Guild Wars 2

Even if the new forums have some “growing pains” at the moment (they pretty much just launched), I am far less upset by this upgrade than many other forum updates I’ve experienced over the years. They kept the same general look of the forums, so transitioning hasn’t been too bad. It’s best if we keep posting our feedback in the official feedback thread over there so that the good people at ANet can see what works and what doesn’t. Complaining about it on the older forum won’t change anything. https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/269/feedback-new-forums#latest

StinVec.3621:

Here are some of my female sylvari characters.

Despite some of them not being rangers and are light/heavy armor professions, and that several do not have their glow visible due to my recording these during daytime in-game, you may still be able to use some of their colors and dyes for some ideas.

Any more details wanted for sliders or armors/dyes, just message me here (or in-game to see them in person).

I see that you love the black “skin” with bright colored “hair”! I was thinking about doing black and blue (or purple), but seeing my Sylvari with black skin just made her seem “emo” or “Necromancerish”, even if black can make dying armor so much easier (no clashing of crazy colors).

VanHalenRules.5243:

Been thinking about this for almost a year, this seems like a fitting thread to finally say it… I would really like to see the Wintersday event in Hoelbrak this year, instead of boring DR. Bring life to the Shiverpeaks! BRING WINTERSDAY TO HOELBRAK!

Even though the snowy maps are my favorite anyway.

That definitely would be fitting. I still can’t understand why it’s held in Divinity’s Reach, and am actually really tired of the emphasis on Humans and DR throughout the lore. Or at least have all of the celebrations in Lion’s Arch, where all races congregate!

One thing about Sylvari that makes it hard for me to decide skin/hair/glow colors is how, with a Ranger, Medium Armor looks absolutely dreadful on Sylvari. Light Armor at least has a more aesthetically-pleasing look with Sylvari’s leafy look, but Medium Armor never looks good on them except for a few styles.

Why this affects my color selection is that if I give my Sylvari bright colors, any colors I use on the armor looks horrible. Which is why I have to resort to using an Outfit, though I hate having to spend money to buy them.

I am thinking about creating a Sylvari Ranger, but I continue to struggle to find a color combination I like. I have tried green skin since the Ranger class makes me think of nature, but I end up getting bored with my toon staring at them for too long. I have a Sylvari Mesmer who is blue and purple, which seems to fit that class nicely, so I don’t want to do the same thing with my Ranger.

What are good color combinations for Sylvari that you guys have found?

As much as I love playing Norn toons, I always dread the Shiverpeak maps. Even on other toons, when I have to go into those maps in order to do level-appropriate content to level up. I was reminded about how much I dislike the snowy maps when, after finishing the fire island chapter of the Living Story, I had to go to a new map in the far north. It was underwhelming and pretty much looked the same as any other snowy map in the game. Dredgehaunt Cliffs is especially awful due to some complicated sections of the map and all of the Dredge.

Even in other video games, I have hated snowy areas, so it doesn’t have to do with how ANet designed their maps. The only ones that I am fine with are ones that have a mixture of snow and no snow, such as Lornar’s Pass and the Norn starting map.

But, now I am curious if anyone here has a map/environment type that they dislike or find boring. I don’t want to be just bashing things, but have a conversation as to why we may or may not like certain types of maps.

We also don’t get the title “Champion of Orr” (or whatever that was) that the old Orrian king bestowed upon us at the end of the Personal Story… That’s one of my biggest complaints.

Going to chime in here again: I have been working on the newest LS chapters and finally got through the Ember Bay bit. Boy, oh boy…the Mursaat fortress literally did have 20 Veterans ganking up on me! The rest of the map was pretty tame, with only the occasional Vet here-and-there to add a challenge…but pretty much every single Jade Armor (I forget the name of those enemies), packed into a small area, was a Veteran.

This therefore means that the OP’s original statement isn’t exaggeration, though I will admit that many enemies in the original HoT maps (Verdant Brink to Dragon’s Stand) hit like they are Vets.

Randulf.7614:

They seem to be moving to correct this. The latest episode, I logged out halfway through the first instance because I missed an achievement and wanted to reset it. When I logged back in and reactivated the instance, it put to a checkpoint just behind the bit I was on, not right at the beginning.

Really?! To have checkpoints would be awesome!

Every time I enter LA with a new toon, if I move my cursor over the screen, a button in the bottom right corner pops up that lets me skip the cinematic entirely.

CitizenKing.4912:

It’s happened to me about five times in the last week. It’s amateur-grade product and I honestly would expect a lot better from this game.

I know that my internet isn’t amazing, but the fact that I have seen different people with different internet and set-ups having these issues really makes me believe that the game itself is to blame for some of these disconnects. I don’t think I’ve ever been kicked out of ESO, just had to endure really long load times when starting up…and that game feels way more demanding in terms of graphics, objects, details, and so forth.

ShadowGryphon.6257:

Osby.5390:

I agree with not putting flying mounts into the game. It would make Vista’s, JP’s & Map completion far too easy and we would loose interest all together very quickly.
I did enjoy flying around on my Mount in WOW but here I am playing GW2 not Wow now see the point.

However, as with gliding, it can be disabled to prevent JP’s from being too easy.

That being said….
I WANT MY GRYPHON!

ahem.

Out of curiosity, how do you disable gliding? There are many times when I want to simply jump but not glide, and accidentally tap the space bar one second longer than intended. XD

Vindicus.2130:

Fingers crossed for flying mounts. Arguments like “they make the world feel smaller” or “they invalidate open world traveling” are moot in GW2 since waypoints already exist and already do these things.

Excellent point. They work in WoW because you don’t have load screens between maps within a continent. That’s actually something I liked about WoW. The “instanced” nature of GW2’s maps actually make the world feel smaller to me. But, as I’ve mentioned, I moved over to GW2 for personal reasons, and I can’t see myself going back to WoW.

Regarding other people’s comments here…I might have liked certain things in WoW, but I also don’t want GW2 to be a clone. But they sure as hell could follow WoW’s lead as far as how jungles and deserts are designed, and pet options. As it is now, I find WoW’s desert maps to feel much more like a real desert instead of rocky mob-ville.

If anything, I think that it needs a good system to run at its max. If I set my graphics to high, it drops my framerate and makes my laptop burn up. Mind you, I don’t have a “gaming laptop” due to not wanting to spend $900+, but I at least made sure that my laptop has all the basic specs to run most games without issues. Sure, it doesn’t get the shiny, glossy treatment…but it’s playable (when I’m not getting disconnected from the server).

Looking forward to it!

Quick question, however: I was told that it will be from 7pm to 10pm. Are we free to leave whenever we please, or will there be scheduled situations throughout the night? I don’t always like leaving events early due to possibly missing out on something.

Aomine.5012:

No, there’s nothing in story that requires group work or need a group to do the contents.
Anet make sure everything is tone to at most Veteran level enemies’ of difficulty.

If you stop using absolutely atrocious build, and maybe start using 1~2 trait lines that has some defensive capability, you’d have a much easier time in HoT maps.

How do you know whether or not they are using an “atrocious build”?

Ashen.2907:

IndigoSundown.5419:

The only thing I find unfair about the story missions is client instability causing DC’s after you’ve done the fighting but before the long-winded NPC’s finish emoting.

This.

Agreed 1000%! I had finished the annoying battle in “Plan of Attack” yesterday on another toon (the one with the Menders dragging out the battle), and…server disconnected… x_x I am dreading going back into it today.

Yargesh.4965:

Ah I see, we are discussing alternative facts then.

I don’t get your point? Just because the game might be easy for you doesn’t mean that it’s easy for everyone. I for one also struggle with the Living Story mobs and bosses, and I play solo because I don’t have the time to get a group together (plus I prefer solo play since I can go at my own pace).

It would certainly be nice if the strength of enemies in story instances could scale depending on whether you are alone or in a party. I don’t like group play, so I end up doing everything by myself, and have also struggled with many mobs and bosses. Sure, I end up succeeding in the end, but only after extreme frustration. This happens no matter what class or build I play.

I have had this happen to me as well, but in my case it can happen any time in the game, and is not specific to a particular story instance. I had just gotten to the end of “Plan of Attack”, after going through that tedious battle with the Menders…and it booted me. The game said that I had lost connection to the server, and the screen was all black with the music still playing in the background. My wi-fi was working fine (though wi-fi losing connection can also create this issue, but this wasn’t one of those moments). I am dreading going back into that instance…

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I think you can turn the messages off with the new options. Maybe, if the messages are turned off, the sound goes away, as well. You can try it.

In the past, I just changed which Guild I was representing when Guild Missions were active.

Good luck.

Where do I find that option? Is it in the Guild tab instead of the main options window? I was unaware of this.

Rognik.2579:

Does this often happen to you, or was this just one frustrating point that really pushed you over the edge? I just want to understand your stance behind this post.

Personally, I’ve never had a problem of getting disconnected in the middle of an instance and losing all progress. I think I might have once or twice been in an instance where I was racing against the mandatory reboot due to a patch update. Mercifully, I’ve never been forced out of an instance; if I’ve ever left an instance before I’ve beaten it, it’s because I chose to. I have had a bunch of the random disconnects from the game, though, for no apparent reason.

It happens infrequently, but enough to make me dread going head-first into a long, difficult, or otherwise tedious story instance. Mostly it has happened outside of an instance, but when it does occur within one, it’s a gut-wrenching feeling. The entire time I was playing through the end of the PS where you have to kill Zhaitan on my most recent toon, I was praying that it wouldn’t boot me. (Luckily, it didn’t, dodged that bullet.)

As far as I can tell, it isn’t always related to my wi-fi connection. Sometimes I get kicked out of the game because of my wireless connection dropping, but this was one of those moments where my internet was working perfectly. I got that in-game message about losing the connection to the server, and it kept playing the music in the background while the game window was all black, forcing me to force quit GW2.

I have not yet decided whether or not I should be making a topic about this issue in the technical help/bugs/whatever forums, as it is infrequent and not always consistent.

I understand completely. I am chiefly a solo PVE’r, so many aspects of HoT and the following Living Story maps are really frustrating for me as well. I basically had to force myself to get through HoT, even though I constantly felt like rage-quitting (not only because of the maps and the difficulty, but the story decisions as well).

TheRandomGuy.7246:

AegisRunestone.8672:

I just feel like my PC is being dumbed down more and more.

It’s because you PC is not yours anymore. Now only writers decide your personality and responses. Pretty much what happened to Fallout 4.

While I have absolutely no qualms with FO4 (I love the game for what it is, and it is my first Fallout game to be honest), this is 100% how I feel about GW2 post-Personal Story. I already outlined in a previous post about how one of my biggest gripes is that my character’s personality, no matter the race, gender, or class, is forced down my throat. It’s especially jarring when the character goes between being, as said above, “stupid”, to knowing about people, places, and events I have never heard of before in my life due to never playing GW1.

And I could easily go on an angry rant about how the writers made my characters act towards Caithe. JFC….

I am in a guild that often does guild missions, but I have no interest in partaking in them. Therefore, it’s been extremely distracting to not only have the “mission start/success/failure/end” message over my screen, but the obnoxious music that plays when a mission succeeds.

Are there any ways to turn that off?

This is my biggest complaint about the Living Story. So many chapters have really obnoxious battles that take forever to finish thanks to the many stages involved and all of the incessant, unskippable talking of NPCs, and if you get kicked out of the game thanks to the server itself losing connection…got to do it all over again! I was just at the very very end of “Plan of Attack” when I got kicked out. I hate that battle because of how long it takes thanks to the stupid Menders needing to be killed in order to successfully win.

…Has anyone else had to deal with headaches like this? This is not related to my internet connection at all, since the game tells me that connection to the game server itself was lost. What a nightmare! I really had to vent about this because it made me so angry, and reminded me why the LS drives me crazy. :’(

Abakk.9176:

Mortifera.6138:

So I heard there are going to be mounts in the game, but not flying ones. Why aren’t people raging about that? There HAVE to be WoW refugees here, right??!

WoW refugee has entered the building. o/

Flying was one of the reasons i left WoW, along with the butchering of anything that has to do with (low)leveling and RPG elements. This game is for me the exact thing that WoW leveling should have/could have evolved into.

I am sure even this game will eventually come up with a way to sneak it in but my hope is that it will take a few years at least. Game developement is about moneymaking and not about upholding ideals, unfortunately.

WoW refugee has left the building. o7

I didn’t mind flying mounts in WoW (I also am a “WoW refugee”, as I had moved to GW2 because I a) disliked changes to the game after WotLK and b) did not have enough free time to justify spending money on subscription fees), but they would utterly ruin GW2 due to the fact that GW2 has Waypoints, and WoW never did (in WoW, you literally had to run, fly, or take a boat or zeppelin to get from one part of the world map to another, or get someone to warp you. But otherwise, you were on your own when it came to travel).

The only possible way I would be okay with flying mounts in GW2 is if they are locked to a specific map that has no WPs (or very few).

I agree that we should have the option to skip through cutscenes and dialogue when playing the story more than once. I wouldn’t mind being unable to skip during the first play-through, but it eats up way too much game time and free time when you play on other characters. (Also, I simply hate most of the Living Story dialogue and characters, so I don’t want to hear any of that madness more than once.)

Sadly, I didn’t get anything useful at all in mine, and I can see that it was only a one-per-account gift. I got stuff I don’t even use due to my playstyle. Would want wanted minis, at least.

I do like that tune, but I also would agree that the song is 100% a Sylvari song. Except for moments during the Personal Story, you only ever hear it in the world while in The Grove and no where else. Which makes the focus of the Personal Story feel a little bit odd, and the fact that we don’t hear it again as part of a story element sad.

Auric Basin does have some troublesome WPs, but I would say that, despite my criticisms in general about HoT, that map is prettiest. I even like the music in the HoT maps (haven’t played the post-HoT Living Story chapters to have an opinion about their music). Heck, Verdant Brink even has a piece of music that makes me have strong nostalgia for Crash Bandicoot!

My only complaint about HoT is how many things are locked behind Masteries, most (but not all) of the Mastery Point challenges are not solo-able (especially for “casual” players such as myself), and the story and characters make me cringe.

But I still am happy to hear when people are enjoying their GW2 experience!

jokke.6239:

Moyayuki.3619:

For the sake of discussion, I am personally on the other side of the fence as yourself (which is fine). I played GW2 since maybe a year after it came out, and while the Personal Story wasn’t perfect, I enjoyed aspects of it…especially in comparison to LWS1 onward. I liked the ability to be able to skip past dialogue and cut-scenes I had already heard/seen, when doing playthroughs with other toons, whereas everything after the PS forces you wait for everyone to stop yakking before you can do anything (this is mostly a problem when playing the Living Story with multiple toons).

I also personally dislike the new characters and the new direction of the story. Sure, Taimi has grown on me a bit, but I’d say she’s the only new character I care about to any degree. Everyone else just…annoys me. For different reasons, which I am too tired to lay out here for the hundredth time. Suffice to say, many aspects of the new characters grate on me (personality-wise, for the most part). I just couldn’t bring myself to care about anything that happened to Rox, Braham, Marjory, and Kasmeer. I also am unhappy with what ANet has done to already established characters, either killing people off or making our toon hate their guts for no logical reason.

And that last part, about our characters…is what has frustated and angered me the most. I at least felt like our characters were a blank enough slate during the Personal Story that I could imagine my own details about them, and they learned about people, places and events at the pace that I learned about them. But now, our character, the “Commander”, feels alienated from me. They have done and said things that I disagree with. They are snarky and kitteny at moments that don’t feel appropriate. In essence, they no longer feel like they are my character.

Good and 100% valid points. But yeah it’s a matter of opinion.
I’ve never really gotten much into RPG’s where your character makes their own story. I usually find that the quality of the story becomes much worse, because it’s much easier to create a good story if it’s linear. Same reasons I enjoyed Witcher 3 much more than Skyrim etc.

Thanks for respecting my opinion, as I do yours! I tend to enjoy either style of RPG, it just depends on how it is executed. I love both TW3 and Skyrim, and other games that fall within that spectrum. As for GW2, well, I do realize that our characters always have had defined personalities from the beginning, but it wasn’t nearly as in-your-face during the Personal Story when compared to the Living Story. It was how quickly that change happened that really irked me.

I still need to catch up in the Living Story, but I was bugged by some of the dialogue that my demo character spoke in the PoF demo two weeks ago. It was also mostly due to how the voice actress delivered the lines. A combination of things, really.

For the sake of discussion, I am personally on the other side of the fence as yourself (which is fine). I played GW2 since maybe a year after it came out, and while the Personal Story wasn’t perfect, I enjoyed aspects of it…especially in comparison to LWS1 onward. I liked the ability to be able to skip past dialogue and cut-scenes I had already heard/seen, when doing playthroughs with other toons, whereas everything after the PS forces you wait for everyone to stop yakking before you can do anything (this is mostly a problem when playing the Living Story with multiple toons).

I also personally dislike the new characters and the new direction of the story. Sure, Taimi has grown on me a bit, but I’d say she’s the only new character I care about to any degree. Everyone else just…annoys me. For different reasons, which I am too tired to lay out here for the hundredth time. Suffice to say, many aspects of the new characters grate on me (personality-wise, for the most part). I just couldn’t bring myself to care about anything that happened to Rox, Braham, Marjory, and Kasmeer. I also am unhappy with what ANet has done to already established characters, either killing people off or making our toon hate their guts for no logical reason.

And that last part, about our characters…is what has frustated and angered me the most. I at least felt like our characters were a blank enough slate during the Personal Story that I could imagine my own details about them, and they learned about people, places and events at the pace that I learned about them. But now, our character, the “Commander”, feels alienated from me. They have done and said things that I disagree with. They are snarky and kitteny at moments that don’t feel appropriate. In essence, they no longer feel like they are my character.

Stitch.1794:

You can rush through each chapter in a couple of hours if you just want to get the story done, so about 12 hours for the whole of LS3.

As for difficult bosses, they’re tend to be significantly easier with friends, so if you have someone to party up with you’ll find it a lot quicker.

Sadly, I am a solo player (hence why I hate PvP and WvW). :P I can never make or find the time to set aside to group up with people.

That weird plant-looking creature that looks like a bundle of branches.

What is up with that? It’s not even an ANIMAL! It makes zero sense when compared to every other pet in the game.

Is this for PoF, or was it introduced in one of the newer chapters I haven’t played? I only saw it because I tried the Elite Spec demo (but didn’t actually play because I despise WvW and PvP).

I stopped playing at Ember Bay due to being fatigued with the story. But, I know I need to suck it up and do it eventually, especially before the new expansion comes out (I see no reason why I shouldn’t get it on release day, it’ll give me more places to explore).

So, if I was to sit down for a weekend and play from Ember Bay onward, how long would that take? Mind you, I get easily frustrated by difficult enemies, so I can’t say I would necessarily defeat bosses on my first try.

Thanks!

Tusk.3846:

Moyayuki.3619:

[…]

.2.) The player character’s attitude really turns me off. I played as a human female, but am aware that all genders and races have the same dialogue. The way the PC spoke…was really irksome. It is why I was giving up on the Living Story after struggling through HoT, because they made my PC really unlikable, not relatable at all.

I expressed the same sentiment in guild chat last night WHILE I was still on the airship at the start of story.

Ever since I’ve become the “Commander”, I really don’t like ME as much. rofl. Also human female.

I also have been having the issue of my character knowing about places, people, and other bits of information that I’ve never heard of before. Yes, I realize that PoF is especially drawing from original GW lore, but I have never played GW1 (I was a WoW player back then), so a lot of the references are going over my head. I preferred how my character (regardless of race) was learning everything for the first time (or information was just fed to us in a more balanced way) during the Personal Story, and even in the first season or two of Living Story. But ever since HoT…I have had no clue how my character suddenly knows about all of these things that I don’t know about. That’s the role of the NPCs, in my opinion, not the main character. Heck, most video games I love are ones where the main character learns at the pace the player learns about things. It prevents the feeling of being overwhelmed.

But yes, the know-it-all overly authoritative attitude of my characters post-Personal Story just keeps grating on me. Especially with how our characters suddenly hated on Caithe with a fiery passion, whereas I personally was not viewing her actions in HoT onward that way at all.

Again, it leads back to the game feeling like it is moving further and further away from “play how you want” and being able to create our own identity in the game…

Hannelore.8153:

If you die alot its usually a result of bad class/gear/build combination. Trust me, it makes a world of difference when you learn how to do it properly. All content from HoT and onwards (and to some extent, Orr), requires you to know how to play your class and how to set it up in a way that is workable.

Too many people are still used to the way that characters were built in core where you could just equip Berserker (for DPS) or Clerics (for tank) and then just stroll through all the content and it doesn’t work that way anymore.

A proper, modern build will be able to take down mobs in seconds while still having plenty of survival for you to not get one-hit KO’ed.

And uhh, physical Warrior is really bad right now, wait for Spellbreaker or switch to Berserker subclass and use Carrion/Rabid gear mix. Sorry there’s not much you can do about it, they’ve probably ended up the worst class in the game for physical damage although that looks to be changing with the expo (maybe…).

I’m not a meta player myself but some things just don’t work.

As for the mount, to do precise movement and turning you need to learn how to make proper use of your walk button at a moment’s notice.

Then that is extremely unfair and, as I said before, defeats GW2’s original mantra of “play how you want”. Why should anyone even bother using a GS for Warrior, or other weapon that deals no conditions? This is one of my biggest complaints about the game from HoT onwards. It’s completely nonsensical. It’s why I keep making new toons instead of proceeding to HoT and the horrid Living Story with my 80s. And yet, ESO has elements of it that doesn’t make it easy to play casually, and WoW requires a subscription (which is why I quit WoW and moved to GW2, because I no longer could play often enough to justify the frequent payments).

I started the demo because, why not? Unfortunately, I haven’t had a great experience, so I wanted to give my impression while I still can:

1.) Died way too many times at the beginning. This has been an ongoing concern for me with the Living Story, with enemies being really powerful and my characters feeling like they do barely any damage. I tried the demo with a Warrior, and it just reminded me how horrible the Greatsword is. Am I going to be forced to use weapons that deal bleeding, etc? Kind of defeats the purpose of “play how you want”.

2.) The player character’s attitude really turns me off. I played as a human female, but am aware that all genders and races have the same dialogue. The way the PC spoke…was really irksome. It is why I was giving up on the Living Story after struggling through HoT, because they made my PC really unlikable, not relatable at all.

3.) The raptor mount’s movement was extremely difficult to manage. It takes forever to turn, and can’t turn precisely. I get it, it’s probably more realistic this way, but…I guess WoW mounts spoiled me.

4.) Buildings and even some trees were having a crazy blue and green “texture” all over them, which didn’t go away when I got close like some other player’s said happened.

Only positive thing I have to say is that I like some of the music. I’m feeling very sad as a GW2 player right now, and would hate to be turned away from the expansion due to the painful Living Story.

AncientYs.8613:

Daddicus.6128:

I like the pricing, but unless they admit the mapping problem, I won’t be buying.

Yes the mini-map is a horrible thing to have to rely on to know where one is and where one has to go.

The mini-map can just not properly portray the tiers that the map has. With the multiple tiers in gw2 maps staying here for good i also hope for a better mini-map system.

Also about the price i genuinely love it, affordable for ones like me who are on a low budget. Thank you Anet

Let’s hope that PoF’s new maps are not as layered as HoT’s…or, if they are, that the mini-map changes appropriately.

I do wish there was a new class, but it’s not super important. The extra character slot can be used to try a new build, or to roleplay. I know I have multiples of several classes, with each being a different race. I am tempted to buy the edition of PoF that has the free character slot…but I am not as interested in the other perks, so I will be fine with buying gems and purchasing a slot myself (and have leftover gems to use in the future). I just can’t bear the thought of deleting some of my toons!

Seriously! I remember HoT costing pretty much $50, and World of Warcraft’s expansions always cost that much with each new one. So comparing that to the $30 of the standard edition of PoF…is wonderful. Yes, I still am very unhappy with the Living Story and direction of the lore and the characters in Dragon’s Watch…but to have an expansion pack that gives new things to do and more places to explore, and make it the cheapest I’ve ever seen such an expansion be from the MMOs I’ve played… How can I complain about that?

I wonder if ANet listened to feedback on the price of HoT? I only hope that this cheaper price doesn’t mean there will be less content. Either way, I definitely am going to buy it when I have the opportunity.

Thank-you ANet! You may have made me lose some interest in the game/story along the way, but GW2 is still my favorite MMORPG, so I will always keep coming back for the things about it I love.

Moderators: If this belongs in a different forum, don’t hesitate to move it!

I have a lot of catching up to do with the LS, as I just barely started the fire island (sorry, the name escapes me) chapter but lost all interest by that point. But then I wonder how much of the new expansion will actually focus on the LS. Yes, I know that the expansion, like HoT, is a continuation of that story. But I am wondering if the maps and such will still be accessible even though I haven’t caught up in the story.

I know this is probably a silly question with an obvious answer (answer is probably “yes, you won’t be restricted”), but with how far behind in the LS I am, I am worried about how playing PoF will affect me if I haven’t gotten up to speed on the story so far. All I really want is to explore a more desert-like map (though some promotional images still makes it look more like Dry Top, not the kinds of deserts I loved in World of Warcraft).

joshc.3129:

Yeah I don’t/didn’t like how Season 3 jumped around a lot story wise but there are 2 main things I really hate about the Living Story.

1. How they go about with “end game” content. Meaning making all the enemies OP as hell. Don’t get me wrong end game content isn’t going to be easy but could they have made the White Mantle and more so the Jade Constructs any more powerful? I HATE the Lake Doric map do to how OP they made the White Mantle. Add in how fast the re-spawn time is makes it even worse.

2 The cryptic end boss fights in the story missions. I love a good challenge but also I like to have a hint how to go about the fight. Any hints you had to lure the Champion Unstable Abomination to the Larva and then kill the Larva in order to hurt him? No! Any hint you had to get the Champion Ice Beast to run into all the minions before you can actually start to damage him? Nope!

I definitely can attest to the fact that one main reason why it’s hard for me to enjoy the post-Personal Story content is due to how challenging the enemies are. Even after HoT got a bit nerfed, mobs and single enemies are still troublesome. Like you, I in no way expect post-80 content to be “easy”, but…the type of difficulty added to HoT and the LS is not very “user friendly”, so to speak. Not all play styles can succeed easily, or you need to group up, which becomes an issue for players such as myself who are casual, play only a few hours a week, and prefer solo content due to those factors. I just barely survived the bloodstone area (the LS chapter right after HoT, whatever it was called. Shows how much it made an impression on me).

Finding a balance between user-friendly and challenging is of course not an easy thing to do, so I wish I had suggestions…but I don’t. I don’t even think it’s an instance of “git gud”, since everyone plays differently in games with this much freedom of playstyle.

Randulf.7614:

Rauderi.8706:

I can see how the storytelling would be underwhelming, especially for Living World episodes. I kept getting excited by them, only to be let down with dropped threads, baffling ‘plot twists’, random deaths, and isolated responses with no root in the continuity.

Episode 6 is going to have to do a LOT of heavy lifting to resolve plot arcs left behind from the start of HoT…

This is a concern of mine. I fear little will be resolved. We don’t feel at a finale point with so many sudden and unresolved threads popping up left right and centre. LS2 at leats felt like we were heading somewhere, LS3’s GPS fell off somwhere round ep3 and it feels a bit like we are driving around with an upside down street atlas…

My rubbish metaphors aside, the story just isn’t cutting it for me anymore like it did. I was excited for each episode, but the lack of any real coherent plotline and the bizarre identity reveal of Lazarus last episode has hurt my excitement for a release. Luckily, the open world content is still thoroughly enjoyable to me and some wonderful map building, with their own mini stories are keeping me back for more.

If I was to feedback anything constructive, it’s the same as what I’ve said for the last 2-3 years. Each Season and expansion, should be concise, and keep to a clear and central narrative as many players as possible can keep to following. A clear central story for each Season/expansion and leaving no more loose ends left dangling with engage with players a lot more. Shocks for the sake of shocks is also not a positive sign.

I know they want to write this like a TV Series, but this is not the right medium for the style they are going for. Video games work better with self contained linking stories/campaigns.

I more or less feel this way. A lot of the Living Story material has had promise…but then it’s either dropped, or handled in a way that isn’t satisfying or makes much sense. As is pointed out a lot in my OP, most of the reasons why I don’t like the LS is the new characters. I feel like the writers tried too hard to try to make them as interesting (and yet different) as the original Destiny’s Edge, but…it fell flat. Everyone felt like a stereotype or had something annoying about them. And with the LS having a lot of focus on them…that spells disaster for me, personally. Also, as everyone else has pointed out, the strange plot “twists” and hanging story threads.

I really enjoy Guild Wars 2. It’s been my replacement for World of Warcraft since I no longer felt up for paying a monthly subscription fee, and I hated seeing the pointless changes made to that game. So, it’s been extremely frustrating for me to be having no interest in the Living Story, which is where most of the story-driven post-game material is, and is the future of the game.

I know people will see this topic and think I am complaining for the sake of complaining. But, as someone who has a few 80s (I have deleted others in the past with no regrets), I want to express my feelings on this.

I was able to start Season 1 when it first aired but, almost immediately, I disliked the new characters and the direction of the story. Even to this day, I can’t bring myself to like Marjory, Kasmeer, and the rest (Taimi started off obnoxious to me, but she’s grown a little on me compared to the others, probably because she’s more memorable/quirky). And with the Living Story focusing almost exclusively on Destiny’s Edge 2.0…I mean, Dragon’s Watch…how can I make myself like the story? It’s as if our player character is mostly an observer, which I admit was also an issue with the later half of the Personal Story, where Trahearne was obviously important. But, back to Season 1…I actually never finished it. I never got to see Scarlet defeated, mostly because the Lion’s Arch material required group work to succeed (and I most enjoy playing alone). But, I did play Season 2. Still frustrating, especially with Dry Top and the Silverwastes.

And then came Heart of Thorns. I didn’t buy it until months later, but by then the xpac hadn’t been “nerfed”, so I was dealing with the sharp spike in difficulty when I first started it like most people did. The maps were confusing (the second area (I forget what it’s called, with the big city) wasn’t nearly as bad, and had some nice music, but it still is a pain to try to 100% that map), and the story stuck to its guns about focusing on the new characters, and villifying Caithe (who was, IMO, merely misunderstood, since no one knew what her motivations were). Yeah, she screwed up by not being forthcoming, but…for anyone who’s played the Sylvari Personal Story, it’s hard to ever see her in a negative light. Oh, and before I push too far with my HoT thoughts…I really, really, really disliked the story with Caithe and Faolain and that Sylvari whats-her-face. The whole “Sylvari are children of Mordremoth” made no sense and was put in for shock value. And then post HoT, never revisited, so it might as well have never been true. Again, personal opinion.

HoT was incredibly frustrating for me, not just because of difficulty, but the story and characters as well. And…killing Eir? Also pointless. It just made Braham (who drives me crazy) act like a jerk in the post-HoT story (yes, that’s a real life coping mechanism for losing someone close to you, but when I am already not liking these characters, some story-telling decisions make them even harder to like).

So, I stopped at the fire islands chapter and haven’t touched the LS again. Which – and, this is the main point of my post! – is extremely depressing. I love how easy it is to jump in, play for a bit, and jump out of GW2 (although I hate the changes put in the game from the NPE. I won’t forgive Anet for that). I enjoyed the Personal Story. I am always making new characters, especially since i get bored once I hit level 80. I by no means am losing interest in the game as a whole. I just really can’t find a reason to enjoy the Living Story, which, as a player who loves single-player experiences focused on story, is one of the only things I would be able to play after hitting 80.

Am I the only one who feels this way? I really don’t want to be turned away from this game, especially since there aren’t many others out there that scratch that WoW-type (without subscription fees) itch. I have Elder Scrolls Online, but it’s not as easy to jump into and play for any given amount of time (if anything, it’s better for wanting to play for extended periods, given the nature of its quests and exploration). As a GW2 fan since release (I never played GW1 since I was a WoW player back then), I feel very sad.

draxynnic.3719:

You picked “Act with wisdom”, didn’t you?

I think sylvari lost a lot of what made them interesting when their origins were revealed. This has essentially turned them from being the most mysterious playable race in the game to the least – about the only thing left that isn’t known about them is how the Pale Tree came to be independent of Mordremoth, and whether the Pale Tree is capable of growing seeds for new Pale Trees. Basically everything else is known.

Yeah, for my current Sylvari toon. We get to go into Orr for that, which is why it felt the most important.

I agree. One thing I dislike a lot about the post vanilla Personal Story content was how the origin of the Sylvari was handled, and so many characters introduced from there on (Taimi is the only new character I don’t despise with a burning passion). I also hate how Caithe was martyred (not even martyred, she was hated for everything she did or didn’t do. kitten ed if she did, kitten ed if she didn’t).

The major thing I dislike about the dialog “cutscenes” since the Living Story began is that you can’t skip them. And characters won’t always follow you if you run ahead. And I also don’t like having to position myself so that I can read all of the dialogue word bubbles if I am wanting to read ahead and not listen to them jabbering on. That is what slows the flow of the story down a lot. I love the vanilla Personal Story so much more in every aspect, to put it simply.

Yep, a little glitch with the GS skill. I’ve had that happen to me before.

My go-to melee weapon for a Ranger is the greatsword due to it’s universal usefulness (my main weapon is always either a long bow or short bow depending on the “lore” of my specific Rangers). However, I keep wanting to use the one hand sword because of its ability to poison and cripple, but I dislike all of the off-hand weapons. Every time I do two 1h weapons with a Ranger, I use the off hand very little. I also don’t like the axe’s ability to bounce between targets since that results in aggroing enemies I never intended to target if they were too close.

How do the rest of you feel about the Ranger’s melee weapon choices?