What the Survey left out

What the Survey left out

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: BioMasterZap.4350

BioMasterZap.4350

I did the Lost Shores event Survey, but I felt it didn’t cover enough. I excepted a spot at end to write in more comments, but instead it finished without even giving me a chance to review and add more. So instead, I am posting my feedback on the entire update here. This isn’t about ascended gear, one time events, or the new map, it is about all of that and more. If anyone else has things they didn’t get to add in the survey, feel free to post them on this topic.

One Time Events
This was one thing I answer poorly due to the format. I wanted a spot to write in about this to explain myself, but there was none so this feedback wasn’t in the survey at all. I like the idea of one time events and how the impact the world. I like how rewarding the event was. However, I do think there is room for improvement.
The first one time event was for h’ween, also on Sunday. This was a huge letdown. I waited around a crowded city just to see a cutscene, the same thing that ended up on youtube. In fact, the youtube version is better because I didn’t hear any audio on my end for it (probably from lag). I noticed no reward for being there either. This was a bad one time event.
The first one time event this weekend was the Karka attack on Lion’s Arch. This event was very laggy. I barely saw allies and foes for the event. I think I even disconnected once or twice. My friend (who I referred to the game with the special offer) and I started in the same world, by soon after we got sent to different overflows (due to disconnects) and despite trying, we never made it back to the same overflows. The event was also confusing. I know we killed the veterans by use of conditions (I assume), but they instantly respawned it seemed. After what felt like an hour of laggy combat with little to no drops off the monsters, the event ended with Event Failed. Only a little bit of exp, karma, and coin. If there was a chest, I missed it in all the chaos due to how packed the place was. This was a bad one time event.
The only other one I really count as a one time event was the end fight against the Ancient Karka (although I did do it twice by hopping to a new overflow after mine finished in hope of more rewards, which didn’t happen). This was made up of 3 long events, which is a bit misleading. It is bad because some players may have planned to be on at start, only to find that they had to leave before event was over. It could also be good for anyone who showed up late. Personally, I felt it should have been broken into more events than just three, because all of them were very long and only the last one was rewarding. At the end of the event, a cutscenes played a chest spawned. The chest had 2 rares, 2 exotics (some got legendary precursors even, not me though), and a special chest. When opened the chest gave you an Ancient Karka Shell Box (20 slot bag) and an Ancient Karka Shell (Exotic Level 80 Celestial/Triforge Earring Accessory). This was a better one time event.
However, there are thing I would suggest to be changed. It was rewarding enough of a final event, but I will say it was too rewarding. To get that earring, currently only like it in game, you need to trade 1000 Karka Shells to NPC, which cost over 12G last I saw. That is also how much a 20 slot bag costs. So while non-sellable, the rewards saved you 24G or more just by being at event. This is a bit unfair considering some players just couldn’t make it. Does this mean events shouldn’t be rewarding because not everyone can make it? No, not at all, they just shouldn’t reward so exclusively.
Here is what I would have done instead. After the Ancient Karka dies and chest spawns, players who were at event can loot it for 2 exotics and 2 rare items. Those along would make it worth the time. Then later after the event is over (in all worlds) EVERYONE who participated at any point in the event would be mailed a thank you with the Earring and the 20 Slot Bag. By "participated at any point" I mean having been at opening battle in LA, having done the scavenger hunt, having done the missions in Southsun Cove, or having battle the Ancient Karka.
Maybe 24G worth of stuff is a bit too much to give away to everyone, but my point is that the one time event should have gave good reward, but not unique rewards, while everyone who participated in the special event weekend should have earned something unique, if something unique was given at all. I also think the initial battle should have given a chest that awarded everyone something, or a guaranteed rare. For events like the mad king, maybe give everyone some personalized trick or treat bags for attending cutscenes, like 10+ (heard rumors they did, but never noticed).

What the Survey left out

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: BioMasterZap.4350

BioMasterZap.4350

Southsun Cove
This won’t be as long as last section. I did mention this in survey, but I also want to mention it here with a bit more detail. I am very disappointed in this map. It is very hard to solo but offers near no rewards. I am all for hard new level 80 maps, but this just fails. It is a beautiful area with one fun and one hard (but welcome) jump puzzle. One thing I hate is that it doesn’t count to world completion and it doesn’t even have its own map completion. It feels odd for it not to count; it makes it feel like a fake map because of it, like Hall of Monuments with its one non-counting Point of Interest. Also, it has 6 waypoints and 5 points of interests. I am shocked there are no Vistas, because as I said, it is a beautiful area and isn’t that what vistas are suppose to show you? Skill Challenges aren’t needed as much at level 80 I suppose, but it wouldn’t have hurt to have a couple. I really hope that this map gets more map completion things like Vistas in the future. Personally, I hope it gets its own map completion with reward in the future even if it doesn’t count to world completion.
Back to the whole difficulty and drop issue. I am not a big Orr farmer, in fact I just recently got a MF set and learned to farm one chain in Orr. But even just having learned to farm Orr, I did much better than I did in Southsun. The only monsters I could solo with any ease where the Skalk, which had a bit of profit, but not much. The Drakes and Riders are so deadly that I wouldn’t dare tackle one without a team. Young Karka aren’t too hard, although they are a challenge (biggest problem is dodging into a second group), but they also have no drops. I killed many and barely got a single drop, and when I did, it wasn’t that good. Veterans have the same drop problem but are much harder to solo. So I’d look at the drops and see if they could be tweaked to be more rewarding. If they were, the zone would seem more worth it.

Consortium Chests
Odd thing to mention, but I am actually happy over this. Why? The decryption: "Filled with interesting items found by the Consortium along the Lost Shores. Commonly containing breathing masks or shoulder skins, these chests also have a rare chance to contain unique weapon skins, and even more rarely, new mini pets. No key required!". My biggest complain about the Black Lion Chest for Halloween was the rarity. They advertised new skins, but they never said how elusive they were. This time, that isn’t an excuse. They say right there what is common, what is rare, and what is very rare. Also, it seems that these chests are here to stay and not temporary (I may be wrong). Still, I think all future chased based promotions should work like this. They clearly say what the odds are in the gem store, so you should fully know what you’re paying for.

Fractal of the Mists
This place is awesome. I love how it works, although it does feel a bit repetitive. I haven’t made it too far in (finished 4, unlocked 5), but I’ve heard about later rewards. I like the tactics used in the Fractals and how there is a bonus level with a daily reward chest. Also, from what I hear, agony only kicks in at level 10 and even then it is seems pretty easy to reduce with a single Ascended. So thanks for not making this dungeon only for elite who can afford ascended. I think level 9 should be hard and rewarding enough to repeat if you don’t want to get ascended gear. I myself was lucky enough to get a vial of mist on level 3 and am saving for a nice ascended back slot.
This is a bit off topic, but thanks for adding new stat drops. For anyone who hasn’t noticed, Fractals introduced 5 new drops in Masterwork, Rare, and (I think) Account Bound Exotic. They come in all parts (weapon, armor, jewelry, and even back) in all rarities. The first three are Soldier, Magi, and Rabid, which were previously only from Dungeons and Temple/God Karma Armor. The other two are Wayfarer and Cavalier, two brand new stat combinations (although not to useful imo). I was now able to buy my missing Soldier Armor in rare to fill out my set while I work at the exotics. Also, before now, the only Soldier jewelry was from WvW, which cost a ton to get. I’d rather get rare set for 3G and lose some stats that get 2.5K badges of honor! Also, by Account Bound Exotic, I do mean the exotics are not tradable. Instead, they seem to be Account Bound and Soulbound on Use. I like this mechanic. It means you have to play fractals to get some of this gear (like exotic soldier jewelry) and if you get some you don’t want, you can always save for new characters (or salvage, I assume). I may be wrong about exotics, since I only got 1 part myself, but I assume there is a full set.

What the Survey left out

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: BioMasterZap.4350

BioMasterZap.4350

Ascended Gear
I saved this for last. I mentioned it a bit in last section, but it needs its own section. Now I’m not pro-ascended or anti-ascended, I am more in the middle. I know it is here to stay and won’t suggest it to leave, but I am all for changing it to be less impacting. I am probably one of players ascended was targeted at. My Elementalist (my main character, only level 80) beat the game. He has map completion, story done, lots of achievements, and full exotics with some awesome skins. It really felt like there was nothing left for me to go after on there that wasn’t cosmetic, which I didn’t mind really. I was starting to work at a legendary, but I know I won’t get it for a long time.
I am not too upset with a new tier of gear being added, because there is a big gap between 2g per exotic and 500g per legendary. However, if they decided to add another new tier between ascended and legendary in the future, then I will be disappointed. It is a bit annoying because I just felt like I was done with my elementalist so I could start working on a new character. Now after seeing how hard ascended is, I know my elementalist can get it, but I doubt I will ever get it on all 8 of my characters =\ There are a few things that annoy me about that I hope they change. First is how it is currently only from Fractals. You can’t trade it and you need a non-tradable drop from fractals to make back slot and you get rings by being lucky in latter floors. Exotics were more of a save up and buy, whether I saved dungeon tokens or coins, but ascended seem to be far more luck driven. I don’t mind it being luck based, if it wasn’t the best gear in game
The stats are my next complain. I am not against ascneded being better, but they seem to be way better than exotic. The base stats of the item seem to be 2 more to primary and 1 more to secondary. No big deal there really. The problem is the built in upgrade slot. If I remember right, on berserker, the upgrade slot gave like 5 more power, 2 more precision, and 1% more critical, on top of the 2 power, 1 precision, and 1% critical from the main part of the item. Then on top of that, you can get +5 from the infusion, and these are only fine rarity. If exotic or ascended rarity infusions ever come out, that may go up. My point here is it seems ascended are much better than exotics, not a little better. We won’t know for sure until more parts come out though. Exotics are 20% more than Rares, it seems Ascended are 20%, or maybe even more, over Exotics.
Personally, I think the full Ascended item with infusion should only be 5-10% better. However, I am not sure if 20% even matters that much. I have full exotic berserker, but when I got soldier, I could only buy the rare version. So my helm, shoulders, boots, and gloves are all rare. Personally, I find it works just as good as my exotics. It gives different stats, true, but I didn’t notice a huge different in anything. In fact, I think I prefer the stats my soldier set, with some rares, over my berserker set, with pure exotics. So while Ascended will be better, I doubt you will ever suffer because you only had exotics. You can only use them in WvW, Dungeons, and PvE. From what I’ve seen, Ascended has no dedicated Magic Find set (5% per ring at best), so exotic (7% per ring) will still be best there. Exploring the world, ascended may be life or death in some situations, but if everyone can currently explore the map and do things with exotics, I doubt ascended will change it. In dungeons ascended may give you a bit of an edge, but your working together as a team, so if someone has ascended and you don’t, it only helps you. Lastly, in WvW I rarely encounter a 1v1 or any small teams. It is usually mob vs. mob, and in a mob, 1 person in ascended over exotic won’t change much. Even in 1v1, I doubt it will change much. In PvP it seems to be far more tactics than gear.

What the Survey left out

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: BioMasterZap.4350

BioMasterZap.4350

Ascended Gear Part 2
My last thoughts on ascended are kinda mixed. First, I think agony will appear in more areas than just Fractals in the future. Why? I assume future batches of ascended gear will come from other place than fractals, although I may be wrong, so if it gives ascended, it may feature agony at some point. Personally, I hope Anet tells us more to quell or confirm our fears. Are they considering changing how ascended works based on feedback (aka lowering stats)? How will ascended work for other items? Personally, I am a bit worried about legendaries myself. If I got The Biforst and transmuted it’s look to the stats of my Berserker Exotic staff, what happens then when Ascended weapons come out? Would I get a Ascended Berserker Stat staff? Would it revert to Soldier stats? Or would I be left with an Exotic Berserker staff? What about the sigil? Will the crappy sigils legendaries are made with become stuck to them now? Will it still upgrade to ascended stats if you swapped sigil? If you swapped sigil and it does upgrade, does that mean anyone can swap sigils after upgrading or will only those who changed before the upgrade get different sigils? How will runes work with ascended armor?
As you see, there are a lot of questions left unanswered. Hopefully they will be cleared up soon enough so we can stop speculating as much and know instead so we can plan better. I doubt exotics will be obsolete by ascended though. You can easily change you upgrades on exotics where you can’t on ascended. They are also far easier to get and I doubt the different between full ascended and full exotics will be that noticeable outside of agony resistance.

Well thanks to anyone who read my very long post. Hopefully Anet gets my feedback, as along with everyone else posting feedback on this topic or elsewhere. If you disagree with my thoughts, you can post it if you want, but I don’t plan to debate on opinions. If you want to share your own opinions on the update and things that weren’t on the survey, feel free to use this topics to do some.