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Putting "FUN" back into designs and balancing


Swagger.1459

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<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>As of 3/1/2019...

Major World Restructuring update posted on November 29th 2018

Major update for the future of the game posted on February 27th 2019

Ongoing Gemstore Request Thread posted on June 23rd 2017

By comparison…

Regular Balance Update Notes posted on February 27th 2019

Most players care more about professions, and their characters, than most other topics...<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

“Guild Wars 2 is an online role-playing game with fast-paced action combat”

“Experience high-impact, fast-paced combat and choose from an arsenal of professions, weapons, and playstyles.”

“create the heroic character you want to play.”

“We’re putting the fun back in fantasy combat—come join us on the battlefield!”

...My favorite game to play was City of Heroes. It was released on Apr 27, 2004. A year later Guild Wars was released on April 26, 2005.

I’m going to provide some videos showing some pvp combat so players can understand my attraction to City of Heroes compared to traditional fantasy mmo games during the time…

CoH PvP

GW1 GvG PvP

GW2 E-Sports Tourney

GW2 combat is leaps and bounds more exciting than GW1. Despite some areas, I feel Anet has created some of the best “feeling” combat of any mmo out today. However, when I dig into the system, I don’t “feel” the “fun” while using any profession, I "feel" a numbers game. I don’t “feel” like I’m playing the “hero” I “want to play”, instead I “feel” the “rigid” design reigns that don’t offer a ton of true build flexibility, versatility and viability. I don’t “feel” the “fun” out of the profession system and role designs, I “feel” like I MUST use X profession at times, and X profession build to be competitive, get rewarded and “feel” a sense of “fun”.

I’m going to make some comparisons here, so I can share my points better…

This was the only 1 high level pvp zone in City of Heroes… (There was an arena too btw)https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Recluse%27s_Victory

By comparison, GW2 offers 5 large zone maps… GW2 maps are way better areas to play on than in CoH.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World

GW2 WvW and Spvp reward systems blow away anything offered in CoH pvp. These were the only “special” pvp rewards…https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/PvP_IO_Sets

So what made CoH pvp so great compared to GW2? Class designs, balance and build flexibility. You felt a “hero”. We could play almost any class set up AND role WE wanted... In City of Heroes we could truly “create the heroic character you want to play”.

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Archetypes

By comparison, GW2 professions, weapons and skills designs tell me what I should play, and sometime what I HAVE to play… Why? Because I “feel” the devs were not thinking of player enjoyment FIRST when it come to designing. I see "needs to be different" held higher for design choices, as opposed to "this has to be fun first and foremost".

So Swagger, what does “fun” look like for you?... Well, I’m going to keep this as short and concise as possible. I’m not going to go into numbers, because I really don’t care about numbers... These would be my “balance for fun first” design thoughts and ideas…

  • 2 Weapon slots on professions are "fun" for combat!… The team just made Holosmith the best Engineer spec for combat because it now can be made viable at any distance through the use of 2 quality weapons… 1 good built-in melee weapon and some optional mid to long ranged weapons. Enjoyment levels in combat, and competitiveness, will go up for Engineer and Elementalist if you make 2 weapon slots standard.

  • Fast and quick casting attacks are “fun”!... Slow attacks and long cast times are not “fun” period. Pit your Necromance against every profession and it "feels" like playing in mud... The team can speed up slow and long casting attacks across all professions, and all that needs to be done to balance is adjust damage output down a little bit.

  • Freedom of movement while attacking is “fun”!... Skills that root a player are not fun in a game designed for high mobility and positioning in combat. There are more than enough movement impairing effects being tossed around by opponents in spvp and wvw as is, and skill root designs kill the "fun" flow of battle. Removing all roots from weapons and skills, while balancing out damage numbers, would be way more "fun".

  • “Joy of Movement” is “fun”… Just based off of a “fun feel”, it’s hella enjoyable to run around on Thief. Fast skills. Quick cast times. On demand positioning skills that are super smooth to use… Why not try to replicate that "fun" stuff for all professions somehow? https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/9804/idea-wvw-only-movement-skills

  • Having a “good fight” is “fun”!... Dying in seconds is not exciting. Killing a player in seconds is not healthy for the game because it just generates negativity and lack of interest to participate. The damage creep has gone through the roof while other areas have not been touched… https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/28024/increasing-ttk-would-be-a-healthy-change

  • Weapon variety is “fun”!... I’m going to make a weapon improvement wish list for wvw and spvp later, but I just want to say this… There are a bunch of undesirable – mediocre weapons for pvp gameplay. This kills build diversity to a large degree. Example… Know how boring it is to run a Soulbeast build knowing that the best weapons for the build are weapons from August 2012? Staple Soulbeast weapons are Longbow and Greatsword. Druid Staff is not great at all. New Soulbeast main hand dagger, and the old off hand dagger, are almost useless outside of pve.. BORING… It was really awesome of the team to make improvements to Revenant swords and Guardian staff… Think more efforts like those would hugely boost the “fun” factor for players and well worth the investment. Some examples of “fun designs” for weapons... https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/58958/eye-on-necro-ideas, https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/56624/a-few-weapon-suggestions, https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/36048/suggestions-to-make-working-condi-builds-for-every-mode-especially-wvw-and-spvp

  • Playing the game and focusing on combat is “fun!.. Getting blasted for thousands of damage while needing to focus on building up and micromanage resources isn’t fun. Thief Initiative mechanics are the most “fun”, and well made for “fast- paced action combat”, of them all… The rest, well, not so much... It’s also really “fun” to have a skill there when ya need it, and only deal with a cooldown too. Alternative to having resource designs... https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/43721/think-we-could-work-on-getting-rid-of-resource-mechanics-and-create-stances-instead

  • Damage roles are super "fun"!... If heal and non-heal support builds, skills and designs were nearly as fluid, impactful, rewarding and “fun” as offensive specs.. THAT would be “fun”!... This is what I mean, and something I brought up to our awesome Ben P. before, and I want every reader to think about it... NOTE- Sorry, I can’t direct quote the below anymore…

From this thread… https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/52283/more-healers-in-pvpBEN P.“@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:More detailed answer, we've resisting just buffing other heal specs as we don't want to get into a meta where healing has way too much influence. We're more likely to address this issue by continuing to carefully shave Firebrand until we feel it's on par with the other specs.”

ME…“I, personally, don't feel the main issues lies with buffs or nerfs... It is not nearly as enjoyable and rewarding to play heal or non-heal support roles compared to other roles. It is infinitely more fun and fluid to play damage roles, and extremely clunky to play support roles because of skill designs, mechanics and resource management on a couple.

Druid is clunky to heal with and some ideas would go a long way... https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/39412/eye-on-druid-ideas-yay

Ventari Tablet would be leaps more enjoyable if it were a "back pack", not a tablet that needed to be moved around trying to heal the cat herd.

Ele healer is most "fluid" of them all, but still feels uninspiring. Frustrating to heal teammates outside of tight blobs.

I gave up trying to play support so I didn't even bother to look at how Firebrand functions...

By comparison, I played mostly support roles in City of Heroes, and those were some of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've ever had. The below was a taste of playing a support role in CoH… Fun. Fast paced. Not clunky. Builds had a ton of flexibility. Desired, but not needed in teams. No funky resource gating mechanics. Great skill designs for movement oriented combat in pvp and their version of "wvw"...”

“Edit- There were also a ton of “balanced”, viable and fun heal and non-heal support roles and power sets to choose from... among others roles and power sets as well...https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Archetypes

ME“Part 2…”

“2 v 2 gameplay with 3 support archetypes and 1 ranged damage archetype…https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Defender and https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Corruptorvshttps://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Defender and https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Blaster

“A Blaster's primary power sets are designed specifically for ranged attacks.A Blaster's secondary power sets are designed for support via melee attacks, minor crowd control powers, or temporary self-buffs.A Corruptor's primary power sets are designed for ranged attacks.A Corruptor's secondary power sets are designed for buffing or debuffing.A Defender's primary power sets are designed specifically for buffing or debuffing.A Defender's secondary power sets are designed for ranged attacks.”

As a support oriented player, I can say that the specs and mechanics to play any support role I have been given to use in gw2 is let’s say… not fun at all. I have a feeling that if we polled players here on what builds are more fun, fluid and rewarding to play, I doubt we would have many hands up for any support roles or builds.

Edit- And let’s say we theorize by putting the shoe on the other foot... Let’s exchange some Druid designs with Deadeye mechanics... Take the deadeye rifle and create it to be a low damage weapon normally, with some utility, and create a Deadeye stance where players need to build malice to unlock heavy hitting rifle attacks. Now make some of these rifle attacks ground target skills and throw in a long channel root skill. The new Deadeye stance is also placed on a timer, so any skills need to be used within the allotted time...

Let’s switch up Ventari and Scourge mechanics... The new Manifest Sand Shade is now a permanent entity that must be manually moved within the game world once summoned. All shade and slot skills are now centered around the shade...

...This game was designed with movement based combat in mind. We have dodges, positioning skills, ports and very few skills that root the caster... I can guarantee that players would be miffed if a lot more elite specs and builds functioned like Druid or Ventari. Just saying.”

I’m gonna end it here… I care more about having “fun”, as opposed to “winning” or rewards. “Fun” is what keeps most players playing and sticking to the game, or game mode... I “feel’ both the players and devs would benefit from more “fun first” designs for the game, as opposed to designs that “feel” too regulated or inflexible… This game, and professions and combat, would become 10x more enjoyable if the team measured more things using the “fun stick”, as opposed to by the “numbers” or "different". And I don't think it would hurt to get the Systems Team together to talk about what makes certain profession designs, roles, mechanics, weapons, slot skills, core and elite specs... "fun" to play, and how to replicate that "fun" across every aspect of professions.

And I’m gonna leave this for my final thoughts… https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/8080/forbes-interview-and-my-thoughts-on-competitive-gameplay-development

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I get what you are trying to do with this thread my man, the videos might be a little hit-or-miss though, because they have a certain value to you that they may not have for others and could detract more from your point than they add to it (we all have old open-world PvP moments we're nostalgic about, they may just mean little to others).

However, yes - to the points that you are trying to raise:

Yes, GW2 has one of the best (if not the best, bar none) combat systems, for larger scale PvP in a fantasy game, ever built.

Yes, GW2 remains the market leader in open-world (ish) - or RvR - large-scale PvP despite all the neglect and outright counterproductivity.

Yes, content (environment) and balance are two separate but important and all-impactful aspects of WvW.

Yes, the gameplay is built around freedom of movement so that it peaked in vanilla for larger scale is a travesty (old stab still best).

Yes, the different roles for different classes have always been a bit wonky as the game was not designed around trinity (is okay, needs work)

Yes, fluid attacks are important but overall it is a strength of the game and its combat engine (is good, always be mindful, iterate)

Content:The two main issues remain: population balance (incl. timezone balance) and guild content (eg., working GvG, as active guilds = tags)I'm sure even Anet are aware of them now they are just feeling their way forward and reinventing the wheel over years to adress them.Balance:Things are slowly getting better now but the same issues that came with PoF a year ago still dominate the gameplay, they are just not as bad.The solutions to the ongoing issues are multipart:

  1. Reduce the spam of everything (we now have spam with counter spam with counter-counter spam), less is more
  2. Reduce the size of WoD and the reach of Shades, that will create more options in the meta and give birth to counters
  3. Take a look at the offensive-to-defensive modifiers and balance, finding balance can be hard, finding a better balance not
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  • 4 weeks later...

Kinda hard to compare games like that. Every class in bdo is pretty fast compared to gw2. I guess you could compare gw2 stab to bdo super armor and dodges to iframes except almost every skill in bdo has some sort of iframe and/or super armor attached to it. They kinda designed every class in bdo to be able to solo farm whereas gw2 is team based. So yeah I dunno it's hard to compare.

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@Israel.7056 said:Kinda hard to compare games like that. Every class in bdo is pretty fast compared to gw2. I guess you could compare gw2 stab to bdo super armor and dodges to iframes except almost every skill in bdo has some sort of iframe and/or super armor attached to it. They kinda designed every class in bdo to be able to solo farm whereas gw2 is team based. So yeah I dunno it's hard to compare.

I’m just trying to reinforce my points in the op using a reference. Those points being that GW2 was billed as “fast-paced action combat” with “Joy of movement”, and my posts are trying to improve on those areas.

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I think you make some solid points, especially in highlighting how far GW2 has drifted from its original conception. One problem is, the entire game has drifted, some parts much farther than WvW. What's worse is that much of the descriptive text on the game's official website hasn't been revised for years. It's full of things that aren't merely arguable, they're factually incorrect, as for example "on five massive maps in week-long matches and seasonal tournaments" and "While in WvW, your character is boosted to max level, and you will continue to gain experience and loot as you normally would while exploring Tyria", neither of which has been true almost in living memory!

Another is that, even with the best of intentions, agreement on what constitutes "fun fantasy combat" is going to be hard to find. You say, for example, that "Skills that root a player are not fun in a game designed for high mobility and positioning in combat" whereas I would say that one of the best parts of playing a staff ele is the thrill of having to stand, motionless and vulnerable in the midst of battle, for long enough to get a Meteor Shower off . Being able to cast that on the run wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun, especially if the trade-off was lower damage.

Stil, you're right that there's a heck of a lot more that could be done to improve the whole experience. Unfortunately, after six and a half years, I see very little sign that anything other than endless fiddling about with edge cases and fixing what that breaks is going to happen.

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Gw2 is casual game. Living story is the only content that actually gets attention because it brings biggest amount of casual players and as such, the most (aka the only) money. Everything else is a side job for 1-to-3-man teams that keep getting smaller and smaller. Why do you think that LS5 is coming directly after LS4 instead of another expansion? Why do you think that raids/fracs/pvp maps come once per year? Because casuals dont care about balance, they care about looking pretty and doing shiny achievements. Game has to survive somehow and competitive players can just farm the gold instead of buying it, so anything that involves competitive part of the game is automatically a waste of dev time because it's the least profitable part of the game to design.

The sooner people realize this, the easier it is to understand that gw2 is not a game designed to be played for more than 2 hours a day or played on a competitive level, despite having a huge potential. The "competitive" days of gw2 are long gone.

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  • 3 weeks later...

@oOStaticOo.9467 said:MAN!!!! Why you gotta bring up CoH! No bueno my dude! I miss that game SOOOOOO FREAKING MUCH!!! That was my game. I played it since Issue 3 until shut down. I haz a sad now.

CoH had an awesome class system, skill designs, combat mechanics and playable roles... Was way ahead of its time in those areas, and also unique. And according to GW1 vet comments I've seen, they liked the class and build system better in GW.... Anet would knock the socks off of any game if it had a better profession system overall, and resolved some of the reoccurring balance and design issues that make wvw and spvp not fun to play.

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@Swagger.1459 said:

@oOStaticOo.9467 said:MAN!!!! Why you gotta bring up CoH! No bueno my dude! I miss that game SOOOOOO FREAKING MUCH!!! That was my game. I played it since Issue 3 until shut down. I haz a sad now.

CoH had an awesome class system, skill designs, combat mechanics and playable roles... Was way ahead of its time in those areas, and also unique. And according to GW1 vet comments I've seen, they liked the class and build system better in GW.... Anet would knock the socks off of any game if it had a better profession system overall, and resolved some of the reoccurring balance and design issues that make wvw and spvp not fun to play.

I loved the way they handled all the enhancements to allow players to min/max their characters out to their own way of playing. GW could definitely take some notes from that. I also liked how you could make any archetype to play different roles. I couldn't tell you how many times I would play Tank with my Defenders. It was definitely more versatile when it came to playing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is something I want to add to the conversation, and it has to do with profession difficulty scaling and imbalances by design...

I completely understand the reasoning behind certain profession design choices, but the way it was done has created unnecessarily imbalances between profession inside of wvw and spvp modes...

http://tap-repeatedly.com/2011/06/exclusive-interview-arenanets-jon-peters-and-jonathan-sharp/

"Gigashadow (GW2G): The warrior seems an easy profession to get into, with a high skill floor and a very simple profession mechanic

Jon P: yes, it’s probably the easiest one to get there. But only one in a million people have reached the level of a warrior that really sets them apart. If you’ve seen any Guild Wars 1 we had The Last Pride, a Korean guild, and they had a warrior called Last of Master and there is no one I have seen who is even close to him."

That statement by Jon P clearly shows you can have common simplified mechanics and designs across all profession, while still producing highly skilled players and combat gameplay... A GW2 Warrior is straight forward, and the main focus is on mastering weapons, skills, positioning... Meanwhile, for example, the team made the main focus of learning to master Elementalist about fighting without a 2nd weapon and imposing a disadvantageous choice between being melee, mid range or long range during combat... on top of Attunement swapping PLUS needing to also master weapons, skills, positioning... The main focus of Revenant is learning to micromanage Energy and swapping legends, on top of other areas just mentioned...

As stated in the op, yeah, sure things are unique, but it was unnecessary to force in these unbalanced designs knowing simple is "cleaner" and still requires skill to perform at higher levels. And I dare to say that the team knew there would be more balance between profession performance with simpler designs and common mechanics across all professions, but opted out in favor of "has to be different first" as mentioned in my op.

By comparison, City of Heroes made distinct and unique classes, powersets and roles, but still managed to make things more balanced... How so Swagger?

ALL of these classes https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Archetypes used https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Endurance as the main skill resource.

ALL classes had access to https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Power_Pools

ALL classes had access to https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Ancillary_Power_Pools or https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Patron_Power_Pools that "The powers in these pools are selected from other Archetypes, and are designed to give each Archetype access to types of abilities that they do not normally have: holds and ranged attacks for melee Archetypes, armors for ranged Archetypes, etc."

ALL classes had access to https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Inspirations and could slot up to 20 of them... 20 instant and on demand "potions" at any given time!

So we need to ask ourselves how a game that allowed players to play unique classes and powersets still offered the exact same core mechanics across the board? How was that team able to give ALL characters access to optional things like invisibility, flight, super speed, teleporting, personal healing, "stun breaks", KB protection, damage skills... while still offering a huge palate of unique classes, skills and roles to play? Yet GW2...

Also a quote from that interview...

"Jon P: The whole game is built very offensively on purpose."... And so was City of Heroes. All classes had offensive skills to choose from, yet each still offered players many fun, and viable, roles to play. This is not so true with GW2 as it stands because those role choices, weapons, skills, traits... are very limited in pvp and wvw by comparison...

I will try to look up the quote, but IIRC... Arenanet always planned on creating GW2 to be E-Sports competitive, yet there was way too much focus on unique and different core mechanics that forced these extreme imbalances... that we still have today. That's why E-Sports didn't hold, and that why you see all these major class complaints from players participating in spvp and wvw… The majority want fun, balance and viable options first, not scaling profession difficulty and forced imbalances that make hard designed rock- paper-scissors combat scenarios and limited viable build options...

Gonna stop here...GW2 is a great game, but I feel things need to further evolve away from these old design concepts and ways of thinking that I'm quoting below... And more players would be accepting if the team made greater strides towards having professions more balanced at the core and mechanics levels... And I don't see negativity coming from players if roles, such as healing and support, were made better than what we have been given up to this point, and if the team really looked to creating optional skills that balanced out classes better... just like CoH did with great success.

"Jon P: The average complexity for professions is going up."

"Jon P: The whole game is built very offensively on purpose."

"Jon P: When we actually made the decision to not have healers"

"Jon P: I use this example all the time – in Guild Wars 1 the Shadow Step ability on assassins. If only assassins could have done that, they would have been this very, very unique class; but as soon as we introduced secondary professions everyone could shadow step. Monks are shadow stepping, warriors are shadow stepping, and assassins as a result weren’t as ‘cool’ as they could have been. They didn’t fulfill that sneaky archetype in the way they really could have, because everyone could do what they could do."

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  • 3 weeks later...

@"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048"

I understand the team will not be discussing the upcoming notes yet, but it would be cool if the team can read this post, and thread, and get a better feel of my thoughts...

I want to bring a few things up to reinforce my points in this thread… Follow me on this example…

Ranger Spirits are NOT used in WvW and Spvp. They have “niche” usefulness and we all know it. Spirits have had a number of updates over time and they basically still remain “niche”…

BY COMPARISON...We know that Revenant Facets are used in EVERY mode and ARE A VERY USEFUL DESIGN for movement oriented combat. Improvements were made to Facets and they are even better now.

RECENT ENGINEER NOTES...

  • “With this update, we're reworking one of the less reliable skill sets: gyros. While potent, their difficulty to use and to optimize has brought them to a spot where they're not really desirable outside of a few niche situations.”

  • “The gyro class of skills has been reworked and changed to wells. Gyros are now no longer targetable and instead hover over the engineer to grant their effects.”

NOW LET'S LOOK AT RANGER SPIRIT UPDATE...

  • “Active spirit skills are generally not usable due to the high cost of sacrificing the spirit and the localized effect that the sacrifice causes. We are changing these active skills to teleport the spirit to the player's location before the spirit uses their skill.”

MY THOUGHTS…Facets have proven to be a USEFUL design in more situations and modes. Gyros are now being made useful in more situations and modes… Nature Spirits are still immobile, yet now will teleport when needed…

Up to this point, all of the Nature Spirits updates have left their usage in the “niche” category because they are NOT MOBILE AND DIED EASILY. In lieu of using more proven designs for Spirits, they will now still occupy the same “niche” space in WvW and Spvp modes… New Spirits will now buff an area and then teleport to the Ranger's location when activated... In the meantime, NOBODY IS STANDING STILL IN WvW AND SPVP so the passive benefits are wasted, so they will not be useful and will remain in the "niche" category again...

I HAVE TO ASK WHY?In this thread I stated that I felt design decisions were measured and made using the “must be different” philosophy, and I was correct with that feeling… Players are looking for build diversity and fun surrounding the combat system, which includes movement and skills that are useful in movement oriented combat. NOBODY STANDS STILL IN WVW AND SPVP, but Facets work and add more build options… Gyros will be improved to function similar to Facets… Nature Spirits will still remain out of any builds for WvW and Spvp because of the less useful stationary design, even with the teleporting feature…

How would players respond If we were to make Revenant Facets and Engineer Gyros function like the old or coming new Nature Spirits? I can guarantee that Facets and Gyros would become unusable and that players would be really unhappy...

This particular post isn't just about Facets, Gyros and Spirits, it's about design decisions that make players feel there is a disconnect somewhere. And that useful designs are put aside in an effort to be different instead...

And I know the team is under a lot of pressure, and a lot of things are going on, but I just wanted to share my thoughts in hopes the team can look at things differently moving forward when the "proverbial dust settles".

TY

Edit- And this may not end up being the absolute perfect Spirit design idea, but Spirits would instantly become more useful throughout the game, and contribute to more build diversity and build options...

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/63198/useful-nature-spirits-rework-please

And if the team looks at my general thought patters, they revolve around making things more fun, more user friendly, more balanced and to enhance the awesome movement based combat designs that players love about GW2.

Edit 2- From an old post...

@"Swagger.1459" said:https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/balance/PvX-Balance-Iteration-Wrongdoing

The spirit of this old thread still applies, as do some of the key points and phrases.

...Some of you may look at my ideas that I bring up as crazy, but I’m just looking to change the status quo here, and for the team to think about substantial and meaningful changes to the game. Meta shifts happen when xpacs launch, and balance patches barely move the needle, and those are not enough to accomplish any meaningful goals... This game needs more than xpac specializations every couple years... and way more than a few +/- changes that basically keep weapons, traits, slot skills roughly in the same places...

My main point being is that professions need revisioning and an overhaul. We need more working weapons, skills and builds. We need to look at making sure all profession have multiple working builds that are fun, not funky and clunky, to play... I know players are happy that the team is making a stronger effort these days, but I have a strong feeling that players would love to see a daring dev team really blow things up and make professions 10x better.

Some relevant quotes in that old post from 2014 that we can still apply the same sentiments today...

  • “On the various forums one can find dozens of threads, often pertaining to – and addressing and re-addressing – the same issues, over and over. This is a problem, because it leads to a community perception of paralysis, which causes:

    1. A perception of neglect
    2. Accumulation of negative PR
    3. A perception of broken promises”
  • “Balance and build diversity:Overall, build diversity in GW2 has been severely curtailed by the fact that entire lines of Utility skills and Traits have been underwhelming – yet balance has focused almost exclusively on the rare few “meta” builds and skills. This often comes to the detriment of multiple skills and Utilities. Arenanet’s insistence on “letting the meta settle” has resulted in patches coming every few months that iterate on balance – yet the changes within reflect an increasing disconnect of balance intention and balance result.”

  • “Community Frustration and perceptionThe lack of iteration has bred community frustration and resentment towards Arenanet who feel that the pace of development is glacial.”

  • “balance should be in such a way that more builds than those listed above can have a place in a team composition without those builds shutting out others to the point of exclusion.”

  • “For PVE, the so-called “Damage, Support, Control” alternative trinity so trumpeted as the innovation over the “Tank, Healer, DPS” trinity has dissipated in favour of “DPS, DPS, DPS”.”

  • “Slow, extremely hard hitting attacks have negated the need for Support – there is little need to support allies with healing if taking a hit means almost certain death. DPS with just enough Support through Boons has become the one true god and PvE encounters have devolved into a “stack mobs, cleave to death” DPS race over thoughtful, deliberate challenges that tax a group’s ability to co-ordinate and problem solve.”

  • “Finally, there also exists the issue of balancing errors, and bugs affecting balance being unaddressed for significant periods.”

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  • 5 months later...

I gotta say that the old vanilla WvW was something to be a part of. Fire fields, Blast 'em. Move here, Dodge, Bomb here, Dodge, Cleansing, Concentrate on the downed, Regroup here, Water fields, Blast 'em, Calling out when skills were ready. Bomb group 1, Bomb group 2. Watching the screen and listening to the voice coms for hours. At the end you sat back in your chair, logged out, let them retake garrison, and just exhaled.

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  • 8 months later...

While I mostly agree, I want to react on a single point.

@"Swagger.1459" said:

  • Fast and quick casting attacks are “fun”!... Slow attacks and long cast times are not “fun” period. Pit your Necromancer against every profession and it "feels" like playing in mud... The team can speed up slow and long casting attacks across all professions, and all that needs to be done to balance is adjust damage output down a little bit.

Some people also enjoy having more heavy/slow attacks with impactful/widespread effect(s).My favorite skills visually :

  • Elementalist Earth Dagger skill 5 "Churning Earth".
  • Reaper Shroud skill 5 "Executioner's Scythe".
  • Guardian utility skill "Sword of Justice".
  • Most Dragonhunter skills except "Fragments of Faith".
  • Firebrand mantra charging.
  • Most of Holosmith skills.

I would advocate for letting player agency in the choice.One hand weapons and Shortbows for quick strikes.Two hand weapons except Shortbow for slow but impactful / wide effects.Non weapon skills having a wider range of fast to slow possibilities.

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Just a few months ago you were on the same side as the balance dev when they said he just wanted “nerfs and buffs” in my thread, so why the sudden change of heart? Did it have to take the death of the game in order for you to see that Diversity is at the heart of true balancing and that most of the predictions made in that thread came to pass?

What your entire post is really about, is about build diversity. Yes you want the game to be fun, and fun can arise from any game for a variety of reasons so it’s extremely vague to just say to a dev or to anyone for that matter that you just want the game to be fun.

You can’t play healer because anet refuses to give your classes the build options to do so.

You want to heal, then anet needs to give your class the build options to do so...not just 1 role or 1 espec or 1 traitline... the class should have a variety of ways of approaching not just healing builds but all kinds of builds. It shouldn’t be that Druid can heal while core ranger can not. All classes should have ways to create builds but this possibility space simply doesn’t exist due to the many fundamentally backwards game design and “balance” implementation in this game...

That’s why it’s not fun. You want to heal? Go play firebrand. You want to have fun? Go play the current espec. Does this sound like fun to you?

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@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:Just a few months ago you were on the same side as the balance dev when they said he just wanted “nerfs and buffs” in my thread, so why the sudden change of heart? Did it have to take the death of the game in order for you to see that Diversity is at the heart of true balancing and that most of the predictions made in that thread came to pass?

What your entire post is really about, is about build diversity. Yes you want the game to be fun, and fun can arise from any game for a variety of reasons so it’s extremely vague to just say to a dev or to anyone for that matter that you just want the game to be fun.

You can’t play healer because anet refuses to give your classes the build options to do so.

You want to heal, then anet needs to give your class the build options to do so...not just 1 role or 1 espec or 1 traitline... the class should have a variety of ways of approaching not just healing builds but all kinds of builds. It shouldn’t be that Druid can heal while core ranger can not. All classes should have ways to create builds but this possibility space simply doesn’t exist due to the many fundamentally backwards game design and “balance” implementation in this game...

That’s why it’s not fun. You want to heal? Go play firebrand. You want to have fun? Go play the current espec. Does this sound like fun to you?

What are you even talking about with the “ you were on the same side as the balance dev when they said he just wanted “nerfs and buffs” in my thread,”?

“ extremely vague”? I used examples, nothing “extremely vague” or even “vague” about my post.

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@steki.1478 said:Because casuals dont care about balance, they care about looking pretty and doing shiny achievements.

funny, that the 'competitive' player are usually more shiny than the 'casuals'. Add to the people with some pvp badges trolling around starter zones - and I think you got something fundamentally wrong there.

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