Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

Sorry I haven’t had time to comment in here. I went through the past 10 or so pages and tried to grab some of the issues that have come up and address them. The balance team has been keeping up with the thread, but they haven’t had as much time lately to comment on specific ideas.

Re: “Shot down” ideas

• The only thing we are not open to is a real permastow option that would essentially take away the pet completely (ie an option that said always stow).
  • We kicked around the idea of giving the ranger an “aspect of _______” which we moved to a new thread because it is elaborate and should be a single topic in itself. The idea is that it would give the pet more utility with swapping/stowing, but it wouldn’t retire the pet completely.
    • We want to fix issues with the pet AI and general usability before we consider doing something to this extent.
• We acknowledged that Pet AI does need help, but we did not say we would not be doing this. You will see some changes in the coming feature patch that should help with the pet’s usability.

Re: Lack of participation

• I apologize that I had been absent from this thread for a few days. I had to produce Ready Up last week and a number of other things came up that took priority (including getting a virus that meant I left early for the week). Also, I don’t work on the weekends.
• Just because we’re not responding doesn’t mean we’re not reading.
  • Sometimes we just don’t get the time to respond, but we’ll try to get better about this.

Re: Fear that we will only work on pets

• Don’t stress about this. We wanted to look at the class as a whole with you. We didn’t make this thread specifically to get feedback on the pets. It just happens to be one of (if not the biggest) the top issues with Ranger right now.

That’s a bit odd the launcher would make your fan go a bit nuts but I’d also like for you to submit a support ticket so we can work with you one on one. You should receive a reply from us fairly quickly if you send one in now.

You folks are so sweet! Thanks for the kind and generous words. As Josh would say, I’m forum famous. The best kind of famous!

Hi Mikori,

I’d like for you to submit a support ticket so we can work with you on this issue. Generally this issue is resolved through the troubleshooting steps that you’ve already tried, and so we may need to request some information from you in order to further investigate this error.

Hey there – since you said you reinstalled Windows, did you also reinstall all of the drivers for your system as well? It’s possible that you may simply be missing video card drivers which would prevent you from installing the client.

If that’s not the case, could you please post your system specs? Specifically the following:

CPU
GPU
RAM

Indeed! Doable I say!

Also, I think it is a good thing to have this list. Many new people might not know the process, so keeping a running list is helpful. Maybe a “reported by…” next to each item, with a link, so people know it has been reported and by whom.

Hello Aya,

First, I’d try the following:

1. Locate the file “GW2.exe” and right-click it, selecting “Create Shortcut.”

2. Rename this shortcut to “Guild Wars 2 Port Test.”

3. Right-click on this shortcut and select “Properties.”

4. Edit the “Target” line to include /clientport 80 at the end. Note: Please make sure /clientport 80 is outside of the quotes.
— Correctly Formatted Example: “C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\GW2.exe” /clientport 80
— Incorrectly Formatted Example: “C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\GW2.exe /clientport 80”

5. Once completed, click “Ok” to save your changes. If you get an error trying to save, your target line may not have the correct format. Please try Step 4 again.

6. Double click “Guild Wars 2 Port Test” and try connecting again.

Because this thread has derailed away from its original topic, it is now closed.

Hi Haker,

It looks like we got back to you on a response today. I want to apologize for the delay but please be assured that the issue is still being looked into.

Afrowizard,

Your diag report shows sporadic packet loss across multiple hops leading up to the game servers. That said, as the packet loss is happening prior to reaching the game servers you will need to get in contact with your ISP.

As much as we want to help resolve this issue for you, we simply do not have any control over this type of problem. At best, we have limited control over the data once it reaches the Guild Wars 2 servers. The problem is that this packet loss is happening prior to that event. As such, we simply have no direct or even indirect control over that data and how it’s transferred. That’s the sole responsibility of your ISP, which is why you are paying for that service.

I also want to point out that if you are able to connect to the game through VPN, this means that the issue lies with the route that your connection takes to reach the game servers. Again, this would point directly to your ISP.

This is not to make sweeping generalizations for everyone reporting connection based issues especially as these threads often consist of a number of different issues, each having its own set of variables.

For anyone having connection based issues of any kind, the best thing to do would be to submit a support ticket so we can look into it.

Howdy all,

Lilith asked me to take a look at the thread to see if I had any guidance and whatnot. Obviously, I cannot confirm or speculate on anything in the post. What I can do, is hopefully help direct the discussions.

Bugs – The best thing to do when you know something is bugged is to put it in the Bug Forum, following this format: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Please-Read-How-To-Bugging-Best-Practices

When the bugs are reported, we can direct QA to the threads in question. They may or may not respond to these reports, but it does ensure they’re put into the bug tracker system.

Regarding exploits, the best thing to do is write it up and email exploits@arena.net for any you wish to report. These are also logged.

Now, in regards to people exploiting bugs or systems, it’s best to report them in-game or submit a ticket to Support for review.

For any of you receiving this error please submit a ticket. As it stands, I’m not currently seeing anything that would indicate that this is an issue on our end and so in order to further investigate this issue, we’ll need to collect some more information from you guys. If this is in fact an issue on our end, I can then forward this information to the appropriate departments to look into getting this fixed.

Hey there,

I’d start with updating your video card drivers. I know it’s a pretty basic first step, but I’m not sure what else you’ve tried in regards to troubleshooting and that’s always a good place to start.

What’s the rest of your setup look like? CPU? RAM?

The Lost Witch.7601:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Doing something like you have suggested really comes down to man power and global GW2 development priority.

Chris

But wouldn’t it be absolutely awesome?

Terkov.4138:

Proposal Overview
Rebalance of vitality and toughness of bosses.

Goal of Proposal
- Increasing viablity of condition based builds.
- Increasing build/gear diversity.

Proposal Functionality
Lowering health pool and increasing armor of bosses would encourage players to use condition based builds up to stacking limit before going into full berserker team. Rebalance should be done in a way that’d keep kill times same as they are now for full power oriented team.

Associated Risks
- Going from one extreme into another – too high toughness to vitality ratio could make condition builds too good. It’d be mostly fixed by conditions stacking limit.

I think it would be nice to have a variety of boss fights in this regard. Some where conditions really shine, others where they’re not quite as good.

This particular idea could be done through instability variables and it no where near as much work as creating an explorable version of the fractals (-:

FYI.

Chris

Nike.2631:

Very much so. Take it in the jovial spirit it was intended .

((Your signature made me laugh aloud))

Cool because I have this dream whereby one day we get to the point in the CDI where our mutual trust as community and developer is so strong that my voice is no longer perceived as being any ‘louder’ than anyone elses.

That is my dream (-:

Chris

The Lost Witch.7601:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Nike.2631:

Maybe we can get some insight from our Host:

Chris, what do you see as the long term value proposition of Fractals? Not necessarily the company policy, just your take as a well-informed designer. Why should players keep coming back after getting their rings & backpack and/or getting to level 50? What is the lasting appeal of this content? You’ve mentioned a blue sky dream of large-group fractals. Any other outside-the-box wishes that might help us better grasp the scope of changes this discussion might precipitate?

Hi Nike,

I am hoping that we can inject more lore and epic moments into the fractals. That we can transport player’s to even more iconic periods of Guild Wars history.

What if we could send players forward in Fractal time?

I am hoping that we can build on the strong foundation that we have with base Fractal mechanics and continue to build challenging encounters through strategic gameplay and strong ‘team’ centric inter-dynamics.

I as a player also hope that we can make fractals more rewarding, especially in regard to ascended acquisition.

I hope this answers some of your questions. Fractals are one of my favorite parts of the game and these are some of my wishes for their evolution.

Chris

How set are we on the current fractal structure in this regard? (An adventure of 4 semi-randomly picked mini dungeons)

Because I think that with a different structure, the lore possibilities can be enjoyed by a lot more people than just the hardcore fractal crowd. (Since reaching those bits of lore can be quite a hassle in the current system, especially if they are on the third and fourth fractal tier)

I would really like to see fractals of the mists as an explorable area. Where players can travel through the mists at their own risk. Where party sizes can differ between fractals. And where we can feel the thrill of exploration as true pioneers. (Going further than any NPC from ‘our’ Tyria has traveled before)

Doing something like you have suggested really comes down to man power and global GW2 development priority.

Chris

Nike.2631:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I am hoping that we can inject more lore and epic moments into the fractals. That we can transport player’s to even more iconic periods of Guild Wars history.

Woohoo! New content .

What if we could send players forward in Fractal time?

“Introducing the Foreboding Fractal – Dessa’s probes have locked onto a new fractal hinting at what may come to pass as the Living Story advances into its second season.”

With a firm plan at the outset something like this could be a very compelling narrative tool.

I am hoping that we can build on the strong foundation that we have with base Fractal mechanics and continue to build challenging encounters through strategic gameplay and strong ‘team’ centric inter-dynamics.

I’m going to tease you that the word ‘fun’ appears nowhere in your post .

I as a player also hope that we can make fractals more rewarding, especially in regard to ascended acquisition.

As the tier matures, I think we’re going to (have to) see continuing adjustments across all play modes. I’m still eager to see more possible improvements from the vertical progression thread work their way to Live. My alts are waiting .

I hope this answers some of your questions. Fractals are one of my favorite parts of the game and these are some of my wishes for their evolution.

Thank you. It does nicely in matters of looking to the future. I foresee in the next CDI Evolution thread I’ll again be asking for threads to include a Primer that helps us better understand “where we are at now – Arena’s Perspective” as a launch point for our flights of fancy .

Please do note these are the things I would like to see as a player. This is not an announcement of additional content or a change in design direction.

I am simply joining in the conversation and passing on my thoughts. It becomes very difficult for me to be a group member of the CDI if everything i say is going to become some kind of ‘News’.

Anyway I am sure you understand my point,

Chris ‘Fun’ Whiteside

Nike.2631:

Maybe we can get some insight from our Host:

Chris, what do you see as the long term value proposition of Fractals? Not necessarily the company policy, just your take as a well-informed designer. Why should players keep coming back after getting their rings & backpack and/or getting to level 50? What is the lasting appeal of this content? You’ve mentioned a blue sky dream of large-group fractals. Any other outside-the-box wishes that might help us better grasp the scope of changes this discussion might precipitate?

Hi Nike,

I am hoping that we can inject more lore and epic moments into the fractals. That we can transport player’s to even more iconic periods of Guild Wars history.

What if we could send players forward in Fractal time?

I am hoping that we can build on the strong foundation that we have with base Fractal mechanics and continue to build challenging encounters through strategic gameplay and strong ‘team’ centric inter-dynamics.

I as a player also hope that we can make fractals more rewarding, especially in regard to ascended acquisition.

I hope this answers some of your questions. Fractals are one of my favorite parts of the game and these are some of my wishes for their evolution.

Chris

Edit: I was also asked what my thoughts on rolling are: As a player i have no issue with that particular system as it currently stands.

I was also asked about Dredge: As a player I would love to see some work done on dredge.

Hello all. Since this didn’t get back on track, we’re closing it.

SkylightMoon.1980:

Thanks for taking the time to scroll through dozens of pages and respond to us chris. We really appreciate it!

Thanks to you all for being so passionate about the game and supporting the CDI. Your collaboration in this area is extremely value to the game and the team.

I really appreciate everything you do.

Thanks

Chris

We’re still digging!

Outside of the top 1000 players, you can only view your percentile on the leaderboard to get a rough idea and compare against friends. There is no exact number available below the top 1000 players. If you’re after a sense of progression based on ranking, you should totally go post in the ladder CDI!

I like this question. As you said, our focus right now is to better integrate sPvP with the rest of the game. This will hopefully do one major thing: Bring more people into sPvP that are already playing Gw2. This will mean more competition, and better matchmaking. The new ladders (which I hope you’re giving feedback for in the CDI thread) should be a good way to gain prestige for being the best.

Apart from competition and prestige, what kind of things are most attractive to the high-level players? Personally I’m not hyper competitive and play all parts of the game, so the rewards overhaul will be amazing for me :P

videoboy.4162:

Chris,

Perhaps it would help the Ranger thread, if Allie were able to periodically make a post similar to yours: “I’ve just caught up on pages 7-13, now to discuss these pages with my team!”

I think most posters know she’s doing a great job, but a small post like that to show she’s still around would probably calm the masses, by reminding them that she really is there and paying attention.

(In a slightly related note, I will gladly beg you to run the future Elementalist CDI. =D)

Back to this thread:

Do you have any thoughts/opinions/suggestions on the Dredge or the re-rolling issues being discussed so much in this thread?

Hey Videoboy,

I will mention your suggestion to Allie. At the end of the day though it is up to the CDI Topic owners to connect with their CDI group in their own way.

Regarding your questions. As a player I think Dredge could do with some work and I agree with many of the proposals that have been put forward in this area (note this is a not a statement around development in this area).

Regarding the rolling discussion. I am less opinionated about this particular topic and am still reading through the groups proposal’s and discussion points.

Chris

Randulf.7614:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Randulf.7614:

Chris apologies to post in this thread about a sep issue but, it might be worth post weekend some additional attention in the Ranger CDI. The community is trying to keep discussion moving, but it has lost direction and management. Could really use the “pep ups” this thread has had since inception.

Hi Randulf,

Thanks for the heads up. One thing for sure is that it is a much bigger thread (-:

Personally i think Allie and the team are doing a good job. I know the team has been discussing the proposals and discussions that they have seen in the thread.

Please note that I agree with their needing to be a guiding hand but do remember that the devs consider themselves peer members of the CDI group and thus there really shouldn’t be an expectation for them to comment all the time. Like me, they probably read, digest and evolve their own design philosophy based on the discussions. And at its core that is the huge value the CDI brings to GW2.

One thing I would like to point out is that whilst I spend portions of my weekend on the CDI that does not mean that this is expected of other team members. If anything my behavior is bad because as it sets an example to the community that they then expect to see replicated by other staff members and thus puts undue pressure on the team.

Chris

No criticism intended and no one expects a reply over the weekend, but it had been a while since a previous guiding hand from the lead dev of that thread. Sure they are doing a great job, but also there was expectation of much greater interaction hence the delay in getting the threads up and running. I don’t think the thread has derailed, it would just be a shame to see probably the leading CDI topic not get the direction it desp requires and thus have negative impact on future threads.

More of a heads up really, where it goes from there is really in someone else’s ball court – I’m happy just reading atm

Thanks Randulf I appreciate the heads up.

Note my reply wasn’t strictly directed at you. I just wanted to take the opportunity to remind folks of core purpose of the CDI.

Thanks,

Chris

Randulf.7614:

Chris apologies to post in this thread about a sep issue but, it might be worth post weekend some additional attention in the Ranger CDI. The community is trying to keep discussion moving, but it has lost direction and management. Could really use the “pep ups” this thread has had since inception.

Hi Randulf,

Thanks for the heads up. One thing for sure is that it is a much bigger thread (-:

Personally i think Allie and the team are doing a good job. I know the team has been discussing the proposals and discussions that they have seen in the thread.

Please note that I agree with their needing to be a guiding hand but do remember that the devs consider themselves peer members of the CDI group and thus there really shouldn’t be an expectation for them to comment all the time. Like me, they probably read, digest and evolve their own design philosophy based on the discussions. And at its core that is the huge value the CDI brings to GW2.

One thing I would like to point out is that whilst I spend portions of my weekend on the CDI that does not mean that this is expected of other team members. If anything my behavior is bad because as it sets an example to the community that they then expect to see replicated by other staff members and thus puts undue pressure on the team.

Chris

phys.7689:

SorrowsEmbrace.8120:

The issue isn’t rolling, its how disproportionately short swamp is, such that its worth spending 5 minutes rolling for it. If people were re-rolling the first fractal based on which one they had the most fun with, I guarantee this would not be an issue. People would play and let play. If you want to “fix” rolling, make swamp longer.

People throw around the word exploit in this forum like its nothing. An exploit is an offence that will get you banned. From the feedback here we know the devs know about the practice of re-rolling, and they are open to discussing the pros and cons. There’s no need to use loaded language to try and bolster your argument.

well if you take a step back and ask the question, what would you rather fix rerolling or dredge, its essentially saying whats more important, creating a more varied experience, or making it less time consuming/annoying.

the consensus is that speed/and ease is more important than variation to most people. I blame the reward system that prioritizes speed and ease. If the rewards were based on how long/difficult it was, people wouldnt care that much about rolling the shortest/easiest, and people would be trying to get better at dredge (i admit dredge is out of balance, and designed kind of annoying)

i think the rewards is probably one of the biggest issues with fractals, id say the other major issues would be agony progression being empty, grindy and sometimes backwards, and variation/replayability of fractals.

dredge i see as more of a balance issue, than an indicator of evolution of fractals

Astute post.

Chris

Orpheal.8263:

Re-Rolling:

hide spoiler

Simple fix, remove the surprise gameplay around it. Let players clearly choose, whichever Fractal they want to play, but reward each different string of choices differently in regard of effort/time relationship.
Simple rule, Simple outcome. No problems with Re-Rolling.
If you simply want people to do not something specific, remove the issue that leads to the problem (surprise effect) and compensate the removal with an improvement of the reward system, that gives out better rewards for people, that spend more effort in doing the fractals compared to the lazy people, which want only to speed rush through the fractals.
Theres absolutely no NEED to rework anything about the Dredge Fractal.
Don’t change it, only because alot of people are too lazy to do it cause of its length and the time it takes to do it.
Don’t waste your time and ressources on such 100% total unneccessary changes, which in no way improve the Fractals at all as a whole

Use your time and ressources and improve Fractals with something, that has a high value for the gameplay of FotM, like new features that keep this gameplay content fresh and interesting.

Thoughts about Top 3 Priorities now

hide spoiler

So in regard of importancy the top 3 things that ANet should focus on for Fractals for now only are:

• Improval of the Fractal of the Mist Rewards (Fractal Relic Vendor, more stuff for Pristine Relics in regard of all kinds of Ascended Equipment, Money Reward at the End, much bigger usage of Mist Essence materials, they drop to rarely, make a better reward out of them especilly for FotM, these materials should also be gainable in WvW, basically everywhere in the Mist, not just only in Fractals.

• Redesigning Stabilities more into a kind of Fractal Gambits which aren’t automatically forced upon you based on the fractal level, but are also a wide array of chooseable Gambits to manually raise the difficulty for the group and if you take them, to raise the difficulty, you could raise the rewards for your group.
  Theres no need to have like 50+ different instabilities, when just 10 or so would be more than enough working as Fractal Gambits in the way like Gambits worked in the Crown pavillion to make the content harder and at the same time more rewarding.
  Doing this I think it would be also good to use this opportunity to completely remove the silly AR Grind out of the whole FotM Concept. That something like this found even into the game is really irritating, when you think about ANets no grind philosophy
  Completely remove Agony and AR out of the Game and replace AR with a more useful new stat, that is useful for the whole game and not just only for Fractals.

Something like Dexterity, a Stat that could have influence on Skill Recharge Times of Heal/Elite and Utility Skills that for example every 25 Points of Dexterity, Recharge Times of these Skill Types get reduced by 0,005%

• Add new Features, like my mentioned Heroic Fractals (BMP like Multi-Part Story Fractals, that could be used to give us GW1 Missions/Lore and Novel Lore especially in playable form in GW2. Such thigns are it, that improve FotM as a Feature massively and keep players interested in playing Fractals.
  Adding contantly new Fractals in general is, what alot of people want to see naturally, because havign always to do the same Fractals gets borign naturally over time.
  But Heroic Fractals, compared to Normal Fractals would be something, where Anet could scratch the Balance from Fractals from new and design them to be played either SOLO, or as a 5+ man group.

Think on a War in Kryta-Fractal, where you could play it for example as a Legion Mission that scales up differently in regard of how many players participate, which could feel like some kind of Raid, if say like 20 people want to do it with you.
But you could also decide to play that War of Kryta-Fractal alone and everythign would scale down in it to be playable as Solo-Content.

Then again there are lore driven options for Fractals, like my wanted Ghosts of Ascalon-Fractal, which simply naturally allow only for a maximum of players, liek the lore has basically playable characters in the lore.

Excellent exercise in terms of ‘reduction’ of the proposals and re factoring of your opinion in light of the discussions.

In a similar way to the exercise that Orpheal has under taken it would be wise now to ask you all to pick 1 area that you would prioritize above all others having has the chance to have seen everyone’s opinions around each others proposals.

Chris

dutchiez.7502:

spoj.9672:

Adding dragonite into fractals would be nice. Atm dungeon runners are forced to do wvw or open world to get their dragonite. And they have no shortage of emp fragments and bloodstone dust.

God yes! Please add dragonite as a reward to fractals or dungeons in general, so the dungeon runners who don’t enjoy zerging content but do enjoy having BiS gear can stop grinding temples!

I will discuss this with the rewards team and find out their opinion.

Chris

phys.7689:

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Just a quick note to let you know i am up to date.

I am assuming that you all feel that for example a Dredge rework is higher priority than say a rework to rolling?

Chris

Why do you personally think those two issues are way more important than getting a System in place that makes Fractals challenging ….. and more stuff

Though i think Patrikan maybe overly passionate, i have to agree, that in the big picture of what fractals needs, and the evolution of fractals in general, these issues are small in comparison.

These are balance fixes, they dont really evolve fractals and make them more interesting to that many more players, high level or low level. but yeah if you had to choose between those two it would probably be dredge for most i think.

but taking a look at dredge, I’d say the larger problem is that fractals as is, represents a race to complete the daily as easily as possible. Dredge is hated partially because it is a bikitteniment to that goal.
By changing the focus of fractals to be less of a lowest possible time to beat daily, you will probably fix both problems, and future problems with fractals that are short or masterable, and fractals that are long, and not easily mastered.

Point is, award people differently for doing different fractals, change the focus from being beat as soon/easy as possible to beating whatever challenges are thrown at you.

that said, dredge does have some design issues that are probably fundamentally off, even if the length doesnt change.

I am simply trying to determine the relative priority weighting that this CDI group has around this two areas.

Chris

Cuddlepie.8109:

DevonCarver.5370:

We are looking into the issue right now. Until we know more, that’s all I can tell you at the moment.

“nothing can be done”

It has been resolved, but there isn’t really anything we can do after a match has been running to provide recompense. However, we’ll at the very least look into what we can do to possibly have a system for that in the future. As well as try and sort out what exactly happened so it doesn’t happen again.

My apologies for the situation.

We are looking into the issue right now. Until we know more, that’s all I can tell you at the moment.

Just a quick note to let you know i am up to date.

I am assuming that you all feel that for example a Dredge rework is higher priority than say a rework to rolling?

Chris

phys.7689:

Blaeys.3102:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

MokahTGS.7850:

I also would like Fractals (and to a lesser extent, Dungeons) to evolve to allow for 2-5 player scaling. I know they are currently designed for 5 people, but I’d like to see the balance code reworked in such a way that 2 people could run through a fractal and be rewarded for that level scale. Obviously 5-man fractals would reward more, but I personally just want to run through them with my wife…currently that isn’t possible.

Call it “Casual-mode” for Fractals.

Personally I would like to see Fractals be able to be 5+ as well with associated risk/reward mechanics.

Chris

This is something I didnt even consider as part of the discussion, but love seeing it and think it deserves more attention/discussion.

The idea of fractals with different sized groups would go over insanely well in my guild. Just last night, we had 7 people wanting to do fractals and had to arbitrarily leave two friends out of the run.

Been doing this for so many years in MMOs with 5 man content that it’s become the norm. This single change would really set GW2 apart and give us a way to better play with friends (and as a GM of a large guild, it would allow me to schedule a guild fractal night without having to worry about leaving people out).

as long as they dont balance fractals around 5+ people, i dont mind, but also you have to realize no matter what number they pick, people will get left out.

From a brain storming standpoint I think 5+ fractals would be their own entity within fractals and thus be balanced for 5+ only.

Chris

Gwylen.3462:

Overall, yes lore is very, very important to me

Me too, Gwylen. And thanks for all the kind words.

Why did the krait agree to work with Scarlet? Why did they not just take the obelisk shards, perhaps enslave some of her minions, with the ruthlessness that they are known for? More so after their “prophet” died? Why do her alliances (krait, dredge, and Flame Legion particularly) continue working for her?

That’s actually 4 questions. Can’t fool me. Hehe. Konig, we devs walk a fine line between giving too much lore, thus spoiling players’ in-game discovery, and not giving enough. If I’m cagey about something, it’s because I don’t want to give you spoilers, and I’m confident that when you activate your superpowers, you’ll find the right conclusions yourselves—and have a lot more fun than if I had spoon-fed it to you in a forum post.

That’s the key. It’s all about you and your experience. Eight hours a day, five days a week, and often more than that, we’re all here, working to make your in-game experience as good as it can be.

Here are some concrete answers for you. Activate imaginations now!

1. Why did the krait agree to work with Scarlet?

Warning: The following is paraphrased in out-of-game language and doesn’t even pretend to be polished writing.

Imagine with me for a moment….

Scarlet sends a missive to the krait in the deeps there. It says simply, “I have shards of one of your obelisks. And, I know what it will take to bring back your prophet.”

The krait replies: “Take a hike. You’re lying. Prove it.”

Scarlet sends the smallest shard with a note: “There are more.”

Krait: “Give them all to us or we’ll kill you and enslave all your friends.”

Scarlet laughs. “You’ll have to get to me first. Can you fly? Of course, if you don’t want your prophets, then I totally understand.”

Krait (after much cussing and killing of slaves): “Hm. What do you want from us?”

Scarlet: “I’ll be sending a Nightmare Court posse along with further proof that I can bring back your prophets. Listen to them. If you kill them, I’ll assume our deal is off, and I’ll turn the shards over to your enemies. You do take your religion seriously, don’t you?”

2. Why did they not take the obelisk shards, perhaps enslave some of her minions, with the ruthlessness they are known for?

See above.

3. More so after their “prophet” died?

As you may have noticed, these krait were profoundly changed during their interaction with the nightmare plant and Scarlet. They are no longer the same creatures they were. They acquired a new look, new skills, and new behavior. Scarlet gave them their prophet, as promised—and may be able to do it again one day. Who was it that killed the prophet? Hmmmm.

4. Why do her alliances…continue working with her?

Each has its own reason.

Krait: They’ve been warped by Scarlet and the Nightmare Court. By the end, the scenario had changed. Scarlet proved she could bring back a prophet to their satisfaction (whether it was actually a prophet or not, no one really knows, but the toxic krait believe it was). And they can’t exactly go join other normal krait. How do you think regular xenophobic krait would feel about these toxic ones?

Dredge: They want power and magic. This group of dredge see an opportunity to add magic to their repertoire. Given their history, this would be a huge feather in their caps. Besides, how often do you get the opportunity to atomize a city like Lion’s Arch? Now that’s fun!

Flame Legion: They want technology and power. This group of FL is taking a huge risk. If they can go home with awesome swag, then they’ll be welcomed, but if they can’t, then they’re likely to be killed the moment they arrive. A large body count (especially the charr and human ones) along with whatever weapons technology they manage to acquire is an inspiring reward for them. And, they get to say they helped bring down Lion’s Arch. They hope to be lauded as heroes when they return to the FL.

You will, of course, have noticed that the three alliances don’t work in very close proximity to one another. There’s a reason for this.

You’ll also have noticed that Scarlet was extremely elusive in the tower of nightmares. Can you imagine why?

1. No really, what happened to their ability to shape-shift?

They can still shape-shift. This was one of the features about them that drew Scarlet to them. Their ability to shape-shift makes their forms more malleable and thus a better subject for the transformation in the nightmare plant.

2. Is it still true that the Oratuss invented the prophets to control the krait people?

This is ancient history. No one knows the truth behind this, not even the krait—although most krait would not take kindly to the implication. If and when we reveal the truth behind this, you’ll hopefully be there to discover it in-character.

3. Does “not anytime soon” in reference to joining the pact indicate that you’re willing to change their ‘black hat’ status if the story demands it and that the possibility that they can change exists (it’s a living world after all cough) or is it just your way of saying never? :P

I’m always willing to make changes to characters if it makes sense with the story. I learned long ago to never say never. I mean…look at the charr.

4. Last but not least – need moar krait interaction ingame. Preferably without the annoying whining Quaggan middle-(wo)man. ;(

They’ll be around for a long time.
:)

Here are some additional updates for you:

• In a situation where Player Fred gets WC on Monday and Player Mary gets WC on Tuesday, Fred may get his rewards before Mary, or the two players may get their rewards in the same day’s distribution. Since the distributions are based on achievement date it’s highly unlikely that Mary would get her rewards before Fred.
• Distributions are made daily for all who qualify, whether they have submitted a ticket or not.
• If you are asked in a ticket to wait 24 hours and if you then still do not have your gift, please update your ticket (respond to the latest e-mail in the thread) and provide the exact name of the character who earned World Complete. This will help us research any individual issues more quickly for you!

Thanks again for your patience while we get those tasty gifts out to everyone!

Yoh.8469:

Specific Game Mode
PvX

Proposal Overview

• Redesign the ‘Active’ portions of Signets to effects that work on both the Ranger and Pet by default.

Goal of Proposal

• To give these skills more utility when activated, while also filling in weaknesses in the Rangers design. (lack of viable stun breaks and active condition removal)

Proposal Functionality

• Signet of Renewal
  Passive – Removes a condition every 10 seconds.
  Active – Remove 2 conditions from you and your pet. 25 sec CD.
  This would largely solve the Rangers lack of active condition removal. Thou one more source of active removal might still be needed to give people options.

• Signet of Stone
  Passive – Increase Toughness on you and your pet.
  Active – You and your pet gain Stability and Aigis for X seconds. Stun Break. 30-45 sec CD.
  This should give the Ranger another viable stun break and stability option, besides Lightning Reflexes. So long as the cooldown isn’t prohibitively long.

• Signet of the Hunt
  Passive – You and your pet move 25% faster.
  Active – You and your pet’s next attack deals 25% more damage. 30 sec CD.
  A decent compromise with what the skill currently does, allowing for spike potential without being overly strong.

• Signet of the Wild
  Passive – You and your pet regenerate health.
  Active – You and your pet share damage for X seconds. 40 sec CD.
  Note, with the Signet of the Wild’s active effect, when you take direct damage, 50% of that goes to your pet, and vice versa. Only once per damage, it doesn’t bounce back and forth. Retaliation and conditions are unaffected.
  The reason you’d want to do this is that Protection, Retaliation can be triggered twice, in addition to healing. However you run the risk of taking double damage if both you and your pet are being attacked. Naturally it doesn’t work if your pet is dead.

Associated Risks
The ‘Signet of the Beastmaster’ would be rendered useless by this change, and would have to be replaced. Signet of the Wild’s effect could become too powerful in SPvP as a tanking option. Increasing the cooldown for that version could solve that problem.

We have also been discussing this internally and agree that it is awkward to be forced to take a trait in order to receive the active effects of signets. Obviously some balance work would need to be done on the signets as well as redesigning the trait. Definitely a good idea and something we are thinking about. =)

misterdevious.6482:

Specific Game Mode
WvW

Proposal Overview
Make shouts a more reliable and dependable skill choice. Make Nature’s Voice more than just the “Guard” spamming trait by adding specific ally buffs for each shout skill.

Goal of Proposal
Shouts are generally seen as unreliable. Your pet needs to be alive. Your pet needs to be healthy enough or it will die and waste the shout. The skill can be wasted if the target/ally goes down or rallies before the pet reaches it. Nature’s Voice is seen by many as serving only one purpose… to spam the Guard skill for Swiftness and Regen, and that is too singular a purpose for a grand master trait.

Proposal Functionality
Nature’s Voice: Shouts grant buffs to allies. Guard grants Swiftness and Regen. Protect Me grants Retaliation and Protection. Sic ’em Grants Fury and Might. Search and Rescue grants Stability and Stealth (or Camouflage).

Associated Risks
People taking and using shouts for the traited purpose rather than the original skill purpose (this already happens with Guard). Any additional shouts added will further complicate this trait. The loss of regen/swiftness from the other shouts may be felt by some players. Being able to stealth rez is quite a powerful ability in WvW.

This is a pretty cool idea to make that trait a bit more unique for each shout rather than applying the same two boons for every shout. It would give more reason to take specific shouts. In general shouts do need some tweaks as well to make them more appealing.

One of our GMs is looking at accounts that have submitted tickets and not received Gifts. A large number of these are missing POIs. and we’re working on queries to identify which each individual is missing and that is going to take time.

Yes, Figlilly is correct. This is a known issue, and we apologize that you are currently experiencing the situation. You will be “seeing stars” as soon as we can develop, test, and roll out the bug fix.

I wanted to pop back in to say I think it’s been really valuable to hear the input from you all about all these topics. We want to do what is best for WvW and that means hearing what you all have to say about a variety of things.

The discussion around community, world identity, etc. has been very enlightening. I also wanted to call out everyone who approached the discussion with an open mind. Whether you like Edge of the Mists or not, its valuable to discuss some of the concepts there and see if they are applicable to the other WvW maps. Please continue to discuss some of the topics we’ve broached here, but before the week ends I just wanted to say that I think it has been a good discussion and valuable for us.

The info that our forum members gave you is correct. With regret, we cannot restore or “roll back” an account due to an in-home “hack.” There simply are too many risks in adopting that as a policy.

Remember that if you decide to come back to Guild Wars 2 in the future, your account will be waiting for you. Perhaps your brother will be kind and buy you a gem card or something to help you rebuild!

LuMiZoiD.4021:

Hi, I’m sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I really wanted to express to the support team my thanks on helping me on two issues since starting the game few days ago! I won’t share the details on the issues publicly, but I know one of them is on my end since I was ignorant how the game works. I should have read the “manual” before jumping straight into the game lol. The other issue is because of Hotmail’s end. Besides the two issues, everything is starting off well on shaping my in-game legend. Lol. Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks.

It’s so nice of you to post this. Thanks for the kind words, and I hope you have great fun and success in Tyria!

I agree. If you post in the Technical Support Forum, I believe you’ll get the help you need! Thanks for doing that.

Thanks for letting us know and I’m glad you found the e-mail in the thread.

Closing as requested.

It’s very considerate of you to ask about this rather than overusing the report button, so thanks!

In-game reports do not receive any sort of response. More importantly, I think, they do not create a ticket for a player. So in-game reports really are used only for certain in-game issues: bugs, chat violations, offensive names, that sort of thing. The reasons are listed in the pop-up that appears when you click “Report.” Reports are reviewed 24/7/365 and are acted upon quite promptly in cases of, for instance, chat violations or an offensive name. (Bug reports are handled differently.)

Other things — pretty much anything that requires an agent to review your account — must be submitted through a ticket and you will get a response to that ticket, first an automatic “We got your ticket” response and from then on, responses from a live human being. (Ever so much better than a dead human being, come to think of it. )

So please use in the in-game system for bugs and the other types of issues listed on the report interface, and submit a ticket (click “Support” above and then “Submit a request” on the linked page) for situations involving your account, billing questions, and that sort of thing.

The bags are full of loot from the newest Living World release, so you wouldn’t have to break off to play the content if you don’t want to.

Starting today, we have added Bags of Alliance Supplies as a reward for winning PvP matches. Solo Arena winners will get 20 bags, and Team Arena winners will get 40 bags.