Guild Wars 2

I can understand story modes done previous to the patch not unlocking. Not a huge thing to run a story mode (aside from Arah) and it helps newbies who need their first unlock.

But toss my hat in the ring as someone who also hates the daily custom arena lockout. This is a terrible attempt at stopping bots, as there’s nothing stopping them from joining solo (and making as much on a fail as they do on a win in custom arena.) Really, this doesn’t stop anything, and I’m surprised this idea actually got implemented, because it’s just so obviously useless.

Here are some things wrong with it:

1. There is nothing in the UI that tells the user why their track progress isn’t updating. This isn’t a reason to get rid of the lockout; this is just another way it was done poorly. How is anyone supposed to know the reason their track isn’t progressing is because you all (as in the devs, not you specifically CC) decided that two tiers is enough for a day? And how are they supposed to know that solo/team queues are the solution?

2. This does absolutely, positively nothing to stop botters. Really, not sure how this was the reasoning. No one looked at this and said, “Uh, so what happens when the botters decide to go into solo queue where they earn more for losing and have no lockout?”

3. This pushes unprepared players into ranked games, upsetting experienced PvP players. I think this is the biggest one. Once players who are only after track progress figure out that solo and team arenas are the way to bypass the lockout, they immediately join because a) they have no idea what the difference is between “Play Now” and “Join Solo,” and b) they are only in it to get the track progress and maybe have some fun, not to further their rank.

Please, if there’s anything you reconsider out of this patch, let it be this.

Kaderin.7584:

I’m disappointed that story modes done before patch do not count to unlock the tracks.

The effort spent on doing them before or after patch are not different as far as I’m aware, I don’t understand why and unless given a reasonable explanation I think it is a unfair situation, forcing players to redo story mode or work with only the temporarily unlocked tracks are not proper solutions, the story mode itself is far from rewarding and as a player has seen the story already, makes no sense to ask us to repeat or otherwise.

I hope anet will reconsider and unlock them accordingly.

Eh, not so bad if you need another character who can open explorable modes, or if you wanted that little extra XP on an alt (or helping somebody get into dungeons for first time).

A problem here. Got 27 PvP achivment reward chests I was saving cause I didn’t know what character to do PvP with yet. Now when skins are account bound, I could open them but no… They can’t be opened and I can only destroy them. Someone said you can open them in PvP area, but didn’t work either.
So what do I do with them now? Do I lose like 100+ skins? Will they fix them or is it yet another thing to just throw away after hard work?

I haven’t done PVP yet (had the game for over a year), however after the wardrobe system was announced, I decided I would finally get in there so I could obtain the Tribal armor set – as I would be able to use it in PVE. Very disappointed to see it’s absolutely gone, and I can’t get it in PVP at all. Please bring some of these armors into the Black Lion Trading Post? Even at an extra cost to account for the specialness of them? I’ve been wanting this one set for ages.

Is it not in the wardrobe? It was shown in the wardrobe tailor and I’ve seen the commando armor in there for medium…

Kalavier.1097:

Is it not in the wardrobe? It was shown in the wardrobe tailor and I’ve seen the commando armor in there for medium…

The PvP armor sets are in the wardrobe, but there’s currently no way to obtain them. That’s what everyone is concerned about.

Suggestions include making sets like the Tribal armor karma-based, craftable, or as a set in PvP reward tracks. Unfortunately, there’s been no word on the matter, other than that they “may” be added in later, which is only slightly reassuring.

We’re still waiting and hopeful for the return of the Tribal armor set, though. This, and all the other PvP armor sets. Let it be soon. Please don’t let us down, Anet!

The system is new and is something I can work with. Overall, the wardrobe system allowed me to get rid of all the previous PvP only weapons I would carry for different builds and such. It also allowed me to eliminate duplicate pve sets.

-I’m pleased that the rank for emotes thing remained and has a static increase per rank. I always thought that portion of it seemed very daunting before. Something I did work on, but very like a turtles pace. I just like the emotes and finishers.

-8v8 was very fun to me mainly because of how chaotic larger fights are. I was disappointed that those are gone until I was able to find many customs who run 8v8.

-TDM, I like the idea to a point. It seems to work better the smaller your numbers are. 2v2/3v3. 5v5 with the way Aoe and such works Feels a bit much. Couldn’t imagine an 8v8 in there. Great introduction to what may end up being a new mode. Keep em coming.

-HotM vendors needed imho. HUB threat aside, I think viewing what I need to unlock from weapon armor tracks would be nice. Something to do between matches. With all the boxes dropping, having better access to the bank would be nice, BLtrader also, especially for those spvp only players.

-Pvp only armor skins/sets like the Balt backpiece and Tribal set: I like having spvp mode exclusive items. Gives the mode some weight imo. Now all you have to do is bring back the Tribal set and the few spvp complete sets that pve doesn’t have beyond a few of them eg; Rubric(now called Apostle) and keep expanding.

-UI : I can work with it. I will say however, overall I liked the trait mousing over system we had before. Seemed easier to just mouse the different option all in one little box in a given division. I know what I’m looking at now, but it seems like it’s teasing me to place a grandmaster trait in the adept portion, then when I go to the adept portion It laughs at me and only shows adept traits to the left.

Anyway, having it all in one window was just cleaner and easier to handle. Now I have to maneuver through two windows. I also have to scroll if I can’t see every trait.

Perhaps return to the way we had before and just put a lock on the few we don’t have unlocked. The mouse over still works on the right as far as tool tips, but just seemed more intuitive when you could see all of the traits in a given division at once.

Rubric, Commando, Stalwart, and tribal (or voodoo as some call it) were the only PVP only sets I know of. Heavy actually didn’t have a PVP only set.

I really liked how I had a different set of weapons in pvp.. I find it kinda inconvenient that I have to carry weapons that I normally wouldn’t use in pve just so I have them when I wanna play some matches.

I find it odd that we have to redo dungeon story modes to unlock the dungeon track for our account. There is an achievement (“Dungeons Discovered” under the “Hero” tab) that keeps track of which story modes you’ve already finished. How was this not linked to unlocking the achievement tracks?

I very much like the way PvP and PvE now have much more crossover and I like the reward tracks

I am a bit disappointed that we need to complete the dungeon story modes again, and that the Area reward tracks aren’t unlocked by completing the whole area. Having Dungeon Master, 100% world exploration and all the area Explorer Achievements I was quite looking forward to logging in and having a slew of Reward tracks to choose from.

Ah well, not a huge gripe, I am, overall, quite pleased

As someone who jumps between all game modes:

I think the reward tracks are nice, though I admit I have only progressed in one dungeon track so far. I think redoing story mode or waiting until a dungeon is available isn’t hugely problematic.

It seems like adding additional tears to the balthazar track with gear previously not obtainable outside of pvp might make sense.

I also think the reward disparity and cap in hotjoin as opposed to ranked is creating some problems by pushing players into ranked when they may not want to be there.

If players are learning, pushing them into a more serious environment may not be fun for them or others who are trying to win, so they will leave. Further players who only care about rewards will play where rewards are better which is not hotjoin. These players may not contribute to a positive experience for their teammates as winning and having fun may be less important (since a loss in team is just as good as a hotjoin win and they can do something else while sitting in a team match for points).

I can see three reasons for arenanet to implement this reward variance: An attempt to fight bots, an attempt to push people into team arena, which areneanet values higher, and an attempt to reward higher skill and time sinks associated with ranked queues. In regards to botters, capping hotjoin just pushes them to solo que. Regarding pushing people into game types, I think arenanet pvp should have learned by now that giving players a positive experience should be prioritized if you want people to continue to pvp, not pushing them to play the game mode you want. Regarding better rewards for the commitment and skill in solo and team, I believe most serious players in these modes value the prestige, higher skill and consistent competition, and tournament rewards, more than a boost in largely pvp rewards so while slightly higher rewards are reasonable, drastic differences and hotjoin caps seem detrimental to creating good competition.

I think that the reward tracks may not really directly help players more committed to spvp. But if it brings players and revenue to spvp that seems like it should be good in the long run. It also seems like leagues and tournaments may appeal more to these players so hopefully there will be follow up in this area (a bit faster than soon).

The gear unification/locker isn’t as nice for pure spvp players but maybe if arenanet feel some money is flowing from spvp (from transmutation charges) they will invest more resources into spvp(not saying it’s likely). I also agree that having to swap weapons everytime I change game types is a bit of a pain.

It seems like some people are really enjoying the new map and I look forward to trying it, though I hope an actual game mode may eventually be introduced around it. I was a little sad to see raid on capricorn outright deleted and think maps with more unique mechanics like, capricorn, spiritwatch, and skyhammer can all have a place in a messing arround area (like hotjoin).

overall, largely positive changes to spvp.

Can you guys add a way to get Gift of Exploration through the reward tracks, like after completing all regions and then another track?

I really like the new system! Some thoughts, though:

I didn’t like the RNG side of the old system which is why I like the new system. I like that I can see an end goal and work towards it. However I would like to see sPvP specific gear added into the game. Bring back a vendor to sell gear at different ranks that you can only get through PvP. This would allow players to express themselves as PvPers. Give a currency such as Honor Points, or Glory Points again that can be spent at these vendors. No RNG, not a set and not something you have to craft. Just a vendor with a list of gear that you can get at your rank tier and a PvP currency price to get it.

Another thought and my main peeve with the new system. Currently it seems you have a cap to the progress you can make on your reward line. Once you reach this cap all you can do is rank up. Ranking up gives you NO REAL REWARD. It’s very anticlimactic. For players that find the PvP to be their main interest this discourages them from playing the game anymore for the rest of the day until the reset. This needs to be changed.