes to PvE in GW2 it’s almost always a bad choice to use ranged weapons. There’s no tactical use case for them. Or in other words: GW2’s PvE is all about pure raw DPS. Since melee gives the most DPS ranged is out.

To me PvE feels mostly like mindless button smashing and all that matter is raw DPS. While others might enjoy watching big numbers and be satisfied with this … for me it’s boring.

WvW is mostly about following the zerg and push even less buttons. Roaming can be fun at times. But often you run around looking for a nice fight. Only to get crushed by a zerg

SPvP? No thanks. I rather player LoL or Dota2.

I played GW2 mostly because of WvW. But the recent decisions by the dev team (bloodlust buff, ignoring population imbalances, AoE caps → buffing zergs even more, alt-unfriendliness) made me almost stop playing GW2.

I think it is safe to say that the most popular games in the esport scene are MOBA games. One should question why those games are so popular and GW2 not. But even WoW’s arena generally has more viewers on twitch.tv than GW2.

From my own experience I can say that I really enjoy watching LoL, Dota2, HoN or even BF4 streams, but not GW2.

It’s hard to pin down the reasons. But for me the most important are too many particles, the lack of synergy between players (CC, counter-CC, support, combos), lack of tactical depth, too much random stuff, too many pets, hard to follow (due to high damage and random procs).

Just look at HoN top plays of the week or Dota2 Top Play Weekly. It’s though moments where someone is almost dead but somehow manages to turn the tide.

I feel in GW2 it often comes down to players facing each other … bam … someone is dead. I don’t know. Maybe GW2 lacks too much counter-play. Maybe it’s focused too much on DPS.

Now, what I really wonder: how do they test? What are those ideas based on? Numbers on paper? Watching streams or internal replays of matches?

Wouldn’t it make sense to have a PTS and let players test the changes? I am quite sure there are plenty of very skilled players for each profession. And I bet those guys could provide more valuable feedback than the devs. No offense, but what we saw on the twitch streams wasn’t very reassuring ;-)

Won’t change much. Warriors + guardians frontline, staff ele for fields, necro for AoE conditions, mesmer for utility, ranger/engineer still useless. Ah, maybe things are changing for thiefs. But probably not for the better.

Relentliss.2170:

Warrior

Best all round. Has most builds. Looks the coolest. Forgiving with high ping.

This. You can enjoy all aspects of the game (WvW, sPvP, PvE), you will always be wanted, especially in PvE and WvW.

Yeah, I feel the ingredients for balancing are mixed up in a very strange way for some professions. As others already said: good balancing is when every class/profession has both pros and cons. Think of a checklist with lots of aspects such as DPS, tankiness, armor, health points, CC, group buffs/utility, mobility, stay-on-target time, etc. etc.

Logically you would assume that if a class has high DPS and high stay-on-target time it has to give up something else. Like mobility, HP or armor.

But in GW2 they decided that for some strange reason this should not be applied to the warrior profession. It seems the warrior is a crossbreed of other professions, taken only the good parts and leaving out the bad parts.

But yeah, it has been said many, many times already. Yet not much has changed. And so I doubt things will change.

All professions are equal. But some are more equal.

It’s a good thing that ANet seeks open feedback and communicates. Very much appreciated.

Regarding the changes I feel that shifting traits around won’t fix the core issues some professions have, like engineer kits or elementalist attunements.

And looking at WvW I feel it won’t change much. Warriors + guardians will remain the best choice, supported by staff elementalists. Mesmers for utility, necros for AoE conditions and engineer/ranger still being useless for the most part. What I mean by this is that in WvW you cannot win a fight without warriors/guardians. But without engineers or rangers? No one would notice.

Dawdler.8521:

But anyway, warriors and guardians are obviously the most seen professions. Eles, necros and mesmers are good classes that you must have a few of. Rangers, theives and engineers are basicly pointless. They can bring some good stuff (ranger stun, theif scouting, engineer support) but its not enough compared to the others. Basicly trash that you stack on an already feature complete group.

Thanks. People like you convince me even more not to invest any kind of money in this trash game anymore. I invested quite a lot of time into my engineer. And I refuse to roll a warrior as anyone else and do the stupid grind for WvW all over. No thanks.

DPS is only relevant if you can deliver it. And warriors have the best tools to get the job done. Yes, thiefs and eles do have high DPS, too. And as others have said even higher than warriors. But compared to warriors they’re fragile and more tricky to play. Make one mistake and your done. It’s like having a sports car with tons of horsepower on a weak chassis.

The warrior profession, on the other hand, is a super solid well-rounded package. Everything else is just patchwork

I agree for the most part.

SPvP just feels wrong in so many ways. Class balance, game mode, visuals, lack of team-synergy, etc. etc. In the last weeks I played various MOBA games. And after playing them I really cannot bring myself to play SPvP anymore. It just feels boring and pointless. It’s simply not satisfying.

WvW could be nice. It’s special. It has potential. But it also has many issues. And it seems these issues are getting worse with every month. Mostly population imbalances, class balance (warrior, guardian, staff-ele, necro or gtfo), the increasing favoritism of zergs (hello AoE cap), the queue times and the lag, lag, lag.

The only reason why I still have GW2 on my harddisk was WvW. But since the beginning of the league this game mode isn’t playable anymore.

Yeah, it really smells like a fundamental design flaw. The whole idea of ramping up bleeds is just broken. Because it doesn’t scale. If they increased the cap to 50 or even 100 it would put too much load on the server for all the calculations.

It also feels wrong from a players PoV. Why oh why do I have to ramp up my bleed stack just to get at least some DPS? DoTs are already slow and easy to counter with cleanses. Why punish condition users even more with this ramp-up thing? Why not just throw ONE bleed DoT at the mob and be done with it?

This is how every other MMO out there does it. And for many good reasons. It’s more satisfying for the user and it requires less computing power on the server. I fail to see one single advantage of the current bleed system.

Incurafy.6329:

Come back 2-3 patches from now and it might be better.

As we all know not every patch contains PvP related fixes/tweaks. In fact most patches do not. Looking back it might be more accurate to say come back in 4-6 months, no?

You should try Planetside 2, then. I don’t know how they do it but it works pretty good.

Lol, yeah, ported to cita, wanted to switch attunement … but nothing happend. 5 secs later it worked. Not cool.

So eles are basically conjurer pets? Doesn’t sound too funny to me ;-)

Rival LoL, Dota 2 or HoN? Uhm, not sure. When it comes to being fast paced, yeah, ok. But synergy, tactics and team-play? Not so much imho. Look at some of those “Dota 2 Top Plays Weekly” up on Youtube for some really nice team combos. I feel it’s more fun to watch Dota 2 or HoN matches than GW2 matches. LoL? Ok, that’s really lol

Yeah, the high risk/skill → high reward scheme doesn’t apply to GW2 that much. It’s really sad to see how some classes can dominate while being super easy to play where as other classes have to work so much harder and still cannot keep up, like elementalists.

The warrior. King in PvE. Great in WvW zergs. And now great in SPvP, too.

Giving the class with the highest armor and highest HP so much utility, mobility and damage …

Warrior, the all-in-one package. You can’t do wrong.

Want to break the blobbing (not zergs): improve group tools, allow something like platoons (aka multiple groups under one leader), limit boons and combo fields to 5 players. Would force much more tactical play, like “group 1, 2, 3 attack from left, group 4 and 5 from right”. Nothing new. M.A.G, BF3, Planetside 2, EvE etc have done it.

As others have said: I do not think the buff is the root of the problem. It’s the massive population imbalance between the servers. Actually the buff is a nice idea IF all servers were (nearly) equally balanced.

However, as we all know this is not the case. In fact things are getting worse and worse. Players and guilds are transfering to high-pop servers. Because, frankly, it is currently the only way to get experience WvW in a balanced way.

We often ask: what can we do to fix this? I fear the answer is: we cannot. It’s too late. If there had been population caps right from the beginning the population would have spread out. But such a system without any caps WILL result in population balances in the long run, even accelerating the wider the gap becomes. It is an inherent problem.

GW2 is by far not the first game suffering from this kind of problem. Ignoring this problem and believing that things will work out by themselves is kinda … well … especially if you dare to look beyond one’s own nose.

Now that we have this situation the only solution IMHO would be to split the servers into dedicated WvW and PvE servers and disable WvW on the PvE servers. Super radical, for sure, but the only option to keep WvW “balanced”. Also it would give a clear message to the player: Wanna WvW? Go here.

Yeah, I am currently playing around with a guardian, mostly for WvW. And boy, guardians work so much better in teams. Eles might have nice burst … if they can land it and if they can stay alive. Which rarely happens. Both eles and guardians have low health pools. But it’s so much easier to survive on the guardian … its crazy. On top of this I feel the guardian has much better team support. And bursting? Well, thiefs are so much better at this thanks to to their stealth and high mobility.

What is the role of the elementalist? I don’t know …

PvP (including WvW) = necro
PvE = engineer because of group buffs/support

But you’d be better of with an guardian anyway

How it is fair? Because warriors big guys in awesome armor wearing kick kitten weapons.

Wow, great work, The Lost Witch! I agree with you on many parts. Very well said!

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Nothing to do with resources, they just simply dont care. Just think where this game would be if it didnt have a gem store but Pay monthly instead. You can bet all these issues would be getting worked on due to fear of losing customers.

At this point, they have enough people in PvE wasting money on pointless crap in the gemstore to have no interest in balancing the game as it would not bring them any money, money is the ONLY thing they care about.

Sure you can say they are a business and thats what businesses do, well they should also want to keep the customers happy, this clearly isnt happening either.

Oh, I am pretty sure there are many people inside ANet who care a lot. But they can’t address all those things because management doesn’t let them.

And ANet’s management primary aim is to make money, you’re right. I can only guess that the gem store doesn’t generate enough money to pay the bills for the amount of developers it would take to fix all those bugs.

I cannot speak for the US. But in Europe artists/content creators are generally way more cheaper than software developers.

But I agree with you: in the long run it will hurt the game if it takes forever to fix bugs or implement much needed features.

However, we all know that management rarely cares about long-time issues. It’s all about quarterly results.

Couldn’t agree more. I mean, come on. Be it PvP or PvE or WvW. Play elementalist. Then play another class. How can the developers claim eles are fine? They is just no reward for playing an ele.

It would be ok if the ele was hard to play but also very powerful. But this isn’t the case in GW2. Neither in PvP nor in PvE. To get the best results one has to play the dumbest builds out there. How can anyone call this “balance”?

This has been the case for more than one year now. I guess in order to fix those things it would take a lot of work. Simply tweaking some numbers won’t do it. ANet would have to change even some core mechanics.

This, however, is not going to happen. Too much of an investment. And ANet has told us many times that they simply do not have the resources.

Which is really sad. So much potential wasted.