Guild Wars 2

On one hand it’s incredibly easy and hand-holdy to get to max level and hotjoin pvp. Than on the reverse side you have the ascended gear treadmill.

Alloy.2839:

In my opinion GW2 is going to be successful long term by not following the traditional MMO rapid vertical progression gear grind treadmill model. Doing this would put them in direct competition with the other MMOs, including subscription model games that introduce new gear every few months. By staying with a slow (or even non-existant) vertical progression model they appeal to a large market of players who either do not enjoy rapid vertical progression, or are simply tired of that model and would like to try something different.

You mean like fractals? Or Laurals? Or Guild Missions? Or ascended gear in general?

Nope, no treadmill here. Anyone who claims that is clearly wrong for no reason aside from going against glorious Anet design.

Or wait, you’re going to say that ascended gear is completely optional and that you don’t need BiS gear.

It’s not an issue.
/thread

To be honest, I received those mails but didn’t read them once. If I cared about fluff I’d be on TC. It was enough for me to go on dulfy, see that the reward was kitten/non existent and decide the content wasn’t worth my time.

From what I understand they seriously lack artists. Look how long it took for some items to have their own skins/icons.

wasted.6817:

Words

You’re not alone in this. Everyone with two eyes and a working brain is aware of the treadmill/calendar gating. Everyone has their own rationalizations for playing.

Mine goes to the tune of “They might make the game better in the future somehow and I don’t want to be behind so I’ll just log in and get my laurel and a few dozen ecto’s.”

Nothing about the Living Story so far has enticed me to give it so much as a glance.

Aside from it’s terribly slow pacing I had the misfortune to complete the “Personal Story” – which I’ll always hold as an example of one of the most terrible pieces of writing in video games and my base expectations for the production of Anets writing team- You can consider my opinion coloured by that terrible adventure in making a green star vanish from the top right of my screen.

Looking at a quick guide for the actual events they consist of
-Hammering in Signs (Go to x Location and push interact)
-Returning Momento’s (Go to x Location and push interact)
and 2 types of events seen elsewhere already
-Plug holes to prevent storms reeks of the same event for the Ancient Karka where you set boulders on steam vents
-Close portals (Maw/Shadow Behemoth)

The rewards are quite paltry and I’m sure if you’ve read the rest of this thread you can gather a general consensus of how people feel about the dredge.

Hopefully one of the two new NPC’s are mildly entertaining and don’t get shipped on a bus to summer camp never to return like Tybalt/Forgal/Seiren.

tl;dr – Slow pacing, poor rewards, copy pasted events

White Wolf.3291:

Grim.9274:

White Wolf.3291:

It’s for everyone! Everyone can participate on them. Everyone can get a reward from them.

Only the guild that starts the missions gets the reward that matters, Guild Merits.

Personal rewards doesn’t matter to you, only guild merits?

Those rewards will be the same as any other trash event +/- a big chest. Some porus bones, a few silver and couple hundred karma.

White Wolf.3291:

It’s for everyone! Everyone can participate on them. Everyone can get a reward from them.

Only the guild that starts the missions gets the reward that matters, Guild Merits.

I think they want you to pay them money for gems. REAL money.

Vox Hollow.2736:

You think the banks didn’t get punished because what they did was easy therefore they weren’t guilty of anything? I sincerely don’t know what to say to that.

If your not interested in talking about the thing I’m talking about, there wasn’t much of a point in responding to me at all.

They’re punishments were incredibly light all things considered, but this example has gone far and away from the actual discussion and my point which was the second sentence of what I posted
“I’m saying that taking the path of least resistance is a natural thing and therefore does not require any excuse.” and further to that since we all agreed to Anet’s ToS they can punish us however they see fit.

If you want to attack my example rather than agree or disagree with my statement than go ahead.

Vox Hollow.2736:

They certainly need to resolve whatever conflict is happening between their QA team and the programmers because bugs keep happening every~ patch.
It’s the nature of most natural things to take the path of least resistance.
The rest of your appeal to ridicule not withstanding.

Path of Least Resistance is an Explanation, not an Excuse.
It explains why nature and humans optimize their actions, it’s not meant to be used as a shield you throw up whenever you want to cheat your face off. How easy or difficult something is has no relationship to it’s morality, and no relationship to your responsibility for doing it.

I should have been clearer. I’m saying that taking the path of least resistance is a natural thing and therefore does not require any excuse. “It was more optimal(for me) so I did it.” (see the too big to fail banks) Because we all agreed to Anet’s ToS they’re allowed to do whatever they like with almost no repercussions save players making a fuss.

If we’re going to get into a discussion over ethics and morals I’m going to bow out because I honestly don’t have much of either of those.

So the reward for guild missions is “merits” (why do we need more currency again?) that we use to buy more guild missions so we can get more merits to get more guild missions?
I guess that’s good in a feedback loop sort of way. I’ll remain cautiously pessimistic so I’m not disappointed by the day 1 bugs that somehow missed your QA team.

Gold increasing banners are nice though.

Vox Hollow.2736:

It’s the developer’s fault for not making a perfect bug free product!
It’s human nature to cheat, I can’t help being human!
It’s other player’s fault for not calling me out!

I’m not responsible for the bad things I do!

They certainly need to resolve whatever conflict is happening between their QA team and the programmers because bugs keep happening every~ patch.
It’s the nature of most natural things to take the path of least resistance.
The rest of your appeal to ridicule not withstanding.

A general tip for you no matter what the class/dungeon from me would be know your group composition. Once you have that orchestrated you can compliment each other and everything in the game is just a cakewalk after that.
Aside from Pupicus in Arah most everything else is a deeps race tactics include knowing when to dodge/whirlwind and how to rally.

You definitely don’t want to tank with a warrior, even going Mace/Shield it’s better to just melt everything down with deeps or dodge.

I play a standard GS zerker Warrior 20/30/0/10/10 mostly run CoE/Arah with a dedicated group (2 other warriors a thief and a necro/mesmer)

Utilities are always FGJ and OMM + an untraited banner or Frenzy if we don’t bring a mesmer. While you’re getting the hang of it it’s defintely a good idea to use omnomberry pies or other lifesteal on crit foods but as I said, with a good group you will be able to melt through all the content

Usually
3 Warriors
1 Thief
1 Necro

3 Warriors 1 Mesmer 1 Guardian when we can’t be bothered and just want to faceroll.

Everything 1-20 before the orders.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

A few missions haven’t even been completed by our internal testers yet (but they came extremely close).

I think you’re severely underestimating your players desires to trivialize/find the path of least resistance for your content. I assure you, after the initial wave of crying, and there will be crying, that it is too hard/too easy/too buggy/not rewarding enough/too rewarding/not instanced enough/too instanced, will come the cries much like people cry about speed running now.

I guess I’m saying with the amount of bugs and exploits that are released every patch there’s a serious disconnect between you testers/QA and your programmers and I expect the same of the new missions.

I’ll be satisfied riding the slide of least resistance before you implement some sort of DR on these.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

RNG does not affect that reward, and rings drop at higher rates the further you progress into fractals.

Insert InigoMontoya.jpg here.

If something is not a guaranteed drop it is RNG. You may know for a fact that Rank 10 ALWAYS has an X% chance of dropping a ring while Rank 12 ALWAYS has y% but since the rate of drop is not 100% in either case it’s determined by RNG.

We had a thread about this and got a dev response. They said it was “too easily abused” and “players would miss out on loot”

In plain English that means it’s too hard to code since they already have things that prevent knock-back and autloot happens in wvw and pve now with chests.

Dutch Master.7208:

I think we can all agree that the rewards are not equal to the required time/effort/difficulty for this particular dungeon path.

I think other paths should be reduced and looking at the way they adjusted the third worst boss in the game Evolved Destroyer (second only to simin and afk dragon) they agree with this mindset.

Apparently it’s “Server Pride” or something. I farmed (2k+) badges from when my server would control the puzzle regularly so I don’t really go there unless i need an emergency event/veteran for a daily.

Hey Dutch Master,

Please consider posting this in one of the other 12+ threads also complaining about the same thing. A retaliation buff like that would kitten on everyone with a quick attack, thieves, short bow rangers, dagger necro’s.

Then maybe you can look on gw2lfg on any given day and see all the other paths where people will take anyone, or start your own group.

Also Dev’s have already stated that optional events are just that: Optional.

Thanks for complaining.

SeanPoez.8407:

To me, the actual boss mechanic of this fight isn’t using the cannons at the start one time (that’s extremely easy), it’s having to climb back up the stairs, run back to all the cannons, avoid the dragon tooths, jump back down the red-platforms, and then kill him.

I’ve seen more people die to this boss from getting DT’ed off a platform on the way up than anything else.

Anet apologists will just tell you it is RNG.
Since they don’t publish drop tables we have to take the dev’s at their word, whatever that’s worth to you.

Saving for the wolf mini.

I don’t really like any of them although I’ve completed them all for achievement purposes.
My least disliked one is Loreclaw Expanse, but that’s probably just the BWE memories talking. I love the scenery in Griffonrook Run though.

MaRko.3165:

Players are naturally flocking to whatever activities that yield the highest rewards for the least amount of player effort. Instead of picking content that is ‘most fun’, ‘most entertaining’ or ‘most challenge’ we have ‘most reward for time invested’.

I can’t think of or even if there is a fix for that. Maybe its not broken.

Because it’s common sense for everything from electrons to liquids to human beings to take the path of least resistance. ‘Fun’ is subjective but cash/hour is objective.

I would like a “Treat the players as though they have a modicum of intelligence” day, where dev’s answer questions on forums with short simple and clear answers.
Failing that I’d setting for no DR weekends.

No news on laurels for past achievements/ascended necklaces in fractals/pristine fractal relics/WvW.

It’s not a large grind (See: Ragnarok Online) but it certainly is gear/calendar gating.

Shiren.9532:

Warriors need a DPS nerf.

No.

Nonononononononononononononono. Noooooooooooooo.

No.

Other classes need to be brought up to the warrior/mesmer level in terms of damage/other direct benefits.

Preface: This is just my opinion

This topic, and several others just like it have come up several times with 0 dev response. (e.g. Passion flower /apocathery gear being many many times more expensive, will we be able to buy necklaces with pristine relics et cetera)
This basically says to me "We’re aware of the situation however it is beneficial to us not to answer as it is the worst case scenario (ie Apocathery is purposely more expensive because we know the zone is terrible and we want to have players there as much as possible even if they’re just farming so as to look at the numbers of players on the map in smug satisfaction/denial)

Frotee.2634:

It’s not about an exciting event at this point, but rather to introduce you to the new situation – it’s all about storytelling

Well they couldn’t tell a story worse than Trehearne’s Adventures so it can’t be that bad.

Pro: Alpha has less HP, Destroyer is slightly less kitten. Thank you.

Cons: Bugs bugs bugs. I’m not sure if the programmers are having a fight with the QA team but every patch you guys (who ever is responsible for ensuring content was tested and working as intended) messes up. It’s so bad I can only see it as being done on purpose to prevent people from speeding through your lack of content.

Shiren.9532:

They didn’t want people to buy ascended amulets on the first day and be done with the new “content”. Their current design is to make you think you are getting more content by calendar gating you from upgrading your gear (no matter how much you play, you can only get one laurel a day, this puts a hard cap on how long it takes you to get an amulet). Compare FotM rings and their Pristine Relic cost and then look at the Laurel cost of the rings. That’s more than three times as much time to get it, and unlike the Pristine Relics, there is no way to obtain more than on Laurel a day (nor is there a way to get an amulet through other means – I got two fractal rings from the daily in my first five days of farming it).

Earning your gear is too easy for people to work hard and achieve their goal. ArenaNet wants to put more and more content behind RNG barriers or calendar gating, all to make you play longer without giving you more content to do. Had they sold amulets for Pristine Relics, most people wouldn’t buy them with Laurels – the Pristine Relics are much easier to obtain (and plenty of people would buy them at launch).

This is the one and only answer, everyone else can move along.

R.I.P. Shield of the Avenger

Robert Hrouda.1327:

Oglaf.1074:

Any chance for a sneak peek? Just one encounter….?

:P

Throw us a bone here!

I was hoping it would be a surprise, but sure. I rebuilt the “Defend Magg while he plants the bomb” event in CoF (path 2). It now involves a special flame legion assassin who must be killed before he reaches Magg, while dealing with never-ending spawns of (non veteran…) flame legion out to distract the players and add pressure.

I am prepared to eat my hat. Here I thought this (terrible) dps/tank check would remain forever.

How about the vendors in FotM being upgraded to sell Necklaces for pristines?

How about the Grandmaster Guardian Trait that heals you for a whole 25 HP/hit with a Greatsword.

Still waiting on a confirmation or denial of the ascended necklaces being added to FotM vendor/daily chests for Pristine Fractal Relics. Hopefully they wont just throw these things to the cold like they have with the junk from every other update.

I’m pretty sure Anet is a business and their primary concern is RoI to their shareholders. That said I’m a little sad I’ll never be able to play with my friends in EU.

Think more along the lines of the unreleased but in the db “Soothing Infusion”

Stigma.7869:

I’m just trying to understand your question more. So you want an Ascended Amulet added to the game on Jan 28? in order words you want the AR cap to be raised to 40?

They already stated they’d be available on the 28th for Laurels but made no mention of adding them to the fotm vendor.

As the title states, will we be able to trade these in for Ascended Necklaces?
Will we be able to get these to drop randomly from FotM daily chests after Level XX?

Most importantly, will they be available through these methods on Jan 28th.

Looking for a dev answer not player theories.

I remember another post like this and a dev eventually got around to saying “No.”, may want to search for “Triforge”. Who knows if they’ve changed their mind (I doubt it)

Will we be able to spend our accumulated Pristine Fractal Relics for Necklaces or will they remain useless once you’ve purchased your rings?

Engineer (Weak)
Ranger (CrossfireCrossfireCrossfire and nothing else)
Ele (I’ll hold my breath for this aoe nerf)

The Dirty Dozen:
1) Would you prefer ascended gear to be the last tier implemented for the remainder of GW2?
Yes

2) Would you prefer ascended gear to be equal to exotic gear in all statistics except agony resistance?
No

3) Would you prefer the level cap to remain at 80 for the remainder of GW2?
Yes

4) Would you prefer if WvW was set up on an equal playing field similar to PvP?
No

5) Would you prefer if WvW / PvP / PvE had separate skill functionalities?
Yes

6) Would you prefer if Magic Find was removed from the game completely?
Yes

7) Would you prefer if Magic Find was divided equally amongst all party members?
Yes

8) Is GW2 too ‘Grindy?’
Yes

9) Does GW2 need less RNG?
Yes

10) Has the Trading Post [and all its users/farmers] positively impacted the economy?
I don’t know

11) Do you have as much faith [and/or enthusiasm] about the game [and/or company] as you did before launch?
No.

12) Do you reasonably expect [many of] your primary concerns to be addressed in early 2013?
No.

Oh cool, now I can harvest the rich ori node even more.

Pinch.4273:

Grim.9274:

Robert Hrouda.1327:

exploited by farmers.

Killing mobs that re-spawn is exploiting? I guess 99.9% of the player base should prepare for disciplinary action.

In all seriousness I think this is both a petty and pathetic route to take. I’m sure someone will regail me with stories of sitting there for hours and killing mobs for actual decent rewards. What a terrible exploit. Recieveing rewards other than Porus Bones for killing monsters.

It’s in an instance. There is zero competition, and there is no one to see you doing it (for bots). That is clearly a big problem.

I’d like to see bots that can bypass the frostbite debuff or are programmed well enough to do the fractal up to that point. We’re not talking about 10 bots tapping out skelk in less than a second.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

exploited by farmers.

Killing mobs that re-spawn is exploiting? I guess 99.9% of the player base should prepare for disciplinary action.

In all seriousness I think this is both a petty and pathetic route to take. I’m sure someone will regail me with stories of sitting there for hours and killing mobs for actual decent rewards. What a terrible exploit. Recieveing rewards other than Porus Bones for killing monsters.