Guild Wars 2

So I quit GW for about a year – some of that was that I was a bit burned out and a job thing got in the way as well – so after a bit of more than one year absence I decided to play GW 2 again and noticed many changes – in my opinion … none for the better, most for the worst.

I bought GW2 because of GW1 – the main thing was the difference to, say, WoW. You didn’t have to grind endlessly to get an advantage over other players. Depending a bit on the campaign you could get your endgame stuff and skills in less than a week. I was OK with GW2 right up to the introducion of ascended items into the gameflow. If they’d just be prestigious skins … that would be ok – but no, especially the weapons do WAY more damage so we’re on the WoW track (especially in WvW) – those who grind (because they have more time on their hands) WILL outperform player who cannot afford the ascended gear – a sad deviation from the path GW1 took.

Consistency … the whole process of acquiring ascended gear is terribly inconsistent with how iems are created up to crafting level 400 and is terribly bad explained.

Cloth … when I left there was a huge discrepancy between how much cloth you can get and how much leather or metal you get. Especially the mid tier cloth items were very hard to come by back then – and now … the situation has even worsened with the ascended cloth type and the fibre requiring 100 bolts of silk.

Warriors, usually extremely blessed by ANet up to the point of absurdity (remember kill-shot warriors?) get even more buffs because ascended plate is MUCH cheaper and easier to craft than ascended cloth armor.

New leveling “experience” … just raising a new Asuran Necromancer … it’s TERRIBLE!!! Not only is the “what used to be 1 point per level is now 5 points in a block” bad when you level as you cannot compensate for equipment but you also have to unlock each and every skill. This makes you ABSOLUTELY useless in WvW unless you grind your skills actually be able to DO something. Can you imagine a bunch of Necromancers with no unlocked skills doing Twilight Arbor in Story mode? Why do you require this for a tier I trait (II of Curses)????

Whoever thought THAT one up … seriously … reminds me of Prophecies … hey, it may take you a year to get to level 20 but that’s fun, isn’kitten Answer: No, hence Factions and Nightfall. And GW2 started out quite well but I see it reverting to an endless grind spiral pushing new players all over the place to unlock traits without which they’re worthless.

Crafting … oh what fun to get from 400 to 500, oh what fun to have the coponent table resort itself, oh what fun to have a ton of useless filters and not the ones you need (like filter for items with a certain level requiremend when you craft for a newborn character) …

A good thing is the new megaserver feature … it really works in packing maps by combining server populations. Well done. Shame, you still have no solution for WvW.

And then …. Orr … I did hate it before, I hate it still. Endless amounts of group events, endless champions blocking skill points (map completition) and noone around to help you because 90% of the population seems to either run a champ-train in Cursed Shore or in Frostgorge Sound or in Edge of the Mist. Malchor’s leap … empty but for the occasional temple event when people need obsidian shards.

I really hope you revert the “levelling experience” back to what it was … 1 trait point per level and no locked skills (maybe lock XI but not X and below) so people can actually contribute to WvW and not just be …. a burden.

Edit: Just for fun I tried to unlock trait III of Curses … you need to kill Ulgoth for it … apart from the fact that that is a level 40+ area my level 36 Necro, though trying his limited best, did not get a credit because Ulgoth is part of the champ train and there were like 60 players – mostly 80ies I assume – bashing the poor thing down in like 25 seconds. Assuming I was a new player … my what a fun experience I would have had – trudging all the way there and … not even unlocking the blasted skill. Will try again with a few more level to see when the system finally realizes I am there and gives me my credit so the trait unlocks – just hoping it won’t be at level 80 in full exotic gear

You may be confused about Skills. Once a skill slot is unlocked, it is unlocked for every weapon.

Welcome return.

I checked the wording by starting the game in English … I meant Traits – the little things you can only start messing with once you have reached level 30. Nothing to do with weapons … like “ground targetting for wells” for Necromancers.

MMOs aren’t for you and no, GW1 was never an MMORPG.
PS. My intention isn’t to offend you whatsoever but most of your complaints are just ’’normal’’ things in MMOs. You will always have to grind, you will always find inconsistency. There is almost no MMO who have had a balanced class system and having issues to do events is just another given thing when the MMO is 2 years-old and people won’t bother exploring areas anylonger. Regarding the traits locks etc. As mentioend before, most people who complain about this are veteran players running alts. A new player doesn’t know enough to even understand what traits are and they are usually confused and may end up being 80 without understanding the game properly. Also, a player who can’t unlock traits, will probably not be useful to you in WvW eitherway.

nGumball.1283:

MMOs aren’t for you and no, GW1 was never an MMORPG.
PS. My intention isn’t to offend you whatsoever but most of your complaints are just ’’normal’’ things in MMOs. You will always have to grind, you will always find inconsistency. There is almost no MMO who have had a balanced class system and having issues to do events is just another given thing when the MMO is 2 years-old and people won’t bother exploring areas anylonger. Regarding the traits locks etc. As mentioend before, most people who complain about this are veteran players running alts. A new player doesn’t know enough to even understand what traits are and they are usually confused and may end up being 80 without understanding the game properly. Also, a player who can’t unlock traits, will probably not be useful to you in WvW eitherway.

Wikipedia says GW1 is MMORPG…

Someone edit that because according to this guy, it isn’t.

You’re not even getting part of what I am saying …

Before those changes players didn’t have to unlock those or could do so at a much smaller price tag.

Assuming new players know nohing is very elitist – many new players have experience from other MMOs so they know pretty well what traits are and how they’re to be used.

A player can, of course unlock the traits … I do get the suspicion you haven’t started a fresh character lately but are just writing kind of automated responses, hm? It now requires them to visit a lot of dungeons in a lot of areas they wouldn’t have had to visit before the change unless they also went for world completiton.

My Norn played the Norn area + starting line and ended up level 78 in cursed shore. Now I’d have to go to Ascalon and Maguuma just to unlock the traits. Purpose of this? It’s just slowing down and annoying … nothing more, no hiher purpose.

Just for fun: Start a new character and unlock the first two tier blocks and you’ll probably understand.

And yet the first two lines in Wikipedia states it is a CORPG. Silly editors. =)

Guild Wars is a competitive online role-playing game series developed by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft. Because it deviated from traditional MMORPG norms in a number of areas, like instancing all the gameplay areas, and that it focused more on player vs. player (PvP) than most online RPGs, it was marketed as competitive online role-playing game.¹

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_Wars#cite_note-GW-FAQ-1

And here’s what the Official GW Wiki states:

Guild Wars is a CORPG, or Competitive/Cooperative Online Role Playing Game developed for Windows by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars

nGumball.1283:

… and having issues to do events is just another given thing when the MMO is 2 years-old and people won’t bother exploring areas anylonger.

I’ll treat that one seperately … yes, you’re right. Few games, however, decide to park a group event in front of a skillpoint or vista that is needed for map completition which is also something that a solo player should be able to achieve (according to the info given during the beta phase).

Few games have a veteran upscaling mechanism that levels a veteran for 40+ players when a zerg runs by and leaves said veteran for the unsuspecting solo player who enounters him 5 minutes after the champ train has passed …

Events can trigger … veterans can upscale … no biggie … but decent programming would have those events check once in a while if there are enough players around to complete the event or kill the monster and disable themselves (group events) or downscale again (veterans). GW2 unfortunately does neither of those …

Hmm…it is supposed to downscale the events after the zerg passes by. Maybe you have encountered a bug or something?

Seems like we have one of these posts every day… player leaves for a year and comes back to complain with nothing constructive to say. If I had 1g for every time it has happened lately I’d be rich.

Well then let’s look at another aspect of his post, the NPE.

I understand Anet needs to retain new people and make sure they are not turned off from the game due to any unintentional difficulty curves, directly affecting long term retention and possible gem store purchases (this I realize being a huge motivator to maximize profits so that once we have gotten people here into the game, we keep them; I am sure there are numbers out there which say how much the average player spends in gem purchases in addition to the box of the game over time). Some of the OP’s points are valid, such as ascended crafting (I played 20 hours a week and stuff had issues understanding it for a long while and hence never took the plunge, the presentation at the time was awful beyond the blog post introducing it in my opinion, clearly defining the time gated materials and how they worked would have been much easier);

Of all the complaints that I see and did see on the forum, people complaining about the new players and their experiences was something I do not recall ever reading. I do not recall posts about anyone becoming frustrated with any of the basic or introductory systems (some people during the beta) but of the two years, I recall complaints about everything from clipping, glitches not being fixed for months at a time, the economy, dungeons, drop rate, class balancing, lack of high level content, upscaling problems, and all kinds of things I am sure everyone is familiar with.

My main question is this:

What was the exact source of complaints or kinds of analysis that were done that decided it was a good idea to spend resources reiterating a system that was seemingly fine above other systems in the game that seem to have more visibility as being ‘problematic’ to the playerbase? Was it a good decision to disrupt the most deeply entrenched players (those who have multiple alts) by making their experiences less enjoyable compared to a previous implementation of a system (i.e. trait hunting, skill point scroll / gold sink creation, altering of personal story)? Do you think there is a better and more constructive way of having implemented an assistance program to aid new players?

CMM.6712:

Seems like we have one of these posts every day… player leaves for a year and comes back to complain with nothing constructive to say. If I had 1g for every time it has happened lately I’d be rich.

Hm … I guess there was something constructive in my post:

(a) get rid of the NPE and revert it to what it was before or a hybrid with X+ being unlockable

(b) change cloth drop rate

© rework spawn points of group events in Orr

I’d say … you’re not really an attentive reader, are you – so if I may counter: If I’d be given a gold for every post were someone just posted their standard reply without bothering to at least comment a single detail of the post he or she is commenting I’d be richer than you

chaosdeity.6287:

Well then let’s look at another aspect of his post, the NPE.

(snip)

Was it a good decision to disrupt the most deeply entrenched players (those who have multiple alts) by making their experiences less enjoyable compared to a previous implementation of a system (i.e. trait hunting, skill point scroll / gold sink creation, altering of personal story)? Do you think there is a better and more constructive way of having implemented an assistance program to aid new players?

I’m brushing up on the forum posts and I see there is a combined post now about the NPE changes … given the amount of posts in there I’d say it was not a good decision.

Some decisions seem especially silly like requiring a Necromancer to get their Trait II in Curses (oldschool: available at Level 30 once you bougth the manual) by completing Twilight Arbor in story mode … can’t tell offhand now what’s the level requirement for TA in story mode but it should be 40+ … so why require completition of a level 40+ dungeon to obtain a skill you should be using at level 35?

If the devs thought this trait was “overpowered” at this level they should have given it a higher number and make it obtainable later or – if the trait was adequate for this level – they should have required an action to unlock it which is actually do-able by a character of that level.

Like a couple of other things … this seems ill thought out.

The new way to level characters is to do PvP until you have 80 tomes of knowledge and 300 scrolls.

As for crafting ascended, yes it was only explained in a Blog post, there is basically no information in the game about how it works, you have to find websites that explain the cheapest way to do it. It is a grind, its about 600g to make an ascended armor.

It seems Anet intentionally slowed down character progression, I presume because they wont have new dungeon, PvP maps or WvW maps ready to release for a while. Because they have a strict policy of keeping everything secret until 1 week before the release there is no way to know for sure.

EotM turned into a farmfest because EotM has no goal (no point in winning a match). It was best during the first week of the release, when people didn’t know it wasn’t in the PPT rotation.

Try living story season 2, it has nice stuff and is playable even if you missed it.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You may be confused about Skills. Once a skill slot is unlocked, it is unlocked for every weapon.

Welcome return.

He is confused, and is talking about traits, not skills.

knives.6132:

nGumball.1283:

MMOs aren’t for you and no, GW1 was never an MMORPG.
PS. My intention isn’t to offend you whatsoever but most of your complaints are just ’’normal’’ things in MMOs. You will always have to grind, you will always find inconsistency. There is almost no MMO who have had a balanced class system and having issues to do events is just another given thing when the MMO is 2 years-old and people won’t bother exploring areas anylonger. Regarding the traits locks etc. As mentioend before, most people who complain about this are veteran players running alts. A new player doesn’t know enough to even understand what traits are and they are usually confused and may end up being 80 without understanding the game properly. Also, a player who can’t unlock traits, will probably not be useful to you in WvW eitherway.

Wikipedia says GW1 is MMORPG…

Someone edit that because according to this guy, it isn’t.

According to Anet it isn’t. I think Anet knows their game better than wikipedia.

HtFde.3856:

CMM.6712:

Seems like we have one of these posts every day… player leaves for a year and comes back to complain with nothing constructive to say. If I had 1g for every time it has happened lately I’d be rich.

Hm … I guess there was something constructive in my post:

(a) get rid of the NPE and revert it to what it was before or a hybrid with X+ being unlockable

(b) change cloth drop rate

© rework spawn points of group events in Orr

I’d say … you’re not really an attentive reader, are you – so if I may counter: If I’d be given a gold for every post were someone just posted their standard reply without bothering to at least comment a single detail of the post he or she is commenting I’d be richer than you

I read your post and there is little clarity in what you’ve said, and it is difficult at best to see that your complaints are indeed suggestions. Looks like complaining to me. No time to argue with you.

chaosdeity.6287:

I do not recall posts about anyone becoming frustrated with any of the basic or introductory systems

A lot of people didn’t post about or, or at least, not here. Seeing complaints in chat however was rather common. Bad reviews about the game also detailed some of it. A lot of bad reviews also showed people were playing the game wrong, for example, people were complaining about the skill rotation being 1-5 on cooldown.

What basic/introductory systems? I remember a lot of the complaints.

For example, a lot of traditional MMO players complained about the lack of quests and as a result, the need to grind in between them. The problem was that these people were trying to play the game like WoW by simply following the quests, or in this case, the personal story. I remember one guy comparing the game to a Korean grinder because he was trying to play the older traditional way by only grinding mobs, which simply isn’t how GW2 works. With a traditional mindset, people get very confused when the game assumes you’re willing to explore, because every other game teaches you to follow the arrows. This is why scouts and hearts exists and more recently, the content arrow.

Leveling weapon skills was a rather common complaint at launch, especially from Elementalists. Playing solo, that was roughly 30 kills per attunement, per weapon set. By mainly following the personal story, it could easily take hours to learn your skills without specifically grinding for them. Personally, I remember grinding for them because I wanted to see the new skills. I find the new skill unlocking much better.

Complaints involving bundles and town clothes would pop up occasionally in the form of players not understanding where their skills went. Instead of calmly inspecting what is happening, some people simply freak out, especially when, for example, the first heart in Queensdale starts the bandit event. A lot of people also simply don’t bother to read.

Trait hunting was the result of (GW1) players wanting skill hunting.

The stat/skill point bulk change was simply to create a sense of progression, giving you a burst rather than a steady stream.

Healix.5819:

What basic/introductory systems? I remember a lot of the complaints.

You do have a very good point there – I don’t play WoW but I did test it with their free account (which allows you to get to level 20). I wasn’t impressed by the game but I was impressed by the ingame help system.

GW2 now relies heavily on the wiki which naturally isn’t context sensitive and in most cases highly specific. So it’s pretty bad if you do not know the exact term to look for or if you want a “broad picture” about some things.

Of course, other websites offer guides that cover a broader range but I do think that this should be offered ingame and not externally.

A “What’s this?” icon in heart quests or events wouldn’t have hurt and neither would an ingame compendium

Well mostly because there hasn’t really been much that came out since launch. The game is still very much the same as ever. No real change. Living story is here, but it’s not much “content” really. Competitive PvP got worse and stale. WvW is the same basic routine really.

HtFde.3856:

the weapons do WAY more damage

What?

If you don’t like it, then don’t play it.

Warriors have been severely nerfed in the last balance patch. Might want to look into that before you say how blessed they are.

nGumball.1283:

MMOs aren’t for you and no, GW1 was never an MMORPG.

Mike O’Brien: “If you love MMOs, you’ll want to check out Guild Wars 2, and if you hate MMOs, you’ll really want to check out Guild Wars 2.”

This game was made for people who do not like the traditional MMOs Mike said.

+1 on the silk though, if damask would only need 50 or 75 silk people would get a nice christmas present….

Harper.4173:

Warriors have been severely nerfed in the last balance patch. Might want to look into that before you say how blessed they are.

How does adding faster decay out of combat become a severely nerfed?

Trixie.7614:

HtFde.3856:

the weapons do WAY more damage

What?

Haven’t crafted one (still not 500) yet – info as per wiki:

Zojjas staff: 1,034 – 1,166 – 188 power, 134 precision and ferocity
Exotic staff: 985 – 1111 – 179 power. 128 precision and ferocity

Apart from the small increase in power, precision and ferocity (which does add up, however, when combined with other ascended berserker items) that’s 49 more base and 55 more max damage.

May sound meh but that’s about the same as a sigil of force will give you. Have to do the exact math but from just juggling the numbers asscended berserker set should give you about 15 – 20 % more damage than an exotic berserker set.

CMM.6712:

Seems like we have one of these posts every day… player leaves for a year and comes back to complain with nothing constructive to say. If I had 1g for every time it has happened lately I’d be rich.

Goodbye to mount threads for the most part.

Hello to “I just came back and still don’t like the game” threads.

Because, you can’t just log in and not like the game, you have to come to the forums to tell us all about it.

cranked.3812:

CMM.6712:

Seems like we have one of these posts every day… player leaves for a year and comes back to complain with nothing constructive to say. If I had 1g for every time it has happened lately I’d be rich.

Goodbye to mount threads for the most part.

Hello to “I just came back and still don’t like the game” threads.

Because, you can’t just log in and not like the game, you have to come to the forums to tell us all about it.

Assumptions … and bad ones

I quit GW2 mainly due to work issues – not because I didn’t like the game – what I don’t like is what GW2 has become in the meantime – especially the new NPE. If I had a choice between GW2 as is and GW2 as was I’d gladly play the old version and be much, much happier about it.

I hoped to see some of the old problems fixed – like cloth acquisition, lag/latency issues, random disconencts (that strangely only ever occur with GW2), empty PvE environments on a WvW oriented server …

cloth problem: still persists and worse than ever
lag/latency: still persists – may affect US players less but have a look at the EU forum
random dcs: still persist, especially on big events and -no – they ma come even when there is no lag or latency

empty PvE environments: fixed – Megaserver was a good idea

How is anything I said a kittenumption? What I said was an observation of the forums and one in which very few people would disagree with.

“Hello to “I just came back and still don’t like the game” threads.”

Assumption: I didn’t like the game – wrong

“Because, you can’t just log in and not like the game, you have to come to the forums to tell us all about it.”

The first part is a bit unclear in meaning … I can log in and login issues wouldn’t affect my “liking the game or not”.

Your third assumption is that if people are unhappy about something they shouldn’t complain … which isn’t going to get the game anywhere – if people leave the game and not tell WHY the devs have no clue what to fix. It’s often the case that developers perceive the problems to be somewhere else than the players do.

Like, say, NPE … there’s an awfully long thread about it in every language forum. I bet many devs thought this would be nice idea the players would accept … not so.

I was fully prepared to buy a few extra char slots to raise a little Asura army – one profession each. With NPE? Forget it – I’m not going to spend 100+ gold just to unlock traits.

cranked.3812:

CMM.6712:

Seems like we have one of these posts every day… player leaves for a year and comes back to complain with nothing constructive to say. If I had 1g for every time it has happened lately I’d be rich.

Goodbye to mount threads for the most part.

Hello to “I just came back and still don’t like the game” threads.

Because, you can’t just log in and not like the game, you have to come to the forums to tell us all about it.

What about “Back after a year .. and still no mounts” threads ?

HtFde.3856:

So I quit GW for about a year – some of that was … just hoping it won’t be at level 80 in full exotic gear

I just returned recently, but I mostly came to different conclusions. You might notice, for instance, that the stat increases from Ascended armor and Legendary weapons is laughably small considering the work they take to get. I think I read somewhere that moving up to Ascended gives you about 1-2% damage increase. So I conclude that these are mostly aesthetic upgrades for bragging rights.

And skill points in Orr are kinda annoying to get. But they’re definitely obtainable with a little patience. Like that one sitting in a maze with a powerful Veteran mob at the end… that was a pain. But I tried 5 times and eventually won it. And it felt awesome to manage it. So while I was frustrated while mapping Orr, I’m proud of having finished it. Just keep at it.

The changes to the trait system… yeah, I get that. In principle, I like unlocking them this way rather than just buying them, but there are a few specific unlocks I think are dumb because of how they work in practice. I thought the old system was really boring though, so I consider this a failed attempt in the right direction. I hope they address it again.

As for champ trains, I think that’s just the result of you coming back after the game has settled in. A lot of the people left are vets who are just grinding material they need. This is the most efficient way to do it. So while I probably won’t join them, I understand why this is. Every MMO has this happen eventually.

I also want to point out what I think is a brilliant move by Anet. I’ve seen expansions hit other MMO’s causing a huge influx of players, only to see that die down again. immediately after The living story really does work to keep us playing. Not all the time, but at least regularly coming back. This game, for its age, is remarkably well populated and lively.

I do recognize two issues overall. Dungeons, and the trait system. But lots of good things too, which is why I ultimately disagree with your conclusion.

Nomad.9708:

HtFde.3856:

So I quit GW for about a year – some of that was … just hoping it won’t be at level 80 in full exotic gear

I just returned recently, but I mostly came to different conclusions. You might notice, for instance, that the stat increases from Ascended armor and Legendary weapons is laughably small considering the work they take to get. I think I read somewhere that moving up to Ascended gives you about 1-2% damage increase. So I conclude that these are mostly aesthetic upgrades for bragging rights.

I’m lousy with splitting quotes so please excuse me to take this part out and answering a second as well that I cut …

According to my calculations a full ascended berserker set will do 15 – 20 % more damage than a full exotic one. While it’s of little to no consequence to PvE (unless you’re really, really serious about speed running dungeons) it does matter in WvW.

And regarding Orr … I’m not talking about vets blocking the path I talk about a group event champion (Acolyte of Lyssa, to name one, and there’s one of those winged knights as well that spawns right on top of one) blocking the point. GL trying to solo that one … it is a humiliating experience. I never ate so much dust accomplishing nothing. Of course … my thief had an easy time … using those communing skill point types doesn’t break stealth.

Living story is something I haven’t mentioned because I am still unsure of what to make of it. My first experience was a VERY negative one as I was leveling my Asuran warrior in Ascalon (Iron Marches, if I remember it right) and all of a sudden one of those Mordrem events spawned on top of me … not fun. And since the map was empty I had to wait for it to disappear before I could get to where I wanted to go.

For ascended ..
- a full set of armor gives around 1% more damage and 5% more defense at 80, no better defense unter 80.
- a weapon gives 5% at level 80 but only 0,5% at every content under level 80

Reason is that the higher weapon strenght and defense is only valid at level 80
but as soon as your mentored down those stats are the same than exotic.

Only ascended trinkets give you the full benifit at all levels, since they only have
stats, thats also maybe 5%

So max you will maybe have 11% from a full set ascended at 80 and 6,5% under 80.

However armor is the most expensive and give also the smallest bonus.

No point, op. You’ll garner no meaningful answers from anyone that has them to give, and just make yourself a kickball for the ‘mmo not for j00 skrub lolbro’ brigade.

My advice is to not play a game hipping it will eventually become what you’re wanting. Chances are, if it wasn’t what you wanted it to be initially, time and development will only exacerbate that, as seems to be the case.

Wish I had something positive to say, but there really isn’t much. I’m not a fan of traits being locked like they are either, incidentally. I like a lot of other changes, but that one is glaringly obvious in its purpose, being to inflate the amount of busywork we have to do without actually having to make more stuff to do.

Behold, the same traits, only now with 35,000% more running around to get them!

So, I’ll probably never make a new character again. I’d be very annoyed to have to literally spend hundreds of hours unlocking the ability to get to the point I’d being able to start being useful.

Beldin.5498:

cranked.3812:

CMM.6712:

Seems like we have one of these posts every day… player leaves for a year and comes back to complain with nothing constructive to say. If I had 1g for every time it has happened lately I’d be rich.

Goodbye to mount threads for the most part.

Hello to “I just came back and still don’t like the game” threads.

Because, you can’t just log in and not like the game, you have to come to the forums to tell us all about it.

What about “Back after a year .. and still no mounts” threads ?

Ouch, a double whammy. Can’t wait for those threads to start popping up!

First I would like to express my appreciation at the responses in the thread I received, every time I post I aim for it to be meaningful and well thought out but many times it is just simply ignored (for being too wordy maybe?)

Now to the topic. Why didn’t anyone at Anet think to ask the community or at least play testing them before the new implementation for such a drastic gameplay experience change that would affect virtually everyone? If the complaints are so widespread (in multiple languages, even!) why would they not take the time to address these changes in a more timely manner instead of letting this go on since April 15th?

HtFde.3856:

Nomad.9708:

HtFde.3856:

So I quit GW for about a year – some of that was … just hoping it won’t be at level 80 in full exotic gear

I just returned recently, but I mostly came to different conclusions. You might notice, for instance, that the stat increases from Ascended armor and Legendary weapons is laughably small considering the work they take to get. I think I read somewhere that moving up to Ascended gives you about 1-2% damage increase. So I conclude that these are mostly aesthetic upgrades for bragging rights.

I’m lousy with splitting quotes so please excuse me to take this part out and answering a second as well that I cut …

According to my calculations a full ascended berserker set will do 15 – 20 % more damage than a full exotic one. While it’s of little to no consequence to PvE (unless you’re really, really serious about speed running dungeons) it does matter in WvW.

And regarding Orr … I’m not talking about vets blocking the path I talk about a group event champion (Acolyte of Lyssa, to name one, and there’s one of those winged knights as well that spawns right on top of one) blocking the point. GL trying to solo that one … it is a humiliating experience. I never ate so much dust accomplishing nothing. Of course … my thief had an easy time … using those communing skill point types doesn’t break stealth.

Living story is something I haven’t mentioned because I am still unsure of what to make of it. My first experience was a VERY negative one as I was leveling my Asuran warrior in Ascalon (Iron Marches, if I remember it right) and all of a sudden one of those Mordrem events spawned on top of me … not fun. And since the map was empty I had to wait for it to disappear before I could get to where I wanted to go.

Someone already explained how the stat increases are negligable. I’ve heard a lot people say, “Oh well, too much work to get it, but it doesn’t make much of a difference anyway.” Ascended and legendarily just separate us from the dedicated super-players. They want, and I believe, deserve, such a status symbol. Go for it if you want, but no big loss if you don’t wanna.

The temples of Orr are basically impossible to solo. That map is meant to be group content, and if you hang around and talk in mapchat, you’ll figure out when other players are attacking them. Just wait a bit and you’ll get a chance.

And sorry about your experience with the living story. Can I just say that being an unintentional victim is not a representative example of actually playing the content when you are a part of it? Hope you have fun when you do.

I find the game is very bleh now. I spend more time in the forums than in game hoping, delusionally, devs take notice of the forums more and make the game more interesting again so i can spend more time playing than typing.

Nomad.9708:

And sorry about your experience with the living story. Can I just say that being an unintentional victim is not a representative example of actually playing the content when you are a part of it? Hope you have fun when you do.

Hehe, I seem to be prone to these little glitches. Just today there was event on Karka island which was to defend the village … so, naturally (I think), I went into the village and was expecting waves of crazed and non-crazed Karka to approach it … boy was I wrong. All of a sudden I was surrounded by Karka which popped out of nowhere and I was barely able to say “Oh Sh…” when I was in downstate …

I ran into those Mordrem events in low level areas but after my initial, er, experience I’ve learned to check the map very carefully for green dots and if none are nearby to give them a WIDE berth …

Silverwaste is pretty tough but with a well co-ordinated team quite enjoyable – as is Dry Top.

So those two new areas are ok – gotta think of them as Slaver’s Exile or other end game Elite areas and they fulfill that role. I’m just not too happy with those plants on steroids to have found their way into the low level maps as well

Let’s see how the new storyline develops – I just hope it does not culminate in the same experience I had with the Karka story … a truly epic battle in Lion’s arch and later on on Karka island that unfortunately degraded into a 5 fps slideshow for most of the fight (and no, it is not my hardware not my internet connection).

Shame I missed the End of Lion’s Arch and the beginning of the new season but if I keep playing I’ll consider unlocking those episodes.