Guild Wars 2

Mike, I have all of my account verification info and so I am not at all concerned that I will ever need to email support and ask for access to my account without, say, my serial number. Can I send a support ticket for my account to be flagged with something like “Attention CS Agent: If someone requests access to this account and does not have every little verification detail you’d like to see, have no mercy, grant no access.”? Is the answer that this is your policy anyway so no need to flag?

Sounds like a fun event, thanks for organising! I’ll grab the 66 slot. In regard to the raffle, is there any pay-in or do we just reserve a number?

I hate to be cynical or sound ungrateful, but it seems to me that we had this conversation many, many times last year around this time. Lots of players had excellent ideas for a second bday gift that people would find useful but not over the top. We did get the birthday blaster, which is kind of fun. But our ideas about changes to the leveling scrolls were ignored entirely, and hopes for a choice from a set of exclusive minis were dashed as well. Have the conversation again if you like, but I think last year goes to show that getting the bday gifts “just right” isn’t very high on the priority list, and probably will be even less so this year with HoT in heavy development.

Bumping again because this hasn’t been addressed or acknowledged. I did buy it because I really like it and I decided to trust that of course it would be taken care of quickly, because it is very clearly and comically buggy. I guess I’ll be writing support for a refund soon.

I’m bumping this and I’m not ashamed.

Askherion.4935:

Sylvari being targeted specifically can’t be a coincidence !

LOL!

Seriously, this concerns me much more now because there are other significant Sylvari-related armor sizing issues that have been ignored since launch despite repeated reporting.

Please don’t ignore this!

Please let this get some dev attention! I really wanted to buy this outfit but I will not be doing that until/unless I see that this issue is fixed. Thanks for bringing it up, Askherion.

Am I the only one besides OP that thinks this is an awesome idea. Talk about living world and making changes that resonate with the players…

Lonami.2987:

Also, the Shadow of the Dragon was always implied to a be manifestation of Zhaitan’s minions.

It was implied to be something it wasn’t, and due to the context of the story at the time, and the information the NPCs and the player had been given, there was absolutely no reason to think it was not the Dream’s representation of the threat of Zhaitan. They created a red herring and gave us no reason at all to be suspicious of what it was. Seems like successful storytelling to me.

If the sylvari being dragon minions was the original idea, they did an awful job hinting at it. Their movements so far lead me to believe they copied this out of dumb fans who don’t know anything about the lore, and just like to hop on every random theory bandwagon, even when they don’t make sense, and specially if there’s a big messiah face behind it.

The allegation that they are somehow inept storytellers who had no plan and just went with the community’s ideas is childish and disrepectful. And based on zero evidence. Why should they drop strong hints that a particular upcoming twist is coming? That would make for a terribly boring reveal. What they did do, was place bread crumbs here and there that could be interpreted as consistent with the minion theory and could foster discussion and debate, but absolutely did not prove a thing. They did it wonderfully, in my view, but that’s my opinion. If you have any objective facts to present to support your ideas that they did not plan on this from the start, I’d love to see them. The evidence that they were planning on this is how well all of the originally laid pieces fit with this reveal.

The dragon minion plot is just a bad move, that contradicts a lot of the established material.

Examples of pieces that contradict? Let’s hear them! Please stick to pieces that don’t fit though, not just pieces you dislike.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

FlamingFoxx.1305:

People refuting arguments with actual evidence is not ‘bullying’.

…But if going “you’re going to need to prove that, chief” is bullying? Well crap, I should have someone shoot me in the back of the head for being a chronic bully.

From my perspective, some may have seen it as bullying because of what seemed like an unfair standard. Many of the early posts I read about the Sylvari minion theory were presenting the author’s ideas for the theory and some pieces of lore they thought were consistent with their ideas.

Not everyone was claiming the theory proved, in fact many were just saying “Hey what about this: ABC because XYZ seems to suggest that this could be the direction the story is going.” Then some individuals responded with comments that essentially claimed XYZ absolutely cannot indicate ABC, because PQR suggests that XYZ did not necessary have to be interpreted in the way the author claimed. Then said responders labeled the theory as debunked or thoroughly disproven in their own heads.

I was not one who was suggesting the minion theory, but honestly I rerolled several Sylvari alts almost right away in hopes that it might be true, because I happened to think it was really cool. I don’t really understand the claims that it’s bad storytelling. I think it’s a fantastic origin story and has interesting implications for future episodes.

Those who think it’s bad/lazy, why do you think so?

Dear ANet, thanks for the sneaky moot update and the fancy new Legendary aura, Divine Fire. I was able to defeat the Shadow of the Dragon simply by equipped all of these at once and rubbing against it.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

During the end cinematic of the latest episode, we can see a lot of sylvari going completely crazy and attack the pact. Including lionguard and pact members.
This is shown once again in the cinematic that follows immediately after.

I don’t think this is correct, if you watch the cinematic again, you’ll see that the Sylvari who are fighting Pact troops look to be Nightmare Court, and the one who puts a spear/stave through the one dude’s chest is Faolain. Sylvari that are still connected to the Dream will still be protected from Mordremoth’s influence, IMO.

I love them all. I was saving my money for another legendary, but I’m seriously considering buying up Mordrem skins for all warrior weapons first, they’re pretty much a perfect match to my Sylvari’s aesthetic. Taste aside, I also think they are very, very well made. Lots of detail in both the model and the texturing.

I gave my match a little over 100g worth of materials to help him toward crafting Bolt and wrote him a little holiday song describing the gift so it seemed a bit more festive:

? Twelve ectoplasms
Eleven bloods of power
Ten scales with armor
Nine lodestones charging
Eight fangs most vicious
Seven coins for clovers
Six sacs o’ venom
Five gooooold…well, five gold
Four forging swords
Three old bones
Two piles of dust
And an unassembled gift of metal ?

It was a lot of fun and he was happy with it.

I didn’t get anything from whoever drew my name.

Great update, thanks for sharing! I love The Seer!

Thank you, GhOst!

Should I interpret your answer to mean that I keep my progress, but can’t continue?

Not trying to be rude, I’m just looking for a clear answer and the “I guess” part of your response is not instilling much confidence that my question is answered.

Hi guys, sorry if this question gets asked a lot, I searched google and /r/GuildWars2 but didn’t find what I’m looking for.

I just want to know what happens to my reward track progress if I’m halfway through the Wintersday track, for example, when that track is deactivated. Do I get to finish anyway? Do I get to transfer the progress to another track? Do I just straight up lose all progress and choose another track to start again on?

Thanks!

Going to post mine before reading all the others, then I’ll go back and have a look. First I’ll say that I have 19 level 80 toons which include all professions and all races, so the pet peeves below haven’t actually kept me from playing these races, but they certainly keep me from playing them as often as I would otherwise or working toward improving their gear, etc.

Ranger: The Pet UI is ugly. Compare it to the other professions – mesmer, guardian, thief…all nice looking job-specific skill bars. The pet UI is not just lackluster in comparison, it is an eyesore and I can’t handle it.

Norn female: I love the faces, hairstyles and tattoos available, but I hate that even the shortest and thinnest body type reminds me of a tall man’s body. I also strongly dislike the running animation and the manliness of the voice.

Sylvari male: I hate hate hate their running animation. Hate it. They run with their back perfectly straight like they have a stick up their kitten that reaches all the way up to their skull. I also hate the over-sized shoulder and bloated skirt issues much of the game’s armor has on them. That said, the rest of their aesthetic is absolutely top tier, so one of my 2 mains is Sylvari male, despite how annoying I find these issues.

Yeah, I’ll just echo the comments about Lost Shores. The thing is, the hype leading up to the event was fantastic and the “feels” circulating during the start of it were probably unmatched by any release since. All of that went downhill very, very fast though.

Great idea, does not implement well.

Gaile Gray.6029:

There is a plan and a master schedule, and with the much-loved and keenly-anticipated Wintersday Festival…

Hi Gaile!

As someone who loves the game and absolutely adored Wintersday 2012, I was very surprised to find that Wintersday 2013 didn’t bring the same feelings because it was pretty much the same content. Will there be any new rewards or content tied to this year’s festival? Thanks!

I have really enjoyed the content and features that have been released since launch!

The problem for me is volume, which is why I “have enjoyed” and I am not “currently enjoying.” I still log in because I really want to play the game, but usually I just get my laurel then stand around for awhile looking at my warrior, thinking how amazingly cool he looks and what content I can try to scrape up some motivation to go do for the one thousandth time before settling on logging out.

As someone who still logs in and completes dailies pretty much everyday since launch and is starting to feel less than motivated to keep doing so, I think the OP’s suggestion or something very similar would help to remotivate a lot of players.

Hi all,

This is a gemfx configuration meant to create a stylized film noir look. It’s a lot of fun for exploring and getting dramatic screenshots. It has some clear shortfalls when it comes to gameplay though, e.g. you can’t see colors so aoe range indicators, friend vs foe text color, item rarity, etc. can’t be interpreted. The UI is washed out looking, but still interpretable.

I posted over at reddit as well, so I’ll attach some new screenshots and a before/after comparisons below. Here is the rest of the gallery: http://imgur.com/a/VceAM
All of the screens are as the game looks, no editing was done.

The shots below were both taken at night in Timberline Falls.

Here is the gemfx cfg: http://bit.ly/1vA24y8

I hope you like it, and if you decide to play with it, post some screens!

TL;DR I’m not a whiner, I’m a very satisfied customer, but more communication about where the game is headed over the next several years is needed to keep me (maybe more like me) around.

I just want to chime in here, for a couple of reasons. As everyone here seems to be, I’m a big fan of the game. I’ve been playing since head-start, I have 19 level 80 characters and I absolutely feel I’ve gotten my money’s worth, this include the box price and the several hundred dollars I’ve spent in the gem store. Love, love, love the game and am very satisfied with my experiences in it. I’m just mentioning this as a preface to my comments because I’ve seen many posters say things like “only the dissatisfied are posting here, people who like the game are playing.”

I play daily, often for hours, and thoroughly enjoy it, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t be unhappy with the way communication has been handled lately.

There are players out there like me, I’m sure, who love the game but can feel it waning. Yes, for some of us the content is getting played-out. It doesn’t mean we’re quitting, it just means that we’d really love a morsel from the devs about where the game is headed.

Is LS the only plan for the foreseeable future? I am actually thoroughly enjoying the story. But to be honest, the content has been shallow in terms of replayability, for me. I understand that a two-week release schedule addresses that concern by constantly introducing new things to do, and I love that idea, but the huge breaks in between “half seasons” really makes it feel like the LS model is a slow trickle, with way too much hype time in between, making the 30 minutes worth of instanced story content a let down when it is actually released (even though the story is fantastic!).

This is a buy to play game, so I’m very grateful to have been given what we have over the past two years. But here’s the thing, I love the game and I would love to throw money at an expansion box to play for another two years while continuing to throw money at the gem store. Expansion-level content is, in my opinion, what the game needs to bring it through several more years. I have seen red posts equating what LS and feature packs have delivered to expansion-level content, but many, many players have pointed out how this is not at all what we are looking for in an expansion.

If there is no expansion coming, you the devs may feel like revealing that may cause player loss. Here’s the thing: As huge a fan as I am, I will not be here much longer anyway. This is not intended as a silly “I’ll leave if you don’t give me what I want” threat. It’s just what’s going to happen and what I don’t want to happen.

On the flip side, an announcement that there are plans for an expansion would be revitalizing. New content would mean renewed motivation to progress my character(s) so that I’ve got more shinies to play the new content with. I have 3 legendaries, and if I knew expansion content was on the way, I’d keep making more. As it stands now, it’s hard to be motivated to start working for another when I’m feeling like I may not be here to wave it around.

Hey, just stopping in to say very nice stuff Meve! I think BIRDPUNCHER’s is my favorite so far, but I’ll be keeping my eye on what’s coming.

The hush hush policy, particularly in reference to any expansion in development, suggests to me that there is no expansion being worked on, or at least nothing even reasonably close to a release. What does ANet have to lose by saying “Yep, we are working on an expansion but we are not going to discuss a single detail related to specific content.”? Not much, I think, but it would foster a lot of good will with the community. Now, what do they have to lose by saying “There is no expansion in the works, the plan for the foreseeable future is the Living Story content.”? A sizeable chunk of players is my guess. Hence, zero comment on expansions.

Goatjugsoup.8637:

i dont think the nightmare court are minions of mordremoth or at the very least i dont think they started that way.

I agree, but seeing as how they have severed themselves from the Dream, they are fair game for Mordie, according to the Pale Tree.

Hi ephixel! Well, it did take a while but it was worth the wait! You’ve done a fantastic job on it, thanks so much! I can’t decide which version I like best either =D

The chest and legs are not available. The shoulders and shoes are cultural.

Here are a couple of the largest ones mentioned here as well as one that I think has been overlooked.

I do my daily every single day and play much more than that on weekends. I’ve been doing this since headstart and I have 12k AP. I think the Hellfire set is amazing, but I’ll be putting zero effort into intentionally earning AP to reach it. It’s just not feasible for a player like me (i.e. not casual, but not a hardcore AP hound).

What! Awesome, thanks!

Heya ephixel, thanks for posting progress, it’s looking great so far! If I could make one point to keep in mind as you refine what you got down, her facial expression is looking a little sassy, but I think stoic and maybe a bit fierce is more appropriate for her. I think where I’m reading sassy most is in the eyes and mouth. If you could just tweak these a little bit, I think she could be right on the mark. Thanks and really nice stuff so far!

Hi, I just want to add my feedback to the pile without hijacking someone else’s thread.

As the thread title suggests, I’ve spent a lot of my play time creating alts and taking them through the leveling process. I’ve really enjoyed doing this since I started playing. It became less enjoyable with the previous trait changes, but now it’s just not enjoyable at all. I understand that you wanted to create a steady flow of step-wise introductions to the game’s features for new players, but what about the veterans who have been with you since day -3?

Maybe I’ll just add that the majority of my character slots were unlocked using gems purchased with dollars, not gold. I will not be buying more.

Thanks for reading and considering our feedback.

Hey ephixel!

Here are the screenshots I promised. The first one is a reference for her general appearance and the second is sort of a concept reference in case you want one. It’s perfectly fine if you have an interesting idea of your own to completely disregard this, I just don’t want to leave you with nothing.

I will say though, if you decide to use the concept from the second shot, please don’t draw that exact pose. There are things about it I dislike, e.g. the legs look awkward, while there are other things I like. From the waist up she looks kind of menacing but graceful at the same time which I like. But again, I would like to see you kind of make it your own a bit (since I really like your style!), rather than just a drawn version of the screenshot. Let me know if there’s anything else I can provide for ya!

Awesome work, Lady K! Really, I love it!

I agree to an extent, but I don’t necessarily think that, for me, the problem is feeling just slow and weak. I think for me the problem is that swinging a sword and swinging a sword again is not fun, but that’s pretty much what you do for most of the leveling experience now. Traits added a lot of depth to the gameplay. The changes they made have really negatively affected the fun factor during leveling.

That’s a fair point. Maybe I just never saw it that way since the Ascended stuff is so visually unappealing to me.

I love the backpiece, and the exploration and item gathering needed for it! But I had a problem with the need for 500 level crafting for Mawdrey. When the Ascended tier was released, I said to myself “This is not for me, I don’t run fractals so I don’t need the infusion slots, I just won’t do it and that’s fine with me.” Then stuff like this comes out. The same thing applies, I don’t need the Ascended version because I don’t do fractals; however, I want the look of the final Mawdrey. I guess I’m just whining that spending the extra dough to get 500 crafting used to be optional for people who wanted Ascended gear for the fractals-related utility. Now it’s become something other than it was when it started, and that’s a little irksome to me.

I’m not complaining about having to work for stuff I want, I guess I’m just saying that this seems inconsistent with what Ascended gear and 500 level crafting was about when it was introduced.

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind the focus on new players instead of existing players except for the fact that the PR surrounding this pack should have been more clear. I play mostly PvE. So far I’ve seen not one exciting thing in the feature pack for PvE players, despite the fact that the release is promoted as “exciting additions!”

Feature packs aren’t content packs, but really nice quality of life changes really can invigorate players who have been around for awhile (e.g. the wardrobe system for unlocking skins).

One more thing. It would have been really nice to have some kind okittennowledgement that today is the second anniversary of launch. I’m not saying give us free stuff or a massive Queen’s Jubilee-like event, but you know, something would have been nice.

I have really enjoyed the game for two years, and I’m still enjoying it as new content is released. For me, though, the level of cosmetic character progression added to the game since launch has been below my high expectations. I like the back items and head armors that were released as meta rewards. I like the diversity of weapon skins that have been made available through gems, though I may not love the way they’re “earned,” but I’ve got a big old hole in my hopes for what the available armor sets would be like after 2 years. More cultural sets, more dungeons sets, more craftable sets…any of these acquisition methods would be fine with me, but to be honest I’ve seen nothing on par with the quality of things like Arah armor or T3 cultural armor since launch. And that’s the stuff I’ve been looking for most and the stuff that I’d spend lots of time and effort to earn.

Hey Lady K, it’s looking great! I don’t see anything that needs changing, so have at it!

My concern is that we’ll need the gem store version to begin upgrading toward the Ascended version. I don’t want the gem store version. But I don’t want to find out after it leaves the store that I can’t get the Ascended version until it hits the store again.

Love it! Thanks Xandra!

Hot kitten it looks great!

Yay! I’m taking the first slot, going to get screens for you now =)

Edit: Screens up! Just a simple bust would be great.

Lady, let me know how much gold you’d like for my commission and I’ll send it right over!

Oh dibs! Great stuff! I’d like to order a BW waist up portrait like the Peacemaker Niles image on your tumblr. I’ll go get some screens!

Edit:
Screens added!

I also have a bit of a short story explaining his backstory, if you’re the type who likes that kind of stuff for inspiration, just ask =)

Crap, missed it. Looking forward to seeing what’s coming next from you, Aarev!