User talk:Isaiah Cartwright

From Guild Wars Wiki

Note: Please use ArenaNet:Skill feedback for all feedback about skills

[edit] Izzy Status

I suck and haven't been updating this very much. I blame GW2! Izzy @-'---- 01:51, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

I took the liberty of archiving some of the older topics. Concerning GW 2, I really hope it's worth the time it took away from the developers that they could have used to improve GW 1. --Draikin 00:45, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes GW2, are there any developers left for gw1 then? prokiller88 01:41, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Blessed Light and Signet of Devotion

I know you are a very busy man and looking at skill feedback on the skills section must take a while, there are a few viable suggestions that I can open your eyes to for Blessed Light.

Proposal #1

Heal target ally for 40...88...100 Health and remove one hex and one condition. You gain 3 energy if a hex is removed and 2 energy if a condition is removed. (10e, 4 recharge 3/4 cast time)

-Won't be used as a primary heal because it will still be 10 energy

-Lowered Healing by a little, uped the recharge by one second

Proposal #2

Heal target ally for 40...88...100 Health. If target ally was enchanted, also remove a condition and a hex. (5e, 6 recharge, 3/4 cast time)

-Makes the full effect harder to achieve

-Conditional removal

-Increased recharge to 6 seconds which prevents overspamming

Signet of Devotion

Proposal-This skill really needs to be buffed because it is unplayable at two seconds.

Heal target ally for 15...85...125. (8 recharge, 1 cast time).

-Cast time reduced to see some use in high end pvp

-Upped recharge due to buff to cast time and slight healing increased

So as you can see, the issue with blessed light is NOT that it needs an increased heal. It needs some sort of reward for meeting the condition and hopefully, implementing one of these changes will balance this once-loved skill (i still love it even though its terrible now! i find every excuse to run it but it gets destroyed regardless:P) Please take these into consideration when making your next big skill update. :) Thanks--Lancy1214 23:10, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

B-Light needs to go to 5 3/4 3 Heal target ally for 10...114...140 and remove one hex and one condition. If a hex or condition is removed, you lose 5 energy. -cabra

Cabra, that would promote to spam the spell as a heal which is not what the skill is used for. Having a small recharge of 3 seconds will once again let divine protters have the ability to heal. Also, that doesn't encourage smart play of the skill. It would be better having it as a 10 energy skill with energy rewarded if the conditions are met or have it as 5e with a conditional remove. --Lancy1214 20:26, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

BLight needs to heal a lot more to compete with WoH. The condition and hex removal power of BLight becomes moot in the face of the raw power offered by WoH. As far as Signet of Devotion goes, it's fine the way it is. It's a free ~100 heal. The problem is you need 14 Divine Favor to use it, so when BLight is viable, Signet of Devotion will be too. It's not worth the time investment at lower attribute levels which other types of Monks run and that's fine.

--TimeToGetIntense 05:28, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Sure, sig of devo is a free 100 heal but how many times do you actually manage to pull the heal off without interruption? Cancelling helps but then theres really no point of bringing it anyways if you are going to half to cancel constantly every time you use it. And no, blight and woh are 2 different spells and function differently. The condition and hex removal should result in an overall less healing from blight otherwise people would just use blesed light instead of woh.

--72.138.13.180 23:10, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Sig Devo: Who cares if it gets interrupted, it's FREE. If someone uses an interrupt on it, it's pretty much a waste of their interrupt. They can be more productive by interrupting most other skills you or your allies have. I guarantee you, if there's a viable Divine Favor Monk, it will run Sig Devo.

Blight: If the enemy team uses WoH and you use BLight your pressure management is a fraction of theirs. There is no contest, you lose. Their team can play more aggressively because they have so much stronger heals. It doesn't matter how good you are at removing hexes or conditions. BLight only saw play in the past because it actually rivaled the Boon Prot in efficiency. Now it needs to be better on split than WoH. It needs to be a skill that makes a Monk really strong solo, for that it needs to be better at healing to compress the skillbar. WoH just needs to be stronger at stand and we'll have a balance between the two skills. --TimeToGetIntense 15:18, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

I usually bring Signet of Rejuvenation instead of Signet of Devotion if I make a healing build. 145.94.74.23 11:47, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Signet of Rejuvenation is great if you're primarily using Healing Prayers. If you primarily use Divine Favor, Signet of Devotion is better. --TimeToGetIntense 14:29, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Signet of Devotion is more like - I WAS going to heal you but it took like 2 WHOLE seconds for that SLOW bar to fill up that you died anyways. I say make the heal on it with the same scale of orison and put the cast time to 1, and its fixed... Heals for 20...60...70 76.26.189.65 00:05, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Blessed Light:To TimetoGet Intense, the utilization of blight although strong, should not be used as a primary heal. Thus your comparison with Woh is somewhat misleading due to the situation both should be used. Blight is meant to be combined with other healing spells such as Gift of Health and thus the whole play style of the blight monk should be played differently. With Blight, you play as an active prot monk who should pre-prot team members via spirit bond...etc. Gift of Health is used generically to heal people who need the health. However, with Woh, users sometimes wait to get the full benefit of Woh from the 50% halfmark. Woh is often also used as a generic heal even though its condition isn't met. Obviously a monk speccing into healing has stronger heals than a Blessed Light monk but that's not the point. And also to your comment about removing conditions and hexes, yes it does matter how fast a monk removes them because they can either make the game or break the game. If your melee is suffering melee hexes and weakness/blind, you will have no dps thus forcing you to spend more energy curing the ailments and healing while your melee hopelessly wait till the durations end.

Signet of Devotion= Yes viable divine monk builds run this skill but once again, what's the point of speccing so high into divine favour when one of your energy management skills is going to be interrupted anyways? I don't know about you but bringing interrupt bait is certainly not worth a skill spot on my action bar. I like your suggestion 76 maybe keeping the recharge the same as it is while lowering the healing to that of orison and reducing the cast time would make it more balanced. That way, it serves its goal as topping off someone's health while healing less so healing prayers will be needed.--Lancy1214 01:53, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

BLight cannot work without being more efficient. The point of BLight is that it does 3 different things. It removes a hex, a condition and it heals. It's not Signet of Removal. It's the ultimate bar compression Monk elite. It needs to be better at one of those 3 things, the healing part. And who gives a fuck about the 50% clause on WoH. It still has double the energy efficiency of BLight above 50%. How are you supposed to compensate for such a massive loss in healing power and even begin to compete with a WoH Monk? --TimeToGetIntense 13:54, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Amen to that. That's why blight needs some sort of energy return to be worthwhile bringing or an energy reduction. --Lancy1214 16:50, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

As long as it can't deal with actual damage it sucks. Sure it would be great if you could get energy back for removing hexes/conditions. What if the enemy has very few of them and they have a WoH Monk? GG you're fucked. --TimeToGetIntense 04:34, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm sure a monk doesn't rely their WHOLE build on an elite, so the blight monk has other options to heal allies/herself regardless of the situation (Reversal of Fortune, Gift of Health, Guardian, Dismiss Condition...etc). --Lancy1214 22:52, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

All of those pale in comparison to WoH, especially when your main attribute is Divine Favor. --TimeToGetIntense 09:05, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

You people bashing BLight can't know the meta atm. The meta is load up on hexes and go and pressure them out. When facing a pressure you DONT need the strong heal from WoH, but the extra hex removal is ALWAYS helpful. A hexway team degen's you out, it has little raw damage meaning yeah BLight>WoH (but only if BLight can get some greater form of energy manangement).

I am shocked, disappointed and surprised at how Izzy has not even made an attempt to comment on the above issue at all. It has been over a month since i first posted the issue and not one comment from you; I sure hope you certainly get your act together for guild wars two.--Lancy1214 23:17, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nerf Bat

After watching the tourny final match with [rawr] using 4 monks, 1 rit and 1 signet mesmer who here thinks smite is going to get hit again? --Shadetz X 02:39, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Smiting isn't the problem. Scythe damage and 5-man backlines are. ~Shard (talk) 04:20, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I agree that smiting is not a problem. Damage creep in general is getting out of hand. Seriously, when you see 2 heal/prot monks, 2 smiter's boon monks and 1 resto flag runner in play you know something is wrong. There is no need for 5 man backline if the support classes are getting nerfed while damage creep is more of a problem. Although I enjoy using OP builds (mostly melee) that kill things in a few seconds, I do not think they are healthy for the game. --Shadetz X 05:33, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

What possible definition of backline did the smite monks fit? --24.179.151.252 17:42, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

They knew Dark Ally was going to bring 2 Dervishes. Reversal of Damage + 2 Smite Condition + Warrior Spike (and maybe Smite Hex) is too much for those Dervishes. I hope SoJ won't get nerfed b/c it isn't overpowered at all. I do not think shade was referring to Rebel Rising's team set up but meta in general. --216.113.208.150 22:24, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

scyte dameg is not overpowred. izzy did right in bufing woondin streik as scytes do to low dameg and dep woond is the vors condtinion in the gaem --Frozen Archer 22:46, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Frozen Archer are you spelling that way on purpose? If not then I must assume you understand syntax about as well as you play the game. Deep wound is one of the most powerful skills in the game that will cause a person to lose up to 100 points of their maximum health and reduces healing by 20%. Done25 00:45, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

He was mocking the people who say scythes aren't overpowered. --76.25.197.215 01:12, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

I doubt it. He has been warned multiple times about trolling. Take a peek at his discussion page. Done25 01:16, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

u cant see difference between jokes and trolling sir --Cursed Angel

01:17, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

This is trolling http://wiki.guildwars.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Isaiah_Cartwright&diff=next&oldid=942887 Done25 01:23, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

He is already on the Guild Wars Wiki:Admin noticeboard btw. He is three sections above you Cursed. Done25 01:26, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Wow I am good at predicting the obvious :O... SOJ was nerfed --Shadetz X 04:31, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] How to make GW the best game ever

Ok izzy, since you're obviously a comment removed by user and have no clue how to balance the game, I'm going to guide you through it, step by step. You can use this guide every month and all gimmicks will disappear, and more people might actually come back to the game. People might even buy GW2 if they think it will be fun. It's all up to you. You can keep sucking at game balance and GW2 won't sell, or you can make GW the best game ever and GW2 a close second.

Step 1: Learn math. If there are two skills that are 5, 1, 3 and one of them heals for 100 while the other heals for 70, and that's all they do, something is wrong. Balance includes everything having equal power levels on average.

Step 2: Learn what game balance is. There are hundreds if not thousands of articles on the internet that will teach you why something without counters is broken. More counters = more strategy. Less counters = more 321killthembeforetheykillus. There should never be a skill that is completely unstoppable.

Step 3: Play the game. A build that can kill something every 3 seconds with one skill is broken. Not knowing what people are running impedes you as a game balancer. A thousand players will always find more broken mechanics than one person, and that's fine. It's your responsibility to watch that. Try out every popular build a few times, see which ones are too easy/too powerful.

Step 4: When you find a broken skill/build, ask yourself "Why is this skill/build broken? Why do people run this skill/build?" Soul Reaping was not broken because it was giving necromancers 300 energy per minute instead of 144. It is broken because it's passive, unpredictable energy management. Searing Flames is not broken because it has aoe or because the damage is 110 instead of 100, it's broken because its recharge is 2. Magebane was not broken because it costed 5 instead of 10, it's broken because it's too spammable. Strength of Honor was not broken because it could be reapplied when removed, in fact, Strength of Honor isn't even broken. AoE hammers with 92 damage criticals are. Changing random numbers on random skills will not balance the game. You have to use that brown thing inside your skull to fix things.

Step 5: Follow up. Are your new changes abusable? If so, maybe a second balance is required to fix those things instead of letting it become the most equipped skill in all of pvp for over a month.

Here's how to tell when something is overpowered: It becomes the metagame. Balanced games do not have a metagame. Look at Starcraft. You can win with any race, any combination of units. There is never a starcraft tournament where everybody runs hydralisk rush, because there are 500 other ways to win. People play SC based on their play styles, not based on "we absolutely have to use this skill because it's broken, and there are no alternatives for winning." ~Shard (talk) 02:17, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I agree with/quote one part of this. There should never be a METAGAME. Every skill, every build, every class, should be equally capable, or stand out in their specific fields. Hopefully this Thursday/Friday brings a huge skill overhaul, and brings back/makes some useless and old skills usable at last, and takes heavily powered skills down a notch. Phill Gaston 02:35, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm sure Izzy doesn't know this Shard. You're such a wonderful help. — Skakid 03:10, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

He either doesn't know any of this, or he does and someone else is balancing the game. ~Shard (talk) 07:16, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

the point of changing random numbers on random skills is to open up new possibilities and not to balance something, you can't just nerf and take everything away 87.189.241.25 10:09, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Buff something...nerf something else to disuse, thats how updates are now. :P --Super Igor

10:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I pray Izzy doesn't nerf anything, because he has a tendency to make skills TOO good, then take it out and shoot it. ((I miss the old sundering/penetrating attack...Its not worth the 1s activation)) I like Wounding ATM, but its just too abusable. hopefully he doesn't over-nerf it, or something. ((Lose an enchantment after use maybe?)) But yeah, we'll see.

More people have Wounding than res signet. =O Phill Gaston 11:51, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

If you include alliance battles as pvp, yes. There are like 6 critican sins on both teams combined with WS. Why would you turn down 1 deep wound every second? ~Shard (talk) 04:02, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Shard wins a cookie. (Just for the record, last I checked WoW didn't have a metagame either. Says something, even with the item hierarchy of shittiness and the release of S2 buyable with honor, don't it?) -- Armond Warblade 00:57, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

yeah and what is pvp in WoW? its a large scaled random arena --Cursed Angel

01:01, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd argue that AV is essentially a RA version of GvG, but it's not really worth the effort. Also, RA has a sort-of meta, maybe. :P -- Armond Warblade

01:36, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

A lot of the problem in this game comes with multi-classing, a MESMER should be a MESMER and not anything else, A Ranger Dervish should never be able to beat a real dervish ever. Warriors are considered extremely balanced in most situations, not because they are the oldest class in gw, but because they can run a bar with entirely warrior skills. Alot of imbalance stems from cross class bull shit that works because they have a skill pool of over 200 with attributes being the only moderator, and with runes its not a very good one. Shouts, chants, echos, and Weapon spells should have never been created because they are irremovable and have an influential power that tends to sway battles in the wrong direction. You know balance has failed when you see more people playing their secondary class with their primary attributes. Would you consider Wounding strike imbalanced if the dervish couldn't use Conjure? Also would you have had to nerf SoH or mantra of inscriptions if a mesmer couldnt abuse them? It would take alot more creative planning if you couldnt multi-class and had to actually play your class.--99.153.226.11 05:58, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

a lot of cross-class builds can be balanced, especially if you're a caster and 2ndary monk so you can equip a self-heal in case a war thinks it's a good idea to hit you--Sum Mesmer Guy

contribs 06:53, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Which is why monks exist in the first place. How many organized teams do you see with Warriors Eles necros bringing anything other than self condition removal? Nobody pecs /mo for a self heal, that is the monks job. --99.153.226.11 07:08, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

99 brings up a good point - the secondary classes have been the source of a lot of imba builds. I would disagree however, that they be discontinued. They can be balanced, but playing the primary class must have ore advantages than it does right now. Primary attribs should be bonuses, not requirements, to builds. -- nüklaer | VII | selfless self promotion 18:51, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Nuklear also wins a cookie (and a better sig but he changed it back so no need for that :p)I love the secondary prof mechanic but the point is THIS : Elementalists have energy storage ==> exhaustion on there skills Rangers have expertise ==> more expensive skills Mesmers have fast casting ==> skills cast longer

3 examples but NOW what happens when a ranger with expertise uses dervish skills with a normal energy cost : Imba what happens when mesmers take non mesmer spelles (possibly not always) imba.And what happens when an elementalist doesnt use skills with exhaustion !! Thats right decent players call you noob with reason ! (ok the last thing wasnt a good example).But it does settle the point of nuclear and shard and me and whoever agrees/signs to this.Will you izzy ? Lilondra 18:14, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Totally agree. Secondary prof. abuse leads to a lot of imbalance. That said, I would disagree to a certain extent with what 99 said about mesmers having to be mesmers and all that, because one thing I love about Guild Wars is the creativity in some of the builds - for example, why can't a mesmer be a fast-casting ele (he still has to put up with the high energy costs and exhaustion)? But there's a fine line between builds which are a bit creative in how they mix classes and builds which abuse the way things work.

[edit] Automated Tournaments and AFK Abuse

Seems like 90% of the guilds that play the dead American and Asian AT slots are all 4 AFK players and 4 henchmen, ive even started one myself just to farm a few keys with some guildies, its gotten to the point now where even if you remove reward points for finishing with no wins they will still end up with atleast 2 wins from other guilds doing the same thing.

I know if it gets fixed i wont be doing myself any favors but its really out of hand currently and i think its due to get a lot worse as more people catch on, its about 20k worth of reward points per character which is an easy 80k per AT for someone who knows how to use multiple instances of GW, why bother making farming bots for PvE when you can just go AFK in PvP and earn much more, its a good job the Asian farming community hasnt picked up on this. Warlock 13:19, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I could be accused of running an afk guild, but the fact is we are there and play when appropriate, however when facing a top 300 guild, to get wiped and verbally abused (which is what often happened) puts us off to the extent that now we just go do something for that match and turn off local chat. Without the "afk" guilds as you call them, there would be times during the midweek night AT's where Noob Glads and Twinkle Twinkle would be by themselves.

[edit] The update

I'm all for the CV nerf, and the SoJ was well-deserved and justified, but you didn't hit Shadowsteps hard enough. Now, I don't know if you thought they were only a problem at the stand, but in ganking situation, they are still murderous. A friend of mine is just rofling and screaming "they didn't do zilch! I can rape still!". Needless to say, he abuses AoD.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - you need to add some penalty to shadowsteps. -- NUKLEAR IIV 07:53, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

I will not say it again, the penality is called aftercast delay. 87.189.198.133 08:35, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

That's not a penalty. That's just diluting the effect. I can still gank without any sort of worry with AoD. A penalty would be increased energy cost, sacrifice, a powerful blackout - aftercast is hardly troubling. -- NUKLEAR

IIV 10:59, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

This update weakened shadow step melee spikes, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, that's all it did. ~Shard (talk)

22:49, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Nuclear's ideal updates:

Wounding Strike: Added 7% .
Aura of Displacement: Added 10% . User now sacrificess 10% max. health when cancelling AoD
Rending Touch: Added 15% .
Escape: Added 5% .
Ursan Blessing: Added 95% , and 10% to all Ursan Skills.

I do agree, though, that the aftercast was a bit clunky. Not to mention that the Shadow Walk nerf has no effect on builds which start with a skill (e.g. Iron Palm, Palm Strike) since by the time you've used it your attack skills will have recharged (though imo it's not such a big deal since Palm Strike is a bit UP anyway).

[edit] Assassins in General..

hey izzy, it seems that for the past few months assassins are only getting nerfed, i think the problem isnt the fact that most of the skills are overpowered(cept a certain few) but i think its that alot of people just run gimmicks and play assassins alot more in pvp, of course 3 or more signet of judgement deadly arts sins are going to kill you as you will be on the ground for 90% of the time.. you know that limiting the number of professions per party in pvp would solve most of the problems, just look at the past, you see paraway,sf way, a party comprised solely of sins... if there was a limit on professions per party, perhaps 2 then this would allow for more constructive and diverse gameplay, instead of everyone running "cookie cutter" builds. anyway u should make like a testing weekend/week with a profession limit, im sure you will notice amazing diversity and balance(along with some Q_Qing)

anyhow, i dont think that assassins(or any other profession) should have to pay the price just because everyone is using the same profession and build and people get tired of it..

as for shadowform, pvp version is fine, pve version needs to be reverted back to when it was 21 secs, the buff in duration allowed for a/e builds in every direction, thats the reason why u nerfed it to 50% less dmg in the first place right? i dont get why you dont change it back to 21 secs, it was difficult to perma shadowform(especially when u lagged) also it allowed for 2ndary proffessions,eles in particular, to make use of it.. i dont get why you buffed it in the first place, you should have known better.. now assassins and assassin secondary proffesions who use shadowform are paying the price, along with the 55/600 monks in the uw. if u changed it back to 21 secs, it would still be troublesome to get to the chaos planes, due to natures renewal on a a/me, because you would be standing there for 6 secs while charged darknesses run up to u and use shock.. --Arrythmia 22:37, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Limiting professions in a group will solve nothing. People will run 2 A/Mo and 2 Me/A and 2 Mo/A. The problem is the skills alone. ~Shard (talk)

22:47, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

it would solve the effectiveness of gimmicks, ask yourself this, why would a mesmer play as a half assed assassin, when they could just shutdown people.. and if you were implying that shadowsteps were a problem, yes i agree about that, but other than that, this would solve alot of problems.. im not saying get rid of skill balances at the same time--Arrythmia

23:03, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

why did he nerf shadow prison? why did he nerf shroud of silence? why did he nerf certain paragon skills? because everyone was running the same build and profession... and that the gimmicks are redundant and some are overpowered. no one can disagree that this would allow for an increased diversity of builds and gameplay, not just 8 people spamming the same skill, thats about as bad as ursan--Arrythmia 23:08, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not gonna argue, because I'm 100% correct on this: Limiting the number of professions per team will solve nothing. Name me ANY gimmick build and I'll tell you how it'll get bypassed. ~Shard (talk)

05:46, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

IWAY? :O --71.229.253.172 06:27, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

W/R, W/R, R/W, R/W, Mo/N orders (or D/N), N/Rt, N/Rt, Rt/Me. Easy.

Limited the number of professions per team would require more of a structured type of PvP which isn't in PvP at the moment. I don't PvP very often but having limits like that would be just wrong. Balance not limit. 000.00.00.00 08:13, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

The best way to keep classes in check is to have non-stacking effects. For example, Warriors rely heavily on Deep Wound to get kills. This is a virtual 100 damage but does not stack, so the power you get from multiple Warriors is generally diminished. Shatterstone is another good example of non-stacking damage. One Shatterstone Ele is perhaps the most powerful spell based damage dealer in the game but more than one of them will either have to hit different targets or lose damage. On the other hand, Searing Flames gets stronger the more of them you have, and that's proven to be a really bad thing. Assassins are similar because the more of them you have, the more rediculous split tactics you can pull off. It doesn't even matter if they are Assassin primary. All they need is a build that can Shadowstep and kill a target in around 5 seconds. R/A can do this, E/A, W/A, Rt/A, Mo/A, D/A, etc... There are viable gank builds for all of those combinations that use Shadowstepping... Not necessarily using daggers. --TimeToGetIntense 19:58, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Time demonstares a textbook example of Win. -- NUKLEAR

IIV 13:46, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] How do you do it?

Before all the qqers read this post; understand that this is'nt a flaming post but a question. After every mistake in balancing you have done to guildwars, how can you still have your job? I really cant see how you are fit for the position as skillbalancer. This is not how the skills should look like Just to make things clear; i did not post this to flame you. But i REALLY want to know how you still have your job after all this. The majority of the playerbase pretty much hate you due to bad balance. And, if i can find a job where i can terribly suck at, still get my payment and no possibility of getting fired. I'd love to know the amazing tactic of doing that :').15:44, 12 July 2008 (UTC) edit: its mehOni 15:44, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

God your an asshole. i'd like to see you balance the game half as good as he does. its not his job to make YOU happy, its to change/nerf/buff skills that are unused/superpowerful/crappy. its dumb how people hate him because he nerfs thier build, or buffs another one so the old one sucks in comparison....did i mention your an asshole? play the game and dont flame, yes, flame the people who try to keep this game alive. God. /endrant Image:Joshthorsig.jpg JoshThor Talk 17:08, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

What? His job is to balance the game. Correct? Tell me what area in the game is balanced. none is. TA=wod and shit like that GvG= lol so much sinsplit anyone? PvE= dont even have to go into that HA= sway anyone? HB= Use wiki build or lose kthx. No. he is not a good balancer. and people who want him to be keep doing suggestions all the time, but he just makes the game weirder (buff barbed spear was soo needed amirite?)Oni 17:21, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Oni, what exactly are you trying to achieve with this? Getting banned again? For the third time in 2 weeks? This is not going anywhere. If you want to improve things don't post things like this but post suggestions instead. Oh and Josh, there are problems in the game. Some of which Izzy introduced. However, with the last few updates Izzy seems to be on the good path. Therefore I think both of you are not right. There is no point in saying Oni is an asshole either. Dark Morphon(contribs) 17:24, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

I am not violating the rules by asking am i morphie? i really want to know. i asked my friends about it. hell, i even asked you. noone knew. so i ask him.Oni 17:27, 12 July 2008 (UTC) Edit: this is the best update he did in... a year? that doesnt make him a good balancer tbhOni 17:32, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

"GvG= lol so much sinsplit anyone?" Someone doesn't GvG. Sinsplit went away a long....long...time ago. DarkNecrid 23:10, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

fail. noOni 23:27, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

uh? lol? sinsplit went away months ago dude. No one has complained abou tit at all...because no one uses it. Maybe in ATs to farm people as a joke (no one cares about ATs), or maybe on the ladder (which people shit around on anyways), but no one uses it seriously because it sucks now. Dervsmite is the new broken thing. l2keep up with meta DarkNecrid 05:04, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Oni is right in either case. Izzy's job is to balance an online game, and he hasn't been doing it for over two years. Anet doesn't like firing people, I guess. That's the trick Oni, get a job with a game company who doesn't care about their games. You'll never get fired. ~Shard (talk)

08:04, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I wrote that gvg was not balanced. dark please stop being bad. sinsplit can still rape entire base without dying. its just that dervsmite is easier. Instead of just sitting yar ass on obs, try playing; the sec yar encounter a decent sinsplit you lose. Cba to keep arguing about a boring argument tho, get a better one or shushie. Thx for advice shard :P! -signs up as armor designer while not knowing a damn about it- Oni 09:09, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

grow up 87.189.202.130 10:03, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Sure, sisplit is gone, but it is still viable. People seem to be forgetting this. Any decent sin can still rape all of your base. It just takes a lot of balls. -- NUKLEAR

IIV 13:45, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Oni, he might have done things that are bad in the past few years but let's not look back and try to do something about it shall we? We should help Izzy a bit, to make this game we all play somewhat better. Oh and about that thing about saying this: this is a dangerous comment to make if you're just unbanned, you know how the admins work here ;). Dark Morphon(contribs) 15:49, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

if they try to ban me ill put a npa sign showing the rules and stick it up their face. im not doing anything wrong by asking this. and dude. Just look at izzys talkpage. its FILLED with suggestions. check the wounding strike post (where he says its balanced..) he just does not listen to themOni 18:21, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
stop trolling
Well, if they think things like Wounding Strike are balanced, they better buff everything so the current meta-game isn't so...meta. Phill Gaston 07:18, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

While sinsplit as we knew it (aka Me's gold cape version) does not exist, dedicated splits are viable and common. There are many guilds (mostly euro and some of the builds they run are pretty wacky - go figure) that I know of at the r300-rwhatever range that are split dedicated. Some of them still use one assassin or teleporting skills, while some do not. Dedicated splits will continue to be far more effective than it was due to VoD/ViO mechanics. Whether you agree this is a good thing or think that GvG should be 8v8 oriented isn't really the issue at hand. 4v4 balance/smaller scale balance, on the other hand, is something that needs to be taken a look at especially with the dedicated splitting builds that are somewhat prolific. There's a need for reevaluation. People are trying to point this out and are getting frustrated by the lack of attention. PlacidBlueAlien 18:20, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not talking about sineptitude. I'm talking about sinsplit, using AoD sins to rape a base in 5 minutes with total invincibility. That, my friend, is most sertainly not viable. -- NUKLEAR

IIV 08:52, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

It's viable, you mean to say it's not balanced. In fact, in a game based on staying alive, I'd say 100% invincibility is outright cheating. ~Shard

09:02, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes I wonder why the ArenaNet staff members / company employee's even bother having talk pages, look at the idiotic crap that get's said on all of these pages.

Baddock

+1 --SK 11:08, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Shadow Step Nerf..WTH(!?)

Seriously, why nerfing Shadow Stepping skills?
I mean what do you think you use these skills vs Oni's "beloved" SinSpike:

This that's enough to take care of any Dagger using Sin..
For Scythe-based Assassins..use Shadow of Fear..1.75×1.5=2.625s attack interval!
That will also do against Scythe-way.
Furthermore: Well of Darkness + Suffering..
See? If you just stop Q_Q'ing the whole f*cking time and start looking for counters
you can fine a bunch of counters in just 2mins.
Ohw, and about Wail of Doom,
take Backfire, 10% Max HP Sacrifice + Aprox. 100 Dmg ain't worth the 1...3...4 seconds Wail of Doom lasts.

All Build have counters..just stop whining and start looking,
I'm sure you'll find someway to make a potent Necro Build that can prove useful
in countering at least 3 different Builds ='] (Rezu Blackheart 20:48, 13 July 2008 (UTC))

Aegis isn't a counter for shadow stepping.

Spiteful Spirit? Empathy? They do 40 damage, scythes do 150. Hexes are removable, enemy weapons aren't.

Tainted flesh stops 500 damage dagger combos?

Shadow of fear does not stop damage, it lengthens the time between damage taken. A spike doing 600 damage will still do 600 damage.

Backfire is a counter for Wail of Doom? Yeah I'm sure that necro is gonna be afraid of the 15 damage they'll take from your level 0 backfire, if it doesn't get interrupted or removed first.

Read a game balance article somewhere before you post again. Having a counter does not make a skill balanced. ~Shard (talk)

23:03, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

damn right! stop QQing about shadowsteps and use counters against it like tainted flesh and empathy --Cursed Angel

23:09, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

@ Shard Aegis doesn't counter Shadow Stepping but it DOES counter a Sin's Melee Attacks,
if it's Lead of Off-Hand attack got blocked or interupted he has to with like 30-45s
for it's entire attack chain (including his Shadow Step Skill) to recharge.
SS & Empathy do low damage, but if used the right was can cause a lot of pressure.
Backfire is cast BEFORE Wail of Doom, so it won't be 15 dmg like you said Shard..
Tainted Flesh is a pressure skill as well, it puts pressure on the monks,
as they will have to remove Disease from their entire team,
at the risk it'll be back before that condition removal skill(s) are recharged.
Result: Monks run out of energy, when they do, that panic,
When the Monks panic, the team panics, ending up in the whole team screwing up.
Ohw, and about your 600 Damage combo, correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't EVERY SINGLE MONK use THIS Skill?
With that on you it'll hardly be a 80dmg combo, making Orison of Healing enough to deal with it.

Furthermore, I like playing Sin in PvP, I know it's strengths and weaknesses well,
I personally find SS/Empathy a damn strong counter against any melee based build
Especially against Sins, who have a fast attacking weapon (often along with an IAS)
and the chance of Duel Striking, most Sins either immidiatly abort their attack
or die trying to kill the target anywayz

More for Shard: Come up with w/e skill you can name, I will find a counter for it,
Of course you can't be ready for EVERY SINGLE BUILD, but a well Balanced Team
should be able to reach ±50% chance of victory..There isn't such a thing as an invincible build
and that will never happen, but Strong Builds DO exist.(Rezu Blackheart 23:42, 13 July 2008 (UTC))

So the 8 best players in the game only have a 50% chance of winning? I can tell you didn't read any balance articles like I told you to. gamedev.net is a good place to start. I won't even bother responding to that wall of crap you posted until you follow my advice. When you can talk about game balance competently, I will listen to you. ~Shard

23:59, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Aggreed with Shard, fail less and learn about balance. And don't put so many empty lines between your text, tyvm. Dark Morphon(contribs) 07:58, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

What shard said. Go learn the game before claiming your half-arsed opinions as facts. Oh, and while you're at it, go get fragged by a decent sinsplit, then come back. -- NUKLEAR

IIV 09:12, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Why do you guys thing what "Izzy doesn't listen to any suggestions done by players"?
Let's guess..Maybe it's because too many ppl are just Q_Q'ing like a 3 months old, until Izzy gives them what they want??
The -way suffix is always added to a FotM-Build, a build of which are no know counters (yet)
At first ppl were actually looking for counters against these builds,
nowadays ppl just Q_Q here until next months Skill Nerf, and flame Izzy like Hell if he doesn't nerf it..(Rezu Blackheart 10:30, 14 July 2008 (UTC)) stop being bad. stop it. now. tplease. im begging you. stop stop stop stop. thanks. a match should always be 50-50 of winning, and the team with the most skill should always win. if you have to grab a bounch of counters just to be able to fight one build. its overpowerd. do me a favor: Equip the D/E build Have a mate/hero to come and use SoH on you. Go to 80/60 hp target kill it in 3 hits.

Yeah. you are so right. wounding strike/scythes does'nt need a nerf. sorry. we guys just suck dont we? :'). I agree with everyone else. learn about balance, learn about the game before you go talk big. because this is just laughable. btw: page needs archiveOni

10:39, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Rezu Blackheart, if you have to take specific skills to counter specific builds, thats not Guild Wars, its Build Wars. — Teh Uber Pwnzer 12:10, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Rezu, all your arguments are irrelevant. Like Shard said, something having a counter does not make it balanced. The question is, does shadow stepping improve GW's PvP, or does it hurt GW's PvP? It hurts PvP as it removes one of the most important (and skill requiring) elements of that game mode - the concern about positioning yourself properly on the battlefield. If you like shadow stepping or not...Doesn't matter, since Arena Net cannot design their game based on one player's feelings. And if you cannot see the difference between a logic, reasonable argument about why ss is bad for the game and "Q_Q'ing"...Well, too bad for you, because this nerf shows that Arena Net actually agrees with said logic. Erasculio 12:17, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

something having a counter does not make it balanced is a garbage argument because I can say the opposite which is even more true, something having a counter does not make it inbalanced.. 87.189.252.115 13:20, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

just because a skill has counters doesn't mean anything. the working of the skill itself and how it's used is what matters--Sum Mesmer Guy

contribs 15:31, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Having counters doesn't make a skill balanced

I've also come to the conclusion that Wail of Doom is more broken than prenerf SoGM. SoGM kills someone after 10 seconds, Wail of Doom does it instantly. ~Shard

09:06, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd actually like to thank izzy/Anet for not testing Nightfall, and introducing Signet of Ghostly Might. It's the perfect example of a skill that had tons of counters, yet was still the most broken skill ever made. I enjoy throwing it in the faces of people who think things that have 1 counter are balanced. ~Shard

22:31, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Proof that Ursan is broken

This ought to be the only evidence you ever need for nerfing ursan. -- NUKLEAR IIV 17:06, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

....if it took people that long to realise that ursan can be used like that, its to late. Dominator Matrix 17:12, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Except you could play anything like that in PvE in Guild Wars. ;) On a side note dealing with Ursan, I did Riverside Province the other day, in normal mode, and we had a level 20 warrior in Norn armor playing as Ursan and well the poor guy kept dying over and over again. Gotta love the idiots that run Ursan thinking it's godmode. lol ^_^ ~

Sabastian 02:57, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

If a level 20 warrior with max armour with the health and armour bonuses of ursan dies in riverside province in normal mode, your monk is shit to a point beyond human understanding. 90.58.71.59 04:28, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Monks are only effective if their teammates are in the range of their spells. Average Ursan users tend to run from mob to mob indiscriminately which generally leaves the weaknesses of Ursan fully exposed. Also, monks have to focus on up to 8 teammates, where Ursan do not. Teams are supposed to work as just that, a team. Ursan highlights a complete reliance on monks that a lot of players don't seem to understand. 000.00.00.00 04:36, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Which really throws that "invincibility" claim people make out the window. Ursan's is pretty weak without the rest of the team and most importantly, the monks. Though it does help point to just how dependent this game is on the monk class and how it pretty much revolves around the monks. So it is fair to say that the monks are pretty much the most powerful class in the game. ~

Sabastian 05:14, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

@90.58.71 Actually, the monk was pretty good. They made calls in regards as to who to focus on. The Ursan warrior wasn't doing that much damage as the other characters and over extending into multiple mobs so instead of wasting energy on him the monk chose to focus on the majority of the team for a much quicker trip through the mission. ~

Sabastian 05:22, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

in response to sebastian.... Or it proves that dumbasses will be dumbasses even if they have good gear and a good bar.... 24.141.38.88 05:23, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Personally, I've never said Ursan is invincible, but clearly overpowered on far too many levels. Its powerful but weaker in its self-sustainability, that comes naturally with the professions. But, when coupled in a pack of Ursans and monks they make professions irrelevant, which should really be the biggest reason for a killing blow to the skill. 000.00.00.00 05:24, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

plus i want my tormented shit to be worth something again...... 24.141.38.88 05:27, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Sebastian. that was THE most failing argument ever. If the guy was r8-10 norn, were a warrior with max armor+health.. that would make him a 800hpish 120armorish guy who could use AOE weakness to take like 30 damage each hit. oh wait, it was normal mode? Then it's like 20 damage. leet. HOW THE HELL DO YOU DIE? Also ursans alone DO heavy damage. It got earth shaker that does more damage and stuff like that. Just go to pvxwiki. how the hell did the ursan build get voted great when it is only 1 ursan skill and a bounch of stances just look at this shit. Although if you would call ursan solo overpowerd then pretty much all great voted builds are. The problem is when you have 6 ursans that instantgibs anything. And people are not wrong when saying it is godmode. let me repeat: 800ish hp 120ish armor AOE weakness=taking...20 dmg? each hit. dude... a fuckn orison of healing outdoes that. And saying ursan isnt overpowerd because he died due to running away from party.. thats like saying that ursanway is not overpowerd if some guys use ursanway and everyone just splits up and runs away from party, trying to solo the entire area. come back with a cuter argument kthxOni 12:51, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

the fact that you're still able to die while running it if you suck hard enough doesn't mean that it's not overpowered.--85.130.45.208 22:17, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fast Cast Attribute

so im a monk and wen i want a 1/4 second or 1/2 second WoH i have to switch wepons and pray... but wen mesmers want a blind they pre-glyph and just steam defensively on spikes in 1/4 or 1/2 second cast? Whats up with that. Methinks FC attribute is due for a reworking. Only monks mesmers and warriors seem to get played anymore (mebbe ele or rits to). 24.141.38.88 05:19, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, but can you repeat that. 000.00.00.00 05:51, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Hes referring to GvG and the current trend to use Me/E water mesmers just for the fast casting bonus, some people are also starting to use Me/Mo prot monks.

The problem here isnt that fast casting is broken, infact using the mesmer primary weakens most of the functions of the bar, in the case of the Me/E water mesmer you do have some perks like steam being a brilliant spike stopper but the real problem lies with powerblock being quite honestly broken.

If you play GvG at a decent level from time to time you notice these things a lot more, if you have a standard water elementalist you will find he spends 80% of the time powerblocked which really isnt right since thats a whole character slot being taken out of the game by just 1 elite skill on the mesmer, its not hard at all to hit a 1 second cast, some people might say fake casting is the way round this but that only works against bad mesmers.

It's very much the same for a prot monk in GvG, skills like aegis/RC/guardian are just too easy to powerblock, which is 14 seconds with no prot monk, that usually means deaths or atleast a retreat if the enemy team is even slightly adept.

You may be wondering why its only recently that powerblock has become so powerful, the reason being that monk bars have recently become heavier in a single attribute and midlines have shifted to water elementalists which are so easy to powerblock rather than air elementalists due to the desecration of the Bsurge bar. ¬ Warlock 14:33, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Pblock was always powerful,just like SoJ. -- NUKLEAR

IIV 15:10, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

It was buffed not too long ago, it has always been powerful but as with SoJ its only actually been useful recently because of other skills being changed. ¬ Warlock 16:41, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

PBlock is not broken, Aegis is just really bad for the game. Aegis is so powerful that you need it to survive, but skills like PBlock and even PLeak make it an extreme liability, yet, you have no choice but to run it and hope it doesn't backfire and kill you. Aegis also makes the Monks bad on splits compared to the Monks of a split build, causing an extreme case of build wars. When Aegis hit the whole map it was actually better for the game despite the flag runners abusing it. At this point it needs to be made unviable for Monk primaries to unstagnate the metagame.

BTW, The way around Mesmers is and always has been to play back as far as possible to force them to overextend if they want to fuck with you. Also having a frontline who actually pressures midline and collapses on out of position characters. --TimeToGetIntense 14:30, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Random Balancing Idea

I know there are plenty of suggestions where you limit the number of one profession on a team, which really isn't a useful strategy for any sort of balancing against builds that aren't fun to play against. The problem is the skills themselves. Here's an idea that might not make it in GW1, but keep it in mind for GW2, perhaps as a balancing tool. Every time you get hit by a specific skill (spell or attack), if you get hit by the same spell or attack within one second, then it only does half-damage. A sort of multi-hit resistance. Of course, there might be exceptions, like attacks from a dual strike would be exempt. I don't know what skill types will survive for GW2 (and I'll assume Chants and Echos will be removed unless some new balance methods are introduced), but keep this in mind. Just throwing out ideas.--Skye Marin 08:42, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

That was mentioned about a mile above your post XD. It would work. Anet will never do it. ~Shard

08:59, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] idea for weastrels collapse

completely revamp the skill like u did wail of doom, i suggest(best way to get this used in game) 5 energy,1 sec casting,15-20 sec recharge->skill description:"target foes is hexed with waestrels collapse, after 2 or 3 seconds target foe is knocked down and transported to your location.Waestrels collapse ends prematurely if that foe uses a skill". it would make a very interesting skill concept, balanced, reverse version of scorpion wire almost, leds to new spiking possiblities. can u plz consider it :P?74.186.169.130 15:39, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

No. Just no. No more shitty sinspikes please. Also, on the note of balancing, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG! Napalm Flame 15:41, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] IZZY DOESNT READ HIS PAGE

I'd like to bring it to everyone's attention that izzy does not read his page. I have proof of this.

He doesn't ever post. This doesn't mean he doesn't read, it's just an indicator of how much he doesn't care.
He doesn't take any of the suggestions. This explains why absolutely nothing got fixed in the last update.
He doesn't know who Shard, Nuklear, Armond, or Igor are, four of the people who post here the most.

So please, stop filling his page with brilliant suggestions. He doesn't read them, they just take up space. ~Shard 03:56, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm trying to find Regina's post where she said who he listens to, but I'm sure thats only the top guilds... which always struck me as odd. 000.00.00.00 04:02, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

oh, found it:

Izzy didn't want to make too many balance changes this time around because the GW Guru tournament is this weekend. He thought it would be a bit evil to make a lot of PvP skill balance changes just before a big tournament. Izzy regularly consults with players in top guilds, so he isn't making these changes without any input at all. --Regina Buenaobra Image:User Regina Buenaobra sig.png 16:13, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, he consults with some people at least. Personally, I think its a bit dodgy Arenanet can openly admit it consults with such players, considering they have a conflict of interest :P 000.00.00.00 04:05, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Players in top guilds are the ones abusing the broken shit he should fix. That's like asking OJ Simpson how to avoid murdering someone. ~Shard

05:09, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

It does seem very very dodgy, or can be taken in a dodgy way, which is enough to muddy ones reputation. 000.00.00.00 06:41, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Players in the top guilds "abuse" the shit, because they want to win. You can't expect people to have DF honor 24/7, especially with prizes. Play what wins, even if you don't like it and is broken. Divine doesn't like WoH, yet he is forced to use it in the meta. etc. Just because they use something, doesn't mean they like it. DarkNecrid 12:16, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

If Izzy is indeed spending his time talking to the experienced PvP players instead of reading this wiki page then that's actually a good thing. --Draikin 19:16, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

/agree @ Draikin! Nevertheless balancing in GW still fails and this won't change... A. von Rin 20:41, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

1. maybe this page is so filled with failure that he wont bother reading it. 2. ArenaNet:Skill feedback/Necromancer/Strip Enchantment i herd he changed it just as suggested. 3. igor post here? and if he don't know who u, shard of every ppl around here are, does it matter? --Cursed Angel

20:54, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

heey D: oni post here alot too shard -feels left out-. Another proof could be that he have'nt archived this fucking page yet.Oni 21:57, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Dark, you're misunderstanding what I meant. Players in top guilds abuse the shit, yes because they want to win. They probably tell him "1 deep wound per second per frontliner is fine because we want to win." "a character with 2 KDs recharging every 7 seconds is fine because we want to win." "Paragons are fine because we want to win."

Like I said, asking top players how to balance the game is like asking Obama who America should vote for. They're going to be heavily biased. ~Shard

22:12, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes I know, but he isn't talking to those kind of players. He's talking to people who know what they are talking about. Maybe they aren't Ensign (who really is?), but they want what is good for the game, and actively complain about all the same stuff you do or I do, so. DarkNecrid 22:34, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

No they don't. Of the less than 800 people who are core for top 100 guilds, how many of them do you think are actually good? 100 at best. The rest are one-build-wonders who got there because of (insert spammable energy aoe deep wound skill here) and (insert broken ranged frontline profession with heal parties here). The game's been this way for close to two years, there's a really high chance he's talking to the wrong people. ~Shard

23:09, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

It's always easier to blame others, isn't it? Especially easier to think of oneself as better and more intelligent than the one tasked with the job. If you think you can do alot better, why not apply for the job and oust Izzy? Renin 05:13, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Of course, it's very easy to accuse someone blaming anyone, especially when the said person has already stated that he would gladly take up the mantle of balncing. -- NUKLEAR

IIV 09:48, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

It's easy to say, so how come no real action has that person done when that person thinks that they can do the job alot better? Renin 12:36, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the feeling I have isn't that Isaiah looks at the guild ladder and searches for the guilds that are at the top; rather that he talks to the same people he has always been talking to, who all happened to be on top ranked guilds once upon a time (for example, Isaiah often mentions talking to Ensign, although as far as I know he isn't in a "top" guild ladder-wise right now). This would avoid a bit the problem of talking with the guilds who are currently on top because they're abusing the most imbalanced builds. And besides, if Arena Net's skill balancer couldn't tell a skilled player from someone who's just pressing 1-2-3 to win, I don't think it would matter who he talks to anyway : P Erasculio 11:27, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

That would be correct, Erasculio. He doesn't talk to "entire guilds" or anything Shard, forgive me if I ever gave that impression. He talks to selective people. DarkNecrid 13:18, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

You guys are all speculating without any information. First off, I asked Izzy a few weeks back if he bothers with this page anymore. He said no. After he did that Strip Enchantment change that I suggested, he came on IRC and I asked him if he had taken my suggestion or if it was a coincidence. He didn't remember, responding with "I read a lot of things." Recently I tried to PM him, he was too busy/ignoring me because I'm baed. I speculate that he's very busy...

But anyway, here's what I know. He doesn't read this page anymore, but also I know that the top players don't want the game to be broken. They complain about the same shit they abuse because they are sick and tired of abusing it. This happens whenever Izzy comes on IRC, which is far too rare these days.

These are things I've observed on IRC. A handful of top players are there and they don't want the broken skills to remain broken. And it makes sense, actually. It is in their best interests for things like Paragons, Dervishes, SF Eles, Hexes and Signet Mesmers to be less powerful than more skill intensive builds because these are the players of the highest level. The more their skill and experience matters, the better for them, the less fluke matches they lose to shitters running gimmicks. --TimeToGetIntense 14:08, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

I sincerely hope you aren't suggesting Shard that you are one of the best players in Guild Wars. You may be one of the most vocal on his pages but I'd imagine that is a contributing factor of why he just gave up on this. You have some good ideas on balance and some not so good but you made the whole thing into a personal crusade like so many others on this page. Dumping information around and expecting him to organize and keep tabs on this like a moderator was a bit naive when it was easier to hear out a select few. This might have been salvaged perhaps by the move and perhaps further moderation on the areanet namespace but this discussion really doesn't belong here. I'd say most if not half of the so called gimmick teams on the high end of the ladder are probably better than the majority of players elsewhere in their given format even when having to run balanced. They might have an inflated rank due to running the build but they still remain up there even without the gimmicks - quite frankly, even the best guilds aren't above to abusing the meta (df honour aside). This doesn't apply to everyone of course, for example, most heroway teams wouldn't be good without a hero running it (think bloodspike switched over.) Sure, running OP junk does get you higher on the ladder but only so far since you'll eventually encounter other OP junk that will smash your face in or you'll simply be outplayed because you aren't executing properly since your team is filled with a bunch of scrubs like me. PlacidBlueAlien 17:10, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

OMFG!?! — ク Eloc 貢 21:49, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

@renin: Because I don't live near their offices.

I'm not suggestion that I'm one of the best players. I'm certainly high up there, considering the average skill level in GW is Wounding Strike spamming and paragon t+spacing. How good someone is doesn't affect how well they can fix balance problems. I used to love GW because it was the best MMO on the market, but after too many thoughtless balance and game updates (and expansions), one of my favorite games turned into the game I least enjoy playing. My "crusade" is to get it back to the best MMO there could be.

"They might have an inflated rank due to running the build but they still remain up there even without the gimmicks"

That's why every month, guilds that came out of nowhere get trim and then disappear the next month or two, right? There are maybe 5 or 6 guilds that stay in the top 50 consistently. ~Shard

22:21, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Shard it's not helpful to Izzy for people to spam exagerated complaints on his page rather than using the system he put in place. I realize he stopped reading those, but spamming the fuck out of his main page just makes matters worse. You perhaps could have tried to be constructive but it's probably too late now. --TimeToGetIntense 22:28, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Izzy doesn't read his page, so spamming his page is irrelevant either way. If he's not reading his page, or going to read his page he should just make a note on his page and here so people aren't wasting their time. People come here hoping Izzy will read their concerns or suggestions, if he's not, and only talking to a select few to whom we don't know nor know of their intentions or agendas then at least he could do the honourable thing and say "Hey, I'm not reading this anymore..." 000.00.00.00 22:39, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

The guilds didn't come out of no where by the way. Sure, they weren't top 10 guilds or commonly talked about but they were present on the ladder. If you look back, you'll see that they won mainly because of the newly added ViO/VoD since they were running sineptitude before that got implemented. Fairly positive that the top guilds were aware of them. For example, currently, Mistral Edge is sitting around r26 (somewhat active?). PlacidBlueAlien 23:53, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

He has more experienced Guild Wars players to listen to. He's trying to take the meta away from defense without completely killing a playstyle too fast for players to adapt. — Skakid 22:44, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Failing to see why that would be a problem. If you can't adapt to a major game update, you're not going to excel anyway. Who cares if people suddenly find they can't get their assassin through shing jea without thinking anymore? -- Armond Warblade

01:56, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

He's trying to take the meta away from defense? No he's not. Forget that he doesn't read wiki, as a game balancer (a professional one at that) he should know what's going on in the game. He clearly doesn't, because he doesn't play and he doesn't care.

Another great game killed by the idiots who maintain it, not just izzy. ~Shard

02:25, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Eh. I think they have something up their sleeve....the last patch was small for the Guru tournament, and didn't break anything because he actually listened to people. No insane nerfs. No insane buffs. A change was bad (The Shadowstep one wasn't very complete or totally thought out (beguiling haze & Shadow Walk w/ Shove ftwwwww)), but that can be remedied and was still better than no change to that mechanic. Did it avoid the issues? Yeah, because of the Guru tournament. But that patch in general gave me hope for the next one. That's probably the first patch where he didn't overbuff or overnerf anything because he listened to the right people. I just wish he could have done more and stuff, but Guru tournament. Eh. DarkNecrid 11:02, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

"He doesn't know who Shard, Nuklear, Armond, or Igor are, four of the people who post here the most." Just because he doesn't know a bunch of losers who cry about the game all day instead of playing it, doesn't mean he doesn't read his page or care about skill balance. He probably just does like the rest of us do and assumes anything posted by you trolls will just be more QQing and poorly thoughout suggestions to try and cover for you sucking at the game. Grow up, you noobs are hardly any good at amking helpful suggestions to him. 67.159.44.91 13:07, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

You obviously don't know what you're talking about. Would you like me to explain why, or should I save my breath? -- Armond Warblade

13:42, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

maybe he has a point, maybe u are wrong. it's pretty clear why izzy doesn't bother reading through this shit so why argue? 95% of this page is a joke --Cursed Angel

16:31, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

especially anything that dork armand says LOL wut a nooblet 75.151.48.190 18:27, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

That's a crude way of putting it, but I guess he did walk right into it this time didn't he? XD 67.159.44.91 19:53, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Just because he doesn't know a bunch of losers who cry about the game all day instead of playing it, doesn't mean he doesn't read his page or care about skill balance. He probably just does like the rest of us do and assumes anything posted by you trolls will just be more QQing and poorly thoughout suggestions to try and cover for you sucking at the game.

"Crying" is what 12 year olds who don't know how to make an argument call it. People with brains call it "complaining."

Poorly thought out suggestions? You must have mistaken us for Arenanet.

I was top guilded many times, while the game was in its more balanced periods, so I'm pretty sure I don't "cover for sucking at the game."

The fact is, if you still think the game is balanced and good people win, you're either a total moron, or you've never played a game before. EVERYONE who has done serious pvp KNOWS the game is broken pretty much everywhere you look. ~Shard

07:27, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

The game is far from balanced, partially because Izzy isn't in touch with actual players but instead a handfull of brownnosers who only want to see skills nerfed one way or another because it will benifit the class(s) or playstyle they use the most, and partially because some of those same people have convincez Izzy that each class should only have one use or purpose and they should be nerfed till that's the only thinn the class can viably do. Years ago the game had options, now it's the mess it is today where the pre-teen boys playing Warriors run everything because anything that required skill has been destroyed.

The problem is, like you admited yourself, you're not in the top anymore and obviously not as good as you think you are. You've played four of the ten professions and one of them barely at all. The only character you've even played enough to sort of know enough about to make balance suggestions is the Monk, since you haven't even spent much time on your Warrior or Ranger. You make constant mistakes about stuff, looking over your talk page and archives shows how many times you've been called out on your screwups and I can't see how someone who hasn't got any esperiance with more than half the classes in the game and who obviously don't know much about the skills, should even think about trying to make balance suggestions about the game. If you leard the skills and the classes, and get back into the top again, then you might warrent some respect or at least your suggestions might be worth reading by Izzy or any of the rest of us posters or lurkers. You spend more time flaming other people than you do trying to make well thoughtout suggestions, and when you do you're usually just trying to get skills removed from play that you don't like. XD 67.159.44.91 13:24, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Your first paragraph I followed just fine. Your second paragraph was just a bunch of crap about how you think Shard doesn't know what he's talking about and provided bullshit for backup. Shard's only played four of the ten classes? Ok, even assuming you're right and he's never randomly played a rit or ele or something like that (I'm not entirely sure which are the six), bear in mind that Ensign plays... ele. And sometimes flagger. Oh, and he had a bout of tained necro-ness in HA for a bit. And that's about it, as far as I know (and I've obsed dR a lot). The rest he just... doesn't play that much. Do you really think Ensign doesn't know how to balance Dervishes or Assassins? Or that Auggie or Chiizu (sp?) don't know how to fix WoD necros? Who cares what, specifically, you play, so long as you have knowledge of what you're talking about?

Also, please point me to where Shard's been flaming people or making mistakes about balance and, when they're pointed out, lashed out at the people pointing them out - I only seem to see people making dumb comments on his talk pages. -- Armond Warblade

15:47, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

You're kidding right? Just go to his talk page, click the archives, and you can't miss them all. You're even involved in one of the discussions on the top of the second archive, trying to stick up for your boyfriend Shard when he gets called out on some of his mistakes. XD Also, you can click Shard's page to see where he lists all four of his characters and even how much he plays them, so that is just way obvious. Just randomly playing a class doesn't mean you know anything about them, that's your problem and the problem with your little circle jerk buddies who spam up this page all the time. You've never played a class for hundreds of hours through all builds and possibilities to actually know all the skills the class has and how they actually work in real game play and because of that you shouldbn't even begin to try and balance something you don't understand at all. You think you can give advice on something you don't know about and you end up looking dumber than normal. Anyone, even this Ensign person, should not be talking balance or pretending to know how a class works until they have played the class enough to know it inside and out.

As for Shards flaming, just look around you can even find it on this page. He may not tell people to fuck off quite as much as you do when you're spamming attacks on people you don't agree with, but they are clear to see right here on the wiki.

You really should not try to defend Shard and his lack of game knowledge when all I see are people putting you in your place on this page for having no idea what you;re talking about all the time. Also I know English is not my first language so maybe that makes my second paragraph harder for you to read but given how much people around here point out all your mistakes I think maybe I should agree with them that you just don't know what you are talking about and are just some hypocrite with too much time on his hands and just troll this wiki. 67.159.44.91 16:52, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

You don't know who Ensign is, and you continually try to get a rise out of me with slights to my character while trying to defend your clearly incorrect assumptions (you need to play a class for hundreds of hours to understand how its skills work and whether they're balanced or not; hah! that's a good one). I rest my case. -- Armond Warblade

21:07, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

How is it I am continually try to get a rise out of you when I did not reply to your previous post to me and only replyed to you above because you made such long reply to me. You tried to defend Shard when he provides proof to back up all that I said on his page and I corrected you and yes I did make fun of you trying to defend someone when I see other people putting you in your place so much on this page but unlike Shard I did not read your page and all your archives yet so I don't know much about you other than what I see on this page where you insult people flame and get corrected for your wrong points several times.

I do think you need to know a class inside and out and use all the skills and play through the game to know enough about the class to make judgments. If you are to lazy to try and get a feeling for a class then that is your own misfortune but does not change that you know less about the class then someone who knows all skills and has used them and lots of builds in different ways and places. If you want to think it's a joke to know the class you want to balance then you show how much of a joke you are. I play WoW very little and while I know much about playing a Warlock I do not know them well enough to say how they should be balanced because I have not made a max level one yet and until I do and get experiance from playing everywhere then I don't be ignorant enough to try and claim I know all about the class and how it works and should work just from 70 or more hours playing one. You do this and your ignorance shows. I know better than to make myself look such a fool as you do. 67.159.44.91 00:37, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Limited internet time so only making a partial response. I've been called a loser, a do