Of Portals and Pouncing

Today, the long-awaited response from ANet was heard on the official forums.  If some of you will remember my previous postings about Thieves and the inherent flaws of shadowstepping (as well as ways to improve them) - there was a lot of criticism met with some of my solutions.

One of these ideas for improving shadowstep (and thus our class mechanic 'Steal') was to allow it to ignore LoS requirements, allowing thieves to sneak into fortresses and keeps by attacking enemies up a wall or over a gap in order to engage the enemy - thus providing a crucially needed role for Thieves as a whole in WvW. However, this was considered by many to be 'OP' and 'gamebreaking' as it does something that ANet themselves did not intend, which was to let people into a keep to assault it without taking down gates and walls.

As of recent there have been many complaints about the possibility of an exploit with Mesmers, and their use of the skill Portal (entre/exit).  It seems as though our clothy-compatriots have discovered a way to sneak into keeps without taking down gates/walls by using their portal skill!  Considered by many to be blatant cheating, and a violation of game mechanics - there have been numerous posts on the official forums documenting the exploit with an appeal to ANet to respond.  And respond they did.

When a user questioned what actions ArenaNet would be taking on the formerly considered game-breaking portal usage in WvW, arenanet responded saying;

"As we have stated, this is no exploit so far but another tactic that players can use in their gaming experience."

ARENANET OFFICIAL RESPONSE

Simply put, ANet encourages the Mesmer portaling (gate ignoring) 'exploit' as actually a 'tactic', and therefore legitimate in use and legal.  Not only does this mean that Mesmers can freely assault keeps with their team by allowing a trojan horse-like strategy to get them through the gates, but it means that any criticism about an individual character (in particular - a thief) - being able to assault a tower/keep from the inside, are completely illegitimate and unfounded!  If a Mesmer can let an entire group into a keep without taking down walls, than it must be so, that an individual Thief (or group of organized Thieves) can do the very same with what is arguably a semi-functioning class mechanic.

Thieves need to be able to shadowstep up walls, to attack enemies in keeps and towers.  They also need to be able to jump gaps, because thats just common sense for ninja-poofing.

EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that this response wasn't in fact to the use of render-induced-latency allowing Mesmer's to portal their parties past keep defenses.  It is actually an approval of using the render-induced latency caused by mass invisibility + portal = laggy shitfest for enemy forces.  Basically the amount of rendering needing to happen when players are invisible and portal a distance away are creating invisible zerg armies that are depending entirely on the lag generated by themselves.  THIS is what ANet considers a legitimate strategy(?).

However, as pointed out in one of the posts I brought up this subject on, user Tyrestrian came up with the amazing idea that things like Thief infiltration/Mesmer portaling would be acceptable and non-game-breaking if they put a buff on keep/tower lords that made them invincible while the walls/gates were still up.  This would allow Thieves to infiltrate and hurt the player-defenders and veteran NPC's (and siege weapons) without allowing a massive group of Thieves or portaled-players to simply knock-off the lord without defense.  To that, I would say that siege weapons on top of siege walls would also need a buff for increased survivability to prevent them from being demolished instantaneously.

Sorry for the misunderstanding!
-LoreChief

The Reckoning of Boring Traits

As promised, I've created a list of traits that simply need to go away.  The reasons for this are one or more of the following:

• The trait doesn't contribute to gameplay
• The trait is boring and/or completely unnoticeable
• The trait takes the fun out of customizing your characters playstyle
• The trait encourages bad play (rewarding not using skills/mechanics/dodges/etc)

The link to the Google Docs spreadsheet is here.

LINK TO SPREADSHEET

Now, I'm open to input on this, but there are some traits I chose not to address in this iteration of the Reckoning.  There are traits out there that I've previously seen as "must haves" - things like the Warrior's "Forceful Greatsword" - which not only reduces the cooldown of greatsword (and spear) skills, but also grants might for each greatsword crit (or spear).  I mean, c'mon - holy shit thats a powerful talent.  You pretty much HAVE to get it if you plan on being a serious greatsword (or spear?) Warrior.  OR DO YOU?

You see, I have this idea for redoing the trait trees, which incorporates these kinds of talents for EVERY kind of weapon.  Bonus? They should be available at the Adept level.  Why?  Because you should be able to  trait into all sorts of fun goodies throughout your vast leveling experience (or not if you're just doing SPvP) - and choosing to be good with a certain weapon (or two) should not be grounds for pigeonholing you into a specific tree.  My idea looks something like this;

• Warrior:  Axe Mastery:  Axe skill cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Axes grant an extra strike of Adrenaline on critical.
• Thief:  Master Trapper:  Trap cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Allows you to lay 3 of one type of trap.
• Elementalist:  Pyromancer's Alacrity:  Fire skill cooldowns reduced by 20%.  All fire skills have a 30% chance to cause burning for 3 seconds.
• Guardian:  Zealous Blade:  Greatsword cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Greatsword attacks heal you.
• Engineer:  Short Fuse:  Bomb cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Bomb have a large explosion radius.
• Ranger:  Piercing Arrows:  Longbow/Shortbow cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Arrow attacks pierce.
• Necromancer:  Dagger Mastery:  Dagger cooldowns reduced by 20%.  All dagger attacks lifesteal 5% damage.
• Mesmer:  Phantasmal Haste:  Phantasm cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Phantasms now have Fury.

These are just examples of what I had in mind.  Some of them are not weapon-based, and would thus not be located at Adept level (such as the Mesmer, Elementalist and Thief examples).  I'm not claiming that the values I've assigned any of these traits are balanced or not either.  The point is, cooldown reduction can be seen as either a necessity, a luxury, or a supplemental.  I would prefer to think that if you get something such as cooldown reduction, it should also come with something else to further enhance the play of the character as well.

In the coming week's, I'll be doing articles tailored to individual professions, where I'll go in more detail the ideas I have for improving trait trees.  However, what I've been able to convey to you is this;

Traits are a way to further customize the play-style of our character, and compliment the ways in which we are effective in combat, have fun, and create a unique synergy with our character.  Traits that give +5% dmg for X situation, or +5% damage for just wearing a type of weapon - are not contributing to any of the above (unless you're a min-maxer who thinks the +5% dmg benefit outweighs the benefits of more utility-type traits!).  Even if you DID pick one of the +5% damage traits, you have to admit that you were NEVER happy/excited to do so.

Thank you for reading, stay tuned for more updates.
-LoreChief

Crunching Numbers - Combo Highlights

A few weeks ago I created a spreadsheet and uploaded it to Google Docs.  It was a highlight of the different varieties of combo finishers and fields available to each class.  It was incomplete at the time due to;

LINK TO SPREADSHEET

1. The game hadn't been launched yet
2. I didn't include some of the info like ranger pets skills, downed skills or underwater skills

Well today I fixed that, and have re-uploaded it to Google Docs.  I've provided a link for you.  Just to provide a little bit of a key for you to use;

• Numbers in ( ) represent those available while downed
• Numbers after the & represent those available underwater

I have even included the 'auxiliary' skills provided to all of the classes, including their unlikely outcomes (such as the random transform elixir provided to the Engi).

Some special notes to gleam from looking at this spreadsheet:

• Guardian has the only combo field while downed
• Engineer has the only combo finisher while downed
• Warrior has significantly more finishers available to them than any other profession
• Elementalist has both a large number of finishers, as well as the highest number of fields
• Elementalist is the only profession with a lightning field

Elementalist - The Squish-Army Knife.

(Note: You don't have to be a fire-type just because the class symbol is actual fire)

I had a whirlwind romance this weekend with Elementalist.  I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with the versatility of this Profession.  After being bored of playing Thief this weekend (see my previous post on Thieves) - I decided to play the Engineer, almost-Mesmer, and eventually went to Elementalist.  Must-have talents not-withstanding, this class is very well put together.  Here are a few reasons why:

1. The class mechanic of elemental attunements ensures that you always have 20 weapon skills available to you at any given time (vs. most professions only having access to 10).  Not only that, but each different element has it's own different play-style, meaning that you have different roles you can accomplish with the same trait-spec, weapon, and utility skills.
2. Want to be a close-range elem?  You can do that.  Want to be a long distance elem?  You can do that too.  Close-Range AoE?  Yup!  Long-Range AoE?  Yup!  Healer?  Why not!  Support-utility!? YES! They have it all!  Pets?  We get elementals!  Mobility?  Yes, everywhere.
3. There are such a variety of skills available, that it's legitimately hard to choose which ones to use.

Hell even if you don't want to use any of your 20 weapon skills for whatever weapon you're using, you can Conjure up even more!  Unlike the Engi - you aren't punished for using slot-skill weapons (R.I.P. Flamethrower y.y).  This adds even MORE variables to the fun-factor.  Let's say you want to be a long-range AoE mage (we'll go with Staff) but then you decide "I want to go bury an axe in that guy's skull" - Conjure up a Flame Axe, and you're good to go.

I've been playing a lot of double-dagger elementalist this weekend, which is legitimately more fun/interesting than Thieves (source:  I main a Thief).  Nothing quite feels as satisfying as dashing into combat leaving a fiery trail in your wake, blowing up the area around you with a ring of fire, BREATHING fire all of your enemies, detonating that fire with Fire Grab, swapping to your air attunement, kicking the enemy in the face with Updraft, and going in for the kill with a lightning-quick body-burst of.. well... lightning.

I recommend Elementalist for anyone bored with their current profession, wanting a load of power, wrapped in a robe of versatility.

Traits - a request.

(Maybe these are what the key is for?)

At some point in the distant past, Blizzard introduced the "Talent System" - which was hailed as being a great idea, bringing about uniqueness and investment into a characters playstyle that was previously non-existent.  They made it so you could reset them, tailor your character, and even unlock skills.  Just a few short years later, every new MMO has a talent system of some sort.  In Guild Wars 2, we call them 'Traits'.

Near the end of the development of GW2, just a short while before launch - it was determined that traits needed to be presented in a hierarchy system.  Some traits would be limited to the last slot, 'Grandmaster', and would be the last to get, whereas the simple/not-as-powerful (read: niche) traits would be available first, at the 'Adept' level.  This created not only an expectation of significant character growth, but the expectation that you would get some super-neat traited abilities when you finally hit the threshold.

Reviewing again, the post I submitted about a Thief Re-work - I would like to address ArenaNet's mentality when it comes to the trait system, and what it ultimately means for the player and their character.  You are given 60 different talents to choose from, not including the 15 minor traits which are automatically chosen when you spend 'X' points into any given tree.  These choices though, are sometimes more rigid than others. I would like to emphasize that the trait system in it's best form would be one that allows the player to further tweak their style of play to be more beneficial to them, but mostly for more fun and utility.

Far too many traits take the form of; "Increases damage with ____ by 5%", or "Reduces the cooldown of _____ by 20%".  The former are so... frivolous, that I would never consider investing into them.  The latter - are so powerfully noticeable that to NOT use them is akin to breaking your characters legs.  Suuuuure, you can use that Flamethrower without Fireforged Trigger, but you're only screwing yourself.  Just like that, you have what you would normally consider a 'choice' taken away from you.  At this point they might as well just auto-spend that point for you.

In another light, the traits that should be propagated throughout ALL of the different professions trees resemble ones like, Hard To Catch (shadowstep away from the enemy and gain swiftness when disabled) or Burning Precision (30% chance to burn enemies on crit).  I've compiled a list below, of all the different professions, and how much trait space is wasted on either the must-haves or 5% frivolous traits.

	Must-Haves	Frivolous
Elementalist	8	10
Warrior	13	4
Ranger	8	2
Necromancer	11	1
Guardian	10	6
Thief	5	7
Engineer	10	6
Mesmer	13	1

Some important notes about these numbers.

1. I didn't include talents which were simple like "+10% damage on _____ attacks", because they didn't seem that required, nor did they seem that frivolous.
2. Some of the must-haves, especially on the Mesmer and Warrior, are like... BEHEMOTH must-haves.  Where most classes with cooldown reduction traits have JUST the CD-Redux, Warrs and Mesmers have that + some super extra utility.
3. Some of the traits I didn't include are ones that encourage stagnation.  Warr has one that benefits him for NOT using signets, and Engineer gets one for NOT moving around.
4. Some of the other frivolous traits not included were the ones I'm not sure of, like the convert 5% of ___ into 'X-trait'.  They encourage synergy and require the player to put some thought into gear choice, at least.

Mesmers honestly surprised me.  While I attempted to venture into playing one this weekend (failed due to non-functioning traits and improper tooltips) - they honestly did a very good job at NOT putting in bloaty-frivolous talents.  Likewise with the Necromancer (though both these professions are heavy in the must-haves/cooldown redux) also had a lot of must-haves but not a lot of frivo's.  I think it may have something to do with the fact that mesmer and necro were two of the higher-priority classes that were being 'fixed' just before launch.

TL;DR:  Get rid of the "you have to take this to even be serious about your build" talents, and the ones that make you go "why would I waste a talent point on that?".  Replace them with talents that make you go "hmm.. should I have the chance to set all the enemies on fire with my flamethrower, OR should I have the ability to set them alight from 1200 range back?".  Again, less number-crunchy traits, more fun-factor/play-style enhancing traits.

The role of Thieves and lack thereof.

(Anyone know what the key is supposed to represent?)

             Good idea:  Bringing an infiltration specialist to an infiltration mission

Bad idea:  Bringing a pickpocket into an infiltration mission

I've previously covered a lot of my rants about Thieves here; How to Re-work the Thief.

This long list of changes summed up to the following Thief-related issues:

1. Thieves don't have a role in WvW
2. Steal is an incomplete profession-specific mechanic
3. Weapon choices for Thieves need to be improved
4. Thieves lack a variety of different play-styles

Keep in mind, this was the information I gathered during BWE2/3 and the various stress tests that occurred in between.  After having played the Thief for the past 2 weeks since launch though, I've found a whole other list of problems and solutions to my favorite archetype.

In no short order, I'll sum up what exactly the Thief does well, and where it should be - but isn't.

Can Do's:

1. Thieves have high mobility.  Steal, Infiltrator's Arrow, Heartseeker, Infiltrator's Signet, Shadowstep - and various forms of access to Swiftness make it almost impossible to escape a Thief so long as you are on a semi-flat plane as the enemy.
2. Thieves can avoid a lot of attacks.  Dodging, faster dodging with signets, blinds, death blossoms (if wearing daggers) and disabling shots (if using a shortbow), you can successfully avoid a lot of potential damage - leading to one of the many reasons Thieves are a "skill" based class.
3. Thieves can get away like no one's business.  Hard to Catch, several anti-ports like Shadow Strike, Withdraw, Roll for Initiative - and other similar mechanics make it so the Thief can essentially escape combat whenever they want.*

*I would just like to point out the hilarity of the situation in which you are under attack by 20+ enemies in world vs. world, and in order to escape the situation you do a combo of withdraw + roll for initiative + multiple heartseekers.  Nothing makes the enemy say "ehhh... not worth it" like a thief troll-rolling and flipping away at 1000 miles an hour.  "troll-lol-lol-roll!"

Tries-But-Can't Do's:

1. Thieves can't be tricksy:  Needle, Ambush, Shadow and Tripwire traps are far from useful.  They've got unfortunate restrictions placed upon them, what with the half minute+ cooldowns, and the inability to use more than one of the same trap.  So many possibilities for complex skill-based combat are muzzled and silenced.  You can't lay down an arena of needle or tripwires to run your enemy around, or summon a small army of 20 second thieves to keep the enemy on their toes.  Worse yet, there are conflicting play-styles associated with traps.  Only one of them can be placed at a distance, meaning that in order to effectively use traps in melee will require you to set one down, wait for an enemy to trigger it, and hope you aren't dead before they get impaled by spikes or have a vicious attack-ninja after them.
2. Thieves can't be infiltrators:  Don't let infiltrator's signet or infiltrator's arrow fool you.  They don't infiltrate squat, and it's due in part to the fear of using the word "catch-up" as a synonym for infiltrate, as well as the developers not wanting to give enough liberty with Thieves to become an actual competitive class in WvW.  All our shadow-stepping won't change the fact that enemies on a slightly inclined ledge, up a wall (but still within range), will laugh their asses off when they see you blow a long-cooldown only to end up 2 feet from where you were just standing.  We're grounded, and may never know what it's like to fly, let alone infiltrate.
3. Thieves are passive-aggressive:  Poisons, Signets, and Traps make up 75% of our utility skills.  These either have set-and-forget mechanics, or an active -> passive effect which means almost all of our combat is dependent on either setting up a skill effect, or mashing our weapon skills.
4. Thieves can't stealth:  Oh they can?  They have so many effects which trigger stealth after all.  I must be wrong here.  Normally when you're stealthed you become "invisible".  You are now the 'unknown'.  Where'd he go?  I don't know!  Is he running away?  Is he going to stab me in the back?  Am I about to be shadow-stepped into the enemy formation?  OH GOD THIS IS HORRIBLE!  Wait, no, he was only stealthed for 3-5 seconds, he only had enough time to get away from me by a few feet, or get behind me (which I knew he was going to do so I shuffled around so he couldn't get a clear shot and/or just ran away because they don't have much of an answer to the enemy turning tail upon seeing you stealth).  You can't even set up a decent hit with a simple skill like backstab, let alone get the upper-hand in a 1v1 combat situation as a Thief.

I've got plenty of solutions for everything about a Thief, as mentioned in the above linked post.  However, I have even more than that if anyone's interested.  Ask me for a solution to a problem you see, and I'll give you one.

For now though, take this for what I've presented - Thieves are good at running away, catching up, and evading attacks - but all that counts for nothing if you either can't access your enemies.  Even worse, what happened to me might happen to you - you get your Thief into their 40's, and become bored out of your mind at mashing the same 2-3 weapon skills over and over.

Intentions.

2 Weeks since Launch - Time for write-ups!

I am dedicating this blog to Guild Wars 2.  My hope is that someday people from ArenaNet might see this, and think "hey this guy has some pretty good ideas and presents an interesting viewpoint that we have not considered!"  I'll cover everything from character creation, to profile play-styles, to game mechanics to in-game content.  I've been inspired to do this as a direct result of my arduous hours spent playing the game, and forming opinions on things that I think can be improved or were simply done wrong altogether.  I've got big ideas, and while they may not be possible, they will be documented here.  Check back regularly as I have a lot of time to play, and a lot of time to write.

Thank you,
-LoreChief