Guild Wars 2

If you have never worked for a software company, don’t hate on Arenanet! These guys have just proved they are working on delivering this update until the final hour. No room for a breath, just done and out.

As much as you want this latest release, they want to give it to you. In life stuff happens which is out of your control. They cannot help a power outage and they are delivering as fast as they can.

I was not aware of the happenings at arena net until I just watched WP’s video. After his efforts to put a positive spin on it all it just hammers on a point that has been in my mind over the past few years of gw2.

Gw1 was value for money in a game. Free to play, emersive content and good story telling. Something that in the most part gw2 has lacked. Other than the free to play part.

When I look at the expansion, it was more money than any of the campaigns in gw1 and did not even come with a manual or monster lore book.

System redefine after redefine, a living story which was greater in content than the expansion pretty much.

Other than the short raids, there is nothing coming up in the short term.

They talked about improving fractals when all they did was break the rewards.

I am sure I am not speaking for myself when I say all this game needs is new content. More story and maps.

I don’t want to see this franchise go down the pan but seriously arena net, you need to go back to your roots.

You could try the right click consume all option they added for luck.

This is totally why they have ignored all of the how many hp’s are required questions. I only hope it isn’t going to take half the expansion to unlock.

Would be nice to have some confirmation on this considering its 8 days away.

I would like to know either way

Substance E.4852:

DaveyC.4398:

That is not a confirmation though is it? Considering that you have all unlocked at level 80.

Confirmation of what? Anet has explicitly said you simply spend the hero points to unlock the line and purchase the skills (like the vanilla traits/utilities) assuming one has HoT. There’s no special quest or other jazz that you need to do.

The only thing in the air is how many points will be required though it’s likely enough to simply be at lvl 80 and have a good chunk of the map cleared.

Have they stated a number? Should I grind all available hero points for each elite specialisation I wish to play?

That is not a confirmation though is it? Considering that you have all unlocked at level 80.

As lots of people keep asking this question, I am going to post it every day until we get a response. Please Anet you are doing good, just tell us what we need ahead of hot.

Hello Arena Net,

This question is specifically for you…

As we are weeks away from the launch of HoT, could you tell us what is required in order to use the Elite Specialisations?

I know Data Mining and speculation states that it is X number of Hero Points. The exact number would be great as I have done world completion twice and would rather not chase after Hero Points unless it was with the Reaper.

I am sure many others would appreciate knowing what they need to do in order to run into that jungle with their favourite elite.

On a separate note to that . I would also like to say that the way you guys have handled the past few weeks has been pretty amazing. The communication has been spot on and I bet it feels great to see your hard work pay off.

I would have thought that after three years, Arena Net would already have a good idea of what players find fun.

It comes down to a few things…

Engaging content is one thing. Being rewarded for that content is another. Lets take the Halloween maze zerg for an example. Last years zerg was much better than the previous years. The reason for this is that it was rewarding. The year before provided very little in the way of mob drops.

When you look at the recent in game invasion event, it feels lack lustre due to the lack of rewards and kill acknowledgement. No Experience from kills or drops from the mobs.

I cannot help but think this is because of the recent free to play and influx of new players. – With the amount of kills that happen during an invasion, this would add up to a big amount of experience and level new players at a pace which would be undesirable.

CandyHearts.6025:

That Gw3 comes out in 2016.

xD

If they state that the future is going to be GW3 – I am done…

After playing the first real beta. I was impressed from the start. It is clear that a lot of work has been done since the first time I saw it back at Rezzed.

After my initial disappointment of the pre beta where we got to play a very underwhelming Revenant, I was not keen to start off with it. I have also been very much looking forward to trying the Reaper.

I don’t want to go into too much detail but I would like to list a few of my observations and thoughts.

Reaper

On the whole, I would say that this is a spectacular piece of work. I really enjoyed playing this specialisation. The play style felt fun and worthwhile. The animations are also very nice on the whole. As was obvious from the POI streams, the attack speed of the Great Sword was quite slow. The speed is not an issue, I do however feel that it could hit a little harder considering the slowness of the attacks. The Reaper Shroud is nothing other than bad kitten

Mastery’s

In general I like the idea of mastery’s. This definitely has the potential to provide the much needed expandable end game progression we all would like. The only criticism I have after the beta is the introduction to it. I don’t think it is very clear how training mastery’s work. I figured out that you have to level the experience then spend the point(s). For my first Mastery level I just had to assume that I could spend the points once I hit the level. During the beta I was only able to get to the first level of gliding and the first level of the mushroom jumping. This was mainly down to the lack of working events in the beta. It is very difficult to level when you are just killing mobs.

Gliding

Overall I was very happy with the feel of gliding. Compared to my experience at rezzed, it was like it had been in the game forever. It felt natural, smooth and most importantly – not clunky! For the first tier the glide distance felt fine if not a little too long. The extra dimension it brought to the game felt nice. My only concern is that it is going to make the vanilla gw2 feel like trying to jump in gw1.

Mushroom Jumping

The mushrooms around the Itzle village are a nice addition. In theory it will make traversing the platforms a much better experience. Sadly this is not the experience I had. I had a number of experiences where I triggered the jump whilst not standing on the platform. This had the effect of firing me short of the landing spot. On a couple of occasions, death could have been avoidable by being able to open my glider. Unfortunately the glider does not open when you are in the midst of a jumping mushroom. I feel that the mushroom jump needs to take you to the same location every time. If that means you can only trigger the jump when standing on top then that’s how it should be.

Revenant and other Specialisations

I tried the Revenant and all other specialisations with the exception of the Cronomancer. In all honesty I was having too much fun with the Reaper to spend much time on them. I liked the animations and feel of the tempest. I wasn’t particularly fussed with the Dragon Hunter which is a shame as my main is currently a Guardian. I didn’t really enjoy the Revenant. Maybe I had it speced wrong but I found that with Shiro and Jalis I was dying very fast. I also had issues getting my head around the f1 f2 and weapon swap. I will defo give it another go but I am going to wait until the end result is available.

As I said before, all in all the game is looking great. I look forward to playing the next beta. Keep up the good work.

One final thing I would like to say – Being as it is the third anniversary in a few weeks. Please give us something to do even if it is just a rehash of something like the gauntlet.

I have had two very different experiences with FPS:

Main Rig:
i7 4790k
8 GB Ram
GTX 970

With this I had no issues what so ever. As you would expect, everything running at max and still getting nice frame rates of anywhere between 45 and 60.

My work laptop:

i7 4712 hq
16 GB Ram
GT 750m

This normally runs the game fine on medium with pretty high frame rates. During the beta it was totally crippled. I had to reduce everything down to low and even at that I was still getting very low FPS.

They melt for a reaper…

It is so awesome…

The Reaper is awesome!

I will have much more to say I am sure…

For now though – Well done! Your demo has enhanced so much since Rezzed. I hope you continue with this level of quality…

Criticisms to come later

Shiro Tammogotchi

Kidel.2057:

DaveyC.4398:

Linking the simplest way to implement would be to tie the wepeon slots to each legend slot. That way you can change both wepeon and legend as you see fit. This would not take or remove anything from your inventory.

Using one wepeon across multiple slots is already possible so I don’t see an issue.

Really a bad idea.
If you didn’t notice, Revenant main focus is legend swap. We get energy from it, and stunbreaks and the utility skills we can’t customize. We need to swap and a lot. Just look at the traits. Many of thems are “when you swap legend”.

You can’t tie that to the weapon swapping.

What if I need to burst melee-range but I’m stunned and I need to swap to Jalis for stun break? I’m forced to go hammer for that? That’s nonsense.

What if I’m fighting the Golem World Boss ranged (before you rage, that’s an example) but I need energy, so I need to swap legend? Do I also get a melee weapon so I have to wait and do nothing? What if I’m Shiro and I need Jalis for stability? I get stability but also a melee weapon so I can do nothing.

Just 2 examples to preve that your idea is bad. Also difficult to make and worse then weaponswap. Simple, good old weaponswap.

And not just your idea. All the strange ideas that are coming lately (f2 conjured weapon, skill change, mode change) are all inferior to weaponswap. People are suggesting those just to make something original. I’m okay with original things, but only if better or decent, not if worse.

Tell me 1 good reason why your idea is better then normal weaponswap. 1 reason.

I never stated it would be ‘better’ I was posting a suggestion / asking for others opinions.

Don’t forget – opinions are like kitten holes, everybody has one.

Considering you can currently have two of the same type for existing wepeon swap professions it wouldn’t make that much difference. It’s either a little flexibility or non

Given that synigy between legend and wepeon type seem to be linked, and a lot of people have been asking the question. I wonder if wepeon swapping will come with the elite specialisation.

Linking the simplest way to implement would be to tie the wepeon slots to each legend slot. That way you can change both wepeon and legend as you see fit. This would not take or remove anything from your inventory.

Using one wepeon across multiple slots is already possible so I don’t see an issue.

Gerikstoof.9563:

I understand what you mean Stinjam, but both weapon and legend swap would mean there are 4 different movesets, like the elementalist. Except that the Elementalist can’t have a weapon swap.
At this rate, Revenant would have 4 sets with 2 active at all times. And Elementalist would have 4 sets with only 1 active at a time. Sure, the main reason why Elementalist doesn’t have weapon swap is because they would have 8 sets and that is a SEVERE overkill, but allowing the Revenant to swap weapons and legend apart from each other would be unfair in my opinion.

I would suggest only two weapon sets. These would have to be swapped out as required when a new legend is selected.

Hello all,

I have been doing some thinking over the weekend. I know the Rev isn’t finished by any stretch of the imagination. Having said that, I feel there is room for a wepeons swap which is tied to the legend.

For example, the staff is very very low DPS. Numbers can change but I am pretty sure the devs stated it was designed to be so. With the ability to swap between legends, this is going to mean low DPS with both legends.

If the wepeon swap was accociated with each legend, it would make the Rev much more situational.

I am not sure what everyone’s thoughts are on this. I would also like to know if this has been considered by the devs.

Thanks

Crise.9401:

People are forgetting something about this beta… this whole event wasn’t in their original plans. It is a “bonus” event for extra feedback on the Revenant, as we have seen, because the short CBT they had didn’t give them enough feedback.

Colin said this himself, they don’t consider this a fully fledged Beta Weekend Event. Part of the reason this test exists is because the gear in the CBT was the same used for the convention demo and they basically said that while they had reasons for having that gear set for the demo in hindsight they should have changed it for the CBT event.

Source: first segment of the PoI stream today.

That’s actually how I see it. I would rather have confirmation that we can expect X number of months without an update rather than something that is not even close. Prior to this I was excited about the revenant. Now the only thing that I am looking forward to is the Reaper.

Watch this space .

penelopehannibal.8947:

DaveyC.4398:

its not actually the first ‘Beta’ though’ is it right?

The other time where we got to play Revenant was a stress test, not specifically to beta the revenant itself, unlike now.

The exact same comments where made then though :/

ZudetGambeous.9573:

DaveyC.4398:

its not actually the first ‘Beta’ though’ is it right?

3rd beta. Told them that rev dps was terrible for all of them. Nothing changed. Nothing will change. They are way behind schedule, they just need to keep pushing forward, there is no looking back.

Honesty is the best policy, I personally believe they didn’t start it until way later than what they said. That is not really the point but I wish they would just be straight with us.

Other classes where available in the Beta Portal event. Even in my EGX experience other professions where available and played by other people, for what it is worth. Arena Net calculate their boss stats using software, this has been stated on the forums previously. This should be no different for our new class, and probably isn’t.

Lets get one thing straight. I am not trying to kittenbag Arena Net. I appreciate the work they are doing as I love the franchise. I have been here since GW1 Prophecies. I am also reading between the unspoken lines.

As I have already stated, I have experience in development and marketing. What we have been presented with isn’t worthy of a beta. Both on Arena Nets side and the players side.

To me this feels like PR from the beta backlash and the lack of information for quite some time.

Unless you can give me genuine reasons backed up with genuine facts other than ‘Useful Data’ .

I would appreciate you not white knitting my forum post. Prior to this I was the biggest of them all nearly

Morfedel.4165:

DaveyC.4398:

Hello All,

I had high hopes after playing the Revenant at EGX Rezzed. After Playing the first beta, I am so disappointed.

I have tried a zerker and condi build with all weapon types. All I have seen is crazy low DPS, to the point where it took about 8 mins to kill a vet with other players.

That and no underwater weapon hardly make it much of a Beta.

From my perspective, I wish Arena net had not bothered with this weekend. I would have preferred them admitting that we are a long way away from hot completion.

After what I have seen today, I doubt very much that I will be playing a rev from day one, if even at all.

For what it is worth, I am seriously questioning whether I have a future in this game. (No you cannot have my stuff).

I guess that’s what you get for blind loyalty when the overlords have a culture of bleeding gamblers dry when you are a bit of a gambler yourself.

It is utterly dumbfounding how many people don’t understand the purpose of a beta test.

It isn’t to market a finished product. Its to find flaws and address them.

You know, “Hey devs, it looks like the revenant has a problem with damage output you may need to address” is a great way for a beta tester to report issues they discover.

Your response isn’t That of a beta tester. It’s that of someone looking for a bnigh complete product, which this isn’t.

I suggest you and others of your persuasion look up what a beta test and beta testers are. It certainly seems you either don’t get it, or don’t have it in you.

I think you are also forgetting that low DPS was reported after the last Portal Beta. All that seems to have changed is the inclusion of a staff and the venrtari legend. This also equates to low DPS.

Morfedel.4165:

DaveyC.4398:

Hello All,

I had high hopes after playing the Revenant at EGX Rezzed. After Playing the first beta, I am so disappointed.

I have tried a zerker and condi build with all weapon types. All I have seen is crazy low DPS, to the point where it took about 8 mins to kill a vet with other players.

That and no underwater weapon hardly make it much of a Beta.

From my perspective, I wish Arena net had not bothered with this weekend. I would have preferred them admitting that we are a long way away from hot completion.

After what I have seen today, I doubt very much that I will be playing a rev from day one, if even at all.

For what it is worth, I am seriously questioning whether I have a future in this game. (No you cannot have my stuff).

I guess that’s what you get for blind loyalty when the overlords have a culture of bleeding gamblers dry when you are a bit of a gambler yourself.

It is utterly dumbfounding how many people don’t understand the purpose of a beta test.

It isn’t to market a finished product. Its to find flaws and address them.

You know, “Hey devs, it looks like the revenant has a problem with damage output you may need to address” is a great way for a beta tester to report issues they discover.

Your response isn’t That of a beta tester. It’s that of someone looking for a bnigh complete product, which this isn’t.

I suggest you and others of your persuasion look up what a beta test and beta testers are. It certainly seems you either don’t get it, or don’t have it in you.

Do you honestly think that this is a true beta?

Its hardly a beta when at least half of the main functionality is missing. This is a publicity beta more than anything else.

Arena Net have software to test DPS and other elements of mobs and professions. This weekend is about letting people have a hands on experience and nothing else.

From my perspective I am disappointed. Please don’t try and insult my intelligence by trying to tell me I don’t know what a Beta is as I have working for a software house for over 10 years.

I am quite familiar with the software testing process. I am also quite familiar with how marketing works also.

Having owned and built your game for nearly three years, surely you must know that this is the case??

In a nutshell, it comes down to this.

Low DPS
Lack of speed buffs
Massive indifference between the first two and the latest stance. Ventare is weak. I know it is meant to be but at the same time, it doesn’t feel that healey

its not actually the first ‘Beta’ though’ is it right?

Hello All,

I had high hopes after playing the Revenant at EGX Rezzed. After Playing the first beta, I am so disappointed.

I have tried a zerker and condi build with all weapon types. All I have seen is crazy low DPS, to the point where it took about 8 mins to kill a vet with other players.

That and no underwater weapon hardly make it much of a Beta.

From my perspective, I wish Arena net had not bothered with this weekend. I would have preferred them admitting that we are a long way away from hot completion.

After what I have seen today, I doubt very much that I will be playing a rev from day one, if even at all.

For what it is worth, I am seriously questioning whether I have a future in this game. (No you cannot have my stuff).

I guess that’s what you get for blind loyalty when the overlords have a culture of bleeding gamblers dry when you are a bit of a gambler yourself.

You know what. I am a veteran, been playing since since gw1. I was there for all the gw2 betas. I have spent a kitten load in the gem store and have 2 stacks of mystery tonics to show for it.

I don’t care that they are giving the base game away. New players are getting an incentive old players have had their money’s worth.

There will be exceptions in between I.e. Recent sales and I am sure they will be sorted in due course.

The core game is nearly 3 years old. If they want to give it away, that is there choice m. Deal with it.

There is a lot of rage out there about the price and handling of the pre order.

Here are my thoughts on the matter…

The first thing to consider is that as a core GW2 player – You brought the game. Most people will have hand countless hours enjoying the existing content and are owed nothing else on top of that.

For those who brought the game in a sale, I believe you will inevitably get a refund.

If Arena Net want to give the core game away for free, that is their choice. I myself have had at least 2500 hours enjoyment out of GW2 since the beta and would not expect this to affect anything with regards to the expansion.

Sure you can compare the expansion against the GW1 campaigns but those got two professions and one character slot. Even then if you wanted both you would have had to buy another.

I bet that 99% of people who are complaining will ultimately buy the expansion regardless of if the offered packages are changed.

No one is forced to buy the pre purchase. I suppose its really down to whether you want access to the betas.

I remember a lot of people hyping ‘take my money’ when they heard that the expansion was on its way and now you can.

Any ideas when the next beta will be?

I hope they do get a GS – I am about 2 days away from crafting eternity.

Zaklex.6308:

DaveyC.4398:

How long it’s taking to get the expansion information out isnt really what I am talking about. I am talking about forum questions. An easy example relating to the beta portals would be people asking if it was affected by magic find. Specific threads asking, posts within existing threads and not a peep.

That’s a terrible example, anyone that knows anything about the game knows that drops from mobs are the only things affected by MF, therefore the Portals that came from events would not be affected, but those that came through killing a creature would…that doesn’t even warrant an answer by ArenaNet.

You know that portals where actually dropping from mobs?

How long it’s taking to get the expansion information out isnt really what I am talking about. I am talking about forum questions. An easy example relating to the beta portals would be people asking if it was affected by magic find. Specific threads asking, posts within existing threads and not a peep.

I am sure I am not alone in feeling a slightly bitter taste towards how the past 6 months have gone from a players perspective.

First there is the lack of content – I understand it’s all hands on deck whilst the expansion is completed. But we have had nothing other than gem store updates and small bug fixes. How hard or time consuming would it be to throw us a bone and re roll something like the pavilion?

Then there is the beta – I didn’t get a portal or selected from the newsletter. I grinded for hours and hours during the selection period whilst watching people shout about having multiple drops on the same account.

Then to find out that the beta times are effectively not not applicable to anyone in the uk who has a job. It makes the grind feel even less while.

I see simple questions on the forums go unanswered by anyone at arena net.

All of the above makes me sad indeed.

It’s very obvious that the expansion pack is a long long way away from being ready.

Communication is the key to all of this. all of the bitterness I feel could be avoided with better communication. It’s not going to help the lack of content but maybe an internal battle of gem store updates vs keeping players happy is needed?

Putting countless hours into getting a portal was certainly a waste for me as I did not get one. I would welcome a non RNG method of getting access.

I didn’t get one. I hope everyone who got more than one constantly DC’s!! I am only joking… Certainly bitter but I hope you all enjoy.

After an hour and a half and only seeing one person in my map get a portal, I figure it’s a waste of time. I am done grinding out the maguma wastes for the time being.

As per the title – Will Magic Find affect the drop rate of the Beta Portals?

ainekitten.9517:

I hope I wasn’t misreading but…

“Finally, these reward tracks unlock everything for an elite specialization: weapon, unique mechanics, skills, and traits. They’ll also reward items, including new runes and sigils, a fancy weapon skin for your new weapon type, and an armor skin for a single matching piece of armor (usually headgear or shoulders). As long as you’ve purchased Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, you’ll automatically unlock access to all elite specializations in PvP.”

Does this mean elite specializations are another way for Anet to try and force PvE’rs to play a game they don’t like to get content? I for one will be ultra salty if this is the case, I want nothing to do with PvP.

I would like to think that anet have enough experience to know that players favour drops rather than specific chains. If not magic find would be a complete waste of time ( not that it doesn’t feel that way already)

Support builds are only going to be viable when damage to mobs does not define loot drops.

Having recently played the revanent albiet mainly using hammer. I would say that scarlet could potentially make a good legend if done right. The current legends do not provide any method of faster movement. Given Scarlett’s ability to teleport and so on, that could provide the fast travel / speed burst currently missing ( unless the other wepeons set allows for faster movement already)

This post is really for Arenanet, I just wanted to say thanks for the oppertunity to play the demo of HoT.

I know you had issues with connectivity at the start of the day, fortunately for me I was third in the queue and would of waited all day anyway!

It was great to finally get to meet Gaile and some of the other team. Especially the wvw developer who did his best to answer my questions (sorry I didn’t catch your name)

The Revevant feels awesome, especially the Jalias stance. Gliding felt like it needed a little work but I trust you have it all under control.

Also thanks for the freebee’s and please start selling those mouse pads!

Keep up the good work and hope to see you all next time you are in the UK.

Enjoy london

Hi Gaile,

I am going to EGX Rezzed on the Friday. I am looking forward to meeting the team and most importantly getting my hands on a demo of HoT I am hoping for some team photo oppertunitys and something signed by the team if possible.

I will have loads of questions on the day but I will save them until then.

I am properly excited!