Guild Wars 2

Since race offers hardly anything to the gameplay, I vote against it. Sure it looks cool, but
I’d rather see ANet put that same creative effort in expanding the available Armours/looks for the current races/genders.
Without making them Gemstore purchases or hidden behind RNG drops.

TD is a confusing, non-intuitive map. The way the maps in GW2 work make it extremely difficult to work out on what level you are, where the paths are and how to het to that PoI.
What would be of great help if the underlying maps would not shine through so much.

But even then, the Tangled Depths are confusing.

VB is difficult to get around if you lack Glider or muschroom masteries, but other than that its a very navigable map. I mean with that you can always more or less deduce where you need to go to reach the point where you want to be. It might mean climbing, or gliding down, but at least the map is helping with that.

I wouldn’t mind that.
Got it yesterday, and was a bit dissapointed that the top of the glider maintains a redish hue, and that the colors applied are quite bright. Even a ‘Minight Red’ dye comes out as a blood red. Kind of hard to match it to other armour colours then.

As a side note, the Glider did not show up amongst the other glider skins (unlike the hawk one), and no option to preview on the Gemstore.

The cutscenes are more immersive as your character is speaking and acting out some parts that it must do. That includes some interaction, although walking is not something i vividly recall. They are not pre-rendered, as your character is dressed the way you have.
What could explain the higher quality is that during a cutscene the situation is very controlled over what is visible, so perhaps the settings are scaled up. But I must say that I have not really noticed that (I play on quite low settings for better performance).

IN general, the cutscenes add to the story, instead of the boring panoramic vista’s from Zaithan and LS2.

Gameplay wise the Ritualist has been reincarnated partly into the ENgineer, with its fixed turrets (spirits) and waepon kits (bundles).

Paragons were ranged shout/party buffers. A Warrior with Banners and a few shouts can basically fill this role.

Revenants are the spritiual (pun intended) sucessors, but from a gameplay mechanic are completely different.

So they are with us, in a sense.

Hoaxintelligence.4628:

With a expansion people want: New pvp maps, New borderlands, New pve maps, New legendary’s, New dungeons/fractal, New armorsets. Ofcourse are people upset. Paying 60bucks for 10dollar content. (maybe 15dollar) #ripoff.

A-Net could have done this. Sell HoT as a DLC pack. So everyone is happy with new content for a few months, complete everything, complain about not having enough to do.
Then, 9 months later, they are going to release new content, but because the previous content was sold as a DLC, they sell this one as well as a DLC.
Can you imagine the outrage from the community? Again having to pay for new content?
They bought the base game with the promise that it was Buy to play. You would get updates over the years, Anet adding content gradually. And then ANet decides to throw this out of the window and start charging for DLC’s (which is actually not something that is appreciated by the gaming community when it happens with other games).

I realize you and a lot of people (myself included) are dissapointed with the content and the direction of the game. It feels like a rip off. Then again, you also buy what you could call a HoT seasons pass, an investment that will pay off over the next year (?) as Anet adds content, new LS chapters etc.
WHo knows how long ANet will wait with the next paid expansion, but it will not come in the next year, and that means that for €50 you get to play this game unlimited for at least a year, exploring the content.

Hate is a big word. I don’t hate HoT. I don’t even particulary dislike it.
There are however a lot of things i’m dissapointed in with HoT.
- Lack of new armour skins
- Short story
- Too long Meta events

Mastery system did not live up to expectations, but is not that bad overall. Gaining the experience is done as you play, and the mastery points offer some nice exploration/achievement targets.

However I didn’t get HoT just for the HoT content, but also for the long term updates that will keep coming. The continuation of the Living Story, added content, rework of exisiting content etc.
As a Cost to Game Time ratio, GW2 has already been, and I expect to continue to be extremely valuable.

Yeah the quality of the design is quite obnoxious at times. There are a few good ones, but in general I’m with the OP that most skins are way over the top.
Good design is not flashy, but rather understated and at first glance unassuming.
Too few skins are like that, and getting a human female to dress in something as simple as pants is not possible.
ACtually, not to think about it, Was Na.9781 is quite correct how immature the design is.

Bagheera.4501:

I agree with all that the curent system of obtaining masteries is a serious grind. Getting the xp necessary to fulfill all the requirements is insane, and the fact that it even costs points to validate the earned masteries it makes no sense. I dont even know from where to get so many points in HOT!

Masteries are just an alternative time sink that don’t really improve your character.
The 1st and 2nd level of masteries are what you could call essential (gliding/ mushrooms)
3rd and 4th are improvements on the preceding ones, but not nessecary
5th and 6th are simply QoL improvements. Not needed perse, but nice to have.
If you look at it like that, and just go and play the game they are not all bad.

I have been playing HoT since launch quite casually, (1 h per day average), doing some event chains in HoT, exploring the map, doing missions with their achievements, searching for strongboxes etc etc. Slapped on a booster during DS event and the progress sky rockets. Really. Now i’m confortably at Mastery 75 or something and still have 22 HoT points and 30 Tyria point in stock. No issues getting about (Although ley line gliding would be nice) and i’m taking my time getting there.

And that is really the key. If you want it all tomorrow, then yes it will be a grind. Accept to have it spread over a few months of play time and it will not be a hindrance that much.

Collections are fine as an addition, and give a nice goal to strive for when i’m done doing regular stuff. Gives more diversity.

More anoying are collections that are now at 99%, but require one last special item (the Koss on Koss Ascended item, for example, or the jar of lost souls from AC, or the siege master spoon from WvW) to complete.

It would be nice if collections were a bit more lower level, or that they require more of a scavenging hunt rather than grinding certain area.
Collections that simply fill up as you play are very convenient, but also lack a bit dedication.

In general though, I’m happy with them as they are. Some I can’t/won’t/refuse to complete, but that is fine.

So, what is there to do in a Guild Hall?

I mean, my large guild has a lvl 40 guild and I’ve been there a few times to check it out. Yet I have still not understood what a Guild Hall is actually used for.
Why should I go there, what is there to do?

In GW1 the Guild Hall was also just a personal meeting instance to set up your groups in peace. Or it could be used to teleport people into exclusive instances. But other than that it was also rather limited in use.

AH, yeah the jump to glide error.
Its a mixed belssing and a curse.

When you are on a laggy connection, pressing, and keeping the jump key pressed, will ensure that the glider deploys at the apex of the jump. Otherwise you dont deploy and have to reset.
On the other hand, when doing a difficult jump, you want to be sure that the moment of jumping is not missed due to lag, so you keep it pressed and that it registers properly.
Resulting in a failed jump…

What bugs me about this system is the way rewards are provided. THey are not handed over until a part of the Meta is completed. Makes sense, but recently I ran into an issue with this.
On TD, I basically started on the map just after Gerent was done, so a full two hours until the next appearance. Within 30min all the event chains at all the lanes were done, and I was on something 150% participation and map LvL3. So over the next 30min the rest of the events were completed multiple times and Participation went to 200% and map reward to lvl4.
Awesome!
Less awesome was that I had to stick around in the map for another hour to actually get the Meta reward, continuing to do event to avoid losing participation.
And that is weird, because I did contribute actively to getting there and if I would have left the map, I would have had zero rewards for it.

How about we recieve a portion of the total map instance reward when we leave it to a different map. That would be based on some formula that includes participation, completion level, time spent in map, time left until Meta event end etc etc.
That would be fairer for when you are constrained in time.

Its looks a lot better now. Its still a very unclear, disorienting, layered map.
But at least the overview is clearer now. Especially for when you came from outside of the map, the waypoints were invisible if you were not on the same ‘level’ in your current map.

Oh don’t get me wrong, I agree that Exp gain after max level should lead to reward in some way. Now it is a reward that is wasted on max level.
Or put it another way, Non-Maxed chars recieve Exp as a reward for events. Maxed chars dont, and so recieve less of a reward than non-max chars do for the same event.
A-Net could do a EXP to Karma conversion for Max Levels, as an example, to boost the ’ loss’ Exp gain.

What I meant is that the established ‘use’ of Experience in most games is for level progression, so after reaching max level the experience is a worthless currency.
GW2 specifically has indeed granted rewards for repeatingly gaining levels (skill points first, then spirit shards, and now nothing). I expect that A-Net reasoning went along that line, that Exp is just a leveling currency and is worthless once you reach max level.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

That said, it would still be good if the game offered us something for the XP gained after maxing masteries.

Why should it? I mean, I understand your point, but consider why you expect XP to gain you something?
Traditionally, Exp is provided as a currency to improve the character as they play along. This is normally done in the form of levels. Once you hit max level, there is really no reason to further gain anything from Exp. You have already maxed out what you can learn.
Masteries provide what A-net calls horizontal levels, which is basically a similar Exp sinks as additional levels is. Once you hit max level, there is really nothing to be further learned. Exp gain is hard linked to level progression, so once that requirement falls way, there is no reason to be rewarded for it anymore.

The only way you can gain exp is by playing the game, and while playing the game you recieve rewards (loot, currency etc). That is the rewards you can expect.

In general I agree that the lack of population on generic maps is a hindrance for many things. Taxi’s are a player workaround to a megaserver problem, but on DS everyone just disperses after meta completion and you are on your own. Collecting Ley Line sparks in TD requires running past large groups of enemies, hoping they leave you alone just long enough to collect a stash.
It takes too long to defeat them all, as execially the Veterant can be quite resiliant.

On VB and AB it is much easier to collect them, and in VB you collect more crowbars then you can find chests. ever.

I feel you, and in general agree with you. i think however that one reason can be hidden inside your last statement.
If i can play VB and gain tons of parts, and can convert them to AB or TD currency unrestricted, there is no real reason to play those other maps. that could lead to even faster dead zones.
Of course, there is fun, specific maps rewards, rare drops from map chests etc. etc. to play there. Besides, i havent really come across really empty zones. Most TD event chains can be done with 3 people, and when you get close to Meta Event it can be filled up fast with some taxi’s.

I think this HP is offensive to Vegetarians. It forces those to eat meat even if they don’t want to. A-Net please change this!1!!1

/Sarcasm

On-topic. As stated before, this can be done without any boosts. I have done so 3 times now, and the trick is as simple as explained.
Wait 2-3 seconds, hit the heal and continue doing so of cooldown.

Harper.4173:

You can play whatever play style you want but you can’t make others play with you if they dislike your play style.
It’s that simple.

So wait, let me get this straight.
I can play whatever way I want, but can’t force others to play with me if they don’ t like it. Sounds reasonable, if others return that favor to me.
So let’s turn that around for a moment. Why is it OK for others to force me to play a certain way, if they dont like my way?

I’m sure you can understand the contradiction in your statement? Why would anyone else’s opinion or playstyle preference be more right?

Your statement actually underlines the whole problem with Raids from the start. It encourages elite group play, discourages participation, replaces ’ having fun’ with ‘preparing to have fun’ and in general removes the whole ‘fun’ part from the game once you get verbal abuse on it. Jolly…. Rewatch that Twitch link a few posts back, where they promised something that is simply not present.

ImLegion.4018:

Perhaps fix your game before you implement new stuff.

Then we’ll never get new stuff…

Chill out. Yes there is plenty wrong and to be fixed in GW2, but at the same time this is a very welcome addition.

The chak in the pit regen if you attack from too far away. You need to move into the pit to actually kill them. This can be done solo, but requires time.

As for the other bug, don’t know. I did have the problem that after Braham there was no follow up showing where to go next. Nit untill I backtracked that I found the rest of my trouppe and the instance completed.

@Thaddeus.
It could have been that I had a few bad experiences too many. I’ll give it a go in a few weeks again when the mechanics are better understood. I agree that Pugs are a bad metric for experiences, and indeed Dungeons had the same thing in the beginning.

The attitude the OP describes is exactly why I stopped bothering with Raids. The proffesion/role requirement is so strict and demanding, that there is no more fun in going there.
And of course the twitch link is hilarious. Promising something that would be awesome, delivering the exact opposite.

There is plenty of challenging content in HoT that can go wrong (Tarir south, Garenth) because of poor communication or understading of the mechanic. It does not however completely invalidates or excludes a large amount of players, never able to do the content because of a player generated (and Anet created) skill wall.

Hmm, I don’s see the big problem either. Beat it on the first try during opening weekend, so if anything was nerfed after that it should have become easier.
Stay at range, dodge the black hole and keep pounding. Stay on the large center platform and move to the opposite end from the boss to give yourself more room.
Sure you can die from that attack but then you res and you continue. Your friends keep it engaged in combat so should be no health regen.

Yesterday I played the HoT Act 3 Roots of Terror mission for the 2nd time, and all the achievement bubbles for the left, center and right path and the chak pit cleaning showed up.
I then proceeded on the right path and completed the path to the chak. I beat the chak at the end. I then proceeded to finish the pit achievement as well (got the achievement rewards, but the little achievement bubble over the skill bar remained in place afterwards). I then proceeded to talk to the magister and completed the instance by talking to the party members nearby.
I recieved the instance completion rewards, but I did not get the ‘right path’ completion achievement. I cannot see any other qualifiers that I needed to perform to recieve this.
Possible bug or did i miss something?

I feel you. Other than stand at some random locations to gather special points, there is nothing that really makes you a Scrapper or a Chronomancer. That is a loss.

Then again, what you propose could be seen just as grindy (or even more so) by a lot of people because they are forced to do certain sequence to be able to play the spec. Then you get the question why we cannot not use Hero Points to unlock it? Then I can gather them as I play along.

Besides, this would also require them to create profession specific scavenge hunt and even instances that will be done once, or not at all, on each account.
Its probably a lazy way out by ANet to do it this way, and hopefully focus their resources on better quality replayable content.

papry.8096:

Faab.8049:

Yes. And then I die in the attempt and have to spend a few minutes navigating mob spawns while running back to the top of the hill. Jolly…
So I won’t do it. I can spend my time in a better way.

You are just making excuse there: the event is very simple & scales fairly well.

Maybe i am. But my question still stands why the Pacts Staging point WP is never contested, even though it can be overrun by events that are taking place on top of it.
Its not consistent, so why would Farens be blocked then?

There is only thing that could have been done better on that little story:
- Give the man a wild bushy beard.

That would have made the comment from Jasmine even more funny.

I agree with the OP. Faren is a welcome comedy relief.

papry.8096:

Faab.8049:

In the Case of Farens Waypoint in VB this is extra anoyuing because it is both a cental point and a high point. You have to navigate quite a bit of land to actually get back into the fight.

Or you can do the event to unlock it.
It only take one person.

Yes. And then I die in the attempt and have to spend a few minutes navigating mob spawns while running back to the top of the hill. Jolly…
So I won’t do it. I can spend my time in a better way.

Its at the top of hill, so ideally suited as a staging point for surrounding events with the glider. But no, it has to be contested.

Besides, the pact staging area WP is also right in the middle of an event. Why is that one free all the time?

I understand the OP’s frustration, and actually agree with it. I also see the gameplay (death) side of contested waypoints.
I think it all comes down to the waypoint density. The newer maps seem to be very lean in terms of waypoints (compared to old GW2 maps) and indeed a lot can be contested at the same time. In the Case of Farens Waypoint in VB this is extra anoyuing because it is both a cental point and a high point. You have to navigate quite a bit of land to actually get back into the fight.
Orr sees a similar problem, but at least you can mostly run back in a straight line there.

Tarir cental waypoint on the other hand makes a lot of sense to block off. It would be weird to teleport in there during the octovine event.

Destabilizator.2789:

What’s the point of learning strategies on easy mode, when then you have to re-learn them anyway to complete hard mode. There is no difference in wiping on hard mode and learning that straight.

Also, the drops there are hardly any, I got nothing but 2 champ bags and 1g from first boss kill. And few of the legendary crafting mats from chests… not like the legs themselves are dropping, nor ascended gear (1 guy from 10 was lucky to get box).

There is no point in normal mode, apart from lolling around in the instance.

There are a number of ways to make it ‘easier’. For example on the VG making the effect of the green circle wipe less powerfull (50% HP drop instead). Or remove the timer completely. You still have the same strategy, just the consequences are less extreme.

If the rewards are as you describe it, then there is really no point in playing Hard Mode either. All that time spend on what? A low chance on a box and some bags? I’ll go do some open world meta and rake in the rewards. And have fun in the meantime.

The problem with raids is not that there is legendary rewards hidden in it. The problem is that the content itself is locked behind a skill/gear/time etc wall. If you are not able to get good enough (time investment mostly), you wont be able to experience it.

When Fractals came out there was a similar discussion going on. Either get good or go home… Sigh…
What Fractals did however was deliver a mechanism that allowed you to play the content at the lower levels, but that you would get less fancy rewards for.
The higher the Fractal level, the content was scaled more difficult and the rewards improved along with it. It is actually a very clever and elegant sollution to a wide range of player skill and desire, and provides a very gradual Easy→Normal→Hard→Ludicrous mode.
Dont want to bother with Acsended armour? Fine, but you wont be able to play a lvl XX and up fractal. Yet you will be able to play it at a lower level.

With Raids however there is no such thing. Its designed as a Hard Mode. Its all or nothing. And that approach excludes a lot of players that:
1. Don’t have the time availabe to learn the raid (Real life, you know)
2. Don’t have gold or time to get Ascended items
3. Don’t like teaming up with elite/demanding players (casual PUG players)
4. Simply want to play and have fun, instead of getting frustrated.
5. … (fill in your own reasons)

Adding a ‘Normal’ mode would be great! It would allow less dedicated players to experience the content and get some rewards. To offset this the higher tier rewards would still only drop in the (current) Hard Mode.
- Normal mode →Exotics, low chance of some ascended recipies or a rare skin. No legendary
- Hard Mode → Exotics, Asceded gear, Legendary gear etc. etc. as it is now.

WEll, both require you to synergize the skills you have from swapping the weapon skills. Elementalist do this with attunements, engineers with Weapon kits. FInding a skill rotation and learning what skills are used when is the challenge of both professions.

ELementalist forces you in that play style, an Engineer could forego that style and focus on one weapon/kit and maximize that.

I play both, and I like both equally. Elementalist can be a traditional spell caster with Staff, but also a non-standard play style with Dagger. Engineer has higher surviability and can be both close combat, close range or extreme range, and still be effective.

Best way is to go and play them and experiment with different builds. THat way you figure out what suits you more. THere are Engineer build that are more effective, but I dont like playing so I dont. I like the Staff Ele playstyle, but perhaps D/D is your cup of tea. You wont know intill you try it out.

Trinnitty.8256:

hmm interesting. split into 3 groups instead of 2? :o
anet probably didn’t anticipate the power of zerg circling braking there mechanic :p

Probably true. Since we’re repeatingly completing the event chain they are apparenlty not a critical part of the event. Then again, some lanes still strugle with at this, resulting in the other lanes running in circles for 20 minutes…

fishball.7204:

It’s fairly easy to get enough wood to craft your daily spirit wood in like 15-20 mins. People just tend to be lazy/impatient that’s why prices are high.

Taking a bit of time out of your day to gather isn’t THAT bad even if logging is arguably super boring.

Well, to be honest that 15-20min running around a map can in my case be better spent. I get to login mabe an hour a day, little more on the weekends.
In those 60minutes I have choose something to do, so the question is simple:
1. Do I run around a low level map for some random wooden logs, doing boring events?
2. Or do I pick up some challangening content to have hun with (fractals for example), or join a (part of) an meta chain in a HoT map?

See, its not lazyness on my part. Its a simple time restraint of moulding GW2 into my RL schedule of work, spouse, friends, other entertainment and sleep.

I see you point, OP. I think however that we havent seen the last of him.
1. During the HoT story there are references by characters that it all seems too easy and they they might be walking into a trap. They push ahead regardless as they believe that is the right way forward.
2. Did we really kill Mordermoth in that fight? As someone else pointed out, you can see the skull-like dragon face lurking in the background during the Mordremoth fight. That dino is just his representation. Perhaps we were eventually still fooled into thinking we destroyed him, and Mordy released us into the world again to lure into a false sense of security. After all, what could a couple of years of being dormant matter to an Elder Dragon?
3. What was in all that ley energy escaping, and why did some of it nestle in Glints egg?
Are Glints eggs empty containers to imprint a ley energy signature on? Or do they contain parts of Glint? Could we see a rebirth of Glint (a Kralkatorrik dragon minion after all) or could it be that Mordremoth made a back-up of himself there?
4. Trehearne is killed by the players, after he convinces them that Mordremoth lives as long as he lives. A commander of the Pact in Tyria killed by his own troops is a demoralizing victory. And perhaps Mordy needed that release, that sacrifice, to further his plans?

All in all, I think there are too many unknowns and to really say that we beat him, and the contiuation of LS4 will tell us.
That, or ANet had a kick-buttocks story on paper and did a urinating-poor job of getting scripted to the screen.
Wouldn’t be the first time in the entertainment industry….

Enokitake.1742:

-snip-
I don’t buy this clipping excuse for outfits while we have a lack of new Armors/armor skins either. Its a cop out. We have wardrobes for a reason. Does something clip? Swap it out for another piece in the wardrobe. If it clips with your hair just gold to gems and hairstyle kit. A bad excuse is no excuse.

I can only agree with you. In fact I made a short comparison a while back along similar lines. Basically, ANet has eihter a lot more work to do to get armours out, or they simply dont allocate resources because it doesn’t provide more income.

In GW1 each new campaign added some 6 armour sets per profession per gender. Thats 120 (6×10×2) new armour sets by the time they got to Elona. Sure, some where reskins, but that is no different in GW2.

In GW2 the armour sets for Sylvari, Human and Norn are shared (Scaled). Charr seems to be scaled as wel, but perhaps with more clipping issues so lets count that one as well. Then they need to adjust for the Asura. But even then the base design is already in place, so making the models is what remains. So thats 3 armours to design.
Then they have armour classes, so each of the three armour class professions share the new skins. This means per class you only need one set, reducing the amount of work.

So that means that one armour set (bladed for example) needs 3x design for armour classes, 3x design for races, 2x for gender, but only for 1/3x professions. That means that one design set for a complete line requires 3 × 3 × 2 × 1/3 = 6 sets to design for 9 professions. Thats 1.5 per profession, as a comperative metric.

With the current 4 unique sets (correct me if I missed one) that translates to 6 designs added in terms of workload from Anet. For all genders, races and professions.
Now i get that having multiple races introduced issues with clipping and the complexity has increased as well compared to GW1.
But even then, 6 design workload as part on an ‘expansion’ is rather thin. The original launched with dozens of armours to choose from. Dungeon sets, karma sets, crafted sets, racial sets etc etc.. Sure that took time to make as well, but comparativly…

So, Tl:dr: Comparitively very few new armours for the expansion.

Its definably very dodgy to release so many skins to the gemstore, but release HoT with only a lackluster amount of skins. It does not even come close to half of what was available in GW2.
The original GW campaigns or EotN xpac added loads of armours. Just to repeat a post I made in another thread about this to illustrate this.

In GW1 each new campaign added some 6 armour sets per profession per gender. Thats 120 (6×10×2) new armour sets by the time they got to Elona. Sure, some where reskins, but that is no different in GW2.

In GW2 the armour sets for Sylvari, Human and Norn are shared (Scaled). Charr seems to be scaled as wel, but perhaps with more clipping issues so lets count that one as well. Then they need to adjust for the Asura. But even then the base design is already in place, so making the models is what remains. So thats 3 armours to design.
Then they have armour classes, so each of the three armour class professions share the new skins. This means per class you only need one set, reducing the amount of work.

So that means that one armour set (bladed for example) needs 3x design for armour classes, 3x design for races, 2x for gender, but only for 1/3x professions. That means that one design set for a complete line requires 3 × 3 × 2 × 1/3 = 6 sets to design for 9 professions. Thats 1.5 per profession, as a comperative metric.

With the current 4 unique sets (correct me if I missed one) that translates to 6 designs added in terms of workload from Anet. For all genders, races and professions.
Now i get that having multiple races introduced issues with clipping and the complexity has increased as well compared to GW1.
But even then, 6 design workload as part on an ‘expansion’ is rather thin. The original launched with dozens of armours to choose from. Dungeon sets, karma sets, crafted sets, racial sets etc etc.. Sure that took time to make as well, but comparativly…

So, Tl:dr: Comparitively very few new armours for the expansion.

@ Zephyra. You know, i’m at this point cynical enough to expect it and not even surprised about that anymore…

Wahaha.7938:

Ghedoriah.4290:

On a zerker set, you’re getting maybe a “massive” 52 extra stat points, plus another 60 armour. If you seriously go into a group and nod in satisfaction that everyone must be using ascended armour because everything is going much more smoothly than other groups, then you need to get real. Individual skill and knowing your optimal rotations is hugely more important. There are a whole list of considerations, starting with using good foods, sigils, runes, etc. that can individually matter several times more than whether someone’s using ascended or exotic armour.

Good players are more likely to have ascended armor. The correlation goes the other way around. I have found this correlation to be very noticeable.

Also someone with ascended armor is more likely to have good sigils, food.

Also the bosses are defeated with several or all people downed surprisingly often. The 1-2% of dps really matters. Big kudos to Anet for designing the fights this way btw.

If I’m going to spend the next few hours trying to beat a boss I sure as kitten want people with the best performance possible.

I challenge that correlation. The only correlation there is, is that players with acsended armour had more time to gather the materials/gold, or had the resources to convert real cash to gold.
Skill to Ascended possesion has little to do with it. At most you can state that the longer exosure to the game increases the the likelyhood that a player understands the mechanics better. But that is a causation.

Additionally, the stat boost from armours alone is marginal (1-2%). The boost from weapons and trinkets is considerable(10-12%). And the aquisition of those is inversely correlated in terms of cost/time investment.

Argon.1563:

Whats sad, is that in the over 5 years that GW2 has been in development, anybody on this forum could completely wreck the medium armour designer’s career with a pen and a bit of paper. I can think of dozens of medium armour designs that don’t involve trenchcoats, yet he/she can’t for some reason.

Although the design is uninspired for most, I suspect that there is a more practical reason for the designs.
The armour is a wireframe/skelleton that defines the way the various parts of the armour connect. THe swinging, the bouncing, the flow and the fit on a character.
That is a difficult thing to make.

Then there is the armour skin. The textures that are applied to the wireframe. That requires making thextures, but you can apply them to an existing base. Kind of like repainting your house.
That takes a lot less time, so if you make one trenchcoat model, you can re-use it across everyhting.

Seconded. The armour design in GW2 is pretty boring. Just look at the design quality from GW1.
It’s either garish over the top fashion show stupid impractical things. Or trenchcoats…

Not sure what happened to you. I had one drop yesterday and it contained both. Exotic weapons and acsended armours. Maybe scroll up/down the list?

I’m with the majority here that it should not be turned off. It would force me to do event chains I might not feel like doing at that time. I like to explore as well, and event chains get in the way of that.
What your post actually highlights, and was already raised by others, is that the Meta event chains are too prominent. They take over the entire map and require everyone to contribute to get a T4 reward.

The fixes should not be that hard, and have been proposed:
1. Scale event chains based on number of people contributing to event (so outside certain radius, no effect on difficulty)
2. Unlock all waypoints always. No contested units anywhere (Except maybe Tarir center during assault phase). Yes its easy respawn, but that only contributes to event completion.
3. Better rewards for doing the event chains.

Mortifer.2946:

Faab.8049:

I’m still not sure where the huge demand of acended armour comes from. Its a marginal stat increase and costs considerably more.
I’ve been paying around with Excotics since launch of GW2, even ran a set of Karma excotics for a long time, with it mixed and matched set of stats.
Never have I not been able to complete content because of my gear. Only because I didn’t dodge at the right time or because healing is on cooldown. Or the team lacked coordination.
You don’t need Acsended armour anywhere in the game, except two places: High level fractals and now Raids. The rest (about 99% of the game) can be done with exotic armour. The only parts where you could justify getting acsended is for trinkets (using laurels) or a weapon.
The weapon is the only thing that actually costs a lot of effort to procure, but also provides a significant stat incease. Yet it demands considerebly less investement in materials than armour set.

My advice: Don’t bother with acsended armour. Get Trinkets as they are easy to get and invest instead in a weapon. Sell the rest of the materials and use the gold to get weapons/runes/trinkets/skins etc.

But we want to do High level fractals and raids bro.

That’s great! Good luck with them (sincerely). But you’ll need to go and get ascended armour then, as apparently exotic is not considered sufficient. like i said, 99% of the game can be done without ascended.
I guess i’ll not play raids then, or play lower level fractals that can be managed from trinkets. shame for missing out.

A bit off-topic, but while were on it, i find it an oversight not to scale raids according a similar concept as fractals. I can do the fractal content, but to get better rewards I will need to invest in ascended. So even with exotic gear, i can still play the content.
Raids however don’t provide this, excluding lots of people that would want to give it a try, but are blocked by the gear gate.
Which incedentally goes against the GW2 manifesto about “having fun, instead of preparing to have fun”

I’m still not sure where the huge demand of acended armour comes from. Its a marginal stat increase and costs considerably more.
I’ve been paying around with Excotics since launch of GW2, even ran a set of Karma excotics for a long time, with it mixed and matched set of stats.
Never have I not been able to complete content because of my gear. Only because I didn’t dodge at the right time or because healing is on cooldown. Or the team lacked coordination.
You don’t need Acsended armour anywhere in the game, except two places: High level fractals and now Raids. The rest (about 99% of the game) can be done with exotic armour. The only parts where you could justify getting acsended is for trinkets (using laurels) or a weapon.
The weapon is the only thing that actually costs a lot of effort to procure, but also provides a significant stat incease. Yet it demands considerebly less investement in materials than armour set.

My advice: Don’t bother with acsended armour. Get Trinkets as they are easy to get and invest instead in a weapon. Sell the rest of the materials and use the gold to get weapons/runes/trinkets/skins etc.

@Wolfeng.
I’m responding to your topic title, about being unable to level masteries. Your opening post included this: “I don’t enjoy my time in the jungle, its stressful, it’s on the clock, I just want to explore the place, but to do that I need to level my masteries first.” (emphasis mine).
I’ve written that in a 2 hour playthrough of a single meta event chain on a single map (happens to be AB, could be VB as well) netted me more exp than the first level of mastery for gliding or bouncing requires. While playing the game. focus on doing events/story/gathering etc..
See my number as a metric for the amount of exp you gain for playing the game in HoT.
For any exploration you need at most lvl 2 gliding for updrafts and lvl mushrooms. Thats it. That is 2million exp, so in about 6 hours of HoT game time you can have those leveled up and you can access nearly everything. Thats a week of playing and hour a day, which I consider casual. And most of the exp you gain from simply playing while exploring, discovering new area’s and getting vista’s.

I havent said anything about your other complaints. I can actually emphasise with some of them. I’m dissapointed as well in what HoT brought to the table, to name a few.
- Laggy performace in HoT (Original works smooth)
- Complete lack of new armours
- Reward system is weird and not satisfactiory
- Huge number of HP required for elite professions (even after the reduction)

So please don’t overreact to my response. I was simply pointing out that you complain about not being able to explore and needed masteries. I present you with a metric to see how much time you would need to spend to be able to get the masteries for exploration.
Ideal? no. But it is as Anet made it, so you can either simply go with it, or off course not bother with it.

I’m not quite sure what you are geting at. Gaining exp in the HoT maps is dead easy when you do the event chains. Last Night I did de AB pillars events all the way to saving the city. Sure, took some time (2h) but that was fun.
But the effect on my lvl 3 Exhalted mastery was that I went from 50% complete to about 90% complete. That is about 700k exp., which is sufficient for any 1st tier mastery point.
The rest is for vanity.

No need to add ascended or legendary gear stats. Exotics would be just fine, although just the skins would be sufficient as well. It would even be OK if they cost the same as the T3 skins. The stat range is never going to be exactly what I want anyway, or I already have an armour set that I like statwise and simply want to reskin.

And yes, more tiers are much welcome. HoT is already severely lacking in new armour skins (compared to vanilla GW2), yet Anet does seem to find time to push outfits to the gemstore.