Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 definitely does not deserve GOTY, unfortunately the lack of RPGs with substance this year has allowed GW2 to rise to the top.

I could have never imagined 5 years ago that GW2 would be a big step backward from GW1.

I have to agree with lothefallen’s viewpoints. As a GW1 veteran, I completely understand the point he’s making. Especially about the dungeons, there is very little reason to have communication.

Honestly, the combat is coming to point where playing the game is basically muscle-memory, I’m not doing any thinking, the game isn’t engaging me.

I don’t agree with this sentiment at all, GW2 is NOT like Ultima online or Everquest. GW2 pretty much does everything in it’s power to make grouping irrelevant. Which is completely the opposite of Everquest.

GW2 is mostly a themepark MMO, with attractions, and while the dungeon running is still a populated part of the game, WvW is the main attraction for many players. WvW is in a fundamentally different format from the rest of a game, more sandbox than themepark. And it proves that players want to effect their environment and they want the environment to effect them. It proves that players will group together because they want to achieve something, whether it be attacking a stronghold or running supplies to upgrade strongholds. I think it’s time Anet takes the training wheels off.

As for your “gear treadmill” comment, the players want what the “gear treadmill” represents, Progression. GW2 is a themepark where “everything is endgame” and you just keep going on the same rides over and over again, with no progression to speak of.

The fundamental concept of “everything is endgame” is solid, look at Battlefield and Call of duty, people spend hours and hours fighting each other. Why? There’s next to no progression.

Rift is a much different game than GW2, It’s not really a good comparison.

Has GW2 lost a chunk of players? Yes, but it’s expected as the game comes out of it’s launch. So much for GW2 being “different”.

GW2 will be okay though, there will be enough casuals and lite gamers to sustain and fill the servers, as well as the super diehard Anet fanboys, but apart from those groups, I really don’t see anyone else calling GW2 “home”.

The problem of the low level zones being completely empty presents it’s own challenges, and I’m sure ANet will figure out how to deal with it.

I feel the same way in many aspects. I’ve stopped playing GW2 since just after The Lost Shores, partly due to finals coming up, partly due to lack of interest. I almost feel like going back to GW1 until something else shows up.

I attribute my lack of interest to 3 main branches.

1- Lack of progression. GW2 lacks a sense of intermediate progression, take for example the title track system. Until you fully complete the requirements for a title, you get nothing, once you acquire the title, there’s nothing more to be done. The GW1 title track comes with varying levels of completion, which indicates the dedication of a player, and gives a sense of progression and accomplishment, without a massive overarching long-term goal.

2-Combat- This is largely based on opinion but the combat in GW2 feels like every time I enter a fight, I’m just going through the motions, it basically feels like I’m fighting from muscle memory. You could argue that every MMO is like this, but GW1 really instilled a sense of complexity, you had to react to changing conditions, and most importantly it got you to think about what you are doing.

3- Anet Blunders and Apathy- I really am sensing a sort of Apathy from Anet. This doesn’t feel like the company that made and ran GW1. They keep the community in the dark concerning their gameplay changes, while the community is desperately trying to determine some sort of pattern or order to the decisions ANet makes. Please ANet, we aren’t troglodytes, communicate with us! Oh and the way ANet continually chases the White Whale of Esport is akin to a doctor in an ER show, continually defibbing a patient that’s dead. It’s NEVER going to happen. Meanwhile, WvW is all but ignored with a massive playerbase that are thrilled, and are waiting for Anet to take it to the next level.

If anyone needs a Ritualist in GW1, please send me a message, I may just go back, If I can find a motivated group.

That dude just had a baby, or he took an epic dump.

Let me know if you want me to transfer over to HoD and help you take DB from this troll, I’d be more than willing to, just to spite him.

I have to agree with Kinky, just do your sweeps. And for your information, there is a max cap on portals, 4000 range on portals. That’s about 3 and 1/2 times longbow or rifle range, really not that far.

I think even 1-2 minutes is too much time. In 2 minutes a dead scout can easily determine how many people are defending, the amount of siege defending, and the amount of supply in a fortification. 2 minutes is even enough time for a spotter to help a treb user zero in on targets.

People keep saying that they leveled from 2-80 purely from WvW. But nobody is mentioning anything about how much longer it takes to do. The first 80 I made took me 65 hours. When I leveled my second character through WvW, it took over 250 hours.

Thank you kineticdamage, I’m glad someone is saying this. As a longtime MMO vet, I’ve seen all these mechanics before, and they are all too familiar. What’s more the ideas behind the mechanics are incredibly simplified because of how few skills there are to choose from. Casual players and newcomers to MMOs won’t understand this, and will insist that this isn’t the case. It’s a shame really, I was reallly hoping GW2 would be “the one”, but I don’t see any future than simply moving onto the next promising MMO.

I am sensing there is more to this story, players don’t do this kind of trolling without a personal vendetta. If players want to grief, they can simply go to the jumping puzzle in EBT and grief an endless supply of players. Your story doesn’t add up.

Oh god, not another poem.

Unless you are REALLY, REALLY into the story, I’d recommend against it. I can barely recognize the game world of GW1 while playing GW2.

caiomacos.1694:

Well, you asked what was GW2 “endgame” content. Lande pointed a few options you could do after reaching 80 / finishing main story / getting full exotic gear (and there are more, like crafting, JP, titles / achievements, activities). Just because you dont like the content, doesnt mean its not there.

You are not using the term “endgame” correctly, it refers to a gameplay experience that is fundamentally differently then the leveling process, which is totally absent from GW2. And sorry to alarm you, but farming money/materials/tokens and leveling alts is not content.

Remember when people on the forums were complaining about Oceanic presence on NA servers? Well, now you share our pain.

I disagree with it though, I wish people would just have the integrity to stick to their region.

TommyProvolone.3715:

Metalripper.5406:

What endgame?

Ohh, you mean playing Dress-up with your pixels?

Yeah, I tried to get into it, I couldn’t.

I agree. I find killing the same monster 800 times in a row for a set of shoulders that will give me a +1 increase in Precision to be a much more satisfying process.

Not entirely sure, but I sense failed sarcasm. Perhaps an attempt to categorize equipping a new pair of shoulders as “not dressup”.

You know… maybe they could like…. make actual dungeon mechanics? Just a thought between corpserushing insert dungeon boss here

I was thinking of a more guild based battlegrounds. It would be catered more towards hardcore players, and require a gem fee which the hardcores would pay. While WvW can remain in it’s current state of casual large scale pvp.

In this massive battleground (I was thinking of about the size of 9 PVE zones with waypoints near the edges) there would be 100+ fortifications (towers and keeps) that guilds could claim and protect, where they could store relics on a timer that drop from raid bosses scattered around the map. (Naturally each guild would only be allowed one relic at a time) The relics would have various effects ranging from increased movement speed to magic find. Oh, and it’d be free-for-all, with-

1- Names visible to everyone, which creates competition and rivalry, encouraging players to pay to drop cows on each other for added effect.
2- Small chance to drop items on death, not enough to make you lose everything, but enough to make death mean something, maybe 5-10% chance. It would go a long way towards getting people to play something other than Glass cannon specs. Right now, there’s no reason not to.

I did like that idea about Title tracks and armor skins though.

What endgame?

Ohh, you mean playing Dress-up with your pixels?

Yeah, I tried to get into it, I couldn’t.

Stiv.1820:

Add a subscription system that allows you to show your name, open stat tracking and allows you to rank up and get different titles and skins based on your rank. I’d pay $5-$10/month for that right now.

They’d have to add a massive Free-For-All battleground where you can even kill other players from your server, I’d pay 15-20$ a month for that right now.

Cybertx.6714:

Raap.9065:

GW2 isn’t a cash shop model game, it’s a hybrid of cash shop and title purchase. I paid 55 euro for the game and that’s almost 4 months of sub time for a subscription based MMO. You’re not playing GW2 for free, you paid for it, and there is no justification for this game to ever sell power in the cash shop.

You pay the same for any other MMO and they only have 30 days free, right?

You can’t have it both ways, Anet decided to go with a B2P system, you can’t expect players to be willing to pay without meaningful content already existing. Of which there is little, if any.

Randomness is great if you’re playing Mario Party, however when you are trying to have a competitive and engaging PvP experience, randomness is infuriating and reduces the effectiveness of the class.

In GW1, you literally built your entire character around your 1 elite skill. In GW2, your elite skill just like a normal skill only with 3-4 times longer cooldown.

SoPP.7034:

WvW is a resource hog for Anet and it makes them little to no money. Now that you’ve bought the game, you can play it any time.

Look how much effort went into Halloween and I bet you it made them twice the money than anything WvW has done recently.

It’s Anet’s lack of foresight that prevents WvW from being profitable. I’m not trying to be doom and gloom, but people will start leaving unless they start paying attention to WvW, it may not be a lot, but it’s a lost opportunity to make money and satisfy the players.

They even have special finishers that are hilarious to use, but most people don’t use them because WvW drains such massive amounts of money in upgrades, siege, and repair costs.

I could see possibly a Life Dragon like greenscale, but Primordus is already attuned to earth, adding a second earth dragon would be incredibly redundant.

Shifty.5187:

No Walking.6349:

Hi all,

So apparently subject alpha in CoE explorable has a bunch of abilities that he can cast named after the elder dragons, such as “Teeth of Primordius,” “Tooth of Jormag,” and…………….“Teeth of Mordramoth.”

If that isn’t proof, then I don’t know what is We can stop calling him bubbles now lol.

I see your argument, and I dismiss it. Bubbles is way too cool a name. Don’t take it away from us!

Seconded.

I vote for Kralkatorrik

Flying Airships

mjharrison.3209:

aaron.4317:

Downed state is ridiculous for the side with larger numbers.

AE cap of 5 is ridiculous for the side with larger numbers.

The game’s basic mechanics already favors a zerg of casuals, the two mechanics above just make it silly.

This, exactly. Downed state (and rallying) has ruined so many of my 1vXs because my downed opponent rallies because a by-standing mob died, or like last night, i successfully manage to 1v2 2 guys to downed, but get downed myself seconds later from condition damage, then i proceed to get 2v1ed to defeated due to the 3 of us throwing rocks, which rallies both guys. It was a ridiculous end to an otherwise great fight where the 3 of us should have simply died.

Downed state is, without exaggeration, the stupidest and most annoying game mechanic i have ever experienced in 25 years of gaming. It is ruining the otherwise decent PVP in this game for me. It is my #1 hate in this game and i desperately hope it will be removed entirely from PVP zones, or at least rezzing made to break on any damage and no rallying.

I hear you. Enemies rally off monsters, and it’s absolutely infuriating.

moirweyn.9872:

1) We don’t need bigger maps, we need different mechanics and some changes to make the maps feel bigger.
2) Such as?
3) That’s PvE, not PvP. If they added that we would have to hear how PvPers are griefing the people in the dungeons who are trying to PvE on a WvW map. I would be one of those people killing the PvEers in the dungeon just because they are taking a spot from a PvPer.
4) See above.
5) Orbs were taken away. That helped a lot.
6) Hope not, would create more imbalance and would make it harder for new players to get into WvW.
7) You mean the XXX Invader [TAG] thing? Why?
8) I hope not. That would make WvW into more of an individual thing and not a team based thing.
9) Cosmetic I am fine with – anything that gives any type of edge whatsoever – hell no.

1- Possibly, but I will give you this fact to think about, every single stronghold in the battlegrounds or borderlands is easily within treb range from each other.

2-The problem is every single action a player takes can be quantified with a point value, what the game needs is something that changes the game that can’t be given a point value.

3- The players need something other than blindly zerging from tower to tower, it’s the players that create the fun amongst themselves, the game is simply a sandbox for them to utilize. If you respond and say that you don’t have to zerg, I will respond and tell you that I’ve been part of “strike teams” and the goal of a strike team is to avoid the zerg and circumvent PVPing and attack NPCs, over and over. Fundamentally wrong.

4- It’s always fun for players to complete content while under the constant threat of enemy attack, it makes the player more connected to what is happening onscreen. As long as there isn’t mobs EVERYWHERE cough moas cough it would greatly increase the immersion a player feels.

5- Orbs taken away, and nothing to replace them with. If you tell me they are going to fix them later, well where is our fix for the Stonemist Keep Lord? Furthermore, there are several huge factors that attribute to Zergs having an advantage at all times. The removal of healers comes to mind, once a player takes damage, they rush to the back of the zerg, use their selfheal, and they are no worse for wear. The downed state also ensures that it’s kitten near impossible for superior numbers to lose.

6- Possibly true, however it would be nice to have some sort of character progression.

7- Once again, it’s the players that create the fun, not the game. I understand the concerns about griefing though, and a simple checkbox option to block the enemy teams whispers and shouts would be sufficent. Very little reason not to have it for players who want it.

8-I agree with you on this, a rankings board belongs on something like sPvP.

9-Also agree, nothing that gives an advantage in gameplay, however it seems Anet cares very little about WvW, even after it continues to be a huge part of the game, we’ve heard very little from Anet.

Well, where are we going from here? What is the future of open world, dynamic Realm vs Realm PVP? Does anyone care to speculate when/if Anet will make the improvements needed to get WvW up to snuff? It seems Anet hasn’t shown WvW much attention or concern.

I disagree with this, it’s already more difficult to determine the class of an enemy than it should be. Mesmer and Ele both wear light armor, but the strategies to win against them are drastically different. It would be significantly worse to be fighting a warrior that looks like a necro, or a thief that looks like a guardian.

I have to agree, there is way too much hand holding in WvW. I’m getting bored because every action in the game feels predetermined and the course of combat is linear and simple. You can always predict where and how the fighting is going to happen simply by looking at the ownership of the map.

I always invisioned a Free-for-all battleground, that is as extensive as the PVE world. Where guild can capture their own fortresses, that grant bonuses to players in both PVE and PVP. A game where players make their own dynamic fun, and aren’t coerced and guided into simply chasing and attacking the next stronghold en route to the bottom of the map.

I agree with this,. Please Anet, don’t forget about us.

I’d just like to add the rendering issues to that list, while it’s not as bad as it once was, it continues to effect gameplay.

You TC people you’re so great, but you’re not that tough. Just wait until you face the wrath of Maguuma’s Mortars.

Those two are possibly the worst classes for WvW, I know people will come in here and refute me, but it’s likely because they haven’t played any of the other classes.

The necro, necro attrition builds are incredibly effective simply because WvW is skewed to burst damage. Minion masters don’t fare well in large battles because so much aoe is being thrown around, and Conditionmancers are somewhat effective, but any enemy worth his salt will have ways to cure conditions..

Engineer- Lots of people say a power/precision rifle build is good, but I don’t see it being anywhere near as effective as other classes. the one thing they can do really well is sit on top of a wall during a siege and chuck nades on the enemy’s head, but they are nearly useless in open area fights because of their hilariously long travel time.

Not sure if it’s a bug, but today I was in the mists, and I was fighting the Thief Npc which used daggerstorm, I had traited focus skills to reflect projectiles, so I dropped it down, and the attacks went right through and hit me, I tried again using feedback, and the same thing happened, the projectiles went right through.

aaron, what you said is factually incorrect, the downed state helps the unskilled zerg overwhelm a smaller, more organized group, and that is the issue people have problems with.

I break down WvW into 4 seperate roles. Some classes are better in some aspects, but then there are classes that are great in multiple aspects.
-Siege Defense> Defending keeps/towers, involves control abilities and GTAOE’s to zone control, and pushing enemies where you want them to go.
-Siege Offense> Attacking keeps/towers, involves dropping defensive bubbles to shield and heal allies, or attacking enemies and siege weapons on top of walls with AOEs.
-Zerg Combat> Large group battles, the only way to win is to focus 1 person at a time, otherwise they will retreat to the back lines, heal up, and rejoin the fight.
-Roaming Combat> Small group skirmishes, sometimes 1v1 encounters, movement is important, with heavy burst damage and control abilities beneficial

The warrior is very frustrating to fight, they excel at burst damage which is great in Zerg Combat. The warrior’s base stats are also significantly higher than any of the other classes, which gives him a nice edge. But the key benefit for the warrior is how universal his weapons and utility skills are, whereas most other classes have skills that are situational or requires a set-up to be used effectively.

The Elementalist is also exceptional, they can move fairly fast, which is great for roaming. They can also use a variety of support heals and devastating AOE’s which makes them awesome at zerg vs zerg combat and siege sitations.

The Thief is fast and hits hard, though hindered by their 900 range. Thieves are currently benefitting from a rendering delay when they drop out of stealth, which makes them difficult to fight. They do devastating melee damage, and are excellent at roaming,, small skirmishes, and scouting. However, I should mention, during offensive siege situations, you will be pigeonholed into securing the perimiter around the zerg, and making sure stragglers don’t manage to get inside the keep/tower.

Engineers- I almost didn’t want to mention them, but they can spec for Permaswiftness,, and their grenade build is great for tower/keep defenses, but they are noticeably lackluster in Zerg vs Zerg combat and Offensive Sieges, they are also somewhat ineffective in skirmishes and roaming.

Mesmer- The benefit of the mesmer is that they can use their clones to the fighting for them, allowing them to be further out of reach than other classes. They also have portals and mass invisibility, which is great for transporting golems, portalbombing entrenched enemies, and quickly moving your allies around. Their phantasms can also attack siege and enemies on top of walls. However, they do have significant downsides, they have only 1 skill that gives swiftness, and it is attached to the focus. 75% of a mesmer’s damage also relies heavily on clones, which are easily killed in 1 shot.

I am also having this issue.

Why not add a SMG? SMGs and shotguns are the classic Engineer weapons. And it would would be so kitten to play with.

Reonhato.5914:

Metalripper.5406:

This is such garbage, for the first time in a long while, Blackgate has had a que for EBG during NA primetime, and WE are the ones working the system?

You Dragonbrand guys have been capitalizing on your much larger population almost the entire matchup, and when that wasn’t enough to win, you cried to Twin and Tsym to come spike the map and fight your battles for you. And the biggest gap you could muster was 20k points.

Maybe you guys should organize and communicate, instead of meandering around map in zergs like a horde of zombies.

yeah except that is exactly what blackgate have done to get in front. During the first day when everyone had full maps during primetime blackgate fell behind, the next day blackgate lose population and fall even more but then during offpeak all of a sudden blackgate appears with a giant zerg and just takes everything with no competition.

Congrats Anet, your lack of action on server transfers and nightcapping has made 1000s of players mean absolutely nothing in WvW just so a group of euros on a NA server dont feel left out.

We were well on our way to taking the #1 spot before the Euro guilds transferred in.

Reonhato.5914:

You know what would have made more sense… transferring to FA. You know, the server out of the 3 here that gets outmanned on its own borderlands and has literally 0 presence on every other map including EB during offpeak during the week. The server who put about 6k points between them and blackgate on the weekend only to have it disappear the moment monday came around. That is a server you transfer to if you want to make a difference.

I have to disagree, Blackgate is the server that has potential, once our primetime crew gets in shape, we’ll be wiping the floor with DB.

Do you really believe that the damage and sigils to kits is a bug, and not working as intended? I have see ONE snippet of information from Anet to support that.

I agree with Swift, we are going to continue to see massive zergs simply because it’s the most effective way to control the most amount of fortifications. And the NPC invincibility buff goes a long way to making zergs more effective than smaller, faster, more coordinated groups.

Welcome to the party.

Try using a warrior, they can outperform any engineer simply by smashing their face into their keyboard.

I love how in every single matchup posted, the #1 servers outscored the #2 and #3 servers combined.

Then make him run away, if you do enough burst to him or lock him down long enough, he’ll run if he thinks he is going to lose.

Haha, what server are you from, because it might have been me. Thieves can spec to gain regeneration every time they enter stealth, drop conditions while they are in stealth, and regenerate health in stealth (seperate from the boon). A good thief is hard to catch, and even harder to kill, and he’ll use every advantage he has to do so.

The best advice I can give you is to use load up conditions on him, confusion in particular annoys thiefs, and hope he doesn’t drop it in stealth. And don’t bother using cripple or chill, use stun or daze, if it’s a good thief, it’s likely he will have the trait that drops them when he dodges.

I seriously cannot believe the fanboyism in this thread, it’s absolutely preposterous.

I read up extensively read up on the GW2 combat mechanics, and it seemed like a revolutionary breakthrough, what I didn’t expect was the disastrous implementation of such ideas. Even the highest level dungeons rarely incorporate boss fights with anything more than “dodge when you need to, and pound on the boss until it’s dead”.
And it’s totally unacceptable.
For those of you criticizing the people who have already gotten to level 80, what do you seriously expect them to do? Sit around and farm hearts and dynamic events all day? Kill X of Y, kill X and bring me Y, defend X from Y, is not acceptable endgame content, and it is completely indefensible for ANet to pretend like it is.