Xenturion.9546

One of the few mechanics which counters boon-balling, clouding, kiting and pewpewing combined should be removed? 🤣 What's the alternative? Players standing on walls or operating siege, dropping all of their damage on you, while you can't do a thing about it? Or swarms of Rangers and Thieves pewpewing you from all directions, while you can't land a single hit of damage because they're out of your range? 😐 Does not seem like an ArenaNet problem to me. Sounds like a player experience problem. Besides for making the occasional mistake with regards to positioning or wrong-timed skill use, getting pulled is usually either a result of being unknowledgeable of when the pulls usually occur or being overconfident in one's ability to counter them 🤔

Remove all skills (from all other professions) which counter your pewpew-kite-stealth gameplay? Got it!!! People complain about WvW balance and yet simultaneously beg ANet to unbalance the game mode.

In a zerg setting, a Reaper's job is to strip and damage. Your squad is responsible for boons and heals. Yes, surviving is obviously top priority, but if you play with the right people, they'll allow you to do your job efficiently because they do theirs. Staying on tag, dodging red rings and downing enemy players before they down you should keep you alive for as long as possible. That's the trade-off of playing Reaper in large-scale fights. It's a selfish class. While you shine in close combat, you're barely capable of providing much ranged damage or any form of squad support. That's the reason why it's fallen out of what is considered the current "meta" for larger-scale fighting. Your teammates heal you, while you do all of the damage and get all of the kills, but if your movement is off for a second, you're not too familiar with the class's abilities or its limits, you're almost insta-dead. High risk vs High reward. That's exactly what makes Reaper fun. It's the one class you actually can't rely on much boons to save you if you're caught alone or away from the group (enemies know this too) and requires you to focus on improving your skill instead. Would it be great if Reaper had more boon production? Yes. Which boons? More might? Yes!!! Maybe a couple of extra seconds of stab? Maybe a couple of seconds of superspeeed? Anything beyond that and Reaper instantly becomes overpowered. Imagine a Reaper with invis or invul. Although I'd love the bagfest and enjoy seeing the rage-quitting, that wouldn't be balanced. The class just simply wouldn't be as much fun. Gone are the days of anyone just hopping on a Reaper and actually being good at it. When all other classes outperform you with regards to boons, heals and gimmicks, as the old saying goes...get good!!!

I've played this game mode at 6FPS and 500+ ping for the majority of the past 5 years (courtesy of African internet) and that's simply no excuse. In fact, playing with those handicaps presents a greater opportunity for one to learn how to improve. As much as I think MAG is just a cesspool of gimmicks, I'd have to side with them on this one. This is just poor organization. If one dude with a Dragon Banner can wipe your entire group out...well, you'd absolutely hate what the game mode was like just 2 years ago xD

Maguuma is actually one of the easiest servers to farm. Stability. Reflects. Pulls. This always guarantees a continuous and consistent feed of bags, until you eventually get bored or they send an emergency MySpace message to their server mates, urging them to login and overwhelm you with projectiles in order to save SMC. There are no good players on Maguuma...just really bad roamers or a lack of organization on the opposing servers in most cases.

ArenaNet got many things right with Guild Wars 2 and its game modes. Dragon Banners are not one of those things. It's safe to say that the majority of players share in a consensus regarding the hindrance these bring to the enjoyment of the WvW mode and the experience of the game overall. I'm surprised that no significant actions have been taken towards solving this issue, regardless of the fact that the community has brought it to the attention of the developers on numerous occasions. I understand that making these changes can be extremely complicated and could potentially present additional challenges at times, but one would think that a game mode which incorporates all modes of the game would be of highest priority. Excellent decision to rework mount-stomps!!! Now let's work on these banners... Reworking the damage on Dragon Banners is a poor solution. The banners themselves are not the problem. I find no issue in having the damage of all skills left as is or even increased. The core of the problem is in how they are being used. When and where they are accessible. When and where they are being utilized. Although a few possess offensive properties, all other tactics are defensive within the boundaries of an objective. Banners are the exception. They can be carried across the map and used offensively and in the case of Dragon Banners, to cause major damage. This obviously creates an unfair offensive advantage for its wielders, especially during outnumbered situations. The poster outlined quite a few possible solutions to this. I agree with the majority of what has been mentioned. In an ideal world server links would be more balanced and none of this would be an issue. If host servers and link servers were linked in a way which ensures that there's an even coverage across all time zones, the problems with the Dragon Banners could easily be countered with a bit of average-skilled game-play. Right now? There's no fun or point in logging in to fight groups of 60+ people carrying 6 Dragon Banners on 1 map when you're 15 people spread across 3 maps, trying to defend all of your objectives. The best temporary solution I can think of is for Dragon Banners to only be active within the boundary of the objective from which they are obtained. Then all other proprieties of Dragon Banners could be left as is. If players are going to continue to be able to use them beyond those boundaries, the developers should take into account all of the aspects mentioned in the original post to find a solution or this competitive mode will slowly become more noncompetitive and eventually unplayable. The bottom line is that Dragon Banners should not be available for use to a server while they greatly outnumber either of the other servers on a map. No server should be able to carry 6 of them at any given time. I have single-handily downed an entire guild group of 25+ in SMC on Power Scourge simply by using Dragon's Breath, dropping Well of Corruption, Well of Darkness, Well of Suffering, Ghastly Breach, Desert Shroud, popped off all staff skills and by that time my Shroud skills were recharged again. All that was left for my teammates to do was to cleave the downs as I ran through them with Trail of Anguish. Remove the one Dragon Banner skill I used from the equation and I probably would only have downed about 8 enemies max. Now imagine 6 Power Scourges, all in full Berserker armor, full sets of Scholar runes, running those triple wells, after consuming Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steaks and Potent Superior Sharpening Stones, all equipped with Dragon Banners and a server group of 50+ players attacking all 15 of an opposing team's players. Balanced? In a game about war and fighting, I think competitive modes like WvW should be fight-focused, revolve more around the skilled game-play of individuals or groups of and the skills which their chosen classes provide. As opposed to relying on external weapon or tactic sources to gain an unfair advantage. Nerfed mount-stomps? Excellent! Nerfed certain siege damage? Brilliant! Now the Dragon Banners need some work and to be straight forward, the WvW mode needs a bit more attention in general. I hope that these threads are taken into consideration with regards to the development and evolution of the game. Guild Wars 2 still holds an extreme amount of potential and opportunity. Both for ArenaNet and for the players.