Guild Wars 2

Soulbeast aura looks great, but overdone, distracts from and blocks other visuals while active. Would be better to display when you enter and leave SB mode, but not the whole time. SB is “ok”. Needs more ranged SB options. Something like “Eagle’s Sight” (something I made up, I forget what the birds did offhand in the beta) to assist with longbow attacks, kinda like the ranger becoming one with a pet with exceptional eyesight? Along with the bird theme, a “Swoop” in SB mode when you’re merged with a flying pet would be cool too, to go with the theme and add a mobility option.

I’m having issues with how low the Bite damage is for starters, and secondly I really wanted more ranged Soulbeast skills. Poison cloud is one, but unless I missed something that’s the only one and it’s hard to hit a target? Right now it seems like the Bear Soulbeast is the only viable option for PvE/WvW since it allows for multiple stun breaks and heals and defy pain. Seems like the increase in movement speed is dependent on having the BM traitline as well, in addition to other BM traits. So I don’t see much use of Soulbeast without BM, leaving only one trait line optional.

TBH though… that green auta is almost a deal breaker. Yeah, petty but very annoying.

The aura might be OK for the initial Entering or Leaving Beastmode. It’s is nicely done but it’s Overdone – it’s way too much visual clutter to leave on. Blocks visuals on what you’re doing. I’d be fine with a simple body or chest outer glow or something.

And yes, I really was looking forward to a “petless” ranger mode to run in full-time. The pet is a good percentage of our damage and utility normally, so in theory being able to merge with our pet should increase our DPS and utility since it merges our split-selves (character and pet) back into one.

I liked the adventures first time around. Some I did several times for fun.

I don’t have an issue with a mastery behind them, but I believe the mastery should be for something like just trying them out. You enter the Adventure, you finish one attempt, or maybe three attempts, and you get the mastery point.

That way it rewards people for at least trying out the content and doesn’t punished them for not being able to complete it in a timed scenario.

Several HoT ones were pretty simple, others caused problems for me.

First off – there is an audio bug or ten. About 1/5 of the NPC speech didn’t play properly. I just knew that they said something because I saw it in my chat dialogue box and my character was responding to silence.

Next, overall impressions: It’s “OK” to start. That’s how the vanilla GW1 and GW2 started as well, “ok”. And they got better the more you got into them. I’m hoping that’s the case with PoF.

For a demo, though, I was hoping for more bells and whistles to perk interest. Like someone said elsewhere, in HoT the first time you go in it’s a warzone and gets you immediately engaged. PoF on the other hand, even the NPC on the ship kinda shrugs and says “you can stay here if you want to” like it doesn’t matter. How about the airship NPCs throw some gear at you and order you to come with them because otherwise you’re just wasting space, or something to that effect. Maybe if you stay in the airship too long, it gets blown up by Balthazar or something…. something like that would get the player more engaged.

Opening mission sequence was “ok”, I like the new level 11 Rats.. I mean Forged Hellhounds or whatever. The sand shark was rather amusing I like the revamped Hydras. The monsters were “ok”. Didn’t see anything that made me think “oh WOW!” but that’s par for the course after playing these games long enough. The unique stuff usually comes at the end of long chains or events anyhow.

Terrain was kinda ‘blah’ to me. Nothing that exciting. I liked all of the HoT maps. Ember Bay was cool. Draconis Mons was cool. That place beside Queensdale… I forget the name of it if that tells you how much of an impression it made on me. But the flat spaced out desert just didn’t hold my interest. Did HoT spoil us?

Granted, like many of us I spent far too many hours in the desert in GW1 and that was fun at the time. This time in the demo it just seemed to be lacking something. Can’t put my finger on it.

Anyhow, I’m mostly interested in the elite specs like a lot of other people. I don’t see much point in playing the demo much more at this point – I do want to keep more of it as a surprise at real launch. Didn’t notice any other bugs aside from the sound.

The dialogue is a bit lacking, to put it mildly, but I’m not playing the game to for its literary genius. The dialogue is mostly fun except for the times when you stop and wonder “why the hell did he just say that?” I do think whoever does the dialogue should perhaps role-play the scenes more (in real life) to hear how they sound. Sometimes creatives get too close to their work and need to step back for a different perspective.

my two cents ~

Nice to know I didn’t miss out on something here. I logged in the night of Aug. 1 and received that pop-up, but was unable to make the purchase until the next day. I made my pre-purchase around 5 pm EST Aug 2nd.

The way I read that pop-up was that if we bought the expansion on the very first day of announcement and only that day, we’d get an “Ambassador” title in addition to whatever the other perks were for pre-order. That apparently was not the case.

trailofsalt.6571:

That is nice how you assume that because I can get to diamond within a week that I have no life, no job, and apparently don’t spend anything on the game. I have about $500+ in gem cards over 2 1/2 years that says otherwise.

I also think you missed my point. My point was that there is no need to decrease the amount of pips gained for the outnumbered buff. It just hurts folks like me who could always use the extra pips. I am only a bronze rank. Maybe I should have clarified that.

Apologies if you took offense. I have played since GW1 release, and I’ve gone through periods of 40-60 hour gaming weeks in the old days. And now I’m on the other end of that playing spectrum but still put in time – so I’ve seen this time/week from all perspectives. When I read quite a few of the posts in these forums I feel that quite a few people have lost perspective of time spent. And this reward system is actually encouraging marathon sessions for people to hit greater rewards/achievements before resets – which is not physically or mentally healthy…

But I digress. The outnumbered pips are fine as-is to encourage participation on those maps. The base pip progression needs changed though.

trailofsalt.6571:

I don’t see why people keep saying that it’s too strong. I am currently at platinum and it has taken me all week starting last Friday to get there. The outnumbered bonus comes along every now and again helping to give me that extra push at times. I don’t jump BLs for an outnumbered buff and I don’t AFK. I play normally.

The average WvW player (excluding brand new players) can reach diamond by the end of the week depending on how much they play. That was the whole point of the system, wasn’t it? Some players can reach diamond quicker because there are a few different factors that determine how you get pips.

Reducing the amount that the outnumbered buff gives you will do nothing but punish the players who play the game mode normally. Do you really want to do this?

False, but I understand that sense of perspective can be skewed by personal involvement.

I can barely make Gold chest each week. I don’t think I’ll finish Silver this week, might or might not. While it’s true that a core group of WvW might have the time to invest in playing the game enough to acquire the current 175 pips in a weekend, I’m very certain that it is not true for a very large percentage of the playing population.

In my case, adult gamer with job, house, family, etc. People like me also help fund the game by buying things (re: job, etc).

My biggest complaint about the system is that it’s based on Time Spent Sitting On Your <Kitten>. I admit that I am going to be working towards that backpiece. I have nearly everything except for the Tickets. But do you know how long it will take me if I can only finish Gold chest some but not all weeks? 18 MONTHS.

Aye, I understand that you want to get people involved in the game mode and I think that’s great. I have played a lot of WvW and I really do prefer it to other game modes. But for pete’s sake, if you’re going to put rewards out there for people to reach for, then make them depend on performance and achievement and not sitting on your ass for a forced amount of time.

Why can’t I just progress through to Diamond in my own time and after Diamond go back to wood, cycling though so I can get the bigger rewards slower but eventually? Because I’ll never get to Diamond, because I don’t play this as a full time job.

p.s. an aside, don’t underestimate the need for soldiers, troops, grunts, whatever you want to call us. without the soldiers following, a commander can do little on her or his own. I agree commanders should have perks.

I’d like to put my 2 cents in somewhere. Might as well be on this thread.

Pip balance is really screwy imo. I’m getting +2 due to my rank at low silver and it’ll take forever for me to get past silver. It’s a horribly slow progression. While I understand having to “work” for things, there are other aspects of stuff like Warbringer (what I’m going for, if the game servers don’t shut down first) that require a lot of time to assemble. I don’t see how spending far too many hours just logged into the game should be an integral part of the reward system. I’d rather it be based on actions in the game.

That said, I’m starting in on the GOLD chest as of last night. I’m not going to finish it by reset, if I do then I’ll be surprised. I have life and a family.

The biggest complaint I have about the reward system right now is that – because I’m not a slave to GW2 and WvW – I’m going to have to start at the bottom Wood chest again at reset when I haven’t even gotten enough time to get up to the plat, mithril and diamond chests. This means I’ll get to be in this forever-low-level-reward trap which is nonsense.

Yes, some people would say I’m not “dedicated” enough then but it’s not “dedicated” when it’s based on how long someone can sit on their ass logged into a computer game.

Maybe just have the chests rotate when you cycle through them instead?

1) One of the “riddles” is poorly written IMHO

2) Once I picked the “correct” answer and entered the hall to the final fight, the door closed on me and I was stuck in the doorway. I had to wait until I finally died by the exploding bloodstone coming close enough to damage me, and restarting from a checkpoint.

3) I do think it’s bad design but not for the other reasons mentioned in this thread so far. My primary issue is that you’re fighting in a small circular room, and playing a Charr I had some real issues with the camera and finding out where the red damage circles on the floor were and where the adds were in the room. Would be 100x better without the outside walls so you could freely look in all directions without issue. Tight cramped space and crappy camera – no fun. Had to restart from checkpoint repeatedly to finish this one.

I don’t trust Caithe one bit. Her little “dream quest” has been completed so she has nothing to lose and nothing really to gain which makes her dangerous.

Something that really hasn’t been addressed post-Mordy is fate of the sylvari. There have been many fantasy and sci-fi books written about God dying and man finding out and all sorts of hell breaks loose – loss of morality and sense of purpose, etc.

I think we should have seen a fair number of raving Sylvari madmen/women/chia-pets by now as the ones who 1) couldn’t accept the fact that Mordy was their ultimate creators and 2) can’t accept that their creator is now dead (or at least in a long term slumber since the dragons can’t really stay dead forever, if I recall the lore correctly and they’re part of the natural system of the world anyhow)

I haven’t ready over all posts here, so forgive me if I repeat things, but here’s my good/bad review in short:

I’m not a fan of the snow/ice maps in general but I thought the map was pretty decent for a snow/ice map. Having two WP’s didn’t both me much since it’s easy to run anywhere. The map doesn’t have the navigational PITA’s that other maps have (cliffs to get up to, chasms to cross, etc).

I wasn’t really ‘feeling’ the Kodan flame stuff. Maybe I’m just jaded but it seemed to be put out there like an “oh, by the way…” for the new map. The Kodan and Quaggan have obviously been doing this for some time right through the northern wall of a map we’ve all adventured in for quote some time. It’s like discovering you have someone living next door to you that you didn’t know about for the last 10 years. Ember Bay at least had some distance and separation that Tiami and others had to work to connect to in the story.

I’m still not sure if I’ve done the meta on this map. I’m pretty sure I have but it always seems like a very disjointed headless chicken dance and I don’t recall a big old treasure chest at the end. Or maybe I did. I’m finding myself trying to clear my inventory as much as possible, especially since I’ve lost use of four or five slots due to un-depositable ingredients.

I like the creatures. I like the integration of the Quaggan. They needed some sort of place in all of this that wasn’t on someone’s dinner table. Hot springs was a nice way to add some variety to the landscape and they do have such things in icy areas like Iceland, etc. I liked the bosses for the most part.

I was disappointed in the Griffin Hatchling Pet. The icon for it shows the Hatchling flying but the pet does no such thing, not even if you run far away and it has to catch up to you. I was a little put out by that, but it’s no biggie.

Last fight is actually fun, but my issue is with the achievement. I really can’t stand achievements like this one, where you’re avoiding falling rocks or a certain attack, etc. I recall “Dodgy Crowd” was hell. A ton of people have issues with this due to age/ability/connection speeds. However, you can let the NPCs do the whole thing and get the Unfrosty achievement. I think that a mechanic that lets you initiate the fight and have the NPCs do the work might have been unintentional. I’m not complaining about it being super easy once you realized the NPCs do the work, because I got the achievement without tearing my hair out. But I also think it might not be intentional…

Boss fights with mind numbing trash mobs need reset motes.

Meta achievements should allow the player to skip at least one lesser achievement so that if a player has real difficulty due to ability or connection speed it’s possible to do. I realize three of the lesser achieves didn’t count to meta, but you should be able to do 20/21 of the ones that count. I think.

I do hope that Aurene’s little spot turns into another Hall of Monuments for GW2. It’s nice to see a collection of your ingame achievements.

I liked having an NPC telling the player to shove it. I’m “ok” with Braham because that’s really how some people are… but in real life you get to ignore them or tell them what they can do with their attitude. In this game you have to suffer through his whining and don’t get the options to either throw him up against the wall and beat some sense into him or to tie him up and present him as a gift to the Svanir (I think Braham would be less of a threat to us all as an enemy than an ally at this point!)

Just a few thoughts ~
~ Lys

Reverence.6915:

If you get upset at people using swear words, you need to grow a set and get a grip on reality (though I understand if people are dropping the F bomb every second word, that gets tedious).

My 2 cents. I have a 3 year old who sleeps in the room next to the computer room. I usually play when he’s sleeping or almost asleep and it’s mom’s night for the bedtime stories. However, I like to be able to hear when kiddo cries, gets up and starts walking the hallway, etc. so the headphones are not an option. And I’m not about to play most TS chats on my speakers due to the language if wife or kiddo can hear. I got balls – I got ‘em and I’ve put them to good use already so that’s not the answer.

So yeah, different people have different situations. If you’re running a zerg and have a few people not in TS it’s not going to ruin effectiveness under a good comm who pays attention to the map.

p.s. case in point, kiddo just woke up as I typed this. he went back to sleep soon after but yeah, the parents get it

Shh… I have one so far, not complaining.

I’ll second this. Many thanks! I like being able engage in fights and key points on the map during my game time.

On Desert I spent most of my time running from point A to point B, not enjoyable even after working out how to get places.

Reh.5986:

Lysander Freeman.4186:

I read that statement on the poll and I was totally confused by it even being considered.

This is a game mode that’s active 24/7, not four hours each day.

The fuzzy math of some people in this thread doesn’t make sense. Making someone’s time spent playing less valuable than someone else’s due to their life schedule is has no place in a game running 24/7. You either get the points or you don’t.

p.s. I was about to mention making special objectives only obtainable by large groups or something similar, which means that off hours could still do it but unlikely. Something that, or like what SkyShroud described.

Night players are worth far more than day players. The server linking helped but it’s still the case. Far, far more.

As far as PPT, a good night crew will make day fighting almost useless.

An hour spent by a night player is the same length of game time as a day player. Just because one may face more resistance than the other isn’t the player’s fault and they should not be penalized for it.

I read that statement on the poll and I was totally confused by it even being considered.

This is a game mode that’s active 24/7, not four hours each day.

The fuzzy math of some people in this thread doesn’t make sense. Making someone’s time spent playing less valuable than someone else’s due to their life schedule is has no place in a game running 24/7. You either get the points or you don’t.

p.s. I was about to mention making special objectives only obtainable by large groups or something similar, which means that off hours could still do it but unlikely. Something that, or like what SkyShroud described.

I’m in full agreement. I found the shared slot being locked in its position and the inability to put the Boost item into account storage to be poorly thought out. I believe that they want people to use it and are visibly encouraging people with 80’s to buy more character slots. But it’s annoying.

I complained about this in one of my guild’s chats and was basically told I was complaining about a “free” thing and I should be happy about it. So I did use the booster thing on a character that didn’t have all of the level 80 waypoints. And promptly threw out half of the rest of the contents of said boost because I already it or better. Really wish I could have just put that booster into the account storage instead for maybe six months to a year from now when I might get a new character slot or retire one. On the other hand, I have a stack and a half of ToKs so it’s no big loss. Unless they repurpose ToKs in the next big update, of course.

OK. I think it was my internet router after all. Reset it a second time. Maybe I didn’t unplug it long enough before. Whatever. Feel like a dolt. But I was able to do three fractals tonight…. woot…

Night #3 in a row that I can’t play due to this error. No response from my support ticket yet.

Fix… please… I checked my PC again tonight, background processes, malware, etc. it’s fine. Internet’s blazing along. GW2 isn’t :/

Yeah. Same error for two nights now.

Can’t play more than a few minutes before dc. Very annoying. Submitted ticket. Can’t get the -diag to work either. Rest of my computer’s fine. Hard wired into router and web browser and download speeds are fine as well for other stuff.

I can’t play for five minutes, let alone three minutes, without disconnecting tonight. This is a rare thing for me. Game was fine last night, but it’s unplayable tonight. Have a good night!

THANK YOU!

Yup, got it. Took four more tries but got better each time.

Thanks, I’ll try both the suggestions. I’m sure you’re right about the number of Champs, I’ve been more focused on not dying than counting I’ve gotten through the first main tunnel and into the ‘ruins’ where the Champ(s) are out in the open, blatantly blocking the way through. I feel kinda silly now though because I didn’t realize that Distract had a second skill to it once deployed. I thought it just kinda floated away and that was its way of “distracting.” I’m sure that second skill will help a lot! I also tend to stick to the right wall but will try for the dead center path tonight instead.

(In NA, but my schedule’s a bit odd at times with family but thanks for the offer)

Hi all ~

I’ve finally started doing Fractals, and I’m about to max the last Mastery line. I need a few more mastery points though.

I’ve been trying to do the Flawless Fins Foil Foes achievement for the MP but so far it’s been near impossible. At this point, I’m doing this solo to work out the bugs just because it’s easier than getting four other people involved and asking “can we do that again?”

I can get down to the Champion Krait and a little past it but die soon after passing him. From what I can tell, I’m almost there.

Does anyone have tips on getting past the Champion Krait and to the finishing spot?

Thanks in advance ~
~ Lys

That chart is awesome. I think I’m going to have to do this one for the last MP I need in Central Tyria and it’s been painful finding out which ones I already did eons ago and which ones I still need.

Khyan.7039:

Personnaly I think the journey was “okay”. It’s still more original than others legendary journeys in my opinion.

Agreed, it’s an acceptable journey for a game like GW2. When I have time to play the game I don’t post, so it’s not like I have enough problems with the collection line that I stop playing to vent I hope that the devs read through these posts for feedback as they work on future content.

I didn’t mind the Gift of Maguuma that much, since it went along with the HoT mastery grind. Once you accept that you have to spend a lot of time in the four HoT maps to level the HoT masteries it’s just a matter of doing them in each map to get the currencies for the key/acid/whatever for the nodes/cargo/pods.

Amalgamated Gemstones aside (which is another conversation in itself) I think I was a little disappointed that the collection involved a few repeat bosses but didn’t touch on the dungeons or other content.

One thing I wondered was why they didn’t make you go to some super-secret crafter, perhaps even a master craftsman at the end of a dungeon, in order to get some of the recipes for Nevermore II. That would have added a little more adventure and made the crafting more interesting or purposeful in-game. Dungeons might be phasing out but they’re still in the game, might as well use them. Doesn’t have to be a repeat 10-times trip either. Just one dungeon trip to get to the crafter would get you the recipe. Or, only let you craft a particular component in a specific location perhaps due to the environmental factors (like a ley-line infused crafting station in Rata Novus in TD?)

PvE, I love my ranger. With a variety of pets you can switch them out to fit different play styles. If you’re exploring I like having the pet around as well. You can go power or condition or go Druid for a heal spec. Heal’s still not really useful for a lot of PvE, but depends on what you’re doing. Can either buff your pet with Beastmastery or trait yourself up and use the pet as more of a utility.

WvW, I have the most fun on mesmer. I don’t like the light armor classes for PvE (too much kiting) but in WvW it is really fun and provides group utility.

I still can’t get into the Heavy armor classes much.

Ayrilana.1396:

So based on what you just said, you’re with the second group he listed in that you think it is excessive and compelled to grind?

Hah! There is no way to get the masteries and materials without grinding due to there not being enough content to get these without gross repetition. Grind is build into every mmo really. It’s more about the achievement being based on a huge time/gold-sink on multiple levels.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I don’t expect too many people to change their mind about it, since this is parallel to the discussion about the costs of silk/damask and largely ends up dividing people along party lines: those who support a market-driven economy don’t see an issue vs those arguing it’s excessive because they feel compelled to grind.

I think you’re taking this a lot more seriously than I am Quite simply, a game is more fun to play when rewards can be achieved within a reasonable amount of time and effort. That’s all subjective, of course. This is a game. This is not a job. My personal view is that the legendary requirements are excessive due to sheer amount of time involved, not due to the difficulty. There just doesn’t seem to be a reason for the orb requirement aside from the need to create a huge time-sink when they’ve already introduced other time-sinks like the masteries and fulgerite, etc (which I have done already), which is why I don’t think it was well planned. I would much prefer skill challenge and playing difficulty being the challenge to meet on the way to a legendary vs. base ‘material’ investment (as much as can be said about a computer game).

Am I still working on the legendary? Yes, I am Do I see a way to make it more fun and less of a time-spent-playing issue? Yes. Overall Playing Experience > Economy

In Age of Conan, if you wanted that awesome cape, you had to kill a Dragon. A really kittening Big One in an organize 40+ man attempt. In Guild Wars, if you want that awesome thing, you farm for 120+ days for a few hours each day.

I believe that 3×3 orbs per gemstone are not excessive in and of themselves. However, when you take all of the other requirements for legendaries into account – the 77 Clovers, the 90ish time gated t7s and the Mastery requirements not to mention the rest – I still think the requirement for them is a bit much. These legendaries and the raid are what we have for end game PvE content and it just seems like they want to make thing take a lot longer than necessary to keep people playing.

It’s excessive. Jeweler can upgrade the tier below orbs (crystals I think), but even that requires 2 crystals and 5 dust. Still a lot of gold.

I don’t analyze all of my drop rates and stuff ingame. That would just depress me. HOWEVER – I seem to be getting a lot more crystal and orb drops lately. I don’t know if that’s just me or if they’re adjusting things with the two or three patches they’re put out this past week. I hope that’s the case.

My thoughts on the Nevermore quest ~

Nevermore I: Ravenswood Branch
- Nice introduction to ease people into a legendary journey. Good to see that the game recognizes our past achievements so we don’t have to do the same things over again (some Protectors). It makes sure we have completed or have access to all areas of the game, Central and HoT.

Nevermore II: Ravenswood Staff
- A Crafting Odyssey. Time Sink. Gold Sink. Gets people to buy gems if they don’t want to spend 120+ hours of their lives harvesting + the months of 1-A-Day Gobs/Planks. Aye, you can buy them with gold you earn in the game. So on one level, those with enough time and patience and lack of anything better to do with their lives can do this all in-game by themselves (that’s not really a criticism of the players like this, I was there once too in my younger days).

On another level, it promotes involvment in the economy by allowing purchase of Spiritwood Planks on the TP if you want to move things along faster. And, of course it gets Anet money from those with jobs who buy gems and convert to gold to just buy the Planks outright (thereby affecting said “economy” for non-gem buyers).

BUT. It’s really overdone. There needs to be more ‘adventure’ involved in this. If there’s ever a way to make the game’s timegating and TP/Gem focus more noticeable, this is it. You can at least sprinkle in some more side stuff here. A spoon full of sugar does help the medicine go down. It’s better to use honey than vinegar. -Insert favorite applicable adage here-

Nevermore III: The Raven Staff
- This was fine with me. A little bit of crafting in the beginning to create a tool to find the raven spirits and a scavenger hunt. In this case the crafting was very appropriate to the use.

Nevermore IV: The Raven Spirit
- Why amd I doing DS meta again, when I already did this in Nevermore I? (Protector of All / Flight Lessons: Air Combat)
- Why am I fighting SB again, when I already did this in Nevermore III? (Chaos Treatment / Chase the Spirit through the Ages / Phantom Residue)
- Why am I doing Urban Battlegounds again, when I already did this in Nevermore III? Note: Since Fractals are already a “replay” of past Tyrian events, this isn’t as bad as the other ones. (Chase the Spirit from Ascalon Past / Bring the Red Iris Fower to Rest)
- Why am I doing Cliffside Fractal again, when I already did this in Nevermore III? Note: Since Fractals are already a “replay” of past Tyrian events, this isn’t as bad as the other ones. (Chase the Spirit from the Cliffside / Ancient Cultists Texts)
- Timed Quests Without Timers – I did all but two so far so it’s doable but no fun. It really helped that I partied up with someone else doing these, so we were both map hopping like crazy looking for active events. 0% immersion doing this. 0% fun. If you’re going to have this many timed events required and they’re on 3-hour timers, would REALLY help to have some indication In-Game of how long it might take. Some events, like the Battle in Plains of Ashford have a handy status line that says the event has been done recently. Something like this should be on all of them for the legendary so we don’t have to AFK for two hours hoping.

There is more content in GW2 than this collection is giving credit for. I really don’t understand why the repeat bosses and fractals. We have so many others. At least try to give the illusion that once a player has killed the Big Bad, that they really did it once and for all.

Now, after I’m done with Nevermore IV I need to get my 250 ectos and t6 material stock back up (I canabalized my stores just to get this collection stuff done). The Amalgamated Gemstones are going to be a chore any way you approach it. And the Clovers, well, they’re Clovers. Most people giving this Legendary a real shot know about the Clovers… So the real thorn is the Gemstones for me. Seems a bit excessive.

But at least I get to have my 100% chance for my Precursor and Gift when I haven’t had a Precursor drop or get forged in all of the time I’ve played this game.

Anyhow, that’s my feedback on this collection line for what it’s worth.

~ Lys

Hubal.8571:

And unfortunately now they simply cannot abandon 32-bit version for the sake of business itself. Basically you cannot change the requirements after you sell your product. The HoT expansion should have been made 64-bit mandatory – now it’s kinda stuck – and as I said fixing the situation will not be easy – time and money is needed (or as you said “development resources”).

LOL! Sorry, that made me laugh. A while back, I had subscribed to the Adobe Creative Cloud soon after it launched to try things out. I was running Windows Vista when I started and Vista had full support. Three months into my CC sub, they changed the requirement to Windows 7 or 8 and I was unable to use the applications on my Vista machine.

Cloud-based applications are going to have constant requirement changes. I’d lump an online gaming experience in the same boat, especially if they’re tweaking things that require different resources. The product was sold under certain conditions but the only way to keep the requirements the same would be for the product to never evolve. If the product isn’t allowed to evolve then it grows stagnant and you’d have more people complaining about the lack of growth in what should be a dynamic MMO.

It’s a poor marketing decision to leave behind too much of your consumer base though, so you have to see the user data behind the scenes to know just how wise or stupid their decisions may be.

P.S. I have never crashed in Dragon Stand. I crashed one time in HoT. I forget where exactly, I think it may have been TD. And I’ve maxed my HoT mastery lines (not including raid lines) so I have spent more than enough time on all maps.

Hubal.8571:

And unfortunately now they simply cannot abandon 32-bit version for the sake of business itself. Basically you cannot change the requirements after you sell your product. The HoT expansion should have been made 64-bit mandatory – now it’s kinda stuck – and as I said fixing the situation will not be easy – time and money is needed (or as you said “development resources”).

LOL! Sorry, that made me laugh. A while back, I had subscribed to the Adobe Creative Cloud soon after it launched to try things out. I was running Windows Vista when I started and Vista had full support. Three months into my CC sub, they changed the requirement to Windows 7 or 8 and I was unable to use the applications on my Vista machine.

Cloud-based applications are going to have constant requirement changes. I’d lump an online gaming experience in the same boat, especially if they’re tweaking things that require different resources. The product was sold under certain conditions but the only way to keep the requirements the same would be for the product to never evolve. If the product isn’t allowed to evolve then it grows stagnant and you’d have more people complaining about the lack of growth in what should be a dynamic MMO.

It’s a poor marketing decision to leave behind too much of your consumer base though, so you have to see the user data behind the scenes to know just how wise or stupid their decisions may be.

IndigoSundown.5419:

It was my third time trying him last night. First win. The fight was not really very fun. This could be due to the fact that he was not visible for 90% of the fight (presumably a bug). It could also be due to the fact that being unable to personally counter the 1m damage hit via block, dodge, etc. is frustrating. I get the whole, “CC needed” thing, but was unable to contribute because my CCskill requires a target. The fight basically consisted of running after the other players, dropping AoE fields and swinging a melee weapon in the hopes they’d hit.

If I ever see a patch note that says they’ve fixed the bug, I might try him again. As of now, I see little reason to do so.

It’s not a bug. You need Nuhoch Stealth Detection to see him for most of the fight.

As to the rest of the complaints…. for me, HoT maps and event required a LOT of timer watching and LFG lurking. A large portion of my time in HoT was spent trying to find maps with enough people or in the right stages of the metas to accomplish all of the goals.

That’s really not a positive thing, it’s not a great design overall. In theory the timers and meta maps are great but in practice, not so great.

So now you’re saying you just don’t like the expac and mob design. That’s a personal preference. I think you’re gettin flak because you are presenting the issue as one of difficulty instead of design. At least that’s what I get from your posts. Seems like you don’t like how hard it is. If it’s a design issue then what would you rather have as an alternative?

P.s. obviously my reality must be different. The maps and mobs are fun, albeit a little too dense for my liking at times.

I use berserkers or vipers on my ranger mostly. BUT – and this is the important bit – I also use a ranged weapon as well as a melee weapon, both with some evade or block skill, most times and have at least one if not two stun breakers on to boot.

You just have to adapt. It forces you to really look at your dps and defensive options. Good evading, dodging and blocking to avoid the damage in the first place is sometimes better than boosting that toughness to take a beating and live through it.

Dunno, but sounds like a break is certainly in order if its bothering you that much. I’ve quit smoking and drinking and for each one similar situation – realize that you’d really rather do something else but you can’t due to addiction.

(( A few (running) marathons later and I don’t even look back. ))

I haven’t been given too much crap commanding in PvE yet. Or maybe I don’t notice because I’m used to a more vocal and less polite crowd in WvW. I’d rather not command at all but chaos, disorder and mayhem all annoy me and get in the way of progress… the thanks is appreciated though

Always something happening in my experience. I always check the lfg though. Might do a solo boss or gather for a few minutes but not long until something opens up. Have yo rely on taxis though.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Mouhappai.5406:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ProtoGunner.4953:

But people do it anyway, this should be taken out of the EULA. It’s ridiculous. I don’t share my game but for god’s sake between family members? Where are we, in North Korea?

Even family members can get into fights about who did what to a shared account and drag support into the argument. Or husband and wives can divorce or argue, one side locks the other out then support Is supposed to resolve the mess. Or cases of regret, where someone give a family member his account then later changes his mind and contacts support to get it back. All these cost support time and money, which is why they frown on even family members sharing or giving away accounts.

I guess that means yes, this is North Korea.

It means we are within the human race and it’s not always love and sunshine here.

I think someone needs a hug

OP: HoT events are very ‘scheduled’ and it quite simply doesn’t work for a casual gamer who wants to complete everything in their own time and schedule. I would highly recommend playing the vanilla GW2 storyline and lands. Much more open and most of the activities are player initiated. The world bosses are scheduled but their schedule doesn’t impact the rest of the map as much. Or just do PvP.

People Who Think Sharing with Family’s a Big Deal: …really? Plenty more in life to fight about between family members, compared to other things a game doesn’t amount to much.

Is there a text guide to the new BLs anywhere? I will be trying them again sometime soon and I don’t know the mechanics. Would be nice to have something I could print out and review at my leisure instead of videos (work breaks, bathroom reading material, etc.). I did look at them in the first couple of weeks but they really lost my interest. Maybe if I understand them more they might be more interesting.

I explored the maps in the first couple of weeks and haven’t been back. Map’s too large. Hard to navigate from objective to objective – at least ones that you can do anything with. Nice job on the looks, but Form needs to follow Function. I tried several times to find groups here and nada.

I’ll give them another go sometime soon, as I’m running out of goals to do in PvE-land. The new map really put me off WvW for a while, was hoping for something more fun.

Would be amusing if Lord Faren stumbled into a guild tavern once in a while, got drunk and told everyone about his grand adventures. Speaking of which… how about bouncers?

MauricioCezar.2673:

the best option is speedrun trough the HoT story on alts, if you have then. It takes around of ~1:30 hours to 2:00 hours. Free chooseable piece of leystone armor at end, plus all the rewards you get trough the chapters.

Seems to be poor achievement/reward design if this is the case, which it seems to be. I got my initial Leystone pieces in a decent amount of time, not right away but I did put the time in for them and that’s fine. Then I do a long series of runs totalling 10,000,000 + XP done on the DS map with quite a few meta completions and get nothing.

If they require alts running through for this and/or other achievements, just make “Completing Story Line on X-number of Alts” an achievement by itself… and make X = 9 or 10 characters so you have to use the gem store

But I digress. Drop rates need adjusted.

An Update and a Suggestion:

I’ve been dumping all of my airship parts and aurillium bits into the Machetes and have been doing DS quite a bit more in the past several days. I still need 7 more Laystone armor pieces for the Collection.

Right now I still need: 2 leggings, 2 boots, and all three helms.

I got enough XP in DS to complete the last half of tier 5 Itzel and both t6 Itzel and t6 Nuhoch on this map (with only a couple of Tarirs mixed in when DS map wasn’t user friendly).

I understand that the Collection isn’t a requirement, it’s just another one of this side-goal achievement things with a reward attached, but the drop rates on the laystone boxes could use a tweak.

I’ve enjoyed the DS runs, especially the almost-fail map that defeated the towers with only 2 minutes left on the clock and I’d been doing the middle zerg circle for literally and hour while North and South kept resetting. It was fun in it’s own way, how the map tried and tried again to work together and finally did it.

But there comes a point in time when players say “forget it,” stop trying the achievements and move on.

PvP and WvW’s fun since other players make the maps more dynamic each go, but in PvE too much of the same makes you feel like a trained rat doing the same maze over and over with little or no reward.

DS is doing it for me. At this rate I’ll max my last two lines before I finish my leystone armor collection…

ZachAttack.3957:

Minx.7521:

Malediktus.9250:

Berserk Steve.1530:

achievements now confirmed working on all lanes just hold dmg and kill in 3rd.

Sound like badly designed achievements if they force you to play bad. Especially in open world environments where other people do what they want.

Seriously what the hell. This is a little similar to how you have to FAIL events to get some achievements for precursor collection. It’s going to promote people yelling at other people to stop attacking. Good one, Anet, way to get players to aggro against each other.

This is so that people can’t cheese all 4 achievements in one run :P

that’s easy enough to fix. They did this fix in SW. Give players a lane specific buff as soon as they kill an egg/give golem energy/stomp a shroom/kill invading char in scar that prevents them from getting cred rlsewhere. Just like the SW extractor boss specific buffs. That way a player has to do at least one pre-gherent spawning phase event for achieve and can’t do others.

Devs – this is ANOTHER instance of requiring an event to fail to get the reward.

Please adjust, as you have with similar scenarios.