Loffels.5934

I just recently got a friend into GW2, specifically for the WvW. 100%, absolutely, without a fucking doubt... the achievement to unlock the Warclaw for him has been the worst nightmare. It makes absolutely no sense. These are new players trying to get accustomed to the mode but your going to handicap them right off the bat? It's the biggest discouragment that exists in WvW right now and is a reason why so many new players just don't even bother. REMOVE THE WARCLAW ACHIEVEMENT AND JUST GIVE IT TO EVERYONE, FULL STOP.

The issue with Shadowmeld is that it has '-Reveal'...It's a counter-to-the-counter, which I just believe shouldn't exist. If they truly want to go back to basics and address this power creep, they also need to address these micro "counter-to-counters" type of skills. It's like if they made a '-Cleanse' counter which negates all condi cleanses on someone for a certain amount of time, but instead the best healer in the game has an elite skill that's literally just a 'Cleanse' and straight-up says it ignores all '-Cleanse' debuffs. It's also has a 2 count use. Like, what's the point of adding in the counter, to begin with, if you're going exclusively give counters-to-the-counter to some and not others? I honestly think Thief should remain as a high-skill, high-reward type of class, but '-Reveal' should be completely removed from the game. I honestly never had an issue with the overall stealthing of a Thief, it's just that if your going to create a specific counter that's literally intended to be used at specific times to punish a specific type of class, there shouldn't exist a simple 1-button, double-use COUNTER TO THAT. end of rant

It's not the mount thats the issue, it's gatekeeping it behind an achievement that is. They need to just give it to everyone who joins WvW, full stop.

Dragon Banner definitely needs a nerf.

This is a QoL update that should be very low priority, good idea though. Realistically, It would be a waste of time and resources when there exist a plethora of other things that actually need to be fixed.

It needs to be completely removed from the game.

They are.

I completely agree, Axe 5 is just too good for certain WvW groups and it's a huge factor in the group that I run with. Many times have we won a battle with a massive hammer 5 into axe 5 spam. (This is medium-ish WvW with 15-20 group size)

Spellbreaker 100%. Strip boons, Hammer 5, Axe 5, Dead. Rinse and repeat.

[WAR] on Henge of Denravi has a heavy focus in WvW and holds groups almost every night. We typically run with like 30-40 people but occasionally fill up and overflow to 50-60. It's been a great deal of fun so far if you don't take yourself too seriously. If you do, head over to EU.

Thanks for taking time to be transparent and post an update for us, I hope you continue to do so.

I think Condi builds are coming back full force.

Honestly, this isn't a bad idea with balancing. I've recently been getting my friends into GW2 and the roughest part so far is getting them their Warclaw mount. It was very disheartening for them to always be in the back and constantly getting picked off. I had to switch to full support just for them for the entire evening, which I don't really mind but something like this would really fix a lot of that problem. Purchase some 2-person saddle or whatever that allows a person to hitch a ride and only allow players who don't have the warclaw mount to be able to use these saddles. Even if you gave them a disarm upon dismounting or some other debuff, it would still be worth it for a lot of these new players just to keep up.

They need to remove the pre-reqs for WvW Mount and just give it to everyone. There's absolutely no reason to gatekeep behind the achievement.

Personally, I think the system should be simplified down and re-worded. Skills that are limited to 5 people should first prioritize those 5 people within the PARTY where the buff is originating, if they are in range, else be applied to the closest SQUAD member. Skills that are capped to 10 people should operate the same way. Prioritize the 5 PARTY members of the originating group first, else just apply to the closest 10 SQUAD members. With that said, I think they should remove 10 person buffs and change the baseline to either be one of two options. Cap it at 5 (to go along with current group structure) or have it affect everyone (as some skills already do).

Hmm, no issues here in NA T1. Was playing WvW last night and easily had 120+ in one location, had a little bit of lag but nothing worth mentioning.

You risk nothing other than being mildly annoyed though. So you have a choice between being mildly annoyed, and not being mildly annoyed, and you are are wondering which choice players take? Who says players haven't? Doesn't take a genious to figure out that if you are on a pve or squad build, most roaming builds will severely outperform you. That's exactly what is happening. Only that the players died to someone else and not you, but they did learn their lesson and port away if their build is not a roaming build. The "wrong build" excuse does not work anymore, what you mean are unskilled players who don't have protection of a group to carry them so they run. This is why I am glad templates came out, the "roaming build" excuse people loved using does not apply, you have less buttons to push to change your build to this uber powerful roaming build everyone talks about than it takes to WP. The thing is, it has never been about roaming builds vs zerg builds, rather it's always been about skill level of those who do not want to fight. Templates just shines a light on it. Now, nothing wrong with running, no reason to give a free bag if you can't 1vs1, however just admit it. If you don't want to risk getting into a fight you MIGHT lose, why even play PvP game modes? Not taking those hard fights also means never learning, when I run into someone who is a hard fight, I GO BACK, why? Because it's something to learn, its about improving your skill, you don't get better fighting bots, you get better by fighting those who can out play you and changing things up and trying new things to see what works. Example, I ran into a thief who killed me, granted it was a 2vs1, however I was focusing him and not the ranger and he was countering everything, and I play DH which is more or less a thief counter. So I PMed him to kitten talk to get him to come back and fight, and he did, we actually ended up getting to know each other and now hes on my friends list. And guess what? I learned his build and rotations, he is still a very skilled player, however it went over the course of an hour, from him wiping the floor with me, to 50/50 win/loss. I also realized how lazy I had gotten fighting thieves because it had been so long since I had run into a good one.Almost, but it's pretty surface-level to assume "it has never been about builds vs builds". I main support in WvW, all of my templates are aimed for that across all of my characters. I don't run from 1v1 fights because I can't change my template fast enough, I run from 1v1 fights because I was never built for them nor do I find enjoyment out of them. Hence why I purely focus on teamplay. To each, their own.

That's not true, because the release of the DK completely destroyed the Lv.60 twink meta. 60 twinks were still extremely popular during this time and upon release, but the DK could basically start at level 60 and be an absolute powerhouse in battlegrounds compared to people who put hundreds of hours into their 60 twinks of another class. AV turned into nothing but 50% DKs just spamming death grip and within weeks the 60 twink population completely crashed and never revived.

I don't think it's sad. Some people aren't in WvW to challenge the 1v1 duels and are more built for the zerg play. With that said, don't take it as a negative thought... They ran from you for a reason, so take that mental victory and continue on!

The Blob..

Absolutely, especially in EU. Just pick one of the Top 3 servers for WvW and jump on in.

Personally, I don't think it's the stealth mechanic that's the issue more than it's the lack of combo damage and power creep that's set in. Thieves' playstyle has been designed to be high risk, high reward, with a high skill cap. And yet, here we are with 1-shot builds that give a high reward with almost no risk involved. They have the easiest setup to get kills and the ability to outplay it is useless since it allows for SIMPLE 1-shots. If you normalize the power creep that's set in and create more of a combo 1-shot rather than a simple 1-button 1-shot then it would be okay if they could fully combo you. This would at least create the potential for outplaying and counter which is currently impossible for some classes in it's current state due to their massive SIMPLE 1-shot potential. Remove the "-Reveal" from Shadow MeldNormalize opening burst across multiple skills rather than 1.This would now increase the skill-cap for Thieves in this build and that's the way it should be. I'd feel much better about getting 1-shot and understanding what I did wrong than having absolutely no chance what so ever.

Keep "Downstate", add a use-cooldown Remove literally everything else. "Downstate" should be a mostly passive state, maybe slow crawling but nothing else.. Absolutely no skills or heals and it should be completely reliant on an ally manually bringing you back up either through skill or F interaction, and absolutely no Rallies based off downed opponents/npcs. "Downstate" no longer acts like an "if/then mechanic" and should be treated more like a buff with diminishing returns. If you enter a big battle and get downed, you can be pulled back up, but if you die AGAIN within a specific time frame you no longer return to downstate and just instantly become killed. You can keep "Downstate" the current way it is for PvE, but it needs to be drastically simplified for WvW play.

"Seducing"? Nothing. It's been stale and boring for years. Same old, same old every single day. What gets me to play WvW on occasion? The rewards (legendary armor, trinkets, Gift of Battle, etc), and the frequent boredom in PvE (in WvW, the conversations and the fights can be entertaining when you have nothing else to do in the game while you are waiting for the next story episode). This is the perfect example, to sum up the two most conflicting playstyles in MMOs... Those that play specifically for the reward, not the adventure. Then those who specifically for the adventure, not the reward. Typically, you'll find that most of the die-hard WvW players fall into the latter while casuals fall into the former. It's just that the former is the majority population and why you tend to see focus within this game towards game expansion and episodes, and also why WvW has been "stale" for so long. Personally, I only play GW2 for the WvW/PvP and specifically for the interaction that come from them. I absolutely enjoy group play, obviously Zergs are common but I also play a lot within closed guild groups and small roaming groups. There are so many different ways you can choose to play, but you just have to actually do it. It takes time to setup and it takes time to continue on with giving very little reward, so I kinda understand why WvW can be stale for players who specifically seek reward. However, anyone assuming that WvW is nothing but a zerg fest is just displaying their ignorance and lack of knowledge for the game mode.

Remove Warclaw from WvW, if not, just make it a basic mount with a basic jump and nothing else.