Guild Wars 2

Ah, a pity. I’m largely in my sylvari home in the Grove, so the cat looks a little out of place there. That, and I just personally don’t like the dead bird feature. Maybe, as mentioned above, there will be something added to be able to toggle off various home instance features in future.

And yeah, the Divinity’s Reach home instance is just a bit weird with all the children running about. O_o I never really use that one because I can’t help but think that I don’t know where the hell my human character’s house actually is in that instance….

So… I accidentally acquired a cat in my home instance due to not realizing the interaction with said cat would send it to my home as a permanent feature.

Is there a way to remove it? At least I know now not to interact with anymore!

I love pvp. Well…I used to love what it was. I came from many years of WoW where I enjoyed all aspects of the game – pvp, wpvp (not ganking, but attacks on towns that would draw enemy guilds out and more people would gather so you experienced everything from a skirmish to all out war), rp, pve – I loved it all. I loved being outnumbered in battlegrounds and seeing if I could survive.

When I arrived in GW2, I just straight into pvp and really enjoyed myself. Fights were a decent length… a little shorter than some WoW fights (and I like me a decent brawl!), but long enough. Spec were varied. People experimented.

Then it shifted to seeing the same specs over…and over…and over. People running away in 1vs1, people only initiating if they had a team mate and you were alone. Fights got short. You either decimated them or got decimated yourself. I don’t mind losing, but really…a 2 second blur of combat that is basically CC-massive attack-death is not exciting at all. When I decimated someone else, it almost surprised me. Either way resulted in “Wth just happened?”

WvW went from roaming bands to massive zergs avoiding eachother (see Warhammer Online). When they do meet, its fun, but that is rare and fleeting.

I miss being able to customize my gear and runes a bit more in spvp. That took a lot of fun out.

Then add the need for many players to open their mouths and spew toxic krait juice over everyone. Totally unnecessary for a game.

And it’s not the game mechanics as much as it is the players. You see it across all MMOs. Meta specs, cookie cutter builds, toxic actions and words. I am not really affected personally by toxic behaviour, but I really don’t need people like that around me. They have no self control and are getting too charged up over a game.

At the end of the day GW2 offers me a better pve experience than WoW did. The npcs don’t feel like mindless drones that just hit you with a weapon or single spell. I know I latched on to pvp for something more challenging than pve where you had to counter many kinds of spells and abilities, and GW2 pve actually gives me that. In fact, sometimes I get more enjoyment out of an npc fight than a player fight (I’m looking at players who run away with their cds are up and they can’t CC-massive attack).

Sorry for the long winded garble…I’m still waking up.

Sartharina.3542:

… when she came out, I hated Scarlet. But recent events have made her character make more sense. Clearly, the three alliances she forged were going to make Tyria great again.

Either that, or she forged a conveniently disposable army for the races of Tyria. I’ve often wondered if Scarlet was actually evil. Insane, yes, but evil? I thought it was very interesting that she got together the groups that all of us were fighting against and was grooming them up for war….and then goes and intentionally pokes the dragon…

I wondered if she was planning on taking that army to face the Mordremoth and that she was on our side. I mean…that way, sure, we lose Lions Arch, but she chucks the inquest, flame legion, nightmare court, krait etc etc at Mordremoth. That would have worked in our favour. She tried constructs too – those steam creatures. I doubt she would have wanted to be Mordremoth’s slave, and she did say something like “Someday you’ll see. Tyria needs me.” to Caithe.

Maybe I’ve lost the plot, but I thought taking all your enemies and throwing them at your enemy was a good idea. Its just hard to do when you’re insane and can’t work with the so called good people cos one of the races ran experiments on you and stuffed your brain.

To all the people who are dc’ing with stacks on, logging back in to continue (thus getting more stacks), and then not getting a reward:
Do you find that your stacks don’t get converted at all once the event ends?

I just finished Brisban after getting about 7 stacks, dc’ing, and then getting 5. When the mordrem withdrew, my buff didn’t disappear – like it couldn’t convert into loot because I had dc’ed. :S

My wife and I are getting the same thing. I will fish up the error code next time I try logging in and post it here. Exactly the same things happening as some people here:
Sit on loading splash screen waiting to log in for ages.
Start hearing players and sounds, but still on the loading splash screen.
Wait…
Wait…
Wait…
After a few minutes, you get booted to the character selection page with an error.

BUT.

In addition to that. We are only experiencing this with the characters we were playing last night in Kessex Hills specifically. We found we can log in to other characters situated in Cursed Shores and Blazeridge Steppes.

My wife’s character that was in Kessex Hills tried to enter PVP last night when the terrible lag started, thinking it might have been a zone thing. She got stuck on the loading splash screen and eventually gave up after too many errors kicking her to the character selection.

So…only one or two characters on our accounts are “stuck”. Don’t know if that adds anything valid or if anyone else experienced that.

After reading the potential changes for HoT with how traits work, I logged into my main and checked out my spec…. I kinda forgot how weird it was. I enjoyed tweaking a point here and a point there to find a happy place for my play style, weapon choices, utility slot choices etc. Truth be told, I don’t see a lot of people playing thieves the way I made my thief. It wasn’t about being “special” (lol puke) or different, it was just about being able to take a fine comb and really fiddle with the traits. It sounds like its going to be a pretty mundane task now. Select 3 paths. Select 1 of 3 traits per tier. I’m not upset or devastated about it….but it does sound kind of boring. Ironically, it kind of feels like traiting will become like gear is now. Anet says they have a problem with the masses using Zerker gear, but then they are creating a trait system that sounds like it’s going to be as simple as “just use zerker gear”.

With various traits merging into abilities and other traits, yes, its a buff to said abilities and traits, but it is simplifying things and taking out variation. Like I said before, I’m not cut up about it, but I am not pro the idea. I’ve experienced playing an MMO for years as it gradually got stripped of features and simplified and all that I left. I’m just one player, so my little post here doesn’t hold much weight at all, but that is just my 2 cents. I’m curious to see what they do regarding traits when they bring out HoT.

(Edit: Typo)

I’m trying to think of creatures in Guild Wars 2 that could even be used as mounts…. I can only think of golems and dolyaks… To which I can’t imagine they speed up travel. I also can’t imagine what a charr’s warband would say if said charr rocked up on a mount. Wait, I can.
“Oh is da widdle kitty hurting in da paws? Does da widdle kitty need a sicky break? GET OFF THAT RIDICULOUS DOLYAK AND GET IN LINE!”
I think norn would get the same treatment.

In all seriousness though…there are plenty of other games offering an assortment of mounts – most of them not suitable for being mounts, but they are still there. It’s refreshing having a game that doesn’t have them (except as the odd toy).

kitten .9460:

TBH there is a ridiculous amount of bugs in the game that would hve been addressed in other MMOs about 20x faster.

Can anyone say WoW’s Ravenholdt rogue quest chain?

Piratoz.8627:

Hell, between the time that guild wars 2 was released and now, WoW has released 2 full expansions complete with new continents, combat revamps, new skills, and new dungeons and raids.

New skills? Really? When I logged in after a loooong break from WoW, my UI was kinda stripped of a lot.
Then, my wife and I got to level 90 from 85 in like….half a day 2-manning the five man dungeons which took us between 20 mins to 30 mins to do each dungeon or something stupid. We were still in our shoddy gear from days of old. After wondering if people still died in pve, I popped onto the forum and found lots of people either complaining that the class changes to CC or whatever had made the game too hard, or that people were raving about the changes saying it brought back the old challenge. We sat thinking “that was challenging?” and left a little disappointed.

Now, I know GW2 is far from rocket science to play. I certainly enjoy making dungeons harder by doing them as a duo most of the time because of the challenge. When I look at all the living story stuff, I see a lot of content, and I’m getting it all for free. I don’t think I’ve seen any more bugs than what I’ve seen in WoW.

I wonder…if ArenaNet had taken all the LS content, put it in a box and wrapped it in a bow and called it an expansion, would people have been happy? If WoW had released their expansions in pieces for free, would people have been unsatisfied?

I like the LS system. But then….I am a casual who can’t log in for a good play session daily. So the LS rationing works with my schedule.

Just a comment in Caithe’s favour…. If I were teamed up with a human that ran off in the thick of it; a charr that sulked eternally for the human running away; an asura who blamed everything on the norn; and the norn that lost their confidence…..and then I spent AGES trying in vain to get them over their issues to actually save the world from ANOTHER dragon (to which they STILL whined and argued about issues), I too would take the kitten egg and sort things out myself.

Caithe probably looked at our team of yet more charr, norn and humans and thought “Oh man…. this is going to take ages to get this egg to the right place.”

I also don’t think she killed the Master of Peace. You would think your character or Kasmeer or someone would have said, “Oh my god! Caithe murdered the Master of Peace!”

My suspicion is that we might actually have needed Scarlet alive. That there is a bigger picture we’re not yet aware of. Who knows.

rapthorne.7345:

I like outfits. Being able to wear heavy armour on a light/medium armoured character suits the thematic I’m aiming for

If anything, I’d ask for more. The game has so many weapon/armour skins, and so few costumes.

Yeah. I enjoy mixing my armour weights. The outfit slot is essential for that. It’s also nice just have two options to toggle between (armour -> outfit visa versa).

It goes without saying that Anet can keep throwing out armour skins and outfits – I’ll be happy with either (but I still totally want satyr legs for females on that new halloween outfit! I saw it on a male sylvari and thought “Satyr legs! OMG! Must endulge!” Was a little disappointed at seeing the outfit had boots for females instead. It’s nice and all, but satyr legs is pretty unique. :P)

DonQuack.9025:

lol http://s4.postimg.org/nlitt7zfx/screenshot_2014_10_14.png

O_o Those skinny legs can’t support such a head!
I think they need to be made a bit more stocky.

I was so keen to get the satyr look for my female characters…but alas….its yet another pair of high healed boots for them. Why? Why is it always high healed boots? Can we get a choice maybe? A satyr version for females in the gemstore?

Olvendred.3027:

I could live a lot better with Outfits if they had more than 4 dye slots.

This. This is such a good idea. It would probably be a lot of admin to implement, but I would be thrilled if Anet did this. I know I’ve said in other posts how it was a bit sad to lose some of the town outfit freedom of mixing and matching, but I understand they have the clipping issues thing. Having some setup where you could at least dye your outfit’s boots independently of your outfit’s gloves, say, would be quite a cool feature.

That said…..I’m not entirely sure why there is so much focus on outfits having clipping issues when a lot of them were already released in separate parts, and I have used a lot of armour that has had clipping issues – mostly leg armour forcing it’s way through my characters boots.

Warden Arondele – An NPC Who Made My Early Days
(The original topic title – changed due to length issues)

As someone who always keeps a character slot available for a leveling character, I was crestfallen to hear the NPC who got me so excited to get stuck into this game at launch had her speech clipped short.

Amongst all the recent changes – from losing the ability to wear my pirate outfit with my aviator cap or my wintersday outfit with the earmuffs, to being forced to sit watching my level one auto-attack through the intro of the game – this one felt like a low blow just to spite. Who would have thought that one line would make all the difference?

Warden Arondele was there to greet all the new sylvari who emerged the Dream. As I (and many others, I can imagine) fumbled about with the exciting and overwhelming chaos of a game with so many features that I had read about and was eager to try, Warden Arondele was there to help me get started. My wife and I had been unlocking our attacks, thrilled with a seldom used concept of “practice with weapon = get better with weapon = unlock weapon abilities”. Now we just needed some direction as to what to hit/shoot at.

A warden gave us our clothes and pointed us in the direction of the nearby scout, and this is what she said to us:

_"Welcome to Astorea. As you journey forth into the unknown, know that you are not alone. Seek guidance from those who make their homes here and help them in their time of need. The path ahead is yours to choose.

As you journey outward, you’ll encounter amazing asuran waypoints that—for a small fee—allow you to rapidly traverse the land.

I’m excited for you. You’ll find challenges out there that will help you grow and increase your skill. Enjoy the adventure!"_

This was our first encounter with Warden Arondele, and her speech set the tone for the game for a long time after that. I eventually recorded it because her last line really struck a chord. Every time I rolled a new sylvari, I took the time just listening to her introduction. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it again and it had been edited out – talking to her isn’t even part of the story progression.

I know that these recent changes were made to make things easier for new players, but what really confuses me was that this NPC (and if I recall, pretty much all the scouts in the starting areas) give such a clear run down on the basics of how the game works, so why are they removed? After listening to them when I first installed the game, the response was generally “Oooh! Shall we try a heart first? Or what about that skill point thing? I’ve nearly finished unlocking my pistol 3 attack – let’s go to the heart and I’ll unlock it while I’m there.”
After making my first character since the changes, I was left with that….“so what should I do until level 10?” feeling. Then I lazily went and “killed stuff”.

Anyway. This post was just me mourning one of the less noticeable things that were changed with the latest patches. I know its not game breaking, but she was just an NPC that made my day every time she wished me well on my adventures. I’m not sure if anyone else has had an NPC edited or removed that you used to look out for whenever you were in their area. If you did, feel free to post about it here.

That said, I am so glad I made that recording of my warden’s sound clip.

Yargesh.4965:

People don’t like change that is at the heart of it.

And yet when this game was released, I looked at it and thought “Wow! This is different. An MMO where I can dodge incoming fire and unlock weapon skills by practicing with them. That sounds like something different. A nice…..change.”

I am all for Anet making changes for new players, but honestly…it feels like they stripped out so much of the first levels – which have so much impact on the new players. People are still going to key farm. They are still going to speed level through the content etc. But a new player probably won’t, and it will probably be a bit boring.

You know, everyone started this game as a new player…..and it really wasn’t that hard to learn. I mean, how hard can it be? You unlock one ability at a time – and that takes a couple of kills to do at a low level. Are you telling me that there are players that can’t read a newly unlocked ability every five kills or so?

And then once you do that intro quest, you are spat out in the real world to do… what exactly? When I was a new player, I had the npc/mail/quest tracker say “talk to that scout” (icon on map) and LOW AND BEHOLD the scout gives a nice summary of what to do in the world. “Go and find challenges” (indicating skill points) “You can travel with these” (indicating waypoints) “go and help people” (Indicating hearts). What was wrong with that system? It was clear and insightful. It made people (or me and my guildies, at any rate) want to go out and GET those waypoints and help those people and do those skill challenges! The story was right there to get stuck into.

I made a new character to see things from a new player….and guess what? As an long time player, I know what the hearts and vistas and skill points mean. As a new player, I imagine a person starting in the world thinking “now what? where are the quests? What do I do?”

And the “Minitures have been hidden due to rising player population.?” I’m watching my wife’s character now. Can’t summon a mini due to the “rising population” but she gets a kitten invite to a denser map because THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH PLAYERS IN HER CURRENT ONE! I had better stop my rant before I find I’ve pulled out all my hair.

Harbard.5738:

The system would be way more fun and uncluttered (and still sell transmute charges) if you could use charges to unlock ONLY the skins that you wanted and then were allowed free transmutes to play with those skins at will.

I like this idea. Not sure what it does to earning for Anet, but it would make things fun for me. It would be nice to get feedback on the viability of this idea.

I like the new systems ability to share skins account wide – having that one lone Mad Kings back slot item that could only be used by one character at a time was painful. Having only one pirates outfit available was painful. So yes, this change has opened up more sharing between my characters.

I do add my vote, however, to a fix/change to the town outfits. My votes as follows:
Being able to mix and match.
Being able to dye pieces.
Outfits being split into their pieces again (ie. Not tonics, allowing the mix and match ability, Edit: and allowing more dye freedom with outfits – ie. not just four dye slots universally applied to an outfit’s head, chest, legs, hands and feet slots).

I know LOTRO had a nice (free) system for alternate looks, but I just have to say something there: It clogged my bags with gear, and I still had to pay for content (be it through a monthly sub or buying zones), so I’m relieved my bags are unclogging in GW2 and that I can roam freely. That said, I still support Harbard’s idea quoted above.

For those asking why so many copies of pirates outfits etc were given to characters, I found this posted by a dev in another thread:
You get 1 outfit unlock for each peice of the old set.. (just in case folks didn’t keep the whole set). Once the outfit is unlocked on your account the rest of the copies in inventory can be discarded as they don’t have further use.