Guild Wars 2

Just adding myself as another in the community in want of a separate que.

I’m experiencing the same problem at the moment. So i relogged, which forced me to replay it all, but now I’m stuck in the area before you meet Vorpp—you have to disable several Gate Panels. One of the Gate Panels won’t deactivate.

Two of my favorites:

1) Engineer’s Poisin Dart Volley. While it channels, the Asuran’s face quickly becomes crazed and fevered. It’s surprising, a little violent and very cute.
2) Engineer’s Regenerating Mist. The Asuran assumes a gladiatorial pose, belting into the sky and bares its little dinosaur teeth.

Today’s previewed changes to Guardians’ Spirit Weapons continues ANet’s confounding and unrelenting embracement of passive gameplay and low skill-high reward mechanics (AI, powerful auto-attacks and passives). This design philosophy is particularly unwelcome in PVP.

This has been a problem ever since launch 2 years ago, in a game that has more AI (Phantasms, Spirits, Spirit Weapons, Minions, summoned Thieves, Turrets, Elementals, rune set summons) than I’ve come across in any MMORPG before. Given the frequent criticism of AI and passives, the introduction of a mechanic to Spirit Weapons that increases their automated utility beyond when they would previously disappear, allowing them to do more work on behalf of the player, is what skillful play does not need. It is what PVP abhors.

This is not a complaint that this change will make Spirit Weapons OP. It may or may not be, but that’s for a separate discussion. The complaint is one of overall design philosphy that is familiar and voiced often: Low skill-high reward mechanics (AI, powerful auto-attacks and passives) need to be seriously addressed—not buffed; and most certainly, not done so 2 years after launch.

The change via Dulfy:

Spirit weapons – No longer lose your spirit weapon when you activate the command ability. Instead, they will naturally be able to use their abilities more once before dying.

And in Karl’s words from the video, the Spirit Weapons will “naturally be able to use their abilities more than once before dying.”

Has ANet ever commented on the possibility of releasing all the unreleased music officially?

While most of it is on SoundCloud, with the exceptions being uploaded to Youtube by the community, it would be a great service to the music and the fans to either have an official release or at least higher bitrate versions (128kbps on SoundCloud presently) available for streaming.

By comparison, while Guild Wars 1 never officially released all its music, it at least had official releases for its campaigns and high bitrate versions of the unreleased music available unofficially.

With the upcoming change, will reliably consistent counterplay to the common Illusionary Leap > Blurred Frenzy burst be possible, as it will accelerate the setup and reduce the tell considerably, while visibility in the game remains unchanged?

Regarding today’s previewed change to Mesmer’s Illusionary Leap, copy-pasted from the omniscient Dulfy:

“Illusionary Leap – We changed the way the clone is summoned. It is now summoned now at your target’s location instead of your position. This means you will have a much faster response time between Illusionary Leaps and Illusionary Swaps.”

Potential issues:
1) Presently, a clone rushing towards you from the real Mesmer is one of the best markers for the burst combo. Amidst all the visual clutter, there’s still the possibility you can still see a single clone running rapidly at you. The change will eliminate this warning.
2) In the absence of a clone rushing at you, being able to catch Illusionary Leap’s casting animation becomes more important than ever—and remains as difficult as ever, given the many readability/visibility issues in the game cause by AOEs, AI (so much AI in team fights), and the visual clutter created by just a single Mesmer.

Question (for Devs):

Since launch, the most jarring and significant balance issue that has persisted is the excessive strength of AI and passives—“No skill (or low skill, at best), high reward” mechanics. Power, a former employee, had mentioned in a Twitch chat, after leaving ANet, that he tried to relay the problem of AI and passives to the balance team.

Can you discuss if you think the damage output of AI and passives should be significant as they are or should be dramatically nerfed for PVP?

Would you consider devoting a segment, no matter how short or even pre-recorded, to discussing what features are in development? Even if the offered information is frustratingly vague, it’s better than having no information—nothing to look forward to and the perception that nothing new is in development.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

Alright so now that we have flushed out some ideas let me give you some guide lines and let me know if we can design around it.

Hugh, could you clarify if the bullet points you presented are prerequisites (the words you use are “guide lines” and “standards”) to all future PvP modes? If so, I believe to that be the wrong route to take.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

1. Must be able to be hot join-able
* Not easily griefed and allow players to be able to jump in and out
2. Must fit the 5 on 5 standard
3. Can fit our standard PvP match time (15 mins)
4. (Would Be Nice) Shout castable

Alright let me know how your ideas fit or change with these standards.

I find point #2 very disagreeable. Even within just the “Battlegrounds” mode (or sPVP/tPVP as it’s called in GW2) in other MMORPGS, including GW1, there is commonly variety in team size. The variety in team sizes allows for not only new map mechanics that wouldn’t have been possible with smaller team sizes, but it also makes for a much more welcoming entry point for PVE’ers and beginners, as individual failings are easily disguised and overlooked. With a PvP player-base that so many believe to be super small, I don’t think you should toss out any options that could invite more players.

Point #3 is similarly disagreeable. Just to mention WoW, as it’s the most likely and familiar reference point to most, their larger (team and map size) and longer Battleground maps like Alterac Valley and Isle of Conquest, can feel and look much more epic than their smaller maps because besides the scenery, wide vistas and airships, the longer matches feel like a little war, rather than a mere skirmish.

Given that all we have in GW2’s PvP is Battleground PvP (PvP modes insistent on a need for map mechanics), with no word still on alternate modes that focus purely on PvP (Arena), I think it unwisely limiting to propose future PvP modes under such restrictive parameters.

What we need is more PvP modes that allow for new and creative combat possibilities, not more barriers to ensure much the same.

When ANet introduced the very minor update of attainable gold in PvP in December of last year, Colin Johanson revealed that the PvP playerbase increased by 40%. Later on, he further added that the 40% increase persisted in the following months.

With the April 15 patch bringing far more substantial changes to incentive and progression to PvP than the modest amount of gold the Dec. patch brought, can any dev. share with us what affect it has had on player-base growth?

Thanks.

Besides the spontaneity and mischievousness, which is considerable, there is a great thrill and fun in World PvP because of the scenery involved when it’s beautiful. More so than Arena or Dueling, I know World PvP will never happen in GW2, but to wakefully dream of fighting in places like Lion’s Arch, Black Citadel, Rata Sum or Labyrinthine Cliffs, with its scenery so beautiful and terrain so perfect (verticality!) is sometimes more fun than actually playing the existing PvP options.

infantrydivEU.9670:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Also, I’m sure someone has said it already but the best way to make sure more people have matches with the filter system is to have the number of “omit selections” to only 1 selection.

Ideally, most people would just hate one map (cough skyhammer). So just have only 1 map you can choose to omit, then at least you’ll have at least 5 maps to match for each player. More intersections = more matches.

I believe WoW has this feature for Battlegrounds, where you can pick two that you don’t want to play.

WoW does have that. And, it’s extremely well done. You can choose 2 maps to ban before queing. To counter the effect on que times that may have, those who que for a random map, without banning anything, are incentivized: more progression, loot and money from the match.

I think that’s a crucial feature to have in implementing a system like this. Most players have map preferences and a small minority does not. That system serves the wishes of both demographics.

Although I don’t think that’s unique to WoW. I believe Wildstar has something similar. And, probably, many others…

In the “Game Browser,” is it not possible to create a filter for only Courtyard or is this an unintended oversight?

Cheers.

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Who wants to party up tomorrow and finish all the story modes?

I will, but only cause you got all the shiny skins to illuminate the way through all these modes I’ve never done before.

Will Magic Find specific to a character—such as if your character has “Magical Infusion” in its PVE Amulet—affect the PVP chests?

Also, will other Magic Find boosts from Guild Upgrades and Banners affect the PVP chests?

Thank you.

Justin ODell.9517:

Why do you feel custom arenas do not work for those that want to duel?

The absence of infrastructure support can create so much inconvenience that few bother playing something they otherwise enjoy. It is well exemplified by dueling in this game, where this tiresome process bookends every duel:

1) Find a dueling Custom Arena with open slots
2) Load in, plod over to where everyone is
3) Idle around until someone is willing to duel you (sometimes takes forever)
4) Find an available space in the map
5) Type “/bow”
6) Duel, hoping AOE and AI in neighboring fights don’t interfere

Duel ends, but the process hasn’t yet…

7) Downed person spends time ressing
8) Both players need to walk to opposite ends of the map to get out of combat to reset their HP
9) Wait for CDs to reset

I would much rather duel (ideally, Arena) than play any of the Conquest maps, but I’ve ultimately played much more Conquest, as without the infrastructure, dueling is too much of a hassle. I spent most of my time in WoW dueling. Though disappointing it is without progression/reward infrastructure, it does have the most basic of infrastructure: it exists. The entire ordeal to engage in a duel:

1) You right click a player anywhere in the world, click “Duel.”

Without all the associated inconvenience of GW2 dueling, it was great fun and I committed inordinate amounts of time to it despite no accompanying title/ranking to boast.

Similarly, I would rather play the forthcoming TDM map than any of the existing Conquest maps, but, not to even speak to the absence of reward and progression infrastructure (which is obviously vital), I anticipate that without the most elementary support for the new map/mode, as with dueling, there will be inconveniences that make it too bothersome to deal with, artificially lowering the player pool and, maybe, though hopefully not, skewing the devs’ determination of the mode’s viability.

Marcos.3690:

This map can be amazing if it gets proper infrastructure: queue, ladder and rewards.

However if its introduced as custom arena only it will be the same as the dueling servers: a very small minority will participate

The absence of infrastructure can also create so much inconvenience that few bother playing something they otherwise enjoy. It is well exemplified by dueling in this game, where this tiresome process bookends every duel:

1) Find a dueling Custom Arena with open slots
2) Load in, plod over to where everyone is
3) Idle around until someone is willing to duel you (sometimes takes forever)
4) Find an available space in the map
5) Type “/bow”
6) Duel, hoping AOE and AI in neighboring fights don’t interfere

Duel ends, but the process hasn’t yet…

7) Downed person spends time ressing
8) Both players need to walk to opposite ends of the map to get out of combat to reset their HP
9) Wait for CDs to reset

I would much rather duel (ideally, Arena) than play any of the Conquest maps, but I’ve ultimately played much more Conquest, as without the infrastructure, dueling is too much of a hassle. I spent most of my time in WoW dueling. Though disappointing it is without progression/reward infrastructure, it does have the most basic of infrastructure: it exists. The entire ordeal to engage in a duel:

1) You right click a player anywhere in the world, click “Duel.”

Without all the associated inconvenience of GW2 dueling, it was great fun and I committed inordinate amounts of time to it despite no accompanying title/ranking to boast.

Similarly, I would rather play the forthcoming TDM map than any of the existing Conquest maps, but, not to even speak to the absence of reward and progression infrastructure (which is obviously vital), I anticipate that without the most elementary support for the new map/mode, there will be inconveniences that make it too bothersome to deal with, artificially lowering the player pool and, maybe, though hopefully not, skewing the devs’ determination of the mode’s viability.

For now, some inconveniences that may play out:
1) Not enough Custom Arenas set to only the TDM map for all players interested. When Skyhammer was introduced there were, to my recollection, only a few CA’s dedicated to it.
2) Custom Arenas with rules that forbid many players entry (Berserker’s Only, No Bunkers, etc)
3) Custom Arenas with settings (spawn times, team size, etc) that players don’t like

To the devs: Would you please consider creating a separate tPVP que for the new Team Death Match map?

As you’ve announced it will only be available as a Custom Arena, it will create an artificial, illusionary shortage of players playing the map (after the initial interest subsides) since CA’s do not offer any incentives/progression that many care about (Rank points, gold, leaderboard placement, Dailies completion, etc).

I understand you wish to introduce the map to the game cautiously, but the new TDM map with it’s own tPVP que, with reward/progression parity with the other maps, would give a more accurate, fairer reflection of the community’s interest/disinterest in it.

Much has been done since this game’s release to ignore the pridefully advertised absence of obligatory grind. Of course, it was never true to claims even on Day 1. When we reached 80 on our first character, to our disbelief, we still needed to grind dungeons endlessly to gear it up—obligatory grind.

However, sPVP has always been true to the marketing claims, their manifesto (there’s even that Manifesto video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU1JUwPqzQY). It has also been immune to the rapidly growing, obligatory grind/gear progression in the rest of the game—first the time-intensive and gated acquisition of Ascended trinkets, and now, the unfathomably time-intensive and expensive acquisition of Ascended armor and the extremely rare loot-dependent acquisition of Ascended weapons, if you don’t find crafting eminently exciting.

Arena Net can no longer claim there is no obligatory grind in any part of their game.

There are things that make Guild Wars 2 distinctively different and appealing to present and new players. One of the most unique is the (formerly) grind-free sPVP. To be able to tell friends who like MMORPGS but are fatigued by the time investment (i.e., grind) or friends who hate them them because of the time investment, to try Guild Wars 2, because there’s this one part of the game that has none of it, is a singularly compelling argument. No MMORPG out there, or maybe ever, can claim to have something like this.

Why would you wish to toss out such an amazing differentiator?

May we ask questions for this RU episode?

Would like to know if this and any future new maps not using the Conquest mechanic will be in their own separate que for solo/team ques, so that those who don’t wish to continue fighting in tiny little circles (as most of the game’s maps will still be Conquest) can play only the new map mode?

Thank you.

Volrath.1473:

…i prefer the SOTG since you would invite players to interact with the devs and ask questions and sow their point if view on specific issues that I’m sure most of us players would agree with.

This new RU is scripted, players have no interaction with it whatsoever… Sure we can ask questions in the forum but they are handpicked…

SOTG was much more genuine and I remember devs making notes and acknowledging our concerns and even identifying bugs in that show.

I feel much the same. SoTG was a much more meaningful, productive show for the reasons Volrath noted. I’d like to suggest RU adopt SoTG’s format of direct player to dev communication, if not for the whole show, then at least for a portion of each show.

From a PvP/WvW perspective, these need “help,” in that they are too powerful and that power achieved too easily (lowering the skill floor), so they need help being balanced:

1) Necro (excessively powerful AI/passive play with MM, condi application still excessive since June 2013)
2) Ranger (excessively powerful AI/passive play with Spirits and bow auto-attacks hit too hard, i.e., poor risk/reward design)
3) Warrior (too good at damage, CC and resilience, all at the same time)

gidorah.4960:

so other than the quaggan finisher was there any new information at all?

Not much at all. As usual, Dulfy.net has an overview. And no Q&A to address the questions we were invited to broach here, despite the impression given in the opening post:

Josh Davis.6015:

If you have any burning questions about EotM that you’d like to ask, feel free to respond below.

Thanks!

A few questions:
1) Could you discuss what issues of criticism Edge of the Mists’ design is meant to address? For example, it looks like EoTM might be more conducive to skillful, small/medium sized battles, a counter to the predominant mode of play in WvW at the moment: blobbing/zerging.
2) I’m delighted to hear that the NPCs will scale, but to what extent will the NPCs scale in difficulty according to the amount of players attacking it? (Will it take 20 players as much time to kill an NPC as it takes 2?)
3) Is the player cap for EoTM more or less than the existing WvW maps?

Thanks.

Much has been done since this game’s release to ignore the pridefully advertised absence of obligatory grind. Of course, it was never true to claims even on Day 1. When we reached 80 on our first character, to our disbelief, we still needed to grind dungeons endlessly to gear it up—obligatory grind.

However, sPVP has always been true to the marketing claims, their manifesto (there’s even that Manifesto video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU1JUwPqzQY). It has also been immune to the rapidly growing, obligatory grind/gear progression in the rest of the game—first the time-intensive and gated acquisition of Ascended trinkets, and now, the unfathomably time-intensive and expensive acquisition of Ascended armor and the extremely rare loot-dependent acquisition of Ascended weapons, if you don’t find crafting eminently exciting.

And so when one new Healing skill became an “unlockable,” something to be attained through progression, it was worrisome. But now that we know it wasn’t an aberration, Arena Net can no longer claim there is no obligatory grind in any part of their game.

There are things that make Guild Wars 2 distinctively different and appealing to present and new players. One of the most unique is the (formerly) grind-free sPVP. To be able to tell friends who like MMORPGS but are fatigued by the time investment (i.e., grind) or friends who hate them them because of the time investment, to try Guild Wars 2, because there’s this one part of the game that has none of it, is a singularly compelling argument. No MMORPG out there, or maybe ever, can claim to have something like this.

Why would you wish to toss out such an amazing differentiator?

Can explain to us, transparently, why you’ve made this decision? If, for example, your metrics guided you to this decision, as it predicts or shows that this will grow the player base and aid with retention, then let us know. It may smack of corporate cynicism, but at least we’ll have a reason. As is, we’re just confounded as to why.

1) Some players are only interested in the PvP portion of WvW, with structure defense/assault dismissed as a bore, a nuisance. Do you think attacking/defending structures can be made into something more skillful, fun and worthwhile? If so, what are some ideas you are working on?
2) Could you discuss what issues of criticism Edge of the Mists’ design is meant to address? For example, it looks like it might be more conducive to skillful, small/medium sized battles, a counter to the predominant mode of play in WvW at the moment: blobbing/zerging.
3) What is your policy on balance in WvW? Some people have said that you won’t balance for WvW specifically, unlike PVE and sPVP. Is that true, and if so, why is that the case?
4) Would you consider designing NPCs that scale sufficiently according to the number of players attacking it?

If it would take 50 players the same amount of time to kill a keep lord as it does 3, not only would it, maybe, temper some of the zerging, but it would make that encounter much more meaningful. Even slightly fun.

Having watched some of the Edge of the Mists streams on Twitch, I’m encouraged to see some of the NPCs have much more interesting, even amusing AI. It was fun seeing players attacking the NPCs, solo. It was a challenge for them. However, I was concerned to see that when several people attacked that same NPC, it went down very quick. The didn’t need to heal, dodge or use many skills. It wasn’t a challenge. It wasn’t a fun encounter. It suddenly did not look at all different from present WvW NPCs.

Thanks for reading.

Likes:
1) Relative freedom. In a game without World PvP, this is the closest to freeform combat and shenanigans as we’ll get.
2) Roaming/small scale fights. Though it requires quite an investment in time and patience to find these fights, as WvW’s mechanics, intentionally or not, discourage it.
3) …

Dislikes
1) Zerging/Blobbing. The majority of the mechanics further promote this skill-less mode of play. One of the worst consequences of this is when—by yourself, with an army of zero—you cross paths with an enemy, but he’s disinterested in fighting; he runs away, fearful of a 1 vs. 1, because he’s so accustomed to the low skill-ceiling combat of zerging. Zerging’s engendered a large community of players afraid to PvP—even though it’s a PvP zone!
2) The art. All the PvP maps (WvW and sPVP) do not look like they’re created by the same team of artists that created the rest of the game. The racial capitals, some starting zones, even the much maligned Orr is vibrant in it’s colors, dense in it’s scenery and vistas, rich in it’s verticality and scope. The PvP maps have monochrome color schemes comparable to an FPS, no verticality, no sweeping vistas, no grandeur. Also, the buildings, especially the castles, do not look like something worth fighting for.
3) Imbalance. Why not carry over most, though not all, of sPVP’s balance rules into WvW? sPVP is still suffering from considerable balance problems, but WvW severely amplifies those issues with excessively powerful consumables, gearing options that allow glass cannons to take you down more swiftly than Jormag, all the power/condi damage boost you get from zerging (5 stacks of Applied Strength, 25 stacks from sigils, Borderlands Bloodlust).

1) If not now, can you tell us roughly when the new PVP modes will be out? Something as unspecific as the first or latter half of next year would be great.
2) How healthy is the size of the population of the PVP community? We don’t expect you to divulge any numbers, but if it is a good state, it would be worthwhile for you to make it known, as the perception anyone gets from this subforum is that it is a dying scene.

Thanks.

MatthewMedina.5419:

It’s not that we’ve not had the capability in the past, it’s just that those kind of things usually end up low on the list of priorities…

Speaking from the perspective of someone who’s usually disinterested in PVE, but still values the need for PVE in an MMORPG to cement the sense of immersion and exploration, I usually ignore the lore and narrative elements, especially in this game. However, as the exchange between the two quaggans at the camp was brought to some people’s attention in a Reddit thread, I decided to give it a look. I found myself surprised by it—finding it charming, funny, memorable. I thought it was time well spent as a player, sitting there, watching and listening to their conversation. Something like that won’t convert people like me to become hardcore PVE’ers, but it will invite more of us, and especially PVE’ers, to care and embrace the world you’ve created, a bit more than before.

So, hopefully, you won’t treat something like this as “low on the list of priorities,” because it’s elemental to crafting an MMORPG world the players can love.

John Corpening.9847:

Knowing what our high level plans are, what we would love to hear from you is what you would like to see from rewards in PvP?

1) Titles and vanity rewards based on ranking in the forthcoming ladder/season system.
2) Rewards that are desirable to PVE and WvW’ers, because they can be used outside of sPVP, to engender a larger PvP playerbase.
3) A way to use sPVP currency to buy the best-in-slot gear for PvE/WvW.
4) More vanity options, from the silly to the significant.

1) As there was no mention of the new game modes in the blog, would you be able to share where the new game modes rest in the release roadmap?
2) How long will a season be?
3) Will there be titles to go along with the forthcoming season/ladder system?

1. Game Modes. Specifically, will there be significant team and map size variation in the forthcoming modes and would you consider an Arena Mode (especially with a 1v1 bracket with Elites turned off).
2. Depth. Do you believe the game is too easy or too hard? If it’s the former, what game mechanics would you like to introduce to raise the skill cap?
3. PvP Art Direction. None of the PvP maps reflect the incredible art that is in some portions of the game, primarily the PvE portion. WoW maps like Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch are frequently brought up in this forum as examples of game design that facilitates incredibly fun, memorable gameplay, but they’re also fan favorites as they’re beautiful places to play in. Does ANet believe their PvP maps reflect the artistic talent seen in places like Lion’s Arch and Black Citadel and is the art team for the PvP maps the same as the one for the rest of the game?

Thanks.

For Engineer.

With the Grenadier trait, the tooltip for Shrapnel Grenade no longer displays it’s “Damage” (direct damage) info.

Cheers.

1. ANet has said before that they are already working of new PVP game modes. Can you share any info about what those modes are or when they may be released?
2. Will there be any way, say through “Experience Jugs” (like Karma Jugs) purchased through Glory Points, to level the WvW/PvE version of our character?
3. Are the classes balanced with 5v5 in mind or some other setup (1v1, 2v2, etc.)?
4. Anet mentioned in a previous SotG that you’re working on ways for players without mics to communicate with teammates with in-game “cues.” Any more info you can share on this—how it’ll work and when it’ll be released?
5. Any upcoming quality of life UI improvements, such as, less tedious way of salvaging chests drops?

Thanks.

1) Arena, with 1v1 to 5v5 brackets.
2) A combat system that requires players to engage secondary targets in some manner (like crowd control), so that combat isn’t primarily about tunneling one target.
3) A Heart of the Mists worthy of being our lobby area:

The 5 racial capitals and Lion’s Arch, for the most part, are breathtakingly beautiful. In stark contrast, the Heart of the Mists, in my opinion, is dull, uninspired, uneventful looking. It possesses neither the attractiveness nor the scale befitting a staging area in one of the core parts of the game, the part that aspires to be an eSport no less. I don’t get that wide-eyed awe in the Mists as when I’m in the 6 main cities, panning the camera to ogle at everything.
So I think it’s unfortunate that for sPVPers, the Mists is our “main city”—what some of us will be seeing most of our GW2 lives whenever we’re not in a match. Meanwhile PVEers and WvWers get to take in the sights of the Black Citadel, Divinity’s Reach, Lion’s Arch as they wait on WvW ques, attend to Trading Post matters, form dungeon parties, etc.
A Heart of the Mists as a zone in all of the 6 main cities would be especially nice, as now it feels like we’re in a hermetically sealed, sparsely populated hinterland, separate from the rest of the game.

I’ve been a part of this guild for a couple weeks now and want to chime in briefly on how impressed I am with it. I had been doing strictly solo que prior to joining, begrudgingly accepting the low ranking that comes with it so to avoid the “personalities” I’ve been used to in competitive play in other games, but the guild members I’ve been playing with most frequently are the exact sort of people I want to play with: civil, respectful, easy-going, extremely attractive.

So if anyone else has similar preferences in teammates, I recommend giving the guild a try.

There were 2 highlights for me:

1) They’re using custom arenas to see what alternate modes players like to play most. Though they are nonetheless testing other modes already.
2) They’re working on a way to communicate with your team with in-game commands, for those without a mic.

Hi,

Why are some of the custom arena’s set to “No Progression”? Is it because the server settings deviate too much from what Arenanet qualifies as normal play? Otherwise, I find it hard to imagine why a server host would voluntarily not want Glory for play.

Thanks.

Taym.8326:

Along with this I suggest that the server owners also disable glory gain (Which I think disables “Play Now” Joiners).

Is that why there’s a couple rooms that disable progression? I haven’t been able to think of a reason why someone would not want Glory points for play ever since I saw that setting.

Similarly curious what people think is the ideal mix of Power, Precision and Critical Damage for maximum overall damage.

Is the drop from tournament chest wins like PVE skin drops in that you can choose to apply it to the sPVP or PVE world?

I love this idea, but what about this alternative.

If some able folks could get together to create a “WvW Small Roaming LFG” site equivalent to GW2lfg.com, which is how many people form dungeon groups, and it works surprisingly well. Groups are formed within minutes of posting.

If we had such a site, we would obviate the considerable cost and risk in transferring servers. It would also be immune to the risk this proposed tier of small roaming servers faces: eventually becoming a zerging mess again, because as impassioned as the people in this thread are for this style of PvP play, it’s hard to imagine how our preference wouldn’t eventually be subverted by the dominant mode of WvW play by the 99% of the people in the proposed servers that aren’t aware of this thread’s mandate.

(I tried something similar, but as a thread in the forum. See my signature. But, of course, forum threads do not provide the instantaneous, convenient communication that a site like the aforementioned one does.)

Red Falcon.8257:

Thanks for your help, though some info was incorrect:

SynfulChaot.3169:

No armor or weapons are current obtainable with this stat set.

The TP has a lot of Cavalier weapons, even happened to loot some myself in Fractals.
No armor with those stats tho.

Are they not always on the TP? I don’t see any Exotic ones at the moment.

I see some in the database (http://www.gw2db.com...um-CritDamage=1). But where do I get them? Contradictorily, don’t see them listed as existing in the wiki (http://wiki.guildwar...xotic_equipment).

Thanks.

Wish I came across play like that more often. An instance of when large skirmishes can still be great fun.

Slotz.1685:

You can also drop Cavalier Armor in Fractals, I know for I have dropped 2 pieces.

How rare are such armor drops in FoTM? I don’t like FoTM, but I do need Cavalier armor.

Thank you.

You can get much, for some people, most, of your exotic gear through karma, which you should have in modest supply at 80. They’re acquired through vendors at the Temples in Orr.

Here’s a very useful link showing what exotic gear can be acquired through what currency and in what kinds of stat allocation: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment_acquisition_by_stats

Regarding your backpiece question, exotic ones can also be acquired at the Temples through Karma. You can also craft ascended ones for an obscene amount of money. I don’t suggest that until you have a wild excess of money.

Lastly, if you’re allergic to PVE as I am, you can also gear through the badges in WvW. Some of it is available entirely through badges, most through badges and a little bit of gold.

Hello,

A suggestion. When the forum requests the user to log-in again, what seems like a daily occurrence, we lose the page we were previously on. Hitting “Back” in the browser does not bring us back to page, instead it merely brings us to the Forum front page. So in order to find the page again, we have to enter into the URL window the title of the thread, if we can recall it, or look for it again in the proper sub-forum, which can also take a while if it’s been pushed back several pages.

Could you make it so we return to the page we were viewing after we’re asked to relog?

I’m using Chrome on OSX, in case this behavior is different on other browsers.

Cheers.

I experience that all the time as well on my thief. And yes, I believe it’s been like this since launch.

Hello,

Possible bug I’ve noticed occur in the Heart of the Mists and in WvW. Could be game-wide, but I don’t PVE much, so I don’t know if it occurs there as well.

When I use Illusionary Leap (both parts of the sequence skill) through Temporal Curtain to create to create Retaliation, I often don’t get Retaliation even though the combo field “indicator” (heart visual with the word “Retaliation” inside it) usually appears.

Even while standing on top of the Curtain (exactly in the center of it) during both parts of Illusionary Leap, sometimes it will show the Retaliation heart visual and not actually give me Retaliation or not even show the visual and also not give Retaliation.

Cheers.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Kazhiel is correct. This build works fine in a small skirmish situation, although if you get too large, the phantasms just die. It is abysmal in a 1 vs many.

Thanks. Appreciate both your responses.