Todays nerfs prove that Anet DESPISES Solo Players

[Astralporing.1957]

5 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

It affects people who don't play those builds and can't keep up. 

I'll tell you a secret. All those that didn't play those builds and struggled, will still struggle to the exact same degree.

 

 

[AliamRationem.5172]

32 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

I'll tell you a secret. All those that didn't play those builds and struggled, will still struggle to the exact same degree.

 

 

Cool. We still don't need torment runes or anything like them.

[Astralporing.1957]

7 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Cool. We still don't need torment runes or anything like them.

If we always limited ourselves to only things we need, we'd still be living in caves. Or on trees.

[Super Hayes.6890]

5 hours ago, mindcircus.1506 said:

ZERO Builds were invalidated yesterday.

All hard spanked builds are still able to solo a desert bounty.

Stop arguing in bad faith.
There was no slap in the face. To position them as such is myopic.
 

I respectfully disagree. I'm going to go try the expansion now on a different character than planned. I'll deal with the nerf that hit me another day.

[Zeph.5927]

2 hours ago, Pezz.4758 said:

 

With less than 5 k concurrent viewers on twitch other than a few hours at release, more negative threads than positive, empty maps, unfinishable events due to lack of engagement, absolutely no hype ANYWHERE on the internet other than preestablished GW2 content creators, ignoring ANYTHING right now would be an incredibly silly thing to do.

 

Remember Wildstar??  Ya, me neither.

The empty maps thing is so true and very worrisome. For a new expansion, every time I’ve been on I haven’t seen very many people in the new zones and zone chat has been basically silent. I thought it was kind of weird and chalked it up to most likely just being in an overflow instance. But I keep hearing more and more people say that they are in empty zones too…..

[Sevens.9452]

1 hour ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Cool. We still don't need torment runes or anything like them.

while i never have used/plann on using torment runes, i have to ask, what's next?

fractal mystic coins was just a couple of weeks ago, now sustain (traits too, not just the one rune), what are they going to nerf to the ground next?

This is why i never gear my alts outside of cheap berserker, never know what they are gonna nerf when

[AliamRationem.5172]

1 minute ago, Sevens.9452 said:

while i never have used/plann on using torment runes, i have to ask, what's next?

fractal mystic coins was just a couple of weeks ago, now sustain (traits too, not just the one rune), what are they going to nerf to the ground next?

This is why i never gear my alts outside of cheap berserker, never know what they are gonna nerf when

Yeah, if there's anything ANet is known for its pulling the rug out from us with those frequent balance patches of theirs. 🙄

[Astralporing.1957]

11 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Yeah, if there's anything ANet is known for its pulling the rug out from us with those frequent balance patches of theirs. 🙄

Those patches may not be frequent as far as balance is considered, but for "pulling the rug", they are way, way too frequent.

They just do not like to adjust balance to a good point using lot of small adjustments. They vastly prefer to bomb the balance from orbit (and overshoot the target by miles).

[Kuma.1503]

6 hours ago, fourhim.3584 said:

Would you mind sharing with us the builds (traits, weapons, runes, sigils, armor) for these 3 that you say are good on sustain now?  I emptied my account and spent about 150 gold on a full Trailblazer's Tormenting Runes Condi Renegade about 3 weeks ago, not knowing it was going to have its healing halved, and now I'm struggling again.  I'm just not a good player, which I readily admit, and I just want something that can both survive but also not take forever and a day to kill things.  I don't mind spending more gold in the TP if I need to, but I'm finding these enemies generally harder than POF was.  I feel there are a lot of admittedly "spoiled" players like me out there right now, and if we're struggling then we're just likely to quit and go play something else, which I don't think is what ANET wants to happen.

 

I really just don't get why me being able to survive better in PVE by myself was bothering anyone at ANET - I just don't.  I don't Fractal, WVW, or PVP at all.  I just want to NOT DIE all the time.  Thus why I had a Renegade, Mesmer, Thief and Necro - ALL nerfed the very day the new expansion comes out.  Just feels like a big kick in the ____ after I shelled out another $50 for the upgraded expansion, and also gave them another $25 for a mount skin I really wanted.  

 

Any advice on what best the self-sustain PVE Open world build is now (which can be acquired through the trading post) would be GREATLY appreciated.  Thank you in advance.

I can give you several depending on what classes you play. 

Out of the ones you listed, Staff Mirage is arguably the best for open world. If you're on a budget, you can play it with carrion gear and traveler runes. All you really need to make the build work is the regen on dodge trait, infinite horizon, superior sigil of stamina, and the clone on dodge trait. 

That will fully restore your endurance on kill and allow you to spam staff ambushes. 

That's my go to build when I really don't want to think in OW content. 

No one can even flame you and say L2dodge because that's all the build does 😏

Edited March 2, 2022 by Kuma.1503

[Duke Blackrose.4981]

In what way was sustain in PvE a problem worth nerfing? Seriously?

[Zacchary.6183]

20 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Those patches may not be frequent as far as balance is considered, but for "pulling the rug", they are way, way too frequent.

They just do not like to adjust balance to a good point using lot of small adjustments. They vastly prefer to bomb the balance from orbit (and overshoot the target by miles).

When you consider all the gatekeeping that happens in game, sometimes the rug needs to be pulled out. People naturally like to stick with what's easiest, so turning everything into a formula is going to happen. It shouldn't ever get to that point, but when it does is when the rug should get pulled out. That essentially was the whole design philosophy behind PoF.

[cloudsareyum.8120]

  

I just bought the torment runes to outfit my rev too 😭

[figloalds.1274]

47 minutes ago, Zacchary.6183 said:

When you consider all the gatekeeping that happens in game, sometimes the rug needs to be pulled out. People naturally like to stick with what's easiest, so turning everything into a formula is going to happen. It shouldn't ever get to that point, but when it does is when the rug should get pulled out. That essentially was the whole design philosophy behind PoF.

The game is supposed to be this, a game, fun. They're optimizing the fun away from the game. 
No one wants to play a game where you mindlessly keep just struggling, the game is supposed to be rewarding too, as of right now Arena Net keeps removing the fun from the game and adding boring hours of boring quests and boring mob fights and boring maps where you just boringly struggle to move by. At least with the old "lazy builds", it was "kinda" possible to get by the boring parts fast and get to the good parts quicker, but they insist on making the game 60% boredom, 40% frustration

[CaptainCat.2693]

Was the first time i payed for something that got me legit sad and disappointed , besides a well done steak in a restaurant.

 

 

 

[chripsy.1027]

Yet ANOTHER huge nerf to Mesmer staff Mirage. I am not playing this game anymore. I will head to LA at some point and give away all of my 2k gold and some items that can be traded. The game just isn't; fun anymore.  I simply don't have another Fractal run in me. 

[Labjax.2465]

2 hours ago, figloalds.1274 said:

The game is supposed to be this, a game, fun. They're optimizing the fun away from the game. 
No one wants to play a game where you mindlessly keep just struggling, the game is supposed to be rewarding too, as of right now Arena Net keeps removing the fun from the game and adding boring hours of boring quests and boring mob fights and boring maps where you just boringly struggle to move by. At least with the old "lazy builds", it was "kinda" possible to get by the boring parts fast and get to the good parts quicker, but they insist on making the game 60% boredom, 40% frustration

I guess two games doesn't make a pattern, but it is odd that SWTOR is going through something similar right now; it's latest expansion made the game more of a slog. Though in GW2's defense, that's about where the similarity ends. SWTOR's changes were pervasive and sweeping in a way that made the core game unrecognizable, and didn't even make much sense together. It drove me away after like a day and is part of why I came back to give GW2 another chance, tbh lol. I'm sorry to see some people are experiencing issues here too. I'm glad the WoodenPotatoes ele build I started using was more or less untouched or I'd prob be having some complaints of my own. It's really brought life back into the game for me.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Labjax.2465

[ArchonWing.9480]

Are we just talking about tormenting runes here? That was long due to for a nerf and there's other options easily.

But the real thing I see here is that the nerfs make things completely useless. Why does it have to be either overpowered or deleted from the game?

Furthermore, with zero new sigils or runes that I'm aware of, and also the new specs really having little changes since beta, it suggests that priorities are not right.

Then again, I suppose I've had a build that just get thrown into the trash as well (defender runes, after the Mantra of Solace nerfs)

Edited March 2, 2022 by ArchonWing.9480

[Linken.6345]

8 minutes ago, ArchonWing.9480 said:

Are we just talking about tormenting runes here? That was long due to for a nerf and there's other options easily.

But the real thing I see here is that the nerfs make things completely useless. Why does it have to be either overpowered or deleted from the game?

Furthermore, with zero new sigils or runes that I'm aware of, and also the new specs really having little changes since beta, it suggests that priorities are not right.

Then again, I suppose I've had a build that just get thrown into the trash as well (defender runes, after the Mantra of Solace nerfs)

Mechanist and willbenders skills not working underwater is on the same level.

[Winola.8214]

I’m really confused how all of this is invalidating solo open world play. What is an issue to take down now after these changes? Genuinely curious as I play vanilla mester in open world and a non-meta reaper build and they function just fine for most things. 
 

Unless you’re raiding or a fractal T4/HM player who sunk a lot of effort into mastering rotation to 100 millisecond level, I don’t follow why this change is so upsetting. 
 

If you have pink gear remember anthology of heroes exist and that stat changes are not that expensive. I think all classes have perfectly playable builds. And if you’re really stuck with a bad class for what you wanna do and your playstyle I’m sure we’ll see more balance soon especially with the CM strikes on the horizon. 

[ArchonWing.9480]

49 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Mechanist and willbenders skills not working underwater is on the same level.

Mechanist is especially bad because it is entirely dependent on the mech.

We really need an underwater fix especially since there's quite a bit of water stuff.

[Kredo.5640]

1 hour ago, Winola.8214 said:

I’m really confused how all of this is invalidating solo open world play. What is an issue to take down now after these changes? Genuinely curious as I play vanilla mester in open world and a non-meta reaper build and they function just fine for most things. 

I don't know how often you do metas: solo High Sage in Lake Doric for return achievement, solo HP Champions/help other players with HP Champions, collections which require killing champions, bounties in PoF, Dragon's Stand low man cause this meta dead as kitten?, story achievements solo cause who wanna do these?, etc etc,... You get the idea. THESE situations already put a lot of Open World people in rough spots, and with the sustain nerfs (no aegis on firebrands, revenant battlescar nerf, scourge barrier nerf, thief lifesteal nerf, spellbreaker lifesteal nerf (not that big of a deal but still sustain nerf), and tormenting runes nerf.) Ok, but why and for what? Why nerf sustains? What reason? What specifically forces Anet to nerf these "sustains"? The players need to know the reason behind such nerfs that makes big impact on their gameplays. If this was a nerf on the small population (the raid community) then nobody would even care. But more than 80% of the players in this game are Open World players, so you tell me Winola, why is this anger of the community on these nerfs so hard to understand?

So now these nerfs hit, and people like me have even harder times with contents that I listed above. What now? Me sitting in LFG, waiting for some blessed souls that may, one day, check the LFG tab I listed under, to join and come? Ask guilds to help during off hours and have nobody responding just because I play during off hours? Maybe not make collections/contents so hard to do then people wouldn't be this upsetting. 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Kredo.5640

[Alik.9651]

On 3/1/2022 at 1:26 AM, Raizel.8175 said:

It's a MMORPG.

The game is already utterly unsocial to begin with which is one of the main reasons why sophisticated PvE-content is but a home to the few.

Besides that, the nerfs aren't really substantial to solo open world gameplay.

Yes, it is a MMORPG

a Massively Multiplayer Online ROLE-PLAYING Game

why can't I role play as a lone wolf?

[Winola.8214]

3 minutes ago, Kredo.5640 said:

I don't know how often you do metas: solo High Sage in Lake Doric for return achievement, solo HP Champions/help other players with HP Champions, collections which require killing champions, bounties in PoF, Dragon's Stand low man cause this meta dead as kitten?, story achievements solo cause who wanna do these?, etc etc,... You get the idea. THESE situations already put a lot of Open World people in rough spots, and with the sustain nerfs (no aegis on firebrands, revenant battlescar nerf, scourge barrier nerf, thief lifesteal nerf, spellbreaker lifesteal nerf (not that big of a deal but still sustain nerf), and tormenting runes nerf. Ok, but why and for what? Why nerf sustains? What reason? What specifically forces Anet to nerf these "sustains"? The players need to know the reason behind such nerfs that makes big impact on their gameplays. If this was a nerf on the small population (the raid community) then nobody would even care. But more than 80% of the players in this game are Open World players, so you tell me Winola, why is this anger of the community on these nerfs so hard to understand?

 

yes to all of these except DS that I can’t claim to have played recently, but I’ve done a fair few Vinewrath runs with 2 or 3 players running non meta builds and we were just fine. So I think the content is still easily doable outside that. The only meta I recall as being utterly unplayable is Serpent’s Ire, with or without the nerf. 
 

But I also think expecting all metas to be solo-able is unreasonable expectations. Not all content is for all types of players. I think the game does a lot to accommodate players and offer something for everyone. If you chose to restrict yourself and not use LFG then some things might be off limits. Just like the war claw is hard to get if you don’t WvW. There is still tons of content for solo players. 

As to why, well, I don’t think the solo players were the target of these changes. The changes were done to balance upcoming strike content. I don’t see how aNet could realistically avoid this issue or how they could feasibly split skills into PvE Solo Players and PvE Instanced content players without stretching development resources thin. It’s always about finding a compromise between different player types and here I don’t think anyone is really being left behind, because I don’t buy that people can’t do the content anymore. If that were the case I’d agree the change would be problematic.
 

But why not try out the new specs and wait and see for a moment? The expansion is two days out. There might be lots of fun builds coming that people haven’t figured out yet that are a viable alternative  and with CM strikes on the horizon another balance is going to come that might very well buff some classes again. Some stuff just might have to wait a little while. 

 

 

 

[Nomad.8579]

I am deeply disgusted by both these changes as well as any developer who would have the audacity to support any of this.

Everyone expected the new elite specializations to be overpowered, so they could shill this new expansion.

But to just burn everything else to the ground around it ?

Absolutely shameless, should be reverted immediately.

[Zeph.5927]

7 hours ago, Duke Blackrose.4981 said:

In what way was sustain in PvE a problem worth nerfing? Seriously?

It wasn't a problem. Anet just doesn't like people being able to run around and do things solo with relative ease. Because heaven forbid the easiest content in the game (open world PvE) be something casual and easy to do for the people who just want to relax.