Guild Wars 2

Hit print screen and… for the first time I can remember in the past 20 years of gaming the default screen cap button isn’t print screen.

At least I have my memories.

I thought using your abilities to shut another player down was just part of the game. I mean, you can either dodge the fishing pole’s ridiculously large telegraph or just swipe it by pressing 1 after you’re reeled in… does it really need to be fixed so that people who haven’t taken the time to find out what their abilities do won’t have to deal with being shut down by the players who have?

Warriors have always had great damage and survivability, but any profession can be good… just not as good as Warriors.

MrRuin.9740:

Finaldeath.1059:

This system is made so that instead of having a bunch of near dead versions of the same map that can’t complete anything due to low population it instead puts all those players into a single full map then starts another version when needed.

Explain how this fixes population.
Dead map is still dead when merged with 20 other dead versions. It does not in any way fix the inherent problem that there is still no reason to be on those maps. They are dead for a reason. So instead of 1 person on the map, you might have 8 or 9. Yeah, that doesnt sound like a fix, but rather a quick-patch that looks like its doing something its not.

I question the validity of your numbers and find your assertion that megaservers will do nothing to address any zone population problems completely baseless and unreasonable.

Glaurung.1076:

Most MMO players have no idea what GW2 is about

I have to disagree. I tried to sell GW2 to my friends and guild members whom I had played other games with. The problem was never that they didn’t know what GW2 is about. The problem was always that they did not like what GW2 was about.

First there were the people who did not like the action based combat. This was a deal breaker for these people.

Then there were people who did not like the lack of defined roles. Many people I know like playing tanks, healers and support roles and were put off by GW2’s singular focus on DPS.

Then there’s progression. No more levels and no more tiers of gear mean nothing to work toward. That might be fine if there were something else to take its place, but there isn’t. There’s no compelling way to invest your time in GW2 and so nobody that I know feels invested in it. GW2 is just something to do until you’re done with it. The lack of investment makes GW2 feel less like a game world than a collection of activities.

Then there’s the game world itself. There are hundreds of interesting events that can be chained together to impact the local game world… and instant travel that makes them all entirely irrelevant. Need to get somewhere but the bridge is out? Bad guys blocking your way? Just open your map and click a waypoint that’s on the other side. It doesn’t take long for the magic to wear off once you realize all of those dynamic events have no impact on your game play outside of clearing map objectives.

And then there’s the world wide zergs and instances. There are many 5 man dungeons but no 10, 15, 20 or 40 man dungeons. Large groups of players are left to zerg open world content which is not satisfying to people who are looking for a more traditional raid experience where strategy, coordination and player skill execution mean the difference between success and failure. And no, not even GW2’s hard world bosses can reproduce the raid experience that is missing from GW2.

I’ve found GW2 to be incredibly tough to sell and unable to retain the few people that I’ve sold it to, and I’d have to say that it’s not because people don’t know what GW2 is about.

10g is a good price, I didn’t realize I could sell Arah spots for 10g…

zenleto.6179:

I have no problems with the zerging in the last few installs of the LS. We were all trying to get somewhere, or you didn’t have to do it.

In the Tower it was to get to the top and it felt like a desperate run to avoid the perils of the Tower to get there.

In the last installment, you didn’t have to zerg to get much done at all. Farmers could farm in a zerg but as long as that was balanced by enough people actively searching out citizens for rescuing then no matter.

This current installment we need up to 50 people for each Assault Knight for a chance to go somewhere. I don’t even consider it a zerg now (previous incarnation of the event, yes).

Yes, obviously that’s all just my opinion but that’s how I see it.

Well… I guested to get the Marionette done. I haven’t logged in since that event except for tonight to find LA trashed and players trolling. I have no idea what I’m suppose to be doing or why and really don’t care. Maybe that’s just unique to Kaineng, the most bitter server in GW2, but that’s how I found it.

Is it worth it? … there is ZERO cost for anyone who has ever bought GW2 to give it another chance. Of course GW2 is worth trying… and I’d even recommend it to people who have never played it. GW2 is a great value even if you don’t end up liking it and staying with it. I’ve spent more on PS2 games that didn’t last the night.

GW2 is a great game even if you don’t like it.

The zerg content is absolutely awful. It’s so disheartening to know that your presence has no impact on what’s going on in the game.

The 5 mans that came out way back when were great! The “stand in LA and press 1 REALLY HARD” content makes me regret logging in.

Knighthonor.4061:

Mars.6319:

Stay away from Kaineng. Do not transfer to Kaineng even if it is free.

why not?————————

Well… a very long time ago, back when server transfers were still free, I transferred to Kaineng for shorter queues and because a friend who no longer plays GW2 couldn’t get onto our then FULL server.

We stayed on Kaineng even after free transfers ended assuming that ANet would monitor server status and act accordingly.

Kaineng was awful at WvW, like.. the worst server out of ALL NA servers… and that attracted new people/guilds to Kaineng. New people came, Kaineng rose in rank and then… they left. Why? I don’t know. Some drama or exploit no doubt. Greener pastures. Kaineng sank to new lows and then, after some time, Kaineng’s largest guilds began to leave one by one.

The only reason Kaineng is even still considered a server is because it is hardcoded by ANet. There are not enough actual live players for Kaineng to qualify for MUD status much less MMORPG. We have no queues in any zone, ever, much less WvW.

My most recent semi-large guild members PAID to LEAVE Kaineng. Given Kaineng’s history, why would anyone transfer TO Kaineng while everyone else is trying to get off Kaineng?

I just thought it polite to warn you.

Reanne.5462:

Have you played more hours than me without acquiring a legendary weapon?

My wife and I played since beta and finally, a few months ago, got our first precursor drop. Both of our saved materials combined were not enough to complete the legendary. I gave her my mats and she bought what she didn’t have. All in all it was disappointing and I do not recommend anyone try for one.

I just wanted to mention that you can guest to other servers and participate in PvE. Choose your server for WvW and if PvE is bad for whatever reason guest for PvE.

Stay away from Kaineng. Do not transfer to Kaineng even if it is free.

I’m feeling your hate and have to admit you’re bringing me down.

As has been stated, this has been true for a very long time. It is extremely generous of ANet to allow it to continue. If you’ve got an axe to grind with ANet then farm keys to “get back at them” if that makes you feel better. If you’re happy with ANet then buy some gems with cash and purchase the keys off the cash shop to help support ANet and GW2. Enjoy either way!

I get that blocking people should block all communication but as a temporary fix you can turn emotes off in the chat box.

I don’t like to see the gray text spam so I just turn them off.

It’s not a problem that is specific to the Marionette. It can happen in other parts of the game. I have noticed the problem most often when I am moving, pressing F to try to loot, and instead find myself interacting with an item like a banner or summoned weapon but not picking it up because I am moving as I am pressing F while trying to loot.

I think it happens more often during large events like these because you are more likely to have banners and summoned weapons laying about given the large number of players that are in a small area. You also need to spam F so that you do not miss out on any loot drops. And finally there is also a lot of movement meaning you may often be moving, pressing F and come near enough to a summoned weapon that the server thinks you have picked it up but your client does not thus locking you out of using any of your abilities.

Sometimes picking an item up and dropping it can fix it but the last time it happened to me I had to get downed and rally in order to fix it.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

The quality of skill in players have sunken to an all time low ever since the champ train. I can’t even explain to these players how to beat Marionette or Wurm without getting some snarky remark. It is like these players are way too overwhelmed by simple mechanics and get hysterical during and after their failure.

I blame all of this on the Champ Train. Whoever does Champ Train doesn’t make them casual. It makes them low skilled. There are casual players out there that could probably stomp on hardcore(4+hr a day guys/girls).

Inexperienced players aren’t a new phenomenon.

Both the Marionette and Wurm are in easily accessible low level zones so naturally you’re going to see a lot of inexperienced players who don’t realize that these events require an absurd number of experienced players and become frustrated when they fail.

You may not like the champ train but it’s not what is causing frustration in other parts of the game.

It is known.

The things you describe are well known and have been discussed at length.

It has been 2 years and these very same things still exist.

I look forward to these posts 2 years from now.

Yes, instanced 25/50.. whatever man content that was coordinated would be better.

I do not consider myself a raider but EQ and WoW both did “raid” content much better. GW2’s raid content is extremely strange in that it requires strategy and coordination but forces you into a pug situation with a very large number of players.

Of course my perspective of GW2 content is skewed by the fact that I’m on an under-populated server. Just the same; raid content is raid content and the way GW2 is presenting raid content leaves much to be desired.

No, this is a bad idea. I’ve played MMO since they were called MUDs and this is by far the worst idea that I’ve ever heard.

What is wrong with GW2 is that effort does not equate to reward.

What is not wrong with GW2 is that loot is even more seemingly (from a player’s perspective) random.

The champ train is bad but this idea is worse.

Hey bro… Op … brOp… BRO-P

I played an absurd amount since beta and got my first precursor drop just in the past week or two (time.. blurs.. can’t keep track as my mind fades and I grow older). I gave it to my wife so that she could create a pretty pink greatsword for her favorite character (an asura warrior). {along with the majority of my T6 mats which, coincidentally, combined with everything she had saved, were not enough to complete the kitten thing}

Hang in there, sure it’s not a GRIND because that’s not FUN! Just do what is FUN and your repetitive task that you perform for the next X hours will not be qualified as a GRIND.

To quote Colin: “I swung a sword, I swung a sword again Hey! I swung it again, that’s great”

Keep on rock’n in the free world!

Judge Banks.9018:

Transcended armor.

Transcended weapons for 2014.

Transcended armor for 2015.

Amineo.8951:

It would’ve been nice if i knew it before making my ascended stuff, now thanks to ArenaNet, i have to farm again in order to get these stats that i want, for both my Guard and Elem, thanks a lot…

This is why I can’t upgrade my gear until they release the Power/Precision/Vitality combo.

I recommend that new players go to Queensdale and join the train all the time.

I’m glad to hear the RNG worked out for you!

It’s good exp, good loot, easy game play and there is plenty of time to socialize in /map chat while you’re learning the game.

Warriors would be declared “balanced” and other classes would be adjusted around this new balance.

Aberrant.6749:

I found that nades didn’t get very strong until you were able to put 30 points into the power tree for the extra 50% damage.

The grenade auto-attack (#1) is not very good but the other grenade abilities (#2-#5) are very good for applying conditions and dealing some damage before returning to your primary source of damage (rifle/bomb kit/etc). The grenade kit is also good for it’s F# ability Grenade Barrage. Grenade Kit is, in my opinion, the best skill from the first tier Engineer skills.

A good way to use Grenade Kit when you are starting out is to open with it from range, use #2 through #5, swap to Rifle or Bomb Kit and toss in a Grenade Barrage to finish off whatever you’re fighting.

It is probably not a good idea to equip Grenade Kit and use #1 since the damage is lower than your other options and auto-attack does not work with the Grenade Kit leading to a lot of tedious button mashing.

There are lots of ways to do it. This is how I would do it if I were to do it again.

Get a rifle. Use #3 and #5 when you are near your target(s) whenever they are off cooldown.

Buy the Med Kit healing utility. Use F1 to heal. Swap to the kit and use #5 for swiftness, #4 to cleanse and #3, #2 and #1 to prepare for tough fights. The main reason for using this heal over the other heals is the swiftness buff since you do a lot of traveling when you are leveling.

Buy the Grenade Kit utility skill as soon as you are able. Use the associated F# ability (F2-F4) Grenade Barrage, #2, #3, #4 and #5 from the grenade kit then swap to Rifle. Use Rifle #3 and #5 when you are close to your target. Repeat as your skills come off cooldown.

Buy the Bomb Kit utility skill as soon as you are able. Use the grenade #2-#5, the associated grenade F# ability, Rifle #3 and #5, bomb #2-#5 and then swap between your kits and rifle as their respective cooldowns reset. Experiment with the bomb F# ability BoB and learn how and when to use it keeping in mind that your knockback abilities are incredibly annoying to everyone else around you.

Buy the elite utility Supply Crate as soon as you are able. Drop it when things go bad.

Buy the Flamethrower and Elixir Gun at some point. Both have extremely satisfying sound and visual effects that help to pass time.

Buy the Healing Turret. It’s nice.

Go to the mists and play around with different gear and traits. See which ones you like. It’s cheap.

Trait and gear as you like to support your style of game play, although I favor power and crit for fast kills.

There are other ways to do it but this ended up being my way.

Conditions are debuffs that all classes can apply through class skills, traits and gear procs.

It is very likely that the engineer you faced used his many skills, traits and gear procs to apply these conditions.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mars.6319:

Ya, you’re right!

Except Nexon did in fact buy a large amount of NCSoft stock around the same time that a former Nexon employee took over an important position in ANet. None of that is conjecture.

But who knows, maybe the person who ran Maplestory hates Maplestory’s cash shop and prefers GW1 but she’s being overruled by Colin Johanson because he had a change of heart. Yeah. That seems likely. Let’s go with that.

sigh

You’re doing it again. Far more appealing is an idea you could get Nexon on insider trading thanks to a former employee becoming part of a company they later bought massively into. But, hey, that’s not about how the cash shop in Guild Wars 2 obviously is pay to win. I mean look at the massive amounts of game breaking benefits you can buy for Gems out of the shop.

I’m not speculating on how much Nexon spent or the fact that a previous employee took over an important position at ANet 3 month prior. That’s not speculation. That’s not me.

GW2 lets you convert gems to gold and therefor buy legendary weapons, ascended materials and crafting materials to make ascended gear. Again, this is not speculation.

The only speculation is why… and to tell the truth I really don’t care why. Selling end-game progression is despicable and I’ve lost respect for ANet.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mars.6319:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mars.6319:

Seriously, man.. $700 MILLION DOLLARS investment within 3 months of her hiring and Nexon has no say in what goes on? You’d have an easier time convincing me that pigs can actually fly.

One word. Trebuchet.

Also, it should be noted you have no idea if they have no say, or not, and they probably can’t straight tell you one way or the other due to it being an internal matter. Though at this point it’s like running up to someone and asking them if their spouse has stopped beating them yet.

Ah, my bad, so Nexon invested so much money into NCSoft that they became NCSoft’s largest shareholder but didn’t exercise any power to influence NCSoft’s games. They were just like, “HERE IS OUR MONEY, DO AS YOU WOULD!” and ANet was like, well.. kitten GW1, let’s make GW2 grindy with pay walls.

Keep throwing conjecture at the walls, I’m sure something will stick. Also, stop baiting people to try arguing with you. NOBODY knows what’s going on there who can likely say “yes, it’s true” or “no, it’s false”.

Ya, you’re right!

Except Nexon did in fact buy a large amount of NCSoft stock around the same time that a former Nexon employee took over an important position in ANet. None of that is conjecture.

But who knows, maybe the person who ran Maplestory hates Maplestory’s cash shop and prefers GW1 but she’s being overruled by Colin Johanson because he had a change of heart. Yeah. That seems likely. Let’s go with that.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mars.6319:

Seriously, man.. $700 MILLION DOLLARS investment within 3 months of her hiring and Nexon has no say in what goes on? You’d have an easier time convincing me that pigs can actually fly.

One word. Trebuchet.

Also, it should be noted you have no idea if they have no say, or not, and they probably can’t straight tell you one way or the other due to it being an internal matter. Though at this point it’s like running up to someone and asking them if their spouse has stopped beating them yet.

Ah, my bad, so Nexon invested so much money into NCSoft that they became NCSoft’s largest shareholder but didn’t exercise any power to influence NCSoft’s games. They were just like, “HERE IS OUR MONEY, DO AS YOU WOULD!” and ANet was like, well.. kitten GW1, let’s make GW2 grindy with pay walls.

I noticed in sPvP that people who “knew” they could still target you, and by target I mean even use ranged attacks to hit you, if these people continued to attack you, even multiple attacks over the entire duration of your stealth, that you’d continue to take damage.

Is it a bug? Exploit? Hack? Who knows, but it does happen.

The royals do not approve of your flippant alting.

Behellagh.1468:

You missed the point. She was hired BEFORE Nexon had any influence on NCSOFT, which assumes of course they have any influence at all even now.

Seriously, man.. $700 MILLION DOLLARS investment within 3 months of her hiring and Nexon has no say in what goes on? You’d have an easier time convincing me that pigs can actually fly.

If GW2 were GW1 but better then sure, you’d have something to fall back on… but GW2 is more like Maplestory than GW1.

I completely agree that GW2 is beautiful on high settings… but the beauty is not functional.

GW2 uses telegraphs to tell you when bosses are about to own you and all I can ever see is *FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**SPARKLE**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH**FLASH*.

Some nights it makes my eyes feel like I’ve been rubbing them with sandpaper.

I’d just like to be able to turn particle effects off.

I don’t get why this is still a thing.

The manifesto and beta statements are apparently a “living document” so you’ll not see 3x the number of events anywhere or players populating the starting zones.

If you’d like to play with other players then I would suggest going to Queensdale and asking in /map where the train is.

BeoErgon.9107:

No grind for BIS means exactly that : no need to do repetitive tasks for obtaining BIS.
They thought it could work, it did not.

Could you explain why it didn’t work and what is different in the current system?

I thought the BIS weapon was legendary weapons.

Can’t you buy legendary weapons off the TP with real money by converting gems to gold?

Can’t you also buy time gated Ascended materials as well as crafting materials to level your crafting skill with real money?

So what exactly are we fixing by adding new tiers of gear and then making us choose between grinding out long lists of materials or buying them with real money? Why is this better?

Vayne.8563:

I once hired a former employee from another electronics store. That electronics store had nothing whatsoever to do with my store and nothing that employee did had anything to do with that store.

The key word here is former. Anet hired a former employee. That means someone worked for one company and came and worked for a new company. In this industry people move from company to company all the time.

In fact, Guild Wars was founded by three guys who came from Blizzard. Are you suggesting Blizzard had influence over how they developed Guild Wars?

Um… did the company that your new employee had worked for buy almost $700 million in stock from your company to become your company’s biggest shareholder? Did your new employee hold an influential position at their old company and gain an influential position at your company? If not then I don’t think your example is even remotely comparable.

Behellagh.1468:

Mars.6319:

Colin Johanson spoke about ANet’s manifesto leading up to and during GW2’s beta program in early 2012.

In June 2012 Nexon invested in NCSoft and became NCSoft’s largest shareholder.

Around this time Crystin Cox, perhaps best known for her work at Nexon with Maplestory’s cash shop, became GW2’s monetization manager.

Is GW2 becoming more like GW1 or Maplestory?

Wrong! She was hired months (3/12) before Nexon purchase their share in NCSOFT (6/12) which was months before the game shipped. So she’s been in charge of the store since before the game went live.

The question you all should be asking is would it be worse, whatever slight you feel the Gem Store is doing to you or what it would be like if the exchange didn’t exist?. If everyone was forced to spend cash to get anything. How many $10 bank slots or $7.50 character slots would you have bought? or ~$1 keys? or $5-10 armor or city outfits?

That’s part of the problem. Imagine you’re Ms Cox, hired away from Nexon to run a cash shop and on day one they tell you players can buy items from the cash shop with in game currency. Basically that throws everything, every trick you know in running a true cash shop out the window. You now can’t make the items too cheap because then everyone will just use in game currency. But you are still stuck with not making them too expensive because then few will be able to buy it. She had to figure out new ways to motivate players into buying gems with cash.

Right now it looks like these little bursts of desirable items nearly all at once to deplete players gold reserves so they are forced to buy gems is the current strategy.

I didn’t mean to lay the blame solely on Ms Cox, I was just pointing out that Nexon had a huge influence on ANet in 2012… so much so that ANet hired a former Nexon employee to run their cash shop just 3 months before Nexon became the largest share holder of NCSoft stock… which doesn’t seem entirely coincidental.

GW2 is playable without buying gems and ANet has done a great job of providing us with new content. There are hundreds of MMOs out there and GW2 is my favorite of them all so ANet must be doing something right. Just the same I’m disappointed in various things like the way legendary weapons and ascended gear has been handled… as well as things like the infinite continue coin during the SAB fiasco… ugh. I’m also weary of the coming sPvP changes as the removal of the more or less worthless Glory while sPvP transitions to Gold means the coming changes will likely be opened up to monetization via Gem conversions.

I get that ANet needs to make money and don’t begrudge them that but the current drive to make buying gold via Gems desirable by making the acquisition of top tier gear painfully slow with the option of cashing out for instant gratification is a huge letdown.

If you go to Queensdale and ask in /map where the train is you can join a large group of players who move about killing bosses. You’ll be able to buy the mats you need with the money you make.

You need to make a Warrior. Use Greatsword, Axe/Axe or Axe/Mace. Go to Queensdale and ask in /map where the train is. Follow the large group of players around killing bosses.

Go to Queensdale and ask in /map where the train is. Join the large group of players that move from boss to boss. You will get credit for the kills and get good loot no matter how bad your current gear is. Do this until you get bored. You’ll likely have gained a few levels. Use the money that you have made to buy new gear.

There’s no way to turn them off and turning them down does not do much. What I do to help ease the eye strain caused by the constant flickering and flashing is tab for a target and then look away from the screen while pressing 1 repeatedly only glancing back at the screen every 30 seconds or so to see if I need to retarget. This works especially well with a staff guardian since 1 is a ranged cone attack.

Just buy it. They’ve been talking about implementing alternative ways to obtain precursors since 2012. sPvP currency is being removed and somehow replaced with gold, PvE and sPvP gear is going to converge, and so it is entirely possible that the new method they eventually come up with will be through a game mode that you do not enjoy.

The only way precursors will lose their value is if ANet implements a new tier of gear that supersedes legendaries which isn’t likely to happen despite the fact that it wasn’t suppose to ever happen and has already happened twice.

I’ve played all GW2 classes to 80 except Engineer… which I can’t get into for some reason.

Warrior is the best class, hands down. Great damage, great survivability, tons of variety in weapons and builds, great in PvE, WvW and sPvP.

Every other class has problems in one area or another.

Run the champ train and use the money you make to craft for levels or buy dungeon runs “at last boss”.

To obtain 550g in the shortest amount of time you’d buy gems and convert them to gold.

Colin Johanson spoke about ANet’s manifesto leading up to and during GW2’s beta program in early 2012.

In June 2012 Nexon invested in NCSoft and became NCSoft’s largest shareholder.

Around this time Crystin Cox, perhaps best known for her work at Nexon with Maplestory’s cash shop, became GW2’s monetization manager.

Is GW2 becoming more like GW1 or Maplestory?