Guild Wars 2

Maylojager.1307:

Anet is pretty good at making things fun

How did you get to 80 without ever encountering any risen or Orr?

Orr is awful. Even without the Undead there, it’d be annoying to navigate. But once you toss them in there, it’s just completely unbearable. Orr is a perfect storm of awfulness:

1) Tedious to navigate
2) Annoying undead
3) Mob density that’s off the charts

It’s just an awful, awul zone. I’m leveling some alts now, but I don’t know what I’m going to do once they get to 60+ and I have to start fighting undead again constantly.

1) No more undead
2) Reduced mob density, at least once the special event is over
3) No/Minimal underwater content

Costs of waypoints are too expensive, and this game has the most ridiculous, unfriendly mob density I’ve ever seen in a video game ever.

It’s a bad combination. The game needs mounts ASAP.

ArenaNet thought they were smarter than the room by getting rid of mounts. They weren’t. It was a dumb decision.

The abilities in this game are limited and uninteresting. 75% of your Skill Point abilities are useless, and every weapon has 1-2 abilities that you only use because there’s nothing better to do.

I’m fine with there being only 10 active abilities, but the abilities we have to choose from really suck, and there needs to be some level of customization among the weapon skills. GW2 has one of the poorest skill/ability stables I’ve ever seen.

I hate underwater combat. I’ve always hated underwater combat, but I hate it even more in Guild Wars 2. As someone else mentioned, the mob density and accidental aggro is ridiculous.

Then again, that’s one of the major problems with this game in general. You can’t freaking go anywhere without aggro’ing mobs constantly. It’s a chore and a pain in the kitten just to move in this game. They need to trim the mob density across the board by about 40%.

They also need to make it so that you can still loot while having a dialogue box open. It’s obnoxious when you’re spamming F to try to loot after a big pack kill, only to have a stupid dialogue box constantly pop up because of nearby friendly NPCs. Either that, or change the keybinds.

Extremely clumsy loot system in this game. Worst I’ve seen in quite a while.

Should Downed be removed?

PvP: Yes
PvE: Don’t care

Gideon.2071:

Mavajo.5796:

Gideon.2071:

Mavajo – A controlled market will always fail. Anet cannot simply adjust gem prices to fix the problem, they have to switch to a free market like the FLEX system for that to work. Yes, gold sellers can buy all the gems. But then people will buy more gems an the gold sellers will never make any money. They would just end up with a ton of virtual gems that come out of thin air. That doesn’t help their cause at all. Selling those gems back for in game gold won’t get them money, and the people will determine how much gold they get for the exchange.

What. I think you’re completely confused.

If you adjust the Gold:Gem ratio, it becomes more practical for people to just buy Gold from ArenaNet (via Gems) than from gold sellers. The gold sellers actually have to go out there and farm the stuff, whereas ArenaNet just types in a new value. It won’t take long for ArenaNet to adjust the Gold:Gem ratio to such a level that it’s no longer feasible for gold sellers to farm and re-sale gold as a means of real world income.

That’s called price fixing, and as I keep stating, it has never worked once in history. You cannot artificial set a boundary where people are happy with the product and the price. You have to let people decide that for themselves.

No, it’s not price fixing at all. I don’t think you have a clue what price fixing actually is.

The point is just to undercut the gold sellers to the point where it’s not profitable for them to do it anymore. Easy peasy, and the gold sellers are gone within a week.

People only buy gold from gold sellers because it’s cheaper than buying from ArenaNet. Easy kittening fix — make it cheaper to buy gold from ArenaNet.

Gideon.2071:

Mavajo – A controlled market will always fail. Anet cannot simply adjust gem prices to fix the problem, they have to switch to a free market like the FLEX system for that to work. Yes, gold sellers can buy all the gems. But then people will buy more gems an the gold sellers will never make any money. They would just end up with a ton of virtual gems that come out of thin air. That doesn’t help their cause at all. Selling those gems back for in game gold won’t get them money, and the people will determine how much gold they get for the exchange.

What. I think you’re completely confused.

If you adjust the Gold:Gem ratio, it becomes more practical for people to just buy Gold from ArenaNet (via Gems) than from gold sellers. The gold sellers actually have to go out there and farm the stuff, whereas ArenaNet just types in a new value. It won’t take long for ArenaNet to adjust the Gold:Gem ratio to such a level that it’s no longer feasible for gold sellers to farm and re-sale gold as a means of real world income.

VendettaDFA.9368:

Mavajo.5796:

Chip H.3951:

Mavajo.5796:

Lol five pages of commentary, and the solution is so simple:

Change the Gem:Gold ratio to undercut the gold sellers..

And destroy the economy in the process? Brilliant. You didn’t think this one through, did you? Gold is already less than $0.70/gold from the gold sellers – less than two hours work at the average US salary will net you 50 gold, how long do you think you’d have to farm legitimately to make that same 50 gold in game?

Gold has to have a value in the game or you wind up with stupid levels of inflation where the only way to afford something on the TP is to buy gold from gold farmers or ANet, and then you just threw the game in the crapper as it becomes a game where you either become a full time farmer yourself or you pay to play. To see how well players like this sort of design go look the general feeling of D3 players on their forums.

If you undercut their current price, they’ll just go lower. It’s a race to the bottom that leaves the price to buy gold so low that you create the problem where everybody feels the amount of gold they get by playing the game is ridiculously low when they can just take the money they made taking bathroom breaks at work and buy more gold then they could farming for a week. So then you raise the drop rate of currency, which can remove the feeling you need to buy gold temporarily, but then all the TP prices rise and you’re right back racing against the gold sellers.

ArenaNet has to have a basement for the official cash price for gold or the player based economy will have no solid basis – the bots will have all the rare drops on the TP and the players will all have to buy botted gold to afford the rare drops because of the huge discrepancy between time to farm gold legitimately vs. the time required to earn enough to buy gold. They can’t win against the gold sellers in terms of undercutting them.

This is such a bogus argument. Completely and utterly bogus.

You guys act as if purchasing gold is a dead-end street. As if the purchasers become rich, and the rest become destitute and unable to afford anything. Patently and completely untrue and, once again, BOGUS. A great majority of the gold that is purchased will be pumped into the community economy — i.e., things purchased on the trading block. Even if you don’t purchase gold yourself, you’ll be able to stay afloat by selling things on the trading block. Indeed, those repair costs and waypoint fees won’t seem like such a big deal anymore.

Again, your argument is completely bogus.

If you undercut their current price, they’ll just go lower.

Again, not true. The gold sellers are going to hit diminishing returns very quickly. I imagine they’re being stretched pretty thin as it is.

sorry but its not wrong or bogus … if you want an example of the open economy you are looking for… go check Diablo3 ’s RMAH and AH. The prices there are outrageous and it is because Blizz chose the path you advocate…. its also why I dont even bother with that game.

Bottom line – this isn’t the solution to the gold-seller and buyers problem and this gem discussion is so far off topic that, as the OP, I am requesting that you start your own thread on gem to gold ratio if you wish to continue it. Thank you for your understanding.

No. If they change the Gem:Gold ratio such that it’s no longer a feasible business model for the gold farmers, the problem will be saved. Your armchair economists completely blow these issues out of proportion. Nerds whining about the economy in MMOs is as old as MMOs themselves. Completely overblown and exaggerated in order to push agendas.

If they adjusted the Gem/Gold ratio, the gold farmers would be gone before the end of the month. PERIOD. And the “economy” would be fine. Hell, it’d actually be even better, since these waypoint fees and equipment repair costs wouldn’t be so punitive and obnoxious.

Chip H.3951:

Mavajo.5796:

Lol five pages of commentary, and the solution is so simple:

Change the Gem:Gold ratio to undercut the gold sellers..

And destroy the economy in the process? Brilliant. You didn’t think this one through, did you? Gold is already less than $0.70/gold from the gold sellers – less than two hours work at the average US salary will net you 50 gold, how long do you think you’d have to farm legitimately to make that same 50 gold in game?

Gold has to have a value in the game or you wind up with stupid levels of inflation where the only way to afford something on the TP is to buy gold from gold farmers or ANet, and then you just threw the game in the crapper as it becomes a game where you either become a full time farmer yourself or you pay to play. To see how well players like this sort of design go look the general feeling of D3 players on their forums.

If you undercut their current price, they’ll just go lower. It’s a race to the bottom that leaves the price to buy gold so low that you create the problem where everybody feels the amount of gold they get by playing the game is ridiculously low when they can just take the money they made taking bathroom breaks at work and buy more gold then they could farming for a week. So then you raise the drop rate of currency, which can remove the feeling you need to buy gold temporarily, but then all the TP prices rise and you’re right back racing against the gold sellers.

ArenaNet has to have a basement for the official cash price for gold or the player based economy will have no solid basis – the bots will have all the rare drops on the TP and the players will all have to buy botted gold to afford the rare drops because of the huge discrepancy between time to farm gold legitimately vs. the time required to earn enough to buy gold. They can’t win against the gold sellers in terms of undercutting them.

This is such a bogus argument. Completely and utterly bogus.

You guys act as if purchasing gold is a dead-end street. As if the purchasers become rich, and the rest become destitute and unable to afford anything. Patently and completely untrue and, once again, BOGUS. A great majority of the gold that is purchased will be pumped into the community economy — i.e., things purchased on the trading block. Even if you don’t purchase gold yourself, you’ll be able to stay afloat by selling things on the trading block. Indeed, those repair costs and waypoint fees won’t seem like such a big deal anymore.

Again, your argument is completely bogus.

If you undercut their current price, they’ll just go lower.

Again, not true. The gold sellers are going to hit diminishing returns very quickly. I imagine they’re being stretched pretty thin as it is.

Agreed. Not a game-breaking issues by any means; it’s just simply really, really annoying.

“Annoying” is not conducive to player retention.

Lol five pages of commentary, and the solution is so simple:

Change the Gem:Gold ratio to undercut the gold sellers.

It’d also help if using waypoints and repairing your armor wasn’t so punitive.

Just improve the Gem:Gold ratio. Whatever prices the gold sellers are offering, ArentNet just needs to undercut them. It’ll put them out of business in short order, and as the problem decreases, ArenaNet can restore the Gem:Gold ratio to the level they intended. If gold sellers pop up again, then rinse & repeat.

This is simple stuff.

dimgl.4786:

I also hate the dodging mechanic and the downed system. But that’s just me. Call me old fashioned but I don’t think the gameplay should focus around a mechanic where you call for help and just magically become healed when you kill a monster.

After getting used to it, I like the dodging mechanic now. However, I hate the downed system. It’s just dumb.

Also, agree with the general sentiment here. I like that they wanted to keep the number of active abilities at a manageable number, but locking you into a select set of abilities, many of which are boring, was a poor decision.

The levels in GW2 are arbitrary and excessive. The cap should be at 50, tops.

My favorite digital manifestation of personality was a Dwarf Rogue in WoW.

Alcoholic ne’er-do-well that reluctantly becomes a hero. Those are always my favorite types of heroes.

Elementalist — Masochists that completely hate themselves and love to be miserable.

This is the single most annoying issue in GW2 to me. There are two main problems:

1) Camera is oriented too high vertically in relation to the character. It causes frequent awkward camera angles and limits your view.

2) FOV is too narrow. Unforgiveable not to have a FOV slider. Ridiculous.

The one shot crap isn’t limited to melee — it bones ranged, too.

In a team-based raid, I understand one-shot mechanics. But in a random world fight where anyone nearby is supposed to just run over and participate…a shot mechanic is stupid.

Here’s the reason these event one-shots suck:

1) You see an event, you run over to participate. As soon as you get in range, BOOM, dead. Are players really expected to be intimately familiar with every ability of every event boss in every zone? Ridiculous. At least one or two deaths is pretty much unavoidable you first few times doing these fights.

2) Visual Noise. In a zerg, there’s SO MUCH crap going on that you often times can’t see what the boss is doing. Lame.

3) Unpredictability. The whole premise behind a one-shot kill is that it should be readily and easily avoidable to anyone with A) an understanding of the ability and paying attention. I already pointed out in #1 that A isn’t really viable, since there’s dozens of these fights. And B is tough because of #2. Plus, sometimes it’s not easy to determine what exactly is it that aced you. And sometimes even when I KNOW what to avoid, and I take the appropriate steps to avoid it, I’ll still get instagibbed! Why? Because it’s me and 25 other random dudes that just ran over and jumped into the fray. There’s no cohesion, no strategy. So there’s no reliable control of the boss. I’ll position myself to avoid a conal ability, but all of a sudden the boss spins around and nukes me.

4) Rezzes. You’re pretty much punished for trying to rez anyone. It’s a virtual certainty that you’re gonna get boned by whatever it is that killed the guy you’re rezzing. Even if you’re watching out for the fire and try to move the instant you see it on the ground beneath you, it’s like you almost have to have superhuman reactions to get out of it in time. I’ll move as fast as I can and think I’m going to live, only to get drilled down by the DOT because my heal is already on cooldown.

These one-shot abilities are just so brutally and inexcusably out of place for an encounter that’s intended to cater to whichever random players just happen to be nearby. HORRIBLE design decision. Ugh.

GW2 deviates from a lot of the standard MMO motifs, and it can cause quite a bit of confusion until you finally start to recognize those differences.

Leveling —
Most games, it’s about questing/grinding as fast as you can. Leveling in GW2 is much more dynamic and varied. You also get XP from exploring (finding vistas, points of interests, etc.), completing zones, gathering, crafting, participating in dynamic events, etc. Unlike most games, the XP you get from these activities is not negligible. However, it’s hard to break away from that “Quest/Grind” mentality that’s been so deeply inculcated the last 10+ years.

Gathering —
Everyone can gather everything. There’s no gathering professions. Just buy the sickle/axe/pick from a merchant, equip it, and boom -- you can gather.

Quests —
You don’t “accept” quests or have a quest log in GW2. Rather, if there’s a quest in your area, it’ll automatically pop up on your screen and track your progress. If you move out of that quests’ area, it disappears from your UI -- but if you come back, your progress picks right back up where you were. Also, there’s no need to “turn in” your quest — once you complete the requirements, boom, you’re done. No need to revisit the NPC to turn it in. NOTE: Some quests do have drops you can turn-in which contribute to the quest’s progress, and many/all quest NPCs will turn into special vendors once you complete the quest, with items that you can purchase for Karma points.

Storyline —
This is an on-going “quest” that your character starts at level 1. Your progress in this quest is always displayed on your UI and map, accompanied by a green icon (looks like a sunburst or swirly).

Dynamic events —
These are indicated on your map by orange icons, usually inside of a giant orange circle to indicate the relevant location on the map. Once you’re within range, the “event” will pop up on your UI below your storyline and any active quest. Events in and of themselves are good XP -- but what makes them even better is that they typically overlap a quest area, so while participating in an event, you’ll often complete a quest too without even trying.

Crafting —
You have to visit the relevant crafting station in order to craft (i.e. for Tailoring, you much visit a Tailoring station). Crafting stations also grant you access to your bank via a tab. You’ll be granted a number of recipes to start off with, and will be given more as you level. However, a significant part of getting new recipes is via the “Discovery” tab. Here, you select different crafting items and see if they make a new item. There’s no “failing” to discover -- if the items you pick don’t make anything, it won’t let you craft.

Discovery (crafting) —
Discoveries can be confusing -- I was just throwing random items in there and getting frustrated that none of them could produce anything. It felt so random to me. Then I realized that it’s very simple. Say you’re a Tailor and you have the ability to craft Jute Headpiece Strap and Jute Headpiece Padding. Craft one of each, and toss them into the Discovery boxes. Now in the third box, add an Insignia or Rune. You’ll craft an all new headpiece with special attributes based on the Insignia or Rune you added. You’ll get the new item, and the recipe will be added to your list. Voila!

Attributes (Vitality/Toughness) & the ‘Glass Cannon’ Approach & min/max’ing —
In most MMOs, we’re accustomed to min/max’ing our stats. Typically, DPS classes go for all damage stats; tank classes go for all durability stats. Don’t do that in GW2. You need a balance. DPS classes in GW2 will take damage -- you must be able to absorb some damage. So don’t neglect those +Vitality (HP) or +Toughness (armor) stats.

Incoming Damage & Movement —
GW2 isn’t a “stand there and press 1-2-3” MMO. You’ll need to move around to avoid incoming damage. You’ll need to take advantage of the “Dodge” mechanic (press V or double tap a direction) to avoid incoming damage. Watch for visual queues that a mob is about to unleash a significant attack. In GW2, you don’t just stand there and soak up/heal through damage -- rather, you try to avoid it.

Lt Redneck.6579:

Mavajo.5796:

It’d be nice if non-vendorable trophies would auto-delete once you’ve completed the quest.

just save them and use the next time you do that event

Huh… I’m talking about the little gold heart quests. You don’t ever do those again.

kilopy.2173:

And, if it says Salvageable Trophy, you can use a kit on them to get crafting mats(one of the few ways to get cloth scraps). Don’t sell those ones.

Oh god, don’t tell me this now…

It’d be nice if non-vendorable trophies would auto-delete once you’ve completed the quest.