Shikaru.7618

> @"Hypnowulf.7403" said: > Do you see, then? You could either be having fun and leisure time—the purpose of a video game; Or you could be addicted to grinding, getting judged by other players, being a scapegoat when things don't work out, fretting over ArcDPS, and just generally not having a fun time. I think most just want to have fun. > > That's why the raid audience will only continue to shrink. I happen to like fretting over arcdps, making informed decisions about who's failing, and seeing how far I can push my class. Who are you to say I'm not having fun? Toxicity only happens when non like minded players try to join each others groups. Stick to your own kind and there won't be a problem.

> @"battledrone.8315" said: > > @"Sobx.1758" said: > > > @"battledrone.8315" said: > > > > @"AliamRationem.5172" said: > > > > > @"battledrone.8315" said: > > > > > > @"AliamRationem.5172" said: > > > > > > > @"battledrone.8315" said: > > > > > > > > @"Steve The Cynic.3217" said: > > > > > > > > > @"Shikaru.7618" said: > > > > > > > > > Here is something that a lot of the mmos youve mentioned have in common. They all have an easily identifiable gear score or damage score, so when you get a new piece of gear, you can make informed decisions at a glance and know if you're getting an upgrade or downgrade. Gw2 does not really present any of that information to you easily. It is very easy to gear and build your character incorrectly and be completely oblivious that you did so. The difference between the average player and top tier raiders is 10x according to a dev despite having the same tier of gear. Imagine if you magically dealt 10x damage right now. Would you still be struggling with open world? Thats the reality that a lot of us veterans are trying to tell you. Anything thats not a champion or bounty will basically melt in open world. You just need proper builds and proper stat combos on your gear. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > OK, but how would you construct such a gear score (SWTOR calls it "Item Rating", for reference) in GW2? Would it have to show bias toward certain stats? If so, why? (I have a Reaper build that's based on *Valkyrie* gear, kitten. With all that Vitality, a stat-biased gear score would probably mark it down, but it's almost indestructible and still delivers substantial damage.) Then again, in most games, the gear score (whatever it's called) is some way short of the full answer, since it almost never identifies gearsets that are weak because of an improper stat mix. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > And in general, this thread reminds me of something I said in [another thread](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/1340112#Comment_1340112) ... > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Game difficulty should not be set up for the wilfully obtuse. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > There is a very wide range of player-skill in any MMORPG, but while general content must take into account the less-skilled players, the players who will not learn how to play (not talking learning disabilities here, but wilful obtuseness) should not be part of that analysis. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > if i have to go to another website to find a build, then the game has failed. if they let me get to max level with "wrong "build, then the game has failed > > > > > > > if they dont let me play my own build, then there is no point in playing an RPG at all > > > > > > > > > > > > I would say that if you can throw darts at the skill tree with a blindfold on and still succeed, then the game has failed. GW2's system provides players the freedom to build however they like. This as opposed to a game like WoW, where you simply pick a class and a role and every choice you make falls within those parameters and only the latest content presents a challenge if you keep your gear current. GW2 lets you choose stats and traits with anti-synergy and your item level can't save you if you play like a potato. Pick your poison. I think both systems have their pros and cons. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > so its like a buffet, but you are only supposed to mix it like they intended? yea, that went well, didnt it? they either need to revamp the whole system, > > > > > or at least make some tutorials on buildcrafting. the steam crowd is gonna rip it apart in reviews, if they dont. oddly enough, EVE was about the same age before they made a proper tutorial too. > > > > > > > > You can quite literally build however you like. The system has no hard limits to prevent you from, for example, designing a hybrid DPS/healer that deals low damage while providing more healing than is necessary in solo play but also not enough healing/support to be useful in group play. You'll probably find yourself complaining about "HP sponges", failing DPS check mechanics, and getting into arguments with other players in groups if you use such a build, though. > > > > > > > > I'm not opposed to having better information, but I think the system is too complex for an effective tutorial. Resources like the forums, the wiki, and various fan sites do the deep diving required to really refine your understanding of buildcraft. If that's too much for some players to handle, perhaps an MMO where players typically play for years is not the best format for them? > > > > > > lol, 10 years of STO, 8 years dcuo, wow, FF ARR, CoH, SWTOR, **wildstar**, **EVE**, BDO, LOTRO, **RIFT**, **AION**, **warframe**, **TERA**, and the list goes on and on > > > if its a big mmo, theres a good chance, that i have played it at some point. still subbed to dcuo, but not playing as much anymore, due to burnout > > > > And you think these didn't have optimal builds that performed much better than the others? Really? Which ones of these told you exactly what to build to be competitive? Which one of these could you not read descriptions to understand what skills do and how they synergize? You're giving examples of games that didn't even do what you claim every rpg should do: hold your hand. So why are you suddenly claiming that gw2 is something out of ordinary in this instance just because you have some choices to make? > > this game has the worst balance of them all, none of them are even close. dont believe me ? try them yourself. and none of them have such a complex > build system either. a build system WITHOUT A TUTORIAL. lol.... What would you even want from a tutorial? Its not like the build and stat systems are complex.

> @"Pockethole.5031" said: > > @"Tiilimon.6094" said: > > You can opt out of combat in OW by playing stealth builds very easily, capped concentration should let you mine a couple nodes as a thief or scrapper and should even give you time to mount up before stealth fades. > > > > As combat is the only reason why we even put clothes on our characters in this game, I find it very strange that getting into brawls is perceived as a problem anyways, isn't that kinda the point of the game? > > > > Are you sure that a combat focused MMO is what you actually even want to play if you find it boring? > > > > I've met a lot of people in Elite Dangerous who actually wish to play Universe Sandbox but for some reason buy a game where all the space ships come equipped with weaponry when bought, then complain when anything or anyone attacks their ship. This reminds me a bit of that. > > > > @"Algreg.3629" said: > > > @"Pockethole.5031" said: > > > > @"SunTzu.4513" said: > > > >For me personaly would be a down tuning of HP or DPS deald by the mobs result in maybe quitting the game. > > > > > > And of course, I'm the opposite. I effortlessly hopped to WoW after experiencing PoF (and of course because new expansion launched). I still play but not as much. If open world mobs were to be made harder like many repliers seem to dream of (which means 1/2 playerbase dying most of the time to the mob, not just downing, outright dying), I wouldn't be able to enjoy open world anymore. Don't you get tired of whacking mobs all the time? Might as well put a target dummy or combat simulation that gives loot after it dies in middle of LA. **Don't you get enough combat satisfaction in fractals or raids?** I just don't get you people. To me whacking mobs becomes boring quickly, especially when I'm not there to whack anything. In personal stories, combat is (to me) just a way to gate my progression. What is so fun wasting time on AI? Even punching a bag irl is more understandable because it affects your body in positive ways. Maybe I just wouldn't be able to understand. Either way... what you said goes both ways. > > > > > > > This is not meant to be sarcastic at all, but this statement really makes me wonder. Do you think this here is the right genre for you? There are loads of enjoyable games that center around exploration and similar concepts without any combat. Maybe you should play those instead of a fantasy MMORPG with a focus on conflict? > > Yes, probably. But it's not that simple for me. I don't play the MMORPG genre for the sake of combat... and **I'm going to be a hypocrite and say I don't entirely despise combat.** After one-shotting mobs for a while in old content WoW, yeah, I want to go back to current content and face some difficulty. Same I could do in GW2, crawl back to core Tyria (and I actually did, started a new character). > Let's go back a few years. Like 15 or so. My first MMORPG was RuneScape(2). The repetitive grinding was of course boring but chatting with other people made it tolerable. Quests were fun and still are. But my peanut brain couldn't crack some puzzles so I often ended up following a quest guide. I found a friend who introduced me to Maplestory. That game is a grindfest. However at that time leveling was mostly dependant on party quests, doing a mission with other people. It got me hooked anyway and I wasted time and money on it. Surprisingly the fun part for me of the game became the combos that I do when I grind mobs. Yes. However if I were to play it again (and I kitten hope not) I would watch My Little Pony from Netflix because grinding is very repetitive. > On the internet I eventually came across WoW memes. The first image consisted of a person with acne and something negative about the person playing it. Not a great introduction to the game but I enjoyed it. I had fun chatting with other people in guild... just not always. I still remember I heard from another member the guild master said I'm annoying. > Anyway again I heard from internet friend about this new game that is GW2. When it came out I bought a copy to myself and to a person I never met before... who later became my close friend. I don't really remember much from the beginning but I stopped playing, came back, stopped playing. Sometimes played seriously. My GW2 playing history is not very consistent. I did play alot this year though, and surpassed myself and started doing the story and maxed out HoT masteries even. > > I loved Wildstar and Maplestory 2, both games with lovely housing systems, but they were shut down. > > So to my point... I've played MMORPGS for majority of my life and... I'm in a point of life where I don't know what to do. Everything is technically fine but I don't have dreams or purpose or anything. I probably have the possibility of getting the education I want, but I don't know what I want. WoW and GW2 (well, I guess Maplestory is as well, and Runescape that I haven't played in the longest time) I'm most familiar with. Maybe the apartment I live in doesn't feel like home, it's still so new and I sometimes wonder how did I end up here even though it's been 2 years already, but **there is a soothing effect from playing games with familiar virtual realities.** > > I don't want to quit, I can do combat, but I just get quickly tired of fighting for life all the time, every minute, every hour, every day. Maybe I got burnt out on GW2, when I switched to WoW everything seemed very chill in comparison - and that's probably because I am doing old content right now, but also leveling up in it. I tried the new expansion, well depending on the place it can be aggro happy or peaceful. It's not, however, aggro happy absolutely everywhere, like in PoF. It's possible to mine a node in peace sometimes. And I don't have to kill a battallion of mobs, just one mob. Makes it seem friendlier for sure. > I know I will return to GW2 and I still login for my daily reward, I might do a heart, but that's that right now for me. > > I can't drop these games I've played for so long. Not all of them anyway. I enjoy character customization the most and of course wish GW2 would recieve more of that as well. The combat... I can live with it, I just don't want it to be so extreme all the time. The way it is, I can live with that too, but then I can't play GW2 as the only game endlessly. Well... maybe nobody can, if that's all they do in a day. I guess it's normal. > I enjoy the story, assuming it's good. I used to enjoy chatting with other people but now I'm anxious about it and try to not invest my personal feelings anywhere. It's nice to see others getting along though. There are things I like about both games. > Hope this helped you to understand why I keep playing. Maybe I could try to explain more but I think I've spent at least half an hour writing this it will have to do. > > TL:DR; > In any case I can live with combat but if it's harder I burn out faster, and if it's too easy it can become boring. (So it can be hard to determine what is the good difficulty, and perhaps it would be better to let people select their own difficulty at any given time.) Here is something that a lot of the mmos youve mentioned have in common. They all have an easily identifiable gear score or damage score, so when you get a new piece of gear, you can make informed decisions at a glance and know if you're getting an upgrade or downgrade. Gw2 does not really present any of that information to you easily. It is very easy to gear and build your character incorrectly and be completely oblivious that you did so. The difference between the average player and top tier raiders is 10x according to a dev despite having the same tier of gear. Imagine if you magically dealt 10x damage right now. Would you still be struggling with open world? Thats the reality that a lot of us veterans are trying to tell you. Anything thats not a champion or bounty will basically melt in open world. You just need proper builds and proper stat combos on your gear.

1. Spirits - this is irreplaceable much like banners because it is a unique buff no one but Rangers have access to. No buff ele provides is equatable for dps output for a squad. 2. Entangle - a long duration immob unique to Rangers that is used on many bosses. Sam, deimos, gors, vg 3. Tides and longbow - the best pushes in the game used on sh, vg, sam. All of this is combined with the fact that you can do all of these mechanics on a support slot so dps can focus on damage. Not to mention the other adaptable utility druid can bring like a pull res, omega condi cleanse, aoe stun break, an aoe res, the ability to ignore confusion for 8 seconds on kc. All of the above would be gaps you need to fill elsewhere in your comp if you bring a tempest. Tempest boon application is also too centralized on a single skill so the punishment for your boon uptime is immense if someone goes down. Ie. You toot fire warhorn 4, someone downs and looses all of their boons, its 30 seconds before that person can get back up to 25 might again.

> @"yann.1946" said: > > @"Astralporing.1957" said: > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > > > As i see it, there's nothing wrong about the _idea_ of rotations, but there's indeed quite a lot of problems with how this got implemented in GW2. > > > > > > > > > > You need to understand what a rotation is. Practically any way that a player commonly uses their skills is a rotation. Mashing their skills is a rotation. Removing rotations is practically impossible. > > Then we understand the term differently. For me, random mashing buttons is not a rotation. It is random mashing buttons. Rotation for me is having a certain sequence of skills you need to follow in the right order. The alternative would be a dynamic system, where you use skills according to the current situation and certain priorities, and have no set rotation to follow. > > > This is actually a super interesting point to me, > Doesn't a dynamic system eventually lead to rotations? > And gw2 system is also pretty dynamic (most things are priority based and the rotation is just the optimum of those priorities) > > Think dark souls style gameplay where the emphasis is on dodging boss attacks to get an occasional poke in and then retreat. You can technically have a rotation in that game but the windows are generally not large enough for it to matter. Gw2 could technically design a boss encounter that had 20 different attack patterns that you have to react to with very small windows but it would fundamentally change how people play the game for that encounter. Could be interesting but would require a ton of work to make that style of combat feel satisfying in gw2.

When it comes to rotations, staff DD is about as easy as it comes. Rotation is dodge + autochain + weakening charge. Occasionally hit your assassin signet and spam 2. Thief utility is also really good with stolen skills. What is it about DD that you're having trouble with?