Azure The Heartless.3261

Hi I have Galeophobia.

This freaked me the hell out but don't remove it. ty~

> @"ReaverKane.7598" said:

> > @"Azure The Heartless.3261" said:

> > > @"ReaverKane.7598" said:

> > > Here's a better one: Teams.

> >

> >

> >

> > > @"Azure The Heartless.3261" said:

> > > This is a thought fragment on how to probably improve ranked **apart from the obvious**

> >

> > Agreed, but apparently metrics don't match with that idea. Devs may be leaning to keep teams in AT.

>

> What metrics? A vote that was passed for a trial season, and then was kept as final without the promised second vote?

> The metrics of the spiral of decay that has hit PvP since that decision?

>

> AT's are not an alternative to Ranked Teams, it's a nice complement, but not an alternative.

/shrug

I'm not saying that team queue would not resolve the issue, I'm saying that apparently solo queue pools are too large to warrant it. If that is the case, there should be some kind of buffer to avoid ranking being adversely affected by players grouped with you as long as you do your job.

Difficult to work around willful sandbagging without the obvious solution, however.

> @"MasterChriss.8574" said:

> Since everyone is complaining about balancing here, why doesn't Anet creates something like a poll, where every player can vote which class/profession/ability is overpowerd or to weak and the devs can check it and still decide?

> Or does something like this already exist?

Mixed feelings on this.

The last major poll we did got team queue for ranked removed from the game, so I'd be wary about letting mob opinion dictate balance on its own. We whine about a whole lot generally without letting the meta settle.

This isn't to say the balancing devs are perfectly prudent, but mob opinion can easily lead to things becoming useless just because they're annoying.

Plus they tend to ignore us even when there's documentation that something might be game breaking. (or, at the very least, they try to solve it in increments so drawn out that it feels like they arent listening.)

That being said, they also seem to draw from metabattle to decide which builds may be overperforming, so... perhaps for really specific details, and only for data aggregation.

> @"ReaverKane.7598" said:

> Here's a better one: Teams.

> @"Azure The Heartless.3261" said:

> This is a thought fragment on how to probably improve ranked **apart from the obvious**

Agreed, but apparently metrics don't match with that idea. Devs may be leaning to keep teams in AT.

> @"Airdive.2613" said:

> This isn't a good idea because there's always a whole enemy team to adapt to. Even if you want to deal the most damage, chances are you won't be able to. It is frustrating when you need luck to progress even if you win, and it is equally frustrating when your teammates chase their own goals.

Understood. I suppose I got hung up on trying to reward people for actually playing, given the impact of ragequitters./willful afk and sandbagging.

I would run a taxi service with the beetle.

Get to those world bosses FAST

> @"brunoam.7391" said:

> > @"Gamble.4580" said:

> > This is how meta changes lol, a person will remake a build do well set a role and poeple will copy. I welcome this as long as the build has a role and is needed with the comp u have.

>

> But the point is that these builds are not meta!!! Renegade is now meta in pvp? Scrapper too? On what planet is this?

The meta isn't static. Maybe someone figured out how to play Renegade and Scrapper to fill a need.

> @"brunoam.7391" said:

> > @"Azure The Heartless.3261" said:

> > > @"brunoam.7391" said:

> > > I'd like to know what leads a people to using meme builds in high-ranking ranked games. Among the many matches I played today I could find holosmith condition, renegade, ranger condition, scrapper, deadeye condition, etc. A person who is playing to win should never play with who is playing to make gold !! Arenanet, you need to revise this, that way it does not work. Put awards in the unranked games to avoid this type of problem and, most importantly, improve this balancing as urgently as possible !!

> >

> > Rewards in unranked won't stop people determined to use odd builds in ranked from using odd builds in ranked.

>

> That's not the point. The point is that if such a measure is taken then these problems would not happen so often. You do not have to think about solving the problem 100%, but on reducing the existing problem.

but it kinda is the point. there is no action you could take that would prevent someone with a meme build from queuing in ranked or even reduce the chance of it happening, short of premades.

Also, the moment unranked becomes more appetizing for players gear-treadmilling or loot-treadmilling, the ranked players may also complain/collapse. Nobody's going to grind rank out for no reason/respect alone.

_Blah blah preface. Blah blah blah._

This is a thought fragment on how to probably improve ranked apart from the obvious. I might flesh it out later, leaving it here to see if the general direction is interesting.

Every season, draw a set of criteria that normally grant "Top" icons to players at game end from a pool. (For example, a "set" of criteria might be; Top Damage, Top Kills, Top Decaps)

Do not show these to the player until the end of the season. Only allow players to see whether they have progressed or not. Set a threshold for these criteria that requires active play to obtain. (10 total decaps in game +, 10 total kills in game +)

During the match, if a player satisfies all of the criteria for their designated season, they gain ladder progress. If they do not, they lose ladder progress, with the degree of progress or loss determined by their MMR vs the opponent's MMR, how close they come to fulfilling their designated criteria, etc. Have winning the match greatly increase ladder progress. Not winning the match nets no additional progress. (only lazy players get punished, in theory? decouples team progress from sabotage/ragequitters.)

Reduce the total progress gained if the player is using a class spec that is currently in meta, and increase it if they are not, to encourage people playing off-meta or counterbuilds.

Notes:

*Maybe not giving clear direction on what to shoot for will do more harm than good. Perhaps make the progress set visible and split them per match? per player?

*Might be punishing for players who have perfected a niche role?

> @"brunoam.7391" said:

> I'd like to know what leads a people to using meme builds in high-ranking ranked games. Among the many matches I played today I could find holosmith condition, renegade, ranger condition, scrapper, deadeye condition, etc. A person who is playing to win should never play with who is playing to make gold !! Arenanet, you need to revise this, that way it does not work. Put awards in the unranked games to avoid this type of problem and, most importantly, improve this balancing as urgently as possible !!

Rewards in unranked won't stop people determined to use odd builds in ranked from using odd builds in ranked.

> @"jihm.2315" said:

> > @"Azure The Heartless.3261" said:

> > > @"Offair.2563" said:

> > > Just wait now for the l2p and dodge advices.

> >

> > You rang?

> >

> > Dodge. They spend extra init to unload now and if all the bullets hit you, they get it back. If one misses, they lose the extra init they use for the skill.

> > The execution is boring but beating it is not difficult by any means.

> wish they remove that dodge thing so things become clearer

>

Sorry, this isnt WoW/FF14. Combat is super active. Either learn to roll to avoid damage or suffer. Keybind it to a button so you dont have to double tap.

Thanks for all the hard work.

> @"Egorum.9506" said:

> this change really only hurt thief and guard, maybe necro. every other condi class can apply vuln still without issues

not on a 2 second cd. nothing like an almost perm vuln to jam your burns.

L2P, lol

> @"Mbelch.9028" said:

> The biggest threat to the game's balance as I see it is the host of people who are complaining about burst damage and instant skills. I know instant skills don't allow for great counterplay, but somehow skilled folks anticipate and dodge when it matters most. And burst specs are valuable to the game, when they're not braindead "I spam a button" specs.

>

> I got 1-shot several times yesterday by a burst GS mirage, and I'm not mad about it. My team countered him in the right way, but if we didn't, we deserved to have lost.

>

Largely agreed as well. I'm generally fine with the burst that exists in the game from all spheres. What bothers me are the classes that can do lethal burst while still easily escaping after anticipation is executed properly and damage is returned, or any build that approaches it. Whether the damage comes all at once or not is fine, as long as there is a way to pressure the current damage dealer to either reset, leave, or make mistakes and die.

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> > @"Azure The Heartless.3261" said:

> > objectively 3-3-3 on a build that can refresh all its init still gives too much reward for the effort required to execute it.

> It's not as easy as you want to make it out to be, mindless unload spam doesn't get you far. The risk / reward was fine considering how much counterplay there was.

Not trying to make it sound easy. Thieves in general have to do a hell of a lot of work, but still mindless unload spam got people running it farther than it should have.

It's not getting less fun to play objectively, toxic people just have more annoying builds now, so the hubris in the air is palpable,

> @"Offair.2563" said:

> Just wait now for the l2p and dodge advices.

You rang?

Dodge. They spend extra init to unload now and if all the bullets hit you, they get it back. If one misses, they lose the extra init they use for the skill.

The execution is boring but beating it is not difficult by any means.

Objectively, it is not a bad patch. Credit where credit is due. The areas that were problematic in the thief and mesmer areas were largely addressed, and smokescale even got a hit too. I was hoping berserker would get some love, but there's bigger issues than that atm.

The glaring issue is that Elusive Mind is still running free, but I think what they were going for is allowing more attrition in battles involving mirages to increase the potential that their dodge spamming ends up burning them with exhaustion if they do not use it mindfully. Hence the Adventure rune nerf, etc.

That's not the direction I was hoping they would go, and I don't think they have gone far enough but I am willing to try it. Like I've said before, I'm fine with annoying classes as long as they can eventually be locked down. The forum salt will continue as long as the mes train goes, though. and I'm still going to be avoiding ranked.

> @"Specialka.7290" said:

> P/p deserved a nerf, that kind of gamepaly should not be rewarded.

Special "yes" to this. Thief is my secondary but they need to try harder than that.

@Devs: Its better. There's still some things, but its better.

Be careful with Reaper. It's fine now, don't keep pushing it. Thanks for the smokescale nerf.

The game is lopsided right now in terms of balance and thieves don't have it easy outside of condi by any means, but objectively 3-3-3 on a build that can refresh all its init still gives too much reward for the effort required to execute it.

Them's the breaks. Now if only they would treat Mesmers with the evenhandedness they give thief.

Charr models are good. Spend that effort on fixing something more QoL.

> @"mortrialus.3062" said:

> > @"Specialka.7290" said:

> > Endure pain reduce direct dmg to 0, it is not an invuln if I am not mistaken.

>

> Yeah. I think it's just elixer s distortion and renewed focus? I can't get in game to see exactly what skills got this change.

This and probably mistform/obsidian flesh.

It's fine with context. I'm wary about giving condi-ignore to mesmers though, especially since distortion synergizes with chrono and signet use gives distortion.

Its feeling very much like Arenanet cannot stop giving mesmers competitive edges.

> @"Benjamin Arnold.3457" said:

> Hey, I caused this when fixing another bug. Joel has already started working on a fix, sorry for the inconvenience!

Not a prob. Thanks for your hard work.

I didn't even read the balance patch notes, but now that I have its good to see that the thematic role mesmer plays has been preserved

XD

(#)Aegissharingmustbetoneddown

Think about it.

If you give players who play a specific class the ability to ignore stuns on dodge, as well as continue channeling skills when they dodge, the playerbase that makes up that class pool will swiftly come under the delusion that they are skillful.

Normally allowing an already-strong duelist to ignore the one mechanic that could be a problem for them would be a _grave mistake_ in any competitive game, but if the class is centered on illusions, it makes perfect thematic sense.

(#)IllusionarySuperiority

(#)JusttryharderXD