Will the Skyscale Fireball skill ever be changed to prevent semi-afking/leeching events and metas? [Merged]

[zeyeti.8347]

22 hours ago, Randulf.7614 said:

You may want to rethink doing public convergence. It’s quite rare to get failures now. I can’t remember the last time one did for me - prob just after the last boss release. 

yep you may be right , i admit i avoided it for some time now.

[raykor.6723]

Thank you, ANET, for this quality addition to the game.

[Futa.4375]

I don't see fireballers in HoT metas, which is pretty telling. At this point, the new metas are so bad that I can understand people fireballing. I do fireball in SotO, except for Heitor and Eparch.
I will fireball in JW if the metas are as bad as SotO's, if I even have a reason to do these after the first time.

What I don't understand is ANet adding this skill at all. Well I somehow understand, they went "Hey, everyone is talking about how our mounts are incredibly cool, WoW even copied our Skyscale! Let's force people to use them for every metas and make them worse!".

[Gop.8713]

But the fireball is cool tho . . .

And the worst that can really be said about it is that it made those players more visible. It's not like they were on the ground, making a contribution and thought to themselves, "Oh, okay, skyscale has fireball? *Now* I'm going to stop helping." ; p

[Tiamat.8254]

I use it in meta events but usually as I'm coming to join the action. Nothing wrong with getting a bit of extra damage before you land.

[Randulf.7614]

This isn’t a gotcha. The fireball is not affecting any metas negatively 

[Danikat.8537]

5 hours ago, Gop.8713 said:

But the fireball is cool tho . . .

And the worst that can really be said about it is that it made those players more visible. It's not like they were on the ground, making a contribution and thought to themselves, "Oh, okay, skyscale has fireball? *Now* I'm going to stop helping." ; p

I agree. We've had complaints about people auto-attacking or simply going AFK in the area of an event for years, it's unlikely the people doing it on a skyscale never did it before or wouldn't switch to another method if that wasn't an option. It's more noticable, but it's not new behaviour.

Unless it's actually affecting stopping events completing because they scale up and the people actively participating can't complete them it's not worth worrying about. They're not breaking any rules and there's nothing players can do to stop them.

[raykor.6723]

The auto-attack, AFK problem is an old one. The fireball is just the newest iteration with even less risk than auto-attack because of the crazy range of the fireball and the whole way-up-in-the-air aspect.

Humans care about equity. Try dividing up a desert unequally between young children and watch their reaction. It's not a learned reaction. It is innate, instinctive, in our DNA.

Nobody can deny that all metas would fail if not for the players on the ground, fully participating. Nobody can deny that it is unfair that the minimalists get the exact same chance at the phat loot as the true participants.

So fine. Let the minimalists get their roll of the die. And they can get completion for the meta. BUT...track participation and give full participants a 2nd or 3rd roll of the loot die based on participation. Make it a visible icon on the buff bar: +1 +2

Edited August 2 by raykor.6723

[Randulf.7614]

22 minutes ago, raykor.6723 said:

The auto-attack, AFK problem is an old one. The fireball is just the newest iteration with even less risk than auto-attack because of the crazy range of the fireball and the whole way-up-in-the-air aspect.

Humans care about equity. Try dividing up a desert unequally between young children and watch their reaction. It's not a learned reaction. It is innate, instinctive, in our DNA.

Nobody can deny that all metas would fail if not for the players on the ground, fully participating. Nobody can deny that it is unfair that the minimalists get the exact same chance at the phat loot as the true participants.

So fine. Let the minimalists get their roll of the die. And they can get completion for the meta. BUT...track participation and give full participants a 2nd or 3rd roll of the loot die based on participation. Make it a visible icon on the buff bar: +1 +2

Disagree. I care that I have fun and that the event succeeds. If a bunch want to throw a few fireballs in whilst I got full rotation, that’s absolutely fine. what I get out of the event is the same either way. It’s a sandbox, mess around game. Until events start failing because of this - which I have never seen one single event fail because of the fireball - why on earth should I care whether anyone wants to strafe run or fireball on their skyscale? 
 

This bizarre snobbery towards mounts features and dictating how other players play is getting very silly from a small corner of the community, especially when a feature like the fireball is not actually negatively impacting success rates

Edited August 2 by Randulf.7614

[Quench.7091]

I did see a guy flying around the Crown Pavilion tagging bosses with the Fireball skill earlier. It's kind of a dumb thing to do, seeing that it upscales boss events at times.

I don't think it is too common, but it is something that I see from time to time. The distribution of gold level participation credit is far too easy. It is odd enough to make me question why there is a copper, silver, and gold system.

Edited August 2 by Quench.7091

[Hesione.9412]

9 hours ago, Quench.7091 said:

I did see a guy flying around the Crown Pavilion tagging bosses with the Fireball skill earlier. It's kind of a dumb thing to do, seeing that it upscales boss events at times.

I don't think it is too common, but it is something that I see from time to time. The distribution of gold level participation credit is far too easy. It is odd enough to make me question why there is a copper, silver, and gold system.

I thought they changed it a couple of years back and stopped the bosses upscaling.

For me, the worst part of the skyscale fireball is that it obscures everything else on the ground, including boss AoEs. I don't care about the fireball damage, I just want to see if I need to step away from a boss AoE.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

10 hours ago, Quench.7091 said:

I did see a guy flying around the Crown Pavilion tagging bosses with the Fireball skill earlier. It's kind of a dumb thing to do, seeing that it upscales boss events at times.

I don't think it is too common, but it is something that I see from time to time. The distribution of gold level participation credit is far too easy. It is odd enough to make me question why there is a copper, silver, and gold system.

Getting credit for each legendary during the Boss Blitz speeds up the weekly participation, right? That's why people are doing it. Even with that, we're managing to get Gold pretty consistently.

[thestillwinter.9486]

i agree. lets change the game according to 15 out of 10,000 others opinions that believe the minority is the majority. i think the graphics need to look more like stardew valley personally, would make an interesting twist. And I definitely believe that my 1 opinion, is in fact, the popular and major opinion now in this discussion. Devs need to listen 

[Kozumi.5816]

On 7/3/2024 at 3:35 AM, Ultramex.1506 said:

I'm starting to think Anet just introduce combat skyscale so they can sell the Xpac but didn't think about the long term effect. Wonder what else are they gonna let fester? they didn't do jack to botting. Maybe when there are only about 8-9 peoples fighting the boss while everyone else sit on their skyscale, that is when they do something about it.

Doubt it, the map closing bug still exists 5+ years later and I just did an Aetherblade Assault(Seitsung) meta where there was a group of 6 necros being botted on the boss.

Anet have no shame.

[Perisemiotics.4579]

Honestly I can't see how you'd get upset about this. If that's how they want or have to play for whatever reason... how does that impact _your_ gameplay at all? Do you feel like you're carrying them, or that whatever event you're doing on the ground with your complex rotations and hard-earned gear warrants you more credit? There's enough content elsewhere in the game designed with that perspective... not open-world events, festivals, metas, or what have you (never mind the fact that in many of those cases as well the air isn't safe from all sorts of damage coming from different directions, so it isn't like it's a sure and easy way to "leech").

If a player "abuses" as you say the fireball for the sake of minimum effort, it's their loss really - the enjoyment doesn't come solely from the rewards but how you get them 😉

[Perisemiotics.4579]

On 8/2/2024 at 9:26 PM, Eloc Freidon.5692 said:

Getting credit for each legendary during the Boss Blitz speeds up the weekly participation, right?

Does it? I tested that and didn't see any difference in the weekly points given (10), from focusing on 2 or 3 bosses per round.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

7 hours ago, Perisemiotics.4579 said:

Does it? I tested that and didn't see any difference in the weekly points given (10), from focusing on 2 or 3 bosses per round.

I guess it doesn't. You only get ten for the whole Boss Blitz.

[Dean Calaway.9718]

On 7/2/2024 at 10:30 PM, Zalle.5468 said:

it almost feels insulting

It is, and has ever the solution for this would be the events tracking players on a leaderboard, with categories for DPS, Boon and Heal.

The top 10% of players on each category would get double rewards. The bottom 10% would get no rewards, and everyone in between could get base line rewards.

All of a sudden everyone would REALLY be trying not to be bottom 10% so no more pressing 1 while looking at a phone then collect the same rewards as the people that did 88% of the work.

[Noidea Incognito.9607]

The Sky scale fire balls is effective for tagging mobs/event objectives while preserving mounted mobility. Its OP compared to other mounts that don't have such means, therefore it is the most logical choice for people to use. No blame falls them for using it either. 100% legal features and approved by the Dev.(own creation/design)

Telling people not to use it or complaining about it is like screaming alone in a desert. We just have to accept that majority thinks the Sky scale is a keeper and super cool!  🤷‍♂️

[Nash.2681]

2 hours ago, Dean Calaway.9718 said:

It is, and has ever the solution for this would be the events tracking players on a leaderboard, with categories for DPS, Boon and Heal.

The top 10% of players on each category would get double rewards. The bottom 10% would get no rewards, and everyone in between could get base line rewards.

All of a sudden everyone would REALLY be trying not to be bottom 10% so no more pressing 1 while looking at a phone then collect the same rewards as the people that did 88% of the work.

And yet there will always be some players being the last 10% and some that try real hard and contribute the best they can that still will never reach the top 10%. Sounds like a fair system.... /s

[Dean Calaway.9718]

9 hours ago, Nash.2681 said:

And yet there will always be some players being the last 10% and some that try real hard and contribute the best they can that still will never reach the top 10%. Sounds like a fair system.... /s

It is fair, plus you don't need to reach top 10% you just have to avoid being in the bottom 10% it pays to be a winner.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Dean Calaway.9718 said:

It is fair, plus you don't need to reach top 10% you just have to avoid being in the bottom 10% it pays to be a winner.

All this will lead to is the bottom 10% that cant do better will stop doing the thing.

Then when the next 10% bottom feeders fail afew times they stop to.

Until only the top 10% do the thing and then there might be to few people.

[Dean Calaway.9718]

9 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

All this will lead to is the bottom 10% that cant do better will stop doing the thing.

Then when the next 10% bottom feeders fail afew times they stop to.

Until only the top 10% do the thing and then there might be to few people.

How will people ever manage without the people that do 3% of damage...

[Luthan.5236]

Not that much need of a change I think. Yes it is annoying. But the afk timer will kick the "throw 1 ball and stay afk" people if the event runs longer and they go afk too long. On the other hand: If you now have to be available at least once every 5 mins you might as well just participate fully to progress the event faster.

Personally I can be more semi-afk even without skyscsale. When I normally participate. Move to a save area. (Ranged weapons and pets stowed to be able to go out of combat or at lest not draw aggro too much to get killed.) Then alt-tab out of the game - doing other stuff. While still online and checking regularly. I mainly often do it at large metas where I fully participate in the last boss but the previous part is tedious and I tend to rarely play it fully from start to end. (Well ... some metas conveniently just allow you to join in at the end lol. No fireballs needed. There have been threads to suggest adding participation system to stuff like Nayos I think.)

[SnackParty.3178]

More tags more bags.