Guild Wars 2

Honestly, the GW1 system was excellent – you died and it got harder because of your death penalty but you could fight your way out of that (getting better). So it forced you to learn and get better. I don’t see that type of player evolution with the current system. You die and die and die and eventually get armor fixed, but doesn’t feel the same as the gw1 death penalty made it feel.

Considering we have not played the new elite specs I find it difficult to complain about them, or praise them. The basic concept of them is all I can look at, and at least half seem cool enough to me. I kind of doubt every spec that comes out will make every single person say wow about each one, and expecting that is not very realistic.

The world felt much more like GW1 to me. Loved it. Wife and I enjoyed the glimpse of PoF more than all of HoT.

Map/Artwork was excellent. My wife and I both felt the desert looked better than any areas in core or HoT. Visiting old GW1 locations felt much better now. Not crammed too tight, open space is good, great job!

Most foes seemed decent. Hydras were awesome, Sandsharks were cool, the Iboga attack graphics were nicely done.

Mounts seemed good. Moved well, like they should, since a mount doesn’t turn on a dime, their movement seemed realistic.

Unidentified Items. I like the concept, but think they should be found in types (much like gw1 was), and have an ID kit purchasable just like salvage kits, but keep cost reasonable since there’s a ton to ID.

You don’t “need” more bank tabs or more bag slots – want and need are two entirely different things. I’ve played since pre-order launch, so I’ve bought the standard edition of GW2, then standard edition of HoT, and will get standard edition of PoF. So I’ll have spent something like $120 to get all of them and play all this time. I bought an extra bag slot with gold > gems in game.

I’ve actually enjoyed the demo preview of PoF more than I enjoyed all of HoT. I had loved GW1, especially the exploration and needing to get places (running people places was a fun money maker for instance). For the first time in GW2, it felt a bit more like GW1 for exploring an area.

The maps, despite being just sand, seemed nicer and more enjoyable than PoF maps for me.

Mounts seem enjoyable, a way to make travelling without waypoint use much more interesting.

If only they’d bring back the Dervish and I’d be ecstatic…

While I’d like it if existing game owners got some extra perk when buying a new expansion (a character slot, a bag slot, something, just to say thanks for being a loyal customer), I certainly don’t have any issue with the previous games dropping in price over time.

You buy a car and a couple years later you see the same car, same year is being sold for less, you won’t be shocked, why should you be upset that something else a few years old is now valued at a lower rate on the market?

DeShadowWolf.6854:

Presumably it is a teleport to a little area in the expansion with bank, TP, crafting, etc all close together. Many of these already exist in the game (Royal Terrace, Havoc’s Heir, Mistlock Sanctuary, Lava Lounge, Noble’s Folly).

Yes, presumably it is, but I’d like to have some actual facts before I decide to spend the extra $25 US for that bonus.

In trying to decide whether to just get the standard or deluxe, I don’t really care about the other upgrades in deluxe but if the Lily of the Elon Permanent Pass was really handy then I might go that route.

But can we get a better idea of what it is? Seems just like a city with bank/vendors/BL, so why would I need/want it?
Is this a teleport stone to that place or something?
Can you get there any other way?

Galeskyring.9617:

Miss Lana.5276:

I’d like a refund on the keys that I never used!

I am sure they won’t refund, but still why even put the chest out? I mean why would anyone have held onto those keys this long? Makes 0 sense since most anyone would have chucked them by now.

<<<< Still has the keys… Guess I’ll mosey over to the chest sometime.

rhodoc.2381:

How come this is called adressing? Adressing will be make the xpac sold seperately with like half of the price.

You and a lot of people have a very unrealistic view of how commerce works. The issue with veterans not getting equal value compared to new players, that was an issue which was logical to be combative about, while disagreeing with the price is not.

The price a company sets for their retail value isn’t something that is going to be negotiated because you don’t happen to like the price. In any open marketplace, if you don’t like the price of something, you have 2 choices, either say “oh well, it is what it is” and buy it, or to just not buy it. It’s very simple.

The only realistic expectation of a lower price will be when eventually they run a promo with a lower price, a year or two down the road.

Biobasher.2619:

RabbitUp.8294:

sevenDEADLY.5281:

Demanding a cheaper product in gw2 simply because “I’ve been here longer (while ignoring that fact that you’ve already gotten something out of your time, but hey that doesn’t help your point does it)” would be like you calling your cable company and demanding you pay less simply because you’ve been around longer. You’re an entitled brat in both cases.

Uninformed people love to parrot the word “entitled”.

You are comparing a subscription service to a single purchase product. And the funny thing is that cell phone providers, who too offer a subscription service, tend to reward their loyal customers.

“believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.” Most people complaining about character slots, are claiming they’re entitled to something. The rest, not so much.

Actually, you have a pretty basic misunderstanding here. The players asking for a character slot are asking to NOT be discriminated against, to not be treated more poorly than the new players. The new player gets the whole game as a “gift” which they can most certainly use. The existing player gets no “gift”.

Behaving as if the existing players are being so unreasonable to ask for something as a small gift they can actually use, when all new players get a great gift they can use, isn’t entitlement, it’s asking to be treated with the same amount of respect.

While I may think $50 is a touch high for an expansion I’d still pay it if it didn’t feel like a rip off due to the way they’ve done it.

Great to offer NEW players the core game with expansion for $50.
But.
They’ve got 3.5 million GW2 existing accounts out there, who they want to sell 1/2 the product the new players get for the same $50?

It would make sense fine with a simple addition of one more version, the expansion option for people who already have an account. $50 for the expansion plus 1 character slot would be fine in my view.

As is, my wife and I have eagerly awaited HoT (both of us were GW1 players from launch, then Gw2 from launch) and won’t be buying the expansion – entirely because of this marketing plan which has said to me that they feel existing customers are not important. If in the future, they bring out an ACTUAL expansion option for people who already own the game, then we’d look at that, but not this unequal option they offer now.

The thing players don’t take into account is that your individual attempts aren’t special and separate from everyone elses. By this I mean, that while you are making these attempts, so are others, and that all rolls into the bigger picture of the odds of getting the lucky bounce. It’s not calculating individual odds, it’s odds overall, so while you may contribute 1000 attempts, that 1000 is merged into all the others, so now maybe there’s 500,000 attempts that those .01% success rate is distributed amongst them all.

People tend to look at it as if the odds are specifically only going to be focusing on their attempts alone in the distribution of successful results, and that’s not the case.

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

Egg Shennn.6240:

Sebastian.4610:

Grinding gold is easy, they are handing out legendarys now because social casual gamers cry. They dont want to put the time in to earn what everybody else has. They want it now and without a challenge.

Perhaps for those that don’t actually have lives but for people who aren’t able to play several hours every day of the year, grinding the amount of gold needed for Legendary weapons is far from “easy”. Some people want to play the game without it being like a job (MUST grind for hours everyday to earn enough gold!!).

Trying to make casual players seem like whiners is pretty elitist of you. With work, a wife, life, I probably average an hour of gaming per day each week. I’ll normally try and do a couple dungeon paths and other things, making progress on alts, etc, and that means I make a few gold in a day. A year of steady play like that wouldn’t even get me close to what 1 Legendary costs. As for drops, I’ve never had a precursor drop, let alone even have anything worth more than 3 gold drop.

I’ve been playing since the pre-launch and had initially hoped to work towards being able to get one, but have just felt the legendary dream get farther and farther out of reach as time has progressed. I’m no closer now than a year ago. I do hope that getting a precursor does end up more doable in HoT. With the current “ease” of getting a legendary, I won’t have one before 2020.

Playing only 1h per day makes obtaining a legendary harder, yes, but if you don’t have the time to undertake such a large project, why do it in the first place? Also, making only a few gold in 1h is rather little, you can get a good deal more if you focus your efforts a bit and not waste time. You can easily make 6.5g hard cash (not to mention cash from tokens and drops) in 30-35 mins of running CoF p1, SE p1 and CM all paths, then spend a few mins crafting to take advantage of the gated items to add a few more gold and you easily get to ~10g/day hard cash with some 15-20 mins to go faff around on alts or play PvP or stare at the cool sights this pretty game has to offer. 10g per day in 1 year gets you any legend with money to spare, provided you don’t squander the money on other stuff (and the temptation is stroooooong, I know).

Learn to be more efficient if time is short and stop asking for things that are already easy to be made even easier just to accomodate you. Even though legends are not what they were supposed to be since they can be bought off the TP, a critical flaw in their design, they are still prestigious items and therefore should have heavy requirements. Let’s hope they learned this lesson with the HoT legends. I’m really hoping they add PvP requirements as well, since legends can now be used in PvP.

You validated my point entirely, so thank you. What you suggest is to play the game like it’s work, don’t play for fun, play for being as efficient and fast to earn coin as possible. Your example describes the exact opposite of what players that play to enjoy the game want to do. I’m not going to be a “80 Zerkers only , ping gear or kick, Fast fast fast run!!!” 30-35 minutes to run 6 dungeons isn’t the typical player’s reality. There’s times I’ve waited that long just to find a group for 1 dungeon, let along the time to do it.

I don’t think people just want everything to be easy, they just want that there is a realistic chance to feel rewarded in the game and right now that isn’t the case. I rarely ever see an exotic anything drop, let alone a precursor. I have to be excited to see a rare since I only see one of those about once a week. I think most people want to be rewarded for facing challenges, but when you just get some crap blues and greens as your rewards, it doesn’t feel very rewarding…

Sebastian.4610:

Grinding gold is easy, they are handing out legendarys now because social casual gamers cry. They dont want to put the time in to earn what everybody else has. They want it now and without a challenge.

Perhaps for those that don’t actually have lives but for people who aren’t able to play several hours every day of the year, grinding the amount of gold needed for Legendary weapons is far from “easy”. Some people want to play the game without it being like a job (MUST grind for hours everyday to earn enough gold!!).

Trying to make casual players seem like whiners is pretty elitist of you. With work, a wife, life, I probably average an hour of gaming per day each week. I’ll normally try and do a couple dungeon paths and other things, making progress on alts, etc, and that means I make a few gold in a day. A year of steady play like that wouldn’t even get me close to what 1 Legendary costs. As for drops, I’ve never had a precursor drop, let alone even have anything worth more than 3 gold drop.

I’ve been playing since the pre-launch and had initially hoped to work towards being able to get one, but have just felt the legendary dream get farther and farther out of reach as time has progressed. I’m no closer now than a year ago. I do hope that getting a precursor does end up more doable in HoT. With the current “ease” of getting a legendary, I won’t have one before 2020.

I would be happy to kill Trahearne simply because of how annoying I find the way he says “Clahhrrr”. It’s Claw kitten it, Claw, there’s no R in the word.

Haven’t done a single daily since they changed.

But don’t you see, Trahearne has been working for Mordremoth from day 1. The dragons don’t work together, so Trahearne was programmed to get rid of Zhaitan so Mordremoth’s plans wouldn’t be interfered with by Zhaitan. Trahearne made that happen, and as the next step, led the pact forces into a trap to eliminate them to make the road clear for his master.

A Massive Headache.1879:

scerevisiae.1972:

I would have been happier with being able to choose skills 6-10 from a second profession of my choice.

Yeah, that’s where gw1 fell apart, this game would collapse if we were able to do that, and they won’t make that mistake twice.

Not quite the same beast though, since in GW1 you could pick any combination of skills to fill your 8 slots (with the only limitation being only 1 elite). The number of combinations that could be generated was enormous, and unmanageable for balance.

GW2 has several limits in place that restrict things greatly though. Weapon skills locked mean they know and control the first 5 skills for balance. Locked into having 1 heal skill gives another level of balance control. 1 elite from a fairly limited selection, which merely leaves the 3 utility skills where you actually have free choice on.

With the specializations, they are effectively letting you add a second class, but in a very limited choice selection per class. I think being able to choose utility skills from a secondary class would have been something that could have been balanced, but they didn’t go that route, so my fingers are crossed that the specializations (once there is actually choice of specializations) will bring back a bit of that creative feel to the characters, instead of the cookie cutter feel now.

I lolled at the comparison to WoW. To play wow you spend $20 for the base game and if paying long term subscription $155 per year. so 1 year cost of $175.

GW2 at $40 to buy then zero ongoing cost, even adding the LS purchase, you’d be at around $60.

Now if you’d been playing either game for 2 years, WoW cost of $330 and GW2 still $60…

Guildwars2 is a great value, that’s all there is to it. And the OP’s friends got the game on special for $10 to boot, so the complaints are just hilarious…

Quells.2498:

I still think the answer is simple. You DO have two specializations, example being a Ranger OR a Druid.

No, that’s incorrect.

Ranger is the base class, not a specialization.

Druid is a specialization, and if what they said is true;
1 specialization per class in HoT.
“you’ll be able to swap from one specialization to another outside of combat”

How do you swap from one specialization to another when there is only one?

Please stop saying the base class is a specialization, because it isn’t.

A Massive Headache.1879:

Egg Shennn.6240:

The system sounds quite alike to GW1, where you got to pick a second class, but you could opt between your full class only or split it with any of the other classes. Yes of course GW1 was a balance nightmare, but it’s at one end of the spectrum (mix any class with any other along with entire selection of skills on your bar) vs GW2 specialization which will start with your plain class OR the single specialization, with your weapon determining 5 skills and only specific skills they provide as available on the other side. This is the limited end of the spectrum, they do control every skill combination you can have.

I’m surprised that in over 2 years since launch, people feel there isn’t enough time to have come up with 2 specializations for each class. It took this long for 1, so would another 2 years be acceptable to get a 2nd specialization? As it is, it felt like the expansion was a year overdue. Anet has moved at glacier like speed, and there has been tons of complaint about wanting an expansion for a long time, so I don’t see any worry that by voicing a view on the subject, they would panic and release things they couldn’t have ready…

Maybe it’s just their crummy wording “be able to swap between specializations anytime out of combat” – the base class is NOT a specialization, so how exactly does one swap between specializations when only 1 specialization exists. I’ll swap from Druid to Druid, yay!

you’ll swap from ranger to druid and back to ranger. I don’t understand where you’re getting hung up on this.

I’m not sure how much simpler I could have explained it.

Ranger is NOT a specialization, it is a BASE class.

Druid is a specialization.

Their developer saying you can switch from one specialization to another, when there is only one, is what I have issue with.

The system sounds quite alike to GW1, where you got to pick a second class, but you could opt between your full class only or split it with any of the other classes. Yes of course GW1 was a balance nightmare, but it’s at one end of the spectrum (mix any class with any other along with entire selection of skills on your bar) vs GW2 specialization which will start with your plain class OR the single specialization, with your weapon determining 5 skills and only specific skills they provide as available on the other side. This is the limited end of the spectrum, they do control every skill combination you can have.

I’m surprised that in over 2 years since launch, people feel there isn’t enough time to have come up with 2 specializations for each class. It took this long for 1, so would another 2 years be acceptable to get a 2nd specialization? As it is, it felt like the expansion was a year overdue. Anet has moved at glacier like speed, and there has been tons of complaint about wanting an expansion for a long time, so I don’t see any worry that by voicing a view on the subject, they would panic and release things they couldn’t have ready…

Maybe it’s just their crummy wording “be able to swap between specializations anytime out of combat” – the base class is NOT a specialization, so how exactly does one swap between specializations when only 1 specialization exists. I’ll swap from Druid to Druid, yay!

Vayne.8563:

It’ll eventually be multiple paths. That’s what the whole idea is about. Right now there’ll be one. Later on more will be added.

Yes, eventually it should be a great plan, alot like secondary profession options gave you in GW1, but after just shy of 3 years from the initial launch, getting the 1 specialization for each class feels weak to me. And I was a huge GW1 fan, played it right up till GW2 finally arrived. GW2 was lacking at the outset to grab me the way GW1 did (lack of individuality in builds) so this finally being added to the game is huge to me, but like I said, starting with a single specialization isn’t much of a choice to swap between. Stay as you are or have this one option? That’s limited choice, though better than the current no choice…

2 years from now it’ll probably be great…

tekfan.3179:

ArenaNet handled the whole thing in a very bad way.

The term Specialization suggests multiple paths to choose. While that may be true in the long run, it isn’t for HoT.
People heard “Specialization” and started to imagine, as this is a very creative community.
This whole confusion could have been prevented if they said it directly at the announcement: “We’ll introduce a new system called Specializations. For HoT it will start with just one path per profession to choose, but we’re planning to expand on that system in the future.”

Exactly, that’s how they should have portrayed it.

The “you’ll be able to swap specializations anytime out of combat” makes it sound like there would actually be specializations to swap between. You can be the master class – Ranger, OR the specialization – Druid. Can’t be a druid without being a ranger. But there’s no other specialization to swap between. So for “swapping between specializations” you could go from Druid specialization to… Druid specialization! It’s a multiple choice question with the same answer on every choice…

It sounds like it will be great once there are actually options, but at the outset with one specialization to “swap between” it’s not impressive. A great groundwork, but hard to be excited over 1 choice.

From what they’ve said, that you can swap from one specialization to another anytime you’re not in combat, it sounds more akin to GW1 where you could swap your build (and change of secondary class) anytime you were out of combat, but with balance being far easier to maintain than in GW1, since they control exactly what weapon skills are on your bar (since you get whatever skills they balance for each weapon) and the limited utility/heal/elite options they will give as well.

Since in an interview Colin said;

Colin: We’re really trying to make it feel like it’s almost a sub-profession or a secondary profession if you will, and not just a new set of a couple of skills.

That sounds like being able to have multiple builds was in GW1, but with more control for their balancing.

So to me, being granted the ability to make choices, but only have a single choice, doesn’t make that much sense. Telling me I will have all sorts of options, but only having 1 to choose from is pretty weak.

2 Choices is at least A choice to make. And more to come, but a single option isn’t a choice…

I’m hopeful that the specialization system brings back a lot of the feel of customization that I miss so much from GW1, but if there is just a single specialization added per class to start it seems like too little.

A single specialization per class isn’t any choice, it’s a single path to try. I realize the plan is to add more specializations as they go but for a specialization system to feel like you have any choice (and they said in an interview that it’s to feel more like a second profession) that each class should have at least 2 specializations to choose from to start.

For me the thing most lacking in GW2 has been individuality and the specializations will bring some of that to the game – provided there are actual choices, not just 1 path. I don’t see a great deal of sense of launching the feature with only 1 choice available per class.

I’m absolutely delighted that the dev showed the OP the error in lying. I don’t think it was wrong at all. The biggest problem with behavior on the internet is that there is typically no consequence whatsoever. Simple lesson, if you’re going to lie or whatever, you have no reason to cry foul when someone exposes your lie.

When you said connect them together all I thought of was in the way like the human centipede…

I didn’t realize you could kill the smothering whatevers if you had the flame on you, that would certainly make it easier.

What really ticked me off was that I lost connection with server, re-connected and was still in the party but not able to join them in the story. I could enter the story all over by myself, while still in the party, but not actually together…

bremy.1390:

Egg Shennn.6240:

bremy.1390:

Tom Gore.4035:

I think it’s the 3rd heavy armor profession. No idea what it’s called, but I’m betting it will be a spellcaster of sorts.

Coming back to Earth, more likely it’s just another armor skin.

sorry but i advice you, if you go on tumblr and you check #guild wars 2, in that post they added those tags: #guildwars2 #living world #point of no return #medium

a-ehm medium :P

I went and looked at the post and the only tags on it are : #guildwars2 #living world #point of no return

There is no tag #medium on the post.

Was it actually there? Did they remove it?

i take a screenshot on tumblr.

You see a different Tumblr than I do then… Here’s a screenshot of what I see on the GW2 tumblr post which was linked earlier. No “medium” in it.

bremy.1390:

Tom Gore.4035:

I think it’s the 3rd heavy armor profession. No idea what it’s called, but I’m betting it will be a spellcaster of sorts.

Coming back to Earth, more likely it’s just another armor skin.

sorry but i advice you, if you go on tumblr and you check #guild wars 2, in that post they added those tags: #guildwars2 #living world #point of no return #medium

a-ehm medium :P

I went and looked at the post and the only tags on it are : #guildwars2 #living world #point of no return

There is no tag #medium on the post.

Was it actually there? Did they remove it?

Reading this thread it reminds me of the same old kitten that I used to see in GW1 when Ursan was like “the only way you could do dungeons” (the statement is dripping with sarcasm if you don’t know)… It wasn’t, far from it, but it was the easiest, most mindless, and least skill required way. People that used it called that being a good player, when really, it meant you were only capable of the simplest, least challenging way to do something.

Same with the zerker mentality. The difference between 30 seconds on a fight and 40 is entirely in an anal retentive person’s head, in reality it doesn’t matter. You really do see two very different sets of players, those who think doing everything as fast as possible with no challenge is awesome, and those who enjoy the challenges and don’t just look for loopholes to avoid any challenge. A lot of people enjoy playing the dungeons as the challenges they are, not as a speed run past everything possible, skipping the whole kitten thing… But that’s “playing bad” because you’re not obsessed with ignoring as much content as possible…

The assertion that players are bad because they want to actually play the content instead of avoiding it all is wrong. Players that fail to succeed in whatever content they do may be bad, but choosing to play it because you enjoy playing the content is far from it. It’s simply not obsessive.

A main issue really seems to be the difference between an “average” player and someone who plays the game quite a bit more – and the fact that it seems that a number of those players who play more think they are the “average” when they aren’t.

I’ve played since launch, with about 840 hours played (an average of almost exactly 1 hour per day since launch). I play PVE for enjoyment, not to farm mindlessly like a drone, or run around in zerg trains which seems so incredibly boring to me. The most gold I’ve accumulated at any time has been around 150. My wife plays casually the same and she’s only ever hit around 120 gold. We are just average, casual players, playing to enjoy the game. Not pouring hours into farming like it’s a job.

I’ve never had a drop worth anything more than around 4 gold.

I think there are far far more players in the same category as I am than there are in the “I easily make 400 gold per month” category.

In GW1 I played the same way, yet my bank was maxed at the 1 mill (prior to be hacked, yay) and I had any fancy gear I felt like getting 9I didn’t have stacks of ectos, but I had more than enough coin for all I wanted). I could go and do fun dungeons with guildies and friends, still “casual” and actually get good drops from foes/chests. It’s quite different in GW2, playing at my casual pace I feel I will probably never be able to get any of the cooler high end skins, unless i become a farm/zerg drone, which I won’t do. It changes a “goal” to a “wish” for typical players. I can’t play casually and have the “goal” of the fancy ascended gear, it’s only a “wish” now.

I thought the way GW1 expansions brought in new areas, classes, and skills was great. If they opened up Elona (or Cantha, or the ruins of cantha, or any other new area), added a new class or two, a new race would be awesome, and a few weapons (like was said earlier, even allowing an existing class to use a weapon or two they didn’t have before) I’d be lining up to hand Anet my money.

Of course I’d be just as happy with it all coming as LS updates throughout the year, adding all that new stuff…

I just want new content and stuff is the point…

I respect how active you’ve been here Chris, it’s important in that it shows the company does understand the community has issues with the “improvements”.

I’ve played some of the NPE and can say, I think the rewards as you level are enjoyable, while other things that changed really really aren’t. While I don’t think it’s the end of life as we know it, like some forum goers do, I do think there are plenty of things that a good representation of players very clearly think has been done wrong and that should be taken very seriously by you folks. I do think that when there is a firestorm so big that plans for a CDI on guilds should have been put aside to deal with the feature pack instead. Like when you have plans for something but a fire breaks out in the kitchen, you really should put the other plan behind the kitchen fire in priority.

I understand these things take time, and people will be impatient, but I feel that as long as clear, regular communication takes place, showing that you’re listening to and interacting with the community, that I have real hope that some of our feedback will help fix things which have reduced the enjoyment the game brings.

I’m in the middle on the changes, and I find some of the responses from people acting like the earth is about to explode to be moronic, I also find the responses that seem to blindly support every part of the change to be equally so.

This thread, in my view, the point is, that even a child found the changes ruined enjoyment of the game compared to how it was. New players, will be children as well as adults, so saying “well 12 year olds think everything is lame” isn’t a great line of reasoning. With that logic, 12 year olds wouldn’t find any game enjoyable, yet strangely most have to be pried away from their games with a crowbar, so clearly it’s possible to make games enjoyable, even to a 12 year old.

My wife and I both have played, since launch of GW1 and onto GW2 in beta… she’s not a hardcore gamer by any means, she’s a very casual player and she had the same sorts of feeling as the OP described, that quite a number of these changes were stupid and reduced enjoyment in the game.

I do hope that the response isn’t “the game is great, wives find all games stupid, what do you expect”…

Some of the changes simply did not seem to make sense logically. Here’s some that stood out to me.

Learn to dodge: Great idea in theory, new players should learn the game mechanics and how to dodge but it was so poorly implemented I’d think it was meant as a joke if I didn’t know it wasn’t. In game, red circles mean get the heck out of it, so how in any way does the dodge tutorial make sense, by teaching players to dodge INTO the red circles?

Being unkillable in parts of tutorial? I didn’t experience it, but having seen the video magic Mike posted, I don’t understand how it helps a new player, in the “learning” stage, to not be able to die? Being able to stand in front of a big boss and not need to do anything? What part of these things teaches a new player any skill they need for the game as they go forward?

Personally I feel a simpler tutorial system is fine for brand new players, but there certainly should have been more logical thought put into how and what you’re teaching the new players and it really would have made sense for it to be optional (at least for any account with a lv 80 on it).

Andred.1087:

Egg Shennn.6240:

there certainly should have been more logical thought put into how and what you’re teaching the new players

I’m fairly certain they put a lot more thought into it than you give them credit for. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it is nonsensical.

I was pretty tame and reasonable in my assessment, but your reply seems somewhat silly. My examples were clear and easy to understand, but I’ll explain in even simpler terms for you.

In game, a player must learn that red circles mean danger and you are supposed to dodge AWAY from the red circle/danger.

Their tutorial teaches the exact opposite. A first time player sees the learn to dodge and sees red dots on the ground, with treasure in the middle, and he must dodge INTO the red circle. There is no way that is anywhere close to logical if the goal is to teach a person to dodge away from red circles.

As for not needing to do anything at all to defeat a boss, once again, that does not teach a new player anything positive. Players need to learn what they need to do to succeed, not that they can do absolutely nothing and still succeed. After leaving those tutorials, players will then suddenly need to actually learn how to play, so what did the tutorial accomplish?

Please elaborate in your response, rather than saying the equivalent of “because they said so”.

Some of the changes simply did not seem to make sense logically. Here’s some that stood out to me.

Learn to dodge: Great idea in theory, new players should learn the game mechanics and how to dodge but it was so poorly implemented I’d think it was meant as a joke if I didn’t know it wasn’t. In game, red circles mean get the heck out of it, so how in any way does the dodge tutorial make sense, by teaching players to dodge INTO the red circles?

Being unkillable in parts of tutorial? I didn’t experience it, but having seen the video magic Mike posted, I don’t understand how it helps a new player, in the “learning” stage, to not be able to die? Being able to stand in front of a big boss and not need to do anything? What part of these things teaches a new player any skill they need for the game as they go forward?

Personally I feel a simpler tutorial system is fine for brand new players, but there certainly should have been more logical thought put into how and what you’re teaching the new players and it really would have made sense for it to be optional (at least for any account with a lv 80 on it).

I have no problem with the in game store being the ongoing revenue stream – it lets people that want to buy special items the option to do so, and those that don’t want to don’t have to. My only complaint is that I think there should be a bit better chance of getting a BL Key as loot. Sure, keep it so there’s still more chests than keys but it feels ridiculous to find all sorts of BL chests and zero keys.

On that note, I love dry top and the buried chests and hope those kinds of chests become available in other areas too..

Berelious.3290:

Shen, you neglected to mention that you still have to run all over creation to get your hands on those skills, and still need to hunt down bosses to get elite skills (assuming you know which boss has which skills)

Unlocking skills was a very enjoyable part of the game. The elite capture was a really great yet simple system, the exact opposite of the trait unlock system implemented in GW2.

If they had simply looked at the great system they had in GW1 and emulated it in GW2, trait unlocking would actually be enjoyable and something that small groups would get together to do – getting people to explore AND enjoy it.

Instead of the current system which makes people loathe even bothering to unlock more than a few traits…

Personally I like that traits now have to be unlocked, but I don’t think the current unlock system is very good.

Going back to GW1, skill hunting was a big thing, taking guildies out to cap elites they didn’t have was commonly done but still fun to do. Now in GW2, to get some traits you need to complete zones, which honestly hasn’t been fun. It’s not a challenge, it’s just tedious to do.

I’d far rather have the traits acquired by killing a champion or something similar, a challenge of some sort that was fun to do rather than feeling like work. Believe me, I like pointless challenges more than most people, I decided to see how low a level I could finish Factions at (level 13 btw, no runs, and pugs for groups) so I understand pointlessly doing things, but the key is that it has to be able to be enjoyable and present some level of challenge, not just feel like something that will suck a pile of my time away with little enjoyment.

Yes GW2 is not GW1, but I’d bet that almost any player would say they preferred the skill capping over the trait unlocking, and that matters.

I look at the death as a good part of trying to make the living story have some semblance of realism. Haven’t you had a friend of someone close to you die or suffer a tragedy? It wasn’t directly impacting on you, but you see how it impacts someone closer to you?

To have a real living story, not every single thing is going to always be focused directly on the main person. Every one that dies within your circle of acquaintances isn’t going to be the most important person in your life. When a story makes it seem that way, it loses the bit of realism it could have.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Egg Shennn.6240:

Yeah I remember the mission, I just thought these ghosts were really meaning there was a champion there, and with seeing the shimmery ghost like figure, thought it may actually be that they plan to open that and there be a champion there.

There is a champion there, and that area does open up – for a group event. This one.

Ahh, hadn’t been around for that event, so that explains it. So I guess the zone entry really is only realistically the one in fort vandal I guess.

Well there are white mantle ghosts at the ruins of Aurora glade, I think there will be living white mantle once the maguuma area gets opened…

Morfedel.4165:

Egg Shennn.6240:

Was just checking out all the area;

The portal in Brisban, behind the bushes you can’t get through has something that looks sort of like a shimmery figure in front of it, not sure, hard to tell. But the shining blade ghosts in that Aurora ruins area say there is a White mantle Champion in there somewhere, and all I saw was some normal white mantle ghosts, no champion. So wondering if when the access opens, if the shimmery figure ends up being a white mantle champion in front of the portal.

The Brisban bandit talk (not sure if people are discussing it anywhere) has to be about the fort a little ways above where aurora is, that’s filled with level 80 champion bandits. No way to actually fight them, though with 1200 range weapons, you can poke at them, and get them to pretty much one shot you down… Not sure how that fort will get implemented for play, 80 lv foes in a much lower lv zone.

Well there is a way to get to them, but it involves map exploitation tricks and you will be downleveled fighting level 80 champions, so it won’t end well for you at all lol

Yeah, I know. I can only get around on the one side using jump shot, need experimental rifle to get all the way in and from other side.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Egg Shennn.6240:

Was just checking out all the area;

The portal in Brisban, behind the bushes you can’t get through has something that looks sort of like a shimmery figure in front of it, not sure, hard to tell. But the shining blade ghosts in that Aurora ruins area say there is a White mantle Champion in there somewhere, and all I saw was some normal white mantle ghosts, no champion. So wondering if when the access opens, if the shimmery figure ends up being a white mantle champion in front of the portal.

The Brisban bandit talk (not sure if people are discussing it anywhere) has to be about the fort a little ways above where aurora is, that’s filled with level 80 champion bandits. No way to actually fight them, though with 1200 range weapons, you can poke at them, and get them to pretty much one shot you down… Not sure how that fort will get implemented for play, 80 lv foes in a much lower lv zone.

The shining blade ghost is talking about the guild wars 1 bonus mission boss of aroura glade mission. There is also a DE in that area where you kill him, but you have to do something first as I’ve done the event. It was a really great nod to the original game as when the game first came out it was quite a hard bonus mission to do as you had to stop the white mantle from activating the portals before you did so you could enter the Henge of denravi. I do hope they do more nods to guild wars like this.

Yeah I remember the mission, I just thought these ghosts were really meaning there was a champion there, and with seeing the shimmery ghost like figure, thought it may actually be that they plan to open that and there be a champion there.

I did get in behind Fort Vandal, to see the zone portal that’s in there, as well as there is an asura gate inside. Out behind the fort, the road goes a little ways then is just a drop off into nothing.

Was just checking out all the area;

The portal in Brisban, behind the bushes you can’t get through has something that looks sort of like a shimmery figure in front of it, not sure, hard to tell. But the shining blade ghosts in that Aurora ruins area say there is a White mantle Champion in there somewhere, and all I saw was some normal white mantle ghosts, no champion. So wondering if when the access opens, if the shimmery figure ends up being a white mantle champion in front of the portal.

The Brisban bandit talk (not sure if people are discussing it anywhere) has to be about the fort a little ways above where aurora is, that’s filled with level 80 champion bandits. No way to actually fight them, though with 1200 range weapons, you can poke at them, and get them to pretty much one shot you down… Not sure how that fort will get implemented for play, 80 lv foes in a much lower lv zone.