Curse

Fat Emo Kid · Jul 06, 2007, 09:28 AM // 09:28

After playing Guild Wars since it's release in April of 2005, my overall view of the game is disappointing. There are many things that contribute to this view. The two major points I will bring up are: 1. Lack of dedication to the "guild" aspect of this game, even though the name is Guild Wars, yet we have very little for our "guild", and 2. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this game is based off of PvP, and is designed to be a PvP game, unlike World of Warcraft.

I'm going to begin with the problems in Heroes' Ascent. The purpose of this style of PvP is to win. You progress through the maps until you eventually reach the Hall of Heroes, win, and attempt to continually win for your country. You also receive fame, which leads to rank. There's no need for an in depth explanation of this, because the majority of players who pertain to this rant / rage already know what I'm talking about. The metagame has shifted and the style with it, from 8-man and the original PvP at the Tomb of the Primeval Kings with the oh-so-wonderful Rifts, to the dawn of Heroes' Ascent and 6-man PvP, then back to 8-man PvP. The metagame during this time has shifted as each expansion appears, from the original gameplay where there was truely no build and Koreans wielding Aegis dominated the gameplay and Scarred Earth was the hated map, to Ranger Spike, Blood Spike, IWAY, and every other build that was despised and played by someone.

The current metagame, as I describe today, is Ritualist Spike, the "newer", as I'll refer to it, IWAY, and, the ever dreaded heroes. This is what I, as a consistent HA player, have seen. There are quite a few more groups, but these are the ones that are most commonly seen in HA, whether winning or not.

When Nightfall was released, heroes were heralded as a great addition, and I agree with that. They're very convienent and useful. But when brought into HA, given skills that NPCs can use in a much more efficient manor than any player may, and players playing builds that do heavy pressure, you get heroway, or an extremely annoying group with pressure that is used to farm fame.

The whole point of this portion of my rant is boiled down to: PvP, more specifically Heroes' Ascent, has become fame farm.

About 75% of groups that will enter this area of PvP are designed to farm fame to reach a certain rank. Upon reaching this rank, players will head into builds that a lot of players don't like, mostly some form of spike.

You will never be able to make everyone in the game happy, that's very true. But looking at the game now, the majority of great players who used to be well known have quit. The reason? The game has become boring. Without even going into further detail, so many skills in this game are overpowered and people are exploiting them to gain fame and the worthless items from the Hall of Heroes chest, which still are terrible, even with the update, and they are consistent winners. Why? They exploit overpowered skills, repeatedly.

To name a few:

Wielder's Strike ~ 126 damage with a weapon spell
Ancestor's Rage ~ 137 damage
Spirit Rift ~ 142 damage

Notice that these skills are from Ritualist Spike. Now, with 7 or 8 spikes each using one of these skills, your totals are:

Wielder's Strike ~ 1,008 damage
Ancestor's Rage ~ 1,016 damage
Spirit Rift ~ 1,136 damage

The average player will have around 580 - 670 HP with a morale boost. That leaves 300 - 400 damage extra done by the spike. Even interrupting a character, which is common with Psychic Distraction, which is slightly underpowered as it is, and using a shield, the spike is still too powerful to catch. Most players will understand how to use Spirit Bond before the spike, but this will be removed, resulting in the non-spike team raging because their player didn't understand their enchantment just got removed and they failed to reuse it in time, or the removal was too perfect.

So, you can choose to run a build heavy on shutdown and interrupts.

But, wait! You still have to remember you will be fighting IWAY. What's so bad about IWAY?

7 to 8 targets with 80 AR. Is that so bad? Yes. I also forgot to include that there are 5 classes in this build that run a consistent -4 energy shout that is nearly impossible to shutdown entirely.

That reduces so much damage, you can't get a clean spike through unless it's overpowered, even Ritualist Spike cannot perfectly land it on a target. The AR is too high for that. So, we're getting the damage. Even though we're going through 4-5 health regeneration, we're getting them down. WAIT. You have 2 classes that have 80 AR, use Infuse Health, and use my favorite overpowered skill..

Signet of Synergy!

What's so bad with this skill? It has a 1 second cast time, is a signet, which requires no energy, has a 10 second recharge, which is quick for such a powerful heal such as this, and heals both the user and target if you are unenchanted, and in a build that runs 0 enchantments, it always works. Having 14 Leadership, this is a 96 heal to 2 targets on a consistent 10 second basis. Combine this with Infuse Health, which is a 400+ HP heal and other shouts that regenerate energy plus give a heavy party heal bonus, you have a build that is tough to beat.

What else is bad? I've shutdown these two builds, but wait! There's more!

Heroway. You'd expect that "oh, it's just heroes, i can pwnz0r these nubs easy w/mah aoe". Wrong.

3 RaO Rangers that constantly KD and train, also bringing Dazed and Deep Wound, combined with Tainted Flesh, the addition of either a Fire Elementalist or a trapper, and 3 classes that spam offensive and defensive skills (Essence Strike, Toxic Chill, Mend Body and Soul, etc.), you have a nasty build that contains 3 classes that train targets, 3 classes that have Soul Reaping and other forms of energy management, and 1 to 2 high pressure or healing classes (Monk and Elementalist is common).

These 3 builds are what cause so many problems. Out of these builds, 1 of the 3 will be encountered in a single run through Heroes' Ascent.

As this is just getting repetitive and there's no point explaining this further to prevent those who run this raging at me, I'll move on to another huge problem I have with this game.

So, 2 years ago, I purchased a game called Guild Wars. I expected it would be groups of people battling for territory, etc., when I talked about it with friends before it was released. I got it, and what I got seemed to be good. You have 8v8 battles between guilds and there are championships. Sounds good, except I couldn't and still can't participate in these, plus they are becoming less and less popular. These championships were amazing as the guilds who were in them were the top players and were great to watch. Still, all we get in a game with the word "guild" in the name is 8v8 and the formation of such guilds. This seems to be a little lacking..

Thus Factions came out and brought town ownership. But, there's a catch. You have to either grind quests or try to play in Alliance Battles with players who don't understand basic PvP concepts and the gameplay is almost based on what time you play at for each side to have it's "better", if they can be called that, players log on and decide to participate.

So, there's very little we can do with our guilds. Nightfall comes out, and still not much, except the addition of NPCs in our Guild Hall. Alliances almost have no point except making a gamble that these people that your guild members might know may be talented in some form for your group and that you can farm with them.

For the PvP player, almost everything in this game that's for a guild is useless. It's pointless, redundant, and a waste of my time.

Why do I play this game? I simply have nothing better to do and there are very interesting people that play, I have a lot of friends. I'm expecting a lot from Guild Wars 2, so there's some preparation for it, but unless ArenaNet would like to continue to lose some of the top players with experience and let the game succomb to people who farm fame, exploit builds, and complain while creating arguement in International District 1 of Heroes' Ascent that "i need fame to get rank, wah, i cant get fame so i cant get rank, wah", this game will not improve and Guild Wars 2 will fail unless it's PvE based.

A few things that I believe will make this game more enjoyable:

Fix skills ~ So many skills in this game have either been overnerfed by your developers (I've played Izzy, he loves his Steady Stance.. wow), and find the balance between the overnerf and the "why did you guys do this?" nerf, make the skills less powerful, but still useful. You've been doing this for over 2 years, you should've found the balance by now or hired new developers who understand what they need to change to make the game better.
Implement districts for those who have certain ranks. I'm Rank 10, I want to play with people who have at least Rank 9, make a district that requires Rank 9 to enter. Make districts that have no requirement, Rank 3 as a requirement, etc., so players can play with those of their rank and skill level, then keep the original International Districts. Skill can come with experience, I can say this for myself, and just being an overall competent player will help anyone improve. Those who can play at the level that will allow them to win will shine above the rest and continue to move up.
Give us more for our guilds. The best I've got is "i'm going to my gh to sit with my guildies and do nothing". Make games, events, dungeons, monsters, pet tournaments, anything. You guys have the capability, so do it. I'm not going to grind my way through the game to get the oodles of gold for nice items every second that I'm playing.
Weigh guild battles, the Hall of Heroes, and other events more heavily. If someone wins the Hall of Heroes, give them more than a few crappy items that are never good (Flame of Balthazar? what the hell? I don't need 1,000 faction, sorry), make winning consecutive guild battles or beating a good guild give a Champion point or a reward.
Allow faction to be transferable. I've unlocked everything and so have many other players. Rather than buying hundreds of tournament tokens, I'd like to give this to people who actually may need it.
I applaud the automatic tournaments, they're a great idea, but keep improving them. I'd rather get +15 for a win in a tournament than +2 for a normal guild versus guild battle win. Balance this out so I don't just want to do a tournament and I want to do normal battles too.
The weekly events you do are decent, but the ArenaNet team needs to do more and be with the community more. I play this game so much because I have nothing better to do and soon I will find something, but I'd like to be able to talk to someone from the staff or just see they're alive, I've seen 1-2 people from the staff, namely Gaile Gray and Izzy, as Gaile gives the frog report, and I have no clue why Izzy even plays because the skill changes he makes aren't good to begin with, which stems a lot of hilarious guild names about him.

This, by no means, is meant to be arrogant, or in any way degrading, although it may sound that way. These are my beliefs and opinions on the game, whether they are good or bad by whatever you may think, most of these are the truth, whether I may have streched them unintentionally or not. This is not intended to buffer myself as a player, but to hopefully give ArenaNet some insight into their game to make it better so more players will play it and hopefully it will return to how it was in the past, which was a much more enjoyable game.

NOTE: It is early in the morning and I'm tired. If something in here isn't accurate, I'm probably too tired to realize.
NOTE: I may add more to this, I'm hoping to hear from others on their views or if I missed anything that would pertain to my rant. It may expand or contract in time.

Thus ends this rant / rage / whatever you want to call it. Now, begin the reading, picking and poking at, laughing at me, raging, and whatever else this post will bring.

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Edit (1) (6/6/07) 3:21 AM: I didn't like the post icon, so I changed it. ^_^

Fat Emo Kid · Jul 06, 2007, 09:30 AM // 09:30

I don't understand how you can completely ignore the bulk of the post, then use an out of context post to close it. You didn't even read the post nor do you understand the points I'm conveying, that was a side conversation, thanks.

Avarre · Jul 06, 2007, 09:50 AM // 09:50

Let's give discussion a chance before crying about the thread, people.

Skuld · Jul 06, 2007, 09:51 AM // 09:51

inb4lock 12322332

edit, avarre ~ http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10174755

*lemming* · Jul 06, 2007, 09:56 AM // 09:56

Nowhere in your post did I find any reference to GvG.

Avarre · Jul 06, 2007, 09:59 AM // 09:59

Closed for double (missed that, thanks Skuld), reopening the other (that has discussion). The reasons for closure don't satisfy me.