AsWeShiver.1945

Maybe its the time I play, or the rank I'm playing at... but pretty frequently games are 4v5 because there are a few players that are deliberately afking in spawn - They run herald wit corruption traits to apply perma regen/torment on themselves. I'm guessing this defeats the normal afk detection since it puts them in combat or something, but perhaps its just so they have a chance of getting a healing top stat. Anyway, they get reported every game, but that doesn't seem to do anything. The player base is small enough that chances are they reappear in the next couple of games. I don't _think_ they are botting - sometimes they respond to stuff in chat, or move to go afk on the close node... but they can't really be said to be active participants in the game, even if they aren't technically afk. Can ya start handing out some temp bans or something or at least make it clear that if they continue that they will be shown the door? Thanks.

Wind Storm (Ele Hammer, Air 4) gets you stuck in walls and scenery props quite regularly when it knocks you backwards. Happened to me 3 or 4 times in the last 30 ranked games or so. Less of an issue for PvE since the skills is rarely used (although the knockback makes it pretty undesirable to use even for breakbars... but that's a separate issue). Been an issue since release, but I guess more noticeable now ppl are actually using hammer cat in PvP. Seems like a similar long standing issue as some as the other knockback skills (Ranger Close Range Shot, Rev Downed Skill 2 etc), but this is almost even more feelsbad since its self inflicted. If the bug isn't possible to fix, can the skill be altered a bit so it doesn't occassionally CC the user for 30+ seconds while they wait for /stuck to work.

Is playtesting of big patches an option? Has it ever been discussed? Something akin to the elite spec previews we had for the expansions (some might argue they weren't necessarily that effective but prob better than nothing!). Also, what is the point of posting a patch preview if there is no opportunity to act on the less vitriolic feedback. I mean, it definitely generated hype of a sort... Its hard to imagine what kind of context would explain some of these changes. The intention, for the most part, seems OK. I think its the implementation that needs some explanation. Perhaps the silver lining is that if people really had no expecations, then the response wouldn't have been so... explosive. I had high hopes for this patch given the mostly positive noises that have been coming from ANET of late. I'm not gonna throw my toys out the pram and quit, but it is pretty disappointing to see these changes and it definitely dampens my enthusiasm for the game. I think one thing that I've kept hearing that I couldn't agree more with is how final GW2 patches feel. Changes are made and then they tend to stick around for much too long/forever. I guess there is a balance to be struck between being too reactive (I think the early Catalyst changes are perhaps an example of that) and not nearly reactive enough. I don't normally bother with forum posts, but I found a lot of the toxic stuff to be really pretty awful. People taking certain private conversations way out of context and honestly just wallowing in their own rage. I just wanted to add a voice of criticism that isn't just pure malice. So, the patch sucks, there needs to be some sort of internal debrief on this whole debacle and then I think there needs to be some strategy for how player feedback is gathered - perhaps specifically for the implementation of changes, not just the broad strokes. Good Luck! 🙂