Guild Wars 2

Thank you very much.

I want to add my voice to say this feels like a terrible cash grab by Anet. It’s been said before, but it deserves saying it again. Nothing should depend solely on these terrible gambling boxes.

Also, a hint to the monetization people – no one complained about keys because they gave too few scraps or tickets, it’s the other way around. No one wants all the other endless crap the keys give. Put good rewards in these boxes, or don’t complain when players won’t buy enough keys for your monthly key quota (or whatever metric you measure us by).

Can we get specific information on the fractals update?

I would like to be able to give feedback before it’s too late. The previous fractals update and the one before it were done without much feedback after designing them and they both had glaring issues.

I just played on my charr and I had a stutter while running in pve (Rata Sum) and WvW. It’s happening only when I run and glide.

I saw the live stream and the notes from it, but did not catch this: Can we play Tixx’s Infinirarium with our friends this year?

Last year we could not and were told they would work on a fix. Please give me this Christmas wish, Anet.

I will also send my voice that my guild has tried at least two times for Quaggan Paddle and, while we get a pop-up to accept credit, the guild and players get no credit.

My guild also completed Langmar Estate and Proxemics Lab last night. Both times the guild got credit, but about half of the players each time (3-4 players) did not get personal credit. Those players interacted with things during the puzzles and were at the end when we accepted credit, and still did not get a personal reward.

I agree with almost all of the complaints here. I would like to add that i think this new currency should be in the updated wallet. Why did the wallet get updated if it is not going to be used?

Iason Evan.3806:

Ideas for improvement:

• XP, Loot, Karma, Event Reward Tokens, and Gold dropping from individual enemies that are tied to the event.

• The Event vendor should not charge gold for rewards. When they do, it can’t be considered a reward. On top of that, with no gold dropping from the enemies in said event, the vendor is relegated to being a gold sink.

• The zones being used during an event should have dynamic events endemic to the zones cancelled during the special event so that they aren’t overlapping. It’s haphazard and makes the special events feel tacked on.

• Rewards should be plentiful. This is the first content you have given us in 8+ months. To have it be less rewarding than the content that has been in the game for 3 years doesn’t inspire desire to participate in the new events.

• The new AI for Heart of Thorns should be employed in the enemy design of the Mordrem spawning in the new event. You say we can’t have old events like SAB back because it doesn’t work with the new server tech and yet you fail to deploy the new tech in a new event? That’s a head scratcher at the very least.

• There should be new loot to go along with returning loot. There are vets that have all those rewards. To go without any new playable content in this game for 8+ months and then get what is supposed to be new content and have the rewards be old rewards doesn’t inspire desire to return.

• A boss encounter should have been included. New creature designs from HoT should have been included.

• Champion Bags from slaying Champions should have been included.

• A title could have been included.

• Achievement points could have been rewarded.

This covers all of my complaints.

If the events are in low-leveled zones, make it as good as or better than regular leveling for new players. This includes all regular rewards from events and enemy drops included with doing the event. From a lvl 80 perspective, why would I farm these events when I could farm so much better almost anywhere else?

Can Anet describe to us, in specific detail, what went they think right and wrong for this event? I think that would encourage discussion about what players desire and what dev’s understand is good.

Ashen.2907:

John.5732:

This event is still glitched for me. I do not receive experience from killing enemies, I do not receive drops from enemies I kill, I do not receive experience, karma, or gold from completed events, and enemies do not count as kills for sigils, runes, and traits.

Please work on a fix asap.

What you describe are not glitches. That seems to be working as intended.

That can’t be right. why would this event be for new players if they could not level and gain loot from it?

This event is still glitched for me. I do not receive experience from killing enemies, I do not receive drops from enemies I kill, I do not receive experience, karma, or gold from completed events, and enemies do not count as kills for sigils, runes, and traits.

This event is still glitched for me. I do not receive experience from killing enemies, I do not receive drops from enemies I kill, I do not receive experience, karma, or gold from completed events, and enemies do not count as kills for sigils, runes, and traits.

Please work on a fix asap.

Nonny.5170:

Otherwise, agreed on all points. (Wait, they’re doing away with the personal storyline-like dialogue? That sucks. I liked that method, but if it means more spoken dialogue overall… okay. But if so then the issues you mention need fixed. I’m curious though, does anyone have a link to where they said they’d be moving away from the personal storyline style and why? TY to anyone who’s able to either link me or just explain.

I don’t have a link, but it has been said that people did not like the old personal story-style dialogue cutscenes and that they would not be doing them from now on. The major complaints is that they were awkward when more than two people were talking and stopped the action for talking.

I could not find a topic regarding the beta story alone, so I thought I’d make one.

My biggest point is that I would like to say that I am super excited that I , the player character, am speaking in this story. You don’t know how happy this makes me. My character has been all but mute for so long.

That said, the timing and pacing of spoken lines is horrible. I’m not talking about the voice acting, I’m talking about the coded time for the lines to be spoken. During all parts of the brief Verdant Brink intro story, people were talking over each other constantly. Here are my suggestions:

1) Make the speaking louder, for everyone. Everyone speaks so quietly. And, for me, if my character is not facing someone head on, I cannot hear them at all. Fix that. Sure, make sound come from 360 degrees and base volume on distance, but start at a high enough volume that I can hear people speaking to me within 1000 ft no problem.

2) Don’t let characters talk over each other. No one should be talking over each other. If they’re saying unimportant dialogue (“Ho, Traveler!”) severely mute it during story dialogue. If they have unique story dialogue to say, do it sequentially. In the Verdant Brink story, everyone was talking over each other every step of the way. It was horrible.

3) Find a way to frame the important scenes. I’d prefer the return of the Personal Story dialogue scenes, but I know they are dead. But, without them, everyone is walking all over the place saying things and if I don’t have the camera on them, I have no idea what they are doing or saying. Find a way to fix this. Either take control of my character and the camera during important scenes and wheel the camera way in and fly it around dramatically to take in the characters talking and the scene. When Braham ran up to the camp yelling about his mother, I missed it because I was still catching up. One of the best lines and best voice acting by Braham to date and I missed it. It should never be that way.

Here’s my short review.

The traps were good for traps, but still not particularly good. They don’t make sense to me with a ranged class and it is annoying to want to keep enemies at ranged for the LB but bring them in for the traps. The trap setting time also annoys me, as I want them to trigger asap. Overall, guardians have some of the best utilities in shouts and meditations and these traps do nothing to change that.

The longbow was good. It felt strong and useful. I don’t know what people are saying about the attacks, I saw my bolts just fine. The blocking shot on 3 seems to miss all projectiles that aren’t fired directly at you. So any enemy shooting an arcing shot (like vines and arrows) go right around it.

The virtues were no better than the original virtues. Which means the activation ability was never worth the loss of the passive ability. Basically, continue to not activate your virtues until you have to.

The traits were the worst part. They felt weak and uninteresting. This alone killed the spec for me. I don’t think it was worth going into DH just for a longbow to lose better traits elsewhere.

Chris, thank you for everything you have done and you will be missed. I especially liked your devotion and ability to reach out to fans on the boards (even when it was tough). Thank you for shepherding many CDI’s.

Farewell.

Let us play it with our friends in our own instance, like in 2013.

I am severely disappointed in this Toypocalypse change. What is more disappointing is that we had been through this when it happened in 2012. I really wish Anet would try and change this before Wintersday is over.

I think the reason people are saying that Episode 7 was not related to Season 2 in the overall is because if you took the flashbacks and put them elsewhere – for instance, the Sylvari personal story or the story of Twilight Arbor – they would fit in fine.

If I didn’t have to take a minute after each flashback to update Jory on what happened, I wouldn’t even know I’m working on Season 2 of the Living Story.

Xenon, point taken. But, Anet came out and said after the NPE that the things I listed would not be added in a feature pack. So I was asking when and how do those things get added.

Gaile Gray.6029:

. . .

• Living World and holidays are important, yes. They are not the only thing on which the team is working, quite clearly, when you see substantial updates coming out on a regular basis. (Case in point: feature packs, the coming PvP update, etc.)
• We are not “afraid” to lay out a roadmap. Quoting Mike again, “The intention of the CDI threads is to talk with you about the roadmap.” If you’re not participating, you’re missing out on a means of sharing your feedback and a method that we may use to give information, when the time is right.

I have a few issues with these statements. First, as I’m sure you’ve seen over and over, CDI’s are not a roadmap or a discussion on a roadmap. In fact, they are the opposite. It is usually where the Dev talks about an idea freely but with no ties to the development of GW2 in specific. They may frame the discussion in what is possible / likely to be made for GW2, but they never discuss a roadmap the game follows and actively discourage viewing the discussion as anything but a daydreaming idea session.

Second, you and the players in this thread seem to have a very different idea on what “substantial update” is. In fact, even Anet disagrees with you, Gaile, that the feature packs (April and Sept 2014 feature packs) were substantial updates. When players asked why desired content like new weapons for professions, new professions, new legendaries, precursor crafting, new races, new dungeons, new fractals, fixing fractals, and many other requested and discussed ideas were not released in the April and Sept 2014 feature packs, we were told these were QoL changes and features. Content, according to Anet, would not come in feature packs. Are you saying this has changed?

So, let me ask this question clearer: Where are the content updates that would include substantial content like new weapons for professions, new professions, new legendaries, precursor crafting, new races, new dungeons, new fractals, and other large updates?

I’d like to add my voice to the chorus requesting that the new gem store be reverted. At least include a separate tab or way to get back to the old gem store.

And, please add this change to the many changes that have been added unilaterally and then must be fixed afterward. Please, Anet, if you had previewed this during it’s design and iteration phases, we could have helped make it great and functional.

There will not be new races, classes, or weapons any time soon.

Other than saying nothing is off the table, Anet has never talked about these ideas in earnest. We can only assume they are not coming.

I also agree with the players asking for more discussion about future plans and old projects. What happened to the old projects like precursor crafting, Ranger pet fixing, Hobosacks, player house, fractal redo, etc? Where is Anet going with this game? Are we still focusing on the esport aspect? Does WvW matter to anyone? Will we ever see new classes?

I would love to know.

My biggest issue with the current communication policy is that it wastes Anet’s time. Since this police was implemented (and before, since Anet always played things close to the chest) Anet has either added in features that were undesired by players or left out features that were heavily desired by players. This causes Anet to waste time on the iteration of these features, and then waste time again to fix / remove / replace these features. All the while they are taking flak after release because of unhappy players.

For example, in the new Trading Post (which is quite an upgrade), the final value total is glaringly left out when a player sells and item. In the NPE, the personal story had a large restructuring that ruined continuity and altered the ending, much to the anger of players. Players have also disliked the new, higher unlock levels for everything in the NPE. Getting older, players severely dislike the new trait scavenger hunt. (This ranges from disliking the difficulty to outright disliking a scavenger hunt.) Finally, and oldest, players have asked for PvE content updates above and beyond what the LW / LS provides, but it has been made clear that LW / LS is the only vehicle for PvE content updates.

Each of these issues could have been identified in pre-release iterations if Anet had a more open policy. Instead, I feel the players are being punished because Anet release an update with unwanted, disliked features. And, when players angrily lash out about these problem features, Anet uses that as an excuse not to talk about future design. This is hurting all of us Anet.

Ok, but when you turn it off, it reverts to the original crappy guide I also want gone (which points me to the personal story, now with less arrows). I was hoping this update could clean up this stuff from my upper right.

Edit: I found it and it can be turned off completely.

I was under the impression that the new UI (made for directing newer players) could be turned off. How do I do that.

I don’t think my lvl 80’s need to learn how to roll, or to be told where the nearest event is, or to be directed to where the personal story picks up, as I know how to play the game.

I would join the people requesting a true profit line for all items sold.

I would also note that this is what happens with Anet’s noncommunication policy. Just like with the megaserver, trait scavenger hunt, and commander tags, obvious and serious issues are missed by Anet but could have been fixed prior to release if the players had been communicated with. Anet, please talk with us. We want to help you make this game. And, we want you to save your time and money and make things well the first time, not double and triple your effort fixing everything after release.

I’d like to add that I would also like to know what Anet is working on long term. We are all old enough to listen politely and contain our expectations. But, Anet also has to keep communication open to us. Anet, please tell us what you are doing. And then keep us updated on how it is going.

For example, Anet could report: “Working on the ninth class, the third heavy class. We’re currently working on weapons and attacks. This class should be out before the end of 2014.” And later, they could say: “Redesigning the utilities for the ninth class, suffering some setbacks. It may arrive later than 2014.” And later: “Animation is doing a great job on the attacks for the ninth class. This class is expected out in 2015.”

So, I ran Teq a third time with my Guardian today and got the achievement. The only difference this time is I just played normal, went to Teq for the burn phases and guarded the batteries in the laser phases, and also didn’t get hit by Bloated Creepers.

This can be closed, we’ll just chalk it up to user error.

No, I did it with my Thief and my Guard

Yes, he was killed both times and the event gave me a successful completion medal.

I also tried it at two different times with two different characters.

Has anyone else had this issue since the most recent patch? Has anyone else got this achievement since the most recent patch?

I ran Tequatl last night and this morning trying to finish the boss achievements for the title. However, I specifically avoided bloated creepers both times (the first time by just guarding the nw battery). Neither time was I given credit for Watch Your Step!

I know the first time I never even saw a bloated creeper, so I could not be caught by one. The second time, I also avoided bloated creepers, but I went and tagged Teq a few times, and still did not get the achievement.

I’d like to add my voice to the people worried and unhappy with the handling of world events and contested waypoints. Let me begin by saying, as a member of Devona’s Rest, a server which barely beats Teq, I am all for more populated events. In concept, I think the megaserver approach is great. More people everywhere is a good thing. But…

1. Always-Contested WP – I do not like that now, all possibly-contested wyapoint will always be contested out of map. What, then, is the purpose of a contested waypoint? It no longer invites a player to do an event, because that player cannot be sure the event contesting the wp will be up in the shard they log into. Similarly, they no longer mark open content or new events as they open, because players will never see them open. So, why have contested waypoints? Is the only solution to the megaserver/many-instance problem to make the overworld map worthless? Why not have no wp ever be contested. This, at least, facilitates players going to places they want to, even if it’s enemy controlled.

2. World Boss Timers – I do not like the world boss timers. I am a casual player, devoting a few nights a week to play GW2. I am not worried about missing world bosses, but I think that making every boss pop on a specific schedule goes against the idea that the world is dynamic and interesting. It’s true that Rooba never brings a CLEAN 5000 that can handle the clean-up, but at least you never know when her event chain is going to start. Under the new system, it looks like it’ll be a definite start time every night every time. Also, what about the event chains? Maw, Karka Queen, Golem, Wurm, Fire Elemental, etc etc all have event chains that lead to the world boss. With a boss popping every 15 minutes in perpetuity, and many of these chains and bosses take more than 15 minutes, how will that work? Are we expected to skip bosses and go to every other boss? Are we expected to show up late to every boss in a chain, riding on the backs of our fellow players’ effort? It just feels like an artificial restriction is being added to little benefit. I agree with the many posters, let multiple bosses pop at once, and then spread them out into 20 or 30 minute slots instead of 15 minute ones.

Swagger.1459:

Also, I know the balance patch had been delayed until summer, but it will be at least October by the time the profession CDI are done so don’t expect anything meaningful to come to fruition until 2015.

I have not heard about the balance patch being delayed, link?

Also, I wasn’t asking for changes now, I know it takes time. And with Anet devoting everything to LW over the rest of the game, non LW changes take years. But, I was talking about making the CDI actually collaborative, like the other topics received. Beyond that one summary post, we got nothing from Allie.

nethykins.7986:

Another Successful CDI. >_>

This is my point. Not the sarcasm, but what happened with the Ranger CDI can’t be our only chance to fix this profession. The outpouring of posts, more than I have seen on a single topic, should show that the players are willing to work toward a better game. Please, Anet, work with us.

I don’t blame Allie. It was just she did not have the time to discuss ideas and build a proposal for the important issues of the Ranger (like perma-stowing, pet AI, traps, no burst damage, etc), which is clearly what the Ranger CDI needed.

Of course, if we get a redo, and I sincerely hope we do, I would be overjoyed to have a dev who can more quickly discuss what is viable and liked.

Three weeks ago, the Ranger CDI was opened. With bated breath, I followed closely the debate and issues raised. Many of the issues with the Ranger were as old as beta, but at least now the Ranger profession had center stage to discuss these issues. Or so I thought …

As time went on, I was struck my the lack of response from Anet. It seems that Allie Murdock did not have the time to devote to this massive topic. I can count on two hands the responses she made in the 67 page thread. I can only find one summary thread, and that thread only included a few ideas.

Frankly, how was this collaborative? Compared to the other concurrent CDI threads, the Ranger thread was ignored. The Edge of the Mists thread barely crested 11 pages, but saw more posts by Devon Carver, even though he took almost two weeks off. PVP Ladder and Seasons thread was a paltry 4 pages, but, as all things PVP, got many responses and personal time with Anet staff. Fractal Evolution, which hit 30 pages, got the usual multiple-posts-per-day attention from Chris Whiteside. What about the Ranger thread? Each of the other CDI threads saw more red posts than the Ranger thread. That is shocking considering how the Ranger thread dwarfs the other CDI threads, bringing in more posts than all the others combined.

Because of this lack of communication, we have no idea what is being discussed from the Ranger thread. We never built a discussion. Every time Allie did show up, all she did was shoot down ideas or put out fires.

I politely request that Anet make a new Ranger CDI thread. To start the thread, Anet should summarize the previous thread (yes, all 67 pages please), including the ideas that are feasible, liked, and possible. This would help guide discussion into fruitful territory. Next, I would ask that Anet allocate an appropriate amount of staff to respond and collaborate with posters. Looking at the size of the previous thread, likely 3 staff members would be needed. This would go a great deal in making that 67 post thread not feel like a waste of time.

Dear Allie,

What can we talk about that will get done? So far, all I have seen in this CDI are topics that have been denied.

1. Perma-Stowing – This idea was shut down and sent to make another thread because it was too intensive / difficult to program and goes against the dev ideal that Rangers are a pets class.

2. Pet AI Fix – Fixing the pet AI so it actually hits, dodges attacks, avoids AoE’s, and generally is not a drag on the class was deemed too intensive / difficult to do.

3. Improve Ranged Weapons and Raise Damage / Burst / DPS – These ideas were denied because other classes currently are too strong at DPS, burst damage, and any other measure of damage. This is considering that other profession’s autoattacks outperform Ranger’s DPS, burst, or damage most of the time across any scale of time (short or long term). Burst was also tossed because it does not meet the dev ideal of the Ranger.

These issues are the main focus of the Ranger CDI because the Ranger is a poorly done class. The Ranger pet has poor AI that hits nothing unless it remains stationary. Because of the pet, the Ranger has some of the lowest damaging weapons period. The Ranger does not do more damage by any measure. Similarly, the Ranger is not an exceptionally good bunker class. Its survivability is mediocre, at best. This does not include the pet, which can never survive unless the most basic of pve situations.

It appears to me, and please correct me if I’m wrong, that the goal of this CDI was to provide small and simple ideas to tweak some numbers to improve the Ranger, similar to all other balancing patches to date. This type of discussion is appropriate for a competent class, like Warrior or Guardian. But, as I hope Anet can see by these discussions, the Ranger is fundamentally broken and will require some intensive effort to fix. Especially before we talk about bumping up the power to some shout or signet and call it a day.

1. Elementalist
2. Ranger
3. Mesmer

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Lmao you know they got to have a holiday around Christmas right? The extra 2 months could very easily have been spent working on OTHER things that we haven’t seen yet…

The daily is there to encourage people to keep playing those two bosses so that there are enough players to do them…

I don’t want to deny them a holiday, but I doubt two months was their entire holiday time. Also, specific teams prepare each LW update, meaning this LW update had one team. What else was the team doing.

Also, I was making the point that releasing two bosses for a month and calling it a day is 1) flat and uninspired, and 2) repetitive as the Boss Thumper Daily Achievement has become.

You know your Living World update is flat and lacking diversity when the daily LW achievement is Boss Thumper for a full month.

Is this the best the LW teams can come up with? This update took an extra two months to release, and no thought was put into what the daily achievements should be?

Off the top of my head, here’s some variety:
- Destroy 3 Energy Probes
- Kill 10 Probe Defenders
- Visit Scarlet’s Secret Lair
- Open a chest in Scarlet’s Secret Lair
- Visit the Energy Probe in 3 different maps (destroyed or otherwise)
- Make a cypher from 25 code fragments

And, if you want to include the latest update:
- Kill 10 players in the new EotM map
- Do 3 events in the EotM Map
- Capture 2 Reactors in the EotM Map
- etc.

Ashabhi.1365:

John.5732:

/snip

My idea about how to acquire legendary GS

I rather like the idea, but a couple of “tweaks” that could be made are:

1. Keep it out of the dungeons/instance trap. Keep it in the open world. An instanced story would be ok, but not part of the PS. Also, many people will not do dungeons as a matter of preference, just as many will not PvE or PvP. WvW can have relatively the same quest, but placed in the WvW “world.”

2. Try to keep money out of it. It would be better if everything you need is in the world somewhere. Paying for it only “cheapens” the experience.

3. Make it difficult. It should be a “badge of honor” to obtain, so that not every generic player can get it.

4. Definitely make it not tradeable! no TP sales!!!

Trust me, that was a rough sketch. Of course you can tweak the length, money (or other currencies) involved, difficulty, time-gating, or legs to complete it. You can add more fetch quests, make people grind something, or make people turn in mats with the sword. I was just trying to get the discussion started about what would make a good quest for legendary and ascended items in game.

A few clarifications: I think it’s important that these quests include more than one type of game mode. Just like map completion currently requires wvw, I feel that requiring temple events and dungeon runs and personal instances broadens a player and shows devotion and efficacy in-game. I realize that not everyone likes each of these things. But, getting a legendary should be difficult and push you as a player to extremes.

Here is one suggestion for how a quest for a legendary weapon would work. Of course, the tropes for these are fairly common, and I don’t mind copying well-worn tropes if it’s made well. My idea would use great quests. Great quests would look like LW updates in your right-hand tracker and would appear in your AP tracker menu. They would show you where you are along this long quest chain that would lead to a goal (like a legendary or ascended weapon or rare skin). It would update as you go and give you AP for completing legs of the quest. It would also have a timer for how long you had to wait for the next part, if it was time-gated.

1) Greatsword You get a great quest from an NPC in LA about the legendary greatsword. He tells you a story about who created it and how. He tells you that the last the greatsword was seen was before Orr fell. This starts the Great Quest to seek out info in Orr. After a few temple events, an NPC there would tell you that her history research shows that the GS wkittentered when fighting the rise of Zhaitan and fell into the sea. Using her notes, you are able to locate two places in Orr. You must recover the hilt and the blade. Each of those are instances, like personal story.

Next, you must find someone who can reforge the blade. This leads you back to LA, where you show the initial guy the sword pieces and he tells you of the living descendants of the original blacksmith. The great great granddaughter of the blacksmith carries on the family business and she lives up in the Iron Marches. She is impressed you found the blade that he father had told her about. She always thought it a family tall tale. She agrees to attempt to reforge it. She sends you on a quest to find the hottest flame, which would be a special event in the CoF dungeon. Taking the flame and money to her for supplies, she begins work on the GS. She needs a week to experiment and forge. When the week is up, she tells you that she was unable to reforge the blade because she does not have strong enough metals. She tells you of an experimental metal the Dredge are creating that sounds ideal. This leads you to Dredgehaunt Cliffs and another personal story instance. Taking back the experimental metal, she asks for more money and time to complete the weapon. A week later, you have your legendary GS.

I have a question. Why are there no quests for ascended, precursors, and legendaries?

The personal story consists of Trahearne questing with you to earn a legendary greatsword. This bears repeating. Trehearne quests to earn a legendary greatsword. Why can’t that be us?

Also, huge fan of FFT here. I would also agree that FF 7’s materia system was a decent progression system, but was overly complicated for what it did. Namely because better weapons and armor were almost always better in stats and slots.

Vertical Progression
I join the group that is unhappy with Ascended Weapons and Armor. It is a ridiculously long grind that is nothing more than a search for tons of materials. It is also very alt-unfriendly as well as build unfriendly. Overall, it makes me feel like I get to build one character to max and the rest can languish. I can also never change that character’s build type or stats. The same argument is true for legendary weapons. Why is there no quest for them? Why no long story chain where you learn the history and power behind the weapon? Instead, you get a precursor based upon luck and then combine it with a metric ton of materials. Why all this boring grind? Where are quests and flavor for progression?

Horizontal Progression
When I bought GW2 over a year ago, I was led to believe that there would not be vertical progression beyond exotics and that the progression would all be horizontal. I took this to mean that there would be tons of skins, some easy to get some hard to get. I also was led to believe there would be additional skills.

If you look at the amount of skins available beyond the initial release, there are deplorably few. This goes double for complete sets. I am looking to get a nice armor set to skin out my female charr. I was surprised upon looking online to see very few armor sets that were made post-release. What happened here? There should be new armor and weapon skins released every bi-weekly update. Some should be time-limited and LW themed, but many should just be out there for the future. Imagine mark 2 versions of dungeon armor. Or new sets of cultural armor. Or new fashions and styles being sold in all parts of the world. Isn’t this world supposed to be alive? Well, fashion changes over a year and a half.

Also, please make a skin bank for pve. It is far too punishing to acquire a one-use skin and the never be able to replace it because you’ll forever lose that rare skin.

The same is true for new skills. It took over a year for the first new skill to be made, and it was really just a story skill. The second skill came soon after, but it’s just a healing skill. I imagined there would be new skills released quickly, like once a month per job. These could be bought with skill points, money, karma, or obtained on a quest.

Overall, I feel like GW2 has entirely abandoned horizontal progression. I had hoped that horizontal progression would send us on quests to gain hard-to-find and rare things. Whether it be many quests for a legendary or a simple quest for a new skill, GW2 would keep me busy with fun quests and long-term goals that aren’t just grinding. And, yes, in this dream, there are still many grindy skins and skills so completionists can be at it all day for weeks.

Signed. Anet, please slow down and make your game good. I feel like the gem store has been a curse. For funding the game, it is bringing out the worst in development. Not enough QA, throwaway story, quick cadence, and constant pointing to the gem store all to sell items on the gem store. I want a game first, not a gem store.

Can we discuss the trade-offs to developing Living World.

From what I have seen of comments and interviews, it seems that Anet is not planning on making an expansion. Or, at least, if an expansion is to come, it is not being actively developed and will not be done any time soon. The reason given is Living World. In essence, Anet has traded working on an expansion for LW. It has been over a year, has this been a good trade?

I would say no. If this were an MMO with planned expansions, an expansion would be announced about now in its life cycle. That expansion would be coming out in the next six months. That expansion would include multiple (likely 5) new full zones. Included would also be a full story for this expansion, likely continuing the personal story in a meaningful way. This expansion would also include new races and classes. This expansion would have been where upgraded crafting would have gone. This would also have included additional skills for classes. All this would have come out between now and 6 months from now, or about 1.5 years after release of the game.

Instead we have LW. LW has given us one new zone, tiny and incomplete. LW has given us a stilted LW story, disconnected from the personal story and of no consequence to the player or the world as a whole. LW has given us one new skill, made almost exclusively for time-limited content. LW has given us extended crafting, but stranded us with no new recipes of consequence to fill the gap between 400 and 500 (I expect armor will come soon with no new recipes there as well). LW has failed to provide new races or classes.

What are your thoughts on these trade-offs?

I do not mean to discuss holiday content, QoL updates, class balancing, PvP and WvW updates, skins, bug fixes, or graphical updates, as those should be ongoing regardless of expansion releases or LW updates.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Regarding Cadence of release: This is not something we plan to change in terms of timing and I wanted to make that clear from the outset. However the points raised around achievements being too time consuming is something that I do acknowledge and something we have already taken steps to address both in terms of overall time to complete and the nature of the repetitive achievements. We will continue to make strides in this area and are aware that the current time requirement also cuts in to the player’s ability to achieve goals in other aspects of the game.

Why won’t the cadence of releases be changed? Why are we locked into two week releases? Please answer this simple question.

MeGaZlo.9516:

After so many problems caused by the sylvari, people shoud hate them all. Racially motivated conflicts, harassment, scuffles, deaths of innocents. The underground opposition groups… etc. Why not to develop this theme?

This is one of the most original and believable ideas I have seen here. This is the type of thinking that LW needs.

Sadly, humanity (meaning conscious humanoids) tend to have racism. It’s easier than solving problems to just blindly blame a people. And, with the newness of Sylvari, you’d think there’d be a strong racism stripe against them in the game. Furthermore, with Sylvari attacking everyone, that would only fuel this myopic view. This idea is beautiful in it’s simplicity and depth.