Guild Wars 2

First, big shout out to McClaine, Lena and LePard for giving us such an amazing ost for HoT! So many of its songs are stuck in my head – I almost always leave the menu screen running for a bit before playing because the main theme is just that good, and the music for zone sections like Tarir City is absolutely beautiful. Really looking forward to hearing more of your work in future living story episodes and expansions to come.

However, there’s one major suggestion (or critique?) I have , regarding the final fight at dragon’s stand,:

That’s not actually Modremoth. It’s just a mental ascpect of Mordremoth that your character confronts in the sylvari Dream.

The REAL Mordemoth is the final open-map battle at Dragon’s Stand. And he’s HUGE. Bigger than Zhaitan by far. It’s incredibly challenging, requires a very organized map population, and it’s about 3 hours long – but THAT is the epic dragon fight you’re looking for.

SkiTz.4590:

If you have watched any of the videos of guilds beating the boss, you would notice lack of skill,coordination and proper setup was a non issue….those guys have ran raid MULTIPLE times and understood the mechanics very well and coordinated it on their voice chats very well…they had very few ppl getting downed throughout the whole fight…and they were able to beat the enrage timer by roughly 1-2 minutes AT BEST…

If those guys switched their ascended to exotics… they would probably still have beat it but with mere seconds to spare probably…. I doubt the avg group completes it easily in exotics until they have ran it a bajillion times to never die and to learn how to constantly be applying DPS/pressure

My group was organized and we came incredibly close to beating it several times, yet we were still in full ascended with only 30 seconds or so to spare. I doubt mixed ascended/exotics, let alone full exotics are going to beat the vale gaurdian. And keep in mind that this is just the first boss of the first wing…

Ayrilana.1396:

Here’s s perfect solution.

Anet makes there be two modes for raids: normal mode and hard mode.

The hard mode will be what is currently intended for raids.

Normal mode will exist solely for those players that want to experience the story within the raids. The enemies and bosses have minimal mechanics and can be killed like how current bosses are killed (i.e. Just auto attack until they die). They will also not get any rewards as that’s reserved for hard mode only.

Everyone wins.

What about the ones who don’t want to grind for ludicrously expensive gear, but still want a greater challenge other than pressing 1?

Also, good luck getting casuals interested if there’s zero rewards of any sort involved; that’s not good for the long term. I’ll feel bad for new players who want to try out the raids but can’t because the LFG panel is constantly empty, sans for core elitists who’ll kick those out who’re aren’t in full ascended everything.

SkiTz.4590:

Why does anet have to dumb everything down to accomodate players who feel entitled to everything?

For once , can anet get away with saying
“we aren’t going to lower our standards for this particular content (raids), instead, we ask you to step your game up if you want to beat it”…..

Outside of high lvl fractals, EVERYTHING in PvE has been casual (in terms of requirements to beat)…..anet wants to give raids a shot, as the endgame, so let them…

We will see in 6 months if it worked or not… if it doesn’t, don’t worry, all you ppl in exotics, who don’t even want to ATTEMPT to get ascended will have your wish…

Difficulty and challenging game mechanics =/= elitist stat grind.

At its core, the beta raid is still fairly challenging on its own. Stacking is no longer a viable thing to do anymore. Players now have to be alert and constantly on their feet, dodging and avoiding boss moves, else they get downed in one hit. Specific skills from specific skills from specific classes are required, and squads must be organized into groups of zerkers, condition dealers, boon strippers, circle-runners and so forth. There needs to be a squad leader to explain the mechanics and organize the squad into smaller parties to tackle those specific boss mechanics. There’s already a good deal of challenge and coordination involved in these raid bosses and trash mobs.

But when you lock all of that behind an ascended gear gate, that becomes a problem. Because it’s no longer about the actual skill of player or the coordination of the team – just the stats they carry with them to drain the ridiculous amount of health coming from those said bosses.

At least with fractals, it’s split into scales for both exotic and ascended/legendary users. Exotic users can still experience and beat the challenging, group-oriented content brought upon by certain events like the Mai Trinn or Thaumanova Anomaly fractals. The scaling system even entices those said exotic users to grind for ascended gear, as higher scales bring better rewards and drops. It provides a good sense of progression to the both the casual players who are in it for the experience, as well as the hardcore who enjoy challenging content or grinds.

But putting up an ascended gear gate in the first wing of the first fractal? Not even allowing exotic users to beat the boss, let alone play it thanks to no real scaling system? That’s incredibly daunting and excluding to the playerbase at large. It’s going to be overwhelming for new players, it’s going be frustrating for returning players, and its going to be completely avoided by the casual players with little free time. Because there’s a gear gate outright at the first level with no sense of gear progression or increased reward rates via scaling, it’s going to have a difficult time persuading the exotic users to grind for full ascended.

Speaking of ascended weapons and armor, I own around 7-8 ascended weapons, 2 of which I’ve crafted myself. But the armor? Crafting ascended armor at the moment is ridiculously expensive, way more than the weapons – around 400-450 or so for a full set. And the crafting mat prices needed to craft these weapons and armor sets are going to kitten-ing SKYROCKET once raid wings are open to the playerbase. So it’ll become even more of a grind than it is now.

Then again, it’s too early to say. I guess we’ll just have to see how they handle ascended and legendary crafting in HoT; maybe the expansion will make ascended gear easier to come by now.

PopeUrban.2578:

I built an entire set of ascended heavy armor in a week, starting at zero armorcrafting, doing nothing but silverwastes. Salvage the trash, sell the mats you don’t need, use the resulting money to buy the ones you do, use laurels from dailies to fill in the difference.

Granted I was off work that week so I probably played 6ish hours a day, but given a more normal play schedule of the industry average 20ish hours a week, you’re still only looking at about a month.

That’s a HUGE difference compared to the first time I crafted the stuff, getting dragonite on world boss timers and being hard capped on empy shards due to the daily cooldown of world chests containing them.

It’s good that you brought this up, because it details another major issue with the loot system: the only viable gameplay modes and zones that drop a consistent amount of decent loot needed to craft ascended gear are dungeons, several world bosses like Tequatl and the silverwastes. And after doing hours and hours of farming in the silverwastes for the last month in prep for HoT, it’s gotten real kitten-ing boring doing the same events over and over. It’s not like there wasn’t enough grinding already involved with the silverwastes to begin with, thanks to the season 2 achievements and all.

Anet really needs to up the reward drops and gold in other dungeons besides ASC/CoF, world bosses besides Tequatl, zones besides silverwastes and so on. The grind can burn people off if there isn’t enough variety to go around.

PopeUrban.2578:

Couple days in SW and pretty much anybody has a full set of ascended, and there’s no telling what other acquisiton methods they may or may not have added to HoT.

I’d love to know what you’re doing out in the silverwastes because I still have zero ascended armor as far as I’m concerned. Trinkets, sure, but those only come in the sinister variety at the vendor. Crafting for armor and the occasional weapon is still required and it’s still huge grind and money sink. While it may be fine for people like us who’ve been playing the game consistently or on-and-off for over a year, it’s going to scare away the influx of new and returning players

So I’m going to agree with the other user here who claims that raids are going to be completely dead in 5 months or less because of this – even moreso if the rewards themselves are underwhelming and grindy via currencies like fractal relics and so on. They need to scale like fractals so that full exotics can experience it and beat via lower levels, at the very least. Difficulty of the actual boss and gameplay mechanics should be relatively the same, but don’t gate it behind a grindy gear-wall of power creep stats.

After playing the raid with entire squads in full ascended and still having trouble beating the boss, I’m now very concerned that raids truly will be reserved for the hardcore elite 5% of the game’s population.

While trinkets aren’t much of an issue to get (just time-consuming due to laurel or fractals grinding,) armor and weapons still aren’t purchasable at vendors and require crafting 500, which can be ridiculously costly and time-consuming for some. It gets even worse when some classes like druid, reaper, guardian etc. may require two sets for a raid, (and this is where Anet really needs to give us a proper build editor where we can choose builds/sets on the fly for raid encounters because it takes a while waiting for a few to properly gear up.)

Maybe something like a fractals layout would be better, where ascended is only required for higher scaled raids with better rewards, while lower-scaled raids are reserved for exotics?

All in all, I did enjoy the beta raid content and the improved difficulty overall, but I don’t like the grindy gear treadmill/powercreep direction that this is going in. Sort of goes against their original manifesto, and it’s going to rule out a large number of their new and returning playerbase – especially if the majority of ascended gear is still only obtainable by shear luck or heavy crafting.

We need more cultural armor period.

Also, inb4 these become gemstore outfits.

First pick I’ll roll sylvari, so obviously aiding in that regard. Eventually I plan to make a few of mine anti-sylvari, but my overall preference in choice? Time will tell.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Kossage.9072:

According to Jeff Grubb, purple is the color of evil in GW lore.

Uh-oh for mesmers.

Well mesmers use something called chaos magic after all. You know what else chaos magic refers to in-game? Combined dragon energies, like the kind that resulted in the thumanova reactor fallout.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Some of the major ‘selling points’ Anet has been throwing about the plot of Heart of Thorns is how sylvari deal with the fact that they’re dragon minions, etc. etc.
Mordrem, however, appear to “grow” from the trees. There is no uncorrupted state. Corpses and living creatures are merely used as templates (not too dissimilar from destroyers which also mimic living beings in shape). But effectively, the mordrem don’t seem to be coming from some uncorrupted state (unlike destroyers).
This counteracts EVERYTHING we’ve seen about dragon minions and Elder Dragons – that they corrupt living, dead, and land and destroy what they don’t twist, but they never create; never any case of e.g., sexual reproduction… Until Mordremoth.

Which makes Mordremoth an odd-ball of the group. And for no apparent reason…

Here’s an interesting thought: if Zhaitain is the opposing sphere of influence and the one who happened to corrupt by killing the living, then who’s to say that Mordremoth doesn’t do the opposite? That is, corrupting the dead by giving them life?

What if Mordremoth is doing something far more sinister than just using bodies and templates to create minions from scratch? What if he’s going a step further by “stealing” the souls of these murdered victims through the mists, and then mentally corrupting these said souls through a pocket dimension that we know of as the Dream/Nightmare?

This would explain a number of mysteries hinted throughout the personal and the living world narrative. While the plant aspect of Mordremoth is heavily emphasized in Heart of
Thorns, we have to keep in mind that also posses the sphere of mind and to what effects and degree we don’t yet know.

However, we did get a taste of how his corruption process works thanks to the nightmare court mentioned in the sylvari personal story and the Tower of Nightmares event from season 1.

In the latter, Scarlet created what was essentially an artificial mock-up of a “pale tree” with the help of some Nightmare Court and the Krait, and this was the Toxic nightmare tower. The tower essentially brought a taste of the corruption experienced in the Dream/Nightmare out into the real world, allowing non-sylvari to become intoxicated by it. Through the intoxication, people not only saw their worst fears come to life, but also experienced the fears of others through a hive-mind process of shared illusions and memories. Not all too different from what Sylvari experience in the dream or nightmare.

Essentially, Mordremoth corrupts the soul through mental torture and brainwashing, very much indicating that dream is that “hive mind” foundation for Modrem minions. Even more so that old minions can continue respawning themselves time and time again with their memories and personalities intact – this alone already implies that the soul or “knowledge” of the said minion returns back to dream until it is reborn anew through a “pale” tree.

And going back to the Tower of Nightmares, it’s important to note that the tower also bloomed the Toxic Hybrid, which took the vague, copied form of a Krait. The Krait themselves are an incredibly xenophobic race at large who were only interested in the alliance because Scarlet promised that it would result in the incarnation of one of their prophets – which is what the Toxic Hybrid was.

Further indicating that the modrem trees could – or do – reincarnate the souls of the dead and rebirth them into new, plantlike forms. After all, the Pale Tree was planted on a human grave, and there’s a popular theory going around that Zhaitan will want to corrupt Trahearne and Caladbolg so that he can have access to Orr and all of the dead things seated there.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

So why is this such an experience of horror? Only the greenhorns of the Pact would really see such as an ‘experience of horror.’ Yet it seems even Orrian veterans do.
So again, this feels like the plot is making a huge deal out of old stuff or things that rightfully they shouldn’t know.
So can someone explain to me why old situations are suddenly “omg drama!” and why the sylvari and Mordremoth are black sheep amongst dragons and their minions? Because as it stands, this entire plot we’re being told feels like “we did it cuz its cool, yo, forget consistency!”

After killing enough risen, you usually get the indication that their souls and minds are freed once they’re ‘rekilled’ again, saying dialogue like “so tired…” “rest…” “at last…” “the light fades…” “what have I done,” etc. But that’s not the case for mordrem. The horror may come from the fact that modrem corruption can’t even be freed through death, thanks to the souls’ ties to the dream/nightmare. That they just keep coming back and fighting no matter what.

Maybe that’s what Mallyck’s role as the harbinger is? The mental corruption can’t truly end until the dream is cleansed in some way or form. Or until the sylvari can properly sever they’re ties to the dream with no after-effects.

That leaves a huge question though: if Mordremoth does corrupt souls and “rebirth” them into new plant forms as minions, then how does he have the power to access the mists in order to do so? Maybe this has something to do with the eternal alchemy cutscene in season 2, or why Scarlet frequently traveled the mists, for whatever reasons.

Overall tldr; it’s too early to judge as there’s a lot more we need to discover and figure out.

My PC clocked in at about 25 FPS max during the wyvern fight at fairly low visual settings, (low-none in shadows, low in shading, low in character processing, low in lighting; etc)but that’s only because I’m in the process of rebuilding my PC and updating it with a newer graphics card. Currently I’m having to rely on an incredibly outdated Nvidia GT 620 to run the game, but besides that the rest of my PC’s hardware is above average, to say the least.

I did notice that my frame rate would see a noticeable drop as the wyvern was breathing fire during the fight, and in some instances when zealing with mobs during the zone’s bombshell event. Other than that, no crashes or sudden disconnects of the sort whatsoever.

As for the gameplay, I enjoyed it. I can already tell that the zone is going to play out like the Silverwastes, but much more hectic with events happening left and right (which is a good thing, as it provides players with more choices in what events they prefer to do) and it looks and feels like an actual war is going on, with the helicopters falling right at your feet and so on. Thought it’s a shame we could really only play one or two of those events.

The rewards seemed a bit better too, at least coming from the wyvern fight. I had earned around 6-8 armored scales in two boss playthroughs, along with champion bags. Speaking of the wyvern itself, it was a little bit tricky at first to avoid getting pushed by it’s gliding attack, but once you nail down its attack pattern and use a stability skill at your second attempt, then it becomes very easy. Perhaps a little too easy.

Revenant seems fun so far, though I’m worried about it being way too OP in the final build, specifically with all of the torment and stability boons and skills that’s going on in their skill set. I preferred the mace and axe combo over the hammer, but it would’ve been nice to test the class in a tutorial area of sorts at first, rather than being thrown straight into the action.

However, I was a little disappointed to see that we couldn’t use any of the new skills or weapons for the other classes, they were left the same.

Lastly, for the beginning instanced story portion, I was really happy to see our personal character talking again; the writing is good and on-par with season 2’s narrative and I enjoyed most of the voice work coming from the NPCs as well.

Oh boy…

Just when it was looking so good, the expansion, the progression of the living story, the content and gameplay behind silverwastes and all.

I can only hope they leave GW2 alone, considering that the cosmetic approach to their cash shop has worked well for ANet and their playerbase.

I suspect we’ll be seeing the return of Dragon Bash again at the very least (some datamined gemstore items seem to suggest it,) maybe even SAB if we’re lucky. Probably more WvW and PvP tournaments too. It would be a bad idea for Anet to go on another monthly break right now with so many new and returning players they’re getting from the sale and the expansion announcement.

I solo’d the battle as a mesmer in full zerker gear. As for the battle, it was the last fight against the shadow of the dragon and the introduction to the announcement of the new expansion; it’s supposed to be challenging.

The hints are fairly obvious if you pay close attention. Listen to Kasmeer or read the map chat to know what to do with the shadow imps.

At the worst, you could form a party with your guild or pug it under the open world search tag if you have issues with future LS segments.

I think it’s very likely that we’ll get:

-at least 5 new zones in the Maguuma Jungle region, possibly more
-a new class, most likely the third missing heavy class
-some new weapons such a polearms and scythes, including more weapon choices for each class
-a handful of new utility skills for each each class
-raid content, or the implementation of raid-like content into certain dungeon instances
-several new dungeons
-guild halls
-plenty of new in-game armor and weapons unrelated to the gemstore
-new legendaries, but not necessarily precursor crafting or scavenger hunts
-mini pet battles; polymock making a return
-a few new PvP modes
-hopefully something new for WvW; at the very least some server balance changes

Now, wishlist? Personally I would love to see a new race (Tengu or Largos,) home instance customization, NO NEW LEVEL CAP, the introduction of Elona and that overhaul of the Zhaitan boss fight that Anet promised so long ago, but it’s always best to keep your expectations in a realistic mindset.

Honestly, I’d rather have them start fixing the armor clipping issues on asura and charr first. Or just start making armor, outfits and clothing that are compatible with asura ears and toes & char horns, ears and tails.

Devildoc.6721:

Urosh Uchiha.9732:

Devildoc.6721:

Urosh Uchiha.9732:

Devildoc.6721:

If you did Crucible of Eternity you’ve known for 2 years that Sylvari were actually dragon minions not to be trusted.

Better put all Sylvari to the torch. I’ve been in support of that since oh, LS season 1 when Scarlet was revealed.

Yeah lets burn every race that has at least one evil person in their race (Let’s go with Scarlet being evil, I still have think they will reveal her as someone trying to do good but in a different way) aaaaand the world would be empty.

There’s a big difference here. You are not people. You are dragon minions. You are constructs. You are not born, you are created as an imitation. Knowledge is planted into your head, and you act on it. You do not learn your own perspective and choose your own path, your path is set before you, you are programmed.

The only difference is what knowledge was planted into your head prior to the Dragon’s Awakening was Ventari’s Teachings rather than the instructions of the Dragon.

Now the Dragon is awake, and able to reprogram Sylvari to serve him.

This isn’t a case of a few bad apples. This is the case of all Sylvari being vulnerable to corruption from the Dragon.

Also in other cases, people make conscious CHOICES to be evil but each person of you know ACTUAL people, Asura, Charr, Norn, Human, Tengu, Quaggan, Kodan, Skritt, Largos, even Krait (in their case it’s a cultural difference), each individual makes their own choices, so yes, it’s wrong to judge that entire group of people by the actions of one or a few.

However, Sylvari are not entities of free will and choice, they are constructs, they are programmed with a “wild hunt” which they are compelled to fulfill. Their life isn’t one of making choices, but one of obligation to fulfill their programming.

… and a Dragon can program them however he wishes.

This is not yet proven. No one in game can you find yet that the dragon can corrupt/reprogram all sylvari. Sylvari have free will, which was proven so many times, some decide to be good little boys and girls and follow the rules, others don’t. That is still free will no matter what you decide.

They are not constructs, no one is making them piece by piece, they actually are born. Not from a gaping kitten but from a tree, they are still born.

Not born, synthesized. It is not reproduction that the Pale Tree does, she creates Sylvari as an imitation of the human bodies she grew on top of.

Just like a factory that would make androids makes imitations of human beings. These are just robots made of wood and leaves rather than steel and plastic.

The Pale Tree is just SKYNET with different programming and different materials to work with.

Remember you’re all jacked into something similar to a hive mind at all times. Your purpose and life and even your personality is pre-programmed.

You’re not people, you’re plant androids.

People are born as infants, they grow and mature into adults, and they in turn have children of their own. They’re born as ignorant blank slates with no real purpose, they create their own purpose and personality as they experience life and make choices and judgments

Sylvari are incapable of these things. They aren’t born, they “awake”, as the imitations of fully mature adults, they already have knowledge from their programming and are able to speak and walk instantly. They do not have children of their own, they are all drones.

That doesn’t really explain Malyck, a sylvari of unknown origins who doesn’t have a wyld hunt goal because he never experienced the dream or the nightmare before his birth. Instead he was born as a blank slate, so you could say that he possesses more free will than the ones who come from the Pale Tree at least.

I also believe that the Sylvari are actually the souls of humans or druids from the mists who were reincarnated and ‘reprogrammed’ with certain drives and intentions thanks to the pale tree’s influence. The dream is the collective memories of their past lives. The souls within the mists act as one giant “free for all” for both the Pale Tree and Mordremoth, considering that both beings were stated strong to have ties to the mists and the eternal alchemy within the in-game lore. Malyck and his kind are different in the sense that he appears to be cut off from the influence of the mists and the eternal alchemy altogether, which may suggest that his tree possesses stronger sense of free will from Modremoth’s influence and therefore doesn’t need to “push” its children in the right direction with wyld hunts or tablet commandments.

I think it’s very likely that Trahearne will eventually lose his plot armor (whether it’s protection from the Pale Tree, Caladbolg simply being the first of the first born,) and become a champion of Mordremoth. We’ll slowly see him fall to corruption through the story progression of HoT and it’ll eventually reach a point where we’ll need to take him out just like Scarlet and Aerin. Not only that but one of Mordremoth’s spheres of influence is mind, so it makes sense why its been able to orchestrate such clever and ingenious strategies to empower itself; using Scarlet to awaken and embue it with leyline magic, attempting to absorb and take down all of the waypoints when the other dragons wouldn’t and so on. So wouldn’t it make perfect sense for it to target the one Sylvari who’s not only the the first of the Pale Tree’s first born and one of the leaders of his race, but also the marshal of the Pact and one of the few how has the most knowledge and experience when it comes to taking down elder dragons? With the Pale Tree phasing in and out of consciousness, she may not even be able to retain protection for her strongest children at all times, and Caladbolg is said to strengthen both the good and bad traits of its wielder in lore, so it’s looking inevitable at this point.

Regarding the state of Destiny’s Edge, I think one of the three members from the Pact fleet crash will die but the other two will make it through and survive. Eir is the one with the most death flags; she was the one who was protecting Logan and Zojja from the crazed Pact Sylvari masses while the other two where hanging on a ship ledge for their lives. It would also explain why Braham is the focal Destiny’s Edge 2.0 member at the end of the trailer; he’ll want to avenge his mother’s death by taking part in the fight against Modremoth and becoming a legend in her honor. And of course Eir’s death will have a huge effect on Destiny’s Edge itself, it’s probably the event that’ll lead Rytlock into a rage and expose the secrets behind the Sylvari to the outside world. I think it’ll also leave Zojja with a lot of guilt, considering that she wasn’t on good terms with her due to the events that lead to Snaff’s death and all.

The cut scenes and Heart of Thorns trailer were excellent. Major props to Anet’s animation and art teams, especially for the latter video. That painterly rendering effect on the 3D models looks absolutely fantastic and legitimately hope they implement the same effects into future cut scenes. Very beautiful, memorable and has the chances of standing the test of time better than pure, top-notch CG.

Yes, this is quickly becoming a serious issue and is essentially ruining an otherwise fantastic map.

I expect to see a major nerf to bandit chest loot overall on monday or Tuesday. Either that or just a huge nerf to the chest locations around the amber area. Or both.

Thank you for fixing this so quickly, ANet. It’s great knowing that this was just a bug and not a potential stealth nerf change that so many of us assumed.

Two weeks could be fine if they improve certain issues and add some new updates. Maybe lessen the candy corn grind too.

I’m just wondering how they’re going to change Lion’s Arch, if they do. Seeing the hub city completely redecorated for the festivities is probably one of my favorite aspects about Gw2’s holiday content. It makes it seem much more lively.

Maybe we’ll see the Black Citadel get a holiday revamp if the quest and instanced content is now taking place there?

And here it comes, the complaints.

Reflection skills will kill these new glass-tank rangers. Very quickly.

Even then I agree it needs a slight nerf, but not a huge one. If they do end up nerfing longbow any time soon, then I hope they undo the stealth nerf to frost spirit to compensate.

GW2 probably has the best art direction I’ve ever seen for an MMO. It’s a nice blend of realistic and fantasy elements where the settings and character designs are neither too gritty or cartoonish. Cultures and architecture between the races is very distinct. Not to mention the races themselves are probably some of the most unique I’ve come across in a while; a really nice change of pace from bland elves and dwarves. This makes room for plenty of narrative and lore potential.

Combat manages to be very engaging and fun while still maintaining a simple skill set, making it very easy for new players or mmo newbies to get into. PVP is pretty good, if it weren’t for the lack of updates and frequent balancing issues.

World bosses are great and should be expanded upon. Tequatl and the Triple Trouble are fun and challenging while requiring everyone in a large-scale zerg to put in group effort.

Yikes… all of these veterans leaving. Sure sign that the game is going to die now if they don’t release an announcement for an expansion soon.
Well, I can’t say I won’t be leaving just yet, but I’ll stick through and see how it goes with Living Story season 2 pt2, but other then that I’ll be playing significantly less. Maybe logging in several times a week to do laurels and a few dungeon runs for gold, but that’s it for now. I won’t be purchasing gems anymore until Anet improves the current patch and releases that expansion content we’ve been asking for either.
I wish the best for those that’re leaving, but remember to check the release notes or the patch notes once in a while to see if the game ever gets better.

Vegeta.2563:

Its never going to happen so not like it matters.

From that_Shaman’s latest datamine on reddit:

“teleport to friend”
“waypoint unlock”

Under the “Beam Me Up!” description.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2fxoo3/datamining_upcoming_features_from_the_feature_pack/

They lied about bringing Chinese level gating to our servers, what makes you think they won’t do the same here?

Ashen.2907:

La Goanna.8142:

Romek.4201:

it this a troll?

I doubt it.

“make like worth living.”

I normally do not point out typos in a post but are you sure that is official ?

I believe it was partnered with the VIP advertising for GW2’s Chinese site, but it’s been so long that I don’t remember all of the details.

The fact that it’s in English is wary enough.

Romek.4201:

it this a troll?

I doubt it.

Commander tags are no longer for commanding. Now it’s just a fancy item to show off your kitten after buying it with gold or gem conversions.

The tags should’ve always been earned through player experience, achievements or skill, not gold. The results of the patch shows just how flawed it is for now. The upcoming WvW tournament is going to be much more enjoyable thanks to increased coordination, or a living nightmare.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You might try reading the Dev tracker.

Been reading the statements from Colin and other devs. It’s just more backpedaling and avoidance of the real complaints at hand. If Anet was honest, they’d admit to their mistakes and this patch and inform their fans that they could revert the changes. Instead they’re keeping silent, hoping it’ll fly over everyones’ heads in due time.

The game is slowly taking the steps needed to achieve the free2play but pay2win mentality. At this rate I’m not going to be surprised at all of they introduce the VIP membership passes with the November living story update.

Asacledhae.2650:

ArenaNet isn’t running the show. NcSoft does. And NcSoft doesn’t want Guild Wars 2 to be a better game than the ones their “native” devs make. So probably their main plan is to turn this game into a joke, in order to shove people to Wildstar and Blade & Soul, and then shut it down, getting rid of the last “western” influence in their games.

Does the names Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa and City of Heroes ring a bell? Why would Guild Wars be any different in the long run?

Wildstar is from a western dev though. But it dropped the ball a few months after release, so eh.

Snowmoon.1758:

From the sudden influx of red posts with even Colin himself replying, its obvious that anet is finally aware of the massive displeasure for this feature pack.

From what i can see, they seem to be indicating that all the kittenification
brought by the NPE is due to unforeseen bugs, and the actual experience
isnt what we are supposed to be encountering. (eg: You shouldn’t faceroll
everything by dancing lol! good vid btw)

Whether its really bugs or their realisation that no one like their feature designs,
and they are using “bugs” as an excuse to salvage the issue, I say give them a
couple of days to sort things out. Lets see how it goes.

It’s an excuse.
Knowing ANet, NCSoft and their incompetence when it comes to making promises for their players, these changes are here to stay.

Face it, it won’t be saved.

Relshdan.6854:

La Goanna.8142:

If they include more Chinese release elements like the VIP system then it’ll be over right then and there.

this will definitely make its way here sooner than later (within a year). the game is being set up to go to a true F2P model. the consolidation of server resources and extreme systems lvl-gating is already here. all we need now is the cash shop to include gem-gated content, gem-bought permanent stat enhancements (think uber sigils/runes that have a chance to fail at crafting…..unless you buy the item that increases success rate).

this is on the way.

I’ll be leaving for good once we start seeing it.
Then again weren’t level 40, 60 and 80 scrolls datamined not too long ago? Well whatever. Such a shame that a game that had such amazing potential is spiraling into a pool of pure cash shop bull kitten.

No expansion-like content for 2015 or bust.
If they include more Chinese release elements like the VIP system then it’ll be over right then and there.

They promised they wouldn’t integrate the Chinese restrictions into the NA and EU versions. Instead they clearly lied.

Don’t return.
They added time-gate restrictions the the leveling, so now getting your character to level 80 will be a chore.

You’re better off buying another MMO instead.

I still don’t understand how ANet believes these changes will draw in new players.

A person who’s interested in buying the game will likely “research” it first. Watch some PR videos and advertisements, look towards peoples’ opinions of it on various gaming sites, forums and so on.
When a potential new player watches some of ANet’s older videos and trailers, they’ll take notice of easy leveling system – how skills and weapon combat aren’t gated by level restrictions and so on.

Then they buy the game, realize that all of those initial “promises” about the easy and accessible leveling system aren’t there. They’ll go online and check forums such as this one or reddit to see why this is the case, only to read how the veterans dislike the game now because of the new changes, how it’s no longer catered to the long-term players and going on and on about how much better things were before the patch. This only gives them a negative impression, encouraging them to quit the game in hopes of finding an MMO that manages to stick to their guns. Because there’s no point in continuing to play a game, especially an MMO of all things – if it doesn’t even respect the players who are in it for the long-haul.

The changes drive away the veteran players, who feel they’ve been screwed over. With the loss of vets comes the loss of server populations. With the loss of depleting server populations, new players are left smaller guilds and communities to interact with, essentially lessening the communal experience that the mmo genre is known for.

Not only does it push away the vets, it also drives away the money whales (such as myself,) who’ve poured hundreds into the gemstore in hopes of improving their gaming experience, which they expect(ed?) to last for years to come.

Anet, I don’t know if it’s your higher devs, you or your NCSoft superiors who are making these abysmal decisions, but you are effectively killing off your own game. Continue down this route – with no foreseeable expansion-like content in the future, continuous seasonal breaks, increased grind, more surprise stealth nerfs – and it’s as good as dead. But at this point I can only hope that you don’t add more of the Chinese restrictions such as the VIP membership pass to the NA or EU servers, because it’ll practically become the final nail in the coffin for you. Going against your original manifesto with the NPE is damaging enough.

I’m suspecting these changes were beyond Anet’s control. They’re probably at the mercy of their NCSoft publishers now.

It doesn’t make a lick of sense considering that Chinese gamers are incredibly hardcore with mmos to begin with.

They do love their grind in their leveling experience though, so there’s that.
NA and EU players don’t however. Anet forgot to separate the two groups with this patch.

In reality I think the player testing scenario is just another excuse to stretch out the game for new players until they get some real content going for it (not talking about Living Story, but actual expansion-rivaling content like multiple new zones, dungeons, pvp modes, etc.) Almost like how many of the other new changes are specifically designed to cater to the gemstore and inflate the trading post.

Right now this game is looking like a sinking ship and I’m ready to jump off of it for good if we get one more “patch” that further destroys the leveling system.

So, something strange just happened while I used the waypoint system while keeping my mini collection tab open…

After being transported to a new zone, I’m unable to see my minis accompany one of my alt characters, at all. I’ve tried waypointing to different zones, cities and locations, clicking on different minis, restarting the game, but to no avail. It works for my other alts just fine, but now I can’t get minis to appear with my ranger. I don’t know if it has something to do with the ranger pet system or with the server or map population, but I suspect it’s a major programming fluke.

Also, something else to mention: I can’t find the SAB set 1 mini previews in the collections tab. Strange, because my purchased SAB set 2 shows up just fine. However I never purchased set 1 and was looking foward to doing so some day, only to realize it isn’t featured in the collection tab at all. Is there a reason for this?

Well, might as well post this here since it won’t get nearly as much attention in the profession balance or ranger forums… I’m not even really sure if this even belongs here.

Why the stealth “bug fix” for Rangers’ Frost Spirit for the upcoming patch? The reduction from 7% to 0.7 is absurd, making one of our two necessary skills for groups, and PVE content completely meaningless. Rangers will no longer be desired or needed for dungeons. This has essentially killed off all of the skill buffs and weapon DPS hype that was in store for rangers in the upcoming patch.

This has basically killed PVE rangers. Without Spotter and Frost Spirit, they won’t bring much to the table for a group in dungeon runs or open world content. Thanks to this nerf, all we’re left with is one trait, and it obviously won’t be enough to hold our (already rather average) support in dungeons.

And to think, I was actually looking forward to dusting off my ranger for the new patch… I guess I’ll just have to stick toward the devs’ favorites – OP warrior and guardian – for the rest of the game.

Really Anet, you’re making it harder and harder for me to find motive to continue playing this game with each and every passing day.

Yikes…

It looks like whoever’s in charge of managing Anet really doesn’t care anymore.
That or Anet’s purposely keeping silent on some upcoming projects to instill hype… but then why have an interview in the first place?

Either way, this was NOT good news. I expect some server losses after this interview…

Vayne.8563:

Let’s be logical for one second. You called it. Guild Wars 2 is one of NCsofts most popular games. It’s still making money as of last quarter. No company just abandons their most popular product. We already see signs that Wildstar is slowing down and it’s only out a couple of months. It’s taken a big hit already.

So what is NcSoft going do to, really? Abandon Guild Wars 2.

Businesses plan stuff over months and even years, not weeks. Things like expansions. They make annoucements when they do when it makes sense to make them. Now if the game is still earning money at a constant rate, they have less reason to make annoucements. Anet is tracking who logs in and for how long they play. And how many players log on.

So much panic from people who really have nothing to go on. All we really have to go on is NcSoft quarterly reports, which show the game profitable, and stuff like Raptr which shows that the game has pretty much remained in the top 20 games (not just MMOs games either) since release. That’s not easy to do. ESO has already fallen off the top 20 and it’s much newer. Why would anyone abandon this game? It makes no real sense.

The problem is Anet isnt’ telling us what’s going on. That’s the problem. But you know, if Anet is still paying voice actors to do voices for content that comes out every two weeks, that says something too. Voice actors don’t come cheap. You don’t let games die and then pay voice actors lots and lots of money.

Anet needs to say something. That much is certain. Too many people with too much time to worry about what’s not happening, not because it’s not happening, but because Anet hasn’t said anything. That’s why I posted a thread about Anet needs to have someone talking to us.

But realistically, when SWToR wasnt’ doing as well as it was supposed to half the staff was laid off. When TSW didnt’ do as well as it was supposed to, a third of the staff was laid off. If that happened, we’d hear about it. It’s not happening. The game isn’t dying. There’s no reason to believe it’s dying.

Lack of information doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.

Now that you put this way, it does make sense. Still, it just seems too soon to have another break when Season 2 was off to such a great start. The frequent breaks, along with Anet’s lack of communication is leaving many people worried and assuming the worst. I hope Anet improves their communication while the release updates and news about the September feature pack announcements because it’s never good to leave the players out of touch, especially when so many are being drawn back into the game thanks to season 2.

Xillllix.3485:

They’re probably just letting this game die slowly. The lack of WvW updates, having to fight the same matchups for 8 weeks in a row, megaservers and goal-less EOTM has fragmented the community to a point where most people are getting burned out.

Took the words out of my mouth. Once again all of this is starting to give me an impression that someone higher up wants the game to die off… Which doesn’t really make much sense, considering that GW2 is one of, if not – NCsoft’s most popular NA MMO at the moment, with a newly added dev team of 400 people total.

I heard that the dev team didn’t answer any player questions or complaints regarding the game’s future at Gamescom either; that definitely doesn’t bode well. Really hoping that Anet proves us wrong eventually, because it’d be such a shame to see a game with this much potential die young.

nexxe.7081:

There’s supposed to be another feature pack coming, so maybe it will be during the break.

I can only hope they announce something soon, but really it’s been two years. In two years we’ve gotten 2 zones, fractals, some pvp and wardrobe changes, a few new world bosses, some grindy weapon skins, no new races, no new weapons, no new classes, one new dungeon path (but no new dungeons,) a new WvW map, no new in-game armor sets that aren’t rewarded outside of LS rng and grind, ascended gear (which is also a grind) and some new minis. Meanwhile this is all between some recycled or temporary content, and of course the breaks.

One year of waiting for future promises is totally understandable. A year and a half is excusable. Nearly 2 years in, and these promises are starting to lose their merit. They really need to announce something major, and soon.

Call me crazy, but I’m beginning to suspect that someone doesn’t want this game to last very long (maybe NCSoft upper management?) or the management within Anet is getting a little haywire. Or perhaps it’s simply of case of NCsoft testing their budget and the living story model is simply becoming a product of “how many players can the game keep with spending as little money, dev time and resources as possible?” Which is doesn’t make much sense at all, considering that Anet has around 400 employees now.

Either way, two years in and the situation is starting to look very worrisome. I never had an issue with LS segments before, but hearing the news that we’re now midway through this season with another break coming leaves me concerned. I can only hope they’ll announce some very, very important announcements during this mid-season break, like a new race, new dungeons, the new pvp mode they’re working on and so on, because now it looks like the current season is going to fall short. Which is a shame, since so many felt it was off to a good – or at the very least, better start.

Luimes.4281:

People that get killed by LB rangers are bad.

I don’t know, with these upcoming longbow buffs that may not be the case anymore…

The new female Asura hairstyles are great, full of personality as usual. the males…not so much this time around. Kinda plain really, but it could’ve been worse. It’s good to see that they’re doing more with the highlights concept, but Anet really needs to give use more accessory color options in order for it to be pulled off properly.

The human female hairstyles are good as usual, the braids go great with Canthan-inspired armor and the pony tail is amazing and long overdue. The male hairstyles have stepped up; #1 is probably the best one in a while and the new ponytail ones are slightly-less pretty boy and slightly more masculine I guess, which is desperately needed for the human male options in general.

The Norn female ones are also a little simple this time around, but that’s fine since the older gemstore hairs were consistently elaborate and well-done before. My only issue is #2’s insane clipping issues; the clipping for gemstore hair, armor and even faces is starting to reach unacceptable levels. However, the male ones are just flat out bland, culturally out of place for the Norn and generally terrible; no amount of effort was put into them whatsoever.

The Sylvari hairstyles are all great except for female #2. I’m really hoping we get a male variant of female #1, and a female variant of male 3. Nice to see Scarlet’s hairstyle up for sale as well, that too was long overdue.

The Charr gemstore hairstyles are still bad overall. Male #1 and #3 are clearly terrible joke ones and I’m shocked that so many people genuinely like them and not in an ironic way. #2 is a right start towards manes but as stated earlier, Anet really needs to manage these clipping issues. The female ones are better, not too fond of the #1 princess tiara look and #3 would’ve been much better without the clipping. #2 is the best one out of the bunch and I would’ve purchased it if not for the braids in front of the eyes throwing it all off.

Overall
Human female: 9/10
Human male: 7/10

Asura female: 8/10
Asura male: 6/10

Norn female: 6/10
Norn male: 3/10

Sylvari female: 8/10
Sylvari male: 9/10

Charr female 5/10
Charr male: 4/10

I think it’s possible that Anet could be going for equal balance between mounts and waypoints to please both sides of the spectrum. If Anet is even planning to incorporate mounts to begin with, of course.

The waypoints in the new Dry Top and Brisban Wildlands maps are already few and far between enough for the the potential inclusion of mount travel.

My guess is that they’ll remain the same in cities and lower-level zones where mount use can’t be unlocked or bought yet by the player. Then they’ll become much more sparse and spaced out in mid-higher level zones with increased fees to encourage mount travel.