Guild Wars 2

It’s a dumb idea, just like a so-called “skill rating” that doesn’t actually revolve around your skill. But hey. PvP, only good for the reward tracks and sometimes dailies.

Behellagh.1468:

Nilkemia.8507:

Agreed. Armor repair is just an annoyance now. While it made some sense as a gold sink back when it cost money, it has no purpose for being around, as well as the armor damage system. The game would do just fine with those gone.

As for death penalties, no thanks. For me, dying in the first place is bad enough, along with having to waypoint/checkpoint and run back. Anything extra is just pouring salt on the wounds.

Good, it’s suppose to be an annoyance. You die, your armor gets busted. If it annoys you then DON’T DIE. Geez. Some people.

You seem to be one of those people that just assumes that I (and others that don’t like death penalties) don’t try to not die. Unfortunately, HoT and LS3 brought more ways for it to happen, along with less chance of you being able to do something about it.

Agreed. Armor repair is just an annoyance now. While it made some sense as a gold sink back when it cost money, it has no purpose for being around, as well as the armor damage system. The game would do just fine with those gone.

As for death penalties, no thanks. For me, dying in the first place is bad enough, along with having to waypoint/checkpoint and run back. Anything extra is just pouring salt on the wounds.

Don’t bother. PvP is only good for the reward tracks, the pip rewards from the ranked seasons, and dailies. Nothing more.

Replying to opening post : That would ruin build diversity, since you’re making an unnecessary restriction. No thanks.

A screenshot would help greatly. Specify the area this thing was in, what grade of armor you were using, and what it hit you with from the combat logs.

It’s also possible the spider in question was scaled up, as enemies can scale up to Lv84 for no good reason.

Of course, being two hit downed by a spider…not fun or fair if this is the case.

You’ll probably hate Dragon’s Stand as well soon enough, as while it isn’t as frustrating/confusing as the hell that is Tangled Depths, a portion of map completion, as well as anything of value from there, is gated behind running the meta, requiring at least three commanders and their squads on the same map.

Answer : No, I don’t mind the LS1 rewards being back.

And yes, I was there for that invasion, and when that Invasive Weed was finally brought to her end.

If anything, I’m glad they gave us a chance to get them again, my only issue is with the partially RNG method of doing so, which is why I’m not getting any beyond the free one I got, since they seemed to want people to buy multiples of those to get the item they wanted from the tokens.

And this is why dishonor shouldn’t be around.

So basically any class that doesn’t have reflects is screwed. And for the ones that do, the Deadeye can just…you know…not shoot until the reflect’s over? This is the same class that can jump you, run off and reset any damage they take and still come back fully healed while the target is still recovering.

So nothing changed after. PvP is still only good for reward tracks and dailies, the classes that were already strong got stronger, and the ones that needed something got a few flashy things, that look neat at first until one realizes that they don’t really work.

Bleh. Only interesting thing was the Photon Forge, and this is marred by having to constantly watch that heat every time, along with the ranged skills not being ranged enough. New utilities are flash but meh, with mostly useless utilities.

I mean, it looks cool, but that’s about it. And in PvP, with no new reflects or decent ways to deal with conditions, might as well just die.

The conversation between the priest and Anise was amusing. No Kasmeer though makes me disappointed.

Sigh, another White Mantle hideout, after they were rendered irrelevant last time. And this one has annoying puzzles, great. And the exemplar we rescue is needlessly snarky and unhelpful. At least my friend was there to help. Unfortunately, they had to do it twice cause it didn’t give them the chance to get credit.

The oath and instances revolving around it were nothing but pointless filler. After all we’ve done for them, and they put us through that just to answer a question or two? My characters would’ve never gone along with that.

Seeing a recovering Orr along with King Reza again was neat.

The the final instance came along…sigh. AoE flame traps that slow you, two okay-ish bosses save for the room AoE gimmicks, then a bullet hell/CC ping pong boss. Dear developers, if I wanted a Touhou style boss, I’d go play Touhou, not Guild Wars 2.

Oh, and the exemplar was Livia and she wanted to resurrect Lazarus so she could kill him properly. Not sure why we had to go through that tedious oath procedure to know that.

Oh, and Balthazar, the one we’re trying to find? Never see him. Except in a cutscene where my character had to tell me it was the Crystal Desert we’re going to, cause the cutscene didn’t make it that clear.

Oh, and another expansion…hmm. Sorry, still disappointed over the first.

Because such a feature would be too convenient, and make filling reward tracks and dailies faster. You know, the only things PvP is good for in the end.

And thus PvP continues to only be good for reward tracks and dailies.

On top of that, can we get Soldier and Celestial amulets back? You know, the two that were actually good? Or that Mercenary amulet? I think those stats have never been implemented in PvE either.

This again? By now, the horse has been beaten to death, ressurected, killed again, given an insurance claim by Zhaitan Life Insurance, only to regret that claim when it came back with no lower jaw and its eyes gone, on top of everyone trying to kill it again, then being brought back to be sewn back together into some risen undead champion super horse (still no lower jaw though) that had to fend off every other risen trying to ride it, only to be killed by a magic nuking zerg trying to chase it down.

Also. No. We don’t need mounts. In fact, from a certain point of view, we already have them! They just change how we move about, rather than anything else. (Sonic drill tool, flying carpets, brooms, etc.)

Let the poor horse rest in peace already.

They should be fixed. I don’t see how it is that the asura that set these up can keep building new ones in the new zones we’ve been to since then, yet can’t fix the broken ones.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Menadena.7482:

What I found REALLY odd was that she recognized B right away after the reveal. It was not like she expected one of her gods was going to make a cameo. Think about various deities and heroes. With few exceptions generally they have been depicted in various different ways by different artists.

Or has she met B before?

Statues of him. If she has prayed often enough in her life in front of one, she’d recognize their form immediately just based on remembering the statue alone.

I was under the impression that those statues are copies based on the originals that Malchor made when he first sculpted them. Now, even if he did get the originals perfectly (which is uncertain since we never saw Orr properly pre-Cataclysm, as far as I know) , I find it a little farfetched that they managed to keep them perfectly the same for all these centuries. Clearly certain parts like the armor, helmet and the sword might have stayed mostly the same, but it would’ve likely changed little by little over time, unless their avatars helped keep the statues accurate until even they stopped showing up…250 years ago.

Kasmeer’s had to have seen a very good statue or picture to be able to recognize Balthazar instantly as if she’s seen him proper before. (Her tone makes it sound like she actually has seen him proper before as well, instead of something along the lines of, “Wait…is that Balthazar?!”)

Primordus’s energy levels were reduced to pre-awakening status, if Taimi’s scanner is accurate, implying that our screwing with whatever Balthazar was doing put Primordus to sleep. And Jormag may or may not have ended up the same way.

As for Balthazar, he’s probably off somewhere else. I mean, he could be dead, but I doubt they brought him out of effing nowhere just to kill him off like that…but if they did, well, whatever.

Welp, all of Mordremoth’s ley-line magic fat had to go somewhere.

Randulf.7614:

I’m not a devout though. Worshippers of a God (Kasmeer is stated in the episode to be a faithful follower of all the Gods) react in ways those of us with no faith would think incomprehensible. And that’s exactly what Anet were trying to convey in that whole scene.

Which they did poorly.

While Kasmeer has mentioned the Six on occasion in the past, there has been no indication that she’s been particularly devout compared to any other human that has been worshipping them at this point.

(The only outstanding example I could remember/find so far was a conversation from all the way back in Season 1, from Escape from Lion’s Arch.)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kasmeer_Meade/dialogue/season_1

Marjory Delaqua: “It was serendipity, perhaps. Or the gods may still be watching over us after all.”

Kasmeer Meade: “I choose to believe they are. Praise the Six.”

Aside from that and maybe a few name drops like “Dwayna bless us” or something like that scattered through the story since then, she’s never shown the level of devoutness that they tried to imply in this one chapter. And even so, it certainly doesn’t make sense in Balthazar’s case. If it were Lyssa, maybe, since Lyssa is the patron goddess of mesmers, instead of Balthazar, whom one like Kasmeer would probably worship least.

And even then, it doesn’t explain her suddenly bailing as if we have no chance when not a few minutes earlier, we got the drop on said God of War, forced him to drop his guise, and more or less drove him off (granted, he wanted the machine more, but the point is we made him retreat). And while Marjory is still possibly dying, no less. Compare that to the finale of Season 1, when she went all “I’ll kill you” to Scarlet for doing the same thing so long ago.

It was a contrived plot device to make her suddenly inept and break character completely (and make her vanish right after we just got her back for all of 5 to 10 minutes), just like how the whole Balthazar reveal feels pretty much done for the hell of it, for shock value more than actually being part of the story.

For the most part, Kasmeer acted normally. Her little jab about us being occupied as “flimsy excuses” was annoying, but it seemed like she might have been joking and still wanted to help out. And her conversation with Marjory felt normal as someone that was worried.

But after the Balthazar reveal (who she somehow recognizes instantly with absolute certainty ), she suddenly does a complete 180. Remember that the last time Marjory was critically injured, back in the finale of Season 1? When Kasmeer decided to help us finish Scarlet off for seemingly killing Jory? Apparently the writers for this chapter forgot that, and instead Kas just kneels down in fear and lets it happen. I can understand her being shocked at seeing Balthzar there, but for her to just shut down completely while he’s trying to kill us felt contrived.

And then the most character breaking moment is when, after we manage to drive Balthazar off, she just loses it and bails on us, while Marjory, the one she’s supposed to love, is still lying there in critical condition and possibly going to die. It’d have made more sense if she chose to stay there with Jory while we went after Balthazar, both to get her wits back and help Marjory keep hers, but instead she just up and bails. Especially after talking about how Marjory’s part of a team and all, and really shouldn’t have gone off on her own like that.

Even Marjory calls her out (sort of) on this if you talk to her after Kas leaves. And the worst part is, her dialogue after implies Kasmeer might even turn against us because of this, which is probably one of the few ways they could make her worse.

I was looking forward to her coming back after being MIA since near the end of Heart of Thorns. You even gave her a shiny new outfit and had her be useful!…for all of 5 to 10 minutes at best. Then you have a contrived reveal out of nowhere and Kas run off for a stupid contrived reason. Just why?

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this. Tell Jory I love her…”

“Tell her yourself, she’s right there!”

Ashantara.8731:

It felt like there was a much graver issue at hand than merely being in shock. Maybe it has to do with her and Anise’s secret journey that we will probably learn more about in the next episode (I hope!).

If that’s the case, she could’ve told us (or at least said she was going to warn the countess or the queen). She didn’t even do that. It’d be just like Caithe’s “No time to explain”, except she couldn’t be bothered to even say that.

BlackDragon.2084:

Is no one going to ask what it says about Kasmeer that instead of staying with her lover or going after the one who hurt her she chose to pull her tail between her legs and rip out her own spine and run away?

It says that whichever writer (s) decided on her actions during this chapter apparently forgot about the finale of Season 1, where Kasmeer went after Scarlet with a vengeance after thinking she’d killed Marjory, and then went right back to Jory’s side until she turned to to survive.

Or maybe they just hoped everyone at this point forgot about it. Either way, it was a contrived and stupid way to remove her from the rest of the story, as much contrived as the “big reveal” of this chapter.

PvP. Only good for reward tracks and dailies.

….why is this thread a thing?

You’d probably get enraged quick in Tera where the game tells you everytime someone in the same zone has gotten something rare from a loot box or has enchanted a piece of gear fully, or Black Desert which pings that to you and all manner of other things by default (though I’ve heard there’s a way to turn that off.)

Whenever I get to 250 baubles (or just past it, like if I get a +10 bauble underneath the limit), any more baubles I get inside the zones don’t count anymore. Seems the only way to bring more than that for when I need to get items that cost more than a stack (the upgraded shovel, flute, and torch come to mind, but there might be others) is to go out and put away baubles in the bank and get them back out again and make it over to the shop without grabbing anything else.

Anyone else having this problem?

Still only good for reward tracks and dailies.

Um, no it doesn’t. It’s not even that good anymore now that they changed it to bleed damage, not chill damage….wait, this is a WvW thread…how is this even a thing? 35 stacks? Pardon me if I don’t believe you. Something or someone else was going on.

Being blinded doesn’t mean your sight is completely obscured, just impaired to an extent, though it can go all the way depending on how one is blinded. You lose target lock on stealth because you literally can’t see them at all.

More on topic…please no. Such a change would turn blind from annoying to potentially infuriating to deal with. It might make blind more worth using against NPC enemies (assuming they make it work right) but considering there’s already a condition that screws with your targeting (taunt) which is already a pain when it pops up, I’d rather not have another.

Vayne.8563:

Edit: In fact, the ONLY way to map that zone is to get into the meta, since 4 hero points, and a vista and several POIs are only available once you’ve cleared the meta.

Which is exactly the problem with that zone. Map completion is something that one should be able to do on one’s own, not need to rely on a timer/luck for.

flog.3485:

Nilkemia.8507:

Yet another “good in concept, poor in execution” scavenger hunt.

What was “poor in execution” according to you?

The scavenger hunt, obviously. Oh, you want details…well…

- While most of the mote’s hints were well enough, two in particular (the “hinterlands” and “wild lands” motes) were so vague that I spent half an hour searching for the former before asking for help, and probably might have ended up doing the same for the latter if I hadn’t read a part of a thread referencing the area for it.

- The shards. Upon finding the collection tab and reading up on the hints, I quickly realize they’re spread throughout the HoT zones and dread trying to search for them blind in huge vertical zones with nearly everything wanting to kill me. After some time looking for the first one, I went “forget it” and decided to wiki that crap, because sure enough, they’re either tucked away in spots you’ll never figure out yourself, or get close to but not quite.

It seems like someone behind the making of these just assumes that since most people are probably going to just look it up anyways, they make parts of it so vague/tedious/frustrating that people end up looking it up anyways…

The sad thing is, the story parts were nice. I just wish that annoying scavenger hunt wasn’t in the way of getting to them…but at least I never have to do it again.

Yet another “good in concept, poor in execution” scavenger hunt.

Leave the tombs of knowledge alone, the Priory needs to study those.

As for the tomes of knowledge, if you don’t want to use them, delete the ones you get. But don’t try taking away the option to use them from the rest of us.

Agreed with the opening post. Being able to buy the Bladed Chest from the merchant (like you can do with ever other piece to begin with) is a solid solution. Far less stressful than hoping for both the map and RNG to be in your favor.

Answer to thread question : Yes.

Warning, lots of text. TLDR version at the end.

Positives :

+ First story instance was rather nice all around, from nice little moments like deriding Estelle (and then later killing her), fighting alongside Queen Jennah and the Shining Blade and seeing the watchknights return to take on the jade armors (thankfully no Invasive Weed to hijack them this time). Oh, did I mention getting to kill Estelle this time? Also Logan is sorta kinda back in action which is nice.

+ Lake Doric looks rather nice for the most part, and it’s nice to see some Sentinels helping out the Seraph too, showing how far the peace between the humans and charr has come, and that the charr value this too.

+ Demmi Beetlestone finally returning after years of being stuck in the Chantry closet.

+ Canach. Fun to have around like usual.

+ While marred somewhat by the horridness of the last instance and boss fights, I feel satistfaction knowing that Caudecus is finally dead for good. He had it coming for a long time.

Negatives :

- Kasmeer is nowhere to be found. Save for a few mentions of her earlier in Season 3, we haven’t seen her at all since near the end of the HoT story, with no explanation as to where she’s been or what she’s been doing since then. The past few parts could be excused for this, but not in a story focused back in Divinity’s Reach. Aside from a letter from E mentioning her, nothing…I can’t see her just hiding out while Jennah and Anise and Logan and many others are putting their lives on the line for their home…which makes me worry that the story writers forgot her, or have something bad/contrived in mind.

- While Logan is okay, this makes me wonder if they plan to have Zojja just die offscreen, which I wouldn’t like. Also, I can’t help but scratch my head at him becoming the Pact Marshal. I see no great reason why he shouldn’t (recovery aside), yet him wanting to do this seems…odd.

- While Lake Doric was a fairly nice looking map, the hordes of White Mantle you have to deal with can make it painful at times…especially the fort infiltration renown heart (which may be the worst one I can think of since the Blazeridge Steppes stealth heart) and the part where you have to just do events and stuff to build up a bar when you already know the final fight is at Caudecus’s Manor.

- The final instance of Caudecus’s Manor…was badly done. Either those behind it don’t play the game or didn’t care and felt like being sadistic. A bunch of the enemies were rather overpowered, and the final boss fight (both versions of it) were horribly done. I’m aware it’s been adjusted by now, but it was so bad that I’ve no desire to go back and play it at all in the near future.

- Demmi is dead. You brought her out of the Chantry closet for all of one or two instances to just to fatally wound/kill her off in a cutscene. I’m not okay with that.

- Valette Wi’s sudden heel-face turn felt contrived. She was trying to help Caudecus kill us all, but now she suddenly has a change of heart on seeing Demmi get fatally shot? Seriously? It felt like a plot device so we could get into the final riddle room, to be honest, when Demmi could’ve known or found out about the room somehow. Literally the only way this makes any sense is if Caudecus had mesmered Valette under his influence and seeing Demmi get shot somehow shocked her system out of it. Otherwise…bleh.

- Canach is finally free to help us…except he won’t be. I get that he probably wants some nice long alone time, but I’m going to miss him now.

- And, because it seems the story writers still think cliffhanger/twist endings aren’t annoying….Lazarus is/might be an imposter? Cue wild speculation…sigh. I’m still more worried about Kasmeer than Marjory at this point though.

- My character talks Anise down from killing Valette. No. I would not spare Valette or even suggest the thought. It’s nice she helped us (as silly and contrived as her face turn was), but the most she’s getting from me after that is a quick and painless death.

TLDR : It started off okay, was still tolerable early on, then became annoying, than frustrating. And I’m tired of endings that leave us with more questions than answers. I’m not really in the mood to run it again right now. If it weren’t for Caudecus finally being dead and the first instance being pretty good, I’d probably had rather seen the fallout of Braham’s idiocy.

Yes, they are meh.

And this is why you don’t gate items for collections behind group content like that.

Well, onto the next nearest people, Minister Merula and Lord Faren. As we approach though, we can overhear some nobles behind them being uneasy with all the Ministry Guard around.

Talking to Faren, we find that Minister Merula brought him along as company and as muscle for in case something happens. However, they’ve not seen anything suspicious, being too focused on chatting with each other at the moment.

“Oh, Faren. Don’t let me distract you all evening.”

“I…think I should get going.”

Before we start mingling, we can ask Queen Jennah a few things, specifically, about Anise (who is not present, apparently “occupied”), Logan (still slowly recovering), and about the Ministry Guard (potential trouble since Caudecus was their boss before he left). So, nothing we couldn’t guess at.

Anyways, on to business. We’ve got some people to talk to. May as well start with someone familiar from close by, Minister Evil Eir Estelle. We deride the White Mantle to her face a bit, before noting her friend Caudecus’s involvement with them. She claims to know nothing, but we know better from the last time we dealt with her.

“I couldn’t help but notice you speaking with the queen. How is she?”

“A pillar of strength under pressure, as always.”

“Good. With everything that’s happening…I worry for her. For us.”

“Yes, the White Mantle are beyond despicable, aren’t they?” “Quite.”

“Power-hungry mongrels with nothing but gold in their eyes.” “Indeed.”

“I’ve stepped on things with more moral authority then those poisonous toads.”

“It’s very clear how you feel about the White Mantle.”

“Your friend Caudecus’s association with them must have rattled you.”

“I can tell you, no one was more shocked. I hadn’t the faintest idea.”

“Really? Even with all the rumors circulating before he broke out?”

“Oh, I try to ignore gossip. People caught spreading such filth should earn a trip to the gallows.”

“I feel the same way about traitors ; they should watch their necks. Good day.”

Yeah, she’s going to be evil. Just a matter of when.

As we enter the throne room, Queen Jennah welcomes us, then proceeds to lead us back out to the garden where we were before. Okay. During that, she has a brief heart to heart with us regarding the difficulties of her position.

“This place is all subtext and politics. Do a thing one person likes and three hate you for it. It gets very complicated. You? You just relentlessly smash things until they’re no longer at odds with you. I wish it were like that around here sometimes.”

“Haha, well, what can I smash for you today?”

However, she soon gets to the point : She thinks a White Mantle attack is imminent, and wants to prepare. She plans to deliver what some will consider “shocking news” at this gathering, probably regarding Caudecus’s reveal as the leader of the White Mantle. But for now, she wants us to mingle, help reassure the people…and keep a watchful eye for anything suspicious.

This part starts off with a letter sent our way, by Queen Jennah herself. At least , I think it is. Maybe someone else with a name that initials QJ, perhaps, but whatever, we’re invited to a festive gathering of ministers in Divinity’s Reach.

We call Taimi up to tell her this, then ask about Braham. Rox apparently managed to cool him down somewhat, but he’s still going to try going up to Jormag with a group of his own, and Taimi doubts he’ll succeed. But she does have an idea, thanks to the samples we sent last time, and just needs an experiment and some contacts to sort things out.

“Anyways, say hi to the queen for me!”

“Do you know her?”

“I feel like I do after all the gossip rags I’ve read! Do you know she doesn’t wear shoes? Try not to stare at her feet now that I’ve told you that.”

LouWolfskin.3492:

But isn’t the point of a guild to do stuff with others?

For you and many others perhaps. For me, I liked being able to build up my own thing. And, the Influence system let people do stuff with others, or let them go it on their own if they wanted. You had a choice. Now, you don’t. The system in place only works fine for big guilds, most of which were probably already established before this change.

Thea Cherry.6327:

Please don’t destroy my hometown, destroy something else… the Sylvari hometown for example.

That already more or less happened at the World Summit, what with the Pale Tree nearly dying and all. Leave us out of your petty bookah squabbling.

On topic : Hmm. Curious if Queensdale or even Divinity’s Reach will change like Kessex Hills did, even temporarily. Recalling the Invasive Weed’s previous invasion of the Crown Pavilion makes me wonder if this is meant to be a better version of that, and if the watchknights will become important again, perhaps to reinforce the city.

Hopefully Lazarus might show up too. While there’s no indication he would, if he plans to make good on his statement of turning the White Mantle to our cause, what better way then to show up and help stop this?

Otherwise, more boring human stuff.

I agree with the topic. I miss Influence. I miss being able to slowly build my own personal guild up from scratch. I miss being able to build my own banners, boosts and guild bank, and drop them out for others.

Then I wanted to remake the guild because I wanted to change the name, around the time HoT came out, only to discover that I couldn’t get back any of that now, because it’s all gated behind a guild hall, and guild missions, neither of which I like to do.

Answer/Guess : Those modes aren’t fun to the majority of players.

As far as I’m concerned, PvP is only good for reward tracks and dailies, nothing more. Skill doesn’t really matter all that much, just who has the better build, who gangs up on the others more (2/3 on 1s, anyone?), or who watches the capture points and special objectives better. To make it worse, my two favorite professions (necomancer/reaper and engineer) are barely useful at all there to begin with at this point.

WvW was never really fun. I remember when those borderlands counted for map completion as well, as I don’t miss those days at all. Once ArenaNet removed that, I left and never looked back, save for one or two times I decided to explore the new Desert Borderland. I don’t like zergs, and I don’t like being ganged up on by groups of raiders. And the reward tracks progress even slower than the PvP ones would, so…

On top of not being fun, both of these modes usually bring out the worst in people, myself included.

I agree with the opening post’s statements. While it might need some conditions to triggering it (so that it’s not used just cause it’s there) it’s be nice to not have to sit and wait for a losing fight to conclude.

Edit : Possible requirements :

- 4 minutes have passed in the match.

- Leading team has a lead of 150+ points.

- The vote requires at least 3 votes in favor to work. I’m still considering whether it should be 4 or all 5 however.

It needs a revamp, the whole class and specialization. At first Reaper seemed like the fix that was needed, but now it’s clear to me that it’s just a band-aid to a gash in the side. All of the lingering problems are still there and so easily exploited, and most other specializations simply got stronger.

PvP is only good for reward tracks and dailies.

What they need to do is bring back the amulets they removed. Celestial, Mercenary, and so on, along with introducing ones for the new stat combos that they haven’t put in yet.