Guild Wars 2

If we ever see a new playable race, I’d be much more interested in Kodan.

So I tried WvW for the first time this evening, and yes, I’m awful at it. It would clearly take me a while to have any clue what I’m doing, but that’s nothing new – it happens in every game where I try PvP.

But hefty repair fees for being killed over and over by (sometimes invisible) players?

I’m baffled as to why learning to play this aspect of the game was designed to be so punitive. (And that’s coming from someone who still plays Eve Online, where everything is designed to be punitive.) I gather from reading other threads in this forum that there’s occasionally loot involved in WvW, and that people generally make more gold than they lose at it – you sure couldn’t prove it by me.

Guess I’ll take up WvW again when you eliminate PvP repair fees, or when I have a lot of gold to burn on being bad at it. Until then, I can’t afford it.

It’s a very active class. If you’ve been playing Guardian or Warrior, it can take some getting used to – Elementalists have twice as many abilities, (despite the lack of weapon swapping) and you often need all of them to stay alive and effective.

Update: After today’s maintenance on the commerce system, I can use the trading post again.

Unfortunately, most of the things I’ve tried to buy in the last few days (All of which timed out at the time and gave me messages about the transaction not going through) just showed up in the trading post pickup tab, and the gold they cost is now missing.

While I’m happy I can use the Trading Post again, (and the gold isn’t really a huge deal – I can get more) I suspect that anyone else this happens to is going to be quite unhappy about the commerce system processing duplicate transactions days afterwards…

I’ve had this problem for about a week now. Tried this as a bug report and in the problems thread for the Trading Post forum – I’m hoping someone here can suggest a solution.

I can browse the trading post, but I can’t buy anything on any of my characters. Any attempt to buy directly (I’ve tried 50+ different items, several hundred times) pauses about ten seconds and then gives me the message “Sorry, your order did not match any current listings. Please refresh and try again.” Refreshing shows the same prices available.

Placing a custom order is even less functional – the Trading Post window simply ignores any attempt to click on the “Place Order” button no matter what price or quantity I enter.

Things I’ve tried to solve the problem:
-Restarting the client repeatedly
-Rebooting
-Deleting the Local.dat file from Documents/Guild Wars 2
-Stopping the Awesomium.exe process and restarting the client
-Turning off my firewall and virus protection
-Updating my video drivers
-Loading older versions of Flash (tried this because I remembered there was a Flash update a couple of weeks ago)
-Starting Guild Wars 2 with the -repair argument (8 bad files deleted)
-Running GW2 as an administrator (using Windows 7)

None of this has fixed the problem – I still can’t buy anything on the Trading Post. Any suggestions?

I like gathering in this game.

-Anyone can gather anything – I don’t need a special skill to gather specific items.
-No competition for gathering nodes.
-I don’t have to kill everything in the area in order to access a node.

Making sure you buy gathering tools often enough can be annoying, but you get used to it. (And every MMO needs its cash sinks.)

Haven’t been able to do anything but browse the trading post for about a week.

Any attempt to buy anything directly (I’ve tried about 50 different items) times out with the message “Sorry, your order did not match any current listings. Please refresh and try again.” (Refreshing shows the same things listed at the same price and further buy attempts still fail.) Placing a custom order is even less functional – the interface just ignores any attempt to click on “Place Order” no matter what the quantity or price.

Selling items from inventory appears to work, (the items disappear and I get the “X sold for Y” message) but no trade profit ever shows up for collection.

Any suggestions? (I’ve tried restarting repeatedly and turning off virus protection and firewall on my gaming system, with no change.)

I’ve been playing online RPGs since the early MUDs, when “massively multiplayer” would have meant fifty players online at once. The list of MMOs I haven’t played is probably shorter. (AC2 and STO are the only ones that come to mind.)

As for GW2, despite concern about where the game is heading, (I’m really over grindy games, despite having enjoyed a few in the past – I think Aion was my last gasp for that playstyle) I’m still enjoying the game. The art (particularly the landscapes) is often spectacular, and the combat is challenging enough to be fun without being punishing. Almost everything about the game is engaging – NPC conversations, dynamic events, huge world to explore, lore items in unexpected places, jumping puzzles, (which seem like a celebration of the ability to jump, after being glued to the ground in GW1) etc.

Perhaps ironically, one of the few things I’m not too fond of in GW2 is the central storyline. I keep wanting to whack the members of Destiny’s Edge upside the head, and I’d really like to give Trahearne a hotfoot, or aphids in his bed, or something.

Veltoss.9135:

How do you guys benefit from getting so worked up about it and just generally freaking out 24/7 on the forums? I don’t get it.

You answered your own question in the previous sentence:

They have already said they will be adding a lot more ascended gear and many more ways to get it.

1) It’s quite a grind to get – much tougher than any tier of gear so far. (Legendaries weren’t a tier before this, since their stats were identical with exotics.)

2) They’re adding more of it, which implies that each new dungeon will gate content by requiring more of it.

It’s a fundamental change in the way dungeons work in GW2.

They may confuse the popularity of FotM (which I love, and which has people hanging around LA in huge numbers to run it) with approval for the new ascended gear associated with the launch of FotM. (Which I think is an awful idea, and is extremely controversial both here on the forums and in-game.)

It’s too bad these were tied together.

Soulhunter.2158:

if i’m not totally wrong they don’t drop – they can be harvested

Supposedly they can be harvested from Passiflora nodes, (the wiki says this is the case) but in about 200 attempts with Ori sickles I have yet to get one. This may be what the OP is referring to.

I’m as willing to believe in corporate greed as the next long-time gamer, but there’s about half a fact in that piece and a boatload of inference and wild guesses.

That way on my desktop is Eve. —>

<— GW1 is this way.

Come to think of it, so are LOTRO, SWTOR and… holy cow, is that Aion? I still haven’t uninstalled that? Wow.

They have my respect. But from my perspective, part of that respect is the assumption that they can take criticism when it’s warranted. (Taking abuse and hyperbole, that’s another story.)

Crushed? No.

I’m a bit annoyed about the other loot from an event I couldn’t attend, (Seriously, the 20-slot box and the accessory are both better than anything I have on any of my three level 80 characters) but I’m only about half done farming the other stuff for the legendary I’m working towards anyway. Hopefully by the time I’m done they’ll have implemented the scavenger quests for precursors.

lisamee.2408:

I would love to see a “solo friendly” zone for level 80. Not every level 80 wants constant challenge and group play. The mobs are too many and too strong to enjoy being in ORR. Even in a “zerg” the event battles are too long for the reward you get.

Try Frostgorge Sound. The northern end of the zone is level 80ish (it has Ori and Ancient Wood nodes and level 78-80 mobs) but it’s not as crowded as most of Orr.

Of course, for those same reasons, you run into a lot of bots.

“Betrayed” is way too strong. The event was pretty buggy, but that’s hardly a betrayal – just mild incompetence in one stage of the design process. Hopefully they’ll work on that.

I didn’t like the one-time event aspect, (mostly because I wasn’t able to participate in the final stage) and I’m not too happy about the new gear grind.

All that adds up to no more than an annoyance, though.

All the stuff they’re working towards sounds good. I hope that will be combined with a behind-the-scenes revamp of the QA process for future one-time events, because wow did this one need more testing.

If this game were any more solo friendly, it’d be a single-player RPG.

Unless there’s some method I’m missing of getting them, (or I’ve been extremely unlucky) passion flowers are much harder to get than orbs. I have yet to see a single passion flower in about 200 Passiflora nodes gathered with Orichalcum Sickles.

Not going to bother with ascended gear. If this makes it hard to get dungeon groups, I’ll play something else. It’s what generally happens when I get bored with grind in an MMO.

Given how tough the champion in that room is to kill, (that leap attack is murder) something better than the two blues it dropped for me today would seem to be in order. Preferably in a once-a-day chest to deter people from farming it over and over.

Or I can just take turns distracting it with whoever else is there so we all get the Ori node, I guess.

I’m not sure the hyperbole helps. I’m not happy with the latest change in direction, but it’s still a great game, and I’m still having fun playing it. (Except for one-time events I can’t participate in, but that’s a different issue.)

If it gets to the point where I have to grind for gear to be accepted in dungeon groups, (and I think these changes may bring that about) I’ll undoubtedly stop playing. It hasn’t gotten there yet.

E Tan.7385:

In this thread there is a LOT of constructive criticism about the ascended gear treadmill.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Thoughts-on-Ascended-Gear-Merged-threads/page/222

But Anet closed it because of false excuse.

I wouldn’t categorize it as a false excuse – that thread had gotten pretty circular and pointless.

The problem appears to be that the decision to incorporate a long gear grind has already been made at a corporate level. In support of this, we’re being told it isn’t intended to be a grind at all.

It’s a bit like selling someone a cow, then replacing it with a pig a couple of months later and telling anyone who comments that it’s still intended to be a cow. We can’t help it if you keep treating it like a pig! It still has four legs, and we promise we’ll work on training it to moo!

MatthewMedina.5419:

The Skipping Stones jump puzzle was co-authored by a couple of the members of the team. Jordan Anton did the design, and he was partnered with Jason Jones on the environment art. But the spirit of Josh lives in all of us whenever we create one of these puzzles. ;-)

Congratulations to both of them, then. It’s a fantastic puzzle, I loved it. (And that’s despite a personal antipathy for timed jumping puzzles.)

Unless you’re salvaging hundreds of rares and exotics after each patch, you don’t have enough data to figure out whether the rate has changed or not.

Not surprised at all. I’m just glad they left the node in and added a champ guarding it instead of taking the node out.

Swarthy Avenger.3072:

If you accept the concept of levels in MMOs, you must accept the concept of gear progression as well.

Why? The two things don’t seem inextricably linked to me. In fact, they haven’t been linked in this game for endgame gear, until now. Before this update, endgame gear progression was entirely cosmetic after the first week or two.

I haven’t noticed any lack of enthusiasm for dungeons or dragon fights, so clearly people can be motivated by something other than stat-based gear progression.

If ascended gear was created as a bridge between exotics and legendaries, why does it have better stats than exotics? There was no stat gap between exotics and legendaries until this new tier came along.

I’m using a dual Pistols&Elixirs build at 80 (Pistol/Shield&Elixirs in PvP) and I don’t feel at all underpowered compared to my 80 Warrior or Ranger.

Try a different build? Stack different stats? (Pistols need condition damage and precision to be effective.) Try different tactics? Not sure what else to suggest.

…what?

That’s crazy. Who was going to farm a thousand Karka shells in the twelve hours the merchant was up?

The new content is great. I like the jumping puzzle (apparently there are two, but I’ve only seen one – looking forward to finding the other one), the new zone is fun, challenging and attractive, and the new dungeon is fantastic.

Not so happy about the events associated with them, which were inadequately tested (phases 1 and 2) and poorly designed. (phase 3)

Still, since the parts I didn’t like are over and the parts I like are still around, it’s a net positive.

Phases 1 and 2 were bugged to heck, phase 3 started at a time when I was busy and ended before I logged in this evening.

Here’s my feedback: I’d have been happier with the new content if it had just appeared without this weekend’s events.

So the feedback thread in which everyone expressed their dissatisfaction with the numerous bugs in this event was lost to a bug?

Right, then.

Things I liked:

The new zone is great. It’s nice looking, the jumping puzzle is a ton of fun and fits in well with the zone theme, the mobs are challenging enough to be interesting. The drop table for the new mobs could stand to be looked at, but aside from that I really like Southsun Cove.

Fractals is a great dungeon – gorgeous, varied and well scripted. The DC bug is a tad obnoxious, but I’m sure that will be fixed soon.

Things I’m not too sure about:

Ascended loot and infusion slots. Are we abandoning the cosmetic basis of endgame gear for the same never-ending grind for minor equipment upgrades I dislike in other games? Wasn’t this game supposed to be free of that?

Things I didn’t like:

This event was so buggy that it’s hard to believe there was much testing done beforehand. A bug or two I can understand. Every phase and quest having major bugs, not so much.

The communication from Anet over which bugs were being fixed, which events would continue working and which would be shut off, and just what was going on was enormously confusing. I waited long periods for events that were bugged with no updates given about when they’d be fixed, and just as long for other events that turned out to have been shut down despite forum posts saying the bugged portions would still be doable after the end of phase 1.

Edit: And apparently I missed phase 3 altogether, because it took place at a time I couldn’t log in and it won’t be repeated. Frustrating. Please don’t do this again.

The other waypoints aren’t available until the zone clearing event is completed. The event was reset in last night’s patch, so I’m guessing you’re in an overflow zone where it hasn’t been completed yet.

Either that or there’s a new bug.

Black Regent.5897:

1. The Reef Riders have waaaayyy too much health. Since they have little else going for them this just makes them an annoying and time-consuming roadblock.

They’re fairly nasty if you’re running a build that depends on boons. I just about got killed by the first couple I took on, as they stole Might, Fury, Retaliation, Swiftness and Protection in rapid succession and happily used them to beat the heck out of me.

Lesson learned, don’t use boons while fighting Reef Riders.

Not having much of a problem with Southsun mobs on my Engineer now that I’ve got the hang of the new mechanics. (Some of them were pretty challenging solo before I figured out how to take them on.)

The drop tables are a tad disappointing for a level 80 zone, but I’m sure that will be addressed at some point after the weekend event.

I’m not usually a fan of jumping puzzles with a timed element, (I gave up on the Mad King’s clock tower after about 20 tries) but I really like this one. It’s a bit annoying to do when lots of other people are attempting it at the same time, but that problem will fix itself in a few days.

I’m usually pretty tolerant of bugs in MMOs. They’re giant, ridiculously complex pieces of software – of course there are going to be bugs.

This event, though, has been enormously frustrating. As far as I can see every single part of it was plagued by some kind of major bug, (often more than one) and the attempts to communicate what would and wouldn’t be working and for how long were even more confusing than the bugs.

I give up. I’m just going to pretend the new zone and dungeon (both of which are great, by the way – nice work there) opened without an event. I’ll be much happier.

Maybe a bit more testing next time?

The event stuff is pretty buggy in places, which probably indicates that they need to iron out some wrinkles in the QA process for future events.

Still, I’m having a lot of fun. The story aspect is enjoyable, and the new content looks great. The commendations seem a bit lackluster, but I think short term cash/item sinks are a good idea in general.

It’s a mild step in the right direction – better than nothing while waiting for the scavenger hunt. (Which, given that these are legendary precursors and therefore should be tough to get, will undoubtedly be a lot of work to design.)

While some of the complaints are overblown, I have to say that compared to Warrior, Ranger or Engineer (the three classes I’ve played to 80 so far) my Elementalist feels pretty underpowered.

I should have named my character Rincewind, since the epic personal storyline consists of me fleeing at top speed from everything under the sun hoping to be saved by heroic NPCs.

Iron Legion for my Charr Engineer – it just seemed like the natural choice.

The Guardian I intend to start shortly will be Blood legion, because I want to see how the story differs. (And I can’t picture her being popular on Ash legion operations while clanking around in heavy armor.)

Tried to deposit something (L80 Shaman’s Norn Dagger of Air) in my guild bank after tonight’s patch – the item disappeared, and everything in the bank is now frozen in place. Characters that try to access the guild bank from any city other than Lion’s Arch are informed that the guild doesn’t have a bank yet.

Update: The original item reappeared (although it’s only visible to one character) and I’m now able to remove things from the bank on some characters, but not on others. I think I’ll hold off using the bank for a while…

Fix soon, I hope?

I’ve been having a lot of fun with the Halloween stuff. Not all parts of the event are to my taste, (I’m not that fond of timed jumping puzzles) but so what? That doesn’t reduce my enjoyment of the rest.

I’m betting the lion statue blows up, killing everyone gathered in the Lion’s Arch Grand Piazza. Then the servers go down.

Surprise!

I’ve hated timed jumping puzzles for decades, so I gave up on this one as soon as I got frustrated with it. I’m glad it’s there for the enthusiasts, but I have no deep-seated need to punish myself by completing the stuff I don’t enjoy.

The personalized bags have slightly different loot than the regular trick-or-treat bags – more crafting components, and a small chance of crafted rune recipes. (You can also get the personalized versions by giving candy corn to the costumed kids in Lion’s Arch.)

The Gendarran Fields meta-events appear to be broken right now. (They can be completed over and over in an endless loop, but the portals that spawn at the end are just slightly buggy versions of the regular haunted doors.) Probably best to stick with Queensdale if you’re trying to enter.

The event to activate them in Gendarran fields is either bugged or severely confusing. It just goes on endlessly, whether we hold the barrier sites or not. Either way, the doors do nothing.

I guess it’s nice for farming karma.