Guild Wars 2

Hi all!
Once again, thanks for the feedback!
We’ve been discussing elementalists quite a bit recently in PvP and one of the things that’s brought up constantly from feedback is the internal cooldown from Cleansing Water. This is something we feel is out-dated and we’ve been playing around with removing the ICD totally from PvP. We’ve got some concerns, but would love to hear some feedback on this.

In general, we’ve got quite a bit more stuff coming. As before, we can’t say what these things are just yet… But there’s a bit of stuff that will shake up the meta. We’re really looking forward to it!

-Karl

Thanks for the suggestion, Pyriall.5027. Like I said, we’re considering our options.

ananda.5946:

Thanks for the update, Gaile. If you can’t fix this in the next couple of days, wouldn’t it be good to roll back the changes so you could fix them at your leisure? Right now, mac users cannot participate in any of the group stuff for living story. It would not be nice to have to miss all the events (current and future) because it takes a long time to fix things. Then, after you have fixed the issues and tested it (even on the mac client which obviously wasn’t in the QA process for this patch), you can roll it back out.

As to why people post in multiple places, you answered that yourself- silence. Perception is reality and people perceive that the company does not care about the mac beta client. Just look at the ‘is the mac client feasible’ post: a person comes here and says she is concerned about buying a mac because she knows that the mac beta client is no longer officially supported. That’s how people see it. However, this could be easily fixed by communicating more if there really is work on the client. If there is not, then communicating about that would be equally helpful.

I can assure you that the company truly does care about Mac players. Devs are working on Mac issues, not casually, but with genuine purpose. You’ll see this in the future, but please be assured that Mac is on the team’s radar and an important part of future updates and fixes.

Nope, it’s much, much higher than that. We have real metrics to observe these things.

edit: I’ve talked to a lot of people personally, and the feelings are mixed. I’d say it’s actually close to 50/50. Regardless, talking to random people is not a real metric for the consensus of the playerbase.

Look, we know how passionate some of you feel about this, which is why I’m talking to you about it and why we’re looking into options for what we can do.

Zaxares.5419:

Thanks for the info, Gaile. I’m not sure if it’s related or not, but is that bug linked to the massive increase in lag and disconnects that I and many other players have been experiencing lately?

The producer who shared the info in the update was specifically speaking about Mac issues. If you’re using a Mac, then yes, I imagine that this bug is related. If you’re using a PC, then I’d think not. I see there is a thread for Network Latency in this forum, and you’re welcome to post there, if you’d like. Basically, the update relates to Macs in this particular case (although all cases of across-the-board latency would be investigated).

Just because we don’t have any plans to remove skyhammer from solo arena right now, doesn’t mean we aren’t kicking around ideas. I can’t get into much detail about it, but we’re trying to figure out how to measure it’s effect on solo arena.

Unfortunately, one straw poll of 300ish people is a very, very small amount of our active player base. It may not seem like we have many people playing because we are all spread over different servers, but our active numbers are much, much bigger than that.

What I meant by behind the scenes, is that I am coordinating the PvP/WvW/Balance community effort, and Josh will be focusing on other things. I didn’t want to say he’s leaving, because he’s not (refer to his post in here). He’s all about the PvP. We’re not “losing him to PvE”. Sorry if that sounded ominous.

Just to be clear – there was some confusion around the requirement and how it is messaged in-game, which is part of why it is being temporarily removed.

felivear.1536:

aussieheals.6843:

felivear.1536:

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Your new title says, “Anet Alpha Team”. What exactly does an Alpha Team member do? Your new title is intriguing. I’m thinking you’re now the member of an elite squad with black suits, sunglasses and earpieces. Maybe your work is classified.

Wait…don’t tell me..because then you’ll have to kill me.

Obviously, The A Team

Was so temped to create a meme with Grouchs face on Mr T, would of been epic

Why can’t I like this post more than once!!!!!!

Update on this:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Gift-of-Battle-rank-requirement-update

We will be removing all rank requirements for the Gift of Battle in the February 18th build and further evaluate what those requirements will be. We do not currently have an ETA for when rank requirements will be reinstated.

Greetings,
Thank you for your patience while we gathered the answers for this installment of the Dolyak Express. Today we have answers to some of your questions from this thread and the other language forums from Devon Carver and Colin Johanson with regards to World vs World.

Q: Will the story of WvW ever become a focus of the Living World? Or will the Living World’s involvement into WvW only be limited to things like the WvW Seasons?
Colin Johanson: It’s entirely possible theme wise at some point we might have a story that plays out heavily, or entirely in the mists. We do have some moments where a few stories have carried there so far already, Scarlet has probes in the mists for example, and some of her Aetherblades travel there under the direction of the newly escaped Mai Trinn during our February 4th release when we’re able to discover the Edge of the Mists map. In general we want to avoid trying to make people have to play any form of competitive game play to progress their story specifically, but that doesn’t mean couldn’t do story lines that play out in the mists, or have additional maps that are discovered similar to the way Edge of the Mists was in the future.

In general our big sweeping storylines behind WvW in the future will come in the form of competitive game play between worlds, and the additional features and content we continue to add to support that primary form of game mode.

Q: Would you consider designing NPCs that scale sufficiently according to the number of players attacking it?
Colin: We do this already all over Gw2! How well mobs scale often times depend on the abilities and components of the content they are tied to, but with each release we’ve done since we launched we’re getting better and better at getting our dynamic scaling system better refined. Most encounters in WvW have NPC’s that have very limited scaling so players don’t spend huge amounts of time trying to take control of a tower/keep fighting the final NPC once they already spent all the time to break inside, but it is a tool in our tool box available to us we could take advantage of it just about anywhere in WvW if we decide it’s a good idea in the future.

Q: Are there any plans to implement a “guild commander” feature that provides a commander symbol that is only visible for guild members?
Devon Carver: This was a highly requested feature in one of our Collaborative Development Initiative threads on the forums and we are in the process of designing out all the aspects of this system. The Collaborative Development Initiative is a place on the forums where we discuss a particular topic from the game from the perspective of design. We use that space to trade ideas and thoughts with the fans and it has been a very important tool for us in terms of how we design the game moving forward.

Q: Not looking for specifics, but will there be more worthwhile incentives to “lure” PvE people into WvW?
Devon: We will continue to add to the rewards provided by playing WvW. Things like the achievements added in the Edge of the Mists release as well as the rewards from Season 1 of WvW are part of a plan to provide incentive to people who would otherwise not play WvW to come in and give it a try. The tech behind this release also allows us to accommodate as many people in WvW as want to play it at any given time. We will continue to increase the rewards from playing WvW in the areas that make sense. The Edge of the Mists release will see an increase in ascended drop rates in the rank up chests as well as an increase in the amount of dragonite ore players will get in WvW.

Q: Will there be more maps in the future that are part of WvW proper rather than being for overflows like Edge of the Mists?
Devon: We are currently focused on making improvements to WvW and the current maps before adding new maps. Edge of the Mists provides us the opportunity to try out things that we hope will become a part of the other maps while also making sure that players can always play WvW no matter how full the maps are. We feel that it is best for us to make improvements to the entirety of the WvW experience before we add any more large pieces of content.

Q: What is your policy on balance in WvW? Some people have said that you won’t balance for WvW specifically, unlike PVE and sPVP. Is that true, and if so, why is that the case?
Devon: It’s very important to us that WvW and PvE be connected in as many ways as possible because we want to reduce the barrier to entry of the different game types for players. The fewer areas of the game that are balanced separately the clearer the game is for players as their skills and characters feel the same no matter what they are playing. We want it to be relatively easy for players to take their character from PvE straight to WvW without having to completely relearn their build. Were we to start balancing all the areas of the game separate from one another we feel like it would make it harder for players to move from WvW to PvE and vice-versa, especially if they are unfamiliar with them.

Q: Could you discuss what issues of criticism Edge of the Mists’ design is meant to address? For example, it looks like it might be more conducive to skillful, small/medium sized battles, a counter to the predominant mode of play in WvW at the moment: blobbing/zerging.
Devon: We did try and design the map to have a different flow from the other maps in WvW. Part of that was certainly an attempt to create more chokepoints and places that a large group might find tough sledding. We wanted to try out some things to change up the standard WvW gameplay and provide avenues for smaller groups to take part in the map. We also wanted to offer players a place they could play and progress their characters in WvW while they waited to enter other WvW maps that were full. The map also serves to acclimate new players to WvW without feeling too overwhelming, since the score in EotM does not affect the existing map’s score. Edge of the Mists is unique in that it will spin up new instances as the maps fill, so unlike existing WvW maps, players have access to the Edge of the Mists all of the time.

Q: How do you feel about the defensibility of keeps and towers?
Devon: We feel that there are always changes that can be made to objectives in WvW to make the game even more engaging. While defending can be great, we feel it can definitely use an increase in rewards as it can be much harder to convince players to defend locations currently. Defending objectives should be as rewarding as taking them and currently we feel the balance is a bit off. This can cause it to be harder to hold onto objectives than intended. One step towards that can be seen in the Edge of the Mists as we’ve added AI to the defenders that should make them better able to help hold objectives.

Q: Was it decided to award +1 point for a stomp instead of a kill because it’s just easier to attribute a stomp to the correct server? If yes, is there any possibility of taking this to the next level and finding a way to attribute the point to kills and not just stomps?
Devon: There were a few reasons for putting the system in as we did. Firstly, we wanted to create some strategy to gaining score from killing players. Rather than getting points for every kill, getting points for stomps causes players to have to make a decision about how they will kill enemies. Secondly, we wanted to put in a less expansive version to see how it played. Making large changes to WvW, especially scoring, can create unintended consequences, so we felt it was best to isolate it as much as possible.

Q: Will we see further steps to let the total war score scale more with “player activity” and less with pure “coverage in the off hours”?
Devon: That is something we are actively working on. The strides we’ve made in AI in Edge of the Mists are part of a long term plan to start addressing this. Our long term goal is to make it so that WvW is determined mostly by when players are online, not coverage. WvW is at its best when there are a lot of players online and we want that to be the most valuable time in WvW.

Q: What are the short term projects (apart from edge of the mist) for WvW that you can talk about?
Devon: We do have multiple things we are working on but none are at the point where we want to start discussing them publicly.

Q: Have you thought about adding time-limited items to WvW to allow guilds create temporary waypoints (time limited) to help with sieges. These could be created using the guild technology tree.
Devon: That is not something we’ve discussed so far.

Q: Have you considered improving scaling for Dolyak Escorts. For example, if a Dolyak is attacked by a larger group, could it not “spawn” hidden thieves as a protection detail to make for a more interesting fight?
Devon: That is an interesting idea that we haven’t really discussed. Using NPCs to provide additional interest to WvW is something we talk about. The Edge of the Mists has examples of the types of NPCs that we think can provide those types of more interesting and strategic fights. We are planning to take some of the things we’ve learned from Edge of the Mists and start putting them back into the other WvW maps.

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Hey all,

We’ve made some backend improvements that should help alleviate some of the latency issues in PvP.

If you continue to experience problems, please update this thread with the information I requested in my original post.

Thanks!

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed various server crashes in the Edge of the Mists.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Aetherblades from respawning in the Edge of the Mists.

Athariel.6530:

Hej!
By any chance is it possible to change registration email? My friend registered his game to Yahoo and has to sit still for about 1.5-2 hrs every day before he receives confirmation email there. Or maybe there’s a workaround for this problem?

Depending on the details, it may be possible for the team to change this. Please ask your friend to submit a ticket and an agent can look into it for him.

Bumping for visibility!

As you may be aware, our ticket system automatically sends a survey after a ticket is resolved or closed. You then have an opportunity to provide feedback on your customer support experience.

Our surveys were changed in the last day or two, and a few people have reported issues – either a broken link to the survey itself or a greyed-out “submit” button. If you have trouble, we’d really like to know the following:

• What browser(s) and Version(s) did you try?
• What is your ticket number?
• What is the error message you receive, if any, or is the option to submit simply greyed out?
• What is the URL of the survey page you were on when you were filling out a survey.

We consider our surveys a very important part of how we improve service for our players. So we want you to feel free to send in a survey in order for us to get better at what we do. If you have trouble sending a survey, let us know in this thread so we can work on any issues that remain with the system, and please provide the info above.

Thanks!

Update provided here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/mac/FPS-DROP-WITH-PATCH/page/2#post3605427

I wish we had a bit more to share but this is on the fix list and is being worked on!

Update provided here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/mac/FPS-DROP-WITH-PATCH/page/2#post3605427

I wish we had a bit more to share but this is on the fix list and is being worked on!

Hey folks. Just an update to let you know the devs definitely are aware of this issue and are working on a fix for it. As always, we don’t have an exact timeframe — ~official voice:~ “At 10:45 AM Pacific time on blah-de-blah date things will be better!” — but we thought it would be good for you to know the team is on the case!

I will now go post in the Bugs and TS Forums, so that folks there know this modest update. But this really is an OK place to post this issue in this forum. If we do not post a lot in this forum, the issues are reviewed and they are worked on, too.

Thanks again.

Dralyne.5719:

Bump – and honestly if there’d be consistency with replies to tickets, then there’d be less duplicates being sent in. I only sent in one extra ticket because I hadn’t heard back in over 24 hours. I apologize that I spend $$ regularly on the game and expect some sort of correspondence in a decent time fashion. I use to work back-end ticket support so I do understand that things can get busy. I also know that sometimes the back-end will screw-up and even though an e-mail is generate a ticket isn’t actually created on the back-end.

So my apologies for the duplicate AND everyone should try to cut customer support a little slack. They might not be able to get to you within 1-2 hours but when they do more times than none they’re able to come through and help.

Thank you for understanding!

I said won’t be as active. Not that he’s disappearing completely.

A number of members of the CDI have mentioned hard locks on word counts so I wanted to address this.

We will not be putting a hard lock on word counts. Instead I will request that posts are as concise where appropriate and suggest a template for addition of new ideas and proposals.

Chris

We are aware of this issue and are looking into it. To confirm: you are correct, this affects the display only, not the actual scores.

Josh isn’t gone, but his focus will be shifted. I’m not taking his job, he was actually filling in for me while I was gone. He’ll be around, and with us on Ready Up still, just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.

As for skyhammer in solo arena, we’re kicking around some ideas (definitely not ignoring you guys, just fyi). As of right now, we have no plans to remove it. We’re not quite convinced yet that the majority of our pvp population want it gone, so we’re trying to get metrics on that before we make any changes.

Our surveys were changed in the last day or two, but for those of you still having trouble, we’d really like to know the following:

• What browser(s) and Version(s) did you try?
• What is your ticket number?
• What is the error message you receive, if any, or is the option to submit simply greyed out?
• What is the URL of the survey page you were on when you were filling out a survey.

We consider our surveys a very important part of what we do for our players, and we use them to improve how we operate. So we want those surveys and need them in order to get better. Thanks for completing a survey and, if you have trouble doing so, thanks again for letting us know in this thread so we can work on any issues.

Closing thread on request from the original poster.

We reviewed this and it was our error. Please keep the gems with our compliments and thank you sincerely for the report!

(This has been addressed and should not be happening in the future. If someone tries to “pull a fast one” by submitting multiple tickets, all s/he will be doing is slowing down the system for everyone. There is a policy for dealing with someone who tries to scam CS or who submits pointless tickets, so just don’t do it and all will be well.

You are not required to fill in each space on the support form. Please provide all the information you can provide and a CS Agent will do his or her best to help you.

ATCAlpha — I’m glad we’ll be able to help you. It may take a few days, but we’ll take care of that.

As far as the e-mail addresses…

mercury ranique.2170:

ATC Alpha.4098:

Yes, I realized that after reading more carefully, strange that you have to type it twice.
Waiting to get my flamekissed armor refunded.

You dont have to really type it twice.
The first email-adress you enter is the emailadress they can contact you on
The second emailadress you enter is your login name

Imagine this scenario. You are a customer of providerabc. so your emailadress is alpha@providerabc.edf
At one point you find out that provider abc is bad and you change to providerxyz. so your emailadress changes too.

You need support to change your emailadress but your ardess and and your login email is now different. you need their help and you will be thankfull that they split those two questions

Yep, mr has it right. The only thing I would change is this:

Contact e-mail address: The address we can use to contact you
Account Name: Your log-in name, which is in the form of an e-mail address but may not be the same as your contact e-mail address

This is why when people have trouble getting our e-mails, we’re ok with them contacting us from a different e-mail address. We do go through a verification process, so make sure that the person on the new e-mail address IS the owner, of course. But having a different e-mail address for your Account name and contact e-mail address is ok!

Yes, please do submit a ticket by clicking “Support” at the top of this page, then clicking “Submit a request” in the upper right-hand section of that linked page. The team should be able to assist you.

For tips on what information to provide in a ticket — mostly intended for security reasons to establish that you own the account — please read this post and provide as many suggested details as possible to expedite the ticket.

We will investigate. Thanks for letting us know!

If you need help with your account, please submit a ticket and we’ll be happy to assist.

Please submit a ticket.

gidorah.4960:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I think we have discussed most everything.

However several CDI members brought up the importance of accessibility and welcoming folks with open arms so I think it is worthwhile us leaving the thread open until Sunday so new or returning members can share their thoughts.

Chris

no comment on how poor communication outside the cdi affects the cdi?
any plans to fix it so that so off topic stuff so it doesnt come up or are you getting your response to the watchwork pick ready for when it does inevitably come up in the next cdi?

Hi Gidorah,

Off topic discussion will be removed from the thread.

Regarding your first question I am currently researching this topic.

Chris

Bumping because this still applies.

This has been resolved and your friend’s account is back in the game. As far as I can tekkm this issue was handled properly.

In the future, I ask that people not post individual threads for situations of this nature, but instead post the ticket number and a very brief description in the Tickets for Review thread. Please do this only if an issue has gone without response from an agent for more than 3 days because sometimes a complex issue takes more than 3 days to resolve, but if it’s being researched, it doesn’t need a follow-up.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Please read the forums for answers:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Not-Getting-Our-Mails-Yahoo-Gmail-Hotmail-and-more/first#post2924424

And again, you may submit a ticket, but be aware if your provider is blocking our mails, you may need to jump through a hoop or two to get the mail, up to and including possibly creating a new e-mail account with a less problematic provider so that you can discuss your account issue. (Be aware that in such circumstances, in particular, we will need to verify that you are the account owner — that is essential for security so please be patient with that process.)

I think we have discussed most everything.

However several CDI members brought up the importance of accessibility and welcoming folks with open arms so I think it is worthwhile us leaving the thread open until Sunday so new or returning members can share their thoughts.

Chris

I think this thread has devolved into a “Why don’t I have my refund” thread and that’s not what’s intended here. Again, please allow time for an agent to kitten what you need and get it to you. And as always, if you have waited three full days without a resolution, you are welcome to post in the Tickets for Review thread. Thanks for understanding.

Qaelyn.7612, I’m still catching up on what I missed, but I will be looking into that feedback when I get a chance.

Let’s try and stay on topic please?

Specifically discussing CDI best working practices.

Chris

Hey all,

In case you haven’t seen some of the posts I’ve already made, I’m back! I’ll be covering PvP/WvW/Balance teams for community coordination.

That’s pretty much the short version. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here!

- Allie

Smooth Penguin.5294:

JBDanger.2603:

Gaile Gray.6029:

gidorah.4960:

aren’t we past the point where them being aware of the issue is enough? they should have addressed this a week ago and the silence seems to be creating problems? don’t you think instead of you someone who does have the knowledge and expertise should be here?

No, not at all. This is the Account Issues Sub-Forum, and posting on the subject of dissatisfaction with a design decision is quite off topic. I thanked everyone for his or her good manners earlier, and you will note that I asked them to post elsewhere. (The forum people tell me that posting in the Guild Wars 2 Discussion or Black Lion Trading Company sub-forum would be a good choice.)

So no, this thread isn’t where we’ll be discussing the matter, where previous content in this post was more related to an actual account issue (or the perception of one) and was appropriate for this forum.

So couldnt you move this thread into the proper sub forum instead of making them create a whole new thread only to get overlooked for another week? Why make them jump through hoops when all you have to do is a few simple clicks? Sounds like a good business practice to me. They create a problem and wont discuss it because its in the wrong sub forum? What a joke! Wait, whos the OP that started this thread in the wrong subforum? Guess us players need to quit discussing it here then!

This thread was to discuss something completely different, hence the suggestion to go to the General or Trading forums. Perhaps you should read the first page, and see that this thread was derailed.

Thank you. My involvement on these forums — my focus — is the review, analysis, and resolution of account issues, sort of an analyst/advocate role for account-related issues. This forum thread was created to outline the process of refunds in relation to duplicate Infinite Gathering Tools. My activity on this thread — and in the forums in general — is not an invitation to ask me to or demand that I speak outside my area of focus. I cannot and will not engage in off-topic discussions, and while I am sorry if that disappoints or upsets you, if you will step back and look at this thread objectively, you will see that that never was the purpose or this thread.

At this point, with regret, I’m going to lock this thread. I will post if there is any information about refunds in relation to the IGTs.

isolatedchimp.2510:

I’m lagging in all maps too. It’s not my internet, I’ve checked blah blah blah.

When we ask you to perform a trace route, it isn’t just your internet connection that is being checked. It will also tell us if something is going wrong between you and the game server. We have even ran into issues where one of our ISPs is having issues, and this information can help us catch that as well.

We’ve looked into this and believe it may be a hardware issue and will continue to monitor the server in question. In the mean-time, we have moved instances of Temple to another machine.

Please let me know if this continues to the be a problem.

Bug Fixes:

• Added reward chests for capturing reactor objectives in Edge of the Mists.
• Fixed a bug in which mesmer clones and phantasms would shatter prematurely if their target went into stealth.
• Bridges in Edge of the Mists no longer award WXP when destroyed.
• Made some improvements to the Triple Trouble event chain.

We have been looking at the problem, and we believe it may be a hardware issue and not the map itself. We have reconfigured so new instances of the map are being created elsewhere, and it appears to have improved.

Please let us know if it continues to be a problem, or if begins to happen on another map.

I think the discussion is still good and valuable so I will keep the thread open.

I am still thinking about topic resolution based on the ongoing conversation.

Chris

Because this thread has turned into an argument instead of a discussion, it is now locked.

This looks to be a bug that they aren’t respawning properly. We’ll get it fixed. Thanks.