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Who is Anet vested in satisfying? Free to play or pay?


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I have spent an inordinate amount of money in the game updating my character, tweaking the appearance, getting the right legendary items, and on and on. Then after I finally get the weapon set I have been working on for years, the ascended items I have been looking for, there's a balance update. Now my items don't work right, my combo has been ruined or I'm stuck trying to get a new set of whatever to try and get back to where I was. It is EASY for PVP players to switch their preferences. It is NOT easy for PVE and WVW players to do that. After the balance update in June I rage quit for nearly 2 months because my Guardian build was ruined. Then you changed my staff so I no longer had a loot stick. Now you're jacking with my sword skills. I need the developers to understand this: Change is no different from death. Something old has to die to make way for something new. It's not pleasant and I fail to see how it is necessary half the time. The balance in WvW was disrupted when you allowed the ranks to be shared across the account. That made way for people to all switch over to the class of the week that was best in Zergs. Now it's overrun with Necros. So instead of having players invest time in development of one character they are willing to play hell or high water, the solution has been to make massive nerfs on builds that are having too much success.

The question all this leads to is who provides Anet the greatest revenue? Is it the player who dedicates to one character or the PvP or WvW players? I suspect it's the former, in which case I question the investment of time and effort into disrupting those players continued investment and expectations. I love the game, I love new developments, but I hate change of old standards and expectations. Thank you.

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@Malavian.4695 said:I have spent an inordinate amount of money in the game updating my character, tweaking the appearance, getting the right legendary items, and on and on. Then after I finally get the weapon set I have been working on for years, the ascended items I have been looking for, there's a balance update. Now my items don't work right, my combo has been ruined or I'm stuck trying to get a new set of whatever to try and get back to where I was. It is EASY for PVP players to switch their preferences. It is NOT easy for PVE and WVW players to do that. After the balance update in June I rage quit for nearly 2 months because my Guardian build was ruined. Then you changed my staff so I no longer had a loot stick. Now you're jacking with my sword skills. I need the developers to understand this: Change is no different from death. Something old has to die to make way for something new. It's not pleasant and I fail to see how it is necessary half the time. The balance in WvW was disrupted when you allowed the ranks to be shared across the account. That made way for people to all switch over to the class of the week that was best in Zergs. Now it's overrun with Necros. So instead of having players invest time in development of one character they are willing to play hell or high water, the solution has been to make massive nerfs on builds that are having too much success.

The question all this leads to is who provides Anet the greatest revenue? Is it the player who dedicates to one character or the PvP or WvW players? I suspect it's the former, in which case I question the investment of time and effort into disrupting those players continued investment and expectations. I love the game, I love new developments, but I hate change of old standards and expectations. Thank you.

I'm not at all sure why the OP thinks that balance should follow fashion. Surely a game centered around combat should focus its efforts on making each class have appropriate roles in a variety of areas of the game and let the players decide how to make their characters look fabulous.

Plus, the history of the game, even as described by the OP, makes it clear that ANet will rework skills & traits, so I'm also not sure why the OP thought this time would be different.

And finally, I dispute the idea that it costs an inordinate amount of money to swap builds. Just a few gold per item is enough to replace most exotics, a few more gold to transform the stats of ascended gear. A tiny number of runes & sigils cost more. Surely if the OP can afford to outfit themselves in legendary items, they can afford this.

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@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:I'm not at all sure why the OP thinks that balance should follow fashion.

It shouldn't follow fashion. If anything, it should flee from fashion. MMORPG class fashion follows class imbalance, so if the studio is correcting imbalance, it's inevitably moving away from fashion, in the hope that people will play whatever class they play because they like it rather than because they like its "FotM nature".

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@Gehenna.3625 said:You make two assumptions: 1) that you are representative of paying customers in general and 2) that spending money on gems is linked to balancing classes.

And I have the feeling that you're wrong on both counts.

Sorry but this actually made me giggle, I fully agree. :)

@TC I'm sorry but if you rage quit every game only because a balance patch adversely affected you then MMOs are not for you. This has nothing to do who or how much money you spend on a game. I've spent thousands of Euro on GW2 over the last 6 years (not all at once) and I'm fine with balance patches.

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Lemme guess.. your Meta builds got nerfed again right?

That's the price you pay for jumping on the meta train.. sure you might be running the highest dps build possible on your class atm but sooner or later that build is going to suffer a big hit due to it's overuse and imbalance.

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@Cyninja.2954 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:You make two assumptions: 1) that you are representative of paying customers in general and 2) that spending money on gems is linked to balancing classes.

And I have the feeling that you're wrong on both counts.

Sorry but this actually made me giggle, I fully agree. :)

Hehe, I thought it'd be fun to approach this a little differently.

I do remember being really upset when they fundamentally changed soul reaping in GW1 and even though I didn't ragequit it did mean that it was no longer my preferred class because it fundamentally changed the necro class. And it was basically because of the Necro/Rit healers becoming too powerful. That was an ugly nerf though. It wasn't so much that it was nerfed but how that was the issue for me. It is kind of rough when your class gets changed so much that it takes the fun out of it for you.

Balancing doesn't really care about fun but the numbers in the end and in GW2 it's that much worse because there is such a huge difference between mediocre and top players. That means that a lot of balancing is done because top players will abuse it (it's allowed after all). I don't blame top players for doing that but it does mean that other players are losing things that made the class fun for them.

Personally my guardian is my main in this game and I don't like how they changed that GS hits don't heal anymore and you only get a heal in some sporadic effect that I rarely have. That means that this change actually makes the trait that does this LESS broadly usable, contrary to what Gaile said. That is disappointing to me.

Does it mean that I ragequit? No, but I don't like the idea that I'm forced to get myself into light fields to get a heal, which is a condition I don't often have, especially with all the movement we do dodging out of stuff etc. And if I feel I cannot play my guardian anymore in a way that I've enjoyed that could mean that it was a waste to invest into this character as my main and crafting all that ascended gear for her.

So as much as I understand that balancing happens I do feel some sympathy for the OP when it comes to playstyle changes that are caused by balancing. They can actually ruin your playstyle which could be the reason why you enjoyed the class. It's not always about the damage nerfs, certainly not for me.

Now I've been smart enough to not just invest into my main and my necromancer is now fully equipped in ascended gear (not the underwater weapons yet but that's no biggy) and if I cannot satisfactorily play my guardian anymore because of this change, it will be a shame for me. I built my guardian around having survivability in the open world, including world bosses and champions. And the health gain from GS as it was, did help that and I'll have to do without that now. So hopefully that doesn't mean I get in trouble now. The added issue for me is that the health gain from that trait as it is now is stupid and I don't care about it, but it is linked to a cd reduction for GS skills. So that sucks cause I do want that but the health gain is effectively gone for me and a non-effect for me. I'm sure if I played mace and shield this health effect would be cool but it's linked to a GS trait so I really don't get this change.

So a bit of a wall of text. I think the OP definitely is wrong in his assumptions and ragequitting isn't the answer but I do understand the disappointment of not enjoying to play your class anymore because of balance changes. So yeah, maybe I'll make it work, maybe I'll have to switch to another class for my main. Luckily I do like my necro a lot as well :)

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@"Malavian.4695" said:I have spent an inordinate amount of money in the game updating my character, tweaking the appearance, getting the right legendary items, and on and on. Then after I finally get the weapon set I have been working on for years, the ascended items I have been looking for, there's a balance update. Now my items don't work right, my combo has been ruined or I'm stuck trying to get a new set of whatever to try and get back to where I was. It is EASY for PVP players to switch their preferences. It is NOT easy for PVE and WVW players to do that. After the balance update in June I rage quit for nearly 2 months because my Guardian build was ruined. Then you changed my staff so I no longer had a loot stick. Now you're jacking with my sword skills. I need the developers to understand this: Change is no different from death. Something old has to die to make way for something new. It's not pleasant and I fail to see how it is necessary half the time. The balance in WvW was disrupted when you allowed the ranks to be shared across the account. That made way for people to all switch over to the class of the week that was best in Zergs. Now it's overrun with Necros. So instead of having players invest time in development of one character they are willing to play hell or high water, the solution has been to make massive nerfs on builds that are having too much success.

The question all this leads to is who provides Anet the greatest revenue? Is it the player who dedicates to one character or the PvP or WvW players? I suspect it's the former, in which case I question the investment of time and effort into disrupting those players continued investment and expectations. I love the game, I love new developments, but I hate change of old standards and expectations. Thank you.

I dont understand this post. I mean, it is a single double click on a legendary weapon/armor to change stats. You did state you have the right legendary items. Is a sigil change that huge? No, it is not. And the guardian build is far from ruined (i presume you speak of wvw). How is it ruined? Minstrel guard staff/shield mace is still good. As for sword roam guard, it is overperforming in burst. Necros have been seeing the heavy nerfhammer a lot. Scourge is unbalanced due to its very shading ability, and i do not think any tweaking will make it balanced. Reaper got a few buffs, but after that shroud CD nerf some time ago, who uses reaper in wvw anyway? Except from a few roamer? Noone.As you are not a new player, and have access to resources, I can only recommend you make wvw legendary armor. It is QoL, no matter how much the "meta" changes or whatever. You can use it in every mode, it is account bound (meaning you can switch it between chars), rune swapping is free. And wvw leggy armor is the easiest to make.

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@Voltekka.2375 said:

I dont understand this post. I mean, it is a single double click on a legendary weapon/armor to change stats.

The problem is when they fundamentally change the mechanism for the weapon. The staff was my loot stick because it had a broad range of hits in group combat so I could pick up extra loot bags when I was otherwise buffing, healing or removing conditions from the zerg. The game is very healer adverse and has taken great steps to prevent the guardian acting like a monk. I understand they want to break the dynamic and have everyone more rounded. However, when they change the targeting of a weapon so I'm having to lock on ground targeting. Or I have no quick way of hitting large groups to set them on fire, it's necessary to look at other weapon options.

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@Cyninja.2954 said:@TC I'm sorry but if you rage quit every game only because a balance patch adversely affected you then MMOs are not for you. This has nothing to do who or how much money you spend on a game. I've spent thousands of Euro on GW2 over the last 6 years (not all at once) and I'm fine with balance patches.

I don't rage quit when changes take place. It was only when I just finished building the Bifrost and they fundamentally changed my baby after working for 6 months on materials and such. I don't see a reason to change the mechanics on a weapon after it has been in the game for years unchanged.

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The only thing that is guaranteed in an MMO is change. THe community will change, the gameplay will change, the meta will change. This is normal for all MMOs. If your build doesn't work you find another build that does. That's the actual game. The OP is complaining about playing the game.

All MMOs are about adapting to changes. Adapting IS the game. If you are rage-quitting because one specific build no longer works, MMOs are probably not for you. Nothing to do with Guild Wars 2.

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