Kovu.7560

> @"ArthurDent.9538" said:

> Yeah, their location was called out in team chat at which point basically the whole server came over to hunt them down and spawn camp them. Can't really blame them for not repping the anet guild in wvw.

 

A valid point. I do see a lot more devs in pve and I don't pve all that often, it makes sense that they'd be willing to rep the attention grabbing guild tag in a gamemode where they can't subsequently be targeted by everyone in a three mile radius.

 

~ Kovu

Occasionally on the enemy server. I enjoy harassing them on my ranger when I see them.

That said, in seven years I've only seen a dev on my own server once. (I didn't interact with them, they were part of a zerg.) Apparently that was their home server, but you could've fooled the playerbase -- almost nobody knew them.

That said, I see them more frequently in pvp and got my achievement for killing a dev 4~5 years ago. (Have an old screenshot on my home computer as I didn't even know the Anet tag was a thing until I saw one in pvp.)

 

~ Kovu

Charr car needs buffs. You need to defend a camp and wait 13 minutes just to get one of those, the warclaw is free, always available once you've unlocked it and everyone gets one. The charr car is limited edition cheese and should not be slower than a mount.

 

~ Kovu

Decrease the cap hit to 3 (allowing for 6 targets via necro + shades) and turn one of the f-skills into an ability that teleports the Scourge one-way from their current location to the their shade with a neat animation that grants evasion uptime, (flavor it a moving through the "sand pits" the necro created). That'll cut back on their damage whilst giving them a defensively-minded option to help improve personal survivability. People can bitch about the offensive potential of scourges in large scale all they want, they're still basically the only profession in the game without a decent "ohfuc--" button if they get caught even remotely close to the enemy train.

 

Also, I'm all for cutting back or removing the boon corruption, but Scrappers will need to be looked at if we go this route. Unless the end goal is to go back to the boon-ball HoT meta.

 

~ Kovu

People use the tools they are given. The only difference between now and seven years ago are the "tools" provided -- there's a lot more mobility (among other aspects of power creep) than there used to be.

It used to just be thieves (and to a limited degree warriors) with the mobility to run away, for everyone else once they initiated the fight they were committed. Now Thieves, rangers, mesmers, warriors, engineers and to a lesser degree elementalists , guardians and revenants all have numerous teleports and gap closers that allow them to be quite fast at closing and/or creating gaps and the mount simply compounds that.

 

If you want to equate "lacking bravery" with the mobility powercreep and the "old guard" with the builds players used before HoT then I could agree with the assessment, but I don't think players are inherently less willing to fight now than they were several years ago. Just the opposite, I'm sure a lot of players would be willing to see cuts to the mobility on their own main profession(s) if mobility was cut across the board. And it has to be cut _across the board_. (Yes, thieves included.)

 

~ Kovu

Good idea, but I suspect it'll take Anet aegis to implement this change.

 

~ Kovu

 

_edit- Yes, I know its pronounced e-jiz, just enjoy the crappy wordplay..._

The muscle memory is screwed up more than anything, which is an inconvenience more than a nerf, but the cooldown on 3 is a little disconcerting, too.

Until they adjust the movement abilities on sword to be more streamlined (like greatsword) or allow you to simply click in the direction you want to travel like other professions I can't see myself swapping back to it.

Glad some people are getting more out of it, however.

 

~ Kovu

> @"Psycoprophet.8107" said:

> At the safety and convenience of 1800+ range seems fair to me

To be fair, this game has more projectile mitigation and quick gap closing than any other I've played. Single target line-based projectiles on any profession at any range just doesn't strike me as all that advantageous anymore, outside of catching people off guard (which many close range builds are also capable of doing). Core ranger longbow damage isn't stellar either, so I don't find it a broken.

 

(Also, few people roam on Druid these days and even fewer die to them.)

 

~ Kovu

Still waiting on that large group utility and the un-cuck'ing of Druid, =)

But sure, chisel another slice off of Ranger's niche (roaming) effectiveness in wvw -- (I really hope those sword changes make up for it).

 

~ Kovu

Guardian is one of the two professions that has been top tier relevant in this game mode since this game's launch in 2012.

It may not be the highest dps'er but it has plenty of tools to tag and bag directly and indirectly through healing others.

If you want a direct damage lootstick, hop on Scourge or something. Guardians are, at absolute worst, the 4th best profession for tagging and bagging.

 

~ Kovu

Soulbeasts aren't as bad as they used to be nor are they as omnipotent as people are complaining. Soulbeasts are annoying, at best, irrelevant at worst in larger scale fights. They've been designed (whether intended or not) to specialize at roaming and small scale, so of course they're going to be decent at it. If you want to kill a soulbeast bring builds with CC and sustain like those available to engineer and warrior, or bring spike damage and pressure the heck out of them with a thief or mesmer. Heck, despite the condition mitigation and general condi-hate in the meta, condition mirage _will still work_.

 

Trying to use a Necromancer of any form to counter Soulbeast is just silly. They'll get ripped to shreds before they get within 900 range. Why is this being suggested?

 

~ Kovu

> @"X T D.6458" said:

> > @"Kovu.7560" said:

>

> > If you're going to introduce a mechanic where the effect of shade skills won't work in a radius around the necromancer whilst the shade is active, _the new shades had better have an off switch_. Necromancers being focused need _more_ oh**** buttons, not less.

> >

> > ~ Kovu

>

> The longer duration is going to hurt when you are not able to pop your shade skills if you used the last Manifest at range....

 

Yeah, that too.

 

@"Stand The Wall.6987" 15 seconds is an eternity when you're being pressured in a zerg fight.

 

~ Kovu

Its just the ones spec'ed to run around keeps indefinitely that bother me. Same with mesmers. #2012Problems

The ones that actually fight are fine.

 

~ Kovu

Keep the AoE small, have it affect fewer players but have the effects be more potent. Make scourges work for their damage but reward them for doing it well. My thoughts.

If you're going to introduce a mechanic where the effect of shade skills won't work in a radius around the necromancer whilst the shade is active, _the new shades had better have an off switch_. Necromancers being focused need _more_ ohfuck buttons, not less.

 

~ Kovu

> @"XenesisII.1540" said:

> There was a mass amount of people that moved from DB to SoS like oct/nov 2012

 

I'm glad someone else remembers that, it was likely the single greatest mass exodus in the gamemode's history. I played on Dragonbrand from release until 2014, started playing wvw in October of that year and wondered why the place was a ghost town.

 

As for OP's idea, its so stupid and fantastic at the same time -- but I would make sure both servers not Blackgate in T4 get rotated out lest one ill-populated server get stuck with them week after week. Make T3 fight for 1st and the right to dodge Blackgate. =p

 

(This won't happen for so many reasons, but its a clever idea!)

 

~ Kovu

 

 

> @"Psycoprophet.8107" said:

> > @"Trevor Boyer.6524" said:

> > I am actually incredibly surprised that Memer is drawing more aggro in this poll than Engineer.

>

> Lol yeah me to but guess players don't like playing whack a mole while pvp'ing

 

-snerk- ... yeah...

The issue debated shouldn't be the realism aspect, rather the balance aspect -- and Rangers more than every other profession (with the exception of thief) could do with _more_ tools to aid in contributing a larger group in assaulting a sieged structure. Is being able to use longbow 5 without line of sight (effect?) to destroy siege a fair way to address that? Depends who you ask I suppose, I'm just glad its something.

 

~ Kovu

I have never voted on a poll so quickly in my life.

Lots of these buff/nerf threads popping up lately though, even compared to normal.

 

~ Kovu

Warrior, but I had to vote Guardian because its not seeing nearly enough love on this poll.

We're not just talking about roaming specs here, guardian is (and has always) brought more to large group play than any other profession.

Thief is a worthy pick though. They've received the least amount of power creep via elite specs since HoT's release, the core profession would do exceptionally well against _most_ other core professions in small scale. My opinion is so-so on core Mesmer, they're probably next after the above three.

 

~ Kovu

> @"CutesySylveon.8290" said:

> I said it was annoying.

 

Well darn, lets mitigate the profession's already severely limited wvw utility because this person has been inconvenienced by it.

(No seriously, we need _more_ ways to de-siege places as far as I'm concerned.)

 

~ Kovu

Lets not get on the case of someone making an active effort to address an issue we've been complaining about for years. That said, this game _has_ a spectator mode. Sure it doesn't exist for the playerbase in wvw, but I'm sure its easy enough to access it. We've had everyone-is-friends mode in wvw before. =P

 

~ Kovu

We’re aiming to bring into line some of the more dominant builds and compositions of the current WvW meta so that new options can be brought to the table

So slight nerfs to mesmer, nerfs to engineer abilities unrelated to what makes them too potent in wvw group play and weird nonsensical changes to guardian that don't touch their actual potency constitute encouraging build diversity these days? Good job with the necro nerfs, too, now they're even less of a support spec and any corruption nerfs indirectly buff the engineer' ability to basically make conditions inconsequential in group play.

 

How about you touch on the things that would actually shake up diversity? Nerf Scourge offensive while buffing their support, buff Reaper group play potential by helping them out defensively, drop guardian off a fucking cliff and #MakeDruidGreatAgain

 

~ Kovu

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> Necro has access to a lot of lifesteal even in downstate, if a competent support build/player is reviving them then I can totally see a downed Necro being able to withstand a lot of incoming damage.

> Necro and Ranger have the best downstate skills in the game if you ask me, Lifesteal and pet rez are extremely good.. specially compared to Warriors abysmal downstate skills which are bad when traited and utterly useless when not.

 

Eh, engis have a good amount of downstate CC, mesmers and thieves can teleport and stealth (thus preventing stomps), power memsers are probably the hardest hitters while in downstate and elementalists have a downstate skill that will prevent a stomp and let them move around while invulnerable for a while to relocate to a more favorable position. Necro and Ranger are 4,5 at best and I think people in this thread are placing too much value on necros in downstate. I would still place them above warrior in that department, mind.

 

~ Kovu

> @"Sovereign.1093" said:

> > @"Trajan.4953" said:

> > > @"Sovereign.1093" said:

> > > disagree. we're not all rich to pay for the upgrades. this was one of the better additions.

> > >

> > > the template right now isnt bad. its just simply lacking direction.

> > >

> > > give us a recognized goal like the tournaments.

> > >

> > > and population isnt gonna fix itself if theres a lot of tiers

> >

> > Are you just going to jump into every thread and try and steer towards tournaments? I think they made it very clear how they feel about then

>

> well its the solution to the wvw decline.

 

Putting aside the flawed structure they used for the tournaments last time, I don't think a tournament will help. As I understand it last time they ran a tournament everyone burned themselves out resulting in a net loss of playtime if you include the time post-tournament, and the bandwagons were real. People really will pull out their credit cards just to say they were on the winning team.

 

Only updating stale mechanics, adjusting the scoring to weight it to more active play, and adding new and intriguing content to the gamemode will solve a population decrease. In short, the developers need to care about the gamemode more. If pve saw as infrequent and inconsequential updates as both the competitive gamemodes, you can bet your behind it wouldn't be as populated as it is now.

 

Tournaments are a band-aid solution that have proven to not help against population decrease in the longer term.

 

~ Kovu

 

edit- Also, if they ever get around to alliances it'll sort of feel like we're in tournaments all the time. You know. If you squint.

I mean, I can see the benefits, though you've got to consider that certain servers have a greater number of players who are more dedicated to taking advantage of every element of the gamemode, whereas other servers are more focused on specific elements such as fighting. These servers (that already excel at the gamemode) obviously gain an extra advantage from the players with increased dedication and as a result tend to do well. (Some people call it ppt whoring.)

 

(Re)-adding an extra manual element to upgrading structures will only further allow these servers to pull ahead. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Depends who you ask, I'm just pointing out the double-edged sword nature of switching back. Also, as @"Turk.5460" mentions, there shouldn't be a cost associated. The cost is the time commitment of those players going around making sure upgrades are started as soon as they're available. Scouts aren't rewarded enough as it is.

 

That said, I'm neither for nor against. I doubt either will change the gamemode's population.

 

~ Kovu