Guild Wars 2

I hope this question (or my experience listed below) doesn’t sound derogatory right off the bat, but I am really interested in what people have to say. Please keep that in mind, I’m trying to keep it positive for the most part. =)

I stopped playing GW2 about a month and a half after launch. Without going into my personal reasons, I was just hoping that this fresh, newborn game would work out the kinks and gain new appeal once I gave it some breathing room. But it kind of seems like things got worse, at least in terms of what an average player has to say about the game. It doesn’t look like most of the problems I had were addressed at all, and many seem to have grown much more frightening to me.

So what keeps you going? What do you enjoy about GW2 that makes you want to hang around? Do you like the new changes? If you don’t like them, do you just ignore them or do you find that the effects Anet put in place have changed what you like doing, even indirectly?

GW2 was a blast for that first month and I really hope I can enjoy it in the future. Hope some peeps feel like responding, would be nice to hear some genuine feedback.

Where [pronounced we-are] I [h-ai] come [ku-um] from [fhu-rim] we [whe-w-w-e] always [val-hewys] speak [espiken] things [dh-ingings] correctly [correctly].

Never bought one myself but I assume you can reuse their looks by buying transmutation stones.

They should all be transmutable.

Don’t forget the personal story. Heart quests are a bit of a double-edged sword imo. They’re nice sources of exp but they get to be a grind if you depend on them too much. If you don’t have a crafting discipline that will help too. Personally I got at least 15 levels out of them.

I was going to say I have the opposite problem because I found a perfect fit with my Mesmer, but then again I’m having trouble finding an alt to level because none besides that really engage me all that much.

I’ve fallen in love with the Mesmer profession since my first BWE and while I’ve certainly tested many other classes out none really hold my interest for a long period of time. On my main I feel that every move counts in the heat of battle but when I play something like a longbow Ranger I feel like the character is playing itself with little input on my behalf. When I die playing guardian it feels like the class is so survivable that certain encounters are predetermined with little regard to your ability to save yourself (you’ll either survive if you’re geared and leveled for it, otherwise you’ll die no matter what). These sentiments may be, and hopefully are, totally bogus but that’s just what I remember from my experiences.

So in short: Can any fellow Mesmers suggest a profession or prof/weapon combo that might be good for someone who wants to hop on an engaging alt from time to time?

I see no real harm in this idea. Seems pretty convenient.

Here’s my struggle: PUGs (Even good ones).

edit: Even REALLY good ones.

I love to be challenged in dungeons. I love a HARD dungeon. But at the same time I hate to be punished while everyone in the group is well-geared, intelligent, coordinated, doing everything correctly, has a good enough build, is willing to try new strategies, and is patient. Every dungeon I enter is plagued with glitches or amazingly overtuned (or just drawn-out and in the case of story-mode) encounters. It’s crystal clear that none of the changes are being playtested.

I’m not completely giving up on GW2 because I’ll be checking in every once in a while to see if anything changes. But for now, I’ve got better things to do than slam my head on this wall in the hopes that it breaks so that I can start having fun. That’s kind of the bottom line for me. Not rewards, not shiny gear, gold or cash. Fun. I’ve said this to a lot of angry people on forums before: ‘If you aren’t having fun in a game then simply don’t play it.’ I’m going to start taking my advice.

Would be nice to see scepter be more viable in general (dunno about PvP, but I rarely find in useful in PvE). I think of it as the ‘clone spam’ weapon but it seems like most other weapons keep up with its pace or are even better in this regard. And it’s a little awkward to depend on two blocks if you go Scepter/Sword. And condition damage makes it less versatile for Mesmers like me who rely on the Greatsword. So yeah, it needs some love in my opinion.

Due to a rogue mouse, 45k of my karma just went down the drain. Would be handy if there was a return policy.

Amadeuz.4617:

sound like, people like OP just want endless gears grinding game

Sounds like people like us want a reason to play the game besides the grind.

If CoF taught me anything, it’s that AN shouldn’t have to cater to casuals who only want functional dungeons or an enjoyable experience in under 5 hours. The best players aren’t afraid to give up entire days of our lives to single dungeon runs. We tolerate the buggy nature of Magg as he runs into the flames or pulls adds for the countless time because once we’ve completed it 15 hours later we know that it took a lot of skill on our part.

We aren’t afraid to give up entire weekends to down a single boss, whose main strategy (which we find out after wipe after wipe of trial-and-error and some helpful internet advice) seems to be a zerg. By managing our group composition, timing our cooldowns, and collecting the most powerful gear, we are almost able to knock him down to 25%, which is very close to actually getting rewarded for the time spent. It may not seem like a lot but I think weeks from now, as we’re playing another game, we’ll think back fondly on those experiences.

When it comes to trying to grind through CoF, I’d agree with you. I’m used to dungeons being based on a fun challenge rather than corpse runs, etc [insert many gripes here]. Feels like an unrewarding and frustrating job, really, which is part of what people try to get away from in MMOs. Sometimes the real world is a lot more fun than GW2. I suppose it’s an unintentional benefit in a bizarre way.

Certain dungeons should be nerfed into ‘playable.’ That’s my gripe, the rest is fairly fun.

Agreed. I’ve been in a lot of groups with some great people who don’t mind spending hours to nail down an intelligent strat. It doesn’t seem to help.

Haven’t done that particular encounter, but if my dungeon experience has taught me one thing so far, it’s that ‘buggy’ and ‘poorly designed’ are not mutually exclusive concepts.

Been in plenty of excellent teams. None have been able to crack the new ‘kite room.’ There was a very good reason people avoided it with that exploit, and it wasn’t necessarily because of a few extra tokens.

Possible =/= fun. I’m done banging my head on this wall. If intelligent, well-geared, organized, and patient teams aren’t enough then I don’t know what this game wants from me.

While I’m sure CoF is POSSIBLE it certainly isn’t FUN.

Magg and have had a tentative alliance for a while now, largely because he continually ran into invulnerable enemies and pulled unnecessary mobs. I sent him angry letters, he ignored them, maybe trying to keep the whole argument civil. I can understand that. He finally agreed that after the patch he would stop doing this so that my teams could execute any number of strategies to shepherd him safely across the lava.

Magg is a liar. He pulls far more mobs, finds far more invulnerable ones, places himself in more lava pits, and willingly runs into more fire thanks to his recent patch. The only thing he’s managed to do that’s remotely helpful is resurrect himself from time to time once everyone is out of combat (never by the objective of course).

Baelfire isn’t the boss of CoF. It’s Magg. And he needs to die. And I need to kill him. He’s stolen so much of my loot already, I’m looking forward to using him as my personal token pinata the SECOND he bugs into an attackable enemy.

As far as the ‘buggy’ comment goes, that applies to all dungeons I’ve ever been in.

I don’t have trouble with that particular part of CoF because of two factors: I’m ranged and I have CC (specifically a knock-back). I assume you play a melee so here’s my suggestion to you for parts of the game involving enemies like this: be ranged and use CC (specifically a knock-back).

I knew I’d see this sentiment pop up sooner rather than later. And no, I don’t think CoF gear is ‘noob gear.’ When I consider gear, I think of two things: stats and appearance. CoF armor looks amazing on my Charr Mesmer (it’s probably the only light gear designed with Charr in mind). I was going to farm CoF regardless and much of the other dungeon gear doesn’t fit the look I’m going for so I see no reason to be ashamed of that.

My character was Arcbane in the beta (a sort of unintentional pun on arcane, because I’m a Mesmer I guess…) but it became Arc Bane on live because the first name was taken. I’m actually kind of happy about this because it sounds so much more ‘Charr-like’ this way. There are actually several Charr references to ‘Bane’, so that’s cool.

Ever watch Disney’s Beauty and the Beast? The males don’t look incredibly feline to me. I know it’s an inspiration but I see them more as typical, ferocious beasts with an odd mix of animals rather than specifically cat-like. The females totally are though.

Mine is a Mesmer. I picked Blood but I suppose Ash would make sense considering how tricky and stealthy I am. But I wanted to focus on outright ferocity and militancy rather than trickery.

I am a 400 Tailor but I’m holding off on crafting anything exotic on my Charr Mesmer because I haven’t been able to find any source that shows what the gear looks like. I have been leaning towards collecting the dungeon gear but I would still really like to get an idea of what I can make myself.

If you know what the set is referred to in the PvP locker (assuming it’s in there, I honestly looked and can’t tell) that would be really helpful. It’s hard for me to judge what a lot of gear really looks like on my Male Charr when I just see pics of Female Humans. If you can help, thanks a bunch.

I once fell through the world as was able to escape with Portals. Tried it several times after without result.

I am was doing dungeons for fun and for gear. My main problems aren’t money but rather the sheer amount of time now spent and the sheer amount of bugs that make the game impossible for me to play anymore.

I really hope someone can help clarify this.

I grew to love (as a friend, I swear!) Dinky in the PTR. We are now best pals in-game.

None of the story modes were fun for me but I tolerated their mindlessly long playthroughs. I mildly enjoyed the CoF speedruns before the patch but was quickly bored by the repetition so I tried some different dungeons. Long story short: everything is bugged. So I don’t enjoy anything.

Very Grawl-ish. I havn’t a clue where to find it, but I don’t know how obvious that is to other people. Probably won’t help, but it might be worthwhile to check out areas with heavy grawl populations.

I can barely imagine playing a different character than my main. Personally $10 is fine with me.

The problem for me (and my horrible ancient computer) is that I’m stuck between wanting a more involving, epic fight and having good performance. I know a lot of gamers can afford nice machines, but I’m stuck with what I got. It would be nice to actually have to do something in these events but the drop in framerate sometimes makes it unplayable.

If this were a personal problem I wouldn’t have brought it up, but I usually hear several complaints during each fight from players who seem to be having similar problems. It’s hard to balance, but right now I’m happy that I can stand somewhere auto-attacking, scrape by with a silver (or maybe even gold depending), and actually get something for my time. Just my two cents.

I’m on Blackgate and it’s bugged as well. Was hoping to buy a piece of gear today. I’m filing this as Bug #582.

Excellent features? Yes. Excellent gameplay? Yes. Excellent dungeon balance, bug control, bot control, lack of grinding? … I’ll give them some time.

Pay no attention to the Sylvari behind the curtain.

Female Voice: “We have cleared the way to the Citadel of Flame! We have cleared the way to the Citadel of Flame! We have cleared the way to the Citadel of Flame! We have cleared the way to the Citadel of Flame!”

(Walk up and talk to ‘her’ in frustration in hopes of shutting them up)

Male Voice and picture: How can I help you?

(/cower)

Yep. Same problem yesterday. It was our first time on that choice but my team was geared, competent, and patient. We tried just about every tactic you can think of but it wasn’t happening. Amazingly overtuned.

I was glad to press 2222222 after the 2 fights before it. I was so freaking glad once the dragons-be-attackin-your-ship fight was over…then it started over again. Wanted to pull out my hair.

Actually, having tried to go through another round of AC bugs, I take back what I said. AN needs schooling.

But nope, AC was buggy as you-know-what as well. Was on the boss that glows when you need to dodge. I dodged. I swung over in an elegant dive. The word ‘Evade’ popped up, not referring to any other projectile… I got pulled to the boss and 1 shot.

Then a teammate of mine rezzed the npc following us follow a wipe. In return the npc pulled and wiped the group.

Before this, in CoF, the npc ran into the lava where he was unable to be rezzed by all five members of my team as ranged mobs attacked us but naturally they were bugged and invincible. When he was alive, he refused to follow us and even when he made it to the end he refused to complete the objective. And naturally on the last boss of the first option, a teammate rezzed the npc after a wipe…and pulled the boss.

So it was a bad day for dungeons.

miya.5160:

No, I meant condescending to the developers.

It’s as if you’re treating them like children that need to be scolded. And a lot of posts about the dungeons and reward system have been constructive. They can take from that.

They don’t need a teacher sitting them down and asking, “And what did we learn?” It’s insulting.

I hear you. I suppose I’m trying to vent my frustration more than anything. Probably a good time for me to hop off the forums.

miya.5160:

This seems condescending.

I don’t mean to belittle anyone. I just figure the community has some constructive criticism.

Leave your negativity at the door.

It’s positive criticism time.

What are the lessons that AN should learn from their recent dungeon changes and the community response, not specific details about particular encounters, but rather large-picture ideas that will be important for the game’s future?

Gempulse.9463:

Arc.1425:

Gempulse.9463:

Arc.1425:

Gempulse.9463:

I am having a lot of fun in dungeons. They do need some work, of course. But I think explorable dungeons are a lot of fun.

Which ones? You can’t mean CoF too can you? If so give all the details, please. I’m really trying to cling to the hope that I can squeeze even the tiniest bit of joy from these dungeons. I really, really, really mean that.

I have done story mode Ascalon Catacombs, Story Mode and all three paths of Explorable Mode on Twilight Arbor, Story Mode on Sorrows Embrace and an explorable path on Honor of the Winds. I had a lot of fun in all of these dungeons.

I have mostly been running the three paths in Twilight Arbor daily. My group and I have gotten pretty good at not wiping at all in the dungeon.

Pretty excited to further try out the other explorable dungeons

Thanks a million! Unfortunately I’ve been trying to pick up gear that has the stats and look that I like (happens to be from CoF) and I really dislike how Twilight Arbor gear looks on my character. But I’m desperate for dungeon fun so I’ll give this a shot. Much appreciated.

In my opinion, currently, the dungeons are a bit too easy. Twilight Arbor explorable was pretty challenging at first, but once my group adapted, it got much easier.

Helpful advice then: ignore CoF

I don’t think complaining about one of the several bugs to come out of this patch makes anyone a noob. We could have been DPS-ing all day long, kiting all day long, sitting on our rears all day long and it still wouldn’t have made our encounter possible when out of range mobs are hitting us (so they’re invinsible) and Magg runs into the lava, dying and unable to rez even with 5 of us trying to.

I am glad you had a good experience but your encounter was far from what many of us are complaining about.