Guild Wars 2

Rick.5781:

So ascended weapons begin dropping at daily level 11? If this is the case, they should change the way the tiers are layed out in the LFG panel to reflect this.

This. And also please just make a 21-30 and 31-40 tier instead of a 21-40. It is by no mean a priority, but since a good number of the lfgs are there it would seem the logical thing to do (at least to me! )

I’m afraid that the problem is simply the content difficulty. I regularly play fractal 49, 40 and other dailyes, but when I look for a party I don’t have to look for somebody that offers control, conditions or protection (playing myself a guardian). I just look for people to speed it up, and it often is me (guard), 3 warriors, and 1 ele/mesmer/4th warrior. Warriors offering good utilities and buffs (for great justice, banners, … ) and huge damage while having enough survivability to allow room for mistake makes them the obvious choice to pug with.

This could change if we would have to get harder instanced content, where strategy really matters in order to just complete it and not only to try to set speed records.

Of course Scarlet is gatering materials to build and develop a huge weapon to kill an elder dragon, which has enslaved Tengus. So next year they will introduce a new campaign along with a new race (Tengus), where we will help Scarlet free them from the evil dragon. That way we won’t have to kill her!

It makes sense!

You can already drop ascended armor pieces and weapons in fractals daily chest (starting at lvl 10 iirc). You can chose the piece (boots, helm, … ) and class (heavy, medium, light) but you will not be able to change stats. If you drop a zerker one, you will be stuck with it even if you wanted rabid.

Morsus.5106:

Yowch, 240 gold for such a minor increase? (Ascended Berserker Greatsword has 188 power while Exotic Berseker Greatsword has 179, so 9 additional power.)

You forgot base damage as well as infusion slots. But I agree, the damage increase is not that big, but when taking into account all the ascended items, full ascended get easily an increase of 10% more than only exotic.

Am I actually the only one who is perfectly fine with them being “decent at best” (if you are an optimist!) in order to boost the transmutation costs sales? It is maybe because exotic crafted weapons already are the ugliest weapons in the game, but I think that pushing the customer to buy COSMETIC items from the gem store is all right and in line with their manifesto. Come on, you can get 25 transmutation stones (so, 4 complete armor sets… ) for 800 gems, which is ~65g or 10€ / $. Given that nobody has to pay for the game after the initial investment, asking for little more than 2€/$ per ascended set isn’t so outragious.

I’m much more bothered by the time investment needed to craft the set than by the amount of geems needed to make it not hurt the eyes.

EDIT: Even if I said that I’m fine with bad ascended armor look, I wouldn’t be against more armor sets, either by dungeons (like, fractal set with relics?), guild commendations, laurels, drops, chests… whatever!). Compared to GW1, where every CLASS got sets opposed as every armor tier, this feels a little lackluster.

Sign me up for with those who couldn’t finish it! I could never get underwater… ; )

But really, I understand that it is frustrating and I don’t know why it didn’t stay there a little more, maybe permanently moved in the explorer section where all the frac related achievements are (IIRC). Every other achievement is either grind based or skill based, it is a pity for those who care about achievement and perfect record to have it spoiled by bad luck.

Even as a heavy armor user (mostly), I think that they should have figured out something to prevent that.

hydeaut.1758:

The basic defense-/armor-value should be higher on ascended

This. Not by much tough.

Well lilith, while I agree with you that the difference between ascended and exotics armor will be felt the most in high level fractals, I must say that you dismissing the desire to be best geared for ANY part of the game is a little reductive. I play fractals, but even if I played only WvW or Dungeons I would want to get as many ascended sets as possible to be the best geared. You know those time were you are left with 10 HP and realise you were nearly downed? Well, in those case ascended armor would make the difference everywere, not only in fractals.

So, even tough I’m fine with everything else with the recipee (mats, skill points, gold), the amount of laurels needed to unlock a specific armor class, specific stat combo, specific armor piece is absolutely ridiculous. It works for weapons, but for armors it results in needing a stellar amount of laurels to do a single set. I mean, only to do fractals I like to switch between 3 armor sets, wich would mean 90 laurels only for my guard…

Kal Spiro.9745:

It’s actually the exact right wording. “You don’t deserve…” It has nothing to do with what you want, what I want or what anyone wants. I don’t have any control, nor impact on the actions of ANet. I am not so eloquent that my words have swayed them to keep tight lipped. I’ve never advocated that they should or should not do anything. I have never advocated a preference. I have simply described the situation as it actually is, rather than through my or anyone else’s desires.

Those who want an answer, that’s fine. But this thread has long since deviated from people desiring something to people who seem to feel an obligation has been imposed due to repetition. It has not. You don’t “deserve” an answer because you want one, nor because you’ve asked repeatedly, nor because you’ve waited less than patiently, nor even for being patient. There is no obligation to answer. If ones comes, it does. It’s silly to expect one, or to even consider it might come because ANet is notoriously bad at responding. That’s why every response they give is so often such a big deal. There is no rhyme, nor reason to what they respond to. There is no way to predict it, but the safe bet is that there will be none at all. Asking repeatedly and demanding, though, have no impact on its likelihood.

I actually do like your answer, but I can’t agree with the fact that we don’t deserve an answer. I mean, if we take it literally, it means that they are not obliged to give us one, which is true. Nobody will enforce them to anwer questions. But their silence is only having the effect of making the user base angry and frustrated. The issue is, the effort level required to answer not all, but only some of those questions would be so minimal if only slightly organised that paying customers may and will feel like they deserve it. You don’t even have to read all the forums, you could just give an answer to the OP. I’m sure that seeing three red dots a day will make everyone happy here. Recurring questions like why did we get downscaled; why there is no compensation; why did they add more dredges; why did the camera angle get shifted; … would have already been taken care of since 10 days, and the answer accepted even if not liked. Like they did before the patch came actually down, where a dev took his time to explain what changes were made to the AR system so that everyone could calm down and be assured that they would not lose current AR.

The most frustrating feeling is that it seems like they tend to avoid giving answers on controversial topics (which may be entirely false, because I understand it is a very subjective feeling). What then makes it for me and for the other players so bad and feel like the answer really is deserved, is that THEY created this forum, THEY wanted it. Before there were communities like gw2guru (which btw still exist), where nothing official was (usually)released and where users expected no official answers. Now ANet directly manages the boards, the company we paid for, and a lackluster comunication is, at the very least, frustrating.

500 chef could make dyes, wich could be an interesting addition if they add shiny particle effects.

EDIT: Just realized that I’m entirely OT, but oh well!

I really don’t know why some posters do not want to receive answers. I mean, everybody knows that small minds cannot handle all the answers, but in this case we are not speaking about high philosophical questions. Everybody should be able to process the information coming from a dev answer.

So, to those people who say that we don’t deserve an answer (YES, I know this isn’t the wording you are using, but the concept is similar), care to elaborate why YOU don’t want US to get an answer, even a vague one, from ANet? Thank you.

PS: In case it wasn’t clear for some, you can count me on the ones who would really appreciate answers about ANYTHING that has been written during 2 weeks, because even tough I really enjoyed most of the new contents, it is really mind blogging that not even a single member of ANet staff has found the time to read at least the OP of a single thread in this section AND give an answer after the patch came out.

EDIT: Corrected some mistakes

Oh nice table! I remember doing lvl 40 for the daily and seeing 11k700 karma, first time i ever noticed it (altough I knew that underleveled fractals do reward karma), popping (guild karma buff was active). I never tought of it, but it is quite many karma gained in 1hour play.

That is the build with I leveled up to 80:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|1.5g.h2.d1e.0.0|6.5n.hy.d1e.0.0|1c.71g.1c.71g.1c.71h.1c.71h.1c.71m.1c.71m|2u.d1e.21j.d1e.31j.d1e.21j.d1e.31j.d1e.2u.d1e|0.0.u46b.u29b.a6|0.0|w.14.16.11.1i|e

I don’t know if it is the best, but I just like it very much for the survivability it gives. Keep in mind that I have various armor sets and weapons to change depending on what encounters you get.

I don’t know if the armors will come with an infusion slot. In the previews the only upgrade slot listed was the one for runes.

Travis the Terrible.4739:

lvls21+ has a chance to give you an infused ring

If you need proof I’ve got 1 ring that I got infused and I’m only lvl22 or 23.

That was the case also before the patch. From 20 on you could get an infused ring, from 26 you were guaranteed to drop an infused one. Now you can drop normal at all levels.

Ayrilana.1396:

I never stated optimally. Optimal would be exactly what DnT and rT do with specific classes/builds, voice chat, predetermined strategies. All I suggested was that people learn the mechanics so they understand how to do the dungeon and then think about how to over one the obstacles rather than rely on a single guide that has been regurgitated countless times which may or may not be the best way overcome the obstacle.

People don’t have to be as optimal as pre-set dungeon groups. It’s just them clearing them in 20-25 minutes compared to the 1-2 hours other people claim is a rather large gap. People should easily be able to make moderate changes to close the gap and improve their times.

As I stated before, nerfing the fractal in an effort to lower the bar for players that don’t want to make the effort to work as a team, learn the mechanics, develop strategies, improve upon themselves as a player is absolutely the wrong way to go. I want to make it clear that not everyone falls under this and are often held back by players where it does. I had made another statement previously that this should not be nerfed to hedge against bad groups.

I think we al figured out already that you are very uber skilled pro. As you do, many other people think that the problem of this fractal isn’t the difficult, myself included. I like challenges, even ones that make me curse having joined a random pug party instead of taking my time and organize it with friends.

BUT the lenght of this fractal IS an issue. You claim it is doable in 20 minutes, then 35 minutes, then 20 again. I don’t know what levels you are doing, and I really don’t care. What I know is that the clown cart alone takes a minimum of 10 minutes at lvl 49, which is most likely 15 minutes with a non-full-zerker group. You just can’t make mobs spawn faster, I’m sorry. The loot that comes from the mobs is no consolation to this, I could easily make a CoF run with bad pugs in the same amount of time and get a better reward if I wanted to. And even have fun!

Aside from the clown cart, that dungeon isn’t too bad – but some issues still remains. What about the legendary dredge in the switch room? The guy has like 1M hp and hits like a truck. What’s the point of having him there? Is the answer to make us waste 3 minutes just to kill him or to abuse stealth to avoid him? Or what’s the point of having legions of veteran dredges guarding a door while respawning in 15 seconds, stealing bombs regardless of barriers? Is it to let us abuse stealth again, since the absurdly long time that bombs take to reappear and the dredge’s strenght and numbers makes fighting them pointless? It surely seems so. Well, maybe it is all a tactic to give thieves a little usefulness in pve, which is deserved.

So I’m happy for you if you clear this path in 20 minutes, but until a nearly flawless run with a good (not superb) PUG team at lvl 49 takes at least 45 minutes, while the other 3 combined fractals takes the same amount of time or less, I think there objectively is a problem, and it isn’t – in this case – the players. And the fact that some fractals (ex. harpies) got a little rework to make them more enjoyable (not easier, because more harpies meant simply more time, not increased difficulty since you could just endlessly respawn near them), while dredge was made longer by adding dredges… this just screams a loudly WHY?

Anet’s solution to the fact that we dont like dredge fractal? Add more dredge, make the button segment more difficult, make less dredge despawn on certain parts, and make the clown car more difficult. It’s like they looked at every complaint, and did the exact opposite of what they should have done.

This is so true, and I usually support the changes made. But this is just so riddiculous that seems like a bad 1. april joke.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

I’m confused about Aquatic Ruins. What makes it bad?

Dolphins. And big useless and boring boss. Uh, and dolphins too.

(Tough I must admit, I’m one of those people that since the patch only rolls swamp and I didn’t do it since then)

I had the same issue… a single trident in about 500 runs. Then suddenly I began to get literally one every other run, and now again nothing. But in around 700 runs or so I think I got at least 20.

You just got put on my blacklist for being dumb enough to admit that you are okay with kicking people after 1h or more content and asking permission to do so.

You deserve credit, I never ignored somebody before actually meeting/hearing from him ingame!

This fractal will never be acceptable until the clowncart is removed. This, and slightly decrease all dredge’s health/armor by 20%. Then it will still be long, but at least 10-20 minutes less so (depending on level).

My list from best to worst, keeping in mind that i rarely do(did) anything under 48 (and I think 47 now :P ). Also not from the one I’m most happy to see during a run (usually the quickest), but the one that I enjoy the most. I usually play a guardian.

Fractals

1. Cliffside Fractal
2. Volcanic Fractal
3. Aetherblade Fractal
4. Swampland Fractal
5. Thaumanova Reactor Fractal
6. Urban Battlegrounds Fractal
7. Snowblind Fractal
8. Molten Furnace Fractal
9. Uncategorized Fractal
10. Aquatic Ruins Fractal
11. Underground Facility Fractal

Bosses

1. Captain Mai Trin Boss Fractal
2. Molten Boss Fractal
3. Solid Ocean Fractal

Tranassa.4968:

Would like to add one bug too:
On 38 we got Mai Trin as Boss… Two times the barrage phase startet before we had removed the 10 stacks from her, so she was still on the ground but barrage phase has startet already…

EDIT: And again the same bug… Or is this normal? working as intended? More difficult…

EDIT2: We were unable to finish the fractal, the bug is constantly reapearing… we tried to kill horrik, but it is not working!
So tired of all this bugs again…

Actually you don’t need to remove all the stacks from her, since she takes more damage the less she have it is possible to get her to the next phase with 2-4 stacks remaining. What is strange is that she didn’t leave the field after being sent to the next phase.

The OP clearly stated that he didn’t do any 4x level. Which fits with all the complaints of missing rewards even at lower lvls…

Rhialto.8423:

Whenever I’m running fractals and my group lands the Dredge fractal first, we just zone out and restart until we get something else. It’s really the only one that I consistently find people desperate to skip.

But since the patch you will encounter dredge only as third fractal, so you will not be able to skip it – unless you are willing to redo the first to and have a 1/5 chance to find them again…

Treeline.3865:

I’m sorry but I will have to call you a liar on that one, unless you can provide a screenshot. A +18 infusion would take 131 072 +1 infusions, 1960 Gold, 82 Silver, 22 Copper. I really doubt he had both 2.000 gold and the money to buy over 100.000 infusions (Or fewer, more expensive ones) to get a +18 infusion

Oh… that he could have had, there are powertraders so rich out there that I don’t even know how they do it. The main problem tough is another… the infusion supply is as of now too small to satisfy such a large demand. A quick look at gw2tp.com will confirm that 100% (and such a demand would have driven prices why higher).

Anyway I can’t find a reason to why +12 shouldn’t be possible.

To those who say they are easier than old 31-50 fractals… it simply isn’t true, sorry. Don’t get me wrong: by no means are they hard (tough the highest i’ve done is 44), but easier as before? Nope.

Before the patch you had roughly the same thing WITHOUT any debuffs. How can having a debuff making it easier than before, no matter how trivial this debuff it is, wether you do less damage or you take more, it is harder. And it is not like you couldn’t just faceroll all the content before…

Tough I have to admit that they still are nothing compared to the old 70+

Lothirieth.3408:

There seems to be weird things going on with the Molten bosses. At one point nearly halfway through the fight I was standing it what appeared to be a completely clear area: no shockwaves, no red circles nearby and I was still being hit with agony somhow. Or other times there’s rocks falling around me, I’m not in the red circles, but I’m still getting hit by agony. I can’t help but wonder if it’s buggy.

But I must say, the difficulty is WAY OFF from the Jade Maw. It’s no where near equal. Quite frankly I think they need to remove a lot of the agony.. just make agony checks like the Maw in order to equalise them. Or add a lot more to the Maw.

While I like the difficulty of the encounter, I agree that those random AR strikes are quite pointless and really only reward equipement. An agony strike at the very beginning of the fight and one right after the first boss dies would be enough to me.

Vorch.2985:

Honestly, I did like most of this update, but there need to be few more changes:

-Scale daily chest gold to 0.1*Fractal Level
-Fix Dredge path

That’s all I can think of, really. I like the new fractals, but those two issues of risk/reward ratio need to be taken care of.

I agree with this, even tough also a 0.05*Fractal level would be better than what we currently have (which is saying something….).

And, of course, fix the camera angles at vulcanic and maw. The other things were very nice.

Fror.2163:

No need for such a high AR level. The values here are like the old 45 AR for levels 40-49. There are several ways to bypass this with the current 55 AR. One of the most common is getting 2 guardians and have them to timely use Book 5 and spam Book 1.

Except at 50 you got the instability that periodically strikes you with agony : )

LordByron.8369:

I agree pugging new fractal is almost impossible.

They are longer than before, you have unlcear mechanics (unless you read dulfy) and its even less lag friendly.

Sorry, but while I think the OP is completly wrong, this postis equally wrong. The only fractal quicker than the new ones is swamp, and even this is debatable when you find mossman at higher lvls.

LostBalloon.6423:

Do people forget they can still get the +5 infusions from the merchant in the fractals for a simple 75 relics … -_- anyone’s progression should be smooth all the way to 45 AR with no real farm based on how agony scales with the levels.

Except, the +5 AR infusions are versatile infusions. The new slot only accept “pure” agony infusions, so you can fill those +5 AR only in 1 slot and not the other. I didn’t try it yet tough, so maybe I’m wrong.

Everybody agrees with you, that’s why there have been like 5 other threads about this topic since the patch.

There would be a really simple fix to make this fractal much more enjoyable: replace the clown cart with the last bosses encounter. You just skip one step while keeping the interesting mechanic at the beginning – and cutting 15 minutes worth of spawnkill. You could even keep the champion with the first mob-wave to keep the challenge up a little… but the cart, WHY???

ATMAvatar.5749:

Underwater and Ascalon are not difficult or particularly long fractals. You spend more time waiting to roll swamp and completing it than you would simply accepting the tier 1 fractal you get.

It is actually much quicker than before to roll swamp, because the fracs pool is now not 1/9 but 1/4 or 5.

What I love about rolling swamp is, aside the obvious “quickness factor”, that swamp is easily doable with 3 players (at least the first part & bloomhunger). Thsus by rolling swamp we can already begin while looking for 2 other players to join.

I like being able to do it, but I understand that by doing so I will probably never play again underwater and the other tier 1 fractals.

TPMN.1483:

You will need them to have +10 AR on to be able to do the higher levels. It is already noted that the dropping of the +1 AR infusions will take a long time to get back to +10 AR on a ring. So I am still confused – how is this an improvement?

If anything it seems to increase time gating for people to do higher levels (especially new players).

Just to clarify… I had 1 char to frac lvl 80 and another nearly 60, bot with 55 AR – wich they retained ofc. All my alts wear ascended jewelry because i have too many pristine relics. So i don’t need them. I hopped here because the OP brought a valid argument wich was misinterpreted and with wich I quite agree.

Edit: i quoted the wrong post, but i’m on my phone and i don’t feel like editing it :p

Azure Prower.8701:

Anet stated those who already had an infused item would have the free +5 agony upon update.

New infused items would be blank. This is working as intended.

Yes, but that isn’t the point of this thread. We know that it works as intended.

The point is simply the base amount of AR that newly crafted / acquired infused items get, wich is gone from 5 to 0, and getting those 5 back currently costs around 5G.

Actually to get 11 points done is incredibly fast, depending on what level you do it and how good the other ppls are. You can just go there with 5 zerk wars and do lvl 1 till you get 11 done, and it will take surely less than 4 hours if you menage to play half decently.

The problem being discussed tough is that NEW infused items don’t come with a 5 agony infusion already, but have an empty slot instead. So, “old infused item” was a given 5 AR + empty versatile slot (5AR). “New infused item” is now 0 AR + empty versatile slot (5 AR) + empty agony slot (+x AR).

Many words simply to say that new infused items now have 0AR instead of 5AR, as it was the case before.

It surely does make the vulcanic boss that much harder. I literally have to chose if I want to see the ground (for lava, AoEs and elementals) OR the boss (agony attack). It makes things much harder, hope it will be fixed soon.

Astralporing.1957:

Marna Nindar.8120:

Btw, Spy kits still work and can help you stay a little longer on the platform. Don’t tell anybody!

Seriously tough, at higher lvls you simply con’t expect to stay on the plattform and resist 12 seconds alone. That’s why you have teammates to stole aggro and give the ones on the plattform a little rest.

Remember that one instability found in game dat that requires two of the players to remain out of combat?

Yes, the one wich is nowhere to be found in the first 50 levels and maybe won’t ever be released? I don’t think it will be that big a problem tbh.

The one who uses the interruptor is anyway (nearly) always out of combat, so we got one. The other can just /dance while the others do it. Granted, having a thief (or more) is a huge help, and maybe even a must. But we are speaking of frac above 50, where the “casual play” zone doesn’t apply anymore and it is expected that parties adapt to what they encounter, and rerolling a couple of thieves for the section can be done, they don’t even need to be lvl 80!

Vulcanic fractal:

- grawl totems are now bigger and easier to spot
- the camera at last boss is now a “normal camera”, making it very hard to see both the shaman and the elementals (probably a bug)

Btw, Spy kits still work and can help you stay a little longer on the platform. Don’t tell anybody!

Seriously tough, at higher lvls you simply con’t expect to stay on the plattform and resist 12 seconds alone. That’s why you have teammates to stole aggro and give the ones on the plattform a little rest.

Hsin.5294:

Marna Nindar.8120:

Hsin.5294:

i am not farmer, seriously. the mechanic of trading post is where my money is generated.
but i don’t want to talk too much in this subject.

what i want to tell anet is that, i want a creative environment.
the agony’s damage can still exist but i want it to represented in another form.
such as fire ball from sky, traps that placed by boss..

Just a bit of info: with the ecception of the last bosses (4th frac), you can avoid every single Agony strike with skillful play.

i can accept the idea that the agony can be dodge.
but i just hate some agony that can not be dodge.
therefore, the only way to against that kind of evade-prevent agony is to buy(or farm) a high agony resistance gear.

i respect everyone has his own opinion.
also i think i can have my own opinion too.

personally, i play gw2 because i saw that people said we DO NOT need to farm in this game.

I have to agree with you here. I don’t like that i order to survive the last agony attack you must have gear and your ability to get there isn’t taken in consideration, but in the end this is how they are conceived and now I merely accept it as part of the fractal mechanics. Anyway, it really isn’t a big problem if you play often, since you could reach 50 AR without needing much gold (assuming you already have ascended weapons, everything except the ascended back can be taken with tokens, guild mission items, laurels and small amounts of gold).

Hsin.5294:

i am not farmer, seriously. the mechanic of trading post is where my money is generated.
but i don’t want to talk too much in this subject.

what i want to tell anet is that, i want a creative environment.
the agony’s damage can still exist but i want it to represented in another form.
such as fire ball from sky, traps that placed by boss..

Just a bit of info: with the ecception of the last bosses (4th frac), you can avoid every single Agony strike with skillful play.

Sadly in US they have holiday, so I fear you have to wait till some devs goes back in the office to look at bugs & co

Orion the Cursed.1206:

go to hell……………………………

Somebody didn’t have a lot of fun! Too bad, because I too found them really nice.

10 days or so ago I wrote a post saying how angry and disappointed I was to lose 50 levels with this patch, but now – even if I’m still a little kitten ed to have lost all my progression – I’m pleased about the changes. It gave fracs a gust of fresh air.

It still think it is easier than high level fractals, but I assume that will change when they open 50+, and also the 43 instability seems pretty hard (highestt done is 40 till now). But wat I found the most interesting, is that it challenges you to change your setup, your playstile and even your class to adapt to the environment. I don’t really care if some instabilities seem to be a little lame, I love that we now have to find a way to counter the debuff.

I know it will all change when everyone is done levelling and the frac with the easiest instability will always be farmed, denying the “adaptation” step, but still, I really enjoyed this patch and look forward to the new fractals. As a side note, I like the new fracs and the fact that they can be done very quickly!