starlinvf.1358
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Posts posted by starlinvf.1358
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The -300 Vit could had worked IF, and this is a huge "IF", the Scrapper shifted that work load to the combined Barrier and Damage reduction. This is the same basic concept of the 55 Monk from GW1, where you scale down both your HP and the incoming damage. The % of your HP per hit is fairly close in scale, but the numbers of the Regen effect are more capable of outhealing those small damage scales.
But theres a problem.....The entire Stat system and how Barrier uses it. Back in early Core, the base value for most healing skills were tuned to roughly 35%-40% of the class's baseline HP but weak Healing Pwr scaling. This made it counter productive to take healing power unless the Trait line basically forced you to. When HOT released, Druid's base line healing for CA was strong enough that you didn't need to invest into healing power to get decent heals out of it. Seeing this as a problem, Anet systematically changed every healing skill to need roughly 300 Healing Pwr to be on-par pre-nerf, by lowering the base line, and changing the coefficient based on that assumption. This was a way to "encourage" investment into Healing Pwr.
Except... it didn't work. Their approach to increasing difficulty involved up-scaling Mob damage and HP to counter Glass Cannon builds. But the problem with this is in the math. Vit/Tou/Heal skill scale poorly in comparison to any of the damage stats; so any a serious investment into a tanky build will outright loose a battle of attrition against all but the most basic Mob fights. And since much of the skill math is focused around 1v1 Dueling, fights against groups of mobs quickly exhaust your active defenses. Because of the above, the Meta started to double down on Damage output, only affording the minimal amount of defense stats absolutely necessary to avoid being 1 shot. Its still universally safer to put down a mob as fast as possible. The only difference now is that it takes more then a single opening burst to accomplish this, ergo you have to devote even more of your traits and skills into damage without leaving yourself too vulnerable to mistakes or blind side hits.
So how does this affect barrier and scrapper? In order to make this work on paper, Scrapper would compound so fast on Healing Pwr, that they could Bunker entirely on their HP/Barrier pool without investing in Vit or Tou. Its a different arrangement then we've seen before.... but its still fundamentally broken for a single stat investment. In its current incarnation, it only sort of works in PvP (which is presumably the target balance), but is functionally underwhelming everywhere else due to the the thresholds its tuned for. Druid had this exact same problem after they nerfed CA's base line healing, that even taking the alternate trait that boosts Healing by +50% barely gets 5.3k HP between its 2 strongest healing skills. More over, the Support pet in Soulbeast has an AOE heal that not only has just over 4k HP base line, but scales 3 times better (overall) with Healing Power.
So the 3 following mistakes is what makes this not work overall.
- Barrier is generated Offensively, based on damage. Ultimately this is what the intent was to reduce the scaling capacity of Bunker builds.
- Making it based on damage, and removing synergy with Healing Power, while simultaneously lowering the Scrappers overall damage, creates a Stat allocation conflict.
- Dividing the Damage and Defensive traits when the core of its defenses are now tied to offensive power.
It might sound good on paper... but when you actually start trying to build out based on this, the traits start to fight against each other's goals, rather then providing neatly defined build paths.
If I were to redesign it with a Barrier Focus, I would make the baseline mechanic Barrier Generation "per action" in nature (on strike, on hit, on skill use, etc) to create the assumption that they always have some amount of Barrier. And then build the GM Traits to use Barrier as a Resource (as a damage buff, damage reduction, or Shared barrier), the Master Trait to define a personal effect modifier (boon handling, CC handling, and condition handling), and the Adept a choice between Enhancing all Gyros, Enhancing all Field Combos, or Enhancing Barrier generation.
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Ugh.... picked a bad time to ask that question. Depending on what mechanics were around last time you played, Scrapper's entire spec got pretty heavily messed up in the last update. Both sustain and Damage suffered varying levels of nerf (and all the traits scrambled), and the F5 skill is now the function gyro that has all the old problems of the original Gyro, BUT now also took way the Elite Tool belt slot.
Holo's biggest change is overheating kills your tool belt entirely. A secondary change was the Heat related damage bonuses now scale as a coefficient rather then a set of Tiers. Most other skills still go by tiers, so its almost a non-change.
Core Engie still kind of sucks.
The build sites are still sorting through the mess, since every class got some kind of incomprehensible concept tweak that hasn't resulted in any net positives for the class overall.
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The real solution is to "Not Main". Its as simple as that. Every Class, Every Espec, every Build has major blind spots in their use cases. Some classes can adapt better then others, but as of right now, none have Universal application across all game modes. And given the Dev's current trajectory, this is going to get even worse over time.
For the sake of your sanity, you want to have at least 3 character laid out to handle the various game modes you participate in. if you play in all game modes on a semi-regular basis, you're gonna want all 9 classes at your disposal. Also, don't fall into the mental trap of thinking DPS builds are flexible..... not only is not true outside of openworld, all the other game modes are criminally short on Support players that keep the DPS builds alive. And since ANet has a history of heavy handedly Buffing and Nerfing entire builds in and out of the meta with each balance pass, you can't count on having a "Main" character that won't eventually be thrown out for a given period of time. Mesmer used to be the safest class against build destroying nerfs.... but now Chrono just got dismantled in a way that makes very awkward outside of raids.
Also take into account your playstyle. I've noticed that players that have the most difficulty with the game, are the ones that are still stuck in the WoW-eqse mindset of a more passive mind set toward combat. This is most often evidenced in an inability to fully articulate what they don't like about a class, or can't fully wrap their minds about Class/Spec mechanics. Another issue with that is most classes don't mechanically make sense until they're lvl 80, and the Especs start coming into play. Ergo, its not really possible to sample a class during the leveling process.
For example: I could never get a handle on thief, due to its spastic skill combos. But after DareDevil came out, it was straight forward enough for general use to learn Thief utilities as a separate concept. Combined with time on Engineer and Scraper learning Field Combos, 5 years in I finally learned how to use Thief's mechanics at a minimally competent level. I'm still bad at it; but now I know whats giving me trouble, and have been improving on it over time.
You'll find this same problem with all the classes and most of the Especs, as they all utilize a higher gameplay function thats not specific to their class in their overall play style. Only learning or specializing in one class or one build actually makes you WORSE at the game, because you'll often fail to recognize what other players are doing, and how you can capitalize on their actions. Even though raids are thought as rotation focused, the actual mechanics of the fight demand you pay attention to know when and when not to do something, and know what your supports are doing, since they set the cadence of the fight.
When I first started, I mained Ranger. After 6 months I quit the game for almost a year. Second time around I switched to Guardian... and holy crap did everything start to make sense. Ranger at the time was a Trash class, but it wasn't until I got on another class that I started actually understanding everything that was wrong with it. I later made an Ele, then an Engineer in Base, then picked up Mesmer, Warrior and Necro after HOT launched. The more I started playing other classes, the more realized how badly underutilized I was playing the other classes before that.
Simply put... this game does NOT reward people who only play mains. The more classes you play, and the more builds you're willing to play as, the greater your chances at success in all areas of the game. And if you're able to get good at Support builds, you're pretty much guaranteed spots in Fractals and Raids, even if they're useless outside of it. I've even gotten into the habit of modifying my WvW roaming builds for use as my open world builds, in order to get more practice on them. I'm even starting to take Fractal support builds into group meta events for the same reasons. If you take the time to Learn the buildcraft, and the various classes, you not only get better at all of them, but you also have something available when the Balance patches disrupt the previous metas.
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@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:It’s because anet has no idea what a trade off is. These changes to elite specs just prove that point.
A trade off is the following
Skill A does effect X at the cost of Y.Skill B does effect Z. If Z is successful, you take penalty W.
For example let’s say Skill A is Thief Steal for Daredevil. Steal will do it’s effect X which is to grant the user stolen abilities and inflict vulnerability. The cost Y would be to consume 2 initiative on Steal cast.
Another example. Skill B is reaper shroud. Reaper shroud will do effect Z and grant you shroud abilities. If shroud is used at less than 50% life force, you take penalty W, which inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability unto yourself.
These mechanics are trade offs. Trade offs are supposed to ENCOURAGE build diversity not mutilate it. As you can tell from the examples above, both situations can be used to benefit the userFor example A 2 initiative cost for steal cast means you get boosted damage from lead attacks or Assassin’s Reward.For example B, if you have curses, you can inflict that 5 vulnerability onto an enemy on entering shroud, or consume it for life force/health points with other various traits and utilities.
Those things encourage build diversity.
Simply nerfing steal range like ANets current form of “trade off” means you effectively kill things like PP daredevil which usto be a thing but is now so kitten due to the range differences...
This whole idea of trying to pigeon hole specs into specific play styles (like daredevil is supppsed to be a duelist or something) just kills build diversity and it’s super sad to see that after years of people wanting trade offs to fix balance they do it completely wrong.
In their quest to be even more like World of Warcraft, they failed to realize that the only way to be like World of Warcraft is to BE World of Warcraft. Their entire game system is not portable to anything else.
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@BarnacleBoy.6918 said:
@"Dadnir.5038" said:Truth be told, scrapper is looking for it's special mechanism since HoT release. ANet has been clinging to the revive/stomp thingy desperately without being able to achieve something satisfactory since then. Scrapper is probably the elite spec that changed the most since it's release so it's difficult to say whether or not it's in it's final form or not.As for tradeoff, they are necessary to keep the elite spec in a range were the core professions can be competitive. If they add something, there is a need to lose something as well.In case of the engineer it seem to revolve around the loss of the toolbelt spot for the elite skill. That said (it's my own opinion here), on one side you got the arguably usefull scrapper skill and on the other you got access to a full weaponset worth of skill. It's difficult to say that both are balanced.What make me laugh the most is the idea that they will inevitably have to put a trade off on firebrand... There is so much powercreep onto their "tome" that the loss will probably feel unbearable.That’s the funniest part about the way they started to enact these “trade offs”. If anet intends to bring down all elite specs, firebrand gets 3 incredibly powerful kits- a straight upgrade from the base Fskills.What is the plan Anet? -300 concentration? How does one add a trade off to a class that gives up nothing to become the best support in the game? How do you balance a class/spec that has been power crept to the front of the pack, while other classes were nerfed/balanced AROUND Fb to fit other niche rolls an Fb cant fill?Honestly I’m completely in awe of this. Think about all the balance passes in the last year, that were geared towards giving classes roles in raids, BASED off they way Elite specs, specifically PoF specs, were performing at the time. Imagine all the times a balance patch gets released, and how many of the changes are implemented when looking at all the classes as a whole. We’re going to end up with implementation, past or present, that is counterintuitive to the “trade offs” that anet adds. These “trade offs” don’t exist in a vacuum, and anet has never balanced a class in a vacuum, so why are you implementing “trade offs” in a vacuum?If we're really gonna drive FB into the ground? Tomes share a global cool down.
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Ultimately it depends on how well you understand game mechanics. Some classes require mastery of higher game concepts, while others can get away with low effort spank and tank. MetaBattle is a good resource for seeing Build Concept examples, and using that knowledge to adapt your build to various circumstances. WvW and PvP roaming builds are also a good source of templates, as each has to build in defenses; where as Fractal and Raid builds work on the assumption of a Group Composition. Open world builds can also show you good low cost defense ideas, as many run glass stats for raw damage, and tend to rely on specific skills to get out of trouble.
I find the bets litmus test for Solo builds is the Risen Spider protecting the Rich Plat node in Sparkfly fen. Its an enemy you can't reliably kite, because of its Pull/Egg combo, and has way too much HP that it can't be easily burst down- making it the perfect test bed for cycling defenses, CC management, and general damage output.
Without knowing more about your upper skill limit, its hard to make recommendations. Especially now that Anet is systematically killing off existing popular builds into very limited pidgin holes.
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Oh.... I almost forgot. Search "HarmonQuest" on Vimeo. Its a series run by Dan Harmon (the Rick and Morty guy), playing a session of DnD with is comedian friends, in front of a studio audience, and animated the session into a show series. Its definitely worth watching, as it imparts a HUGE amount of context on DMing players who may or may not know anything about DnD.
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@"InsaneQR.7412" said:I had a chat with my friends recently if we wanna go into Table Top/Pen and Paper. We probably start with DnD but I thought about modifying the Game mechanics and make a Gw2 Table Top Campaign.
Has anyone experience with this?
I have stumbled upon Guild Worlds but it wasn't as fleshed out as Dnd mechanics so I wanted to start from scratch.
Thx in advance.
So heres some advice. 4th Edition DnD rule set is designed to the mimic the mechanical approach of Modern RPG and MMORPGs. And frankly, it sucks. The underlying problem is that the sheer number of combat mechanics, and timer based cool downs, bogs the combat down to almost intolerable levels. It is severely unappreciated how much under the hood calculations go into action heavy games; and trying to mimic that in PnP RPG games weakens the whole experience. 3rd Edition DnD also had this problem, as it expanded the mechanics from 2nd edition with layers upon layers of additional modifiers and situational rules. A 3e combat session with more then 8 actors on the field (enemies or players) can take anywhere between 30-60 minutes.... boss fights could take literal hours if not handled well. This game was only designed to be played in stints of 3-4 hours; but the average adventure has anywhere between 6-10 encounters, and typically spans 2-3 sessions.
While ironically appropriate that a system that is mechanically heavy will spend 60-80% of its time dealing with conflict/mechanical resolution, DnD's strength is supposed to be in its story telling aspects. The combat and dice rolls are there to deal with probability. But spending too much time on that, and the adventure takes forever to complete.
I would highly recommend starting with more stream lined rules sets. 5e DnD is more streamlined, and I'd recommend it over 3e and 4e for beginners. However, a DnD rule books are expensive, and the class system doesn't mimic MMO staple classes. The class difference is important, as MMOs use a hard trinity model thats completely unique to Video games, and can only really function correctly there. DnD class structure is designed primarily for narrative flexibility, despite the amount of mechanical aspects involved in their design.
If you want something free, I recommend GURPS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GURPS). You can find the base rule book online for Free, and there are sample adventures posted in various RPG related message boards or as resource books. GURPS's rules are extremely streamlined, usually reducing any given action to a single dice roll ,typically using no more then 2 numbers for modification. Its character building system is essentially freeform, using points to buy abilities based on its traits. This is designed to let you create your own skills, and is flexible enough to recreate somewhat simplified versions of MMO styled skills. Note that unlike video games, which used distinct skills or effects for every plausible action, GURPS approach allows a single base effect/skill to be utilized in multiple ways, thus creating varied effects to mimic the massive skill list of a RPG video game. So a single healing spell can start a single target, and later learn or create a condition in which it can be used as an AOE with modified effects. So rather then learning multiple individual spells, you expand it by spending more points to add effects, or use the environment (or even other skills) to modify the output. So using the above example again.... A healing spell defined as x HP over y number of targets can be both single target or AOE. Or a single target healing spell cast on a prism scatters its effects to an area around it. They aren't necessarily distinct skills you have to keep track of... just figuring out and manipulating its use to replicate the idea of huge skill lists using a much smaller, easier to track rule set.
You can also local collector game shops, as most tend to host periodic "Game Nights" to both connect player groups, and generate business as a supplier of game materials. The hard part is finding a GM or Player that understands your mind set, so they can give relevant advice. MMO players wanting to dive into PNP is fairly common... but the rate of adoption tends to be pretty low, because MMORPG combat as a game structure is extremely difficult to do on paper, due to how much a video game automates the hard parts. Ultimately the greatest difficulty is getting people comfortable with the narrative/RP side of the game; which is normal supposed to take up the majority of session time.
2 things I recommend checking out is -
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8blPWVfzrI
These are examples of what a game session sort of looks like when you strip out all the time spent doing "mechanical checks". You'll notice that what you get is a flowing story, where the action plays out far faster then it does at the table. This is an idealistic view of what the game is about. By making sure the narrative points are strong, without getting too bogged down in the specific of mechanics, a streamlined session should have a cadence thats similar to the videos I linked.
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If you get all 5 Trinkets, a Legendary armor set, and All legendary weapons and back pieces, you ascend to the Mists, as all that power in one place would destroy Tyria. You then start the TRUE end game...... ~~wandering the mists in search of a conquest. And be driven mad like that angry dude in that one fractal, and just kind of become a dick about it. ~~
No wait...... you become a Fractal Boss and challenge random adventurers to fill the maddening void of immortal existence, eternal boredom, and perpetual frustration as your insatiable blood thirst, drive for genocide, and bottomless demand for progression goes unfulfilled for timeless periods.
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Another thing to consider is that the Precursor crafting sets a ceiling for Gen1s, since those are reliable enough to provide supply. The catch 22 is that the value of Gen 1s are now completely driven by the price of materials; and once it hit equilibrium, suppliers don't make enough profit to be worth the effort investment. The items (both pres and unbound legendaries) can still act as wealth conversion, by condensing it into the item to be sold.... but its degree of efficiency is determined by the value of the non-tradable components.
All other concerns directly radiate FROM the demand from the demand of these end products. For instance, the value of rares and dust is directly connected to the value of Ectos. The Mid-tier mats used in Asc crafting is determined by the demand for Asc Gear. Other materials have their price fluctuate based on the popularity of Sinks vs the rates they can be farmed. Festivals that offer material rewards will nose dive those prices as the market gets flooded with them. Conversely, if a Sink is tied to some high demand reward/cosmetic, the prices of materials being sunk will sky rocket.
The game has a huge number of material conversion paths, or straight up wealth conversion, each with some efficiency rating (most commonly at a small loss). Having RNG in the system doesn't change that rule, it merely incorporates the averages into its efficiency calculations.
Another consideration thats been totally unmentioned at this point is Inflation/deflation. Excess gold in the market increases the price of everything. As the the cheaper listings on the TP are within reach, they'll be bought up, moving more expensive listings into the best offer positions. The relative value of items is thus based on demand, but the scale of pricing is based on inflation.
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@"Krzysztof.5973" said:Some people will always be annoyed by something. Can't please everybody. This MMO is made for everybody not just for You. It's not only about Your experience.
But thats not excuse to Skyscale-shame players. I'm coining the term Mount-shaming. Now I need a word to describe people who ruin other people's experience by complaining about their experience and demanding everyone else experience change to not ruin their experience.
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But what if I wanna do the event, and come back the treasure after the event is done? Check mate.
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@Rukario.1695 said:I'm not sure why these automatically being deposited as currency in your wallet isn't already a thing.
I'm quite honestly sick and tired of having to consume these for absolutely no reason, and there is no way I'm expending inventory or bank space for them. Even a free 9999 slot in your materials would be better.
Because they were used as crafting materials, and they NEEDED something highly visible to the player to maintain their awareness of MF as a reward system. You can read up about this a bunch of places, but its repeated shown that Players respond much more positively to highly tangible, highly visible, and non-abstract short term rewards. (Firefall being a major case study in the phenomena) This is also clearly seen in the fact that many players lose track of currency and material drops, unless it is part of something they are specifically focused on. For instance... how aware are you of Coin drops from mobs? Most players rarely think about it, and some players don't even realize they do. But Harvesting map currency from nodes..... thats so front and center, that I've seen the far more well described arguments about the gather rate involving those then any other bottleneck in the game (that isn't a Time Gate).
Switching it to a currency doesn't fix anything..... all it really does is highlight the problem long lived MMOs have with perpetual rewards and their presentation.
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I think the question is a bit misguided. Map completion as an activity exists as an aside almost solely for the purposes of Completionist and literal "End Game" crafting that is legendary weapons. And with Gen 1 weapons not being account bound, and sold on the TP, anyone doing map completion is under no compulsion to do so other then then own. The reasons are not important.... the fact that you can side step it completely and still get the reward, changes the entire nature of the perceived problem. And even if you include the reasons, gold farming is so incredibly lucrative in this game that pursing legendary weapons for profit is practically a detriment given the number of non-gold rewarding activities you have to take part in. And pre-cursor crafting just adds several additional layers of consideration on top of all of that.
Because of this, the answers to the question are not going to have significant direction about the activity itself, but how much of an obstacle people view it as to other things they are pursing.
That out of the way. If you want to talk about the actual experience.... its..... inconsistent. And I highly suspect this has to do with level designers having free reign to play with ideas, and most of it being used due to time constraints. Lack of polish can also be seen in many late game areas, some even grinding game flow to a complete stop. The starting areas had most attention, and it definitely shows. This break in flow is ultimately what I think poisons the whole experience for many people. Because if it didn't, I doubt people would be aware enough to bother scrutinizing it the way they do. Consider Silverwaste is essentially the same format on a much smaller scale- but its stable flow and transitions of activities create a minor trance like experience. One that can be easily repeated for hours without becoming tiresome. The only ones that really complain are the ones who only see very minor obstacles that they can't be bothered to overcome.
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@Swagger.1459 said:
@Ayrilana.1396 said:@Swagger.1459 said:@Ayrilana.1396 said:But this system would not be the answer.and how do you know that?For the reasons I already mentioned in an earlier post.Do you have a better idea in mind to increase retention for veteran players?How about content blocks which are entertaining in their own right, and are not only driven by one-off rewards that require so much repetition that you'll have become sick of doing something before even approaching completion of the achievements? (drops mic)
Given player psychology, trying to drive an activity by a reward more then enjoyment of said activity will place players in a mind set of "its a job task". And result of which drives them to find the most efficient path possible, so they'll have to interface with it the least amount possible.
Looking at WvW as an Example, "hardcore" WvW players still spend most of their time there because they actually enjoy what little the game mode offers. This was even more true prior to Skirmish rewards, given it actually COSTED you coin and materials to WvW in any competitive capacity. sPvP players, for all their toxicity, are there because they like what the game mode does, rather then the rewards it gives (which don't even do anything functional for them).
Its only in Open World, Raids, Fractals, etc, that rewards are the focal point, because their experience is not only static, but can be mastered to the point of becoming trivial. Hence the need for repetition to pad itself, as the activities on the maps become ever more simplified and streamlined. Before HOT people wanted more large scale meta events where tons of players could be involved to solve a problem. In a Post-POF game, people openly and loudly complain about tasks which can't be completed casually by oneself, regardless of how much easier that task is with as little as 2-3 people cooperating in ad-hoc, or even solo with a competent build.
Reward cycles are the bane of a good retention system...... but its relied upon because its the only thing cheap and fast enough to met ever increasing demands. It is, for all intents and purpose, a system of addiction. Driven not by desire, but compulsion. And when that compulsion hits its breaking point, both the player and the system go into existential crisis. Making matters worse, most think the solution to that problem is to double down and reestablish the addiction cycle; when its actually making the entire problem worse the next time it breaks.
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Thats been on every Mesmer's wishlist since beta. And they'll never sell it, because it'd be impossible to sell anything else after it. Had a similar problem with Anise's replica, the Exemplar's Attire....
I understand that apparently what we got was the concept art version..... Anet didn't like the butt piece either, and replaced it when they did Anise's model.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/en/uploads/forum_attachment/file/149558/H_anise.jpg
![aaaa] (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/en/uploads/forum_attachment/file/149558/H_anise.jpg "aaa")
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@TallBarr.2184 said:
@Cyninja.2954 said:@TallBarr.2184 said:@Schnuschnu.9857 said:@TallBarr.2184 said:"Multi-boxing may ONLY be used in PvE areas. You are not permitted to run multiple accounts simultaneously in PvP, WvW, activities, or in other competitive environments."When i command wvw i would usually have alt accounts positioned in towers or other borders to scout. Is this not permitted with the updated policy?I understand if you dont want people to afk in wvw but actively scouting is part of the gamemode and usually frowned upon beacuse its boring. It should be encouraged not discouraged.This should be not permitted because it gives you an advantage over other players. You exist in multiple locations. A normal player can't do this. Simple as that.Same thing could be said about multiboxing in general then, i can "exist" on multiple locations in pve aswell. As for advantage over other players any player can have multiple accounts. Playing wvw or pvp with voicecoms gives you an advantage aswell if the enemy team doesnt have it. Scouting is a trivial thing both teams do, it doesnt give you any substantial advantage other then doing something people dont generally enjoy. As a commander i wouldnt have to beg and ask people to scout something when i can do it myself.There are multiple issues at stake here though. First off, the reward structure in spvp and wvw is a lot more multibox friendly (not to mention afk leechers or bots) compared to general pve.Second, and specific to wvw, your multiboxed characters are taking away active slots from other characters on the map. That is an issue, especially since on fuller servers there will be queues. Now one could argue you might log out your extra characters when prime time hits, but the general rules can't take into account benevolent action from single players because there might just as well be players who would simply keep occupying the wvw slots.If i wanted scouts as a commander i would ask my squad, not many would be interested and most of the times they would want payment for it, which is acceptable for how boring it is. By using my alts i wouldnt need to ask people to do it, i could do it for as long and wherever i wanted. If its not my characters it will be someone else doing it. There are 4 different borders to chose from its not like 3 scouts is gonna mess it up for everyone, there are more single account players simply afking at any given time.The shared partcipation is there for scouters, thats why it was implemented. You cant just give out shared participation, you would need to have a squad with enough members to get the slots.if 3 scouts is not important, then why are you doing it? the adavntage is clear, since wvw benefits from intel because response time is a factor.
the flaw is you’re pitching a workaround as the intended solution to a design problem compounded with a social problem.
thats not acceptable because someone is now getting a mechanical advantage thats external to the game (in either software,acccounts, and hardware). Its also interfering with legitimate players ability to participate in wvw by taking up active map slots and server populaion caps.
These need to be addessed by design. but in the meantime that doesnt give free reign to go against the spirit of the game mode. wvw is about a community cooperating to win a war.... people might not treat it like that, but avoiding it rather then tackling it only prolongs the problem.
and frankly wvw has suffered for far too long with community problems and guilds not wanting to pitch in. thats something no amount of reward stacking is going to fix
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Monkey class for next expansion confirmed?
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Not as easy as it sounds. Unless you're ok with every hair style automatically clipping through it in a painfully obvious way.
And just saying...... to even start doing what you're thinking, they'd have to break down every hair style into 5 or more pieces, and render them as 5 or more pieces (which in this engine is literally 5 more models worth of overhead per character added to the load). Even more modern MMOs take short cuts with hair to keep its as least complicated as possible.
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@"Leablo.2651" said:This condition represents an ongoing technical error with the network service, not a redress of lost game items being sent out by customer support. When the HoM server is down, the user should receive a clear and direct error dialog to that effect explaining what has happened to the service, not a mail message dressed up with in-game role-playing language.
"Your Hall of Monuments data could not be retrieved due to a temporary service outage. Any Hall of Monuments achievements that you have earned will be restored the next time you log in. [OK]"
But that doesn't cause mass panic..... which is a lot more entertaining
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@TorQ.7041 said:
@derd.6413 said:@TorQ.7041 said:@"DemonSeed.3528" said:I would like to see more shadow abilities, not a dodge or stealth, something with frenetic phasing leaps to break targeting, deceive with a phantom. Something that allows for fast paced or patient tactical play that messes with the enemies mind. Dual wield sword doesn't sound bad, if there were katana skins and thematically suits an assassin. I dunno, I don't mind any weapon a long as the skills that go along with it have some utility but I actually don't mind a support thief spec.Personally I rather not have a thief as support. Themetically it just feels strange.how so?To me a rogue like character is suppose to be selfish no? It's about stealing and taking, not giving.The idea of support for me is a paladin type like the guardian. Or a wizard type like elementalist. Rogue assassin types are suppose to be stealth, teleport and damage.Thats overly narrow a mind set though. There are multiple viable concepts as an Umbramancer, you just need to stop looking at as "assassin class", and look at Deception as a theme. It might seem odd at first since theres overlap with Necro and Mesmer, but thats actually a good thing as both classes has some proof of concept on how you leverage it into an Espec.
Shift focus from single target shut down (which is Thief's main MO) to Battle Field manipulation. Blinds, Decoys, Target Break, Taunts, Group Teleports, Barriers, Synergy with Venoms, a new form of Projectile Reflect, Vulnerability, Group Protection/Evasion/Aegis, Condition Transfer as a Venom effect, and traits which can buff party members when sharing aspects of Theif's core defenses in Stealth, Evade, use of Stolen Skills, Blind and leveraging Stealth attacks. The idea is to build a frame work which benefits from Shadow Arts and Trickery, by trading one or both damage trait lines to amplify defense, and/ or amplify offense of a group. On the defensive end, it shuts windows of opportunity by making offense more difficult, and on the defensive end, it creates windows of opportunity for team mates to capitalize on, and adds power/damage if they successfully exploit it.
Thief already has several group utility options in Core, but are simply too hard to use because the other classes have no mechanisms to properly exploit them; thus rarely think about them. So rather then being distinct triggers or conditions for one shot bonuses, your skills/traits are split between laying down an AOE field for area control and setup, buffs which make team members the vehicle for your offensive effects, and effects that you apply to allies causing additional effects or bonuses.
Its only a protoform of an idea, but with more time to think about it, I can draw up examples that can be compatible with WvW, PvP and Raids with various degrees of cross over.
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@"Cloud Windfoot Omega.7485" said:I think this is just a stopgap solution, to a problem we should not be having. Simply put I believe that Alliances SHOULD be the solution, contrary to their current usefulness.Currently Gw2 does not have much in the way of real guild content.... But i tihnk it is about time to bring back more guild based content. Having alliances also is very helpful to smaller guilds who dont have the membership to do current content too, and allow for stronger guild relationships to form. It would also allow for guilds to create sects, one sect may focus totally on WvW, one on PvP and another on PvE while also possibly including a noob sect or a PvX sect without filling up the guild mates list of guilds with one guild who wants such sects.Further it would allow players from any guild in the alliance to join in for guild missions or guild hall captures.Having less content that would benefit from alliances is not a good argument in my eyes, since after their inclusion devs can focus on the addition of content to support its existence.
This drives home the point well. We can neither have the expectation of one guild doing everything, since the game has proven theres more organizational efficiency to have guilds dedicated to specific areas of the game, and players being members of it. But whats falling behind is how to handle players who dabble in multiple areas. These are usually the type of player who is also willing to drop their routine in order to help others with some one-off task, or shift around resources and man power to help a deficiency in the short term. Thats way more community focused then I've seen most "one mode only guilds", where half the guild refuses to go do something outside their routine/schedule because it'll throw off their week or just plain "dislike" the rest of the game. For other games this might be covered by more extensive friends list and LFG system..... but neither are actual "solutions" to the problem of people having different areas of interest.
This is where alliances make the most sense. Because despite there being a lack of "guild specific content", alliances have always conceptually been an organization tool- some games just use rewards and mechanics to incentivize its use. So at a higher level, just like guilds are used to help connect players with specific content groups, Alliances help guilds connect in a similar fashion. Using PvE as an example, a Raid Guild can be made of mostly Raiders, and be part of an alliance that focuses mostly on raids. With just one Guild slot, a player now has access to a large network of Raiders to find party slots. To address chat partitions, you can restrict Alliance chat to only Actively Representing Guild members, since those not active in that guild at the moment probably has their focus elsewhere. Individual guilds still handle rally calls if something needs attention, but those representing can passively monitor that channel and then call for a rally if they deem it important. The benefits to WvW are also pretty obvious with the support of the new system; though a couple of key errors are still in the mix with Gem transfers on the line.
Outside of that, this significantly cleans up the biggest organizational issues seen on an individual guild member's level. You join a Guild of people you like given a particular area of the game, and that guild becomes part of a bigger network of like minded guilds. Even if 50% of the guild does random stuff, the 50% thats focused on something doesn't have trouble finding people outside the guild to fill slots. How Guild officers want to Janitor their roster is still up to them, but at the very least theres no practical penalty for having a guild at less then max size to obtain reach. Like a guild of 20 can slot into an alliance just effectively as a guild of 100, and not have to worry about "useless people" taking up slots. It might also finally get some xenophobic guilds to learn some communication skills, and play nice with others....... but probably not.
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@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:
@zenleto.6179 said:None of my characters are impotent so your guys might need a bit of help in that department.Fighting upscaled enemies forces your attacks to fumble. It's like having permanent weakness, except there's nothing that can be done to prevent it.Rule #1 of video games..... as long as you can do even 1 damage, you can kill it. Just get really good at not dying, and you win by default
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@"Swagger.1459" said:
We had monks in GW1 and are not getting a Monk Profession in GW2. Staff is an iconic weapon for Monks. Guardian has Staff, Warrior doesn't. War doesn't have a quality heal support spec. Guard Does.. Seems a monk with staff fits warrior. All signs point to a monk type spec for Warrior from the community by your original comment...……………….
Real life comparisons...
"also a guy in 60 lbs armor doing flips like the last vid would be absolutely stupid"
"(sidenote: had a quick google and apparently chi (actually qi)is just Chinese equivalent of "life force" so technically they're taking from necro)"
Are you seriously going to niggle about a very basic idea with very specific points? Like with a video of staff for reference and inspiration on how it's used from a martial art standpoint? How much do we need to search google for the perfect word that describes some type of mystical energy for an Asian themed character to use so we can avoid the word "Chi" and not step on necro toes in game?
You don't have to like the idea. However, it's kinda silly to bring up any real life counter points inside of a computer game... Once you start drawing the lines on real life stuff as an argument then we might as well shut down gw2.
@"Swagger.1459" said:This is a fantasy game of make believe to have fun... It’s unfortunate that you want to pull in some real life comments to counter an idea you don’t like... You’re entitled to oppose the idea, and may find other things that suit your taste, but be cautious with injecting the real world into an online world...
Edit- And I’ll comment on this...
“eastern mysticism doesn't fit warr as a theme”... Guess there weren’t any warriors in Cantha... Guess that a martial art monk isn’t considered a warrior/fighter type either... How about them Samurai?... Not really considered warrior types either? It’s totally out of the realm of possibility to have an “eastern” themed type warrior elite right?...
Oh and...
“Cantha is heavily based upon Eastern Asia and its cultures.
Cantha's name may have been derived from the name Canton, a country subdivision of China, or the word Cathay, an alternate name for China.”
If you don’t like the idea of an Asian themed warrior monk then create a thread so you can post your own version of a staff warrior elite.
Combined these are breaking your own argument. On the one hand, its fantasy, so the rules don't matter. Then on the other, "warrior doesn't have staff" is justifying some arbitrary requirement that Warrior should have a Staff weapon.
Thematically this would fit the Revenant much better in nearly all areas, because they're already themed around Mystical power, the Balance of energy, spiritual and mental focus, and channeling that power into unconventional combat styles. Staves in Guildwars, being a "fantasy setting" uses them to channel MAGIC, making qualities of that nature more important then physical sturdiness to withstand beating someone death with it. If you stop and think about it, Rev Staff already meets most of the intended requirements, including the "non-lethal" angle commonly associated with Monks. The only thing that really disconnects is Ventari being mechanically centered around the Tablet..... but nearly everything else already fits the bill.
The second runner up would, and by a wide margin from Warrior in 3rd, is Guardian. Guardian powers are the manifestation of their will, gained by learning to focus and control their own energy. The only reason Warriors are in third is how they focus will in a similar fashion, but mostly to create physical interactions with the world. They've long been considered the antithesis of conventional magic, with Spell Breaker even going as far as creating an entire fighting styles around the concept. But one of the biggest thematical break downs comes in the fact that Warriors don't operate on the idea of balanced energy, which is what the Monk themes always seem to push as the central concept...... Warriors, by intent, are an unbalancing force. Disciplined and Oppressive, choosing either to be Unstoppable or Unmovable in the face of their foe.
While they're open to the possibility of spiritual balance, the angle would have be approached from without simply trying to steal from the GW1 Monk, which itself is already manifest in the Guardian, Engineer and Druid.
And on the subject of Samurai..... how much of a mess are you really willing to decrypt to fix that analogy? Traditionally, Samurai's don't have magic; its practically to the point where this link created for them in RPG games is conceptually "the anti-ninja", because "Ninjas use magic". Even looking directly at GW1 Canthan characters, the Warriors don't follow any sort of "mystical" angle to their training.... Even the most arguably magically oriented faction in Cantha, the Kurzicks, don't display any unusual ideals or schools of thought that don't simply exist as a back drop to the faction as a whole.
In short, the argument being made is generic to the topic, and offers nothing new or interesting that would make people go "that sounds like something GW2 Writers would do for that idea". Regardless of the mechanics attached to them, the Specs at least try to be unique enough in theme, so direct comparisons to its predecessors (WoW, EQ, etc) aren't just 1:1. And even in the weakest themes, theres still a unique spin being put on them.
Let's just remove every skill from the game and give everyone a stick.
in Professions
Posted
Plus they can set the stick on fire, make it wet, swing it to make whoosh sounds, or tie a rock to it. Obviously Rock builds are OP, so they it gives you exhaustion half way through your swing.