Guild Wars 2

Introduction of Fractals caused me to quit the game… for 6 months. I’m only back here because I got sick of the phishing emails looking to take over and abuse/sell my account.

That said- I’m reading the same grievances I read 6 months ago. That alone almost makes me grateful- obviously I haven’t missed anything. SSDD

I keep looking for something to indicate Anet wants to become something other than a Wow derivative. Today they are no different than Wow, Rift, Aion, etc… lump them all together.

Sorry- I’m just disappointed. What folks I knew have either been banned or moved on. Game seems relatively unchanged in 6 months.

1. The reasons I left the game 6 mos ago are still relevant today: hacks and exploits- ruined economy

2. Gear Grind: fractals/Ascended gear

3. RNG- Mystic Forge: Legendary Weapons.

I’m in the same situation as the Poster. I ‘Recovered’ my account last week (mostly from frequent phishing attempts…that disappeared as soon as I logged in).

I have not played in almost 6 months.

While there’s a lot of BS to be found in public forums- the gist of it all isn’t encouraging.

How about some general questions

1. Is the Gear Grind better or worse at level 80? (Possible to be accepted in groups- even accomplished groups with just exotics or is Ascended gear plus required?!)

2. Does Wv3 still scale <80 folks to a point they can be competitive

3. Are precursors still total RNG?

If 2/3 of these are negative in any way… nothing as changed since I left.

Well?

I would be discouraged. This is Summer Break in the US… and considering the dismal employment numbers the media is spitting out… you’d think there’d be more not less playing.

I’d think any F2P game would be thriving these days.

Why folks are leaving- there are a ton of posts on that elsewhere. My short answer is the things that made GW2 fun are marginal and the reasons I abandoned Wow…legion.

First- I did not bother to read every single post. Most of the first did not revolve around the topic at all.

I did not play GW1; I just didn’t. I think I was playing Rift at the time. However, I remember quite a few posts about GW2 would not be pay to win… that store bought stuff would be cosmetic only.

Bear with me.

This is the tenet that made GW2 exciting to me. In my context as a working professional… “Time is Money”. So a game that rewards more time spent (grinding)… is essentially pay to win… no different than if you spent $1000 on gems and where able to buy precursors etc from the store.

GW2 was fun at Launch because we were all competing on roughly the same level… Sure, some folks leveled faster… but the level scaling adjusted that within reason. A few of the really lucky or dedicated had the fancy animations from Legendary weapons. I can live with that.

However, the ‘gear treadmill’ is so horrible; unless you can join and keep up with it… there is no reason to play. If Ascended gear just looked cooler than exotics… that’d be fine. As a casual player who puts in as much time as I can and work a 50 hour/week job… then kudos for them. I don’t begrudge anyone a cosmetic reward for their time.

However, it’s a given- whom-ever I complete against in Wv3 or PVP or PvE (fractals) I’m always at a disadvantage because I’m a working, tax-paying professional. Time is money… pay to win… spend the most time grinding… you automatically have a huge (stat/ability) advantage in any aspect in the game. It’s not about strategy or game-play but mostly gear.

GW2 over… unless you are underage, student, or a retiree.

It’s a nice game; but from my perspective and circumstance… it’s a done deal. I’m just waiting for the next game.

I abandoned the game for 6 months for many reasons but my top list.

1. Fractals. When this started up- it was Wow and every other MMO I have ever played all over again. I don’t have the time to grind endlessly. Legendary Weapons being difficult I can accept given my circumstances. Fractal progression… that was my breaking point.

(I have not completed a single Fractal yet… I think I know where the entrance is…)

2. Time-sensitive Events. Hey! I have to work to put a roof over my head, food on the table, pocket money to spend on GEMS… there were quite a few events that were richly rewarded that I couldn’t complete in because of Real Life (that thing that allows me the opportunity to enjoy the game in the first place).

I have now ‘Recovered’ my account twice. Curiously or perhaps tragically (you pick)… since I started logging in once a week; the Phishing emails I was getting regularly disappeared. Almost as if there’s a connection…

I’m trying to re-engage with the game; but I just can’t manage it yet. Thanks for the post. I agree with some of it.

Bottom line- It will take very little to pull me away to something else. Star Citizen or other. What I loved about GW2 at launch… just isn’t there anymore and/or shadowed by all the other glitter they added to appeal to kids and retirees.

Pray these folks continue to have cash to spend on gems… it’s not worth my dime.

Thanks for the response…

Spent the last few hours trying to sort out where my first guild went, their officers, their debacles.

In the end, I’m still no better off. I tried to search for ‘fan’ and got 4 threads that mean nothing.

I’m almost 6 months away from the game (gone through account recovery twice now) and reading patch notes means almost nothing. I’m looking for a webiste/fansite that can help get me caught up on all the things I’ve missed as well as offer suggestions for ‘graded’ content that’s showed up in that time frame.

Candidly- any advice/help would be appreciated.

I’m hesitant to join a guild at this time. Too soon frankly. I need a ‘readjustment’ period first.

style.6173:

I like searching for the loot bags. Besides, after you play enough, it really won’t matter to you if you miss some…. not sure what to do with 3000 badges anyway.

For an accomplished PVP player… it’s no big deal… for those that are struggling… it’s another story.

I don’t think auto-loot is unreasonable…where it automatically shows up in your inventory.

Kinda petty to be honest. Autoloot isn’t going to make weak players stronger; but for a strong player to be against it…

Devs should just merge these servers in with T3-5 realms…whatever is most balanced.

There is no reason for the extra servers when the battles are so ‘insignificant’… truly… how much of burden could it be?

Been gone a while… and just stepped in to see what’s it like.

Wv3 is not even worth the bother…. Doubt structured is either.

Gw2 has joined every game in creation… unless you have top gear… you are just fodder for everyone above you.

You’ll get no more badges from me… that’s for darn sure.

I’m sort of in his situation… have any particular fan sites become ‘the’ resource for builds, tips, instances, etc?

Fractals… can’t imagine what it will take to find a rank 1 group now… and then folks will expect you to be an alt and already ‘know’ everything… is there a site around that explains such things?

Anyone have a opinion how many more weeks before the rankings stabilize?

I’m checking the current matches…. seems there is plenty of flux in the middle…

Who’s going up and who’s going down… do you think?

Agree with several of the posters

1. Have to do max damage
2. No gauruntee even if #1 is true (one exception- see below)
3. Guild affiliation is a factor (Note there is no minimum on Guild participation..and influence can be purchased…at least there wasn’t when I created my own…so getting a tag is easy.)
4. If you aren’t at 80 with full exotics… on tier 1-2… don’t do WvW with any expectations beyond having fun for the fun of it.

Most reliable badges for me is the puzzles… assuming I can do it without getting ganked in the process. They can be done everyday.

Or Siege… ballista mostly- easily the best, consistent single point damage weapon… always get badges manning one… even from npc mobs. Always.

Catisa.6507:

So you are planning to pay to transfer to the top of your tier to get the world bonus benefits cause you will NOT get any bonuses while guesting.

http://mos.millenium.org/matchups#NA

Exactly. Sure I could pay top dollar and transfer to a tier 1 server… but there’s reason for that. Any server at the top of their tier is just as likely to have a similar bonus… maybe even better depending on their opponents… Tier 8 or Tier 2-7… just wondering who that is… or most likely to be.

Anyone have a clue?

Usually they post what the ratings are…based on last week. This week seems like this week is the same as last week…

Did anyone more up or down?

Are the one’s we face this week… the one’s we’ll have to face for 8 weeks?

Trying to sort out who’s going to be the top of ‘my tier’… thinking about the world bonus (as it effects gathering/crafting)… collecting mats for Legendaries is not an idle pursuit… best bonus a requirement.

where is the official endorsement on this thread?

lol- allow them to use Mesmer portals. That would put a serious kink in any ambush.

Symantec’s… B2P/F2P… yes, we all bought the game to play… but those who bought gems… have put more into the game than those who haven’t.

Core argument still exists. You have not provided any evidence that my proof is wrong.

fellyn.5083:

It helps to read more than just the title of the thread. People are wanting to know why they are being stuck in a queue when there is seemingly not even half the people in a map than there used to be in weeks past.

And then there is the fact that you think buying gems give you some sort of hidden priority over people who haven’t.. which I’m not sure what you base that theory on because you have no way of knowing who has bought gems and who hasn’t.

How do you ‘know’ who is in the map and who isn’t? Guild by Guild is fine, but I have never heard of a list or site that shows ‘everyone’ that is in Wv3 in a real-time… if there is such a thing… do share.

I base my theory on experience and common sense. For a F2P game… who is more likely to have priority? Those who have put money into it… or those who haven’t? You’d have to get Devs to admit who has spent on gems and who hasn’t… which should happen before you get players to admit what they have spent. Good luck proving me wrong.

Dhar.6392:

Jayne.9251:

I believe they took the reward for escorting yaks out of game because they were being abused by botters.

Fantastic- nerf player game-play to avoid player abuse. Hmm…

It’s like Defense… without adequate reward… there’s almost no point to it.

Surely they can come up with a decent alternative. NPC at the start… like with dynamic events… that start the ‘event’… and if you start with and end with… you get xp/karma… if you hop in the middle or don’t talk to npc… you might get achievement… nothing else… idk… cutting players off from all benefit is pretty extreme.

I’m now thinking it’d be nice to get a cumulative reward with achievement. We get a title if we escort enough yaks… how about a cumulative gold/karma to go with it… a delayed recompense for our time.

Be aware- price for transfer depends on what tier you transfer too… tier 1 is much more expensive than lower tiers.

Candid advice- wait a few weeks for ratings to settle out before making a move. Now is a bad time to decide who is #1, etc.

fellyn.5083:

I think this post deserves a lolwut.jpg. I don’t think you understand what this thread is about.

It’s about folks waiting for hours w/o a word from Devs about where they stand in line.

No?

I’m suggesting that there are factors that Devs don’t want to make obvious… like how much you have spent… that go into that ‘number’… that directly affect your queue time.

If you are after something else… please straighten me out.

How many gems have you purchased?

Not saying anything is fact. There are games out there that reward buyers. Folks who have spent money on their product… be it subs or ‘other’ purchases.

I recently needed to recover my account. I didn’t have order code, game code, or anything; but I could prove I had spent $200 on the game… and I was playing the next day.

It’s F2P folks… if you are a feeloader- managed to get by without spending a dime… hell, I think you deserve to rot in queue for hours.

Jayne.9251:

I believe they took the reward for escorting yaks out of game because they were being abused by botters.

Fantastic- nerf player game-play to avoid player abuse. Hmm…

It’s like Defense… without adequate reward… there’s almost no point to it.

Surely they can come up with a decent alternative. NPC at the start… like with dynamic events… that start the ‘event’… and if you start with and end with… you get xp/karma… if you hop in the middle or don’t talk to npc… you might get achievement… nothing else… idk… cutting players off from all benefit is pretty extreme.

Escorts get Achievement while saboteurs get xp/loot.

Candidly- I think I’d rather get both; but you’d have to convince the Devs of that.

Perhaps they ought to change Yaks to NPC’s at destination- if you finish ‘escort’ gives you a special vendor with gear or some such.

Just waiting for Devs to post the match finals… two weeks running… tell me all I need to know.

Waffler.1257:

Anyone else see it?

Yep… going to work on completion for my 80’s… mid February or March I’ll transfer. SBI needs more than a little ‘training’… re-education might work… as if you can make folks change their habits to date. SBI is done for.

Know only ‘havoc’ style tactics. Very few know otherwise…and they’d be happier elsewhere than try to change the majority. I wish them luck.

SBI first… log into LA… no overflow. No Queue in Wv3 either.

Thinking the merger suggestion isn’t far off. SBI does well for 15-20% coverage. No more.

Luck!.

jazzllanna.1278:

Yerffejy.6538:

I definitely thought SBI had a lot of people just waiting for a new match to make an appearance…

Guess not.

Really this is the most I have seen on in days.. and a small queue on eb now! We can do it sbi!

For a few hours sure… and then folks gave up. Same old complaint really- no defense to speak of while I saw both CD and YB taking care of business. Score reflects that.

Seems to me you can either keep complaining… or make your own thief and join the bandwagon.

I started one. I’m pretty sure I’ll get to be the object of complaint for a long time before it’s ‘fixed’.

There’s a ‘Sticky’ thread on the GW2 Discussion page about droprate of loot in general.

I’ve read a lot of it and the consensus is that after Nov 15- the Devs nerfed all loot tables significantly. I remember getting decent loot in Wv3 after Launch through first of November (when I took a break); but that’s not true anymore.

I don’t believe Wv3 was spared the general nerf. A lot of posts suggest that drop rate perks up after a patch… and then craps out again soon after.

Folks zerg because they can’t do small groups.

1. They don’t PVP well to begin with
2. They aren’t geared (full exotics and legendaries)
3. They want to run with their Guild… which is bigger than a handful.

You’d have a better chance of convincing Devs of creating a Wv3 size sPVP map and let matches run for 6-12 hours at a time than you will turning Wv3 into something else.

Just not SoR or any other server that considers themselves tier 1-2.

Whatever we tell you today will be bad intel by the time you hit 80…

Lots of folks looking for Warriors- glass cannon builds for dungeon runs.

It’s not necessarily what class is needed; it’s who can play their class well that matters.

Returning player… left early Nov…

I’ve been running solo with an Elementalist. Noticed that I am getting no loot at all when I use conjured weapons…

Speed is a big factor… if I’m alone… and I kill quickly… no loot. If the fight takes too long… no loot. There’s a ‘sweet’ spot in the middle that gives loot some of the time.

I did a dynamic event with other players (not grouped) on the 30th and saw a huge increase in the drop rate… almost every mob killed gave up something- mostly trash, but when I continued to solo afterwards… droprate went back down to the ‘new normal’.

I would guess, based on my experience, that Devs are trying to discourage gold farmers/bots by tweaking loot drop-rate. Unfortunately- a bot doesn’t get discouraged…players do.

“Tier is immaterial… but if you are wanting a Legendary weapon… the world bonus is everything that matters.”

So don’t spend a fortune on tier 1 transfer… if tier 4-5 will get you the same bonus for a fraction of the price.

Tom Gore.4035:

Not a bad idea, but I would still start from adding incentives to split your forces instead of punishing zerging.

I once wrote a lenghty post about changing the supply mechanic and siege camps, but it was quickly buried under 100 threads crying for more phat lewt.

The way I see it, people like to zerg, ANet lets them zerg. End of story.

I don’t see this as punishment. I’m not suggesting rewards shouldn’t be the same if not better for defeating two plus such mobs at the same time in PVP. Hell, I would even encourage it; but groups that are going for achievement to take down two such bosses at the same time… are unlikely to be taking a Keep or Tower simultaneously. Possible, but unlikely… if not infinitesimal. Especially defending against other players predations while in combat with a ‘larger’ foe.

It would be something to give Defenders a chance… while breaking up the ‘mob’ mentality. A mob is not a team… it’s a bunch of idiots who spaz out hoping numbers will win over skill and coordination (or which there is almost none currently required). That’s what a zerg is to me.

A zerg is a bunch of players playing together… be it a single guild or many… and that does coincide… perhaps justify their position. I have a hard time calling a ‘Zerg’ a team effort… the word ‘mob’ comes to mind first. Teamwork being completely tertiary…which is what I think Devs were getting at originally.

Much depends on the ‘reset’ in February and whether it has any meaningful affect.

Charismatic Harm.9683:

It’s that way now because ArenaNet chose it to be that way.

Whether or not they said something early on doesn’t change the way it is now.

Honestly, dyes are one of those things that many people want. ArenaNet knows this and that’s why they sell dye packs in the Gem Store. They’ve also applied a generous amount of RNG to Unidentified Dyes, so getting a highly desirable one is less likely.

With the high RNG and making dyes Soul Bound, that will end up yielding more money for ArenaNet from Gem Store sales than if they made them Account Bound.

ArenaNet is in this to make money. It’s a sad, but true, fact. Given that dyes are considered a “vanity item” and give no edge to a player, they can sell them in the Gem Store without going against their “you don’t have to pay to win” philosophy.

It was the Chinese Investment into stock with NCSoft (~10%+) that pre-empted the change in Dyes. I’m kinda impressed there haven’t been more (and perhaps there are I’m just not far along enough along to notice) serious cash sinks in the game as yet.

Fractals introduction was a turning point for me….

Legendary Weapons were OK… it was something for the die hard player…a reward worthy or their effort. I was fine with it.

Now with the gear grind… GW2 just became another Wow wannabe. They were doing so well up to that point.

I play because it’s free and at any moment I can leave… perhaps never come back… and it’s not going to cost me a dime either way. I’ll give Anet that much credit.

Otherwise… it’s disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. Why it’s noble and courageous of the Developers to create a game that’s not a Wow clone at heart. Wow fanbois do number in the 10’s of Millions… to attract their business… one must make sacrifices.

Certainly my dime alone won’t pay anyone’s salary!

I’m sure GW2 will be another LOTRO for me… a game I can revisit for little while… and then leave again to spend $$/cash on something else. There’s nothing here worth investing in anymore.

Isaac.6041:

Incorrect. Just because there is guesting doesn’t mean everyone uses it. I don’t plan on guesting on any other server for the time being.

ArenaNet’s server transfer gem pricing is fine as is. Sounds like some people are just too cheap to pay it.

They could have done it per toon… at $25 each. That’s pretty standard of most of the MMO games I’ve played. Thinking they should count themselves fortunate and leave it alone.

Of course, Developers will ‘encourage’ folks to flesh out lower population servers… I think it’s a novel idea. If you want to via among first tier and/or a high population… a premium for the privilege is just and acceptable.

SBI… /lfg is often barren… 2-3 groups is the most I’ve ever seen in the last two weeks for any instance. How many are there on SoR…SoS..Kain, etc.?

Wv3 is important.. but it’s not everything. Sorry.

I’m a returning players so the first thing I did was read through the updates and I’ve seen how some abilities have different ‘PVP values’ vs PvE…

Seems to me that precedent has been set; if it’s possible to nerf some abilities in pvp… Devs could buff others the same way… improving ‘survivability/damage/etc’ for each class.

I think Devs are not even considering it… but it’s theoretically possible.

CharlieWaffles.1509:

lady lisz.7849:

I could care less if they reset or not… at least ANET should come up with something to encourage players to come play wvw NOT the other way around, lots of playtime hrs, gold, effort etc. and for nothing really… give rewards base on time play and participation pls

I couldn’t agree more… This is Guild Wars…. WVW should be the lifeblood of this game, yet it seems to be the furthest thing on the devs mind…. This Reset is going to take 2 months for things to get back to a point where it would take 1 maybe 2 weeks to iron out with the current system… Just seems like a total waste unless they decided to go with a 48 or 72 hour reset timer for all tiers…

I totally disagree- the free transfers is what was screwing with the numbers from the get-go…

Take SBI…who was deservered at the top for over a month… and now? We need to be tier 4 or 5, but in the month we were tier 1 our score is so huge… or defeats must be equally huge to compensate… and for a like matter of time.

All that does is convince me to transfer to go play something else for a few months… where I might find something else I enjoy and not come back. How does that help SBI or your Ratings?

Nobody deserves to be facepalmed for 4-6 weeks to let the current system ‘realize’ there’s a huge difference between this week and last month! Last week SBI was rolled by SoR by over 200K points… and this week’s match… same peeps… why? Why was SBI matched up with the same opps two plus weeks running? Every server that is winning by 200K points is in the wrong tier…both winner and loser… so please address that in your argument!

Sure there’ll be a couple weeks of adjustment, but afterwards things should remain static. I’m quite certain that if Devs see another huge population shift…even at cost… there will be another reset. Hopefully it will not be necessary.

I read some angst against Warrior…

Some Elitism in fractals… 1 Guardian/4 Warrior groups, etc.

Of course Warrior could get the nerf bat by the time you hit 80; but seems plain you won’t have ‘that’ kind of struggle finding groups.

How much does it cost? It’s not sold as a service in the Gem Store… ?

I considered a transfer… but then I realized I’d lose all the influence my guild as accumulated to date. I think with the reset coming… it’s worth sticking it out where I am (and hopefully using what influence related perks I have ‘bought’) before making a move.

Thank your lucky starts that with GW2… you pay one price to move your whole account. It could easily have been price per toon… as it is in so many other games… think the avg is $25 each.

Eternal Battleground has the only ‘Super Champ’ style PvE boss that I’m familiar with- the big ‘worm/slug/whatever’ that’s what I’m talking about.

I suggest Devs add 2-3 per map. For the standard map… you could add a couple swimming around the big island in the middle and/or something at each of the ‘mercenary’ camps.

Then I would alter their aggro table based on how many folks are together by 5-10%… so a group of 5 has a 25-50% bigger aggro range… while a group of 50+ would have an aggro range of 250-500% range.

The point is… if a Zerg is big enough… it runs the risk of attracting the Super mobs… even more than one.

I think this will add the additional dynamic that will mitigate overwhelming numbers where applicable.

Make the maps 25% bigger with more Super Champ style PvE mobs roaming around.

I’d code in aggro range based on how many people are together… so a ‘zerg’ of 50+ would have one hell of an aggro range… which would attract the champ bosses…giving big, ‘mindless’ zergs a serious run for their money.

I’d also reduce all NPC help to improvements only. Nothing for free.

I’ve been seeing and reading these threads since Launch… and I have yet to experience this issue.

Must be a GPU/CPU issue… low end maybe? Didn’t notice it with a ATI HD 5870… certainly aren’t seeing it with a GTX 660 Ti…

Wondering how much of this is hardware issues…?

On SBI- I can almost be greatful the imbalance is so huge… for me Wv3 used to be a huge money sink; but not anymore… not against SoR… there’s no reason to upgrade anything… when it’s likely it’ll be flipped in 5 minutes or less.

Thanks guys… saved me a ton of game-cash!