Guild Wars 2

Why isn’t there a dedicated thread for this? Whatever. I’ll create one for my thoughts, but I’m just going to dump this here and then never look at it again. Hopefully y’all Anet employees see it.

We’d love to get your thoughts on our three brand-new elite specializations! Were they fun to play? Did they change the way you play your profession in a meaningful way?: I only play Ranger, so I haven’t been able to experience any elite specializations.

During daytime, we’re showing two new outposts and a big pile of events that go along with them. Are they fun? Do they tell a compelling narrative that helps bring you into the world? Do the events feel meaningful, challenging, and interesting?: Although there were fewer events, the daytime ones were fun. I enjoyed both of the longer events.

Does the Mastery system feel like a system that works to provide meaningful progression? Does it make you care about experience and Mastery points? Does it provide a framework that you think we could regularly add more to in live updates? Knowing your progress won’t be wiped, does it make you want to learn as many Masteries as possible so you can use them to overcome additional challenges later?: I honestly hate that the map is set up in such a way that if I choose NOT to use the mastery system, I’m left running around and hoping that the path I’m on is the one that will lead me where I have to go. I found it difficult and frustrating to get around this map, and once I’d played through the two new daytime events, I didn’t feel like it was worth it to keep exploring the map since I couldn’t make it to any of the “defend this position” events in time, anyway. I assume this is going to be the way of things, though – either I must use the mastery system, or I will have to bite the bullet and run full-tilt to an area hoping that I make it on time to do whatever I want to do.

Overall thoughts: I actually enjoyed the last beta weekend’s content more, even though it was impossibly bugged, for a couple of reasons.

- Verdant Brink is a pain to get around. Like, seriously – the mini map does nothing. I had to kind of just… run into stuff when I thought I was in the right area for a path until I found it. Also, the verticality is not my favorite, but at least the map from last weekend made it possible and viable to run everywhere instead of having to rely on training up the mastery skills. Not so much in Verdant Brink.

- Night time – boring. Day time – fun until I had done both of the longer events, and then… boring. There was so much more to do last time, or at least, it felt that way.

- I appreciated that the enemies died more quickly than last time, but I feel like there needs to be more random challenges that aren’t part of events. The two bosses were good start! I hope there’s more of that.

To that effect, I really enjoyed the events that encouraged working together from last beta weekend – it reminded me a lot of the Twisted Marionette or the first iteration of the Mad King’s Realm (the second version of Mad King’s Realm being almost impossible to handle as a single player or small team).

Anyway, on that note, I’m still on board for HoT, which makes me happy. I haven’t played GW2 in… oh, at least a year. Maybe more. I’m excited to see HoT when it’s released, and I’ve missed playing GW2; so far, the beta content feels more like the content released in the game’s first year, which I really appreciate. I said it last beta weekend, and I’ll say it this weekend – I appreciate that players are being encouraged to play WITH each other, not AGAINST or AROUND each other, and not being forced to team up or join a huge horde because the content is too difficult to handle in a smaller team or solo. No one was screaming orders in map chat or being huge jerks during either of these beta weekends! People were just working together and having fun. I really, really appreciate that, guys. Thank you for that. I missed it.

Former Anet QA here; this is my wife’s post so I’m gonna drop my feedback here too, especially since there’s no dedicated thread for feedback. (Can we get one?)

Specializations: Were they fun? Did they Change how you play your profession in a meaningful way? How were the improvements to the previous Specializations? (Dragon Hunter, Tempest, Chronomancer, Reaper)?

I still only played Reaper. I didn’t feel up to hauling a newly-made 80 out of limbo to re-gear, re-look and re-move from the Silverwastes. Too much time wasted in that area. I will say that it feels like Death’s Charge is far less stupid when it moves you and stops when you hit something. No more sailing through enemies like a deranged ceiling fan and falling off of Verdant Brink’s numerous pitfalls. Grasping Darkness also seemed much more reliable.

How is the difficulty of the new hostile mobs, and are they fun and exciting?

They’re easier to manage for solo folks, don’t two-shot you, and are generally more in-tune with their flavor text and visuals. Difficulty is good. Fun and exciting? Not really. They’re the same enemies I’ve fought for years, so aside from Stoneheads STILL being big bags of health, no real opinion here.

With the Opening of two new outposts, we are adding in a bunch of new events. Are they fun?

Daytime events are… just okay, in my view. The biggest problem I have is the forcing of the Mastery system on the players so that you can access them. I still haven’t unlocked the bounce mushrooms in Itzal Mastery so I spent most of my time trying to get to the events rather than doing them. Night time was boring as usual. I don’t find it fun to play King of the Hill with plant monsters for 40 minutes at a time. I would still like to see some way to secure outposts, or shorten the night phase so I’m not stuck waiting for the more interesting Day events. Plus, night time means I get to take up residence in Contested Waypoint City.

Do the new events bring you more into the world?

In the sense of “here’s what’s happening in Verdant Brink.” None of these events feel too crucial to the story except for Lord Faren seeking training, which was broken. Not enough One Eyed Bongo clones spawned and stalled the event.

Are the new events challenging, meaningful, and interesting?

See above feedback. Night’s tedious, Day’s interesting but not gripping. Happy to see that teaming up is not forced though.

Mastery System
How is the progression?

Slow for me. I spend so much time running to events that I miss them, and grinding out the XP via kills just isn’t viable. That makes the Mastery system a self-compounding problem that gates new players.

How is it using the mastery abilities in the current area?

I’ve only been able to unlock my hang glider, and that dang thing gets stuck on the tiniest bit of collision before dumping me into the abyss. Not the smoothest mechanic.

Is the mastery system providing a meaningful area of progression?

If it wasn’t so brutal on people JUST coming in to it, I think it would be much more meaningful. As it is right now it feels like the system gates itself incredibly hard. No Mastery unlicks, no quick travel; no quick travel, no events; no events, no XP; no XP, no Mastery unlocks; repeat.

Do you care about experience and mastery points?

I’d care more if I could get the experience easier. Waypoints and events being so distant and expecting players to just use their glider (whether they have it or not) to get places makes earning XP difficult. See previous cyclical chain of issues.

Does it provide a good framework to add more masteries in the future?

As far as a system? Yes. But I’m really concerned that these Masteries are going to end up like Guild Missions. Will Itzal Mastery be useful outside of Verdant Brink? Will Hang Glider Mastery ever be proliferated to frustratingly vertical zones? Will the Mastery system overall be utilized in pre-HoT content or will it fall out of development like Guild Missions, dungeon paths or any of the other once-and-done systemic additions we’ve seen in the past?

Do you want to learn as many masteries over time to overcome challenges later in the future?

I don’t think I have a choice in this, as a player. If I don’t utilize Mastery I will not, nor will I ever be as effective as players who do utilize Mastery. That doesn’t sit right with me. My answer to this is “grudgingly yes, because I’ll have to.”

Final feedback:

This beta weekend didn’t ring the same with me as last weekend did. I have serious concerns about content gating, repetition and grind in HoT. The framework for these things is already there. Mastery, day/night sequence, event timing, new resources, it’s all there and sending up red flags for me. I’m hoping that this doesn’t end up true. I don’t want to be ineffective because of a new system (like Guild Missions). Hope next beta is more fun.

I’d also like to add that Verdant Brink’s lighting could use some work. The entirety of the visible landscape being lit up the exact same color makes my depth perception go nuts, and I’ll often fall into kitten or get snagged on a prop that I can’t differentiate from the terrain.

And can we get the tiered map back for Verdant Brink? The major cities have it, and they’re not half as vertically treacherous as Verdant Brink. The map/minimap in Verdant is literally just one layer and you have no idea if the thing you’re looking at will actually be in front of you until you’re on top of it and realize “Oh crap, that’s about 200 yards above me.”

Specialisations
Played as a Reaper and didn’t have any major problems. I will take some getting used to so I will not comment on this beta

Creatures
They weren’t as deadly as they were on the last beta.
The standard mobs were to be taken seriously and certain veterans were to be avoided if you didn’t have a friend or two along for the ride.
All in all a good thing imo

Mastery System
I haven’t played that much beta content but the levelling in the mastery system seemed to be on a par with the previous levelling system.
I did find myself pondering on what to level next after getting the gliding and jumping mushrooms so I guess the system works for me.

World
It was a bit of a pain getting from one location to another. Many a time I set out to get to a certain point on the map only to find myself somewhere entirely different.
It would be good if we could have a map for each layer, the way they are in cities.
The events were enjoyable, plenty to kill and to be killed by.
I was downed by a bladedancer who crept up on me whilst I was fighting Quenti the Quick. A nice touch I thought as the mists beckoned…

Conclusion
Things are going in the right direction.
I am looking forward to the day when I can roam VB and keep the loot!

There should be a feedback form that covers major game play elements which you can provide feedback on while you are playing in the Beta and submit at the end of your play time.

There should also be tasks for those play testing the beta to see what the developers want tested (new changes).
1) stress test area
2) stress test boss
3) test weapon
4) test amror
5) etc.

I thought it was too much like a console game and went back to farming another legendary. I could care less for flying or bouncing on mushrooms.

We’d love to get your thoughts on our three brand-new elite specializations! Were they fun to play? Did they change the way you play your profession in a meaningful way?: I will break this down by all the classes
Mesmer: Mesmer is always fun, but the new well skills aren’t. And I hate the shield. It has NOT changed how I play the profession (and I Mesmer main). I love some of the traits we get with chrono, but the skills and weapon I don’t love so much. I am still just swiping with sword 1 while waiting for the good skills to come off CD. (Daggers, please? Its more necro-like, both MH and OH) The shield is not a game changing new addition to the Mesmer armory
Guardian: This actually made guard fun, which is to say it was boring before. The bow and traps make this kittening easy… almost like being a ranger! (I mained Ranger for the first year) It certainly can really change up how guard is played, especially with the longbow (yes, its a game changer if people choose to actually play it).
Necro: WAY fun, and TOTALLY changes how it is played, sort of… they were awesome before, and they are still awesome! If I quit Mes because of that stupid shield I might just go necro. The shouts are just delightful, really, especially the minion one. The GS as a weapon for necro is a game changer.
Ele: This was actually really fun, though I can’t say it has changed how I play ele, as I really don’t play it at all. I guess I could say that this new spec makes me think I could play it more often, like it, and even do well with it! I don’t think the addition of the WH as a weapon is a game changer. (oh, what the heck was up with all the dark claws??)
Warrior: Fun in the same way that warrior was fun before (button mash face roll). I don’t think it has really changed the way warrior is played, though I did giggle a bit at the 4k burn ticks. I was excited to get a new legendary torch right as I logged in! The torch isn’t a game changing new weapon for the warrior but of all the OH weapons added with specializations it might actually get used. I also don’t like the placement of the F5 skill, makes it hard to hit (yes, I am a button masher)
Thief: I didn’t play this much past the demo storyline because of the skill lag on the dodge roll GM trait. I was having fun…. then I tried to dodge but didn’t and died. Again, and again. This has some really good potential but the way the GM trait skill activates has got to be changed. The staff skills are great, really good damage, and might just be a game changer in that there is no shadow stepping. Only complaint I heard was that none of the weapon skills have stealth. (que the QQ)
Revenant: Rev is fun till it isn’t… the Herald spec makes energy management that much harder, and I found that I had to stand back and let others do the killing if I was to maintain the passive bonuses for the group. Maybe the utility skills can give back a small amount of energy when they are put on CD? (dependant upon being active for X# of secs, and triggers on either active skill or dropping off due to lack of energy to maintain) That being said, a shield is a good specialization weapon for them because you might find yourself not having the energy to attack, just defend. Has a problem with F5 placement (cannot see the carrot to change the F1 skill)

During daytime, we’re showing two new outposts and a big pile of events that go along with them. Are they fun? Do they tell a compelling narrative that helps bring you into the world? Do the events feel meaningful, challenging, and interesting?:
I absolutely loved the story line with Faren, going all Tarzan in his underoos. The dialogue here was priceless. These events seem better put together than the ones from the first beta, and even the demo personal story had better flow. I appreciated the little speech bubbles the allies had indicating they would give you their opinion on the current situation.

Does the Mastery system feel like a system that works to provide meaningful progression? Does it make you care about experience and Mastery points? Does it provide a framework that you think we could regularly add more to in live updates? Knowing your progress won’t get wiped, does it make you want to learn as many Masteries as possible so you can use them to overcome additional challenges later?:
These questions seem to be asking for answers both for as to how it works in beta, and how we think it will work after release. I think having the masteries and all toons created being carried over from beta to beta really helps us out. People want the beta progress to be carried over after release, too, but its not feasable and they will just have to be disappointed. You can navigate the new maps without all of the specific cultural skills, but your life will better with them. I would like to have had some Tyrian points to use too, since I have trained there but have no points to activate the mastery.
Gaining XP now has a meaning, again… keep adding mastery tracs and points and you will have a happy player base. In fact, do this in WvW, with masteries specifically for it, and we will love it. Also, what about the orders we joined? There should be mastery tracks for that too, they should mean something again! (OK, other than just a nice set of armor and weapon skins)

Overall thoughts: I bought the expansion as soon as it was for sale, so you know I am already in it to win it… I think these new maps will provide a cool new vertical environment, and lots of group content here (you die alone, really). But overall the specializations and masteries should reinvigorate the core game too! Not to mention new skins, for those of us who like to dress up our virtual dollies. Still waiting to see the new guild halls and raids.

My class Specialization assessment is based off of WvW play more so than any other type of game play.

Specializations
For the most part I did enjoy some of the specializations.
Revanant – By far my personal favorite, I can’t wait for HoT to be released to play more. I would like to see more utility choices overall but I understand that’s not on the table currently. My biggest issue is with Inspiring Reinforcement The animation and placement is sloppy, if you have swiftness it possible to outrun the ability completely making it useless, without swiftness ¾ of the ability lands behind you if moving, seems to defeat the purpose it should be laid out in front of the Rev not on top of.
Daredevil – I have never enjoyed the Thief until now, I found it more enjoyable, it feels like it can contend in a WvW setting within a larger Group format instead of being pigeon holed into Scounting or ganking.
Chronomancer – Fun class, felt very Mesmerish and the specialization fits the theme. A bit overpowered and should probably be balanced but overall fun and good work.
Dragonhunter – I was not impressed, this is my least favorite, the entire theme just seems lazy, as if you took some ranger abilities and slapped them on the guardian. The theme does not fit the Guardian, it was not fun, it is subpar to what the Guardian could already do. It is imo that this class had no thought put into it.
Tempest – Again, it seems lazy, it is underwhelming, I see no reason to play this instead of its previous version. Once again, imo very little thought went into this specialization.
Reaper – Didn’t get a chance to play it enough to have an honest opinion.
Berserker – Didn’t play it at all, have no personal opinion on it but those I did talk to seemed to enjoy it.

Creatures
The creatures seemed on a good difficulty level, it was not a case of throwing on Netflix and half paying attention to the new PvE like I would normally do. I enjoyed the difficulty level but think some classes may have more issues with it than others.
In the new zone if I didn’t pay attention I died. I don’t know if I would call it fun and exciting, but it was certainly more challenging.

World
The events seemed alright, they weren’t exactly boring but again since PvE for me in general is not overly exciting it’s hard for me to say it was exciting. The new event s did bring me into the world, normally I wouldn’t bother with PvE but I was interested in exploring Magumma.

Mastery System
Progression seemed easy enough that it wasn’t a grueling grind. Admittedly I didn’t actually use any Mastery points because the choices seemed silly. I had hoped for more useful choices, Mushroom jumping? I just rolled my eyes.
I suppose it does prove meaningful in the area but again I was hoping for more, aside from the glider masteries (even these to an extent) they all seemed like a QoL system that really held no purpose. As for caring about experience and mastery points, I don’t really care, as I said above the choices seemed silly. It does provide good framework provided the masteries are somewhat useful for the zone I guess. I would be willing to learn more masteries, again if there was more thought put into them.

Stronghold PvP
I really wanted to give this a try but I ran out of time before I had a chance.

All in all I think you have done an ok job so far, a few things that are personal opinions of course, that I am sure others enjoy. I would have like to see guild halls and the arena they will have available to them. I would have like to test the new WvW map as well, instead of having to be thrown into a pool of players, many of which are chosen solely on the fact that they stream even if they lack WvW experience. Balancing will be an issue with certain classes (looking at you mesmers) I hope you get this under control BEFORE HoT goes live.

Dragon Hunter As I main a Guardian I have been trying all weekend to find a use for this class, a slot in the game it can fit in well with for it’s build and load out.
I cannot.
This class seems like it was put together by combining the warrior and ranger bow abilities, throw in Warrior Snipe F1 and there you go. It seems very lazily done when compared to Daredevil, Berzerker, and Chronomancer. Who all have abilities that mesh well with their new load outs, and compliment the playstyle opened up.
The traps are a joke almost. All they do is damage and cripple. That is it. Nothing else special about them. No interrupts, no burning (why? This would fit in with he usual Guardian theme!), no blinds? They have some cripple, but nothing that really helps them.
A ranger does this specializations job a LOT better and a lot more reliably. The visuals are very cool, and the class is pretty, but losing the instant activation on the F1-3, losing the ability to activate while stomping, this specialization actually gives a huge liability to the Guardian in wvw and pvp. I can find absolutely no reason to run this Spec outside of PvE, play style change or not, it completely inverts the classes intended purpose, and I was afraid of that since the announcement of this spec. Further it gives the class a liability in its F abilities. Its core abilities are now a liability. That should not be the case.

Daredevil I am loving this class. the only issues I am seeing is simply the lack of fluidity in its animations. It seems to force itself into the new animations. Other than that, I am loving it.

I’d just like to add something, in some of the story missions, the character will go from speaking in a normal character voice, to that of a different race, i tested a charr revenant, one text box was in a charr voice, the next box sounded like a human voice.

I have enjoyed the content, the event chains are fun and it seems a challenging but a little easier then last beta. I find it very hard to find my way from place to place, the mini map isn’t lots of help. I am a little lost in the real world too! I still haven’t found my way thru the whole map

The mastery system seems useful but getting to the the points has been very hard, I like that I was able to get some with events others are out of reach. I like the challenge of the landscape being vertical but it requires a little more time for me to get though it.

I love the new classes the revenant seems more playable for me this time compared to last beta it skills are fluid and usable you just have to really be picky about what skills you use and when.

Overall I think it has been really fun and I am really looking forward to all the other things coming. Thanks

I am anxious to be a druid, I made a beta ranger and did really well so can imagine what the new and improved ranger will provide. I played the Necro and really enjoyed the skills and ability to hold my own against the hoards of hylek. The Ele and Mes were definitely not as capable but that could be my lack of expertise in those professions . The map is difficult to get around in but am sure it will become easier with more playing time. I was looking forward to gliding with updrafts but found only one on BE1 and none on this one. The hardest thing for me was knowing that all the drops were of no value. I didn’t open anything because I couldn’t deal with finding that pre-cursor I have been waiting for. I am a die hard GW fan, both of them, and looking forward to 10/23 when I will be able to play without time constraints. Thanks Anet for all of the effort you are putting into making this game great.

I just made my own thread. It’s probably better that everyone make their own posts for feedback. It would be way too much reading in one massive thread if they bunched htem all up.

Zera Allimatti.2541:

I just made my own thread. It’s probably better that everyone make their own posts for feedback. It would be way too much reading in one massive thread if they bunched htem all up.

How would it be way to much reading if the exact same amount of posts are in seperate threads ?

It makes sense that feed back is contained to 1 thread so they don’t miss anything.

Nuzt.7894:

Zera Allimatti.2541:

I just made my own thread. It’s probably better that everyone make their own posts for feedback. It would be way too much reading in one massive thread if they bunched htem all up.

How would it be way to much reading if the exact same amount of posts are in seperate threads ?

It makes sense that feed back is contained to 1 thread so they don’t miss anything.

Because perhaps some players might provide some REALLY good feedback and it would be easier to refer back to a specific thread rather than a specific reply in a massive thread. Sort of like cataloging.

I enjoyed all the new beta weekend but definitely not as much as last weekend. I couldn’t stop playing that one area it gave us last weekend. I don’t usually do fourm posts so i’m just going to do a pro and con list

Cons:
-Stronghold goes waaaaay to quick, I get they don’t want it to last too long but when they do last long it gets very intense and fun to play because you have to concentrate. When the game goes fast and one team basically steam rolls there lane it is very uneventful and boring.
-The new legendary mobs that you can fight such as that wyvern are very easy and don’t require much focus. I get that it’s the beta weekend and we had a lot of people doing the events but I really think they should of scaled up a bit more maybe making the attacks do more damage.
-The night cycle wasn’t very fun although I didn’t play it too much
-No adventures in this part of the map? It may of just been because of beta and it’s not in the game yet but there were a few before and I thought they were fun to try to beat your last score and get a better reward. Although I do think it would be nice if the rewards can be unique skins or even gold for a high ranking score.

Pros:
-Specializations are very fun and I can see myself enjoying them even more when the expansion comes out.
-Revenant is always fun to play because there are so many ways to play him. the new specialization for him is very cool and I look forward to playing him in the future.
-The mastery system is amazing easily one of the best parts of the expansion because it keeps me playing and something to strive for.
-The maps are beautiful and all the npcs look very cool
-The events are very fun
-The betas so far have left me excited for the story coming out

I don’t know if Anet will ever see this but if they do I hope it can be useful to them. I do have a lot of cons but I really am looking forward to the expansion. so far it is 100% worth pre-ordering it because everything that has been in the beta weekends so far are very fun to play and there is much that still hasn’t been in the beta weekends.

Can we please have events show further out on the map? It was discouraging standing there after my event was over, figuring there had to be events somewhere and not seeing any show up on the map. I don’t care if they are too far away for me to reach them in time. I still want to know where they are and have the map feel alive with events rather than feel like there is no events to do.

All i can say is Rev and Mesmer are way to OP in WvW, i wasn’t in the beta and really don’t plan to get the expansion anytime soon. Not sure which skill it is but where it displaces you in another location and the amount of CC that are put out are insane. Some of the skills go through stab and stab is pretty much a non factor. k

Here is my feedback for this beta weekend:
Specializations:

Revanant – I really enjoy revenant, especially the assassin and dwarf legends. I did try out the Herald this weekend and also enjoyed that as well. It does require more energy management with that legend.
Daredevil – I tried the Daredeveil and did not really get into it. The staff animations were not my favorite. I actually enjoyed using sword, dagger, and pistol more than the staff. However, this may be because I do not really play thief much.
Chronomancer – Still loving the chronomancer. I will likely play this on my main mesmer. The only thing I did not like was the change to Gravity well. I liked the skill better in beta weekend 1, because I liked the elevation. Now I don’t think it works as well, especially if there is uneven ground where you cast it.
Reaper – This was fun to play again this weekend. It was improved from last weekend as I was not spinning off ledges with that skill.

Creatures:
I think the creatures in the map are just right. They are not too hard and not too easy. They also have some tactics, so it makes it more interesting during battles.

World:
I really enjoyed the events this time around, especially Faren running around in his skivvies:) The events were enjoyable when they were working. I did not see as many bugged events this time around. I did miss the mini games you could do last weekend. I think they would be a good thing to put in for a night time activity. The day events were the most fun. The night-time seems a bit too long, and becomes boring after a while. I know you are working on improving this already. This area’s map was a bit confusing at first, but I could navigate it after a couple of hours of exploring.

Mastery System:
I like that you put in more ways to earn mastery points this time around. I was abel to earn many more this weekend. However, now I think you need to put in more ways to earn experience to gain them. There needs to be more than doing events and killing creatures over and over. I would suggest increasing exploration XP and perhaps allowing specialized zone crafting recipes to give XP for zone masteries, and adding in more mini games.

Stronghold PvP:
I tried this out this weekend, and enjoyed it. I like the strategy involved. I played mesmer. I can see revenant and reaper necro being very good in here as well. I thought more people need to try for the catapult. No one wanted to use it.

I’ve been playing a sylvari Herald in the Verdant Brink for the entirety of the Beta Weekend.

While this was probably apparent last BWE only now did i notice the mordrem telling my sylvari that he’ll “serve the dragon in death”. Very cool.

And “very cool” is how I’ve been feeling about a lot of what I’ve played. The Herald feels great and unlike any other profession I’ve played before. As an alt-aholic I can see the Hearald being up there in my most played professions in the future. And to be specific, I played Mace/Axe Condi Spec’d Herald with Hammer and Jalis as my “Oh Kitten” button.

As for the Verdant Brink map, I loved the feel of it last time and that still stands true, in fact the more I play it the more I love it. I really enjoy the narratives of both of the outpost event chains. Lord Faren’s hilarious, Officer Quaggan’s adorable, and certain revelations from the D’Ord outpost chain were very unnerving, and delightfully so.

I also quite liked the idea of the night cycle events, though something seemed to be lacking. I loved working together with the whole map to coordinate our defenses, but no matter how well things seemed to be going it felt like no progress was being made- as if something was missing from the event chain. And there very well could have been something missing considering it’s a Beta, so hopefully we haven’t seen all there is to be done with defending those rally points.

Overall I’m super satisfied with what I’ve seen, and am sad to see the weekend come to an end, and can’t wait for the expansion to be released.

I just wanted to suggest that for unranked/ranked queuing, I am happy they added the check marks for selecting stronghold or conquest, but I would recommend adding an indicator about all of your party member’s selection when queuing (ie 4 people have selected stronghold, 1 person has selected both. some way for us to know what everyone has chosen). The problem is that if 4 people have selected stronghold only but 1 person has selected both, there is a chance that conquest will still pop

I was in a 5 man party tonight and we were having trouble communicating for everyone to select the correct checkbox (‘everyone pick stronghold’ in party chat..we get a conquest queue pop.)

Having an indicator of everyone’s selection will be a good QoL feature for parties

Specializations: Were they fun? Did they Change how you play your profession in a meaningful way? How were the improvements to the previous Specializations? (Dragon Hunter, Tempest, Chronomancer, Reaper)?

I have able to play the Chronomancer, Herald & Tempest so far on BWE2. Chronomancer definitely has an adjusted play style that will be interesting and challenging to learn. I cannot comment on the Revenant play difference with or without the Herald other than Herald brings some much needed mobility to the Revenant, but that is a matter for the Rev subforum. The Tempest has had the least amount of play style difference. It seems unbalanced and inconsistent, again a matter for that subforum.

As a concept I think the specializations seem a good framework for character development and provide some interesting variety.

How is the difficulty of the new hostile mobs, and are they fun and exciting?

The new mobs in VB are challenging. I find the new CC in equal measures interesting and frustrating. With the new verticality, I do think there should be the possibility of players using CC to knock NPCs off edges as a technique. The increased level of difficulty means that it is hard to run solo across parts of the map.

With the Opening of two new outposts, we are adding in a bunch of new events. Are they fun?

The mechanics of the events seem to provide a nice chain of different kinds of events so that they are not entirely monotonous. However this is a good place to bring up a point of significant frustration. The map is clearly designed to hamper foot travel as incentive to earn masteries. However as one moves around the map it is impossible to tell whether an event is happening above or below one’s present position. The map really needs mini-map tiers set like in cities, as well as up/down carrots indicating the direction to travel vertically to find the event.

Do the new events bring you more into the world?

I have never been terribly event/story/lore driven so I cannot comment on that part of things.

Mastery System: ?How is the progression?

The progression is slow. I have seen people comment on both sides of the equation, some liking the length it takes to unlock masteries, others opposing. I have been able to unlock 2 tiers of gliding and 1 tier of itzel/mushrooms playing casually. So far I think the pace has been decent. I am a little concerned that at the higher levels the pace will slow down enough to be frustrating to people that cannot devote several hours each day to GW2.

How is it using the mastery abilities in the current area?

The system seems to work well from what I have seen of it. I Like the fact that the mushrooms will place you where you need to go without needing movement adjustments. Gliding is just fun. Pure, simple pleasure.

Do you care about experience and mastery points?

I do, and mastery points have made experience points relevant again. However note my concern above. Developers have already weighed in on tomes not counting towards Mastery point progression. I think if the current requirements are kept, it might be worth considering an xp version of the wxp drip/drop/etc that do function towards mastery experience. The mastery point side of things will really depend on how the points are given. If acquiring them is too hard in addition to the long xp grind, this could get frustrating, but if the points are too easily achieved the . . . shall we say more focused players will get bored easily.

Does it provide a good framework to add more masteries in the future?

I think this model of contextual masteries can work for future content, especially as account wide progression.

Do you want to learn as many masteries over time to overcome challenges later in the future?

Um, yes. But that is as much because I am mildly OCD when it comes to checking off electronic boxes.

Other Feedback
Visibility is really awkward with the smoke particles. With the settings turned to best appearance the smoke is almost silver and moving through smoke can make a screen flare almost as if the full screen gamma is too high for a moment.

I must say this beta was very interesting if talking about lore aspect. Finally we got some insight how Mordremoth is creating his troops – from corpses of the fallen Pact soldiers. Since I completed Blighted Tree event in Verdant Brink, I get very interested in what we’ll see deeper in Maguuma, and what abominations will we face when we get close to Mordremoth.

Some minor parts for me. The salvage pieces for the events often didn’t show up until you were right in top of them and the game didn’t always make it clear where these pieces might be. One site was way up high and needed a mushroom to reach and another was further off down the road, neither site had any sort of marking.

I had some difficulty in targeting, to the point where I had to click on the mob to target it. Tabbing through my options would select mobs around me, but not the one in front.

Event markers were inconsistent in showing up. Some showed all the way across the map. Others didn’t appear until I was almost on top of the event (and since there was a group of people already there fighting, it wasn’t one that had just started).

Events were difficult to figure out where they were because of verticality. Some indication of up/down/same level would be helpful.

Maybe there could be vendors that sell one use waypoints (set for the map the vendor is in only). It could be tied to a mastery line, only for discovered areas and a cooldown of some sort if need be. Dying, waypointing far away and having to run back through a lot of mobs, trying to get back to the event was a bit….. tedious. Sort of like the teleport to a friend, but targeted to an area you click on.

You have got to fix the button on the warrior for the beserker f1-2 if you dont use key board and use the mouse if is way to close together and very hard to swap by using the mouse. when in combat you cant even hit it without stopping completely and making sure you dont hit your regular f1 and not the f2

vince.5937:

I’d also like to add that Verdant Brink’s lighting could use some work. The entirety of the visible landscape being lit up the exact same color makes my depth perception go nuts, and I’ll often fall into kitten or get snagged on a prop that I can’t differentiate from the terrain.

And can we get the tiered map back for Verdant Brink? The major cities have it, and they’re not half as vertically treacherous as Verdant Brink. The map/minimap in Verdant is literally just one layer and you have no idea if the thing you’re looking at will actually be in front of you until you’re on top of it and realize “Oh crap, that’s about 200 yards above me.”

Sounds like an issue with your graphics because it worked fine for me.