Guild Wars 2

I already have the berserker traits that I want all the way to the 3rd row (it just happened to line up nicely) and I’m only on the 2nd map in no way does it require 80% of HoT to unlock your elite spec at least not for everyone.

Gaile Gray.6029:

No one — especially me — is diminishing the thoughts, concerns, and input on this subject being share by our forum members. But I believe that it is premature to make a comment about “forever” in the context of a game that has been playable for less than 24 hours.

I stand by that, for it is what I believe. I believe that time will give everyone a better view of this situation. The outcome may be that it’s seen that yes, the difficulty is too high. The outcome may be that eventually, the number if seen as reasonable and properly attainable.

I think that all of us — players and developers alike — do not have sufficient information yet to know what the “sweet spot” is. I suggest we allow us to get the info with the passage of time.

The difficulty isn’t too high. The fact that by the time you get it, you’ve already gone through more than half the maps is the issue. If they were all put in the first area, there would at least be three maps to experience at our own pace and explore for the sake of exploring instead of because we’re forced to in order to get the class mechanics (Which were designed to fill holes in the base classes) to function fully.

Veneratio.1980:

At 5 cents it’s overpriced!

Glad it takes a little bit of work to achieve things. If it was too easy people would be kittening in a week that they had finished. Anet can’t win.

Personally……love what they’ve made.

As I’ve said, the maps, masteries etc I’m fine with them being challenging, but the amount of work required just to unlock a new play style is against everything anet have worked toward. I would be loving the new maps and be thoroughly enjoying grinding masteries, if i was doing them on an elite spec, and if i wasn’t so peeved about how they went about unlocking elite spec. The masteries could take literally months to complete, i wouldn’t care as long as i could do them on an elite spec.

The vast majority of people on this topic are saying the same thing. We expected to be able to play the much touted elites within a reasonable time after release, and for that majority the 16,18,40 hrs or w/e it takes is just ridiculous.

The majority feels that mastery’s themselves are ok, but that locking them to elite’s is not.

The majority feels that personal elites should not be tied into group success scenarios.

The majority feels they should not have to play through most of the new HoT pve zones just to play how they want to play. That by doing so a grind mentality happens and the areas themselves become that, instead of adventures.

The majority feels that the wvw grind isn’t all that much better, because people want to be fighting using their new abilities and not mindlessly running in swarms just for the sake of a nuisance gate.

The majority with many alts are worried about the hundreds of additional hours of “gameplay” necessary to run around with specs they’re tired of simply to play the way they want to play

The majority feels they were promised new exiting roles to try and only upon entering HoT have they realized that their elites will be crippled to the tune of many many hours (which for many working people accounts for days and weeks of not being able to use their new spec) x any alt they have or may wish to create in the future and that this particular hero point system becomes a grind for fun.

The minority wishes for everything to take a long time to complete, and believes time itself gives satisfaction in all areas of the game.

The minority is afraid that if Anet caves on the elite grind they may do so in other areas of the game, no matter how many times the majority tells the minority this is not a global time involvement complaint, but simply restricted to elite hero point grind.

This is definitely a hot button issue right now and one that has attracted many people to voice their opinions so anet will, and I hope soon, address it with more than just snarky remark towards people who just bought their game.

If the times mentioned here are right, in the time it takes to unlock an elite spec for 2 characters, I could have a new character from 1 to 80 with all everything else unlocked. That seems just a bit over the top.

I get it, it’s an elite spec and it’s gonna take a bit longer. But half the time it takes to level a character from scratch is too much.

How much of the time taken so far has been from unlocking and leveling masteries? Because that is time that won’t have to be spent again for any subsequent character.

Andred.1087:

Hilarious. There are people who have already unlocked elite specs, THE FIRST DAY, and still others are complaining it will take way too long… news flash guys, if people have done it in 16 hours, you can do it in little more than a week by putting in a measly 2 hours a day… Not shocked that people are whining though, it’s as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning.

Lol those people who already unlocked their elite spec probably had a 100% core map fully done.

Now how long to get the Herald from scratch including the time to xp the masteries?

Thats what i m really interested in.

leftyboy.9358:

The vast majority of people on this topic are saying the same thing. We expected to be able to play the much touted elites within a reasonable time after release, and for that majority the 16,18,40 hrs or w/e it takes is just ridiculous.

The majority feels that mastery’s themselves are ok, but that locking them to elite’s is not.

The majority feels that personal elites should not be tied into group success scenarios.

The majority feels they should not have to play through most of the new HoT pve zones just to play how they want to play. That by doing so a grind mentality happens and the areas themselves become that, instead of adventures.

The majority feels that the wvw grind isn’t all that much better, because people want to be fighting using their new abilities and not mindlessly running in swarms just for the sake of a nuisance gate.

The majority with many alts are worried about the hundreds of additional hours of “gameplay” necessary to run around with specs they’re tired of simply to play the way they want to play

The majority feels they were promised new exiting roles to try and only upon entering HoT have they realized that their elites will be crippled to the tune of many many hours (which for many working people accounts for days and weeks of not being able to use their new spec) x any alt they have or may wish to create in the future and that this particular hero point system becomes a grind for fun.

The minority wishes for everything to take a long time to complete, and believes time itself gives satisfaction in all areas of the game.

The minority is afraid that if Anet caves on the elite grind they may do so in other areas of the game, no matter how many times the majority tells the minority this is not a global time involvement complaint, but simply restricted to elite hero point grind.

This is definitely a hot button issue right now and one that has attracted many people to voice their opinions so anet will, and I hope soon, address it with more than just snarky remark towards people who just bought their game.

I guess the majority would approve what this guy is saying the majority says…
I do approve him!

Gaile Gray.6029:

Eponet.4829:

Gaile Gray.6029:

No one — especially me — is diminishing the thoughts, concerns, and input on this subject being share by our forum members. But I believe that it is premature to make a comment about “forever” in the context of a game that has been playable for less than 24 hours.

I stand by that, for it is what I believe. I believe that time will give everyone a better view of this situation. The outcome may be that it’s seen that yes, the difficulty is too high. The outcome may be that eventually, the number if seen as reasonable and properly attainable.

I think that all of us — players and developers alike — do not have sufficient information yet to know what the “sweet spot” is. I suggest we allow us to get the info with the passage of time.

The difficulty isn’t too high. The fact that by the time you get it, you’ve already gone through more than half the maps is the issue. If they were all put in the first area, there would at least be three maps to experience at our own pace and explore for the sake of exploring instead of because we’re forced to in order to get the class mechanics (Which were designed to fill holes in the base classes) to function fully.

I feel that’s very valuable feedback. Thanks for that insight.

I hate having to play the new content to reach the content I want (reaper). This isnt fun and I need to take a 10 minute break every 20 minutes to bring down my frustration with not being able to find these stupid challenges. Im extremely frustrated and just want to quit. This isnt fun. I only had today and a little bit of tomorrow to play the game and im playing the parts I didnt want to have to play. I use the word play lightly. Im working towards my reaper which I wont be able to use in a day or 2 due to class work that I need to do. In fact, im neglecting it right now to try to get where I need to be but…. i need 36 more challenges…. Contingent on me even finding them. I think im just going to go to sleep. I think this experience has made me realize that maybe im just to busy and that video games arent in my cards at the moment.

Baclavaman.9054:

leftyboy.9358:

The vast majority of people on this topic are saying the same thing. We expected to be able to play the much touted elites within a reasonable time after release, and for that majority the 16,18,40 hrs or w/e it takes is just ridiculous.

The majority feels that mastery’s themselves are ok, but that locking them to elite’s is not.

The majority feels that personal elites should not be tied into group success scenarios.

The majority feels they should not have to play through most of the new HoT pve zones just to play how they want to play. That by doing so a grind mentality happens and the areas themselves become that, instead of adventures.

The majority feels that the wvw grind isn’t all that much better, because people want to be fighting using their new abilities and not mindlessly running in swarms just for the sake of a nuisance gate.

The majority with many alts are worried about the hundreds of additional hours of “gameplay” necessary to run around with specs they’re tired of simply to play the way they want to play

The majority feels they were promised new exiting roles to try and only upon entering HoT have they realized that their elites will be crippled to the tune of many many hours (which for many working people accounts for days and weeks of not being able to use their new spec) x any alt they have or may wish to create in the future and that this particular hero point system becomes a grind for fun.

The minority wishes for everything to take a long time to complete, and believes time itself gives satisfaction in all areas of the game.

The minority is afraid that if Anet caves on the elite grind they may do so in other areas of the game, no matter how many times the majority tells the minority this is not a global time involvement complaint, but simply restricted to elite hero point grind.

This is definitely a hot button issue right now and one that has attracted many people to voice their opinions so anet will, and I hope soon, address it with more than just snarky remark towards people who just bought their game.

I guess the majority would approve what this guy is saying the majority says…
I do approve him!

Bump! Thank you!

Baclavaman.9054:

leftyboy.9358:

The vast majority of people on this topic are saying the same thing. We expected to be able to play the much touted elites within a reasonable time after release, and for that majority the 16,18,40 hrs or w/e it takes is just ridiculous.

The majority feels that mastery’s themselves are ok, but that locking them to elite’s is not.

The majority feels that personal elites should not be tied into group success scenarios.

The majority feels they should not have to play through most of the new HoT pve zones just to play how they want to play. That by doing so a grind mentality happens and the areas themselves become that, instead of adventures.

The majority feels that the wvw grind isn’t all that much better, because people want to be fighting using their new abilities and not mindlessly running in swarms just for the sake of a nuisance gate.

The majority with many alts are worried about the hundreds of additional hours of “gameplay” necessary to run around with specs they’re tired of simply to play the way they want to play

The majority feels they were promised new exiting roles to try and only upon entering HoT have they realized that their elites will be crippled to the tune of many many hours (which for many working people accounts for days and weeks of not being able to use their new spec) x any alt they have or may wish to create in the future and that this particular hero point system becomes a grind for fun.

The minority wishes for everything to take a long time to complete, and believes time itself gives satisfaction in all areas of the game.

The minority is afraid that if Anet caves on the elite grind they may do so in other areas of the game, no matter how many times the majority tells the minority this is not a global time involvement complaint, but simply restricted to elite hero point grind.

This is definitely a hot button issue right now and one that has attracted many people to voice their opinions so anet will, and I hope soon, address it with more than just snarky remark towards people who just bought their game.

I guess the majority would approve what this guy is saying the majority says…
I do approve him!

Um no. The majority are playing the game and loving it. The very small yet vocal minority are here whingin about it.

Spambot.3625:

its rather that casuals keep whining that they need to actually put effort into character progression. Map completion is not part of character progression, it offers next to nothing for your character other than open waypoints

Map completion gives you hero points, making it just as much a form of progression as the hero challenges in HoT.

I have a full time job and a family and probably the sole reason I play gw instead of some other mmo’s is the almost complete lack of a grind. I left some months ago to take a break, which of course I always can do without having to worry about falling behind in some stupid grind.

So I come back for HoT to get a fresh experience on my mesmer playing a new spec, only to find there is a grind to unlock it. Spending many hours (anything over 4 is many imo) to actually play the spec I bought HoT to play is horrible.

Taking time to work for ascended gear is great, grinding for professions to craft cool looking stuff is great. Grinding for core functionality that was probably the biggest selling point for many is kittening kittened. If it takes 16h of play that is literally weeks for me. Moreover is kittening insulting and childish of Anet to make it this way. Just let people unlock the elites with gold or whatever so I can go through the content at my own extremely slow pace enjoying the new spec along the way.

So here I am the day after release thinking about getting a refund, or at least waiting till they fix this. One thing is for sure: I’m not kittening grinding in a game that is all about “play how you want” and no grinding.

A significant portion of the playerbase in gw2 is actually very opposed to being forced into things; we don’t need to be given “things to work for,” I already have enough of those, you know, like the kittening money I worked for to blow on this kittened expac.

Anet made it years without a single mandatory grind comparable at all to this. Fix this kitten.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Eponet.4829:

The difficulty isn’t too high. The fact that by the time you get it, you’ve already gone through more than half the maps is the issue. If they were all put in the first area, there would at least be three maps to experience at our own pace and explore for the sake of exploring instead of because we’re forced to in order to get the class mechanics (Which were designed to fill holes in the base classes) to function fully.

I feel that’s very valuable feedback. Thanks for that insight.

Gaile, it’s not that it is “too hard” or something like that. I don’t mind playing Maguuma challenges to get enough Hero Points… once. What many of us say it’s:

- Maybe we don’t enjoy replaying the same challenges on every character (veterans like me have around 12 toons)

- Your whole game is “account based” (Fractal level, WvW and PvP ranks, ascended and legendary gear, Masteries, currencies, achievements…) yet this single feature is sould bound. EG: I play 2 warriors, one of them is a tanky-hammer one, the other is dps-condition focused… can you guess which one is more suited to be a Berserker? exactly, the one with not enough HP… why do I have to unlock Berserker, Reaper or Scrapper on every single toon? make it account bound and unlockable with some currency converted from Hero Points and maybe shards.

So our opinion now wont change in the future, cause it’s not a matter of “how hard it is” but “how annoying it is to be forced to play the same thing on every alt”

yep, times have changed.

I know how you feel, as I said in another post, instead of gating elites behind masteries, elites should have been a mastery themselves to be unlocked within tyria or the jungle.

Any amount over the standard 65 points or whatever it is for unlocking a normal traitline is too much. It’s gated behind having every skill/traitline unlocked first, that should be enough. I have 11 characters, if it’s going to take 20+ hours of GRINDING (which we never do in gw2) per character, then I’m going to find a new game. I’m not spending 220 hours just to play the way I want to play.

Any amount over the standard 65 points or whatever it is for unlocking a normal traitline is too much. It’s gated behind having every skill/traitline unlocked first, that should be enough. I have 11 characters, if it’s going to take 20+ hours of GRINDING (which we never do in gw2) per character, then I’m going to find a new game. I’m not spending 220 hours just to play the way I want to play.

Whalekisses.1345:

Gaile Gray.6029:

DarcShriek.5829:

The mastery system as only been available for 15 hours. Your complaining about it being forever is just pure over dramatization. Congratulations on being awarded the William Shatner award for dramatic excellence.

First, thank you for saying, in your first sentence, my very thoughts: “It’s been less than 16 hours, and that’s ’forever?” Secondly, thanks for a smile. I’d love to see the statue that goes with that award.

I don’t believe agreeing with this statement and dismissing the concerns and complaints of hundreds of customers was the correct response for a GM representing Arena Net. I’m new to using the forums but I’ve been with Guild Wars 2 since launch and never disagreed more with a decision made by arena net more the specialization system. Never before did I believe my input was necessary for the forums because never before have I been forced to play content in the game that was I don’t exactly enjoy. I am referring to map completion. My biggest reason for investing money into HOT was to have the new specialization class available to play, not to spend 80+ hours doing what I dislike most in this game. At not one point before this did I believe it would be a grind of 400 hero points in order to fully unlock this class. If I knew it would be the case I would not have been so excited for HOT and would never have bought this expansion. This could be easily fixed by adding a specialization storyline for each character throughout the HOT campaign, or a completely separate quest all together. However I don’t see myself spending 80+ hours on content of the game I never enjoyed before the launch of HOT in order to play content I paid heavily for with the deluxe edition of HOT. I believe Arena Net was looking to find something they could use the hundreds of hero points they placed throughout the game, and reward the players who take the extra time to find these challenges and completing them all. Doing so with content thousands of player paid for already doesn’t feel like the answer, because this is something all players should have available to them simply by playing the HOT expansion itself. A better solution I believe would be to give the players a reason to complete these challenges by giving a player who does all these things the capability to become even stronger. By this I mean allow players to grant even more strength to one legendary weapon by using these points. The system of doing so would be simple, use 400 hero points to make a stone after completing a series of difficult quests that can be placed into one legendary piece of equipment, thus further empowering a legendary weapon. When a legendary weapon is ascended past its limits it has greater power and grants a unique elite skill to the player specific to the legendary weapon (swapping weapons will not matter as long as the legendary is equipped to the player). Then if a player wants to use a different legendary he can remove the stone using a buyable item from arena net or completing a long series of quests that allow them to extract the stone. I only give this because I don’t like complaining unless I can suggest solutions. The point I’m trying to make is people should obligated to something as simple as a new specialization to there class just by playing through the HOT expansion they paid for instead of grinding for what they paid for. I also don’t agree with this specific GMs professionalism at all regarding the subject at hand. GMs should be doing all they can to communicate with their customers and consider all concerns of GW2 fans who put their time and money into the game. It is also extremely unprofessional to take sides so strongly and sarcastically in any situation. Please take the time to review my response with the utmost respect and time each player deserves.

I’m deeply frustrated. First, I learn that it’s going to take me weeks to get to the content (elite specs) that I was interested in, but that these specs are gated behind the same kind of repetitive grind that much of the rest of the game is. I’ve had to do the same things over and over today to achieve a tiny fraction of what I’m going to need to do to unlock 1 elite spec in such a way that it is not a liability to me in the new content.

I’ve been trying to do the hero points but I’ve been rebuffed numerous times by mastery gating, the puzzle-like aspects of the map, and the requirement that other players be around and engaged in what I’m doing in order to accomplish them. In the course of a day, as a counterpoint to the above poster, I’ve been able to gain 50 hero points from the new areas. That’s 12.5% of the way to fully unlocking an elite spec. That’s about 80 hours if it continues like this. I just don’t have that kind of time.

I’ve had some fun running around in my old spec playing GW2 basic, but now I’m stuck repeating content over and over again just to get a mastery that might or might not be able to get me to the next hero point spot. And once I get there, I might or might not be able to get it. So, this is not only trying on my time, but also my patience.

This is frustrating for me, obviously; not fun. I’m not sure I’ll fire up the game again tomorrow. Very disappointed. It’s not okay (to my mind) to have waited so long to see the new features and now have to mind-numbingly grind for them in the same old way. And, as implied, this issue is compounded by feeling like there is no promise that I’ll get to something interesting once I’ve done it enough.

Your data mining will not be able to measure frustration.

Why did you gate the new specs behind all this stuff? Why not reward the people who supported you by allowing them a new experience from the get-go?

Welp. After about 5 hours of playing I think it’s entirely possible that I’ll have uninstalled the game before ever unlocking my elite spec. I want to like this game so much, and I tend to have some fun when I play with my guild, but since I had to switch back to grenade spec because my gimpy unfinished elite spec wasn’t good enough to actually contribute to claiming our guild hall, I just have 0 interest in logging back in to go try and find more hero points.

Maybe I’ve just outgrown MMOs, but I am sick of games that are designed to make me do a bunch of boring stuff before I can have fun. (I already have to do a bunch of boring stuff before I can have fun, and that’s called my job.)

I bought the expansion because it sounded like it was going to make Engineer fresh and fun to play, and add in a whole new area in which to figure it out. Then, I fire it up, and find out that I can’t play my fresh new main until I’ve already finished the whole new area. Not only does that mean that combat will be boring all through the whole area, but the experience will be marred because I will be moving through the area with the motive of unlocking the thing I want to do, rather than a desire to follow the story or explore the map.

All in all it’s just a major disappointment. I preordered against my better judgement due to hype from guild members, and I’m now wishing I hadn’t. Had I known I would have to grind for the elite spec, I probably wouldn’t have bought in until that got changed.

Oh no 4 hours the horror

Whalekisses.1345:

By this I mean allow players to grant even more strength to one legendary weapon by using these points. The system of doing so would be simple, use 400 hero points to make a stone after completing a series of difficult quests that can be placed into one legendary piece of equipment, thus further empowering a legendary weapon. When a legendary weapon is ascended past its limits it has greater power and grants a unique elite skill to the player specific to the legendary weapon (swapping weapons will not matter as long as the legendary is equipped to the player). Then if a player wants to use a different legendary he can remove the stone using a buyable item from arena net or completing a long series of quests that allow them to extract the stone.

Uhh… no…

Making it statistically better would make legendary weapons turn from just a goal to work toward into a requirement for PuGs.

A better solution would be removing the automatic awarding of the skins, reducing the cost of what’s already on the track, and then putting those skins as unlockables at the end of the track.

People could unlock the mechanics that give a statistical advantage, then, as they progress through and unlock more hero points, get the extra cosmetics. People could unlock the mechanics and actually play as the class they bought the expansion to play as, and then unlock the items that complement that look with the hero points they just happen to gather in the course of normal play.

Which is exactly what a lot of people were expecting considering how many people would responded to the initial 400 hero point announcement critics with “It’s fine, you don’t need all 400, the majority is just cosmetics” or “The bulk of it is unnecessary things”

Or, allow players to pick and choose what to unlock so that they can pick a build, and then from there spend the rest of their points to unlock alternate trait combinations/skills.

Or even just reorder the unlocking process so that it starts with an adept trait, then a major master trait+minor master, then a major grandmaster+minor grandmaster, then returns to the current system. It feels much, much better when you have a full trait line, even if some of the traits aren’t ideal and then unlock additional options rather than having the feeling of ‘wasting’ slots by not having a single master/grandmaster trait to put in them.

Take out the stupid hero points so we don’t have to grind and just have it as a slot in our masteries to level up to gain hero points. Easy, there, fixed. Wala. How in the world do you expect us to level our alts elite specs after leveling one is taking forever.

Finding time to actually enjoy myself quietly playing a good game is actually hard, sorry you may not understand. Yes having to spend 4 hours grinding kitten just to play a game I already “grinded” for at work earning money to pay for it is kittening dumb. That’s half a day of work, spent in a game, a game that is supposed to be a fun way to spend free time while not at work.

Yes, dropping $50 on this kitten and having to grind for any amount is actually horrible. But hey that’s great you are all about mindlessly “working” at this “game” in your free time. I guess Anet calculated there are more of you than me.

I’m looking into a refund.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Spurrlock.3219:

The common denominator is not “I don’t want to play to unlock this,” its “I don’t want to grind masteries for 20+ hours and burn through new PvE content to enjoy the rest of the game with new elite specs,” such as dungeons, fractals, wvw, etc.

Example:

• When you create a new character, do you expect to go off and kill Zhaitan at level 1?
• In real life, do you expect to register for college, and walk away with a 4 year degree on your first day of school?

Simply play the game. HoT is an expansion that offers new skills. Logically, your character would need to learn and master the new skills, not just walk around and instantly become Elite. If you really want to get those new skills, you gotta earn them.

Your build is NOT content!
Your build is how you PLAY content!
Being arbitrarily blocked from experiencing content because of MULTIPLE overlayed gatekeeping systems isn’t fun, creative, or engaging no matter how you attempt to twist it. So why are you defending it?

couldn’t agree more

Can we add to acknowledge feedback on how this is affecting WvW players in a very negative way, please Gaile?

WvW is a competitive game mode, this impacts it greatly.
I do not know a single WvW player that has gotten their elite specialization through WvW only and through an healthy way rather than by training captures. This makes me very worried that it will be forgotten or ignored as currently it seems you (the only voice we can rely on at the moment) are only acknowledging people that have gotten it through doing the PvE content which to me doesn’t speak of it being at an appropriate state currently if only people in PvE are getting it hm? When we consider that the option of giving access to the content to WvW players without having to play PvE was added and announced through a blogpost (so judged something important to note), I feel it is appropriate to push on making it fair at the earliest and make sure it is acknowledged.

Thank you Gaile

Zind.3659:

Welp. After about 5 hours of playing I think it’s entirely possible that I’ll have uninstalled the game before ever unlocking my elite spec. I want to like this game so much, and I tend to have some fun when I play with my guild, but since I had to switch back to grenade spec because my gimpy unfinished elite spec wasn’t good enough to actually contribute to claiming our guild hall, I just have 0 interest in logging back in to go try and find more hero points.

Maybe I’ve just outgrown MMOs, but I am sick of games that are designed to make me do a bunch of boring stuff before I can have fun. (I already have to do a bunch of boring stuff before I can have fun, and that’s called my job.)

I bought the expansion because it sounded like it was going to make Engineer fresh and fun to play, and add in a whole new area in which to figure it out. Then, I fire it up, and find out that I can’t play my fresh new main until I’ve already finished the whole new area. Not only does that mean that combat will be boring all through the whole area, but the experience will be marred because I will be moving through the area with the motive of unlocking the thing I want to do, rather than a desire to follow the story or explore the map.

All in all it’s just a major disappointment. I preordered against my better judgement due to hype from guild members, and I’m now wishing I hadn’t. Had I known I would have to grind for the elite spec, I probably wouldn’t have bought in until that got changed.

I am sick of games that are designed to make me do a bunch of boring stuff before I can have fun.

Well said.

and in order to use the mastery slot, you gotta equip your spec, so it seems you’re training yourself to become better. Not go gather 400 points for each one of your characters. Who the hell thought this was a good idea.

Tasao.4623:

Your build is NOT content!
Your build is how you PLAY content!
Being arbitrarily blocked from experiencing content because of MULTIPLE overlayed gatekeeping systems isn’t fun, creative, or engaging no matter how you attempt to twist it. So why are you defending it?

This ^^

I like this idea.

A 4 hour grind is a far cry from the actual time investment to unlock a full elite spec. Plan on closer to 20 hours to fully unlock the elite spec on ONE character.

The Onion Knight.9435:

Who the hell thought this was a good idea.

LOL

Schtizzel.5497:

Andred.1087:

Hilarious. There are people who have already unlocked elite specs, THE FIRST DAY, and still others are complaining it will take way too long… news flash guys, if people have done it in 16 hours, you can do it in little more than a week by putting in a measly 2 hours a day… Not shocked that people are whining though, it’s as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning.

I have to sacrifice my 2 daily hours i leave myself for gaming for a whole week to get 1 elite spec on 1 character? Sounds nice for a non grindy game like GW2.

Wait is that you only have 2 hours a week to spend on gaming or you can spend only 2 hours a day each week to game?

If its the former, I feel bad but you are an outlier and unfortunately the tuning for making the progression meaningful isn’t catered to something like 2 hours a week.

If its the latter, I don’t see how you wouldn’t be able to get the elite in a week or two if you put your mind into it. The hardest part is getting the masteries leveled which will allow future alts to have a better time in the jungle, since you know Masteries are Account-Bound.

I’ve reached several hero points, only to find out I can’t actually get them for some reason. They’re covered in some kind of glowing vines that instantly kill you the minute you touch them. So how the hell are you supposed to even get these hero points?

Theres also one I found that literally spawns a champion that cannot be soloed because it has a five minute timer attached to it, and its in such a far, out of the way place that no one else is around to help kill the champion in the alotted time. This isn’t fun. This is frustrating, aggravating, and incredibly tedious.

To use the new classes we need to beat the new content with our old classes.

Yeah, no thanks. What do I do after I beaten the new stuff? There’s nothing left for the newly specialized characters to do.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Masteries are account bound. Meaning any character after the first should go much faster.

MSFone.3026:

I have a full time job and a family and probably the sole reason I play gw instead of some other mmo’s is the almost complete lack of a grind.

Grinding for core functionality that was probably the biggest selling point for many is kittening kittened.

A significant portion of the playerbase in gw2 is actually very opposed to being forced into things; we don’t need to be given “things to work for,” I already have enough of those, you know, like the kittening money I worked for to blow on this kittened expac.

I can’t agree more

chaosdurza.3291:

A 4 hour grind is a far cry from the actual time investment to unlock a full elite spec. Plan on closer to 20 hours to fully unlock the elite spec on ONE character.

you are funny, only 20 hours?

Cletus Van Damme.2795:

To use the new classes we need to beat the new content with our old classes.

Yeah, no thanks. What do I do after I beaten the new stuff? There’s nothing left.

Could not have said it any better. How the development team didn’t think of that, I will never understand.

rogerwilko.6895:

yep, times have changed.

Changed? What do you mean? GW2 has NO grind! /sarcasm

PrinceKhaled.5104:

chaosdurza.3291:

A 4 hour grind is a far cry from the actual time investment to unlock a full elite spec. Plan on closer to 20 hours to fully unlock the elite spec on ONE character.

you are funny, only 20 hours?

Shhhh I’m being optimistic

Kravick.4906:

I’ve reached several hero points, only to find out I can’t actually get them for some reason. They’re covered in some kind of glowing vines that instantly kill you the minute you touch them. So how the hell are you supposed to even get these hero points?

Yep all the people telling us that, “it will be so easy, just go and get the HP and quit crying.” were wrong. Got to a HP right after getting my gliding mastery, but oh no I needed some frog mastery to be able to interact with it. Spent about 3 hours in the jungle ended up with 2 HP total. Went into WvW and knocked out 16 scrolls in a couple hours. So 5-ish hours and 36 HP. Barely enough to unlock one skill. Not fun.

I think the main issue here is people that want to play the content. The masteries while it seemed like a great idea just seems very lackluster. For those of us that just want to do the story, we are pretty much forced to bear with mindnumbing events that don’t even spawn that often over and over again just to get 2-4% completion. It doesn’t even really feel like you are getting anywhere. The masteries, instead of being an engaging component of the game just feels like a stupid and frustrating hurdle to get over in order to experience the main content.

Hell, if it were something like doing hearts to get your masteries up, it would be infinite times better because at least that isn’t really that repetitive and you would get rewards for completing the hearts.

And about the hero points. 400 might be a tad too much for just one trait line and the skills IMO. I honestly don’t have a huge problem with it except you pretty much have to go into the heart of maguuma and look for the hero points. Now this wouldn’t be a problem if you didn’t need the kitten masteries to get most of these hero points. And you can’t pick and choose which traits you want either. For those who just want to do WvW it kind of forces them into this uncomfortable and awkward position.

Basically, it’s as if we have to embrace the grind in order to experience the main content. It wouldn’t be so terrible if they just executed the masteries part better and actually made that "cooler, interesting and rewarding" because in itself it isn’t. Outside of being a hurdle to map completion and living story it doesn’t seem to serve much of a purpose. It’s just pointless filler in order to stretch the content. If you want to stretch the content, make more content, or make the filler at least add to the overall experience of experiencing the content if that makes sense.

Before I couldn’t care less about living story, I just recently did it and I thought it was actually pretty cool. Now, this whole masteries crap just pretty much put me off from it.

Veneratio.1980:

Um no. The majority are playing the game and loving it. The very small yet vocal minority are here whingin about it.

Why is it always assumed that the majority of people are happy with the way things are going?

The WoW forums were filled with people claiming that all the complaints were just the result of a vocal minority over the course of Warlords of Draenor, but… then they lost almost half their playerbase, and are still filled with complaints. Clearly the majority weren’t happy with it.

The forums don’t represent the majority of players, but it’s presumptuous to assume anything about that majority. While most of them don’t care enough to complain on the forums, it doesn’t mean that they’re satisfied, for all you know they hate it and would rather just silently give up on it and leave.