Overedge.2435

While doing some more exploring of the Isle of Reflection during our first night of Fight Club, we discovered a few more locations on the Isle of Reflection itself that also seemed to be missing navmeshing, and we experienced the same "no valid path" errors there, and decided to map them out to add to this post. Here is an image of the locations we found on our first major run-through, and we'll continue to search for more. For the buildings indicated, it's the rooftops specifically where the errors occur. https://imgur.com/a/Cpkyosq

Before the competitive split in February 2020, VnUm members spent almost as much time in the guild hall dueling each other as they spent causing chaos on the borderlands. Without access to WvW stats that habit has fallen to the wayside, but the recent update to the guild hall that lets you choose your character's stat rules has really revitalized things for us. So, to celebrate, we have decided to open guild membership to players from all servers for the purpose of a guild hall-based Fight Club! The idea is to foster a community of duel lovers and provide a group of like-minded people who sometimes just like to beat up their friends, as well as an environment for letting that happen. On top of regular dueling, we've also been playing with ideas for fun events, such as one team of skyscale flyers chasing a team of skiff pilots to try and blow them out of the water before they get to the other end of the bay. If you or anyone you know are interested, please feel free to join our Discord at AMCBZXgpQ4 Membership in the guild is not necessarily required since you can access the guild hall by being in a party with someone who's in the guild and on the map, but if you'd like easy access to the hall at any time then we're happy to get an invite out to you!

The recent update to guild halls that allow you to change your character's stats to those from different game modes has really revitalized the excitement of a lot of the members of my guild, as most of them are duelers/roamers at heart. Before the February 2020 competitive split we spent a ton of time dueling in the guild hall, and not being able to access WvW balance there had become a real bummer. So I celebrated the update by going into the guild hall and going a little crazy with the decorating. I crafted a ton of those holographic racing platforms to build more fighting areas with, but while testing things out, we discovered that any skills that pathfind -- such as Shadowstep and Blink -- do not work on the platforms. I'm guessing that the pieces aren't navmeshed properly, because anything that uses AI, like illusions and pets and minis, also don't function properly. Additionally, with the Holographic Track pieces (the glowing green ones), some abilities (like certain wells and necro marks) are invisible when placed on the platforms. Would it be possible for ANet to go in and add navmeshing to decoration pieces? Some classes are far more affected than others. We've started putting together a Fight Club based in our guild hall (open to players from all servers, though we're on NA so EU likely can't access it) so we'd love to be able to do some really interesting things with the terrain. I have no doubt that it would be a huge undertaking, but if enough people and guilds were interested in taking advantage of the guild hall updates, maybe it will be worth it. Here's an extensive but likely not-quite-exhaustive list of affected skills. If anyone else decides to test this and finds more, please contribute to the thread. Guardian Crashing Courage - "No valid path to target" Symbol of Blades - "No valid path to target" Advancing Strike - "No valid path to target," but will still hit if enemy is within range, there's just no teleport Flash Combo - "No valid path to target," but will still hit if enemy is within range, there's just no teleport Judge's Intervention - "No valid path to target" Mighty Blow - "No valid path to target" Merciful Intervention - "No valid path to target" Mesmer Illusions cannot move Blink - "No valid path to target" Jaunt - "No valid path to target" Illusionary Leap - "No valid path to target," but still creates the clone although you can't swap places Phase Retreat - "No valid path to target," you basically teleport in place Blade Leap - "No valid path to target" for the teleport, but the leap works Axes of Symmetry - "No valid path to target," but teleport doesn't work and your movement is only a scoot forward Illusionary Ambush - "No valid path to target," you basically teleport in place Mirage Advance - "No valid path to target" Necromancer Minions cannot move Summon Flesh Worm - "No valid path to target," you can't even place the worm Sand Swell - "No valid path to target" Revenant Phase Traversal - "No valid path to target" Darkrazor's Daring - "No valid path to target" Razorclaw's Rage - "No valid path to target" Icerazor's Ire - "No valid path to target" Breakrazor's Bastion - "No valid path to target" Soulcleave's Summit - "No valid path to target" Elementalist Lightning Flash - "No valid path to target" Polaric Leap - "No valid path to target" Thief Steal - "No valid path to target" All Spectre Wells - "No valid path to target" Shadowstep - "No valid path to target" Infiltrator's Strike - "No valid path to target" Infiltrator's Arrow - "No valid path to target" Infiltrator's Signet - "No valid path to target" Shadow Shot - "No valid path to target" Endless Night - "No valid path to target" but the attack still fires Death's Retreat - "No valid path to target" Shadow Swap - "No valid path to target" Shadow Gust - "No valid path to target" Shadow Flare - "No valid path to target" Engineer Jade Mech cannot move Shift Signet - "No valid path to target" Ranger Pets cannot move Unnatural Traversal - "No valid path to target" Smoke Assault - "No valid path to target" Phase Pounce (merged Soulbeast) - "No valid path to target" and "Obstructed" Phase Pounce (Untamed unleashed) - No error, but pet doesn't move Neurotoxin Burst - "No valid path to target" Warrior Flicker Step - "No valid path to target"

ANet's lack of any interest in engi is just spotlighted with how the shortbow is just one skill/mechanic they copied three times across the rest of the weapon, instead of making anything about any of the weapon skills unique the way every other weapon in the game is.

There are enough support weapons added with this update/beta, and engineer already has access to decent support options already. What we need, and what several classes' shortbows specialize in, is ready access to conditions. Even the world's best engi piano player can't put out the condition damage a dual pistol guardian now can just by headbutting their keyboard once. I say keep the shortbow but entirely rework it into a condition and CC weapon.

I agree with most of this, but I don't think they hate engineer. They hate mesmer. They just don't care about engineer. So what's worse: hate or apathy?

In today's update, the cooldown for Epilogue: Unbroken Lines was increased from 25s to 30s. This is another example of many of the recent balance changes reducing access to stability, which is the only defense against the oppressive amounts of CC currently plaguing the game mode. Other examples include the cooldown increase on scrapper's defense field from 25s to 35s on October 4, and the increased cooldown and lowered ammunition count of firebrand's Mantra of Liberation on that same day. I know that ANet has talked about spreading stability around to other classes, but thus far that hasn't happened nearly as much as it's needed in order to pull people off the meta classes. Make other classes more appealing, rather than making the meta stab classes less appealing, because it's just making the game mode less and less fun. The amount of CC and insufficient defense against it is turning it into a game mode where there's too many instances of losing because your ability to play is taken away from you.

Hi guys, watched the whole stream. Lots of good and interesting stuff in there, but I have one major critique: there's a lot of nerfs to stability availability in competitive modes, and in my opinion there is already not enough stability to deal with the amount of CC spam you run into there. There are a lot of instances where one side of a fight is completely shut down and can't respond, leading to a situation where you literally can't even play the game because the CC prevents you from doing so. This is a frustrating balance direction, and I know that you have the intention of adding more stability to other classes, but please try and do so before you start taking any more away. Since some abilities will now affect defiance bars in PvE, maybe expand that and gives all players in competitive modes a small defiance bar. Maybe there can be an effect like when a thief is revealed after attacking from stealth, where you're immune to additional CC after being hit by one or after using an active stunbreak. We need something.

I actually had a similar thought to this a while back that I brought up to my guild as a fun "wouldn't this be cool?" topic of discussion. Make it an entire WvW event centered around EotM. At the end of the event, EotM crashes down on one of the Alpine Bordlerlands, essentially creating a new map and at the same time replacing one instance of a doubled-up map, while also giving an excuse to remove the too-easily-exploitable push-off-all-the-bridges opportunities in EotM that I think would probably end up not being fun. (CC bombs aren't fun, guys) I think most people use EotM for the arena anyway, that can stay floating around to keep being used that way.

My two cents: As a mediscrapper main, I agree with the changes after the redaction of the gyro changes. I too felt that the gyros' ability to move with the scrapper was a wonderfully unique way of flavoring the ability type. Combining that with all of the cooldown increases resulted in not only less overall cleansing, but some of the existing cleansing was made that much more difficult to use effectively. Combining all of the originally planned nerfs together took everything too far in the opposite direction -- mediscrapper is meta right now, but the goal should be bringing it down to the level of other supports, not gutting it so that you just end up completely replacing it with another class that becomes the new meta. Purge Gyro was incredibly strong, because it was easy to use, highly effective, and had an admittedly short cooldown. Increasing the cooldown was the right move, because it encourages us to use our other cleanses more actively and save the big moving cleanse from Purge Gyro for when it's really needed. This was a good change. Sneak Gyro is also strong, honestly too strong, and while I agree that it needs to be nerfed I feel like it got hit with the "too far in the other direction" approach as well. Reducing the duration of each pulse is fine. Reducing the number of total pulses is fine. But doing both has taken the skill from 9s of stealth down to 3s, making it literally only a third as effective as it was. At this point, why not remove Sneak Gyro completely (could/should also remove stealth from competitive entirely, but that's a whole other argument) and replace it with a different effect? I doubt a lot of groups are going to keep using it because, like mentioned above, instead of it being reduced to a more balanced state, it feels gutted and unusable, and will just be completely replaced by something else that will eventually be considered too strong. I also like the change to Defense Field. Making it ground-targeted opens up some interesting new placement strategies that I look forward to trying out. I don't think increasing the cooldown was the right idea however, because of how important the stability it provides is. Maybe leave the cooldown as it was and decrease the bubble's duration instead? We need more stability in WvW, not less, because the sheer amount of CC bombs from zergs is oppressive and not fun. Anything that allows groups to literally remove another group's ability to even play is just not fun design. Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to the ANet team for keeping your eyes and ears open and listening to the community. I know you guys can't even sneeze without half of the player base throwing a fit about it, but your willingness to listen and reconsider things really means a lot. The WvW community has gone a long time feeling unheard, so it's very nice to be acknowledged like this. Keep up the good work!

My guild is made up primarily of WvW players. We used to use the guild hall all the time, back before the February 2020 competitive split -- it was a great place to practice duels and help each other train without the worry of a rando in Armistice Bastion interrupting and ignoring your requests to back off. But now, the guild hall is a map governed by PvE rules, and as far as I know it's the only instance in the game where you are able to fight another player using PvE rules. That makes it less enjoyable to practice duels, group fights, and bombs, because it isn't representative of the actual gameplay we'd be using it in. Is there a way to update the guild hall arena so that it can be toggled over to WvW and/or PvP rules, like maybe a new NPC standing nearby? I would even be fine with the arena becoming its own instance-within-an-instance, like the Lion's Arch Aerodrome and the golem you can get to in there. Otherwise, the arena feels kind of...pointless. And that's a shame, because I love the guild hall. I'd love more excuses for people to go check out my top-notch decorating.

I actually made a post last week on this subject, and I suggested that after using a stunbreak, you have an effect (similar to how you are revealed for a couple seconds after breaking stealth) that makes you immune to CC for a couple seconds. That way your stunbreak isn't wasted because you used it after the first CC of the ten-CC-chain instead of the last one.

Or, tone down AOE CC so that fights aren't won by which side is bigger and therefore able to just W1 over a smaller group of stunned players. Winning by keeping others from being able to act is a bad philosophy for gaming.

Maybe Stability itself could be changed from a boon into an either-you-have-it-or-you-don't effect. That could be the post-stunbreak effect I mentioned in my original post, plus classes would have additional ways to apply it to themselves for short periods (like the current stab-giving abilities). That also prevents your stability from getting stripped or corrupted (which is another problem when trying to defend against CC, since multiple other effects remove it as well).

This post is solely from a WvW standpoint and doesn't take into account PvE or PvP any more than balance changes to those modes take WvW into account. There are many facets of WvW's recent balance patches that significantly benefit numbers over skill, such as the heavy preference towards boonballing, but this post is specific towards CC and Stability. The simple math is that larger groups have more CC and more Stability, meaning that they will simply face-tank and overpower a smaller group's Stability while effortlessly shrugging off the smaller group's CC, before simply rolling over them with no resistance. Meanwhile, the smaller group has little choice but to sit there and watch themselves be rolled over because their ability to play has literally been taken away from them. I feel this, and any style of gaming that revolves around taking away another person's ability to play, is in poor taste and shouldn't be encouraged, or at least shouldn't be as easy as it is. I propose that CC and Stability should be looked at for a potential rebalance. Stability is far too important of a boon for how restricted the access to it is in many cases. I mean yes, every class has some access, but most cannot realistically apply enough of it to withstand most CC bombs. If you break down attack types into strike, condi, and CC, Stability is the sole defense against CC, and needs to be as accessible as toughness and vitality are in order to mitigate incoming attacks. Sidenote: though it isn't exactly the same, access to Resistance also needs to be increased. Aside from simply adding Stability sources to all classes, I propose a new effect, similar to the way that when you break Stealth you are unable to re-stealth for a few seconds (via automatic application of Revealed). This effect would trigger when you use a stun break, and basically make it to where you are unable to be affected by CCs for X amount of time after using a stun break ability. This rewards using a defensive ability actively and drastically reduces the chance of "wasting it" in the middle of a big CC bomb where you'll just be immediately hit by another CC after breaking the first one. Another option, but one that would probably be far less popular, could be giving all player characters a small defiance bar. The strength of this bar could be tied into the Armor stat (determined by a mixture of toughness and vitality), and even the largest possible bar would only protect against like two, maybe three CCs. But, it would still allow players an opportunity to react instead of being immediately and permanently rendered helpless. I also feel that the amount of AOE CCs should be reduced, but I'm less interested in nerfing things that are potentially too strong than I am in bringing weaker abilities up to match the current power levels. Again, this is being proposed mainly as a way to get away from the ability of a larger group of players literally removing the ability of a smaller group of players to play the game by keeping them stunlocked. There are other aspects of WvW that also exponentially benefit larger groups to the detriment of people who don't like that style of gameplay, but that can wait for another post. I'm interested in what others think in regards to this. I know that a lot of zerg players probably don't see as much of an issue with it, but my perspective is from that of a havoc player and occasional roamer who doesn't really enjoy zerg gameplay. I think that changes like these could actually make zerg vs zerg more exciting as well, since the two zergs would get to do more direct fighting.