Guild Wars 2

That is also what happened to fractal rewards. You need masteries to get full rewards from fractals.. which are HoT only. Rewards that you paid for in full when you purchased GW2, but are now locked away.

Overall, this is most likely Anets new business strategy going forward.

Of course their goal is to kill off small guilds. Look at the guild overhaul – are there any features that even hint at having small guilds in mind?
Guild Missions have a minimum requirement player participation in PvP, GM’s are random and you can no longer select the ones you are able to run as a small guild, Guild Halls are difficult to get and upgrade as a small guild, virtually ALL new guild features are locked behind the Guild Hall, if you manage to get a Guild Hall as a small guild then you’re rewarded with crazy expensive upgrades for small guilds.

It’s a fact that Anet wants to kill off small guilds.

Exactly. Instead of just making a toggle like there already exists for head, shoulder and gloves – they make it an ultra-rare HoT exclusive drop that took two weeks before it was even found.

I am getting more and more annoyed with GW2’s “reward” structure. So worth it, great job!

I’ve been at the same HP three days in a row – no other players. Not even using LFG helps. I just want to map complete. I don’t care about all the events, but please just let me do my map completion even without other players around. Am I really expected to enjoy waiting for this hours on end?

Bolts buzzing sound gets annoying after a while as well. I guess that is just the price we pay for “unique”.

I just saw someone on reddit post a list of new HoT skins in an effort to find their source.
Let’s hope they have better luck tracking these boots down.

Until someone makes a random discovery, I guess we are stuck. :c

No, sorry. I know nothing of code. Looks like a bunch of magic stacked neatly.

If I were a designer, I’d make the requirements something like doing something with no boots on, or making a collection prompt if the players boots get broken and turn invisible.
But I doubt it is anything of the sort. I wonder if Matthew got help and found his pair.

Serophous.9085:

Maridot.9084:

What’s the “Final Rest” situation?

Finale rest is a staff(?) that no one could find or had seen drop in the game, at all. Everyone started asking where it was, or where did it drop from to farm it, but it couldn’t be figured out. Basically, it was assumed that the icon was in the game, but either the item was glitched from dropping, or anet never actually added it in.

It wasnt until the world boss loot update that suddenly it appeared in the shadow beast loot table, and was finally dropping.

Indeed. To make matters worse, several devs confirmed that Final Rest was in the game and people just hadn’t found it yet! This went on for about.. half a year? A year? I can’t quite recall.
Anyway, the community looked for this staff for an incredibly long time, and Anet kept saying that it was indeed in game. Until the bosses were updated, and suddenly Final Rest dropped like candy.

So yes. These Invisible shoes might not actually be in the game, despite devs confirming that they are. It has happened before.

I am beginning to suspect a Final Rest situation for this equipment. Either that, or they are just an incredibly rare drop, which doesn’t bode well for.. well.. anyone. I was hoping they’d be a small and fun scavenger hunt, but given their recent design choices, I lean more towards “very rare and very, very, very, very expensive”.
It would not surprise me if they were an account bound recipe drop from the karma merchants, with a crafting requirement of something like a stack of linseseed oil and 100 charged lodestones.

I’ve been through the new maps over and over again, but I can find no merchant nor anything that hints towards these. Unless they’re a crazy rare drop from the invisible mushrooms.. then I dunno. I give up and await someone to datamine where they’re from.
At least the Nightfury threads got a lot of dev attention. ;_;

I spend more time in the old maps than the new and I see plenty people about everywhere. The new map reward system is quite good for bringing people to empty maps, I think. Never seen Straits of Desolation as populated as this week.

GreyWolf.8670:

Hedge.8760:

Wait, I’m not sure I understand. Can the Scribe profession not be learned by anyone who can’t access a guild hall?

No.

It’s very strange ArenaNet has addressed other complaints and not this. I just decided to ask for a refund.

Nooo. I had just assumed I couldn’t find the NPC. This has to be an oversight. I wonder if Anet is aware.

Wait, I’m not sure I understand. Can the Scribe profession not be learned by anyone who can’t access a guild hall?

Sariel V.7024:

Hedge.8760:

Does anyone know they show up in the API?

Which? The skins or the items?

The items. Doesn’t an item have an ID number that indicates if it’s from a recipe or just ordinary loot? Or maybe I’m thinking of their ID’s in the raw data file.

I’ve been getting them for the last two days. Login errors, random crashes and disconnects. Usually never have problems.

Kill.3458:

rhapsody.3615:

Amineo.8951:

Seriously TP flippers needs to get out, I remember how the unlimited bat tonic had it’s price going from 80g to over 250g, this is really infuriating, they’re like Qataris…

Or they could have given us a cool collection instead, along with a title and achievement points. I can’t believe they made a festive-themed shoulder piece so expensive. I was excited for this even more than the expansion itself- was looking forward to some kind of collection/scavenger hunt and instead just need boatloads of gold. To top it off, it needs linseed oil which guild hall upgrades need as well… Which means it will be quite a while until I can even start to work on this. /sigh

Thought it would be like getting the Mad king book from the 2012 festival, how ANet has fallen…

It’s crazy how they did something so right back then (I loved the scavenger hunt for the book), and then now.. it always involves crazy amounts of gold and materials, instead of just fun. It doesn’t always have to cost us something absolutely absurd. Can’t something just be fun and memorable?

There are four other threads on just the front page about Nightfury – did you have to make a fifth?

There’s an NPC wearing it in the Fractals hub. It glows slightly, but not much. I still think it’s too flashy, but I love the very first stage of it. If I ever get it, I’ll just transmute the first skin over it. So pretty!

It’s times like these I’m happy I don’t like flashy stuff like that. I’d be so poor. I thought they said it’d be a “journey”.

Does anyone know they show up in the API?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Sytherek.7689:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

According to the dataminers in the nightfury search these aren’t possible to obtain yet and are part of an unreleased upcoming living story patch.

Which data miners? Source?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3q5usx/datamining_upcoming_features_from_hot_part_1/

They seem to be coming with the next set of gem store updates.

But.. how are these related to the Invisible Slippers?
Gyve of Madness is a seperate item that just has no model, no? Where the Invisible series have their own item name and wardrobe slot. Invisible Slippers, Invisible Stompers, etc.

Maybe it’s a recipe from the new karma merchants?

Kronos.2560:

It was story boss

Is that per character?

Bolt 1: Both the Loana event for the relic and Nabbi at Straits are bugged. Their even never resets, so you can only do the events if you start on a fresh map – which is almost impossible with the megaservers.

Both the Loana event at Cursed Shore and the Nabbi (?) event at Straits are bugged. I don’t think they ever reset upon completion. I’ve waited around for the last four hours – still haven’t gotten either. At this point, you have to be extremely lucky to get into an empty map. Relogging does nothing, since it’ll just send you to the same one, even with guesting.

With nothing else to go on, I think I’m just going to hope someone else stumbles across them. I have no idea where to go now. I just hope they’re not locked behind something crazy, like the raid or some such. ;_;

Agares.6073:

+1 every kittening event i go to you need more people the first map is like empty wtf

I ventured to Dragon’s Stand (the last map) and it was virtually dead. No map chat, no other players, no events progressing. Nothing. I stood there for the last 15 minutes of the timer, because I thought it was an event.. but I was wrong.

I wonder if there is actually something wrong with the maps?

Otherwise, I too have a difficult time solo’ing in the expansion maps. Even duo’ing is difficult due to the insane champions with arbitrary time limits.

I was at least hoping someone at Anet could come with just a hint. I want those boots more than a legendary and I can’t find any NPC’s or items that give anything.

SkyShroud.2865:

Hedge.8760:

SkyShroud.2865:

Let’s be realistic here. Someone asked me why is it absurd for a solo to have 3/4 of a guild. I didn’t reply him. It is indeed absurd though for a person to have that much “power” or access to so much features which are made to cater to be used by many people, not one or two. If Gw2 is a pvpish game, this will become extremely game breaking with solo or duo people having so much power. Thus, this isn’t realistic or even fair in those games.

Also, realistically, a small guild has a small hall because of the limited of resources while a large guild will have a large hall. However, guild hall can’t be scaled so they limit it via features. If solo or duo guild are to confine into this concept, they will not get guild hall because it is only realistic and fair to the guilds that actually bother to earn for it and not buy their way through. If golds is all you need to build a guild, that is really a insult to all the guilds that actually put in efforts to gather people, create a community and advance.

I’m sorry, what is this gamebreaking “power” that small guilds could potentially wield by having a hall to put flags in? Could you clarify?

I am talking about pvpish mmo in that same statement. Do you actually read or do you not play pvpish mmo before?

Edit: Btw, small guild is not equivalent to solo or duo person guild. Choice of words is very important here.

That doesn’t answer my question. What is this power that solo- and duo-guilds hold over “pvpish mmo” (whatever that is)?

SkyShroud.2865:

Let’s be realistic here. Someone asked me why is it absurd for a solo to have 3/4 of a guild. I didn’t reply him. It is indeed absurd though for a person to have that much “power” or access to so much features which are made to cater to be used by many people, not one or two. If Gw2 is a pvpish game, this will become extremely game breaking with solo or duo people having so much power. Thus, this isn’t realistic or even fair in those games.

Also, realistically, a small guild has a small hall because of the limited of resources while a large guild will have a large hall. However, guild hall can’t be scaled so they limit it via features. If solo or duo guild are to confine into this concept, they will not get guild hall because it is only realistic and fair to the guilds that actually bother to earn for it and not buy their way through. If golds is all you need to build a guild, that is really a insult to all the guilds that actually put in efforts to gather people, create a community and advance.

I’m sorry, what is this gamebreaking “power” that small guilds could potentially wield by having a hall to put flags in? Could you clarify?

Do you have a large guild? Are you close to 80 and can’t wait to run with a random blob to do events?

Those are the only two instances the expansion is worth it. For solo playes you can do almost nothing. It’s tedious.

Wait until it’s for sale. Revenant is alright.

As a solo player? Atrocious. My 2-man guild can no longer do missions. We can’t get a guild hall to decorate.
We can’t do the crazy champions on a time limit for hero points. Masteries roadblock even the only single-player content: the story. Reaper is fun, I suppose.
3/10. Thanks for excluding solo playes and tiny family-guilds.

Wait I can’t earn favor at all unless we’re three in the party? What. So my sister and I won’t ever be able to get a guild hall?

If the Nightfury and these shoes are unlocked in the same way, we’ll never find them. It has taken people more than 1000g to try random recipes for it.
There are so few looking for these, we may never find them. ;_;
I hope they’re not exclusive to halloween. My norn has been needing these shoes for years to complete his shaman look.

The lack of character slot is honestly the thing I found most terrible. They knew more or less that people had to pay extra to play the new class.

This solution is very fair, and as a result I just pre-purchased the expansion! I can’t wait to play on my new Revenant when the expansion releases!

Seth Moonshadow.2710:

Hedge.8760:

In the blog post, their example of “small guilds” was 15.

I must have missed that can you link it please?

I am certain that I’ve read or heard it somewhere, but now I simply can’t find it in the blog posts. I happily recant the number, since that means there’s still hope for us small guilds. Though I’m not sure how 15 has stuck with me if I didn’t read it in a blog post. Maybe it was from one of their streams.

I’ll look around for it a bit more, because I’m sure I’ve read it somewhere!

I think Largos would make an excellent choice, especially since the few tidbits about their story and society is incredibly interesting. The first thing I thought of when they mentioned their houses and contracts was how it felt as if they were setting up for how their future character creation would work, haha.
Even though I played GW1, I was never crazy about the Tengu. I found them rather stoic and dull with little character (or maybe I didn’t find the character because I found them off-putting). Their xenophobia and aggressive tactics during Scarlet’s raid didn’t exactly pave the way for a change of heart in me, either.

I do hope that one day, maybe, we’ll get Kodans. Mostly because I am really, really curious as to how their entire society and religion works, and I want to go north to where their iceberg ships are naturally from!

Arioso.8519:

Hedge.8760:

Why would Eir return as a druid?

Mechanically, if Braham is getting her bow she likely needs to replace it. Giving her the whole kitten elite specialization with/for her new weapon is just a way to show off NPCs with it. Same with “Why bother making Braham a dragonhunter at all” “Why give all these necros greatswords?” etc.

Lore wise, we don’t know yet. Stuff will happen in the jungle. Norn are already kind of pre-disposed to being able to pick up druid knowledge already being close to nature spirits. After spending some time in the jungle it’d be reasonable for her to pick it up somehow. For similar reasons to Rytlock learning revenant tricks from wandering the mists. All it might take is a change of location and a few ‘personal trials’

Aaaaah, sorry. I thought there was talk of the druids from Maguuma. The spirits from the old GW1 missions, and the one or two you can ecounter in GW2.
I hadn’t even considered the elite specialization. Sorry!
If that’s the case, then yes, I suppose that could work. I don’t see the female Charr from the new DE becoming a druid, anyhow. But I guess it’s a bit early to tell, what with us not even knowing what a druid is or how they work mechanically.

It was very disappointing, but I have high hopes (that might be crushed) that this expansion is to pave the way for easier implementation of future content, and the next one will offer more flavour – such as races!

I’d kill for an Elementalist Kodan or a Largos Ranger!

Why would Eir return as a druid?

Other than that, I’d be all for Eir dying in the crash. They did at one point mention they had trouble making new voice work with the old cast. That’d at least “take care” of one member of DE.
As long as Garm is unharmed and will move in with Broham.

In the blog post, their example of “small guilds” was 15. If they had said 5, I’d have been less worried.
That said my guild consists of 3 people, one of whom is my sister-who-moved-abroad. Having a guild hall would be pretty amazing for us to customize and play around with together. I don’t expect to get far in constructing all the buildings and such, but at least I’d like to just own a hall for our small but cozy guild.

Donari.5237:

Hedge.8760:

I’d hope that Anet would think of small guilds, since Guild Halls are a pretty huge selling point for HoT. I mean, I know they probably will forget about us smaller ones, since we weren’t included in guild missions, but still.. you can hope.

Also, having to recruit randoms to join your guild so you can do the event is a band-aid solution. I’d rather they design the system to scale, since it sounds like you’ll have to defend the Guild Halls later as well. If that event doesn’t scale, that’ll just recreate the earlier problem.

I read that “defend it” part as a lore thing. The comments on the mechanics of it all seemed pretty definite that any progress made on your guild is permanent. They even say that once you get to the glowy crystal the hall is permanently yours (until you choose to swap to another hall and take all your goodies with you).

I guess I must’ve misunderstood. It sounded like an event to me.

That’s an awesome change. I wonder if it applies to weapons as well – I hope it does!

“Buy our expansion to play this new class!

..also pay again to actually be able to play it"

I find it shady as well. GW1 added character slots when they added new professions. GWEN didn’t add any new professions, so it didn’t come with any additional character slots.
Though in the end it doesn’t matter what they did or didn’t do in the past. What matters is what they do in the future, and it is within their power to simply add a choice between GW2 + HoT or HoT + Character slot. That would still be the most sober solution, I think.

I’d hope that Anet would think of small guilds, since Guild Halls are a pretty huge selling point for HoT. I mean, I know they probably will forget about us smaller ones, since we weren’t included in guild missions, but still.. you can hope.

Also, having to recruit randoms to join your guild so you can do the event is a band-aid solution. I’d rather they design the system to scale, since it sounds like you’ll have to defend the Guild Halls later as well. If that event doesn’t scale, that’ll just recreate the earlier problem.

I’m a small guild consisting of me, my boyfriend and my sister who moved abroad. Playing together is one of the best connections we have, but I’m also fearing that obtaining a Guild Hall will be for “larger” smaller guilds.

I’m not expecting to be able to upgrade a Guild Hall to incredible proportions, but just obtaining a Guild Hall and the tavern that follows is exactly what my tiny guild needs. A little place to hang out when either one of us is gone and we just want to talk and have fun.

When they mentioned “small guilds” last time, they used the example 15 members, sadly.

I can’t see them adding just 800 gems to the standard. I think it’d make more sense logically to just add a character slot, the actual expansion price isn’t 60 dollars (or 50-55 euros). I still can’t believe they add a new profession with no character slot.

Bovinity.8610:

I already made my thoughts known on technology as it relates to lore over in the 50-foot Kiel thread.

It’ll suffice to say that it has been taken just a wee bit too far at times. But it’s ANet’s lore, and I’m sure they’ll just pull something out to fix it all. (“Oh, Kralkatorrik is immune to lasers somehow. Better go on a quest with Trahearne to find his real weakness!”)

Aye, it just feels the balance has been skewed quite a bit recently in favour of cyber-punk (if only it was steam-punk), and fantasy has been pushed into the background and forgotten. Somehow, my experience of GW2 is creating this odd schism between the fantasy part and the cyper-punk part, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to see how it can co-exist within the same world without making the other redundant. And as a result, the quality of the world suffers, I think.

As long as they hire some fresh meat to design the legendaries – sure! Throw it at me! Sadly, the design talent left with Kotaki. Just look at the newest armours and weapons released so far – uninspired and same-y.

Honestly, the current legendaries (most of which were made by Kotaki) are some of the best looking gear in the game.

Hello there fellow players,

As the Living Story trudges ever on in Tyria, there is something that feels.. off.. for me, about the whole thing. For some reason, I can’t really allign the events in the Living Story with the already established world of Guild Wars, and somehow I think it finally dawned on me.

I have been looking at Guild Wars as a fantasy MMO, where ancient gods and malevolent spirits plague the world, and battles are fought over ancient strifes. However, with the development in the Living Story and events in the Personal Story, I can’t help but feeling that they are upping the science fiction themes of the game. We are being invaded by Aetherblades, who are steam-punk inspired air-pirates cruising the skies in top-modern air-ships and what looks like cyber-punk attire. Jennah’s new bodyguards are even fully fledged robots more akin to cyber-punk than any golem-technology currently known in the game. Even during the Personal Storyline, there are countless examples of how new technology triumphs over myth and ancient powers, and with the fractal of the mists research going into the Thurmanova Reactor, the emphasis on high-technology is rather big.

Personally, I found that I yearn for some classical fantasy tropes. Knights, large battles, dragons, ancient horrors and hidden treasures. At the beginning of Southsun there were theories of a new dragon moving in the depths, and I felt a curiousity I hadn’t in a while. Finally – myserious and untold horrors were coming to face our heroes! But then it turned into an odd political play where we had to blow up some contracts to free some oppressed workers. And now, we “eagerly” await a political speech from the regent of DR herself. Somehow, the fantastical and mysterious nature of the game has dwindled in my eyes, and I’m feeling the story slip further and further away from what I had thought it was going to be (which was dragon battles, bloodstones, origins of the Humans, expeditions into the Mists to look for the human Gods, etc).

Now, of course, I ask all of you: What are your feelings on this? Is this a natural progression? Are you enjoying GW2 as an interesting blend of fantasy and cyber-punk? Or is it just mis-matched and chaotic?

Also, I’m asking because I’m honestly curious about the views of other players, so don’t see it as a rage post over the story. Yes, I’m a bit disappointed, but this is not what it’s about. I want to hear other people’s perceptions of the theme of GW2.

PS: My English is quite terrible, so please excuse any errors and such.