Guild Wars 2

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

Wanted to give you a quick heads up on a handful of notes relevant to Heart of Thorns launch in a few days:

With so many of the changes to Elite Specs coming close to launch, are you planning any sort of unified “here’s what’s coming” for our characters?

We’ve also seen a lot of change (and possibly power creep) for the new utility skills. When do you anticipate a review of existing versions of those skills like Ranger and Thief Traps or Guardian Spirit Weapons in light of the new context?

And while threads like this and the semi-regular appearance of the Balance Team to discus the new elite specializations has been probably THE highpoint of Player-Developer communication in the entire life of the game, there’s some (legitimate, I think) fear you guys are going to vanish back “behind the curtain” after Heart of Thorns launches.

Looking forward to HoT, but I really hope the effort and communication leading up to it is the real sign of things to come!

ColinJohanson.2394:

Fractal Dungeon Leaderboards

Back when we announced all the updates to Fractals for Heart of Thorns – the announce blog also discussed more information coming before HoT about leaderboards for Fractals. Our team of folks working on Fractal dungeons kept iterating on this concept and ultimately we have decided to make it something more involved (re: exciting) than our original plans which will extend our development a bit more. This also means you’ll be able to earn the new fractal backpack precursor, but a few of the components for the new legendary will come with this expanded future fractals feature.

As always, we’ll discuss features once they’re far enough along to share development details on; our Fractal Dungeon team will be back with more updates about this and other plans for Fractal Dungeons in the future: when it’s ready™.

While I’m glad to hear that the Fractal team moved against needing something from a certain rank on the leaderboard for the legendary backpiece, can we get a specific number on how many components are going to be left out of crafting at the start?

The Fractal Backpiece was pretty much my main goal for the start of the expansion. Knowing which components I can work towards and which ones I can’t at the start would be really helpful in trying to divide my time amongst all the content.

When will be the first regular guild mission reset after HoT launch?

ColinJohanson.2394:

The random roll for this week already happened and we’re seeing on our internal servers that week ones missions rolled a mix of PvP and WvW missions for the first three mission slots that guilds have unlocked once you’re able to access the expansion (as you unlock deeper into your guild hall, you’ll be able to unlock more mission slots). We wanted to make sure everyone knew this information ahead of time.

Is it possible that you reroll this until you have a PvE, PvP & WvW mission (from what I understood there were three slots initially) considering we have no choice but to have a mix the first week. With only PvP & WvW missions I sorta feel like PvE guilds are getting the short end of the stick.

Is it safe to do the current (PvE) guild missions before the launch, considering you have PvP & WvW rolled only atm? Will doing guild missions before the launch lock the ones that are available after the release?

Just as a clarification – does this mean there is no way to do PVE guild missions week one?

That seems a bit (just a little) punitive to guilds who enjoy doing PVE missions together and will need them to unlock guild halls.

Considering the old missions were PvE only, changing it so that’s not an option week one might not work for a lot of guilds. There are plenty of guilds that neither PvP nor WvW. I guess on guild mission nights we can skip it and just do Halloween content, which is likely what would happen, but it’s not a change I’m particularly happy with.

There’s been a perception lately the game is moving more toward the elite PvE, PvP and WvW content, and away from the casual content that many people are enjoying. This sort of thing is only going to fuel the flames of people’s imagination.

I’ve already got a couple of people in my guild worried that the game is moving on without them.

I’m not saying I think that this is happening, but I am saying I think a lot of people are going to see it this way.

With the guild missions if we do they Friday after HOT comes out, will they reset on Saturday like usual and we be able to do them again next week? Just trying to plan guild missions.

Colin-

Thanks but can we get any info about elite unlocks? That has been a huge issue of debate here.

O, reducing visual is actually really bloody important if done correctly, I am slightly intrigued.

Please also kick Robert Gee out of his mancave and ask him to post the notes for chrono/reaper/zerker pls, all the other professions got it.

I’m guessing you guys already have the extensive patch/changes notes made. Would it be possible to post this before Friday, so we can read it in advance rather than on the day? I imagine this list is very very long.

We’ve had some issues over the years with folks being able to tell the difference between the Engineer and Elementalist profession icons, in particular when they are shrunk down to smaller sizes for party UI. This became even more apparent when we began testing our updated large squad UI. As a result, we’re going to be removing the engineer profession.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,
Fractal Dungeon Leaderboards

Back when we announced all the updates to Fractals for Heart of Thorns – the announce blog also discussed more information coming before HoT about leaderboards for Fractals. Our team of folks working on Fractal dungeons kept iterating on this concept and ultimately we have decided to make it something more involved (re: exciting) than our original plans which will extend our development a bit more. This also means you’ll be able to earn the new fractal backpack precursor, but a few of the components for the new legendary will come with this expanded future fractals feature.

As always, we’ll discuss features once they’re far enough along to share development details on; our Fractal Dungeon team will be back with more updates about this and other plans for Fractal Dungeons in the future: when it’s ready™.

So again a feature pushed back?
I mean you caught it early that you won’t be able to get all legendaries added so you announced only 3 will be added to limit the damage, raids are also already a few weeks in + the new squad system needing a lot more work. Add to that limited testing of some classes so there will be issues there too. Adding it in the weeks after is nice and all but I don’t have any illusions those weeks will be chaos because there will be many issues that need time too, only adding to being behind.

Perhaps lessons learned for next xpac, wait longer with a release date until you are sure everything can be delivered and you dont end up in the week(s) before release already needing to tell people yea that wont make it. I mean the price for the xpacis already quite steep without taking things out. Sure they might come at a later date but you should really deliver whats promised at the promised time.

Is it just me or do some of the profession icons seem a bit arbitrary anyway? While some are obvious it is not always the case.

smitske.4912:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,
Fractal Dungeon Leaderboards

Back when we announced all the updates to Fractals for Heart of Thorns – the announce blog also discussed more information coming before HoT about leaderboards for Fractals. Our team of folks working on Fractal dungeons kept iterating on this concept and ultimately we have decided to make it something more involved (re: exciting) than our original plans which will extend our development a bit more. This also means you’ll be able to earn the new fractal backpack precursor, but a few of the components for the new legendary will come with this expanded future fractals feature.

As always, we’ll discuss features once they’re far enough along to share development details on; our Fractal Dungeon team will be back with more updates about this and other plans for Fractal Dungeons in the future: when it’s ready™.

So again a feature pushed back?
I mean you caught it early that you won’t be able to get all legendaries added so you announced only 3 will be added, raids are also already a few weeks in + the new squad system needing a lot more work.
Add to that limited testing of some classes so there will be issues there too.

Perhaps lessons learned for next xpac, wait longer with a release date until you are sure everything can be delivered and you dont end up in the week(s) before release already needing to tell people yea that wont make it. I mean the price for the xpacis already quite steep without taking things out. Sure they might come at a later date but you should really deliver whats promised at the promised time.

No different from the Guild Wars 2 launch. We didn’t have guesting working at launch (or the trading post for that matter). We didn’t have a way to preview on the auction house even.

Truth be told, if you took a poll, I’m pretty sure most players would vote not to wait. Let us get into the game, start earning masteries and get the other stuff out “when it’s ready”. At least I can move out of the holding pattern I’ve been in.

With all respect, I see an issue here that worries me -

Guilds with members on multiple servers will have no way to do missions together. They cannot WvW together, can only go into EOTM if they are the same color that week (and the mission allows it) and can only send small parties of guildees into PvP together at a time.

You are taking what is the most social and fun part of our guild’s week and basically telling us we cant do it week one – and wont be able to ongoing if the RNG gods don’t favor us week to week.

A lot of my members are looking forward to opening guild halls and want to be a part of the process (as a team) to do so. To them – and to me – that includes the PVE guild mission portion.

Even after two years, guild missions are something we look forward to every week. Guild member logins and participation more than double on the nights we do missions. They may not be hard (we REALLY need new pve guild missions), but they are something we look forward to more than any other night of the week.

At the same time, I do see us wanting to do a little WvW and PVP to supplement our missions, but missions we can ALL do in the world of Tyria are very important to us.

Please reconsider and “reroll” so that we have at least one option in PVE.

The mission Roll without any PvE mission is very unfortunate, Would indeed be good to have 1 of each type availeble so all types of players/guilds have at least 1 mission in the area of the game they are most interested in.
Specially with the missions giving the Favor, required to start the expedition to capture a guild hall, somethings many guilds are likely looking forward too. Especially missions in WvW can cause trouble. I hope the rolled mission(s)can be done in Edge of the mist as well, mainly due to the population cap on ‘regular’ WvW.

Lucky for us we are on a low populated server so i’m not expecting too much trouble to get our members in the WvW map if needed, However for guilds on more populated servers this could be an issue.

The only sad thing about WvW missions is that many members of cross server guilds (like us) will not be able to join the missions to get the first Favor, needed to start the expedition for the hall. Similar thing with PvP missions, as PvP is not something that can be done with the whole guild (limited to parties of 5)

We were really looking forward to do the missions with everyone and then start the expedition. A bit sad to hear that it seems i will have to tell my guild members that they will not be able to all join in together for the missions in the first week.

ColinJohanson.2394:

The random roll for this week already happened and we’re seeing on our internal servers that week ones missions rolled a mix of PvP and WvW missions for the first three mission slots that guilds have unlocked once you’re able to access the expansion (as you unlock deeper into your guild hall, you’ll be able to unlock more mission slots).

So just to clarify on this point. No guilds will be have PVE missions the first week?

How will the rewards for guild missions work, for let’s say PvP and WvW missions? As to my understanding a PvP team excists of 5 players and quite a lot of guilds have members from different servers.

Can people from multiple servers contribute to one WvW mission and will they all get a reward, even if it gets completed on one server first? And will all players gain rewards for the PvP missions, even if they are spread out over multiple teams?

kittenting all over PvE guilds.

ColinJohanson.2394:

The random roll for this week already happened and we’re seeing on our internal servers that week ones missions rolled a mix of PvP and WvW missions for the first three mission slots that guilds have unlocked once you’re able to access the expansion (as you unlock deeper into your guild hall, you’ll be able to unlock more mission slots).

From what I understand this will only be an issue for the first couple of weeks until guilds unlock more mission slots. But the 3 slots available at HoT release will be WvW/PvP only, I assume if a guild level up during that first week and unlock the 4th slot, it might be a PVE one?

So basically there are two questions now:
Is it possible for guilds to unlock the 4th slot during the first week?
Is the 4th slot a PVE mission (so is it worth it to go for that 4th slot or not)

And what about:

There are also three dedicated mission slots that are specific to each game mode: one each for PvE, PvP, and WvW. These dedicated mission slots will not change even if players have their mission preference set, and they can be easy, medium, or hard in difficulty.

Blaeys.3102:

With all respect, I see an issue here that worries me -

Guilds with members on multiple servers will have no way to do missions together. They cannot WvW together, can only go into EOTM if they are the same color that week (and the mission allows it) and can only send small parties of guildees into PvP together at a time.

You are taking what is the most social and fun part of our guild’s week and basically telling us we cant do it week one – and wont be able to ongoing if the RNG gods don’t favor us week to week.

A lot of my members are looking forward to opening guild halls and want to be a part of the process (as a team) to do so. To them – and to me – that includes the PVE guild mission portion.

Even after two years, guild missions are something we look forward to every week. Guild member logins and participation more than double on the nights we do missions. They may not be hard (we REALLY need new pve guild missions), but they are something we look forward to more than any other night of the week.

At the same time, I do see us wanting to do a little WvW and PVP to supplement our missions, but missions we can ALL do in the world of Tyria are very important to us.

Please reconsider and “reroll” so that we have at least one option in PVE.

It’s only week one. Because during week one you can select PvE only and week 2 your mission selection will be only PvE.

I know it’s not ultimately a great answer, but with Halloween on and the new zones, I’m going to make due the first week. I might have canceled the regular missions anyway and just did a Halloween event.

Unless we designate we want all of one kind of mission, missions should include a mix of PVE, WvW and PvP – even if that means one of each every week until we open new slots.

This is locking us out of something we enjoy, hurting our ability to play together in content we want to play and punishing diverse guilds with members on multiple servers.

This needs to be rerolled and reconsidered.

I know there is alot going on at Anet this week (and I am excited for HOT), but the idea of no PVE guild missions is ridiculous and throws a wrench into my – extremely high – excitement for this expansion.

We (members of my guild) want to play the expansion together – this is a step in the opposite direction for many of us.

And, to address Vayne’s comment, I understand this is only week one – but week one is extremely important because those missions are needed to unlock guild halls. We want to do that as a guild and this stops us from doing so. It’s that simple.

I am usually the last to criticize Anet and their decisions – I love this game and respect what they do, but this is just a really bad decision and needs to be remedied.

Vayne.8563:

smitske.4912:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,
Fractal Dungeon Leaderboards

Back when we announced all the updates to Fractals for Heart of Thorns – the announce blog also discussed more information coming before HoT about leaderboards for Fractals. Our team of folks working on Fractal dungeons kept iterating on this concept and ultimately we have decided to make it something more involved (re: exciting) than our original plans which will extend our development a bit more. This also means you’ll be able to earn the new fractal backpack precursor, but a few of the components for the new legendary will come with this expanded future fractals feature.

As always, we’ll discuss features once they’re far enough along to share development details on; our Fractal Dungeon team will be back with more updates about this and other plans for Fractal Dungeons in the future: when it’s ready™.

So again a feature pushed back?
I mean you caught it early that you won’t be able to get all legendaries added so you announced only 3 will be added, raids are also already a few weeks in + the new squad system needing a lot more work.
Add to that limited testing of some classes so there will be issues there too.

Perhaps lessons learned for next xpac, wait longer with a release date until you are sure everything can be delivered and you dont end up in the week(s) before release already needing to tell people yea that wont make it. I mean the price for the xpacis already quite steep without taking things out. Sure they might come at a later date but you should really deliver whats promised at the promised time.

No different from the Guild Wars 2 launch. We didn’t have guesting working at launch (or the trading post for that matter). We didn’t have a way to preview on the auction house even.

Truth be told, if you took a poll, I’m pretty sure most players would vote not to wait. Let us get into the game, start earning masteries and get the other stuff out “when it’s ready”. At least I can move out of the holding pattern I’ve been in.

Oh I do remember the game was launched way too early and unfinished I think eventually even Anet admitted that much, thats why we have some poor systems being introduced and thrown away over the years (traits acquisition).
I have no doubt people want it know because we have been on a serious dryspell of content and lets face it people always want more stuff being added, doesnt mean I like the business decision of lets not deliver what we said when we launch. Then again many of the business decisions made I personally frown upon.

Ah, there it is, I thought it seemed things were going a bit too smoothly.
No PvE missions, brilliant.

And let me guess, “we don’t have the tools to modify that”
and “It can’t be re-rolled without messing stuff up and wiping everyone’s banks”

You guys couldn’t just set the first set of missions? or specify a roll on one of each for the first week?

The guys are going to be bummed to hear yet another week with no missions.
Yeah the whole “reset changing to Monday don’t bother doing your Saturday missions!”* debacle was fun.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
*_not really lawl, you totally could have done them we just didn’t bother to tell people it didn’t change, ha we’re so silly_

I’m not too upset about the first week of new guild missions, but I definitely think they should add pve+pvp, pve+wvw, pvp+wvw options that give a 5% favor bonus. My guild does pve and spvp, but not wvw as we are cross server.

maddoctor.2738:

ColinJohanson.2394:

The random roll for this week already happened and we’re seeing on our internal servers that week ones missions rolled a mix of PvP and WvW missions for the first three mission slots that guilds have unlocked once you’re able to access the expansion (as you unlock deeper into your guild hall, you’ll be able to unlock more mission slots).

From what I understand this will only be an issue for the first couple of weeks until guilds unlock more mission slots. But the 3 slots available at HoT release will be WvW/PvP only, I assume if a guild level up during that first week and unlock the 4th slot, it might be a PVE one?

So basically there are two questions now:
Is it possible for guilds to unlock the 4th slot during the first week?
Is the 4th slot a PVE mission (so is it worth it to go for that 4th slot or not)

And what about:

There are also three dedicated mission slots that are specific to each game mode: one each for PvE, PvP, and WvW. These dedicated mission slots will not change even if players have their mission preference set, and they can be easy, medium, or hard in difficulty.

Youve got it wrong there, every week some random missions roll to fill the slots you have whether its 3 or 10 (fictional number). The roll for this week has happened and it did not have a pve mission, the one for next week might have it. ALso you can change whether or not you want pvp/wvw/pve missions to roll or not when HoT launches and thus have pve missions only from then on that change every week.

Engineer Profession Icon should have been a Wrench from the start plain and simple.

Simple wrench for the core prof , then a Wrench and Hammer crossed for the elite maybe ? current scraper icon is fine too.

ColinJohanson.2394:

The random roll for this week already happened and we’re seeing on our internal servers that week ones missions rolled a mix of PvP and WvW missions for the first three mission slots that guilds have unlocked once you’re able to access the expansion (as you unlock deeper into your guild hall, you’ll be able to unlock more mission slots). We wanted to make sure everyone knew this information ahead of time.

So basically what you are saying for this first week of missions is kitten PvE Guilds, kitten cross server guilds, and kitten everyone who doesn’t like doing PvP. That was a great idea Colin, way to divide the player base and give even less incentive for guilds to actually care about anything to do for them going forward! You couldn’t default the missions to PvE instead since, oh idk, ITS THE TYPE OF MISSIONS GUILDS DO ALREADY?! On top of that if you can do a mix of missions and get 2-3 of the same type why even bother dong mixed missions?! Why not have one slot for a random PvE, one for PvP and one for WvW?

See you in 2017, Legendary Fractal Backpack

Sounds great Colin! Looking forward to the new guild content.

Howver, as for Guilds and Guild Halls – on behalf of the tPvP community I’m begging you, please add an option to make the Guild Arena use PvP gear. This is killing this feature for PvP guilds as there’s basically no reason for use to own a GH, or even if we get one and build an arena we couldn’t make good use of it.

The arena would be a crucial part of guild hosted minigames, 1v1 tournaments with custom terrains and so on, and the fact that PvP guilds won’t be able to use it is more than disappointing.

witcher.3197:

Sounds great Colin! Looking forward to the new guild content.

Howver, as for Guilds and Guild Halls – on behalf of the tPvP community I’m begging you, please add an option to make the Guild Arena use PvP gear. This is killing this feature for PvP guilds as there’s basically no reason for use to own a GH, or even if we get one and build an arena we couldn’t make good use of it.

The arena would be a crucial part of guild hosted minigames, 1v1 tournaments with custom terrains and so on, and the fact that PvP guilds won’t be able to use it is more than disappointing.

This would be a great option. Their reasoning for not doing it (we have spvp custom arenas) doesn’t make sense.

There are probably only 2 slots for missions to start with? Maybe thats why they have to pick two out of three?

Menadena.7482:

Colin-

Thanks but can we get any info about elite unlocks? That has been a huge issue of debate here.

LOL, good luck but it’s patently clear now that ANet and the Devs are intentionally avoiding this topic like the plague until launch day or at least pretty close to it. For our sakes (and theirs !) I hope they don’t drop a bomb on us with regards to the number of hero points needed per elite spec.

butch.8136:

There are probably only 2 slots for missions to start with? Maybe thats why they have to pick two out of three?

Then those 2 need to be ones that guilds can actually do together in a group.

That isn’t asking much – and seems like an important thing week one as people start to play and reconnect with their guilds again.

Guys, the release date had to be late October so they can get their boxes on shelves for Black Friday. The code didn’t go along with the plan, so now its release-in-stages as pieces come on-line. Its really as simple as that.

“Fractal Dungeon Leaderboards…”

Dude. Just… dude…

come on guys its just for week 1 cut the qq already, personally i would set my guild missions to be all in WvW, no need to go PvE anymore.

I don’t care that much about guild missions tbh (as I am PvX). But lots will…change it quickly before you get even more complaints there are no PvE guild missions…

smitske.4912:

Youve got it wrong there, every week some random missions roll to fill the slots you have whether its 3 or 10 (fictional number). The roll for this week has happened and it did not have a pve mission, the one for next week might have it. ALso you can change whether or not you want pvp/wvw/pve missions to roll or not when HoT launches and thus have pve missions only from then on that change every week.

Yes I understand that about the random missions, but what about that part of the blog post that says:

There are also three dedicated mission slots that are specific to each game mode: one each for PvE, PvP, and WvW. These dedicated mission slots will not change even if players have their mission preference set, and they can be easy, medium, or hard in difficulty.

If there are three dedicated mission slots, one for each mode, how come we get no PVE missions (for the PVE dedicated mission). Unless the “dedicated” ones are unlocked further in the Guild Hall progression

Can we do the Guild Missions before HoT launches and another set this weekend to get the favor? if so, will guild members get personal rewards twice?

Juba.8406:

come on guys its just for week 1 cut the qq already, personally i would set my guild missions to be all in WvW, no need to go PvE anymore.

Then this doesnt really impact your ability to play with the people you want to play with.

That isnt true of any guild that enjoys getting together for PVE missions or that has members across servers and actually wants to play with them for missions.

This is a big deal to some of us that lead PVX or PVE guilds in the game. It is a bad precedent to set and hinders our enjoyment – as well as our ability to open our guild hall in a timely manner.

Calling something qq doesnt mean it isnt a legitimate concern. I lead a large guild of very active players. We have a lot of fun together. I see it as my responsibility to speak up and make the argument when something hurts our ability to enjoy the game as a group.

Bottom line – we will not be able to do missions together in a group the first week of Heart of Thorns – and will possibly have to wait longer than should be necessary to open our guild hall.

We play the game to play together. I know we are not the only guild in that situation. This seems like a little thing to guilds that it doesn’t impact, but it most definitely is not little for many of us.

Fractal leaderboard delay is unacceptable, sorry.
This was supposed to launch Nov 2013, it’s going to be almost Nov 2015 and we still don’t have them, they were supposed to come with HoT launch and they’re still delayed + on top of that, they’re part of the legendary backpiece requirement?

I welcome the fact that you tone down effects though. As for guild missions, as I barely ever had a guild I never did them, so I can’t say much in that regard. Sounds nice, I guess? As someone with astigmatism, I can’t see how people mix up Ele + Engi icons either, but since there clearly were issues for people that’s a good change, too.

maddoctor.2738:

smitske.4912:

Youve got it wrong there, every week some random missions roll to fill the slots you have whether its 3 or 10 (fictional number). The roll for this week has happened and it did not have a pve mission, the one for next week might have it. ALso you can change whether or not you want pvp/wvw/pve missions to roll or not when HoT launches and thus have pve missions only from then on that change every week.

Yes I understand that about the random missions, but what about that part of the blog post that says:

There are also three dedicated mission slots that are specific to each game mode: one each for PvE, PvP, and WvW. These dedicated mission slots will not change even if players have their mission preference set, and they can be easy, medium, or hard in difficulty.

If there are three dedicated mission slots, one for each mode, how come we get no PVE missions (for the PVE dedicated mission). Unless the “dedicated” ones are unlocked further in the Guild Hall progression

This is a really good question, why are the three dedicated slots not the 3 base slots to prevent this exact scenario from happening? That way everyone gets to run something early on and can build the ability to run more of their preferred mode as they go.

So does the inability of my guild to run anything this week cost us progress towards unlocking additional missions as well as deny us all the personal rewards?

Nike.2631:

Guys, the release date had to be late October so they can get their boxes on shelves for Black Friday. The code didn’t go along with the plan, so now its release-in-stages as pieces come on-line. Its really as simple as that.

Doesnt mean we have to find it okay, like I said business practice wise its just another questionable thing IMO, something which seems to become a standard at Anet.

They ask quite some money for what we get and then they don’t even deliver stuff from it, yea sorry I don’t like such practices.

maddoctor.2738:

smitske.4912:

Youve got it wrong there, every week some random missions roll to fill the slots you have whether its 3 or 10 (fictional number). The roll for this week has happened and it did not have a pve mission, the one for next week might have it. ALso you can change whether or not you want pvp/wvw/pve missions to roll or not when HoT launches and thus have pve missions only from then on that change every week.

Yes I understand that about the random missions, but what about that part of the blog post that says:

There are also three dedicated mission slots that are specific to each game mode: one each for PvE, PvP, and WvW. These dedicated mission slots will not change even if players have their mission preference set, and they can be easy, medium, or hard in difficulty.

If there are three dedicated mission slots, one for each mode, how come we get no PVE missions (for the PVE dedicated mission). Unless the “dedicated” ones are unlocked further in the Guild Hall progression

They might have just changed it for all we know, everything is subject to change.

Will be fun to see more WvW server locked as full because of guild missions being random per default.

smitske.4912:

Nike.2631:

Guys, the release date had to be late October so they can get their boxes on shelves for Black Friday. The code didn’t go along with the plan, so now its release-in-stages as pieces come on-line. Its really as simple as that.

Doesnt mean we have to find it okay, like I said business practice wise its just another shady thing IMO, something which seems to become a standard at Anet.

They ask quite some money for what we get and then they don’t even deliver stuff from it, yea sorry I don’t like such practices.

Fairly standard practice in all software dev. Has nothing specific to do with Anet. If you find it so shady then maybe you shouldn’t be here? But youre going to find it diffcult to stick with any software brand.

This is from someone who knows the industry, not from someone white knighting. Its not great that they do it, and there are other things I dislike but its a normal practice. Software by its nature gets updated, and is rarely ready for launch. But other factors force you to launch. Its the same for microsoft or google who has practically unlimited resources compared to anet.

It really, really, really isn’t a big deal. Some of you folks are just too quick to complain imho.

Give the expansion a week or two to bed in and then see where we are. If you and/or your guild can’t bear to break your routine for that long then maybe you’ve become a bit stuck in your routine.

New expansion. New opportunities. Unknown. Exciting. Good.

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’ve tried to cut back some of the visual noise of some of the “noisiest” skills to make it easier to see what’s going on in combat with multiple players/mobs on screen. We’ve also made some skill FX end much faster to align with the length their actual combat effect happens in the world – previously some FX lingered much longer than the actual outcome of the skills combat interaction would occur. This is also to help make it easier to see what’s going on in combat.

While I appreciate the effort, this in turn cuts down on the visual splendor of many skills.
Many of which simply don’t look “epic enough” for their CDs. As it is.

I think long term the only real solution is to offer 6 sliders:

• Own skill effect detail.
• Party skill effect detail.
• Other skill effect detail.
• Enemy skill effect detail.
• Friend skill effect max.
• Enemy skill effect max.

This allows the player to tailor their client to their desires, allowing large-scale players to focus on enemy effects and even cap those, while smallscale players can crank up the effects higher to get better visual asthetics.