Guild Wars 2

Having played on a pvp server on tera and engaged in duels on Lotro – sure, why not, as long as there are certain limitations to it.
Open-world pvp – limited to specific newly added server(s).
Duel – should come with an auto-deny request and/or restricted to specific areas in the vicinity of the biggest outposts.

However like one poster mentioned above, priority should rather be given to finally bringing the current pvp out of its open beta.

#madcuzbad

I’d much rather have them re-do the character presets or simply copy paste the presets from GW; at least then it wouldn’t have required me hours to make a somewhat functional pretty face/haircut without looking like a lolita in the process, which is why I honestly question whether the one in charge of character design is in fact a pedobear.

But..but….they said you dont needz it!
BiS, optimal play…it’s all in your heads, you thilly muppets!
Time to re-condition your way of thinking as to be more in line with the game’s vision to have BS…I mean BiS gear by the time you’re 80!

Who knows, perhaps the ‘i’ in the manifesto’s ‘BiS’ was but a typo all along-

Maximum Potato.5923:

The stat increase is VERY minimal (Zerkers gear gives 3 more precision per piece than exotic) and is only really necessary for perfectionists/crafting enthusiasts.

orly?

phys.7689:

naiasonod.9265:

Dave.2536:

You forgot the most important stat: weapon strength. That gives you the remaining half of the 10-12%.

Actually, its trinkets that have the most dramatic effects. Edit: stat-wise, I should specify. Trinkets have the most dramatic stat-based effect. Armor’s is comparatively insignificant on its own (before infusions get factored for on either end).

I’ll make an example out of greatswords for brevity’s sake.

Exotic greatsword
Weapon Strength: 995-1100
Primary: 179
Secondary: 128
Secondary: 128

Ascended greatsword
Weapon Strength: 1045-1155
Primary: 188
Secondary: 134
Secondary: 134

Stat-wise, the differences are present but fairly negligible on their own. The difference in Weapon Strength must be assessed by contrasting their integer values via this equation —

Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

Now, just eyeballing that equation, I can tell you that you might very well be right, since the multipliers of weapon strength and power would are both increased in Ascended.

Someone with the time to dig up skill coefficients want to math out a contrast? I’d love to, but I’m typing from my phone at work.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2o8efo/full_exotic_vs_full_ascended_gear_how_large_is/

full ascended versus full exotic with a power focus is minimally about 11% difference in damage, not counting more complex factors like crit rate and crit dmg (which can only increase the difference)

this also doesnt consider the stat boosts from infusions (which can add up to a lot actually)+5 power across 13 slots? so 65 power?

so yeah thats actually a very noticeable difference in damage.

as for the people saying armor is worthless, the main benefit is reducing damage, not the main stats. lets say its only 5% more defense, that makes a big difference when you start considering survivability heals/etc.

point is, the type of gains you get from ascended are actually pretty noticeable between full ascended and full exotic. killing 15% faster and taking % less damage can totally change what playstyles are available to you in order to win an encounter.

&

naiasonod.9265:

DeceiverX.8361:

naiasonod.9265:

I wouldn’t say that ascended is negligible in power builds, especially the zerk meta.

Just gonna be honest here; its not negligible at all where the Power stat is concerned. For anything additive…yeah, pretty negligible. Anything multiplicative? Not so negligible.

I’d really have to argue otherwise. I kept very close detail of the difference between parts/set, and I can assure you that the difference is still absolutely negligible even under maximal multiplicative capacity.

Unless you’d like to argue that a 300% damage modifier isn’t good enough for multiplicative results – my thief build does indeed pack quite the hefty sum of multipliers.

The damage difference between ascended gear and exotics in terms of my absolutely bonkers damage scaling is…

Around 5 percent, still.

It’s actually really, really negligible.

according to the max presented, full ascended with full power infusions (5 more power) per slot(total 65) will give you 11%

that doesnt include effective damage from crit, and crit rate
so yeah its a noticeable difference

with crit rate and ferocity, assuming a power crit dmg trait set, it would be a difference of 24% over time.

so yeah, full ascended? not so negligible.

now, do you need ascended to win? aka dps checks? not really, are their some things you can burn than you cant burn if you are in all exotics? yeah.

is it a noticeable difference? definately.

very minimal indeed.
kitten (I cannot believe d*rp is censored)

Vayne.8563:

I didn’t skip anything. I have 15,000 hours in Guild Wars 1, actively went after the lucky title and still don’t have it.

How many hours you got in GW is irrelevant. If all you tried was farm rings during events, while ignoring double week pts and other ways of obtaining the pts then you just made things last longer that necessary. And obv it’s grind, but it’s no where near the level and impact of, let’s say, ascended.

Vayne.8563:

Everyone that I ever played Guild Wars 1 with spoke about how grindy certain titles were including that. I think you’re deliberately trying to mislead people.

Giving my own experience equals deliberately misleading ppl? The entire forum is one big misleading device in that case, and you’re no exception to that.
I simply don’t think you exhausted all options but just went for the simplest and the most boring of them.

Vayne.8563:

Even people who don’t generally agree with me will tell you the lucky title was grindy as hell. Nor have I met anyone who didn’t think the Luxon/Kurzick titles were grindy as hell.

Idk about you, but I got r12 kurzick simply by playing AB. Not to mention they substantially buffed the faction gain in said format, albeit that ought being done much sooner.

Vayne.8563:

You can insist, you can quote, you can try anything you want, but those that actually played Guild Wars 1 know the truth.

Yea, which is why I wonder what were YOU playing, or smoking while playing.

Vayne.8563:

I won’t answer you any more on this issue, because I’ve already proven it with links to the wiki.

Good for you. I stand with what I said about wiki, and it’s up to the reader to decide for themselves, as you like saying. Unlike you, I still play the game, and apparently more of it too compared to your zone of activity.

(continued)

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

No, no it is. You’re just not admitting it.

Cannot admit something that isn’t true. Surely some grind was there, but it wasn’t even close to as impactful or mind-boggingly boring as it was on GW2. Perhaps the generic loot table and the associated lack of a good reward system are too blame in that regard.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Hyperbole? No. I literally had an UW run where every drop was a blue or purple Cane. We all had a good laugh about it. No trophies at all, just Canes. Any time I opened an end chest on an EOTN dungeon, I usually called “Diamond or Onyx” before opening and . . . yup.

So you had 1 run that had kittenty rewards. Great, I’ve also had quite a few here and there where I’d die too fast or just got really unlucky, and then I had runs where I’d get up to 5 ecto or shards per run. I’m talking duo fow/uw here though, as I rarely went into UW with a full group to clear the entire place…I did however clear FoW quite a few times with a full group, and it usually netted quite a few shards, including the end chest drops.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Not hyperbole. I lived it.

We all have our unhappy moments. I once had a broad head arrow hit me through a 75% block stance + guardian on top of it; another time I had a ranger dshot my elite through blind, which is 90% miss chance. Tough luck~

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I don’t care about PvP, and every time I try another MMO they wind up boring me to tears with the grind about halfway through. Plus, they generally require more out of my PC specs than I’m willing to spend upgrading to . . .

That’s a pity, because GW pvp is the best and most enjoayble you will ever find in an mmo. But you can only realize that once you get the hang of it, and experience the lack of such a well-designed concept in other games.

DavidH.7380:

They aren’t needed to complete content (other than the same fractals at higher levels), but they are needed to give stat oriented players who aren’t interested in cosmetics something relatively meaningless to sink large amounts of time into obtaining.

As I understand it, if you bumped exotics up to ascended stats it wouldn’t really do much to improve the experience of players in exotics, but it would deeply upset a lot of players who invested a lot of time and effort into obtaining a very small stat increase and then had even that very small benefit taken back.

Like many supporters claim, the game wasn’t aimed at stat-oriented people. Even so, they could have implemented progression in a different manner rather than doing a full turn on their original policy, which was apparently even intended from the get-go.
But why please a demographic the game wasn’t intended for?

How would experience not be improved if exotics and ascended became equal in stats? It’s not a mere 5% change, after all. And like I said, ascended stats should be made exchangeable in the process, so it’s a win-win scenario. Moreover, if the advantage was as insignificant as people like to claim, why getting upset to start with? If the benefit is as small and insignificat as touted (Buran’s post seems to be suggesting the opposite), no one should really be upset at anyone but themselves for going through the trouble of obtaining something that is supposedly of negligable effect.

That aside, it’s a win-win situation because the gear would no longer become scrap material if a skill balance happens to nerf a particular build/gear setup, but would allow the player to adjust the stats accoringly.

Vayne.8563:

It’s not just titles. ~snip for brevity~.

Seems you have skipped the other XY ways of obtaining (un)lucky points (you gain pts when opening chests with locks, when using clovers, when salvaging …). Perhaps you should have done more research. And I suppose I’ve just been ‘lucky’ than that my test sample of 100 tickets didn’t drain all that fast. However I am not interested in maxing out either of those titles, which is why my sample might have been too small to judge…but my overall track record shows I’m considerably more unlucky than lucky, so hmm.

Vayne.8563:

And even then I only maxed unlucky and not lucky. ~snip for brevity~

I’m not buying the talk how hard/expensive it is, especially not with repeatable double point weeks and so many alternative ways of gaining them. I doubt the wiki accounts for those though.

Vayne.8563:

I’m pretty sure the wiki page is more accurate than your memory. It matches my memory pretty well.

And it doesn’t match mine at all. Perhaps it’d be diff if I had chosen the ring afking as the only source of pts, but concluding from the few attempts I did, I usually had a slightly higher ticket gain than loss.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

True, you can earn points doing that. ~snip for brevity~

I didn’t even bother doing the math for ascended, because crafting the cook title alone got my jaded enough to vow I’d never go down that rabbit hole again.
At least AFKing doesn’t fry your brain in the process..unless you wish to observe the scenery. But in that case, you might as well go watch paint dry .

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Yet it was still there, so it counts.

It counts as evidence of how GW2 decreased the quality of game experience on GW, if anything, because you could see a significant shift in the general approach to the game in both pvp and pve. Since the shift involved adding a load of grindy zero-content titles and skill balances which are extremely similar to GW2 style of balancing, I cannot see it as anything but redundant and not added to the original for its own sake.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

You’re going to need to explain how 75k per prestige armor set wasn’t something which bogged you down. Or the need for Jadite/Amber.

I think you’ll first have to explain how the farm for kurzick/lux elite armor is comparable to the grind for ascended. For starters, the former isn’t 1) time gated; 2) demanding massive amounts of basic materials (the amounts are reasonable and obtained rather quickly from salvaging alone); 3) requiring significant amounts of rare material (again, jade/amber are obtainable directly from many diff sources which ranges from quest rewards, monster drops, JQ and FA in pve and AB in pvp); 4) does not require you to max out a craft proffession which will be mostly useless outside the particular purpose; and 5) does not raise your stats above the cheapest BiS obtained at droknar’s.

(to be continued in 30min)

“You want dueling and seem to think there’d be nothing but smurfcakes and roses coming of it. Because dueling would somehow be different here than in every other stinking MMO in which its a common factor?”

I wouldn’t mind it if was a feature, but I don’t have a paricular want for it, nor dislike of it. And hey, everyone is saying GW2 is completely different from other mmos, and how much better the community is! But I rest my case on this part, as it has already been nicely addressed by Kartel.

In general much of my own experience with dueling coincides with that of Kartel, which is why I cannot see your anti-duel policy as anything else but blowing things out of proportion to appeal to readers’ emotions rather than to analyze raw pros and cons of the feature as such.

Now you’re just spreading false information. All you had to do was buy a starting amount of, let’s say 100 tickets, which are extremely cheap to come by btw, and let the automated process do its thing.
It was extremely unlikely that the amount of tickets would hit 0 because the wins normally offset losses, depending on what ring you chose to sit in. if you’re after the unlucky title, you’d likely have to spend more, but granted you started with the lucky title first (for which, sitting in middle ring was usually the best) you’d have plenty of tickets to tackle the unlucky title. And again, much like its counterpart, the points can be obtained through many different activities and items.

Then there are the double lucky/unlucky title point weeks, and the points you obtain from retaining lockpicks, retaining items when salvaging, from special festivity items, and many many others. Honestly, double weeks have sped up those title grinds a great deal.

Lastly, what’s the point in complaining over something as unimpactful as titles? You quote my entire post, yet only respond to the most irrelevant part of it. At least edit out the parts you aren’t addressing to add more clarity and readability to your posts.

@ naiasonod
1) Wait, you’re concerned about forum uproar because of misbalances in 1v1, or perhaps about map chat complaining? Well, you’re a tad bit late on that; those issues have been brought up frequently over the last 2 years in the pvp forum section, because class balance is a greater concern there.
Also, last time I checked, you could turn off chat tabs at will, or was that changed?
But again, are you really concerned about others complaining? I remember you said even in this thread how you had no regard for other people’s opinion, so I am somewhat at a loss now.

2) Classes were designed with self-sufficiency in mind. In practice, each one should at least have a fighting chance vs the other (speccing aside), so if imbalances receive more spotlight, then at least pvp will get an extra case to argue for changes. However the issue would be compounded by gear-related imbalances, but then again, everyone defending ascended does keep on repeating how that tiny lil mini negligable advantage is irrelevant.
On as side note, since you don’t pvp, that wouldn’t affect your gaming experience as such either, as the moaning would be reserved to places outside your activity zones.

3) On the last paragraph – again, chill your beans, as I don’t think forum discussions are worth to have a heart attack over.
Threads about class (im)balance have been a frequent occurence over at the pvp side for the past 2 years, and 1v1 could easily be a subset of WvW, because it’s virtually the same environment minus the player vs zerg, player vs wall, and zerg vs zerg parts.

@Astralporing, given the potency of dps vs cc/support in pve compared to the their potency in pvp – the latter utilizes cc and support to a far greater extent – I can but conclude the system was originally designed for pvp, because pve fails to utilize, due to ill monster design, a great majority of the options in the cc/support department, unless having dps as the be-all end-all of pve had been an intention from the very begining. That would at least shed some light on the reasons why mob encounters were designed in such an subpar manner.

@Adaephon
There are no guild halls, you thilly bean! Even if the expansion will be adding those, there’s no guarantee they will actually have such functionality, or any for that matter.
And sure, dueling can be reserved to special arenas, but I cannot really understand the paranoia around having it as an extra feature elsewhere, too.

Now now, no need to get so worked up and blow up snarky stinky bombs al over the thread. I’m having a hard time believing I’m typing to the same person who wrote the post I absolutely loved only a few days ago; I get a completely different wibe compared to it, at least. Multi-user account, perhaps, or just moody?

The hyperbole exageration was mostly reserved as a reply to the second paragraph and the last few lines of the ending paragraph btw.
Moreover, like I said, if it’s implemented properly you don’t need to ‘deal with it’ any more than with people who flame you for failing this event or that dungeon. Or should we have those removed, together with all of pvp and wvw, because people might put flame and blame others when the activity fails?
Rather than my liking the feature (I definitely don’t mind it, however), I moreso think you’re blowing things out of proportions.

@AdaephonDelat, you could duel in GW by inviting people to your guild hall and start a match. It was instanced, simple and easy, and I especially liked doing dodgeball with fact cast 55hp mesmers trying to hit each other with lightning orb, the concept of which was later on implemented as the Dragon Arena.

Duelling in persistent world was something I first experienced in Lotro, and later on a pvp server in Tera. I usually duelled when waiting to do something else, or just to pass time when bored – people who harrass others ad nauseum for duels are likely to do so in other activities, too – so I I truly have a hard time understanding all this paranoia around dueling. And like I said, a dedicated arena at a major town’s outskirts sounds ok, too.

naiasonod.9265:

My wife, who’ll never post on this forum but games with me regularly, just said in respect to this topic "How many times in how many of these games have you and I had to deal with some jerk spamming duel requests? I still remember that idiot in Champions that used to troll around RP spots, trying to start RP fights with people only to bully them into dueling. I don’t remember a single occasion in which dueling was ever useful or necessary though.

And I think anyone trying to say ‘oh, but it’ll let people get better at pvp’ are very likely nothing more than trollfaced little monsters that desperately hope ArenaNet is stupid enough to give them their favorite tool to bully and harass other people and demand attention from total strangers.

God, I hope they never include dueling in this game, or I’m sorry, but the first time I see some little pop-up about how ‘Wangberry Juggs wants to duel you- Accept or Decline’ when I’m trying to effing sell my crap and put things in the bank will be the day I delete this game from my computers and never look at it again. I have had it with that bullkitten. No more. And I do not care if they include some opt-out button. No. Effing. More.’

And that, she and I are in utterly blissful agreement on. Cheerio.

Close your eyes and take a deep breath, slowly. Feeling better?

I’m not sure which part of automatic decline option you happened to miss. It means no requests are popping up, and if some feel like whining about it, it’s little different from people barking at others for a failed dungeon/event.
I think it’d bring enough practical benefits to the table to be worth the negatives you seem to be so upset about.

Also, if you wish to go bonkers on the hyperbole, so can I, so let’s go for a ride to the land of over 9000:
GW2 is the perfect game for your Kiddo Kid Toddler, Joe Pve Casual, and Grandpa XXXX+ demographic because of the lack of challenge, lack of content, and lack of anything meaningful [insert stuff ranging from story to pvp], because the former aren’t gamers in a real sense of the word, and the latter are too old to be. In other words, it’s the McDonalds of mmos.

See, it’s that simple to play on hyperboles, and I actually don’t think I missed the mark by all that much, either.

serenke.4806:

Karla please remove the pink glasses when it comes to GW1. The grind in GW1 was more real than in GW2 because you had no choice what you did to get something. For example, if you wanted to get ectos, you had to do the underworld, if you wanted obsidian shards, you had to do FoW. Also running every dungeon with 8 A/x with the same 4 first skills was hardly ingenious, if anything it was more dumb because half of your team’s skills were exactly the same.

No choice? wut. Getting ascended leaves you with no choice but crafting. Getting obsidian gives you loads of choices now, and had quite a few options back then, too. You could go to whatever zone where rare items dropped, or collect and sell/salvage standard mats for money and then purchase ecto/shards from other player, for example. With zaishen keys and reward chests now dropping from all 3 pvp formats, you can easily sell trade those for said items. There is no pink glasses, bud, I still play the game on a daily basis.
As for assassins, shadow form is an abomination that ought being nerfed to the ground or reworked in a way that doesn’t trivialize all pve content. If anything, it made farming for the rarest items quite a joke, and is most definitely not something I support.

serenke.4806:

It’s one thing if you are upset about ascended gear being present but it’s actually only required for one single instance (fractals 50) and since doing fractals 50 is not really worth doing since you get more gold from AC in less time, there is no real advantage there.

Also, following the same “no grind” policy, you can get ascended gear from any part of the game PvP, WvW and PvE without ever crafting anything.

Unintentionally you have pointed out a critical flaw in the rewarding system, where the most challenging content gives mediocre rewards.
Also, to refrain from repeating myself on on the whole need/required part, I’ll once again paste a part of my older post:
If something is not needed, if might as well not be there to start with. Ascended doesn’t add anything to the game, and it would be a win-win situation if exotics would be bumped up to ascended level in terms of stats.
If anyone wants to complain about this, remember, the gear wasn’t needed to start with – outside fractals, that is (the agony resistance should stay intact).
To at least somewhat justify the cost, I would also make the gear ‘slotted’, i.e. have the ability to swap out, with no additional cost, the stats/runes according to your current needs and desires – exactly like the gear functions in pvp.

And like aerial said, you could go do w/e you wanted to and make solid income, depending on the activity, because the game isn’t as unrewarding as GW2. Not to mention rewards in GW scale with difficulty, unlike the case is here.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Gamer title track, Lucky/Wisdom/Treasure Hunter title tracks, pursuit of a full Monument of Valor or Resilience, and for the oldschool – Obsidian Armor.

Lucky/unlucky titles can be obtained literally by afking in the lottery rings during special events. HoM is just a random add-on for GW2 purposes, and as such completely irrelevant to GW. Obsi armor can be obtained at a steady pace (talking months here, not years)through various means, and ecto drop rate wasn’t a 0.0000…1% chance, so a normal duo farm nets a few each time, while a full party clearing the zone likely got quite a few more in total. And to repeat myself, there was no time gating, so if you got a lucky drop from w/e and sold it for a nice buck, you could obtain it even faster. And once more, the drop rates aren’t nearly as abysmal as they are on GW2. Oh and did I mention there was no wasteful crafting to further bog you down?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

If you want to claim no statistical advantage out of those, Lucky/Treasure Hunter affects a considerable amount when it comes to the lockpicking. And Wisdom was very useful for retaining items after salvaging out upgrades.

As long as I hit the next guy/mob as hard as the GWAMM guy next to me and have the same chance of loot as him, I don’t mind it at all. Also, your point on wisdom title is void now that players can use the perfect salvaging kit. Before it, you simply salvaged the inscription you wanted and hoped you’d retain the item, or simply replace upgrades with others, if item skin was what you were after…

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It’s in the same galaxy, at least.

It honestly is not.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

This usually resulted in people making those builds, then posting them, and others carbon-copying them. And it was mind-numbingly boring, running trapper-Ranger on the tengu for Feathers. Especially since it wasn’t all that difficult to stay alive, come to think of it.

You can always try places that are more difficult to stay alive, if doing the same thing over felt boring to you. I’m sure there are plenty of places more rewarding than tengu-inhabited zones.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Seven years and five Ectoplasm drops. And one Shard drop. I never saw any of the high-ticket skins except in Req 13 where nobody wanted them, and even then it was a Gothic Sword. Low on the list.

Hyperbole much? I had around 7 shard drops in duo FoW just a few weeks ago with a friend. After that run I had a 5 drop run+ gold items. I do hope you’re not passing your judgement off a single or a couple of runs where you got the short end of the loot stick.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Honestly, GW was where I learned to stop wanting to do things for that chance at sweet reward loot and more for the heck of it. Especially the four hour Urgoz run, which was the most ill-fated fun I had in a game since the failed Sleeper’s Tomb raid I sat in on.

Funny, my experience seems to be almost the polar opposite of yours, which is why I tend to hold other mmos to such high standards and frown upon gear threadmills, gear-critical pvp, rigid class roles and lack of concepts such as body blocking, preprotting, smiting, active interrupting, linebacking, etc.

Serophous.9085:

Bernie.8674:

Serophous.9085:

GW1 had plenty of grind with its faction grind and grinding for ectos. Then grinding the same mob over and over again for its rare drop.

But there were also many title tracks that were not so grindy. Legendary Vanquisher, for example. Also, I got full sets of BiS end game gear by simply playing through story lines. We didn’t hit level 20 only to discover that we were going to be collecting silk for the next year or so before being able to craft our BiS gear. Plus, there were tricks to reducing your grind in GW1. Soloing high end mobs was feasible with certain builds, and three-manning eight-man content was often effective as well.

Because some elements of not so grindy doesn’t mean there isn’t grind. Its still grind. There are tricks to reducing the grind in gw2 as well. But its still grind.

GW grind is not even on the same galaxy as the grind in this game, buddy. Not to mention that farming whatever content in GW heydays usually meant making/using ingenious builds in an unorthodox manner, so it was not exactly a mind-numbing experience. It was actually rather challenging to farm for whatever with a build you’ve made yourself, or looked it up, but more often than not, and depending what you chose to go after, farming was rewarding, because not all high-end items had a 0,00000…1% drop chance, and a single mo/nec duo run to UW would net a few ecto minimum.

Also, to refrain from repeating myself on your argument of need, I’ll copy paste a part of my older post:
If something is not needed, if might as well not be there to start with. Ascended doesn’t add anything to the game, and it would be a win-win situation if exotics would be bumped up to ascended level in terms of stats.
If anyone wants to complain about this, remember, the gear wasn’t needed to start with – outside fractals, that is (the agony resistance should stay intact).
To at least somewhat justify the cost, I would also make the gear ‘slotted’, i.e. have the ability to swap out, with no additional cost, the stats/runes according to your current needs and desires – exactly like the gear functions in pvp.

Adding such functionality would at least somewhat justify the brain and mental damage most players have to experience in the process. Naturally, decreasing the overall cost goes without saying, because it’s still massively blown out of proportions.

maddoctor.2738:

It DOES matter. And that’s by design, there is reason we don’t have targeted heals / buffs in the game. So nobody ends up standing still raising red bars instead of focusing on the enemy. Applying Support and Control through action on the enemy and good positioning.

That’s a logical fallacy, as one does not preclude the other. Why should applying defensive/offensive buffs and ccing be done better without heal/prot support? The latter actually adds to the overall depth, because people would no longer be able to simply unload their bars on a target and watch it go 100-0 if its defense skills happened to be on recharge, but would instead have to shutdown the source of healing first, or adjust their play to overload the enemy’s defenses.

Moreover, it is as important for healers/prot classes to focus on the enemy as it is for the dmg/cc classes, because not seeing the damage/shutdown coming usually spells defeat.

maddoctor.2738:

Actually Support plays the most important role in encounters. Players who follow the “meta” and the actually good builds are indeed maximizing boons via weapons / skills and runes / sigils. Check the list again for some of the options.

That’s just normal, not good.

maddoctor.2738:

You don’t need to maximize boon duration and healing power to provide support

And that is a pretty large design flaw, as it makes (dedicated) support obsolete. Having everyone function as a one-man army makes for a rather flat game experience, because in a place where damage is king, providing effective support without having to spec in it one bit in effect makes other play styles obsolete. Sure you can bring your full cleric guardian or ele, or even a necro, but then again, you can also fight naked and without a weapon.

maddoctor.2738:

Yet that’s exactly what is happening, condition removals and better boon stacking is always important in runs. There are even builds like Phalanx Warrior who trade quite a bit of their personal DPS to provide more boons to the party, for an overall better and smoother run.

No one is saying it’s not important. We’re saying that genuine support has a side role compared to dmg and even to cc, and that goes far beyond mere field blasting and boon stacking. I am convinced that targetted support encompassing everything from heal to prot and buffing/debuffing could have been far more potent than the current shout-range aoe/party-wide support, and would have opened up new roles around which more challenging pve encounters could be designed, while also substantially increasing the depth of pvp.

Vayne.8563:

Right the dozens of people that are against it have no sense because you disagree with it. But there is sense to it. It’s sense born of our personal experiences. You can’t make sense of it if you didn’t have those experiences.

But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have sense. There are too many people against it for all of us not to be making sense. Though I understand that you don’t get it, that doesn’t mean there isn’t something to get.

Maybe I’m just not that sensitive? Beats me, auto decline option worked fine on Lotro, and I’ve never seen any map chat ‘harassement’ about someone not wanting to duel, not to mention there’s always the ignore function, if someone is being an annoying prick. Dueling would mostly happen at the outskirts of major cities, so the rest of the game world was rather peaceful in that regard.

But I also support Azrael’s suggestion for dedicated duel zones at major towns, together with the static field idea. I simply think having this option would add to an otherwise lacklustre pve experience, and can be used to do quick build testing, skill honing, for funz and whatnot.

Aidan Savage.2078:

JustTrogdor.7892:

Aidan Savage.2078:

GW2 is not a PVP game.

Actually it is very much a PvP game. 2 of the 3 game modes, PvP and WvW, allow for player verses player combat. I prefer to keep it that way and leave PvE out of it for those of us that are not interested in or don’t want to see player verses player activities.

Due to that separation, along with what the majority of content is, GW2 is not a pvp game. Yes, it has pvp. That doesnt make it a pvp game. Archeage is a pvp game.

True, although pvp/pve separation isn’t an indicator that a game isn’t, or at least wasn’t pvp-oriented. Once upon a time in a faraway land of alpha, GW2 was likely being build exclusively with pvp in mind (and to an extent, that primordial idea still shows in the present lack of meaningful pve experience), but people went bonkers and did a 180° turn, creating this oversized mess of a pve, while leaving pvp in shambles.

ITT: A lot of paranoia over a pretty harmless feature.
Harassment, you say? Hello automatic decline option.
I would duel from time to time on Lotro, and I was on pvp servers in tera…and truth be told, I cannot understand this anti-duel attittude for the life of me.
Wtf are ppl so afraid of.
Sense. There isn’t any~

Well, GW’s soft trinity is brilliant in that regard, and should have been adopted for GW2. Everyone being a one-man-army just doesn’t fly with me at all.

It’s extremely situational and as such, rather hard to pin down the exact percentage, but the chances of winning vs a no-mo team are somewhere between 80 and 90%, depending on the skill level and setup of your enemy team as well as your own.

On topic, GW has a soft trinity where the roles aren’t set in stone, and where a single character often needs to perform various different styles of play***, but a player cannot be completely self-sufficient because the game is build on the concept of team-play.
However that shouldn’t stop you from rolling a solo build and just have fun roaming about in pve for a while. I really love(d) making specially designed farm builds to farm specific bosses as a 55hp/600hp mo tank, for instance.

Are YOU not paying attention? I said it takes a bit of extra care on the player’s end, and reading/checking item names and the amount specified in the money section. If you’re either careless or simply lazy than paying extra is surely the preferable option.

Moreover, whenever the initial offer would be changed, a large red text popped up saying the offer was changed. If people are both blind and illiterate on top of careless and lazy, then by all means do cough up the extra money. I however found it rather silly to have only one option, and saw little reason why there wasn’t also a direct and upfront, fee-less trade option on top of the standard TP trading.

Moreover, where exactly did I state such things ’weren’t happening’? You’re just pushing your assumptions here based on me saying I had no ill experience. I’m aware of every single one of those, as a matter of fact, which is why I always took extra care with those things. How preposterous of me.

It’s all about being informed and paying attention, something that tends to be rather useful not only in a virtual but also rl environment.

Outside a few random wts/wtbs here and there, I don’t remember seeing All chat flodded by trade spam.

The reason I didn’t have issues is because I took enough care and caution when trading. For prices, I’d do a PC on guru (or observe the trade tab for a while) or ask those more knowledgable about the items in question. And I rather do a little bit of extra work than pay a fee each time I want to sell something.

I know they won’t do it. Like I said, the current system is more practical as it spares them a lot of customer support work, but I just don’t think that the downsides that come with TP are something that should be ignored or even accepted.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Secondly, it’s an insulation against scamming – if you want to be sure you’re not getting scammed? To the Trading Post instead of the nice charr you just met today who said he’ll give you 5g for that Superior Rune, but you need to send him the rune first since his mail system is bugged.

Also, no Spamadan. That, alone, is worth the tax.

. . . you’re not listening to some of the people anyway, given what followed this statement. The reasons to not have person-to-person trading have been cited, and experienced, by many of us GW1 veterans.

How could scamming be a problem in player-to-player trading when anyone could simply do a quick check on the average price at the TP?

Moreover, GW trading took place in a special trade-only chat tab, which you could – like any other chat tab – turn on/off very easily.
So the argument on wtb/wts spamming map chat is moot, as one could simply turn it off.

I see no real downsides to p2p trading unless you’re being extremely careless and don’t even read or don’t even check the amount of money specified in the trade window……..

I also never got scammed, or had any real issues with trading as such, so yea.

As for reasons against the TP, flipping and money rip-off (or money sinks, as some like to call them) make for rather strong cases. Mind that not everyone is sitting on bags of cash, because some of us actually play(ed) those parts of the game that didn’t end up frying our brain due to sheer boredom and mindlessness. Sadly those parts are/were typically unrewarding.

Lastly, the reason why TP was introduced instead of p2p trading? Simple. Given the target demographic and the sheer number of players they anticipated, having an idiot-proof solution was likely considered more practical in the long run, saving them thousands of support tickets in the process. Afterall, your typical usual Joe Pve Casual is a pretty silly and careless chap.

naiasonod.9265:

I’m working on my fourth set of Ascended gear here in GW2

Gz. I kinda gave up on getting full exotics after using up the karma points I farmed up from the old map clearing/dailies on a few pieces, and with karma jugs out the window, I found the alternatives not worth the brain damage they would likely cause. As a pvp person who spent most of their time in what was a tremendously unrewarding and often frustrating pvp experience (no team, no win), that pretty much sealed the deal for me, as I found myself quitting not too long ago after.

naiasonod.9265:

You can get exotic gear here in GW2 with karma off Orr vendors.

Yea, but if you aren’t big on wvw’s ZvZ, or dynamic event trains, karma sources karma might quickly become somewhat of an issue. Or at least, I wasn’t aware of alternatives aside from the said two sources once they removed karma jugs from dailies/map completion (or was it just dailies? I don’t quite remember anymore.)

naiasonod.9265:

BiS doesn’t carry the same weight here as it does in a raidy-gear grindy treadmill game anyway.

Full exotics is all anyone will ever need for anything other than high-tier fractals, and fractals aren’t ‘The Endgame Woo’ at all.

I’m rather disappointed to see you go down the path of the brain-washed. This particular issue of needing vs requiring has been debunked quite well in this thread, surely you couldn’t have missed it.

If something is not needed, if might as well not be there to start with. Ascended doesn’t add anything to the game, and it would be a win-win situation if exotics would be bumped up to ascended level in terms of stats.
If anyone wants to complain about this, remember, the gear wasn’t needed to start with – outside fractals, that is (the agony resistance should stay intact).
To justify the cost, I would also make the gear ‘slotted’, i.e. have the ability to swap out, with no additional cost, the stats/runes according to your current needs and desires – exactly like the gear functions in pvp.

naiasonod.9265:

You’re not in Kansas anymore. Skill and Knowledge are BiS here. And lemme tell ya, you can’t farm for that.

What is skill and knowledge? Experience. And what is experience? Exactly, learning through repetition and in a wide range of different scenarios. Or in short, grind.

Since I reckon you’re refering to pve (given the context of BiS), I need to emphasize that ‘skill’ in pve directly translates to having the script learned by heart, which is not really ‘skill’ in the most generic meaning of the expression.
Skill in pvp, however, is a whole different beast, and that even though this game’s pvp falls flat compared to the original.

To players with various sensitivities to flashing animations or light effects – are you trying to end yourself by playing a game that’s loaded with rainbow ponies and flashing lights popping out of virtually every skill your character uses?
A serious, if not rhetoric, question.

On topic: I think the social aspect of GW2 might just well be the sole good part about a game I otherwise find altogether inferior to the original in.
Overall, I can relate to the experiences players have posted about here, and understand very well from my own experience how impactful online games with a strong sense of community – in particular mmos (inc GW) – can be on one’s life, and the feeling of relief, accomplishment, and fun they are able to give.
To give an example of this impactfulness, two good guild mates and friends of mine (first online, later on also irl) eventually became business partners after playing together (very successfully, too) in a close-knit pvp guild for many years, with myself coincidentally helping them choose the name for their game studio.
So yes, games do change lives, and they can be lifestyles too. And as long as it was time well spent, no regrets should be had, disability or no disability.

^The curse of the f2p busines model.
owait

Hylgeriak.8250:

bunkering them while regularly playing the stuff you want and wait until you can efford it. There’s no content in GW2 that’s not entirelly doable without ascended gear

Blindly parroting dev rethorics doesn’t suddenly make things available by ‘doing your own thing’. That has been debunked many times in this very thread.
Moreover, if ascended is not needed for any type of content, it can either be removed entirely (also cuz fashion crime), or harmonized with the remaining gear as far as stats are regarded.

Hylgeriak.8250:

Have you ever played GW1?! Man, grinding those achievements there for the HoM titles was a pure nightmare (sweet tooth, party animal, etc etc).

Err, I mostly pvp on GW and I easily maxed out both of those titles you mention with the sweets and alco items from pvp reward chests. Vanquishing and cartographing are a different beast, but I have 30+ pts in HoM from 90% pvp with some added flavour of pve. Must be magic.

Similar to the posts above whining about players ‘creating’ grind for themselves, if you chose to make title acquisition a tiresome grind, the blame is on you – I obtained mine by doing the things that made fun, and I skipped those which felt tedious or boring.

Concerning your example, sweets and alcohol were readily available from myriad of sources, in particular during events, so neither of those were really tiresome to obtain, if you just play the game regularly. That is something which by NO means applies to the attrocity that is ascended armor/weaps.

This apologist talking reads a lot like voluntary self-inflicted brain-washing because people are hell bent on believing the game does things differently, when it actually doesn’t. Baffling.

Lazaar.9123:

KarlaGrey.5903:

How can people get scammed when they can always look up prices on the actual TP beforehand if they wish to use the lfg venue to sell/buy items..?

The problem is one side could just not mail their side of the deal. Which, happens fairly often.

Oh yea, I forgot there is no direct trading anymore………………………………..

How can people get scammed when they can always look up prices on the actual TP beforehand if they wish to use the lfg venue to sell/buy items..?

aerial.7021:

KarlaGrey.5903:

Pity or compassion only find somewhat of a place in all this if the ‘victim’ had no other option but to accept it against its wishes/needs. However this game does not fall into that category.

I disagree; some players (maybe) the vocal majority saying its “grindy” are victims, because they are addicted to a game they enjoy and that makes them a victim of circumstance, its like having a child you love him till his last breath but he does something constantly that you hate.

In that case the right way of action is to do your best to change it (aka provide player feedback), and once you feel like you’ve done everything in your power, either accept things as they are or re-think your decision and fight the addiction.
However inaction from the get-go leaves you without any real case/right to complain about the crap you’ve chosen -willingly or not – to be subjected to.
I wouldn’t compare it to a parent-child relation, however, unless the addiction would be an extremely serious condition.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Now, to point out back what I started with: Nobody deserves to be forcibly treated poorly. If they choose to? That’s their choice, and I would pity them for choosing it if there was a better option. But to say they deserve it because they didn’t insist on better or nothing? That’s the point I found insulting – a thinly veiled “they got what’s coming to them”. No, no, I reject the philosophy which says such and offers no pity, no compassion, but only contempt.

I’m really sorry. I know where you’re coming from and to a point, I could relate. But that point . . . no, no that’s a place I cannot plant my feet to stand. I think people deserve better.

It has little to do with whether the game is grindy or not (this is something which can be debated for about fifty pages, and my opinion has been noted several times thus far). It has to do with the general attitude of “they deserve it”.

In other words, if you choose to willingly tolerate something (unnecessary) you don’t find acceptable, you’ve got no case to argue. It’s irrelevant whether the source of ill-treatment is intentional or not. If you cannot tolerate something, either change it/contribute to changing it, or accept it us such and all the crap that comes with it. So it’s entirely correct and warranted to say ‘you had it coming’.

Pity or compassion only find somewhat of a place in all this if the ‘victim’ had no other option but to accept it against its wishes/needs. However this game does not fall into that category.

Lheimroo.2947:

They get an ‘E’ for effort on this one, but if we’re going to split hairs about it like we’re conniving boys trying to wheedle our way under our date’s prom dress, I’m disinterested in having the conversation at all.

SNORT.

Oh my god, thank you for making my day. Yes, you said what I wanted to say with all the comedic vitriol it deserved. I’d buy you a beer, dude.

Seconded.

Naiasonod – you gathered all of my sentiments in one masterful and brilliantly eloquent piece of a forum post, breaking down all that is wrong with the pve side of the game whilst spicing things up with splendidly witty comments.
Thank you.

Obtena.7952:

GW2 provides it’s own experience.

You mean, anti-experience.

‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.’
Ergo, a clear and obvious NO.

If you chose not to venture into pvp, which is/was more or less the main focus and also the best part of the game, then you simply missed out…the same applies if you just played one build throughout all 3 campaigns while skipping all the challenging high-end content.

Since people seem to be forgetting one important detail in all this mess of ‘oh but its not needed cuz reasons’, I’ll add that impotant part myself. (Edit: snap, munkiman already beat me to it)
What not (m)any realize is that, by linking stats to gear, whatever ascended set you might make is tied to a particular build, which means the current system is incredibly rigid in terms of build selection, because it locks you out of playing different builds to their maximum potential due to the grind associated with obtaining multiple sets of ascended armor.
This is a problem, and for multiple of reasons, such as builds growing out of flavour or becoming obsolete after balance changes, or them becoming boring because of the lack/inability to change them in a reasonable timeframe, or because you cannot adjust builds according to a particular zone or encounter (for better or for worse, the generic type of pve makes that less of an isssue..somewhat).
So few realize how incredibly inflexible the current system is, in particular compared to the free-building system of GW, and yet no one seems to have an issue with it. Baffling.
Twist and turn is all you want, this game’s BiS gear acquisition is and will remain a grind (hell, even exotics aren’t a breeze in the park), and the very worst kind of it, because gear comes with stats attached.
GW is the one and only where statistically best gear is obtainable with virtually no grind. You might not look super fancy in it, but you sure as hell hit just as hard as as the obby guy next to you.

Balancing around pvp does work, but only under the condition that the pve somewhat resembles the pvp – in GW, monsters use (for the most part, at least) the same skills players have access to. They also act in a similar way, and often times they’re even better and smarter (e.g. auto scatter on aoe) than your average Joe Pve.
Fast forward to GW2, where most mobs are large hp bags with hard hitting well-telegraphed (or not) nukes, never moving out of AoE or actively giving each other support, let alone healing themselves. If that was the case, they’d have much less hp to dig through while simultaniously having much more depth overall, requiring groups that actually utilize more than just the dmg aspect of the game with some extra might stacking.
Whoever came up with such mob designed pretty much sealed the deal for pve, which could’ve functioned much better, had the mob mechanics been more like those of real players.

That’d be my take on the matter, at least, as I don’t believe balancing around pvp (when the core mechanics are well-designed, that is) is inherently bad. It comes down to whether or not the pve was designed with pvp in mind, which is an obvious ‘no’ in GW2’s case. What a pity.

Aidan Savage.2078:

amax.8034:

@Filaha.1678 Thank you for your feedback, although most of this has already been answered I will try to provide an answer.

1. Hero Panel: -snipped for length-

My short perusal of your changes left me less than impressed. When you’re trying to redesign something, it’s to make it better, not make it worse by cluttering it with complete crap. You’ve got so much junk crammed onto the screen that it’s going to confuse more than help. “Locking” features behind levels as well is pointless. All of the current hero panel is available from a Day One state simply because it’s not cluttered, it’s clearly separated, and easy to navigate.

2. Guild Panel:-snipped for length-

To quote that npc in Sorrow’s Embrace; “No no no no. No no no no. No no no no.” Character portraits dont help immersion a squat in the guild menu. It’s a roster for god’s sake. Even in the half-baked world of RP in guild wars, this would at most be a document with names, like it currently is. If I’m looking at the guild interface, it’s because I want to see who’s on, what’s built, and what the guild resources are. NOT sorting through pictures of goku version 91873 through 91993.

- Achievement points -snipped for length-

FALSE. AP does not equate players that can help you. AP does not represent status nor importance. If you have a high AP count, it just means you whored yourself out during limited time events (IE LS season 1) and doing repetitive activities. It does not mean you know how to play their class, it does not mean you’re even good at your own. Additionally, quit with the false pretenses. If a new player is smart enough to open the guild panel, accept the guild invite, I’m fairly certain they’re smart enough to type /guild in the chat window. No answers from guild? Ask in /map chat. There’s bound to be someone experienced lurking on a map.

Status based off achievements is basing the entire concept around achievements actually being hard. They arent. Therefore achievements give about as much status as a legendary.

- there are quite a lot of people that join different guilds […] -snipped for length-

BS argument. Might have held water when teq had no designated time to spawn. But now? Teq used to spawn every 2 hours, and more or less spawns every 4 hours now. Members not knowing when to show up only happens for a bit until they learn the guild’s habits.

3. LFG: -snipped for length-

Pointless. You would simply screw around with people with visual memory tendencies than help them. As it is now, they know WHERE to click for dungeons, WHERE to click for a given dungeon, and where to click to join or advertise a party. You’re changing a functioning minimalist system purely for the sake of changing it. Kinda like what you did to the hero panel, you know? Dont change crap just because you can, change it because it legitimately needs it.

4. Journal:
- please see some of my earlier posts for the reson behind it and a potential second solution.

Can it be made better? Sure, does it require wholesale destruction and reconstruction? No. Sometimes tweaks are better than an overhaul. Why do you think the UI takes a minimalist approach in the first place?

5. Lore Journal: -snipped for length-

I respect your feedback and taking the time to write such a lengthy post, however you must understand that just because you play the game a certain way, that doesn’t mean everyone plays like it and not everyone has such a vast knowledge when they just start playing.

How many people care enough about the lore in the first place? You’d be creating something that some, or most, people would use less than the sPVP lobby. Instead of globbing that crap in the game, aggregate it onto a website, such as the wiki. That’s where it belongs, not an interface ingame.

It’s less about a “vast knowledge” as a new player than it is running around with simple common sense. Most of your changes go from “you can use this if you have common sense” to “you might be able to use this if you stand here for an hour, no guarantees though.”

Sharp, brutal, and spot-on.
very +1

Vayne.8563:

Actually, it’s not any single factor that makes this game different but the specific combination of factors. That and the lack of a dedicated healer and lack of taunt mechanics.

And it’s exactly the lack of genuine heal/support that makes this game so single-player oriented – all buffs, support skills, or heals are either self-target or aoe, you’ve got zero control for a more precise and selective support. Besides, the soft trinity of GW was perfect, as the healing or support role could be performed by various classes and in various forms. The self-sufficiency of players theyve created in GW2 just falls so incredibly flat in this regard.

Vayne.8563:

With mob-tagging and kill stealing present in most MMOs. Very few MMOs have resource nodes that are reserved for the player. Everyone gets credit if they participate in a kill. Not to mention the idea that everyone can rez everyone else without a skill on the skill bar. Skill combos. You don’t have to party with people to get their boons.

But: When you don’t chunk out enough damage in, let’s say a zerg or just a an average sized group, you won’t get any loot worth mentioning. I played a condimancer in pve, so I’d know. The rezzing and node collecting are a cool QoL (but it’s debatable if they’re sth unique for GW2), but not exactly what makes or breaks the game.

On a side note, boon sharing could also be considered anti-group, because you don’t really need to form a party for anything due to the one-man-army approach. If anything, being a special snowflake in that regard is a down-side rather than an advantage. Sure, some might like it that way, but you might have just as much fun playing a single player game in that regard.

Vayne.8563:

All of this creates a cooperative environment for PvE.

The instanced pve of GW feels and plays far more cooperatively, however. The damage tagging in GW2 isn’t as innocent as people tend to pretend – low dmg output will result in craptacular drops, and the bigger the group, the kittentier the drops will be.
And I’m sure you’d agree that world bosses, events, and champ trains aren’t exactly a good demonstration of a ‘cooperative’ environment, unless spamming your skills on the same target translates to cooperation in your book.

Vayne.8563:

Then there’s the dynamic events. One might argue that they exist in other games as well…but none of those games did away with traditional quest hubs and that meant the dynamic events were an add on. The quest hub system was the mainstay of the game and that interfered with and caused problems with DEs. The best example of this was Rift with it’s dynamic events, most of which were stand alone Rifts randomly popping up, that had nothing at all to do with the story of each zone.

We’ve already had a lengthy discussion on dynamic events in the past, but apart from adding some QoL to questing – which, mind you, can also be seen as breaking the immersion – the quality and content remained much the same as elsewhere, if not worse.

Vayne.8563:

Add to that that different human warriors can go through a different personal story and you have a game with a lot of factors that make it unique.

But the choice of order doesn’t really affect much apart from your equipment looks, does it. Doing things differently should involve an improvement of some sorts, but I just cannot see perks to the personal story. It actually felt so boring and pointless I haven’t finished it a single time.

Vayne.8563:

To that end, I’ve played well over a dozen MMOs, including most of the popular ones and I can’t play any of them the way I play Guild Wars 2. I can’t just wander around and let stuff happen to me.

I guess we’re simply holding the game to different standards.

Vayne.8563:

Whether the game has vertical progression or not, has absolutely nothing to do with it’s sense of being special. That’s your cross you bear, not everyone’s.

A game can have vertical progression and be special in other ways. You may not see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

I listed it because it often appears as an argument typically used in defense of the game doing things differently than other games in its genre. Naturally, you’re welcome to offer arguments of your own as to what supposedly makes this game such a special, trip AAA+ snowflake.

Oh yea, it surely is special in some aspects, but not quite in those it tauted as such, and possibly not enough special enough (or daring, if you will) in others.

If anything, I admit it’s rather special in how it incorporates an actiony single-player game mode into an mmo that is supposedly all about cooperation, while mixing different payment models to give the impression it’s a harmless b2p game like GW.
That was indeed quite a feat!

I agree, I was just being slightly sarcastic, hinting at how inflated, forced and frankly meaningless the levelling system is in this game. I guess the NPE was aimed at fixing that to an extent, but it seems to be making things even worse.

Vayne.8563:

You say I should be impartial. You claim anyone who doesn’t think as you do is sleeping. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have replied.

If I said the game has vertical grind, and you’d reply it doesn’t ‘cuz no need ascended’, that doesn’t translate to the game in fact not having vertical progression, does it.

I played enough of GW, lotro, and tera to realize the only thing truly special on GW2 is their communication policy.

fracture.9754:

Raising level cap? They can remove levels entirely! Youre already held back by skill points and traits, areas autoscale, you dont even need levels! There’s no reason this game even has this archic system in place, they could remove it today and you wouldnt even notice.

Reflect on that a bit.

Whoa, a post that makes sense. Shocking!
But the problem here would be that, you know, progression, and uuugh, yea. Oh right, the level boosters! Yea the level boosters. kitten tomes

Vayne.8563:

The only one’s sleeping are those who think this game isn’t a special snowflake. There are enough people that know this game IS different to make a statement.

Many fancy thinking so, yes. Many of those who still play, that is. Otherwise they’d be playing another game, right?

Vayne.8563:

You don’t see it as different, so you don’t believe it. But everyone who does isn’t wrong. And I’m not sure you’re anywhere near a majority here.

Interesting contrast to be noted here:
There are enough people that know …
vs
You don’t see it as different, so you don’t believe it.

Let’s at least try to be slightly more impartial, shall we.

You cannot make any definite conclusions on who’s in the majority until you present relevant/concrete data of people who left the game vs ppl still playing, and how many of them (still) believe the game is a special snowflake in the mmo genre, or at the very least still as special as it was tauted before and at launch.

Vayne.8563:

I think most people do think this game is different.

That’s great. But that makes my belief absolutely no less valid or justified.

Moldur.6275:

You can’t just add things for the sake of adding.

Sure you can, as long as you wrap it in at least somewhat plausible reasoning (or not). A 2 year’s worth of track record shows exactly that. Their game, their choice, but you’re free to offer ‘constructive feedback’ after the changes hit live!

Lazaar.9123:

And yet, a lot of people get annoyed when level cap increases even in those mmos, even when they expect it, because it makes all the gear they spent ages trying to get meaningless because it’s instantly replaced with quest reward gear.

You thilly bean, since when did annoyance of the player base stop them from adding such things, when players continue playing despite their annoyance? GW2 is no different in that regard, as clearly enough people chose to stick around after ascended gear was introduced, and stayed even after the commonly disliked trait change and the NPE made it live.

Chuo.4238:

Seth.1308:

I trust that ANet can make an interesting expansion pack without having to resort to adding a pointless level/gear gate on the content.

I don’t. They didn’t do that with the initial launch.

Exactly. The precedent has been made some time ago. Anyone disagreeing with it has either stopped playing or chose to adapt, so there is little reason not to add such things one way or the other.

In other words, if players don’t mind leveling to 80, possibly multiple times, then another 5 or 10 levels surely shouldn’t make much difference, especially not with all the exp scrolls most vets have at their disposal, right.

For me, 80 lvls were 60 too many from start on, anyway.

Chrispy.5641:

I am someone who is against level-locking content, in all its forms. What you are suggesting is exactly that, and that’s what ruined the NPE for me and a lot of people, so…no thanks.

On the art thing. I’m fine with artwork. There’s nothing wrong with that. There is a problem with saturating everything with it. There is a problem with clashing against the style that GW2’s menus are in now, and there is a problem with stacking menu on top of menu just to get the most basic things done.

I need to click through 3 menus just to read one entry in your lore journal design, then click back three times, just to read another entry. That’s not intuitive or easy to use in the least. It reminds me of the original FF 14, where you had to click through half a dozen menus just to make a sword, then half a dozen more just to equip the sword, then half a dozen more to accept a quest, invite someone to a party, find a group, etc. I don’t want that in this game.

Your new UI also clashes with the current GW2 style (and even clashes with your Character panel redesign)

Here’s something I was working on several months ago, but never finished (I did finish it somewhat to post a picture). Its a Lore Journal Idea, its UI ripped straight from the Achievement panel design. Not only is everything still neatly divided into several categories, and you can go to different categories at any time to read something else, but there is not 3 back buttons, because its not necessary, you can just click back on the category on the left to go back, or just click on a new one. I also had an idea for clicking on things in the entry itself to lead you to other pages, as well as having a related entries section on the bottom. Best thing is, it doesn’t clash with GW2’s current design/look.

It should probably look more like that instead of a windows 8 operating system. I’m not trying to attack you or try to say your idea sucks, but there most certainly are things in it that sucks and wont work with the current style that GW2 has.

It’s extremely rare for me to defend GW2, but I have to agree with the above (curse you!).

I prefer the simplistic art style of the forums. It’s the functionality that needs to be fixed.

Moreover, the minimalistic approach to in-game UI/UX is perfectly fine (the armor designs should honestly have followed suit in that regard), and I believe that mini concept arts should stay clear of it, with the exception of LORE (see GW hero storybooks for reference) where I’d keep some images, but not as many, nor as large (if anything, large images should be used for individual chapters or seasons even) – kinda what the poster I quoted did, actually.

Moreover, my main qualm with the UI has always been that it couldn’t be adjusted to one’s preferences/needs like in GW, and that’s not something a graphical redesign can fix. In all honestly, why is customizable UI still not an option? Simply baffling.

As far as the guild panel is concerned, the one as I remember it was fine. The real problem is more the lack of importance/significance guilds have in GW2 as opposed to GW.

I also echo the comment about implementing a NPE into UI – not something I would be fond of at all, had I still played. While GW2 does have myriads of issues, the UI and UX are what I’d consider low priority.

Fluff should come in second to make something great even better, rather than making something mediocre more tolerable.

As with every mmo out there, a level increase would make perfect sense, if a genuine expansion is on its way. For anyone who still believes GW2 is a special snowflake…well, time to wake up.

leman.7682:

Locust Swarm: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1 second to 0.5 seconds.

• Dev note: This change will give necromancers a bit more mobility.

Whoever wrote this deserves a troll bonus.

Made my day, haha.

Because it’s not as fun, meaningful, and team-oriented as GW pvp is, and therefore isn’t able to give me the daily fix of pvp GW (still) could/can.
Also, GW2 pvp drama falls just as flat as the pvp itself.

As I believe building castles in the middle of a quagmire is an effort in futility, I rest assured whatever initial sparkle the expansion/LS compilation nXY will bring shall wear off rather fast, with only the truest of fanbois to remain to enjoy the staleness of it all!
tl;dr: If you loved the game so far you’ll continue to do so regardless of expansions, and vice versa.

I am, however, VERY curious how the post-expansion GW2 purchase/retention statistics will look like for original GW players who quit the second game in the first month/half of the release year….

Vayne.8563:

KarlaGrey.5903:

Vayne.8563:

leveling in this game is fast and painless.

Leveling in GW is painless and fast. The same applies to getting BiS.
Leveling in GW2, let alone the BiS, are the polar opposites of ‘fast and painless’.

It’s not constructive, it’s not helpful and since they’re talking about something the new player can’t really understand (not having experienced it), they are simply turning someone off to a game they might thoroughly enjoy.

Neither is stalking every thread and spamming one’s opinion to supposedly ‘counterbalance’ other people’s (negative) opinions.

Can you find me in ten threads? I don’t think so. There are more than 10 threads. Consequently I’m not in every thread. Nor am I trying to counterbalance everyone’s opinions since there are negative opinions I never reply to. Your attempts to attack me personally only make you seem more desperate.

And yes, fast and painless. People level in under a week. That’s hard to do in most MMOs.

I never said anything about BIS gear, I have no idea why you’d suddenly bring that in and move the goalpost in the conversation.

I’ve never been a proponent of ascended gear.

Cute, but nope.

And nope, its neither fast nor painless. People often don’t even hit max level because the lvling process is so unnecessarily stretched out., let alone lvl up alts.

Vayne.8563:

leveling in this game is fast and painless.

Leveling in GW is painless and fast. The same applies to getting BiS.
Leveling in GW2, let alone the BiS, are the polar opposites of ‘fast and painless’.

It’s not constructive, it’s not helpful and since they’re talking about something the new player can’t really understand (not having experienced it), they are simply turning someone off to a game they might thoroughly enjoy.

Neither is stalking every thread and spamming one’s opinion to supposedly ‘counterbalance’ other people’s (negative) opinions.