Guild Wars 2

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

I never liked Bolt. It doesnt even look like a sword. Just a tangled mess of metal.

Im working on the shining blade. It is a bit more subtle but it is a very beautiful blade + when you swing it it leave a trail of blue flames+ you get a blue infusion running through the arm the weapon is equiped in. A lot of the older legendaries are losing their edge. Only a handfull really have the legendary feel to them like the greatswords, the bifrost and to some degree the dreamer for its unique missile animations.

Blue flames? Blue infusion? On shining blade? Whats you’ve been smoking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf57YGcStDs

Do you see the blue aura reaching up to the shoulder when the weapon is drawn? Also notice the trail it leaves behind when swinging? Just because i probably offended your sword of choice doesnt mean im high

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrF_y3rcU0c

also another video with more detail

Thats purple

Doesnt negate anything else is said

It negates that the reasons u like it arent there. It like saying i like Juggernaut because of its fiery red effects

Stop grasping at straws, ok it is not blue i still like the purple aura trail it leaves behind like sunrise/twilight and the arm aura and it actually looks like a sword. Obviously the newer legendary would be of better quality dont feel bad about your Bolt if you like it ok. I just gave my opinion and you started saying im smoking weird stuff

Scroll up to my first post here. Also its not a matter to put down your opinion. Its miss information that might infuence opener’s choice.

He at least linked to show the effects in youtube. You didnt say anything useful otherwise.

DevilishLyx.2340:

The wiki states you can enter some other guild’s puzzle, and then rep your guild, but whenever I try it only shows instances for all of the guilds I have joined, not the one running the puzzle.

Have anet fixed this so you can no longer leech from another guild?
Or do you have to be a member of that other guild and then rep your guild when inside?

As with all guild instances, you need to be in a party/squad of someone who can enter it themselves to enter these instances.
So if you’re in guild [X] and you want to join a guild instance of guild [Y] you need to be in guild [Y[, or in a party or squad with a player of guild [Y] in that instance. (I think they need to also be in that instance?)

This works for guild halls, guild hall reclaiming and all mission instances.

I understood it’s just a QoL option. I was wondering how much of a need it is, as I think it most likely would be a gemstore item I think.

How necessary is this even?
We have teleport to friend consumables that literally let to teleport to a friend (Or helpful PUG) in any location that your account has access too.
As well as the living story scrolls/tome for all the living story season 3 maps.
As well as the level 80 boost unlocking some waypoints in max level maps.
As well as Asura gates to each main city,
And then guild halls that put you in various locations of HoT

Not to mention mounts and gliders.

It shouldn’t take you more than an hour to get a waypoint unlocked in each area.

Ashen.2907:

zealex.9410:

It kinda is a failure when some of the features are requested since the begining.

Not implementing a feature that was not promised nor even implied to be on the table or in the works is not a failure to deliver, its just a decision to not do something. Failure is an unsuccessful attempt or an omission of an expected feature. Nothing we have seen in PoF so far indicates an unsuccessful attempt at something nor an omission of a feature that we had been led to expect would be included.

Yeah I think it would have been better to call it “What PoF does NOT deliver/offer.”

I don’t see it much more than a exaggerated choice of words to make a more important sounding case, which is often the case on the internet.

Why not play a toon of the opposite gender? While you could try to make some sort of conclusion about what kind of person you are when you do, I believe a huge majority is perfectly capable of keeping their player characters and their own character separate.

Pretty much like watching movies television doesn’t automatically make you think that that is how life works exactly.

In fact, it might be healthy for people to step into their character shoes and think what they might think differently than your actual self. In a game you can explore all these options and experience other character traits to some degree without any problems. That’s the power of gaming really.

I don’t see the harm in asking for API keys to be honest. I would simply not share mine. If they need to do some background check on me, whether or not I belong in their group, I most likely don’t want to be in their little group anyway.

If that gives me less players to play with then so be it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

FrizzFreston.5290:

I can’t remember the Door of Komalie being opened or being relevant after we killed the lich on it. Also I didn’t mean destroyed, that would indeed be strange, especially considering the other parts surviving a flight after an eruption. I wouldn’t rule it out being flying out of the volcano, although as you say, unlikely. Ofcourse if the Door of Komalie still exists, or needs to exist then maybe not.

What I meant was that it could be buried under the mountain. The landscape has changed a great deal in the ring of fire, due to the volcanic activity there (and Primordus). And being close to Primordus might also not be a great place for a weakened God. That is, if he knew about that.

Based on Relkyss the Broken’s dialogue the Fury had been waiting for the Door of Komalie to open to send his Titan forces through. Even after the events of Prophecies, the Fury was still stationed on the other side of the Door of Komalie, even after invading the Dragon Festival he went back to that spot.

If the Door had opened, he would no doubt had taken advantage of such.

Is he next to such a gateway in Foundry? Because the Foundry seems to be the place where he lives. Even when Abaddon died he stays there and takes on a new master. I dont know if you can know from within if the way outside is blocked or doesnt exist anymore.

Primordus only showed up in the Ring of Fire literally in 1328/1329 AE. We tracked its movement as it moved. Before Balthazar even pretended to be Lazarus. Furthermore, we see Abaddon’s Mouth still visible in the world map, so that caldera hasn’t been buried or become inert.

I must say, I dunno how relevant the world map is. They also made SouthSun Cove appear out of nowhere (imo).
But yeah the point was that Balthazar seemed to have arrived after (I cant be sure) Primordus moved there, and if he had any notion of it he might felt himself to be too weak to go there. Which is a big IF.

Why he went to the Bloodstone Fen to me feels like he knew where it was somehow. Especially since he seemed to have it planned out to appear a mursaat and absorb its magic. All of which needs a great deal of scheming and carefull planning, without any knowledge like you claim. (could be he found out afterwards after getting back in touch with Tyria I suppose) I think that does indicate he had some clue of what he was doing.

Further, it doesn’t seem like Balthazar is at all influenced by proximity to Elder Dragons. While still weak, he went through a horde of destroyers and went face to face against Primordus long enough to activate Taimi’s Machine, without any tear for wear.

To be fair, that was after absorbing the bloodstone. We dont know how weak, weak is here. Its mostly that we know that because he considers himself weaker. For all we know he could be still way powerful in his weakened state. But then why hide your identity is the question. It could also be because fire is his element, that he has some natural resistance against Primordus. So yeah maybe he doesn’t need all that and couldve gone to the Bloodstone in the caldera.

There’s too many questions to explain it all. I hope we find out part of it in PoF or LW4

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The posssibility is there, but we have no firm reason to believe such.

I must admit that most of what I said is speculation. It was purely about whether the possibility is there. When someone says it “doesn’t make sense at all” then I can see that there’s lot’s of possibilities that would make it into sense. I’m definitely not saying that what I said is the truth.

Most of it I would say we simply don’t know, I wouldn’t be willing to rule out that Balthazar knows about alot of things.

About the Ring of Fire Bloodstone: Given that a Bloodstone’s destruction results in half of Central Tyria being wiped out, we can be sure that it didn’t get destroyed. We also know it has to be at that location because not only was it embedded in the ground that time, but it had to exist to power the Door of Komalie until Nightfall at the earliest, so it wasn’t destroyed in that volcano eruption (why would it be, when the Bloodstones existed there in the lava for centuries?).

I can’t remember the Door of Komalie being opened or being relevant after we killed the lich on it. Also I didn’t mean destroyed, that would indeed be strange, especially considering the other parts surviving a flight after an eruption. I wouldn’t rule it out being flying out of the volcano, although as you say, unlikely. Ofcourse if the Door of Komalie still exists, or needs to exist then maybe not.

What I meant was that it could be buried under the mountain. The landscape has changed a great deal in the ring of fire, due to the volcanic activity there (and Primordus). And being close to Primordus might also not be a great place for a weakened God. That is, if he knew about that.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

100% definitely not. We meet the – or rather, a – avatar of Grenth, also one of the Seven Reapers. The Seven Reapers were seven mortal individuals who helped Grenth overthrow Dhuum, and were in turn elevated and acted as his avatars since.

Kormir however, communicates directly through her Avatar, and only later a Seer of Truth. Which to me tells me that the gods did have alot of indirect ways of gaining knowledge about the current state of things. But yeah, most other Avatars seem to be more someone in place to acts as a messenger I guess. I blame the wiki for being rather confusing then.

We were told in various interviews they kept communication until Nightfall because they were not sure that humans could stand on their own. It was less “what’s going on in Tyria?” and more parents telling their children after said kids move out to live on their own “if you need anything, just call”.

If you want to describe the relation like that, then it’s way more likely that they did know. Especially as the Gods themselves made (or at least dumped) the bloodstones in order to limit the humans in their magic. It’s still lying around in Tyria, so having their eyes on it wouldn’t be all that weird. I mean this discussion we’re having sparked of you disagreeing that Balthazar couldn’t possibly know where the bloodstone is. Unless ofcourse, for all we know he has a way to directly track them.

Further, we were told that their primary interest beyond that was simply Abaddon. They knew he’d return eventually, and that he would need to be dealt with. With his death, they knew humans could stand on their own, and had no more ties to connect them to Tyria.

They might have been interested in events like the Cataclysm, Searing, Jade Wind, etc. all of which directly or indirectly deal with Abaddon, but less so about the White Mantle or their “Unseen Gods” or what such ‘gods’ look like. I’d imagine if the avatars heard of the Unseen Ones, the Five would have just facepalmed and not inquired further. Granted that’s a bit speculative, but it is going off of what we know.

Whatever knowledge Balthazar had of the White Mantle and mursaat likely came from research after returning – and how he got such is questionable. Even if he learned a good deal of the events happening from his avatars, the gods’ avatars all ceased to show up in Tyria shortly after Nightfall (the last canonical appearance known before GW2 was at Wintersday with the avatars of Grenth and Dwayna).

I’m not questioning that they probably didn’t have deep knowledge of the mursaat and the white mantle. For Balthazar it’s only important to know where the bloodstone is. He most definitely must have heard about the white mantle, and the mursaat, If the Flameseeker Prophecies, (with the lich, Vizier Kihlbron, Mister Arah himself, also tied to Abaddon) are of any concern to them. Not to mention all the conflicts of the humans at some point must be of some minor interest of the “God of War”.

On “dealing with questions” bit – he doesn’t even bother with the questions now, by all indication, so why would he have then? He also clearly wants some sort of mortal army, else he wouldn’t have hired mercenaries.

Hmm, you make a good point there, though his latest actions also seem to indicate he doesn’t really care about having a “mortal” army as much as just an army in general (possibly anymore).

As to “initially posed as White Mantle as well” – that just adds onto the questions really. How did he do such? The White Mantle were a secret organization who by all appearances died out when the avatars/gods ceased contact. By all rights, he shouldn’t know they existed unless he did indeed have some omniscience of some sort (which by all indication, he and the other gods don’t, except arguably Kormir/Abaddon). If he didn’t know the modern state of the dragons, how could he know the modern state of the White Mantle and the experiments on the Bloodstone? If he didn’t know, why go after the most likely contested Bloodstone rather than the one in the Ring of Fire (which happens to be where he left all five Bloodstones)?

If he has a mirror that can make him appear as a mursaat. Then a low ranking White mantle or even a working slave doesn’t sound that complicated. At least that’s what I was thinking. While not knowing the intricate details of things going on, he could easily observe what is happening with the bloodstone now. And thus form a plan on the spot, by impersonating a white mantle recruit or what not, to gain closer access to it.

The bloodstone in the ring of fire islands might not even be there anymore since after we killed the Lich on it the volcano erupted again, most likely making it either very inaccessible to get to, or some place else entirely. (Unless I missed something)

I’m not saying he’s wanting us to be friends, per se. But it’s clear he doesn’t want us as an enemy if he can help it. And if that would mean finding a way to gain power without destroying Tyria, then doing such would be worth having one powerful ally more and one powerful enemy less.

To me it didn’t seem like he has much interest in Politics and intricate plans. and more, Either you’re with me or you’re against me.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

No. there was interaction between humans and the gods’ avatars. there is a distinct difference. Even when beseeching the gods in Nightfall before confronting Abaddon, it was only avatars that showed.

And there’s no reason to believe that “the way things transpired” had ever concerned them beyond Abaddon’s own actions, let alone that they were told by their avatars or their avatars were told.

I just read up on the avatars on the original Guild wars wiki. While this may or may not be correct, it seemed to me the avatars are more akin to physical projections of the gods, rather than their own entities.
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Avatar

Also, here it states, again without any reference that the gods do watch over the world, although not directly intervene:
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gods_of_Tyria

That’s why I said interaction.

But if you’re correct and the the avatars are their own entities, there’s indeed no proof that the avatars told any of it. Though just as much as there’s no proof that they didn’t. At the very least you could say that there is the possibility that they communicated about the things transpiring in Tyria.

Especially why even have the avatars to communicate with us after the exodus if there’s zero interest at all in the world after they left it. That makes no sense to me.

I can agree with you that the Avatars do speak alot as if they’re their own entities though. Hell, please feel free to point me in the right direction for the right information if the wiki isn’t correct.

Besides that, if he did know about the mursaat and White Mantle long before arriving, he would know that disguising as Lazarus long term would bite him in the kitten So why did he not simply drop the disguise when there was literally zero risk of those he wanted to fool finding out?

Hell, we don’t even know why he bothered with the Lazarus disguise rather than just show up as himself in the middle of Divinity’s Rest – he doesn’t need to be supremely powerful to pull off a fancy display and have a booming voice (if Jennah can do that, so should weakened Balthazar be capable).

Seems to me he doesn’t care about gathering a large following, and just cares the easiest least complicated way of regaining power. Why deal with all the extra trouble of revealing yourself to all humans to then get debated about how real you are extra questions about the other gods etc. That doesn’t seem to be in his interest at all. I bet to him it’s more akin to finding his power supplies in the back of is basement, where he ignores every other tool and goes straight to it. Bloodstone Fen is the most accessible one, and has a crew there ready. I wouldn’t put it beyond him he initially posed as white mantle as well.

Learning about the dragons is way more likely to have come late, because none of that seemed to be happening during the time the gods were here, and left again. Not knowing anything about that, he’d have to come to us. Then again, it could be possible he even knew about the Elder Dragons.

He might not care about our goals, but even in PoF he tries to recruit the Pact Commander to his cause. He wants us as an ally, even after we instigated a fight with him and ruined his initial plans.

He came ready for battle, but that doesn’t mean he came with the intent to fight. As shown in the PoF demo, he even now offers alliance just as he did when he first talked to the Pact Commander. He likely came ready for battle because 1) we were instantly hostile to him during Dragon Vigil (which is partially his own fault for keeping the disguise), 2) the Pact Commander left him out of the loop while wanting to know everything he did, a bit unfair for an alliance. The small army and the asura gate override was likely just precautionary measures rather than a declaration of war.

The Forged are “living armor” – they seem to be the same as Shiro’Ken from Factions based on dialogue. Those killed are used to make new Forged, which are metal beings, and they are aware but unable to control their actions just like the Shiro’Ken. One of the many reasons why Balthazar is by all appearances so far just a rehash of Abaddon’s plot.

Just change “kill Elder Dragons to regain power” with “break out of prison to regain power” and then “war and fire” with “knowledge and water” and you pretty much have a remake.

I thought he just tries to recruit us because we have alot of power and knowledge to deal with this dragon business. Not because he actually cares about us. We’d just be another tool for his goal. Not so he would have another “ally” and “Let’s be friends.” at all. But that may just have been me.

The forged could indeed be akin to the Shiro’Ken, But I was thinking more of the Son’s of Svanir. Who also are not entirely in control of their actions. He did just absorb a great deal of Jormag’s and Primordus’ power. It might not be related at all ofcourse, especially as Menzies has something similar his Shadow Army.

Grok Krog.9581:

Zenith.7301:

Banners and PS simply need nerfing. They’re way too good a boost for how little investment they require.

I don’t know if Banners need a nerf, the lack of mobility in them is kind of their downfall (Remember they used to give 90 to each stat and were kind of weak). If anything maybe lower them to 135/150. But I do agree Phalanx Strength needs a nerf. I’m not sure how, maybe a cap of 10 might, at least condi warrior’s damage is high enough they would still be brought along, the banners alone are useful enough. Power Warrior just needs some buffs

Not sure if that’s an idea they can make standard across the board. Only being able to do max 10 might stacks to allies (or whichever limited number) in general would incentivize people to rethink the whole two might buff character a bit.

If it really is ideal to overthrow that meta anyway. :P

They were just testing how well their “stick characters on top of eachother and hand over controls” script works.

So basically it works with any such character, including wyverns. Or a chain of characters, whichs hands the controls over all the to the top.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Since the gods knew about the bloodstones, why wouldn’t Balthazar go to a Bloodstone in the first place. It’s just a matter of reconnaissance and forming a plan to get the magic one way or another.

Because the locations of the Bloodstones changed centuries after Balthazar left the world in the Exodus.

So first he’d have to investigate where the Bloodstones are, of which three locations are known (to players, the other two may or may not be known by Tyrians). Then he’d have to learn about that “strange cult” that’s at one of the Bloodstones, deciding to go after that particular one instead of the Ring of Fire Bloodstone which is still at the location where the gods left all five bloodstones.

Then he’d need to know who mursaat were and what they looked like – they were long gone from the world when the Six arrived, by all indication, and there was likely never any interaction between the two groups.

There was interaction between the Gods and the humans in Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall. The location of the bloodstone and the way things transpired in Tyria may or may not have concerned them anymore, but there’s definitely ways for them to have known where some of the bloodstones were. So even the White Mantle and the Mursaat would be known to them.

Not caring about what has happened or will happen is not the same as not knowing. To them it might have been very interesting to know what would happen after they tossed the bloodstone into the volcano. They have always observed. I think it would be very strange if he viewed the mursaat and white mantle as you described.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Balthazar then just kept on his disguise, even though it wasn’t needed. It gave him access to many followers to do his bidding, many white mantle and a network of informants. He was gathering an army, and as Lazarus and under the pretense to battle the dragons why not keep that disguise. Being the God Balthazar would probably come with alot of more annoying questions, “Why did you return” “Why now?” plus as many forum goers already prove themselves “Why were you Lazarus in the first place?” If he as Lazarus already had that much mistrust, then why complicate things by dropping a disguise. Hiding his true intentions (Gaining more power) with good intentions (Defeating dragons) seems like a great idea.

That distrust he got from his disguise, however, could have been greatly lessened if he willingly showed the Pact Commander his true form during Dragon Vigil, where there were only the Pact Commander, Marjory, Caithe, Ruka and the Luminate present. No one would have learned Lazarus = Balthazar outside of those five. And the PC would never have antagonized (yes, the PC is the one who started it all) Balthazar and there might not be a conflict because we pushed Balthazar into creating the Forged because we were trying to stop him. Instead we could have figured out a way to meet both goals – empowering Balthazar and not destroying the world in the process – instead the PC went “we know you’re lying, so I’m gonna tear that mask off of you!”

Furthermore, all those questions are already asked and many of Balthazar’s followers simply don’t care. They’re just glad he’s returned and are being a willing army to do his bidding, financing his army, without any qualms. So his need of disguise was never really there after stealing the White Mantle’s treasury.

Well, that’s just from our perspective. I was trying to see it from Balthazar’s perspective. He doesn’t care about our goals, or our world. There’s no need to drop the disguise if it gets him what he wants upto that point. Even when we dropped his disguise he could’ve reacted reasonable, if he was actually reasonable.

He did lock the asura gate and came with entourage, basically ready for battle to get to the machine one way or another. No one was able to leave, so I doubt his intentions were to talk about it, regardless of what we did there.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Why was there a “Lazarus Resurrection Room” in Abaddon’s reliquary?

Who says that Lazarus’ split into aspects thing was not simply Abbadon magic. :p

Or it could also be used for other rituals. Considering the many types of weapons we can use as a way to focus magic, I can see how the White mantle had a totally different way of resurrecting than Abbadon’s focus “the magic of these items into one spot” room.

Since the gods knew about the bloodstones, why wouldn’t Balthazar go to a Bloodstone in the first place. It’s just a matter of reconnaissance and forming a plan to get the magic one way or another. Which is probably why he needed to be Lazarus in the first place. To gain access to the bloodstone. Which he does with Justicar Bauer and Grand Savant Valis The Learned. (With as much secrecy and little people as possible) But with white mantle, seeing some sort of Lazarus back they probably would be blinded by devotion to see it’s not him anyway. Nothing better than the blind faith a few zealots that haven’t seen their “god” in hundreds of years.

“Oh I am your God, but I am weakened, we need to do this ritual so I can become more powerful and crush all your enemies.”

Balthazar then just kept on his disguise, even though it wasn’t needed. It gave him access to many followers to do his bidding, many white mantle and a network of informants. He was gathering an army, and as Lazarus and under the pretense to battle the dragons why not keep that disguise. Being the God Balthazar would probably come with alot of more annoying questions, “Why did you return” “Why now?” plus as many forum goers already prove themselves “Why were you Lazarus in the first place?” If he as Lazarus already had that much mistrust, then why complicate things by dropping a disguise. Hiding his true intentions (Gaining more power) with good intentions (Defeating dragons) seems like a great idea.

At least, that’s what I can come up with as to an explanation.

mazut.4296:

All it does it’s to disrupt the game flow.

Which is exactly the point of it.

thrag.9740:

The leader board sounds a lot like fractal leaderboards. For those unaware, Fractal leaderboards were promised 3 times (the latest being with HOT) and every time Anet realized it just doesn’t work (they should be permanently canceled now). Fractal leaderboards were a huge investment sink with no payoff. I’d rather not see resources wasted like that again.

My stance: Keep making raids, make the first boss of every raid easy, make the middle boss medium difficulty, make the final boss hard. Keep doing challenge motes if it is not too resource heavy. I.e. If it takes more resources to make a challenge mote than to make an entire encounter of equal difficulty, make the new encounter instead. Considering the art assets are reused, I would assume this is not the case.

If Anet wants to devote more resources towards the casual players, I believe dungeons and fractals would have a better return on investment. However, I do support a quick dirty easy mode for story purposes. Divide all boss stats by 10, remove all rewards, and still allow 10 players to complete the raid. Disable all achievements too ofc.

Yeah, I personally think there is a harder and an easier mode in raids already with those challenge modes. It’s just a different name as such and it really only has value to complete once. But other than that you can easily see it as a hard and easy mode.

Djinn.9245:

dagrdagaz.4913:

oh yeah, that hideous green aura :-(
The main reason i will never use Soulbeast.

I was hoping for some kind of ghostly animal animation/aura, like u see with GS skill 2 and 3.

Same. Why is it green? How many Ranger pets are green? Maybe a couple of the drakes? It’s SOULbeast. SOULS are normally depicted as white, not as green…white is at least considered a neutral color.

Most likely because green is the ranger color, nature magic is generally green.

After playing the story of the demo yesterday with two people, I noticed how (again) it’s not really finely tuned for playing with multiple people. Other than the party leader, other party members often are left out, excluded.
From really minor things like not being able to interact with an NPC to not being able to interact with turrets and objects, to straight out put into a box where they can’t even move a muscle, and just have to wait it out. (Seriously Anet? A warning would be nice)

While I do understand that the story is supposed to be “your story” and technically aimed as a solo story experience, I can’t imagine that people don’t also like doing these with multiple people. And while it often enough works out just fine, lately I noticed a minor trend where this experience is becoming less than ideal. It is starting to feel just like a less optimal experience to do story instances with other people, if you’re just in it for the story experience.

First of all, in Living Story Season 2 (I think, would need to check), HoT and Living Story Season 3, party members other than the leader cannot engage dialogue or interact with with NPCs. Even for minor flavour text and dialogue. Sometimes it’s shown for your party members, and other times it’s just not shown and it has to be typed out to keep everyone in the loop. It’s not always happening but it is often the case. It is fairly minor, and can be worked around. Like whenever we have a friend who hasn’t done it yet, I usually say that they should open the story rather than one of the others who have already done it. Just because it’s a better experience.

Second, interacting with story relevant objects. This became more obvious to me when I played the demo yesterday with my girlfriend. We always do story together, and usually enjoy it. Sometimes party members can’t even interact with a turret, or read a book or activate a switch, where you just feel dumb standing there, because the party leader needs to be called over to press a button or flip a switch. Sometimes it makes sense, because you’re initiating the next big step, other times it doesn’t really matter who presses the button, So to speak.
In the example with the demo, other than the party leader, you can’t get an extinguisher, and you can’t “try out” the raptor mounts. You simply get ignored, and you can’t interact with the raptors in it. (Yes I reported both as bugs separately) In the case of the extinguisher, you at least can get a bucket of water. Kind of sad still, but alright.

Third are the more glaring issues, like penalty boxes where your party members cannot move at all, get forcibly separated from the group. Like the many threads about Mordremoths last encounter penalty box. Like the Shining blade instance your party members literally get put in a penalty box or position, and can’t even move. Sure, in one occasion you can throw a grenade that literally does 1/10th of any original damage and maybe 2 seconds of freezing. If you could actually hit something, as you can’t really throw them at the enemies because they spawn just outside of your range/view.
Also putting players off to the side of the last ritual instead of including them in it or closer to it, is just rude. Like you guys stand over here and don’t get to properly watch this.
Ofcourse, this instance should just be labeled solo instead. It’s perfectly fine for there to be solo instances, but do consider that people might want to enter with multiple players, and the experience they get when there is no such warning and basically entails standing around and waiting without as much as a warning, that just is a recipe for a bad experience.
And yes, there are solo experiences in the core personal storyline, the difference there being, they are relatively short, and often enough you do get some skills if not all of your own skills. Living story season 2, seeds of truth (?) With the memory seed instances are a perfect example.

In conclusion, Story instances have a worse experience when you’re not the party leader, than when you are. Some cases are designed like that for story, but don’t do any effort to keep it fun for all, and others are minor annoyances where the experience isn’t as uniform as possible. It would be very nice if ArenaNet also considers (in the future) to make sure that story in a party is as fun as it can be for everyone in the party.

TL;DR: The point is that the game could improve on this aspect, not that the game is bad because of it. Because the story instances are usually great fun to play through.

I kinda like the aura effects from equipped skills. I mean, not too much ofcourse, but subtle like the firebrand virtues when they are equipped/activated is really nice.

Plus you can toggle in and out of beastmode. You should be glad that you don’t half turn into your pet while doing that.

People want to find and play with like-minded individuals.

Thus Guilds want their members to feel fitting in. Regardless of religion, sexuality or other traits.

I mean, I find it sillier people only want experienced players or only players who just represent that their guild.

How are you matched up with people who only play for the giggles if they are so bad. Is my question. :p

maddoctor.2738:

FrizzFreston.5290:

I don’t understand your logic. If they do not contain any story or lore that is related to LS3 then how could that lead to a disconnect between the LS3 and raid story?
Surely if they werent at all related there would be no disconnect?

Because there is no disconnect between the raid story and LS3. If you play just LS3 there is nothing missing story-wise. It’s the other way around, if you play the Raid and then LS3 you realize that the Raid was pointless.

Also the latest wing does close off the white mantle storyline together with LS season 3 ep 6. Ofcourse, they dont cross over into eachother and you can understand the each of the stories separately ofcourse. But to say that its absolutely nothing to do with the story in LS3 is not the wording I would have picked.

The story in the second Raid has nothing in common with the story in LS3. It closes the white mantle storyline from Guild Wars 1, not from LS3, there is no mention, nor reference in the story of LS3 about anything that happens in Bastion of the Penitent. So yes, it has absolutely nothing to do with the story of LS3

Thats what I meant with parallel and disconnect. I guess Ill just stick with your wording of it being weird to me.

maddoctor.2738:

Torvic.8256:

Or do the Raids not include any story/lore at all pertaining to LS S3 and Path of Fire?

No they do not. In fact it’s the opposite, playing the first episode of LS3 after you finish the first Raid complicates things and leaves you with a “then what happened in the Raid?”, making the entire first Raid look pointless story-wise. It doesn’t help that your player character remembers nothing of what happened inside the Raid. It’s as if it happened in a dream or a parallel universe. In contrast, if you play LS3 episode 1 without touching the Raid, the story makes much more sense.

The second Raid has absolutely nothing to do with the story in LS3 or Path of Fire. It’s entirely standalone.

I don’t understand your logic. If they do not contain any story or lore that is related to LS3 then how could that lead to a disconnect between the LS3 and raid story?
Surely if they werent at all related there would be no disconnect?

Also the latest wing does close off the white mantle storyline together with LS season 3 ep 6. Ofcourse, they dont cross over into eachother and you can understand the each of the stories separately ofcourse. But to say that its absolutely nothing to do with the story in LS3 is not the wording I would have picked.

If you just mean that personal/living story is completely paralel to raid story, then yes I agree with that.

narcx.3570:

Also, I don’t get why Matt is listed as hardest by so many people? Sure there’s a lot of unforgiving death mechanics, but he’s also like one of the few bosses where literally 1/2 your raid can be dead at 25% and still end in a win.

I found his mechanics really easy to understand and straightforward, the one time that I managed to get a group for him. I don’t think I missed a single one.

Vayne.8563:

In the beginning the Marionette fight was awesome. Toward the end, when the players that new the fight had moved on mostly and had gotten the achievements, it wasn’t as awesome. As much as I enjoyed the fight the first time, it doesn’t belong in the game now.

One of the main reasons the fight was popular was the farming the lanes during the defense phase, which dropped random “key” pieces you could use the open the chests in Scarlet’s lair. Without that, it wouldn’t have been nearly as popular.

Those rewards have long be superceded by other rewards in the game.

It was a good fight. But I don’t believe bringing it back would make the game better long term.

Same can be said about any other world boss. Shatterer, Tequatl, Karka Queen, basically all the lesser world bosses.

You can easily add the marionette to the list there with no negative impact. Does it add much? Eh I dunno. It was better equipped to handle a zerg than most worldbosses at least.

I don’t care for just returning a tiny part of LW Season1. I rather have the whole experience playable.

Buying all the tier 1 and minis for the achievement …. and then selling them for half because the price dropped overnight.

And later that achievement got retired and a new one was made in place.

Cyprien.4208:

Charr …. I want my asura to ride on top of one it would make that race useful.

You just reminded me of this:
https://youtu.be/V9NLSkCAHgs

4 years ago!

TheUndefined.1720:

That could definitely be the case! In all honesty, I’m sure the content was working as intended, but from my perspective it was a bit much. That’s why I say this is my opinion. Honestly, I doubt the devs are going to give my opinion any weight in that department considering your points. Still, I think even if just 1 map IN the expansion eased all players in then increased in difficulty even in that zone map alone would be a good idea. Verdant Brink was just chaos from start to finish. Auric Basin was FAR easier than Verdant Brink. Shoot, I’d argue all the maps were easier than Verdant Brink. In either case, I don’t think you’re wrong and neither do I think I’m wrong. I think these are two valid opinions for different perspectives of the game.

I mostly must say, that I really appreciate your posts, regardless of whether I share your opinion regarding difficulty and other points. It is refreshing to see such a positive attitude to negative points.

Also not to worry, if the difficulty in the PoF demo was any indication, they already made the starting experience of PoF alot better regarding returning players rather than the veterans. So dont doubt the feedback you gave here, you were not alone in the slightest that it felt too hard in the beginning. Its not unlikely that they already took that into consideration when moving on to the next expansion. Especially considering that there was alot of criticism regarding difficulty in HoT.

Ofcourse, now people are claiming that it was too easy.

maddoctor.2738:

FrizzFreston.5290:

maddoctor.2738:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Other players are your tutorial, your teachers and your friends if they want to be.

The key word is IF, you can’t force them to be.

Obviously.

If it is so obvious then what’s the point of complaining that new players can’t find raid groups? It’s every player’s personal choice who to take in their runs and it’s perfectly understandable to take only players with experience. Therefore arguments like this don’t have a purpose.

I just said obviously because I was in agreement. It just felt lacking in the last sentence of your original message. It sounded like no one will be your tutorial no one will teach you and no one will be your friend. Which sounded a bit discouraging to me. That was really all.

FrostDraco.8306:

FrizzFreston.5290:

IndigoSundown.5419:

So why doesn’t ANet emulate Blizzard and make their endgame totally about raids? There are a lot of players who came to GW2 because they didn’t want to raid. Removing Living Story updates in favor of tiered raids could (probably would) cost ANet their patronage. I believe that group is a lot larger than the group that wants to raid but feels barred from the mode because they don’t want to be a leader.

I think that people just want the experience of the raid and being able to understand some of the new enemies if not just seeing them. It’s not so much about “doing raids” as much as it is about experiencing their content to a degree they can handle. I would say it would only make sense as an extension of the living world episode maps, and making the raid instances into more open world raids. Which ofcourse, also takes alot of resources to create.

I find it very comparable where people do infantile mode of SAB where I’m thinking, my god are you that handicapped that you can’t do a few jumps. But it is there so people can sightsee the stuff that is in there. Including the bosses. I mean an empty raid instance is like an empty zoo. Or pictures of footprints of some of the encounters. It doesn’t do it justice.

And there lies the issue. Raids are NOT a sight seeing venture. And until these players realize that, they will never be satisfied. Or more accurate, they would never be satisfied then. Because they will still complain about the harder modes being too hard.

Some complaints should simply be ignored. I don’t see anyone but the same cry babies asking for this. The rest of the player base is actually out there raiding.

Well, thats the point exactly, Some players want that and dont want to raid. So yes raids are about the challenge and some people do not want to raid but do want to see it.

Will players complain even then? Guaranteed. People will complain about everything regardless.

maddoctor.2738:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Other players are your tutorial, your teachers and your friends if they want to be.

The key word is IF, you can’t force them to be.

Obviously.

IndigoSundown.5419:

So why doesn’t ANet emulate Blizzard and make their endgame totally about raids? There are a lot of players who came to GW2 because they didn’t want to raid. Removing Living Story updates in favor of tiered raids could (probably would) cost ANet their patronage. I believe that group is a lot larger than the group that wants to raid but feels barred from the mode because they don’t want to be a leader.

I think that people just want the experience of the raid and being able to understand some of the new enemies if not just seeing them. It’s not so much about “doing raids” as much as it is about experiencing their content to a degree they can handle. I would say it would only make sense as an extension of the living world episode maps, and making the raid instances into more open world raids. Which ofcourse, also takes alot of resources to create.

I find it very comparable where people do infantile mode of SAB where I’m thinking, my god are you that handicapped that you can’t do a few jumps. But it is there so people can sightsee the stuff that is in there. Including the bosses. I mean an empty raid instance is like an empty zoo. Or pictures of footprints of some of the encounters. It doesn’t do it justice.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Squee Squashington.5189:

Raids have needed difficulty modes since before their release so that the hardcore players will be have their challenging content, casual players will be able to see/complete content and both could pursue rewards from it.

The entire point of raids is that they are intended to be hardcore content. A big reason why the raid team is so efficiency and producing them with high quality is that they only have to design for those interested in that challenge.

If I’m not ready for that, there’s the entire rest of the game for me to play.

So no, raids don’t need difficulty modes; there are players who want them, which is not the same thing.

I would say that raid easy mode (for story experience mostly) is as much needed as putting in living world season 1, which probably has more reason to be put in because it encompasses more story obviously. Speaking about the amount of necessity, btw. Ignoring the whole currently unavailable vs, available but not playable for everyone part of it, of course.

maddoctor.2738:

Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497:

I sincerely suggest coming up with a way to fix this before the new raid content is released. Mostly by offering a bonus incentive or buff for allowing new raiders into the group.

Join a training run, a training guild, or go with your own guild/friends. The LFG is doing its job well, it’s there to let players find the players THEY want to play with to do content THEY want to do, in a the way that THEY want to. Other players are not your tutorial, your teachers nor your friends.

Other players are your tutorial, your teachers and your friends if they want to be.

I would say guardian.

But that’s just me. xD

Might be a bit lacking on the mobility but I use traveler runes for that and alot of distance closers, while staying away from slower weapons/skills.

Tekey.7946:

In general, I noticed several things in the PoF demo that hinted towards core Tyria/Season 3 design in contrast to HoT:

• reintroduction of heart quests
• implementation of heart quests in story instances
• overall easy difficutly of mobs
• Crystal Oasis didn’t have much verticality (maybe due to desert theme, lack of gliders or general design)
• overall simple, small events that reminded me of Queensdale
• low event density on a stretched, larger landscape

I think that PoF will be the exact opposite of HoT since there were always two sides, the ones that (dis)liked verticality, (dis)liked huge meta events, (dis)liked the difficulty.

I think that some of those are indeed to design. Also it’s a coastal/farmland area. Plus the mount jumps horizontally rather than vertically. Plus mounts in general might mean they spread events out more.

Plus it’s the start of a new expansion. Instead of coming from HoT and LS3 alot of players come from just core and the start may intentionally be easier and easing people into the experience where it gets harder later on. Something that was heavily criticized for HoT. So i think it’s intentionally on the easier side.

If you properly explored the map, you found verticality in alot of places though. especially to the north east and north west.

If you think logically though, verticality will be part of PoF regardless. The springer mount alone should give you a hint, if not the other jumping abilities.
I dont understand why holding the demo is being held as a template for the rest of PoF while to me its obviously introductory.

Instead you should focus on what is different, because all events will have some basic elements, like defending, travelling collecting and killing stuff.

Im kinda used to having waypoints. I dont mind running a bit, but definitely not so long that it basically turns into You died walk all the way back for a few minutes before you get where you were again.

I think for profession specific info/gameplay videos that are posted in profession forums are perfectly fine in their own thread.

Other sections that are more generic like Generic pvp fractal wvw that could have a more wider variety of info videos should get a thread as there it could run crazy if not.

Art, Roleplay, and more comedy like videos could be posted here. Anything that is clearly made for entertainment instead of for information.

On the other hand, new releases, interviews and such videos that are clearly for sharing their info could have their own thread.

This also makes me wonder about why there is no PoF subforum yet, even if its really hard to make with this forum. As there are also many PoF related videos as well as those that dont, It would be messy to mix those into one thread.

Not to mention content creators that make multiple videos. One thread could get messy if not properly sorted.

Super Adventure Eagle for skimmer.

Leytere.8371:

Severaly limit mounts in their ‘flashyness’. The raptor (i’ll give you that Anet, but only that), was surprisingly… real and normal. Tjhe other mounts are already immersion killing. Any cashhop grab with a superflashy purple, magical aura dinasaur you can walk on for 1000 gems, nope, no way. i’m still clueless how mounts are linked to masteries (and only 4) cause everyone knows you want a new glide skin cash cow successor. I really hope you use your love for the game, rather then ‘mindset for maximum income’.

This ^
I remember wow, in the beginning there was not a lot of different mounts, and they weren’t flashy, you didn’t see a lot of people with other races mount too cause it was a pain to get so it didn’t break my immersion, nowadays it’s a kittenfest of flashy big ugly mounts.
Just compare the beginning of AV (the biggest battleground) in the past wow and now :
Past AV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiRhbkMTwYs (they start at 2:00 min).
Recent AV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJb6mnxDAg (1 min start)

Just like gliders… really.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

“There will be raids in the future” post on their forum is not enough information to sell me an expansion.

I doubt anything that is not in the expansion yet will sell the expansion that well.

Salvage is the way really. And yeah rare dyes do give more pigments, albeit it not hugely significant imo.

I mean, someone could have all the dyes unlocked. Should they just make more because you have them all?

Ashantara.8731:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Ashantara.8731:

Cyrin.1035:

Which mount are you most excited for?

The horse, of course! Followed by the camel.

Oh, wait… dang. Well, maybe via Gem Store?

I never have seen a horse in Guildwars 2 :p

Edit
After some research the only horse references are locations, items and the celestial horse. Which is veeery strange, if you ask me.

The other day I was also wondering why there are only Risen Bulls, and no Risen Cows. (I guess orrians didn’t drink mills or just only imported male cows. xD

Perhaps the cows were smarter than the bulls and fled the scene before the region sank into the ocean. Female instincts.

As for horses, you are right, now that I think of it. How very odd. Well, I am sure there are plenty in the desert? Along with my camels?

Centaur mount? :P

Waypoints get contested to avoid resurrecting right where you die, so that death actually means something.

This is not a real problem, this is an intended feature. Yes it’s annoying, but then that’s the price of failing to stay alive.

Vinceman.4572:

FrizzFreston.5290:

They are a guild. Not a PuG.

And? I haven’t said anything else and posted that for exact this reason.

It’s common sense that while pugging there is always a high(er) chance of experiencing toxic behaviour than within organized groups. We are debating about the raiding community and I’m just stating that there are ways to avoid elitism, toxic behaviour, selection and exclusion. The first step to achieve that is joining a guild.
If you are not able, not willing to or have other hurdles that hinder you from doing so you have to deal with the pug strat. Since most of these are strangers for us on the internet we know that some of them are bad apples.

My example of cmaj was just demonstrating that raiding hasn’t to do with elitism in the first place because they show it is possible to raid successfully without running meta strats, take too much too seriously and having a lot of fun. And I can tell from own experience with 2 guilds filled with casual players that this is the standard within a static group.

It was more of a tongue-in-cheek remark than some sort of thought out counter argument. Hence the smiley, if you only fully quoted it….

I wouldn’t base your anecdotal situation as the standard though. There are also alot of more exclusinary “elitist” groups as well. But yeah, pointing out that there are many groups who aren’t as such is also a good idea.

And on the other hand I haven’t met that much toxic behaviour within PuG groups myself. Just by avoiding those that have too much LI requirement than makes sense. In fact with some groups when you’re honest about your LI even if you don’t meet the requirement the reaction usually is, “Ah it doesn’t matter that much” as well.

Kal Spiro.9745:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Pay 2 Win here means “winning” the rewards by paying instead of playing content.

I don’t think there is any problem with making older unavailable skins available again. It does give people to have another chance at previous rewards.

Though I do criticize the way they made it available again.

I mean, If you were going to choose between putting it in the gemstore and putting it behind some ingame content, surely you wouldnt pick the gemstore?

Yeah, but that’s not what pay2win means and it never has been. Pay2win means you gain a quantifiable advantage in game by spending real money for it. If the Molten Jet Pack let you literally fly ingame and go anywhere you want then selling it would be a quantifiable advantage since flight isn’t a thing otherwise. But it can’t, it’s just another way to receive a cosmetic reward that some people previously received through specific content.

The keyword in that sentence is “here”

I’m not going to argue what it usually is used for, or that “people are wrong because they use the wrong terminology”, it’s more to explain what people mean.

Vinceman.4572:

Sorry for the double post but I want to share with you the next chapter of elitism in raiding, a real masterpiece of toxicity, ppl blaming and playing against each other without having a single spark of fun:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6vc2as/a_music_guild_tries_to_raid_part_3/

/s

They are a guild. Not a PuG.
You can easily say that there’s less toxic environment in fractals as well by posting that your guild group is never toxic. :P

It would be more accurate that elitism is everywhere than that raids are somehow less toxic then fractals.

Though entertaining the idea, I think raids are in general less toxic because people set much more solid requirements. Thus it is less likely to form groups where you don’t know that someone is not up to par with your group or rather, the not so good players basically never get to join and are heavily discouraged to join a group that is outside that.

Whereas in fractals anyone and their mother could have the right gear, the right agony and since there people define it alot more through more vague requirements where no one really is excluded, and leads to more mixed skill groups, which tends to lead to more clashes.

This has nothing to do whether players are more toxic in fractals or more toxic in raids. It’s just that the more skilled more toxic players tend to separate themselves with more ridiculous LI requirements, and toxicity only rises up when they think they can help lesser skilled players, for which they don’t have the skill. (You can be able to play the game but be a horrible teacher so to speak)

Torolan.5816:

Hyrai.8720:

actually I do doubt that waypoints are always faster.
I’m pretty sure running anywhere in Elona, starting from the nearest WP, will often be faster than finding a way to a specific location in tangled depths starting from the (seemingly) nearest WP.

Find the WP once = your suffering ends.
Ride your mount through miles of desert, die by hoping too far with your target already in sight = Your suffering begins again.

Therefore WP>riding

I see that more as:
You die
You waypoint
Without mount you wouldn’t get back to where you were as fast (Regardless of the place)

Waypoints+mounts> just waypoints