Guild Wars 2

I’m with everyone on the stance for being able to buy the items separately. But, what we’re forgetting is the fact that ArenaNet is selling the items bundled up on purpose. A rather simple business tactic, really. Customers either choose to pass on this package, or, they can choose to surrender 2000 gems. In other words, getting the customers to buy more.

Defenders of ArenaNet will try and reason with us, by saying such things as, “you don’t have to buy it.” Or, “it’s only cosmetic.” These are just typical excuses used to brush off the problem at hand rather than to come together and create a solution.

What we should take away from these outrageous sales, is the knowledge that ArenaNet is slipping away from the friendly platform it has built itself from its release. They have fallen, and fallen quite low. Soon™, there will be more of these sales, since a pattern has emerged with this package.

Don’t forget, the Immortal weapon skins are tied to these packages. There are 19 different weapon skins in the game (3 are underwater, if we are counting those). So, 2 packages are out, 17 more to go.

Roughly about 2 weeks now. At this point, with no response of any, we might as well see it as intended. Oddly, achievements still seem to be working despite the statistics page not updating.

Same for me here. The numbers in the statistics page seems to be stuck. They are not updating at all. Wins, losses, playing a game from start to finish, numbers are dead in the water. This started happening a few days ago, don’t have an exact time frame. Btw, the pvp achievements still working and updating.

Malediktus.9250:

This is worse than at release where everyone had to download 16GB instead of a few MB. Did Anet downgrade servers?

More like Anet downgraded their employees. More specifically, the computer programmers. I don’t want to sound mean, but this kitten has been happening almost every new patch.

Oh, and apparently there’s a new bug with the daily rewards system. Go figure, new patch, new bugs. Not hoping for 100% smooth sailing, but there’s definitely a pattern here.

Maybe it’s time to start hiring competent programmers and engineers. The xpac is right around the corner, and that patch is gonna have bugs flying right out of your monitor. And, no, it’s not Mordremoth attacking, just buggy software.

It’s very much agreed that with the removal of Ricochet, pistols has been destroyed. ANet has said Ricochet was too random to balance. Didn’t even bother to nerf the trigger chance or the number of bounces, just straight up deletion. Sounds like ANet gives up too easily.

With some effort, perhaps we can bring together some suggestions to improve the pistols. Ricochet was great with its bullet bouncing effect. Since ANet has deleted Ricochet into the dark abyss, never to return, I hope for the piercing effect to be implemented.

To pierce, and making it baseline is an idea we can draw upon from the thief’s very own harpoon gun. Whether or not the pierce is added to the auto-attack or to all the pistol skills, I leave that to the balancing department.

Another type of bullet effect currently in game is the engi’s exploding bullets. Just an idea we can use to help explore the world of pistols. Not saying to copy engi.

Ankle Shots: anyone else feel this could be so much better? I mean, why the situational damage boost? Is the pistol damage boost so OP to warrant a +10% dmg boost in a 3s crippled duration? And, of course, an 8s recharge on the trait.

After the nerfs to the Acrobatics trait line, at least we got Daredevil (aka Acro 2.0). Where’s Ricochet 2.0? Bring in Ankle Shots, or we should just call it beta-Ricochet. Truly we are experiencing a “1-step-forward-2-steps-back” situation.

1st impression: sees thief elite spec finally being released, checks out the datamined stuff, sounds interesting, but no WOW sensation. Immediately the Daredevil elite spec is what acrobatics should’ve been.

With no additions to range, maybe adding back Ricochet or at least something to compensate the thief’s lack of range DPS. Some encounters demand range, and the shortbow is just tickling with its low damage. P/P was made viable with Ricochet.

The guardian’s dragonhunter elite spec was seen as, “giving the guard a much needed range option.” Now why couldn’t that happen for us? Even with Ricochet, range distance was only boosted to 1050 (900+150).

Since it’s already underway, obviously Anet isn’t going back to the drawing board. But every voice should be heard.

Since the changes to the daily system, we have the pvp dailies known as profession wins. This particular daily has seen changes since its inception, with the additional choice of a profession per daily to allow you to finish it.

The suggestion of change I have is to alter the “win” to “participation”. The reason: these two daily profession wins cause many a players to only care about winning and not having fun. Furthermore, the exploitations of the autobalance system in practice mode causes much annoyance and grievance. The notion of “if I can’t win, I can’t get my daily done”, is seared into our agenda. Of course, players can just choose other dailies. But, I am here to seek a solution, instead of avoiding these two dailies.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear it.

After the changes, the thief community is experiencing 3 levels of nerf with Feline Grace.
1) The vigor nerf, which of course affects every profession, but thieves rely on evading much more. So, endurance/vigor are of great importance.
2) The trait now requires successful dodges to activate.
3) The trait now gives vigor, not an immediate amount of endurance back. Disregarding the amount of endurance gained back from this trait, thieves have to let vigor take effect from its duration.
For me, reason #2 forces the thief to be more skillful with their dodges. Reason #1 seems fair, since all professions are affected. Reason #3: vigor is a boon and can get converted/stripped.
Of course, this is all my opinion. Some will disagree, but all (thieves) will experience these nerfs.

Lots of good points made here. I would like to add, this nerf has a profitable aspect to Anet. I had joked with a friend that maybe Anet nerfed mobility so players gathered nodes slower. Moving slower, getting to places and events slower… earning gold slower. Thus, more players to likely buy gems. Now, of course, this is not necessarily the case.

Before the nasty nerf, movement-impeding conditions and movement-enhancing effects add meaning play to movement skills. After the nerf: swiftness—not so swift, cripple/chill—less impact on mobility.

If certain gaps or areas are not meant to be accessible in HoT with movement skills, make the gaps bigger. Make the mushroom jumping higher. Make the glider go farther or faster. Many options to go about addressing the xpac.

Remember the infamous mount thread. Players saying they want mounts, and players saying mounts are not needed due to waypoints. I sided with the waypoints argument. Which makes this mobility nerf even worse. Even with waypoints, we are still running from here and there. Making players get to places alot slower than before.

I will learn to live with the changes. But, IMO Anet should revert the change.

So we’ve got the previews for the guardian, mesmer, and necro. Been a while since Anet has revealed the remaining ones. Just want Anet to hurry up . So far, I think mesmer has the best looking elite spec. What do y’all think?

The changes to the new set of legendaries is a right call, in my opinion. Legendaries should be something players worked towards. Farming gold to buy is one way. But, directly working towards one is more satifying in a hands-on sort of way.

In some games, certain bosses drop certain loot, like the exclusive-awesome-raiding kind of loot. My point being that, when you saw a player wielding some awesome looking weapon or equipped with some bad-kitten armor, you’d know that they worked/killed a certain hard boss/monster.

With GW2’s current legendaries, the prestige is not as overwhelming as it should be. Not just that they’re everywhere nowadays, but you would be wondering how that person came about acquiring that legendary. Was it through a costly purchase with their credit card? Was it a gift from someone? Did RNG dropped them the precursor? Bought with gold through endless farming?

Of course, we should include the most original way: crafting the whole thing yourself.

All in all, I look forward to the xpac’s new way of acquiring legendaries.

With gold transfer changes, this got me thinking of a place most people would visit on a weekly basis: the bank. Anyways, when the changes were first posted I thought it sounded very reasonable. RMT along with other illegal activities ruin the game, so this implementation was great, in my opinion.

Now that it’s gone live, players that are legitimately moving their gold around are being very inconvenience by the system. So, as a suggestion, logically either the cap should increase OR lower the waiting period. Such as putting the restriction to weekly or bi-weekly rather than a month’s worth of time. Or keep the monthly period and raise the 500g to a larger sum (maybe 1000).

Btw, this change didn’t affect me as a player. The thread just peaked my interest.

I would also like to add, the account wallet should see some expansion in the future as there are various tokens that could see some love by being an addition in it. Right away, I would say the Silverwastes tokens. I had accumulated (at one time) ~3000 tokens, took up loads of bank space.

I would have to agree. Getting 100 interrupts is too much of a grindfest. Tier 1: 1 interrupt. Tier 2 of achievement: 100?! April is not here yet, so no April Fool’s joke. An extra zero at the end? No, because I’ve gone above 10 interrupts. So it’s simply grind, grind, grind!

Oh boy! If this is any indication of the forecoming new systems in the super-hyped expansion, there will be trouble. Mastery system, wink-wink.

Arguably, achievements are optional (there are 2 sides to this crowd). But, that’s no excuse for the unbalanced amount of the aforementioned achievement. Even within the newly set of achievements for the Dragon Ball activity, the “Dragon’s Gaze” achieve is out of order.

Did Anet even have someone or anyone, sit down, and play the game? A process known as testing the game. Perhaps the content wasn’t as important as to whether it works or not. Almost as if the 2 week mark to release new stuff came right around the corner, and they did a rush job to push out this tiny amount of content. But, to make it last longer, the traditional answer to mmorpg: grind.

Tachenon.5270:

HawkMeister.4758:

Although I´m confused how you´ve come to the conclusion post 80 skill point earning will be gone.
I´ve seen nothing alluding to this.

Makes no sense either unless they want to completely abolish XP earning after max level.
Surely that won´t happen, right?

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/reimagining-progression-the-mastery-system

“The ability to train Masteries is unlocked at level 80 for all players that own Heart of Thorns. When this ability is unlocked, your character’s experience bar will change to become a Mastery training bar while in PvE zones. This bar will track your progress on training the Mastery track you currently have selected, showing both the abilities you are training toward and those already earned from the track. To see all your Mastery tracks, spend Mastery points, and change which Mastery you are currently training, click the Mastery training bar to bring up the Mastery tray. Because the Mastery training bar completely replaces the experience bar, players who’ve reached level 80 will no longer gain levels but will instead train Masteries. This means characters that have reached level 80 will no longer gain skill points through leveling. Skill points will be added as rewards across high-level content to offset this change.”

There will still be some way to get skill points, but not via leveling.

Thanks for finding the quote, I’m too lazy to grab it .

Reading a post from a thread in the LS section, someone already said something similar to me. Long story short, they also purposed to have an interchangeable system to allow for acquisition of either skill points or mastery points.

If this option feature gets implemented, I’m sure it would please the crowd (on both sides). But, I don’t have much faith in Anet to change something they’ve already developed. I do hope Anet will add a significant increase to gaining skill points elsewhere.

After reading most of the mastery-related posts, everyone should chill. The new mastery system will most likely be locked behind the expansion. Most of the masteries are supposed to help the players survive in the jungle, as said by Anet. A new feature or content being barred from players is not without reason. It’s quite simple. It’s being introduced in the xpac, so you’ll obviously have to buy the xpac. Point of an xpac, to expand the game and make money.

As for the trait system, whatever changes Anet has concocted it’ll definitely not be locked behind the xpac. Think logically, the trait system is a component of the core game. The xpac is meant to expand the game, not lock what the game currently has to offer.

I’d be more concern about the change to the skill points/masteries issue. We no longer earn skill points at 80 but instead earn mastery points. Skill points would then be earned in more areas of the game.

A good solution would actually be having options. An option such as, choosing to earn what we want/need. For example, you open a UI and click skill points or mastery points. Then, as you play you earn whatever is active. The experience bar would indicate what you’re currently working on by color. XP is currently yellow, mastery would be another color. With this system, players can then go for either skill points or mastery points.

At first, I thought we’d have two bars. One is XP and either on top or bottom would be the mastery bar. This little stunt of replacing the XP with the mastery bar seems to aim at lowering our earning of skill points. Thus, acting like a gold sink to slow gold making. Remember, skill points can be converted to gold.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

naiasonod.9265:

I probably come off like someone that equates ‘I don’t have that issue’ with ‘there is no issue’, though I tend to look at things without a driving belief that my opinion’s anything other than that – an opinion. I don’t know about anyone else, though it pops to mind to observe that I might not be alone in that.

Opinions are rooted in something, and that’s what needs to be looked at first when you want to defend that position. If I believe something sucks, I want to at least bore down a level and figure out why I think that.

Some of us (me, at least) don’t always feel qualified to argue a point from a position of authority we simply don’t have. I know I hate trying to make a strong logical argument from a position of ‘I don’t like X’ and ‘I like Y’, anyway.

Well . . . see, that’s just it. You do have to stop and analyze what led you to not like it. See, in the case of the new Trait Mastery system? I don’t necessarily like it. If you want to make an argument about it which doesn’t begin and end with “it’s a pile of skritt”, then keep reading and figure out (quietly) your answer:

Why don’t you like it?

Keep asking yourself going down one layer at a time, slowly. Don’t leap ahead. This is how you get to the root of “Why I dislike this system” and can offer something better than “it sucks”.

Notably, a ton of people have done that in the thread. This is probably why ArenaNet devs popped in now and then to say they were reading and found it useful. The posts iterated exactly where the problems started to come in per person and painted a better picture than “fix it now!” could.

Anyone can “fix” a problem . . . but to fix a problem, that takes some time.

I can attempt to qualify my opinions as best I’m able, but that doesn’t change their nature.

Just a thought to consider! Some of us might not be trying to say ‘there is no problem’ quite as much as we might seem!

I’m on the other side of the issue – I think there is a problem, I just am not sure how deeply it goes. For the most part, this seems to be another textbook case (in my opinion of looking at this long and hard) of a system which was not given sufficient time to be shaken out of issues before hitting the live servers.

. . . and no, PTR wasn’t the answer this time. Giving the whole thing a good look over after the pieces were assembled is probably the more likely answer to solving what went wrong. A small list from personal experience.

- The Masteries unlocked from certain event participation were not always synced up properly to the tier of unlocked Masteries.
- The event participation failed to take into account a successful “defend” condition and required only a “capture” condition.
- It is improbable to wrangle people together in WvW enough to kill the Grub target without drawing the ire of others or being the “low hanging fruit” other servers might happen upon and take advantage of.
- The cost of unlocking a Mastery for one of the above events is likely to be a significant blow to the bank of a given “normal” player. As opposed to people who had been around for two years. As such the costs were not equally felt, when they could have been. (i.e. You could have used another currency, or another method instead of taking gold out from people who might not have a lot to their name.)

Well said indeed!

Let’s not forget how the manuals could be bought from the TP. Putting in buy orders, effectively made the manuals even cheaper than buying from the NPCs at: 3 gold + 10 silvers.

Manual #1: 10 silvers. Usable at lvl 11. Unlocks all adept tier traits.

Manual #2: 1 gold. Usable at lvl 40. Unlocks all master tier traits.

Manual #3: 2 gold. Usable at lvl 60. Unlocks all grandmaster tier traits.

Anet could’ve introduced a 4th manual to unlock the new grandmaster traits (roman numeral 13). Complaints of the 1st trait system was the re-traiting option. We had to visit a trainer and pay a small fee.

The way I see it, someone within the company made a very bad call on the trait system. Because of the NPE, changes were to be made regardless of whether or not the systems were broken. Take our 1st trait system, what’s so bad about it? Perhaps, the simplicity doesn’t prove to be challenging to the workaholics. So, Anet decides to raise the roof and made a mess.

Some may ask why we continue playing this game. The game, itself, is still fun and interesting. A few aspects here and there damaged the game’s good name, but not destroyed beyond repair. With our current trait system, it’s very much like a hill that you try and get to the top. Once there, you can slowly waltz down the other side. In other words, once you get past the trait system, finished leveling, sitting at 80, the game isn’t that bad.

Ironically, the change to the trait system and the NPE are better for the veteran players. The reason: we don’t have to experience it. Veteran players with lvl 80s that got grandfathered into the new system would be finished once they obtained the 5 new grandmaster traits.

Thinking back, the 1st trait system actually did uphold the play-how-you-want philosophy. Traits back then were unlocked using the 3 easy-to-use manuals. To get those manuals, you would have to buy them with… in-game gold. In the amount of: 3 gold + 10 silvers. In-game gold acts as the universal currency that buys you most in-game items. WvW, PvP, PvE all around nets you gold. The amounts may differ but they all allowed you to buy the manuals.

Now back to our baddy trait system, it has you doing random tasks all around the PvE maps. There are a few traits in WvW, if you don’t get killed by the 2 opposing servers. PvP: no trait unlocking option here. Therefore, the 2nd trait system is a major fail.

The change is supposedly going to simplify the current system we’re on. I personally prefer them to revert back to the good ol’ days of manuals. The manuals were as simple as can be. But, I am intrigued to see what solution Anet has come up with. Baring in mind that we’ve waited months and with this beautiful thread’s creation, the 3rd trait system has a much riding on it. After all, I would want my Revenant to be able to use its traits ASAP.

Strictly, from a veteran player’s point of view, many aspects of the game are locked. Yes, the contents slowly unlock as you play. But compared to the old, everything seems painfully slow. Remember the good old days where you can enter PvP or WvW right from the get-go. Now, we have to level up a bit before being allowed entry. Limits and restrictions. Many areas of the game are locked behind countless barriers. Are new players so fragile that their minds would explode if given options? Many people like a fork in the road, so that they can choose their own paths.

I did read some good reviews, so I do try and keep an open mind. There are always two sides to a story. This post is my side.

So now that we have a confirmation of change, we should have something to look forward to. We should give ourselves a pat on the back rather than sending cakes and kisses to Anet. It was us, players, that pave the way towards a brighter future. This thread, that everyone took time to contribute in, was what helped Anet.

The upcoming 3rd version of the trait system is supposed to be a more simplified version. Let’s hope they don’t create another monstrosity. We have already waited months for a change.

Furthermore, the trait system change is only confirmed. Apparently, we still have to wait awhile (probably months) before the change is going live. My speculation: either a little before HoT is released or released along with HoT. Of course, we are all impatient (as we’ve already waited months) and want the change to happen tomorrow or even next month.

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread’s purpose. One person’s voice is not enough to force the hands of a company to change their ridiculous system, but this thread worked and I’m proud to be part of it.

The new mastery abilities were said to help us in the jungle. So that should rule out the hang gliders being used in other maps. Can you imagine, everyone gliding their way into Stone Mist Castle.

I just hope the mastery system won’t be a grind to lvl up. As stated, it will become more powerful the longer you stay in the jungle. I’m thinking experience bars, linked with achievement points.

Glide away, and grind away.

Nice to see this thread is high in vitality. I feel there will be some changes from now till the release of the xpac. Whether or not the changes will be loved, we shall see.

As for the new profession, Revenant, acquiring traits would be using the system we have now. Unless, Anet changes the system before the xpac releases. Because, why would the 9th profession be obtaining its traits different than the previous 8. Even if it did, it would not address this thread’s many problems.

As for playing the new profession in the new area, wasn’t it mentioned that the new area is for lvl 80s? I’m thinking it would be similar to our current living story, where 80s would go and play. Season 2 being playable only by 80s. Speaking of which, did anyone ever try bringing a non-80 to Silverwaste or Dry Top? Just curious. But then again, there’s the option for Anet to scale up the new toons. Similar to past special events.

As for the account unlock solution, how exactly would/should it work? Is it only account unlock within the same professions? Or, is it account unlock for all professions for that specific roman numeral trait?

I, like everyone, would also support for skipping cut-scenes. After perusing the thread, some cut-scenes are skippable while others cannot. Impossible to skip is not stated. Rather, it is tedious and error prone. So, Anet has told us that it is not impossible to program it to skip. It’s just very hard to make it a reality. While I sympathize with the complexities of computer programming and coding, is there not a bright graduate in the company? Not to step on anyone’s tail, but would just like to add my name to the list of supporters for the skip button.

Baolun.8316:

Knighthonor.4061:

Hey people mind quoting this post and explaining why you like the change to the trait system for low levels?

Don’t feel like going through thousands of post against the change. I just want to know he other side of the situation.

I don’t like it, but here’s the summary based on the defenders I’ve seen in this thread:

1. Having trait unlocks all over the game world makes you get out there and explore, so you experience more of the actual content and maybe even learn to like activities you wouldn’t have touched if you hadn’t been pushed into them.
2. Having a list of stuff to do to unlock your traits gives you long-term goals to work for, so you don’t get bored and quit too soon.
3. Stop expecting the game to hand you everything on a silver platter, you need to get to work and earn your fun!

These 3 reasons sound good on paper, but it’s not what’s happening.

In regards to the 1st reason: we’re, in a way, being forced to go out and explore. Otherwise, our character would be incomplete. Traits are very important to any profession. I completed all the maps 100%, twice. As a bit of a completionist, I chose to do so out of my own accord.

2nd reason: ironically, gathering the traits gets boring and tedious. Long-term goals become long-term chores list. The change is obviously over-the-top. This thread isn’t composed of messages of love for the new system.

3rd reason: The previous system uses 3 manuals to unlock each tier of the traits. With the grand total of 03g10s, it was less to work towards. But, it allowed players to earn it within a small timeframe. Thus, allows players to start experimenting with traits to further evolve their profession’s uniqueness and power.

Stated above are my opinion, so I hope all to bare with me if I have made any mistakes or misinterpretations.

Sounds like some players just needed some hints and short-cuts for them dailies.

At this point, with this many pages, there’s not much left to be said except to wait for Anet’s response. Even rolling back to the old system would not be a bad idea when you have something like the current trait system to compare with. I would just like to stress to Anet that simplicity is not to be taken for granted. The 1st trait system offered it to us, simple and reasonable.

Whoever came up with the new trait system should either be fired or demoted. I would like to know how the new trait system is supposed to be better than the old one (with the exception of the new re-traiting function).

All the posts in this thread has provided a rough blueprint for a better trait system. Suggestions and ideas that came from players that care. I’m sure most of us here aren’t professional game programmers/designers, but here we are banding together to salvage a part of the game that is severely damaged.

The way Anet releases new updates is comparable to a gamble. They say they can’t reveal what they have in the works because failing to deliver will cause angry players coming at them with torches. On the other hand, once they announce the updates they can only hope we like it. Therefore, here we are in the forums either with smiley faces or pages upon pages of suggested changes.

Wasn’t it said that, don’t fix something not broken? For the old trait system, it was working fine. The new grandmaster traits could’ve just been added in a new manual. Following the previous manual prices: manual #1 = 10s, #2 = 1g, #3 = 2g, #4 = 3g. Affordable and obtainable in the reasonable sense.

Perhaps, new elite skills could use this system of going out and completing a task to unlock. This would fall in line with the aforementioned system of how GW1 worked by capturing elite skills. Correct me if I’m wrong as I haven’t played GW1.

I think back to when I played WoW, for something like this. WoW had talent trees which are similar to GW2’s traits. The talent trees allowed you to unlock an additional configuration slot for a different setup due to the game’s trinity system. So, config. slot #1 could be for example, DPS. Then, #2 could be for say, tank set up. Not suggesting to copy, but to use this as a blueprint to adding a functionality to GW2’s trait system.

Furthermore, the additional config. slot was unlocked for a few silvers. So, here’s to hoping (if introduced) Anet does not put an insane amount to unlock.

Don’t know how many months it’s been, but would like to know if Anet has made any progress towards a new trait system. I would render that another feature pack will answer this thread’s complaints. Players have been patient and long overdue a proper answer.

I have no problems with the new dailies. Perhaps, each of the individual dailies could be re-examined and adjusted a little bit. But, I would definitely say that the new system doesn’t lose to the old one.

I find the new system was meant to lessen the amount we have to do to earn the 10pts each day. I do recall we had around 12 dailies back then, each worth 1pt. I’m guessing Anet decided 10pts was a good rounded number. No complaints there.

Wolfheart.1879:

Anet did give a post at about page 30-40 saying they saw the issues and would potentially be looking for a fix, even suggesting a quicker fix until the main one could be in. Gaile’s first recent post was very much of the same order, and on its own doesn’t fill with confidence based on past performance. Her second post was somewhat more confident, and tentatively suggested a timescale. I understand some will say its just an indication, but after so long of this debacle, I am looking to hold Anet to that, and will criticize them even more if they don’t. It’s been too long that any slack that may be given to them on this situation has long gone. Over 9 months now guys.

Even more worrying on some level is the points raised more recently, that the resolution may just be foisted upon the players. I would suggest that every single major issue I’ve ever had with this game, every single one, comes from a change that Anet implemented where they just went in far too quickly and didn’t give enough notice for reasonable discussion and responses to take place, and/or they didn’t give the full story on the implementation. The blog on this issue (now deleted – fancy that!) didn’t give much mention to the new unlock requirements, but emphasised the admittedly great points. So much we were in the dark with and couldn’t give good feedback until it was live. So many issues I’ve seen in game could have been avoided if the players were let into the conversation at a point where our concerns prior to implementation could be aired, with some time for adjustments. So many features have come through where the players gave some potential issues pre-release, and then found many of them to be true. Most issues were predicted before release of a given feature. It is much easier to communicate with us and work the issues rather than just wait for the fallout and claim they change things “in response to feedback”. Indeed they do, but if they included us beforehand, they could have done that and not released a poorer system.

I hope Anet do keep their word on the timescale they offered, and I hope that better communication towards and inclusion of players becomes more normalised. It creates a better relationship between developer and player, and leads to a better, and much more loved game.

Absolutely correct in regards to discussion between developer and player prior to implementation. However, Anet has decided to keep us in the dark for good reason. One such reason is that if they announced something and failed to deliver, then players would explode with rage.

Hopefully, Anet will utilize this thread’s suggestions and succeed the next time around. Ironically, the trait system introduced with the game was fine as is. Don’t fix something unless it’s broken or unplayable. Anet certainly went above and beyond with the new trait system, but in the wrong direction.

If the past is any indication, Anet will more than likely spring it on players. Hope is what we hold onto in the meantime. If the changes turns out to be another mess, we’ll see another 70+ page of complaints and suggestions. Let’s hope that Anet will put us, players, first when deciding upon the changes.

Freeelancer.2860:

You can restart the fight after it’s finished using Mote. You don’t have to restart the entire instance.

You’re definitely right. But, the dragon had put a dent in my armor so I had go repair. So when I return, Wynne had to die again.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

BentoDetective.6491:

Disregarding the amount of underwater combat, an exotic aquabreather is the first of its kind. Introducing it on Wintersday and having it only available within a set timeframe, makes the item have a certain prestige (not to mention the special effects).

It shows up randomly in the presents, right? Those who got trees in the home instance thus have a means of acquiring them. Maybe. I hope an exotic Aquabreather will eventually be something we can make. (Gods only know why we can’t make them normally.)

It is possible to obtain it through the presents. But, many players have opened thousands to only get one or two. Worst case scenario, none. The most reliable way was to complete the Wintersday pvp reward track, which was a temporary track.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

This comes up every once in a while:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Cowardly-Warriors/first

Whenever it does I just quote my response:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

I think only one person really understood why a warrior would do this, or rather, why any and all classes do this:

a) It’s a valid tactic used to reset a fight. Much in the same way that a thief will stealth or use SR, it’s to provide some space for healing or to simply retreat from a fight that you are sure you are going to die in. Do you sit there and let people kill you if you have no chance? Getting away isn’t cowardly, it’s smart.

b) I’ve used GS rush and WA many times to bait people. I have picked off entire groups of 10 or more one or two at a time by having them chase, one or two getting really close, and then I swap to either my hammer or axe with a sigil of hydromancy that effectively roots them for 2 seconds and go to town. One down. Who’s next?

c) If you are not smart enough to realize when it’s simply time to get the hell out of dodge, and you’re willing to die for no reason, that’s your problem. Every player of every type of class I’ve come across has used various ways of escaping me, and it’s usually when they’ve taken a few hits they know they can’t manage long-term. Elementalist swaps to earth for stability and then air and flashes the hell out. Necro switches to lich or plague form and says cya! Mesmer spawns clones and phantasms, swaps and blinks, veils and gets away. Engi, holy crap, ever see an engi traited for mobility make an escape? You can chase one around the map ten times over. Ranger, came across one today that used his skills brilliantly. He would tap about-face, hit lightning reflexes, then tap about face again. Sword 2 and GS 3 to get even further away. He was completely uncatchable. There were 6 of us and one of him. He used his brain and evaded death while we tried helplessly to chase him down halfway across the map. Thief? I don’t think I even need to mention thief, do I? Guardians will pop Retreat, Save Yourselves, invul, and sometimes even a book not to speed away, but to stop you from being able to kill them before they get to where they’re going (usually leading you right into the group just around the corner that you foolishly chased him alone into).

A smart player uses these various methods of escape for a lot of different reasons. Oftentimes, if you see me using Rush, I’m baiting you. Come after me, do it. Break away from your group to chase me. Then I’ll turn around and crack your skull open. Your fault. Not mine.

When I first started playing WvW, I used to think the same thing: cowards. Why do they run? The longer I played, the more I understood. It’s a very simple thing: if you want to sit there and die for no reason whatsoever, I mean really knowingly die, you haven’t learned to be smart enough not to yet.

Catch me if you dare can.

It’s not even about resetting the fight most of the time, but simply gaining distance for room to regen or get your skills off CD. Don’t let it get to you.

Yes! Read this quote and simply had to say, totally right on the mark! Strategy and tactic definitely plays into combat. Unless players are dueling each other, why should someone stay if they know they are going to be defeated. If it’s heroic to stay and die, then it would also mean being heroic is being dumb.

I wouldn’t worry about the complainers calling a tactical retreat as cowardice. If they’re so pro, they should be able to catch me. Reading threads like these makes you wonder, what happened to all the nice players? You come across a few, but then the rest are unnecessarily being plain, mean.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

I guess that is why Vine Wrath has a Marionette feel to it. lanes, lane debuff lockout, limited fails.

What is sad is that it feels like Vine Wrath will be a ghost town in the next week or so because everyone will have gotten their coats and stuff. Rewards for certain bosses like these have to be much better than they are now.

This is true, once players have all they need/want they move on. Personally, I think the only way to address the “ghost town” problem is instances. But then of course, the epic feel of taking down a big boss with an army of players will be lost. So in other words, Anet’s hands are tied.

We as players must adapt to the current system, I suppose. Basically, get it while it’s hot. Play and play alot during the 1st week or you sneeze, you lose. Content nowadays are added permanently to the game, so it’s playable whenever. Playable does not equate to being able to defeat the boss or get the loot. Big bosses such marionette or vinewrath requires much players to attend. Once attendance is covered, only then do we start with strategies and know-hows.

For some scenes, it is said to be unskippable code-wise. Sounds like a challenge for the programmers to step it up a notch. Don’t mean to bad-mouth anyone, but having to see [spoiler!] Caithe kill Wynne over and over again is just bad. The first time seeing it, the scene was very dramatic and sad. Subsequent times, like all other achieve-hunters, we are impatiently sitting there thinking about that nice skip button.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Astral Projections.7320:

Can the WvW dailies be changed to, earn X number of badges or earn X amount of WvW exp? That would be better imo.

Why do you believe it would be better? I find the WvW dailies to be fine as is, and I’m curious as to your reason.

The goal seems to be to offer four options per game mode. Badges and WxP are just two. Also, both badges and WxP can be gotten more readily in EotM than in WvW. I don’t believe players need more reasons to prefer EotM.

From what I gather, the dailies could use an improvement such as generalizing the goals of each daily. Using the PVP dailies as an example, the profession-specific wins could be changed. Besides profession stacking, there’s a small inconvience for players who haven’t unlocked additional character slots. Thus, a cycle of creating and deleting takes place.

I do think the dailies are in a fine state as they are currently. As for the log-in rewards window, I wonder if there will be a way to open it? After accepting the reward for the day, the window closes until the next reset. It’d be nice to be able to check progression whenever we wanted.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Bernie.8674:

Gibson.4036:

But, at one point, they did trumpet the idea that, for example, a player who liked WvW could stay in WvW full time and not feel left behind players in other game modes.

I saw how well that played out over Wintersday when my guild mate got an exotic water breather for every single one of his characters through the PvP track while I got a grand total of 0 over my entire account despite doing all the meta achievements, doing the Wintersday daily every single day, and opening every single present I could get my hands on. The changes in Guild Wars 1 always went in the direction that you’re describing, but I think that vision has been abandoned.

Better reason to avoid RNG for specific things and let it be “select your prize” type things.

. . . though, really, did you need that aquabreather with all the copious amounts of underwater combat in the game?

As for GW2’s RNG, I would say that it’s like paying to get into an amusement park and having to also pay to get on each of the rides. Having played WoW a few years back, WoW’s RNG was (my opinion) not quite as harsh as GW2. But then of course, GW2 is not subscription-based like WoW. I guess I’m mostly targeting RNG-based items such as the new weapons that are obtained through the BL tickets.

Even if bought from other players on the TP, the hefty price for just one skin is enough to break the bank for most casual players. For the hardcore or business-players of GW2, the cost is nothing.

Disregarding the amount of underwater combat, an exotic aquabreather is the first of its kind. Introducing it on Wintersday and having it only available within a set timeframe, makes the item have a certain prestige (not to mention the special effects).

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

We’ll always have a 70+ complaint thread about anything. Even if they gave out free Gems to everyone, there’d be a complaint thread about the amount not being high enough, or something. I’m jaded on that whole score.

I wanted less the capture mechanic and more earning the Mastery. Personally, if it was a matter of accumulating through play? Like “To earn Read the Wind, earn the Longbow Master or Speargun Master achievement”. “To earn Predator’s Onslaught, your or your pet kill X enemies while they are affected by movement-impeding conditions.”

Some task which is appropriate and related to the achievement. If you really want to have them work on unlocks and travel, then you can have that too. Have them need to complete an event where a ranger NPC is involved and they’ll “offer to show them a trick” which unlocks how you earn it.

That is how I would have revamped the system myself. Overlay it on top of what already exists. Anyone can be grandfathered in, and if you visit a trainer you can pay Silver/Badges/SP (one of these things, not all of them) you can unlock earning it without needing to go PvE.

(Yes, I said silver, not gold.)

Yes, there will always be people who complain. This thread, however, has much merit to it and Anet needs to really listen to the players. I do like your idea of earning the trait through a meaningful and related task. I must stress that if something new were to be implemented, please do not make it a chore. I can agree on the amount you stated for paying a trainer for the traits (silver, not gold).

As for the upcoming possible expansion, my opinion, fix the problems within the core game first. A new addition to any game would bring with it, its own set of problems. So I say, let’s fix what we have now. Then, we can move forward with a solid foundation.

Galphar.3901:

sorudo.9054:

IndigoSundown.5419:

sorudo.9054:

Galphar.3901:

blakdoxa.7520:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Worblehat.8697:

So inconsistent…

That’s part of my complaint. The other is: “So how exactly does doing this relate to the Trait Mastery getting unlocked?”

At least with Elite Skills your target would use it. (This was a considerable problem with some of them.) After they changed the capture system, it was not too bad but the initial one was even more BS than Traits are now.

How?

You had to have the Signet of Capture ready, and you needed to hit it while targeting the user, while they were using it. For some of the Elites I just can’t see how that worked at all.

I’m not sure when you stopped playing GW1… But all you had to do was have the Signet of Capture, kill the boss and use the signet on their corpse. A menu would pop up that would allow you to select the skill you want to take, which would usually be an elite skill. It’s way easier to capture skills in GW1 than it is to obtain traits in GW2.

Originally Signets of Capture worked like Tobias explained, prior to the June 8th, 2005 update, this skill had to be activated at the same time the targeted boss activated the desired skill. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Game_updates/20050608

that’s almost 10 years ago, it’s time you keep up with the times.

Galphar was explaining something that Tobias posted. It’s time you kept up with the thread.

it still happened 10 years ago, it’s time you get the point.

No the point is that before the April Trait patch people were asking for something like the Signet of Capture for Elite Skills in GW. What we got was the Trait revamp. Now IF they had gone the capture signet route then, IMHO, we wouldn’t have this 70+ page thread complaining about the changes to how we get traits.

I have not played GW1, but I do hear great things about it. The way skills are gained by capturing them, sounds very interesting and unique as oppose to traditional unlocking. From what I can see, Anet was trying to replicate an intricate way of obtaining traits. But they ended up giving us a bad experience.

Traits along with utility skills make up a profession’s power and uniqueness. Having 65 traits locked behind tedious tasks is work, not fun. I read that some players said they pick out the traits they’ll use and go unlock those. Nice plan, but not a good solution to the system. Before the heinous April patch, players didn’t have to settle with just a few traits. We were able to unlock all traits with a couple of gold.

As veteran players, we do have the resources to buy the traits even if they are 43g + 360 skill pts. But, being able to afford something doesn’t justify the high price compared to our old system’s 3g10s. If Anet was using the new trait system as a means of introducing a gold sink, it is rather unnecessary and it hurts new players the most.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Worblehat.8697:

So inconsistent…

That’s part of my complaint. The other is: “So how exactly does doing this relate to the Trait Mastery getting unlocked?”

At least with Elite Skills your target would use it. (This was a considerable problem with some of them.) After they changed the capture system, it was not too bad but the initial one was even more BS than Traits are now.

How?

You had to have the Signet of Capture ready, and you needed to hit it while targeting the user, while they were using it. For some of the Elites I just can’t see how that worked at all.

The tasks assigned to unlocking the traits don’t actually have anything to do with the traits themselves. I feel the change made was meant to extend our gameplay without concern whether or not it’s tedious or repetitious. By comparison, the old system was way better. Will Anet return to the old system? It’s doubtful and it’d look bad on them. The only thing they’re willing to do is make a few changes here and there to lessen the miserable experience.

I just hope that Anet will change the trait system. And this time, let’s make the players feel it’s fun and not chore-like. I still state that this game is still an awesome game. The level of awesome was just lowered due to a few unnecessary changes.

Astral Projections.7320:

I leveled 9 chars to 80 the old pre NPE/trait system way and enjoyed it. I’m saving up tomes now in case they give us a new profession/race so the new trait system will have the least impact on me. I’ll still have to do it but at least I can power through and get the minimum needed for one build. (So much for the new trait system encouraging experimentation).

Yes, that is a great plan. But the tomes shouldn’t be the answer to the leveling process. Not saying they’re bad, but the NPE just doesn’t cut it when the old system was better. The new system locks many, many things. Restrictions don’t lead to experimentation. The NPE isn’t as new-player friendly as Anet claims. If anything, it tests our patience.

After making a new character, I’ve finally started to experience all the NPE changes. I must say that a majority of them are not as good as ArenaNet wants them to be. A positive change would have to be the ability to re-trait anytime, anywhere for free. The other changes are, in my opinion, bad. Having to complete a task to unlock a trait is tedious to no end and we’re talking about all the major traits. Otherwise, they would be locked making you unable to use them.

But, say you choose the option of buying them. The cost is ridiculously more compared to the old system. 43g + 360sp for all 65 traits. Back then, the 3 manuals together cost: 3g10s. I felt the pacing wasn’t bad with the 3 manuals. One was at lv 11, 40, then 60. Inbetween the lvls, players should/would have accumulated enough gold to buy them.

The new system has you running all over the map to complete tedious tasks on just one character. This definitely has players think twice before wanting to make new characters nowadays. It has officially become a grindfest, even though the game initially was casual.