Guild Wars 2

Agreed. Base plus is a better idea. Base should remain low, perhaps 5 or 10. A mix of content is nice too. Some raids can be sprawling labrynths, some can be your standard in and out onyxia type of thing. A mix is great. It’s also nice to have things open up after “beating” the main chunk of the dungeon. Something similar to post clockheart aetherblade, but improved. Perhaps other bosses and puzzles. Choice in how you progress is also nice, like boss/puzzle/challenge order.

Thanks a bunch, Chris!

Thanks for switching the skin name with the item name. I know that was a couple weeks ago, but I’m very happy to have the skin names back.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I agree with you. Suggestions would be wonderful: Practical, reasonably expressed, and clear. Here’s the challenge, and we’ll see if it’s possible and reasonable: Share your opinion about how to improve the end game in (roughly) 100 words or less.

As I’ve already said in another post, before it got deleted because of insulting language (o.O?), I would split the endgame updates into 3 parts: Updating open PvE, updating dungeons and new content.

Open PvE:

• Local currencies for all maps
  • Currency should span multiple maps (one for Ascalon, 1 for Kryta, …)
  • No time-gated reward (These ranks in Drytop are terrible)
  • Meaningful reward, stuff that you would want to buy more than just one time

Dungeons:

• Casual Mode focusing on the story
• Hardmode for challenge/reward
  • New AI’s for all bosses, who can also react to player actions

New Stuff:
While I think that the suggestions listed above are a huge step in the right direction, new content is probably the most important part. However the suggestions can be kept in mind when creating new content. In that order:

1. New dungeons (!!!)
2. Proper raids (not that triple trouble thing*)
3. New weapons for the old classes
4. New classes
5. New zones
6. New story
7. New world-bosses

* I don’t mean to imply that I dislike Triple Trouble as challenging content, I just really dislike that it spawns on a normal map, not to mention a lvl kitten map.

Yes yes yes! You hit the nail on the head. New stuff for everyone, challenging included. Frankly I’d be happy if most new instanced content offered solo, 5 and 10 man variants.

And thanks for saying proper raid. Wurm is lovely, but I wouldn’t call it a raid, at least in comparison to…other raids. But let’s never do that again (at least nothing of that size player wise, but challenge is great.) Also, new dungeons don’t need to be some extravagant TA affair. You can add new paths to existing dungeons, or just carve out some hole in the world and do something like molten furnace or aetherblade retreat. You can turn the tower of nightmares into a raid (although I’d make the fight actually at the top, not in a separate instance). And definitely add existing weapons to other classes. I think bolt is the only legendary I want (even though I’ll never afford zap), but I just can’t bring myself to pursue it until ele gets sword. The key thing is new. I think the LS instances have been better, but I gotta tell you, I think I’m getting even less replayability than the events of season 1 (once the cheevos dry up).

It’s not the gear treadmill I want. I don’t know anyone that’s particularly interested in that. But there is something to be said about endgame raid content. It’s just challenging, and fun, and you do it with your guild (or take a serious pig dice roll). I’ve done wurm a couple times, and it is fun. There’s some raid in there for sure – mechanics! But it exists in a catch 22. Max level fight in an open world zone. The games you gotta play to land in an organized one, or to organize one. It would simply be better if smaller groups of people could do it. I know Anet has a bizarre fixation with keeping things outside, but at the very least tone down the numbers. Size doesn’t make the fight epic. A good fight does. You might even see guilds using the world boss spawn.

There is something to be said about the quality of a good raid. I’m not particularly interested in dealing with a gear treadmill again, but I still miss that type of content. And if this type of content were to come to GW2 (impermissible, of course!) there would certainly not be a gear treadmill. I imagine it would be a boatload of junk – and that’s fine. Gold is the goal here.

I certainly haven’t experienced anything as satisfying as encounters in other games I’ve played. I see notes of interesting things – you have a dash of Thaddeus in cliffside, Wurm is a huge (too huge) High Priest Thekal combined with environment jobs. Marionette is unique – I cannot say I’ve seen that one done before. That was fun.

I guess GW2 is kind of worth the laughter directed at it. It’s truly an awesome game – I still love it for what it is, even if that tends to stink a lot. But I certainly understand the complaints of those (myself included) that want something akin to a WoW style raid (or maybe just an Onyxia type single encounter so people don’t explode.) But I’m not talking wurm and teq style. Those are your….special encounters. I mean the 10-40 range (ideally 15-20) behind a portal. Honestly that’s why I wish there was a hard and easy mode. Faceroll easy for casual players or those that aren’t interested in being on the ball at that time, and hard for those that want to play the fight with full mechanics. Reward difference is that hard mode gives you slightly more worthless junk. I know some people hate tokens, but I can’t think of another way to get unique skins. Just not like aetherpath (which I love, but I have no guaranteed path to the skin as a reward for doing the content.)

I can’t say I’ve had a problem with many items on your list. Mega server populated the maps quite a bit, and the level grind really isn’t bad (although trait acquisition may have made it more annoying.). Endgame is the big loser in gw2, the reason it will always be “good, for a free to play.” And the dungeons suck, but at least they won’t be copied. At least the new living story chapters are kind of cool. Dry top looks wonderful, poke around and do some events, then bounce.

1. To see if my buy order for an aetherized pistol works out (it never does, and I’ll never get the tickets.)
2. The occasional daily (but not since last LS update).
3. To cry over the lack of endgame.

At least it’s free. And at least they really did make some genre improvements worth lifting.

Raiding could be a great thing here. No need to worry about the gear treadmill. Unique drops are less important if there is some general token system that allows one to acquire a whole range of goodies/materials/whatever. Fractals are fun and can be quite challenging, but those are no raid. 10-30 man instanced dungeons (or an instanced encounter with a single boss, like onyxia or magtheridon) is where it’s at. They would sure beat the heck out of taco and wurm, which are just plain old bizarre (and partially a dice roll, unless you manually field the team).

But it won’t happen. Anet has a strange aversion to raiding, which is silly in light of the system they crafted – a system which lends itself nicely to raid encounters that are never out-geared, just “solved.”. Then again, 5 man dungeon parties shatter when the host bounces, so something would have to be done about that. Further, there would have to be hard and easy mode (at least). I don’t believe people should be denied the chance to see and complete the encounter. Easy mode should at least be (in time) puggable. But these are merely dreams. We’ll have to make do with copper crowns.

Hello. I’m seeking assistance with my quest to achieve 30 HoM points. I’m 9 years late to the party, but I recently acquired eye of the north, and have been working my way up to 30 HoM points. I am currently at 18 points, but am now hitting some progress walls. I’m seeking pretty much anything and everything. I’m 6 minis short of 50, and am starved for ectos (stupid tormented weapons are pricey.) If anyone can help in any way, shape, or form, I would greatly appreciate it. Minis, tonics, gold, ectos, crafting materials, zkeys, war supply, whatever. Everything helps; if anyone doesn’t mind parting with some of their ancient treasure, please send me a pm or post here. Thanks a bunch.

They need to do raids. Wurm and teq are no substitute. 10 man’s could be great. The Wizard’s Tower – Karazhan of Guild Wars. It’s okay that we don’t have tanks and healers (although you can definitely fudge it sometimes, a la warden one, or even clockheart.) No gear grind also means no dead raids. Raids aren’t evil – this game has the perfect setup for fun, non-gear focused raiding. The ‘trait reset anywhere’ will only help. But I don’t think Anet will do it. What a shame.

Hurray! Nice changes coming.

Wurm and teq are less inviting than an instanced raid. And they screw small servers like mine, which will never muster the numbers or, arguably, the rudimentary skill and eyesight required. The 10 man seems appropriate. If you believe size actually makes these things epic, make it a 30 man. But the whole server coordination thing, and community crap, is incorrect for these kinds of encounters. In the end, nobody wants to do it except those that have ‘specialized’ in this particular brand of diet raid. And even they carve out their own space in which they may operate with minimal hindrance. Allow us all to do that, and do so with reasonably sized groups.

I happened to stumble across maw last night; there were only 3 others there. I noticed that he is a vastly superior fight with smaller numbers, and that he dies way faster. I never knew his aoe is all over the place (or that he even moved.) Me and those 3 others really did play off each other, and there was a real sense of risk and teamwork; it was magical to see the transformation of an afk fight into a real fight. If wurm and teq were doable with smaller numbers, maybe you’d have a solid fight. But otherwise, they are exercises in a whole lot of organization, for a whole lot of ‘not worth it.’

Just test it on us. We’ve been experimented on with all kinds of content, why not this one? You may just do it better.

Yeah the gear grind is not like WoW’s. GW2 is actually in a position to make the most accessible raids ever, considering there is no gear treadmill (ascended is a trick, with the exception of trinkets.) Unfortunately, everything is doomed to the open world, so the real magic will never happen. Play it very casually, and all will be well.

They could make some sweet raids if they wanted to. I hope they do. There’s no gear treadmill, so no need to worry about that. Open world bosses strike me as incorrect endgame content (the challenge, as someone above notes, is gathering a mostly competent blob.)

Aetherpath is kind of tough – it’s the only place I really see pugs talking about how to approach what’s ahead. As for the HoTM mobs, they are mechanically solid, and should definitely be worked into future content. I’d even take a bunch of skritt that gang up on party members and scream “stack.”

Stand The Wall.6987:

Sometimes I wonder.
#Wildstar2014

Not sure if it’s still the case, but one of the videos for Wildstar shows a boss with a buff that is pretty much equivalent to Defiant. I’d try to stop them, but you know, cc.

I vote guild mission! Tier it up. If it truly matters, the story can be that we got there through the fractal device. Same for teq, wurm, future revised bosses, and future new bosses. The fractal machine can also serve as the basis for instancing some of the content (while keeping whatever is current in the open world.)

VOLKON.1290:

Things are changing with the new fights.

Do you think we can have those in an instance tuned for 10-30 or so? I don’t see the harm, considering gear upgrades will not be dropping. This is especially true in light of the fact that Mary is dead on my server (wurm triplets died at birth.) Accessibility via guild may actually improve participation.

Also, yes to a bit more trinity, or soft-trinity, or something. I imagine dual spec would help out a lot here. That way, if the fight requires a tank, you can become one for the fight (same goes for healing.) Variety would be nice. Anet is definitely improving, though.

Bearhugger.4326:

Except that Guild Wars 2 wouldn’t need to have that problem if it had roles. There is a difference between how Guild Wars 2 handles classes and how World of Warcraft handle them. Unlike World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2’s classes are all hybrid and can do a bit of everything, and changing roles just takes a weapon swap. So Arenanet would have a lot more freedom in changing what a fight requires in terms of groups than Blizzard does. It would be a lot of fun to have groups juggling with their group roles on a boss by boss basis. Roles also don’t have to be limited to tank, healer and DPS: support, CC, kiting, what have you.

It’s sad because Guild Wars 2 has the potential to be so much better in PvE than anything else, even World of Warcraft. And it wouldn’t take that much for it to go from terrible and mindnumbling to awesome and new. But instead we have that terrible “DPS zerk wars only or boot” meta and whenever someone makes suggestions to change things they get yelled to go back to WoW.

When I bought the game, that’s how I thought GW2 roles worked. I figured there was a trinity, but more leeway than WoW. I thought the elementalist could summon an earth shield and tank, the guardian could actually heal people and be worthwhile, and control would have value. Naturally, this is wrong.

It truly is sad. Pve could easily be better than WoW’s. Anet already got rid of the annoying part of raiding and progression – gear grinding by way of prior raids. I think they threw the baby out with the bathwater by getting rid of raids. Instead, we have “diet” bosses, where the real fight is against mass organization, lag, staying connected to the server, and everyone that doesn’t play well.

But hey! There is a tiny, boring flash of tanking now: Warden 1. It’s a start. Keep testing, Scarlet.

I don’t understand why anet won’t do a harder, instanced version tuned for a smaller number of players (20-30) in addition to a vastly easier open world version. I highly doubt the large events will die because everyone will be in the instanced version. Most people will NOT be in the instanced version, because they will lose in there. The loot could be the same – the only differences would be the ability to control the spawn time and the players present.

Wurm and Teq are not complicated, and Mari certainly isn’t; the problem is that as you add more people to the fight that do not know what to do or cannot play well, it becomes impossible for the skillful to compensate.

If you insist on keeping stuff like open world only, adjust the scaling so that it can be completed by fewer people. Consider the common man/woman in your scaling. Push him, but don’t break him, or he won’t come back. Marionette is already dead on my server – everyone decided guesting is the superior option. Wurm was abandoned day one. And these people, even when rallied, just don’t have it.

Give us 2 versions. Let everyone see and beat the world version. Let smaller groups fight the instanced beast.

I believe that truly interesting and challenging fights can only take place in a raid. Teq and Wurm are not quite of this caliber (but at least they involve doing things.) However, world bosses would probably be better off as both open world and instanced. Open world is easier, instanced is tougher (and has a reduced base requirement.) Rewards are the same, everyone wins. Should the instanced version be a guild mission, the bonus to the standard world boss loot is 2 commendations.

You could apply this to 10/20 man dungeons. The casuals/pugs can try the easier raid. The “serious” people get the hard mode raid. As long as people can see the same content, and get more or less similar loot, nobody cares about raids and better people being the ones capable of doing them. Make these things accessible and inaccessible at the same time!

Instanced and open world versions of bosses would work well together. The open world version of bosses could be easier (or at the very least have a lower base scale for terrible servers like mine.) The instanced (guild/raid version) could be the harder one, with the bonus reward being two commendations (in addition to the merits/influence.)

Anet has shown that they are capable of raid content. The open world idea is lovely, but there is no reason both cannot be done, and be successful.

1. Build Diversity. New Skills, access to new weapons, and maybe some mechanics changes (like an enemy auto-attack to make toughness/armor more worthwhile, and the removal of minimum range on some attacks.)

Perhaps a degree of defiant “piercing” which varies with the skill. (ex. some control skills can make it through multiple defiant stacks, but will still reduce the defiant buff by 1.)

Finally, a dash of single target healing and the ability to save a second build. This can be taken a step further to include a second set of armor.

2. Cosmetics. Weapon/Armor skin wardrobe. Acquisition of armor/weapons places a copy of the skin in the wardrobe.

3. Guilds. More bounties, challenges, and puzzles. GvG. Guild Hall with lots of upgrade potential (resource nodes, crafting stations, bank, etc.) Additional uses for commendations. Guild dungeons and bosses (rewarding commendations and other standard fare.)

Bonus: Underflow and/or some sort of (optional) invasion type message letting you know a world boss/temple is up, or is ready to be brought up.

Champion loot bags ought to be limited to one or two bags per champion, per day. This might encourage the choo-choo to travel to other zones. A champion check-list would also be nice.

As far as horizontal progression goes, a quest chain to unlock access to a “new” weapon (currently unusable by your class) would be nice. Same with new skills. Scarlet ran around the world and learned new things. We should too.

Also, an alternative way to get black lion scraps would be amazing (even if it’s a tough road.)

1. Turning transmutation stones into transmutation crystals

2. Dungeon retuning (mob placement, health, loot, some gating, removal of minimum range attacks, doomstack mechanics)

3. Home instance improvements (a way to get additional nodes at least)

4. Guild housing (a base of operations for missions, maybe once a day nodes which can be bought with influence/guild merits. Crafting stations, bank, portals to capital cities, etc. All upgrades require guild currency)

5. Guild bosses (Instanced. A diet raid – just one boss. Perhaps start with current world bosses.)

6. Guild dungeons (a week to finish? Use the same once a week merit mechanics. Perhaps an 8 man minimum, scaling as numbers grow.)

7. Build Diversity. Perhaps a “soft” trinity. For example, add various levels of defiant “piercing” to skills in order to promote control.

Bonus:
8. Underflow
9. Lower material requirements for certain crafted armor/weapons. The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are the corrupted weapons.)
10. Item skin vault
11. A final stand against Zhaitan, or a vastly improved conclusion in the Arah story instance.)

I like that scaling loot idea. That, plus better mob design, placement, and a removal of leashing would help. Perhaps barricades in certain places to prevent too much rushing. Powerful groups could always pull a couple packs of monsters, so I doubt speed running will be hindered much. Build viability changes would help a ton. The current zerker “meta” should probably be addressed (either through a boost in other build options or a reduction in zerker power/effectiveness.) Boss range restrictions could probably also go. That always struck me as odd.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

• And last but not least… is this the best they could come up with the Ascalon Catacombs? The Catacombs in GW1’s presearing were a better dungeon than this. I remember being really excited to see GW2’s Ascalon Catacombs. Boy did that excitement wash away quickly.

When I first started playing, I thought AC would be that place. You can get to the catacombs/abbey ruins. Sadly, a cave-in blocks the entrance to the depths. Maybe path 4 can take us back.

I did for too long. But I cannot get back into it. I’d prefer seeing a bit more of it leak in to GW2 than go back. Someone in another thread posted about some large-sized talent from Blizzard leaving. Perhaps he can fill the void left by that Hrouda fella. But again, resources may be lacking.

Factotum, explorable mode dungeons in GW2 are pretty terrible. I came from WoW too, so I understand. Dungeons are pretty much the only part of GW2 that appear blatantly defective. The best you’ll get to an experience you recall is doing the story modes. The explorables do not have nearly the same strength. The bosses really are not that difficult, but in time the correct way has become the cheesy way (simply because it is faster and more foolproof in a PuG setting.) There will be no change from the player until arenanet requires it. I’m sure the developers are well aware of the sad dungeon state. Possibly lacking here is time, manpower, monetary resources, and decisional authority. My understanding is that most of the dungeon team does living story now. Unless there is someone in one of the back room teams are working on major overhauls, these needed changes may take some time to emerge.

Underflow and overflow could work in tandem. One server’s overflow could be the target server for an underflow, and vice verse. The ability to ‘taxi by party’ would remain for those groups and guilds that desire to be in the same copy of a zone.

Type in GW2 State to google. That should bring you to a place where you can check temple and dungeons status for the servers. It isn’t always correct, though. Agree with you on the event thing. If anything, one completion of the meta event should allow one to open the dungeon with that character (unless and until unlocks are account wide.)

I think part of the problem is defiant. The game’s trinity is control, damage, and support. Defiant makes control pretty much useless (unless your group is timing the stacks.) Perhaps certain control skills can be given various amounts of power, enabling them to “pierce” X number of defiant stacks.

The dungeon trash just needs to be better. Little fights along your way to the next boss. I’m only okay with running if it’s part of some clearly defined story element (for example: giant boulder rolling down the hallway, or a stampede chasing the party down.) Maybe that AC path 1 run through the tunnels is acceptable. But I’d honestly prefer having to fight between jets of fire. Those gravelings need work for sure.

Also, tank and spank is totally fine sometimes. It too is part of the “variety.” It’s great when some bosses are just easier (at least mechanically.) LoS pulling is also okay in my book in terms of getting mobs over to you and away from others. As a pulling mechanic it is great. It’s just once the mobs finally get to you, they can then exercise anti stack behavior (or anti-range behavior, if applicable.)

I still like the idea of an underflow. Somehow the game determines how many are in each zone from each server. If the number is too low, the option to enter an underflow (where everyone will be dumped) opens up. Perhaps the popup can display roughly how many are in your server zone versus how many are in the underflow. It might breathe some life into those zones and allow for the completion of events that would otherwise be left unfulfilled.

You could make it so monsters that detect such a strategy behave differently, perhaps by continually applying weakness, or entering some sort of defensive curl which greatly increases kill time. The barriers are a nice idea.

Obstruction and melee could use work as well (think of killing the stationary CM riflemen from the safety of the room). Also, minimum range type stuff can be eliminated (like spider queen’s poison aoe.) Trash needs major work for sure, and a loot overhaul. So do the bosses. If they’re made more like story mode, I think they could be pretty darn decent.

Mesket.5728:

1) Increase boss reward (to have a point in killing).
2) Make them switch rooms the moment the dungeon is created so you have random places to look for them.
3) Fix the mobs dropping aggro inside the dungeon.

Voila! Explorable mode on.

I love it. Perhaps add in a unique dungeon mob loot table. Someone mentioned dragonite ore as an option. Also, it might not be bad if some areas were gated off or raised (like spider queen nook, acolyte hiding spot, the CM rock.) This would at least demand a little pep from the party. At least on queen, gating off the nook would keep my fiery greatsword from being divine. I hope anet makes it beneficial to play that way.

I agree, the explorable dungeons are very poorly set up. I wish they were more like the story modes in the sense that people kill mobs and actually trek through the dungeon. The story modes are unquestionably superior in design. The running and “strategies” currently employed in explorable mode are pretty darn cheesy. But people love fast loot, how can I blame them for playing in a funnel?

Hopefully the dungeons will get a nice retune, mobs will not deaggro, and the bosses will get touched up. Maybe we can double the chance of dungeon mobs to drop finer loot, or allow collection of additional coin per mob killed, per day. I’m just glad I never saw the explorable dungeons before I decided to buy the game last year.

Clumsy.6257:

what you dont seem to get is that stacking = forcing enemies to group up around a corner, the only way around this is to make a completely flat dungeon with no turns, pillars, or objects of any kind (picture a rectangular box)

You could just make it so the enemies get nasty when you do this. I think it has a time and a place for some fights, but it’s annoying that it is often the best option in most dungeon fights. I also think there’s a difference between the kind of stack you do on a boss like the spider queen and the kind of stack you do on the legendary clockheart (assuming everyone melees.) The latter somehow seems more appropriate, perhaps because the fight is in the sort of space you described.

Account.9832:

The ironic part is that most of those grinders are actually horrible players, with very little awareness, who can only do fights in a specific way (which often isn’t even the fastest, and certainly not the most fun), and all they do is repeat that again and again and again (and then whine whenever something changes and their repetitive “tactics” stops working).

Sadly, with the introduction of ascended junk, Arena Net has made it pretty clear that they will be catering to that crowd, so PUGs will probably be getting worse, not better.

That’s why I really hope the dungeons are changed to curb/terminate the speed run crowd. It should be a nice adventure through the dungeon. They need better mobs and mob placement, as well as roadblocks. The exp’s simply need to be more like the story dungeons. The story dungeons are actually quite entertaining, and people kill things! I wonder if explorable mode was rushed in order to get the game out. If it’s working as intended, then it is—unfortunately—a model for how dungeons should not be made. I’m sure someone at arenanet realizes that many of the explorable paths are kind of tacky.

I think the problem stems from poor dungeon design. As it stands, it’s all about damage and speed. The stacking, the exploits, the magical spots to stand. It’s rather cheesy. Poor design enables players to crash through the dungeons in order to get their sweet loot. It strikes me as cheesy. These are certainly not your WoW dungeons; in many ways, they make me miss a trinity.

I wish Anet would just redesign the dungeons and put up roadblocks like they had in the Tower of Nightmares. I would also kind of like it if the mobs followed you through the whole dungeon, thereby forcing you to fight them. Frankly, I think the experience would be better if the ability to speed run was simply abrogated. It’s a pity such a wonderful combat system is wasted in these dungeons.

But, it is efficient; until a redesign forces a change, it is going to be all about getting to the end as fast as possible, and newby be kitten ed. Perhaps, in exchange for abrogating a rush playstyle, the mobs can have a higher chance to drop loot or coin.

Set bonus 6 on this rune set (+5% damage when under the effects of might) is not functioning correctly. I know there has been a post on this before; I’m wondering if any work has been done to correct the bug. A fix would do wonders for my guardian.