Guild Wars 2

I just see the process of waiting, anticipating and playing GW 2 – including the $60 I spent on cosmetic crap and magic find boosts in the Gem Store – as just another notch in the slew of over-hyped, about-faced MMORPGs to have come out in the last decade. Though this is surely the most disappointing of the bunch, considering how drastically different it promised itself to be (expect those Manifestos to be revised or removed off the web within the month).

In short, I won’t buy or support an NCSoft or ANet product ever again. Nor will I recommend such things to my friends. The good news is that I’ve gone back to check out games that have their gear-treadmill already well tuned and grinding. The Secret World has fixed their once-garbage PVP with their latest update and they are actually introducing a horizontal progression mechanic with the latest raid, so that certainly is interesting. And DCUO always has had a special place in my heart, so I’m dabbling in that. I’ll probably check out the FF XIV reboot too, when the time comes.

Good luck to those of you who stay on in GW2. Expect things to get worse, not better.

Wildclaw.6073:

Mungrul.9358:

I still don’t understand the “Filling the gap” statement. Firstly, there was no stat gap between exotics and legendaries.
Secondly, if it was cosmetic gear, we had the unique Mystic Forge recipes to work towards as a stop-gap, like Mjolnir.
THERE WAS NO GAP TO FILL.

It is called rewriting history. If you are going to lie, that is the best way to do it, because uninformed (politically correct term for stupid and unwilling to learn) people will concur with your rewritten history as they think it is the truth.

Exactly. There was no gap. The people defending this about face on the basic promise and principles of this game that have drastically altered after barely two months have passed, need to get a clue.

Just delete the client and never log in again. Super simple, easy fix.

And if you need a themepark gear-grind there’s always WoW. If you want better DEs, check out RIFT – they just got an Expac. For more tuned and action-based combat there’s a billion Korean MMORPGs or DCUO.

All better options. Congratulations ANet, you’ve made yourself a jack of all trades, master of none. Enjoy watching your game tank faster than the ToRTanic.

ANet, you guys have in one more killed easily over 50% of your entire customer base’s good will that was built up over a number of years with this Ascended nonsense. I spent months farming, grinding out exotic gear for my two main toons. I won’t be hopping on another treadmill. The whole purpose of gear normalization was that you could return at any time and pick up where you left off. I’m in my 30s and I’m not some basement dwelling teen that can devote 12 hours a day to farming gear. Sorry, have a job and responsibilities and that’s why your game – and bs Manifesto – appealed to me.

Good luck competing with the big-boys with a LFG tool free game and broken dungeons. Should have fixed that before hopping on the themepark bandwagon. Now there’s nothing to differentiate your game from the rest. WoW has a skinner-box, perfected treadmill, and RIFT has more interesting dynamic events. You’ll soon discover how lonely it is when competing against every other game on the market who does what you’re trying to do, only better.

/uninstalled

And I will never buy an ANet game again.

And a minor stat increase (on Ascended gear) is still a stat increase. That gear is “better”. And its not currently in the game, you need to “grind” it. What aren’t people understanding?

If you think this is the last of this sort of fundamental design change too, you’re wrong. They’ve had it in the oven for months – clearly. They’re just rolling it out now.

Massively article is up on the dev response:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/11/14/arenanet-responds-to-guild-wars-2-ascended-gear-gripes/

Go voice your dissent there.

gwawer.9805:

From the blog post. Read this part closely:

“We have always worked hard to create a sense of satisfying progression rather than gear grind and this new item progression initiative is no exception. By adding challenging new combat mechanics to end-game content and ways to mitigate those mechanics through gear progression for high-end players, we can add personal progression without making the game feel like an endless treadmill of gear that is just out of your reach.

People feel that the bolded statements are contradictory.

The bolded statements are contradictory. As well as the scope of what they have planned for Ascended gear design, which will take greater precedence within the gear pyramid.

Ascended gear should have the exact same stats as exotic gear, period. And exotic gear should have an option to become infused. Period.

That’s if they were sticking to their manifesto, which they are clearly not.

I won’t be coming back to GW 2. Shame that they degenerated into just another themepark clone.

So the Machiavellian Forum Moderation begins. I’ll try to repost what I said in a “less caps filled tone” and maybe it won’t get deleted this time.

I spent the better part of two months farming/ grinding for my exotics under the impression that they would be the best gear in the game, not replaced three months later via standard EQ/ WoW progression.

The Manifesto was clearly a lie and I support those who have been posting excerpts from interviews where it is not clear ANet completely recanted on everything that they said regarding dungeon progression. Not only that, but its not as if this content just “appeared”, so they’ve known about this change in a development sense for far longer than we have, for certain.

I won’t be coming back. Off to old faithful DCUO. At least that game is a fun gear treadmill, you know with an instance finder that every other MMORPG under the sun has. (Dear Moderator, the use of caps for certain brand names or abbreviations are not yelling, or in violation of any code of conduct, it is how the words are written in the English language – please take a secondary education course if this escapes you.)

Yes, let’s add more dungeon content instead of fixing the broken mess of content that we already have or implementing features that people really want. Sheer genius.

Freohr.7905:

Loosifah.4739:

The thing you’re failing to realize is for every person who hates this, there’s a person who loves it.

Have fun with your two months of inferior treadmill model on GW2 before re-subscribing to WoW.

That kinda nailed it. Why play a kittened, non-LFG, broken dungeon gear treadmill? That’s an exercise in frustration. GW 2 is turning out to be exactly like all the games it said it wasn’t.

“But it creates more issues than it solves, I’m sure the design of the standard lfg could be tweaked to remove these issues, but the one biggest fear is the lack of accountability for trolling and/or griefing, the looting issues are non existant, but players are STILL trying to get their kicks being jerks.”

Sorry, but I disagree. You’re likely thinking of WoW, which has one of the most toxic, gear-driven communities in MMO history. A LFG finder has far more advantages – time, organization, access to instances that are unpopular – than detriments. People will be trolls and jerks in any MMO you play. They exist in GW 2 today in droves sans a LFG tool. A LFG finder won’t necessarily exacerbate that, nor does it mean we should preclude one even if it did. The benefits outweigh the negatives, as you can see from the number of people yammering on about the lack of this feature.

In 2012, you simply need these tools in your game. Why ANet didn’t launch with it is a gross oversight when every competitor, every single one, has a similar tool. It just wasn’t ready in time for launch, or they knew the dungeons were too messy to even implement it for now. Those are the only logical answers.

LFG has to be cross server or it just won’t work. Everyone who has ever used a LFG tool when it wasn’t cross server (DCUO, SWTOR – with their 1 hour + ques) can tell you it sucks. The pool is too small, particularly with certain more obscure or unplayed instances. It defeats the purpose if you have to wait for an hour to form a group as opposed to shouting in LA for an hour to form a group.

In each instance its a waste of time and annoying to do.

Just put 2nd to top tier gems in. They’re better for min/ maxing and you save oodles on the gold. Runes are a waste unless you’re after magic find. And we don’t even know how successfully that scales or is implemented, so basically a waste.

This is the same with Destroyer weapons. No particle glow unless they’re unsheathed. They could stand to do with a more gaudy particle effect too, seeing how weak the effect is even when unsheathed. Its not worth the money/ resource sink for such a crappy effect.

Play something else until ANet patches up their broken shizz. Problem solved. At least its not subscription, so there’s nothing to loose in dusting off your old/ unfinished console or PC games.

Complete disappointment. I thought the airship would crash and the battle would continue on the ground, but no such luck. A climax where you never really engage the enemy who has been hyped up for dozens of hours isn’t a climax, its just bad design.

I wouldn’t care if they retrofitted it, as its pretty terrible leaving it like it is.

+1 I’m off the game till they add:

- LFG finder.
- Account bound karma (My first toon has over 200K that I won’t be grinding again, thank you – and dungeon tokens are now account bound).

And for features like this, if you don’t like it, don’t use it. The lack of an auto-que for LFG is a gross misstep on ANets’ part. Every other group activity – PVP, WvW. drop in dynamic events – is a breeze to que for and participate in, but for PVE dungeons we’re forced to shout ourselves silent – as the filter inevitably kicks in – as if we’re in a circa 2004 MMO. Ridiculous.

I think its ludicrous that grouping is so hobbled that this even needs to happen. But kudos to you all for going the extra mile that ANet seem incapable of.

Sorry, but that argument simply doesn’t carry any weight. WoW has a community that is inherently toxic, everyone knows that. The WoW issue is further compouneded by the inherent gear-treadmill, carrot on a stick nature of that game, to which GW 2 provides a slightly different reward system and Pavlovian response. Their community aside, LFG Finders exist in every modern MMO and plenty of them have communities that function with civility (DCUO comes to mind, rarely do I have a bad group experience there). You can’t play an MMO these days without inviting in negative personalities, nor will not having a LFG Finder deter these people either. Have you actually paid attention to the LA chat?

“LF 2 more CoF speed run, no newbs orkitten ”

Saw that choice tidbit in chat yesterday and reported it. Still, point is kitten exist whether these tools do or not.

Again, if you don’t like it, don’t use it. And once more, EVERY modern MMO has a LFG Finder. That was the one good thing that came from WoW (though they certainly coined the idea from someone else). The reaction and behavior of the community in comparison to the tool is mutually exclusive and varies from game to game.

I’d also add that as a 30 something male who enjoys video games as a past-time, I simply do not have the luxury of wasting 45m-1h “setting up” something to do. And its not as if you can really do much while setting up, whereas at least if you’re in a que you can busy yourself with other world events or pursuits instead of spamming map chat in Tyria’s hub. ANet’s manifesto supposedly wanted to do away with all the annoyances of standard MMO design, but that doesn’t mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater and get rid of stuff that actually works and makes things more convenient for the players.

Why is everyone being so creative – coloured magnifying glasses and such – and opposed to the easiest solution of a simple LFG finder? Literally every other modern MMO has one. Every one. They work. Run with your guildies and close friends only if you’re opposed. In fact, you can still run with them and just use a LFG finder to fill in the blank spots.

How about just a functional LFG tool/ interface that fits within the framework of modern MMO design and not some useless magnifying glass flag that you put on your toon?

How about that?

Not touching dungeons again until they sort that out.

Can we get an official statement on this? Is it a feature being looked at or to be implemented in the future? Over a month now and queing for dungeons amounts to standing about in LA shouting till the spam filter silences you (then passing the torch to whoever else you’re grouped with). The flagging tool is worthless and no one uses it. The whole interface seems like a placeholder. Yes, I’m in a guild (two actually), but with the myriad of things to do in GW 2 and the state of dungeons atm, grouping for a specific instance is actually harder and more time-consuming than it should be. Why stand around for untold minutes when I can que for WvW, PVP or instantly jump into some overworld raiding in Orr?

In a game that caters to player accessibility in so many ways, the lack of a functioning LFG interface or tool is baffling. I realize that explorer mode dungeons still need tuning, and perhaps accessibility is being restricted till that tuning takes place; however no one will ‘improve’ at dungeons unless they can access them. Interest will continue to decline to the point where even when the dungeon interface/ tuning has transpired, no one actually cares anymore.

I only have so many hours to play each night and spending 1/2 my time shouting to fill in places that the guild can’t only to run fail dungeons isn’t my idea of fun – nor anyone else’s for that matter.

How about an update from the devs on a proper LFG interface and/ or tool? The current state of group finding is abysmal and with people jumping servers all over the place, you can’t always make a full group in guild and are forced to do the tired old shouting in capital cities (LA in this case). Its great that the tokens and rewards are being tuned, but the basic setup for dungeons is annoying.

I don’t find them all that challenging; if you do its because you don’t have survivability/ utility in your build. Just swap out your skills a bit. The biggest issue is with dungeons currently is the setup. I have an active guild, but there’s so many things to do in this game that instance grinding isn’t at the top of everyone’s priority list. So I’ve shelved dungeons until they get a proper LFG tool. I have no desire to sit in LA for hours shouting (till the spam filter silences you, that is). That LFG thing that you flag yourself with is beyond useless. ANet launching without a LFG tool is a critical oversight.

Good luck with whatever you settle on too, this game is too pretty not to be played on a competent computer

Run Amok.9205:

ChrisLew.5492:

Oh and to the OP, upgrade the processor and GPU as much as you can (an i7 extreme can be prohibitive in the cost>performance ratio though). You can always self install an SSD later – so I might skip that initially in your configuration. Chip installation/ repasting is trickier too unless you’re a hobbyist.

No problem there, I’ve built a few desktops in my time. But alas it’s too late to make any changes as I’ve placed my order. In hindsight I probably should have dropped the SSD in favor of a better GPU or CPU, ah well! At least the Sagers are easy to upgrade unlike most laptops.

No, no man. Sager have AWESOME customer service (even if the English can be spotty :P)! Just call their sales dept if you want to make any changes and the item hasn’t shipped. They’ll upgrade, swap whatever over the phone and send you a modified bill or service request. As long as it hasn’t shipped, you’re fine. Even if it has and you paid the two way warranty, you can send it right back and have them modify it for you. They had the 7970m out and a 680m in, in less than a week – meaning shipped back to me. Quite impressive.

+1 rerolled Guardian, my second choice.

I have a fully exotic geared (cleric) necro. Play a well drain healer-tank with him. Did all the PVE dungeons and lots of WvW/ PVP. Already I can tell that my 34 Guardian is scaling and tuned far, far better.

On a purely cosmetic note, I also find the necro power the most boring of all the classes to watch – all being just variants of green mist/ flies or slashes. Wells are a bit more visually appealing, but they only change the symbol not the effect. Again compared to the guardian, who has a rather explosive display of pyrotechnics and lights, they’re simply unentertaining to watch for hundreds of hours.

There should be something in the trait lines to make Lich form last longer in duration too. That would at least balance out DPS specs a bit. There also needs to be a leech power that passes life onto the group, instead of just stealing it for the necro, and not just in specific instances (transfusion).

For tanking the protection duration (3 seconds, really?) needs to be buffed on wells. Even with four wells equipped, and perfect timing you have almost 1/2 your downtime spent without viable mitigation.

Pets. Well they just suck. They die too fast, do comparatively less damage compared to other classes and have terrible AI. They need to be reworked to receive healing from the necro’s siphons to be of any use.

Anyhoo, those are my thoughts. I’m hopeful that the class will improve, so I’ve parked my little necro till they do!

Oh and to the OP, upgrade the processor and GPU as much as you can (an i7 extreme can be prohibitive in the cost>performance ratio though). You can always self install an SSD later – so I might skip that initially in your configuration. Chip installation/ repasting is trickier too unless you’re a hobbyist.

Oh, and turn off that horrid overbloom too. It doesn’t do anything resource or performance wise on my rig other than irritate the eyes, but on a friend of mine’s computer – who is using a 5000 series AMD GPU – he gets an extra 5-10 FPS (less in crowded areas). They really should break all of those effects down as separate options, not lump them together.

Lol It seems that they have a “crudeness” filter. Typing with spaces in between seems to be a workaround!

Edit: “kittened” should be “kittened” lol

Fun times typing while having your morning tea!

And yeah, I already have one toon at 80 and I’m working on a second atm and the group setups now are far in excess of what my necro experienced during the initial rush. They NEED a LFG tool to accommodate the alts.

And yes, I’m in a guild. But guilds don’t always want to run instances, they could be off WvWing or whatever else and schedules don’t match up. Why every other aspect of the game is accessible and easy and yet dungeon grouping sucks, is beyond me. There’s simply no good reason for it.

Sager. You can go high end and get an i7 with – possibly dual – 7970s or 680ms. Or mid range with a top tier card and a standard HDD. Lots of options, excellent build quality. I find Nvidia cards trump AMD this generation. The 7970 has just too many issues with heat (80-90 degrees) and Enduro utilization. I paid the extra $200 to have it swapped out and my temps never go over 70 with a full 60 FPS at all times save WvW (45 FPS) and everything cranked to max. 7970s currently don’t have any driver support either, four months in which is ridiculous.

i7 extreme
420 GB SSD
32 GB RAM
680m, 4 GB

(Paid just over 2 grand. You can get good power for less if you’re on a budget, you make the machines yourself)

Already we can see the minutes to hours of spamming for forming PVE based instance groups. As time progresses certain dungeons will be almost impossible to group for. You can witness this if you sit in LA for any length of time. This is inconvenient, often annoying. Personally I’m off dungeons until they add a proper LFG interface. EVERY other MMO has it, so why did ANet include such a g i m p e d version in their game?

We need a proper LFG interface. Cross server and organized by instance and story/ EX mode.

Arguments against: don’t use it. This is a game that promotes choice and accessibility. Every other facet of GW 2 is desinged around inclusion and ease of use. Flagging yourself with a blue marker with some obscure system does not work.

@ Red. LOL! I didn’t know that.

Dagger/ warhorn work quite well for tanking too. The +400 toughness buff with their 12s c/d lifestealing move is good in single mob (boss) fights.

Yeah that’s the oddest part, they made every aspect of crafting, group content, gear grinding and more accessible, but dropped the ball on dungeon queing.

And yes, the old argument, “just do it with your guild” only works sometimes as outlined above. Sometimes you might just want to play alone or do other things while not organizing a group. There are any number of reasons why LFG tools are just as valuable to players as there are arguments about including them. And in the end, if you don’t like LFG tools, just don’t use them – they’re optional.

Hopefully this is something that they address.

The ground targeting for every one of their staff skills should be fixed. Just turn them all into wells, I’d say. They’d benefit from some of the passive traits that way too.

My main is a necro and they’re brilliant. Great support roles or minion masters. Can tank or leech heal as well, better than many classes. Lots of options. I do however find a few of their skills utterly useless, but that’s down to tuning more than anything else.

Its not even as good as the old GW interface where you could browse groups. As it stands the feature is totally useless.

How can they make every other aspect of the game a convenience except for PVE grouping? PVP has hotmatch ques, WvW you just jump into, but when it comes to grouping for a dungeon, you’re relegated to shouting in map chat for hours. Oh wait, that’s before you get scolded for “excessively messaging”. So its mostly just sitting there pleading for members every 5 mins or so.

And yes, these things are better done in guild, but even guilds sometimes need to fill a slot.

The lack of a proper dungeon finding que is baffling.

When the store came back up for a second, it showed me as having 3 “pending” transactions. I cancelled them immediately and got my money back. Money for the shield is still missing.

I’ve amended my earlier ticket, but this is getting ridiculous now. I opened the BL window to see if it was up yet, there was an immediate “coin jangling” sound and 3 gold literally vanished from my backpack. Gone. Into the mouth of that friggn’ whale that I’m learning to hate so much. This morning, I lost a shield and the proceeds to the ether. This afternoon 3g for literally opening a window. Ridiculous.

As the thread title states, I am currently unable to make any sort of custom orders. This has been since the most recent 5/9/12 patch. Yesterday trade was working just fine. As well, I sold a shield this morning or 9.5s or thereabouts and DID NOT receive any sort of payout via the Black Lion trader nor miraculously in my inventory. Randomly I am unable to make any sort of BL purchases at all.

I did a map-poll and several other people were having similar issues. Anecdotal, but still.

Same error! Maybe they’re reading another patch. When I got the notice to log out and in again, there was nothing to be downloaded. These forums are a relief lol. Glad to know my game isn’t broken.