Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: curtegg.5216

curtegg.5216

I’d just wish Anet would fix the multi-year bug with guild missions. Like not able to start Prisoner 1141 and having to restart the bounty because of it.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: jheryn.8390

jheryn.8390

Here is my “Good”, “Bad”, and “Ugly”

The Good:

1. I echo most of what people loved above in this thread. One that hasn’t been mentioned yet is the account wide unlock of recipes from consumables.
2. LS is awesome. I’m only a little way in, but it is engaging and fun. Well written.
3. The new map is freakin’ awesome!
4. The new fractal is fun. Love the mash up.
5. QoL are all fine by me. Even the “Rise!” nerf is OK. I main a necro with “Rise!” and it wasn’t nerfed to where it was no longer worth having on my skill bar. I’m glad you didn’t make my favorite Necro skill unusable.
6. The Ghost of [So NOT going to spoil it.]!!! I was freaking out in a good way. Very happy!

The Bad:
1. The content is so good that I want to play. Hell, I wanted to take the day off of work to play more. LOL. So, the bad means I am going to plow through the content and I will want more. Sigh. So I guess the bad is my problem not yours.

The Ugly:
1. Phlunt. Man. That dude has a face and personality not even a mother could love.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Kenze.3678

Kenze.3678

The good:

Visually the zone is looking very good. It’s quite fun to jump/glide around getting papers and the map currency.
The story is quite good, though a bit short. The voice the very well done and it fits the characters.
The changes to guardian are okay, nothing really speciel but overall better than the Guardian-state pre update.
I like that we can get jewelry where we can change the stats. I’m not quite sure how much time it takes to gather the currency for a couple of those resetters yet.
The quality of life changes were really good, thumbs up

The bad:
No new weapons or armour-sets to barter for. I really really dislike that. There is really no reason to play in Bloodstone Fen once you have got your jewelry, which might not take that long.
It’s quite filled with enemies vs the map size. It would be nice to have a map once in a while where you can run 10m without being hit by multiple enemies.
There isn’t that much exploration to work on. Those papers are okay, but nothing really besides that. A jumping puzzle for some Bloodstone Rubies would be cool or a meta event.
The designs on the “White Mantle” feels quite cheap. Phalanx armored knights and the necros looked like wearing “Bladed armour”. Not that unique compared to what we saw in HoT.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Calanthe.3857

Calanthe.3857

“PvP Amulet

Removed the Cleric’s Amulet.”

Why did you remove Cleric’s Amulet?! It was the best for healing.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Goldfox.5729

Goldfox.5729

The Good: There’s content
The Bad: There’s no capes.

When will Devs answer us !?

‘’Many have eyes, but few have seen.’’ – Scriptures of Lyssa, 45 BE

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Boogiepop Void.6473

Boogiepop Void.6473

I’m not enthused about the asset reuse in the new fractal. The actual design of it is fine, but seeing literally everything being a ripoff of other fractals visual and audio wise (other than the new dialogue) is disappointing. The swamp rework is a disappointment; we actually killed Mossman without even realizing we were fighting him due to how weak he was (we thought we were fighting some wolves before we got to him; he died from incidental AOE). Also, Thaumnova needed a rework far more than either swamp or snowblind; the heatroom and collider room cause huge frustration and slowdown to most groups, to say nothing of the anomaly bossfight. Aetherblade spinning wall puzzle could also use a rethink; maybe actually add a path based on navigating the pattern instead of depending on dodges to get through. Also, I am sad that the issue where Guardians cannot be used above level 80 fractals was actually made worse, rather than addressed.

Loving the autosalvage, although I still wish for automated material depositing, material storage for things like reclaimed plates and now blood rubies, automatic bank access for the mystic forge, vendors, and events that need materials (charging quartz, bloodstone tribute for the first bifrost collection, etc.), and for a keyring (although at least the new map doesn’t introduce yet another map specific key to try to always have on the right character). Not liking that you can’t get to the new map with alts without replaying the opening of LS3 over and over, and that I can’t get any experience to spirit shard conversion if I happen to not have the mastery points to finish every last track.

I’m annoyed by the AR rework because the added cost in stabilizing matrices is not made very clear beforehand. I actually pulled all my +7 simples, sold them intending to use the relics to replace them, then realized that every stabilizing matrix I have ever received (never had cause to use them before) isn’t enough for more than 15 of the new currency and I had to stuff whichever I had in standard infusions onto my items. I ended up losing over 10 AR, to say nothing of the gold lost buying lots of extractors. This is of course not the fault of the system, just the communication of it. However, I do not like the insanely high stabilization matrix requirements this brings.

(edited by Boogiepop Void.6473)

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Tipper.6973

Tipper.6973

Overall, I feel like this update was good. However, I do have a couple comments.

  • It was too short on World PvE content. I completed the personal story and all the new map achievements in ~3hrs of gameplay.
  • The new zone is tiny and offers no replayability once you’ve finished the achievements. I actually think this is a good thing. Not every new map added needs to have an endlessly farmed meta. However… I think if you’re going to do these more traditional “single completion” maps, they should be far larger and more time consuming than this one. This is the smallest map in the game (including the “verticality”).
  • I feel like there should have been more skill adjustments. This is a common theme of each quarterly patch so far. ANet only addresses “current” issue abilities, for the most part. What about all the old abilities that nobody ever uses? or useless traits? There are many of them littered throughout the classes. I feel like some serious time needs to be spent on them, not just bits and pieces a couple times a year.
  • A 3 month wait for the next update seems too long if we only received 3-4 hours of new content in this one (after waiting 9 months).

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Fishae.2503

Fishae.2503

GREAT patch overall, content was low but sooooo many improvements.

one thing is, personally i really dont want to do raids. would be nice if i can gain spirit shards without raids mastery

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Outlaw.3421

Outlaw.3421

Overall, I like the patch, but I am fearful.

  • The QoL updates are great and were needed (Salvage Kits and Health Percentage)
  • New Maps (Fractal, PvP, PvE Map)
  • New Story (Living World Season 3)
    Now to the fearful part. I am a veteran player since the launch of the game – I will always enjoy Guild Wars 2 and I am thankful for the new content. Being a veteran though, I am running out of things to do – I can make a new legendary, I can get some armor that I am missing, or finish up a collection, but really the new map exploration and the story are what my main interests are in the game. Personally, I am not a fan of WvW or PvP. I am sure I am not alone in that.

There was not much content really in this patch. I am not trying to knock the time it took for development of all of these maps, but when you look at this patch it compares to a Season 2 Living World release. I am not the only person who noticed. Here are a few examples from reddit:

I am fearful because if this is going to be the amount of content for each release in the 2 – 3 month time, I am afraid people are going to lose interest quick and the majority of your population will only pop up for the first week a release happens then fade away again. In terms of story, people will lose interest because you are drawing the story out too long and you are back into the problem with Season 1 where it just kept going and going. I believe 2 – 3 months is too long. If Season 3 is going to be as long as Season 2 (8 episodes), it is going to take 1.5 – close to 2 years to wrap up.

I am hopeful the content increases, that there will be more maps during the extra space between releases, and that there will be other things to occupy our time while we are waiting for the next episode.

The teams are all split up and we see a new Glider, a new Outfit in the Gem Store every week or 2. We haven’t seen many new armor pieces, we haven’t seen the Legendary Armor, we just received a new PvP map, we just received a new Fractal, and the Legendary Weapons were put on hold. I am just not sure why the main priority seems to be boosting the gem purchases versus boosting the quality of content in the game.

It would be reassuring to hear from one or several people from ArenaNet on what the next moves are in between these 2 – 3 month periods.

(edited by Outlaw.3421)

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: vesica tempestas.1563

vesica tempestas.1563

I only play Ele so deeply disapointed that this profession has been effectively broken by this build in SPVP:

Previously only bunker was viable as a side effect of damage mitigation (Toughness and heal to compensate for poor survivability at the cost of dmg)

Now,

No mitigation now for low survivability, the obvious group tactic will to be to burn down the weak link asap.

Dagger main hand – now nonviable – you’ve lost aforementioned heal and toughness for close combat
Staff – unchanged in spvp, its an aoe weapon, not suited for 5v5 pvp.
Sceptre – unchanged, slow spell travel times and poor auto attack.

No idea what the dev was thinking, clearly not communicating with stakeholders or looking at analysis conducted by the ele community over the last season.


“Trying to please everyone would not only be challenging
but would also result in a product that might not satisfy anyone”- Roman Pichler, Strategize

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: GreyWolf.8670

GreyWolf.8670

It’s ok I guess but why no fixes for revenant? You can’t even heal yourself underwater!

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Doggie.3184

Doggie.3184

My Sylvari needs a Summer Swimsuit to complete this Summer Update so I can go swimming at Southsun Cove.

| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. |
Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.”
“Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: TexZero.7910

TexZero.7910

Going to be that guy….

The story is great, or rather what minuscule parcel of a story we get is. Not only was it short it was pretty underwhelming when it comes to what we got(most of it was known ahead of time/could have easily been predicted) and where we ended. I know cliffhangers are good for hype, but they are bad practices in telling stories especially episodic ones. You should fully wrap up your points and not just leave of on reveals. Then start a new chapter with that reveal in mind with your character goals fully known and your plan of action ready to be implemented.

Additionally, while the quality is much improved it did nothing to solve the problem with episode length. We’re getting 1 of these every 2-3 months and its still only equal in length to the previous LS delivery method. Quite disappointing really.

The gameplay changes are a mixed bag for me. The new zone is nice, the rewards are nice. That said they lack longevity (especially since i have trinkets gained via raiding). There’s little incentive for me to stick around in that zone (Bloodstone Fen).

Fractals….This one hits an extreme sore spot. Removing a slot for AR pigeon holed players into redoing their existing AR making it extremely inconvenient. Yes you made the slot universal which is a good step but its still frustrating as heck to get over the removal of a valid infusion slot. Chaos Isle, is pretty…until you get to the snowblind section and realize that you’re forced into not only having a party, but having a only a bit of leeway when it comes to lighting torches. If 2 people go down, your entire party is punished. Additionally, i don’t quite understand the desire to make things hit like literal trucks.

That all being said it was still enjoyably and i do look forward to more. More maps, more story, more …well just pretty much everything sans the server imploding.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Astaldocair.9063

Astaldocair.9063

Fractals:
Nice UI again
I’d say the changes were unnecessary and the time spent doing those would have been better spent developing a truly new fractal, but haven’t played them enough to judge ultimately.

Infusions:
It’s nicer for new Players i see that, BUT:
It’s unfair for players like me, since with the old offensive/defensive infusions u only got 5 AR many went with the simple +7, which also was cheap, full +7 and some +11 and +10 in the rings and backpiece.
So with the change you either replace (removal tools) some of the +7 with higher normal ones to compensate the missing one from the amulet or upgrade the +10/+11 even further and we are forced to spent more money on our AR since we now have 143
The value of the offensive/defensive/ghostly/bauble infusions have been raised immensely, bad if u don’t have any...
So now it’s much more worth considering stat infusions.

Balance:
Since my main is a thief i was shocked to see a nerf since his only strong point was the damage, which is now noticably weaker

General:
Almost only positive
Health percentage
Recipes account wide (coud have refunded double like with colours)
Material search
Salvagekit options
Pings
facepalm

Story:
Nice details, kind of strange that when u start a conversation and after all that talking at Eir’s u have to read something(Pact camp new map)
Map is to small
And it’s really anoying that u get the feeling from not playing the raids, that u have missed a lot, the thin explanations from Canach and in the Pact camp are not really satisfying

(edited by Astaldocair.9063)

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Swagger.1459

Swagger.1459

It’s a good patch overall.

Hopefully someday y’all can seriously dig back into professions and make them better.

New Main- 80 Thief – P/P- Vault Spam Pro

221 hours over 1,581 days of bank space/hot pve/lion’s arch afk and some wvw.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: BrotherBelial.3094

BrotherBelial.3094

Over all really happy with what we got,

Bloodstone fen, I really like the map. I’ve still got to map all of it, but I do like it, it’s right in the sweet spot for difficulty for the way I play.

The story a little short IMPO, I really enjoyed it, I was just disappointed when it was over so quickly. It was very well done.

PvP map, I’ve only played 1 game, so this is just a first impression of it. Not a fan, its like a rats nest, and the team with the most mobility wins. And were where the ghosts? I though there was supposed to be a 3rd faction where the teams would have to fight together to beat, I was looking forward to see how that would work, also the bell gives out way to many points, the game is won way too quickly before a come back can be made.

Just my personal opinions on it all, nothing based in fact.

i5 4690K @ 3.5Mhz|8GB HyperX Savage 1600mHz|MSI H81M-E34|MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2GB|
|Seasonic S12G 650W|Win10 Pro X64| Corsair Spec 03 Case|

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

The new zone is tiny and offers no replayability once you’ve finished the achievements.

It depends on what you look for in replayability. I’m responding in case you missed these and the chance that they may interest you.

  • Farm map currency for collector items (e.g. glider skills, mini, etc)
  • Farm rubies & map currency for ascended trinkets that have HoT stats
  • Farm events for salvage items that give random tiered mats

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: maxwelgm.4315

maxwelgm.4315

- I did not encounter the stuck-after-dodging bug since the patch, and I used to get it A LOT on my necro, so that would have been worth a patch on its own, really, very nice to finally see it happening;

- The salvage and health percentage additions were so good to have that I can’t even remember how I played without these just yesterday, so that’s another big thank you for finally getting these;

- The new fractal and the new map are both enjoyable, though the story was kind of short. As I understand it, voice acting hundreds of different dialogues for each playable race and gender must be a tiresome process, and honestly I wouldn’t mind if a lot of dialogue went back to the old window reading style instead of talking balloons, if that would even somehow allow to develop more encounters/areas per update in the future.

- The changes to previous fractals are much welcome and bring a wind of fresh air, but they still do not address that we are far from having the endlessly repeating content fractals were originally intended as. I’m not sure what I would like to see here, perhaps a rework of the daily so you can go through many more fractals without diminishing returns (you can do up to 8 dungeon paths and get dailies but only 3 fractals which are supposedly shorter? c’mon) or maybe we’re just lacking a higher number of fractals so they don’t repeat inside tiers (at least, but I’d surely enjoy having more than 25 unique ones);

- Somewhere it was said armor and weapon developing was the tightest bottleneck for the whole team, and if that’s because of the art side (the balancing is presumably non existant since stats are preset), then we should lay down a little on the outfits (e.g the armor Canach was wearing could have been actual armor) to focus on armor. we already had so many outfit releases and I believe a healthy 50/50 armor to outfit ratio would please most people. Specially with such relevant cases like White Mantle and Canach’s armors, it would complement the lore side of the patches very well.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: SnowHawk.3615

SnowHawk.3615

you got lazy with the hair styles. i bought quite a few hair kits in hopes that it would be worth it. im still waiting.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Arkantos.7460

Arkantos.7460

where the jalis or ventari buff? we asked since release of revenant!

Good Thiefs are average,
Skilled Thiefs are dangerous

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Icdan Sevaen.4628

Icdan Sevaen.4628

I’m generally very pleased. I would have preferred new armour but that’s apparently a ton of work, so I can live with missing some for now. Though at least one set in the living world would be nice.

The zone is well designed and pretty kitten fun.

My mind was blown after the last instance of the story and I actually had to log off for a bit to get my head wrapped around what had just happened and what we had heard.

I kind of wish we’d gotten more map and more story, but hey, that’s just wanting more of the good stuff. That’s never enough!

Overall, the only two things I really found missing were a keyring and build templates.

Keep up the good work. <3
My compliments to everyone.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: slamfunction.7462

slamfunction.7462

I haven’t had much time to play, as my cohorts here, have. But i loved the following:

Shining blade BP and glider skins

Fractal changes and AR Vendor – i love everything you guys did here, as its made it leaps and bounds easier for my group to get in and play through the various levels. HUGE THANK YOU!!! for this.

Salvage ALL THE THINGS! YEEEESSSSSS!!!!

New zone is crazy and i love it!

I thought balance was perfectly fine, but i also don’t main an Ele, so i can’t confirm.
Story is on par with most everything in Hot. I loved the humor in the first few bits i played.

Most of all – i love that this zone isn’t a DESTROY YOU ALL! type area. What i mean, is that when i run through any HoT area, its a battle. I mean, everything and anything is going to kill you hard, if you don’t pay attention. This area, not so much. I like that i can actually explore, and kill the mobs without having to WP every 10min.

The one thing that i didn’t like at all, and is absolutely abhorrent, is the insider trading issue your company has. There was a thread on reddit regarding the price of Stabilizing Matrices last night, with the gw2spidy links to show the history where they shot up in price, right before the patch dropped. We’ve noticed this as a usual occurrence right before each of the patches have dropped, it seems.

Issiah Cartwright (sorry if i butchered the name!), replied and stated that he was going to look into this, and i hope hes productive. Somehow, what you ship is getting linked to a few select people in-game.

It has to stop, and we need some sort of news on this front.

Arena Nets are used to catch Gladiator Fish.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Kitty.1502

Kitty.1502

I am reviewing this as a primarily solo PvE player:

The good:
-Story is interesting, lots of lore which is good something HoT desperately lacked.
-Bloodstone Fen is an interesting area, with some interesting concepts such as the gliding, and Jade.

The bad:
-VERY short – beat story is about an hour, almost have all achievements already
-No real challenge – just more mindless grinding
-New zone is the smallest map to date takes about 10 minutes to fully explore and you can see nearly every encounter it has to offer in a short period of time (lucky you can see an participate in nearly all encounters in about an hour)

Note: It has been nearly 2 years and the amount of content we have gotten that is not tied to repetitive mindless grinding is inexcusable at this point. This patch is just another example that ArenaNet does not know how to provide meaningful content to the solo PvE base. As such I would not recommend coming back to this game anytime soon to anyone who mainly played for the solo PvE portion of this game for any who would read this.

Tarnished Coast-[NOPE]
Kitten – Zerker Ranger – http://gw2efficiency.com/c/Kitten
Kitty Smallpaw – Condi Ranger – http://gw2efficiency.com/c/Kitty%20Smallpaw

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: JTGuevara.9018

JTGuevara.9018

I’m enjoying the story so far, it’s pretty good. I love Bloodstone Fen, it’s a fun map. The white mantle mobs are actually a solid challenge, PLEASE leave them the way they are! My only disappointment with regards to LW is that there’s only one chapter. I thought we were getting at least a couple more, maybe 3 more chapters.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: mrauls.6519

mrauls.6519

One issue I have with PvP is the lack of weapon sigils. It’d be nice if more were added

Mes (Guardian)
I make PvP & WvW videos

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: DeceiverX.8361

DeceiverX.8361

(Fixing broken thread, see previous page for my feedback post)

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: PopeUrban.2578

PopeUrban.2578

Decoration Feedback

Overall a solid patch. The upgrade cost and functionality of the new guild hall signs is great but their character limit seems too small, especially considering the size of their windows.

Interaction distance for the signposts seems too small. Grave markers and statues are good though.

Can we get statues depicting a member of each race maybe?

I’d also like to be able to edit their heading (so in stead of “GRAVE MARKER” you could put “NAME” in the big text and an inscription in the small text.)

As well the single target decoration removal and persistant selection UI is awesome for decorating (protip, you can leave deco mode and that window remains up, selecting a deo automatically returns you to deco mode.)

The biggest QOL with decorating still hasn’t been addressed though. Decorating still uses your default AoE setting, meaning that if you are using the instant setting you don’t get a chance to preview or rotate decorations. This requires me to go to options and change my AoE mode to normal every time I decorate, then remember to change it back when I am done.

Decoration mode should simply force AoE mode to normal, and return AoE mode to its previous state when exited so I don’t have to constantly open the options menu.

Guild Master – The Papacy [POPE] (Gate of Madness)/Road Scholar for the Durmand Priory
Writer/Director – Quaggan Quest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky2TGPmMPeQ

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Tiny Doom.4380

Tiny Doom.4380

It’s a tricky one. Firstly, I don’t do Fractals at all and I don’t do much sPvP so nothing I say refers to anything there.

I’ve done the full story episode on two characters and spent about six hours in Bloodstone Fen as well.

The story is solid, interesting, better-written than some previous entries and considerably better paced. There are some genuinely funny lines. I laughed out loud five times (yes, I did count them). The voice acting is decent. Rytlock is better than decent – he’s excellent. Taimi is good. Caithe and Canach are a tad hammy but enjoyably so. Phlunt could do with having his part worked up a little – he’s good value.

There is a lot of of watching and listening but there’s also plenty to do for the character so you feel you have agency. The difficulty is extremely class-dependent. My first run through was on a full berserker staff ele: every fight was tough and the final two boss fights were attritional. Not much fun. The second run, however, was on a full healing druid and it was a cakewalk. Scarcely seemed like the same content. Not sure how you tune solo instances for the range of classes and builds but I think it needs to be done better than this.

Overall I enjoyed the story in all aspects. I’d give it a solid B+.

Bloodstone Fen I like a lot. I love gliding and its the best gliding zone since Verdaant Brink. I like the way it uses all the gliding skills. I’ve used stealth gliding more in a day than in more than six months of Heart of Thorns. I have to wonder if the new map would be even marginally playable for a fresh 80 with only basic gliding, though. I don’t think it would. Given that you’re promoting LS3 and HoT and the 80 boost all as one package that could be problematic.

The map events are a huge improvement on HoT. I love that there’s no specific meta. The looser arrangement feels hugely more natural and much less forced. There’s always a lot going on and the set piece events are fun. About time we got a new World Boss too.

The collects for the books are excellent. I finished the first today and read the whole book in order and enjoyed it very much. The gathering of material for the Ascended items looks very reasonable and the backpack, while a bit over the top, does at least look wearable. It will probably be the first Ascended Backpack I make because even though I have all the mats for some others I can’t bring myself to use them because a) the packs are hideous and b) the mats are too valuable.

The general QoL changes seem to be okay. The mass salvage option is useful although my bags are always so full it doesn’t really work very well. Pets learning their names is very welcome even if it is four years overdue. How was that not fixed in beta?

Overall I think it’s a good-to-very-good patch in terms of the actual content. The serious problem is that there’s probably, at most, a couple of weeks in it. I have 11 level 80s on my HoT account (not this account – this is my posting account only) so I can certainly wheedle a bit longer out of the patch but someone with the regular Main+alt set up is surely going to be done in a few days unless they decide they like Bloodfen well enough to grind there instead of in Silverwastes or Auric basin or wherever people are grinding these days.

I think the recent flow of Current Events has been good and I hope that continues between the Quarterly updates. If you could get the updates to bi-monthly instead of quarterly and then add (or add back) several Festivals so that there were at least six a year, spaced to fall on the off months between updates, then I think you might finally have a viable content distribution system.

On its own, though, judged as “The Content” for the next three months, Out of the Shadows is more than a little thin. Probably best to hold back on hyping these releases as something special because it just invites disappointment even if they are, in and of themselves, not bad at all.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: DoctorDing.5890

DoctorDing.5890

Mass salvaging: brilliant

Infusion changes: confusing, especially the new vendor

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: penelopehannibal.8947

penelopehannibal.8947

Just two criticisms from me:

Thief
Now that [Venomous Aura] isn’t in Shadow Arts anymore and is in the base attack of venoms, it leaves [Leeching Venoms] the only condition trait in Shadow Arts, and doesn’t make sense to be in there on its own.

I think [Leeching Venoms] would be better suited now in Deadly Arts, and swap it with [Revealed Training] which is extra power on reveal, put that in Shadow Arts as it’s a trait linked to stealth.

Monument Decorations
Can we please have a female statue as well? I wanted to plant a statue to commemorate a female player who is currently on leave of the game, but it doesn’t make sense that a big, huge built male is the statue saying when you press F “To commemorate [Female Name]”

Blood & Merlot [Wine]

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Jack Skywalker.5674

Jack Skywalker.5674

Will Ventari ever go beyond borderline decent for dungeons where you need to stack and lack projectile reflect.
Any insight you can give us on what lies in the future of the centaur stance?

Am also currios about your stance on the dwarf stance.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: AegisFLCL.7623

AegisFLCL.7623

The Good

- New map is pretty interesting, well designed from an artistic standpoint
- New PvP map is again very nice, seems like a more balanced version of skyhammer (or at least the mechanic). Points are spread out evenly, and the terrain is not ridiculous.
- Heard good news about the Fractal, haven’t played it yet but I doubt I will.

The Bad

- The new PvE map, yes I know it was in the good but… plagued with boring mobs that are everywhere. The event’s outside the Jade Constructs and Unbound Guardian are BORING. Map is WAY to easy.
- PvP Balance. While engineers got some nerfs they deserved (not enough imo), ele’s may have been wiped off the map, and most other classes had nothing of notable mention changed; when will rangers ever get to do damage again, that isn’t reflected or blocked by all the projectile hate.
- Nothing was done to provide better counter play against the large number of condi users throughout PvP.
- The LS script and voice acting was subpar.
- The LS was incredibly short, appeared rushed, and just was not what I was expecting after a year of ZERO story content; this specific part of the patch lacked quality big time.
- As I generally PvP and do LS, I’m pretty much left with nothing to do that’s enjoyable until 3 months from now.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: cptaylor.2670

cptaylor.2670

I’ve already shared my opinion in other threads, but as a recap to the pve portion that I enjoy the most:

The story instance encounters could use a little tuning in terms of knowing what to do with the ancient magic and the tethers to the bloodstones being really short.

The story itself seemed really short. I enjoyed that you didn’t have to go back and forth to 10 different zones and talk to random people, but with it being so quick and to the point it felt a little rushed. (Like the airship transition from Rata Novus.) This isn’t bad, but when the story episodes themselves are few in numbers it really makes the chapter go by really quick.

I have to agree about the reveal in the last episode being a little lackluster. I think the biggest issue for me during that reveal was that my character was stuck on the ground while all of the dialog was occurring on the wall. Perhaps a zoom in during that part to actually see the two conversing before he just poofs into thin air and the episode is over?

Bloodstone Fen is an interesting map, but it seems the most rushed out of all of it. It seems like a lot of current event .. events.. such as the white mantle shield guys on the ground that are just an endless mob grind and tossing of crystals. The other events with the ghosts being rather… uneventful? Just tracking them down and killing them for currency I guess.

The jade construct event kind of seeming like Gherent in the fact that you have to kill all of them to fight the final boss, which is the Vale Guardian who seems to have dismal loot compared to the effort you have to put in to even get him to spawn.

The random champ events on the floating islands aren’t the most exciting either.

I like the idea and the visuals of the map, but it just seems extremely small with a lot of empty space where there are copy pasted white mantle mobs every 10 feet for seemingly no reason. (They are easy to kill which is nice.)

All in all the map just seems too small with too few events to become anything as replayable as Drytop or Silverwastes. It really just seems like a grind map where you can freely glide around for fun.

Also, no portal to the map for alts? Having to buy the teleport with currency? Just another thing that made it seemed kind of rushed. The stairwell in the bloodstone maw seems like it could be cleaned up a bit and lead to Verdant Brink, but I suppose the fear of that is breaking immersion when we suddenly find a portal that wasn’t there before?

I’ll have to try out the new fractal and pvp map later before I can speak for those.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Randulf.7614

Randulf.7614

Excellent story. Really enjoyed every bit of it. The pacing was much better – got to the meat of it w/o dragging it out which was a major issue in LS1 and LS2. I feel like we progressed as much in one episode as we did in half a season. If I was to nitpick, I felt the transition from Rata Novus to the new map was too sudden. Would have preferred a small interlude where we met up to get to the airship.

Did not expect the 2 reveals at the end to come so soon. Again, nice to see we are telling stories better here. Fantasy like GW2 works so much better with strong story across a shorter space than the Game of Thrones approach, which I find horrifically tedious.

Map was excellent and a real surprise. Didn’t expect a map, especially such a stunning looking one. A map which tells it’s own story much better than a lot of others.

The delivery of the lore via NPC’s and scarps of journals worked really well. Was a good bridge to the lore of the raid and to GW1 as well. Built up the background story a lot.

If I was to criticise;
- Does the map have long term staying power? The mobs have quite a bit of health and some of the events are quite tough to be a success. The mechanics are all fine, but once we drift away, will it be completable by small map populations? Right now, it is fine though

- Lazarus did not sound right with his voice over. It just felt delivered wrong

- The mastery was completed far too quickly. It either needed way more xp or more points (prob the former). The fact that it was completed in under an hour for me makes me wonder why it was even put in.

- Lack of new music for the map. Thought re-using Verdant Brink was a bit lazy and it didn’t fit the atmosphere of the zone. GW2 sound artists are excellent, they needed to be able to craft their magic here

Overall, a strong content and story patch which went above my expectations. I was expecting perhaps S2 episode quality but a bit longer. I was pleasantly surprised to find something better.
Have no opinion on balances. A few % nerfs to skills/traits is largely inconsequential to my gameplay style.
Haven’t really explored the QoL stuff – the patch notes page is a bit too much to read off a screen to me, so I’m sure I’ll discover it all as time goes on.

(edited by Randulf.7614)

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

The quality is good, but the quantity is low. I prefer more quantity over quality. 3 hours of content every few month is not enough to me as someone who plays GW2 as their only game.

1st person worldwide to reach 35,000 achievement points.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: misterman.1530

misterman.1530

The LS was okay. A bit messy graphically, but that’s more my issue with my crappy GPU than anything else. A bit short, but I hope it picks up in the next part.

The battles were well structured, unlike some during LS2.

The QoL changes for Necros (my main) were, I think, not all that “quality of life-ish”. Still no way to get away at all. Would be nice to have a port somehow.

The Amulet changes were the worst part of this patch, for me. I now have 6 infusions I can’t use and need to slot an Amulet with something I don’t need in WvW.

I don’t like the push to do fractals (in order to open up more slots on the other trinkets). Provide a Fractal Reward Track in WvW and all will be well.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: DarcShriek.5829

DarcShriek.5829

I felt the counter magic ability could have been explained better. It seems the majority of my time spent on the story was trying to figure out what to do with it.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: penelopehannibal.8947

penelopehannibal.8947

I added some criticisms earlier, but I think it’s only fair to add some positive feedback too.

What I liked:

Salvage Kits
Adding the right click option was golden! Thank you for that.

New Emotes
New emotes are always nice. Every time I see a thread saying “We need more emotes” I’ve always been cynical and said ArenaNet have bigger fish to fry, and never expected new ones to ever come. But, you still did it! And being in [Wine] on Piken, we love standing AFK from time to time, in a line in Divinity’s Reach and the /crossarms is perfect for us!

Rubi B visiting the EU servers just before patch update
Ok, so not part of the patch, but it was nice seeing a dev visit us for once. More of this please! She even replied to me saying /say chat turned into twitch.tv chat after she got flooded with questions upon questions – I guess us EU players aren’t used to the visits the NA might have.

Living World Season 3
I’ve only done the first two chapters so far, to make it last me. But my! I love how you added the playable character’s voice in it like with HoT. Makes it much more immersive, and I actually walked instead of ran through chapter one! Can’t wait to see more.

The New Map
Don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that as a 3D map, you got it just right. It’s not like the other 3D orientated maps that slows down your FPS and stuff, like Verdant brink, The Grove and Rata Sum (especially if you’re a Mac Beta customer). If you do more new maps that have verticality, base them off this one!

Thank you for a wonderful new update. This truly is ArenaNet back on form for me.

Blood & Merlot [Wine]

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Belenwyn.8674

Belenwyn.8674

I really like the QoL changes. There are so many great things.

The story of episode 1 is nice. I am missing a little bit more variety in the boss fights. The final fight too similar to the fight before. The length of the story arc was good.

The architecture of the new map is nice. I love the verticality. There is no global timer. I can play on my on speed. Since the map had to fill a gap the size is acceptable. The next map should be bigger.

The concept with one map per episode introduced by the story should be continued. Open world content possesses much more sustainability than story instances. So do not give up the concept.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Blacksarevok.8104

Blacksarevok.8104

is the greatest thing to happen in this game

im not being sarcastic, this **** is LIFE CHANGING

thank you anet

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: oshilator.4681

oshilator.4681

Love the LS3 patch for the most part.

But…. why in the world are the Blood Ruby Bands unique?

This sort of defeats the purpose of offering them like that.

Headdesk

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Chasind.3128

Chasind.3128

The hairstyles- you guys missed the mark by so much. I bought makeover kits and hairkits thinking we’ll be getting something new and fresh only to be given the entire opposite. I wonder how many micro transactions you could have made if you would have delivered properly- there is no unisex between asura, you gave male asuran access to female asuran hairstyles, there is nothing unisex about them. Stop making goofy charr hairs. And the norn/human swap- the males are okay but the females (on both ends) you picked the worst hairstyles, especially for norn. THe flower hairstyle doesn’t actually look good. It’s a goofy hairstyle to begin with and now norn can look silly too.
The sylvari, why not just give us the one sylvari npc hair that we don’t have access too? It’s the wysteria/willow branches, why not give sylvari more flower/ long hair? Give human females a variation of the long norn braid- the norn have the Celtic clasps, take those away and make them beads or ribbons or something to distinguish the humans and norn females. Give more racial hairstyles as in elonian and canthan. Gw1 had the best hairstyles.
I’m afraid to see what the faces will turn out to look like. Also, you forgot to add animation to the asuran braids…

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: zakuruchi.4086

zakuruchi.4086

The QOL changes are really nice. The fractal changes is also good. The new Chaos Isles fractal reuse old assets, but doesnt feel that way. Kudos to the frac team.

The Bloodstone Fen map has a great ambient feel of being creepy/chaotic, but it is also a bit too mob-heavy at places. Not that the mobs are hard, but it makes it hard to just explore for people who wants the exploration aspect. Perhaps consider to accommodate the explorable map aspect on the next new map?

The fractal agony change is good to simplify things, but the amulet situation is a bit wonky. Agony infusion over +13 is also non salvageable right now, that needs to be addressed.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Pompeia.5483

Pompeia.5483

The whole time I was running around the new map I was thinking “raiding has made everything else super easy or they are really trying to appease the casuals” but in skimming this thread I see others agree. It did not feel the same difficulty as other HoT maps.

Salvaging is awesome, and recipes cleaned up my bank. Having gear and build sets would complete the package.

I think the ele nerfs were very needed, maybe not enough, but skill cooldowns were not the way to do it. Similarly, the mesmer and ranger buffs were not enough to make them useful as anything other than support. Also I think skill splits need to be three-way. One for each game mode. Maybe even a forth for raids of you have to. But there needs to be better balance so more than just one dps and one condi class are considered in group content.

The story was nice and I want more but there were still some bugs so will report those later. I think I might need to redo it on alts just for the sake of clarify because the data was dense.

Lastly, my WvW guild are all waiting, trying to be patiently, for DBL to return instead of boring old Alpine so it was sad not to see it back yet.

Amanda Corsiva – Revenant && Katereyna – Chillomancer
Jenna Gracen – Scrapper && Merit Sullivan – Guardian
Daenerys Ceridwen – Druid && Vexia Gracen – Chronomancer

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: DGraves.3720

DGraves.3720

I like that game is more streamlined.

I think that removing the cumbersomeness was just the best decision I’ve seen in a while simply because it makes the game so much easier to drop into and drop out of. It feels less like a commitment in a good way.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Mangoes.5163

Mangoes.5163

I’ll keep it short: please strip the “Unique” designator on the old ascended fractal rings/accessories.

The designator was previously meant to ensure that you had to run one ring/acc with an offensive infusion slot and one with a defensive slot. Now that all infusion slots are unified, there is no reason to keep these pieces unique. It’s a legacy gotcha that will only serve to confuse newer players who will be wondering why they have to buy two different items that are literally functionally identical.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: mordran.4750

mordran.4750

This whole change of Ascendend Utilities aka enrichment slots shows that again you did not think of wvw players. First, the enrichments we can buy are a joke, +20% Gold from Monsters, +20% Magic Find, +20% Experience from Kills and +15% Karma…. Are you serious ? How long did it take to figure that masterpiece out ? 10 Minutes ? This is crap, and by the way pretty expensive crap, 20 or 10 Laurels, i mean honestly….

Second, to make it even worse you only refunded the infusions but weren´t able or willing to refund the laurels. So the more wvw chars you have the more screwed you are, thanks Anet for nothing.

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Jim.9532

Jim.9532

I’ve been away on holiday unable to get my teeth into this one.

What are your 3 favourite changes this update?

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: TexZero.7910

TexZero.7910

Right click salvage
/gg
torn between story/chaos isles

Feedback Thread: Summer Update (26 July 2016)

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Brown Fang Thump.9482

Brown Fang Thump.9482

Generally, I’ve found the first part of Living Story Season 3 to be quite fun, as I’ve said on my guild Twitter feed and in reply to the GW2 Twitter feed. There’s plenty of lore and fan service to keep players interested and the Bloodstone Fen map is full of explorable activity to keep folks busy for a while. The quality of life changes in the user interface were quite nice, all around. I’ve yet to play the fractals content; but, that’s because fractals haven’t been my bag since they were introduced. (The new, shorter duration variations are an improvement; but, the changes thus far haven’t been enough to keep my interest). The new PvP map is easy to navigate and fun to play on, though the secondary mechanic is a waste of time really (though I understand secondary mechanics are a favorite of the designers).

The revelations brought by the end of the story thus far are very promising and give me a good feeling about what’s coming.

Also, who doesn’t like the random fun of jumping into a rift to a shiny, thriving event.

All that said, of course, there are some real issues. I generally expect every patch to be covered with patches before it’s stable. That’s just the nature of the beast and I don’t mind as long as things aren’t completely broken at release. So, the connectivity issues didn’t bother me much. I was pleased by the quick response on twitter and in the game.

Bring Back Cutscene Controls
The new format for dialog in the game is really cool the first time through. Unfortunately, the new design includes what I assume is an intentional lack of player control. Somehow, the designers who thought, correctly, that it would be cool to make dialog more of an in-the-moment experience skipped the decades of design that resulted in cutscenes evolving from static/passive data dumps to informative options that players can advance through at their own paces. It’s really cool to watch Rytlock say “Don’t you think you’d have more fun crying about that alone in a corner somewhere?” the first time you play through the content. For those of us with multiple characters (I’ve 30+ over 3 accounts) it gets really tedious to not be able to skip it when you know it’s coming. Sure, you could say these aren’t cutscenes; but, they serve the same function and should thus function in the same way.

Are You A Grower Or A Shower
The introduction of a map that has a world footprint about 1/4 that of any core explorable map is disappointing at first glance. Sure, there’s plenty to keep folks busy for a week or so; but, at first blush it looks skimpy. Mind, I’m quite happy with getting a map like this every week for 8-14 weeks, though I doubt that’s what’s in store for us. Some players will complain about the size of this grower before they have a chance to really get in there and let it do its magic.

You Break It You Buy It
The broken guild bounties and WvW dolyaks point to some sloppy coding somewhere in the pipeline that managed to keep the new content working while garbling old systems. I’d hope someone fell on a sword or two for this. Not being able to interact with Trilla was a bummer that was only heightened by watching her walk through the terrain geometry before randomly disappearing. The fact that such things made it past Quality Control before release is—disconcerting.

Bean Counters In Segregation
It’s great that Bloodstone Fenn tracks were added to PvP and WvW. It baffles me that PvP and WvW reward track progressions don’t aggregate when the same track is selected in both areas. I applaud the track system. I just wish it was implemented more intelligently. I’d really love a button that populates both tracks with the same reward as a toggle option then allows aggregated progress to be shown in a single, simple interface.

Ease Off The Breaks
Though I found most of the movement mechanics in Bloodstone to be a real kick in the pants, in a good way, there was one bit that threw me off. In the final story sequence there’s a skill that is kind of taught to you involving exploiting bloodstone power to foil a bloodstone amped opponent. The idea is cool. The problem is, you need to move to make the effect work well and, here’s the bummer, gaining the power slows your ability to move. I can see how this might make for some almost strategic play in a party; but, as a solo player in the content it was just frustrating to know what I needed to do and feel hampered in my attempt by this seemingly arbitrary limitation. Bloodstone powers don’t slow any of the foes, therefore it makes no sense for them to slow players.

Front loading this episode with lore as foreplay before we get to the dirty-good map exploration action is a good idea here. I’m not sure the pattern would hold up in a sequence of episodes. It’s really a question of rhythm. I’m looking forward to a different rhythm in the next episode.