It's time the anti farming and anti solo inquisition comes to an end.

Some of you need to be reminded what GW stands for and that it's not all about the way you play only.

This has been Anet's view for years:
'ArenaNet tries to keep the game fun for everyone while still providing fun and rewarding play for solo farmers.'

The recent mess only confirms we're on the wrong track now. All in the name of balance, just like the inquisition did things in the name of god, they're just beliefs of a fanatic group. It's no secret that it is the people who scream the loudest that seem to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view. And that's not what GW needs. Did the TK play a huge role in that? I don't know, but if they did, Anet should let them go and take control in own hands again.

I sincerely hope Anet realises their mistake and will make certain play styles less dull again, like 600/smite.

Thank you.

I guess it's not fun unless you're doing 8x better than balanced parties? It's not like soloing or farming is anywhere near dead.

/agree on the 600/smite reference.

It's hard for us to know the input the TK has without ANet telling us but, even so, I would not expect them to be dictated to by the TK. I would hope the TK thoroughly play-test ANet's proposed changes and report findings, but I suspect this may not be the case.

In my opinion, it is much more fun doing 4x better than balanced with 600/smite, and as you rightly point out... solo farming still exists, so why not 600/smite?

Doesn't seem like ANet was trying to kill solo play or farming, just trying to take away the imba build everyone was using. Same thing they did with Ursan.

Honestly, outside of one build, is there anything else anyone was using to effectively solo farm?

Also, NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION! Just had to throw that one in there.

I dont have any problems with the imba builds and I'm not part of the ecto farming/must get R6 GWAMM to be pro group. I just think that some PvE content was toned up due to these imba farming builds and perfectly viable builds have now been nerfed throughout the years because one of the key skills was one of the key skills in the imba farming chain.

Its really hard to find a pug that knows what their doing, let alone a 'Run this off PvX wiki or gtfo noob' group. That sorta ruins PvE for me, but I'm not heavy into it.

Hope you consider my feedback too on the issue of buffed areas/instances because of failure to nerf imba builds right away.

Are you saying that 600/Smite is a solo build?

Maybe it was, and then people started using it for speed clears. It was also an offender of its own right by easily passing through what was supposed to be meant as high-end content.

The case is similar with Shadow Form. Shadow Form is okay if it can be used as a solo farm. Once it gets to the point where a team of these users can clear areas with superiority that other builds can't come close to, it's a problem.

I'm saying 600/Smite was (also) played by individuals and should not be viewed in the same light as pure solo builds for the simple reason that it has 2 component characters. If solo play is permitted, why not a decent 2 man team that can be easily managed by 1 human?

Such teams would still not have the luxury of passing through mobs unaffected (and spell protection + a speed boost is 'unaffected' as melee won't bother you).

yes, yes... Gun Pierson is the man to let us know what GW really stands for.

We'd be lost if it weren't for his unerring guidance ~_~

Lets see - 3 professions used for farming gets hit , 1 profession mainly because of all the anti perma sf ppl who regard each sf user being guilty of being in every sc which caused anet to hit the next 2 in line .
Not every sf sin did uw or sc`s - my sin must have missed out bigtime as she never did a sc or uw farming.. oh what did i miss lol.
Im not complaining tho as thanks to sf haters sf became a new and possibly better skill that can now be used/abused by all classes - ty all :P
Now i can still do plenty of solo farming and even uw duo farming with any chr i have without having to rely on shadowform - all anet did in the end was shift farming methods and places that are used for farming.Even speedclears now are starting to be tested and im sure anet thought they were laid to rest for a few months not a few days.
GW is meant to be played how you want to play it - your own skillbars etc and if people want to play solo then why deny them that.If people get put off pugs because they dont have certain skills , get called noobs for many reasons and so on then sure as hell they going to go solo and that soon lowers the amount of ppl able to pug.
Maybe its not anet that sometimes hurts how we play gw but ourselves with our own attitudes.

I want prot bond back then.

SF and 600/Smite have been viable for farming in some way, shape, or form since Factions came out. I'm pretty sure they've outstayed their welcome.

600/smite is not dead just a little slower. If you do it right you can still pump out a continuous 36 damage per hit and up to 45 for a decent interval. (this is with no group or personal cons)

All that is required is a little messing around with the builds. The smite is a lot more versatile now as he is not at 0 energy all the time.

To be honest the 600 itself is now even easier to run in certain areas as SF is much easier to maintain then SB was giving you a little more of a buffer between casts

So stop whining and come up with something new.

My friends build is almost under 40 for foundry clear (fury included) and the city is soon to follow. Granted this is slower then the previous sub 30 runs but once we get it down perfect it will only be a 5-6 minute different.

As for solo farming it isn't gone just a shift. There have been many shifts in solo farming since GW came out. Back in the day warriors and 55 monks ruled the solo farmers other classes could do it but those seemed to be the best. Those builds soon less effective and had to give way to a new generation of farming builds.

Some solo farming builds are actually stronger no, the Spectral farm is actually faster on an OF ele then it used to be as there is no longer a movement penalty for OF. Sins can still sliver farm, with EBSOH you get the damage buff needed to kill stuff faster. Solo farming is just a little slower and harder then it used to be.

So stop complaining and either come up with some adjusted builds or, as I suspect, wait for something to be posted on wiki so you can roll your head over your keyboard again

The constant nerf/buff cycle is crazy.

Seeping wound was totally missed/not tested. So much that it was nerfed immediately. Why was that?

It took you less then one week the get frustade over the fact that you can't make money with the same speed as u used to do. pls resign

I can only agree with you. After having played through all campaigns with multiple chars/proffs we (wife and friends) had started to enjoy exploring areas (Cantha usually) utilising the 600/smite duo as a means to acqire specific drops (materials mainly) and if it was on a weekend event item drop all the better.

We actually consider 600/smite as a means to an end (HoM accomplishments) and it was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours a day relaxing. Honestly it was the main reason a lot of us played on after completing existing content.

600/Smite gave me a lot of fun but, for example, dungeons like Rragar's Menagerie were too easy to finish in 1h/1h15m. A 8-man balanced team is more funny than a 600/smite or an Assassin Perma SF.

We play a MMORPG, not a single player game.

I'm just baffled by the fact that you're saying that nerfing one build is somehow equally as heinous as torturing and murdering thousands of innocent people.

Seriously?

By your join date, which is Feb 2006, you'd think you would have figured out there will be another popular farming build very soon.

I understand the concept, but not the timing.

There probably was a time you could put together a PUG sufficiently experienced to, let's say, defeat Duncan the Black in HM, but that is just not do-able anymore... player deficiency.

As I pass through many towns I will see a single player LFG to do mish/quests, with no takers... I have on occasion jumped in just for the sport and to help out.

And what was the harm in 600ing a dungeon? Passengers happily paid and everyone was happy... well, looks like not everyone

I would not want to be starting any of the campaigns at this time.

I just love the purist game Nazis... "Ya vot, you vill play my vay or you vill be nerfed"

I would do the old "this is a MMO, which means Massive MULTI Player and not solo'

But Anet made Hero's wich eliminated that years ago so who knows.

It was time for a SF nerf 8 months ago, the didn't nerf it correctly the first, or second or third time they did it.

My guess is they slowed sown the farms so you have to comit time to GWs in hopes you will commit more time or get involved with other things while on line for longer periods of time.

I laugh at the QQing about the nerfs that EVERYONE knew were coming. I've never had a PvE Sin or Monk and I Solo farm plenty of stuff just fine.

It goes back to what I've been saying for a while now. "Give someone and inch and they take a mile" work for something and earn something it's alot more fulfilling that way.

SoS.

Plz stop QQing.

^ As [DE] points out, there is a long precedent for nerfing invulnerability based builds.

Here's an example of how running / farming / invulnerability can harm cooperative gameplay.

Let's say I'm trying to form a group for some mission and have gathered maybe 5-6 people together. Suddenly a runner shows up offering to run the mission for 1k, and 2-3 of the group members leave to join the runner. Ouch.

So, it's not just about people blindly hating a certain play style if that play style has a visible negative effect on a player's ability to find or form a group.