Between warhorn 5 and spectral walk, it's pretty easy to get perms-swiftness as a necro. The main thing to look out for is hitting enemies while warhorn 5 is active. That skill does turn out to be a blessing when you do decide to go into combat, since it gives you a stack of might every second while an enemy is below 50%, and gives a decent break bar degen, too
I typically use Warhorn to close the range, then switch to Greatsword for some serious arse-kicking.
Perhaps, but I think they still failed on the initial implementation. Things just never seem to work the way they want once they turn players loose.
No piece of code survives contact with a userbase.
Absolutely, and I would never expect their code to survive release :P
What should survive is the idea behind the code. I feel like it's their ideas that are failing at release. I may be wrong, but it seems like the systems they're creating don't work well at a logistical level. I can forgive bugs in code... provided they're fixed in a timely manner.
The pips reward improving, mmr's function is to find a spot where you have 50/50 win rate and keep you there. Without resetting mmr at the start of the season, theres not nearly enough room for improving for most people.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
I get the impression that at least the pips are going to be reset at the start of each season, which is a soft reset to MMR. Not a perfect solution, but it's something...
The entire league system resets, not your mmr, which means unless they decide to change anything, its just going to be worse for more people next month. The closer you get to "perfect mmr 50/50" the worse its going to be to progress.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
The most difficult achievement is probably the one which requires you to advance four divisions in a single season. I expect that I'll never end up getting it, since that requires surviving through two divisions in which you can lose both pips and tiers.
Perhaps, but I think they still failed on the initial implementation. Things just never seem to work the way they want once they turn players loose.
No piece of code survives contact with a userbase.
Nah, it's just really incompetent. I'm not even going to mince words, because it's already been done better before, in a way that would require them to do absolutely no innovation or customization to improve on, and thus, that is the bar.
Basic logic should tell them that if MMR and ranking are not directly tied (correlation doesn't count), that anyone at the appropriate MMR will not be able to win consistently (since the purpose of MMR is to find equally strong opponents), and anyone who is underrated will be overrewarded.
This isn't a bug, this is a basic "we didn't even whiteboard properly, let alone implement," problem.
I think the reason that they didn't tie MMR to Ranking is because they wanted to provide the opportunity for players who are good, but not great, PvPers who still enjoy PvP a chance to reach higher divisions and still be able to get the Wings of Glory backpiece, albeit likely at a much slower rate than a "Great" player would.
IMO it's a pretty noble idea... if going up the ranks didn't require multiple win streaks past the first division. At the very least, you need to make sure close games never result in the loss of a pip, even when evenly matched. Maybe even earn partial points behind the scenes for such matches, which add up when you get your next win.
Anyway here's my Asura Dragonhunter, Lucid Seraph, who would be a Tengu if we could play Tengu. I basically only play her in PVP, but she's freaking adorable. Armor is Bioluminescent, bow is Arc, backpiece is Spinal Blades.
So I'm finding I really fucking hate the HoT zones.
Don't get me wrong gliding is fun, but fuck most of the mobs there. Stuff being gated behind other shit, that requires a group and god help you, if most other people on the map don't want to do anything that is locking the stuff you want access to. Also fuck how finicky some of the stuff is in this game. Tried the adventure fallen masks and dear god, I know I'm not good at jumping puzzles, but it's really frustrating when mushrooms decide you aren't bouncing or when you just need to make a simple glide and the glider decides it just isn't going to deploy (I've noticed the damn finickiness in other areas, but it really screws you over on timed stuff where you need to use the glider or jump on mushrooms numerous time).
I'm starting to wonder if I might enjoy the game more working on old world stuff that will get me ascended or legendary items and wait for the devs to retune and fix stuff in HoT because I'm finding I can only do that in limited doses and I'm not sure group with people more often would help.
Pro Gliding Tip: If you hold down jump when you're leaping off an edge to glide, you will deploy your glider at the earliest possible moment.
Bouncing Mushrooms are a pain, I agree. I think Anet might agree as well, because they've been iterated on several times since the beta events; In the First BWE you had to activate them, and they would launch you on the arc they're set to the moment you did, but from the place you were standing, which might lead to you landing somewhere you didn't want to go.
So I'm finding I really fucking hate the HoT zones.
Don't get me wrong gliding is fun, but fuck most of the mobs there. Stuff being gated behind other shit, that requires a group and god help you, if most other people on the map don't want to do anything that is locking the stuff you want access to. Also fuck how finicky some of the stuff is in this game. Tried the adventure fallen masks and dear god, I know I'm not good at jumping puzzles, but it's really frustrating when mushrooms decide you aren't bouncing or when you just need to make a simple glide and the glider decides it just isn't going to deploy (I've noticed the damn finickiness in other areas, but it really screws you over on timed stuff where you need to use the glider or jump on mushrooms numerous time).
I'm starting to wonder if I might enjoy the game more working on old world stuff that will get me ascended or legendary items and wait for the devs to retune and fix stuff in HoT because I'm finding I can only do that in limited doses and I'm not sure group with people more often would help.
Fallen Masks is one of the worst ones in that regard atm, sadly there's a handful of adventures that for some silly reason they decided to let RNG handle where you should go next, despite relational positioning and the general challenge of the mission essentially guaranteeing that you could not actually get gold at all without luck. Shooting Gallery and Fallen Masks come to mind. I have a feeling for Fallen Masks in particular that they had a test environment that didn't actually have the delay with the spinning animation with the bouncing mushrooms.
I've found that your reaction to the mobs depends largely on your class, having played through the story with every one I'd say you're most effectively prepared with a reaper, I didn't have a lot of problems with my chronomancer, and for just about every other class it's ridiculously tough and requires a lot of untraining for how you could handle things in the game up to this point. In most cases that's intentional.
Course, then you have mobs like the mushroom queen/emperor, who's mechanic is poorly designed for the environments that they're placed in. What's that? A precisely targeted AoE that spreads everywhere and ticks instantly when a player walks into it for over half their health? Well, lets put those mobs in the tiniest enclosed spaces possible, and put ANOTHER event that frequently spawns alongside it that has even MORE of those mobs! Nobel peace prize pls"
Dev clarified that your division is half the factor in league matchmaking, with MMR being the other half. Maybe not good enough, but it's literally (hah) not half as bad as people assumed.
There's also a thread of someone bragging about their "exploit" of queuing on low-MMR professions and swapping to high, and a dev had to come in and clarify that there hasn't been prof-specific MMR since prof lockdown on match start was removed.
For some reason the pvp community is as quick to jump on imagined problems as real ones.
The mushroom queens are absurd. I've been able to solo every hero challenge in Verdant Brink, Auric Basin, and Tangled Depths except for the one with the mushroom queen. I say that not to brag, but to point out that the mushroom queen in general, and the one at that hero challenge in particular, is hilariously overtuned compared to other mobs that should be similar. I can't even get her down to half health.
I think some of the chak (lobbers, chiefly), and maybe some of the itzel too (the evasive ones), are also overtuned slightly for non-mesmers. But that's about it. I agree that some parts of the story require a different approach than normal gameplay, but I don't think they're overtuned. In general, the difficulty seems about right; you just have to be willing to change your build and/or gear.
The fallen masks adventure, on the other hand, is total bullshit randomness. I wouldn't bother trying to get gold on that or the shooting gallery. But then, I have a low tolerance for luck.
Well, if I want my reaper collection weapon, I need to get silver on fallen masks instead of bronze. Granted, it might be less grating, despite bugs, if it wasn't RNG BS. Given how mushrooms work, I'm really surprised they went with an RNG setup.
As for mobs that I find incredibly obnoxious.
-Mordrem snipers, I feel like they way too much damage in the open world. Granted what makes them incredibly bad, is they are often in packs of 2-3 snipers or paired up with something else, that makes it really hard to stay out of the burning lines.
-Queen/Emperor are pretty fucking obnoxious for reasons already mentioned. I'd also throw in bomber mushrooms, but I feel the issue with them is that that damage is over-tuned because I don't think they could lower the rate of attack (I can't help but feel that a number of mobs probably do too much damage and that's probably because Anet probably had some unrealistic or unreasonable expectations for people's gearing).
-Jungle vines. Granted they existed in Silverwastes, but they're pretty bullshit there as well. Just VB really highlights how bullshit they are; especially, for a melee character. They hit hard, but given the animation for them, I could deal with that, if they didn't have both an incredibly long attack range and a large aggro radius. Not fun going to pact rally point at night and getting aggro on 7-8 of those things and essentially not being able to do anything.
-That chak that launches the stick globs (I believe that's the chak lobber, right?). I'd say the issue is similar to the jungle vines, though switch out huge aggro radius for an attack that is harder to avoid, that seems to be more frequent.
-Shadowleapers, hands down, most obnoxious mob in the game. Hard to stick to and absurd damage. Can't remember if they bring the bullshit CC with damage combo or if that's bladedancers, which are also pretty bullshit.
I'm probably missing a few, but I have a feeling that's more a case of them being over tuned on damage and less a case of the mechanics and/or ability package being pretty bullshit. Though there are times, where I can't help but feel the devs expect players to be fully decked out in ascended gear for open world content and that we should be prioritizing for far more toughness. I don't know if that's just me or if that is the intend behind the design, but it's seem pretty poor, given that the content is accessibly by new 80s.
As for the story, I haven't really had any issues with it. I've soloed most of it, probably going to see if I can get a group for the final part of Act IV (I've finished bitter harvest, the part where we kill off what's her name), mainly to deal with heading off any bugs. A group certainly does make the content easier.
Just finished a game, playing as a d/p daredevil in which I got absolutely destroyed by the opposing team's d/p daredevil whenever we were in the same area of the map. Just goes to show that despite how underpowered they are right now, there's a ton of room for improvement on my part.
On the other hand, with that loss, I hit rank 60, which finally gives me the shark finisher
I must have gotten good spawns, because the Fallen Masks challenge wasn't too bad to get silver on for Dark Harvest. The Punch-o-Matic one in TD for The North Wind, I have no idea how you'd get gold on it. I must have spent like an hour trying to get silver and even then I got 150/150 at the very last second.
Now the only thing stopping me is getting the machined weapons and the ridiculous requirement of Exalted 5 mastery for the Auric Sharpening Stone. At least while I'm grinding currency for the machined weapon collections I'll be getting XP for that.
Well, if I want my reaper collection weapon, I need to get silver on fallen masks instead of bronze. Granted, it might be less grating, despite bugs, if it wasn't RNG BS. Given how mushrooms work, I'm really surprised they went with an RNG setup.
As for mobs that I find incredibly obnoxious.
-Mordrem snipers, I feel like they way too much damage in the open world. Granted what makes them incredibly bad, is they are often in packs of 2-3 snipers or paired up with something else, that makes it really hard to stay out of the burning lines.
-Queen/Emperor are pretty fucking obnoxious for reasons already mentioned. I'd also throw in bomber mushrooms, but I feel the issue with them is that that damage is over-tuned because I don't think they could lower the rate of attack (I can't help but feel that a number of mobs probably do too much damage and that's probably because Anet probably had some unrealistic or unreasonable expectations for people's gearing).
-Jungle vines. Granted they existed in Silverwastes, but they're pretty bullshit there as well. Just VB really highlights how bullshit they are; especially, for a melee character. They hit hard, but given the animation for them, I could deal with that, if they didn't have both an incredibly long attack range and a large aggro radius. Not fun going to pact rally point at night and getting aggro on 7-8 of those things and essentially not being able to do anything.
-That chak that launches the stick globs (I believe that's the chak lobber, right?). I'd say the issue is similar to the jungle vines, though switch out huge aggro radius for an attack that is harder to avoid, that seems to be more frequent.
-Shadowleapers, hands down, most obnoxious mob in the game. Hard to stick to and absurd damage. Can't remember if they bring the bullshit CC with damage combo or if that's bladedancers, which are also pretty bullshit.
I'm probably missing a few, but I have a feeling that's more a case of them being over tuned on damage and less a case of the mechanics and/or ability package being pretty bullshit. Though there are times, where I can't help but feel the devs expect players to be fully decked out in ascended gear for open world content and that we should be prioritizing for far more toughness. I don't know if that's just me or if that is the intend behind the design, but it's seem pretty poor, given that the content is accessibly by new 80s.
As for the story, I haven't really had any issues with it. I've soloed most of it, probably going to see if I can get a group for the final part of Act IV (I've finished bitter harvest, the part where we kill off what's her name), mainly to deal with heading off any bugs. A group certainly does make the content easier.
Shadowleapers are the ones that drop high-damage poison fields, stealth, and have a chance to evade any attack that isn't melee (even things that I doubt anyone ever considered to be "ranged," like wells) They are basically the closest thing to fighting a SB thief in PvE
Bladedancers are the ones that teleport (meaning Stealth Detection is worthless in trying to keep track of them), and have the CC/high-damage combo.
Well, if I want my reaper collection weapon, I need to get silver on fallen masks instead of bronze. Granted, it might be less grating, despite bugs, if it wasn't RNG BS. Given how mushrooms work, I'm really surprised they went with an RNG setup.
As for mobs that I find incredibly obnoxious.
-Mordrem snipers, I feel like they way too much damage in the open world. Granted what makes them incredibly bad, is they are often in packs of 2-3 snipers or paired up with something else, that makes it really hard to stay out of the burning lines.
-Queen/Emperor are pretty fucking obnoxious for reasons already mentioned. I'd also throw in bomber mushrooms, but I feel the issue with them is that that damage is over-tuned because I don't think they could lower the rate of attack (I can't help but feel that a number of mobs probably do too much damage and that's probably because Anet probably had some unrealistic or unreasonable expectations for people's gearing).
-Jungle vines. Granted they existed in Silverwastes, but they're pretty bullshit there as well. Just VB really highlights how bullshit they are; especially, for a melee character. They hit hard, but given the animation for them, I could deal with that, if they didn't have both an incredibly long attack range and a large aggro radius. Not fun going to pact rally point at night and getting aggro on 7-8 of those things and essentially not being able to do anything.
-That chak that launches the stick globs (I believe that's the chak lobber, right?). I'd say the issue is similar to the jungle vines, though switch out huge aggro radius for an attack that is harder to avoid, that seems to be more frequent.
-Shadowleapers, hands down, most obnoxious mob in the game. Hard to stick to and absurd damage. Can't remember if they bring the bullshit CC with damage combo or if that's bladedancers, which are also pretty bullshit.
I'm probably missing a few, but I have a feeling that's more a case of them being over tuned on damage and less a case of the mechanics and/or ability package being pretty bullshit. Though there are times, where I can't help but feel the devs expect players to be fully decked out in ascended gear for open world content and that we should be prioritizing for far more toughness. I don't know if that's just me or if that is the intend behind the design, but it's seem pretty poor, given that the content is accessibly by new 80s.
As for the story, I haven't really had any issues with it. I've soloed most of it, probably going to see if I can get a group for the final part of Act IV (I've finished bitter harvest, the part where we kill off what's her name), mainly to deal with heading off any bugs. A group certainly does make the content easier.
Shadowleapers are the ones that drop high-damage poison fields, stealth, and have a chance to evade any attack that isn't melee (even things that I doubt anyone ever considered to be "ranged," like wells) They are basically the closest thing to fighting a SB thief in PvE
Bladedancers are the ones that teleport (meaning Stealth Detection is worthless in trying to keep track of them), and have the CC/high-damage combo.
Bladedancers rarely faze me, but those Shadowleapers are death on two froggy legs. I have to be prepared when I encounter those, and if one gets a drop on me, it's hard to survive the initial barrage.
"Hey, if I win one more match, I can get the Dominator chevo. I should go for that!"
*1 1/2 hours of straight loses later*
"Got it!"
Some Highlights:
Getting two pips in a single win. Our team even had a thief and, I shit you not, a Sword/Shield <> Rifle warrior to boot. The match started with 4 of us stealthing up in the thief's Shadow Refuge, and then me rushing into mid and popping "Chilled to the Bone!" right in the middle of the enemy team, and it went pretty much downhill for them after that. A good chuck of our victory admittingly also went to the enemy necro beelining to try to kill our lord at least 3 times to start the match to no avail. I wonder how much verbal abuse the other team was screaming at him for that...
Beating a DH in a 1v1. Considering I got a pip for losing that match by almost 200, I have to assume it was at least a decent one too. Apparently the trick (at least as a Condi Reaper) is to avoid getting pulled into all those traps by Hunter's Verdict, and then pelting at them from afar until they get impatient/desperate and start to try and chase you down to drop traps at your feet. Of course, he couldn't drop Dragon's Maw again in that time, so there was nothing stopping me from dodging out of the traps and then charging in on point after they were gone in RS with stab to melt the bastard.
With a thief, holding the western far point of Temple of Silent storm for about 3 minutes (Traq spawned for the first time shortly after I got out of there) against a lemming-ing procession of a Rev and two DHs. This really stood out for me, not only because it was the final win, but also because both me and the thief were downed a couple of times during the whole thing, only to get ressed or rally off of a stomp at the last second.
I did some solo pvp this morning on my ranger. I ended up grouping up with a thief from my first game because we did excellent together, and ended up playing 2 more matches together without losing or it even being close. In the 3rd game, one guy on our team was basically complaining that we had a thief on our team (my group-mate) and that we were going to lose since we were having to play a man down with the "thief handicap." Of course, we wound up winning fairly easily and the guy who complained didn't do that much better than the thief or I.
The games were fun, just normal people being elitest jerks.
I wonder if news of thieves sucking in PvP have been greatly exaggerated...
...or rather, less to do with thieves being bad and more with the current DH meta being a near-perfect counter on how 95% of thieves play their profession.
I wonder if news of thieves sucking in PvP have been greatly exaggerated...
...or rather, less to do with thieves being bad and more with the current DH meta being a near-perfect counter on how 95% of thieves play their profession.
A little of both. DH is one of the most faceroll classes now / ever, and is also a thief counter. Honestly, fuck any design that can kill someone while AFK.
i dunno, just watched a match in the pro league thing and the team with the thief 2-0 the other team. The thief did work. DH don't really seem any better or worse than most other classes. I think people are way too scared of the trap. most classes have ways to just tele outside of it or w/e. Of course if you aren't using those abilities I will cede that the trap can ruin your day. There definitely seems to be no reason to not play hammer engineer over any other weapon though.
i dunno, just watched a match in the pro league thing and the team with the thief 2-0 the other team. The thief did work. DH don't really seem any better or worse than most other classes. I think people are way too scared of the trap. most classes have ways to just tele outside of it or w/e. Of course if you aren't using those abilities I will cede that the trap can ruin your day. There definitely seems to be no reason to not play hammer engineer over any other weapon though.
The way it's talked about in the offical forums, It sounds like trap DH is Turret Engi 2.0.
There are several ways to counter (with thieves and perhaps warriors having the fewest accessible means to counter them, hence their apparent decline) but the effort to counter usually outstrips the DH's effort to utilize the tactic (which against most players without active stab or a prepped escape skill is drop traps, Hunter's Verdict to pull them into the traps, I win!) and melts anyone who isn't aware of the best way(s) to handle them.
As for Engis of today, Scapper Hammer is basically the best parts of Tool Kit (good blocking, melee damage) and Rifle (good burst skills/CC) put together, but with a reflect, Engineer's only evade skill, and a lightning field that a clever engi can do a lot with (chain dazing with Hammer 3 being only the most obvious one) and not having to give up a utility slot for those things. Combined with a trait line that can either replace or complement Alchemy for survivalblity, and you got one hell of a bunker build that has more teeth to it than most bunker builds.
i dunno, just watched a match in the pro league thing and the team with the thief 2-0 the other team. The thief did work. DH don't really seem any better or worse than most other classes. I think people are way too scared of the trap. most classes have ways to just tele outside of it or w/e. Of course if you aren't using those abilities I will cede that the trap can ruin your day. There definitely seems to be no reason to not play hammer engineer over any other weapon though.
The way it's talked about in the offical forums, It sounds like trap DH is Turret Engi 2.0.
There are several ways to counter (with thieves and perhaps warriors having the fewest accessible means to counter them, hence their apparent decline) but the effort to counter usually outstrips the DH's effort to utilize the tactic (which against most players without active stab or a prepped escape skill is drop traps, Hunter's Verdict to pull them into the traps, I win!) and melts anyone who isn't aware of the best way(s) to handle them.
Sounds like the standard Pub balance problem, Ease of Execution versus Knowledge of how to Counter
went 2-1 with thief today, a hopefully continued reversal of the days of 1-2s.
Thief seems heavily reliant on having a decent team in the first place. Since you pretty much get instagibbed from the AoE in a teamfight, if your team can't even get people down to backstab + heartseeker range, or if they don't stomp downed players, you're pretty much stuck decapping or trying to interrupt heals.
I feel like the fact that they are a bit underpowered makes them fun to play right now. With pretty much everybody sporting some sort of channeled block or invulnerability, you can never enter a fight expecting to survive long enough to down someone, and thus you always need to think about how you can escape a fight before you enter it. You're also obliged to make full use of their abilities, and I'm discovering all sorts of fun ways to disorient people
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
Monday mishies were a great success.
With just 8 or so we did the 3 bounty and all the wvw missions.
Elite bounty squad forever!
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
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BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
The frustrating thing about DH bunkering is the perma-daze. The quantity of damage in addition to that means the only way to pop those traps is really to expend an invuln skill (which is one reason why Revenants are loved, because Sword #3 is a trap popper on a low CD). Even if you're a ranged character and beat them at range, you can't really move in to finish them easily, and even once you've killed them manually, there are still two very nasty traps on the point.
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Perhaps, but I think they still failed on the initial implementation. Things just never seem to work the way they want once they turn players loose.
I typically use Warhorn to close the range, then switch to Greatsword for some serious arse-kicking.
No piece of code survives contact with a userbase.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Absolutely, and I would never expect their code to survive release :P
What should survive is the idea behind the code. I feel like it's their ideas that are failing at release. I may be wrong, but it seems like the systems they're creating don't work well at a logistical level. I can forgive bugs in code... provided they're fixed in a timely manner.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
Well
I'm still not terribly worried about it. It'll make one or two aspects of the backpiece a bit harder to get, I guess. /shrug
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Nah, it's just really incompetent. I'm not even going to mince words, because it's already been done better before, in a way that would require them to do absolutely no innovation or customization to improve on, and thus, that is the bar.
Basic logic should tell them that if MMR and ranking are not directly tied (correlation doesn't count), that anyone at the appropriate MMR will not be able to win consistently (since the purpose of MMR is to find equally strong opponents), and anyone who is underrated will be overrewarded.
This isn't a bug, this is a basic "we didn't even whiteboard properly, let alone implement," problem.
IMO it's a pretty noble idea... if going up the ranks didn't require multiple win streaks past the first division. At the very least, you need to make sure close games never result in the loss of a pip, even when evenly matched. Maybe even earn partial points behind the scenes for such matches, which add up when you get your next win.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Most every game only soft resets MMR/ELO/Whatever between leagues/seasons. So your placement matches will be around people of your vague level.
Maybe the formula itself could use some tweaks here and there, but by and large a good player will move up eventually while a bad or peaked one won't.
Don't get me wrong gliding is fun, but fuck most of the mobs there. Stuff being gated behind other shit, that requires a group and god help you, if most other people on the map don't want to do anything that is locking the stuff you want access to. Also fuck how finicky some of the stuff is in this game. Tried the adventure fallen masks and dear god, I know I'm not good at jumping puzzles, but it's really frustrating when mushrooms decide you aren't bouncing or when you just need to make a simple glide and the glider decides it just isn't going to deploy (I've noticed the damn finickiness in other areas, but it really screws you over on timed stuff where you need to use the glider or jump on mushrooms numerous time).
I'm starting to wonder if I might enjoy the game more working on old world stuff that will get me ascended or legendary items and wait for the devs to retune and fix stuff in HoT because I'm finding I can only do that in limited doses and I'm not sure group with people more often would help.
battletag: Millin#1360
Nice chart to figure out how honest a news source is.
Bouncing Mushrooms are a pain, I agree. I think Anet might agree as well, because they've been iterated on several times since the beta events; In the First BWE you had to activate them, and they would launch you on the arc they're set to the moment you did, but from the place you were standing, which might lead to you landing somewhere you didn't want to go.
Fallen Masks is one of the worst ones in that regard atm, sadly
I've found that your reaction to the mobs depends largely on your class, having played through the story with every one I'd say you're most effectively prepared with a reaper, I didn't have a lot of problems with my chronomancer, and for just about every other class it's ridiculously tough and requires a lot of untraining for how you could handle things in the game up to this point. In most cases that's intentional.
Course, then you have mobs like the mushroom queen/emperor, who's mechanic is poorly designed for the environments that they're placed in. What's that? A precisely targeted AoE that spreads everywhere and ticks instantly when a player walks into it for over half their health? Well, lets put those mobs in the tiniest enclosed spaces possible, and put ANOTHER event that frequently spawns alongside it that has even MORE of those mobs! Nobel peace prize pls"
Yeah, they've got some tuning to do.
There's also a thread of someone bragging about their "exploit" of queuing on low-MMR professions and swapping to high, and a dev had to come in and clarify that there hasn't been prof-specific MMR since prof lockdown on match start was removed.
For some reason the pvp community is as quick to jump on imagined problems as real ones.
I think some of the chak (lobbers, chiefly), and maybe some of the itzel too (the evasive ones), are also overtuned slightly for non-mesmers. But that's about it. I agree that some parts of the story require a different approach than normal gameplay, but I don't think they're overtuned. In general, the difficulty seems about right; you just have to be willing to change your build and/or gear.
The fallen masks adventure, on the other hand, is total bullshit randomness. I wouldn't bother trying to get gold on that or the shooting gallery. But then, I have a low tolerance for luck.
As for mobs that I find incredibly obnoxious.
-Mordrem snipers, I feel like they way too much damage in the open world. Granted what makes them incredibly bad, is they are often in packs of 2-3 snipers or paired up with something else, that makes it really hard to stay out of the burning lines.
-Queen/Emperor are pretty fucking obnoxious for reasons already mentioned. I'd also throw in bomber mushrooms, but I feel the issue with them is that that damage is over-tuned because I don't think they could lower the rate of attack (I can't help but feel that a number of mobs probably do too much damage and that's probably because Anet probably had some unrealistic or unreasonable expectations for people's gearing).
-Jungle vines. Granted they existed in Silverwastes, but they're pretty bullshit there as well. Just VB really highlights how bullshit they are; especially, for a melee character. They hit hard, but given the animation for them, I could deal with that, if they didn't have both an incredibly long attack range and a large aggro radius. Not fun going to pact rally point at night and getting aggro on 7-8 of those things and essentially not being able to do anything.
-That chak that launches the stick globs (I believe that's the chak lobber, right?). I'd say the issue is similar to the jungle vines, though switch out huge aggro radius for an attack that is harder to avoid, that seems to be more frequent.
-Shadowleapers, hands down, most obnoxious mob in the game. Hard to stick to and absurd damage. Can't remember if they bring the bullshit CC with damage combo or if that's bladedancers, which are also pretty bullshit.
I'm probably missing a few, but I have a feeling that's more a case of them being over tuned on damage and less a case of the mechanics and/or ability package being pretty bullshit. Though there are times, where I can't help but feel the devs expect players to be fully decked out in ascended gear for open world content and that we should be prioritizing for far more toughness. I don't know if that's just me or if that is the intend behind the design, but it's seem pretty poor, given that the content is accessibly by new 80s.
As for the story, I haven't really had any issues with it. I've soloed most of it, probably going to see if I can get a group for the final part of Act IV (I've finished bitter harvest, the part where we kill off what's her name), mainly to deal with heading off any bugs. A group certainly does make the content easier.
battletag: Millin#1360
Nice chart to figure out how honest a news source is.
On the other hand, with that loss, I hit rank 60, which finally gives me the shark finisher
Now the only thing stopping me is getting the machined weapons and the ridiculous requirement of Exalted 5 mastery for the Auric Sharpening Stone. At least while I'm grinding currency for the machined weapon collections I'll be getting XP for that.
PSN: ChemENGR
Shadowleapers are the ones that drop high-damage poison fields, stealth, and have a chance to evade any attack that isn't melee (even things that I doubt anyone ever considered to be "ranged," like wells) They are basically the closest thing to fighting a SB thief in PvE
Bladedancers are the ones that teleport (meaning Stealth Detection is worthless in trying to keep track of them), and have the CC/high-damage combo.
I hate them both.
*Win 2 out of 3 going for the league daily*
"Hey, if I win one more match, I can get the Dominator chevo. I should go for that!"
*1 1/2 hours of straight loses later*
"Got it!"
Some Highlights:
Getting two pips in a single win. Our team even had a thief and, I shit you not, a Sword/Shield <> Rifle warrior to boot. The match started with 4 of us stealthing up in the thief's Shadow Refuge, and then me rushing into mid and popping "Chilled to the Bone!" right in the middle of the enemy team, and it went pretty much downhill for them after that. A good chuck of our victory admittingly also went to the enemy necro beelining to try to kill our lord at least 3 times to start the match to no avail. I wonder how much verbal abuse the other team was screaming at him for that...
Beating a DH in a 1v1. Considering I got a pip for losing that match by almost 200, I have to assume it was at least a decent one too. Apparently the trick (at least as a Condi Reaper) is to avoid getting pulled into all those traps by Hunter's Verdict, and then pelting at them from afar until they get impatient/desperate and start to try and chase you down to drop traps at your feet. Of course, he couldn't drop Dragon's Maw again in that time, so there was nothing stopping me from dodging out of the traps and then charging in on point after they were gone in RS with stab to melt the bastard.
With a thief, holding the western far point of Temple of Silent storm for about 3 minutes (Traq spawned for the first time shortly after I got out of there) against a lemming-ing procession of a Rev and two DHs. This really stood out for me, not only because it was the final win, but also because both me and the thief were downed a couple of times during the whole thing, only to get ressed or rally off of a stomp at the last second.
The games were fun, just normal people being elitest jerks.
...or rather, less to do with thieves being bad and more with the current DH meta being a near-perfect counter on how 95% of thieves play their profession.
A little of both. DH is one of the most faceroll classes now / ever, and is also a thief counter. Honestly, fuck any design that can kill someone while AFK.
/sigh
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
The way it's talked about in the offical forums, It sounds like trap DH is Turret Engi 2.0.
There are several ways to counter (with thieves and perhaps warriors having the fewest accessible means to counter them, hence their apparent decline) but the effort to counter usually outstrips the DH's effort to utilize the tactic (which against most players without active stab or a prepped escape skill is drop traps, Hunter's Verdict to pull them into the traps, I win!) and melts anyone who isn't aware of the best way(s) to handle them.
As for Engis of today, Scapper Hammer is basically the best parts of Tool Kit (good blocking, melee damage) and Rifle (good burst skills/CC) put together, but with a reflect, Engineer's only evade skill, and a lightning field that a clever engi can do a lot with (chain dazing with Hammer 3 being only the most obvious one) and not having to give up a utility slot for those things. Combined with a trait line that can either replace or complement Alchemy for survivalblity, and you got one hell of a bunker build that has more teeth to it than most bunker builds.
Sounds like the standard Pub balance problem, Ease of Execution versus Knowledge of how to Counter
I miss turret engie. If turret engie hadn't been nerfed, we could totally pwn every DH on the field.
Buff turret engie! DH problem solved :V
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Thief seems heavily reliant on having a decent team in the first place. Since you pretty much get instagibbed from the AoE in a teamfight, if your team can't even get people down to backstab + heartseeker range, or if they don't stomp downed players, you're pretty much stuck decapping or trying to interrupt heals.
I feel like the fact that they are a bit underpowered makes them fun to play right now. With pretty much everybody sporting some sort of channeled block or invulnerability, you can never enter a fight expecting to survive long enough to down someone, and thus you always need to think about how you can escape a fight before you enter it. You're also obliged to make full use of their abilities, and I'm discovering all sorts of fun ways to disorient people
With just 8 or so we did the 3 bounty and all the wvw missions.
Elite bounty squad forever!