Guild Wars 2

I agree that masteries should be obtainable from a a variety of sources and people shouldn’t be gated from game mechanics if they haven’t completed all content at the highest level (gold adventures, raids). To expect that only the best should have access to all mechanics is elitism.

However, if there are people that would like so much to show off that they got all the points, even the superfluous ones, one option would be to put a “aesthetical” mastery, that would award just some shiny effect at the cost of all the redundant points. This way, they can choose to show off, and if they do so, they are choosing to forego the use of those points in the future to insta-buy new abilities being introduced.

I would make it so only people that completed all the main masteries (gliding, frog1, frog2, etc) would have access to this one, so people are not able to shoot themselves in the foot so easily. And new tiers could be made with each new release that introduces more mastery points.

What do the elitists and casuals think? I know that as a casual, I would not mind elitists being able to get some shiny effect at the cost of foregoing their mastery padding.

My suggestion would be to put “keys”, secondary and tertiary currencies (like shovels, blood rubies, chak eggs) in the material storage and make all of them usable from any character directly from the material storage (maybe with a checkbox for allowing/denying this ability for people who are scared of spending them without noticing it).

It’s probably easier than rewriting them as currencies and any of them that are used as items (like shovels) would continue to be usable as such. And this way, we avoid creating 3 new currencies with each new map ArenaNet puts into the game.

I surely think those kinds of trolls should be punished. And for the people saying it should be low priority comparing to people using hacks on PvP and WvW

1. Gameplay hacks are harder to detect, they probably work with visual confirmation and that probably means video proof or a GM witnessing the person doing the hack.

2. Chat griefing is very easy to confirm, just see the logs for that particular time and voilá, GMs have proof.

Even if Anet is not comfortable banning those people for being jerks, I think some kind of “measured response” would be necessary. For example, chat or LFG griefing? Banned from chat and LFG for 1/2/6 months. Losing PvP matches on purpose? Banned from PvP.

The free-to-play restrictions show that it is in the game’s capabilities to block some features from players, even if not in the exact manner I proposed.
I would be perfectly ok with people like that being banned from the game. But if not that… That can be an option.

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

I’m going to state it again. The number of people not understanding that we are not complaining about working for it. We are complaining about the high point cost for every character, that many will in essence be grinding the maps over and over, not by choice, but by necessity to get the elite specs.

We don’t even know how many of the points are skill/trait unlocks and how many are cosmetic skins. So we don’t have information enough to complain about the " high point cost".

Even though that information would be nice, I choose to trust ArenaNet before starting to cry “oh no! I will have to play 10 hours on my revenant to play the elite spec skills”.

By the way 10 hours per character to unlock skills and traits would be fine by me . I fear that in WvW this time may be a bit higher than that. Get on it Anet!

Great decision ArenaNet.

Most people that play RPGs like a sense of character progression.
Since now our character progression is horizontal progression with elite specializations, I am very happy to see that I won’t get my full elite spec on the first 5 minutes of the expansion.
I hope no amount of QQ and backlash is enough to make you guys change course.

For a future expansion, a suggestion I would make is to include the new skill points during the beta and make people need them to unlock the elite specs (even if it is at a accelerated pace), so people don’t get the unrealistic expectation that everything will be handed out to them on a silver platter.

If the raids are supposed to be Living Story Season 3 and move the story forward like Season 2 does, it would be a bummer to put that behind a immense skill cap. After all, some people play the game for the story, and may not even have the physical ability for the split-second reflexes needed for raids.
One way to solve this problem is to enable, a set time after the raid is launched (maybe after world-first?) something akin to SAB’s infantile mode – mobs have much less HP, there are no enrage timers, but the only reward is the story. This way, people won’t feel left out of the story, which for me is a very important part of enjoying the game.

I quite like your idea, but the suggestion I would make is for “inactive” gyros to, instead of providing more damage, to provide more toughness.
With this spec, engineer was invited to join the frontlines with warrior and guardian but he doesn’t have the heavy armor of them or the “extra health” bar of a reaper.
So, if the inactive gyros provide toughness, it’s like they are completing the engineer armor with additional mitigation.
Other than that I would imagine that the gyro generation should be more like 1/30 sec, otherwise we will be too constrained to not using gyros because if we use them all we can stay a whole minute without any Utility skills.
Also I liked the idea of a “gyro regen” bar like the dodge bar. Easier to control our resource and always use the gyro when we are about to get a new one .

Great idea ! Hope my suggestion seems reasonable.

You worked on Volcano Fractal?
Now I am confident about raids. This is one of the best encounters, in which bringing pure DPS without mitigation can be extremely dangerous. People still complete it with Zerker, but at least they have to bring a sandstorm too .

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Noticed and was bothered because while likely just an oversight, it’s one that should have been noticed and, more importantly, feels like it’d just be fuel for the fire of Scarlet being retroactively involved with everything – including how everyone ‘jokes’ that she’d have ended up in the Abaddon fractal.

Oh, come on – the map from Guild Wars 1 wasn’t an oversight, it was a stylistical choice. I think it is better to use an old map to indicate a region in the cinematic than the map we use in the interface. Just like the maps we see at Order of Whispers or Durmand Priory are not like the map on our interfaces.

Seeing our interface map in the cinematic would be like seeing the NPCs clicking their skill bars, kind of immersion breaking. Also annoying, because they use mouse.

Palindrome.8904:

Better than getting a djinngot every level you don’t have a mastery to work on (unless you want them, I guess).

I think they said that level ups on level 80 will no more award skill points (or djinngots :P) when HoT drops.

They will be prizes for some high level content, but they will not be awarded on level up. That’s what got me thinking of what could be their successor for when we have maxed all mastery tracks.

I would prefer something engaging and fun, and I suggested the gliding and mushroom consumables as placeholders, but sure the community can have even better ideas if they stop focusing on one opinion they don’t agree with.

Well, I should have imagined that the QQ about tracks taking too long to unlock would take over the thread.

So, let’s focus on the ideas instead of focusing on my opinion about how much time tracks should take to unlock, shall we?

lordkrall.7241:

50-100 hours is more than it takes to get to max level in the first place.
Now lets say that you want to max all Masteries and there are 10 of them. That means 500-1000 hours to do that, which is more time than many people have even spent in the game in total.

I would argue that that’s what the developers are going for. Systems that keep you progressing for a long time. The usual path for most casuals is:

• People get to 80
• Get their exotics
• Discover that ascended is grindy and irrelevant
• Discover that legendary is hyper-grindy and cosmetic
• They go away.

I see in the mastery system the ability to keep progressing a little for a long time. That’s why it is account bound. Account bound progression, like WvW rank, Luck and wardrobe, is always a long-winded affair.
And, as long as it doesn’t need to be repeated on each character, I am fine with that.

Cross-post: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/37vvzu/mastery_tracks_gliders_and_ideas/

Idea 1
When a mastery track is completed in full, it gains a repeatable tier that rewards you with something every time you complete it (like leveling up in level 80 currently rewards you with skill points).
Those prizes would be related to the track and something the player would be happy to get (unlike skill points). For example:

• Fractals track: a pristine fractal relic or an amount of agony infusions
• Legendary track: mystic clovers, or something else rare and valuable.

Crazy ideas for Maguuma tracks:

• Gliding track: 10 minute consumable that halves the speed your glider descends, allowing you to get farther than normal.
• Mushroom track: portable jumping mushroom (consumable), that can be deployed on ground and allows you to jump for 1/3 of the height a jumping mushroom allows (if it went the full height, it could allow map breaking or trivialize content)

This way, a person that already completed all available tracks would still enjoy leveling up and care about getting XP.

Idea 2
Gliders are a great opportunity for customization. Also, we already have some back pieces that look like wings, maybe a little (Spinal Blades, Dragon Wings), maybe a lot (Black Feather Wings).
So, my proposal is that, through some recipe, people are able to convert their backpieces into a customized look for their gliders. It could take some consumables (like the one I proposed for gliding track) and many more items, making this customization something remarkable to attain.

Opinion
Mastery tracks are account bound and thus it should take a long time to complete it in full. Like, the first tier would better take only 1 hour but the whole track should take, let’s say, 50 or 100 hours. This is countered by the fact that all of your 80’s XP would contribute with the track’s progress, and once an ability is unlocked, it is so for the entire account.

TL;DR I describe an idea to make leveling up beyond 80/full masteries something people care about. Also more cosmetics.

What do you guys think?

edit: including link to reddit and changing order. Also TLDR.

That would be very nice, and would sinergize very well with some already existing spreadsheets to track achievements, like this one

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/34z4h7/soi_created_an_enormous_achievement_spreadsheet/

If someone combines this sheet, the API data and some human expertise about the easier/hardest APs to gain, this can be a great way to gain a little AP every day.

Also, this idea makes me have an idea. Since Mastery Points will have a lot in common with Achievement Points (account bound, usually not repeatable, tied to an place/activity) the syntax for pulling Mastery Points can probably be very similar. But that is probably something for after the Achievement API is online (and also for when we are closer to the launch of HoT).

JonPeters.5630:

Minor

• Time Marches On – You move 25% faster. The duration of incoming movement-impairing conditions is reduced by 25%. (Cripple. Chilled, Immobilize)

I have 2 opinions about this trait:

1) It is a trait that gives an immense mobility advantage, so I would put it on a major (selectable) trait, not in a minor one. It should be a choice.

2) It is a fix for one of the main disvantages of mesmer: lack of mobility (mesmers have 1 unreliable swiftness skill) so I would not put it on the elite specialization, it should be on the place of whatever is the weakest/lamest core trait currently (so it can be combined with any elite spec introduced in the future). Putting it on this elite spec will make it required for any activity where mobility is very important (WvW?), in detriment to any new elite specs introduced in the future.

Will we ever get this event chain fixed? I need to use the vendor at the ruins, and in this map there are no world bosses to activate map filling and new instance creation (like it is possible to “get over” other bugged event chains like “Devouring the Brand”)

New question:
I am a player who likes to tinker with builds and also enjoys a bit of self-harm. So, I run with a 2-3-3-3-3 mesmer build who dies every time a friendly NPC sneezes near him.
Will I be able to run with my suicide mesmer build on the new system?
If not, I WILL LEAVE THE GAME FOREVER AND NEVER LOOK BACK GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD!

Devs: We’ll miss you!

Me: But you don’t have to lose me, all you have to do is leave me with my self-harm mesmer build and…

Devs: We won’t really miss you.

Me: Ok then .

In unlocking the traits for each reward track, did you guys think about a particular order for traits to unlock? For example, first “defense” traits, then “mixed” traits, then “offense” traits?
I say that because some traits work as “training wheels” for people learning to play the game (like the Ele “Earth’s Embrace”, that works to alert new players when their health is dropping too low). I think it would be more didactic if those traits unlocked first on the reward track, so people can have a learning experience before going “full zerg because it’s the meta”.

My question (I think it hasn’t been asked)
If I am specialized in Fire Magic, with my choices in major traits, then I unequip it to equip Water Magic specialization so I can heal more in a boss or something and then I go back to Fire Magic. Are my previous choices in major traits remembered, or do I have to set it again?

While not “build templates”, I think this would already give some measure of QoL and also be easy enough to implement. Can we have this pleaaase?

Trebuchet!
Take cover!

BobbyStein.2315:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The mails isn’t really an issue. The issue is the dungeon’s levels.

It’s out of scope for this particular team to change the level requirements for the dungeons, so all I can do at this point is either change the level at which the mails are triggering and/or adjust the mail text. Totally open to suggestions here, but I wanted to let folks know the constraints.

According to the Wiki, the Destiny’s Edge reunion that occurs at “Setting the Stage” is an equal chapter to members of all orders, so one option would be to relocate “Setting the Stage” as the last step of level 30 instead of being the first step of level 40. This way, people will witness Eir’s idea just before receiving the e-mail instructing to visit AC.

About the other changes in personal story after level 30, I feel that some of the changes were made to put 1 whole storyline each 10 levels. But the result of this is that some of the chapters are way too long. Did you consider dividing at least some of them so there are personal story chapters sometimes at level X5?

One prime candidate I would point is the “Battle of Claw Island” chapter, as it’s currently too long and would have a natural (while depressing) stopping point at the end of “The Battle of Claw Island” where we meet Treaharne and lose our mentor.

I imagine that masteries will be pretty much like WvW rank points, that you also gain them account-bound but you spend specifically in each character.
Also, it can be made limitless by making some things very expensive (like the last level of mastery on WvW abilities).
I guess that most of them will be specific to Maguuma, but some of them can apply for Mordrem mobs everywhere or be expanded to other content on other maps.

It will be a difficult decision, to choose between rank up on gliding, ancient languages, or in something useful for the precursor scavenger hunt… Specially if those 2 other skill are useful for the precursor scavenger hunt! I guess I can rank up in 1 line for each character, and in the end I can get my precursor.

Justin ODell.9517:

Matchmaking does not know about or operate according to win/loss streaks or account averages.

There may be some merit to adding logic to bust up streaks, but it isn’t a planned feature afaik.

Taking streaks into consideration would be a great idea!
By experience, there are few things more frustrating than a long losing streak. I guess there are many people that gave up on PvP after feeling that it is unwinnable.
Usually it hasn’t been happening that much with me, but there were days that I lost with my guardian, like, 10 times in a row.
As much as I am not a good guardian, I’m pretty sure I’m not able to bring down my entire team with my badness… I hope.

Mitha.7039:

Please tell me this will have SOME effect on those of us who chose to play Sylvari…

They could make something different for sylvari…
For example, on the next chapter of the story (expansion, whatever it is) when sylvari players enter the new zones for the first time he/she starts hearing the “voice” of Mord and starts getting random conditions of “Confusion” and/or “Fear” (like he is starting to succumb to Mord mind control). When this happens, he/she receives a letter from Canach saying he was able to make an artifact/potion that protects sylvari from this effect, and then they complete that quest to protect the player from this influence.

- People want long term goals to aspire to. There was a friend of mine that, despite my advice to not bother with ascended armor, started crafting it. Why? Because it was something to invest on his character and improve it.

- ArenaNet wants loyal customers that continue playing the game. Long term goals help in that.

It is difficult to quantify skill, because this is a MMO game and even when you aren’t good enough, your friends can help you with getting those Shards of Zaithan (my case).

If they implemented as acquiral method for legendary armor, instead of a costly, time consuming method (grind), some pass/fail gate like the Luminescent Armor achievements, skilled players would get it very fast and leave the game, and unskilled players would get frustrated with not having a way of improving their character and would also leave the game.

I’m not saying skill shouldn’t play a role on getting the “ultimate shinies”, but it really shouldn’t be the only mechanic/factor for it.

I’m thinking of ideas to solve the fact that ascended multi-spec armor wouldn’t have more than 1 runeset and because of that, it could reduce the utility of multi-speccing.
One idea I had was that, after the person got the ability to dual-spec, it could “merge” 6 runes into 1 “supreme rune”, which would be account bound since part of the mechanic of runes is that, if you use a rune, you only get it back by destroying the armor (or using an expensive gem item). I think account bound would accomplish part of this tradeoff that runes have, if it is an important thing to keep.
Each stat-set would have a slot for 1 supreme rune.
Also, each stat set would be also linked to 1 trait-set, so when you changed between them, automatically you would change your traits too.
Still lazy for trying to draw how would be an interface for that.

I read that post, BlueBoy. I don’t agree.

A friend of mine with less than 200 hours in the game already forged 2 or 3 ascended light armor pieces. He grinds a lot on FGS, but that’s his option.
Now, I prefer other methods that don’t feel like a grind. I like dungeons, and I love Silverwastes for the fun of it, and both are pretty lucrative.

I have done my legendary staff, but I have never done any ascended armor pieces.
Lack of money or resources?
No. I haven’t done it because I think it is pointless currently.

The ascended armor brings me nothing I would want, but if it would focus on dual/multi-speccing instead of a “little more” stats, I would feel like building a much more useful (and powerful) thing. Also, if you could “upgrade” it little by little, it would be even better. Hence my proposal.

Yeah… Those terms, “pro”, “hardcore”, usually only mean “elitist”.
And those on this group don’t even recognize ArenaNet tries to make content for them, like the Living Story achievements. After all, if someone else was able to do it, it can only mean it was “too easy”, “no challenge” and stuff.

But back to legendary armor.
I almost got hyped enough to try my hand at Paint, to sketch how I imagine would be the interface to dual or three-speccing. Maybe later.
In the meantime, anyone has any other ideas and suggestions about legendary armor?

Wetpaw.3487:

Some of us “vets” that have the same game today as we have been playing since release, that take no interest in alts, would enjoy this sort of progression. Does this idea have to follow op’s way of attaining?..no, but is still a good idea to be discussed and built upon.

Thanks for the support.
I imagine that any option that would support 2 or more cold-swap builds would need a pretty big overhaul of the interface, and solve problems like the fact people can’t put more than 1 rune set in 1 armor (different stats in armor would call for different runes to make sense).

But I would welcome very much a change in that direction, because at least for me, the slight vertical progression of ascended equipment is not interesting enough to pursue. That’s why I would like to put an extra “utility” in ascended equipment that would even prepare the way for legendary equipment and be a clearer path of progression that can be pursued little by little.

On skins:
I didn’t talk about the skin related to the legendary because, well, the functionality matters to me much more than the visual.
But I imagine that the skin could be dictated by the gifts you put in with the ascended pieces and insignias.
If you put a “mesmer” gift, you would get a legendary mesmer skin, necromancer could get a tatoo skin like in GW1 (that is a well beaten horse, but I still like it!)

On runes:
The point Elestian makes is a very good one. If you can’t cheaply swap runes, the utility of swapping stats legendary armor is reduced.

My “endgame” with this proposal: cold-swap (ooc) builds
On the end, what I would like is a system that makes easier for people to “play like a pro”. One thing I see in the videos of the real pros in PvE, people who speed clear Arah with 1 person, is that, between fights on the dungeons, they swap utility skills, weapons and armor from the inventory like it’s no big thing.

Of course, it’s no big thing, but the average casual player is too casual to do that. Even I, on my path away from being a noob, just recently started changing my utility skills more frequently at dungeons.

So, I think the greatest horizontal progression the game can award the player, is the ability to play more and more like a pro, adapting his character to the moment, without introducing cumbersome methods like maintaining your inventory/hero panel open at all times and/or losing valuable inventory space.

That’s why, for me, the endgame in horizontal progression would be for people to be able to maintain various builds and use them according to the moment, in a streamlined process. After doing some things (equipping ascended, completing personal story, another more difficult gate), people would get access to a second build, and would be able to define a second skill bar that would be more easily swappable (but only out of combat and respecting current cooldown of the utility/elite skills).

Completed another milestone? Get access to a third build to be ready for easy swapping. (I would imagine 3 would be the limit for easy swapping).

With this system of horizontal progression, more casual players would get better at the game, and the pros would also enjoy the increased quality of life of not having to maintain inventory/hero panel open and choosing skills from the little arrow stuff.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

That sounds like another horrible grind, that involves zero skill.
Don’t we have enough of this in this game already?

Actually, you put a grind on a grind. What is legendary about this? The grind?
This will make GW2 just more of a TP simulator.

I think that, if a “not elite” player wants to work towards his legendary, he should have the option.
There are already armor and weapon sets that reward skillful play, like the glorious armor and the luminescent armor.
Legendary weapon are currently a reward for time in the game and luck, but the luck part is overwhelming (precursor) and the time payoff is only at the end of the road.

With the system I described, there would be little payoffs at the middle of the road (new stat sets available), and the influence of luck would be diminished.

This could even lead to more skillful play, because people would be able to change their stat sets to something adequate to the content they are playing.

Of course, if ArenaNet wants to condition progression on the legendary armor to skill in the game, they can make some of the lesser gifts obtainable only through skillful play, for example, as a reward for a difficult achievement.

There! Problem solved for the elitists.

Well, to keep it simple:
My idea would be that, instead of doing the legendary armor piece “all at once” involving a “precursor item” and various gifts, to make the legendary armor piece, one would start with an Ascended weapon piece.
With each “upgrade”, one would put in the mystic forge:

• the ascended piece (the usually costs from 50 to 100 gold to craft)
• an ascended insignia (that usually costs from 50 to 60 gold to craft)
• a legendary gift (hopefully lesser gifts, as is the case with vision crystals for weapons and armor)
• another lesser legendary gift.

Each upgrade would give a new stat combination to the armor, that the stats already in the armor could be changed like they can be changed in legendary weapons, but in this case the only options would be the insignias you already included in the armor.

Each upgrade would take a different gift, going from cheaper/easier gifts to more expensive/harder ones.
After the Nth upgrade, with the last gift, the armor piece would be legendary and allow to choose from all stat combinations in the game.
N = enough for it to start a very rare thing. I think that, if a legendary weapon costs 2000g to 3000g to do, a full legendary armor should cost double that, let’s say, 5000g for the full set. On the other hand, the more simple items, like shoulders, would cost less than 800g to complete.

Advantages:

• A clear path of advancement, that is horizontal (allows for more variety in play styles) and is dictated by the player, that chooses which stat combinations he would rather have first.
• No single ultra-rare item that dictates if you can advance to your legendary or not (I’m talking about precursors).
• Would allow for new gold/karma sinks in the economy, I hope for new ones involving daily crafts! It’s really sad that the once-a-day ability to do ascended mats results in gold loss in the case of ascended leather, for example.

Risks and problems:

• I really hope those armor pieces continue account-bound after becoming legendary. Otherwise it would be as meaningless as legendary weapons are today, after becoming tradeable.
• You guys tell me!

Thanks for reading.

A question about the new system:
Are the dailies different for different people or are they the same to the entire player base?
I ask because, at least in the screenshot example, 2 of the 4 PvE dailies would be impossible to do on a low-level character.
I think it would be nice if there was some kind of tailoring of the daily to the logged-in character, for example, asking a level 50 character to kill world bosses that will happen on the next half hour and the player has the waypoint too. Otherwise, the system will become too geared towards endgamers with world complete and 8 professions on the account.
Other than that I have no qualms with the new system, now dailies have a lot more meaning, and log in rewards replace monthlies with an objective just as meaningful as monthlies were.

KkIenJuju.9406:

If i understood this right: you que up with a spesific class( eg. Warrior) but then you see that your team needs a bunker guardian to win. So you relog to your guardian, but you get minus points for leaving the match, even if this desition may have won you the game?

Exactly!
The matchmaking algorythm takes into consideration the professions in your team, and also how good you are on the profession you chose. If people kept changing their professions to “better suit” the opponent:

• the matchmaking decisions wouldn’t make sense anymore, and we could go back to a situation of “5 hambow warriors”
• the match would never start because people would be forever “countering” changes on the other team
• people would exploit it to queue as a profession they are bad at, and then changing to a class they are good at.

I think it could be more interesting than the dailies we have currently, but may mean a lot more of work for the developers, because… How would those quests be?
If they were instanced new content, like personal story it would assure people could do them, but would take more development time.
If they were simply NPCs redirecting people to do events that already exist, we would have the same problem we have with trait unlocks, of people trapped on events that are bugged or never happen.
However, I think they could revamp the daily system to have 1 “mission” that is more rewarding and focused and 4 “challenges” that are like the dodge 30 times we have currently. Of course, 1 “mission” means 3 “missions”, one for each game mode, or the people on WvW or PvP would feel neglected. But that is easy enough.

These “mission” options could vary by source each day, for example:
- Day 1 : Story dungeon
- Day 2: Explorable dungeon
- Day 3: Guild mission
- Day 4: Fractal
- Day 5: Story step
- Day 6: Order mission (this would be new and handed by the order)
- Day 7: Racial mission (this would be new and handed by a NPC of the player’s race)

As some of you may know, itens 1 to 5 already appear on dailies, but they could have a revamp to appear more meaningful than checking items on a checklist.

I hope they instead of nerfing it, tweak it.
For example, redistribute the chests so instead of having 10 at amber, there is 5 at each fort.
Also, make them only discoverable when the fort is in Pact control and with no defense events active.
Make the fort “irradiate” magic find that is higher the higher is the fort defense level.
This way, we have fun farming as the same time as we have the map working as intended.

1) Acessibility for all to see the content and learn raiding
2) Unique rewards behind very hard challenging content (maybe like LS achievements, but harder and group based)
3) Better tools for managing zergs, like a Squad Hierarchy, that could be used even for open-world content like World Bosses and for bringing back LS season 1 raids as instances.

Bonus round:
Bring Back LS season 1 open-world raids as instances! Pretty please…
It was nice to see other people would like to see the season 1 content back as raids, there was a time I thought I was almost alone on this…
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Season-2-Zerg-Wars-or-Raid-Wars/4142042

While I would like to give my 2 cents about the trait unlocks that I consider the most problematic, or the ones that I think are actually fun, the problem is, they are a moving target.
With the changes on the trait requirements, the 2 or 3 places on the internet you could use to research trait unlocks are currently not updated, including the Wiki and Dulfy.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait_guide
I believe that there are no map complete trait unlocks anymore, right?
So, it would be very useful to have an up-to-date table with trait unlocks so we could give feedback about them in a more assertive way. Maybe a table on the Wiki, listing the map in which the trait is, the level requirement and if the trait is related to an event, guild event, chest or dungeon.
I think only ArenaNet would be able to make such a list in a easy way, because most people unlock traits as needed, so is not common for a level 80 player to be still able to see the trait unlock requirements (since they dissapear on unlock).
That would make the discussion/feedback on specific unlocks much easier, because such feedback could be tabulated on a Google Sheet or equivalent, in the form or “scores” for each trait unlock that the interested players could give their opinions about.
Would that be viable?

Crystal Reid.2481:

• Is Legendary armor better than Ascended armor stat wise?
• Can this legendary armor be obtained anywhere else in the game?
• How do we prevent the introduction of Legendary armor from invalidating players who spent a lot of time/money crafting their Ascended armor?
• Is this a drop from raid encounters, or is it obtained through a “raiding reward track”?

I think you can see where I’m going with this. Ascended armor is already a pretty hotly debated topic because it did introduce a very slight vertical progression to the game.

My answers for these questions:
- No. I would make it so that legendary armor has the same stats as ascended armor, only having the extra ability to multi-spec, like it is today with legendary weapons (on that topic, I would make ascended equipment able to dual-spec).
- I think that the raid shouldn’t flat out give legendary armor, only give a component that is essential to it.
- Legendary armor would be created from ascended armor, plus some raid components, plus a lot of other things. Just like legendary weapons need components that show mastery in many areas.
- In my vision the armor is not the reward per se, so it doesn’t apply.

The ability to dual-spec for ascended and multi-spec for legendary would open the door for the content to be much more challenging and focused. We could have a boss that can only take conditions, since people could “change” their stats for the encounter. Or maybe a boss could only be killed by an NPC, and all we could do was heal and boon this NPC (and not die). Many possibilities!

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

example:

• you dodge attacks during the event (can already be tracked as it’s part of some daily achievements)
• you don’t fall below 50% health during the event
• you accomplish an optional goal (e.g. participate in killing 4 veterans)
• you accomplish an optional goal (e.g. the friendly npc musn’t go down once)

This would work like a combo streak system… That has the potential to be very fun!
At least I hear that it is usually fun in games that have a combo that if unbroken you get more points or whatever.
But that can be veeery complex to implement. Like, expansion-pack complex.
Also, it has to be thought about a lot before implementing, considering how people are always trying to not do content/get carried by the zerg to get achievements, and ArenaNet has to point a laser at our heads because of that (my example is the Prime Hologram fight).

Dry Top already has a very simplified version of this, but it only affects the Zephirites favor, not person rewards, and is usually focused in only one special objective (bonus favor if person X does not die).

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

What if you have a zone-currency like geodes in every zone. You get the zone currency for completing events in that zone. A precursor could require 6 different zone currencies, e.g. you need the clay pot from dry top, the “item xy” from another zone, etc.

As I see it, the most votes are going to a currency based system (John Smith’s option 2.5).
My point is that reward tracks are a currency based system, just a more elegant one.
Analysing each one of them:

1. Wallet tokens: can accumulate without you seeing you have thousands of them, which gives not a lot of sense of achievement. At least, you got “money” without even seeing, yay!
2. Inventory tokens: they occupy inventory space, stack on 250, so many times people don’t know what they are for and destroy them, to later regret. Also, not very “sense of achievement”.
3. Reward Tracks: they are also just an accumulation of a currency (it it glory? rank points?), but they show a clear objective and milestones, so it ends up giving a sense of achievement because you chose that track, so you want those prizes.

But I agree with your idea that the design decision of the game is that people do focused content to get specific rewards (as much as World drops don’t fit the bill).
Maybe, instead of those tracks being fed by level-80 level ups, they would be content-specific (but I still want to use my level-80 level ups to something :P)
Like, you only progress on the Teq track if you kill Teq (and maybe some neighbouring events?), only get Kryta progress while completing events on Kryta, and so on.

Now, while I like the tracks, I have never completed one… Do they give a “choice” of reward on the end? Or is it RNG-based?
For example, in the AC track, in the end you get a choice of equipment, like the Ascended boxes, or a random ascalonian equipment?

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

I like the “reward tracks” we got with DryTop: Geodes from zone-wide events that unlock new vendor-stuff.

I also like the scheme we have with Dry Top, that rewards participation of the individual and organization of the zerg. Still, don’t know how it could be applied to world drops like precursors… That’s why I like the idea of a PvE reward track, may not help a lot with the zerg organization but at least gives the individual a sense of accomplishment.
(Also, sometimes I feel like gaining levels with a level 80 is a waste… That’s how I ended up with 8 level 80’s LOL)
A mechanic like I suggested (leveling up while 80 leading to rolls with ever-increasing luck) would give back some of the sense of achievement.

I really like the idea of PvE reward tracks!
Are there other proposals of how those PvE tracks would work?
Are there other threads discussing this idea?

The way I would envision it, PvE reward tracks would be fed by level-80 level ups. Each time you got a level up with a level 80, it would feed the track.

At the level up moment, it would show a reward side chest thet would give the usuall skill point and also would give 1 “roll” for the ultimate prize of the track – depending on the track, could be a precursor, or a Teq weapon, or any other valuable things. If the roll failed, it would give a less valuable reward, like a rare item or a tome of knowledge.

If the person gets to the end of the track, he/she gets the ultimate prize (precursor, ascended weapon, fractal weapon). If a roll awards the ultimate prize, the reward track is also considered completed.
Some tracks would not be able to be repeated, at least for a long time (for example, the Precursor track could only be done once a year).

What do you guys think?

JonPeters.5630:

• Think about some rewards a physical Guild Hall might give you that couldn’t be done without it and how the ability to give those rewards could create a version of an improvement to a system that previously was considered impossible and is now instead very simple, clear, and compelling?

Proposal Overview
Guild Photographer

Goal of Proposal
To provide the guild with a functionality not available anywhere else in the game (making the guild more valuable in the eyes of its members) and also provide the guild with a source of income.

Proposal Functionality
One of the upgrades available on the Guild Hall would be the Guild Photographer. Once bought/researched, a “photography room” would be added to the hall, and in it, the guild members could pay a small fee (50 silver?) to take photos of their characters that would be saved as screenshots out of the game, in a “images folder”. The great functionality? These photos could be saved as .PNGs without a background, facilitating montages using the characters (currently there is no easy way to take a photo of your character that is easily separated from the background).
People using the photo room could adjust the camera angle and distance more freely than it’s possible in the game, could try using the emotes too see which pose they prefer, could have a inactive golem target so they can cast skills, and when they found the perfect pose/emote/skill, they would press a hotkey to take the picture.
Money from the photo room would go directly to the guild coffers, that way the guild would have a nice way of raising money without taxes or pleading to members.
The photographer could also have a option of being summoned to a place in the map so he could take a picture of the whole guild.

Associated Risks
People without guilds could feel “left out” of a functionality they would also want to use.

Well, since I started commenting, I will give my take on guild halls.

I like the idea of them being floating islands on the mists, like the Dessa Observatory.
A guild would start buying an island with more or less the same size of the Dessa Observatory, and would be able to include only a house-sized guild hall.
With further upgrades, the island could get bigger and bigger, and the halls possible would be bigger too, until a limit like the size of Stonemist Castle (well, that one may be too big with its outer halls).

But the best part of the idea, is land-locking.

By some kind of interface, the officers could choose to (temporarily) landlock their island to a mini-map. A mini-map is also a floating island, but it has no owner. Up to 3/4 guilds could land-lock to the same mini-map. And guilds would have a way of choosing to share the same mini-map, so they could play together, or fight against each other.

Depending on its interests, the guild would choose between many kinds of mini-maps.

• PvE map – this kind would have events and challenges for the guild to complete. There could be one type for each biome Tyria has to offer!
• Vacation map – pretty beaches, a beautiful forest, just some nice views for the guild to enjoy together. Maybe some jumping puzzles!
• Activity map – maps suited for a special kind of activity. How about a map suited for laser-tag?
• GvG map – a map with camps, keeps and garrisons so the guild can fight another guild(s) for dominance.

Guilds that just want to share a common space with other guilds would choose a PvE or vacation map to share, while guilds who want to go to war would schedule with rival guilds the battle they want.

I envision this mini-map as something with, let’s say, 1/4 to 1/8 of a common Tyria map, but this is implementation detail.

Well, got that out of my chest. What do you guys think?

Halcyon.5340:

The Guild Hall should contain a map of the whereabouts of all Guild Members and the events that they are currently doing. In addition, Guild Leaders can put markers on this map, and these markers will appear in every Guild Member’s personal world map.

I wasn’t going to comment because I am sure my ideas already appeared many, many times in this thread. But this is the one idea that I think would be very useful in a guild hall and really benefits from the guild having its personal space. With a map like this, when you are bored you can take a look at the map and see where some of your guildies are playing, and go play with them.

This giant map of Tyria could take a “wall” of the guild hall, while the guild calendar could take another “wall” and maybe another hall could be decorated with “photos” and a brief commentary of notable people from the guild (this last one has the risk of leading to narcisism).

I like (and have defended before) the idea of surveys exactly to gauge reception and interest on changes and new things. Many times I think that, even when a “good” change is made in the game, the 90+% of the games who are satisfied continue playing happily, while the 10% that didn’t like that are much more vocal about their displeasure. So, a change can be seen as bad even if most of the players liked it.

One way to make surveys a community-driven process is to collect the most common feedback on the forums and make a survey based on them. This way, the options would be the ones that make the most sense. To illustrate my point I rescued my “traits” survey examples, one of them more binary and one more focused on known feedbacks from the forums.

What do you think of the new trait system?
(o) I like it, it is a fun mechanic!
( ) I hate it, give my traits back!

Any particular criticism about the system?
[X] 100% map completion for traits? Bad idea.
[X] I think that traits should always be found in maps with level lower than the trait availability (level 36 for adept for example)
[ ] All traits should be attainable by playing only a game mode, the current system forces me to WvW / PvE!
[ ] The events that award traits should be better planned to avoid waiting hours for it!
And so on.

Also, the CDIs could be a very fertile ground to get the ideas for the survey structure.
For example, the Guild QoL CDI collected a lot of good ideas, but surveys could help identify which were the most wanted ones so the developers could focus their efforts.

A stop-gap on the road to surveys could be Digg/Bury buttons on the forum, that could also serve for this purpose without needing a completely new survey functionality. But I still like the power of surveys to consolidate information.

Paradox post can be based in a new character on an old account (with level 80’s), and maybe this video is based on a new account in which the other Character tabs are really locked.

Anyway, my experience is that the skill gating with weapons before was much better, and it was fun. Playing with a friend, he was happy whenever he got a new skill to use, and he gained each skill by killing stuff.
I have not tested the new system but level gating is not fun and doesn’t help people learn the game better in my opinion, unless a lot of focus is given to the new abilities in each level (like a check to see if the new ability is being used by the character).

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

I have an idea, but it may be somewhat difficult to implement and full of challenges.

Lion’s Arch has existed in the game in at least 3 states: before the attack, during the attack and after. Those are all existing developed work.
One way to work it is to keep all of them on the game and put the player in the right copy depending on their position on the timeline, that is shown on the Personal Story tab.

• If a person is currently in the “meet Tybalt in LA” story step, show the city before the attack.
• If the person would like to replay the “Escape from Lion’s Arch” story step (not possible currently) he/she would be put in the “during the attack” copy.
• And players in the Season 2 story steps would see the “after the attack” copy.

That way, all versions are visible, depending on where the person chooses to be on the timeline (considering that is an option now).

Advantages:

• Makes it viable to replay all big battles of season 1! How I would like to kill the Marionette again. Also the Prime Hologram.
• Opens the path to bigger thanges in other regions. If Orr was restored to habitability, most of the Personal story would feel disjointed. But, with that solution, people what completed the story step that, let’s say, escorts zephyrite refugees too Orr get into that “cleaner” copy. People completing season 0 see the “original” copy in which killing Zaithan makes sense.

Challenges:

• Many, many copies of the current map on the server – this problem was reduced a lot by the megaserver system. If only 5 people on the whole MegaServer currently wanna see the “during the attack” map, they can share it.
• Many copies of the current map on the game client – don’t know how big this problem could be, but in the case of Fort Salma and Concordia, that doesn’t need to be 2 copies of the whole map, only of that particular part of it (the rest is identical). Server instances of the map would still be separate though.
• Ghost town instances – “why no one is in Lion’s Arch to help me kill those Aetherblades!”. Well, since the person chooses the story step he/she is, think this one is not a big problem.
• Separation of parties and guilds – I think that is not a problem (that’s why there is “Join in”).

What do you guys think?

Oh, I have a question:
Suppose the current lowest sell price of an item ia 6g 00s 00c.
In that case, can you use the down button on the copper to reduce the price by one copper (making it 5g 99s 99c), or you have to change all 3 fields?

It would be heavenly if we could “steal” lowest price slot with this level of ease. And also, it would improve market efficiency, because the sell price and buy price would equalize faster (I currently use the buy price if it is close enough to the sell price, so I think many people do that too). That way, more deals get done!