User talk:Isaiah Cartwright/Izzy Talk Archive 20

Recent update

Other than about 3 mega overpowered skills I LOVED this update. Keep up the good work Izzy! (We are allowed to congratulate him right?) Done25 18:41, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Well Done Arenanet! Keep up the good work. Borotvaltgandalf

Yet, with your time on Guild Wars 2, Izzy, I would love to know who were give full credit to for this skill update; to which I have enjoy most thoroughly, you [since you're the skill balancer] or Linsey and Guild Wars Live Team 000.00.00.00 19:11, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

The GW Live Team consists of Linsey, a programmer, a QA who are all dedicated, Izzy and his skill balance team, and countless other people. The only thing is Izzy etc are also working on GW2. Izzy has put in substantial time doing this, and was talking to players near constantly, and there was even a vent chat with 3 management executives, Izzy and some skill balance guys, and about 20 players. Thank the GW Live team for the non-skill stuff, but it was Izzy's team with the skill stuff and VoD changes. So both imo. :) Also yes good job. Outside of Way of the Assassin being stupid, and Incendiary Arrows being way too strong, it was a pretty strong update given that I know you didn't want to change a lot of the old issues because you were changing the ruleset of GvG. Always next month once the new meta settles in...I just wish NPCs had an effect on the GL, even if it is just -50 HP to the Guild Lord per NPC killed or something. DarkNecrid 19:24, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

GG @ Mr. Izzy! Thanks for one of the best - or even the best - update in the last year, although I need to get used to the new "VoD without VoD" - tactics. ;) A. von Rin 23:26, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

I really wanted to congratulate you on the August 7, 2008 update. You buffed many underpowered skills (some a little 2 much ;) ), and made an interesting change to GvG dynamics with the "Vod without Vod" factor. I especially wanted to congratulate you on your tactical nerf of Ursan Blessing. I wanted to thank you not because it was overpowered (which it was), or because it was ruining the Guild Wars economy (which it has been/did), but because now I can get a team to go to the DoA, Fow, or UW, without having to show my Norn rank and I can play the profession that I created. Psychiatric Consultant 15:41, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Yeah it was good. I'd like to see more updates like this (like reworking FoC and stuff). Nerfing Ursan Blessing was a really good thing to do too. So in short, thanks for last update! Dark Morphon(contribs) 15:33, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi Izzy, I would also like to compliment you on the 8/7/08 Update. However, I would like to raise up an issue about it. It seems to me that dervish and paragons got a lesser number of skill reworkings and less general thought put into them. This is disproportionate because dervs and paras are limited with the least number of skills/elite skills in the game.

I have also relayed my thoughts to Regina and would like to ask personally that you take a look at some of the Mysticism line skills like [arcane zeal] and [pious renewal] and make them useful outside of pointless gimmick builds. Thank you and I very much look forward to next month's update! Shoyon 17:55, 10 August 2008

Wonderful update! Thank you for nerfing Ursan, buffing pve skills and other underpowered elites. I look forward to next month's update. Hopefully, you can come up with a plan to buff the Spawning and Communing line. There are many impractical skills that can modified to improve gameplay. --Shadetz X 06:40, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Dear Izzy. My insanely damaging axe war is now an insanely damaging scythe war with near infinite energy and 153 damage crits. But seriously, way to bring warriors endurance back into the limelight. It was my first elite I ever captured, and I probably havent used it since that day over 2.5 years ago. Now its my new favorite.--Ryudo 09:29, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

As a high-end gvg player, saying for myself and lots of other players that the last 2 VoD updates were only bad for GvG, in my opinion that is (which is same with many others). The current no-VoD means basically gank-wars where no 8v8 can exist, some guilds win by hitting one arrow on GL right before 28 min and it's forcing players to play BYOBish teambuilds. Before you could have more 8v8/7v7/6v6 based team having a chance of comeback at VoD, now its only running around map for 28min trying to do damage on enemy lord. Please consider a revert if you don't want to ruin what's left of competitive Guilds Wars. Ty. 91.156.71.167 18:37, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

The last Update from your P.O.V

This latest update has a lot of people cheerful and excited, and I have hardly seen or heard that much complaining or the likes over it, a lot of the PvE changes have people very excited and experimenting again. How are you, as skill balancer, viewing this? Its a great positive, but I'd love to know how you feel about the update and the results you see from the player-base. 000.00.00.00 11:33, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

I've been pretty happy with things moving forward we did a bunch of risky changes and most of them seem to at least pan out ok, VoD changes, 40 elites, nothing seem to really blow up in any horrible way and it seem to breath some new life into things. Balance always takes time so gonna take some more tweaks to bring things in line but so far been pretty happy with things Izzy @-'---- 21:01, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Your First Name etc

Kind of surprised me to hear your first name is actually Stephen. I'm pretty sure all the manuals, the ArenaNet website (when it listed all workers), etc, all just say Isaiah. That's kind of why it took me back. A shit ton of people call you by your middle name...lol. So do people you know outside of work and the playerbase call you Izzy too? :P You say most people but I figure you just mean playerbase...also do you know any other languages besides English? DarkNecrid 11:50, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Izzy goes by Izzy just about everywhere. - Linsey talk 00:38, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

I would barely say I know English :P, I've always gone by either Isaiah or Izzy. I'm only known as Stephen on Legal documents :P Izzy @-'---- 22:31, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I thought you should know

According to the recently established religion Shardism, you are the devil and Grenth is your son. ~Shard 10:48, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Qor don't care baby. Izzy @-'---- 21:02, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I would like some answers now

Here. I'd wager many people would like to hear them as well. -- NUKLEAR IIV 13:54, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

← moved to User talk:NuclearVII#I would like some answers now -- Brains12 \ talk 23:20, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Your tone is a bit demanding, and harsh might want to bring that down a notch or two, but I answered your questions. Izzy @-'---- 21:30, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Ohai thar!

Izzy, I've taken the initiative and fixed your little links table. Feel free to revert back if there was something else you wanted for them, but I reckon they look as neat as you please.

I also want to repeat something User:Xeeron said a while ago: "If you want something done, ask, and I'll bet 100k that it will be done in two days." I understand that you may have trouble with wikicode - I know I do - but there are many people out there who'd love to, for the lack of a better word, pimp your userpage to your heartsd content. Hell, you may even want to hold a userpage design contest, just like Eloc did.

Just throwing that out there. -- NUKLEAR ^IIV 13:56, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Lol thanks, I've been just playing around trying to get a better formate going. Izzy @-'---- 21:06, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

From Important notice section

^--- Thank you for helping clean up my talk page, I'm such a noob at this wiki stuff lol. Izzy @-'---- 21:08, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Glad to help. You'll get used to wikiing, it just takes a little time. As Nuclear said below, you can ask the community for help any time. If all else fails, just nag Gaile/Emily/Regina etc and I'm sure they'd help :P -- Brains12 \ talk 23:18, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

^^

After reading your comment on emily' s page i made this maybe usefull if you put it on the top of your page so people and you have a link from your talk page to the suggestions page. Fox007 09:41, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Is it possible to change common skills into PvE only?

Hello, I have no idea if you're allowed to answer this, but I'm curious: from a purely programming point of view, would it be possible to take a common skill (one that works for both PvE and PvP, like Protective Spirit and Shelter) and turn it into a PvE only skill, while keeping the skill exactly as it is today? For example, keeping Protective Spirit linked to Protection Prayers and scaling like it does today, but locked out in PvP outposts? Thanks! Erasculio 12:36, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Yeah we could do that. Izzy @-'---- 00:26, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

I made u an avatar

Avatar of Izzy 10 2 30

Elite Form. For 10...74...90 seconds, you nerf skills 33% faster, each time a nerf a skill this way, the gw community QQ for 1...3...4 days. This Skill is disabled for 120 seconds.

u should probably nerf it a bit. --Cursed Angel 17:35, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the Avatar of Izzy is usable by dev only. I wish I could use it. QQ Lightblade 08:12, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Guys, stop commenting here. It's jusy going to get removed. -- NUKLEAR IIV 08:39, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

You have the stats incorrect, it should be 25/90.

lol nice. Izzy @-'---- 21:33, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I think he should at least get "Whenever you buff a skill, up to 0...3...4 random allies withing earshot of that skill's profession have a random other skill replaced by that skill for 3 days and gain 1...4...5 Energy."

Might be a bit IMBA with the energy gain since he's started buffing up large amounts of skills though.

the point of it is to nerf the opposite teams build to give ur team the upper hand while they QQ, maybe too long QQ duration tho :/ --Cursed Angel 23:08, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Maybe it should buff opponents for 30 secs. then nerf^2 power until death. o__O ~Phill Gaston ‎ 04:12, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

About the skill suggestion pages

Every update where function of a skill changes, all the old topics kind of get mixed in with the new ones (see Xinrae's Weapon especially). Do you want people to archive those, move them somewhere else, or leave them? ~Shard 22:48, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Just FYI, I'm trying to archive old Issues/suggestions. If there is a better format you had in mind (for archiving) feel free to revert me. -- NUKLEAR IIV 10:01, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

It makes sense to move old, obselete suggestions to some kind of archive so that they don't clog up the newer ones. At the very least, we could just stamp RESOLVED at the bottom of the suggestion once Izzy dismisses it or acts on it or when it becomes obselete. One question I have, though, is if the archive page should then appear at the bottom of the skills suggestion page as "dealt with issues". Also it should probably have the reason it was removed, like "Izzy said 'No'" or "Skill was changed" or whatever put on the top. Just an idea. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:86.27.136.194 (talk).

Yeah there was a neat system I saw over in the hero battle stuff for this, in general I'm so slammed for time, and I need to spend more time on GW2, keeping this talk page clean makes it a lot easier for me to respond to stuff. Izzy @-'---- 21:37, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm working (independantly!) on a new format. It should be ready in two or three days.

Also, I'd like to use this oppurtunity to say +10 respect for izzy. -- NUKLEAR IIV 08:35, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

It's probably a bit off topic, but I'd like to agree. There are always things people will moan about, and there were some things in the last update which I myself was not perhaps 100% happy with, but all in all it was definately a great step in the right direction, so credit where it's due. Also, it's good to see all these responses because they let us know we're not just being ignored - keeping this page clean is definately a good thing too (before there was so much junk on it I wouldn't blame you for not reading it all let alone responding) and so if we can tidy up the suggestions pages it should help even more.

while ure here

will there be any skill balances at the 4th september update? --Cursed Angel 21:09, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Not that I know of. Izzy @-'---- 21:35, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Regina said that the skill balance update (like the one we get ever month) is going to be on the 11th. — Poki#3 21:28, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

oh yeh i saw :/ --Cursed Angel 10:45, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Am soo curious...

So you have limited time between GW2 and GW (in the time left). You're active here too...but. Like you left on your userpage..you work on a couple of more things...like ... what? Very curious ... soz ;-). --Silverleaf 09:57, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Well I work on the System design team, so I work on a number of things, but I'm in charge of combat, reward systems, high level item design, pvp systems and various other things for GW2. Izzy @-'---- 18:50, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

ALL that Oo. --Silverleaf 19:12, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

So i saw

You buffed many underused elite skills.Will some old and underpowered normal skills be buffed again ? i'm thinking about hamstring,magnetic aura,swirling aura,.... Some just need small tweaks (some) to become viable and intresting :)(ow yh do not remove this comment it IS a question to izzy NOT a suggestion for the love of cookies) Lilondra 15:04, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Err I thought it was lynsey who worked on the last skill balance update anyway not izzy. -- Salome 16:48, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

We all worked on the last skill balance update, sense Linsey is now the main GW1 designer, shes involved in pretty much everything that happens in GW1. Izzy @-'---- 18:52, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

You are reffering to work like we referto dreamjob:p but bey ppl would kill for that job.Speaking off izzy were do you live SAY IT Lilondra 18:21, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Somewhere in Seattle I'd assume. -Auron 18:26, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

bet it's in a house78.20.153.111 16:58, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Good thinkin sherlock Lilondra 19:48, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

I live in Redmond, right at the end of 520. Izzy @-'---- 00:02, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Evil plans hehe wait a min how am i getting skill balances i can laugh at without you ? (smiters boon needed to be killed but that update was one piece of humor :') as funny as it was effective (exept the ele part that wasnt effective at all) Lilondra *poke* 13:56, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Question about the Fire Imp

Are you people ever going to make it so that the people, who have already bought all of the normal Guild Wars expansion, can get the Fire Imp? Because right now the only way for me to get this thing is to purchased the Guild Wars 2008 Upgrade or the Game of the Year Upgrade. Which I don't want. Done25 04:20, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

No offense but thats the point.The new content is strying to be a stimulate you to buy more of the content either in the store or the rest of the campaigns ;) [edit:Bad grammar :p and yes it proly still is bad grammar ] Lilondra *poke* 07:54, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Agreed with Lilondra. If you want it that badly, go and buy what is required for it. — ク Eloc 貢 23:46, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

I honestly had very little to do with the Fire Imp, I think I said hey you should put some Glyph of Restoration on him, and thats about as much as I did with him. Izzy @-'---- 00:03, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Wanted to bring this skill to your attention

I have been doing some testing on the monster skill Song of the Mists, please read the talk page. I feel there may be an error in the monster skill (or description) (or something). Unindal 15:47, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I responded over there for ya, it's basically and old way we used to set up life steal so it couldn't steal the last hit point of something. Izzy @-'---- 19:22, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Sealed Deck Play

The code for sealed deck play used in PAX 2008 is already inside our game client. Is there any plans or possibilities of pushing it to the live servers (just as an additional game type in hero battles)? --Zora 12:47, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

It's something I'm working on, well see if it ever gets pushed to live, I'm always working on a million little side projectiles some never see light of day, some become things like mini pets, dragon ball arena, or even Hero Battles lol, I have high hopes for some sealed deck stuff because I'm a huge fan of limited play, but well see where it ends up. Izzy @-'---- 19:18, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

"Ursan Force" fix

This was fixed so that it doesn't stop the player from moving once it's activated. Asuran Scan and Signet of Mystic Speed still have that issue. Is there any chance of those being fixed? P A R A S I T I C 05:13, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

There's a bug report on the inconsistant behaviour of "basic" skills (skils with just "Skill" as their skill type) without activation times at ArenaNet talk:Miscellaneous bugs#Instant activation skills. I just added Asuran Scan, Dolyak Signet and Signet of Mystic Speed. -- Gordon Ecker 07:26, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

It might be possible, I know there are some skills that will always stop you because of their skill type, I think Signets are one of them :(. Izzy @-'---- 00:11, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

any defense going to be buffed?

So with even Me/E now nerfed, could we expect any of old b-surge/ward vs melee/icy shackles primary ele(reverting the duration nerf) buffs since those builds actually did take skill to play well? Or if you prefer physical meta maybe such as disarm? Or revert smiter's boon balancing smite skills so that balanced teams can use it as defensive midliner?

Also, Sloth wasn't the problem, problem is bow attacks critical dmg (same as scythes), it does over 70 with hornbow. If you'd lower that crit or base dmg lil (because bows aren't meant to deal that much of dmg anyway, it's over axe crit) then you could just revert sloth and the dps ranger nerfed. Just small fyi so you don't wonder if that ranger stays in meta. 91.154.2.204 12:32, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm not one to buff defense too much, but if physical and damage got too out of hand like IWAY style builds went crazy then maybe, I think we are far from that. And as for sloths +60 armor ignoring damage is insane :P. Izzy @-'---- 01:23, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually i would prefer a energycost reduction on many utility skills.Hamstring,Blinding Surge,... Utility is the key increasing the energy cost will not decrease the utility on youre build but the damage it will produce ;) Lilondra *poke* 19:01, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

In my humble opinion, I think a lot of issues regarding critical hits could be solved if the damage value used would be the average damage, instead of the max damage. So a critical hit from a scythe would not deal 1.4 X 41 damage, but rather 1.4 X (41+9)/2, or 1.4 X (9...41). 145.94.74.23 09:17, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

The only problem with that is that 1.4 x (41 + 9) / 2 = 35, which is actually smaller than the scythe's max value. That would mean that hitting a critical hit wouldn't actually give you more damage than any other hit as it does now, so could in fact be considered to be bad (ofc it would be better than the average value, so hitting crits all the time would be better than hitting normally, but it still makes no sense for a critical hit to do less than max damage).

Also, if you imagine being critically hit by a scythe, you would expect to take a lot of damage. Admittedly, this is more of a flavour issue, but it's something to be considered, nonetheless.

One possible solution, though, (to scythes at least) is that scythes could do less damage to secondary targets. This would mean that they were less imba in mobs (without removing the cool AoE element) and would also make them easier to balance (since there would be less of a difference in power between one and four hits per swing than there is now). Either way, though, I think it would be nice to have this info on the scythe's description (under where it says the damage) since when I first got NF, I didn't even know that scythes could hit multiple targets (ofc I worked it out quite soon, but still, it would help newbies out a bit).

Anyway, after all that I think I should get back on topic and say that, yes, maybe some defense should be buffed, but I think some small nerfs to certain offensive skills are more in order or we'll get a nasty load of power creep (more like power rush or something) in no time. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:81.107.75.156 (talk).

This is becoming a discussion among players and does not belong on this page. (see the notice above) If you have comments for the user posting here, please take them to their respective talk page. Thanks!-- Wyn 15:56, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Maintained Suggestion

Was wondering, smite skills like retribution and others like mending and stuff that being maintainable causes an issue at times. Maybe to promote more use of these skills instead of lowering regen after a set amount of time, if you keep it up, you lose x amount of energy depending on the skill. Or even just give it a duration, dunno just a suggestion. I personally get tired of reusing my attunement a lot and wouldn't mind it reapplying itself in a way. =\74.229.66.241 00:15, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Missing skill suggestions

I've noticed there are loads of broken links on the skill suggestion pages, and I'm guessing that these have been removed due to the "clean-up" that seems to be going on. Now, I'm in favour of that, but have the pages been deleted (in which case, why, at least in certain cases) or archived (in which case, where can they be found, and again the reason for archiving them?)? Thanks. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:81.107.75.156 (talk).

This is not a question for Izzy, as it pertains to the function of the wiki. To answer your question however, the pages were tagged for deletion due to redundancy, to issues having been resolved due to updates, to issues not really being issues in the first place as supported by concensus in discussion. All pages that have been deleted were done so per our deletion policy, tagged for 3 days, inviting discussion on the deletion, and deleted.-- Wyn 16:34, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

nonsensical suggestions have been deleted. Out-of-date ones are archived. -- NUKLEAR IIV 16:57, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks

Yeah wasn't me! Izzy @-'---- 01:31, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

want me either but thank you nuklear now we might get a chance izzy SHOULD read them.(for all those who look for someone to hit I do not have any intentions of flaming izzy with this sentence quite funny my explenation has to be longer then my comment itself) Lilondra *poke* 04:37, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

I do read a lot of them, I just can't respond to all of them, I just don't have that much time:( Izzy @-'---- 00:13, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

wasnt rly an insult to you izzy was just saying that if its full of nonsense like WATER ATTUNEMENT IS OP then it shouldnt be read by you Lilondra *poke* 12:14, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

True. What about the left-over links though? Should they be removed too or just left?

I am removing them. -- NUKLEAR IIV 15:16, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

HB

Hero Battle Love: I've been pushing for some hero battle tweaks all most had some in the build this week, but ended up pushing on it. I think the format needs some real love and a rework much like GvG's VoD did.

Does that mean you will try and get the capping shrines part taken out of HB? Kewl.--75.94.77.148 18:01, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I quite like the shrines to a certain extent, but it can lead to some pretty un-fun gameplay, especially when you get holding teams and whatnot. The system also encourages over-defensive play, or play with one main spiker and two support (I'm sick to death of Monk-Mo/N smiter-Rit-Backbreaker Sin teams and the like), since if you can get the mercenary shrine (on those maps), it's easier to keep it with a defensive build. Maybe keeping the shrines but moving the focus away from them somehow would be a good compromise? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:81.107.75.156 (talk).

I would leave the shrines, it's more I need to rethink how Herobattles works and try and come up with a way to make it so a super defensive build without any offensive power can win, I really don't like the builds that teleport around with 4 monk like characters just cap shrines and never kill anything, it's not fun to watch or fun to play. Also there needs to be tweaks to the backbreaker sin and other stuff in general Hero Battle needs some love! Izzy @-'---- 01:33, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Totally agree. As for the Backbreaker sin, Frvwfr2 made a good suggestion here (I know KDs are hard-coded, but you should be able to put in an if-else). Also, another way of nerfing the sins without hurting warriors too much might be to re-scale Flail, as suggested here (though Nuklear's on my case, so I might have to move it to here) :-). Just some food for thought.

Izzy, the problem is not only with that, but also with general capway, where one elementalist spams snares so their heroes can go around capping freely. Makes HB crap. 92.232.90.107 15:00, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

True. IMO the Backbreaker sin is a problem, but only one part of the bigger picture. The format itself is probably a bigger one, and means snares, speed boosts and shadowsteps are just a little bit too important to winning (obviously they should play a part, but you shouldn't have to use them on them to win).

P.S. The page tidiers have struck again, and the Backbreaker page has gone. :-). Anyway, the suggestion was to make it cause only a 3-second KD on Hammer Master 8 and lower, I think. IMO Backbreaker isn't actually that broken (only on sins), but there's a problem with it in that though you can counter it, once it's been used you're helpless for 4 seconds, whatever your skill level is or how many counters you have (the only exception being stances et.c. that activate instantly either on their own or with Avatar of Dwayna, and ofc we all go AoD just to counter sins, right?). --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:86.10.17.180 (talk).

Guys, this isn't the place to discuss skill or balancing issues; if you want to discuss Backbreaker, go to ArenaNet talk:Skill feedback/Warrior/Backbreaker. If Izzy and his team want to look for players' opinions and suggestions on Backbreaker, I'm sure they'll go there -- it doesn't need to be here. -- Brains12 \ talk 14:04, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

<extraneous comment removed as per above>

Yeah I think BB sins are an issue I've been debating adding a 1 or 2r to BB or just nuking For Great justice out of play. (Allthough there are other ways to get the adrenaline gain, so I think the BB change would have to be the way to go. : ( ). Izzy @-'---- 00:15, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Imo nuke sins not backbreaker.If a warrior skill is balanced its balanced if sins abuse it the problem lies with the sin Lilondra *poke* 18:42, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Also cant there be a HB GvG like format :p i just love scrimmaging friends of mine with 3 heroes in a GvG map but it doesnt give anything so not many friends like to do it Lilondra *poke* 05:58, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah the whole point of the Backbreaker suggestion was that sins would lose a second off the KD but warriors would normally keep it. I'd hate to see "FGJ!" nuked out myself, but it is pretty powerful so maybe a minor tweak or something might be in order. And please don't remove this post too, as even Izzy himself realises there's an issue here and though there are pages to post about Backbreaker itself and other individual skills, there's nowhere other than here to post about the build generally (as I explained in my previous "extraneous comment", which was removed... grr!).

Scale the knockdown to strength. Problem solved.

Also, yes your programmers can do it. ~Shard 23:27, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

KD duration is no more hardcoded ? Yseron - 90.9.252.190 23:30, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

The KD is hardcoded, I belive, but you can presumably put an if-else bit in. Also, getting back on topic a bit, HB is flawed in the way the whole capping system allows highly defensive builds or builds with three defence/support characters and one spiker (e.g. a BB sin). Playing against those monk holding teams can be really infuriating too.

Stop discussing balance. Any more comments in this section (except those from Izzy) from now will just be removed; the backbreaker skill feedback page is where you can discuss this (and all issues concerning the skill). -- Brains12 \ talk 18:43, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Do you

like the current system ? Perhaps its better to archive a discussion on a skill after its buffed or nerfed and to suggest there.You get help of what is a huge problem anyway.So i guess all you need is suggestions.Anyway gl Lilondra *poke* 07:56, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Well I like it in some ways and dislike it in others, mainly it got pushed away and organized so it's easier to read, so I can read it but by doing so I don't think people feel like I'm reading it. The nature of suggestions is normally massive, so I can't read and respond to them all in the small amount of time I have to work on this stuff so we should brain storm some on ways we can improve the system. Basically the way I see it is we only have a huge number of suggestions coming in I only have a small amount of time to read/respond every day, and my method for picking is so random that I normally just read them and don't respond, which makes everyone feel like I don't read them.

So we could come up with a system we're I answer some number of questions each week and you guys all work to refine a list each week that way they are good questions once they get to me, and we get a little more back and forth and then it's not like the community expect a direct respond to every question from me, and is sad when I don't respond, I get a little more cleaned up list and done have to waste the little time I have going through a bunch of question.

Thoughts? Izzy @-'---- 00:35, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

We could come up with a way for you to quickly and easily mark them as read so that people know that you have read them, even if you don't have a chance to respond. Bet someone (read that as poke) could come up with something that could be added to your monobook that would give you a quick tag that would just take a couple of clicks of your mouse. Or for that matter, you could just sign the ones you've read. -- Wyn 00:42, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah but how insulting is that, "he read my post and didn't even respond, what an elitist jerk!", basically I think just empowering the community to stack rank them into a list and I just go down the list when I have time, would help build stronger suggestions, and not make everyone feel every question will get answered, because the reality is that might not happen. Izzy @-'---- 00:54, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

K, I'm not so sure people would feel that way, but you very well may be right. I think currently there is (or at least was until very very recently) more feeling that no one at Anet even looks at the suggestions, and at least acknowledging that they are being viewed might be better than nothing. I do have to say it is great seeing you post here, and I think a lot of the community that was so down on Brains and the rest of us for clamping down on your page are at least seeing that having you back talking to us is much better than it was when chaos reigned :D -- Wyn 01:06, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

no way! chaos>izzy --Cursed Angel 01:13, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree with Wyn about implementing a "read/not read" system. I think it would make vastly more people happy than it would offend. I don't think AJAX is possible here, but would something like Wyn suggested work here where Izzy can just click a button and it visibly marks the suggestion as read? Preferably something where he doesn't have to go in and out of the editing screen; sorta like a one-click dealio. o_O Kokuou 01:53, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Since this discussion is likely going to be a big one, I would suggest moving it to the Community Portal (I even made a section there for it) so we may gather different ideas, discuss them and then present the best ideas here for Isaiah to see what he thinks. Erasculio 01:57, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I think the worry I have is it's still setting up for failure, it wont scale well, for example lets say I have time to read 10 suggestions a day, this is ok assume there is only 10 suggestions being written a day but if it becomes popular and 100 are written a day you quickly get into a situation where people expect their stuff to be read/responded to when the reality is not every suggestion written might get looked at. That's why I think we need a community process where the community decides what "10" questions they wanted answered, this lets everyone feel like they where involved in picking what gets answered and sets the expectation that not every question gets answered, and sets a realistic expectation of coverage, where a read button assumes I'm going to be able to read every suggestion, and the reality is that just can't always happen that's like saying I'm going to be able to read every post, or every email, or respond to every tell someone sends me, it sounds good on paper but when 1000 people send me tells I"m only going to be able to type to like 5 or 6 people at once. Izzy @-'---- 18:24, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

← moved to Guild Wars Wiki talk:Community portal#Skill Feedback

As Erasculio pointed out, suggestions about the skill feedback section here will make this page unnecessarily long, considering there is already a discussion going on on the community portal talk page. If you want to make a suggestion in response to Izzy's concerns, responding on the linked talk page will keep them centralised and easy to look back to (and will likely get more responses).-- Brains12 \ talk 15:19, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

I finished my cleanup

Just to let you know, all of the rants/meaningless suggestions are currently marked for deletion and awaiting purge.

I would like to draw your attention here, and get your input on a better solution format. -- NUKLEAR IIV 15:00, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

My brain is a bit melted, so I'll have to read this some when I haven't been staring at icons for hours :P *no you can't know why*, but I am interesting in us continuing to refine this process. I also wanted to say thanks to everyone for making all this stuff happen, I know the wiki wouldn't be anything without it's users, and we all <3 you. Izzy @-'---- 00:40, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Nice read through this again, and I think this would really help my fav line in there is the one about archiving everything once a skill has been updated. Izzy @-'---- 00:14, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Bug: Stone Sheath and/or Critical Agility

Hi Izzy, I was just in Moddok Crevice doing the mission, and I got Stone Sheath on me, but I was still able to refresh Critical Agiltiy, even though Stone Sheath says it removes the ability to land a critical hit. Is this a bug? 145.94.74.23 06:34, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Izzy doesn't fix bugs himself. Maybe we need an Arenanet:Skill Bug Reports page. It would certainly fill up quickly enough.

Most people just put skill bugs in the Miscellaneous section of anet bug feedback, which is kinda stupid considering skills are the biggest portion of the game. ~Shard 07:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I've added a proposal at ArenaNet talk:Portal#Separate skill bugs page. -- Gordon Ecker 08:44, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

My apologies, I thought this was the right place to report bugs.--The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:145.94.74.23 (talk).

It's ok, sounds like an odd one pass it alone so it can get pushed into the que, I do actually fix a lot of the bugs once they get to me, but there is a process for the whole thing, and page gets a little over run with bug reports sometimes ;) Izzy @-'---- 00:41, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Unplayable skills

To whomever may interest. Hello there Izzy. I know you guys see videos, number and stats about and how many times skills are played. You guys have any ideas or have something in mind for the majority of unplayable skills(skills that havent seen play)?--ShadowFog 02:52, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

It's a bit hard to say because there are a lot of factors involved. We noticed there is a lot of different skills used based on what game types your looking at, or even what time of day. So while there are a lot of "unplayable skills" like say Swirling Aura that doesn't see much use anywhere, there are a lot of skills that don't get used in one game type but do get used in others. Izzy @-'---- 01:58, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that Song of Concentration and Make Haste get almost no use outside of HA, where they're used an insane amount. -- Armond Warblade 02:52, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

When does the all mighty Quick Shot reign supreme? Might make quiet a pair with Second Wind. Angelic Bond will save the day don't worry ^^74.229.66.241 16:35, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

That makes me wonder where Stone Sheath is used, seeing as it didn't get a fix in the useless elite skill balance. Would you please tell me, Izzy? Because I have always wondered what made the skill a good skill. Is it used in anything other than farming? 145.94.74.23 09:03, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm guessing Stone Sheath wasn't buffed just because they didn't have enough time or couldn't be bothered or whatever, not because it's an OK skill, since it isn't. It's aweful, especially for an elite. Izzy's right to say that some see more use in certain places than in others, ofc, but as he also said there are definately some which never see use at all, and I could name a few off the top of my head right now myself, but I wouldn't do a thing like that. :-). So yeah, some more buffs would be good (this game has loads of skills, but since so many are so bad, it loses one of its main features, to a certain extent at least).

Oh, and ofc there's Empowerment, Meteor and to top it all, Magnetic Aura (@ Brains - sorry, I know this is off-topic but I just couldn't pass up the oppertunity to highlight once again how rubbish those are). 82.3.232.209 20:10, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Magnetic Aura gets some play in farming builds, Meteor is awesome in PvE, and Quick Shot owns dR. --76.25.197.215 20:22, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Most skills don't see play because there are lots of skills to chose from and the most unused skills are unused because there is a version slighty different but better. Fox007 20:32, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Question about Maintained Enchantments

Just wondering if it's actually possible (I would have thought so, but hey) - could you have a Maintained Enchantment with no upkeep cost, or a different one, such as a Health Degeneration cost instead of an energy one (this would work really well for Blood Bond, for example, and probably plenty others)?

It would be possible but we would need to make a new skill type and code it up as such. Seeming how we limit the number of skill types I don't see something like that happening unless we changed all of them to work that way. It would be pretty interesting I must say! Izzy @-'---- 02:04, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

A new skill type as in a different type of programming "block", or a new skill type like what happened to Ancestor's Rage when it became an enchantment but not a spell? -- Armond Warblade 02:53, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

What if you made it so that the caster gains one pip on energy, to cancel out hte cost? Or you could make it so that the enchantment is endless. -- NUKLEAR IIV 16:26, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

It would be possible but we would need to make a new skill type and code it up as such. Seeming how we limit the number of skill types I don't see something like that happening unless we changed all of them to work that way. It would be pretty interesting I must say! Izzy @-'---- 18:23, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Ya I was kinda thinking how cool it would be to do that, mainly for necros. I can see blood bond being one, but more skills would need to be changed to make it worth it. If this was added though, necros could make use of all the regen they can get get through skills like vampiric spirit and life transfer. Malaise almost acts the same way as blood bond but as a hex. A change like this though could shake some things up just to make it more interesting. Evil Penguin 23:40, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Please do not discuss balancing issues or suggestions here; if Izzy has responded, don't reply with more suggestions. -- Brains12 \ talk 13:36, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Aren't we allowed to have a friendly discussion with Izzy on his talk page, in the same way as just about any other talk page here? 145.94.74.23 20:14, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

What about maintained enchantments with plain old energy costs, but with different values (e.g. -2 Energy degeneration or even just 0)? Would they also require a new skill type (or a change to the existing one), since after all you get skills with various base energy costs and things. I mean, I can't see that you'd want to use it that often, but it could have its uses.

And as to what the previous two posters said, we are in fairness simply discussing the various ramifications of such a change, which is not only friendly and fun, it's also useful since it lets Izzy know whether or not it might actually be worth something like it in the future (or maybe in GW2 at least).

WTS Champ Points

Seen some players buying multiple 1200+ rating guilds and then advertising to sell Champ Points 25k a point, 50k a win. Ideally I think they buy 6 and keep cycling through taking turns beating them. Was wondering what your input on this is? Or if it is against any rules. They try and do it starting 1AM+ when most guilds aren't playing. 74.229.66.241 21:25, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah we are aware of it and are looking into it, it's sorta abusing our system in a number of ways, I wont go into details as it's not really my department but I would advise against doing it as it will likely land you in trouble! Izzy @-'---- 22:51, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

As you might know Izzy it's not any old thing, they tested it some time ago and basically manipulating r101-r150 ladder. Something should be done before c3 means "oh, how much you paid to those ppl?". ANet should have rights to stop it. Added to clarify for likes of Lilondra: That hasn't been the case yet since those players have mostly tested, propably c2s or so, but that SHOULD be stopped before it gets more organized and worse for farming c3 HoM statues. 91.154.5.231 11:38, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

ow wait thats not the case now ? Lilondra *poke* 10:02, 28 September 2008 (UTC)