Guild Wars 2

First off I’d like to say the game is beautiful. Hands down the best graphics out. Love the questing system, always something to do. Storyline is also a neat twist. Not having to fight over resource nodes is also sweet. Dye system is best I’ve seen since UO/DAoC days. Also really cool that you can go back into zones you haven’t done yet, and the game adjusts your level so it’s still fun. Great easy way to expand content.

Now to the bad.
1) Distinct lack of unique gear meshes. I understand wanting to eliminate the gear grind, and that’s fine, but it really sucks to only have about 5-6 meshes per armor class. Woohoo hit 80, got some gear, look exactly like I did at 70. Sure sure you can use transmute stones (if you pay $$ for them) if you want to look just like you did at one of the earlier levels. For a cash shop driven game, you want people to spend money on cosmetic items, service items, and things to make leveling easier/faster. There is pretty much zip in the shop for cosmetic. Sorry, hate to look like everyone else!
2) What’s the point of crafting? Nothing you make sells for more than what mats do, and I’ve yet to find any UNIQUE meshes. O boy I leveled crafting for days, and now I can make a shield that looks exactly like the shield that dropped 5s ago, only that shield I crafted cost 10x as much. Sure you can make a legendary when you max it out….at a ridiculous price. Will just be easier to get a new wep if any new are introduced. Mystic Forge? GREAT instructions, and by great I mean you have none. Do you seriously want your players to have to search Youtube and Google to find out how to do things like craft? I had to Google it to EVEN FIND IT. Talk about intuitive!
3) Dungeons. Really? The system is horribly unintuitive. Took us a week to figure out how to actually get in as a group. And, you can’t solo or duo dungeons, you have to stand around spamming chat hoping to get a group. Talk about a waste of time.
4) PVP, have tried it twice, both times it was completely empty. The NPC’s there are barely soloable. What’s the draw, I see no point?
5) Gold. You say you don’t want us grinding… but hit 80, have sold everything I’ve gotten, bought very little from the auction house, and ended with a little over 3G. Now you expect me to fork over 30G each for cultural armor?? WTF do you think that comes from outside of grinding? O wait, I guess I could pay you real $$ and then trade my gems for gold – sorry no thanks.

If you want this game to survive, you need to get the kinks worked out before Elder Scrolls Online releases. Depending on their pay format it appears to have the the potential to destroy a lot of the MMO’s currently on the market. I like the potential I see in this game, but man you have a lot of work ahead of you.

I don’t know a lot of people seem to make money running dungeons and fractals. If you can’t figure out how to get a group ( gw2lfg.com is your friend here) or you don’t want to join a guild with like-minded players, that’s a problem…but it’s not necessarily Anet’s. I have over 160 gold at the moment, so I know it’s possible to make money in this game. But yeah, it’s not all that fast.

There are some nice looking skins in the game, there will be more over time, just like all new MMOs.

The crafting thing you definitely have a point on though. Crafting usefulness is far more limited than I’d like.

Valektra.9356:

First off I’d like to say the game is beautiful. Hands down the best graphics out. Love the questing system, always something to do. Storyline is also a neat twist. Not having to fight over resource nodes is also sweet. Dye system is best I’ve seen since UO/DAoC days. Also really cool that you can go back into zones you haven’t done yet, and the game adjusts your level so it’s still fun. Great easy way to expand content.

Now to the bad.
1) Distinct lack of unique gear meshes. I understand wanting to eliminate the gear grind, and that’s fine, but it really sucks to only have about 5-6 meshes per armor class. Woohoo hit 80, got some gear, look exactly like I did at 70. Sure sure you can use transmute stones (if you pay $$ for them) if you want to look just like you did at one of the earlier levels. For a cash shop driven game, you want people to spend money on cosmetic items, service items, and things to make leveling easier/faster. There is pretty much zip in the shop for cosmetic. Sorry, hate to look like everyone else!
2) What’s the point of crafting? Nothing you make sells for more than what mats do, and I’ve yet to find any UNIQUE meshes. O boy I leveled crafting for days, and now I can make a shield that looks exactly like the shield that dropped 5s ago, only that shield I crafted cost 10x as much. Sure you can make a legendary when you max it out….at a ridiculous price. Will just be easier to get a new wep if any new are introduced. Mystic Forge? GREAT instructions, and by great I mean you have none. Do you seriously want your players to have to search Youtube and Google to find out how to do things like craft? I had to Google it to EVEN FIND IT. Talk about intuitive!
3) Dungeons. Really? The system is horribly unintuitive. Took us a week to figure out how to actually get in as a group. And, you can’t solo or duo dungeons, you have to stand around spamming chat hoping to get a group. Talk about a waste of time.
4) PVP, have tried it twice, both times it was completely empty. The NPC’s there are barely soloable. What’s the draw, I see no point?
5) Gold. You say you don’t want us grinding… but hit 80, have sold everything I’ve gotten, bought very little from the auction house, and ended with a little over 3G. Now you expect me to fork over 30G each for cultural armor?? WTF do you think that comes from outside of grinding? O wait, I guess I could pay you real $$ and then trade my gems for gold – sorry no thanks.

.1 – Agree that there could be more skins.
Gold → Gems → Transmutation stones! (Easy)
Mix Sets! You may get surprised!

.2 – You can level a craft in a hour easy!
Some crafts grants big money. Not all of them!

.3 – Thank god it is meant for full groups!Solo or duo sucks and strips the purpose of the dungeon!

.4 – NPC’s in PvP? sPvP ? WvW ? You are hitting NPC’s ? Something wrong here!

.5 – You can make 3-5 gold in CoF P1 Speedruns with a omnomberry bar (and more if you got any gold increase % boosts)! Play the Trading Post also rewards you well.

If you want this game to survive, you need to get the kinks worked out before Elder Scrolls Online releases. Depending on their pay format it appears to have the the potential to destroy a lot of the MMO’s currently on the market. I like the potential I see in this game, but man you have a lot of work ahead of you.

It looks like that you are speaking without a clear understanding on how to play it! However i agree with your last assessment that the game needs a lot of work to be better, but not to avoid players of getting out to tESO, but to make the game a lot more enjoyable!

/Cheers

I don’t want skins. I want meshes. Which brings me to another point I left out on accident – with only a very small handful of unique meshes per armor type, you think they could have at least fixed it so they don’t CLIP.

Gold ? Gems ? Transmutation stones! (Easy) – Easy? Sure if you have gold, one of the points is that gold is hard to come by, destroying their “theory” of not wanting players to feel the game is a grind. If you want gold, guess what, it’s a grind.

2 – You can level a craft in a hour easy! – Sure can, if you have gold, see above!
Some crafts grants big money. Not all of them! – Really? Ain’t found crap yet that sells for more than it’s mats.

.4 – NPC’s in PvP? sPvP ? WvW ? You are hitting NPC’s ? Something wrong here! – You’re right, when you run around for 10+ min and find nothing but NPC’s something IS wrong.

.5 – You can make 3-5 gold in CoF P1 Speedruns with a omnomberry bar (and more if you got any gold increase % boosts)! – English please? My translation of that = grind for gold.

1. What are meshes? (not kidding, never heard of the word and google isnt helpful)

I never had to buy transmutation stones, even the fine ones. You get them from black lion chests, dailies, map completion. If you don’t squander them on every item you find, you’ll have enough for multiple alts without having to spend a dime.

2. High level jewelry gets some decent profits if you bother to research it a little bit. And if you take some effort to gather crafting materials, this too can be done without a single piece of gold.

3. What server are you on and are you in an active guild?

4. What do you consider a grind? CoF P1 takes you 10-15 minutes tops, and it’s not the only way to make some cash. Not that you really need gold anyway – I’ve never had more than 30g in my bank, and that was because I got very lucky in the SAB the first and only time I played it. Usually I have no more than 3-5 gold in my bank, and I have been playing since head start, 3 level 80’s and several alts on the way.

Meshes are unique shape/framework.
Skins are the art that hang on the mesh.
Best example I can give you would be a game like Skyrim. People will take fur armor mesh and change the color schemes around (since there are no dyes available), or trim parts off, but leave the armor shape (or mesh) alone.

Transmutation stones are free for gear lvl 79 and lower. I have tons, but they don’t work on 80’s. Only the cash shop stones do. If there are free versions of these I’ve yet to see them.

I’m around 180 or so on jewelcrafting, have yet to make anything sellable. And yes all the mats are easily attainable for free – just not at the same pace you level, so crafting to support a leveling toon is not an option. Also everything I’ve made to date, in any craft, sells for less than the mats are worth.

I’m new, I play with a couple friends who are also relatively new. No help in /map, usually just clowns. Also the vast majority of the people I know are waiting for ESO to release and don’t want to commit to what they view as a flawed game.

No clue what CoF P1 even is, doubtful in the games current state I could even get a group anyway. You do need gold. Porting and repairs aren’t free (even if you take advantage of free ports and walking). 1 piece of cultural armor is 30G – and yes the stats aren’t that great, I’m just more interested in it because it’s actually its the only unique gear I’ve seen at 80, that you can’t get at 1.

I thought he was talking about mesh stockings or something odd. Ah well.

I know you can get the level 80 t-stones through doing your personal story, I have a bunch from that.

VOLKON.1290:

I thought he was talking about mesh stockings or something odd. Ah well.

I know you can get the level 80 t-stones through doing your personal story, I have a bunch from that.

I’m on my lvl 68 story, haven’t got any stones yet. Also haven’t got anything yet that really drives me to do the story, nothing unique, and was never as good as the drops I’d already got… that’s one of the reasons I’m 80 and haven’t completed it yet.
IMO you get better stuff from map completion, monthlies and dailies.

Valektra.9356:

VOLKON.1290:

I thought he was talking about mesh stockings or something odd. Ah well.

I know you can get the level 80 t-stones through doing your personal story, I have a bunch from that.

I’m on my lvl 68 story, haven’t got any stones yet. Also haven’t got anything yet that really drives me to do the story, nothing unique, and was never as good as the drops I’d already got… that’s one of the reasons I’m 80 and haven’t completed it yet.
IMO you get better stuff from map completion, monthlies and dailies.

Hey, maybe it was map completions I got them in… I forget. I’ve still a bunch of maps to complete… dang WvW keeps sucking up my time… I’ll try to squeeze a few more in and see. It could have been the completions…

I’ve completed a lot of maps, really like the bonus aspect (like I said really like a lot of this game, want it to do well, hope they address some of the things in my post.), but have never got any of the 80 stones. Got lots of the 1-79 stone tho!

Would be cool if they’d let you use transmute stones on ANY armor. While not a solution to lack of unique gear, it may be a good stop gap!

Heck I’d be ok if there was anything unique in the cash shop, but there’s not.

I’d also like to say thank you for the actual discussion. I have played/beta/alpha/tested a lot of games. Even in a pre-release feedback forum, specifically in place for you to voice your concerns and suggestions, it is quite common to get flamed and neve get any good dialogue going. That’s what a forum is for, to listen to different perspectives on how things are done, or what do do going forward. A collaborative atmosphere is always best for growth.

Ok, this reply went longer than I expected, splitting it on two messages:

1) While I do agree that more variety in armor is better, I have to say that at least my experience isn’t the same than yours when it comes to this.

Checking on http://www.gw2armor.com/ I count at least 33 unique looks for each kind of armor, not counting the heritage skins set since you need to have played GW1 to get them or the TP skin, and counting the orders sets as one since you can only get one for each char depending on which order you choose in your personal story, and counting each tier of cultural armor as one look since also you can only get one look for each char, plus you can combine pieces of each (my guardian is wearing a combination of the priory and heritage sets, and working on some dungeon pieces like the CM helm). Granted, some of those look exactly like the ones you get from starter gear, but also several of those are either 80 only or found on karma vendors on higher level areas, so you can look different as you level up. BTW, a little over 7g (at least last time I checked) gets you enough fine T-stones for a full set of armor, with a few left over.

2) Agree with crafting needing a usefulness upgrade.

3) Dungeons do need some work, but don’t really see what’s hard about joining them, TBH, at least the way you describe it. You form a group, enter a dungeon, and you don’t even need all members to get to the entrance, as long as one enters the rest are asked if they want to join in as soon as the zone into the area the dungeon is in. And they’re meant to be done with a full group, not be soloable or duoable (like dungeons in about every other MMO there is), even if there are videos of some people soloing bosses and things like that.

BTW, I’m yet to use it (I’m on a large guild so I usually find groups by asking there first, YMMV), but http://gw2lfg.com/ seems to be very good for finding and forming groups for dungeons if needed

4) Can’t comment on PvP, never done sPvP, but the couple of times I’ve been on WvW it’s been far from empty, but both times have been in guild organized WvW events, so can’t say if it’s like that everytime.

5) Cultural armor are just one look you can have (check the link I gave earlier), there are lots of other looks you can get… usually you’re meant to get it for the skins since they’re only rare, there’s armor with better stats for much cheaper on the TP, or for karma on the Orr temples. Also, if you want to sport the cultural look it doesn’t necesarely need to be T3… for the price of 1 T3 piece you could probably buy some cheaper exotics with better stats (and with the specific stats you want for your build), one of the cheaper T2 or T1 that might look as good (personally my main is a silvary and excluding the helm, I think silvary T1 and T2 look much better than T3) and enough T-stones from the gem store to apply their looks to the exotics. Even if it’s the T3 look you want, well, it gives you something to work for.

As for money, as someone that joined WoW for the first time back then on an older server after years of inflation, I’m happy that gold isn’t as easy to get here (actually, I do remember reading about Anet hiring a full time economist to keep the economy viable and inflation under control, not sure how true is that). That said, there are some ways to get gold if you look for them. Some examples:

Running dungeons. Some people claim that you can get 1g out of a CoF P1 you can run in 15 minutes, in my experience I usually get about half that, but I don’t like using magic find gear in dungeons, your mileage may vary. still it adds up.

Doing dragon events and salvaging for mats. Get the best salvaging kit you can buy (I think it’s 15s for 25 if you don’t use the gem store ones), do bonus chest events (dragons, frozen maw, jungle wurm and so on). Look for the dragon timer website on google so you can learn when they’re about to go up and head there. Salvage the rares and up you get, sell the globs of ectoplasm. They have gone down in price and some people say that their salvage rate was nerfed, but still in average you’ll get about 1 glob per rare (sometimes you get none, sometimes you get up to 3) and they’re about 25s on the TP as of last night. Also you can sometimes get an exotic, which you should check for how much it sells on TP before salvaging, and also check for how much the rune sells (sometimes they’re much more expensive). If you get an expensive rune, salvage using a BL salvage kit from gem store, you can get them for free on groups of 25 from doing dailies or map completion.

(for this month only) Doing the Super Adventure Box: I’ve only been doing this seriously for the past 3 days or so to get the staff and GS skins for my mesmer (got the GS last night). Each day you get an extra chest with 2 baubles for killing the end boss of each zone for each char. Running zones 1 and 2 for 5 chars you can have (unless you bought more char slots) means 10 chests and 20 baubles a day (you need 50 for skins) and can be done in under an hour if you run straight to the end on both zones after a little practice. Each of those chests also have a chance of dropping a weapon skin which can sell for a bit of coin. I don’t know if I’ve been unusually lucky, but on those 3 days I got the shield skin which I sold for 7g on the TP, and the short bow one which went for 4g (one of the cheapest ones).

Game needs more work, but WvW for my server is the opposite from empty. Zergs everywhere, extremely demotivating if you run into 100 people after you run 10 min to reach the commander. Running and hidding becomes kinda better with exercise, but still…

Just a heads up, this person is a huge troll. He was in chat in LA all day doing this same thing — nothing pleases them.

Re Transmuation stones, fine stones can be gotten from completing maps, rarely, and from black lion chests. You get several black lion keys from doing stories, and if you get them from chests you get them 5 at a time. Also, rarely, black lion keys can come from doing dailies, zone completions or even as random drops in game (though that’s mega rare. I got one yesterday).

Yet another case of I want everything and I want it now.

Wait, if You pvp’ed, did you actually enter a game? or did you just run around in the Heart Of The Mists?

because the only NPCs are: Guild Lord/ Svanir and the other dude
And just join a game with players in, it’s cross server and there are always active games,

for the Best PvP action, you have to do Tournies tho

For Gold, when I just started this game, I had trouble with gold, but Citadel of Flame Explorable Path 1 takes about 10 minutes to complete and gives 1-2g without drops, The tokens you get from the dungeon can be used to buy rare gear from the vendor in LA, you can salvage those for ectos

On Armor variety, yeah not really alot, but I found you jsut had to look for it, at heart merchants, etc.

If you do your dailies you have a chance of getting Black Lion Store items as a bonus, I have gotten (superior)T-stones from it, even some BLsalvage kits, etc

THe cultural armor is really Dem L33t Armorz in this game and, while really pricey, it’s a armor to show your epicness