Guild Wars 2

Positives:

• Great sounding abilities (chimes and bells)
• Good range on auto attack
• Natural Stride is very handy

Negatives:

• Underwhelming solo experience
• Other players are used to dodge rolling around, so auto attack healing was frustrating
• Enemies went after me when Adolescent Fire Wyvern used it’s F2 ability, leaving the fire field

Overall, why it was pretty to look at and felt nice seeing all these green numbers pop up (I was running everything Clerics + Rune of the Monk), the solo experience was very mediocre. You built this game around the notion of dodge rolling around and “active combat” and now players are use to healing themselves and moving, making the Druid’s job of healing kinda difficult and unrewarding.

I suggest widening the auto attacks beam to hit more players and increase the base damage. I also would like to see the number two ability reworked to be able to be cast on an ally, and do continual healing to them, and damage nearby enemies that the orb passes through.

My rating so far: 6/10

It’s a shame that we had to wait for other competition to come along and get ArenaNet to release some impactful/lasting content.

This .gif sums up my feelings on ArenaNets “Feature Blog Posts”

http://i.imgur.com/FDqCMNQ.gif

:-[

“We think these changes will lead to a healthier game and more long-term fun. With the China launch coming up, there is no better time than now for us to improve the economy of the game.” (27MAR14 Feature Blog Post)

The way ArenaNet said that last sentence “no better time than now” really irks me. So a new source of money is coming (China), and you guys feel it’s now time to start adding features into the game, that your current customer base have been asking forever for?

Just my opinion (might not bother everyone, but it does both me).

Wouldn’t it be amazing (amazingly unrealistic most likely) if they added a drop down menu in the Hero panel for switching professions?! (like GW1’s second profession switching ability).

:-P

From my experience, people tend to stick with/go back to an MMO they already invested a lot of hours into.

I’ve had WoW players and SWTOR players try Guild Wars 2 out, and always almost a few weeks later, go back to there respective games.

It’s seems to be all about the invested time that really matters in the end.

The March 27th Blog Post title is “Removing Restrictions”

Any guesses/hopes?

Mine would be more weapon availability for professions.

<3

Sir Vincent III.1286:

BEINGHUMAN.4167:

My issue with the Gem Store is the fact that the minimum amount of gems I can purchase with real-world money is 800 or rather, $10 worth.

Think about this, how much is a monthly subscription for other MMO’s?

Not too far off, is it?

If you make one purchase on the Gem Store using real money, you basically paid a 1 months subscription, and can only get 2-3 (cheap) items out of that 800 gems.

Your premise is so way off. The main difference is, you don’t have to purchase gems every month to play GW2, in a sub-based game, you have to pay the $15 per month to play.

I personally only buy gems when there’s really a good looking armor skin or a very useable tool in the gem store. Otherwise, it would take months before I make another purchase. On average, I probably spend $10 every other month, so that to me is like $5/month of subscription fee.

The only time your $10 is worth of 2-3 cheap items is because that’s what you’re buying, cheap useless items, like the town clothes or mini-pets for example.

Unfortunately, I don’t think you really understood my point, and that’s okay. Like my first sentence stated, the problem (to me) is the fact I can ONLY purchase a minimum of 800 ($10) worth of gems.

Not a hard concept to grasp, really.

I totally understand that no one is forcing myself or others to use real world money to buy these items.

The reason I make the comparison between a subscription base and Gem Store base model, is that that’s all we have to compare it to!

This is suppose to be a micro-transaction base system, but why am I only allowed to pay a minimum of what closely amounts to the same amount I would pay for a 1 month subscription in other MMO’s?

I can not see the negative side to them adding a five dollar option, can you?

My issue with the Gem Store is the fact that the minimum amount of gems I can purchase with real-world money is 800 or rather, $10 worth.

Think about this, how much is a monthly subscription for other MMO’s?

Not too far off, is it?

If you make one purchase on the Gem Store using real money, you basically paid a 1 months subscription, and can only get 2-3 (cheap) items out of that 800 gems.

My fix would be:

Add a way to choose how many gems we can purchase, 100, 200, 300…etc.

OR

Fix the pricing scale and make everything in sets of 400 Gems 800 Gems 1200 Gems and so on.

Sometimes I wish I Main’d a fun class that just gets to face-roll the keyboard and be good…

Freakin complicated Mesmers, no one ever gets fooled by my clones! :-[

RedStar.4218:

When you look at customization options, the current armor choices and how Anet handles armor for other races : I won’t play any new races, except maybe for an achievement. I already have trouble accepting a fully clothed Charr, but I find a fully clothed tengu with a skirt even more ridiculous.

I completely agree with you.

It makes me wonder why an armor set looks the same on a sylvari and charr, as it does on a human. If the answer is anything like “It would just take too much time/effort.” I’m sorry, but that is just lazy talk. It could be delegated to 2 or 3 people as their only job to do, and let them just work on that.

style.6173:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

No game that has stuns, should also have stunlocks. Neither the player nor his enemies should get stunlocked. It’s never fun to be completely helpless. Especially for classes with poor access to stability.

This ^^

Agreed. There is nothing less fun then losing all control of your character til death.

If I were to attempt to come up with any kind of solution to this stealth OP-ness, it would be to just go over and balance all stealth skills and traits and anything that has to do with stealth. Making sure someone can’t pick weapons and traits that give them over, let’s just says for numbers sake, 6 seconds of stealth.
Is it really that hard to comb over skills and traits and adjust any unbalances you find along the way?
For the OP-ness of being CC’d to death, maybe something like with each CC applied, the duration of the new one is shorter and shorter? Idk, I’m not a game developer/programmer and I don’t get paid to come up with these kinds of ideas.

I sort of regret going celestial’s gear.

My thoughts going into it were “Jack of all trades! Now to change builds, I only need to switch out traits and food!”

Turns out, being okay in all stats means you aren’t great in any :/

Whomp Whomp

Nice to see another MTG player!

My issue is how easy it is to play these powerful builds (Stealth or CC heavy). I don’t feel challenged when my opponent doesn’t know where I am, and I still have like 6 seconds of stealth remaining…

I feel like these types of builds should require a lot more skill to master/be good at.

I expect the easy, face-rolling builds to be Power/DPS, not CC’ing someone til they are auto attacked to death, because I have a bar full of CC skills.

Obviously I am not a video game programmer, so don’t try to retort with
“Well how would YOU fix it then?!”

:P

I sometimes wish someone who use to work for the company would do a AMA, where he/she would be 100% open and honest about the state of the company (the lack of communication, amount of focus on Gem Store vs. non Gem Store items etc.)

Not the “We feel we are doing everything we can to make this game the best it can be!” type answers we normally get.

Just my opinion.

If you want to see true “beta tester” pain, please go read some posts in the Mac beta client forum. They get neglected for waaaaaaay longer.
The lack of communication between the company and its player base is the real issue though. I don’t recall any lack of communication prior to this game releasing.
Back then, it was all hype!

Just keep buying lottery tickets, you will eventually win…something.

Good old mystic toilet.

:P

I’ve been recently trying out Infinite Crisis (a DC comics MOBA game).
Here is my Norn Guardian dressed as Atomic Wonder Woman!

I just need 1000+gold for that chainsaw greatsword skin!

…or for it to come back… :-[

-Why couldn’t they not just add a chance to get essences of luck from the exotics? Also, you would get blues/greens from level 1-79. I believe if your goal was to raise you MF, you could still purchase them on the TP, make them and salvage them from crafting OR just make another character? I don’t think Essence of Luck would be much of a hurdle to figure out.

-50 to 100 kills was just a number. I don’t make my living in the gaming industry, so I can’t know the “proper” or exact number it should be. I also don’t know programming, so I wouldn’t be able to answer how they would come up with a formula and code it into the game? Not everything I said in the post should be taken ‘exact’ it was/is an idea.

So I had an idea about how the loot/crafting system could be changed in Guild Wars 2 and just wanted to post it, and get some feedback. It’s OKAY if you think it wouldn’t work or is dumb. Just be cool about it.

What if ArenaNet changed the way loot dropped for max level characters?

My idea:

Go the Diablo 3 loot 2.0 route. Have loot drops for a max level character be less often, but more rewarding. Instead of the current way of ‘Every other kill is a green, blue, or white item’ it becomes just gold drops and after 50-100 kills, you’ll get an exotic piece of gear or tier 6 item. I never understood why we have level 80 blue/green gear in the first place. No one should be wearing it, and they wouldn’t have to if exotics dropped more often.

Counter arguments could be something like, “Well, if you did that, exotics would mean nothing. I would just get exotic after exotic, and they would become the blues and greens of today’s loot system.”

But that’s the point. Exotics should be ‘ideally’ what everyone has equipped (stat wise). The way builds run in this game is heavily dependent on gear stats. Whether you want to go full power, precision, or condition damage, you are going to have to switch your entire armor set and trinkets. There is no way around it (albeit the Celestial ‘jack of all trades’ gear).

Some people might say to this idea “But that would just make exotics value in the TP drop to nothing, since you can just find them all willy-nilly now!”

What would happen if we removed exotics from crafting, and replaced it with a more robust way of crafting visually appealing items like Legendary/Ascended items? What if instead of crafting exotics, you crafted skins (for example, the SAB skins or Halloween ones) to put on those exotics you find? With the new loot system, those hard-to-get tier 6 ingredients drop more, and those exotics you find but don’t need, can always be salvaged for more ingredients to make those special skins, legendary or ascended items.

My idea isn’t perfect, I’m just some dude who plays this game casually and bounces around ideas. There are obvious flaws in these ideas, and I’m sure much smarter people will point it out below, I just wanted to toss out the idea of changing the loot/crafting system and see if others can build off it OR enlighten me on reasons it wouldn’t work.

Let me know what you think!

<3

Ya’ll need to relax :P

Like tons of other people, I as well have been playing the Guild Wars series since probably 2008. I loved the lore of it. I loved the ‘build’ idea behind the game. I really, really loved Factions!

That being said, I understand peoples frustrations with this client.

I think it stems from a feeling of betrayal.
It’s like, “ArenaNet, I’ve been such a follower! Why have you been so silent about these issue?”

Arguing amongst ourselves in the forums about “Don’t make excuses for ANet!” or “I’ve been a fan longer, I would know!” isn’t going to help anything.

As for me, I’m just gonna wait patiently, see what happens. Today I got a satisfaction survey request about the ticket I submitted two days ago. I filled it out with a lot of the stuff that users are having issues with still and gave it a ‘Not Satisfied’ result.

One can hope when Monday comes, we’ll get another response from…someone…
anyone…
hello?
:[

JustTrogdor.7892:

This old thread is kind of funny:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/mac/Will-the-Mac-client-make-it-out-of-beta/

Jeez. If I would have read 5+ month old posts about the state of the Mac Beta Client back then, I would have never wasted my time posting stuff in the first place. Seeing the (lack of) response from ArenaNet about problems back then, it’s like very little has changed.

Whomp Whomp

It’s cool man.
Most of us just want to be kept in the loop, while our clients are bugging out. If someone from ArenaNet actually keep us updated on what’s going on, even if it were just

“Hey, we’re still working on the issues! Please be patient and thank you for your support.”

A lot of the negativity towards this Mac Beta Client wouldn’t be here. Personally, as a former IT, I would want a more technical response, but right now I’d take what I can get.

FlamingFoxx.1305
According to you, Mavericks is not supported, based on the fact that it doesn’t fall under Guild Wars 2 ‘Recommended/Support Technical Specs’ (aka system requirements). Here is what the system requirements are for Windows OS and OSX
[Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better]
[Mac OS®X 10.7.X or later]
Here is what you recommended to user Dano.5298

Yeah if you’re going to get Windows, definitely Windows 7 pro/Ultimate 64bit.
Windows 7 has slightly better performance when it comes to gaming than 8 and 64bit will make everything load noticeable faster.

Now why would you recommend something that ArenaNet doesn’t support? According to your logic, anyone who isn’t playing on Windows XP or OSX 10.7 shouldn’t expect developers to update there software, and that “…you are the one at fault.”
Now, don’t get me wrong here, I understand why you recommended Win7. It’s pretty much Microsoft’s most solid/stable OS out for gaming, the Windows XP of the current generation I’d say.
Bottom line man is this: ArenaNet came out Sep 18th 2012 and stated they are now supporting Apple’s OSX.
All I am asking, is they do what they stated and support it AND its community. When something goes wrong (I.E. Black Lion not loading, Gem store purchasing, gamma adjusting, camera rotation…) I don’t expect it to be fixed on the spot. I DO expect some kind of update to the consumer. We haven’t heard from an Official support rep in what, 3 day? And now it’s the weekend.

Thanks man for understand! <3

Man, Jaid.3205 struck home with that response!

I own the late 2012 rMBP, has a decent Core i7 with 8GB RAM and a GT 650M GFX card (mid-range, not horrible) and I get roughly 30~ fps with res @ 1440×900 and most things set to medium/high.
But, with so many little annoyances happen; the gamma changing from time to time, the camera rotation bug, the constant BLTP issues, now the Gem Store purchase ability, it has dawned on me this Mac beta client isn’t exactly up to my standards of quality.
That is why I’ve decided to no longer spend any of my USD in this game, and believe me, I’ve spent TONS (easily over $150 since launch).
I’m done with sub-par. I’m done waiting for a STRAIGHT answer from a higher up at ANet as to whether or not we are ever going to have it better then it is now (native or not).
I’ll still play, casually, and if nothing changes in the status quo for the mac users, I’ll be moving on to other MMO’s (ESO comes to mind).

Thanks for reading!

Just a heads up, ArenaNet tech support suggests keeping your mac’s up-to-date with the latest drivers and OS.
“1.) Run software update to ensure all drivers and OS are up to date. (Remember the Mac client requires the latest version of 10.7 or above)”
As quoted from Luis Machado, Tech Support. So Mavericks should never be the issue.
If ANet wants to continue “Officially” supporting OSX, they need to be sure there latest build is compatible with OSXs latest build (crazy, i know!) It’s sort of like if everyone’s client stopped working with Windows 8.1, but worse because we get bottom priority.

Welp guys, it’s late Friday. Issue has been going since patch launch Tuesday. We haven’t received an update in easily 24 hours.
Bad support, yes.

Have a good weekend!

(Here’s hoping NEXT week we’ll get an update/resolve).

Let me start by saying that I am not a coder. I am not a game developer. I do not have any background in the world of game development, so when I ask this, know it is coming from someone who is sincerely curious.

To ArenaNet, from myself and quite a few people in this forum section (Mac beta)

“Is there plans, true plans that are underway or about to become underway, at making a ‘native’ client?”

A lot of Users (myself included) have experienced issues since Mac Beta client launch. I myself, have come to the conclusion that a port like the one we currently use, will never run as effective as the clients running on a Windows machine. This is just the way it is.

It would do us a great service, and help us with making hard decisions, if you gave us an Official answer (other then “we’re looking into all options”).

I am sorry if this isn’t accurate in being posted in the Mac Beta Client Tech Support section.

Please, for anyone who thinks I’m just wasting my time asking this because they wouldn’t give us a definitive answer, I understand this.
Someone should ask, and keep asking, until we do get an answer.

Thank You for reading

Fastest, most effective way I find to prevent the camera rotation bug is this:

On the GW2 Launcher screen (where you enter you username/password) is to click anywhere on your desktop once.

Then continue hitting login and play (if you don’t have auto play checked).

Saves time from having to Command+Tab out during game.

tgUpdater version 1.11 is still bugged for me as of 1740 12DEC13 (OSX 10.9)
Gem Store is still bugged for me as of 1740 12DEC13 (OSX 10.9)

I’m right there with you Kilandros.

In my honest opinion, ANet shouldn’t “officially” support a Mac Client. It should have never came out.
It could have been left to the gaming community to find a work around (with Wine and such) and it would be in a much better state thanks, in large, by the constant work the community does to get things to run properly.
It’s disheartening to know that Transgaming/ANet can’t be bothered to keep us in the loop with what’s going on. If only a tech support person with these companies would let us know what they are trying, it would go a long way.

Huh. Another 10.9 user with a USB powered mouse input? Who would have guessed?

Thanks Praus for the info.

King Tyler the Wise is pretty much nailed it. It’s a sad day when the community is trying to find fixes and work arounds to a broken client, while we get nothing from the official tech ‘support’.

ANet, I have held you guys in such high regards. Pre-launch, you guys talked so much to the community about how this game is going to be amazing, and CARE about the players interactions. Why don’t you?

You guys release an Official Mac Beta Client (and pick a horrible company, transgaming, in the process) but don’t really support it, like you support the windows side. If the Gem Purchasing was broken for all Windows 7 users, you guys would have fixed this Tuesday, but since the issue is only effecting OSX 10.9 users, it’s not as important.

Another sad customer.

Hey guys above me!

A temp ‘work around’ for the camera rotation is to launch the game and once in game, hit COMMAND+TAB. That should bring you back to the desktop, leaving GW2 running in the background (minimized). Then just click once anywhere, then click back on GW2 to bring it back up.
For some reason, clicking on the desktop while GW2 is running, “fixes” the camera issue, BUT ONLY FOR THAT GAMING SESSION. If you quit/logoff GW2, you’ll have to do this again.

Hope this helped.

Well well well… It doesn’t take an IT to put the pieces together. Everyone above that posted there specs have one common spec, 10.9.

Maxinion even posted his specs, and said it works for him on 10.8.5

Obviously, this latest GW2 update (Dec 10th) has some issues with OSX Mavericks.

Question is, are the right people at Transgaming or ANet working on this?

My specs (Same mouse issues since Tuesday, same broken Gem Store)
Retina MBP 2012
2.3GHz Core i7
OSX 10.9

Slight work around for the camera issue Tigralily is once logged into the game, hit COMMAND+TAB to get back to your desktop. Once there, just click on the GW2 game icon in you dashboard (bringing the game back up). It fixes the camera issue, albeit only temporary. If you log out of the game, you’ll have to do this trick again to fix the camera issue.
Gem Store and Transgamings updater is STILL busted for mac users though.

Just tossing this out there, wouldn’t it be nice if ANet compensated all the poor, frustrated Mac beta client users with something? Surely keeping us happy throughout all this, excuse my french, BS is as simple as gifting us a holiday town clothing item or something…right ANet?

Cost you nothing, would make use feel a ton better (showing you actually care).

Side note, can’t buy gems. Would have bought 800, converted to gold, bought Giant Wintersday gift boxes BEFORE the Charged Quartz Crystal update removed the chance for them to drop.

Whomp Whomp

The same thing happens to me, roughly once a week. It seems to happen as a result of long gaming sessions. I’ve checked in the system preferences and made sure all my sliders and settings are set to ‘Never sleep’ ‘Never lock screen’ and so on.
Honestly, I think its more of a crash. I click log off character every time I’m done playing, then log off again at character select screen. I notice, when it’s about to crash and go straight to logging me off my computer, because when I click in-game ‘log off character’ it just crashes to the lock screen.
Really started noticing this issue, maybe 3 weeks ago, haven’t complained because its quite rare (MAYBE once a week) and I never have anything important running in the background while playing.

Confirmed here as well. Command+Tab to get back to desktop, then go back to game works as a temp ‘work around’.

Welp, there was a temp work around for the camera rotation issue posted on another page.
While in game, hit Command+Tab key, to get back to your desktop. Then just click back on the GW2 icon on your launcher. It works for that session only. So you’ll have to do this again if you quit the game.
As it’s 10:15PM on the west coast, I suspect no more tech support (aka a fix) tonight.

Thanks ANet.

I predict a “Sorry to hear about this guys. We are aware of the issues and are working on a fix. Thanks again for your constant support and understanding!” tomorrow.

Sent a ticket via the support page…
“Gem store purchases for Mac Clients is broken (the ability to purchase Gem with CC’s to be exact).
Many other Mac Client users, myself included, are experiencing camera rotation issues. These issues effect the ability to rotate the camera at normal, in game speeds, and appeared after the Dec. 10th update. Requesting assistance OR response on these issue, either through email or on the forum/mac client page. Thanks.”
Let’s see how long/what type of response we get.
/sigh

Hey J Season, thanks for the info. Unfortunately, changing the resolution didn’t fix the camera rotation speed. Changed it to windows mode, didn’t work. Restarted Client in between these methods as well.

So basically the games isn’t “broken” but not being able to rotate the camera around does basically keep me from playing.

I would like someone (technically proficient) from ANet to reply to SOMEONE about these issues. Does ANet even officially ‘support’ the Mac beta Client? Serious question.

I don’t want someone who isn’t a tech profession from ANet, to come on here and give us the “Oh we are sorry you are having these issues. We are working on it.”

I guess that’s just the IT in me, hoping for the best.

Finally, the tgUpdate version 1.11 completed and the GW2 launcher downloaded/installed a small amount of files (~10MB).

Didn’t fix anything.

Restarted Client…welcome back tgUpdate version 1.11 :[

Maybe the tech support person who works on issues like this after hours, should have an official admin/forum account and could keep people posted?

Also, my camera rotation is still broken. Rotating the camera with the mouse is extremely fast, even with in-game setting set to lowest (obviously not in-game setting problem).

Indeed. tgUpdate version 1.11 initializes each time the GW2 Client launches. It does not fix the Gem Purchase issue, and for me, broke my camera rotation speed. Holding left mouse button/right mouse button then moving the mouse makes the in game camera rotate unbearably fast.

Thanks company that’s in charge of GW2 Mac Client (Not ANet, I’m assuming)

tgUpdate version 1.11 launches now, when users try to launch GW2 client.

Doesn’t fix the Purchasing Gems issue.

Now, holding left mouse button/right mouse button makes the camera unbearable to control (camera rotation speed extremely, extremely high).

The update launches every time you launch the client, even if it successfully downloads.

Thanks, company who is in charge of Mac Client… -_- (Not ANet, I’m assuming).

Retina MBP 2012
2.3GHz Intel Core i7
8GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
OS X 10.9

I as well can not use the Gem Store Purchase window. Black Lion store launches, loads completely, click on ‘Buy Gems’ at top left, new smaller window opens, stay blank.

Obviously, if people miss out on limited time deals, and wanted to purchase, then they should some how get reimbursed (maybe something like Gems to mac users who tried to make purchases during the downtime).

It’s only what other MMO’s would do, to keep people happy because lets be honest, Mac users have a terribly optimized client to play with (beta4ever).

Last night (Dec 9th) I played for hours, trying to figure out what Chamber is was missing to get 9/9 on the ‘Discover the Chambers inside the Tower of Nightmares’. Needless to say, I failed at figuring out which Chamber I was missing. I repeated many of them often because it doesn’t let you know you’ve done the Chamber before. You simply have to remember. That wouldn’t by my biggest issue though. THAT issue would belong to the fact that the ToN doesn’t allow people to freely roam the levels, as each one gets blocked off by group events. If you’re not in a group, good luck completing those event solo.
This is my first posting on this forum, so sorry if it sound more like a complaint, then an asking for information or such.
tl/dr – The Tower is still there. The Chamber (entrances) are still there. But unable to finish them since the Dec.10th update. Missed out on the Gas Mask b/c of reasons. Lame.