Oogabooga.3812

I’m enjoying strike missions. I’m a fractal regular, so I have some of the standard raid builds,

But i will not be returning to raids anytime soon, because despite having meta builds and knowing the mechanics, your group can still wipe too easily if the wrong mistake is made. Strike missions and fractals are more forgiving and much more my style.

It’s a combination of PvP and PvE that takes the best of both and allows for tremendous variety of play styles and motivations.

Solo play as a sentry, scout, espionage, havoc, troll.

Small group play for karma train, havoc, skillful fights.

Large group play for karma train, loot bags, easy fight wins.

Attack objectives for loot, rank, ruining the other servers, strategic chess play.

Defend objectives for PPT, fights, loot bags, being knights in shining armor.

Fight for fight’s sake for loot bags, team building, reputation, PPK.

Better than PvP because:

* Less toxic community

* No pigeon-holed roles or need-to-know standard rotations

* Join the fight anytime immediately

* All stats, runes, sigils, and consumables are available

* “Winning” matters little, losing matters little

Better than PvE because:

* Max DPS isn’t the be all, end all

* No quirky boss mechanics

* Not a mindless grind

* Your actions affect the map, and thus affects other players on your server and enemy servers i.e. more meaningful play

* Enemy actions make the maps and fights dynamic

Worse than PvP and PvE because:

* Pitiful rewards comparing time spent

* Almost 0 gold earning

* if your forces cannot fight back due to low numbers and/or skill, it can be discouraging getting farmed by enemies (no such thing as a fair fight)

* Little attention to this game mode from Anet

* When maps have massive zerg fights, skills often won’t activate, making it unplayable

I think the positives outweigh the negatives.

I don’t know if this has been suggested already, but can we get a Repeat Recipe button for the Mystic Forge? I will occasionally upgrade materials and clicking 9 times for one recipe every single time is physically giving me carpal tunnel syndrome.

For short distances, the raptor is the best to just yeet from point to point, such as Lion’s Arch crafting area to the TP and back, harvesting nodes/SW lost bandit chests run, skipping past thick mobs in tight spaces. No other mount has such a quick launch forward with precise turning.

> @"Turkeyspit.3965" said:

> > @"Oogabooga.3812" said:

> > Eat your veggies!

>

> YOU'RE NOT MY MOM!!! :#

You did call them “greens.”

> @"Blockhead Magee.3092" said:

> > @"Oogabooga.3812" said:

> > More fun to snipe the tail.

> >

> > I’ve tried to pin snipe but have rarely been successful. It only brings the ire of the zerg to my location. I find that yanking out the tail is safer and more effective, as the commander is less likely to turn his group around just to save a couple of ppl behind him. The tail tends to be the squishier part of the group (glassy ranged, newer, not in comms, less support, etc.). It’s how a large group of roamers can fight off an organized zerg. They chase one guy, only to have enemy roamers pick off their tail constantly until the zerg is whittled down.

>

> One of my favorite things is waiting for the folks who try to pick off the tail and take them out. A few of us straggle behind as bait sometimes for this. Its lead to some of the best small scale fights I've ever been part of.

>

> WvW where someone else's annoyance is your tactic. It what makes the game mode fun.

I have been baited and caught by this a few times, but not often. It’s usually the smaller groups (5-10) that might do this. The counter to the counter of countering strategies!

> @"Turkeyspit.3965" said:

> > @"Oogabooga.3812" said:

> >commander is less likely to turn his group around just to save a couple of ppl behind him.

>

> That's because the majority of the time those are 'greens' who aren't in squad or comms, which is why they are 'at the tail' rather than on or close to tag.

Exactly. Eat your veggies!

I always thought they would introduce a water-based map ever since they added swim infusions into the game. Who knows, if Cantha is the new expansion, that could be the new WvW map. Then they would have to give attention to the water skills, right? Right? Underwater stomps? Return of the krait or quaggans? Davy Jones locker shrines? Submarine mounts? It’s late and I’m going loopy.

More fun to snipe the tail.

I’ve tried to pin snipe but have rarely been successful. It only brings the ire of the zerg to my location. I find that yanking out the tail is safer and more effective, as the commander is less likely to turn his group around just to save a couple of ppl behind him. The tail tends to be the squishier part of the group (glassy ranged, newer, not in comms, less support, etc.). It’s how a large group of roamers can fight off an organized zerg. They chase one guy, only to have enemy roamers pick off their tail constantly until the zerg is whittled down.

On the belt buckle level, no one in our group could see the 2 fire circles on the ground. Any other group experience this?

Having played CMs, I think this fractal is just as hard as 100 CM but not as hard as 99 CM, which is great if you love doing CMs; unfun if you never do CMs. You need certain roles in your team to finish t4 Siren’s Reef:

1. Reflectors and area blocks - an HB must bring wall of reflection in addition to the shield and F3-3 skills. If there is a revenant, the tablet reflect will do wonders. A tempest can do somewhat well with party reflects. Spellbreaker should bring the elite bubble, necros equip corrosive poison cloud, mesmers take Feedback. This will alleviate most of the pressure from the 50 adds so you can effectively ignore them.

2. DPS booster - I’d highly recommend a banner slave to increase everyone’s damage, otherwise the healer and mechanics will overwhelm the party if the battle drags on.

3. Stripper - those elite quartermasters apply protection often, making the battle take forever if you don’t have a boon stripper - necros and revs excel at this; mesmers, thieves, and spellbreakers to a lesser degree.

4. Healer with strong condi removal - if you have ppl who are bad at dodging the winds, they can have 15 stacks of confusion and torment on by the time they get back on deck. This is even worse with the Afflicted instability. Something that will make the winds easier to navigate is to know the sequence of winds at each stage to save unnecessary double-dodging i.e. don’t dodge towards where the next wind will be.

With the above in place, the party can merely pay attention to the color of the circle on them, whether red or green, and the boss will be done in 5 minutes or less.

Like other fractals, ppl need to adjust their build accordingly. An unwillingness to modify makes the group struggle. There’s your fortune cookie message.

Spies are unfortunately valid play. At the very least, they report on enemy presence or lack thereof. The tactic trolls are more harmful to retain an objective. The worst offenders are the ones who waste supply especially in home keeps. What makes them unfortunate is that there is no counterplay. You cannot report them, stop them, or kill them.

Are they a problem? Not nearly as much now, since WvW has become a mostly PvD fest during most hours.

> @"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:

> Getting taunted in stealth has never happened to me, so it's interesting. I agree that if taunted, they should attack the provocateur. I can't think of a reason why the Deadeye would not be attacking. It does sounds like a bug.

>

> Unless...the Deadeye stowed their weapon after getting taunted. Not 100% sure, but it's possible.

We did this as a pure test in the guild hall arena. No stowing of weapons happened.

> @"UNOwen.7132" said:

> > @"Sobx.1758" said:

> > > @"Panncakez.1290" said:

> > > Perhaps the "Death's Conviction" (rifle 1 in stealth) is not classified as an autoattack, thus the system runs into a roadblock and cannot make thief to autoattack since the normal rifle 1 is not available in stealth.

> > >

> > > Perhaps it has something to do with it's mechanics of consuming Malice resource to boost the damage?

> >

> > That works the same with other weapons and OP wrote: "All other weapon main hands do attack in stealth when taunted, but not rifle."

> > Also I'm with @"Sir Vincent III.1286" here, getting taunted in stealth was never my problem so w/e.

> >

> > > @"UNOwen.7132" said:

> > > > @"Panncakez.1290" said:

> > > > Perhaps the "Death's Conviction" (rifle 1 in stealth) is not classified as an autoattack, thus the system runs into a roadblock and cannot make thief to autoattack since the normal rifle 1 is not available in stealth.

> > > >

> > > > Perhaps it has something to do with it's mechanics of consuming Malice resource to boost the damage?

> > >

> > >what with it revealing on attack launch rather than hit

> >

> > I mean that's what it's supposed to do and that's what the skill desciption says, so I'm not sure what's the problem here :p Might be related though, who knows.

>

> True, its pretty much a balance decision, but it means its coded differently. And well, given that its the outlier, I think we have found the source of this bug. Or maybe not. Who knows, bugs are not exactly rational.

Although true that not much taunt happens, when it does happen, it ought to work correctly. In the case of a deadeye, who loves their long-ranged, lots-of-stealth playstyle, a successful enemy taunt should make a deadeye act accordingly. As it stands, a rifle deadeye can still stay in stealth despite getting taunted.

However, the taunt still works as a CC, i.e. you lose control unless you stunbreak, but without the revealing shot, that part of the counterplay is null.

> @"Leo.5829" said:

>

> Lances should be buffed. They need to be faster, unblockable, impossible to dodge and reveal enemy(also add little red dot on map to signal enemy).

I think just unblockable will be good enough.

I’m okay with getting hit by a 1 shot build (great for laughs and YouTube videos), but what I am not okay with is one who just stalks in stealth after engaging in combat. You end up dodging at the 3 second mark to nothing and eventually dying when they see an opening.

So my suggestion instead is this: if any class is stealthed for more than 6 seconds after engaging in combat, the opponent restores "out of combat" status while the thief does not until a certain distance away.

> @"Vasdamas Anklast.1607" said:

> > @"Oogabooga.3812" said:

> > Confirmed with guildies. Not stealthed, nothing happens - no blind, no vulnerability stacks. BUT you do get placed in combat, so......win?

>

> oh so we can still blind ambient creature for 100 energy before enemy engages, good.

Oh that is an interesting possibility. Did not test that. The ambient probably wouldn’t be blinded, so watch out for them deadly fireflies!

Apparently, a rifle-wielding deadeye that gets taunted in stealth will NOT fire at the target until stealth is gone. All other weapon main hands do attack in stealth when taunted, but not rifle. Therefore, the deadeye will remain in stealth until either the taunt or stealth runs out.

This was tested with the new revenant's Forced Engagement skill. The chains that attach to the targets are visible to the revenant, but the deadeye is just standing there looking menacingly from stealth.

Confirmed with guildies. Not stealthed, nothing happens - no blind, no vulnerability stacks. BUT you do get placed in combat, so......win?

I notice it during a loading screen.

If it weren't for YOLOsmith and heal scrapper, I'd hang up my engineer for good.

* Grenades are weak

* Bombs are more utility than powerful

* Flamethrower is STILL underpowered condi-wise

* Mainhand pistol is utility only

* Mortar kit shots are so slow that it's good only for static targets

* Other than heal turret, does anybody use turrets?

* Since nobody uses turrets, nobody uses Tool Kit, and the elite specializations have better melee options

So we're using elixirs, gadgets, or complicated rotations involving 1-2 skills from various kits for high level play for core engi.

All we need is a new Water borderland map and everybody will suddenly LOVE the desert borderland.

There are costs associated with having golems in the camp: currency, supply, and a player. While the supply will eventually replenish, the currency does not. There is no use to having a golem in a camp if no one is there to monitor it; they lose participation while standing there (unless they have that special slot in the squad).

As someone who likes taking a lot of camps, it's a huge deterrent; works very well. One counter to the golem strategy is to kill all dolyaks leaving the camp. This ruins the main point of defending a camp; upgrading and supplying objectives. Even though the invulnerable dolyaks tactic saves a few, it won't always be on.

Another counter is to bring the zerg. Hopefully your commander will understand that such an action will likely draw a huge fight, which is what they probably want.

The easiest counter is to wait until the defenders go to bed to take the sieged up but empty camp.

Mounts contesting a point was way too easy to troll melee builds for a long time. Golems can't run circles around players.

> @"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" said:

> **Engineer**

>

> * Chemical Field: This skill is replaced by Detection Pulse (from the old Sneak Gyro elite toolbelt) as the toolbelt skill for Purge Gyro.

**Not too bad of an idea.**

> * Purge Gyro: Reduce the number of cleansing pulses from 5 to 3 in WvW.

**Fair as long as Purity of Purpose isn't touched.**

> * Sneak Gyro: Increase the cooldown of this ability from 45 to 75 seconds in WvW.

**Give a trade, such as reduced damage while in stealth, longer stealth, or something.**

> **Guardian**

>

> * Sanctuary: Increase number of enemies that can be knocked back by this skill from 10 to 20 before it expires.

> * Tome of Resolve, Chapter 2 - Radiant Recovery: The existing split from PvP of cleansing 2 conditions is brought to WvW as well. This ability would continue to cleanse 3 conditions in PvE.

> * Tome of Courage, Chapter 2 - Daring Challenge: This skill grants retaliation for 3 seconds instead of aegis.

> * Tome of Courage, Chapter 5 - Unbroken Lines: This skill no longer grants aegis or retaliation.

**Fine changes. I would suggest taking out aegis for Unbroken Lines.**

> **Mesmer**

>

> * Illusion of Life: Increase the cooldown of this skill from 75 to 90 seconds in PvP & WvW and reduced the duration from 15 seconds to 8 seconds of its effect in PvP & WvW.

**This is okay, though 8 seconds might be too short. 12?**

> * Power Break (Mantra of Pain): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.

> * Power Lock (Mantra of Distraction): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.

**I would discourage against the "line of sight" part, since there are too many open field places that have mysterious blockages of line of sight, especially in camps.**

> * Chaos Storm: This skill now always dazes on the first strike but can no longer randomly daze on other strikes. This change also applies to Lesser Chaos Storm. Added skill fact to show chaos storm's duration.

**Not necessary, but okay.**

> * Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been re-worked and now reduces the cooldown of one of your weapon abilities by 5 seconds when you interrupt a foe.

**Oddly random, considering the changes to traits/skills that used to have a random component. What happens if it tries to apply to one that is already off cooldown? Also, would it possibly apply to the skill that caused the interruption, e.g. Chaos Storm? Is it worth a Grandmaster spot? Would there be no cooldown of the proc?**

> **Necromancer**

>

> * Feast of Corruption: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.

> * Devouring Darkness: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.

**I don't think this is necessary, since it's such a slow skill. If an enemy has 3 boons, they probably have 3-5 more.**

> * Sand Cascade: Reduce the barrier granted by this skill by 33% in WvW & PvP.

**Good change.**

> * Sand Flare: Reduced the barrier granted by this skill by 25% in WvW.

**I don't think this is necessary, since the self-healing part is low.**

> **Ranger**

>

> * Long Range Shot: Reduce the damage range of this skill from 0.7-0.9 to 0.65-0.75 in WvW only.

**Probably necessary. Hitting 4k auto-attacks seems a bit excessive.**

> **Revenant**

>

> * Coalescence of Ruin: This skill would no longer deals increased damage with successive impacts; instead it deals damage equal to what was previously the middle impact damage. Damage remains split between game modes. A red warning rectangle visible to enemies has been added to this skill.

> * Gaze of Darkness: This skill would reveal stealthed enemies up to 600 range away in addition to striking enemies within its 360 radius.

**Fine.**

> **Warrior**

>

> * Charge: This skill would only removes movement impairing conditions and then increases the damage of affected allies' next 2 attacks by 25% in addition to its previous effects. Increase swiftness duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. This skill becomes a blast finisher.

> * Call to Arms: Removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. Grants barrier in addition to vigor.

> * Sight Beyond Sight: Increase the radius of this ability to reveal hidden enemies up to 600 range away.

> * Quick Breathing: Thinking of kicking re-working it a bit to pair with the warhorn skill changes so they feel more cohesive. Continues to increase number of targets for warhorn skills from 5 to 10 and causes warhorn skills to grant an additional boon instead of reducing the cooldown (Fury for Charge and Resistance for Call to Arms). Grant +120 Concentration.

**So support warrior is going to be a thing? Seems strange to call them a warrior then; maybe rename it to Paragon.**

> * Would your gameplay change as a result?

**No.**

> * Do you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game?

**Depends on what you feel "improve" is. These cut down the sustain of current healers in favor of more death, which would make fights shorter instead of a sustain-forever type of play.**

> * Are you looking forward to these potential changes?

**Since I'll end up dying more often, probably not.**

> * What are your concerns with this set of changes?

**If the aim is to nerf healers, be prepared for the backlash because of the expensive and rare materials required to make the healer gear.**

> * What consequences do you expect would come from these changes?

**I think groups that are aggressive in attacking first will love them, while others that hate giving bags to enemies will be even more afraid to come out of their forts. Groups will adjust in the end, however.**

> @"Stephane Lo Presti.7258" said:

> # World Vs. World

>

> ## Scaling Objective Rewards

>

> We’re looking to add some additional rewards to WvW. One of the big ways we’re looking into doing this is added rewards for capturing and defending objectives that scale up based on how big the action was. For example successfully capturing a keep that was defended by 50 players should be a lot more rewarding than capturing a keep that was completely undefended.

RIP havoc groups.

Seriously though, as some people have pointed out, I hope the lag issue will be resolved before this is implemented, because this just encourages even more massive blob fests over small group/solo skill play. It'll be even more like, "if you're not blobbing WvW, you're doing it wrong."

Something that I think that was very clever was the whole pips thing; it allowed whatever kind of participation you like (solo, small group, scout, zerg, etc.) receive the same reward, so nobody felt like they had to zerg. If anything, it should be the other way around: WvW should be rewarding the smaller groups with bigger rewards for taking/defending stuff because it's harder to do and encourages more WvW participation especially during no-zerg hours. The zergs already get lots of loot from killing anyhow.

Speaking of scaling, can the keep lords be scaled dynamically instead of a flat 10 ppl cap ? As soon as that 11th person shows up, forget getting the defiance bar down at all or health bar down for 10 minutes. I'm guessing on the numbers.

> ## World Restructuring

>

> World restructuring, commonly referred to as the Alliance system, remains our top priority for WvW. We’re not going into details on this post, since a lot of detail has been released previously. We are still not in a place where we feel comfortable releasing a target date, but we are still working on it.

>

> There remain big issues in WvW there are not addressed by World Restructuring. The biggest one is finding a means to make winning mean something in WvW without motivating players to burn themselves out trying to maintain 24/7 coverage. We have some early designs built around this and will be investigating them once World Restructuring is finished so it is a bit too early for us to go into details around the ideas, but we’re thinking about them.

I understand how difficult the balance for this one is, since you don't want to have too much higher of a reward for winning vs. losing, because then everybody will want to be in the One World Order. But then again, if everybody gets the same participation trophy, there isn't much to care about other than honor and fun of fighting/capping. How about a reward based on a required number of skirmishes won? Say, for instance, 15? This way every alliance has a chance for the max reward of the week, but they have to fight for it. Some alliances might game such a system, but it's not that different than a "PvP arena for dailies" thing.

So now that the Molten Facility has been changed to crazy mode, how is one supposed to get the achievement? Is it avoiding all attacks from spawning dredge or the test weapons?