Guild Wars 2

Remember the Mad King’s Clock Tower? That’s the way to reward people… Imagine if the chest a the top rewarded one of the dragon weapon skins… I’d be ok if you could only do it once per account. Right now, getting a weapon skin all about luck.

Gummy.4278:

you know what would be nice if all those present spawning all over the world, that when opened, the toys inside can literally have the “stuffing” knocked out of them!

I bet a lot more people would try to fight them then, cause as it is now I see people run open it grab the present and run away….

This Sir or Ma’am, is a fantastic idea.

Randulf.7614:

Events are your main source of xp gain. Monsters aren’t there for levelling purposes (although the killstreak boosts really make a difference). Depending on the event, you can level up with just a handful of successful events.

True dat.

If I’m feeling especially lazy, I’ll just run my character through maps to unlock the vistas, waypoints, and Points of Interest. I just run past the mobs, lol.

Kid Taylor.5479:

No really, someone else will simply undercut me by 1c. If I undercut by 20s, they have to think twice before doing so. Do they want to take the loss, or do they want to undercut me? Or they could buy me out, which I want, faster sells, higher return on my investment.

Kid…
You don’t know if someone else will undercut you or not… 1c or 20s.
I normally undercut by 1c, else I’ll lose profit.
If someone undercuts me, it doesn’t bother me much. My stuff normall still sells; unless it is not a highly desired item.

If you undercut by 20s, I have 2 options.
1) I still undercut you by 1c if the profit margin is there. I’ll still get my stuff sold first.
or
2) I wait for your stuff to sell first. Then, I post my stuff at a 1c undercut and make more profit than you…

Either way, your ROI is less… unless your product doesn’t sell at all.
- my opinions of course

My suggestions for adding combat depth:

1) Adding more skills to each player’s skill pool.
2) Have conditions/boons last longer or have a greater impact.
3) Add a 3rd layer to combos… think Chronotrigger
4) Different combo interations… maybe combo fields could interact with each other.
5) Stronger environmental weapons
6) Diverse boss fight mechanics

/puts on his tinfoil hat

There are 138 pages of this... So, I don’t know if this link has been posted or not.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/A-message-from-our-Studio-Design-Director-Chris-Whiteside/first#post721451

Those of you who are worried about the stat increase should read this. I was very worried about it too. However, this response from Anet helped put me at ease.

Atryue
lvl 80 Guard on Anvil Rock

This is a follow-up to my original post on GW2 endgame.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-End-Game-Debate

Intro.

Recently there have been many heated debates (understatement) on the forums over this seemingly new direction and vision that the developers have taken for the current GW2 endgame. One thing that the developers have now made perfectly clear is that the endgame in GW2 is important to them. We (the players) have told them that this is a topic that is important to us, and they have responded with reassurance. this is a good thing

In order to address endgame progression, the developers have (along with other things) given us a new gear tier as a medium-long term goal for those of us on the way to acquiring our Legendaries. What players can’t seem to agree upon is whether or not this new tier-of-gear solution is a good and healthy thing for their beloved game. Many players have a deep emotional and/or monetary investment into Guild Wars 2. Many have, sadly, become hostile towards the developers and/or other players.

Lack of Progression leads to stagnation.

Guild Wars 2 needs progression if it is ever going to survive its infancy. You may love or loathe vertical progression, horizontal progression, diagonal progression, 3D progression, 4D progression, Zig-Zagging progression, etc. But the fact of the matter is, GW2 cannot stay the exact same as it was released out of the box. Games can change and evolve as people change and evolve. I DO believe, however, that GW2 can progress and evolve into a mature gaming world while still holding true to its original ideals.

So what is this new gear tier doing in our Guild Wars game!?!?!

As the developers have stated, this new tier is meant to bridge the gap between exotics and legendaries. Since there were no statistical differences between these two, it is logical to assume that this new tier is designed to bridge the time and effort gap. Maybe the developers thought that exotic gear was in-fact too easy to obtain and that players wanted a middle ground between the exotic and legendaries. Maybe the ascended gear represents a difficulty that was originally intended for exotic gear. Maybe the developers thought the many players would lose interest because of the massive investment that the legendaries require and simply give up. Maybe they just wanted to give an attainable target for the semi-hardcore. I do not know for sure.

But this is a gear treadmill!!! I hate treadmills!!! Go play XYZ game that has a treadmill!!! Leave my game alone!!!

Many players believe that ascended gear now represents a gear treadmill mechanic in GW2. For those who are unfamiliar with the term. A treadmill implies that a player must CONTINUALLY acquire new gear for his character over-time in order to be competitive. Anet developers have said that ascended gear will have better stats than exotics and will be released over time. They have also stated that they do not have plans for players to grind for a new gear tier every 3 months. Ascended gear is a vertical progressive statistical step-up from exotic gear. By this definition, I think of ascended gear more like a flight of stairs to be climbed rather than a treadmill.

So, where do we go from here?

Guild Wars 2 is a true MMORPG, and as such; it needs some form of endgame progression for its players. Anet has chosen to implement a new gear level in order to help fill a void which the game had upon its release. We may not agree with Anet’s particular solution to the problem. However, the best thing any player can do is to voice their opinion in constructive and courteous feedback. Let us please not jump the gun at assume we know what Anet will do in the future to ruin our beloved game. Posting hateful comments, attacking players/devs, QQing, trolling, or otherwise helps no-one and certainly doesn’t help the game. I want GW2 to succeed. I want GW2 to stay true to its roots. I will try to post constructive feedback. I will try to make this a better game… What will YOU do?

Someone forgot to feed the server hamsters.

Kana.6793:

What were you guys doing on GW1 that gave you all this freedom and choice you keep talking about? In my alliance all anyone did was vaettir farm with a build from pvxwiki and run speed clears, also with builds from pvxwiki. If someone tried to take a build other than the one they were told to take they weren’t allowed to go.

As for the OP’s question. I played GW1 and one friend did too. We’re still playing GW2. The other friends I started playing GW2 with mostly quit for WoW as soon as MoP was released (they said the lack of gear is boring) and a few stopped playing MMO’s entirely.

This is not directed personally at you Kana, just using as example…

I feel sorry for those GW1 players who allowed other people to limit their fun and skill-building creativity. I hardly ever used the meta/uber/flavor of the month build; but I ran functional and viable builds none-the-less. I had fun being creative. I’m sorry you did not. And yes, I also used pvxwiki to get general build ideas.

There is something to be said for using a specific build for a specific purpose/farm/or whatever… but that doesn’t mean you have to use THAT build every second of every day…

I want to make different hammer builds for my guardian. I want to swap out different hammer skills. I can swap out utility skills; but these have weak synergy with the hammer outside of setting up combo fields. I’d like to use different elite skills that compliment the hammer playstyle… but that’s not available either.

Rooks Zaer.5846:

If they knew the manifesto video was the subject of mass misinterpretation, they should have redone it to be more clear. Or taken it down. Anything short of that would be, at best, irresponsible. And at worst, intentionally misleading.

This is the Internet. Once something is posted; that kitten never goes away

IMHO, Anet is trying to strike a delicate balance. They wanted to originally create a game without grinding… Players have said they don’t want random gear drops from bosses that may NEVER drop for them like in that OTHER mmo (statistics aside, some players just never get the loot they’re after). In its place, we have token rewards which gives you progress towards gear every time you complete a dungeon-run (no randomness there). But, that system can start to feel like a grind. So, what can you do???

Legendary weapons are a grind at the moment… that is the way they’re currently implemented to make the process take a long time and lots of effort. Devs have said better things will be implemented for these in the future.

For the gear tread mill debate… check out the merged thread. I’m sure it has been discussed there.

Oh, and could we get elite skills that actually had synergy with and enhanced our build… or gasp created a build on their own?

1) Add tokens to story mode… even if it is less tokens than an exp run.

2) I’d prefer a balance of RNG and token rewards for exotic dungeon armor. Maybe increase the tokens needed for armor. But, give each end boss a chance to drop an exotic armor piece (and please make them drop more than 1/100 runs, bad RNG is bad).

3) Create interesting/fun mechanics for boss fights. FotM is a step in the right direction.

4) Please for the love of God and all that is Holy and good in this world, disable waypoints during boss fights. This is a mechanic which is great for learning a dungeon. However, it greatly cheapens a boss encounter. If you have to adjust boss difficulties as a result, fine. Just say NO to corpse zergs!

5) Have minis or other vanity items obtainable from dungeons.

6) Please add dungeon finder tool.

7) Some how reduce the player base segmentation from FotM levels. I’m all for progression in content. But it’s hard to find group for my exact level.

8) Easter eggs are great. Pop-culture references are cool. Think outside the box

Thank you for making a great game.

(deleted post)

Some things arn’t worth saying.

Perhaps ANET should have clarified more as well. Instead of grand promises of market speak, maybe they should have been more forward with exactly what we were to expect.

Instead of “GW2 takes everything you love about GW1 and puts it into a fully persistent world,” perhaps they should have just told us something like… Well guys, we’re doing something completely different. You won’t have any monthly fees. The character levels won’t matter much. The lore is loosely based in the “GW” theme. But really, the rest of the game is totally different.

I would have then make a more informed decision beforehand about what I was investing in, when deciding whether to purchase their new product. At the very least I wouldn’t be looking back and thinking, “what happend?”

GW2 is a great game. But when I play, there is a voice in the back of my head that tells me “this game is not what I thought it would be.”

@ kineticdamage – you sir get +1

I dare to add a few to your list…

- someone mentions how the GW1 skill selection was far superior, allowing for many many builds.
- others respond that the GW1 system was flawed, citing that other players “forced” them to play certain builds.
- one person says that the skill balancing was hard for the GW1 developers, but does not actually cite any references.
- someone mentions WoW
- a couple of people say that GW1 is better
- more people say that GW2 is better
- the only thing people agree on is that GW1 isn’t GW2

Glad to know that I’m not alone. I thought this was a problem with my Internet connection or PC. I’ve never seen the launcher work this slowly…

50kps?? Laaaaaaaaaame

Come to think about it, I also remember that the forums were slow earlier today.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

I have to agree about not being rewarded for your efforts. Simply put, the rewards should be appropriate for the content you are doing. In WoW, that is the case. In GW2, it’s not.

The frustrating thing about GW2, is the constant junk loot it gives you for doing the hardest content. If I run Fractals or Raids, I should get Ascended or Exotic level 80 gear to drop. If I run Dungeons, I should get Rare or Exotic level 80 gear to drop. The only time I should be getting blues or greens is doing open world content. Unless it’s one of those massive world events, you should get gear that is relevant to the content you are doing. I shouldn’t be getting level 70 blues or even whites for doing high level Fractals.

As for grind, it all depends on what you are doing really, or what you are looking for. In my opinion, there is less grind in WoW than in GW2. Gold rains from the skies in WoW, enough to easily support any crafting or gearing you need. Even paying for your subscription with ingame gold. Especially now with WoD and Garrisons, you can easily gear up for raiding in a matter of hours.

GW2 on the other hand, seems to nerf any sort of gold making that you can find and has basically made it to the point of, buy gold with gems, or be poor. Or be prepared to farm for months on end to get anything. Gearing up in at least exotics is not too bad, if you have the gold to spend of course. If you don’t, good luck getting drops. Crafting is out of the question if you don’t have the gold as well. Ascended, don’t even think about it. When it comes to gearing, yeah. GW2 has more grind than WoW. The only good thing is, by the time you do finally get some decent gear, you won’t have to worry about the next expansion out-dating it. That is of course if they decide not to add another gear stronger than Ascended.

In my opinion, it is easier to gear up in WoW than it is in GW2. But they both have drawbacks. While GW2 is a grind to gear up if you don’t have the gold, your gear won’t ever get out-dated by an expansion (as long as they don’t make a new gear with better stats than Ascended). In WoW, it is really simple to get the gear you need to do any content, gold is easy to come by and you can craft raid tier epics. But when the next expansion arises, your gear will be out-dated and you’ll need to get the next highest level gear.

As for the events and tired of doing the same ones over and over, be glad you have events to keep doing over and over. In WoW, once you finish the quests in the area, there is no reason to go back to that area (except for mats). There is no more quest there for you to keep doing. At least the events in GW2 are always there for you to do, even if it is the same thing over and over.

So honestly it’s kind of a mix really. They both have good and bad sides, just decide which appeals more to you and then go from there. Hope that helps somewhat.

I would agree with most of this ^.
WoW may have a gear treadmill. But, to me GW2 feels grindier than WoW has ever been.

BaconofPigs.1683:

First, there is no treadmill. Ascended gears have been and always have been and will ever be the top of the line gear in this game…

I hate to burst your bubble. But when Ascended gear was released, they stated that they had no plans to add another tier of gear. They never said that they would NEVER do it. They stated that Legendary gear will always be top tier.

Edit: spelling =P

lordkrall.7241:

JSmooth.7654:

Not sure what game you were playing >.>

Max level 20. Easy to buy top tier gear. Skills were bought, quested for, or captured quite easily.

Your play skill and/or build and group make-up determined how far you could go in the PvE content.

Lets see:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Allegiance_skill
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Sunspear_rank
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lightbringer
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Asura_rank
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Norn_rank
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Deldrimor_rank
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ebon_Vanguard_rank

I stand by my statement

Zach.2618:

Oxidia.8103:

As a person who used to run fractals since they started, comparing rewards then and now.. the loot is 10 times better now that it was before.

What’s in the fractal encryptions btw? I’m curious lol besides the mini and aquatic breather which I got and the 5 gold junk are there other rewards inside?

The little fractal boxes? I bought a 5 pack of keys from the vendor and received trash loot from all of my boxes. Since the ex-pac, my gold stash is no longer noticeably increasing. So, I won’t be buying any more keys any time soon.

I believe your points are valid, OP. The reduced skill bar can be a concern for a new player, but is definitely not a new concern.

Coming from a WoW and GW1 background, I did not play certain professions in WoW because their skill rotation could be simplified to a grand total of 4 buttons.

Many players have voiced their opinions on the forums that a broader skill base would greatly benefit this game. When talking about weapon swaps and skill traits, the word “synergy” (or lack there-of) pops up now and again. Some skills that have a significant impact on the battlefield seem to have very long cooldowns; which is fine, but is aggrivating when you have a reduced skill bar to start with. The combo system has the potential to add great amounts of depth and strategic play. However, the buffs/debuffs provided by the combos typically dont last long enough to make much of a difference to go out of your way for, IMHO. One exception being the ranger healing spring.

I don’t want to sound all bad… the ANET team is doing great things with the content they’re releasing every month. It seems they have great creativity and imagination.

Currently, I have found that an Axe/Mace – Axe/Axe warrior provides enough synergy to get me by for the moment. It costs me nothing to play. I do have my eye open for other things coming up on the horizon.

spell check not included

The End Game Debate

Many players, like myself, are very concerned about the current state of the end game in Guild Wars 2. This is blatantly reflected in the feedback which is already posted throughout the GW2 forums. Different players have different expectations as to what an appropriate end game experience should be. This post is meant to try to bring these ideas into a single, holistic look at the different approaches to end game as we know it. I’ll discuss some end game examples, with pros and cons. Then, I’ll offer suggestions for improvement with possible implementations. Please keep in mind, GW2 is still in its infancy as a newly released game. I love playing GW2 even with its faults and have high hopes for it in the future.

What is end game? I’ll define “end game” as: “What to do when you hit max level.” Why is end game important? At the end of the day, most mmorpg players want to feel like they’ve achieved something. They want to feel that their character is just a little farther ahead than the day before. In order to continue progressing your character after you hit the maximum character level in a game, designers have come up with different ways for the players to fill this basic need to grow or improve. I do not play much PVP. So, this post will be PVE focused.

Now let’s take a look at a few end game methodologies…

1) WoW & clones: Raiding and the gear treadmill. – a.k.a. vertical progression

First up, we have WoW and its clones. This type of mindset keeps the character chasing the proverbial “carrot” through leveling, grinding, raiding and what-not, to continually try to attain a certain elite power (gear) status. This status is often used as a measuring stick to grade a player’s expected performance and what content they are able to access. As an example. A raid leader may or may not allow a max level character to join a raid because of their gear numbers.

On the positive side of raiding. I feel that (like me) a good portion of mmorpg players actually like raids. They give you something to do. They CAN be lots of fun. They bring together a hopefully coordinated larger (10-20) group of people that have to strategically work together to achieve a common goal. They are also a great place to introduce new dynamic fight mechanics instead of the tried and true tank-and-spank.

In addition to raiding, this type of game will probably have achievements, mini-games, vanity items, titles, and other things to do to occupy your time… and appeal to you completionist types.

2) GW1: Skill focused, Collecting, and hard dungeons. – a.k.a horizontal progression

GW1 took a different approach from the gear treadmill by introducing the concept that a player’s skill should be more important they the clothes they wear. Instead of raising the level cap every time a new addition to the game was released, the designers decided to keep the max level at a flat 20. Level 20 gear was cheap to buy. The elite gear had the same numeric stats, but looked different.

So if everyone could get to level 20, and the gear had the same stats… how could a character progress? Well, the elite gears’ appearance gave a sense of progression. But more importantly, a player could theoretically improve his character by collecting different character skills, which are spread throughout the game. Experimenting with different skill combinations added to sense of character development with the possibility of creating something new and exciting.

In the place of raids, GW1 had hard (and hard mode) dungeons to test a characters skill and prowess. These dungeons did not require the 10-20 player coordination or social aspect of raids. But none-the-less, they we’re something for end game players to complete and achieve.

Along with skill hunting and harder dungeons, GW1 had its fair share of vanity items, collectables, titles, and other things to keep its players busy.