Playing melee in open world meta events

[Grimlineman.6759]

How do you enjoy playing melee in meta events? What I mean is how do you even know your contributing for the most part when you have 50 people standing at the same spot of the thing that needs to die feet and can’t tell if you attacking or not by looking at your character through the blob of people? Do you look at your action bars to see if attack chains are going off? Do you look for floating combat numbers? I  prefer playing melee in small groups but in large events I find this a problem so I mainly stick to classes that can range as well but I miss my warrior and want to know how others deal with it? Maybe I rely to much on watching my character for visuals but when I can’t see what I’m doing = Less fun. 
 

Thanks.  

[Astralporing.1957]

7 minutes ago, Grimlineman.6759 said:

Do you look at your action bars to see if attack chains are going off? Do you look for floating combat numbers?

Usually i do not bother, i just try to do my best. But for when i do want how good/bad i am doing at the moment, i keep ArcDPS meter up.

[Genesis.8572]

The main benefit of that "blob of people" is buff stacking. When you're ranged and not in the thick of things, then you're not getting those buffs. It's also more difficult for people to rez you when you play isolated. 

[Mungrul.9358]

In metas outside of core Tyria, it's generally a bit better, as quite a lot of metas punish bad CQC (close quarters combat) play, so there's not as much visual clutter up close as there is in core Tyria events.

And to be fair, a lot of the banner core Tyria events have been significantly revamped since 2012, like Teq, Shaterrer and Golem Mk.II with these mechanics in mind too, so visibility is a bit better there too these days.

 

My builds generally work well in blobs as well, getting and giving boons, cleanse and healing depending on other people being in close proximity.

And I've been playing Warrior for so long, I have the rhythm of my builds down pat 😄

[Grimlineman.6759]

Yea I get the buff aspect of being in a pile. I just want to know how you know you not in the pile with your back to the mob or something . I’m guessing like a said other combat text and such.  Just seems weird every time I jump in one.  Compared to when you have the luxury to have your own space. 

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, Grimlineman.6759 said:

How do you enjoy playing melee in meta events? What I mean is how do you even know your contributing for the most part when you have 50 people standing at the same spot of the thing that needs to die feet and can’t tell if you attacking or not by looking at your character through the blob of people?

For once, you can see whether you are dealing damage or not (and if so, how much) by simply looking at the damage numbers floating above the target.

As for the amount of contribution, you can always install ArcDPS if you are unsure about your DPS. You are also being given information in the game's own chat window when you configure the tab accordingly.

P.S. If skills don't trigger due to the server's skill lag that often occurs during mass events, you can immediately notice it by simply looking at your skill bar.

P.P.S.

59 minutes ago, Grimlineman.6759 said:

How do you enjoy playing melee in meta events?

A lot, thanks to the people out there who enjoy playing supporter even in mass events and thereby help us melee players staying alive. 👍

Edited September 16, 2021 by Ashantara.8731

[Grimlineman.6759]

Thanks  I’ll have to look into the arc dps I’m only running the base game but that makes sense along with the combat text.

 

Guess I’m weird for wanting to see me character fight something in a game Judging by the couple confused look emojis I have pulled already 😄👍 you guys are great keep contributing with your confused looks! 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Grimlineman.6759

[Klowdy.3126]

1 hour ago, Grimlineman.6759 said:

How do you enjoy playing melee in meta events? What I mean is how do you even know your contributing for the most part when you have 50 people standing at the same spot of the thing that needs to die feet and can’t tell if you attacking or not by looking at your character through the blob of people? Do you look at your action bars to see if attack chains are going off? Do you look for floating combat numbers? I  prefer playing melee in small groups but in large events I find this a problem so I mainly stick to classes that can range as well but I miss my warrior and want to know how others deal with it? Maybe I rely to much on watching my character for visuals but when I can’t see what I’m doing = Less fun. 
 

Thanks.  

Look for the numbers.

[Gehenna.3625]

I always equip one ranged weapon on each character for this purpose. I don't necessarily stand all the way back but it does give me more movement capabilities beyond 130m. I do spend half my boss fights ressing people that die at the drop of a hat. I feel like there should be a title for that. I sometimes don't even get a gold reward because of all the ressing I do...

[costepj.5120]

I think Combat Healer might have been one of the first titles I earned 🙂

[voltaicbore.8012]

1 hour ago, Grimlineman.6759 said:

Thanks  I’ll have to look into the arc dps I’m only running the base game but that makes sense along with the combat text.

 

Guess I’m weird for wanting to see me character fight something in a game Judging by the couple confused look emojis I have pulled already 😄👍 you guys are great keep contributing with your confused looks! 

 

You're far from alone in this. The visual vomit of too many effects stacked on bosses is a widespread complaint. It wouldn't be so bad if GW2 allowed you to turn off effects generated by other players, which is a feature that I'm hoping is in the pipe alongside the DX11 update. Their recent rework of combo field visuals suggests to me that they're working on a way to have us be able to turn off others' effects, but that combo fields will still remain visible and less obtrusive.

 

And yeah, get arc. Since you actually seem to care about how you're performing, arcdps will help immensely. Also, despite its name, it's not just a dps meter - you can measure boon uptimes and other metrics as well.

[Telgum.6071]

2 hours ago, Grimlineman.6759 said:

Maybe I rely to much on watching my character for visuals but when I can’t see what I’m doing = Less fun. 

This could explain why so much people die on ridiculous easy enemies on attacks that can be easily dodged. Too busy looking anything apart from what they are supposed to be looking at.

I see my attacks working because I'm on melee range, the damage numbers are there an is not hard to guess how the flow of your abilities have influence on the enemy HP and defiance bar.

Edited September 16, 2021 by Telgum.6071

[Mungrul.9358]

26 minutes ago, voltaicbore.8012 said:

The visual vomit of too many effects stacked on bosses is a widespread complaint. It wouldn't be so bad if GW2 allowed you to turn off effects generated by other players, which is a feature that I'm hoping is in the pipe alongside the DX11 update.

I'd love that too, although I'd say temper your expectations. It's been a complaint since the game was released back in 2012 (heck, I seem to remember complaints about particle effects in beta), and if anything, they've increased the amount of visual clutter, thanks to thinks like infusions.

[voltaicbore.8012]

6 minutes ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

I'd love that too, although I'd say temper your expectations. It's been a complaint since the game was released back in 2012 (heck, I seem to remember complaints about particle effects in beta), and if anything, they've increased the amount of visual clutter, thanks to thinks like infusions.

Yeah not getting my hopes up too high about it, honestly. It's been such a widespread complaint for so long, if ANet actually cared I'm certain they'd at least have a conversation with us about it. But all we got is more clutter, and we even got Virtuoso's "hahaha try to see anything under this giant pink cloud of knives" ability.

I'm just baffled that such a basic feature like turning down others' effects didn't get included in the GW2 client. It seems so standard across games that care about visual quality. Then again, I have no clue about game dev, so maybe that feature would have been difficult to implement in the GW1 engine in the first place, which means that it would have taken a lot of work to add to the GW2 client.

[Sirius.4510]

Most open world metas are relatively easy and don't challenge you enough to worry about melee. There are some that do, and I'm not sure I have any more specific advice than "learn the dangerous attacks". Many can be dodged, many have big enough AoE indicators that you can see them coming, and often, just getting behind the boss helps with how many hits you take.

 

One of the saving graces of these bosses is they are usually huge, which makes them big enough to see when they're winding up for an attack even with 50 players in front... but you do have to know what the attacks look like 🙂

 

Some e.g. the svanir shaman guy, you really can't see much of anything except his health bar, but he also seems to be nearly single-target so you don't have much reason to care.

[Kaliwenda.3428]

3 hours ago, Genesis.8572 said:

The main benefit of that "blob of people" is buff stacking. When you're ranged and not in the thick of things, then you're not getting those buffs. It's also more difficult for people to rez you when you play isolated. 

Definitely true. Get familiar with the buff animations, so you know when it's safe to charge right in with everyone else. 

[Klowdy.3126]

2 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

I always equip one ranged weapon on each character for this purpose. I don't necessarily stand all the way back but it does give me more movement capabilities beyond 130m. I do spend half my boss fights ressing people that die at the drop of a hat. I feel like there should be a title for that. I sometimes don't even get a gold reward because of all the ressing I do...

Yeah, that's the thing. Most specs on metabattle have a ranged variant for the second weapon set. OW events aren't so difficult that you can't kitten your build a bit to stay at range. 

[kharmin.7683]

1 hour ago, Sirius.4510 said:

Some e.g. the svanir shaman guy, you really can't see much of anything except his health bar, but he also seems to be nearly single-target so you don't have much reason to care.

Except  when he pounces.  Almost never see that coming when in melee range and it downs a bunch of people.  Same with Taidha Covington.  Those are 2 examples that come to mind.

[Batel.9206]

I just look for floating numbers to make sure I'm doing damage. I can't see anything beyond that - not my own animations, not anyone else's, not the boss's: it's just a gigantic blur of particle effects. What do you mean, dodge the incoming damage? I can't see anyth--[downed] ...grr.

[Khisanth.2948]

2 hours ago, voltaicbore.8012 said:

Yeah not getting my hopes up too high about it, honestly. It's been such a widespread complaint for so long, if ANet actually cared I'm certain they'd at least have a conversation with us about it. But all we got is more clutter, and we even got Virtuoso's "hahaha try to see anything under this giant pink cloud of knives" ability.

I'm just baffled that such a basic feature like turning down others' effects didn't get included in the GW2 client. It seems so standard across games that care about visual quality. Then again, I have no clue about game dev, so maybe that feature would have been difficult to implement in the GW1 engine in the first place, which means that it would have taken a lot of work to add to the GW2 client.

They did address it partially. Effects LOD causes some skills to be rendered as a simpler version when used by other people but it seems to be a skill by skill basis.

[voltaicbore.8012]

14 minutes ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

They did address it partially. Effects LOD causes some skills to be rendered as a simpler version when used by other people but it seems to be a skill by skill basis.

I've had effect LOD checked the whole time, and yes it seems to vary by skill.

It's nowhere near the system other games have though, which essentially makes the skill effects done by others completely invisible. "Completely invisible" would of course not be advisable for GW2, but the culling needs to be much more dramatic, leaving only basic circles on the ground for aoe.

[Xanadrine.4352]

I really hate the dogpile.

[aspirine.6852]

I like playing melee in those fights, but not too big.. Like in the weekly champions run you do for the achievments in the living story its hard to see when the boss is smashing your way or not sometimes.. 

[LSD.4673]

To be fair, how do you even know you're contributing as a ranged character? Often i zone out and forget the boss has got invuln or has spawned some dumb side object to destroy. Not like i can see my damage numbers amongst the mess. Sometimes i'm even out of range and don't care enough to step into range. 

 

World bosses! 

[Rogue.8235]

There is a difference in sound when you're attack doesn't hit, when it hits, when it critically hits, and when it's blocked.  That's how I'm always able to tell if I'm hitting my target or not.  The most obvious difference is greatsword.  Others, like scepter, are much subtler. 

 

Edit: Being blind I adapted to relying on sound in general.  I can understand that most player's won't notice these kinds of things in the game.

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Rogue.8235