Flushing Toilet combat mechanic

With the release of living story 4-1, a number of bosses now use what i'm dubbing "Flushing Toilet" mechanic where you're swirled around the room with total disregard for whether your character has stability or not. It's present in the new fractal, in the living story, the new map, even the new raid. It's very frustrating to direct the character when control is literally sucked away from you, and can make simple tasks extremely difficult. On its own it might be interesting but it's paired with bosses that require a lot of smart positioning, and it becomes as much a fight with the controls as with the boss itself.Do you like this mechanic, and why? I'm finding it 100% annoying and arbitrary, and it completely ignores one of the basic mechanics we've had for years: Stability. So why is there so much of this all of a sudden, and do you find it fun/rewarding?

I hate it very much.

I don't enjoy it either.

I hate that mechanic. Also it doesn't only ignore stability, it even ignores invulnerability or at least continues to swirl you way after you've become invulnerable. As a melee character there is just no counter play to this mechanic.

I really enjoy it, movement and positioning are important aspects of GW2 and making them more challenging or not within your control is a solid mechanic for the game (just so long as it isn't over used, which it may be on the verge of). I would maybe resist adding too many more toilet flushes but the concept is solid and might prefer more varied directional forces.

I enjoyed the suprise of it, although I hope they don't slap it into every encounter in the future. Variety in everything.

it's not a complete removal of control though. If stability did stop it, it would only work for a brief moment per stack anyway.If you run facing the opposite direction to the swirl, you can counteract it, and even get out of the radius of it.I've not paid attention to weather movement speed boosts make it easier to do this.

I too like that they are adding in some different mechanics.

This exact skill is a hell for people on low end pcs. Your screen just freezes, with maybe 2 or 3 frames for the duration. Good luck running or dodging out

LW S3E4 C1's last encounter had an attack that did this but in a much lesser degree. I am also signing to the fact that this was computationally unpleasant as I had a poorer system at the time and I could not escape it until the attack was finished. Even with an upgrade (both CPU+GPU) and facing the same thing in LW S4E1, I still think it's a little overboard.

@"Artemis Thuras.8795" said:it's not a complete removal of control though. If stability did stop it, it would only work for a brief moment per stack anyway.

I think a stun break and stability granting even a few seconds of solid footing would reward strategic use of skills for re-positioning in key moments. Which is why I find it odd and rather frustrating that stability, invuln, etc. do nothing. The river of souls in the new raid is a great example of where guardians bringing "Stand your ground" and coordinating to give the whole party a better chance at not sliding into the death walls would reward skillful play. Instead my luck with navigating the flush seems to vary each time it happens and rely on a wing and a prayer rather than skill. Sometimes i'm able to get through, and other times I get stuck on tiny things or come nearly to a standstill as i'm sucked into more aoes than I can dodge out of- or throw myself over a ledge while overcorrecting.

I hate it fondly as another evidence of ANet devs not playing by their own rules. It's a control effect. Plain and simple. It should be overrid by stun breakers and stability.

Unfortunately, it is to be expected they play a lot with their new toy. Just like paragons who use shouts that aren't boons etc. It's so sad they don't take example on another old game I know called Guild Wars...

thats a good point that stability doesn't work on the whirlwind attacks. imo it should stop you from being sucked in

Yeah those whirlwind things are annoying, as Ele I have to pretty much save Lightning Flash just in case I get sucked into one of them because otherwise I'll die almost guaranteed. Very fun and engaging mechanic (irony for those of you incapable of spotting the iron E).

I wish we had more interesting boss mechanics. No, having to CC a boss so it doesn't OHKO everyone is NOT interesting, we've seen that mechanic once or twice already :)

The mechanic itself is fine, but it should not render stability or ant-control/damage skills redundant. Since Stability has stacks, it should be attacking the stacks meaning you have a short time to get out to range whilst protected

Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

I actually like this mechanic and it adds a good challenge to it. Yeah it might be annoying for some people but you know what, you guys just love things that are easy because you’re so confirmed to it...

As a Mesmer, how I deal with this mechanic is that once it starts, just surrender to its current. What’s the final blast is immenant then immediately use a stun break, stability, invulnerable, blink or evade and you WON’T be damaged.

I’ve done this many times especially dodge rolling against the spin and haven’t received any damage. Now for those who have PC problems for when it occurs, maybe they’ll tweek it a bit so it’s not causing laggy or visual issues.

@"eyestrain.3056" said:With the release of living story 4-1, a number of bosses now use what i'm dubbing "Flushing Toilet" mechanic where you're swirled around the room with total disregard for whether your character has stability or not. It's present in the new fractal, in the living story, the new map, even the new raid. It's very frustrating to direct the character when control is literally sucked away from you, and can make simple tasks extremely difficult. On its own it might be interesting but it's paired with bosses that require a lot of smart positioning, and it becomes as much a fight with the controls as with the boss itself.Do you like this mechanic, and why? I'm finding it 100% annoying and arbitrary, and it completely ignores one of the basic mechanics we've had for years: Stability. So why is there so much of this all of a sudden, and do you find it fun/rewarding?

I just figured there was something I'm not understanding. As far as I can tell, if you're at the center of this effect when it ends and you aren't invulnerable, you die automatically. You can't block or dodge this damage. Only invulnerability seems to prevent it. So the only counters I've been able to come up with are teleporting out (if you aren't in the center when the effect ends, you don't die) or being invulnerable when the damage occurs.

What I'm not clear on are any potential tells to avoid this attack and timing and positioning. How long does it last? How far from the center must you be to survive?

@Artemis Thuras.8795 said:it's not a complete removal of control though. If stability did stop it, it would only work for a brief moment per stack anyway.If you run facing the opposite direction to the swirl, you can counteract it, and even get out of the radius of it.I've not paid attention to weather movement speed boosts make it easier to do this.

I too like that they are adding in some different mechanics.

Good to know, thanks!

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@"eyestrain.3056" said:With the release of living story 4-1, a number of bosses now use what i'm dubbing "Flushing Toilet" mechanic where you're swirled around the room with total disregard for whether your character has stability or not. It's present in the new fractal, in the living story, the new map, even the new raid. It's very frustrating to direct the character when control is literally sucked away from you, and can make simple tasks extremely difficult. On its own it might be interesting but it's paired with bosses that require a lot of smart positioning, and it becomes as much a fight with the controls as with the boss itself.Do you like this mechanic, and why? I'm finding it 100% annoying and arbitrary, and it completely ignores one of the basic mechanics we've had for years: Stability. So why is there so much of this all of a sudden, and do you find it fun/rewarding?

When I’m in game again I’ll edit this post with a picture but since I’m usually at range, I’d say at the edge of the whirl the blast won’t hit you BUT I’ll test that again since by habit I always dodge roll, blink or distortion just as the blast is going off.

Those fighting in melee range will obviously be hit by it unless dodge roll, invulnerable or blinking out.

That sounds like artificial dificulties that ignore the game mechanics and make it pretend is harder gameplay, remminds as well some mobs from HoT where i casted blokc/ aegis and that would ignore it xD.

It is a DPS race game rather than try to use the poor mans mechanics wiselly.

"Do you like this mechanic?"

No I don't. I dislike any combat mechanics I can't interact with. The Tornado is not a CC, therefore stability has no effect. Ever since amazon servers came to be I've had to stay out of events on the PoF maps and Istan. Performance is simply too poor and all the added visual clutter have made it impossible for me to see what is going on. Ifact, I have no clue what most of the bosses look like let alone see any warnings or tells in fights.

"So why is there so much of this all of a sudden?"

I'm seeing this in more games than just GW2 so I have my own theory why. Players have simply outsmarted whatever strategic combat mechanics developers can come up with and their only solution to this is to add more CC or mechanics like the Tornado that can't be countered. I'm experiencing tells in which my avatar is frozen and unable to dodge or use skills, sudden knockdowns, stuns etc I have no idea where they come from. The PoF story was particulary bad with this. I didn't feel like I actually participated, mostly being tossed around like a ragdoll.

A bit more of all this, we might just aswell have a key for 'Start Combat' then watch a cutscene of yourself fighting and the outcome is decided by RNG...

@Ayakaru.6583 said:This exact skill is a hell for people on low end pcs. Your screen just freezes, with maybe 2 or 3 frames for the duration. Good luck running or dodging out

Yes, I would hate to be doing the swirl with a minimum spec machine. As it is I just have to keep firing my weapon and hope for the best. So much for skill or even a rotation.

It's probably a gimmick to get more raiders involved with Open World PvE </ sarcasm>

Stability should work otherwise very annoying

There does need to be better consideration for anti-cc traits with these unique effects. Also would like to see less condi-stacking in general. Too much in game basically relies on large stacks of conditions, and then when you add in conditions that can't be cleansed it makes your skills feel useless. Second is effects that ignore dodge or evasion defenses.