Guild Wars 2

Well, first off I didn’t realize it was dungeon until I tried it. I figured it was like the rest of the living story, and in fact like the game in general. Massive Multiplayer Online.

Once I realized it was a dungeon, I figured that with five people it should be as easy the little mini-instances of the Rox and Braham story going solo. It WASN’T.

I usually spend 30 minutes to an hour in the game at a time, then do something else. Then come back. A dungeon that takes 2 to 3 hours to get to twin bosses that party wipe you in seconds is not casual play like the entire rest of the story has been geared around.

Basically, they took a casual massively multiplayer storyline and added on a single 5-man team instanced, very difficult for a casual player mission, and said if you can’t do this one thing, than everything else you’ve done doesn’t matter. Tough luck.

Now I’m not asking for all the loot at the end of the dungeon. I don’t care about it.

I just want to have all the work I’ve done, all the other achievements that I have done (which is all of them), everything I’ve done in the story, to let me see the end of the story. And I’m not the only one who has missed the end of the story. Lots of other people have, whether it was people who just don’t do dungeons at all, or people who were bugged from finishing Lost and Found or Secret Contact.

Many people are missing ONE achievement because of that. Make this like Halloween. If you’ve done a certain number of the achievements, let the story title be completed.

In really short, allow us to get the “Avenger of the Dispossessed” title, finish that achievement, and see the story we’ve worked to see if we have done most of the other achievements.

I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about not being able to finish the story. I’m one of them, so I’m not entirely unbiased.

But there are a number of reasons.
1) The Dungeon – many people couldn’t complete it. (me)
2) Lost and Found – it was bugged and for many people it was impossible to find everything.
3) Secret Contact – it was bugged and for many people it was impossible to find everything.

The issue is, that if you don’t do a SINGLE one of the achievement lines, you miss out on doing the entire event. In effect, you don’t get credit for it at all, except for what credit you get from doing each line itself. But the overall storyline event doesn’t show you as having done it.

Now, one of the nice things about Halloween, was that there were a lot of achievement lines, and if you did a certain number of them, you got credit for doing Halloween. You got the title and stuff and it was cool. I still display that title on some of my characters.

Now if ArenaNet were to patch their code to allow people who had finished a certain number of the achievement lines to get credit for having done the event, I think that would make a lot of players happy. If they did that, we could see the end of the story, with the people we’d done it with all the way through.

If you didn’t do the dungeon, you wouldn’t get the cool dungeon loot. Oh well.
If you didn’t get one or two of the other achievements done, you don’t get the rewards for that either. Oh well.

But for people who did play and did work to fill out most of the achievements, having us be able to see the end of the story, and converse with the other characters as having done the story (because we did) would be nice.

I’d like to see Rox and Braham’s cutscene for instance. As it is right now, for anybody who missed any one of the achievements because of bugs or other issues, they can’t see that. It’s like the story just gets cut off, with no option to finish it.

Patching it so that having most of the achievements being completed would trigger the event title and story credit would keep to the same idea that Halloween had, while also still holding it to the people who did work for it.

What do you guys think?

I just want a way to finish the story that I worked on for months that doesn’t involve a 5-man mini team end to what was otherwise a massively multiplayer story.

What nailed me was the difficulty of the dungeon. I know a lot of people say it is an easy dungeon. And I’m certain that, compared to other dungeons, it IS easy. But for people that don’t do dungeons, it is VERY hard.

I ran the dungeon on Saturday with three veteran Dungeon runners and we were party wiped again until we ran into the two bosses and basically had to give up. The bad part was that if you didn’t FINISH the dungeon, you didn’t get any achievement for having done the story. I’m forever stuck at “oh, you missed destroying the facility with me” with the guys I ran through everything with. Which, from a story perspective, really sucks. All because they decided to make a single dungeon the finale of a non-dungeon event.

Seriously? I like massive multiplayer myself, not a tiny 5-man team. Lag aside, I thought the Kraken event was great. So many heroes showing up, leaving, coming back, and such over and over again. They just needed to do something to take care of the lag. But limiting us to a 5-man team for a dungeon crawl is simply not a good way to end a massive multiplayer storyline. And it leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the people that had fun playing a massive multiplayer storyline only to be stopped from finishing it by a weird little minigame.

I don’t care about the loot. I just want to finish the story I worked on for months.

I’ll remember it as a really cool story massively living story with huge numbers of other playters that took up a fair bit of my time and that made me feel good to finally get to the end, only to have the end be a tiny little 5-man team that got curbstomped by two super-powerful enemies after spending over an hour munching through bad guys.

Really?

There was a lot of promise in the story. And it ended in disappointment.

I really like Guild Wars 2. I love that we can walk around in a field with a bunch of other people and if something big happens, we put out a call and a lot of people come in to help with the issue. Massively. Multiplayer. Online. Awesome. I’ve done the Living Story and loved it. It’s a cool story. Done with small groups of people, and sometimes large, whoever is around, it can be really cool. A homestead comes under attack, a call goes out, and pretty soon a whole lot of people show up to drive back the invaders.

And then we end it with a 5-player limited dungeon. Why? This is a WOW-style raid, not an MMO-style battle. This is nothing like what we’ve done along the way. But I wanted to know how the story ended, so I got together with a group of people and we hit it.

The teleporting brawlers that kill people with one swing got annoying. The gunners that shoot people from across the world got annoying. But we battled through them all. We rescued the prisoners. Our dinky little 5-man squad got all the way to the end.

And then beavis and butthead attacked, destroyed the bridges, and trapped us on a tiny little platform with AOE flame attacks and AOE shockwave attacks. Total curbstomp.

Why? Why have I spent two months playing this living story to have the final culmination of this massively multiplayer cooperative event turned into a 5-man miniteam where we get attacked by two super-powered teleporting buggers that make the Shadow Behemoth in Kryta look like a wimp. Really?

Look. I know a lot of people like the 5-man dungeon experience. Like a lot of people like the PVP stuff. And I’m amazingly happy that this game caters to that. I love that you can do PVP and dungeons in Guild Wars 2. Just like I loved that Guild Wars was the best PVP game of her time. I never did it. But I love that the game did it so well.

I played the story. The environment. I walked around with friends and enjoyed the scenery, and killed nasties. That’s what I do in GW2. And with the new options, I get to call for help and a dozen and more people show up, tip their hats, and wade in with swords swinging to help me out. It is truly massive, and truly a living world where the players help each other.

But this? It’s a real letdown that I’m not going to see the end of this story. I’ve played it all, I’ve done every achievement. I’ve seen everything. And it all culminates in a tiny little 5-man miniteam. It’s a waste of a good story. And it’s a loss for all the people like me who enjoy truly massive multiplayer for such a massive story to have such a tiny end.

And because my team couldn’t finish off beavis and butthead, I don’t get to see the end of it. The very end. And that leaves me feeling very disappointed, that ArenaNet would design such a massive story that casual players can see, and then hide the end behind such a difficult 5-man dungeon.

And I could care less about the loot. I just want to see the story. And now that’s just not going to happen.

And that’s a disappointment.

Well played.

I honestly don’t know how well this will work against some certain enemies in certain places that I haven’t faced yet. What I do know, is that if I find it doesn’t, I will look at what they do, analyze it, and find a way to kill them. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll ask someone else if they have an idea. I may be a man, but I CAN ask for directions…I just prefer not to…;)

As for PvP and WvW, I haven’t done those yet in GW2. I probably will sometime, but that’s not a priority to me. I did it in GW1 though, and beyond the cool ability to kite AND SLING SPELLS at the same time that GW2 allows, when it comes to a tactical understanding of the field of battle, there’s really not as much difference between the two games as many think. Oh, GW2 is WAY better and I do love it, and I love the new ways of doing what I love to do. But there is the challenge that other players KNOW how dangerous the ranged specialist is and usually bumrush him or her with melee specialists. Which means in PvP that you have to adjust. You can’t focus PURELY on range, and have to have the defenses to make certain that melee specialist knows that closing with you is NOT a good idea. Or be fast enough to run. Or whatever. Every class can do something.

It’s all about finding what they do, find the weakness, and exploit it.

As for the idea of that being a lot of work when I could just go in and fire a bow until they die…yeah it is. But I love not only winning against an enemy, but BEATING them. If I walk out of a battle, limping, bleeding, and barely conscious, alive only because of a last second dodge that gave me a shiny “evade,” I just fraked up and got lucky. I don’t like depending on luck. I want to end a battle in perfect health, twirling my swords or pistols, and whistling an old time Dixie tune because I just used every terrain and man-made advantage I could find to turn the field of battle so against them that they never saw me coming.

And every character class in the game can do this. Every player can do this. Granted, there are some enemies in some areas, where they have all the advantages and it is REALLY HARD to generate your own. But even they can be overcome by good planning. No single tactic will work everywhere. Adaptation is the key. Learning and implementing.

The thing that blows my mind is that the first player to make it to level 80 was a bloody CRAFTER. This game has so many options, so many ways to play, that just about any play style can be used to do just about anything. And that’s one reason I really love it.

Hyung.

As noted, I do actually dodge a lot, I just dodge too early to get the evade credit. I still get every other benefit of the dodge though, avoiding taking damage.

As for the rest of your points, you are right. I am not always able to prepare the field the way I want. Often I end up having to run into battle, bow or pistols firing at maximum rate to pull someone off an ally that is about to drop. Or for a thousand other reasons that just mean I don’t have time. Or maybe a troupe of Centaurs are chasing me. snerk I love dodging to the side and watching them charge past me, slipping all over the ground as they miss worse than Charlie Brown misses the football.

But when something like that happens, I just do whatever I can. Dodge to the side and use the couple seconds that gives me to summon an ally, drop a turret, or whatever. Sometimes I end up having to run from battle all together. Sometimes I used my summoned allies to get their attention off me. Or drop a trap to cripple them while I run. Every class has the ability to do something that can get a superior enemy off your butt.

I also look to terrain. Find a killing zone. An example in Queensdale during the bandit raid on the farm even is the fences. There are three spots where bandits run through on their way to the farm. Today I was actually thinking about what I did because of what I wrote here yesterday. I was using my engineer, so I dropped a rocket turret far back from the western path that most players ignore. I dropped a rifle turret a bit closer, and a flamer pretty much IN the gap. Then a healing turret in the middle of the turret formation. I run a twin pistol engineer, which gives me the electrical attack that hits all enemies, a flame thrower attack, and a glue gun to stop them from moving. I kited around them, dodged when I needed to, and just kept circling around them to avoid taking damage while I pumped lead into them as fast as I could. At the end of the battle, only the healing turret remained, but I had almost no damage and an entire group of bandits were dead.

No one else was there and I walked out of a group of enemies at nearly full health. And none of them did. I don’t think I got a single evade. I dodged when I had to, I kited the rest of the time, and I avoided taking noticeable damage. But despite using mobility and dodging to their fullest potential to “no be there” as Mister Miyagi said, I don’t think I got a single evade. I did it too soon to get the evade, but I wasn’t where they were firing or swinging or dropping AOE damage so I didn’t get hurt.

Yes, this is a beginner level, but we are leveled down to the point that we don’t exactly have much health to tank damage. This is just one of many general tactics that are useful on all levels of gameplay, from the easiest levels to the hardest. I’ve followed this general idea against foes from the Karka to the Queensdale Bandits. Between the spreading out of turrets so one single attack won’t kill them all, placing them to cover a kill zone, and preparing to hold the enemy in said kill zone for as long as possible, all the while keeping them from effectively responding. Thiefs or Rangers can use traps. Elementalists can use Elementals. Guardians can use Spirit Weapons, though the recent nerf there may make those less useful in the future. Necros use their minions. Warriors…well…honestly, when I’m a Warrior I usually BECOME the blocking force, courtesy of a broadsword or a hammer…:)

I agree. I would like a first person view. GW1 did it well.

Agreed. There are some outfits I would buy if I could wear them all or most of the time instead of rarely.

Because, as noted, in certain highly populated areas, there are actually not that many corpses. In Queensdale, I’ve seen people heal NPCs part way, and then back off so someone else running towards them can get a credit as well. And maybe they just don’t want to go somewhere that there is almost no one around. People gravitate towards Queensdale as an example because there is always people there to play with. People like playing with other people since, until now, all of the game has made it good for people to play with other people.

Hyung. For clarification, I play PvE, not PvP, so I’m aware there is a difference there. In answer to your question,I generally prepare the battlefield before I start fighting. Put down traps or turrets, summon allies, and that kind of thing. Then I attack my target with the best two or three part combination and do a LOT of damage. They shoot back. I don’t let up. Honestly I don’t generally bother dodging unless I notice I’m actually taking noticeable damage. Ranged attackers don’t generally do enough damage to recover from something like that. Basically, as long as I don’t go below 90% health, I can be a lot more effective piling on the damage and killing them faster than they can kill me.

If they have melee guards, I kill the melee guys first, kiting always, dodging as needed if they get too close, then when I get done dropping them, I hit the ranged guys and kite around THEM. They miss a lot when I’m kiting, usually firing behind me because I’m a bit random. Whenever the ranged guys do a really big attack that is going to HURT, those I dodge the movement I see it coming, usually long before I would get the last second evade dodge achievement.

Basically, I tank or avoid the little stuff, and keep enough energy in reserve to dodge the stuff that can actually hurt. I just do it the MOMENT I see it coming, rather than risk doing it ACTUALLY wrong and taking damage by waiting long enough to go for the cool “evade” word flashing up on my screen. I don’t like getting hit, so when I’m actually playing for serious, I don’t take the risk of waiting.

I always figured a dodge was a dodge as long as it results in me not getting hit. Now according to some, if it doesn’t say “evade,” I’m not doing it right, am a horrible player, and should go play WoW where I guess everything is roses and sunshine. Or so they say.

I never said I was so skillfull that I never dodge. I dodge often. It is one of my preferred tactics to open the range or to get out of an AOE attack.

And in fact, I said that for a melee player, the evade dodge is one of the best and smartest tactics of that style. And honestly, if you are a melee fighter, you really do need to know how to evade dodge so you can maximum the damage you deal and minimize the damage you receive. For a melee fighter, the specific evade dodge that the achievement requires is just about a necessity.

For a ranged combat specialist, though, it is dumb to let someone get that close. If you HAVE to perform an evade-dodge at the last instant, you reacted FAR FAR FAR too late to that guy charging you. He should have been dead dead dead LONG before he got into range to swing a sword at you. Or you should have dodged to the side the moment you saw him attacking so you can pump his flank full of lead or arrows or energy blasts while he’s swinging at the open air you USED to be in. In which case, you never get the evade-dodge achievement because you did it “too early” for the game to register that you did it.

I’m not saying I’m any better or worse than any other player. I’m simply saying that, for my chosen type of play, that of the long range specialist, performing a last second evade dodge is rare. Dodging is common. Evade dodging is rare. And taking instincts honed by years of playing as a long range specialist through a dozen games, and trying to go melee for that very specific melee evade dodge when all I want to do is OPEN THE RANGE from that melee guy RIGHT NOW is very very hard.

Now, that said, I’ve actually seen some posts today that suggest trying this against archers. I’ll give that a shot the next time I have a shot and see how that works. I’m hoping I don’t jump out of the way of them too soon as well, but I’ll give it a shot and see what happens. But we are still looking at the idea of me agroing AND NOT KILLING something so I can dance around his arrows, which really goes against my sniper instincts. I HATE giving someone else a free chance to shoot me. I’d much rather just kill the monster and on go on my merry way. Or help someone else do it. Or have them help ME do it.

And right now, maybe THEY want their target alive so they can evade dodge against him for THEIR achievement…so maybe I shouldn’t help them. Do they want my help or not? Will they tell me to leave them alone if I help them? This happens now. In the cooperative game that GW2’s manifesto calls for, that’s not good. We should NEVER look at other players as a threat to our advancement. They should be allies. That is what the manifesto says. And the actual RESULT of this achievement line is exactly the opposite.

Honestly, look at the game chat channels, or this board. It is full of people saying they don’t like it, and full of other people insulting and attacking anyone who doesn’t like it, saying that anyone who doesn’t isn’t a real player and should leave if they don’t want to learn to play. This is the very definition of a situation that leads to rancor in the player base, and something that makes some players consider others “the enemy.”

This is really not good.

I suppose on low population servers, there may be a lot of dead bodies lying around. On the higher population ones, especially at primetime American playing hours, there are VERY FEW dead NPCs lying around, so people are getting creative at doing that achievement line.

I haven’t been to Dredgehaunt Cliffs yet, wherever that is. I’ve been slowly completing areas when I feel like it, and just haven’t made my way there yet.

I usually shoot n scoot around most bosses. Of course, I do that around MOST enemies as that is my play style. Stay back, use traps or other allies/pets/turrets/summons to keep them from getting to me, and dodge away if they decide they want to crunch me.

Though I must saw one of my funnest times was when shapeshifted my Norn into wolf form, walked up to the Troll in Queensdale, and tanked him on my own until reverting to my normal form 30 seconds later. He died about 5 seconds after that while I was running to open the range. He didn’t like me much after what I did to him and he sorta wanted a piece of me.

One thing I’ve found is that EVERY class can be a ranged combat monster. OR a melee monsters.

An elementalist with twin daggers is death walking into short range…and not his or her death. And a thief can go from twin pistols for double tap precision at mid-range, to deathblossoming twin dagger build in as long as it takes to switch weapons. No time at all. And the warrior that switches from rifle to hammer in the blink of an eye just turned that group of warriors bumrushing him into PASTE.

And that is one thing I LOVE about Guild Wars 2. So many ways to play the way you want to, not the one way that other people say you should play. Heck. The first guy to level 80 did it via CRAFTING…

LOL

I’m the same way. I’m a ranged fighter, so I dodge to open the range IF somebody is lucky enough to close the range with me. I don’t wait until the last instant, let them swing at me, and then do the evade dodge as part of my normal gameplay. I only dodge away when something happens that means I need to stop being “there” and start being “over there” RIGHT NOW. Like that meteor shower that is about to land on me. Yeah. I don’t want to be here anymore. DO A BARREL ROLL!

;)

And in my normal gameplay, I do it so quickly that I don’t get credit for doing an “evade dodge.” This particular achievement is penalizing me for playing too well and I don’t like having to dumb down my play for an achievement that used to just happen through normal gameplay…which used to be the whole idea of the daily achievement. They just wanted people to come in and play, and give us some goodies for doing it.

Now they seem to want to change the way we play, because we aren’t playing the way they want us to. When many of us figured out BETTER ways of playing than they seem to want us to.

Oh. I understand the for people who get into melees a lot, the evade dodge is pretty much fundamental to that gameplay style. If you don’t do it, you die. Because you WANT to stay close and wale on them until that last second when they swing. Then you use the evade dodge to swing around to their side, or jump back, so you can swing back in and hit them again. That is a very smart way of playing a melee fighter.

I don’t generally PLAY melee fighters. If somebody agros me, if somebody gets close, if somebody gets a shot on me, I FRAKED UP. My job, as a long range specialist, is to hit them hard, fast, and kill them before they can hurt me. I use warriors as my meat shields. Let THEIR armor take the brunt, or let THEM evade dodge at short range. I’m back over here, dropping death all around them, and generally killing anyone who tries to break out of the melee to get to ME. If I HAVE to dodge someone’s melee swing, I didn’t do my job right. And if someone drops an AOE on me, I jump out NOW. I don’t wait until the last second so I can get an evade dodge achievement. FOR MY STYLE OF PLAY, this is a smart way to play.

I am a sniper. If I have to dodge a guy with a sword, I fraked up.

So for me to do the evade-dodge achievement, I have to completely change my style of gaming to one that I don’t like. As most people have said, the quickest way to get that achievement if you don’t do it through normal gameplay, which my normal gameplay doesn’t, then you find a single mob and start dodging his attacks, and hope that another player doesn’t come along, see you fighting it, and “help” you kill it. Oh. I’m sorry. You DON’T actually dodge their attacks. You let them attack you, you wait until the last second, and then you do that very particular “evade-dodge” where you actually let them hit you, but through some superpower of DOING A BARREL ROLL, you don’t take damage…

I follow the school of Mister Miyagi. “Best defense, no be there.” And while I enjoy Peppy, he’s not the most imaginative of teachers.

I like these ideas. They would bring some originality to the pets.

The problem with the healer achievement, is that in Queensdale for instance, there are enough people rezzing the NPCs that there aren’t many dead ones. Yes. Yes. Go somewhere else. I don’t want to. It’s expensive to jump to other maps and I don’t want to waste my money on that.

As for the suiciding for the benefit of other players bit? That was nice of those players. It shows that they are looking to HELP other people. And for that, anybody who does that has my respect. OOC. IC, my character thinks they are stupid.

Good note Penny. I generally use dodge to get out of AOE attacks or to get out of range of a melee guy BEFORE he swings at me. Waiting for him to swing at me and THEN dodge is a foreign concept to me. Why let him get close enough to hit me? That’s just risking getting my uniform dirty.

I think what a lot of people are saying is that the ONLY way to dodge is to let them get close and then dodge, and if you don’t know how to do that you don’t know how to dodge. Or shouldn’t be playing the game at all. At least that is how many of the comments come across to me.

But I honestly didn’t even know HOW to get the “evade” achievement at first, because the window to get the “evade” note is so narrow and I’m generally not stupid enough to let the bad guys get close enough to NEED to do that. Of course, my style is long range combat, so for ME, getting close is stupid. For melee players, evade dodging is the only way to go. But honestly, there are so many different types of play, that there is always going to be one particularly bit of play that seems stupid to some and integral to others.

For me, the stupid bit of the evade dodging, is that since my style of play doesn’t use it, because I dodge BEFORE the evade credit, I have to actually slow down my game play, and either risk taking heavy damage during events, or after I’m done with everything else, find an enemy, agro him, DON’T kill him, and start evade dodging him. And then bad part about THAT is that I then have to hope that another player doesn’t see me fighting and come to “help” me out.

I don’t like an achievement that supports me NOT wanting a player to help me. It doesn’t match the GW2 manifesto of cooperative gameplay.

That is a very interesting point. I had connected it to the Dodging, where you now actively hope nobody “helps” you by killing the guy you are playing with, but I hadn’t connected it with the healing achievement. You are right. Now people are fighting for bodies to heal.

Of course, at the same time, one of the better cases of sportsmanship I’ve ever seen in any game came up today. Today, in Queensdale, one guy started jumping up the fort to his death so people could heal him. For a while, three different people were doing that so others could get the achievement. From a player to player perspective, that was really nice.

From a gameplay perspective…stupid beyond belief. Who would willingly jump off a cliff like that? But it was real nice for people to do it for other players.

I guess that brings up another point. Both the dodge and the healing achievements encourage us to play in ways that make no sense realistically. Player purposefully dying so others can heal them. Or leaving mobs alive so you can dodge around them just to get a point…

Rin’s got some good points. I endorse them fully.

The issue with dodging is that I don’t generally wait until the guy is swinging at me to dodge. I get out of range LONG BEFORE he gets to that swing cause I don’t like getting hit. But for the purposes of the achievement, it only counts if you do it at the last second, as he is swinging. I’m a ranged combat guy. If I let someone get that close, I fraked up. And for my style of play, it is stupid to let them take a swing at me in the first place. Besides, I usually save my dodges for getting out of important things, like AOE attacks. And I usually do that the moment the red ring comes. Also long before the attack actually arrives, and also long before the game would give me an “evade” credit.

I follow Mister Miyagi’s Rule. “Best defense, no be there.”

I also think it is a good thing to dodge away from enemies. I just do it long before they have a chance to attack me. Now I actually have to walk up to them, wait for them to swing, and then at the last minute dodge out of the way. All the while hoping that another player doesn’t come along and kill him for me, thinking he is helping me.

And that right there is the worst part. For the first time in Guild Wars 2, we have an achievement that ENCOURAGES us to NOT play with others, and makes us worry that some other player is going to come along and hurt our ability to finish an achievement. That’s not good…

My primary problem with the Dodge achievement is what others here have noted. For the first time in Guild Wars 2, we are encouraged to NOT play with other people. As others have noted, the easiest way to get the achievement is to agro a mob, wait for it to attack, and dodge it at the last second to get the little “evade” word up. Of course, mobs can only agro against one person at a time, so the rest of your group has to find something else to agro. And if someone comes through, sees you fighting something, and kills it, suddenly, for the first time in the history of Guild Wars 2, he ISN’T HELPING YOU.

That’s not good. I liked the way Guild Wars 2 encourages us to help other players, and encourages other players to WANT help. This achievement line reverses that idea, and I don’t like that.

Then there’s also style of play. I don’t generally dodge. I’m generally a ranged fighter, who summons as many allies as possible into the battle to help me out. If someone gets close enough that I HAVE to dodge them, I just fraked up. I know a lot of people swear by dodging, and consider it one of the most important aspects of the game, and think that people who don’t do it are dumb, but I’m exactly the opposite. I use dodging to get away from AOE attacks, or keep it as a reserve in case THAT GUY JUST GOT IN MY FACE! OMG I HAVE TO OPEN THE RANGE NOWNOWNOWNOWNOW! I think that walking up to someone, waiting for them to take a swing, and then at the last instant dodging them is stupid. Ballsy. Showing you are so far out of their league that you can LET them have the first strike and then dance around them. But I don’t play like that. I “cheat” by getting an enemy to agro something else and then hit him in the flank. Or I kite around him, and then jump over him with a deathblossom attack. Or I drop a rocket launcher and run. Or…or…or…there are SO many ways to play where you stop the bad guys from ever getting a shot off at you.

Walking up to them and LETTING them attack me makes me ask myself why I’m being so dumb as to risk getting my clothes dirty. Or bloody. Ew. I hate the sight of my own blood. Why do I have to do this again?

;)

I would love to get that armor.

I agree. Town clothes are rarely shown. I would support any effort to make it easier and more common to show them off.

I would like this idea as well. I enjoy the look of town clothes and would love the ability to wear them more often.

My issue with the Dodge achievement is that it seems to go against one of them most basic ideas of Guild Wars 2.

Guild Wars 2, as it was built, encourages players to always help each other. If we see somebody fighting a mob, we jump in and help and everybody gets something. Nobody loses experience or loot or anything if somebody jumps in and helps them. This is one of the most basic points of Guild Wars 2.

But now, we have an achievement line that changes that. Other people have said how to finish the 15 dodges. Find one enemy, get him agroed on you, and then dodge his attacks. What do the rest of your group do? Well, they find their OWN enemy to dodge. What do you do if someone comes along and wastes the guy you are dodging? You grit your teeth and go find another guy. Unless the other player goes through and kills everything in the area.

For the first time, there is an achievement that forces us, for a short time, to STOP playing with other people. I don’t like that. I don’t want to look to another player as someone who is going to threaten my achievements. I want to enjoy playing with other people. I want to see someone coming and smile in realization that I’m not alone in this big world. I don’t want to be narrowing my eyes as I’m thinking “you better not kill this guy. He’s mine. Stay away.” That is too much like WoW for my peace of mind. And telling people to stay away as some have suggested doesn’t really work, because you are kiting around and dodging in the middle of a melee battle to GET the achievement.

This might be easy to get, or hard to get, depending on the player. You might be a melee master who uses dodge like its going out of style, or a ranged duelist who always kites and confuses the enemy and has only ever used dodge to get out of AOE attacks. You might be the guy who uses dodge all the time, or the guy who thinks if you HAVE to dodge you just fraked up and let them get too close.

Whatever your style of play, the point I see with dodge as an achievement, is that (as others have said) the easiest way to get it is to pick your target, NOT KILL IT, and dodge around its attacks, all the while hoping that nobody comes up and kills it for you. This is not the style of play that Guild Wars 2 has ever encouraged before. I doubt this was on purpose. I’m certain this is an unintended consequence. But I don’t want to see any mechanic that makes us NOT want to play together remain in force.