Guild Wars 2

but it’s not a coincidence that people complain on the forums. Ask someone “Hey has anyone been dying more recently?” and you’ll get plenty of people affirming, but that doesn’t mean there’s a cause behind it. Happy people generally don’t post on forums Don’t believe me? Read ANY game’s forums.

That’s really sad. Do you think the devs figured we wouldn’t have legendaries for a few months and some of these are ust placeholder models? They should have at least said “Don’t bother crafting any legendaries except the greatswords because we didnt really finish anything else”

For future reference, you don’t have to state that this is only your opinion and “doesn’t mean I’m right”. It’s the internet. We know it’s your opinion.

I don’t think the average player should have a legendary weapon within 2 months of a game launch. I don’t really care much either way, but forums overrun with angries who want the final reward in a game within 8 weeks are just being unreasonable.

Also, lol @ people who get mad that things cost money on the auction house. It’s supply and demand. If someone wants to pay 200g for a precursor and you dont have 200g, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Do you drive by the ferrari dealership and get angry at the guy driving away with a new car?

Time spent complaining could be time spent walking in a park, reading a good book, or donating to your favorite charity. I’m here to say folks – it gets better.

This thread has served its purpose and is starting to be off topic so it will now be closed.

Don’t you need 15 of the fine crafting mats per insignia though? That’s 15 items around 80c each, plus several bolts of silk. Doesn’t seem like its making much money. Why not just sell your mats and not go through all the trouble?

Was there a change to the salvage rate for getting ectos off of 70+ rares?

My results have dipped significantly since the patch. I understand variance, but this was enough to warrant at least some cursory investigation.

I’ve requested this before too. Dev tracker is usually used for us to get the Dev opinions on topics (we’re working on this, we’re aware of this bug, this is how i feel about this mechanic, etc). That’s the point of a dev tracker. It would be great if devs had the option to flag or unflag their post for tracking at any time, but i’m sure if that option were easy they’d already be doing it.

But yes please consider this a vote to clean up the dev tracker so we can use it!

I want to thank everyone for participation in this thread. You have temporarily inspired me to pursue a set of armor (since it sounds like that’s a universally agreed-upon fun-thing-to-do in Guild Wars).

I’m looking at dungeon sets now, but the pics are pretty low res. Does anyone have a good link to see what dungeon, crafted, cultural, and other armor looks like? Also, is there any gear set that’s not dungeon, crafted, or cultural? (Not talking PvP, i want it to be something I can show off in the world).

Thanks again for all the help. We’ll see if this keeps my interests!

That was mentioned earlier, and it’s almost exactly what I want. Ideally, I wish you could get a LITTLE more powerful with better gear past exotic. Or, have different levels of exotic gear. It feels weird that I can run out and spend 10g to outfit myself in the best gear in the game.

I digress. One of my main complaints here is that the only hands-down “better” gear in the game takes months on end to farm. So while you and I quibble over which set might look better than the other, very few people would venture that legendary items look just as good as the level 80 stick I currently swing around.

So yes, this would make me MUCH happier. And through many of my posts here you can see that I’m bothered by the tremendous “gap” between exotic and legendary, both from a time AND quality standpoint. We can get some amazing particle-infused weapon after a year of farming, or we can swing around a variety of level 80 exotic swords that look like something I looted from a Risen corpse.

Something in between, please!

Yakface,

I’m bad at handling quotes s I’m going to respond to these inline.

There’s nothing wrong with the concept of vertical progression, the problem is vertical progression that never truly ends, or vertical progression that requires an investment of thousands of hours to complete. This is meant to be a hobby, not a lifestyle replacement.
> I agree. I want the progression and I think most people’s problem comes into play when it’s endless. I just want better stuff to work towards. Dungeon gear is “different” but not “better” than crafted gear. That’s kind of my problem with it. Gold seems useless, because the only thing to chase in this game is appearance, and with the exception of legendary items, the rest of the gear is rather plain and just a matter of opinion. There’s no way people would prefer level 20 tailored gearin WoW compared to Tier 1 gear. I like that “objectively better” quality that some gear has. I want that here, and I want something in between 80-crafted-exotic and legendary.

Why does the game have to keep you logged in for hours a day, ostensibly forever!?
> I get that this sounds crazy if you’ve never played an MMO before. But if you’ve played any MMO at length, some part of you understands this. I don’t play many single player games. I feel like they take too long to learn, too long to figure out if I’m going to like them or not. MMOs are comfortable for me because its a world I can “live” in for a few hours a day. I like to have the one game I enjoy playing all the time. Yes, that sounds crazy to some people, but not to people who spent the time in WoW, or EQ/AC/etc. A robust and persistent world where there’s ALWAYS something to do appeals to me greatly. For years, it was the best $15/month I could buy!

Moonpuncher.7250:

But for every person condemning me for liking powerful gear, there’s 10 more logging in and running the same boring dungeon (trust me they’re bored of it by now) to afford their armor set.

You’re a smarter guy than this. #1, appeal to popularity. #2, you have not in any meaningful way even established popularity, you’ve just speculated a randomkittenpull statistic based on your confirmation bias. None of it is a foundation for an argument.
> It wouldn’t hold up in court. These are logical fallacies and it’s not meant to prove my point. The thing with common logical fallacies is that they show the argument cannot rest on those principles alone. But these things can still be persuasive. Also, the point of that statement wasn’t necessarily to compel you with fabricated statistics. Rather, it was simply to show that I’m being flamed for liking Grind Type A, when people are actively engaging in Grind Type B. I doubt anyone bought a full set of Dungeon X armor and thought “Oh, I was just having fun running that dungeon 30 times. The gear was just a side bonus!”

Leiloni,

This is where we will see that your opinion differs from mine. To me, most of our creative flair happens in character creation. Have fun picking which color hair you like most, and how tall you want your person to be. But gear, in my opinion, should have quality gradients. I firmly believe that MMO games should have gear that is flat-out better than other gear. So while you’re giving me tons of neat options for customizing the look of my guy, it’s hard to say “oh, the T3 crafted is hands down better-looking than the blahblah dungeon”. And I am learning that many of you like that you can dress your character up however you like. But for me, running around with the blue glowing sword means you did something better than the guy who still has the yellow glowing sword. And if you really kick butt and hunker down for some dungeon runs, you might get the black skull axe with the little skulls circling around it.

Yes, you see my WoW influences here. I know they can’t be the same game (and I’m still choosing this over WoW). But I like that some gear is better than others. Objectively better. Especially since people are telling me that my ‘achievement’ in this game comes from making my gear look better. Re-skinning exotic dungeon gear to look like level 30 crafted stuff seems absurd to me (I know you aren’t saying to do this, but you get my point right?) I want the harder-to-get gear to be BETTER (visually, stat-wise, I don’t care). Instead, right now it’s just “well go after dungeon gear, or karma gear, or crafted gear. They all look different and its justa matter of preference.” No sir, I want something EVERYONE can agree is better. Big sparkittenhings and awesome glowing robes and thunder that crackles beneath my feet!

Ok, I’m going overboard. This is a preference I"m probably going to have to learn to live without. I’m just having some self-realization here. If they take away the ‘treadmill’ for better stats, and aren’t even giving me much in the way of visual appearances, I’m having trouble realizing what’s left.

SpectacularYak.6518:

Moonpuncher.7250:

You took away my stat grind, and left me what?.

Well, you were left with a game that by your own admission was great fun for the 150-200 hours it reasonably takes to exhaust the content. At that point, you either alt, or repeat the content if you REALLY enjoy it, or do the PvP if that’s your thing, or put the game down and go do something else while new content is prepared.

Take two games. MMO A, and MMO B.

Both MMO A and MMO B have ~ 200 hours worth of content. That content includes quests, dungeons, meaningful encounters without repetition, etc.

MMO A allows you to experience all of it without any noticeable timesinks. You do it all on one pass. 200 hours. Done.

MMO B puts length timesinks into the game. To do dungeon 2, you must first repeat dungeon one 10-15 times, and so on. You play for over one thousand hours.

Your argument is that by taking away those timesinks, they have robbed you of something essential. Putting aside for a moment the only reason those timesinks ever existed the way they did in the first place was to drag chute players and keep them paying a sub fee while new content was developed, can you come up with a cogent argument as to why a timesink of that magnitude is a crucial element?

Exclusivity. And I realize MANY People may differ here. But I rather like seeing someone with a set of armor and saying to myself “Oh man, that dude farmed the crap out of some dungeons!” or “That guy is really high up in PvP”. So the time sink isnt what I love about it, but I love that the way people look and the power they have is often a result of how hard they’ve worked. And this game, to an extent, agrees with me. Like I said, we can keep pretending that ArenaNet wants everyone to have the same capability all the time, but they still want you to go through 80 levels and at least farm up a good 100 hours of gold/karma/tokens/whatever to buy the gear. They just shortened the “time sink”.

Well, now I’m at the end of it. Granted I have not experienced every piece of content here, but I have experienced most of the content in which I’m particularly interested. I want to WvW and sPVP, but those things won’t keep me logged in hours a day.

So I’m having a little trouble figuring out what to do next if I like great gear. I almost feel a little bait-and-switched by some of you guys. I feel like you lured me in with an MMO then got mad at me for wanting great loot! let’s not forget most of us want the same thing; we’re just not willing to put up with some of the drawbacks of gear stat grinding. But for every person condemning me for liking powerful gear, there’s 10 more logging in and running the same boring dungeon (trust me they’re bored of it by now) to afford their armor set.

Give me more neat thing i can work towards please!

Shadowflare.2759:

Moonpuncher.7250:

My argument is now as follows:

You took away my stat grind, and left me what? People keep saying this is a different kind of MMO, but I’m starting to wonder if we were just TOLD it’s different, without delivering.

You say we’re giving up stat grinds for vanity grinds, but I’ve yet to see much in the way of “in between” gear. It’s still a basic level 80 exotic (max stats and terrible appearance) or a big bad legendary.

One member mentioned the dungeon stuff being pretty good. That’s a start. But I’ve been farming gold. What on earth am I supposed to do with it? Is there something cool-looking I’m able to buy? People like to brag that this game doesn’t “hand anything to the player”, but really that’s just a nice way of saying they didn’t build explanations for their own game.

This was fine when learning how to level, but I have a related gripe regarding off-hand weapon sigils not stacking or working(and with no explanation). Same thing with gear. I’m supposed to roam around trying to figure out what to do with myself at 80 and it’s not that fun. I’m told I can chase cosmetic upgrades to gear, but I haven’t seen much. I’ve seen “different” cosmetics, but not necessarily upgrades. WoW gave us a stat grind, but they also gave us the cosmetic grind. Gear got progressively cooler-looking, and there was always a decent piece of gear that was within reach with a week or two of effort. Here, I still think it’s legendary or bust. And right now, I’m busted.

Why are you farming gold. That is all.

Simple answer? Because gold buys things people want. In every game and every economic system across the civilized world. And Arenanet didn’t bother telling me gold is useless.

Oh, and also because I think I might blow it on a Commander’s Compendium. But mainly that first one.

Animus mentions that something irks him/her when logging in, and that this game is lacking a power “feel” when you level. I posted a concern/complaint a while back that was, you guessed it, flamed endlessly. I was deeply annoyed at the strict down-scaling when I enter a new zone. It’s a tiny victory that riding your mount (fine, running) through an old zone makes you a God. It feels good to say “man, I remember when these wolves used to kick my butt and now I can kill them in one hit!”

Now, GW2 makes you surrender this feeling so you can group with your friends and experience content a second time. I don’t love the tradeoff but i DO understand their reasoning. The problem is twofold:

1) There’s almost no advantage because they ratchet your level down SO tightly, you might as well not have leveled at all! Sure you might have a different elite, and they CLAIM you get a gear advantage, but I propose they let us be the max level for that zone. If I’m level 80 helping out a level 43, they should crank me up to the max level for that zone so i feel a LITTLE more power for my hard work.
2) This is the biggie. As level 80, I’m having a hard time running through level 15 zones without getting the crap beat out of me by bears and other stupid crap. Why are these mobs aggroing me? What’s the point of calling me level 80 if I have to stop and fight every lvl 21 trash mob I encounter just to discover a new zone?

Now, please don’t beat me up too badly here. I got quite the tongue-lashing before by lowbies who wanted to feel every bit as powerful as a level 80. But the truth is that ANET diminishes the power I feel from leveling 80. Many people argued that i should not get any advantage, ever, from my experience playing. If that’s your stance, I don’t understand why they bother setting up levels in the first place. Why not automatch all content like an Elder Scrolls game?

I realize this is a bit of a transition, but it’s really playing to the point made that this game is lacking a power feel. I’m always just powerful enough for an encounter, which erases the feeling of getting good gear and enjoying the rewards of my hard work.

My argument is now as follows:

You took away my stat grind, and left me what? People keep saying this is a different kind of MMO, but I’m starting to wonder if we were just TOLD it’s different, without delivering.

You say we’re giving up stat grinds for vanity grinds, but I’ve yet to see much in the way of “in between” gear. It’s still a basic level 80 exotic (max stats and terrible appearance) or a big bad legendary.

One member mentioned the dungeon stuff being pretty good. That’s a start. But I’ve been farming gold. What on earth am I supposed to do with it? Is there something cool-looking I’m able to buy? People like to brag that this game doesn’t “hand anything to the player”, but really that’s just a nice way of saying they didn’t build explanations for their own game.

This was fine when learning how to level, but I have a related gripe regarding off-hand weapon sigils not stacking or working(and with no explanation). Same thing with gear. I’m supposed to roam around trying to figure out what to do with myself at 80 and it’s not that fun. I’m told I can chase cosmetic upgrades to gear, but I haven’t seen much. I’ve seen “different” cosmetics, but not necessarily upgrades. WoW gave us a stat grind, but they also gave us the cosmetic grind. Gear got progressively cooler-looking, and there was always a decent piece of gear that was within reach with a week or two of effort. Here, I still think it’s legendary or bust. And right now, I’m busted.

Mickpea, you and I are not understanding something the same way. You only get the might stacks if you SWITCH to that weapon while in combat. Are you an elementalist? Because elementalists don’t “switch” to any weapons in the middle of combat. This leads me to believe you would not be getting this bonus ever.

Omega.5682:

souldonkey.9534:

Omega.5682:

souldonkey.9534:

Omega.5682:

Ragnar Dragonfyre.1806:

ITT: Players bought an MMO with a well advertised PvP endgame, where skill shines over gear and were expecting something different.

What skill? How is there any player skill in this game? Please substantiate your claim.

Lol, why are you in every thread I’m reading trying to flex your “skills”. Seriously dude, you really need to get over yourself. I’ve found that people like you, people that flaunt how “skilled” they are, are often the least skilled in whatever they’re discussion. I’m sure you may think this game requires no skill and that you’re so amazing, but I very highly doubt that’s true.

I guess you can’t read. I said there are NO Player skill requirements in the game. Therefore, I did not contend to have any. The game does not even offer the ability to be skillful. I hope you can read one day, and deduce a logical argument. I hope!

It absolutely does require skill, and to imply it doesn’t is to imply that your are so skillful that it doesn’t require skill. Try doing explorable dungeons with 0 skill. It’s not going to happen.

You really want to say doing exp dungeons requires skill? Its the same as anything else. You go to the dungeon, you wipe, you learn, then you remember….. Not to mention, you just zerg each boss, avoid red circles on the ground, and of course play ranged.

please try again.

What you’re describing does sound like skill. I’d love it if you gave us all your definition of skill. I suspect it will contend heavily with “talent”. Doing something, failing, and learning from those mistakes to improve is certainly an element of skill as far as I’m concerned. And they say “practice makes perfect” fora reason. I get my butt kicked in dungeons because I’m not as skilled as some people. Some people are just more talented and quicker to react than I am. Some people have done far more dungeons or played games like this more often than I have, so they’re more skilled at it.

I’m still sensing the elitism here. Maybe that’s wrong of me, but I still think you’re being smug without having anything to fall back on in the way of information or validity.

Ragnar Dragonfyre.1806:

Moonpuncher.7250:

darkwombat.3695:

I feel sorry for the OP. What he misses is the Skinner Box.

He wants to chase that pellet….forever…

Do you really think the reason you log in and play is any different? I hate to break it to you, but you’re just chasing a different pellet. That’s the problem with blaming things on some form of conditioning: Even your response to this thread granted you some form of satisfaction, and that’s why you did it.

Your argument applies to pretty much anything we do. Ever. Which means you somehow think we should want to play a game that doesn’t give us a reward. You’ve harbored contempt towards the “gear” reward, but have no problem with whatever other type of reward you’re getting here. I’m not sure why my pellet deserves your pity while your pellet remains anonymous

I log in to have fun. To find competition. There is no reward/punishment mechanism or insidious design behind that. Competition in it’s purest form has been around long before behaviour conditioning existed. To call that a “pellet” means you don’t fundamentally understand what behaviour conditioning is.

Game companies now hire psychologists and addiction behaviour specialists to influence game design to be as addictive as possible. This is a very real thing that is happening right now. Every healthy, indepedent adult needs to come to terms with the fact that this hobby of ours is now in the business of turning us into proverbial junkies to keep us paying for our next fix. Asking for a gear grind to be implemented is just withdrawl happening.

This goes well beyond just video games, but there is a war on and your mind is the battlefield. Lucky for us, ANet isn’t in the business of creating addicts by providing as grind free of an experience as possible.

Let’s also bring to light a tactic you’re using now. By using words like addiction, addicts, junkies, and fix, you’re trying to connect this game with all the horrible things we know about drug addiction.

Addiction usually implies that we’re powerless to discontinue use. This game, however, is just fun. If you enjoy spending time with your family, how would you feel if I suggested the feeling you got from holding your son or daughter was just like a junkie getting his first fix of the day? You can’t equate pleasure with addiction. The two HAVE a relationship, but they aren’t always connected.

We get rewards for everything we do. This is why we are all, in a way, rats chasing pellets. That doesn’t make the world any less beautiful or our hobbies any less passionate. I’m happy with the amount of time I spend gaming. It’s my favorite hobby and it doesn’t ruin my life. If I develop a heroin addiction I suspect the situation would be very different.

Leiloni.7951:

Moonpuncher.7250:

darkwombat.3695:

I feel sorry for the OP. What he misses is the Skinner Box.

He wants to chase that pellet….forever…

Do you really think the reason you log in and play is any different? I hate to break it to you, but you’re just chasing a different pellet. That’s the problem with blaming things on some form of conditioning: Even your response to this thread granted you some form of satisfaction, and that’s why you did it.

Your argument applies to pretty much anything we do. Ever. Which means you somehow think we should want to play a game that doesn’t give us a reward. You’ve harbored contempt towards the “gear” reward, but have no problem with whatever other type of reward you’re getting here. I’m not sure why my pellet deserves your pity while your pellet remains anonymous

No there’s a difference between chasing the pellet and doing whatever it takes to get there because you’ve been programmed to do so, and simply enjoying the game. I have not hit 80, I have several alts, and I just log in and do whatever I want. I’m not grinding for anything, I’m not trying to power level my way to 80. I just do what sounds fun at the time. I’ve done some crafting, hearts, DE’s, WvW, story and explorable dungeons. I’m not chasing any pellets at all. When I do get pellets, it’s quite nice. But I don’t need the pellet, the journey there, whether I complete that journey or not, is what I’m enjoying. You are doing the opposite – you are not thinking of the journey, but simply the endless need to chase that pellet. You will never be satisfied like that.

You seriously aren’t understanding that the “journey” is your pellet? Come on, man. The only difference between your motivation and mine is that yours is a little more vague and mine has numbers attached to it. I’m not saying you’re stupid for enjoying a game (heck I really loved the trek to 80). I’m just saying you should come to terms with the fact that EVERYTHING you do is for a reward. Maybe its seeing a new zone or filling up each heart as you go through. Either way, you’re doing it for the same reason I am: dopamine high.

I want to re-state my argument to be a little less inflammatory, since I’m having fun poking and getting poked and losing track of the reason I started this thread.

Let me tell you something I like about MMO gaming, without assuming all of the negative connotations attached to it.

I like logging in every week and knowing my character is a little better than he was last week. That “progression” is part of why I like playing an MMO. I’ve learned to part from that a bit when I started playing MOBA-type games, but a good ol-fashioned MMO should, in my opinion, let me progress bit by bit.

Now we’re arguing about what exactly constitutes “progression” and that’s fine. For me, it’s saying “Look at that new helm you handsome buck! All that crit damage, and that cool glowing effect!”. For some of you, it’s seeing your total world completion going up. Either way, the feeling that you’re changing your character for the better appeals to many of you, as it appeals to me.

This game, however, isn’t offering me much in the way of improvement at this point. Now I can log in and say “Wow, I’m 20k karma closer to legendary, which puts me on track for November 2013!”. I need a little more than that if I’m going to bother with a persistent MMO.

And the worst part is that ANET agrees with me! Sure, they may have taken a stance against gear power. But they’re offering bit-by-bit progression. That’s why there’s 80 levels in this game. If people didn’t care about chasing the carrot on the stick, this would be a type of MOBA, where everyone logs in as a level 80 with max gear and roams through the game for fun. But I somehow doubt you’d put chickens in their cages in the level 35 zone to fill up the renown heart and buy some okra if you didn’t need to gain another level.

Omega.5682:

souldonkey.9534:

Omega.5682:

Ragnar Dragonfyre.1806:

ITT: Players bought an MMO with a well advertised PvP endgame, where skill shines over gear and were expecting something different.

What skill? How is there any player skill in this game? Please substantiate your claim.

Lol, why are you in every thread I’m reading trying to flex your “skills”. Seriously dude, you really need to get over yourself. I’ve found that people like you, people that flaunt how “skilled” they are, are often the least skilled in whatever they’re discussion. I’m sure you may think this game requires no skill and that you’re so amazing, but I very highly doubt that’s true.

I guess you can’t read. I said there are NO Player skill requirements in the game. Therefore, I did not contend to have any. The game does not even offer the ability to be skillful. I hope you can read one day, and deduce a logical argument. I hope!

Meh, usually when some elitest dude comes into a form and claims a game requires no skill, he’s implying it’s too easy for him or that he’s so smart and talented that this game doesn’t classify as skillful. So I see where he’s coming from with you.

Animus.6073:

Moonpuncher.7250:

Animus.6073:

Moonpuncher.7250:

Animus.6073:

Moonpuncher.7250:

But guess what? GW1 wasn’t that popular.

The expression “guess what” is not a question no matter how many question marks you put after it. It is an exclamation or a statement. Good god people suck at English.

Read a book while you wait for ArenaNet to give you your grind back (if they ever intend on doing that).

It’s a rhetorical question. I also used one question mark so I’m not sure why that was important to mention. And this doesn’t really have anything to do with “English” ability. But I really appreciate this post.

I graduated with an English minor and am considered to have excellent verbal and written communication skills at my job. Part of the reason I excel at this is because I know how formal my communication should be in any medium. So guess what? There’s nothing wrong with that post.

I don’t want to derail your thread any further, but since you are so inclined to defend your grammar, you should know that you are incorrect. It is not a rhetorical question. I graduated with an English major and a writing minor. Am I more qualified to determine what is and what is not a question because of this? No.

Having said that, a rhetorical question is a question that does not require an answer and is often said in place of a statement to evoke an emotion or prove a point. “Guess what” is not a question; it is a statement that begs the readers to then ask themselves, or you, “what?” To which you might respond with an answer, although in this case, one is not needed because it is self evident. Just because it shares the quality of not needing an answer does not make it a question, rhetorical or not.

Edit: made “readers” plural because I done goofed.

My question did not require an answer. It also had proper sentence structure, since it included a verb and predicate object with an understood “you” for the subject. Looks like it meets your requirements for a rhetorical question (since the second half of your definition only mentioned “often”, which does not mean necessarily).

I’ll always take time out of my day to show someone why he’s wrong.

/facepalm

You need to go back to school if you really graduated with an English minor and think that “guess what” is a question. You are correct in claiming that the statement does not require an answer because that answer is self evident. However, you have not posed a question.

I see you’ve gone back to assuming you’re right without giving any evidence. Also, I’m sure you can get a degree in English without knowing if “Guess what?” is a question or not. Because guess what? One of us managed!

This thread is now about the importance of drawing distinctions between regular questions, rhetorical questions, and Moonpuncher (who is the stupidest person on the planet because he thinks “Guess what?” is a question.) Man, what a moron, right!

Ethics.4519:

As much flaming as this OP is getting, I kinda see his point. There is a large (LARGE) step between getting full exotics and getting a legendary item. You can farm/grind for gear and be done in about a week. Or you can farm/grind for legendary in be done in 3 months. There’s no middle ground.

Although I do also understand everybody else that has a problem with the OP. This game is a lot more about skill than getting lucky or who can grind for 10-12 hours a day. I think GW2 has a lot more people, like me, who can only play 1 to 2 hours a day. We don’t feel like we are at a disadvantage because our skill and awareness is a lot more important than how long we can grind a dungeon.

Thanks. The problem I see is that people equate sympathizing with me to instantly transforming this game into World of Warcraft. Sorry guys, but admitting you’d like ways to get better stats (or more vanity gear options) doesn’t mean you want the blizzard whip on your back.

Now that you’ve made it clear you hate good gear (weirdos), let’s focus on vanity stuff. Why is there such a huge leap between stuff that looks good and stuff that looks plain? Why is it that an 80 blue staff looks about as good as an 80 exotic crafted and as good as an 80 exotic for 50G on the trading post? Why does the legendary precursor look plain as well? You took away the stat grind for gear but replaced it with almost nothing. What am I supposed to do in between now and legendary? Oh, that’s right, GRIND with no reward.

This is where these arguments are unraveling.

Leiloni.7951:

Colton.9460:

I like that I dont have to grind to do content, but to tell people to gtko is just childish and harmful to the community as a whole. People can have different opinions, it is no more your game than it is theirs. If players ask Anet for a grind and they deliver, will you leave? If so then keeping with your opinion; “good ridance go play something else scrub.”

This game was built around the idea of no gear grind and ANet made that very clear. So adding that into the game would change the entire game. So we are completely valid in telling him to find a new game. Not in a mean way, but in a constructive way – what he wants is already out there in dozens of games. This is one of the only games that has what we want.

To answer your question – yes, I would be gone because that would mean I would also have to grind for gear and I came here so I don’t have to do that. Don’t try to force your ideas on us – this game was not made for that and you’ll just have to accept that. Enjoy what ArenaNet made for us, don’t try to make it something that the game devs themselves said they don’t want it to be. I don’t know why you would even think that idea makes any sense.

I see this argument a lot and I don’t see any support that it’s true. Just because a game advertised a feature doesn’t mean it was “built around” that feature. In every interview I can remember, this game was built around fun. They looked at aspects of an MMO and tried to keep the fun without the work.

Then you hit level 80 and are forced to mindlessly grind dungeons and events for money. Oh, and if you grind one spot too long they cut your rewards and don’t even give you any indication besides crappy drop rate. So you’re forced to grind and pray to the gods you haven’t farmed one spot too much.

I see a lot of arguments with the same structure and the same problem. The arguments are paraphrased as follows:

1. The game was advertised as not being a gear grind.
2. The game is a vanity grind.
3. Therefore, grind vanity.

And I have responses to this argument, which applies to many of you.

1) Advertised as X doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to wantY. It might mean I should have known not to expect it, but I can still want it.
2) Show me the true vanity items for an asura ele. Most of the cloth in this game looks the same, which means my only real options for weapons or gear is to spend HUNDREDS of gold. A game is going to need smaller rewards that take place more often to keep people’s interest. To stretch this out, would you really play this game for an entire year to get an item, with no rewards in between? Doubtful.
3) It’s a grind either way kiddos. So if you’re hating me for grinding stats, you should point the same dirty finger at grinding vanity.

I’m ready to play your game. Show me all the awesome things I can buy with the 40g I’ve amassed. I’m ready to look cool and buy weapons that look even a LITTLE better than the basic crafted stuff.

darkwombat.3695:

I feel sorry for the OP. What he misses is the Skinner Box.

He wants to chase that pellet….forever…

Do you really think the reason you log in and play is any different? I hate to break it to you, but you’re just chasing a different pellet. That’s the problem with blaming things on some form of conditioning: Even your response to this thread granted you some form of satisfaction, and that’s why you did it.

Your argument applies to pretty much anything we do. Ever. Which means you somehow think we should want to play a game that doesn’t give us a reward. You’ve harbored contempt towards the “gear” reward, but have no problem with whatever other type of reward you’re getting here. I’m not sure why my pellet deserves your pity while your pellet remains anonymous

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/10ilke/how_sigils_work/

I just posted the same question in elemental forums, then found this excellent reddit thread. You will find LOTS of information about sigils there. However, we don’t know if these were just sloppy implementation and bugged or working as intended.

Many of them seem bugged, since there doesn’t seem to be a consistent logic throughout the effects.

Looks like the entire answer can be found here.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/10ilke/how_sigils_work/

For the tl:dr and linkphobics, you basically don’t want to double-up on the same sigil, and you won’t get the offhand bonus from a stacking sigil if you have a different stacking sigil in the main hand. Looks like a potential bug.

You also don’t want to equp two “on-critical” sigils, since there seems to be an internal cooldown on the proc and they share each other’s cooldown.

Basically, TONS of information that is either a bug or should have been disclosed so we didn’t waste money.

but… that only works when you switch to that weapon. Elementalists don’t have weapon swapping. So how would that be useful?

“Right now, most of us that were attracted to this game don’t like the gear grind from other games.”

I can emphatically state that this is probably false. Be careful when you use the word “most”. Just because you feel strongly about it doesn’t mean more than 50% of people who play this game feel the same way. I bet this game attracted many people who don’t like gear grinding. I also bet people who SAY they don’t like it will still feel an empty hole where it used to be and get a little bored.

But most importantly, I’m curious how this will ruin your play experience. See, I was careful to say “slightly better stats or sigils”, to which you automatically assume you will get left behind if you don’t have the best gear. But you can still clear a dungeon just fine with your exotic gear. Maybe my gear offers me more flexibility in sigils and runes? Maybe I get an extra 20 power. The reason WoW and other games have a detestable gear grind is because if your “gear score” isnt high enough, you’d either fail at a dungeon or raid, or couldn’t even participate in it. THAT’s what people hate, I suspect. I don’t think people hate getting better gear. They simply don’t like being locked out of content because their gear is inadequate.

darkehawke.1269:

Moonpuncher.7250:

jebidiah ubershiet.2580:

Moonpuncher.7250:

I love the “why dont you go back to wow” posts (because lets face it, that’s what you’re really saying).

My response is simple: if I’m feeling a void here and ArenaNet doesn’t find a way to fill it, that’s exactly what me and many, many other people might do. I think “dont like it? then leave” is a poor response to concerns like this. And I’m quite certain ArenaNet would like to figure out a better resolution than “just quit the game”.

So let’s keep the conversation productive instead of trying to get me to leave the game

but this is the problem. you miss the gear grind. I hated it in wow. stopped playingmy toon as soon as he hit 80. didnt like the pvp and raids because of the gear grind requirement. GW1 didn’t have it, and that’s why it was my game of choice.

either they add a gear grind to keep the interest of players who can get that fix elswhere but allienate everyone else.

they add a gear grind, you’re happy, i’m sad.
they don’t add a gear grind, I’m happy, your sad.

the difference is. you can go back to wow for your gear grind. Those of us who do like the GW moddel don’t have that option.

How would the WoW forums respond if they suddenly became full of ex GWplayers saying “I hate the gear grind. I want max stats at 80 so everyone is equal for pvp”

Bet all the wow players would call me out and tell me to go back to GW.

I think you and i could benefit from some term clarification. It SOUNDS like you hate the “gear grind” because it becomes a requirement to have good gear. I agree that gets annoying. In WoW you can’t leave your character sitting for two months without his gear becoming trash.

So that kind of gear grinding would make you very unhappy.

But would it be so bad if there were ways to get slightly better stats or sigils? Maybe dungeon tokens get someone a cooler rune set for armor that offers something unique? Maybe a way to unlock more skills? You can still do dungeons and questing and WvW just fine with exotic gear, but i’d certainly like something in exchange for logging in and earning gold. Right now I’m finding money a little useless (this is music to your ears if you dont have a lot of time to play, but I’ve been farming and have nothing to spend it on)

i can agree with unique. but i dont know if i agree with slightly better? do you have any examples you can chuck out here

I’m waffling because I’m not even 100% certain what I want here. I do know I want “something” to chase.

Let’s drop the pretense and straight-up talk about WoW. Let’s pretend there’s no power difference between lvl 80 “greens” and level 80 “purples”. Still, a level 80 green staff looks like a stick with a ball on it. Levle 80 blue has a few neat designs on it. Epics have all the fun crazy glowing stuff, and there are several “levels” of crazy here. And legendary are true gems that people can spot a mile away.

Regardless of how you feel about this art style, the thing I like about this is the gradients. I flipped through the trading post in GW2 and found that an exotic dagger selling for 50g looked as plain and boring as a crafted exotic or one from a vendor. So that tells me “just buy all crafted stuff. It’s cheapest, lets you customize stats, and all this crap looks the same anyway”. Now I have the ‘best’ gear in the game, and almost nothing to look forward to visually unless i want to farm for a legendary which takes months and months of grinding. Myself, and many other players, are going to need a LITTLE something to hold us over until then.

Dwok Immortalus.2763:

This is actually a good time to take an introspective of why you play games.

We know the whole concept of the gear grind in a MMO is engineered to develop an addiction. If you find yourself without a drive to play the game without having those grinds, it is likely you never really enjoyed the MMO Genre, but rather just the small constant reward mechanisms.

I can walk into sPvP or WvW for no reason other than to test myself against others. My SO spends hours walking around taking screenshots.

Very well-stated. I, for one, think the “grind” isn’t such a terrible thing unless it gets out of hand. The MMO that shall not be named is a huge example of this. Often times I’d log in, and have over 2 hours of MANDATORY activities (gotta do your dailies bro, omg did you get the battleground of the day? Gotta gather all your nodes!). That felt like a second job and I hated it.

I don’t think that hatred translates to “I never wanna work for things in games”. Stat bonuses and more powerful gear is the #1 thing I’m happy to put in extra work for. And the problem right now is I think ArenaNet did away with that but didn’t necessarily replace it with anything. They said “oh you can reskin it with more awesome gear”. But right now I’m not really seeing more awesome gear. Dungeon sets look different for cloth wearers, but not necessarily better. Certainly not worth hours and hours of grind just so my robe looks a LITTLE neater. Legendaries on the other hand are an unfathomable level of grinding. I feel like it’s a little outrageous that i have to go through that much effort to finally find something that looks neater.

Mickpea, do the NON stacking sigils still work on offhand with your testing? If so, I need to figure out two things

1) What’s a cool sigil to have on my off hand for scept/dag play
2) is this a BUG or intended? Would love a dev response, and a quick apology for wasting my money if this is intended but was never messaged properly.

Best case, its a bug that’ll be fixed but I can buy something else useful in the meantime.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t really care about your guesses. My guess was that I could have both sigils and I ended up wasting a gold or so. I’m looking for an answer, since speculation is what got me here in the first place

I know that sounds rude but it’s not meant to be.

theerrantventure.9185:

Moonpuncher.7250:

theerrantventure.9185:

Moonpuncher.7250:

Leave it to me to create a title that begs to be flamed.

Look, GW2 is a different kind of MMO. The problem is that most of the people playing it are used to the MMO scene and there’s certain things we’ve come to expect. Working hard for better gear is one of those things. I’m a power and stat guy, which means I typically like to min-max, and I care much more about power and stats than appearance.

When I hit level 80, I had enough money within a week to get a full set of crafted exotics. From a power/stat perspective, I’m done. I have the ‘best’ gear in the game. This means there’s no real carrot for me to chase now. Yes, i could farm for legendaries or dungeon gear, but 1) legendary is WAY too big of a jump. Give me something to do in between now and then so I don’t lose focus, and 2) I haven’t seen a way to get cooler looking gear. Level 80 exotic weapons should not look like total crap, but my exotic scepter is a stick with a bulb on it. So much for “exotic”.

I know, I know, this is how it worked in GW1. you get the best gear soon and you just re-skin it. But guess what? GW1 wasn’t that popular. They did dungeons and scripted events really well, but otherwise could take a page from some of the MMO kings in the business.

So please Arenanet, I had a great time playing your game, but give me a reason to log in and grind. Right now I have 40g and absolutely nothing to spend it on. I can save up 100g for commander or 500+ for a legendary, but in a game where most people are scrounging to save 50 silver, I should feel rich with my 40g. Instead, I feel like I’ve bought everything worth buying and don’t quite have the motivation to farm for MONTHS before seeing something better.

Give me a way to slowly become more powerful please. I can’t keep playing a game purely for cosmetic enhancements and I suspect a large part of the community feels the same way.

I’ve put in bold font a sentence up there…isn’t that the definition of a grind? Repeating the same content for months to get gear?

“grind” has garnered too much negativity these days. Putting in some work to get a reward is a great idea in games. I’m talking about motivation here. If I need to log in and farm up some dungeons for a week or two to get some great gear, sign me up. But legendary weapons seem to be the only decent thing to shoot for in this game, and right now that grind could take MONTHS with absolutely no return on my investment. I want some shorter term rewards. I want stat bonuses, or some type of quality of life change. I should not need at least 90g before i can see a neat animation on my weapon. Right now, everything (even legendary precursors) looks plain, like something you can buy off of a vendor.

I’m not using the term “grind” negatively. I am, however, using the phrase “grind for months and months with nothing to show for it during the process” negatively.

Ahh ok. I misinterpreted the intent then. I do understand the need for motivation to log in. I think ANet is having to walk a fine line in trying to please all play styles. Right now the end game content is ‘light’ by industry standards insofar as group content and gear go. I have faith that ANet will correct that with upcoming content patches.

All I can say is keep playing! Content will come in time.

I trust them to deliver content> i really do. And they’re the ONLY game i’ve ever played (my list of MMOs is exhaustive!) where I found questing to be interesting and fun.

I just don’t quite know what to do. I am actively trying to train myself out of WoW mode (i havent played wow in over a year, but face it guys this game IS an MMO and with that come expectations and habits that can be tough to break). It does many things well, but they need many more WvW and sPVP features if they want to replace chasing gear and buying crazy lightsaber weapons.

jebidiah ubershiet.2580:

Moonpuncher.7250:

I love the “why dont you go back to wow” posts (because lets face it, that’s what you’re really saying).

My response is simple: if I’m feeling a void here and ArenaNet doesn’t find a way to fill it, that’s exactly what me and many, many other people might do. I think “dont like it? then leave” is a poor response to concerns like this. And I’m quite certain ArenaNet would like to figure out a better resolution than “just quit the game”.

So let’s keep the conversation productive instead of trying to get me to leave the game

but this is the problem. you miss the gear grind. I hated it in wow. stopped playingmy toon as soon as he hit 80. didnt like the pvp and raids because of the gear grind requirement. GW1 didn’t have it, and that’s why it was my game of choice.

either they add a gear grind to keep the interest of players who can get that fix elswhere but allienate everyone else.

they add a gear grind, you’re happy, i’m sad.
they don’t add a gear grind, I’m happy, your sad.

the difference is. you can go back to wow for your gear grind. Those of us who do like the GW moddel don’t have that option.

How would the WoW forums respond if they suddenly became full of ex GWplayers saying “I hate the gear grind. I want max stats at 80 so everyone is equal for pvp”

Bet all the wow players would call me out and tell me to go back to GW.

I think you and i could benefit from some term clarification. It SOUNDS like you hate the “gear grind” because it becomes a requirement to have good gear. I agree that gets annoying. In WoW you can’t leave your character sitting for two months without his gear becoming trash.

So that kind of gear grinding would make you very unhappy.

But would it be so bad if there were ways to get slightly better stats or sigils? Maybe dungeon tokens get someone a cooler rune set for armor that offers something unique? Maybe a way to unlock more skills? You can still do dungeons and questing and WvW just fine with exotic gear, but i’d certainly like something in exchange for logging in and earning gold. Right now I’m finding money a little useless (this is music to your ears if you dont have a lot of time to play, but I’ve been farming and have nothing to spend it on)

Souldonkey, (awesome name by the way) I can see how that might make me sound a little stupid.

So let me switch gears to a softer point. Fine, I need to give up the power creep. But even after that, I’ve noticed unless you spend upwards of 80g on a weapon, you can’t expect your gear to look much cooler at all (keep in mind I’m an asura cloth wearer). So where’s the carrot? Is it the case that once I hit this lvl 80/exotic content wall I should just log off until an expansion comes out? Yes yes, I know there’s stuff to do. But in the interests of IMPROVING my character (MMOs have always been about improvement, and you aren’t going to change people’s expectations here). I see how warriors are pumped about getting dungeon sets since they get to be spiky and dangerous-looking, but my little asura guy could buy a 90G legendary precursor tomorrow and it’s still just a stick with a jewel on the end of it.

So why is there almost nothing in between “legendary” and “bottom barrel crafted exotic”?

I feel stupid for wasting a rune slot (superior rune, at that!). It feels like I should have known better, but I’m a smart guy and the information certainly wasn’t obvious.

Either way, I can look past the blunder and gear my offhand differently if there’s any point. I’ve been told if you put TWO sigils of bloodlust (one in each hand) that it will fill up twice as fast (but still cap at 25). That leads me to believe the offhand sigil DOES come into play. So why don’t I have 25 stacks of power and 25 stacks of condition? Granted that did sound a little OP, there needs to be some messaging here.

Also lol @ all the anger just because I like having a reason to log in. If there were more to do in Tyria, you would probably be playing instead of jumping on my every word in a forum/

Maybe we can approach this topic in a way that will make you all rage a little less: What should I do with my 40 gold right now? Because from what i can tell, you buy exotics for about 2-3g each, and then you’re completely done with money until you get hundreds. What’s the point? Where’s the stuff to buy in BETWEEN 2g and 500g?

Right now I feel “rich” when I say I have 40g and most people are scrounging for 50 silver. But there’s nothing to buy with it unless I want an exotic with a neat name from the trading post and same stats/very similar appearance (check the exotics on the TP for under 50g. Most of them are just a stick or sword, same as anything else).

I love the “why dont you go back to wow” posts (because lets face it, that’s what you’re really saying).

My response is simple: if I’m feeling a void here and ArenaNet doesn’t find a way to fill it, that’s exactly what me and many, many other people might do. I think “dont like it? then leave” is a poor response to concerns like this. And I’m quite certain ArenaNet would like to figure out a better resolution than “just quit the game”.

So let’s keep the conversation productive instead of trying to get me to leave the game

theerrantventure.9185:

Moonpuncher.7250:

Leave it to me to create a title that begs to be flamed.

Look, GW2 is a different kind of MMO. The problem is that most of the people playing it are used to the MMO scene and there’s certain things we’ve come to expect. Working hard for better gear is one of those things. I’m a power and stat guy, which means I typically like to min-max, and I care much more about power and stats than appearance.

When I hit level 80, I had enough money within a week to get a full set of crafted exotics. From a power/stat perspective, I’m done. I have the ‘best’ gear in the game. This means there’s no real carrot for me to chase now. Yes, i could farm for legendaries or dungeon gear, but 1) legendary is WAY too big of a jump. Give me something to do in between now and then so I don’t lose focus, and 2) I haven’t seen a way to get cooler looking gear. Level 80 exotic weapons should not look like total crap, but my exotic scepter is a stick with a bulb on it. So much for “exotic”.

I know, I know, this is how it worked in GW1. you get the best gear soon and you just re-skin it. But guess what? GW1 wasn’t that popular. They did dungeons and scripted events really well, but otherwise could take a page from some of the MMO kings in the business.

So please Arenanet, I had a great time playing your game, but give me a reason to log in and grind. Right now I have 40g and absolutely nothing to spend it on. I can save up 100g for commander or 500+ for a legendary, but in a game where most people are scrounging to save 50 silver, I should feel rich with my 40g. Instead, I feel like I’ve bought everything worth buying and don’t quite have the motivation to farm for MONTHS before seeing something better.

Give me a way to slowly become more powerful please. I can’t keep playing a game purely for cosmetic enhancements and I suspect a large part of the community feels the same way.

I’ve put in bold font a sentence up there…isn’t that the definition of a grind? Repeating the same content for months to get gear?

“grind” has garnered too much negativity these days. Putting in some work to get a reward is a great idea in games. I’m talking about motivation here. If I need to log in and farm up some dungeons for a week or two to get some great gear, sign me up. But legendary weapons seem to be the only decent thing to shoot for in this game, and right now that grind could take MONTHS with absolutely no return on my investment. I want some shorter term rewards. I want stat bonuses, or some type of quality of life change. I should not need at least 90g before i can see a neat animation on my weapon. Right now, everything (even legendary precursors) looks plain, like something you can buy off of a vendor.

I’m not using the term “grind” negatively. I am, however, using the phrase “grind for months and months with nothing to show for it during the process” negatively.

Raf.1078:

Moonpuncher.7250:

The level of censorship and mandatory “play nice” rules are a little concerning in this game. Granted, I came from League of Legends (one of the more toxic communities), I have some serious concerns about the amount of infractions and deleted posts I come across. I don’t believe in ‘faking’ a positive community by deleting everything that’s negative.

Concerned.

Not concerned. If you can’t say what needs to be said without resorting to profanity or verbally attacking someone…then you get to go away.

Glad to see some standards being enforced on the forums. Too many forums are simply out of control.

Not talking about profanity (most forums I belong to have profanity filters and rules against excessively aggressive posts).

I’m primarily talking about anything even slightly “harsh” directed to ArenaNet (plain old gamer dissatisfaction) is censored and deleted promptly. I’ve seen posts get infractions that weren’t even borderline offensive. There’s a concerning amount of cleanup being done here, and I don’t like that big brother feeling of a game sculpting a neat and tidy forum space in an effort to cull the negativity. It feels like they’re hiding how people really feel.

Keep in mind Snerf that I am an asura elementalist. Generally speaking, cloth armor tends to look pretty plain in games. The difference between basic and legendary “robes” usually amounts to color (which we can change in this game) and stitching. And since I’m so tiny, there really isnt a lot of room for enjoyment. I can barely see my own weapon and have very little incentive to pay for upgrades unless they have some crazy animation or VERY obvious visual benefit.

Yes, I realize I chose this race and class. But I’m saying this particular combo makes the visuals a little less important.

Not being able to chase better gear takes a LOT of the motivation out of me, and many others.

Someone please explain to me what the rule is regarding sigils in main hands and off hands.

I bought the superior rune of.. bloodlust, for my main hand. It gives me 10 power per stack, up to 25 stacks. I bought the superior rune of something else for my offhand, the one that adds 10 condition.

Well you can probably guess, but I’m only getting the bloodlust stacks. Why am I not getting any stacks from my offhand? Does this mean NO sigils work for offhands, or that just the stacking ones dont work? And why isn’t there better messaging for this so I don’t waste money on runes?

Any help is appreciated. I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out how to trait/build my scepter/dagger ele for World v World (building him for small skirmishes along the roads and camps, not for big 30v30 zergs)

Give me more control. Mages should be powerful and tricky, and reward a smart player. Right now they’re harder to play than other classes and maybe JUST as powerful (if played VERY well).

In every MMO game, the “mage/wizard/elementalist/magicfaceuser” just casts a bunch of fire and element damage spells, some of which have a little utility. Except that big MMO everyone talks about: they had the best mage class I’ve ever seen. It was tricky, and you could really control your opponent if you wanted to.

So please, give us more ways to control fights instead of simply dealing earth damage or condition damage or direct fire damage. I want a reason not to button-mash.

The level of censorship and mandatory “play nice” rules are a little concerning in this game. Granted, I came from League of Legends (one of the more toxic communities), I have some serious concerns about the amount of infractions and deleted posts I come across. I don’t believe in ‘faking’ a positive community by deleting everything that’s negative.

Concerned.

Leave it to me to create a title that begs to be flamed.

Look, GW2 is a different kind of MMO. The problem is that most of the people playing it are used to the MMO scene and there’s certain things we’ve come to expect. Working hard for better gear is one of those things. I’m a power and stat guy, which means I typically like to min-max, and I care much more about power and stats than appearance.

When I hit level 80, I had enough money within a week to get a full set of crafted exotics. From a power/stat perspective, I’m done. I have the ‘best’ gear in the game. This means there’s no real carrot for me to chase now. Yes, i could farm for legendaries or dungeon gear, but 1) legendary is WAY too big of a jump. Give me something to do in between now and then so I don’t lose focus, and 2) I haven’t seen a way to get cooler looking gear. Level 80 exotic weapons should not look like total crap, but my exotic scepter is a stick with a bulb on it. So much for “exotic”.

I know, I know, this is how it worked in GW1. you get the best gear soon and you just re-skin it. But guess what? GW1 wasn’t that popular. They did dungeons and scripted events really well, but otherwise could take a page from some of the MMO kings in the business.

So please Arenanet, I had a great time playing your game, but give me a reason to log in and grind. Right now I have 40g and absolutely nothing to spend it on. I can save up 100g for commander or 500+ for a legendary, but in a game where most people are scrounging to save 50 silver, I should feel rich with my 40g. Instead, I feel like I’ve bought everything worth buying and don’t quite have the motivation to farm for MONTHS before seeing something better.

Give me a way to slowly become more powerful please. I can’t keep playing a game purely for cosmetic enhancements and I suspect a large part of the community feels the same way.

When judging it against other games (even in their infancy), there are glaring pros and cons. I worry about the economy, importance of crafting, and what the heck I’m going to do for fun in the long run. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about 3 years down the line. I’m saying I don’t exactly know what to do 2 months from now. I also worry about motivation for gear. I have all crafted exotics, and I don’t see much of an “appearance” difference in other gear, which means I’m either farming for legendary, or I’m “done” getting gear. I miss the prospect of cooler items trickling in. I miss searching for gear with better stats.

That having been said, this game was beautiful and fun. Certainly better than any single player game I’ve bought in the past year. PvP is interesting, and I"ve gotten my money’s worth a couple of times over. I mainly just want more content and a reason to log in. I’m confident arenanet is working on that now.

The problem I have is that everything EXCEPT legendary looks like crap. If “exotic” is the best stats and mostly the best item in the game, why does it look like dog crap? Level 80 exotic scepter should not look like a stick with a bulb on it. So you shell out tons of gold to outfit yourself in exotics that look like blue quality crap gear, or you can spend the next 6 months farming for a legendary.

I know no one wants to hear it, but this is the one major thing I think “That other big MMO” has in its favor. Gear looks like crap at the basic level, but gets progressively cooler as you go up. In GW2 there’s no middle ground. So i find myself thinking “Well, I’m not going to farm a legendary, so I guess I just wont care how my character looks at all”.

Along these lines, I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out what to do with say, 40 gold. To me, you either save up 100 for commander, 500+ for legendary, or gold is basically useless to you. So I’ve got 40g now and thinking about just using it to fart around with some alts and professions, since I don’t really want to save up any more.

Neither of you paid proper attention to his question. No, you can’t have one player do story mode and the other player do explorer mode at the same time. You pick one or the other when you enter the dungeon.