Guild Wars 2

Scarlet is a prime example of the direction Guild Wars 2 is due to go in. It’s a shame, really – there’s a lot of intriguing aspects of the lore that have gone ignored in favour of festivals and gimmicks. Expecting Arena Net to listen to feedback is not going to end well, though. This is the same Arena Net that have gradually lost key employees and betrayed their original target audience since they decided to take the game in a completely different direction to what they promised in their manifesto.

The entire game is built upon broken promises at this point. We were told we would be able to play however we wanted and whilst I was resigned to the existence of cookie cutter builds I find it completely laughable that an entire stat is largely useless across the board.

I won’t be playing again until it’s fixed, but I loved playing my sword/sword warrior due to the bleeding conditions. It was fine in solo scenarios, yet the moment I teamed up with someone else my damage would be hit hard. It doesn’t help that most classes have the odd condition ability/effect tied to their skills even if they’re not invested in the stat.

Arena Net’s silence on the matter is also troubling, we need more than months of silence and promises of ’we’re looking into it’. Why not talk about what you’re doing about it, eh?

Imply that you won’t be purchasing anything on the gem store if it isn’t restored and you’d be amazed at how quickly Arena Net’s tune changes where support tickets are concerned.

It’s not free if other players are paying for it. Why is that such a difficult concept for people to grasp?

I don’t know whether to be happy or sad. On one hand, I won a bet with a friend for predicting that Queen Jennah would say something exactly like this and that her ‘big announcement’ was hyped up by Arena Net to be much more exciting than it actually is.

On the other hand…the story is becoming incredibly stale, predictable and erratic. It started off rather promising. The game world is very large and rich in intriguing elements…and yet so little of them are used. The Elder Dragons and their minions have been brushed aside and despite the hauntingly beautiful delights of Orr the game’s initial dark tone appears to have been replaced by gimmicks, comical villains and festivities.

I’d happily return to the game if I could repeat the content I’ve missed, though I’m not too keen on devoting to something that gives me a tiny window of opportunity to complete fresh content after kicking up a huge fuss about how the game wasn’t going to feel like a chore.

thefantasticg.3984:

Again. Silliness. Your reasoning is weak opinion at best. Bottom line is if you don’t enjoy it don’t do it.

What nonsense! Why should players avoid fresh content when it is the very thing preventing the game from becoming stale in the first place? Most of the complaints are valid and very apt – content is being pumped out far too quickly, is temporary and you end up competing with or being screwed over by other players which is a direct violation of the supposed core values of the game that the developers are swift to bring up whenever they talk about their vision for the future, past and present.

I just hope it’s something genuinely compelling and not just a generic speech about overcoming obstacles. Dare I say it, maybe it’ll be some bad news to break up the string of festivities and constant foiling of any and all threats that have arisen so far.

Scaling is the main issue. Events need to scale based on the amount of players attacking nearby enemies rather than the amount of players in proximity to an event. Then again, even if that happened to be the case we’d -still- have to deal with the countless greedy players deliberately ignoring events in order to farm champion enemies.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

This is why I get weird looks when I say Cersei Lannister is a really interesting female character.

She’s very compelling. I adore how complex she is, especially when you begin understanding her mindset and past. Obviously I don’t expect the same sort of depth in GW2 as in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels…but it’d be brilliant if Arena Net could take steps to make many of the major characters more memorable and compelling.

I gave up WoW because most of the lore began emerging outside of the game rather than within it, I’d hate to have to do the same now that Arena Net are adopting a similar model…

Variety is the key to success. I’m also surprised as to why there’s no ‘Slayer’ achievement for the Aetherblades. I feel like I’ve killed a thousand by now…

I’d just like to thank everyone bringing this issue into the spotlight. It may not even be intentional but aside from a few exceptions here and there most major male characters are portrayed as whiny and/or incompetent. Discrimination works both ways not just one and whilst it is refreshing to see strong female characters they shouldn’t exist purely at the cost of strong male characters.

The notion that male characters should be treated like dirt just because female characters are handled poorly in other forms of media is ridiculous, too. You don’t tackle discrimination by directing it elsewhere. You tackle it by eliminating it.

skullmount.1758:

Maybe if they weren’t stuck in the RNG cash boxes…

My thoughts exactly.

Rytlock is becoming irritating. I thought his angst had been eliminated.

I’m a little baffled by the lack of a male model.

loquacious.2915:

mcarlosc.3425:

When I first played the game(Beta Weekend Events) I feel that the world map was so big that the events had to be spread thin. Its just painful see the amount of effort the devs put on making hundreds of events and huge maps go to waste. Now they just rely on the Living World concept to keep the game alive since nobody does events anymore.

A lot of that is their own fault. They keep making things that require extremely rare drops. Drops which come from certain types of mobs. So of course no one wants to do the other events. One example is to look at Straights of Devastation. How many of those WPs will be forever contested?

Underwater events seem to be ignored altogether these days. It’s pretty annoying, since I don’t care about heading to the most ‘efficient’ area to farm content. I prefer gradually weaving my way around the game world and tackling events as they appear.

I just wish the problematic areas/events were identified more often and made more appealing…

Yeah, I do. It’s pretty useful.

Best thing I’ve seen in this game in a while. I loved the additional insight into the various major human characters present in Kryta.

My first instinct was to hoard the various items that reward karma and combine them with the user of a karma booster, though to save space in my bank I just use them as soon as I get ’em.

After all, karma is very easy to get and it’s now account bound to boot!

The game has been out for a year and yet we’ve had barely any fresh content involving the other elder dragons or their minions. A festival here and there is fine, but GW2 has definitely gone overboard with them. Variety is the key to a memorable experience.

It doesn’t help that pretty much everything from the personal story is abandoned after you complete it. The ‘living world’ content is the same, since most of it is all temporary and therefore any build up is going to be lost on new players or anyone who is unable to log in whilst temporary content is available.

The idea that a character shouldn’t or couldn’t die because they’re part of the personal story is ridiculous as far as I’m concerned. Is that really the sort of storytelling we want to see for the foreseeable future? Characters being kept around for the sake of being kept around is not a good direction to go in.

I’d actually like to see Queen Jennah die. Not because I dislike her, but because the game has been sorely lacking in tragedies for quite some time now that the personal story is behind us. It wouldn’t be in the same league as seeing Ascalon be destroyed back in the original game, but it’d be a step in the right direction as far as I’m concerned.

The story is becoming very predictable at this point and I’d hate to see another case of danger being thwarted.

I don’t mind the occassional festival here and there, but I was under the impression that the game would be a tad darker in tone. The campaign against Zhaitan’s forces – especially in Orr – is the sort of thing I’d like to see elsewhere.

More permanent content would be brilliant, too. Southsun is a start, but we need more!

I think it’s an excellent change and a huge step in the right direction. All too often I’ve been exploring the game world and stumbled upon a champion only to find no one else nearby interested in slaying it because the loot is generally not worth the time it takes to kill them. Some can be killed solo, of course, but that’s typically a lengthy process.

I find some of the legendary weapons to be visually impressive, but I don’t find the lengthy grind or luck/gold system to be worthy of praise.

They’d be a bit too similar to the norn, wouldn’t they?

Thanks for the response! I’m not really looking for a guild, though. As great as it may be, my track record with guilds so far hasn’t been very pleasant. I’d be more comfortable with finding a handful of like-minded players who I can rely upon to team up with for random fun and to tackle fresh and old content alike.

PMilkos.9103:

Because 95% of the players just press the skip button as soon as they can, because any story in any MMORPG is pointless and flawed by definition of the genre. If I were them, I would probably not even include that, tbh…

This way we at least get to admire how awesome (or not) our characters look up close. More useful than the actual story.

That’s pretty silly. There’s a huge portion of the community devoted to role-play and the lore, after all.

To make a long story short I took a break from the game not long after the Wintersday event began, returning periodically until making the decision last week to devote more consistently to GW2. Unfortunately most of my friends have since left the game – for a variety of reasons.

I wouldn’t consider myself a complete novice, since I grasp the general concepts of the various PvE and PvP activities on offer. I just can’t seem to find the right guild or right players to have fun with! It’s frustrating to say the least…

I’m seeking to dabble in every aspect of the game, be it jumping puzzles, fractals, dungeons, dynamic events, PvP…and even role-play! One thing to note, however, is that I’m in the EU (England to be precise) despite playing on a US realm – namely Tarnished Coast.

I’m not really sure what else to say, really. I’d consider myself to be pretty easy going, though I can be pretty blunt at times! My sense of humour is pretty strange, so ideally I want to team up with people who can take a joke from time to time.

If you’ve questions, feel free to ask them here – or throw me a PM! Either way, hopefully something will come of this. As much as I enjoy the game it’d be a lot better with people to play with!

I’d like to see the home instance fleshed out further. The recent quartz node addition is a good start and is in line with what was initially promised for the home instance system before launch.

TwoBit.5903:

The engine and camera keep JPs from being a sensible experience.

Agreed. It’s much worse if you’re playing as one of the bigger races, but I find it to be tolerable as a human. I do enjoy the jumping puzzles, mind you – they’re often very fun – but the fact that many are temporary is off-putting.

Siphaed.9235:

Homonavn.6348:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Long term we’ll absolutely be adding more activities as well, but we want to make sure we’ve got loads of stuff to do at level 80 in PvP, WvW, and PvE

8 months after and we still dont have ANYTHING new in PvE except a new JP and fractals…

And the NPC brawling guild that wanders around Tyria….

And the Skritt Thief that also wanders around, stealing things….

And the 6-13 new Dynamic Events on Southsun Cove…

And the daily Laurels system…

And Guild Missions, including Rush, Trek, Puzzle, Bounty, and Challenge…

And Moa Racing…

And (coming Tuesday) Belcher’s Bluff….

And (coming Tuesday) Achievement rewards system…

And Living Story chapters at a constant, no-gap rate…

Might want to look up what “don’t have anything” means, because it’s a false statement when you paired it with new PvE content.

How much of that is tied to temporary content? There’s certainly been some great additions to the game, but way too much has simply been removed a few of weeks after implementation.

I get the impression that many of the players branding temporary content as ‘amazing’ are the same players who do not have a tight schedule in the real world and thus can easily play as often as they like.

For the record, I’m not lacking in spare time myself – but I can appreciate how frustrating it can be to have to miss exclusive content. I do hope that we’ll be seeing more permanent content in the future.

Vayne.8563:

Yeah, it hasn’t exactly been captivating stuff. Way too much press for what they’ve given us. It would have been much better with no build up at all.

No, it wouldn’t. A build up is important for a satisfying story. Though the execution of the story could have been better. We need more direct interaction and a reason to invest in the characters.

My only concern is that it is yet more temporary content. I’ll be making the most of it whilst it’s here, of course – but as with the Halloween event I’ll be very saddened when it is gone. Mostly because currently the associated mini-games are much more fun than a lot of the stuff that makes up the ‘main’ game.

If this was an isolated incident I wouldn’t mind, but I’ve been doing a lot of SPVP lately and in almost every other game there has been two players – but not the same pair in every match – hurling abuse at anyone who attacks them. They claim to be ‘duelling’, though this seems pretty detrimental to anyone wanting to just play SPVP as it was intended.

I’ve recently returned from a lengthy break having departed GW2 a few months after launch, though I don’t recall this being so prevalent back then. Is it just a stroke of bad luck, or is this the norm these days?

Aazo.2841:

Yeah.. shatter got a buff.. but not everyone enjoys that playstyle on a mesmer. One of the things about the class is the versitility in the way one could play one. But more and more it seems the devs are dumbing down that diversity that many of us like.

Agreed, which is why I have ‘retired’ from the game for the past month or so. I still keep tabs on the mesmer situation from afar in order to see if things improve, though. At first, this game sucked me in largely due to how varied it promised to be. I was told I could build my character how I liked and most importantly, play him as I liked.

I fell in love with the mesmer profession, the mechanics and the ability to play a caster with a sword! Alas, despite the apparent lack of roles we tend to be seen and treated as the support class – leaving those of us who want something different to be alienated or expected to re-roll a warrior.

Here’s hoping that the Elder Scrolls: Online isn’t infested with half-hearted events that plague most recent MMO’s to appease the sort of players who cannot live without their pop culture.

…this still hasn’t been fixed? How disappointing. I guess I’ll be extending my time away from the game, since I outright refuse to be pressured into re-rolling one of the more ‘balanced’ professions.

I mostly just log on to role-play these days. I love the game, but I really don’t agree with some of the design decisions that have been made recently. For me, what was once meant to be a long term commitment has now shifted to simply being a stepping stone until a certain upcoming MMO launches.

I’m not going to beat around the bush, simply because it is already tragically evident that the community is no longer as welcoming and friendly as it once was. Already, simply by looking at some of the responses in this very thread there is a strange attitude of ‘if you dislike the change, just leave’.

Why? Why should we depart when we were promised that the product we bought would be as we desired? In fact, for the first few months the game did deliver on that front. Now, it has changed substantially and the least Arena Net can do is give some solid, no-nonsense answers as to what exactly their stance is.

- Is there any chance that we’ll someday see Largos become a playable race, perhaps after the Tengu are added to the game?

- Will there ever be a sub-forum added for role-players, considering Piken Square and Tarnished Coast have become the unofficial role-playing servers in GW2?

- Are there any plans to add some ‘normal’ town clothing in the future, such as the previously promised attire that we see regular NPC’s wearing?

Blame the investors, rather than the developers themselves. I’d strongly suggest people research just how easily even the largest of companies can have their hands tied by those who fund them.

My feedback:

I’m very disappointed with the addition of yet another tier of gear to acquire. I’m also a little irritated by some of the mesmer changes which have been confirmed to spawn some unintended bugs that have made certain builds less than viable. It’s particularly saddening when we already do much less damage than certain other professions are dishing out.

However, to give credit where credit is due I absolutely adore the new island. I find the atmosphere and environment to be incredibly well designed and the karka are a pretty cool addition to the game. Aside from the lag and the difficulty in tagging enemies for loot (which needs to be addressed rather swiftly, in my humble opinion) I found it to very intense and enjoyable!

Karl McLain.5604:

Illusionary Berserker has not received a direct damage decrease. Instead, is seems that the damage reduction you (and I) are seeing is most likely associated this fix:
“Fixed a bug that caused many piercing, boomerang, and bouncing projectiles (those that hit more than 1 target) to continually increase in damage the more targets they hit.”
We are aware that this particular phantasm is now experiencing a significant drop in damage and are looking at getting it back to a more effective state.
Thanks for keeping the post civil and constructive!
-Karl

Yet the damage of the iMariner has been reduced by roughly half as well. I do hope the change is reversed and the old damage is brought back, especially since we already have so very few hard hitting abilities.

I’m not a glass cannon. I went for a healthy mix of toughness, power and precision. Yet two of my favoured phantasms (iMariner/iBerseker) are now only half as effective as they were before to patch.

To further rub salt into sore wounds, I spent the better part of an hour trying to tag enemies in events in the Lost Shore only to find I wasn’t dishing out enough reliable damage or AoE to get credit for loot. This is all very frustrating, especially when I see warriors rush in and tag everything with a single greatsword swing. >_>

I agree wholeheartedly!

As a mesmer, I can only chuckle bitterly that my iBerserker hitting for 4k was nerfed to hit a mere 2k when warriors dish out up to 5-10k with some of their own attacks.

It isn’t ‘easy’ to obtain at all. It involves a grind, be it a direct or indirect one. Some people will be lucky enough to be able to throw gold at anything they need, which isn’t ideal for those of us who don’t devote our time to grinding money.

Arena Net have stated repeatedly that they were ‘happy’ with the warrior profession, so if someone could grab the exact quote and post it here, that’d be brilliant. Sadly, most of the ‘fixes’ to other professions have spawned more problems than they’ve solved, particularly for the likes of mesmers who already struggle to do much in PvE thanks to zergs and the way ‘tapping’ enemies for loot works.

It’s incredibly irritating, nor is it a ‘L2P’ issue. Firstly, the fact that people are actually using terms such as ‘L2P’ leaves a sour taste in my mouth as it just reeks of the same attitude that makes other MMO’s so intolerable. Secondly, no other class is locked down so heavily in PvE or PvP. One of our core mechanics failing makes both major aspects of the game a much greater chore than it needs to be.

I’ve half a mind to just re-roll a warrior, though I find them incredibly boring. A mesmer is my favoured niche, yet I constantly feel punished due to odd changes and countless bugs emerging on a patch to patch basis. Dynamic events aren’t much better – I can’t even get a phantasm off before a zerg of players obliterates a group of enemies.