Graymatter.4723

It's a lot more nuanced that that. A/Net have to cater for population variances across the different timezones. Changes that make it easier for a smaller group to defend their keep against superior numbers could make it impossible for anyone to take a keep during prime time when servers are queued regardless of how well they play. The changes also benefit outnumbered servers when they try and take back their objectives. Prior to these changes, a smaller opposing group could hold onto your EBG keep for a long time, despite you having more people. Someone could put a few golems in the lord's ring and stop people from capturing their keep until reinforcements arrive from across the map.

The problem is that you can't damage the siege with a boon ball attacking. If you stand on the wall they will pull you off. The point of the siege disabler is to buy time so more people can arrive. Now the boon ball will be inside by the time support arrives and at that point, it's too late because you can't pick apart the boon ball if you don't at the very least have the same number of people as them.

My server is no longer defending things if there isn't an organized group online. There isn't a point. They are just going around back capping stuff. It used to be a lot of fun holding out against a bigger group but now it's impossible. You can't stop them from getting in and once they are in it's just a rolling boon ball.

That's what we have been doing. If we have an organized group online then we will certainly engage them but if we only have a bunch of randoms then we are ignoring them. Letting them take structures. If we can block them before they get inside then good but once they breach inner the calls are for people to leave. These boon balls want easy kills so let them run around capping empty structures and see how much fun it is for them.

Please revert the siege disabler change. It's close to impossible for scouts to stall groups now and once the boon balls get inside there is no way you can take them down without an organized boon ball of your own. Not all servers have these boon balls running 24/7. There is no point in defending now because all you are doing is feeding them bags.

There is nothing in the game that tells people what gear they should be using for regular strikes, let alone CM's. There isn't anything in game that tells people what they should be doing in instanced content. If you want people to join more serious instanced content, then the game should push them in the right direction. If I create a group tonight saying "CO CM, anyone allowed" in the training LFG, what gear will the players who join that group have? What build will they have? If the game wants people to do this content, then the game needs to give them guidance on how to do the content and how to prepare for the content. A person joining will only find out when someone calls them out.

It's not that simple. There is a range of skills levels and experience across the player base. Typically, with new instanced content, the more experienced players will attempt that content first. Gradually, the people attempting the content over time will shift towards the less experienced and less knowledgeable players. It's easy for players who have completed more difficult content to say "form your own group" but the player base that they are pulling from is far less experienced than the players that they grouped together with when they first did the content. Lets take AH CM, as an example. I completed that a long time back and can join any AH CM run that I would like. A player who wants to complete a AH CM run now will have a much harder time creating their own group and completing it than what I had when I first completed AH CM. In that respect, gatekeeping becomes a way that more experienced players block newer players from joining their groups. I am not saying that people shouldn't want an easy run, etc. I am also not saying that people shouldn't gatekeep the groups that they create. I am just saying that people "can form groups" doesn't mean that there is no gatekeeping. Gatekeeping simply means "to control or limit access to something". In this case, it's certainly limiting access to groups.

It's very unlikely that you would have the same experience with CO CM. KO only needs people to finish. There isn't an enrage timer in a KO turtle run and you don't wipe if people don't bring enough CC. You have 10 minutes to kill Dagda in CM. That's an average of 12k damage for each of the dps and support dps. It's not high for experienced strike players but will be a real problem for regular open world players. I have helped out turtle runs where dps players are doing 6k damage. I have done regular CO runs where most of the dps players are under 12k. I am not saying that there is a problem sticking the CM into the wizards vault. Just don't expect this to be something that regular open world players will be able to do. Expect a lot more gate keeping in LFG because it will be chaos otherwise.

I am happy for more people to try out CM's, but do you realize what these "easier to find" groups are going to look like? A lot of players battle with regular strikes. I don't even go to OLC regulars anymore because 1/2 are of the pugs are wipe fests. Now stick a CM strike into the wizard's vault and see what happens to LFG.

It's not even when allies are around. People will get to a camp with 2 min left on RI, run in and demolish the yaks like it's a raid, and then sit and patiently wait for RI to finish so they can cap the camp. Like why? If you are waiting anyway, why not wait for people to get there? Everyone needs to get 15 yak kills for the weekly.

You seem to be forgetting that immob is also a form of cc. Getting away when chain cc'd and immob is not an option. The only one is avoidance which is identical to your scenario.

"Except, as I keep saying, ordinary CC-builds can and should be anticipated and prepped for, even if that simply means avoiding them." "Nope. A half-decent Herald can still deal with a CC-build, even if that's just to get away." You keep changing your story. Either avoiding a build is a tactic or it's not. The top player in the game wouldn't get caught with their pants down and would have seen the pull a mile away.

By your argument, you should have avoided the engineer in the same way that a herald should avoid a cc-build. Case closed. What did I say?

How so? Please elaborate.

Exactly. Now you are getting the point. The moa/cc thing isn't an issue for anyone else except a glass cannon thief. It's a occupational hazard so to speak. You get upside from that build but there are also some drawbacks. It's no different from a person running around with a Herald and getting chain cc'd. This isn't a problem with the moa/cc. I don't play thief because I don't like that play style. Instead, I have other benefits (and limitations) from the builds that I do play. Sometimes that means switching characters so I can play in a comp group and other times I want to roam on X so I use a different character. Each of them has good things and bad things.

I don't even need a hand to count the number of times I have been moa'd and cc'd. It's 0. I don't have enough hands and feet to count the number of times I have run out of stun breaks and had a total skill bar lockout because of it. I typically run 2. Your thief doesn't have that issue because you can use blasting powder after the first cc and run away. No skill needed. A single keypress and you are gone.

Yes, professions have access to several stun breaks but not with stab and stealth and the number is limited in some cases. Take herald, as an example, a herald has at most access to 2 stun breaks (probably only 1 will be accessible) and they have to switch stances to get to the second one. Neither of those have stability included and certainly don't have stealth. If you break cc then there is nothing stopping you from getting cc'd again. You seem to want to be able to use the moa dash and then your blinding powder (it's irrelevant whether it's meta) to escape because you are running a glass cannon. If you weren't running that gear then you would also be fine. If the person hadn't pulled off the rare combo then you would be fine. But you are the one here complaining because you want the game to change to suit you. It's like an aircraft accident. Typically you can change any one of the mitigating factors to prevent the disaster. It takes all of the things to go wrong when something happens. I play many professions and roam most of my time. I have never had this happen to me. Not once. Perhaps I am more aware of what is going on, perhaps it's because I have more robust builds, but I haven't seen anyone complain about it either so that is also telling. This isn't a me problem. I am telling you why there is a hatred for Thiefs. I ignore them in game but that doesn't mean that the thief playstyle isn't unhealthy. It's irrelevant whether you play that way or not, the vast majority of thiefs do play that way. But go ahead with the personal attacks "TDS, etc" instead of looking at the point of what I was saying. Thief is built on unhealthy gameplay mechanics but you are here complaining about a single rarely successful scenario where the tables are turned.

You are completely missing the point that other people keep raising: Unhealthy skill interaction? How is this different from being chain cc'd? A spellbreaker can lock a person down. Someone breaks the cc and gets cc'd again. In this case, it's 3 utility slots the player is using (pull, moa, and cc if I am not mistaken) but it wouldn't make a difference if it was 2. Another spec can cc you and when you break the cc, cc you again, and again having the same result. But wait, you might say, you can break stun with Blinding Powder if you are cc'd and get out of there because of the stab and stealth. Well, not every spec has stealth and a break stun/stab in a single utility slot. You are looking at this strictly because it's the type of gameplay that can get to your build and then complaining that a meme build that is only able to kill you because you are running a glass canon. It would be useless against my core guardian who is running Dire gear. The reason why you didn't post this with a clip for another build is because it wouldn't happen with a different build. Running a glass cannon is high risk, high reward. You can't complain when you are killed because of it. And other specs have to deal with chain cc's. If you want to talk about something that is unhealthy then you should talk about your second point.which is thief's and why they are hated. How is it healthy for the game to have a thief to attack someone and be able to escape time and time again if they start losing? I can't catch a decent thief on my mount if they decide to run, and they can always break combat and port if things get dicey. How is it healthy for the game that a thief can stealth in a keep and keep 4-5 players busy trying to find them with the alternative being they leave and let the thief portal a bunch in to flip it, etc.? You are playing a profession built on unhealthy gameplay and then complaining when a meme build kills you.

What are the new players battling to catch up with? Gear is readily available.

Two reasons: It's a noob trap. You can bypass hero points really easily by playing wvw for a short while. It crosses the line to allowing people to pay real money to bypass content. The only reason people are happy with it is because it's easy content that is being bypassed.

Not really. They are basically selling something to bypass content. It's irrelevant how easy the content is. You can now buy a full elite specialization in the gem store. You can get away with everything else sold to date as being QoL - level 80 boost, well levels aren't really relevant, waypoint unlock, people still have to actually complete the maps. But this is the first time they are bypassing content through the gem store. What about skipping some strikes or why not just sell skirmish claim tickets? This is crossing the line between convenience and paying to bypass content which is not ok.

From a DPS/Healing standpoint, there will probably be a BIS, but I think the new system adds other options. Current runes are limited because your "bonus" is tied to the other stats. Once this is broken off, you will be able to use relics as something situational without breaking your damage/healing. So, there may be encounters where specific relics shine in PVE or play styles in WvW where different relics suit players and play modes differently.

I have full legendary and don't like the delays for the legendary relic. That said, people without a full set of legendary runes will probably be better off. They have more flexibility. They get given 3 relics to choose per character at the release of the expansion and those relics will add more flexibility to their builds. In the long run it will be the same for someone who gets a legendary relic. They will have far more flexibility with their builds. Right now, I don't change runes often unless I am testing out new builds. I do change them on the odd occasion in WvW but not normally for raids/strikes. Going forward, I can see a situation where I swap out relics for certain fights and scenarios much like I do with changing utilities in those situations. This added variety and flexibility to the game. There will probably be some BIS relics for each build from a strictly damage/healing standpoint but the will also times when it makes sense to swap it out which is great.

A/Net have been good. Ascended gear is still the top tier of gear and has been since it was introduced in 2012 not long after the game was released. That was over 10 years back. Legendary gear was added at the same same tier as ascended and has been improved through the years like the legendary armory. They have given extra features to us for free during the years including selectable skins from the gem store. People who lost progress when they had to roll back the server were rewarded. I don't like the lack of a legendary relic as much as the next person. I have 7 legendary runes. I am annoyed that I have to do a bunch of grind to get back some of the flexibility that I have lost. The legendary relic should have been available at launch but I don't think that they are in a position to give us that and delaying relics isn't an option. As I said, A/Net have been good about handling these situations in the past and have, for the most part, listened to customers, even when I sometimes wish they wouldn't. You can look back at my post history in this thread. I have been very critical of the decision. I just don't think that they are doing anything nefarious which is what your last two sentences suggest. They have tried to help the situation and are still adapting. The first blog stated "To celebrate the new system, we’ll distribute a relic selection box to all players at launch.". This changed to "When the expansion launches, each character of level 60 or above will receive a relic chest to get you started in the new system with a choice of three core relics (exact number subject to change).". They are aware of the problem and are trying to work around it. It's not something that they would do on purpose.

I don't think that's the case. I think that early in the design decisions they thought about adding a cool thing called relics and built some of the rewards around it but forgot about legendary runes. I very much doubt their intention was to take anything away from anyone. It was more about adding stuff to the game. The problem is that we are a month from release of an expansion that would have taken a year+ to develop. There is no way that they can change tact at this point. A/Net are normally good about this sort of thing.