Yasi.9065

> @"Funky.4861" said:

> What exactly was the problem with the res traits in pve? Why could there not be a mode split, so they function like they always did in pve but are changed in pvp modes? If you're going to say something like 'They can't do mechanical splits, only number splits.' then just reduce that number to zero for pvp, like: Revive speed increase: wvw 0% spvp 0% pve 10%. Why is that so hard?

> "Patchnotes":

> Revival traits are also seeing the removal of the 10% revival speed passive effect that we've been slowly phasing out over the last several updates. In exchange, skills that directly revive allies are seeing enhancements.

Because this change isnt so much about balance in the narrow sense, but rather a design choice. Sure some revive skills got now overtuned (feedback) others undertuned (geyser) but Im sure this will be adressed in next balance patch.

> @"Taygus.4571" said:

> I dont understand all the people against this.

>

> Arent there a few fractals already that some instabilities black listed?

>

> Sirens reef has very little space, and then there's the green circle that requires players to stacl in..that is very hard to do with social awkwardness.

5 people fit into the green circle with SA, Ive seen that more than enough. But you dont even need 5... or 3..., just 1 additional person is already enough to not downstate from the attack on a squishy class - without protection.

Lets face it, the problem with Sirens Reef is people not understanding how the game works. I often see pugs wipe because theres no protection, no condi cleanse, no reflect and people dropping red circles on the boss. Not to mention, everyone getting blown of the ship at least once.

You can start demanding nerfs to an instability in a fractal when a group that without the instability has no trouble (as in: all mechanics dealt with in one way or another without constantly downstating), suddenly has immense trouble getting the fractal finished. Thats a valid complain, since instabilities arent supposed to impact that much. However saying things like "its unfun, I dont like it, the mystical majority doesnt like it" are NOT valid complaints. And just because a group that ALREADY struggles without an instability suddenly cant kill the boss anymore, doesnt mean thats because of that instability and both should be nerfed. Rather: the group that struggles should take a look at itself and IMPROVE to the point where its just a mere annoyance because ah well, its not a golem boss.

And before some smart person argues with gatekeeping, GW2 is an MMORPG. Its not candy crush. In an MMORPG it is absolutely fine to have content that cant be finished by everyone. Thats part of this genre. Thats the big motivation behind playing an MMORPGs. Not the loot. Not the community. Those are just filler. Its the goals and the dopaminrush you get from finally.. FINALLY getting that goal finished. GW2 is already quite far from that principle, which seems to be the reason why some people think its okay to push and bully Anets Devs even more towards turning GW2 into candy crush. Please stop it. Its ridiculous. And easymode loot wont give you that dopamin high you want anyway.

> @"Pirindolo.9427" said:

> > @"Yasi.9065" said:

> > Heres the thing though. Fractal instabilities are just additional mechanics to deal with. Some are easier to deal with, others are more difficult. Some are annoying, some you can basically ignore because you already have the toolkit to deal with them easily.

> >

> So far we agree. Every people agree on that. Nothing new.

I dont think you really know what I said there, but okay.

> @"Pirindolo.9427" said:

> > @"Yasi.9065" said:

> > SA is fine.

> Correction: SA is fine for you. I consider the opposite, and you know that the majority of the playerbase is closer to my opinion than yours.

Majority? Proof? Wheres the data?

> @"Pirindolo.9427" said:

> > @"Yasi.9065" said:

> > Sirens Reef is fine.

> Correction: Siren's Reef is fine for you. I consider the opposite, and you know that the majority of the playerbase is closer to my opinion than yours.

Again. Data?

> @"Pirindolo.9427" said:

> > @"Yasi.9065" said:

> > What needs to change is the mentality of fractal pugs. Instead of skipping it you should find a way to deal easily with it.

>

> Are you serious? So Anet should change its business? Instead of developping (and changing) a game to attract more players, they should dedicate themselves to manipulate the mind of their potential playerbase? Social engineering? Come on!!!

You and sadly many others havent yet realized that computer games arent an interactive movie with chatroom.

Let me put it bluntly: If you want your daily dopamin rush, then earn it. You are getting handed out more than enough in GW2 already. Stop demanding nerfs to every little tiny challenge in the game left. If you cant handle it (skillwise, emotionally or whatever) then go somewhere else. GW2 is big enough for you to not bother with something you dont like.

> @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> how bout just delete siren, seems like it is the most hated fractal, dethroning aquatic by a long mile

>

> i was laughing when Deroir said he refuses to do siren on the recent teatime :lol:

He just doesnt like it. Its not about it being too difficult or an instability being too difficult. Or the combination of both. For him, Sirens Reef really drove home that there will never be a fractal CM - ever. And that any new fractal we get, will be a storymode one. For someone that loves fractal cms, that hurts.

> @"Pirindolo.9427" said:

> > @"Leonidrex.5649" said:

> > > @"Pirindolo.9427" said:

> > > It's self explanatory. The rate of (miserable) failure of Siren's with S.A. is the highest of any fractal ever. You can see a lot of LFG messages saying: "Siren's@boss", "T4 (except for siren's)"... But the worst thing is that S.A. punishes you for doing what you have to do in the boat fight.

> >

> > leave it be, if you cant do it then dont do it. let people that can do it, do it.

> >

>

> For you and all the "git gud" boys that don't read: Again, and last time: it is not a matter of how difficult it is, but a matter of how bad design fractals keep more and more ppl skipping them from the daily run.

Heres the thing though. Fractal instabilities are just additional mechanics to deal with. Some are easier to deal with, others are more difficult. Some are annoying, some you can basically ignore because you already have the toolkit to deal with them easily.

SA is fine.

Sirens Reef is fine.

What needs to change is the mentality of fractal pugs. Instead of skipping it you should find a way to deal easily with it.

Well, I guess I can stop searching for the mystery airline then.

> @"Eloc Freidon.5692" said:

> Collection flow is pretty top notch without insulting someone who doesn't have endless hours to do it. Its just missing something unique and permanent to acquire outside the tonic and weapon skins. An infinite use Raven would be nice.

Thats a good point. I especially like the multi-tiered rewards some collections in the new episode have. Definitely a better approach than one big chest at the end. So the rewards deliverance system this time is good in my opinion. Im also enjoying seeing karma given more value.

The rewards itself I dont particularly like this episode. Theres nothing for me that sparks the "must have" feeling, collections and achievements are mostly exploring things - done in passing, nothing to focus on. The missing exp and loot on most mobs I think is a bug. We've had that several times on new releases, so Im guessing this will be fixed at some point. If not, then thats a weird approach, diminishing the re-play value of the map quite a lot.

Overall, my gripe is the same as with all releases since LS3. Rewards are handed out without overcoming a challenge (time or skillwise), therefore rewards arent anything special and dont give a sense of accomplishment/pride. In short, the rewards are meaningless.

Im seeing a lot of complaints that the story (and overall content) are not enough content.

In the past, I probably would have agreed with this, but since quite some time Ive embraced the way of GW2 and only play the game a few hours per week, on the side so to speak. I can agree, that if I played GW2 still "fulltime", this episode would have been rated quite a bit lower for me as well. The way too easy openworld part of the release would have more impact on my enjoyment.

As well as the missing difficulty settings for strikemissions. Especially because this time we got a fully on its own developed strikemission, not "just" a re-used story bossevent. For me, that points towards raids and fractals being either neglected or completely given up on in favor of strikemissions, considering that Anet didnt hire extra devs for that kind of content. At least that I know of :)

So, I can somewhat understand the negative responses. However, I want to point out, that we got a few new features this episode (love the self-opening doors and jormag's chilly whispers ;p), so overall I wouldnt call this episode an example of anets supposed decline. Its just a bit less flashy compared to Grothmar Valley, and it lacks a challenge for veterans.

How you guys liking the new episode?

I love the new map, its very thematic dark all around (music, graphics, mob-choice).. the story is engaging, the strikemission nicely a step up from grothmar valley one. The new mastery is enough of an intrigue to make it not a straight up powercreep. Overall, I think its a very well done release.

Only fly in my soup is that the "big" openworld events are a bit anticlimatic, too easy, too fast done. But thats an overall problem I think mainly due to the scaling system gw2 uses for openworld events, so not that much something to do with the episode.

> @"FrigginPaco.4178" said:

> I'll just tag along to the "I liked fall damage reduction in WvW" camp :(

>

> I liked using it to engage people... It felt coooool D:

Especially during those times when one of the falling traits was bugged and you could one-shot people with it... sorry, cant say Im gonna miss that.

> @"Urud.4925" said:

> > @"Yasi.9065" said:

> > The achievements arent meant to rush through. Most (all?) of those achievements are just participation ones, so... just do the events, play on the map, enjoy... its a good map. You dont have to be finished with the achievements in a month, you can take years for them. No expiration date.

> >

> > Grinding, re-visiting older content... all are parts of MMOs. If you dont like that kind of gameplay, then you are in the wrong game genre.

> Not all the achievements will be easier with less players. The race will become easier, but if the skins don't drop now, it would be even more difficult when less players will play the strike mission. Unless ANet increases the drop rate or put them in the WvW reward track.

> Speaking of reward tracks, with last episode they put 2 weapons in the WvW and PvP reward tracks. Usually you don't have to play WvW and PvP to complete an achievement for the Story Journal. I play them casually, so it wasn't a problem for me, but they are definitely shifting the trend.

I think the skins (and other rewards) make sure you always will be able to find other players for a strike mission during primetime.

And they are adding more focus on WvW and PvP because alliances and swiss will most likely be released during this living story season. So it makes sense to get people already re-aquainted with the concept. Personally, I like that. Doing wvw reward tracks is in no way demanding, and when alliances hit, most PvE players will be more inclined to give it a try.

Im usually someone that critizises a lot, but the prologue was well done all around. A good mix of everything. My only gripe left is missing difficulty settings, but thats not something to do with the prologue, but with the whole PvE content. Missing difficulty settings mean you always get this weird "common denominator" on world bosses and raids as difficulty. Too challenging for newbies, too easy for veterans. Too easy with lots of players, impossible with too few.

The achievements arent meant to rush through. Most (all?) of those achievements are just participation ones, so... just do the events, play on the map, enjoy... its a good map. You dont have to be finished with the achievements in a month, you can take years for them. No expiration date.

Grinding, re-visiting older content... all are parts of MMOs. If you dont like that kind of gameplay, then you are in the wrong game genre.

The whole GW2 is p2w because best outfits are in the gemshop is a community joke. Because GW2 doesnt have horizontal gear progression, you could say that fashion is the real endcontent in GW2, and to win that endcontent you have to pay, ergo GW2 is p2w. Ofc thats meant tongue in cheek ;]

And tbh, the reality is actually a bit more sinister. All those free skins you get are the bait to get you hooked on "Fashion Wars", so you then are willing to pay for the really shiny stuff in the gemstore. Thats one of the basic microtransaction principles at work. Same as the pseudo currency etc.

All microtransactions are equally bad. Because they are designed to incentivise you to spend lots of money. And because people with spending problems are always at a high risk of loosing their whole livelihood. I knew all of this 7 years ago, still, I gave Anet a chance, because in GW1 they handled it okay.

Now, after 7 years, my opinion is unchanged. Microtransactions are bad, not just for the gamers, but also for the game. Instead of creating a good game, the main goal becomes creating microtransaction items and microtransaction opportunities.

And thats exactly what happened to "build templates". To create the maximum possible microtransactions, Anet made the core feature build templates (build storage) accountwide and not character- or classbound - so you need to buy more slots for convenience. Build loadouts are a pure convenience product without much functionality beyond that, made more convenient because of accountwide build storage - incentivising you to buy more build loadout slots.

Instead of gear templates we got gear loadouts, because charging for characterbound gear template slots would have been an even worse decision, so Anet added gear loadouts instead - which are a form of storage and more "acceptable" characterbound.

See how that rather simple, but good feature of arc-buildtemplates got replaced by something developed with microtransaction monetization as main goal? And how that resulted in a worse product? Thats exactly what I mean when saying that microtransactions are bad for the game.

> @"Knighthonor.4061" said:

> Many of us kind of take a lot of things in GW2 for granted.

>

> Not all but many of us take some of the quality stuff we get in GW2 for granted, myself included.

>

> I been bored of the recent content gap and updates for SPvP /WvW, so I recently decided to try another MMO. It took me some time in this recent MMO to realize how important Polish alone means to me.

>

> Also certain big and small things like;

> *Open Tagging

> *Dynamic Events and Group content of all Levels

> *Easy to understand UI that is smooth enough to use and not clunky.

>

> And so much more.

> There is a lot to not like about GW2, but I tell you, there is a lot to like as well.

I have to disagree on the UI. Its anything but clean and straightforward. Just look at the hero panel. Everything crammed into that one window, and many things hidden into sub-sub menus.

Also, dynamic events have horrible to none scaling, making everything easy mode. One of the biggest issues actually with GW2 and its bad rep as "the beginner mmo".

There are other positive things about GW2, like how smooth the combat system is, or how well the server technology *usually* works.

Having now set up all my characters except my "main" with the new "template" system actually made me rather want to fully quit again.

Theres so many limitations now. I mean, I have to swap gear pieces on my chrono for when Im tanking to get the toughness just right. How do I solve this? I have to use one of the *only two* free gear template slots to save my base equip in. Then use my first "template" as my old gear hero panel. So Im down to one saved template on a character I used to have 6+ geartemplates with arc.

Ofc I could limit myself and "just go full tank 4head" in one template and off-chrono with 1k toughness in the other. But I dislike that immensely, Im a perfectionist and I dont need 2.3k toughness to tank in most raids.

Still, I could do that, but then theres also my two condi chrono builds, my two power dps chrono builds and my two mirage builds. 8 "basic" gearsets I used to have on one mesmer. Only pve raiding. No fractals gear, no wvw gear. Those - thankfully - I already have on separate characters.

Mesmer problems, you could say. But wait... theres also my firebrand -> harrier fb, tank fb, seraph qb, viper qb, power qb, condi dps fb. Not to mention, I swap weapons on my support firebrand builds a LOT. Some fights I need axe for pulls or fury, some fights I need mace, some fights I need hammer for the extra cc, etc. I now have to carry around those weapons as extras in my inventory if I use them in another template, or I cant swap without making another template for it - which isnt possible anyway since I have already 6 geartemplates planned.

My renegade -> condi dps, harrier, diviner, tank, deimos kiter, wvw zerg, wvw roaming.

**TL;DR**

I lost a LOT of the flexibility I had before this patch, and got at the most free inventory slots on a few characters in return. Sorry, but even ranger pet saving doesnt make up for that. Not to mention that I ofc will NOT buy extra template slots of any kind, but instead will now just annoy my raiding groups by swapping characters instead - after all, I already have 30 character slots from before arc templates existed.

Anet, this was well meant, but not well done.

Legendary armor doesnt really feel legendary anymore. While the tec itself is quite good, the concept and monetization destroy that effect, sorry.

So, the last feature thats keeping me hoping and from uninstalling the game, is wvw alliances. Lets hope anet management doesnt butcher that as well.

Sometimes its just better to stick to whats proven successful.

GW2 templates are inconsistent, clunky and restrictive.

## Inconsistent:

Why can I rename build templates, but not gear templates?

Why is my gear "template" changed when I change my build? So I dont actually have two gear templates, I have ONE template and my current equipped gear. Very shady naming practise there.

## Clunky:

Gear templates and build templates are split into two locations. Instead of one window to change everything, I have to click my way to different SUBmenus.

## Restrictive:

One huge selling point of legendary armor was that you can use the same armor set with different stats in different builds. Together with deltas arcdps buildtemplates, you could swap your one legendary items set to any stat preset with only a few clicks in the same window. Now Im restricted to ONE TO FIVE presets, when before I could have dozens. Thats such a _huge downgrade_.

And the pricing? Sheesh, Anet. If you wanted to milk that, just dont give so much away for free. Space out the income some instead of just going for the whales.

Sorry to be so harsh, but this could have been avoided with more communication. Instead of presenting us with this finished "feature", a bit of communication - lets say a questionnaire - would have saved you quite a lot of developement time AND the negative backlash for downgrading a beloved feature of GW1.

Im not a wvw player anymore, ever since PoF release I havent really touched it anymore because of the boon- and corruptspam, the conditiondmg issues etc. So this thread gives me hope I wont have to switch games for my wvw addiction to be satisfied <3

Imo the rate of boon application, boon corruption and available strong utility skills is really problematic. Things like reflect, stability, aegis, resistance, protection, quickness and all forms of cc are incredibly strong in WvW.

Im no expert, but looking back to before PoF release (when I was very actively pvp'ing and wvw'ing), most strong skills came with a long cooldown - or some other form of downside. And I think thats a system GW2 should go back to. So that you have to time that skill and then commit to it. The reflect bubble on firebrand tome3 for example could be a channel skill, or have a 20second cooldown. Things like that.

Considering that the functionality stays way behind gw1 templates, the limitation to templates... quite honestly, anything above 50 gems per template is overpriced.

Maybe if they fix limits and legendary armor support... but even then more than 200gems per template is a rip-off.

For 800 gems you get a new characterslot with free templates after all, and the template model anet went with is quite inferior to just putting in the 1h work to set up a new character.

Dunno, maybe deltaconnected doesnt want to spend time on updating it though. Having been in the same situation, I can tell you its not really pleasant to have to keep something uptodate in a game you arent even really playing anymore just because thousands of players are relying on your addon.

Nah, this is better. Sure Ill have to do small changes from now on myself to reduce the amount of "builds" - but thats fine. I dont really need a separate build for every situational utility skill combination, that was just me being incredibly lazy.

I just hope for a small duration we get working arcdps buildtemplates and anet templates... so I dont have to manually enter all big templates ;p

> @"BlueJin.4127" said:

> Players who are complaining about this aren’t asking for everything to be free; they’re paying customers who support the game by spending money. And Anet isn’t giving this feature to players for free; it is funded with money spent by these very players. Anet didn’t just ask a group of charity devs create these with absolutely no pay. It is naive to claim players are complaining about free stuff since this is not free.

>

> Anet should have made the templates work like GW1, unlimited templates that are stored on players’ own computers, but along with a paid version which stores the templates on Anet’s servers. This seems like a very lazy design, based on what we know so far.

So you spent money on the game without playing it in the hopes of buildtemplates? ;) Or how exactly did you spend money on this feature and only this feature?

On topic:

Characterslots arent for free. Neither are bagslots or bankslots.

Equipment templates are a form of inventory space.

Storage templates are big time convenience.

Build templates also big time convenience.

Ergo... monetisation.

Remember, you still can store your equipment in inventory and manually switch if you dont want to spend the gems. You dont HAVE to store buildtemplates accountwide. And 3 build templates is quite honestly enough for most situations anyway.

So, this whole "greedy anet" uproar is a bit weird. You already DO get 1 additional equipment template, 1 additional build template (or 2 if you didnt wvw'ed on that character) and 6 storage templates.

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> If you want to get really technical, you already can beat raids with 1 tank, 1-2 healers, and the rest DPS. These meta comps don't just beat the boss, they destroy them. People are clearing some of these bosses in less than half the time of the enrage meter. You can beat raids without having all of the boons and unique buffs that the meta comps give.

Quite honestly, thats such a toxic thing to say. Ofc you can beat raids in green gear or without boons. Well, experienced players can. New players cant. Thats the problem. The current system punishes new, inexperienced players, while giving experienced players a HUGE advantage. Yes, boons are that big an advantage, even when "just" autoattacking.

How about countering supposed powercreep with lowering peak dps numbers on each build to < 33k dps? Or increasing health on each boss by avg. 33k dps since you get one more full dps in that comp? How about forcing a healer by increasing/adding arena dmg ticks on every encounter?

Or how about not doing any of this and just add a no-downstate-increased-boss-health hardmode for people afraid of powercreep?

> @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> So the solution to making raids more accessible is make another class which shares all boons like the old SoI chrono?

>

> If Arenanet wanted this kind of accessibility, they could just revert the nerfs to chrono and just let dual chrono provide all boons again.

Because chaos chrono was aids in every single gamemode, breaking every single gamemode. While boonthief is raids exclusive, no harm to PvP, WvW. Simple.

Also, it would be nice if people actually read the post they are commenting on. My suggestion wouldnt have been like old chaos chrono. It wouldnt share aegis, stab, resistance. Just the boons deemed "necessary" by the people making raidmeta. Big difference.

But whatever. I honestly dont even care anymore if pug raiding survives or not.

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"Yasi.9065" said:

> > > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > As already explained in other threads, this is no bug, it was designed that way.

> >

> > Just lost all interest in ascended cooking.

>

> Yeah, I find this choice of handling it rather peculiar myself.

Its so typical anet. Making it tedious instead of challenging, because they are afraid people will complain if you had to actually play the game to acquire the ingredients to perma unlock the ascended seeds.

Now, a really engaging system would have been going out into the world, killing world bosses, champs, dungeon bosses, fractal bosses, wvw players. Not pressing interact a couple of times and then stupidly watching a yellow bar fill to craft seeds for daily planting. THIS is whats wrong with GW2. It seems the mainfocus for all collections shifted from THE best and most engaging feature of GW2 - the combat - to the most boring and unimaginative one... pressing interact.

Whoever made that design decision... please stop... its just about to destroy GW2.

Anyway, Im not going to bother with ascended cooking anymore.

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> As already explained in other threads, this is no bug, it was designed that way.

Just lost all interest in ascended cooking.

Add "lesser ectoplasm" to one of acrobatics minor traits on thief.

Lesser ectoplasm buffs everything except stability, aegis, resistance for 10 players, and is gained when using steal on legendary mobs.

Done.

No need for waiting for perfect comp to get together. You'd just need a tank, 1-2 healer, maybe a bannerwarrior, rest dps.

Why? Because 90% of the "time consuming" part in raids? its waiting for squad to fill..... 9% is waiting for players randomly going afk... and 1% is the maybe wipe on more difficult bosses.

/edit:

Calling raids time consuming was a really bad move. It made me incredibly angry, because GW2 raids are the most accessible raids in every mmo I ever played. The only "time consuming" part about is, is the shitty balance in GW2. NOT the raids themselves.