Guild Wars 2

I love this game, but I do find this blog very disappointing because of what isn’t coming (but was expected).

Most significantly, the only real meat we see being added in the next few months are a festival, an upgrade to an existing world boss, a new collection achievement (the brewmaster thing) and a new raid wing (even though we just got a raid wing). It is starting to feel a lot like the direction every other MMO takes with the raiding focus, to the detriment of everything else.

Guild Missions. Open World Maps and Dynamic Events. Living Story. Fractals. WvW. – these are the base systems that made the game so successful and fun for people in the months following launch – and not a single one is seeing anything new any time soon.

These are the areas they need to be expanding first, not things only a tiny percentage even care about (and, by their own admission, are developed for a tiny percentage of players).

I know some of these things (but not all) were mentioned in this post, but all with the qualifier *soon – taking a back seat to things most of the community cares much less about.

It feel like the game is starting to take a direction away from its base and more toward the cookie cutter raid-focused model used in other games. It is sad and not something I look forward to. I don’t want this game to fail or turn away from the base direction in pursuit of something new and shiny. I have too many friends and too many good memories here.

So, over then next three months should we expect eleven new I-can’t-change-anything-but-the-color &$@ing outfits and ZERO armor sets?

‘Cause its getting real old the way you are frittering away the Character Art team’s time.

The news makes me giddy. I’ve been going on and off with GW2, waiting for new things to bring me back to the game…you have not disappointed me. I have high hopes Anet, PROVE TO ME YOU’VE LEARNED GREATNESS!

This looks great!

Nike.2631:

So, over then next three months should we expect eleven new I-can’t-change-anything-but-the-color &$@ing outfits and ZERO armor sets?

‘Cause its getting real old the way you are frittering away the Character Art team’s time.

well of course thats the way it goes. Outfits and esperts…thats what a-net cares about the most these days

I’m just worried at the time scope for the things on this list. Looking ahead, Living Story Season 3? How far ahead? Next quarter I hope, cause we need it. What if it’s next year? That’s insane.

I hope when Colin said they want to share time out equally to all areas and develop existing areas of the game instead of adding any he meant we’d see something substantial for each area every quarter.

Well… no Super Adventure Box.

Valento.9852:

Well… no Super Adventure Box.

Article talk about more seasonal update. So maybe Anet consider SAB a seasonal update?

Well, new legendaries should be number 1 priority cuz not everyone is willing to play with the only 3 released yet. Is it really so hard and time consumig to work on all the different kinds of legendary wepons? new Greatsword, new focus, new scepter etc? you seem to be able to do new wepon skins pretty fast cuz we have been seeing new blacklion complete sets being release every few months, but they are almost impossible to get for most players who don’t spend money in-game.
I mean, i know if there were lots of great free or craftable skins people wouldn’t mind buyng black lion keys to earn black liong tickets for that purpose, but why release 3 new legendary wepons but not all of them?
should we expect a 3 wepons onlyrelease every 3 months or so? or will you be releasing all the remaining ones in a future-nobody-knows-when uptade?

mediocore at best

The only real thing i can conclude from this is Gliding in tyria, something that should have come with the core hot release in the first place

Legendary fractal backpiece? nope
Legendary armor? nope
New non-gemshop outfits? nope
New fractal instaces? nope
Revamping old dungeons to make them viable again? nope

meh

i am literally feeling like wvw players are suppose to use different toilets, drink from different water fountains, and sit on certain areas of the bus.

The Shatterer? Are you serious?
I am happy for the 7 people in the game that actually care about “shatterer achievements” but seriously?

Qugi.2653:

Valento.9852:

Well… no Super Adventure Box.

Article talk about more seasonal update. So maybe Anet consider SAB a seasonal update?

If i well remember there was some DEV talking about SAB and why there is no plan for it anytime soon because when they introduced new physics in the game with dry top and newer maps, they realized SAB wouldn’t work with that.
Maybe i’m wrong but i wouldn’t expect SAB returning for now.

Anet push gliding in core area because it is huge advertise for player that do not own HoT. Core player see other player glide all over map and will want to buy HoT so can to. Maybe HoT did not sell so great and why they push this so fast.

If the Shatterer updated loot box has unique set like teq hoards, please don’t make them as rare as the teq hoards (or do and then also give us tokens to be able to buy them after X number).

Does this mean any new Legendaries will be hidden behind the paywall of the next expansion? Are they coming this year? I’d love a few reasons to buy HoT. I really would. All my friends and guild mates stopped playing it 3 weeks to 6 weeks after release though. That doesn’t inspire me enough to think there’s a lot of depth there.

I’d love to see Elite specs be sold a la carte for use in PvP. I am interested in Elite Specs as they are the current builds that are viable in PvP. Is ArenaNet thinking of making core builds that are just as viable in PvP as the Elite Specs? That seems the best course of action for a game company that says they are committed to esports.

lol, anet just admit they spent 3 years not polishing the game.

well, there are a lot of dx 12 games releasing this year and plenty more the next year with unbeatable graphic and more interesting gameplay. personally, im looking out for those new games.

honestly…..some of the things mentioned were expected to come with the expansion but anet come up with some excuse like it is too big for the expansion. /shrugs

edit: anet also admit they have been doing experiment…loool

I love the seasonal events, and, what makes them enjoyable is that they are fairly rare and not available all the time. I focus most of my time on the event when it is running.

The effort should be in expanding existing events like Wintersday & Halloween, and have maybe one other seasonal event. Any more than 3 seasonal events and you really start to water down the whole concept.

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

couln’t care less especially about F2P

Nike.2631:

So, over then next three months should we expect eleven new I-can’t-change-anything-but-the-color &$@ing outfits and ZERO armor sets?

‘Cause its getting real old the way you are frittering away the Character Art team’s time.

I am still telling myself that the reason outfits are the only things being released (supposedly easier and quicker to make), as well as the massive lack of armors offered with HoT or added anywhere to the game, is because almost everyone that works on armors has been real busy for a year or two with making Tengu cultural armors, Tengu NPC armors and tweaking and customizing every existing armor in the game to fit and work on player Tengu.

Then again, I am also hoping that they are bringing gliding to core Tyria primarily because they will be opening the Dominion of Winds for players, which would be designed vertically so as to have the ‘racial city’ and starter zone in a single map which uses the gliding mechanics and updrafts and whatnot. Of course, this would mean Tengu playable characters would be added in as an account unlock via gem store that requires HoT to be owned instead of needing to wait an even more absurd amount of time for when another ‘expansion’ or two gets released before we get them (or another playable species). Haven’t thought out all of the potential ways this could all be designed and work properly, or how having gliding mastery as a prerequisite for making a Tengu would work, but it’s just something I still hold out hope for seeing.

I was expecting:
WvW: Server Merge / Rewards improvements (not a “wait another year on an empty tier or give us 20$ to transfer”)
PvP: New TDM and Stronghold maps, what is the PvP dev team doing? We got a new game mode and only 1 map
PvE: return of dungeon rewards, SAB and new fractals
Items: Rest of the unfinished legendaries

So your popular parts of the game. What will that mean? What ever map.is flavor of the month? So we can expect more of the same as in the HoT maps?

There are some good changes listed here and will be excited to see them implemented and for further details as well.

That said, in regards to Fractals, know more people that want new fractals versus any sort of leader board. Would prefer if the priority on those to items were reversed. When the new Fractals were released a lot of people we excited but then some of that excitement was mitigated by the lack of any new Fractal being added. The new mistlocks were fun but people were also really interested in new encounters to master.

Outside of that looking forward to WvW and PvP changes.

Edit: oh and a big +1 to the Shatterer, have been wishing for a long time now for that Dragon to take one simple step to the right and see crying in horror.

Isen’t it ironic aswell that they are already releasing a new raid wing this fast when about 90% of the population has yet to finish one?

Meanwhile dungeons & fractals are being left deserted

Akkeros.1675:

i am literally feeling like wvw players are suppose to use different toilets, drink from different water fountains, and sit on certain areas of the bus.

I raised an eyebrow at this, but then remembered that auto-loot….and now gliding….will work everywhere except WvW.

….and there is no justification for that.

Gliding in central Tyria, get ready Mount Maelstrom! >:D

… SHATTERER UPDATE?!?!?!

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

Probably not and why I say before add glide to core area is big advertisement for HoT more than any thing else. It make sense for Anet to do this and sell more HoT.

“In 2016, we’ll begin rolling out major seasonal updates, and you can expect one of these big updates every three months or so. "
I has a confused…please assist me?
ALOT of posters are missing this huge little statement- This is just the FIRST update planned for 01/26/16- more are coming! Because your favorite section of the game hasn’t been mentioned in THIS heads up, doesn’t mean it won’t be addressed in future updates for 2016.
I’m sorry to come off like your mother, but the vitriol I see from certain players is very disheartening when another player posts of their pleasure to see something good going to happen for them!
Enough of that- sorry for the interruption, carry on!
(1k Quaggan coos)

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

It will be based on the mastery system. If you have gliding mastery in maguuma, you’ll have it in Tyria.

ANet Sean Source
EDIT: Sorry about the misunderstanding. That line specifically is referring to the currently existing “Glider Basics” mastery, not a new one.

Next post:
Anet_Sean
Apologies, I mis-read your post. Earlier in development you needed to earn a new Mastery ability to glide in Central Tyria, but we changed that so that the Gliding masteries you already earned just work in Central Tyria by default. I thought you were referring to that, and not the blog post.

If they feel left out, they can always buy the expansion and get it. A business doesn’t hand out for free things that are the big attractions for an expansion.

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

Nothing in core Tyria was built for gliding. Any benefit you would get from it would be fairly minimal. People without HoT will not be excluded from core Tyria content by not having it. If you feel otherwise, please provide instances where people without gliding would be excluded.

Time for me to leave GW2 asap.

No WvW in upcoming 3 months is just nonsense. You’ve been busy with it for a year, but most likely want to introduce your new overhaul in the new expansion so you can make an easy buck out of it.

No more.

Nike.2631:

So, over then next three months should we expect eleven new I-can’t-change-anything-but-the-color &$@ing outfits and ZERO armor sets?

‘Cause its getting real old the way you are frittering away the Character Art team’s time.

Should we even bring up Legendary Armour?

I am VERY hyped for the check box feature that’ll permanently show all interactable objects Thank you!

As I’m mostly PVE, very happy to see upcoming festival, Fractal news, LS3 news, raiding news.

I’m a tad sad on certain features game could have but completely agree with focusing on existing stuff strategy. Guild decorations aren’t in a place right now where a regular player would be interested in them atm. If they belonged to Player (not guild) and dropped from more mobs/events, I think that’d bring a lot of fun into the game. I’m currently using Sims 4 and Landmark to quench my ‘I want to build/decorate’ desires that Anet awoke with guild hall :P

Also => did not see a word on when next batch of legendaries is coming in? Would love to have them soon to have that big goal. I don’t want any of the hope/axe/staff at the moment, in fact went and made Bifrost and Quip as I like those better, I’m really excited to see though what you have for sword and dagger! as I’m no fan of incinerator or bolt.

Also => big koodoes on year-long brew quest :P GG on keeping players around for a whole year :P Not that I was going anywhere but it’s a nice little tidbit.

Hi Gaile, does this mean we shouldn’t expect the next stages of the Legendary Backpiece before the end of March?

Nike.2631:

Did I read that right…? Not a single word about more second wave Legendaries?

I’m sure there will be plenty of new “top-notch” skins in the gem store every two weeks.

Ayrilana.1396:

Nothing in core Tyria was built for gliding. Any benefit you would get from it would be fairly minimal. If you feel otherwise, please provide instances where people without gliding would be excluded.

Any time that gliding down a vertical area is faster than running around/down it, which is certainly not a minimal benefit, it is actually quite a large advantage in content such as map completion, or running from event chain to event chain.

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

There is an old saying “Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?” If they are f2p, of course they are going to be excluded in some fronts. Arenanet isn’t always going to hand out things that may be viewed as incentives to pay to upgrade.

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

That’s the point. It is to create motivation to buy the expansion. LMAO at F2P getting anything.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

It will be based on the mastery system. If you have gliding mastery in maguuma, you’ll have it in Tyria.

ANet Sean Source
EDIT: Sorry about the misunderstanding. That line specifically is referring to the currently existing “Glider Basics” mastery, not a new one.

Next post:
Anet_Sean
Apologies, I mis-read your post. Earlier in development you needed to earn a new Mastery ability to glide in Central Tyria, but we changed that so that the Gliding masteries you already earned just work in Central Tyria by default. I thought you were referring to that, and not the blog post.

If they feel left out, they can always buy the expansion and get it. A business doesn’t hand out for free things that are the big attractions for an expansion.

Interesting info. So ArenaNet was actually doing the RIGHT thing first, then changed mind to force people to buy expansion. For me it’s really obvious, the core Tyria masteries was originally intended for everyone for free, the red icons versus green icons, etc.

What about Super Adventure Box?

Vavume.8065:

Ayrilana.1396:

Nothing in core Tyria was built for gliding. Any benefit you would get from it would be fairly minimal. If you feel otherwise, please provide instances where people without gliding would be excluded.

Any time that gliding down a vertical area is faster than running around/down it, which is certainly not a minimal benefit, it is actually quite a large advantage in content such as map completion, or running from event chain to event chain.

I have 6 100% world completions. I really hope it get me 100% completion on my revenant faster. I wouldn’t call it a significant advantage. It is an advantage but more of a QoL advantage. Kind of like extra bank and inventory slots. Most of all its just fun though.

So sad. Not unexpected at all.

Bolded quotes…

“WvW’s Big Update

As our competitive game director John Corpening discussed, we’re currently working on a large-scale overhaul to WvW that helps deal with core issues like population balance, scoring, rewards, and the need for 24-hour coverage.

We’ve focused a heavy amount of developer resources on this overhaul for WvW, and the team has been working hard for over a year now to solve these complicated issues. We may not be ready to reveal more in early 2016, but you’ll have an opportunity to get all the details and give feedback when we go into the beta phase of this massive project later this year. And as a brief reminder: WvW tournaments are currently on hold, but they’ll return once we’ve released this new format for WvW."

RIP GG NJ GF

Vavume.8065:

Ayrilana.1396:

Nothing in core Tyria was built for gliding. Any benefit you would get from it would be fairly minimal. If you feel otherwise, please provide instances where people without gliding would be excluded.

Any time that gliding down a vertical area is faster than running around/down it, which is certainly not a minimal benefit, it is actually quite a large advantage in content such as map completion, or running from event chain to event chain.

Very few scenarios as most of the maps are fairly flat and what you do need to go to higher elevations for is normally for vistas. I don’t remember anywhere when doing map completion that would give me a huge advantage. Not to say it wouldn’t be fun to have that though such as gliding down from that vista at the top of the volcano in Maelstrom.

NeHoMaR.9812:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

It will be based on the mastery system. If you have gliding mastery in maguuma, you’ll have it in Tyria.

ANet Sean Source
EDIT: Sorry about the misunderstanding. That line specifically is referring to the currently existing “Glider Basics” mastery, not a new one.

Next post:
Anet_Sean
Apologies, I mis-read your post. Earlier in development you needed to earn a new Mastery ability to glide in Central Tyria, but we changed that so that the Gliding masteries you already earned just work in Central Tyria by default. I thought you were referring to that, and not the blog post.

If they feel left out, they can always buy the expansion and get it. A business doesn’t hand out for free things that are the big attractions for an expansion.

Interesting info. So ArenaNet was actually doing the RIGHT thing first, then changed mind to force people to buy expansion. For me is really obvious, the core Tyria mastery was intented to be for everyone for free.

Maybe they thought forcing people to learn another mastery line and gain more mastery points wasn’t any better solution and could penalise HoT players if they had no spare mastery points left

I think Hot while a decent success for you guys there is room for improvement in the coming year. From the sounds of it you already focusing on the next expansion before this one is even a few months old and there still alot that can be done with it. Is there really that much of a rush to get another expansion out?

Gliding is a welcome addition to the game and it be nice to find glide spots around tyria that allow access to areas you couldn’t get to normally.

However what I am really posting about is how disappointed I am with the state of Raids, PVP and WvW. Raids have become a Elitist jerk play ground. Not only is the difficulty is at an unfun area but it’s soo precise that you have to have specific Comps to beat each Boss. Sorry I don’t have three characters geared in Ascended gear to swap to for each boss. I only had my engi which I thought would be enough. When my guild went in attending to beat Vale Guardian Week One. The encounter felt to me like a hard mode WoW boss. After the first few wipes I even said. “Did we accidentally enable Hard Mode or something.” After weeks of this and talking to others about the various Boss fights I have to conclude that you guys got bad advice on what’s fun for Raids. No other aspect of the game is like this and yet it’s okay for Raids? Why?

I get that the Raids are suppose to be “hard content” however there a difference between hard and utter cheese and these bosses are utter cheese. As there little room for error or getting new people in. One or two new people in your raid group and expect hours of wiping. That isn’t what I call Fun. Other games have got this better than you and I expected better from this game. Fractals are fun, Dungeons are okay and could use some love really. Open world bosses are fun and I can’t wait to see how Shatterer will turn out.

I just want to see how you Anet feel about Raids and if they are accomplishing the goals you set out. If they are great, if not FIX THEM before it too late.

No mention of Visual Slider at all?? Is a 16 pages long thread that just wont die in the general discussion forum not enough to get the devs attention? pfft, sad. guess i’m not coming back.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

I have 6 100% world completions. I really hope it get me 100% completion on my revenant faster. I wouldn’t call it a significant advantage. It is an advantage but more of a QoL advantage. Kind of like extra bank and inventory slots. Most of all its just fun though.

I have 11 world completions, with this change I think I might even do a few more, since not only will it be faster now, it will also be more fun.

Ayrilana.1396:

Very few scenarios as most of the maps are fairly flat and what you do need to go to higher elevations for is normally for vistas. I don’t remember anywhere when doing map completion that would give me a huge advantage. Not to say it wouldn’t be fun to have that though such as gliding down from that vista at the top of the volcano in Maelstrom.

Exactly most vistas are elevated so gliding back down from them will be faster, and there are hundreds of vistas… that is just the tip of the iceberg in what we will be able to achieve with gliding, being faster is enough of an advantage.

The Brew of the Month thing looks like they literally looked at WoW and did the same thing, which is surprising given how Arenanet loves to answer “Black” when Blizzard says “White.”

In WoW, after getting my achievements, the Brew of the Month thing became more of a mail spam than something cool.

I recommend adding fun little activities to do once in a while to “keep your subscription”, otherwise it’s just something you do once and reap the rewards forever.

NeHoMaR.9812:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

It will be based on the mastery system. If you have gliding mastery in maguuma, you’ll have it in Tyria.

ANet Sean Source
EDIT: Sorry about the misunderstanding. That line specifically is referring to the currently existing “Glider Basics” mastery, not a new one.

Next post:
Anet_Sean
Apologies, I mis-read your post. Earlier in development you needed to earn a new Mastery ability to glide in Central Tyria, but we changed that so that the Gliding masteries you already earned just work in Central Tyria by default. I thought you were referring to that, and not the blog post.

If they feel left out, they can always buy the expansion and get it. A business doesn’t hand out for free things that are the big attractions for an expansion.

Interesting info. So ArenaNet was actually doing the RIGHT thing first, then changed mind to force people to buy expansion. For me is really obvious, the core Tyria mastery was intented to be for everyone for free.

You do realize that has nothing to do with offering it for free to non-payers, right? The difference is between spending more points to RELEARN gliding outside of Maguuma, versus just letting us keep the progress we have already made.

Also, they are f2p. If they want full access…. they need to pay. That’s how it works.

NeHoMaR.9812:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

NeHoMaR.9812:

I suppose gliding mastery will be available to everyone? including core and f2p accounts? if not they are going to feel excluded, not being able to follow a commander to say one example. I can imagine already, if you cant fly, get out!

It will be based on the mastery system. If you have gliding mastery in maguuma, you’ll have it in Tyria.

ANet Sean Source
EDIT: Sorry about the misunderstanding. That line specifically is referring to the currently existing “Glider Basics” mastery, not a new one.

Next post:
Anet_Sean
Apologies, I mis-read your post. Earlier in development you needed to earn a new Mastery ability to glide in Central Tyria, but we changed that so that the Gliding masteries you already earned just work in Central Tyria by default. I thought you were referring to that, and not the blog post.

If they feel left out, they can always buy the expansion and get it. A business doesn’t hand out for free things that are the big attractions for an expansion.

Interesting info. So ArenaNet was actually doing the RIGHT thing first, then changed mind to force people to buy expansion. For me it’s really obvious, the core Tyria masteries was originally intended for everyone for free, the red icons versus green icons, etc.

I believe you have misunderstood something. They do the color difference because mastery points from different areas don’t mix and match where you can spend them so that is a quick way to see. You can’t do core Tyria masteries at all without owning HoT, the whole mastery system comes with the expansion. And when they changed things in the gliding-in-core development, they made it easier for us because instead of adding a new mastery line for core Tyria (and using up precious mastery points to buy it), they decided that gliding only needs to be learned once.