Guild Wars 2

Look around the world of Tyria all the Cathedrals have remained contested for nearly a week now not only that but go to the lower level zones most contestable waypoints stay contested the vast majority of the time, theres no dynamic event groups the world of Tyria is desolate and my only thoughts are the Dragons won the war.

Please dont have a christmas theme event.

Put even one ascended ring in the karma vender there (no matter the cost) and guess what, the events will get run and the world will feel alive again. Why ANet hasn’t figured it our by now is beyond me. It would allow the pvers a way to get the new items and calm the majority of the disenchanted; well that and an apology with assurances they won’t add another tier.

edit: As for the rest of the world giving better karma reward items at the hearts including recipes would be a nice start. The majority of the players usually just rush through the lower level areas anyways though.

Honestly, I’m quite alright with getting into dungeons and having the fractal spam go on. As far as the cathedrals are concerned, I say people were tired of them bugging out or repeating the same thing for 10 minutes over and over again since every time I turn around they are contested again. It’s just a pain to do and not have a solid holding for 5 hours or whatever time (dunno how long we actually hold it for). The only thing to me that FotM killed was my LA chat.

A new dungeon’s been released just a week ago in which players of all levels can partake. It’s just that new shiny effect that lures everyone to LA…. it’ll wear off.

Give it a couple of weeks and things will return to normal. It does suck for those who aren’t that fussed by FotM at the moment, true, but it won’t remain a permanent thing.

Christmas totally needs an event though, don’t get all moppy and be a grinch now :p it’s the time to be jolly !

People still run the unbugged Dungeons and I see people running around leveling in most zones. What died was Orr as it is an awful area overall.
The only reason to go there now is the Dungeon and it is unplayable right now.

My last long term mmo took the world away and had everyone sitting in town waiting in LFG farming their valor to cap then logging off till reset is this what people desire in mmo’s nowadays? It took 2 expansion and 3 content patches to undo the mess they made why cant AN see the road they’re going down has already been traveled its a lose lose scenario.

LordNat.4963:

People still run the unbugged Dungeons and I see people running around leveling in most zones. What died was Orr as it is an awful area overall.
The only reason to go there now is the Dungeon and it is unplayable right now.

Really, people still run AC, CM, COE, COF, TA, Arah funny Ive been leveling up all week trying to get groups and maybe seen 2 or 3 each each day whether in LA or in the appropriate zone and everytime its eaither we have 1 short and group falls apart after sitting for what seems an eternity for last spot to fill.

And the lower level zones are as barren as Orr.

Is your server low-mid pop ?

I have noticed a drop in players all over Tyria, but I wouldn’t say I couldn’t run any other dungeons or meta event chain. Always a fair amount of people outside dungeons to pick up groups with. Maybe the time you log in maybe ?

Not trying to put your issue down, that is genuinely my experience ingame. I was on a low pop server a while back, I switched since and never looked back.

They should try to merge people from different servers for zones that have low population.

Asglarek.8976:

Really, people still run AC, CM, COE, COF, TA, Arah funny Ive been leveling up all week trying to get groups and maybe seen 2 or 3 each each day whether in LA or in the appropriate zone and everytime its eaither we have 1 short and group falls apart after sitting for what seems an eternity for last spot to fill.

it is fully the other way on my server (Maguuma). Zones always have people in them, always groups going for Dungeons, etc. Orr is the one dead place and that is from it being awful.
I have never waited more then 10 mins looking for some one, hell 90% of the time I can will a group in just one message to guild chat. Maybe join a better guild or a bigger server?

They’ve already said they will be adding more ascended gear with more ways to get it, and we know they’ll continue balancing things like this. Why all of this doomsaying? It killed GW2, really? It’s not dead, and that won’t kill it. All of the freaking out on the forums over ascended gear is really getting ridiculous.

Veltoss.9135:

They’ve already said they will be adding more ascended gear with more ways to get it, and we know they’ll continue balancing things like this. Why all of this doomsaying? It killed GW2, really? It’s not dead, and that won’t kill it. All of the freaking out on the forums over ascended gear is really getting ridiculous.

It’s not just the gear. It’s the awful gating mechanic, the random disconnects leading to players being unable to progress and the obnoxious elitism these changes brought about.

anet has successfuly split the community with this whole patch (karka, fotm mainly)

when the community has been split like this, it will be a very difficult task to unite it again
there will be huge debate on whatever they’re going to do next and it’s quite impossible to please everyone on both sides
it’s quite interesting to see what they’re going to do

If for some reason you never go to LA, you’d think you were playing a single player game where all the side quests are impossible.

Groovy.6749:

A new dungeon’s been released just a week ago in which players of all levels can partake. It’s just that new shiny effect that lures everyone to LA…. it’ll wear off.

Give it a couple of weeks and things will return to normal. It does suck for those who aren’t that fussed by FotM at the moment, true, but it won’t remain a permanent thing.

Christmas totally needs an event though, don’t get all moppy and be a grinch now :p it’s the time to be jolly !

The problem is right now, Anet will seem like the grinch so the players will have a hard time to be jolly. Christmas presents anyone? That’ll be 500 gems a box, oh! you got a shiny peice of coal worth 1c in your box? Try again.. /sarcasm

I am quite new to the game, highest level is 36, what is FotM? and how is it killing the game?

Before FotM, most maps were already emptied out. FotM is just their 1st step to improve the player online concurrency. It works and players become online more frequently. They just have to spread it around Tyria. I’m waiting for the rest of the dungeons to be revamped. Shorter dungeons yet tactical and doesn’t give much peer pressure.

They’ve already said on the news they’re going to revamp the older dungeons so we just have to wait for it. We’ll soon see people rushing for arah and other dungeons that players avoided because it’s too long and draggy.

No.

Before FotM, only the low and mid level maps were empty. Orr was pretty active then, especially in Cursed Shores. Now… DEAD. RIP.

Memnoch.2589:

I am quite new to the game, highest level is 36, what is FotM? and how is it killing the game?

Fractals of the Mist. Mini-dungeons that you can run from Lion’s Arch. They’re easier and a lot faster and scale in difficulty. More you complete the higher the difficulty level the more rewards and then you are forced to acquire Ascended gear to advance further because of the Agony stat that occurs at Fract level 10? I think.

No one is running regular dungeons because the rewards for fractals are better. The system is designed to promote elitism and people being turned away for not being able to run the fract fast enough, level, or class, or even what gear they are wearing (quality wise).

Everything that went against Arena Net’s promise about Guild Wars 2.

This of course is gathered by the multitude of threads about this.

Lol… its thanks giveing weekend and the fractals Just came out

So Arena Net promised not to add better dungeons or gear? Meaning once you hit 80 zero progression at all?

Tommyknocker.6089:

Put even one ascended ring in the karma vender there (no matter the cost) and guess what, the events will get run and the world will feel alive again. Why ANet hasn’t figured it our by now is beyond me. It would allow the pvers a way to get the new items and calm the majority of the disenchanted; well that and an apology with assurances they won’t add another tier.

edit: As for the rest of the world giving better karma reward items at the hearts including recipes would be a nice start. The majority of the players usually just rush through the lower level areas anyways though.

I like the idea of adding ascended items into normal PVE. Maybe big chests can have a chance to drop them.

I agree. This fulsome patch has wrecked this game.

The dungeon didn’t cause the shift the events slow timers and bugging is what really caused no one to do them. They should of left things alone like grenth and plinx. That all but murdered Orr.

LordNat.4963:

Asglarek.8976:

Orr is the one dead place

When taken out of context, this quote is hilariously obvious.

just give it some time.
fractals is the new dungeon with the new gear, once the hype settles down you’ll see people elsewhere again.

Memnoch.2589:

So Arena Net promised not to add better dungeons or gear? Meaning once you hit 80 zero progression at all?

Yep. And some people actually think that’s a good idea. Kind of sad, really.

Lifelike.5862:

Memnoch.2589:

So Arena Net promised not to add better dungeons or gear? Meaning once you hit 80 zero progression at all?

Yep. And some people actually think that’s a good idea. Kind of sad, really.

And yet, knowing that, you paid for the game. Why would you buy a game you thought was sad?

Those who bought it knowing that it was horizontal progression did so because a number of them (like myself) have run on the gear treadmills of other games for more years than some players have been alive and are, quite frankly, tired of it.

Memnoch.2589:

I am quite new to the game, highest level is 36, what is FotM? and how is it killing the game?

“FotM” stands for “Flavour of the Month” or “Fractals of the Mists” depending on how cynical you are. The reason it’s killing the game is that the entrance is in Lion’s Arch which means that, at the moment, the bulk of server population is sitting in LA looking for fractal groups, rather than being spread around the world participating in events. To be honest I, like others, think this is a temporary thing and that it’s only killing the game at the moment and things will get back to normal in a relatively short period of time.

However what looks like it may do more serious damage to the game is the introduction of new gear tiers to the game. Legendary items were initially the same power levels as Exotics, the only reason to obtain them was for cosmetic and bragging rights. Now they have raised the power level of Legendary items and created a new level of item, Ascended, at a level between Exotic and Legendary. Although I’m sure their intentions were good, what they’ve done here is to create what is called a “gear treadmill” where in order to compete with top-level content you need to have the top-level gear. Even before this there were stories of servers where some PuGs (pick up groups) for dungeons would require members to be fully equipped in exotic gear; with the introduction of Ascended and the power increase of Legendary items, it is possible that this trend will spread and become worse.

The problem is while you can get exotic gear in so many diffrent ways, now you need to run again and again same mini maps to get ascended one. Still haven’t got any ring, so i think chance for getting rings for my build is less than zero.

binidj.5734:

Lifelike.5862:

Memnoch.2589:

So Arena Net promised not to add better dungeons or gear? Meaning once you hit 80 zero progression at all?

Yep. And some people actually think that’s a good idea. Kind of sad, really.

And yet, knowing that, you paid for the game. Why would you buy a game you thought was sad?

Those who bought it knowing that it was horizontal progression did so because a number of them (like myself) have run on the gear treadmills of other games for more years than some players have been alive and are, quite frankly, tired of it.

I bought it because my friends were all playing it and insisted it was good. And also, because I was disgruntled with Tera at the time for having a lack of end-game content and meaningful “MMO” features. Ironically, Gw2 seemed like the only alternative at the time which appealed to me aesthetically. I signed up because I was promised that the game ‘caters to both hardcore and casual players alike’ but I was also EXTREMILY wary, having heard from several other Tera players that GW2’s game design did nothing but cater to casual players. The game turned out fun enough for me to enjoy right up until endgame, when I started to realise that yes, I did miss some of Tera’s features, it’s difficulty and it’s competitiveness, but I also loved some of the convenient features introduced by GW2. If only it were possible to blend the two, we could have a perfect MMO.

I cant even find ppl to do story dungeons, to be able to do explorable, tho also rarely see ppl looking for explorable dungeon :/ . All want fotm . I wish i got to 80 month before patch or something. There is no endgame for me and ppl like me now. And as promised, endgame for aesthetic is gone, now its for better gear, which kills game for me. Just wonder when they wil ad something more between legend and ascended….

It’s just hard to find a group for normal dungeons now. Hell, It’s hard to find a group for Fractals as well since everyones on different levels. ;/

Gah I know right, I hate when games add new exciting content! When will they learn that we don’t want new content, just keep what we have in and then go make another game or something!

o_O

i’m only interrested in wvw.

but after Fotm, WvW not fun anymore ppl need to upgrade for new gears

and my thief hard to find party to do Fotm lvl20+

now i think i need to change my time for other games.

((I don’t speak much English))

Do they really need to upgrade for new gears? My ranger is doing fine, even though she doesnt even have full lvl 80 gear yet or any exotics. Perhaps in a solo fight vs a full exotic she wont do as well, but in a team its perfectly fine.

Also, they did say that they would add more ascended gear and more ways of getting it. Im betting you’ll be able to get some ascended gear in wvw in the future as well.

Ironically, for a dungeon marketed as having better replay value due to different fractals, I find it a lot more tedious (not hard but tedious) than most. Maybe its the lack of immediate tangible rewards and the RNG nature.

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/power-creep

This is why Arena Nets direction will kill Guild Wars 2. It’s not the direction that, I believe, the game was originally designed to take. Horizontal progression has always been Guild Wars’ trademark. This is not horizontal progression.

Lifelike.5862:

Memnoch.2589:

So Arena Net promised not to add better dungeons or gear? Meaning once you hit 80 zero progression at all?

Yep. And some people actually think that’s a good idea. Kind of sad, really.

Nope, GW1 has done this for over 7 years without any problem. Not sad at all.

What’s sad is that you cannot see beyond stat progression and don’t get that not everybody wants the same thing. Gear treadmills is exactly the reason why all other MMOs fail and go down to small populations and GW2 decided to go the same way. That’s even more sad when I think about it.

I find it funny also that people like Memnoch apparently never read any interviews, completely missed the manifesto and bought this game without knowing what type of game this originally was.

Don’t worry I already stopped playing GW2, because it’s like other MMOs now and for me there are better games than GW2 for that type of experience.

LordNat.4963:

Asglarek.8976:

Really, people still run AC, CM, COE, COF, TA, Arah funny Ive been leveling up all week trying to get groups and maybe seen 2 or 3 each each day whether in LA or in the appropriate zone and everytime its eaither we have 1 short and group falls apart after sitting for what seems an eternity for last spot to fill.

it is fully the other way on my server (Maguuma). Zones always have people in them, always groups going for Dungeons, etc. Orr is the one dead place and that is from it being awful.
I have never waited more then 10 mins looking for some one, hell 90% of the time I can will a group in just one message to guild chat. Maybe join a better guild or a bigger server?

I’ve noticed this as well. Been working on my map completion for a week now and every zone I go to no matter what time it is there are always people in it. It’s just the Orr zones that are barren and it’s because Orr is a kittenhole.

I guess that’s why they call it FotM, as in flavour of the month. Anet already said that ascended gear would become available in other parts of the game later on, even in old PvE content. They also mentioned revamping all the pld dungeons which makes me think they will also make them rewarding enough to actually play.

Still, the fact that FotM became so popular speaks volumes to Anet. I doubt they will perceive it or ascended gear as a bad idea. If they can implement a small but engaging gear progression while minimizing the negative side effects then that will be a much much greater acomplishment then simply mot having any progression at all.

Memnoch.2589:

So Arena Net promised not to add better dungeons or gear? Meaning once you hit 80 zero progression at all?

Arenanet promised to add new gear with cosmetic differences only.

As far as Fractals and their promises, I am really not sure yet. Just my opinion, but it appears to be content gating and slowly encouraging elitism. Only time will tell.

Arenanet did promise that their game was designed to make people feel inclusive rather than exclusive. That is why they have all those design elements (loot/node sharing, no gear inspect to prevent griefing, no holy trinity to prevent class exclusion, etc.). If people are starting to feel like they are excluded from Fractal runs, something has gone wrong. I have never been turned away from a pre-patch dungeon run and I am a ranger (tongue in cheek).

Emapudapus.1307:

I cant even find ppl to do story dungeons, to be able to do explorable, tho also rarely see ppl looking for explorable dungeon :/ . All want fotm . I wish i got to 80 month before patch or something. There is no endgame for me and ppl like me now. And as promised, endgame for aesthetic is gone, now its for better gear, which kills game for me. Just wonder when they wil ad something more between legend and ascended….

ithink, We need Instant Join LFG system , like “Rift” LFG system =|
GW2 LFGsystem killed community

Lifelike.5862:

I bought it because my friends were all playing it and insisted it was good. And also, because I was disgruntled with Tera at the time for having a lack of end-game content and meaningful “MMO” features. Ironically, Gw2 seemed like the only alternative at the time which appealed to me aesthetically. I signed up because I was promised that the game ‘caters to both hardcore and casual players alike’ but I was also EXTREMILY wary, having heard from several other Tera players that GW2’s game design did nothing but cater to casual players. The game turned out fun enough for me to enjoy right up until endgame, when I started to realise that yes, I did miss some of Tera’s features, it’s difficulty and it’s competitiveness, but I also loved some of the convenient features introduced by GW2. If only it were possible to blend the two, we could have a perfect MMO.

It is okay if you do not like the original approach to GW2 offered for 3 months. Tera or other games may have what you like and so you have alternatives. For the customers who bought GW2 because of “no gear stat” progression, we have no alternative. There is no other AAA quality MMORPG that uses that approach. That is one of things that made Guild Wars (1 and 2) unique.

There is no common ground or blending of the two types of progression (horizontal vs vertical). They are mutually exclusive approaches. Vertical requires new gear tier and dungeons tied to it in order to incentivize you to keep playing. Getting the new gear becomes your primary focus for playing the game. Also, you only pursue this at the very “end of the game” after you have reached level cap.

Horizontal progression has a max stat cap on gear. Once you get the best gear, your focus shifts to other things. Maybe you pursue new gear with same stats because it looks better. Maybe you progress your character by refining your build or trying out new skills. Maybe you just play the various content features of the game because you like them (WvW, SPVP, DEs, Jumping Puzzles, Achievement/Title hunting, etc).

In horizontal progression, your primary focus for playing the game is doing what you like and having fun. Per Arenanet, their endgame began in the Starter zones. You did not have to wait until you reached level cap to experience their various content offerings.

Asglarek.8976:

Look around the world of Tyria all the Cathedrals have remained contested for nearly a week now not only that but go to the lower level zones most contestable waypoints stay contested the vast majority of the time, theres no dynamic event groups the world of Tyria is desolate and my only thoughts are the Dragons won the war.

Please dont have a christmas theme event.

Maybe on your server. Not mine. (TC)….though, tbh, I have more fun on weekends for DE’s than during the week. That might speak more about the relative maturity of the RP server though.

I can’t wait for whatever ANet comes up with for Christmas.

Fungalfoot.7213:

Veltoss.9135:

They’ve already said they will be adding more ascended gear with more ways to get it, and we know they’ll continue balancing things like this. Why all of this doomsaying? It killed GW2, really? It’s not dead, and that won’t kill it. All of the freaking out on the forums over ascended gear is really getting ridiculous.

It’s not just the gear. It’s the awful gating mechanic, the random disconnects leading to players being unable to progress and the obnoxious elitism these changes brought about.

What people don’t seem to realize is that all of these problems, including the lack of players elsewhere in the world, will be fixed over time as they add more ascended gear and more ways to get it, which they have already said they’re going to be doing. This is a temporary issue that people are over-reacting about, because let’s face it, people >love< to freak out and complain about video games.

I hate the new gear because we weren’t supposed to have a vertical gear grind in this game. I hate the new dungeons because it has destroyed the dynamic events in the higher level areas completely. I am very disgusted with ANet for putting that crap in the game.

Good job ANexxSoft

moirweyn.9872:

I hate the new gear because we weren’t supposed to have a vertical gear grind in this game. I hate the new dungeons because it has destroyed the dynamic events in the higher level areas completely. I am very disgusted with ANet for putting that crap in the game.

Good job ANexxSoft

Once again, the “grind” (which really isn’t much of a true grind at all) will disappear once they’ve added more ascended gear. The new dungeons will not be taking people away after a while once there are other ways to get ascended gear. People freaking out over a temporary problem for the sake of having something to kitten about.

GW2 is a fantastic game. The misstep will only kill it if it keeps going in the same direction. You’re right that the negative effects of the departure from the vision are already felt throughout the game, but they could admit their misstep, turn around, and return to the vision. A vision/philosophy/manifesto is like the DNA of a game. The game should always evolve along the lines of its DNA. Radical change usually gets a cancer diagnosis.

Gehenna.3625:

Lifelike.5862:

Memnoch.2589:

So Arena Net promised not to add better dungeons or gear? Meaning once you hit 80 zero progression at all?

Yep. And some people actually think that’s a good idea. Kind of sad, really.

Nope, GW1 has done this for over 7 years without any problem. Not sad at all.

What’s sad is that you cannot see beyond stat progression and don’t get that not everybody wants the same thing.

This. People think that a game that never progresses in gear is pointless? I think a game that does the opposite is the winner in the pointless championship. All better gear will allow you to do is achieve high numbers. NUMBERS. That’s all this is. You start dealing more damage in new content, your opponent gets tougher; in both PvP and PvE. If we don’t look at it from the standpoint of ‘how much numbers everyone deals’ and rather take the standpoint of ‘how fast the bad guy’s red bar goes down’, you’ll see that there is absolutely no difference. When I think of all the WoW players out there now raving about how many digits they have but it still takes the SAME amount of time on average to kill a boss…I really can’t help but smirk.

But let me get straight, I actually welcomed the fractals and had alot of fun with it when it first came out. Alas I succumbed to the same issues everyone else is having, and it took one day for me to lag behind in the levels. I just can’t get a party for anything anymore. New content is always welcome in my eyes, but this patch in particular was poorly executed and now I have the same problem I had when I was playing WoW – actually putting the time and effort in to saddle up with a bunch of pre-teen kittens that think they’re better than me because they beat the content first.

It depresses me to hear that so many other people have issues with playing the game after the patch. It’s also depressing to know I was dedicated to the franchise enough to read the notes & blogs on their website everyday; before they even released any in game footage. They would always talk about how the holy trinity and how ’it’s not playing a game, it’s waiting to play a game’. Now that trinity is gone, and I’m still waiting to play – ALL the time.

I waited for this game too long just to give it up after a couple of months. But I can’t deny what mass amounts of people are saying, and although I’m about as close to an ANet fanboy as I’ll ever be, this problem of only being able to FoTM at 80 is serious. Very serious. I hear that WoW got an additional million subscribers have joined the playerbase… I think to myself ‘where did those players come from?’