[Well its summer...... #alliancewhen?]

On 7/25/2022 at 4:06 AM, Sahne.6950 said:

Just a reminder that summer is halfway over and still no word about the alliance betaS<---- plural! multiple betas!  that should happen in summer.

on their Roadmap it says that in summer there will be alliance betaS. well...... summer is halfway over.....  alliance when?

It's still 2022 though.  You have the wrong year.  Sorry.

[August 2 Balance Update Preview]

6 hours ago, EvilSardine.9635 said:

When will mechanist be nerfed? It's pretty dumb in WvW currently.

It took them 3 years to nerf holosmith to bring it in line...so, don't hold your breath.  And there are still plenty of things overperforming ridiculously.

[New Hacks in WvW? Seen Something New]

47 minutes ago, schloumou.3982 said:

Still tho, afaik the only documented manipulation is the player position in the world. And tbh i allmost exclusively encountered bad players doing it in all these years which didn't really help them aside from escaping or trolling under the map.

Same goes for the linked "immortal hack" video. It looks more like the mob just doesn't attack because player position changes for him and then triggers ooc suddently.

My understanding of what could and couldn't be hacked was always that location and speed and objects could be "hacked" and nothing else (cause client side).

But...I'll have to see if I can find the video, which I previously sent to Anet about 2 years ago.  Was fighting a soulbeast and it was very clear in the video.  Condition build, sword/warhorn and shortbow vs me in my minstrel scrapper build,  saw them as I was running back from spawn.  Not a single reset in the fight, in fact never got out of 360 radius the entire fight till the end.  After about a minute of them clearly using shortbow and sword/warhorn over and over, they switched to longbow, used the knockback 4 skill, then started to kite with longbow.  I laughed and commented on it in chat and just ran to the keep cause they were never gonna kill me in my heal build.

Since then, the more I rewatch old footage, the more I see.  Like people ressing themselves from full dead, with no one else around, covered in traps and marks preventing stealthed allies from ressing them.  Like they had a wvw revive orb.  The more I see that stuff, the more I am starting to think it's just Anet staff, without the anet tag up, abusing the powers they have.  Which is why nothing ever happens to those accounts.  Kind of like when one got called out in Stonemist doing that cause players knew who they were without the tag.

[New Hacks in WvW? Seen Something New]

This "feaure" has been happening since launch.  The same program that people have been using since launch.  It's not as random as people think.  I record all my fights.  If you do that, and rewatch all the footage, you will be amazed at how often players cheat, and not just no ranks.  I see more mithril and diamond rank players speed. teleport, no clip hack, etc than any other rank.

[Mandatory Claim buff reminder and how it kills fights]

4 hours ago, Riba.3271 said:

Argument: Claim buff kills fights

 

Math: Claim buff is +100 power, + 100 precision, + 100 vit, +100 toughness, + 25% movement speed. If we estimate it downwards as power and toughess are better stats than vitality and precision in power meta => +200 precision + 200 vitality. So 9.5% crit chance and 2k HP.

Average WvW build has around 20k HP, so 2k HP added to that will increase your survivability by around 10%. 200 precision or 9.5% crit chance is harder to calculate as it depends on your ferocity and precision but for minstrel build it is 8% damage increase and for 70% crit chance 220% crit damage build 6% damage increase.  So let us calculate it as around 6.5% damage increase.

 

In keeps these effects are doubled so 20% survivability and ~13% damage increase. This math is undeniable

 

Situations

Lets take a look at individual situations where groups fight each other.

 

Guild perspective

Can equally skilled guilds overcome 10% extra survivability and 6.5% extra damage? This equals to a strong runeset. If your guild had extra runeset, would you beat most guilds you are losing to right now? If you have a nice fight at friendly tower and swap to enemy tower, can you overcome double this difference? You needing to do around 17% more damage and taking 17% more? This equals to about 2 runesets, 1 defensive and offensive.

 

Outcome: It is fair to say in Guild vs Guild fights swapping claim buffs to fight in is not viable as dealing 17% more damage and taking 17% more is not something you can overcome by strategies. Thus guilds are confined to running around south side of borderlands and looking for open field fights. This matches the current behaviour of most guilds. If they have several matchups with guilds unwilling to fight them, they will most likely disband. No competitive scene can exist as 2nd best guild would always beat best guild at their claim buff.

 

Cloud perspective

Here +25% movement speed from claim buff also comes to play as lot of clouding builds do not have sufficient swiftness upkeep (for example eles, dragonhunters, scrappers). We can estimate the necessity of running Fireworks runes and convert it into stats. Comparing Firework runes to Pack runes is natural choice. Pack runes effect is slightly weaker but hits multiple allies and it gives +125 extra precision. So let us estimate downwards that pack effect hits 2 people at least equalizing with fireworks and add +125 precision to cloud builds. Meaning at least 3.5% more damage

So optimized clouds will have at least 10% more damage and 10% survivability.

 

Outcome: Clouds enjoy over 500 stats advantage. Clouds don't need to organise to win fights as they have 15+ might worth of stats. If clouds leave their objectives and try to attack anything of enemy, they will deal no damage and lose the fight. This leads to a stalemate.

 

Dueling/solo roaming pespective

Obviously in dueling and solo roaming, every bit of damage matters. Most popular dueling spot was around stonemist castle even though dueling has been relatively unpopular since after HoT (when claim buffs were added).1 Runeset worth of stats obviously breaks dueling and if SM changes owners during week, it becomes 2 runesets worth of stats. Means you win faceroll fights one week and get facerolled other weeks. Even taking enemy camp will be hard.

 

Outcome: Close fights as roamer can never be consistant as objectives change owners leading up to 2 runesets worth of stat swing. Even if you manage to defend a camp in a close fight, you cannot take enemy camp against same player. Thus competitive dueling and roaming is dead. You can still sneak camps/towers but if you get found by similarly skilled player you are dead, which isn't exactly PvP or competitive. No best roamer can exist.

 

Blob vs blob perspective

Main situation where claim buff becomes problematic in blob scale is when one side defends and swaps to offensive. 2 Runesets stats swap owners in addition to all the defensive advantages like respawns, tactics, gliding, choke holding and siege. If blobs are close to even level, it means neither side can take anything from the opposing side.

 

Outcome: Stalemate. Very few want to tag up as fights aren't competitive if you take turns defending and attacking.

 

Scouting perspective

There are very few willing to attack objectives and wall/gate HP was reduced instead of claim buff after claim buff was added. Very uninfluential role with little activity as defenders win almost all fights.

 

Outcome: Doing nothing is boring. Siege isn't even needed most of the time.

 

SUMMARY: Reduce claim buff by at least 70% or rework it to non combat buffs. It kills all scenes.

The defender should have the advantage, which is fnny because walls favor the attacker.

That said, the only place a change needs to be made is Stonemist.  They should remove the claim buff from the castle completely, and go one step further, by removing the supply and supply huts as well.  It should take the same # of yaks to upgrade, but the superblob camping in SMC trebbing everything, shouldn't get a free 1800 supply.

[End of Dragons story chapter Empty instance not working [Merged]]

New patch, still broken.   /sigh

Anet, fix the wvw oil trait too (that I've been telling you about since PoF launch).

[Someone forgot to clip out a section from the Spring Roadmap]

They can't even fix the oil trait bug that has been reported since PoF launch.  So, no, I do not think we will get ANYTHING related to alliances this year.  That said, alliances DO NOT change anything about wvw but the name on the server/world.  Everything else about stacking, population imbalance, class balance, etc. will be the same.  Boon sharing will still be broken.  Map blobs will still avoid each other or only fight smaller groups and doors.  Downstate will still carry bad play.

[NERF guild siege]

Make siege disabler unblockable.

[WvW is fundamentally broken at the moment. [Engie Rifle]]

15 hours ago, Sahne.6950 said:

Daredevil staff jump just works only on certain gates, and even on those few gates its hard to pull off... the rifle works first try on almost any objective....

The use of in game mechanics is hardly a major issue though, although it needs fixed.  I see far more people just walk through walls, jump over the entire wall, or just "appear" on tower lords than I have ever seen people trying to use actual game mechanics to get inside things.

[Anet. You Going To Remove One of My Legs Now?]

And yet, despite the change, thief is still the only class with low risk, high reward.

[New weekly Jade Vault achievement is not weekly [Merged]]

As of today, it is still broken.  Once you turn in the "weekly", you can never turn it in again.

[If they nerf Rifle]

On 6/29/2022 at 2:58 PM, Arolandis.8360 said:

I would want it done this way; by simply lowering the power coeffient slightly. The attack speed needs to stay because it helps with condi/hybrid builds.

I know a lot of people are calling it OP which could mean nerfs later, so I wanted to give my feedback on how I think it should be nerfed if is. I just don't want any nerfs ruining how it feels to actually use. Because the fast firing rate is fun and "feels" good.

I finally like rifles in this game please let us keep this buff.

Edit: I don't want Rifle nerfed. I'm just worried about it getting nerfed because I've been seeing a lot of "rifle OP pls nerf" crap (mostly on reddit).

Edit Edit: The more I play it with the supposed op builds in WvW with it the more I realize it's just "Good", not "OP". So I'm not worried anymore. False alarm. lol.

I have been doing the slayer achieves I couldn't be bothered to do for the last 10 years with rifle.  The problem with rifle isn't rifle, it's the offensive protocol in Cantha, that can be used anywhere in the world.  With the offensive protocol, it looks broken as hell.  I just finished 600 minotaur kills without it, after doing 5 other slayer achieves with it, it hits as hard as ranger autos, before the buff they just put in a few minutes ago.  There is nothing broken about rifle.  And now coupled with the huge mech nerf they just did, I can't see any reason to adjust rifle at all.

[Why does it feel like forum users, are trying to make this entire game mode into a gank session that require 0 skills/no boons or basically into a PvE focussed gameplay?]

5 hours ago, zengara.8301 said:

As I remember it, there was an army of thiefs and mesmers waiting for anyone walking alone to gank them? 

Now it's streamers showing off their skill by fighting 1 or 2 people with 5 friends.

[Double or TRIPLE the skill target cap in wvw]

41 minutes ago, Dralor.3701 said:

They really need to figure something out because it’s basically becoming unplayable. They keep nerfing DPS to the point these minstrel blobs don’t even have to reposition, just sit at full health eating full dps rotations with boons for days.

Anet's solution was to nerf winds again cause they might have had to move.  /smh

[Double or TRIPLE the skill target cap in wvw]

4 hours ago, Svarty.8019 said:

... because if a small group can use it to zergbust, simple mathematics lets you imagine that a giant squad can use it to mega-zergbust. The fights were even more one-sided than usual. Good teams were too much better than bad ones.

In conclusion: open field fights are stupid because one side is usually objectively worse. The objectives are there to provide a leveller for the weaker team.

But they don't level anything.  The only time the objective matters is when both sides are already equal size, which nowadays, is almost never.  Size is all that matters and boon sharing is broken.  Every group runs around with perma every boon.  Smaller, better groups get the occasional kill off them, but downstate makes it so they instantly res everyone.  The design of almost every objective favors the attackers, and always favors them when they have more.  Everything is weighted to make the boon blobs win just based on size and not based on skill.  Stacking in the smallest area to completely negate damage is a horrible design.  Maybe removing the target cap isn't the solution, but if the servers could take it, it would be worth a try.

[HoM Points Bug]

The HoM is also character based, not account bound.  The HoM calculator tends to show account unlocks, even though the to get to where you need, it all has to be done on one character.  I'm in a similar situation, which is why I am still 1 away from getting the God Walking title.

[After Alliances, Anet said they will work on Rewards. what do they mean?]

I imagine they will continue to disincentivize everything that isn't blobbing.  Nerfing reward tracks for example.  I'm guessing a rewards update will make it so that if you aren't surrounded by at least 30 other players, you can't get loot or participation.

[So anet is expanding the access to boons and making everyone more tanky (health and defense free bonus) next update. What's your opnion?]

Anet has spent years nerfing ANYTHING that slows down boon blobs.  Nerf siege, nerf wall health, nerf winds...hell, they even nerfed participation repairing.  Anet does NOT want people to defend.  They want boon blobs to walk around winning everything, and fighting outnumbered servers and empty buildings.

[Double or TRIPLE the skill target cap in wvw]

13 minutes ago, mysticozzy.3589 said:

As title says, its pathetic trying to down a boon tank blob these days. Bunker down and sustain, wins this. its becoming not much fun anymore and infuriating 

I would say get on spellbreaker and bubble them, but because that actually worked, Anet nerfed it too.  Anet nerfs anything that slows down or works against boon-sharing blobs that press 1.

[Please release the numbers that show that Gandara is the most populated server on EU right now]

It's very unlikely alliances will be this year.  That said, they won't solve any of the population issues.  Even if we get alliances, it will look just like it looks now, with new names.

[Has anyone else noticed how squishy everyone seems to be?]

35 minutes ago, Crazy.6029 said:

Is there a bug with the armor values or scaling or something, because it seems like people are going to half health after using just 2-3 physical damage abilities? I've also noticed that it seems like my high armor toons that are normally pretty tanky are just dropping pretty quick too. I could be totally wrong, just wondering if anyone else was feeling extra squishy lately even though they are running high armor. Seems like it only applies to physcial damage application and receiving,  condi damage seems about the same. Check it out, make a power build and watch them just crumble...lol

Probably just seems like a bug though. 

Toughness is almost useless...almost.  Even in minstrel gear facing a full berserker thief for example, the thief will kill you pretty quick.  It should be equal.  In most games, a pure healer should be able to stall indefinitely a single pure dps.  But that isn't GW2.  So, most players are either tanky, full trailblazer/minstrel - based on spec so they last longer, the occasional celestial roamer, or, what most seem to play, is full berserker/marauder.  Which means that when 2 dps meet, one or the other just explodes in combat, depending on class/spec/skill.  Some of the specs are pretty broken atm also.

[Is Anet so Desparate for WvW Players They Don't ban Cheats?]

On 6/6/2022 at 12:25 AM, TrollingDemigod.3041 said:

I remember a guy that was teleporting inside objectives even though they weren't breached at all, fun times. You may say "hey!, he probably sneaked when it was opened before!", since you're teef you gonna defend it.
The said player (with a friend btw) changed borders and somehow again teleported inside an objective that was held for atleast few hours even though all walls and gates were 100%.
Teef and Mesmer are one of few classes that are so easy to cheat on, I wonder why~

What's really fun is people defending the exploits.  Like the thief/mesmer that ports in a zerg, straight to lords, on a structure that is not only T3, has not been attacked since reset.  Never had a wall/gate down or anything.

[Fighting MAG for a week ruins the game mode. If only we got rewarded for defense]

1 hour ago, Creativity.3816 said:

@Ubi.4136 https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/116364-question-for-all-you-wvw-mesmer-pros/?do=findComment&comment=1681830

 

Yep, it's almost like the expansion has tons of powercreep.  That said, a heavy class should never have thief mobility.

[Fighting MAG for a week ruins the game mode. If only we got rewarded for defense]

2 hours ago, Creativity.3816 said:

https://streamable.com/h3rv1i

 

looks about even numbers to me idk

What really makes this post funny is the video is on willbender, which is totally balanced atm.

[Can Gandara Have A Link?]

Do you have the problem that TC had most of the last year, where Anet counted you as a full server because 15 people were running into walls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?  Funny enough, as soon as those 15+ people stopped running into walls every day, we were no longer full.