Guild Wars Update - Nov 10 and Nov 11

OMFG 100 blades is nerfed??? I bet cylclone axe then too??\


The fact is, lots of people put lots of time and in-game gold to their builds, monks, ele, w/mo or whatever. Now WTF? Anet owes me almost 200K in runes, armor and Ragos flame staff which is now pennyless.

Now with my monk ( who i just got to lvl 11 before nerf) all i can do is heal noobs that don't know how to hold aggro and run all over the place.

Its a great idea, that with the area spells. Yes, I was one who exploited the fact that monsters stay put where area spells are, particularly by using a double dose of chaos storm with my mesmer with the help of arcane echo.

But now there is actually a reason for a character to pack some movement slowing skills and spells. Before this, there really was not much use for the water and mesmer spells that slow movement in PVE. So I never tried water with my elementalist. Now there is a reason to: cast movement slowing and then cast an area spell.

I think it is also a good idea that the monsters will eventually back off when chasing retreating players. This usually happens already, but in some areas it doesn't, and when it doesn't, it makes the tactic of retreat worthless. It is good to know now that to retreat and regroup will be a useful tactic in the future.

As an afterthought, the AOE update will definitely make mesmers more popular! The Mesmer AOE spells do damage instantaneously, so once cast, the damage is done and it matters not if the monsters try to run away from it. Here I am not referring to Chaos storm, which acts over time, but the oh so powerful Shatter Hex and the elite Energy Surge, as well as Cry of Frustration which gives a minor area damage to surrounding foes.

Ill say this again, this does not affect farming AT ALL.

I can still farm, just takes a tad longer. (ermm so technicly not at all :P)

However for teamplay this has effectivly deleted 30ish AOE spells.

(Makkert, your right some of those skills are not affected, but about 30 are now useless).

What really is the point of leaving the spells in their, they are now only good for farming. for teamplay they are very likely to backfire on you.

100 Blades and Cyclone Axe are fine...same as always

All it took was a secondary change and I'm back in UW.

Very nice attempt Anet, you almost stopped me.

(And no, I'm not going to post the build.)

Doppleganger easier = more incompetent people stuck at Thunderhead. Really... he was already so stupid it was laughable.

Complete nerf of the fire attribute = might as well just remove it from game. Guess it's time to switch to air for PvE, or delete my ele.

Mobs don't chase forever = a boon to runners in the desert.

The nerf bat has swung wildly, with little consideration for PvE play balance, IMO.

Actually yes I did test.

For the last 4 hours me and my guild ran the gamet of classes and skill sets that involve aoe...err Im sorry "multiple target skills"

And as stated, every skill on that list resulted in varying forms of bugginess.

Everything ranging from mindless back and forth, to hostile attack on caster, to fleeing to the other side of the map.

Mobs tested at grenths footprint, Elona reach, Augury rock, UW, and yaks bend.

The highlights...

In grenths my guild got to witness a humble hammer warrior chase a freakin icegolem around for a good 5 minutes, because the damn thing was being shot by ignite arrows.

Elona Reach resulted in the minotaur acting out a sketch from 3 stooges.Read: lots of running around, with little to no damage actually being dealt on the part of the frightened minotaur

Augury rock has some interesting pathing problems.Namely minotaur attacking each other, stadning still while having an axe warrior pound on them with them not fighting back, and my personal favorite, the get up and run the f*ck away.

UW resulted in the 3 man team getting owned. lol, that was just funny.

And yaks bend bore the birth of the yo-yo smiter.

Target Summit Hammer warrior.

smiter casts Bane signet on attacking warrior

warrior falls down, stands back up and runs

smiter casts Mantra of signets
Smiter casts Signet of Judgement

Summit dwarf falls down, takes damage and runs.

Smiter casts Signet of Judgement

summit dwarf dies.

1v1 encounter, smiter never got hit.

I'm not saying believe me.Im not saying I know all.

test em out for yourself, formulate your own opinons.

My opinion though?

This is bulls*it

Sure I can beat them, but what I don't like is altering my builds every week. Occasional tweaks are one thing, but lately this has gotten ridiculous. I play for enjoyment, not to be forced, on a regular basis to alter things. If I sit and play ANY game, be it FPS, MMORPG, or console for that matter, if everytime I sit down to relax I have to revamp my entire style, I'm going to get aggravated, which is precisely what has happened.

My reason for putting this game on the shelf as a dust collector is NOT because I can't rise to the occasion and beat the enemies...give me a break. The reason is that I'm very disheartened by Anet's determination to tell me HOW to play.

If you are honestly going to argue that this was NOT aimed at screwing the 5-man farm than you really aren't looking at the facts. ANet has made a hasty decision to nearly disable AoE skills which have been a mainstay of the game since day one. You can't just do that without expecting repercussions. If I log on to one of my many FPS games tomorrow and they have removed my weapon of choice, you can bet I will quit giving them my money just as fast.

HA

ive just realised

Farming hasnt been nerfed

The enemies have, 3 stogies style ftw.

Lol all Ele superiors that aren't Fire or EStorage are sold out. Noobs will believe anything.

I think the update is great and will encourage people to evolve their playing style. The behavoir of the monsters is now closer to real players, after all, have you ever seen a decent player stand in a meteor storm?

In PVP, if you are using AoE skills that damage over time you will want to equip snares so that opponents stay in that area and I see no reason why this can't happen in PVE. How about taking a memser with ethereal burden to put on a shadow monk before you drop a maestrom or metoer shower on him? Maybe that same mesmer can interupt or shutdown that monk instead of relying on brute force of nukes?

If we can be sure that monsters will always move out of AoE spells then there are ways to take advantage of this. For instance, how about putting ice prison on a monk and dropping a chaos storm on him, while he's walking out of the chaos storm he isnt healing thus you could take the opportunity to kill another primary target. This is the kind of thinking I'd like to see players use and I believe that this update may just lead towards this and will create a richer playing experience for all of us.

No more groups with just warriors, monks and echo nukers. That's a good thing.

I like that FPS reference.

Pretend, for a moment, that the Fire Magic Attribute is a Sniper Rifle.

Removing the AoE capabilities of Fire Magic is like removing the scope from the Sniper Rifle.

Why even use it? Just delete it all together or give us our scope back.

I experienced this as well. It's one thing to move out of it. But for the AI to start scattering while I'm casting out of the aggro bubble is another.

Two things here. First of all, evolving is fine. Completely altering? No, I shouldn't have to. AoE spells are almost exclusively what I earned on the quests on my path to completing the game with my elemental. Secondly, and flame me all you want for this, but honestly, if I wanted the AI to behave more like real players I would be a PVP player, not a PVE one.

Damn this is the most retarded upgrade ever. I got 2 chars i use.. Fire ele and an invici monk. Guess i can just delete um? The hell with it no use to play now.

I do agree with this guy....delete the character or whip out some new fire spells....the current pyro skills are rendered MOSTLY..(not all) ineffective....they still work but are not nearly as effective...a majority of them...

I think that it also brings to mind that we now have so many absolutly useless skills. Take a look count them throughout all classes. They where not just nerfed, they where takin out of game, and now have no purpose. These skills where not given any replacements.

instead of LF ele its now going to be: LF WARRIOR!!

I can almost** gaurentee that the problem, with creatures fleeing while the skill is being cast will be updated...it was a big update and there will be corrections to follow.....

Invinci monk still works, calm down dear its just a comercial. Actually no delet him and give me the runes

However its AOE spells in teamplay that are useless.

And the amount of buggy behavior im encountering is just stupid.

EDIT

How about they jsut get it RIGHT FOR ONCE

Very well said. This would add a level of competency for the AI w/o making AOE spells obsolete in PvE. A balance... if you will. I could live with that.