Guild Wars 2

For me there is no interest for a number of reasons.

Aesthetically I am more minimalist(My favorite armor in GW1 was Assassin Vabbian and even that had weird extra blades on it. I refused to even go anywhere near Ancient, which the heavy armor here is very reminiscent.) or thematic. The heavy armor doesn’t appeal to me aesthetically and it doesn’t fit the themes of any of my Heavy characters. Maybe medium or light will..
If they make yet ANOTHER medium torso armor that is just a long coat or a slightly altered long coat… I will have even less than zero interest in that.
Though that might not matter because I have no interest in raiding. Zero. Zilch. None. I looked at it one time. Walked away, haven’t regretted the decision.

Neat idea with the movement and such, but for me less is more and far too many armors in this game go with the more is more aesthetic.

Enjoy it if you like it.

xadine.7069:

I agree, BUT GW1 was NOT an MMO…

Yes it was. It was non traditional, but definitely a Massively Multiplayer Online game.

There is a reason MMO player bases are referred to as communities. We are a gathering of individuals. United by a common thread of some sort. In this instance, playing GW2. Think of the real world community you find yourself living in, whether the heart of a massive metropolis or the middle of nowhere or something in between. Your community may span a few houses or may encompass miles. Regardless of the amount of space or number of people in your community you almost certainly don’t want to spend every moment with others in your community. And for the sake of debate, suppose you are the lone exception, wanting to spend every single moment with someone else; do they feel the same way?

I do enjoy some of the group content in this game. Just not all of the time. As a member of this community, I have the right, as you do, to voice my desire for greater solo content, a change of pace, a way to mix things up, and still feel like I am having fun. Of all the words that “MMORPG” represent, to me the most important one the is last one; GAME. Games are meant to be fun. That is what I, the original poster and many others are asking for: Fun.

I have never successfully finished a Triple Trouble Wurm event. I have been involved in several attempts. From full maps to desolate ones. The first time I had no idea what I was doing and didn’t contribute as well as I could have, the others times I was of a singular purpose, contributing well and truly. The results were always the same. Failure. My efforts, best or worst had the same exact outcome. I have to rely on countless others to do well to succeed, and have yet to find success. I’ve been informed that there is/was(?) a guild that ran the event at least once a week, successfully, their time schedule did not mesh up with my own, so I am left without the opportunity to join them.
I’ve defeated pretty much every other world boss in the game and each time, I was just a cog in a machine. One of countless others slinging things at the giant wall of health until it died. Being part of a large group united in purpose and achieving something none could have on their own is great.
Sometimes I want to feel like my efforts matter more.

Soloing maps isn’t really soloing maps, there is always someone roaming out there, even so, you rarely find a rewarding “solo” experience. I have hunted down and fought several different champions in the game “solo”. The usual formula is I engage the champion, by myself, and spend several minutes whittling away on it’s health bar, during this time, several different people usually go by, early on in the fight, people see me fighting and head off, figuring it for a lost cause or more interested in something else they’d rather be doing, who can say?
Sometimes I’ll get an add who wants to help, spends a couple seconds attacking then gets hit hard and downed, I try to revive if a can, this doesn’t always go well, after their defeat or revive, the add usually departs, wanting nothing more to do with the champion. Toward the end of the fight people happening by usually jump in to finish it off.
Some of the champions I’ve faced can take a long time to solo, learning their move set at my scale, figuring out how far I can kite them before they rubber band back and reset the fight (GRRR!), adjusting my tactics, skill bar (Usually after a rubber band) and strategy in order to defeat the champion, adjusting to people adding on and getting downed almost immediately is part of this as well.
There is no kill stealing in GW2 but there is sometimes a lost sense of accomplishment when I have spent so long learning fighting a champion only to have someone show up and help finish off that last 10th of the health bar. I don’t begrudge them the loot bag, I do miss the sense of success at times though.

I can reference GW1 and it’s mapped instances I used to try to vanquish solo. I could talk about polymock (Still waiting for that in GW2!) and the fun change of pace it was. I could remind you of Kilroy Stonekin and his solo drunken boxing dungeon I used to run for kicks. The experiments I used to run with builds in Random PvP arenas. I used to make funny experimental builds(no attack skills, something we can’t do in GW2), go into highly dangerous places and see how long I could survive. Clearing missions solo, NM and HM. Trying to run from one end of Tyria to the other as fast as possible. Relaxing in the Maguuma Jungle after removing all enemies from the map. Loved those waterfalls.
I played the group content, it was nice, all of that other stuff was in the moments between.

We aren’t asking the developers to deprive people of enjoyable group content, to diminish your rewards, or remove what you can do. We do all those things as well! (Except PvP I find it unenjoyable in GW2 )We’re asking for a chance to enjoy this game on our own from time to time. In the moments between. We’re asking for an extension of what we all already enjoy; this game. How can that be wrong?

Isarii.2804:

It sounds like you don’t like MMOs. I don’t know why you bought one.

The first GW was very friendly to competitive and casual players. There were no time gates (Until they introduced dailies late into the game’s life) or group gates (Henchmen and later heroes allowed you to flesh out a group if you didn’t have enough people/time to wait for others to show up. They weren’t awesome, people were usually better, but they gave you an option when time was a factor) to stymie you when you wanted to play/get something done. I spent countless hours playing GW1, because it allowed for so many meaningful and diverse ways to play. I didn’t feel like I’d wasted my time or was just getting things out of the way before they reset.

Alliance Battles are and were a great game mode. WvW on the other hand feels a bit less streamlined and more clunky. Perhaps it’s the balance issues/lack of meaningful contributions. In AB the teams facing each other were balanced, at least in numbers. In WvW most of the time you’re outnumbered or greatly outnumber your foes. In AB, a group of 4 could almost carry a team by being smart/strategic. In WvW a Group of 4 -might- be able to take a tower if they are fast enough to do it before a zerg shows up.

If you didn’t have time/want to gather a group of 4 for AB you could always jump into an instance of Jade Quarry or Fort Aspenwood by yourself grouped with a random selection of strangers and fight it out against another group of randomly selected strangers. If the balance was bad for whatever reason at least the match didn’t last a week before resetting.

PvP was different as well, offering several different game modes. Groups grabbed from random queued people, teams you made yourself, selective skills mode, and highly competitive mini tournaments to name a few. Don’t forget the occasional costume brawl battles either.

PvP in GW2 is fairly limited in comparison.

Maybe I’m just spoiled for wanting at least as much quality from Guild Wars 2 as the first Guild Wars offered?

I HATE PvP and I am still upset about the only non long coat medium armor in the game being a PvP exclusive.

Shame on Anet for that.

Don’t expect to see me there if I can avoid it.

I don’t have the time or inclination to organize/manage/wait for/find/or babysit a group each time I play a game. I want to like GW2 more but the lack of meaningful solo/casual content means I’m turning on a different game and playing it instead.

I like GW2 but all the group only/time gated crud in it just makes me look for something else, something that makes me feel my time was well spent, not filling the time gate crud and logging off to wait for the time gate to open. It feels more like a job then an interactive entertainment experience.

So yeah, OP I understand what you mean. There doesn’t feel like any meaningful things you can accomplish solo in this game most of the time.

I keep hoping for some less busy outfits and armor.

When almost every single medium armor chest piece is a long coat, you yearn for some sort of variety.

There was a lot more variety in GW1 in design. I hope we get some of that back in 2 soon.

:(
Why the designers have a bug up their keisters concerning Thief having any sort of range I don’t understand. Shortest range in the game and if this change stands… I hope they increase the range of one of our non specialization weapons.

I know a lot of people are speculating rifle for Thief, personally, I hope that isn’t the case. And even if Thief does get the rifle, there’s no guarantee it will have a long range. Engineer only gets 1000 range on it mind you. Less then their grenade toss…

Thankfully, these were only previews. Hopefully, the designers will read these forums and see the error of their ways in certain areas.

That whole projectile/stealth issue also plagues Last Refuge, and is one of the reasons why the minor trait is almost universally loathed. I keep hoping they use the same workaround they have for Smoke Field + Heartseeker when it hits.

This hasn’t been an issue since the release of the game. They changed stealth a while back. It’s resulted in long attack animation skills seeking me out long after stealthing as well (PvE enemies) and aggro from great distances as well. Running across a map, aggro an enemy, chain stealth to break aggro, run far beyond where any enemy would aggro, unstealth, monster runs over and tries to kill me.

Sadly, many game designers are half-hearted when it comes to balancing finesse characters. The common fixes are nerf to oblivion and ignore those who still play the class, make slight adjustments here and there (Read: make a change, roll it back, repeat) and never really accomplish anything, or give them a niche they can’t scratch.

Most of the core issues finesse classes suffer are derived from the game engine itself. Which only compounds the developer’s problems finding solutions.

My opinion on the subject: channeled skills should NOT be able to follow me when I stealth. It’s insane, takes away one of the three options I have for defense(Stealth, Dodge, shadow step. None of which are as plentiful as non Thieves would have everyone else believe.), and highlights my position while stealthed for the channeler’s buddies to drop some nasty AoE on me.

On the other side of things. I’ve used channeled skills to follow stealthing characters before. It’s kind of disturbing how easy it was to dispatch them when their go to move was completely useless.

I keep hoping a change will be made, but I won’t hold my breath for it.

I’m sick of Thief being stuck with the shortest range in the game. To no purpose! I’ve heard all the bologna about Stealing, shadow stepping, etc. None of it flies with me. Thieves deserve to have a 1200 range land weapon in the game. Ricochet is kind of annoying in that, while it gives a slight range bonus, still leaves us short of 1200 range AND forces a bounce effect on us of dubious nature.

Not to mention the sheer absurdity of certain range comparisons: apparently, Engineers can chuck grenades further then I can shoot a pistol…. or they can shoot a rifle ~_~

I like D/D myself, but find the “evade” from Death Blossom is so short you’re taking damage before the animation finishes. So don’t rely on that for survival. The unlisted evade from Pistol Whip is quite long, though the rooting effect is kind of iffy for me.

I know P/P isn’t as damage intensive as a lot of other builds right now, but the Ricochet trait can help you with groups, while also boosting your range to a whopping 1050! Which, sadly is the longest range a Thief can manage on land, and comes with the dubious bounce effect.

As for Quip, not a fan of the look of it myself (Or the Dreamer, or Bolt, or Incinerator for that matter) but if you like it, don’t let it’s usability deter you from getting it! Even if you don’t use it all the time, you’ll have the skin unlocked across your account. Having fun is why we’re here, first and foremost. Enjoying how your character looks is part of that. So have fun.

You’re leveling?

Run a Shortbow, find the zerg in WvW/Edge of the mists(Follow the commander tag), join a group (Makes more kills count for EXP) and spam Poison fields all over the battle ground among the enemies you encounter.

Use food and utility buffs for the exp boosts(They stack), use vitality/defense boosting ones for added survivability. Use utility skills that help you stay alive/get away where needed.

Any banners/guild upgrades/boosters you have that increase exp gain are nice but optional.

Thieves are indeed squishy. Very squishy. The squishiest. Every Light Armor profession in the game is less squishy than Thieves. Find what works for you and your play style for staying alive.

Good luck and good hunting.

This stupid, idiotic piece of junk minor trait is infuriating! Fire an arrow, get knocked down to 25% health, while the arrow is still in flight, stealth, the arrow hits, I’m revealed. Same goes for Pistol shots…. and this has happened in the heat of battle COUNTLESS times!

Replace this trait with a line that reads “Out of order” and I’d be happy. Dumbest piece of junk trait in existence! Which one of you designers thought this garbage up? Not someone who plays thief, that’s for sure. Bottom line: NOT FUN.

Thief stealth, especially in downed state, is kind of a joke right now. Long attack animations track through stealth/shadow stepping.

The recent patch made the downed skill 3 even harder to target/use since it fails if there is no clear path.

As for Shadow Refuge, use a skill that knocks back and you’ll reveal anyone knocked out of it, even downed players. Thieves have only one skill that gives stability and it’s an elite.

Bottom line, finding a thief inside Shadow Refuge is easy with a little knock back. And even if you don’t have knock back, bombard the area with aoe during it’s duration. The heals provided by Shadow Refuge are negligible and pretty much any aoe in the game not only counters the heals but outright kills if they try to tough it out.

morbidillusion.2759:

IIRC, at one point thieves had separate initiative pools for each weapon set. Can anyone confirm?

They have never, as far as I can remember, had separate initiative pools by weapon set. It was highly requested at one point. Someone even crunched the numbers and found that every single other profession had better skill use/damage output based on weapon swapping when compared to thieves. old thread on here, not sure if it’s still around.

Angel McCoy.1832:

You’ll also have noticed that Scarlet was extremely elusive in the tower of nightmares. Can you imagine why?

Actually I didn’t. I didn’t get a chance to do much at all in the Tower of Nightmares. I didn’t get to play much at all till toward the end of that run and by then I was blocked by Group Events in my efforts to do things in the tower and no groups to help me. I didn’t even find out about the instances within the tower itself until the last day or two of the event and I couldn’t reach more then one or two; and of those I could get to the entrances of, they weren’t on an active cycle. I tried waiting but real life takes precedence and I had to go before I got a chance to try even one. So nope. I did not get to enjoy the story in the Living Story much at all. I was thoroughly disappointed by those mechanics and very upset with ANET for that.

Hate the two week rotation. I have a life outside of gaming unfortunately so I miss out on a lot of things because it’s all temporary. Sick of it.

I’m not a fan of the transient and rapid fire nature of the living story. I can’t play every single day. I should NOT need to look up a guide on the internet to enjoy a game I am playing. For something called “Living Story” it lacked story and I didn’t do much living while playing during it. It was rather rushed and forced and left me disappointed. Games are supposed to be fun, by definition. Making things a grind fest to get meta achievements before they disappear forever? NOT FUN!

Not a fan. The whole season was filled with shallow uninteresting characters lacking personality. The story itself was poorly delivered and over the top (Giant space robots from Venus!) to the point that I’m still not entirely clear on what was going on or why. Outside of a few minor things everything in the story arc required zerging to complete. Which is stupid. Being a cog in a war machine is not epic gameplay or all that fun and makes these shallow uninteresting characters all the more uninteresting and un-engaging. Why should I notice or care about these people at all when I personally am inconsequential to the events taking place? There is no connection there. If the events remain massive DPS fests and lack personal accomplishment (HATED the achievements that relied on random other people succeeding to complete!) then why bother participating? I’m not important in those situations. So why should these random NPCs be something to notice or even care about?

Horizontal Progression: Those things that make being a max level character enjoyable.

Solo dungeons would be nice. I would rather enjoy a branching path or progressive challenge solo dungeon. Preferably with interesting puzzles, mechanics or surprising twists. I’ve had more then my fill of rock ‘em sock ’em robot dungeons. Wailing on a boss with high health till he dies isn’t fun or engaging.

Good meaningful story Interesting characters would be nice. I am not a fan of Scarlet, for many reasons. Not the least of which is how she was introduced. Subtlety is a lost art. We don’t have to save the entire planet from falling apart every single story arc. Stories shouldn’t be rushed either.

Time limits are bad I didn’t get to do a lot of the recent living story stuff. The limited time windows on them were stupid. It made the “events” more about grinding achievements then enjoying an experience. Much like the world bosses, I can’t wait all day for things to pop up so I can “achieve” something. And now, because the window has passed, I won’t be able to even try anymore. A “relive this historic <whatever>” feature would be appreciated.

Collecting Collecting things for purpose is fun, especially when that collecting is finite. Scavenger hunts for things/NPCs/items to decorate, populate or display in our home instances would be cool. Not grinding for them. More akin to the Black Moa Chick in GW1. Maybe give us the chance to build an actual home in our home instance to keep our things?

Unlocking I miss the quests from GW1 that let me unlock skills. I wouldn’t mind seeing something like that for future skills in GW2. Finish a quest chain/instance thing to unlock some skill. You could keep your skill point grind alternative unlock too if you wanted. I think using event chains to unlock other things might be fun too. Like unique dyes or mini pets. I’d rather they were instanced chains. Waiting for Dynamic Events to pop is like waiting in traffic.

Polymock I liked Polymock in GW1. Finally implementing Polymock in GW2 would be high on my wish list. It could also tie into some of the other things I mentioned above. Collecting game pieces, displaying trophies in your home instance, etc.

Achievement progression You’ve already done this somewhat in WvW with World Rank progression. I’m more interested in PvE. Reminiscent of the lightbringer/sunspear/ebon vanguard/deldrimor/asura/norn title tracks of GW1. If you’re gonna make us grind for things anyway, why not give us perpetual rewards instead of one shots that may or may not be anything good? Profession based effects would be the best. Though anything would be nice. I. E. Max your ooze slaying achievement line and get a damage boost against oozes, or a damage resistance to their attacks. Or an added effect when you attack them (In the ooze example, maybe a chance to hit them during their long evades, or a chance to break their long blocks).

Just a few ideas and thoughts. Good luck out there.

Peow peow.2189:

Haha just re roll bro

While I have 6 out of 8 professions leveled to 80 at the moment, I find the grind of leveling from new character to level 80 annoying. It’s time consuming. Then there is the issue of outfitting your character with new gear. I did it because I wanted to, not because I felt compelled to by nerfs, bugs, bad mechanics, etc. Even so, none of them are fully geared as much as I’d like. Buying new gear for every new build is expensive. I just don’t have the time or energy to want to do that right now.

So no, I won’t be “re rolling” anytime soon, if ever. I will continue to play on, and hope that these issues may one day be addressed. Or I might just play other games more often.

Ignoring the announced upcoming changes for now (They aren’t here and they are subject to change) I want to know if the devs can look into a few other things.

Stealth is a joke in PvE. Ever since they “fixed” aggro when you stealth I have been targeted, hit and attacked after entering stealth. I’ve been downed more often by that then anyone should suffer. Stealthing and changing directions doesn’t prevent ranged attacks from homing on me (Again, this is in relation to PvE, I haven’t tested extensively in PvP).

I find that entering stealth and running way away (I’ll be running through an area and not interested in fighting) before leaving stealth sometimes causes any enemy I aggroed right before stealth to run far across the map to attack me when I am revealed. Which is just plain stupid.

Dodging has been wonky for a while too. Ever since the patch where they added the notes for evade on a lot of skills (Can’t recall which patch and I’m not looking it up at the moment) I find that my dodges don’t always work like they used to. I’ll dodge and still get hit. No, it’s not lag. I tested that a bit. It’s a problem with the dodge mechanic. For some reason, attacks I should be able to dodge (not using skills with built-in dodges here, I mean actually dodging) are still hitting me. Another issue with dodging I’ve noticed is dodging the wrong way. I’ll be actively holding down the button in the direction I’m going, and want to dodge toward, only to dodge a different direction. This of course leads to lower survivability. Especially in a class that is supposed to rely on dodging for survival.

Short range for Thief. Every single profession in the game has at least one basic land attack (who fights underwater?) with 1,200 range except Thief. Thief is limited to 900, a significant deficit. It’s also a situational nightmare. There are certain enemies that are better fought at range. In WvW matches, sieges are much more difficult to contribute to. Since Cluster Bomb range was nerfed (I’m still waiting for an Anet explanation on that rationale) Thief has had to contend with the shortest range in the game. Sure, maneuverability can help negate that handicap, but there are situations where no amount of mobility means a thing. Even just a simple, basic attack would be something.

Can we get these issues looked into?