Guild Wars 2

DeShadowWolf.6854:

I think there are three main components to be considered for unid gear:

1) Inventory space. The fact that unid gear stacks is AMAZING compared to the kind of inventory problems you could have after a single AB meta.
2) The price. 1s 68c to identify 1 piece of gear is just far too high, even considering rares/exos
3) The rarity of the items inside. No one wants to salvage green unids that could have been rares or exos.

Here’s what I would suggest: make 3 variants of the unid gear: Masterwork (contains blues and greens), Rare (contains rares), and Exotic (contains exos and, if they can drop from unids, possible asc). This still massively reduces clutter, but also allows players to salvage and identify as they want. This gives a second opportunity: varied identification prices. 1s 68c is way too much for the green gear, but is perhaps not bad for rare unids. Anet could then tailor the prices to where they actually seem worthwhile, while still being a gold sink.

I hope they implement your ideas. But I’m worried it’s going to seem too reasonable or something.

octagon.6504:

ESO started out making the content pretty hard as they wanted every boss and mini boss battle to be epic. Most casuals didn’t like it and the place became a ghost town. A hard fight is good every once in awhile but it’s different when every fight is a challenge.
So they made content a lot easier and the casuals came back. When-ever I’m on I see lots of people. GW2 is moving towards making every fight epic and we will see how their numbers do. But others have done it and the most successful MMO’s aren’t the ones with the hardest content.

There is a reason why WoW became popular and opened up the MMO genre to the general public. Before WoW, 99% of people were not going to play MMOs the old-fashioned way where you lost everything and every mob was a champion-level fight. The money is not with the hardcores. It never was.

Considering how many weapons we get in junk loot, it sounds like this’ll cost an absolute fortune. Why do I want to spend all my money identifying things that previously I could see at a glance?

I don’t need to save bag space. I have plenty of bags.

Seyiwaji.4082:

This is the wrong question.
YOU NEED TO ASK:
WHY DO YOU REGRET BUYING HO?.

LOL I’ve seen a fair number of people say they do regret buying. I’ve had moments when I’ve regretted it, usually owing to some completely unnecessary frustration built into the system or another. Overall, I don’t regret buying it because there are some things about it I still like. I like gliding and mushroom jumping. I like VB. I like the Season 3 maps (most of them). I like the story (most of it).

My main problem with HoT is that I don’t feel like it’s “aging” well with fewer and fewer people playing the maps. Most players have moved on and even more will move on with PoF. This has the potential for new players to buy HoT in the future but not be able to get their characters through all the content.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I have been to Dragon Stand on and off this entire week and yet every time I arrive the maps are empty and nobody is even there except maybe a couple at the first camp. Once in a while I see another player running solo. Here’s the problem the Meta isn’t being done at all…

What use is a map that you can’t even accomplish events when you’re sitting there all alone. It may be necessary that at the hour left to reset mark to change the mobs to something a solo/ small group can handle it. I would prefer the solo be in the works so events can start early, it would also encourage people to just to start doing events. There will be an influx of players in the expansion that bought HoT but that isn’t going to be their focus with new material.

There is recipies, gear, and other goals to complete there, can we please get a playable upgrade to the map. The other HoT zones so far haven’t been so far gone with small pops but they could use a scale down to LS3 material to prevent the areas from becoming dead zones.

I have a few achievements that should have been doable over my week off. But a dead map is a dead map.

It’s annoying. I’m not a fan of a map that has an event you absolutely need to do all the way through in order to get map completion. Or a map that “ends” and kicks everyone out of. All the conventional wisdom about taxiing, timing, LFG, etc, etc. hasn’t really helped me much here. Something always goes wrong.

I run out of time to play before finding a large group, the group I get into gets split up when the map switches, the group I get into is too small and more people don’t come along before the map is no longer “viable” for the event, there are no LFG groups listed that evening, all the groups in LFG are playing on “closed” or full maps, etc. I could keep going. I didn’t have these problems nearly as often when the maps were new. It seems to be a thing in the last few months that I’ve had so much trouble.

I think the difficulty in finding a run can turn off new players. I’ve seen complaints to this effect in the maps I’ve been in. New players especially don’t understand why the event doesn’t work like other maps that don’t “close.” Or why they can’t finish their maps without the event (the areas just remain open all the time). They don’t know if they want to buy the new expansion and get more of the same, etc. I wish I had a way to alleviate their concerns, but I just don’t.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Vayne.8563:

Long before HoT came out, people complained about the zerker meta forcing people into certain builds. And there have always been people who ignored it and played anyway. The game hasn’t changed.

Yes, it’s horrible to have to go to a timer site, except that this situation existed long before HoT. If you wanted to do world bosses, long before HoT launched, you needed to go to a timer site. If you wanted to do the great jungle wurm or the fire ele or the frozen maw, or the shadow behemoth, it’s been many years and you’ve had to look at a timer site all that time. That changed long before HoT.

I know it’s very fashionable to blame HoT for every ill this game has, but those things changed long long before HoT was released, or even announced. The game has changed, that’s true. Some might even say it evolved.

That’s not entirely true with timer sites to be honest. The HoT Metas and world bosses are a world apart, both in difficulty and style. I never needed a timer site for any of the world bosses. And with the mega server change, they did go on a schedule, which has been years, maybe needed to look at a timer more whenever I needed a specific boss, which is rearely to be honest. Also rewards for worldbosses are barely worth mentioning, while for some of the current metas that is exactly where you get alot of materials.

Dragon’s Stand is worse than the other metas though, most of the rewards are behind a successful run, however… the biggest problem is that it does not even start if you don’t have 15 people. I can’t comment on how difficult it is with 15 people or whichever, though I have no doubt it might as well be possible.

The problem in my opinion is that it’s another hurdle to even start to get the ball rolling. If you can start it and do the events, then you can get some loot from the events as well as a possibility for more people to actually start and attempt to finish the meta. More often than not it’s possible to finish the meta successfully.

It’s really annoying to stand there and realise you need to get 15 players together otherwise you can’t do anything in Dragon’s stand. And I think the game doesn’t need that 15 player minimum to protect people from “failure”. I rather try and fail than not being able to try at all.

I don’t know if it’s possible to complete the meta with only 15 people, but I have been on several maps with 15-20ish people and I’ve never seen it completed with that few. It just doesn’t seem to scale well. Even if by some miracle we can make it through all the camps and champs, we wipe at the blighting towers. I honestly don’t know how 15 people would get all the way through this.

Given the relatively few people I’ve personally seen playing Dragon’s Stand, it would help a lot if the events scaled down to how ever many people were doing them, whether it’s 2 or 200.

Either that, or Anet is going to have to come up with a really great reward that will keep players coming back to these maps once they’ve finished buying everything they want with the currency and have gotten 100% on their own maps.

I don’t know exactly how the new PoF regions will work. But the focus on this expansion is mounts, so I assume the maps won’t be as vertical as the HoT maps were. I assume there will be plenty of flat terrain for people to ride their new mounts on.

I agree. The repeatable hero challenges look exactly like the ones you’ve never done before. There’s no way at all to tell which repeatable ones you’ve finished and ones you have yet to do for your map completion. Very annoying.

Randulf.7614:

It would be a real shame not to go via Ebonhawke. That guarded gate is begging for this use since inception

That sounds really cool, actually. I like it when zones are adjacent to other playable zones and you can just walk in. I have missed that with the Living Season 3 zones. No getting there by walking in from other usable zones.

PzTnT.7198:

I don’t mind the mastery system as such. It works well for what it does. But the kitten mastery points being like they are is what i really hate about the system and why I’m unlikely to ever fill it out. Quite simply i am not an achievement hunter at all and that’s what a ton of those points are gated behind.

Id love for a way to get them that doesn’t involve the adventures or achievement hunting. Even if i have to buy them for gems it would be an improvement in my case.

I gave up on everything that wasn’t bronze in the adventures. So not my thing.

ElectricGoat.8253:

Is there any form of walking way to get to the new PoF map. Preferably with tons of mobs for me to kill along the way.

I doubt we can walk there since it’s on the other side of the sea, right?

Will there be PoF masteries specifically or will we be able to get the mounts using the current mastery system (HoT)? I have some HoT points left over that would be nice to use in PoF…

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I’m Central Time Zone, as in the Midwest of the U.S.A.

Generally the instance right around server roll over time, and the one just after are pretty easy to get into. Try to make sure you’re in a commander’s group before the map refreshes and everyone dies. Those in the squad will load together.

Additionally, just because a group is small in the LFG doesn’t mean its not a full or near full map. A lot of people will ferry for the larger squads.

Still, I can understand the frustration. I’ve had stretches where getting into a DS map with enough ppl to complete it was nigh impossible. I’ve given up trying early mornings on weekends, which is (sadly) typically when I play.

See, this is what I mean. Even people I know of that aren’t having as hard a time as I am are saying they are working two, three, four hours just to get into a viable map. They talk about their play time getting eaten up trying to find that one map that can complete the event chain all the way through. Frustration, indeed. I figured that playing at U.S. prime time would be a sure thing, but it’s just not.

I don’t know what you mean about being in a squad and everyone loading into the same map because that doesn’t always seem to be the case. I’ve been in Dragon Stand squads of 50 people 10 minutes before map reset and when we all get booted into the new map, there are maybe 4 or 5 of us on the same map. Everyone else is on a different map or more than one different map. When that happened, I’ve tried to click on someone’s name in the group like the leader’s, and port immediately into their map, but it will say that the map is closed or full. This is just a minute or so after reset. Things like this keep happening to me.

My experience and the frustrations of others’ experiences make me think Anet would do well to consider changes to some of the jungle maps to make it easier for a smaller number of players to actually play and complete content that seems only designed for uber large groups at launch time. That kind of design is good for maybe a few months or a year or so at best. Then new content comes along, crowds thin, and suddenly champion level HCs and meta events for 150 people that completely block map completion don’t seem like such a great idea anymore.

Also, the whole map ending thing is just unnecessary. Other event chains work just fine in maps that never “end.” Don’t see why it couldn’t work here, too. I just think the addition of Path of Fire is going to make things like Dragon’s Stand even more irrelevant.

I feel kind of badly for new players coming into the mastery system now, especially for HoT. I’ve talked with some people in the LW Season 3 areas and they don’t have some of the later masteries like Advanced Gliding and Leyline Gliding. They were telling me how they were having trouble with some of the new story maps without those 2 especially, but they haven’t really had a chance to get that deep into the lines before being ready to move on. They say it feels like a lot of grinding.

I wonder if this is a new trend…all the gods coming back and they’re all evil now…we have to take a break from fighting dragons to fight all of them…

I assume the point of having a guild is to socialize.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Well, I already know how often the Dragon Stand meta runs. I know how long the maps last and when they turn over, but it doesn’t do me any good. Even when I watch for every new map beginning, there is still no way to get into a fullish map. Either the maps are empty or they’re “closed” or “full.”

Trying to get the meta for weeks. I don’t need the condescension of people saying “Well, I can run DS 15 times a day every day whenever I want.” Great. But this is not the reality for everyone.

I cannot play 24/7. I can play usually between 6-10 pm. This is when I watch for events. And I’ve been able to find nothing for DS during this time for weeks now. It is not from lack of watching the times or trying.

People aren’t being condescending any more than you’re being argumentative. They are describing their reality which is: DS is running all the time; it’s always possible to get on a map. Your experience is that you can never find one.

So those who can find one have tried to explain what they do, so you can also do that and get into a DS map at will (when it’s up). (Ideally, they should also try to figure out what you are doing differently that is making this harder for you.)

If you’re already aware of the when:

• Are you getting to DS well before the relevant time?
• Do you go to DS first or look in LFG first?
• What do you see in the LFG? Is it empty? Or do you see listings that don’t seem to apply?
• What time zone are you in (and what region)? (So we know what you mean by “6-10 pm”)

Yes, I’m always early for the event. It varies. Usually, I check LFG first. The times when I’ve gotten into a map, there might be a lot of people about 20 minutes before the map ends and we all get thrown. Then all those people get divided up into multiple other maps and the ones left on my map are a fraction of the ones from 10 minutes before.

The LFG almost always has only 1 or 2 groups listed, if there are any at all (many times there are none listed), and without fail, they’ve all so far been too small in number to complete the event. I’ve done a lot of failed events. People in the maps I’m in are saying things like they started playing months ago and have never once seen a successful Dragon’s Stand event. I’m Central Time Zone, as in the Midwest of the U.S.A.

My experience is no less valid than Vayne’s. I’m telling you what I’m experiencing and it’s not because I don’t know what to do. I did Dragon’s Stand dozens if not hundreds of times when it came out. I commanded groups all the time. I know how it works. But it’s not working recently for me. There are not the same number of groups as there were when HoT came out, from what I’m seeing now. Not even close. And the maps have far fewer people in them than what I once saw on a regular basis almost a year ago.

Vayne.8563:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Well, I already know how often the Dragon Stand meta runs. I know how long the maps last and when they turn over, but it doesn’t do me any good. Even when I watch for every new map beginning, there is still no way to get into a fullish map. Either the maps are empty or they’re “closed” or “full.”

Trying to get the meta for weeks. I don’t need the condescension of people saying “Well, I can run DS 15 times a day every day whenever I want.” Great. But this is not the reality for everyone.

I cannot play 24/7. I can play usually between 6-10 pm. This is when I watch for events. And I’ve been able to find nothing for DS during this time for weeks now. It is not from lack of watching the times or trying.

How can I do this multiple times a week, and you can’t g;et in at all. Obviously one of us hasn’t figured out how to do it. You’re right in the fact that it’s not something you can just know, it’s one of the values of joining a knowledgable guild. Guilds share this kind if information. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve taken on their first dragon stand run, one of the reasons I’ve done it so much.

The trick is to get there before it starts…when the old map is closing. You join a squad. If there is no squad at five minutes too, use the looking for group tool to join a squad.

When the map closes you’ll die. Immediately waypoint to the first waypoint in the zone, right click on the commander in the squad and choose join in dragon stand. That’s assuming you’re not already in the same map. In case you haven’t joined a lot of squads, if the box with the commander’s name it is in green, you’re on the same server. If it’s clear then you should right click on his name and click join in dragon stand.

Once you’re on the map, you’re good to go. Just stick with the commander.

Again, I haven’t done this once or twice. Iv’e done this dozens of times.

The entire game is on timers, btw, including the world bosses. A site like gw2timer.com would be of great help. There are also overlays you can download if you prefer.

I know all of this already. I know all about world boss timers. In case you don’t realize it, Dragon’s Stand really isn’t a boss like the Shadow Beast. Not the same thing at all. It hasn’t helped. It’s as simple as I’ve gotten into dozens of maps at the exact right time before the event starts. There are maybe 15 people total. Over and over it happens, assuming I get into a map at all. Nothing gets done.

Well, I already know how often the Dragon Stand meta runs. I know how long the maps last and when they turn over, but it doesn’t do me any good. Even when I watch for every new map beginning, there is still no way to get into a fullish map. Either the maps are empty or they’re “closed” or “full.”

Trying to get the meta for weeks. I don’t need the condescension of people saying “Well, I can run DS 15 times a day every day whenever I want.” Great. But this is not the reality for everyone.

I cannot play 24/7. I can play usually between 6-10 pm. This is when I watch for events. And I’ve been able to find nothing for DS during this time for weeks now. It is not from lack of watching the times or trying.

What I hate about the mastery system is having to buy all of the skills in a line instead of getting to level each skill separately. I hate wasting mastery points I’ve worked hard to get on skills I don’t need in order to get a skill I will use.

The gear grind is why I don’t raid. I have all ascended, but it still isn’t enough to raid with. There are all these other conditions you have to meet for each class that you play. I play all 9 classes, so that’s a lot to keep up with.

I have no idea what a “timer site” is and I didn’t know I had to buy one in order to play Guild Wars 2. This seems kind of ridiculous. The few maps ever being advertised in the LFG are “closed maps” whenever I try them. Every. Single. Time. For the last 4 months it’s been like this.

Vayne.8563:

Celtic Lady.3729:

I think they’re going to have to do something about the jungle maps once the new expansion comes out. No one plays on them anymore basically and after the xpac, even fewer people will bother. Also, these empty maps will turn off new players wanting to do the story and content but not being able to due to lack of players.

Why would you say no one plays them anymore, when I have people in my guild playing them every day, leveling masteries, getting colletiions done, on full maps. The new maps are played every hour of the day and night, following the event cycles. If you don’t believe me, I can show you.

If you go into random maps and random times, it’s harder to get stuff done, but even then, people play those maps. But at any hour, following the event cycles, there are always people in those zones and in fact, full maps in those zones.

I can’t ever find a map that does the Dragon Stand meta event so I can get 100% completion. Also, I have a hard time getting any meta event except for maybe Verdant Brink, which seems to have a few players some of the time.

I think they’re going to have to do something about the jungle maps once the new expansion comes out. No one plays on them anymore basically and after the xpac, even fewer people will bother. Also, these empty maps will turn off new players wanting to do the story and content but not being able to due to lack of players.

I need help with this.

I’m trying to do the Balthazar’s Hounds fight in the volcano, but the hounds don’t seem to stay dead. By the time I get the red and blue orb, they’re alive again. I can’t finish the instance.

I’m talking about The Bitter Cold area for characters that haven’t done the story, obviously.

Does anyone know how to get 100% map completion on alts in this zone without having to redo the story constantly?

BrotherBelial.3094:

This is all put in place to stop non HoT players getting to the new zones.

Which makes it really annoying for those of us that want to take alts to the new zones without replaying the stupid story ad nauseum. Once I’ve done the story on one character, I don’t need to do it again.

I don’t get it. There’s a POI for map completion up there, and I want to do map completions on my alts without doing the story on all of them. How do I get 100% map completion for all my alts without doing the story?

Letting Aurene kill it is not working. Does anyone know the REAL way to kill this thing?

alberte.2685:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Well, there’s no subscription, so they had to do something to make money.

Love it or hate it, it’s always been this way and I seriously doubt it’s ever going to change.

Lol is based on the number of players to make money, and gw2 in the gem store update (skin in-game does not update) will only reduce the number of players, the result is that the gem stores will make gw2 more difficult to make money.

Time charge or VIP charge is a better choice. (turn off the gem store)

What do you mean by “time charge” and "VIP charge? That sounds like subscription to me and MMOs are basically leaving subscriptions behind in favor of in-game stores.

Well, there’s no subscription, so they had to do something to make money.

Love it or hate it, it’s always been this way and I seriously doubt it’s ever going to change.

RyuDragnier.9476:

I kinda understand this one, because some of those achievements ARE hell to get. Skip Up the Volcano being the biggest offender.

Yeah…that puzzle…what a nightmare!

This change doesn’t bother me in the least. Now I only need 1 more to finish.

The TP keeps trying to list everything I’m selling – including rare and exotic weapons and unidentified dyes for 11 or 7 copper.

Why is it doing this now? It didn’t used to do this….

I did this with 2 friends. That worked great. There was no way I was going to put myself through soloing it.

I’d like to know if anyone knows for sure if we can quit Out of the Shadows without losing any of the progress in order to do the new story?

I don’t want to finish the last episode, but I don’t want to lose my progress, either.

I need to switch to the new episode Rising Flames or else my alts can’t get to the new area.

Thanks.

I’m not a big fan. I wish the map continued to show 100% map completion even after heart reset at least.

I love the idea of repeating a heart by talking to the vendor to reset it. Otherwise, it stays done. Wish they had done it this way.

I’m curious why people are so happy to have a seaweed farm. I assume seaweed must sell really well on the TP?

Ayrilana.1396:

Not exactly fun

I’ll never understand game developers. This…the 10,000 drinks or whatever it was,…etc, etc, etc…

What demographic are achievements like these supposed to be for? Whichever one it is, I’m not in it. lol

I would love it, too, if the map continued to show 100% completion once you achieve that even after the hearts reset for the day. Seems the most logical solution to me.

Leiloni.7951:

Celtic Lady.3729:

I wish this, too. I still have 5 characters that need that mushroom queen or whatever it is HP in Tangled Depths.

I’ve spent hours using the LFG, map chat, and even random whispers to get help for it since I can’t seem to solo it on all my classes, but no one ever comes by or agrees to help with it. I feel like most of the time, even after taxiing, that I’m more or less alone in the maps. I’ve also tried at all different times of the day and all the days of the week. Nothing helps.

You don’t need every HP to get enough to complete your Specialization, though. There’s a lot of HP’s I don’t have. You’d only need that particular one if you were going for map completion. And even then if you need the map completion for Specialization Weapon Collections, the first two maps are easier for that anyway.

I like to get map completions on all the maps. It’s my playstyle. So, I need all the HPs to accomplish this. It’s just that I can’t get this done this far out from the region’s launch.

Although I have found HoT maps to be very tedious to re-do, I’ve mostly made peace with the vertical design.

My main frustration is not being able to get the maps done now because so few people are playing the content.

I can get a lot done in Bloodstone Fen, but not so much anywhere else out there.

Amaimon.7823:

“the only people who hide stuff have something to hide”
- hidden man

In any case, AP and Mastery Level tells you less than absolutely nothing about anyone. If you are kicked from a party based on AP or ML, then assume the latter is so stupid you never wanted to be in a party with them, anyway

Pretty much this. If someone is judging a player based on this, they don’t really understand the game themselves and will prolly hold you back.

repcs.3986:

i want her to die already.

lol Why? Is the instance really hard to solo or something?

I wish this, too. I still have 5 characters that need that mushroom queen or whatever it is HP in Tangled Depths.

I’ve spent hours using the LFG, map chat, and even random whispers to get help for it since I can’t seem to solo it on all my classes, but no one ever comes by or agrees to help with it. I feel like most of the time, even after taxiing, that I’m more or less alone in the maps. I’ve also tried at all different times of the day and all the days of the week. Nothing helps.

Yeah, I’ve long wished the quality of the loot drops were better overall. Most of what I get – crafting mats included – are just not worth anything really. Would be nice if this changed, but I don’t think it will.

I don’t mind opening bags if there’s a decent chance for something decent inside, but mostly it’s not that great.

Finally, getting that mastery for auto looting has actually improved my attitude for loot. At least I don’t have to pick it up anymore.

mrauls.6519:

Legendary GS where are you?!

Hopefully, we’ll eventually see this now. I think there’s at least hope that we will now. It’s the one new legendary I feel would be worth my effort to make, especially with the necro using it.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Yeah it’s good they decided to continue follow through on what they advertised with HoT.

It is nice. Glad they decided to do this also.

I’ll be interested to see if the system is actually more streamlined, though. Or if that’s just mostly spin.

People that bought HoT looking forward to all those new weapons now have a lot of hope that this will still be part of their gaming experience.

I don’t play my 8 alts much anymore because of the gear issue. Ascended is the new exotic and it’s an annoying grind for me with my RL commitments. Then having to constantly change the ascended I do have to different stats is also too much of a grind for me every time they adjust balancing.

Also, I just have gotten bored over the years taking 7 now 8 alt characters through the exact same content with no real class variation.

I wish I had an option for the story quests I do to also count for my entire account. A button I can push or something that would make the story done for all my alts, too.