[Ah, here we go again]

9 hours ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

To be honest, this is how I always thought mantras should work in the first place. It makes sense to channel power while chanting, and if it's a pulsing effect during the channel, then you still get partial effect if you get interrupted. 

Then the additional ammo charges are a choice between whether it's better to pulse a smaller effect on demand or burn them all so you can use your powerful channel again after the CD. 

 

From the perspective of a HFB, that would be better mechanically speaking for sure, but as soon as you have a boon like quickness  attached to mantras then you need to make both choices equally capable of providing enough uptime, because otherwise there is no choice to be made, just as it happens right now. And if it actually provides enough quickness then that has the potential to end up with mantra spam as before the patch, but with a channeled cast every 20-30 seconds, wich is probably better than what we have right now, but still a very weird gameplay choice for how fast paced and fluid the combat is in this game.

In my opinion that is the whole issue. Every other boon and utility provided by mantras does work well with that concept and it has the potential to be more fun when you have to decide when to use certain stuff since that means more player skill involved. But when it comes to quickness is just something that should be provided in the most natural and fluid way having in mind how a spec works, mostly because that's how every other support spec works.

I still think that the focus of decision making on the firebrand spec should be attached to tomes not to mantras.

[Will it be fun? (mantra changes)]

As a HFB i hate this change. I'm not saying that mindlessly spamming mantras as we had before the patch is a better gameplay, but the current changes are not the way to go and honestly, i don't think it properly captures what was wrong about mantras in the first place.

Having to cast the mantras before the combat was an inconvenience back then, but it was just that... The real problem was always, and still is, what happens when you just have one charge left that you should not use because otherwise instead of having a more powerful and interesting effect, you are more likely to get punished with less boon uptime and a short but disruptive cast time. Micromanaging mantra charges is simply not fun nor a works towards having a fluid gameplay.

[Emboldened Needs to be Re-worked]

Honestly i'm glad with the buff but not with the execution.

I don't see a problem with the buff being active by default considering who the target for the buff is. But if we as a group vote to disable it, that's the last we should see about the buff unless we vote again to enable it. It should not be active for someone joining the instance if we already voted to disable it, it should not be active as soon as we kill a boss. We already made our choice.

The real problem is that emboldened as a choice doesn't really have any downsides: more damage, more hp, more healing and you still get the same rewards... so, why not? This becomes specially true when we are talking about pugs on more complex fights like this week with Dhuum.

Now, does this issue bother me? not really. Raid rewards have never been the main reason to raid in this game and i support the idea of emboldened working as an entry point that has the potential to bring more players to this type of content. But it wouldn't be crazy to say that call of the mists and emboldened should always happen on the same wing and be mutually exclusive... just a small incentive for those who want to defeat the wing without the aid.

[1600 Gems for a Jade Bot Skin]

I don't like this particular skin, but even if i did,1600 gems is excesive pricing for this kind of item. With a more reasonable pricing i would probably end up buying it, but with this kind of pricing for this kind of item i will never buy a jade skin bot even if i like it.

For 1600 gems i would expect this to be a pack with a mini, jade bot skin and mail carrier. And hey, maybe that's the course of action they should take with the jade bot and future jade bot skins.

I have to wonder if players and devs have a different perception about the jade bot, because at least for me is nothing more than a short irrelevant animation that i usually don't notice when it happens. I like the jade bot as a system, but the visual relevance and cosmetic value is essentially the same as a mail carrier.

[Dungeon change is like moving a pile of rocks from one spot to another]

I was already doing dungeons every weekend, so the change has been great and allowed me to finish my dungeon collections. But i can see how the change is actually bad on the long run... in fact, it will ultimately make the dungeon issue more obvious than it already was.

Having a daily dungeon rotation would be great. I would go even further and say that it should specify a path from said dungeon(s), but more importantly, there also needs to be a better and more clear way to turn the dungeon currency into profit, even if dungeons remain as not one of the best ways to make some coin.

[A Way to Bring Back Dual Professions for Expac 4?]

Honestly, it seems like too much effort for very little gain. I'm not against elite specializations getting some inspiration from some other class in terms of mechanics, but directly mixing them comes with a big problem in my opinion: the true gameplay definers are the elite specializations so if you get access to 8 new elite specializations that are essentially some other class abilities and mechanics what you end up loosing is precisely your class identity.

[Chalice of Tears needs help - checkpoints and ambient damge]

I love jumping puzzles, but whatever crossed their mind when doing chalice of tears was wrong. Searing ascent shares many of the same issues and so does, to a much lesser extent, abbadon's ascent. So it seems to be a thing with that living season.

I mean, i love them, but in a weird hateful way... there is a lot of thrill but also a lot of frustration coming from unclear and almost impossible to guess paths, bad textures and too many risky jumps. But still, i wouldn't change anything from them and i honestly hope that some similar wrong mess becomes a thing in the future as long as it is a niche thing not tied to any acheivement that everyone needs to do.

[Look at the hottest topic on r/mmorpg right now.]

Some days ago i logged in to compare some zones between both games, to be more specific i was curious about the catacombs area, so i started a new character on the original game and i was having so much fun in pre-searing ascalon that i just kept playing and now i made up my mind and Gw1 has become the thing i do when i don't have raids, dungeons or i'm done with my daily routine in Gw2.

One of the barriers i find when i suggest Gw1 to some of my Gw2 friends is that they find the game to be too expensive for such an old game and i can certainly understand that. I know that nostalgia plays a big role in me enjoying the game so much.

[What's the purpose of earning Hero Points if you can't spend them ?]

2 minutes ago, Rasimir.6239 said:

In a way they already do. Mastery points are a kind of by-product of achievements, which plenty people do for the achievement points alone. Hero challenges are map completion objectives just like pois and vistas, so once you have enough hero points the challenges still have a purpose.

But that's just part of 'their original purpose'. The point would be to give them some use when they are sitting on your hero panel with no use for them. I'm not asking for anything fancy or unique, just something as simple as converting them to spirit shards with an apropiate exchange ratio would be enough, they'll keep their original purpose and reinforce the interest in them as part of completing a zone with several characters.

[What's the purpose of earning Hero Points if you can't spend them ?]

Having different options to get something is great, but there is a point to be made about hero and mastery points having some other use when you no longer need them for their original purpose.

[I feel excluded from EoD because Soo Won meta event is too hard]

25 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Now, try to get at those builds without ever looking at outside sources. Good luck with that.

Someone did, thats why an outside source for the build exists.

Is not a matter of the game being unclear or not teaching stuff, is a matter of interest.

No matter how good and clear the instructions are, when it comes to RPGs (MMORPGs to be more specific) you'll always have players that like to toy around with the tools provided to build their character as optimal as possible, players that want the same thing but lack the patience or knowledge to find that for themselves, so they rely on other's people knowledge and finally players that don't care about any of that and just want to have fun playing with something that looks cool in their eyes.

[I feel excluded from EoD because Soo Won meta event is too hard]

14 minutes ago, Erise.5614 said:

GW2 has one of the most complex systems in the MMO sphere. If you sit someone down to read every single tooltip and every piece of explanation the game gives you they will have absolutely 0 idea about how to be effective.

Gw2 has the same level of complexity than most RPG's have: it's easy to find out certain combinations just by reading what your abilities and traits do, but to be optimal while using those combinations it requires to do some research, either by testing stuff yourself or by following a guide (essentially, following someone else research).

You have plenty of players that learn how to be more effective or deal with certain mechanics without the game making any effort to teach that to them, you know why? because they want to! It's not a matter of the game lacking the apropiate tutorials, is a matter of player interest.

When it comes to a meta event (since that is the topic), having a big part of the community understanding and learning the fight is just a matter of time: trial and error, experience as a community.

When we see the success rates going up (well, at least the people talking about it here) is not just the nerfs doing their part, is also the fact that after a month there is more people that knows how the whole thing works and no in-game tutorial was required.

The question i have for you is, how far do you believe the game should hold your hand?

 

The only issue this meta event has right now is community perception and how the preparation buffs reinforce that perception. Meaning that the required time before the meta starts is still a problem that is not helping to have more variety of squads. I'm not going to consider the crazy bite patterns an issue because that looks like a bug.

[Echovald, why? Why do this?]

Echovald is great. A dark forest with some ruins and secrets with the added benefit of being easy to navigate. It just takes a little bit of time to notice and learn your way around by just using roads. Exploring this kind of maps is something that certain type of players love doing and it is the same reason why some of us, probably a very tiny minority, also like tangled depths.

[I feel excluded from EoD because Soo Won meta event is too hard]

1 hour ago, ugrakarma.9416 said:

ins't a Bad RNG/bug, is broken again, after 20% HP its starts spam RNG garbage more than before!!

It was sooner and even funny. With less than 2% left before the second round of greens she went from east to west then instantly did another bite from west to east with and changed again because she only knows how to roleplay on one side of the platform when starting a new phase.

[I feel excluded from EoD because Soo Won meta event is too hard]

Just did a successful run with the usual type of successful squad (very organized and started almost 1 hour before the meta). As always, this should not be the norm.

I had special interest in how the last changes affected the fight. We had 4 tails, but we ignored two of them (boss about to phase or be defeated). The key point here is that we didn't have too much overlaping mechanics... maybe one bite while doing one of the tails, but that's it.

Now, the bites? i hope it was just bad RNG or a bug. We had consecutive bites several times during the whole fight. This is the kind of behaviour that kills the fun from the fight. Not knowing when she is going to do the bite is totally fine, not everything needs to be scripted, but randomness needs reasonable limits to be enjoyed.

 

[I feel excluded from EoD because Soo Won meta event is too hard]

28 minutes ago, DerAlteSack.3572 said:

I still think, that difficulty isn't the problem. The problem is that you don't get anything for spending 2h on a meta when you fail it. I am pretty sure, that people wouldn't be as upset about this whole thing if they would still get a decent reward for spending their time on this map. 

The whole event would benefit from more partial rewards, specially during the fight. Encouraging participation even when it fails is the best way to diversify the types of squads participating and eventually succeeding.

[I feel excluded from EoD because Soo Won meta event is too hard]

10 hours ago, ugrakarma.9416 said:

Theres no "too much" preparation, the preparation is do map-events, designed for this meta, stack jade buffs. how's play the map events is too much preparation? they do it even in zerg thats about press 1. Also even have long spare time after u acquire 10 stack bonus, u can just afk til meta start. Its chill as long don't enforce u to any role or spec. Its the commander who's organize subsquads.

This preparation is even more chill work than run a Drizzlewood South Meta(u need keep eye where events pop-up), more plain zerg events than DragonFall(need keep track of commander).

Is a matter of time invested. Your own argument about how you can easily get 10 stacks and have a lot of spare time until the event starts is a great example of what i'm saying. How relaxed it is to do those events is out of the question, my critique is to how the way the whole thing is designed forces the idea that successful squads actually need to start forming with all that time to spare.

[I feel excluded from EoD because Soo Won meta event is too hard]

11 minutes ago, Nephalem.8921 said:

Not every meta event has to be braindead. something like triple trouble once in a while is nice.

Of course it is! but bear in mind that triple trouble is not the only meta event present on bloodtide coast nor the whole map is built around it. And also is not the final zone of the expansion with very heavy ties to the story.

Challenging OW content can (and should) exist, but this was not the place for it. Maybe one of the two meta events Echovald has would've been a better choice for that.

[I feel excluded from EoD because Soo Won meta event is too hard]

11 minutes ago, ugrakarma.9416 said:

They did a patch where u can buy turtle with a map currency.

Guilds like REQUIEM, do a "chill run", chill a mean don't bother overzealoting roles, they just ask to stack map bonus/buffs, use discord, and they organize squad around alac support groups. They have basically 100% sucess kills ratio. Discord(voice comm) is the best tool to deal with mechanics. Im against open world metas designed to force ppl on voice comm'ns, but theres the facts, and the fact the Voice Comm(Discord) is ur best friend here.

 

 If it requires too much preparation prior to the meta, they do subgroups based on support roles and use discord then that's not a chill run at all. I'm sure they are really nice people, but that is not what defines a chill run and none of the things you described should be required for an OW meta event.

[Dragon's End Meta is Garbage]

1 hour ago, Erise.5614 said:

Would you please watch my video as well and tell me what's going wrong there?

It is exactly the type of squad you talk about. 1h prep. Removed from LFG (due to being full) ~50 minutes before pre events. 

What major mistakes were made here to warrant a failure and how can I avoid those with any degree of consistency? 

The thing about filtering and requirements for squads or any player driven content is that you are just trying to better your odds, but you never have a 100% security that things will go as planned. Is just as you telling everyone what to do... you did your part there, but you can't play for them.

Even with that kind of squads i don't have a 100% success rate. The most harmful thing i've experienced was a fail with less than 5% left because a tail popped up and the squad got divided between tail and head... wich is kind of what happened to your group.

1 hour ago, Mithrilos.8036 said:

 

Its on your own right, but OW Meta shouldn't ask such level of preparation, its lurking too much toward Raids lvl, with all the respect due of course.

That was my point. It should never be required for an OW meta.

The way i see it this is a snowball effect that is more related to community perception about the event than it is about how hard the event is. Tweaks and tunning are also needed but it is more important to widen up the success rate for more types of squads, not by making it easier, but by making it interesting and worth doing even if it fails so that players mix up more and pay less attention to other players, their roles, buffs or DPS.

[Dragon's End Meta is Garbage]

45 minutes ago, Erise.5614 said:

That's the problem though. I believe most people talking about repeated successful runs are using a specific method of getting into squads. Beyond just using LFG. Specific times, specific requirements, etc. Something to self select groups with other very experienced players.

Which means there's disproportionally few of them in more average pugs while there are more than usual people who are at low DPS.

Exactly.

This will sound arrogant, but coming from a raiding background i believe that i am above the average player in terms of skill and experience dealing with simple boss mechanics as well as measuring other player's performance. I know that if i want a successful run i need to join a specific type of squad almost 1 hour before the whole event starts. Maybe that squad is not asking for KP or any of that nonsense, but just the group finder description, a few interactions from the commander or playing a few events with some other players and i will know what type of squad i'm getting into.

This kind of filtering that we do ourselves means that less organized squads are left with other kind of players that are usually less skilled, and as i repeated many times, any successful meta, not just this one, is usually the result of a mixed variety of skills that balance each other out.

Player perception about the meta is playing a massive role here, the kind of healthy mixed squad you can find on almost any other meta will probably do fine with the whole fight, but that isn't happening because as a community we have already stablished how a good squad should look like and different type of players are not mixing up as much as they should for open world content.

 

[Dragon's End Meta is Garbage]

1 minute ago, The Boz.2038 said:

The story doesn't lead you to the DE meta.
Jesus, this was a *big* stretch to try and pretend to have an argument.

There is no achievement about completing the aetherblade meta before moving to kaineng or doing the junkyard meta before leaving Echovald... but there is one for completing the meta event before completing the story instance and they are actually connected in terms of story progression.

So sure, it does not lead you directly to the meta, but the way the whole thing is designed does indeed suggest the player to first do the meta and then do the story.

[Dragon's End Meta is Garbage]

26 minutes ago, Erise.5614 said:

Dragon's End is the same mistake they made with Chak, PoF metas, Tequatl, Triple Trouble and plenty of other content. Designing it for a much more hardcore audience than they really have and then having to backpaddle hard to compensate. Or abandoning it out right accepting it doesn't get done by the majority of players.

 

In my opinion the key is to know where and when challenging open world content can exist, even if it ends up being played less.

When you have one single meta event for the whole zone and that meta event is a crucial part of the story it's probably not the best place to raise the level. In this case the whole zone exist for the meta. My first impression with the zone was that the meta event stole a jade sea themed map from us and i still stand by those words and hope that at some point during the future LW we get the chance to experience another jade sea zone built around the fact that it is the jade sea... but that's a different subject.

We have plenty of zones that have a wide variety of things going on and even have more than one meta event. I see nothing wrong about having one of those meta events be a real challenge that feels and requires a higher than usual skill level and organization. Triple trouble is not a perfect example, but it is close enough: is not a crucial part of the story, there is otherstuff happening in that zone and it requires organized and coordinated squads with leading figures not just commander tags.

 

[April's Fool and Long cat bug]

This needs to happen.

[Dragon's End Meta is Garbage]

2 hours ago, NorthernRedStar.3054 said:

How can you STILL be saying reduce the tail RNG when it's SIGNIFICANTLY rarer in EVERY circumstance, regardless. You claim "tail", but what you're actually dealing with is lack of awareness and DPS. It does NOT take long to kill the tail, if people aren't wandering aimlessly like a bunch of samurai RPers.

 

I named 3 elements, not just one. The bad RNG comes from combinations between elements, like changing sides during a tail or having a CC phase with the tail up. And i also said that the best way to counter RNG is having more damage since usually that means less room for RNG to happen.

Is not about the event being hard (it really isn't), is about being aware that you can't expect people to be willing to invest time on something with an outcome that they can't control when the chances to fail are high. This means that no matter how good you peform during the fight, you will still depend on what others do and when that dependency is so high that most of the times it ends in failure... you end up with exclusive squads, angry players and a declining interest in participation.

I insist. The only way to fix this is to make changes to increase the success rate for less organized squads and make the whole event be worth doing even if it fails. This can also mean better rewards for squads performing better, but as it is right now? is already heading into the dead meta zone.